Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Isl (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
151-175 (592 Records)
We discuss Paul and Suzy Fish´s integral role in archaeological research in northwest Mexico, an important region that has been little studied by relatively few archaeologists to date. Over more than 25 years, along with our colleagues and many students, our archaeological investigations have included a reanalysis of the funerary mound at Guasave, Sinaloa and an evaluation of the relationship between Mesoamerica and Northwestern Mexico, the Pleistocene people of Sonora and Mexico, the Early...
Elusive wild foods in Southeast Asian subsistence: modern ethnography and archaeological phytoliths (2017)
While grain crops, such as rice, are relatively easy to identify in the archaeobotanical record, evidence for early agriculture in the wet tropics can be elusive. In this region staple foods were not always grain-based and even today wild plants play an important role. So how do we identify ancient food pathways? Unlike temperate parts of the world, charred material rarely preserves, so this is where micro fossils such as phytoliths and starches come into play. I use phytoliths in combination...
Embodiment and Relatedness: the rock art of Muluwa, Wulibirra, and Kamandarringabaya (2017)
As an interpretive tool for rock art studies, the concept of embodiment has much to offer especially when used in conjunction with ethnographic data. In this paper we focus on embodiment in the context of relatedness using a case study involving Yanyuwa rock art from three sites – Muluwa, Wulibirra, and Kamandaringabaya – in the Sir Edward Pellew islands in northern Australia’s southwest Gulf of Carpentaria region. Although not stylistically similar, the rock art from these sites is intimately...
The Emergence of Blade Industry in Late Upper Paleolithic Central Plain of China (2017)
The lithic remains of blade manufacturing have been found in the Central China Plain dating to roughly 25 ka B.P. Based on chaîne opératoire analysis of lithic assemblages from Dongshi and Xishi sites, the blade industry in this region shared many features in common with typical blade industries of Western Eurasia. Such discovery challenges the presumption that the hinterland of East Asia lacked the development of blade industrialization during the Paleolithic age. The emergence of blade...
Emergent Landscapes: Simulating the Distribution of Residential Features in a Hawaiian Dryland Agricultural System (2017)
Cultivation in the Leeward Kohala Field System (Hawai‘i Island) required sufficient rainfall for crops to flourish. Periodic droughts restricted production to upper elevations where orographic rainfall was higher and more dependable, likely influencing the labour needs and settlement patterns of resident populations. We employ a series of spatially-explicit agent based models incorporating cultural conceptions of kapu (sacred) and noa (profane) in conjunction with environmental parameters and...
Environmental Influences on the Prehistoric Movement of Modern Humans through Wallacea (2017)
Archaeological evidence for early population dispersals from Sunda to Sahul extends back to at least 50 kya in Australia and between 42–40 kya in Timor-Leste and Sulawesi. An increasing number of sites dating to between ca. 41–14 kya on these and other islands such as Halmahera suggest that modern humans were becoming more proficient and spatially expansive than once believed. What were the prime variables environmentally, socially, or climatically that may have influenced these movements during...
Equine Dentistry and Early Horse Husbandry in the Mongolian Steppe (2017)
Although nomadic horse pastoralism remains an important way of life in eastern Central Asia, the origins of horse herding in the region and their relationship to key social developments are poorly understood. Recent work indicates that late Bronze Age people of Mongolia's Deer Stone - Khirigsuur (DSK) Complex herded horses, and used some of them for transport by circa 1200 BCE. This paper presents evidence that DSK people practiced equine dentistry and veterinary care, removing or modifying...
Ethnoarchaeological Analysis of Prehistoric Baskets from Central Japan and Basketry Techniques found at the Museum of Archaeological Research (2017)
Many ancient baskets have been excavated from the wetland sites of the Japan’s prehistoric period in the Hokuriku district, Central Japan. 65 baskets have been excavated from 10 prehistoric sites and date from c.3600 cal BC to c.250 cal AD. Also 14 impressions of basketry were found on the bottom of deep bowls from 8 prehistoric sites. Two points are clear from the analysis of these basketry materials: (1) in terms of construction materials, a Inugaya (in Japanese; Cephalotaxus harringtonia), a...
Ethnoarchaeological Contributions to Interpreting Pacific Archaeofish Assemblages (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Supporting Practical Inquiry: The Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Thomas Dye" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1976, Tom Dye conducted an ethnographic study of marine resource exploitation on Niuatoputapu, Kingdom of Tonga, to help provide a reference from which to interpret prehistoric patterns evident in the archaeological remains. Ethnoarchaeology provides a point of control for an expanded comparative...
Ethnoarchaeological research in Asia (1989)
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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...
Ethnoornithological and Genomic Perspectives on Royal Hawaiian Featherwork (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Frontiers in Animal Management: Unconventional Species, New Methods, and Understudied Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hawaiian featherwork constitutes a treasured element of Hawaiian cultural heritage. Feather artefacts curated in museums today were acquired between the late 18th and the early 20th centuries and it is clear that their production required thousands of feathers sourced from Hawaiian forest...
Evaluating Structural Change in Neolithic Economies: Social Network Analysis of Utilitarian Pottery Exchange in the Jianghan Plain (2017)
The emergence of walled town settlements of the late Neolithic middle Yangzi River region are widely associated with the development of a complex form of social organization. While significant attention has focused on the structure and organization of individual walled settlements, little is known about the nature of social and economic interactions between communities. To address this issue, I combined geochemical analysis of pottery with formal social network methods to investigate changes in...
