Portuguese Republic (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
126-150 (1,610 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Geological and Technological Contributions to the Interpretation of Radiogenic Isotope Data" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of isotopic analysis of ceramic sherds and locally sourced soils that contribute to our understanding of the origin of ancient Sardis’s ceramic corpus and help clarify the site’s role within the larger interaction network of western Anatolia. A previous study...
Assessing the Potential for Raw Material Profiling Studies in Modelling Neanderthal Behavioural Complexity (2018)
Raw material studies are becoming increasingly popular as the development of technical and methodological advances adds to the macroscopic and geological study of stone tools. In turn this improves our capability to create a link between a stone tool’s archaeological context and geological area of origin. This connection is often discussed in terms of hominin behaviour, such as organisation of subsistence, adaptation to environment, and forward planning. However, the growing body of data...
Assessing the Spatial Patterning of Middle Paleolithic Human Settlement in Westernmost Iberia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Peninsular Southern Europe Refugia during the Middle Paleolithic" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Currently available data on the Pleistocene human occupation of the westernmost territories of Iberia attests the presence of Middle Paleolithic industries from c. 240 ka cal BP until c. 38 ka cal BP. Previous studies focusing on this timeframe have suggested that Middle Paleolithic populations were highly mobile and...
An Assessment of small game exploitation at Gruta Nova da Columbeira in the Middle Paleolithic (Portugal) (2017)
In Europe, differences in subsistence between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans are one of the ways in which archaeologists detect behavioral shifts in the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. In this paper, I present faunal and stable isotopic analyses of Oryctolagus cuniculus (the European wild rabbit) from levels C.6, C.7, C.8 and C.9 of Gruta Nova da Columbeira, a Mousterian cave site located in central Portugal. I use these data to test two subsistence models: 1. Anatomically...
Assyrians at the Gate: Rethinking the Siege at Tel Lachish (2018)
Sennacherib’s destruction of Tel Lachish, Judah (now Israel) in 701 BC was accomplished using state-of-the-art technologies and tactics. We know through the Lachish reliefs once located at Nineveh and now housed at the British Museum, that the Assyrians used a siege ramp to conquer the city. Unfortunately, the ramp was partially destroyed by archaeologists in the 1930’s and comparatively little is known about its original dimensions and use in the siege. Computational technologies including...
Asymmetry of Cranial Surface in Relation to Social Stratification in Great Moravia (Early Medieval Period, Mikulčice, Czech Republic, 9th–10th Century) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. According to the archaeological and written sources Great Moravian Medieval society was highly socially stratified. Recorded differences in facial cranial morpholology were partly interpreted as a result of different masticatory load, and thus of different dietary habits in various socioeconomic classes. In this study we present a detailed analysis of cranial...
An Attempt at Digitally Associating Skeletal Elements: A Study of Photogrammetry and Articular Surface Area (2017)
When excavating archaeological skeletal remains it is not uncommon to find them disarticulated and even commingled with other sets of remains. To study these remains it is paramount to first accurately and efficiently re-associate all skeletal elements. Re-association of skeletal remains is necessary before any other form of analysis (ancestry, sex, age, stature etc.) can be performed. While analog methods have been previously applied to standardize this task the advent of digital modelling...
Aufbau eines Töpfereimuseums im Töpferzentrum Agost (Provinz Alicante, Spanien) (1988)
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...
Aural Experiences in the Performative Spaces of the Past (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeoacoustics: Sound, Hearing, and Experience in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The aural experience is a fundamental process in the development of human beings, which is shaped by architecture and the environment. Sensory experience has rarely been considered in the study of public spaces in antiquity. Aural architecture is that aspect of real and virtual spaces that produces a sensorial and...
Aurignacian Projectile Points Do Not Represent a Proxy for the Initial Dispersal of Homo sapiens into Europe: Insights from Geometric Morphometrics (2018)
It has been argued that Aurignacian projectile points made of antler, bone, or ivory represent a proxy for the initial dispersal of Homo sapiens into Europe. Our research reassesses this claim by using geometric morphometric analysis to study 547 Aurignacian osseous implements recovered from 49 European sites. This approach allowed the identification of eight volumetric templates reproduced by Aurignacian artisans during the manufacture of split-based points. Two templates were identified for...
The Avocational Atelier: a portrait of lithic collection practice (2017)
Adapting contemporary archaeological techniques used in the recovery of Francis Bacon’s Reece Mews studio, this project documents the collecting practice of an avocational lithic fieldworker on the Isle of Arran, Scotland who assembled a substantial heritage archive including significant archaeological objects, prehistoric assemblages and geological specimens. Treating her abandoned artefact analysis table and intact workrooms as sites it used traditional and multi-media techniques to record her...
Back to Basics: Next Generation Experimental Archaeology (2018)
Experimental archaeology plays a critical role in the development of new ideas and techniques within the discipline, for example, within studies of artifact manufacture and use, butchery practices, taphonomy, etc. Despite a difference in the nature of ‘controls,’ out-of-the-lab experiments play a crucial role in scientific archaeology because they often shed new and different light on a range of complex issues, as demonstrated by recent house building experiments conducted with the assistance of...
Bands of brothers: the socio-political and military organisation of Viking armies during the 9th century (2017)
During the mid- to late-9th century, historical sources attest to large Viking raiding-fleets and ‘armies’ operating in northwestern Europe. These itinerant groups were not only seeking plunder but also land to settle, and some managed to establish colonies and enclaves with varying long-term success. The size and impact of these groups came under scrutiny during the latter half of the 20th century, when some scholars sought to downplay the influence of warfare as a catalyst of social and...
