South America (Continent) (Geographic Keyword)
726-750 (2,200 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Mesoamerican Figurines in Context. New Insights on Tridimensional Representations from Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Female figurines of the Greater Nicoya region feature a 2000-year history of thematic continuity. During the Formative and Classic periods (locally Tempisque and Bagaces periods), figurines were often red-slipped, nude females in a seated, kneeling or standing position with hands on hips;...
Fertility, water and rock art on the Inka imperial fringes: The valley of Mariana and Samaipata (2017)
Samaipata was one of the largest centers of the Southeastern Inka frontier. Multifunctional in nature, it was an important advance point toward the tropical lowlands. Despite the intrusions of the Guaraní-Chiriguanos, this region witnessed complex processes of settlement reorganization. This was particularly the case of the fertile valley of Mairana, an important breadbasket of this frontier outpost. Occupied by the Mojocoya and Gray Ware archaeological cultures, their inhabitants produced...
Fibers and Weaving Techniques in Casma Textiles, Huarmey Valley-Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Textile production was one of the most important aspects of Andean economy, since households were required to produce it for elites or local authorities, and in other instances, large specialized centers were exclusively producing textiles for the state. The excavations conducted at the site of Santo Domingo, which is a large cemetery, have provided...
Fibre Technology from Caleta Vitor, Northern Chile (2017)
In 2008, Chris Carter of the Australian National University (ANU) and Calogero Santoro of Universidad de Tarapacá de Arica (UTA) excavated at Caleta Vitor, located at the coastal mouth of Quebrada Chaca in northern Chile. The site was occupied from at least 13,000 BP through to the Spanish invasion and came to world attention when it was featured on ABC Catalyst (ABC iView , 2009). This research project is aimed at identifying and establishing the provenience of the well preserved textiles and...
The Field Museum’s Colonial Period Polychrome Tiana: A Conservation Study of Materials and Techniques (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Materials to Materiality: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts Using Non-destructive and Micro/Nano-sampling Scientific Methods" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Field Museum’s collection holds the only known Colonial era tiana, or carved wooden stool, from Peru. This important object was among the inaugural collections at the Museum, entering the collection at its founding in...
Figuring Things Out: 3D Models of Valdivia Figurines for Research and Outreach (2018)
During excavations at the Valdivia site of Buen Suceso, Ecuador, in 2017 we recovered a number of figurines. Using in-field photogrammetry and post-field processing, we have created digital 3D models of these figurines. For us, the purpose of photogrammetric models is: 1) to facilitate comparisons across assemblages by a variety of scholars, and 2) for use in public education and outreach. While the creation of 3D images via photogrammetry is becoming more common in archaeological practice, the...
Finding a “Living Archaeology” among Tropical Trees: The Potential of Multidisciplinary Dendroarchaeology (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Entangled Legacies: Human, Forest, and Tree Dynamics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tropical forests have often been synonymous with 'wilderness' in popular discourse. However, the last couple of decades of research in archaeological, palaeoecological and historical ecology have revealed that these ecosystems have actually been intensively managed by our species from at least 45,000 years ago. This necessitates...
Finding Oneself in the Loss: An Arapaso Perception of their Lost Culture (WGF - Dissertation Fieldwork Grant) (2021)
This resource is an application for the Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. More than ever, the problem of cultural borders is a prominent theme in political and social debates around the world. The perception of culture as an object has effects on the emergent cultural conservation and restoration policies, as well as generating disputes concerning their authenticity and origin. Contributing to this debate, this research project explores the question of "culture...
Finding Sites in the Amazon Forest: AI-Based Deep Learning Analysis of Satellite Imagery from the Upper Xingu Basin, Brazil (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in the Xingu River Basin: Long-Term Histories, Current Threats, and Future Perspectives" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper summarizes preliminary results of an AI-based analysis that identifies potential precolumbian Amazonian archaeological site locations based on the presence of clusters of a specific species of palm tree. The study uses Landsat-8, Sentinel-2, and Planet satellite imagery as...
Finding Terraces in the Lake Titicaca Basin Peru (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Finding Fields: Locating and Interpreting Ancient Agricultural Landscapes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Driving through the Lake Titicaca basin of southern Peru travelers are often struck by terrace covered hillsides rising from the plain. Nearly every hillside encountered has been transformed from steep faced rocky hillsides into arable land. These ancient fields were constructed and farmed millennia ago to help...
Finding Value: Integrating Multiple Datasets to Clarify the Nuances of Past Food Choices (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Thinking about Eating: Theorizing Foodways in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological studies of ancient foodways focus on understanding subsistence practices in terms of the movement of species over space and time, human/plant/animal strategies, ecological transformations, periods of abundance/famine, economics, and politics. The values that foods are imbued with, the meaning and significance they...
Fire and Death: Cremation as a Ritualised Funerary Practice in the Southern Brazilian Highlands (2017)
Archaeological evidence from southern Jê mound and enclosure complexes in the southern Brazilian highlands points to the development of a complex funerary ritual focused on the practice of cremation from 1000 BP onwards. Drawing upon bioarchaeological, ethnographic and ethnohistorical analysis, this paper discusses the role of cremation as a ritualised practice aimed at transforming the dead, their body and their relations with society. Patterns of similarities and differences in such practice...
Fire and feasting. The role of plants in Brazilian shellmounds funerary rituals. (2017)
Shellmounds occurring along most of the Brazilian coast, locally named "sambaquis", testify of an occupation dated from at least 8000 to c. 1000 years BP. Although traditionally considered as waste deposits, they are now largely recognized as funerary sites constructed by sedentary fishers. The development of archaeobotanical studies in the Southern/Southeastern Brazilian coast is demonstrating the consumption of a wide variety of wild and domesticated plants, pointing to a system of mixed...
