South America (Geographic Keyword)
776-800 (1,326 Records)
Over the past few decades, it has been recognized that craft studies often overlook the social significance of crafts practiced concurrently. How does the selection of certain types of materials inform on the relationship between manufacturers and consumers? Does multi-crafting imply broader social relations? Or does multi-crafting imply locally meaningful social relationships through the various types of crafts produced? This paper explores the multi-craft traditions practiced in coexisting...
A multi-proxy approach to investigate human-plant interactions in Amazonia: A case study from the Llanos de Moxos (2015)
This paper summarises the results of a multiproxy study on the past human impact of Late Holocene peoples across different regions of the Llanos de Moxos. In the Monumental Mound Region, palaeoecological data show that the savanna soils were sufficiently fertile to support crops; maize being a predominant one. Macrobotanical remains from mound habitation sites in this region documented the presence of maize (Zea mays), squash (Cucurbita sp.), peanut (Arachis hypogaea), cotton (Gossypium sp.),...
Multi-Scalar Analysis of Copper and Silver Production under the Inka: A Case Study from Northern Chile (2017)
Andean prehistory witnessed the development of numerous regional metallurgical traditions that were harnessed and significantly restructured as the Inka empire (AD 1400-1532) expanded along western South America. Taking the Tarapacá Valley of northern Chile as a case study, I analyze how imperial incorporation altered the production of copper and silver across multiple spatial scales. I begin at the regional level, analyzing how the procurement and transport particularly of silver-bearing ores...
Multiethnic Colonial Communities and Endogamy: Evaluating the Dual Diaspora Model of Moquegua Tiwanaku Social Organization (2017)
The Moquegua Valley Tiwanaku colonial enclave was comprised of two Tiwanaku-affiliated populations: camelid agropastoralists who used Omo-style ceramics and maize agricultural specialists associated with Chen Chen-style ceramics. Despite living in close proximity, Chen Chen- and Omo-style communities maintained distinct social and cultural boundaries for several centuries. Goldstein’s dual diaspora model suggests that Omo- and Chen Chen-style Tiwanaku colonists represent two separate but...
A multiproxy approach to study past human impact on the Lower Amazon, Santarem (2016)
This presentation summarises the preliminary results of the interdisciplinary research carried out in the context of the ‘Pre-Columbian Amazon-Scale Transformation’ project that investigate the nature and scale of past human impact across the Amazon integrating archaeology, archaeobotany, palaeoecology, soil science, botany and remote sensing. We present initial results from the unique region around Santarém city at the confluence of the Tapajós and the Amazon rivers, home to the Tapajós...
Multiscalar Analysis of an Early Rival to Inca Power (2016)
Systematic regional survey research identified Yunkaray as a town at the center of a hierarchical network of villages near Maras, approximately 20 km to the northwest of the Inca capital. A grid of more than 80 intensive collection units established Yunkaray to be larger than 20 hectares, almost all of which was occupied and abandoned during the Late Intermediate Period (c. AD 1000-1400). The scarcity of Inca imperial pottery in surface collections suggested that abandonment occurred during the...
Multiscale Geospatial Image Analysis of Agricultural Landscapes and architecture in Higland Peru (2016)
Large scale survey of anthropogenic landscapes using traditional methods requires considerable fieldwork time and effort. Diverse air- and space-borne imagery enables registry of key data prior to the execution of field research. We present a multiscale imagery-based survey methodology to optimize limited research resources and to broaden the scale of archaeological landscape research. This broader approach enables identification and mapping of agricultural terraces, canals, and architectural...
Murales prehispánicos en la costa norte del Perú: la imagen del poder y el poder de la imagen (2015)
La costa norte del Perú ofrece impresionantes evidencias de una intensa actividad artística, asociada al manejo geopolítico de las sociedades desarrolladas entre desiertos y valles (3000 a. de C. a 1542). Una muestra del ingenio y habilidad de artistas al servicio de los grupos de poder. Colosales templos de tierra policromada, con impresionantes espacios ceremoniales que fueron acondicionados para pintar en sus paredes un ordenado discurso iconográfico que evidencia la función ceremonial de los...
