South America: Andes (Geographic Keyword)
426-450 (1,096 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Vision in the Age of Big Data" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The collection of geographically extensive archaeological datasets from satellite imagery and sensors mounted on piloted aircraft and UAVs is transforming how archaeologists study the past, enabling us to map sites in difficult terrain, at new levels of detail, and explore social and political transformations at the scale of large regions....
Heritage, Museums, and Place Making at Chavín de Huántar (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Current Dynamics of Heritage Values in the Americas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Formative site of Chavín de Huántar in Peru is widely regarded as an important early pilgrimage center. This reputation was passed on to Spanish chroniclers by early colonial inhabitants of the site. Yet, in many ways the site has occupied a more important space in the national historical narrative than it has in local history and...
The Hidden Faces of Santa Cruz de Lancha: Ceramics and Structure in Eighteenth-Century Architecture (2018)
The global exchange of ideas and practices in Latin American architecture during the viceregal period (ca. 1520-1825) remains one of the issues at the forefront of scholarly interest. Remarkable insights are gained about how ancient building materials were sustained and translated as architects and novices alike sought to align European design canons with local techniques and materials. Equally informative is how imported materials were incorporated into building practices. In this paper, I...
Hidden Labor: Exploring Food, Gender, and Ritual in the Prehispanic Moche Valley of North Coastal Peru (2018)
Archaeologists have successfully used spatial analyses of different contexts (elite/non-elite, ritual/domestic, public/private, etc.) to examine the intersection of food-related activities with status, political economy, gender, ritual, and the public/private division. In this paper, I consider the intersections of food processing, ritual, and gendered labor through an examination of paleoethnobotanical data from Cerro León, a Gallinazo/Early Moche phase (A.D. 1-300) highland colony in the Moche...
High Altitude Maize (Zea mays L.) Cultivation in the Lake Titicaca Basin and Endemism (2018)
Scientists have long maintained the upper limits of maize (Zea mays L cultivation was 3,600 masl. Archaeological evidence has documented a particular maize variety called tunqu by indigenous speaking populations, generally cultivated on terraces around the Copacabana Peninsula between 3810 to 4100 masl, in the Lake Titicaca Basin, Bolivia. This is the first known maize variety cultivated above 3600 masl. There were wide-spread landscape modifications such as raised fields and terraces geared to...
High Energy Generation and Elevated Temperature Potential of an Archaic Furnace in Ancient Peru (2018)
We present an aerodynamic and thermal study of the architectonic complex including a fire pit (locally named Fogon Mayor) on top of the largest pyramid in Caral, a society that flourished between 2627 and 2020 cal B.C. near the Pacific coast of present day Peru.The air flow produced by wind on the corridor and ducts feeding the fogon was estimated by various engineering approaches that agreed (within 7-18%) with calculations obtained by fluid-dynamics-modeling of the whole pyramid. Results were...
High Resolution Chronology of the Human Occupation South of Choapa Basin (31°34’ -32° S), Chile (2018)
The area south of Choapa basin in Chile has long been subjected to archaeological research through scientific as well as cultural research management projects. Surveys, excavations, and sampling over these roughly 5000 km2 area has yielded over 370 radiocarbon dates plus over 120 thermoluminiscence dates (almost 0,1 dates/km2). Dates range from 30000 cal BP to modern, but the human occupation is constrained in the last 13,000 years. Such chronometric resolution allows discussing the intensity of...
High-Altitude Andean Wetlands: Classificatory Systems, Nomenclature, and Functional Implications (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Political Geologies in the Ancient and Recent Pasts: Ontology, Knowledge, and Affect" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. High-altitude wetlands, known as bofedales, are vital resources for Andean herding communities because of the high-quality, perennial vegetation they provide. These wetlands are often peat-accumulating, and are attracting renewed attention because of their roles in carbon sequestration and water...
Hillfort Horizons: Rethinking Violence and Egalitarianism during the Andean Late Intermediate Period (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond “Barbarians”: Dimensions of Military Organization at the Bleeding Edge of the Premodern State" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Central Andes, the era immediately prior to the consolidation of the Inca Empire is known as the Late Intermediate period (LIP, ca. AD 1000–1450), traditionally seen as a "stateless" time between episodes of political centralization. Both Inca and Spanish accounts from the early...
Hilltops and Libations: A New Pattern of Recuay Ritual Space and Practice in the Northern Callejon de Huaylas Valley, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological studies of ancient hilltop constructions across Peru have revealed how ancient Andean people, often during the so-called “intermediate periods,” protected and defended their village spaces in times of interregional warfare and political balkanization. In the north-central highlands of Ancash, Peru, numerous studies have revealed that the...
Historias de pukaras: Trayectorias locales y diversidad en dos asentamientos de la precordillera del Desierto de Atacama durante el Período Intermedio Tardío y Tardío (900-1532 dC) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Abordamos el fenómeno de los pukara durante los períodos Intermedio Tardío y Tardío (900-1532 dC) en la región de Tarapacá del Norte Grande de Chile, a partir del registro arquitectónico y cerámico de dos pukara ubicados en una misma localidad en la precordillera del Desierto de Atacama. Estos asentamientos muestran usos y formas de habitar con...
