South America: Andes (Geographic Keyword)
26-50 (1,096 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Canchas Uckro (ca. 1100-850 BC) is a large monumental platform situated above the Puccha River approximately 25 km north of Chavín de Huántar. Recent excavations have revealed monumental features that suggest the Canchas Uckro played an important role within the political landscape. Ceramic analysis has likewise linked the site to broader economic spheres of...
Analysis of Cuchimilcos from Coastal Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cuchimilcos are small painted clay figurines and are one of the most recognized artifacts from ancient coastal Peru. They are associated frequently with the Chancay culture (1100-1400 AD) but are found throughout the central and north coast. Although most museums have one, little is certain about their purpose in society. To address the questions of function...
Analysis of Physical Activity Pattern of Women from the Castillo de Huarmey Mausoleum, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Decade of Multidisciplinary Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper seeks to test the hypothesis that the elite individuals from the main chamber in the mausoleum in Castillo de Huarmey, Peru, functioned as specialized weavers. The sources available for the precolumbian Middle-Andes indicate the presence of aqllacuna (chosen women) who dedicated themselves to luxurious...
Analysis of the Ancient Built Environment of the Millo Complex, Vitor Valley, Peru (2018)
The Vitor Valley is an alluvial oasis linking the Arequipa highlands to the Pacific coast of southern Peru. The northern limit of the valley hosts a dense archaeological landscape of interspersed fieldstone structures and cemeteries known as the Millo Complex. This cluster comprises three principal segments referred to as Millo 2, Millo 3, and Millo 4; each of which preserves extensive architecture. Surface ceramics from across the Millo Complex and radiocarbon analysis of charcoal samples...
Analysis of the Lithic Assemblage from Canchas Uckro (1100–800 BC), Eastern Ancash, Peru (2018)
Canchas Uckro is a large platform situated above the Puccha River, and approximately 25 km to the north of Chavín de Huántar. Recent excavations recovered a lithic assemblage consisting of 245 artifacts from stratigraphic layers dating between ca. 1100 and 800 BC. This poster describes the analysis of this lithic assemblage, including raw materials utilized, technological organization, and patterns of tool design in relation to possible subsistence activities. Expedient flakes from locally...
Analyzing Highland and Coastal Ceramic Techniques of Production in the Middle Horizon Period (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 2" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The relationship between coastal and highland cultural groups during the Middle Horizon remains widely debated and still not fully understood. Scholars have argued that “Coastal Cajamarca” plates found in Moche sites on the coast are local imitations...
Analyzing Prehispanic Textile Technology at the Site of Santo Domingo. Huarmey 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. This research presents an analysis of the textile technology excavated at the site of Santo Domingo, Huarmey Valley, in coastal Peru. Previous research suggests that the site was inhabited during the Late Intermediate period (AD 1150–1280). This study is accomplished primarily through the examination of the textile remains and additional perishable fiber...
Analyzing Stone Fish Net Sinkers in the North Coast of Peru: Inquiring its Functional and Symbolic Aspects. (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Maritime communities flourished along the northern coast of Peru for thousands of years due to the abundance of marine life, which inspired these communities to create specialized tools to aid in the fishing process. One of these tools was cotton fishing nets of which the attached stone sinkers are more commonly found in midden deposits. This study...
Anarchy, Heterarchy, and the Bioarchaeological Evidence of Labor in the Tiwanaku “State” (AD 500–1100) of Bolivia and Peru (2021)
This is an abstract from the "A New Horizon: Reassessing the Andean Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000) and Rethinking the Andean State" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Early explorers thought that Tiwanaku was a ritual or pilgrimage center because of its heartland location in the high-altitude, seemingly inhospitable altiplano of Bolivia. Years after “progressing” beyond a ceremonial center, Tiwanaku was fit into the “state” category within a political...