The Musical Instruments of the Inca (1924)
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.
Myth of Population Regulation. in Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior (1979)
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.
Myths about the Tropical Rainforest Hunter-Gatherers: A reappraisal from South America (2015)
Twenty years ago the Foraging Spectrum highlighted the variability in forager behavior around the world and generated several models to reconstruct the lifeways of these kind of societies in the past. However, contemporary tropical rainforest hunter-gatherers of South America are still underrepresented in the current debate and they are rarely used as a source of analogy to interpret prehistoric foragers. This is partially due to the existence of several myths about them that still persist in...
Márgenes y Centros del Tawantinsuyo en el Norte Grande de Chile (Andes Centro Sur) (2016)
A partir de los postulados de Murra sobre los Incas, Llagostera planteó para el Norte de Chile la ausencia de una conquista propiamente tal, puesto que sus poblaciones se hallaban insertas en sistemas preincaicos de complementariedad ecológica, cuyas cabeceras o “señoríos” se encontraban vinculadas al altiplano central del Titicaca. Las que una vez anexadas al Tawantinsuyo, implicó un dominio casi automático de las entidades restantes ubicadas en lugares más bajos como los del norte chileno,...
NAA Analysis of Ambato Ceramics from the Southern Andes (Eastern Valleys of Catamarca and Tucuman, Argentina) (2016)
We analyze the provenience of clays used in the manufacture of Aguada ceramics, mainly black incised, characteristic of the Ambato valley of southeastern Catamarca (Argentina). This ceramic style is also present in lesser quantities in sites of other neighboring valleys/regions, most of it manufactured with the same clay. The research is part of a broader project to study economic organization and the emergence of complex societies in northwestern Argentina. Research that took place in the...
Naipes, Standardized Middle Sicán (ca. C.E. 1000) Sheetmetal Objects: New Insights from Archaeometric Studies (2016)
This poster highlights emerging results of the ongoing study that aims to further characterize the technological strategies, standardization practices, and social relations associated with the production of naipes during the Middle Sicán (900 – 1100 CE) period on the north coast of Peru. Initially conducted as part of MSc. research under the supervision of J. Merkel, archaeometric (pXRF, SEM-EDXS) and metallographic (chemical etching, optical microscopy, microhardness) analyses were carried out...
Naked Clay: 3000 Years of Unadorned Pottery of the American Indian (1972)
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.
Narration, Mediation, and Transformation: Dismembered Heads from Middle Horizon Uraca (Majes Valley, Arequipa, Peru) and the Andean Feline-Hunter Mythology (2016)
Excavations of two sectors of the cemetery site of Uraca in the Lower Majes Valley (coastal Arequipa, Peru) yielded human skeletons with evidence of post-mortem processing, including defleshing, removal of the soft tissues of the eye orbit, and drilling holes into the frontal and parietal bones. The 11 beheaded individuals were young adult or adult males. In addition, 6 defleshed (and unarticulated) mandibles belonged to likely males, whose crania were not recovered. Decoration styles,...
Nasca Lines, Ceramic Sherds, and Social Changes: Recent Investigation at the Nasca Pampas, Southern Coast of Peru. (2015)
The objective of this study is to discuss the social changes of the societies in the Nasca region, the south coast of Peru through the analysis of ceramic sherds distributed near the lines and line centers. In 1926 the Nasca lines had been discovered by Alfred Kroeber and was investigated archaeo-astronomically by Paul Kosok and María Reich. At the 1980' Anthony Aveni and his colleagues carried out investigation at the pampas and contributed to reveal the detail of the Nasca lines and centers....
