South America (Continent) (Geographic Keyword)
1,101-1,125 (2,200 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Political Economies on the Andean Coast" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Este trabajo expone el análisis arqueológico de los asentamientos y arquitectura registrados en la costa de Tarapacá, norte de Chile, durante los períodos Intermedio Tardío y Tardío (950-1540 dC). Los sitios estudiados comprenden el litoral entre Pisagua e Iquique hasta la desembocadura del río Loa, los que forman parte del Complejo Cultural...
A Late Formative Period Site in Chimborazo Province, Ecuador (2017)
Compared to the coastal areas of Ecuador, the central highlands of Ecuador are not well known archaeologically, especially for the Formative Period. This paper will report on preliminary survey and excavation research carried out in the Chibunga River Valley, to the south of the modern city of Riobamba, during the 2009 and 2012 field seasons. Test excavations were carried out at the site of Collay, located on a mesa at 3100 masl, to obtain a sample of material culture and material for dating....
Late Holocene Pastoralism and Environmental Change in the Puna Highlands of South America: Stable Isotope Analysis of Camelids Bones and Teeth (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The goal of this work is to study llama herding in the Puna Highlands of Atacama during the final period of the Late Holocene (700 years BP to present day), focusing on the link between mobility and climate change. South American camelids are the only large mammals that were domesticated in the Americas and llamas have been an important resource for Andean...
Late Horizon Mortuary Traditions at Las Huacas, Chincha: Preliminary Results from a Subterranean Collective Tomb (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological and osteological analyses of burial features allow archaeologists to explore questions related to an individual’s life, activities, social status and potential role in society. This poster presents the analysis of a Late Horizon tomb from the site of Las Huacas in the Chincha Valley of Perú, with an emphasis on human skeletal remains. Las Huacas...
Late Initial Period (1100–800 B.C.) Interaction between the Highlands and Ceja de Selva of North-Central Peru: A Case Study from Canchas Uckro, Eastern Ancash (2018)
This presentation will discuss the results of recent archaeological research at the late Initial Period (ca. 1100–800 B.C.) site of Canchas Uckro. Located in the Puccha Valley, Canchas Uckro is positioned approximately 25 km to the north of Chavín de Huántar and 40 km from the upper Marañon river. Analysis of the pottery assemblage from Canchas Uckro suggest strong parallels with the Urabarriu Phase of Chavín de Huántar. However, a considerable proportion of the pottery also exhibits formal and...
The Late Intermediate Period and Late Horizon in Valle de Mairana, Bolivia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Statistical and GIS-based analysis are applied to summarize the findings of preliminary auger testing, survey, and site reconnaisance conducted in July and August 2022 in the Valle de Mairana, Bolivia. In depth profiles of eight possible Inka-period sites were created and compared. The Valle de Mairana spans the municipalities of Mairana and Samaipata in...
Late Pleistocene / Early Holocene Human Occupation along the Tietê River, São Paulo State, Brazil (2024)
This is an abstract from the "“The South Also Exists”: The Current State of Prehistoric Archaeology in Brazil: Dialogues across Different Theoretical Approaches and Research Agendas" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Tietê River is historically known as one of the main human displacement axes between the eastern portion of SE Brazil and the inner portions of the continent, being navigable for most of its course. The use of this waterway back to a...
Late Pleistocene Aggregation Sites on the Peruvian North Coast: A New Look at Paiján Settlement (2018)
Although specific examples are rare, the concept of seasonal or periodic group aggregation is often employed by studies of early foragers in the Americas as a functional process to explain the formation of social networks, information exchange, group ritual, exogamy, and the long-distance movement of materials. In spite of frequent use when modeling mobility and settlement, the material, spatial, and social characteristics of aggregation sites remain poorly understood. Here, we provide two...
Late Pleistocene Archaeology in Argentina 47 years later (2017)
In the 1970s Ruth Gruhn and Alan Bryan spent several weeks in Argentina as part of a one-year trip around South America. In those years, Ruth and Alan started to challenge the Clovis-First Model for the peopling of the America, and their visit to South America was instrumental in consolidating their ideas as well as stimulating the research of Late Pleistocene archaeological sites. Subsequent travels to the region, especially the one made by Alan in 1980, contributed to generating the hypothesis...
LATE PRE-COLONIAL CIRCULAR VILLAGES IN THE BRAZILIAN STATE OF ACRE (2017)
The archaeology of Acre has been widely drawing the attention of the scientific community due to the discovery of an ancient civilization building geometric earthworks labeled "geoglyphs". In the course of field surveys realized at the geoglyph sites other types of archaeological sites were documented as well, including sites consisting of small artificial earthen mounds arranged in a circular form. At first, the mound sites were also classified as geoglyphs, but through the recent fieldwork it...
Late Preceramic Peruvian Effigy Mound Imagery (2018)
Here I report the use of multiple imagery for understanding the coastal valley site studied most intensively, El Paraíso. Photographs of carved bone figures, plane table maps, Total Station maps, kite orthophoto maps, aerial photos, Google Earth satellite maps, and planetarium maps provide images that, taken together, permit identification of the effigies. Identities of both arms of the El Paraíso complex can be recognized: One is a bird. The other resembles the three mythical figures Bischof...
The Late Prehistory of Ecuador from Above and Below: Remote Sensing in the Northern Highlands (2018)
Remote sensing, including both low level aerial photography and subsurface geophysical methods, has become an increasingly key element in archaeological fieldwork over the last few decades. During that time, our team has used various techniques to accurately map late prehistoric Ecuadorian sites and to search for buried features. In the last two years we have used drone aerial photography, ground penetrating radar, and magnetometry to aid in investigations at the monumental site of Cochasquí....