Barrow Roads and Bronze Age Wayfaring (2017)
The idea of the journey is central to many narratives of European Bronze Age social structure, economy, and cosmology, but the mechanics of journeying in the Bronze Age are rarely discussed. We know that objects and raw materials travelled great distances, we think that exotic things and ideas were sought after, and it appears that Bronze Age people maintained ties with kin and trading partners over very great distances. Much of this distance was inevitably traversed on water; and riverine...
Basket Case? Finding Funding for Archaeological Projects—A European Perspective (2017)
The competition for funding is increasing, as demand increases but the sources of funds diminish, especially if there is a research element in any proposed project. This paper will explore the possible routes for funding and the potential and pitfalls of using a "basket" approach to raising funds for archaeological projects in the public sector (i.e., charities and non-commercial), including universities. It will also look at different approaches for funding significant heritage-based projects...
Baudrillard in Castroville, Texas: Traces of Contemporary America in the Biry/Tschirhart Families’ Home (2017)
In his 1986 travel memoir Amérique, Jean Baudrillard defined America as a constant flow of things: cars and highways, screens and electricity, rivers and geological silence. Everything flows as if the continental vastness of the U.S. could be reduced to a smooth surface that flattens historical time. The result is a landscape defined by regular surfaces that are symmetrical to the predictability of social practices. In this paper, I argue that America’s flow of things has a genealogy, and that...
Bears and people: from the wilderness to dancing (2017)
There has been a very strong relationship between human societies and the brown bear (Ursus arctos) in many different places and cultures. The bear has had multiple roles in European societies, from the ancient (and modern) epitome of the wild, through religious symbol to the arenas of the Roman Empire, and their later use as entertainment. At what point does the bear’s position change in society from an animal to be feared, to one to be mocked? In terms of captive management, a fully grown bear...
Becoming Cypriot: Identity Formation, Negotiation and Renegotiation on Bronze Age Cyprus (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Pushing the Envelope, Chasing Stone Age Sailors and Early Agriculture: Papers in Honor of the Career of Alan H. Simmons" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Work on Cypriot identity has a long history, beginning with the identification of the first Cypriots during the Neolithic. This presentation continues on in the direction begun by Alan Simmons at Ais Giorkis of examining physical remains to understand what it meant to...
Being a Woman in Roman Gaul: Gendered Votive Offerings in a Colonial Context (2017)
The annexation of Gaul into the Roman Empire in the mid-first century BCE spurred the development of new religious practices in that region, including the practice of offering votive figurines at sanctuaries. Because each votive represents a personal decision on the part of the dedicant, analysis of votive assemblages provides unique insight into the demographics of worshippers and illuminates aspects of individual identity in this colonial context. Here, I present the results of a quantitative...
Being Male in al-Andalus. A Comparative Osteobiographical Approach to Reconstructing Islamic Identities in Medieval Spain. (2017)
In 711 AD the influx of Arabs and Berbers into Iberia culminated in the formation of the only Islamic state in medieval Western Europe. The uptake of new religious ideology and cultural practices by the inhabitants, which when applied in their unique sociohistorical context, resulted in an Iberian Islamic identity. While much research has explored variation in the lives of women, including debates on their freedom of movement and activity, less is postulated about the lives of men and what it...
Bending the Urban narrative: Cyclic Cities in Ancient Greece (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The urbanization of human settlements is commonly seen as a relatively linear development beginning in the earliest sedentary communities of the Neolithic and ending with the international megalopolises of the present day. A closer scrutiny of the archaeological record, however, clearly shows that this narrative has little bearing on the factual situation....
Benefits of Time Travel, the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre (2017)
Our laboratory focuses on the preservation and degradation of organic signatures in archaeological remains. We devise and use state-of-the art genetic techniques to pull DNA sequences from tooth and bone remains to address questions of ancestry, origins, extinctions and evolution. Currently the lab is focusing on the evolution of infectious disease, namely plague, using full genomic evidence garnered from victims of past pandemics. I will speak about the centre, the overarching questions we are...
Between Alexandria and Rome: World-Systems Analysis, Globalization, and Processes of Social Change in Hellenistic and Roman Cyprus (2024)
This is an abstract from the "World-Systems and Globalization in Archaeology: Assessing Models of Intersocietal Connections 50 Years since Wallerstein’s “The Modern World-System”" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2007, a children’s book about Cypriot history entitled “The Island that Everyone Wanted” was published. Despite being aimed at a juvenile audience, this title aptly encapsulates the history of Cyprus, i.e., as an island coveted by...
Between consumption and extermination: archaeologies of modern imperialism (2013)
In this introduction to the session, an outline of the existing and possible archaeologies of imperialism will be sketched. Emphasis will be put on the potential of archaeology to construct alternative narratives on Western colonialism from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. It will be argued that this kind of archaeology has to take into account violence (both physical and symbolic), but also forms of hybridization, war as well as trade and exchange, open and subtle resistance, and hegemonic...
Between the dream and the conquest: settlement and daily life of the Portuguese in North Africa (15th-16th centuries) (2013)
The Portuguese presence in North Africa was materialized through the occupation of cities and fortresses along the coast, especially during the 15th and the first half of the 16th century. Traditional historiography has stressed the limited contact these strongholds held with their surrounding territory, underlining their highly military nature. In this paper we wish to re-evaluate this theory, mainly through the archaeological work we've been developing since...