South America (Geographic Keyword)
1,176-1,200 (1,291 Records)
The Central Andean region poses numerous environmental challenges, including hyper-aridity, rugged topography, strong seasonality, uneven spatial distribution of biotic resources, and high altitude, yet this area was colonized successfully in the Terminal Pleistocene. However, the archaeological record shows considerable discontinuity through the Terminal Pleistocene-Early Holocene transition, with site occupation hiatuses or abandonments often interpreted as having stemmed from unfavorable...
Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Perishable Technologies and the Peopling of the Andes (2016)
Accumulating evidence from Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene sites in the Americas attests to the antiquity and sophistication of perishable technologies such as cordage, netting, basketry, and textiles. Although the record of perishable industries is limited principally by factors of preservation, reevaluation of the available data for plant fiber-based technologies, and direct radiocarbon dates, continue to provide insights into the importance of these earliest perishable artifacts and...
Territoriality and ceramic distribution of the Virú-Gallinazo populations on the northern coast of Peru: new insights using spatial analysis (2016)
Since the Virú Project, the use of Castillo Decorated as the principal chrono-cultural element to characterize the Virú-Gallinazo presence laid to a “Gallinazo illusion“. Unfortunately, it appears that our knowledge about the Virú-Gallinazo populations are still limited, and most of the time we define them through the prism of the Mochicas. In order to understand who these groups were, we analyzed the spatial distribution of the following ceramics styles trough the northern coast using GIS:...
Testing the social aggregation hypothesis for Llolleo communities in Central Chile with NAA of ceramic smoking pipes and drinking jars (2016)
La Granja site in central Chile has been considered a social aggregation site for Llolleo communities based on an unusually large smoking pipe assemblage, ritual features and an abundance of drinking jars. The hypothesis states that people from a wide region gathered here for group cohesion purposes mediated by rituals involving the smoking of psychoactive substances and drinking of fermented beverages. Based on the potential of NAA to fingerprint ceramic artifacts’ raw material sources, we...
Textile conceptual ideas as mobility indicators between highlands and coast, Central Andes, c. 200BC-600AD (2016)
Textiles are important artifacts when looking at mobility since they constitute a matrix of complex conceptual ideas, are important identity markers, and they travel easily with their owners. Pre-Columbian textiles have seldom been preserved in the wet Andean highlands, making it difficult to evaluate their past diversity and to identify them among the vast quantity of pieces discovered on the arid coast of Peru. Nevertheless, combining the study of present highland weaving practices with the...
"Textileras": Mujeres de prestigio o formalismo social (2016)
Las últimas investigaciones sobre patrones funerarios en la costa central peruana exponen, principalmente, entierros femeninos de élite dedicados a la actividad textil. Sobre la base de las descripciones del ajuar asociado a la textilería. Estas explicaciones hacen énfasis en los objetos hallados, asumiendo directamente la posición social del individuo, sin mencionar que este ajuar, probablemente, representa el actuar colectivo sobre estándares sociales de enterramiento femenino y no...
Tha Archaeology of Lower Canoas River Valley (2015)
The results of an archaeological project in the Lower valley of Canoas River in the Highlands of southern Brazil show a cultural sistema of proto-ge grups formed by residencial bases, camp sites, cultivation fields, storage pits, hunting camps, cerimonial centers and burial mounds. Burial mounds show evidences of social hierarchy and the storage pits show variability in their size indicating diferente functions for those pite. Polen from few pite shows how the environment evolve near by the...
That’s a Wrap: Understanding Processes of Cranial Modification among post-Wari populations from Huari-Vegachayoq Moqo (2016)
This study examines cranial vault modification (CVM) frequency and styles among 35 crania from the Vegachayoq Moqo sector at the site of Huari, the former capital of the Wari Empire. The crania date to the post-Wari era (AD 1250 – 1400). In order to document the process by which they were modified, the crania were analyzed by noting the number of pad impressions and locations, as well as the center of applied pressure; the design of the modification devices was extrapolated from the observed...