Nasca-Wari Interaction and Imperial Expansion during the Middle Horizon: Excavations at Zorropata, Nasca, Peru (2016)
The Middle Horizon (AD 750-1000) was a tumultuous time in the Nasca region, located on the south coast of Peru. The highland-centered Wari Empire established at least three colonies (Pacheco, Pataraya, and Inkawasi) in the Nasca Valley and its tributaries (Edwards 2010). Local settlement patterns changed drastically in response (Edwards 2010, Schreiber 1999). The number and size of habitation sites in the Nasca and Taruga Valleys decreased but increased in the Las Trancas Valley, away from and...
Natural Processes and Anthropic Action: Compromising the Archaeological Heritage in the South-West of the State of Goiás (2017)
Studies performed in the South-West of the state of Goiás indicate that natural processes and anthropic action are impacting and jeopardizing the conservation of archaeological sites in the region, namely GO-JA-13 and GO-CP-16, both of which are part of two important archaeological areas in the Brazilian Central Plateau – Serranópolis and Palestina de Goiás respectively. These sites are of high scientific and cultural significance and, together with the intense landscape alterations over the...
The Nature and Status of Paleoethnobotany (2015)
How does one honor the greatest generation of paleoethnobotany? It should not be difficult. What they have accomplished is no less than establishing paleoethnobotany as fundamental archaeology. Their cutting edge approaches succeeded in keeping scientific methodology in archaeology throughout the discipline’s theoretical paroxysms, all the while keeping the "ethno" in paleoethnobotany. The next generation of paleoethnobotanists is already building on their mentors’ successes by further advancing...
Navigating Cusco: Pathways to History and Landscapes of Social Conflict in the Inca Imperial Capital (2016)
In creating Cusco, the Incas assembled a landscape of monuments and pathways that embodied a mythic vision of the past. But how did Cusco’s landscape, which was invested with pre-Inca meanings and memories, become Inca? In this paper, I present archaeological and ethnohistorical data from Cusco to explore how Cusco’s indigenous people constructed their past under Inca and early Spanish rule. I examine how pathways and landscapes in Cusco—the processions of the Capac Raymi and Situa ceremonies,...
The Nazi Hideout of South America: Studies on the Teyu Cuare 1945 Neighborhoods (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The discovery of the Nazi refuge on the border of Argentina and Paraguay during 2015, built around the year 1945 and abandoned shortly after, led to work inside it first to demonstrate the hypothesis of use and chronology. Last year, the mapping of the area and the survey of the surroundings intensified, finding new structures and groups strategically located...
Nearshore Paleoceanographic Conditions and Human Adaptation on the Coast of the Atacama Desert (Chile, 25°S) During the Early and Middle Holocene (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transition period between the Early and Middle Holocene is associated with important changes in climate and human dynamics around the world. The coast of the Atacama Desert (Chile, 25°S) is not an exception. Early Holocene archaeological sites show evidence of a generalized coastal economy that...
Nectandra sp. seed from archaeological contexts in Panquilma. An approach based on morphological features and contextual information (2016)
One of the main socioeconomic characteristics during the late periods is the high and dynamic presence of exchange of foreign goods, many of them coming from the amazon basin, including Nectandra sp., a seed with psychoactive properties, characteristic of moist woodlands, associated with offerings and funerary contexts in the Andean region. This study presents the preliminary analysis of Nectandra sp., including physical and chemical properties, such as the pharmacological features mentioned in...
Nericagua, Corobal, and the Upper Orinoco Ceramic Sequence (2016)
Nericagua, Corobal and The Upper Orinoco Ceramic Sequence William P. Barse, Smithsonian Institution This presentation reviews the relatively unknown ceramic complexes of Nericagua and Corobal defined in the late 1950's by Clifford Evans and Betty Meggers, currently housed in the Smithsonian Institution curation facilities. The range of variation in ceramic vessel shapes and their decorative motifs of these two complexes will be compared to neighboring ceramic assemblages in the northern Tropical...