First Human Occupations of the Southern Atacama Desert (24.5° S): Settlement Dynamics and Environmental Context (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The early peopling of the Atacama Desert coincided with the Central Andean Pluvial Event II (CAPE II), an extensive pluvial event during the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene (13,800–8500 cal yr BP). A large number of early human archaeological sites from this period have been found along the borders of the Imilac and Punta Negra (24.5° S) high altitude basins...
First Insights into the Life of Menocucho: Results of the Archaeological Excavations at Huaca Menocucho, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, the authors will present the results of their first excavation season at Huaca Menocucho, in the Moche Valley on the north coast of Peru, exposing the political, religious, and economic activities carried out by the people who lived at the site. This excavation revealed the site was first occupied during the Initial period (1800–500 BC),...
The First Record of Tigre and Pay Paso Paleoamerican Points in Southern Brazil: Implications for the Early Holocene Settlement of South America (2018)
The early occupation of Southeastern South America (including Uruguay and Southern Brazil) is an issue that has generated interest in American archaeology. Recent research in Uruguay indicates to the presence of two different designs of projectile points manufactured during the early settlement: Tigre (ca. 12,000-11,100 cal BP) and Pay Paso (ca 11,080-10,200 cal BP), recovered in archaeological sites with chronological and stratigraphic control in the Uruguay River. Given the potential use of...
Fishing Weirs, Docks, and Cholchénes in the Patagonian-Fueguine Archipelago: Confluence of Different Maritime Cultures on the Coastal Edge (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. The intertidal zone, as part of the coastal landscape, is the territory of transition between the terrestrial and marine environments. In the southern fjords (between Chiloé and Cape Horn), it is a space of social construction that reveals multiple culture-marine ecosystem relationships, based on the interaction between different...
Fishing with Dogs: Canine Contributions to Andean Maritime Communities (2023)
This is an abstract from the "If Animals Could Speak: Negotiating Relational Dynamics between Humans and Animals" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dogs played many roles within prehispanic Andean societies, including companions, hunting and herding partners, guardians, sacrifices, and mortuary offerings. Their role within maritime communities however remains surprisingly understudied, particularly considering the importance of maritime adaptations...
Fishing, Shellfish Collecting, Hunting and Planting from Late Preceramic to Initial Period: A Case Study from Huaca Nagea, Viru, North Coast of Peru (2018)
By studying fauna and botanic remains unearthed from Huaca Negra Archaeological Project, this presentation seeks to understand subsistence system and daily life in Late Preceramic Period, and how it might have changed in later Initial Period. Huaca Negra is a fishing village located in the northwest of the Virú Valley and is 1.2 kilometers from the current shoreline. The site was occupied between 5,000-3,200 CalBP, from Late Preceramic Period to Initial Period, which witnessed the transitions...
Flood Regimes, Earthworks, and Water Management in the Domesticated Landscapes of The Bolivian Amazon (2018)
Exploitation and control of wetland resources was a major strategy of early sedentary peoples in many areas of the world. In some cases, indigenous knowledge about flood pluses and water dynamics and anthropogenic transformation of waterscapes increased to the point where some wetlands were transformed into domesticated landscapes. Analysis and interpretations of relevant radar (TerraSAR-X, ALOS SAR-X, Sentinel-1), multispectral (Landsat ETM and ETM+, ASTER), DEMs (SRTM, ASTER) satellite and...
Flowers and Sherds: The Practice of Collecting Artifacts in Brazilian Amazon (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation we discuss the practice of collecting artifacts, considering the perspectives of the collectors and of the State in Brazil. We assume that collecting is an act that should be understood from a phenomenological approach. Our reflections take into account the affective relationships between the collectors and the artifacts, and also the...
Fluid Stone: Geological Materials in Process (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Problem of the Monument: Widening Perspectives on Monumentality in the Archaeology of the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geological materials that constitute features in archaeological sites in Central America range from unfired clay and unmodified cobbles, to cut stone, and plasters produced by heating limestone. What these materials have in common is that from an archaeological...
Focusing Efforts to Impact the Precolumbian Antiquities Trade (2017)
How can we as archaeologists best focus our efforts to have a positive impact upon the Precolumbian antiquities market? We will discuss some of the most important restrictions upon law enforcement investigations into antiquities smuggling, by drawing upon case experience. We will discuss how both foreign and American government departments may overestimate law enforcement’s ability to pursue legal action based on a flawed understanding of constitutional law; how antiquities smuggling is of low...
Follow the Llamero: the Movement of Plant Foodstuffs in the Andes (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Symposium in Honor of Dolores Piperno" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The exchange of goods and movement among different ecozones is a hallmark of Andean society. Key to this system of mobility were camelid caravans, which are possibly best known for the Wari or Tiwanaku cultures but are today dwindling in frequency or have disappeared in the Andes. These caravans were established in the much earlier Formative...
Following in El Maestro’s Footsteps: Historical Ecology and Panamanian Capacity Building in Darién (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Unraveling the Mysteries of the Isthmo-Colombian Area’s Past: A Symposium in Honor of Archaeologist Richard Cooke and His Contributions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2012, Richard Cooke described the study of so-called Gran Darién as one of the most urgent concerns in Panamanian archaeology. Years later, that mandate resonated with us, and in 2019 we joined efforts beginning to fill in one of the greatest gaps in...