Republic of Palau (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
551-575 (684 Records)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Established in 968 CE the city of Hoa Lu was the first unified capital of the Dai Co Viet. This ancient capital is found in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, Vietnam. It was constructed of two enclosures bounded by a series of embankment walls adjoining steep cliff faces created by...
Searching for the lost Marines of Guadalcanal (2017)
In early 2016, Garcia & Associates conducted forensic archaeological investigations for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. DPAA (formerly JPAC) is the Department of Defense agency tasked with providing the fullest possible accounting for missing American service personnel from past wars. During World War II, the Battle for Guadalcanal lasted from 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943 and included intense ground fighting to secure the airstrip known as...
Second-hand? Paint chemistry and the age, authenticity and conservation/management of hand stencils from the Sunshine Coast, Qld, Australia. (2017)
The materials used to created rock art preserve information regarding how, and in some instances when, it was made. Here we outline the field based, geochemical study of three white hand stencils on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia. Portable X-Ray Fluorescence analysis determined that the stencils were made using a titanium dioxide pigment, almost certainly commercially produced white paint. Significantly, this helped us assign a chronology as the rock art must have been produced...
Selection-Driven Range Expansion Explains Lapita Colonisation of Remote Oceania (2017)
Archaeological explanations of colonization often focus on presumed human motivations. What drives humans when faced with the potentially risky and rewarding colonization of unoccupied island regions: curiosity, wanderlust, opportunity, escape? At best, human motivation is only a partial explanation for colonization and one that is difficult to evaluate with archaeological data. In contrast, archaeologically visible, population-scale patterns of human colonization are explicable by the natural...
SEM-EDS Analysis of Ceramics from the Mongol Empire (2018)
I will use scanning electron microscope with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDS) to investigate both elemental compositions and mineral microstructures of ceramics from the Mongol Empire. I will analyze and compare sherds from multiple contexts, including ceramic production centers, burials and residential areas to acquire qualitative and quantitative data on porcelain bodies, glazes, and pigments with the SEM-EDS technique. A high degree of similarities in chemical compositions...
The Seraglio of the Great Turk: Ethnosexual and Engendered Violences in the Mariana Islands (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. After the arrival of a group of Hispanic Jesuits to the Mariana Islands in 1668, an ethnosexual conflict emerged between the colonists and the local communities (the Chamorros). After that conflict, Chamorro communities were relocated in new villages, the so-called reducciones, under the close surveillance of the Spanish colonial powers. This reduction brought...
Setting the Agenda for the Next Phase in Obsidian Studies in Aotearoa (New Zealand) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studies of obsidian artifacts from sites across Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the 1960s-80s, were critical to identifying a major decrease in mobility, just prior to the onset of endemic warfare, marked by the construction of thousands of fortifications by the ancestors of Māori. Unfortunately, initial enthusiasm was...
Settlement Archaeology at the “Classical” Burmese (Bama) Capital of Bagan, Myanmar (Eleventh to Fourteenth Centuries CE): Theory, Method, Application, and Preliminary Outcomes (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2017, at the invitation of UNESCO-Myanmar, IRAW@Bagan initiated a settlement archaeology project at the “Classical” Burmese (Bama) capital of Bagan, Myanmar (eleventh to fourteenth centuries CE). This research is focused on the peri-urban (mixed urban-rural) settlement zone immediately surrounding the walled and...
Settlement Configuration and Social Structural Change: An Example of Graphic-Based Spatial Analysis from Kucapungane of Southern Taiwan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation examines the social structure change revealed by the interpretations of the abandoned settlement layouts through graphic-based spatial analysis for Kucapungane area of southern Taiwan. Kucapungane Rukai, an Austronesian indigenous tribe in Taiwan, has several abandoned settlements. The Kucapungane people lived in the Old-Kucapingane for the...
Settlement configuration and social structure：Applying spatial comparative analysis in Old-Kucapungane (2017)
This article aims to examine the differences of social structure revealed (1) by the interpretations of the archaeological record through spatial analysis and, (2) by the data obtained through ethnographic research, both for same ethnic group. Applications of spatial technologies in archaeology began in the early 1980s. Although these GIS-based technologies brought about new research perspectives, their ‘effectiveness’ and ‘correctness’ needs more in-depth investigations. Using Old-Kucapungane...
Sex and Gender in Southeast Asian Rock Art: Case Studies from Borneo (2017)
Multiple indigenous and intrusive Borneo rock art (the additive or reductive human modification of naturally fixed-in-place stone) traditions depict figures and abstract designs that can be interpreted as sexed/gendered. Dating from the terminal Pleistocene through modern period, these images are an untapped source of archaeological information regarding the roles and interactions of the biological sexes and culturally constructed and ascribed genders. This paper uses rock art to identify and...
Shifting Mobility Strategies in Neolithic and Bronze Age Mongolia (2017)
Mobility is a central part of the contemporary, traditional, historical and prehistorical economic strategies employed by hunters and pastoralists in Mongolia. While mobility is often contrasted with sedentism, there is much variation within the practice of "mobility" and how it is employed. Residential and logistical mobility are often used heuristics to discuss variations in mobility. A critical application of these terms to the archaeological record of Northern Mongolia illustrates their...
Shimao: the Prehistoric Pioneer of Rising States in Northern China (2017)
In ancient China, a number of ethnic groups and polities rose and declined in northern China. The competition and wars between these frontier polities and Central-Plain dynasties occurred frequently in Chinese history. A series of new archaeological discoveries in recent years have revealed that Shimao was the first state-level society emerging in northern China. The Shimao social group was mainly distributed in the Ordos region, where the social complexity experienced a leaping development in...
