South America (Geographic Keyword)
226-250 (1,346 Records)
Genetic studies suggest a single domestication event for cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in the Upper Amazon of southeastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru and 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 use of cacao dating to 3500-3300 Cal BC from the Santa Ana - La Florida site in the Upper Amazon of...
Co-Creation, Applied Archaeology, and Community Engagement in Ancash, Peru (2016)
Initiated through the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológico Regional Ancash, the cultural heritage component of the archaeological research program in the village of Hualcayán, Ancash, Peru, has taken on an increased "co-creative" perspective over the past two years. We define co-creative processes as those where the cultural heritage professional partners with a community in projects that address the expressed needs of the local residents. This poster reports on the process of implementing...
Coalescence and conformity at the Ayawiri hillfort, Peru: A social experiment under duress (2015)
Defensive settlements are often places of relatively rapid, dense nucleation by people with few viable alternatives, resulting in the imperative need to establish new consensual rules for living together. In the Titicaca Basin of Peru, after the collapse of the Tiwanaku state, old political relationships were abandoned and defensive security became essential. In the post-collapse period, large hillfort towns formed by the aggregation of multiple families. What behaviors and attitudes were...
Coast and lowlands: zooarchaeology of La Esmeralda shell midden (Uruguayan Atlantic coast, late Holocene) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La Esmeralda is a set of three Donax hanleyanus shell midden (3000 to 1000 b.P) in which they were capture, processing and consumption of coastal vertebrates (pinnipeds, fish and birds) and terrestrial (field deer, mulita and Rhea egg) in an exploitation scheme that includes the coast and the continental lowlands. The use of the Donax hanleyanus bank is...
The "Coastal Cajamarca" Style Did Not Come from the Coast (2016)
The "Coastal Cajamarca" style of painted bowls was first documented by Disselhoff in the 1950s at the site of San Jose de Moro (Lower Jequetepeque Valley, Peru). There are two competing hypotheses with regard to the origin of this ceramic style: (1) it originated from the coast or (2) it was produced in the middle valley or chaupiyunga zone, an intermediate area between the coast and the highlands. In this paper I present evidence from the site of Las Varas, located in the Middle Jequetepeque...
Coastal politics in Cajamarca: recent research in the middle Jequetepeque Valley (2016)
Based on research at Ventanillas, a Late Intermediate Period community in the middle Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, this paper discusses the role of coastal polities and highland influence in a multiethnic middle valley context. Mapping, surface collection, and excavations in 2011 and 2013 focused on investigating the cultural and political affiliation of Ventanillas residents. Ventanillas’ imposing adobe platform mounds link the site visibly to coastal traditions; however, households used a mix of...
Coastal-Highland Interactions at the End of Moche: Investigating Vertical and Horizontal Archipelagos as Reflected in Pastoral Strategies in the Cañoncillo Region, Peru (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Them and Us: Transmission and Cultural Dynamism in the North of Peru between AD 250 and 950: A Vision since the Recent Northern Investigations" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have conducted important work on long-distance interactions during the Middle Horizon of the south-central Andes (Bélisle et al. 2020; Castillo et al. 2012; Jennings 2010). Camelid herding provided a critical means of exchange...
Cochasquí in Context: The Evolution of a Monumental Center (2017)
Recent investigations suggest that the history of the northern Ecuadorian mound group at Cochasquí was complex and that the perception of the site as a single, mostly unchanging monumental center is simplistic at best. Begun by AD1000, the earliest constructions within the complex were modest rounded mounds, several containing burials. By AD1250, much larger, ramped square mounds signaled a major shift in site function possibly associated with the eruption of Quilotoa volcano, 125 km to the...
Cochasquí under the Inka: Reassessing the Inka presence in northern Ecuador (2016)
The archaeological site of Cochasquí exhibits some of Ecuador’s largest and most ornate earthen pyramids or Tolas. With long dirt ramps and truncated steps of cangahua blocks, the Cochasquí pyramids are some of the most recognizable in the country. It was at this site that the Inka first encountered and conquered one of the great polities of the Caranqui Confederation. Sometime after its conquest by the Inka, the Spanish arrive and, by all historic accounts, the location was abandoned by 1580...
