South America (Geographic Keyword)
1,101-1,125 (1,326 Records)
Pacopampa is one of the largest ceremonial centers in the Formative Period located at the north highlands of Peru. Almost all the ritual space was destroyed after the Formative Period, however, the square sunken court was reused by the people belonging to the Early Cajamarca Period. Some platforms and rooms were constructed at the center of the court and a series of ritual activities associated with a lot of miniature pottery could be observed. After that unusual activities the court was orderly...
The Search for Places in Southwestern Archaeology: Ancient Landscape Building in the Madeira and Purus Basins and Long-Term Indigenous History (2016)
Mounds, ditches, roads and other kinds of earthworks are found in ever larger quantities in southwestern amazon archaeology. An increase in the quantity and quality of research carried out in this area and the more detailed data that was recently made available have changed our understanding of the kind and degree of human interaction with the environment. Today, archaeological landscape building in this region can be explored in a more regionally detailed framework, since the knowledge produced...
A Second Room of the Posts? Ceremonialism at La Marcha during Late Nasca and the Middle Horizon (2015)
Preliminary investigations of the La Marcha site have revealed a key residential, mortuary, and ceremonial locale in the Las Trancas Valley. While initial use of the site occurred during the late Formative, here we report on the considerable Late Nasca and Middle Horizon occupation. In addition to residential zones, we documented large plazas with huarango post features similar to those at Estaquería and Cahuachi. These include complexes of up to 9 posts, oriented in rectilinear clusters along...
Second-Hand Spaces: abandonment and reoccupation during the final stages of a Tiwanaku provincial temple (Omo M10A) (2015)
The Tiwanaku colonies in Moquegua, Peru represent some of the best preserved archaeological remains left by this south central Andean polity. This has led to a detailed understanding of daily life and ceremonial practices of these Tiwanaku colonists. However, our understanding of how these lifestyles and practices were transformed during and after the disintegration the highland core is still relatively limited. This paper will take a site-specific approach to explore this enigmatic period of...
The Secret Life of Cacao in the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon (2017)
Genetic studies suggest that cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) domestication occurred in the Upper Amazon of southeastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru and was then transported by humans northwards to Central America and Mexico. As such, we should expect to find the earliest archaeological evidence of cacao use in the tropical forests of South America. This paper presents starch granule evidence for the early use of cacao from the Upper Amazon site of Santa Ana-La Florida during the Ecuadorian Early...
Sedentism and plant domestication: North west Amazonia (2017)
Two different scenarios have been proposed to explain sedentarization and the transition from foraging to sedentary societies. In the first a key resource or a combination of resources allows the stability of the population giving rise, over time, to sedentarization; in the second, a population concentration caused by an external change such as drastic climatic fluctuation or regional population increase with its concomitant social problems force the adoption of a sedentary way of life. In these...
Seeing Prehistory in Color: Interpreting the Use of Colored Pigments at the Tiwanaku Omo Temple, Moquegua, Peru (2015)
Although color is often at the background of our lived experience, colors also have the power to demand our attention. In this paper we explore how color was a meaningful component of the built environment in prehistoric South America and specifically the ways it demanded the attention of the Tiwanaku (AD 500-1100) of the south-central Andes. Extensive excavations at the Tiwanaku Omo ceremonial temple (M10A) in Moquegua, Peru have revealed the use of red and green pigments on selective walls...
Settlement pattern transformation in the Arica Highlands during the Late Intermediate and the Late Periods (XIV-XV centuries): The role of Zapahuira and the Incan Tambo network system and its relationship with local communities. (2017)
I will discuss the settlement pattern transformation of the Arica Highlands during the Late Intermediate Period and the Late Period (XIV-XV centuries) and the role of Zapahuira Tambo and the Inca Settlement Network System and its relationship with local communities. The latter will be carried out from an architectural and spatial characterization of some of the main Incan and Local settlements of the area. Some of the data integrated in this discussion have been gathered in my current research...
Settlement Patterns Study in the Lake San Pablo Area, Northern Highland Ecuador: Preliminary Results (2015)
The project "Cultural and Technological Principles Associated with Occupation Modalities during the Integration Period: Value and Use in Present Day Ecuador", carried out by the INPC (National Institute of Cultural Heritage of Ecuador) and funded by SENESCYT (Ecuador’s Department of Science and Technology) has researched five areas of the country, including in the Otavalo Canton. This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey, conducted with the collaboration of community members, from...
Shamans, Jaguars, Owls, Cosmograms, and Zygotes: Matapalo and the Origins of Late Valdivia Stone Plaques (2017)
The material record of Ecuador’s Early Formative Valdivia culture has long been approached from the perspective of a New World, particularly an Amazonian, shamanism incorporating foundational features of animistic ontology. More recently enigmatic stone plaques from Northern Manabí Province have been included in the non-secular repertoire of later Valdivia phases; however, their temporal and spatial associations remained poorly known. Investigations in the Coaque Valley clearly establish their...
Shared Motifs and Figures in the Archaic of the Cajamarca Highlands: New Data from the site of Callacpuma (2016)
The northern Andes, and in particular the Cajamarca region, has for years seen a dearth of archaeological investigation into the lithic, or archaic period. This is surprising given early investigation in the region by Augusto Cardich whose excavations at caves like Cumbe yielded archaic period occupations dated to 8,500 B.C. More recent work at Conga and Maqui Maqui north of the Cajamarca basin have documented hunter-gatherer occupations including projectile points dating to approximately 12,000...
Shark Interactions in Early Times: A Comparison of Some Sites from Colombia and Panama (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Past Human-Shark Interactions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The data obtained from the zooarchaeological remains of some Panamanian Pacific sites and Colombian Caribbean Sites allowed for unprecedented discussions about the role of sharks in the lifestyle of precolumbian inhabitants on the intermediate area. People captured and processed sharks, using their body parts both as a food source and for ornaments. These...