A History of The Manteño of Bola De Oro: Understanding Manteño Adaptation to a Changing Climate through Age-Depth Modeling and Charcoal Abundance Analysis of Agricultural Landscape Modifications (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A modified agricultural landscape of cultivation terraces and water retention ponds in the high elevations of the Chongón-Colonche Mountains of southern Manabí indicates a shift in agricultural practices by the Manteño civilization of coastal Ecuador (ca. 650–1700 CE). This shift must be understood through time as a societal response to a changing climate...
A History of the Yumbos, Barbacoan Peoples of Northwestern Ecuador (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many years of archaeological research under my direction coupled with ethnohistoric, linguistic and genetic studies by other scholars have allowed for the compilation of a fairly detailed history of the Yumbos, a cloud forest people of the western flank of the Andes in Pichincha province, Ecuador and members of the Barbacoan language family. I will review...
Home is Where Your Boat Is: Movements within and around the Titicaca Basin (800 BC–AD 200) (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. The Titicaca Basin has long been home to communities of people who navigated their highland landscape effectively. Much research has been devoted to early developments in the southern lake basin (in modern-day Bolivia) as well as later communities on the northwestern side of the lake (in modern-day...
Home, Hearth, and Hammer: Detecting Migrants in the Wari Empire, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Seeing Migrant and Diaspora Communities Archaeologically: Beyond the Cultural Fixity/Fluidity Binary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The existence of a prehistoric Wari Empire in the Andes of Peru was debated for several decades. Despite major shifts in settlement patterns and large-scale landscape transformations corresponding to their early expansion in the seventh century CE, researchers questioned Wari hegemony...
Homenaje a Clavos: Reflections on My and Other's Use of the Work of Charles Standish (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Thinking Big in the Andes: Papers in Honor of Charles Stanish" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this talk, I reflect on the work of Charles Vandalay Stanish, and how his work has been imported and exported by scholars around the world. I focus in particular on how I have utilized Chip's obra in my own life.
Horizontality Revisited: Evidence for 3,000 Years of Prehistoric Biocultural Continuity of Fisherfolk at Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The importance and distinctiveness of Peruvian fisherfolk, or pescadores, and their complementary role in coastal valley economies feature prominently in numerous ethnohistoric accounts, while archaeological evidence indicates that large, permanent fishing communities existed for centuries before. What is unclear is the degree to which, if any, these...
Household Spaces in Nasca: A Comparison through Time (2018)
In this paper we evaluate household spaces in the Nasca region through time. We consider household structures in domestic contexts from the Formative, the Early and Late Nasca epochs, the Middle Horizon and the Late Intermediate Period. We look at the changes that took place in the use of residential space and consider how broader regional changes in sociopolitical structure, economy and religious ideology may have contributed to the changing nature of local dwellings.
Houses and the Puzzle of "Public Space" in Ceja de Selva Communities of Northeastern Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Researchers seeking to systematically compare built environments across the late Andean highlands have frequently noted the absence of monumental corporate architecture at hilltop sites. A number of alternative candidates that fulfilled the function of public architecture have therefore...
Housing the Dead, Assembling Kin: The Construction and Use of Chullpa Tombs during the Middle Horizon in the Callejón de Huaylas Valley, Peru (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Ancestors: New Approaches to Andean "Open Sepulchers"" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the highland Andes, archaeologists often emphasize the late prehispanic era (post-1000 CE) when examining the widespread mortuary tradition of interring the deceased in above-ground tombs known as chullpas. Our understanding of this practice during the preceding centuries, however, remains limited due to the smaller...
How Much Can I Get for These Choros? New Evidence for Andean Markets from the Chancay Site of Cerro Blanco, Huanangue 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. The rich diversity of Andean ethnic and ecologic landscapes meant that exchange was essential to the economy of many prehispanic Andean societies. While exchange can and did take many forms (trade, vertical archipelago, reciprocity, centralized redistribution, etc.) one mechanism that has received relatively little attention is that of the feria or informal...
How to Characterize in visu Mountains' Shape and Its Significance in Inca Culture? (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Developments and Challenges in Landscape Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Beyond geomorphology, mountains are complex cultural entities. In Inca culture, they embodied powerful social agents, wak’as, and constituted meaningful places in the territories that composed the empire. Early colonial chronicles, as well as ethnological heritages, offer abundant data and analogies on mountains' cultural...
How to Invent Your Past. Cultural Appropriation or Adoption of Orphan Cultural Identity? (2018)
In January 2017, members of the indigenous Salasaca community of the central sierra region of Ecuador discovered a cache of pre-Colombian pottery during ditch construction work which passed through a site of ritual significance. The government organisation responsible for managing antiquities removed the artefacts, promising that archaeological investigations would be carried out in due course. They never were. The cache of artefacts was a strange mixture of authentic ceramic figurines and...
How to Make a Proper Bundle: Ritual Knowledge Transfer and Mortuary Communities of Practice in the Tiwanaku Diaspora (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Communities of Practice in the Ancient Andes: Thinking through Knowledge Transmission and Community Making in and beyond Craft Production" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The concept Community of Practice (CoP) has found surprisingly limited application in archaeology beyond craft production, yet it also lends itself to examining the situated learning of ritual practices. Rituals require strict adherence to actions and...
Huaca del Loro: A Wari Colony in Coastal Nasca (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Developments through Time on the South Coast of Peru: In Memory of Patrick Carmichael" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations at the site of Huaca del Loro in the Las Trancas Valley of the Nasca drainage have uncovered a Wari settlement, a cemetery with hybrid Nasca/Wari practices, and a large habitation area possibly for local support personnel. In the Wari sector, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) identified...