Coffee and captivity in the 19th century Paraíba valley (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Landscape archaeology and phenomenological recording (2015)
The expansion of modern capitalism in the 19th century led to higher demands for commodities such as coffee, sugar, and cotton. The production of these commodities, however, was associated to an increasing industrialization of slave labor ("Second slavery"). The Paraíba valley in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, produced most of the coffee consumed in Europe and North America. The central question is: how was the valley constructed over the 19th century as a landscape of enslavement? Labor routines...
Collective Intelligence in Cultural Environment: Predictive Models, preservation and valorization of Cultural Identity in a Brazilian context (2017)
The current days are becoming more and more demanding for researches on social sciences, considering the great changes happening globally on the last decades, changes that seem to be happening always on a faster pace than before. Many international institutions, including UNESCO, have been promoting discussions intended to bring new ideas on the role of Humanities on the current society, this from the standpoint of a global perspective. This challenge is also about the integration of knowledge,...
Colonial enclaves of coastal Colesuyo during the Inca influence (2016)
How small communities of coastal Colesuyo were transformed under Inca authority? What roles were played by local and regional elites? Previous worked conducted at the coastal site of Tacahuay has suggested that this site was an altiplano enclave controlled by more powerful Lupaca group. This enclave was established with the aim of obtaining coastal products, and in return Tacahuay elites would have access to Inca sumptuary goods. In this session I present different lines of analyses for future...
Colonial Funerary Rituals at the Templo San Ignacio in Bogotá, Colombia (2018)
This research analyzes the funerary customs in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries as recovered through archaeological exploration in the Jesuit church named Templo San Ignacio in downtown Bogotá, Colombia. These skeletal remains illustrate how from the moment the church was constructed in 1610, the deposition of the deceased beneath the floor was an integral part of the occupation of this sacred space on the periphery of the Spanish colonial empire. While we recovered human remains from...
Colonial Practices in the Imperial Heartland: The Inca Conquest and Transformation of the Lucre Basin, Cuzco, Peru (2016)
This paper will present data from the author’s dissertation research at the site of Minaspata, located in the Lucre Basin at the eastern end of the Cuzco Valley, Peru. Minaspata has a long history of occupation, dating to the Early Horizon to the end of the Late Horizon, but was conquered as the final component of the Inca heartland immediately prior to the early imperial excursions by the Inca. The results of recent excavations at Minaspata and the different phases of occupation and material...
Colonial process in the Portuguese America: Tupi settlement at the Brazilian Southern shore (2016)
This represents a preliminary paper about the colonial process in Portuguese America and the development of the historical archaeology of indigenous peoples in Brazil. It uses as reference the archaeological remains of a Tupi settlement, on the south shore of the state of Sao Paulo, called Peruíbe. For many years Brazilian historiography built a history of America’s discovery and European colonization with indigenous peoples treated as passive victims of colonial encounter, fated to...
Colonialism and Tupi Persistence on the South shore of São Paulo state - Brazil (2017)
During the last few decades, many studies deconstructed the traditional colonial narratives about the Americas. They rethought the history with a less eurocentric point of view, emphasizing the dynamic cultural values established among European, Indigenous peoples and Africans, contributing together to combine new and old social practices in colonial situations. This work aims an alternative narrative about Brazilian indigenous peoples, which uses a Tupi settlement located in Peruíbe on the...
Colonization as Imperial Strategy: the Wari Settlement of Moquegua, Peru (2016)
When Wari colonists arrived to Moquegua (ca. 600CE) there were several groups occupying different valley ecozones but a relatively small population. In order to establish the colony Wari officials invested a great deal of labor and resources in the upper drainage, which engaged local and colonial populations. In this paper I consider imperial expansion as a process, which was a multi-generational affair. I examine the construction of three major sites: Cerro Baúl, Cerro Mejía, and Cerro...