Shell Fishhooks on C. chorus Mussel Shell (7500 to 4500 Years BP) from the Atacama Desert Coast (Chile) (2018)
Fishing was a crucial aspect in the lifeway of ancient coastal societies. Along the Pacific Coast, the appearance of shell fishhooks has been interpreted as part of different contexts of growing population, economic specialization, and social complexity, among others. Along the coast of the Atacama Desert (18° to 26° Lat. South), fishhooks on Choromytilus chorus shells (mussel) appear in archaeological sites located along 1.6 thousand kilometers of coast with dates around 7500 years BP. Around...
Shell mounds from southern and southeastern Brazil (2015)
Systematic archaeological research focused for centuries on large scale shell mounds and now scholars turn their attention to smaller sites located on the southeastern coast of Brazil. Similarly to large mounds, these sites were built with mollusk and fish remains, have a complex stratigraphy and high numbers of burials. Researchers’ approach used data from formation processes and funerary contexts to establish comparisons between regions. Results indicate that small mounds located around the...
Shifting Baselines: Tales of the unexpected (2015)
A shifted baseline is the intergenerational acceptance of the progressive degradation of a system as reflecting its natural state. Paleoecological analyses have revealed the long-term usage by humans of sites previously thought to be ‘pristine’. Analysis of lake sediments in remote areas of Panama and Ecuador revealed unexpected histories of land usage. In Ecuador, Lake Ayauch provided a record of maize agriculture from 6000 years BP. At Lake Wodehouse, in Panama, a 3300-year long record from an...
Shifting the paradigm of coastal archaeology in Latin America (2017)
How might knowledge of past fisheries contribute to the future sustainability of modern coastal societies? Small-scale coastal fisheries provide a crucial source of food and livelihood to millions of people living in South America. Such coastal economies are founded on long-established knowledge that is deeply rooted in the past. Whilst marine conservation, dwindling fish stocks and environmental sustainability have driven the research agenda in recent years, government and international...
The Shipwreck of the French Fleet in Las Aves de Sotavento, Venezuela: A Seventeenth-Century Maritime Disaster (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Underwater and Coastal Archaeology in Latin America" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation underlines the importance of Venezuela’s underwater cultural heritage through continued research into the shipwreck of French King Louis XIV’s fleet, which struck reefs in the Las Aves de Sotavento, in Las Aves Archipelago, Venezuela, the night of May 11, 1678. The fleet consisted of 30 vessels. At least 12 ships...
Sicán Painted Textiles: Producer's and Multi-Craft Perspectives (2016)
Two types of painted textiles exist within controlled funerary contexts from the Middle Sicán culture (900-1100 CE) on the North coast of Peru. The first represents the genre of painted cloth in a traditional sense: woven textiles with decorative elements added to the final product. The other is a more complex, multi-crafted and multi-stepped object that combines the labor intensive production of sheet-metal, cotton textile, gesso-like clay, and the final application of painted designs. These...
Sicán Sociopolitical Organization in Lambayeque, Peru: Ceramic Compositional and Distributional Perspective (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We report the results of a recent chemical compositional analysis (INAA) of ceramic samples from multiple Middle Sicán (ca. 1000 CE) sites in the Lambayeque region on the north coast of Peru that offer important insights on the Middle Sicán sociopolitical and territorial organization. The analysis is an integral part of our cross-disciplinary testing of the...
The Signaling and Inheritance of Cooperation: Artificial Cranial Modification among Altiplano Foragers (2017)
We report on the recent archaeological discovery of a 7000-year-old population of hunter-gatherer burials and discuss the key insights they offer into how hunter-gatherer societies may have maintained cooperative structure against evolutionary odds. Sixteen human burials interred at the site of Soro Mik'aya Patjxa in the Andean Altiplano of Peru consistently exhibit intentional artificial cranial modification (ACM)—the irreversible shaping of human crania during infancy. Our analysis of cranial...
Signatures of human occupation in Amazonian soils (2015)
The extent and intensity of pre-Columbian human impacts on Amazonian forests has remained a topic of debate for decades. Traditional views of pre-Columbian Amazonia as a ‘pristine forest’ have recently been replaced by predictions of vibrant cultures frequently scattered across the Basin. A primary form of evidence for the latter includes the presence of terra preta soils, which are nutrient-enriched anthrosols that were formed in prehistory. Archaeological and paleoecological investigations...
Silver Production and Inka Expansion in the South Central Andes (2017)
Silver was an important component of the Andean prestige economy with bestowal and display of silver and silver-alloyed objects constituting a vital tool of Inka statecraft. The quest for mineral wealth was thus a motivating factor for Inka conquest of the South Central Andes. Nonetheless, the impacts of imperial incorporation on the organization and technology of metal production differed across this region of the empire. Focusing on the purification of silver ores, we present two case studies...
Site-seeing: Aeriality, Archaeological Survey and Objectivity in Coastal Peru (2017)
Far from being mana from the future, aerial imagery has been integral to both the practical and conceptual dimensions of archaeological survey almost from its inception. In this presentation, I argue that aerial photography captured via private and state-funded reconnaissance in the 1930’s and 40’s played a transformational role in the emergence of regional approaches in Peru’s desert coast in the mid 20th century. I discuss how the use of aerial imagery has both enabled and constrained the...
Skeletal Remains of Early Man in South America. In: Early Man In South America (1912)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Slash-And-Burn Cultivation Among the Kuikuru and Its Implications for Cultural Development in the Amazon Basin. In: the Evolution of Horticulture Systems In Native South America (1961)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.