South America (Geographic Keyword)
251-275 (1,346 Records)
The Los Morteros archaeological site is located on the desert north coast of Peru. This large, elliptical mound (ca. 225x200 m, with relief of 14.5 m) is situated on a 3 m high Mid-Holocene shoreline. Limited excavations in the 1970’s identified preceramic midden deposits. Subsequent ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey at the site revealed interior stratigraphy inconsistent with a sand dune or bedrock-cored sand deposit, suggesting human agency in the construction of the mound, rather than...
Come Out of This World: Antiblackness, Criminalization and the Collaging of Precious Life (WFG - Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship) (2025)
This resource is an application for Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Come Out of This World is a monograph with a central visual collage component that 1) analyzes the co-constitutive projects of racialization, criminalization, and statecraft in contemporary Trinidad that perpetuate black death and 2) speculates on a radical alterity where all life is cared for. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork contextualized through archival analysis, this monograph details the...
Coming-of-Age in the Ancient Andes: A Bioarchaeological Evaluation of Early Life Course History, Puberty, and Gender in Late Pre-Hispanic Andean Culture (WGF - Dissertation Fieldwork Grant) (2023)
This resource is an application for a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. The archaeological study of adolescence reveals insights into the biosocial process of puberty. Biologically, the critical developmental process of puberty defines adolescence, yet puberty is also the social process by which a child becomes an adult. This project investigates puberty as shaped by physical and social factors. I examine adolescence in the late pre-Hispanic Andes (800-1500 CE) to...
Comment On Ross (1978)
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.
Common Meals, Noble Feasts: An Archaeological Investigation of Moche Food and Cuisine in the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru (2016)
In the North Coast of Peru, relatively little is known about the majority of the population that supported the lifestyles of the elite. In this paper, I discuss the concept of a Moche cuisine through a study of the foodways of both elite and commoner classes, drawing on archaeobotanical data from a feasting preparation area located in the elite cemetery of San José de Moro and from a humble household situated near the base of the fortified hilltop settlement of Cerro Chepén. Cuisine can be...
Communities of practice and variability/standardization of the ceramic assemblages: the indigenous people Asurini do Xingu (2017)
I intend to present some results of my ethnoarchaeological research (1996-2016) on the ceramic technology of the Asurini do Xingu, an Amazonian indigenous people (Tupi-Guarani linguistic family) who lives on the banks of the Xingu River - Pará, Brazil. Based on collected data, I will demonstrate the relationship between the social organization of ceramic production and the standardization/variability of these artifacts over time. I will show how in Asurini context, teaching-learning framework,...
Community and Ancestors in the Titicaca Basin during the Formative Period (2015)
The Formative Period (1500 BC-AD 200) in the Titicaca Basin was a time of important social and economic changes, such as the establishment of sedentary settlements and long distance trade routes, increasing horticultural investment, and an emerging regional ritual tradition, Yaya-Mama. However, while archaeologists have documented and described these changes, less is understood about how they impacted local communities. In particular, Yaya-Mama has been interpreted in a variety of ways: as a...
Community and the Contours of Empire: The Hacienda System in the Northern Highlands of Ecuador (2017)
Recent archaeological studies of Spanish colonialism have redirected scholarly attention both to the workings of imperialism and the multitude of ways in which marginalized populations navigated and remade the grids of power that constitute empire. A focus on the household and the materiality of everyday life has generated a rich body of evidence by which to tack between multiple scales of social life and foreground the material culture of daily life as constitutive elements in the making of...
Community Organization Reflected By the Household: a Study of Pre-Columbian Social Dynamics (1982)
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.
Companions or Counterparts: Considering the Role of Animal Depictions in Moche Ceramics from Northern Peru (2015)
The Moche Period (1-850AD) is well known for its iconography with naturalistic depictions of a variety of different figures and themes. One aspect of the corpus that has been under-analyzed is the common representation of plant and animal life. The ceramic assemblages of the Moche depict numerous animal species from coastal, highland and Amazonian locations. Recent work conducted at the Larco Herrera Museum reveals that various animal species may have been considered important symbols of group...
Comparative characterization and sourcing of pottery styles from the Lurin valley, central coast of Peru (2016)
Our goal is to reconstruct networks of ceramic production and exchange on the Peruvian central coast through a comparison of compositional datasets on pottery and soil samples from the Lurin valley. While one dataset from Villa El Salvador dates to the late Early Horizon, most of the pottery sample comes from Late Horizon occupations at the Pachacamac, Pueblo Viejo, and Huaycan de Cieneguilla sites. In Tawantinsuyu, the products and networks of exchange connected heterogeneous populations, and...
Comparative Micro-Usewear and Residue Analyses on Late Pleistocene Unifacial Tools from Huaca Prieta, Peru, and Monte Verde, Chile (2018)
This study presents the results of a comparative multi-year analysis of high and low power micro-usewear and residue patterns on 14,000-10,000 cal BP unifacial stone tools from the late Pleistocene archaeological sites of Huaca Prieta on the north coast of Peru and the Monte Verde I and II sites in south-central Chile. The archaeological stones from these sites are also compared with experimental assemblages employing various actions (e.g., scraping, cutting, gouging, perforating) to work...
The comparison of central and peripheral household compounds at the site of Panquilma, Peruvian Central Coast (2015)
This paper explores the hierarchical differences between households at the site of Panquilma. Previous studies at the site have identified two types of household compounds: central and peripheral. Despite the fact that central compounds are bigger and located closer to the public buildings of the site, no other difference has been identified that can point towards the presence and the nature of any type of hierarchical distinction between both types of domestic compounds. Using 3-D...