Thinking outside the map: Alternative approaches to data visualization (2017)
One of the more promising applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in archaeology is the potential to incorporate aspects of human perception and experience of the landscape. Visibility analysis has been applied extensively to archaeological contexts, and models of movement, acoustics and other sensory experiences have recently received greater consideration. But despite the promise of moving beyond measurements of geographic space, most applications of experiential modeling continue...
This concoction is hot, but my hand is not!: A possible function of annular rings on p’uku-like vessels in the Central Coast of Peru during the Late Intermediate period and a conjectural link to Andean traditional medicine (2016)
In this paper I explore the possible function of the annular rings on p’uku-like ceramic vessels from the Central Coast of Peru during the Late Intermediate period. I argue that this part of the vessel is not decorative as others have suggested for modern contexts. Instead, I hypothesize that the annular ring at the bottom of the p’uku-like vessel’s function was to buffer the hand from heat. Alternatively, the annular ring might have aided in adding stability to a standing vessels in shaky...
Those Who Came Before: Investigating Diet, Health and Mobility in the Moche Valley, 1800 BC – AD 200 (2016)
Much sweat and ink has been shed investigating the Moche of north coastal Peru. But what of those who came before? In order to understand the Moche world, we must explore their history. To address this issue, the skeletal remains of over 850 individuals who lived in the Moche valley during the Guañape, Salinar or Gallinazo phases were examined. The collected bioarchaeological data including demographic patterns, oral health indicators, light and heavy isotopes, and pathological conditions allow...
Through the Priest’s Ear: Examining the History and Archaeology of San Ignacio’s Jesuit Church (1610-2017) –Bogotá, Colombia (2018)
This paper offers an overview of the exceptional collection of archaeological and bioarchaeological data recently recovered in salvage excavations carried out during the restoration of the San Ignacio Jesuit church in Bogotá, Colombia –one of the most important monuments erected in the Spanish colonial province of New Granada. The archaeological record documented in San Ignacio encapsulates over four centuries of domestic, funerary, spiritual, and bodily practices that speak to complex...
The ties that bind – color, structure and meaning on miniature tupu cords (2016)
Andean tupus (cloak pins) recovered from archaeological contexts often have a single perforation in the middle of the head. This suggests that they were connected by a woven cord and worn in pairs, an observation that is corroborated by ethno-historic accounts as well as contemporary ethnography. There are also some surviving examples of miniature tupus connected by miniature woven cords from capac hucha burials. This presentation describes and analyses one such example from the British Museum...
Time Allocation and Meat Procurement Among the Shipibo Indians of Eastern Peru (1981)
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.
Tiwanaku colonization and the great reach west: Preliminary results of the Locumba Archaeological Survey 2015-2016 (2017)
Locumba represents a key intermediate location for consideration of the timing and affiliation of Tiwanaku colonization of the Moquegua, Sama, Caplina and Azapa valleys. Models of Tiwanaku state colonization, diasporic enclaves, and a "daisy chain" of secondary and tertiary colonization from initial provinces in Moquegua are considered. Ongoing systematic regional survey in the 2015 and 2016 seasons of the Locumba Archaeological Project has defined 74 site sectors, including 16 sectors of...
Tiwanaku colonization in historical context – Directed, Diasporic or Daisy chain? Evidence from Moquegua, Locumba, Azapa (2016)
The expansion of Tiwanaku civilization is the earliest example of large-scale demographic colonization under an Andean state. Between the 7th to 11 centuries CE, household, mortuary and settlement archaeology attest to large migrant populations of altiplano Tiwanaku cultural affiliation who established permanent residence and governance in the western oasis valleys of Moquegua, Locumba, Sama, Caplina and Azapa. However the regional historical context of this demographic colonization is not...
Tiwanaku in Arequipa (2015)
Although Tiwanaku expansion outside the Titicaca Basin has been documented extensively in southern Peru, specifically in Moquegua, the influence and/or presence of this highland state in the Arequipa region is not well known. In this paper, we evaluate work in Arequipa over the past 15 years regarding Tiwanaku in light of our work in the Vitor valley about 40 km from the city of Arequipa as part of the Vitor Archaeological Project. In Arequipa, we have identified relatively small Tiwanaku...
