South America (Geographic Keyword)
1,101-1,125 (1,291 Records)
Our paper reflects on the development of a commemoration concept which takes into account the sensibilities of descendants from the slave trade period in French Guiana. Memory of the trade period is indeed a very sensitive issue among residents of most Caribbean Islands and we use sixteen years of research at one site to present the various questions with which we are confronted in order for the local population to appropriate the spirit of place. The Loyola Habitation was located at 10 km from...
Slow thinking: beyond the entangled list (2015)
Several theorists under the broad umbrella of a new materialism have argued that our accounts of the social-natural world proceed too quickly, skating over rich complexities and contradictions in favor of simple ontological impressions. In response, they suggest, we need to slow down our analytical movements in order to track the complex articulations of a world that becomes difficult to resolve at higher speeds. Here I argue that this issue is particularly relevant for archaeologists for...
SMELTING AND THE SCARED AT DOS CRUCES: Technological and ritual activity at a Chimu era smelting site (2015)
In November 2013 the Las Minas Archaeometallurgical Project completed excavations at the Chimu Era copper smelting site of Dos Cruces in the Zaña valley. Dos Cruces is an artificially terraced hill located near a river and several known copper mines. The site was divided into 4 distinct sectors, each of which was put to a different use. This paper focuses on excavations and preliminary laboratory results from the industrial or smelting sector of Dos Cruces, an area filled with slag, furnaces,...
Smoky places: archaeology of smoking practices on public parks of a capital city (Santiago, Chile, South America) (2016)
Cigarettes are the most numerous, ubiquitous, and tolerated form of trash on the urban landscape (Graesch & Hartshorn 2014:1). This statement has special meaning in Chile, leading country in cigarette consumption in the continent and highly ranked at a global scale. On this basis, it has became a critical public health issue. Current approaches in the study of this phenomenon are based on interviews, but no material study has been conducted. Considering the differences between people´s...
So Many Chenopods: Paleoethnobotany of the Late Intermediate Period, Puno, Peru (AD 1100-1450) (2016)
Following the collapse of Tiwanaku in the Andean altiplano, warfare, sociopolitical balkanization, and a severe drought lead to economic hardships during the Late Intermediate period (LIP) between A.D. 1100 and 1450. Previous research in the region has shed light on how martial conflict between and possibly among competing ethnic groups incited people to live in defensive fortified hilltop villages. Although scholars have previously speculated on the severity of lifeways for residents of...
Social Differentiation and Hierarchy at a Central Place in the Eastern Andes of Ecuador (2017)
This paper focuses on the development of a central place in the Quijos Valley, Eastern Andes of Ecuador. Based on an intensive survey of the site complemented by small excavations, I offer a spatial, demographic, social and economic characterization of this central place with the goal of discussing and contrasting views on the development of social differentiation, hierarchy, and centralized political authority in ancient chiefdoms. Contextualizing this in a body of regional settlement pattern...
Social Dynamics of the Past through the Body of the Camelid: Utilizing Evidence from Late Moche Peru (2017)
Assessing social dynamics in the past through archaeometry is more readily possible by constructing questions that more actively engage with issues beyond subsistence and technology. As archaeologists we are capable of reaching these higher-level interpretations of the past. In this paper, the use of camelid age profiles will bring insights into the kinds of value placed on the camelid body and the kinds of constrains and affordances that camelid herds would have placed on the Late Moche...
Social Identity and Mass Sacrifice: An Investigation at Matrix 101, a Late Middle Sicán Funerary Context (2016)
We examine the social identity of the individuals buried at a Late Middle Sicán (A.D. 1050-1120) mass grave designated Matrix 101, located in the Sicán Religious-Funerary Precinct in the La Leche Valley, north coast of Peru. Our objectives are threefold: (1) to understand the social identities of the individuals, (2) to examine the complex mortuary practices that took place during the construction of the burial, and (3) to infer sociopolitical reasons for the construction of Matrix 101 and to...
Social Implications of a Maize-Free Botanical Assemblage in Early Middle Horizon Contexts at the Huaracane Site of Yahuay Alta, Middle Moquegua Valley, Peru (2015)
Analysis of the micro and macrobotanical remains from the Huaracane settlement of Yahuay Alta's early Middle Horizon (AD 550 – 800) contexts revealed no recorded signature of maize use at this site, but the presence of a variety of other agricultural remains. We know that the Tiwanaku and Wari states established colonial settlements in the Moquegua Valley in this period, and that the Tiwanaku colonial project in the middle valley focused on its excellent potential for maize agriculture....