A Latin American choreography: entanglements of solidarity and collaboration for a forensic archaeology (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Weaving Epistemes: Community-Based Research in Latin America" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A Latin American choreography: entanglements of solidarity and collaboration for a forensic archaeology Latin America was and still is one of the most prominent areas for the development of forensic archaeology and anthropology. It is a common sense between researchers of the field that this latin america perspective started...
Law, private property, and the construction of the family in the archaeological record of colonial Moquegua (2017)
In 1884, Friedrich Engels attributed the development of the nuclear family unit to the rise of the capitalist state and the subsequent emergence of private property in 16th century Europe. In The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, he posited that private property resulted in the restructuring of kinship practices where women gradually lost authority over their own activities, spaces, and their lives, and where the division of labor became gendered and spatialized. In this...
Lead Isotopes as Chronological Markers for Colonial Period Ritual Drinking Vessels in the Andes (2018)
Ritual drinking vessels called qeros have been produced in the Andes for millennia. In the colonial period, Andean artists produced wooden qeros, many of which were decorated using a polychrome inlay technique. Almost all extant polychromed wooden qeros attributed to the colonial period derive from museum and private collections and lack provenience and precise means of dating. Here, we investigate the chronology and production of qeros by characterizing lead white pigment (lead hydroxycarbonate...
Legacies in the Landscape: Borderland Processes in the Upper Moche Valley of Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Households to Empires: Papers Presented in Honor of Bradley J. Parker" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Frontier landscapes are complex and dynamic zones often comprising multiple cultural, economic, political, demographic, and geographic boundaries. Bradley J. Parker’s (2006) Borderland Matrix model endeavors towards a systematic and process-focused study of frontier landscapes and the bundles of boundaries that...
Legacies of War: Fortified Landscapes and Political Transformation during the Late Prehispanic in the Colca Valley (Arequipa, Peru) (2018)
During the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1450), frequent warfare radically transformed the landscape of the Colca Valley in the southern Peruvian highlands. Widespread fortification not only marked a new defensive landscape, but also reflected and reinforced broader social and political transformations—including increasing settlement nucleation and the coalescence of new ethnic identities. Although many of the valley's fortifications were largely abandoned following the region's...
The Legacy of Andean Archaeologists from the American Museum of Natural History (2018)
This paper will discuss the chain of Andeanists that began with Adolphe Bandelier in the late 19th century and continued into the 20th century with Charles W. Mead, Ronald Olson, Wendell C. Bennett, Junius B. Bird, Harry and Marian Tschopik, James A. Ford, John Hyslop, and E. Craig Morris and continues to the present with various fellows and research associates. Although not formally affiliated with the AMNH, John V. Murra is a link in this chain because of his personal and theoretical influence...
The Legacy of Early Fire Rituals: The Social and Spatial Prominence of Hearths after Kotosh at Hualcayán, Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Illuminated Communities: The Role of the Hearth at the Beginning of Andean Civilization" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholars have long considered how the use of ritual hearths in early Andean temples, specifically those part of the Kotosh Religious Tradition, was central to early complex social practices in highland Peru. But what is the legacy of hearths as ritual spaces, objects, and tools for the transformation...
Libations and Meat: A View of the Construction of Social Capital in Tiwanaku Residential Spaces through Ceramics and Faunal Material (2018)
In the latter part of the Middle Horizon (A.D. 800-1000) previously unoccupied areas around the megalithic ceremonial core of Tiwanaku came under settlement. A reorganization of space within the core coupled with the influx of new urban residents drawn to the site of Tiwanaku from the surrounding areas by the variety of social, economic, and ritual interactional opportunities meant that newly built households and neighborhoods further away from the monuments became the loci of quotidian...
LIBERAL LOGICS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF REPUBLICAN HACIENDAS OF YOCALLA AND PUNA IN POTOSÍ, BOLIVIA (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper will present the preliminary results of an archaeological investigation, currently in progress, carried out in the ex-haciendas of Yocalla and Puna, in Potosí, Bolivia. Based on archaeological survey, surface material, architectural evidence and historical documentation from the 19th and 20th centuries, it is intended to explore the influence of...
Lidar Application in the Cerros Hojas-Jaboncillo, Manabi, Ecuador (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Innovations in Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Currently, precise and high-resolution lidar (light detection and ranging) data is increasingly important for the detection of archaeological settlements. Through this technology it has been possible to detect a series of landscape modifications in the Hojas-Jaboncillo massif that could be of prehispanic origin. During the field verification...
Life and Death after Chavín: A Comparative Mortuary and Bioarchaeological Analysis of Salinar from the Perspective of José Olaya–La Iglesia (Huanchaco, Moche Valley) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond Borders at the End of a Millennium: Life in the Western Andes circa 500–50 BCE" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. On the north coast of Perú, the collapse of the Chavín Sphere of Influence ca. 500/400 cal BC had a marked impact that brought about sociopolitical changes within the Moche Valley. For many years, archaeologists have investigated structural changes (e.g., settlement patterns and architectural shifts),...
Life and Death: How Infant Burial Practices in Buen Suceso Reflect Social Practices, Status, and Community (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Infant burials during the Ecuadorian Formative (3800 BC - 1450 BC) took several forms, including as offering deposits at ritual locations, as burials accompanying adults, and as primary burials in cemetery contexts.This variation may reflect important differences in the status of these infants, their life experiences, and/or how Formative peoples viewed...
Life before Death: A Bioarchaeological Study of the Biosocial Histories of Human Sacrifices at Pampa la Cruz (Montículo 2), Moche Valley, Peru (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human sacrifice is a form of ritual theater staged by emerging empires to articulate new power asymmetries and legitimize imperial enterprises. The culmination of the event is the death of the victim because ritual homicide transforms the body into an efficacious offering while generating vivid images...