A Comparison of Ceramic Compositions from Canchas Uckro (Ancash) and the Cave of the Owls (Huánuco), Peru: Implications for an Upper Amazon Interaction Sphere (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite decades of archaeological research, the economic and social ties connecting the eastern Andes and Upper Amazon remain underexplored. Stylistic and compositional comparison of ceramics from the sites of Canchas Uckro (ca. 1100-850 BCE), a large monumental platform situated above the Puccha River, and the Cave of the Owls, on the Monzón River near...
A Comparison of Various Technologies to Capture Low-Altitude Aerial Photography as Alternative Methods in Mapping Archaeological Landscapes (2016)
Site-based archaeological projects often face a common challenge of producing detailed maps of large, complex areas. The use of traditional site-mapping techniques (e.g. total station) can be expensive and labor-intensive. Alternatively, a variety of platforms provide archaeologists with practical and inexpensive approaches to aerial photography and photogrammetric mapping. Here, the authors explore three different approaches to aerial photography as alternatives to traditional methods of site...
Compositional Analysis of Ceramics from the Las Trancas Valley, Nasca, Perú. (2015)
In this paper we address the results of an Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) on a sample of sherds from Santa Luisa and Higosñoc, two Las Trancas Valley sites from the Southern Nasca Region (SNR), Perú. By sampling sherds dating from the Early to the Late Horizon, this study adds temporal depth to previous compositional work in the region. While results confirm previous analysis conducted in the SNR suggesting compositional uniformity during Early Nasca, results also reveal...
A compositional signature of multi-craft production?: Food vessels from Great Plaza of Huacas de Sican (2016)
This paper discusses the results of a recent compositional analysis by INAA of 225 samples of ceramics sherds excavated from the Great Plaza of Huacas de Sicán. The analysis revealed a limited number (3) of compositional groups and a high rate of arsenic and uranium in one group. The author argues that the high rate of arsenic indicates the side-by-side production of arsenical copper and ceramic vessels and that the vessels used at the Great Plaza were produced at the regional ceramic workshop...
Compositional Study of Pre-Hispanic Ceramics from Eastern Bolivia (2016)
Ceramics from three archaeological areas in the dry lowlands of eastern Bolivia were analyzed by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The resulting compositional data were analyzed statistically to identify potential patterns of manufacture and distribution. Samples were selected from three archaeological areas investigated prior to construction of the Bolivia-Brazil Natural Gas Pipeline in 1997-1998: 1) Rio Grande; 2) Bañados del Izozog; and 3) an inter-riverine area in the Gran...
Conceptual and Technical Connectivity in Indigenous South American Rock Art Traditions (2017)
Archaeologists have long sought to explain the distribution of rock art traditions across Amazonia and circum-Amazonia with reference to stylistic variability in the iconography, often as a proxy for exploring shared concepts of symbolic representation, mediated through local cultural norms. Where it has been possible, cross-referencing this kind of data with the ethnographic and archaeological records has engendered valuable new interpretations of indigenous symbolic repertoires in a variety of...
Conditional cooperation and the ritualized economy of Paracas (2015)
The Pampa de Carmen above the Chincha valley contains a series of Paracas period archaeological features including geoglyphs, ceremonial mounds, settlements and small stone structures. I discuss how these features integrate the pampa into a monumental ritual landscape focused on five major settlements. I interpret these features to be a means to attract people from outside the region to periodic market fairs held in the neutral chaupiyungas areas between highlands and coast. These fairs...
Configuring Space in a Valdivia Town: Social Precepts, Cosmological Mandates, and Emergent Hierarchy in Early Formative Ecuador (2016)
This paper revisits interpretations of the built environment at the Early Formative Valdivia town site of Real Alto in coastal Guayas province, Ecuador, from the broader comparative perspective of contemporary Formative Period sites throughout the Americas. Special emphasis is placed on the Middle Valdivia town configuration encompassing individual households, residential neighborhoods, open plazas, and central ceremonial space, but consideration is also given to Late Valdivia transformations...
Confronting the Challenge of Analyzing Museum Collections with Limited Archival Data in Southern Brazil (2017)
One of the major challenges in working with museum collections of excavated material is the paucity of information available about the original excavation. What value do these collections have without any context? This paper examines a case study of an archaeological collection from one of the first Spanish Jesuit missions founded in Southern Brazil, housed at the Paranaense Museum, Curitiba, Brazil. The mission, Santo Inacio Mini (1610 – 1631), was the largest in the province and was integral...
Connecting the Pre-Columbian Past to the Present in South Coastal Peru: The Archaeology of the Colonial and Republican Haciendas of Nasca (2015)
The fertile desert middle-valleys of South Coastal Peru’s Grande Basin offered resources for great productive potential which supported a large population since the Formative Period and attracted intense agro-industrial interests during Spanish colonization. Historical archaeology offers tools for understanding regional processes of population replacement, highland/coastal exchange and migration, and the radical transformation of social processes during the last five centuries of intense...
Connectivity beyond the floodplains: the case of the upper Tapajós (2017)
The first millennium AD saw an increase in population density throughout much of Amazonia; this is testified by an increase in the number and size of coeval archaeological sites, many of which include anthropogenic dark earths, widely considered as proxies for intensive and continuous human habitation and alteration of the environment. The Terra Preta do Mangabal and Sawre Muybu sites were village settlements occupied from c.700AD and c.900AD respectively, located along the rapids of the upper...
Conservación de la arquitectura en tierra y pinturas murales de Pañamarca (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Paisajes Arqueológicos de Pañamarca: Findings from the 2018–2023 Field Seasons" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La Conservación de la arquitectura en tierra y pinturas murales del proyecto "Paisajes Arqueológicos de Pañamarca" en las temporadas 2022 y 2023, se desarrollaron en paralelo a los trabajos de excavación, teniendo en consideración la vulnerabilidad estructural así como la fragilidad de los murales pictóricos,...