Social inequality as reflected in dietary and mobility practices of South American maritime chiefdom societies: Contextual and isotopic analysis of burials excavated in La Tolita, Ecuador (2017)
This project explores social inequality in relation to dietary and mobility practices of maritime Pacific polities in La Tolita (600 BC-200 AD) of Ecuador and Colombia. The research question driving this project aims to identify: How is social inequality reflected in the diet and spatial mobility as practiced by maritime chiefdom societies through time and space? A cross-site comparison between the dietary and mobility practices of individuals buried in mounds associated with the chiefly class...
Social interaction and communities of practice in Formative period NW Argentina: A multi-analytical study of ceramics (2016)
South-central Andean scholarship has extensively discussed a variety of circulation and exchange practices, with particular emphasis on llama caravan long-distance trade. In NW Argentina, traditional approaches proposed that regional interaction was an increasingly centralized process, based on typological similarities observed in a variety of materials across the region. While material culture styles and traits were undoubtedly shared, the unexamined focus on similarities leaves the mechanisms,...
Social Interactions at Gramalote: A Ceramic Production Perspective (2016)
Recent petrographic analysis of ceramics and comparative samples from the Formative site of Gramalote, on the North coast of Peru, allows us to brush a tentative portrait of ceramic production at or for Gramalote. Considering ceramics as part of a socio-economic network, the identification of different paste groups yields information relative to some of the interactions occurring at that time period in the Gramalote region.
Social Memory and the Development of Monumental Architecture in the Southern Jequetepeque Valley, Peru (2017)
Numerous theoretical concepts associated with social memory have been employed by archaeologists working throughout the world as a means of explaining continuities and discontinuities in the archaeological record. These social memory-based approaches are varied and include specific avenues of inquiry such as how social memories were actively manipulated for political gain; the role played by monumental architecture in the coalescing of shared memories; and the interrelationship between social...
Social Memory and the Re-Use of Archaeological Ruins: Preliminary Insights from a Chimú-Inka Elite Gravesite at Samanco, Nepeña Valley, Peru ca. 1470-1534 CE (2017)
Social memory and ancestor veneration are recurring themes throughout Andean belief systems. Yet, the relationship between ancient Andeans and the archaeological ruins they encountered remains an underexplored research topic. Recent fieldwork at Samanco, an Early Horizon coastal settlement in the Nepeña Valley, shows intriguing mortuary practices of reutilizing site ruins as cemeteries. After an abandonment hiatus over several centuries, Samanco’s ruins of stone enclosures were reutilized as a...
Social Transition at Tumilaca la Chimba: A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Terminal Middle Horizon and Late Intermediate Period Mortuary Contexts (2017)
The centuries following Tiwanaku state decline circa AD 1000 were characterized by political fragmentation and social flux. In the Moquegua Valley, Peru, the first 250 years following the state’s demise are referred to as the terminal Middle Horizon (AD 1000-1250), a period during which considerable cultural continuity with Tiwanaku is evident despite political collapse. The following Late Intermediate Period (LIP) (AD 1250-1450) is marked by major changes in material culture, domestic...
Social variability and leadership strategies in the Llanos of the Orinoco (2016)
Ethnohistoric descriptions and archaeological evidence suggest that in the Llanos regions of Casanare (Colombia) and Barinas (Venezuela) between the Andes and the Orinoco/Amazon basin, agricultural intensification provided the resources that enabled aspiring elites to pursue their political strategies during prehispanic times. Warfare and feasting were especially important strategies in the early complex societies of Barinas. The presence of nearby highly developed Muisca chiefdoms, however,...
Sociocultural Changes in Cajamarca Region during the Early Intermediate Period and the Middle Horizon (2017)
In this paper we discuss the chronology of the Cajamarca culture of the Peruvian Northern Highlands to consider the social dynamics during the Early Intermediate Period and the Middle Horizon. We present the excavation data from the two archaeological sites, Complejo Turístico Baños del Inca and El Palacio that correspond to the period from the final part of the Early Cajamarca Phase to the Middle Cajamarca Phase. The Cajamarca culture during the Middle Cajamarca Phase A (A.D. 600-750) presents...