Evidence for Forest Clearance and Food Production in Lapita and Post-Lapita Fiji (2018)
Investigations at the site of Qaraqara have sought to determine the antiquity of forest clearance and food production in Fiji. Located over 25 km inland from the coast, archaeological excavation has indicated that the site was used for habitation and cultivation, producing a ceramic-rich deposit that extends to a depth of 250 cm. Geoarchaeological analyses of sediment cores from Qaraqara reached 500 cmbs, and document the formation of stable soils by 3000 BP, during the Lapita period. Plant...
Evolution of Feasting among Jomon Societies based upon Wooden Artifacts (2017)
Cross-culturally, wooden items such as bowls, ladles and spoons play an important role as ritual offerings to deities and ancestors. Thus, they are keys to understanding feasting and ritual activities, and can provide archaeological signatures of these activities. This paper explores evolution of feasting among Jomon societies focused on the analysis of wooden artifacts. The analysis is based on three sources of information: 1) temporal and spatial distribution; 2) stylistic analysis; and 3)...
An Examination of Anthropogenic Burning in Old Kiyyangan Village, Ifugao (2017)
The rapid expansion of the Old Kiyyangan Village (OKV) in Ifugao, Philippines was accompanied by population increase and a shift in crop production—from taro to wet-rice. Archaeological excavations at OKV have also uncovered larger-than-expected quantities of wood charcoal that likely represent burning episodes associated with this shift. Preliminary analysis of the distribution of wood charcoal indicates that specific locations within the OKV were for anthropogenic burning practices. Moreover,...
Examining Dental Wear of Mongol Period Elites from Khövsgöl Province, Northern Mongolia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The purpose of this study is to explore the social status and daily lives of Mongol era (twelfth to fourteenth centuries CE) “common elites.” Common elite is a general term used in this region to describe a group of high-status people that were not in the immediate lineage of Chinggis Khan. We investigated whether cultural activities such as food...
Examining the Causes of Migration into East Polynesia: A Bayesian Chronology Perspective on the Ideal-Free Distribution Model (2017)
The colonization of the islands of East Polynesia was one of the most rapid and expansive migratory events in human history. While extensive research focuses on determining the chronology of East Polynesia colonization, far less attention has been placed on elucidating the processes that influenced this migration. The Ideal Free Distribution Model of human behavioral ecology has proven useful for exploring a range of issues regarding colonization and mobility in varying ecological contexts...
Examining the Impacts of Non-human Animals on Sequences of Agricultural Change (2018)
Historical sequences of agricultural change are influenced by several key factors. While much attention has been paid to the political context of agricultural production, as well as environmental changes brought about by certain techniques, less has been paid to the active manipulation of productive environments by non-human animals. Within the context of some recent theoretical advances in archaeology and ecology, it has become apparent that animals - intentionally or unintentionally introduced...
Examining the Shift in Seed-Dispersal Mechanisms During Early Plant Domestication (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Frontiers of Plant Domestication" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholarship is reframing the study of plant evolution under cultivation to focus on the effects of complex human harvesting practices (seed predation), increased human population size, and sedentism, while turning away from conscious human selection. Research has pointed out that parallelism in domestication is linked to seed-dispersal mechanisms, but...
Excavating and Interpreting Ancestral Action – Stories from the Subsurface of Orokolo Bay, Papua New Guinea (2018)
Orokolo Bay is a rapidly changing geomorphic and cultural landscape in which the ancestral past is constantly being interpreted and negotiated. This paper examines the importance of subsurface archaeological and geomorphological features for the various communities of Orokolo Bay as they maintain and re-construct cosmological and migration narratives. Everyday activities of gardening and digging at antecedent village locations bring Orokolo Bay locals into regular engagement with buried ceramics...
Exotic beads and jar burials: social elaboration in the Old Kiyyangan Village, Ifugao, Philippines (2017)
Trade and interaction are linked to the development of social ranking among premodern societies, indications for which are seen on mortuary practices, particularly on the existence of exotic burial goods. Our excavations at Old Kiyyangan Village (OKV) in the northern Philippine highlands feature in-utero and infant ceramic jar burials with associated grave goods, primarily beads. The investigations reported in this presentation looks at the relationship between both the quality and quantity of...
Expanding frontier and building the sphere in the western deserts (2017)
During the early and middle Holocene the deserts of Mongolia and northern China were characterized by arid grasslands and numerous lakes and wetlands. Specialized wetland exploitation defined land-use during this period, but more detailed data on subsistence is not clear. The prevalent use of microlithic technology and the lack of architectural structures underscores the presumption that these groups were highly mobile hunter-gatherers, but increasing evidence reveals that pastoralism spread...
Expanding Our Remote Sensing Toolkit: The First Application of UAV Aerial Thermography in the Hawaiian Islands (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Geospatial Studies in the Archaeology of Oceania" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geospatial technology has allowed for significant advances in archaeological practice in Hawaii and Oceania as the equipment, software, and datasets have become more affordable and widely available. Remotely sensed data, notably aerial LiDAR and terrestrial laser scanning, are used in research and applied archaeology for site prospection...
An Experimental Archaeological Approach to Modeling and Testing Bone Artifacts in 3D Space (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, 3D modeling has become a more common method for evaluating archaeological materials, as it is a non-destructive method to test how artifacts will handle stress. 3D modelling has advantages over testing of physical artifacts because the exact same artifact can be reused multiple times to test different hypotheses. However, 3D models must be...
Experimental archaeology: replicas and reconstructions (2009)
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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...