Colonization of Paradise: Historical Ecology and Archaeology of El Progreso Plantation, Galápagos (1870–1904) (2017)
Colonization of the Galápagos Islands started soon after Ecuadorian separation from the Gran Colombia in 1830. During this decade the Islands were legally claimed by the Republic of Ecuador and colonization projects started. Exploiting concessions were approved to national and international companies. One of these concessions was assigned to Ecuadorian businessmen Manuel J. Cobos and José Monroy to create an agricultural colony on San Cristóbal Island; 1000 km west from the Ecuadorian coast in...
Color and Q'iwa: Expecting the Unexpected in Andean Textile Design (2016)
Color is one of many key expressive modes for textiles in particular. Intense, communicative, and not always predictable, Andean textile coloration is a complex issue. Rather than submitting to a "cookbook" delineation of color symbolism (red means blood, etc.), the abstract mindset of ancient and modern Andean societies means that color has many more complex, even philosophical, roles to play in the fiber arts of this area. For instance, purposeful rupturing of regular color patterning...
Color in Wari and Inka Khipus (2016)
This paper analyzes the uses of color in the Wari and Inka khipus. The focus of the study will be on the ranges and ways of combining colors used in each tradition. The central question to be addressed is: How was color used as a medium of coding information in each tradition and what can we say about how and why the system of color may have changed as it did from Wari to Inka times?
Color patterns and aspects of significance in the Paracas Necropolis (2016)
Anne Paul (1998) observed that the Paracas Necropolis embroiderers seem to explore all possible color repeat patterns in their mantle design. At the same time, a few dominant color combinations recur throughout the assemblage. Like speech, color is a system of difference, hues perceived relationally through contrast with those adjacent. Dyed color is produced by chemical processes on natural fiber with pre-existing tones, and changes over time in diverse environmental conditions. These factors...
Color, Structure, and Meaning in Middle Horizon Khipus (2016)
Inka khipus used cord color, knots, cord attachment, final twist, and sometimes material (e.g., colored camelid hair) to encode information. Middle Horizon (Wari) khipus used all these conventions and more. For instance, the thick, white, cotton pendant cords of MH khipus were routinely wrapped with brightly colored (usually camelid hair) yarns that most likely conveyed meaning. The thickness and structure of pendant-cords themselves likely held significance. Further, while Wari khipu makers...
Color, Structure, and Society in the Tiwanaku State (2016)
In the Andes, weaving and wearing cloth are essential for shaping identity and social relations. The weavers of the south-central Andean Tiwanaku state (Middle Horizon period A.D.500-1100) possessed knowledge of plant and animal fibers, weave techniques, dyes, and iconography which allowed them to produce a wide range of textiles, from the monochrome cloths of daily life to the vibrantly colored tapestries. Examining textile evidence from burials at the provincial center of Omo M10 (Moquegua,...
The Colors of the Coya's Robes (2016)
Of the many surviving pre-Columbian Inka textiles, especially those made in tapestry and featuring tukapu (rectangular design blocks), only a few full-size garments are associated with females. There are, however, many miniature female garments. Inka textiles also tend to follow a limited number of color combinations, although some textiles show a more diverse, even exuberant mixture. Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, in his section on the coyas (queens), attributes a specific set of colors to each...
Combined use of different lines of evidence for the analysis of polychrome archaeological ceramics of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, Argentina. (2016)
Polychrome archaeological ceramics called "vírgulas or comas" hold a comprehensive but an unequal space distribution. They are found in limited quantities in achaelogical sites in regions as North and Central Puna, Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy and Northeast areas of Argentina.These ceramics vessels had been used in both regions since 900 AD until the Spanish post-colony. Then, we come to the conclusion about the movement of these ceramics pieces with a significant use and a ritual or ceremonial...