South America (Continent) (Geographic Keyword)
701-725 (2,200 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The dispersal of Tiwanaku-affiliated populations before and after the collapse of the eponymous state took on distinct cultural expressions throughout the western south-central Andean valleys. The proliferation of diverse Tiwanaku-derived ceramic substyles in the region signaled the emergence of...
Exploring Psychiatry's History in Chile: A Material perspective of the Dr. José Horwitz Barak Psychiatric Institute (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on Historical and Contemporary Archaeology of the Southern Cone" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research aims to carry out an archaeological analysis of the current Dr. José Horwitz Barak Psychiatric Institute in Santiago de Chile, a place historically considered a total institution. Since its creation in 1858, this hospital has served as the main psychiatric center in Chile. The present...
Exploring the Mortuary Landscape at Kuelap, Peru, using Geographic Information Systems (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mortuary placement is one form of ritual action that communities undertake to remember the dead. The location of the dead is important for considering social memory, a source of collective knowledge and experiences that shapes social group identity. This allows anthropologists to ask questions about how human social relationships transform living...
Exploring the Question of Heterarchy vs Hierarchy at Urcuquí, Ecuador (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Heterarchical and hierarchical power distributions in a society affect the distribution of labor within that society. In a heterarchical society, the labor is generally reciprocal community labor used to maintain a cooperative relationship despite distance between lived settlements (Scaffidi 2020), whereas hierarchical societies will have labor distributed...
Exploring the Social and Political Dynamics of Power Centers in Central Pacific Costa Rica (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Central Pacific region is one of the least explored areas of Costa Rican archaeology. Recent research conducted at Lomas Entierros and Sardinal sites allow us to contribute to the understanding of the history of occupation in the area, but also to consider the emergence, occupation and abandonment of prominent political centers inhabited during AD...
Exploring the Underwater Zooarchaeological Record of Lake Titicaca (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Underwater and Coastal Archaeology in Latin America" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lake Titicaca is one of the centers of early cultural development in the ancient Andes. Because of its sensitivity to climate change, the surface of the lake has fluctuated considerably over time, which in turn has influenced the development of ecological systems and cultural development. This paper focuses on the archaeofaunal remains...
Exploring trends in mortuary behavior among the ancient Maya of northwestern Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Landscapes in Northwestern Belize, Part I" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studies of ancient Maya mortuary patterns have asserted that Maya burials do not adhere to a singular mortuary pattern (Ashmore and Geller 2005, Fitzsimmons 2009, Geller 2004, Ruz Lhuillier 1965, Welsh 1988). However, many of these same studies also suggest that a review of data specific to certain contexts (inter-site, time period,...
Expressions of Ideology and the Consolidation of Social Complexity through Jade and Jadeite Material Culture in Precolumbian Costa Rica (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Using Costa Rican precolumbian jade, jadeite, and greenstone artifacts from the collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, this study aims to amplify and widen the range of research carried out on the Isthmo-Colombian Area. It particularly seeks to examine and discuss the role of those objects as indicators of rank and prestige as...
Extinct Mid-Holocene Maize from the Monte Castelo Shell Mound, Rondônia, Brazil. (2017)
In the Brazilian Amazon, mid-Holocene maize (Zea mays) grains have been found in archaeological deposits of the Monte Castelo shell mound. The morphological differences are pronounced between these and grains from both modern maize races of the Amazon and those found beginning around 1,500 years ago at other sites in the region. Our research explores the history, from 3900 BP, and use of this extinct maize. The presence of cultivars rich in carbohydrates in the Amazon has traditionally been...
The Extraordinary Case of the Late Preceramic Norte Chico (2018)
The Late Preceramic Period was a time of dramatic cultural transformations in the Central Andes. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium B.C., at least 30 large, sedentary agricultural settlements with monumental architecture appeared between the Huaura and Fortaleza river valleys in a region known locally as the "Norte Chico" ("Little North"). Since the publication of Moseley’s The Foundations of Maritime Civilizations (1975), the north central coast of Peru has been viewed as an exceptional...
Fabrics of the South American Desert Coast: The Study of the Marine Hunter-Gatherer's Plant Fiber Technology in the Atacama Desert (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Textile Tools and Technologies as Evidence for the Fiber Arts in Precolumbian Societies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research aims to study the earliest fabric artifacts made by marine hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Peru-Chile desert coast. Thanks to the aridity of this area, I use a remarkable amount of well-preserved plant-fiber materials, most belonging to the world’s oldest Chinchorro mummies buried...
Faced Façade: New Interpretations of Chavín’s Tenon Heads (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Chavín de Huántar’s Contribution to Understanding the Central Andean Formative: Results and Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The sculptural figures at Chavín de Huántar have long been considered potent symbols of a unified religious tradition across the Andes mountains. Today, Chavín is recognized as a Formative period pilgrimage center located in the highlands of modern-day Peru. It is known for its...
Faces of the Feast: The Spatial Organization of Face-Neck Jars in the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. (2017)
Chicha was consumed in large quantities during social gatherings and feasting events at a number of ceremonial locales including hinterland sites, in the Jequetepeque River Valley, Peru, during the Late Moche. Face-neck jars were used in the brewing and serving of corn beer and depict supernaturals and elite lords with elaborate headdresses and earspools. This research showed the degree to which face-neck jars were standardized in manufacture and design and how this may have contributed to the...