"Tiwanaku VI" revisited: Postcolonialism and Ethnogenesis in the middle Moquegua Valley Province (2015)
The Middle Moquegua Valley was home to between 10,000 and 20,000 Tiwanaku colonists during the Tiwanaku IV and V periods. This paper examines what became of these populations in Tiwanaku’s postcolonial period. Three decades ago, the name "Tiwanaku VI" was briefly proposed to describe Moquegua’s diverse "post-expansive" ceramic styles. Subsequent full coverage survey in the and excavations in the middle valley indicate that after Tiwanaku V settlements, temple, and cemeteries were largely...
To Feed the Miner and to Feed the Mine: Some Thoughts on the Macrobotanical Assemblage from Mina Primavera, Nasca Region, Peru (2015)
Mina Primavera was a hematite mine exploited during the first part of the Early Intermediate Period by members of Nasca society. Its exceptional preservation conditions have led to the recovery of a large assemblage of botanical remains. Recent analysis of the ubiquity and diversity of botanical species allow us to reconstruct consumption practices that took place as part of mining activities. However, observation of taphonomic processes and stratigraphic distribution of the hundreds of maize...
To Live and Die in the City: Investigations of Health at the Huacas de Moche (2015)
During the last two decades of work at the Huacas de Moche site a large number of human interments have been excavated. Although the remains of human sacrificial victims have been well studied, those buried as part of the daily course of events at the site have received less attention. Yet, if we are to understand how the Southern Moche Polity developed, thrived, and ultimately declined, then we must investigate the everyday lives of the women, men and children who were the polity. In this paper...
To Screen or to Float?: Methodological Considerations for Archaeobotanists in Coastal Peru (2015)
In recent years, coastal Peru has seen an encouraging upwards trend in the number of archaeologists trained in the field of paleoethnobotany or archaeobotany. With growing numbers of practitioners in the field, it is crucial to remain vigilant of methodological concerns that are relevant not only to archaeobotanists as a whole, but particularly to those working in the unique environment of coastal Peru. In the interest of maximizing interpretative potential while maintaining the capability to...
To the East of the Titicaca Basin: The Yunga-Kallawayas and the Inka Frontier (2018)
The Kallawaya region was an important imperial breadbasket of the Collasuyu, located to the east of the Titicaca basin. Formed by a set of narrow temperate valleys, this region was a natural corridor that led to Apolo and the Mojos savannas to the north, and to the east to the tropical Yunga mountains. Because of its marked altitudinal variation, this region was suitable for pastoralism, the production of corn and coca, and farther east, the exploitation of gold mines. The Inkas at their arrival...
Tokens of Oppression: Coinage at a Nineteenth-Century Galapagos Sugar Plantation (2017)
In the 1870s Manuel J. Cobos founded the El Progreso plantation agricultural operation on the Island of San Cristóbal in the Galapagos. It is known that he used "scrip," or company-issued cash, to force workers to only spend their wages at the company store. Archaeological recovery of hard rubber tokens from several plantation contexts brings up many questions of economics and labour relations surrounding this remote location which was also tied to the global economy through steam power,...
Too Much Common Sense,Not Enough Critical Reflection (2015)
This paper explores two different views about common sense--those of Clifford Geertz and Antonio Gramsci. It examines their presuppositions, their utility for archaeologists, and considers the implications of current common-sense explanations of the past SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload...
Tooth Tales from Lima: Pre-Columbian Dental Health along the Central Coast of Peru. (2016)
Changes in political, economic and social organisation may affect diet and access to resources, and consequently dental health. This study aimed to assess the dental health of two populations from Peru and to establish differences over time. Caries, Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH), ante-mortem tooth loss (AMTL), and calculus were recorded for Tablada de Lurín (TL; 1 AD – 200 AD) and for Pueblo Viejo (PV; 1476 AD – 1534 AD). Frequencies were examined in order to assess sex and inter- population...