Republic of Ecuador (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,501-1,525 (2,078 Records)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Property Regimes" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The tradition of resource-use prohibition known as rahui is found throughout the Pacific Islands. Rahui typically involves placing certain resources or areas of the land and sea under the protection of a central authority. For rahui to exist the concept of collective resource exploitation must also exist. This appears antithetical to the traditional...
Proteomic Sex Estimation of a Gendered Sacrificial Context in Pampa la Cruz, North Coast of Peru (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Protocols of ritual violence result from an interplay of political structures with multiple social factors, including roles of gender and age. These patterns often manifest as a biological sex-bias in sacrificial bioarchaeological contexts. In the Chimu Pampala Cruz site (AD 1050–1520), 86 individuals...
Provisioning an Embattled Frontier: The Role of the Inka Settlement of Pulquina Arriba within an Imperial Defensive Network in the Southeastern Bolivian Andes (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Navigating Imperialism: Negotiated Communities and Landscapes of the Inka Provinces" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In certain loosely incorporated territories of the Inka Empire, privileged non-Inka colonial populations were granted considerable autonomy and entrusted with the maintenance of local imperial settlements and infrastructure. Such was the case across much of the southeastern Bolivian Andes, in which...
Proyecto Arqueológico Cochasqui-Mojanda (2017)
El Parque Arqueológico Cochasquí se encuentra en las estribaciones sur orientales del macizo montañoso de Mojanda, en la provincia de Pichincha a 52 Km al norte de Quito. El sitio está conformado por 15 pirámides truncas, casi todas conservando sus rampas que facilitan el acceso a la parte superior. En el mismo espacio se puede encontrar varios montículos circulares. En 1932 Max Uhle - el primer arqueólogo en realizar excavaciones dentro del sitio – concluyó que las pirámides fueron sitios...
Pubertal Development among Pre-Hispanic Moquegua Valley Populations (Southern Peru, 800-1500 CE) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As a temporally bounded bio-social process, puberty offers a compelling topic to explore the lived experiences of past people. The onset and pace of pubertal development are shaped by nutritional, environmental, and social factors that reflect long and short-term childhood experiences. We investigate puberty as a flexible process shaped by multiple...
Pulling Abundance out of Thin Air: The Role of Pastoralism in 1000 BC Peru (2018)
Andean camelid pastoralism – with its origins in the puna of the South-Central Andes – plays a key role in risk management and transformation of low-energy, high-abundance resources. Camelids not only help pastoralists mitigate risk by acting as literal "wealth on the hoof," but they also maintain cohesion of intergroup relationships across vast distances by facilitating mobility within and among diverse environmental zones. Here, I examine intensified camelid pastoral systems as an adaptation...
The Puruwá Border: Archaeological Footprints and Ancestorship in Tungurahua and Chimborazo, Ecuador (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Barbacoan World: Recognizing and Preserving the Unique Indigenous Cultural Developments of the Northern Andes" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Who are the descendants of the ancient Puruwá? Archaeological settlements located in the central highlands of Ecuador, share certain features which researchers used to interpret as the materiality of ethnohistoric Puruwá. Human figures and heads manufactured in ceramics with...
Puruwá Polity under Inka Rule in Colta, Chimborazo Province (Ecuador) (2018)
The Inka incorporated the territory of today's Ecuador to the Tawantinsuyu around 1420. This conquest is well documented from South to North by recording the expansion of monumental features such as pukaras, tambos, bridges, terraces, collkas, wakas, patios and plazas, built in traditional Inka style. The political transformation of northern Andes landscape by the Inka was very profound in the Loja and Azuay provinces of southern Ecuador. While it was a milder transformative factor around Quito...
Push and Pull, Part II: Modeling the Inland Exploration and Settlement of Fiji (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Geospatial Studies in the Archaeology of Oceania" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous GIS-based analyses (2017) by the authors have identified the ranges of several classes of terrestrial fauna that would inhabited the island of Viti Levu in prehistory. The ranges and habits of reptiles (giant tortoises, iguanas, and snakes), flightless birds (megapodes and giant pigeons), and bat and seabird colonies intersect in...
Putting Archaeobotany Under the Microscope: A Case Study for Increased Use of Starch-Grain and Residue Analyses on the North Coast of Peru (2015)
Due to the arid environment and subsequent excellent preservation on the north coast of Peru, evidence obtained from macrobotanical remains here has been the primary sources of information on plant use. However, despite the richness of the macrobotanical record, the combination of arid conditions and the nature of many plants, such as potatoes and beans – which are consumed in their entirety – macrobotanical remains can only tell us so much. In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues...
Putting Archaeobotany Under the Microscope: A Case Study for Increased Use of Starch-Grain and Residue Analyses on the North Coast of Peru
Due to the arid environment and subsequent excellent preservation on the north coast of Peru, evidence obtained from macrobotanical remains here has been the primary sources of information on plant use. However, despite the richness of the macrobotanical record, the combination of arid conditions and the nature of many plants, such as potatoes and beans – which are consumed in their entirety – macrobotanical remains can only tell us so much. In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues...
Putting Heads Together: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Museum Archaeology of the National Tsantsa Collection at the Pumapungo Museum, Cuenca (2018)
There are many collections of Tsantsas around the world. These shrunken heads were created by the Shuar and Achuar peoples of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian amazon until the mid-20th century. Though most of these museum collections have a known provenience, the individual histories and the authenticity of some of the heads has been contested. Similar questions have risen for Tsantsas held at the Pumapungo Ethnographic museum in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador. Using the approach of museum...
pXRF in the Colca Valley: Experimenting with a Nondestructive Chemical Discrimination of Ceramic Fragments (2018)
The choice of clay and pigment sources for ceramic production in the Andes has the potential to convey complex information about the resilience and persistence of Inca social structure in the Colca Valley throughout the imposition of Spanish imperialism. Prior to the Spanish invasion, ceramics in the Colca Valley were likely primarily produced by a handful of specialized communities which would have widely distributed their products. It is therefore expected that there would be a standardization...