Factional Ceramic Economies in the Inka Imperial Heartland (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Alfareros deste Inga: Pottery Production, Distribution and Exchange in the Tawantinsuyu" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Inka ceramic workshops have been identified in many Inka provinces, but the process of making and disseminating Inka pottery in the imperial heartland of Cuzco has been largely unknown until recently. Previously, scholars assumed Inka pottery was made in state-sponsored workshops near the urban...
A Failure of Imagination: North Coast Peruvian Irrigation under Spanish Colonial Rule (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Failure" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ethnohistoric documents describe the north coast as a verdant, irrigated landscape at the time of Spanish conquest; yet, only a few decades later, colonial archives are filled with legal disputes over water rights, water shortages, and the desertification of farmland. Cataclysmic demographic collapse caused by the introduction of European diseases accounts for...
Far from the Crown: Currents of Opportunism along the Dagua River during the Late Spanish Colonial Period (Nueva Granada) (2018)
Throughout the late Spanish colonial period, the Dagua River in Colombia’s Cauca Valley was a multi-cultural backwater. Its shores were inhabited by mestizos, mulattos, slaves, and free slaves, with a minority of Indians and Spaniards. While this area was mined for gold and offered one of few routes to the Pacific from Colombia’s interior, the Dagua River region was largely cut off from global trade and colonial currents due to its geographical remoteness. 50 days distant from Cartagena and 14...
Far South: An altiplanic settlement in Northwestern Argentina (2017)
Pueblo Viejo de Tucute is the southernmost prehispanic (Late Intermediate Period) settlement with altiplanic roots so far recorded. It has nearly 600 dwellings installed in the mountain range southwest from Casabindo in the Puna de Jujuy, an altiplano like highland. The site is unique in the area, with particular architectonic features that differ from contemporaneous sites (Puna de Jujuy, Quebrada de Humahuaca, Valle Calchaquí). The houses are round, well built in cut stone with a diameter that...
Fardos Funerarios de los Antiguos Paracas en el Valle Medio de Chincha, Costa Sur del Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From the Paracas Culture to the Inca Empire: Recent Archaeological Research in the Chincha Valley, Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Este trabajo presenta los resultados del análisis bioarqueológico realizado a ocho fardos funerarios del periodo Paracas Tardío (400-200 BCE) relacionados con el estilo cavernas que fueron recuperados en el Cerro del Gentil, valle de Chincha. Los fardos funerarios asociados a este...
Farmers and Herders in the High Quebradas of the Valle Calchaquí Medio (Salta, Argentine) between the 11th and Early 17th Century (2018)
For Northwestern Argentina (NWA) the period between AD 1000 and 1400 represented a state of political fragmentation, conflict situations, and the emergence of hierarchies materialized in the presence of defensive settlements, iconography, war paraphernalia, and evidence of trauma on human remains. Climatic change that occurred in the Andes starting in the 13th century is one of the main causes of this regional disruption. The archaeological data from the high quebradas (ravines) of the Valle...
Farming Landscapes under Stress: Modeling Access to Pastures and Fields in the Late Intermediate Period Colca Valley (1100–1450 CE, Arequipa, Peru) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Late Intermediate period (1100–1450 CE) in the highland Andes of South America has long been characterized by warfare and climate stress. These conditions almost certainly had profound impacts on ancient farmers. It has been suggested that climate changes compelled farmers to diversify by cultivating crops in a greater range of ecological zones or by...
Fase Quilca: Nuevos aportes para el conocimiento cronológico del Sector de Yachay, Sector de Urcuquí, Provincia de Imbabura, Ecuador (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Barbacoan World: Recognizing and Preserving the Unique Indigenous Cultural Developments of the Northern Andes" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Los estudios arqueológicos realizados a lo largo de 7 años en La Ciudad del Conocimiento “Yachay”, permitieron reinterpretar y redefinir a los realizados por Jijón y Caamaño (1914, 1920) y Porras (1987), quienes identificaron una ocupación que se desarrolló en el sector y...
Feasting, Shell Middens, and Monumentality in Northeastern Honduras (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences 2024" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At the site of Selin Farm (AD 300–1000) in northeastern Honduras, recent research revealed repeated episodes of large-scale feasting occurring over a period of nearly a thousand years leading up to major shifts in local social and political organization (Goodwin 2019; Reeder-Myers et al. 2021). Shell midden mounds at the site contain large...
Feathery Serpents of the Greater Nicoya Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Polychrome pottery from the Greater Nicoya region of Central America prominently features ‘feathery serpents’ that have been associated with the Mixteca-Puebla tradition of greater Mesoamerica. A closer look at the variety of ‘feathery serpents’ has discriminated between more Borgia-like images...
Feeding the Body and Mind: Artistic Genesis through Blurring Species Boundaries (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Bridging Time, Space, and Species: Over 20 Years of Archaeological Insights from the Cañoncillo Complex, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Moche artistic representations are known for their composite images of plants, animals, humans, and supernatural forms. The genesis of this artistic tradition rests in the beliefs about the relations between species, environments, and worlds. Food...
Felines and Condors and Serpents, Oh My!: Cataloging Zoomorphic Imagery in Tiwanaku Ceramics (2017)
A regimented canon of ceramic production emerged at the site of Tiwanaku in the 5th-6th century AD, coinciding with the transformation of the site from a local ritual center to a regional political authority. The highly standardized range of forms and painted imagery it produced presents great potential for an extensive analysis of both complete and fragmented Tiwanaku-style vessels. To date, most analyses of Tiwanaku ceramic vessels have categorically centered on form in order to facilitate...