Small Island Adaptations in the Initial Colonization of Fiji and Tonga (2017)
Current research into the earliest Lapita occupation of Fiji and Tonga emphasizes the importance of small offshore island settlement choices for founder populations. Associated faunal data typically illustrate reliance on reef and marine resources that, in turn, have resurrected 1960s "strand looper" interpretations for Lapita economy, with little to no reliance on agricultural production. Recent studies at early Lapita sites at Kavewa (northern Fiji) and Nukuleka (southern Tonga) provide an...
Small Islands and Constructed Landscapes: A Bayesian Cultural Chronology of the Manuʻa Group (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. Radiocarbon and other radiometric dating techniques are pivotal for archaeological inquiries about cultural and environmental change. How we use these techniques and interpret their results to analyze and draw conclusions about archaeological data, however, can vary somewhat from one researcher to...
Small Islands and Hinterlands: Exploring Scale and the Sāmoan Archipelago (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Rethinking Hinterlands in Polynesia" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The concept of a "hinterland" is a tool. As such, the concept is only beneficial if it can help us understand human behavior or the archaeological record better than alternatives. Recent research has shown that it can be usefully applied in Polynesia, but its application is geographically and substantively limited. This paper will explore the use of...
Social difference between Songze culture and Liangzhu culture as reflected on jade artifacts (2017)
The Liangzhu Culture (3300–2000 BC) and the Songze Culture (4000 – 3300 BC) are two Neolithic cultures in the lower Yangtze River Delta in China. The two cultures are quite similar in many aspects especially those reflected on ceramics. This research intends to study the difference of social hierarchy between two cultures through an analysis of jades collected from over 20 archaeological sites in the Lake Tai region. By doing so, it is argued that jades in the Songze Culture are precious...
The Social Organization and Engineering of Agriculture at Maluaka in the South Kona Field System, Hawai`i Island (2017)
Two field seasons of excavation have been completed at Maluaka above Keauhou on Hawai`i Island. The project is a collaboration between Kamehameha Schools, which administers the site as an educational facility, and the University of Hawai`i at Hilo. We wish to describe the collaboration between academics, Hawaiians and the lineal descendent community interested in cultural practice and revitalization, as well as the integration of Hawaiian knowledge and archaeological science. The site has been...
The Socio-Ecological Entanglement of Water and Resilience in Past and Present Tropical Societies (2017)
Urban resilience and sustainability have gained increasing prominence in the literature as concerns regarding water resources and climate change continue to grow. Cities, particularly those in the midst of extreme urban development, are facing a wider range of stresses that call for greater enhancement of resilience techniques. This paper highlights the work of the Socio-Ecological Entanglement in Tropical Societies (SETS) project, whose goal is to investigate resilience and vulnerability within...
Soil and Water Management in the South Kohala Field System, Hawai‘i Island (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. The South Kohala Field System (SKFS), Hawai‘i Island, is a network of contoured and sloping field borders first constructed in the prehistoric period but utilized into the 19th century. Many features are located below the 750 mm rainfall isohyet, the lower boundary for rainfed agriculture in Hawai‘i. In order to sustain agriculture in...
Soil Fertility and Chronology at the RapaNui Rano Raraku Megalithic Statue Quarry (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Middens to Museums: Papers in Honor of Julie K. Stein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rano Raraku on Easter Island (RapaNui) is famous as the source of the megalithic moai statues. Past research by the Easter Island Statue Project (EISP) documented and mapped the statues. Other studies, based on coring the freshwater lake in Rano Raraku, identified microbotanical evidence of a cultivated landscape inside the...
Soil Nutrient Variability in the South Kohala Field System, Hawai‘i Island (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The uplands of Kawaihae 1 ahupua‘a, Hawai‘i Island, contain a dense fixed-field agricultural field system built, utilized, and occupied by Hawaiians from as early as the 17th century into the 19th – early 20th century. This field system includes a diverse array of agricultural practices including fixed-field agriculture, planting mounds, terracing, and water...
Soil, Hands, and Heads: An Ethnoarchaeological Study on Local Preconditions of Pottery Production in the Wei River Valley (Northern China) (2017)
This paper approaches ceramic production by combining four aspects of data: geographic background, archaeological find, ethnoarchaeological work, and material analysis. Taking the middle Neolithic site of Yangguanzhai in Shaanxi as a case study, this paper examined the preconditions and processes of pottery making in northern China during the Yangshao Period (5000-3000 BC). Materials from over ten years of excavation and survey at Yangguanzhai and the results of ethnoarchaeological studies in...
A Soil-Stratigraphic Record of Landscape Evolution and Human-Environment Interaction at the Yangguanzhai Archaeological Site, North-Central China (2017)
This paper presents the results of soil-stratigraphic investigations and stable isotope analysis at Yangguanzhai, a Middle Neolithic site (~5500 cal. years B.P.) in the Wei River Valley of north-central China. At Yanguanzhai, there is a well-preserved sequence of alternating sediment and buried soils, indicative of multiple fluctuations in landscape stability. Human occupations are associated with three buried soils: the two lower soil horizons contain Middle Neolithic (~6000-5500 cal. yrs....
Solutions to Drift on Small and Isolated Populations (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Defining and Measuring Diversity in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Due to the effects of drift on small and isolated populations, island environments pose particular evolutionary challenges in the retention of richness and diversity of cultural information. Such variation, however, can have significant fitness consequences particularly when environmental conditions change in an unpredictable fashion:...