Sol de Campinas Site and the Cultural Variability in Southwestern Amazon: moundbuilders and archaeological earthworks in Acre State – Brazil (2015)
The central area of Sol de Campinas site is composed by fifteen mounds, disposed at an elliptic arch, surrounding a plaza with an area of almost 15.000m². The site is geographically related to other earthworks of southwestern Amazon, known as geoglyphs in Acre, Rondonia and Amazonas Brazilian states. Although it shows similar attributes to other places in the region, such as its geometrical forms and "roads" structured from the peripherical portions of the site, its main structures are composed...
Sourcing the Obsidian from Campanayuq Rumi: Implications for Understanding Chavín Interaction (2015)
Campanayuq Rumi is a large civic-ceremonial center located near Ayacucho in the south-central highlands of Peru. Dating to the late Initial Period (1100-800 BC) and Early Horizon (800-300 BC), Campanayuq Rumi is notable for its close association with the Chavín sphere of interaction. In particular, the site has been considered significant because of its geographical proximity to Quispisisa, the most important obsidian source during the early first millennium BC. Recent excavations at Campanayuq...
The Southern Deseado Massif (Patagonia, Argentina): Spatial Knowledge and Changes in its Use from the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition to the Late Holocene (2017)
The semiarid Southern Deseado Massif (SDM) is highly variable in geology, geomorphology and the spatial and temporal availability of water. To the south it transitions into open lowlands and basaltic plateaus dissected by canyons that extend to the Chico River. The La Gruta 1 rock shelter in the extreme south of the SDM has provided the oldest evidence of human logistic occupation in the area, with ages between ca. 12,800 and 12,000 cal yrBP, when conditions were wetter than today. Human use...
Southern Moche Politics Reevaluated: The Reconciliation of Relative (ceramic chronologies) and Absolute (radiocarbon) Dates. (2015)
Recently I performed a reevaluation of published radiocarbon dates for the Moche culture (200-900 AD). I only considered 14C samples obtained from short-lived plant materials found in association with "datable" ceramics (Moche I-V, and Early, Middle, and Late Moche). The purpose was to test the validity of the relative ceramic chronologies in each valley against absolute dates. For this paper, using Bayesian analysis I compare the well contextualized Moche dates from the Chicama Valley to...
Southern Patagonia:coastal versus interior human migration (2017)
In spite of the ca. 14,000 Cal BP or more at 41º S, the oldest human occupations in southern Chile below 52º S are not easy to explain as a result of a Pacific coastal migration. The oldest Late Pleistocene occupations recorded at Ultima Esperanza and Tierra del Fuego are all focused on the exploitation of terrestrial resources and have ties with sites located in the eastern steppes, such as Fell Cave, Piedra Museo or Cerro Tres Tetas. The oldest maritime oriented human occupations of the...
The space between: An investigation of the changing occupied landscape at the El Brujo Archaeological Complex, Chicama Valley, Peru (2016)
Here I present the results of a systematic surface survey investigating cultural development on the geological terrace of El Brujo in the Chicama Valley, Peru. Previous research has shown that this one square kilometer space contains over 5000 years of occupation encompassing the Early Preceramic through Colonial Periods. Based on survey and excavations that include nucleated architecture, archaeologists have assumed a general northern movement of consecutive occupations, with each new group...
Space is the place: integrating context through GIS and geophysical surveys at Santa Cruz de Tuti, Peru (2017)
The reducción of Santa Cruz de Tuti (AKA Espinar de Tuti) in the Colca Valley is a complex archaeological site in the high Andes with occupational phases representing the Inka, colonial, and republican periods. Multiple geophysical instrument surveys conducted during planning phases, as well as concurrently with a large-scale excavation program in 2016, provided critical information on site use and depositional environment. Spatial, pattern and visual analyses reveal how domestic, public, and...
Spatial Analysis of Geoglyphs in the Sihuas Valley, Peru (2017)
Geoglyphs are large features frequently created by removing rocks and surface dirt in order to create a large scale designs. Although often studied in isolation, much can be learned from the position of geoglyphs relative to other features on the landscape. As part of the Quilcapampa Archaeological Project, a reconnaissance survey guided by remotely sensed imagery was performed in order to document and map geoglyph iconography found on the pampa of the Sihuas Valley, Peru. To date, over 100...