A Pyro-Engraved Gourd from Cahuachi: Iconographic and Technical Analysis of a Nasca Masterpiece (2018)
Pyro-engraved gourds discovered by the "Nasca Project" (CEAP) in Cahuachi, Nasca ceremonial center located in the basin of Río Grande, can provide new data about their manufacture and decoration. From a comparative perspective, we study artifact characteristics and archaeological records to understand an unusually large and complex pyro-engraved found during 1994 excavations as an offering associated with ceramics from the last phase of the Early Horizon (Ocucaje 8-9) and the beginning of the...
Quantifying Energy Investment in Monuments (Ahu) on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Using Structure from Motion Mapping (2018)
Pre-European contact Rapa Nui (Easter Island) society is well-known for its substantial investment in monumental architecture, including over 300 platforms (ahu) and almost 1000 statues (moai). Recent theoretical and empirical research on the island suggests that ahu and moai were focal points for competitive and cooperative signaling by relatively small-scale communities dispersed across on the island. Evaluation of this hypothesis, however, requires the measurement of the amount of energy...
Quebrada Debris Flows, Hydrology, and Agriculture at Tacahuay Tambo (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster presents a survey of the debris flow deposits, hydrology, and agriculture at Tacahuay Tambo, a Late Intermediate (1000-1476 AD) site located on south coast of Peru. Quebrada Tacahuay in combination with the Tambo, has 12,000 years of cultural history. Therefore, there are numerous flood deposits that add to the complexity of the stratigraphy....
Quebrada Jaguay-280 (QJ-280) under the Microscope: A Geoarchaeological Investigation of the Site Formation and Anthropogenic Features at a Peruvian Coastal Site (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Some of the earliest evidence for human settlement of Peru comes from lowland sites along the arid Pacific coast. Localities at Huaca Prieta, Quebrada Tacahuay, and Quebrada Jaguay demonstrate that during the Terminal Pleistocene, people had settled the coast and had incorporated marine resources into their subsistence strategy. Excavations led by Daniel...
Queer Feminist Science in Hawaiian Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Future Is Fluid...and So Was the Past: Challenging the 'Normative' in Archaeological Interpretations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Queer theory is an important tool for critically analyzing ideas about the past that are normalized and reproduced to the detriment of descendant populations. This approach is particularly relevant when investigating the social structures that governed daily life in the past....
The Question of Monumentality in the Sacred Spaces and Features of Ometepe Island, Nicaragua (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Problem of the Monument: Widening Perspectives on Monumentality in the Archaeology of the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ometepe is the largest island in Lake Coçibolca (Lake Nicaragua), itself the largest body of freshwater between Lake Titicapa in South America and the Great Lakes of North America. Its topography is unique, composed of two volcanoes—one active (Concepción) and one ancient...
The Question of Permanence: Understanding Head Shaping as a Process (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Marking and Making of Social Persons: Embodied Understandings in the Archaeologies of Childhood and Adolescence" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent conversations about body modification demonstrate that alterations to human form are experiential and are not solely oriented towards a final product. In thinking of prehistoric head shaping practices—practices engaged in with the bodies of infants—archaeological...
Questioning Social And Labor Relations In Contract Archaeology From A Feminist Autoethnography (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I use an autoethnographic and feminist perspective to reflect on how the field practice of preventive archaeology has been developing in Colombia. I draw on experiences from my own work to question the naturalization of inequalities and violence present in everyday interactions during the implementation of development projects, involving different actors...
Quichunque: Un santuario inca de altura en la sierra norte de Lima (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Quichunque es un sitio arqueológico con indicios de haber tenido “génesis” local y evidencia de reocupación inca. Es el resto de un santuario de altura con infraestructura monumental superpuesto sobre la cima y laderas superiores de una montaña a 4.798 m. Su posición espacial privilegiada con vista a las principales cordilleras y montañas de la sierra...
Quicksilver and Cruelty: Violence at the Santa Bárbara Mining Encampment in Huancavelica, Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The colonization of the Americas by the Spanish presents a unique context for exploring structural violence. The rapacious extractivism practiced by the colonizers led to the immeasurable destruction of indigenous communities, particularly those working as tributary labor. At the nexus of the colonial mining industry were the mercury mines of Santa Bárbara in...
Quilcapampa and Points of Convergence in Middle Horizon Arequipa: Faunal Evidence for Extensive Interregional Interaction (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Wari and the Far Peruvian South Coast: Final Results of Excavations in Quilcapampa" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Quilcapampa was an important point of convergence for communities from around the southern Andean region with these people and/or their material culture suggesting extensive interregional interaction. The zooarchaeological work conducted on the vertebrate remains from Quilcapampa will be presented in this...
Quilcapampa: A Wari Colony on an Interregional Trail on the Coast of Southern Peru (2018)
In the ninth century AD, Wari settlers founded the site of Quilcapampa in the Sihuas Valley of southern Peru. The first definitive Wari settlement in Arequipa, the site was founded astride an inter-valley trade route that had been used for at least a millennium. This paper will discuss both the site's clear link to Wari, as evidenced by its architecture, ceramics, and foodways, as well as the possible links to the Nazca region where Wari control was likely fractured due to conflict and possible...