Ancestor Veneration or Funeral Practices? An Examination of Recuay Mortuary Variability in the Basin of Puccha (Ancash) between AD 200-900 (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mortuary studies have followed different perspectives, such as ancestor veneration mostly based on intrasite analysis. This paper examines the regional distribution of Recuay's funeral practices and its implications for ancestor worship studies. Radiocarbon dates available for the valley show an occupation between AD 200-900, and it correlates with the...
Ancient DNA of Camelids from Far Southern Peru: Whole Genome Enrichment Methods Reveal Breeding History at Tiwanaku and Inca Sites (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Zooarchaeological Methods" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prior to Spanish colonization, the indigenous peoples of Andean South America (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina) incorporated domesticated camelids (Camelidae), llamas (Lama glama), and alpacas (Vicugña pacos) into their economic and ritual life and were skillfully adept at breeding and rearing camelids for different utilitarian and...
Ancient Human-Animal Interactions in Chachapoyas Region: Isotopic Analysis of Zooarchaeological Remains from Kuelap, Peru (2018)
This study uses isotopic analysis of fauna remains as a proxy for reconstructing the ancient Chachapoya environment of the northeastern highlands in Peru. Large middens have been excavated at the monumental center of Kuelap (900-1535 CE), yet there is little previous research focused on the fauna remains at this or other archaeological contexts in the region. The goal of this project was to reconstruct animal resource exploitation and provide insight into dietary variation and environment at...
Ancient Manganism in the Andes: A Bioarchaeological View (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ancient Chinchorro people of northern Chile used manganese as part of their mortuary rites (7000–3000 BP). Chinchorro artifacts (n = 12) reveals the presence of manganese up to 64% measured with portable X-ray fluorescence. In addition, bone chemistry analysis from Chinchorro mummies (n = 68) using atomic absorption spectrometry reveals for the first...
The Ancient Occupation of the East Terrace at Cerro San Isidro, Moro District, Peru (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster reports on the results of archaeological excavations carried out at the ancient human settlement of Cerro San Isidro located in the Moro region of the middle Nepeña Valley, north central coast of Peru. In particular, we expose and analyze stratigraphic, architectural, and material data recovered in the unidad de excavación 5 (UE5) at the East...
Ancient Oral Metagenomes from La Real: Insights into Health and Infectious Disease Across the Middle Horizon Period (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La Real is a site located in the Majes Valley of southern Peru associated with two chronologically distinct burial contexts dated to the early and late Middle Horizon periods. Previous analysis of these funerary assemblages has shown similarities in the demographic profiles and incidence of trauma between burials from the two periods. Documented increases...
Andean Indigenous Bodies: Methodological Approaches to Past Perceptions of the Body (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Individual Bodies to Bodies of Social Theory: Exploring Ontologies of the Americas" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Any attempt to understand indigenous anatomy and perceptions of the body from an emic perspective in the Andes is a challenging endeavor, beginning with basic definitions that differ substantially from Western traditions. Furthermore, definitions changed across space and time throughout Andean...
The Andean Khipu and a Pre-Columbian Computer System: A Postcolonial Perspective (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For decades, researchers have strived to “elevate” khipus—Andean knotted cords—to the status of a writing system. However, this discourse is rooted in colonial frameworks for assessing cultural sophistication, which neglect the uniqueness of non-Western systems and obscure the richness of khipus. This paper challenges the conventional debate surrounding...
Andean Philosophies, Social Theory, and the Use of Analogies in the Interpretation of Andean Built Environments (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dedication, Collaboration, and Vision, Part I: Papers in Honor of Tom D. Dillehay" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dr. Tom Dillehay has significantly advanced Andean studies and archaeological theory and method, and a short presentation could never do justice to the extraordinary breadth of Tom’s many contributions. In my paper, I focus on Tom’s invaluable investigations of Andean ideologies of space and his pioneering...
Animals for the Ancestors: Comparing Animal Use in Funerary Rites at Ancient Hualcayán, Peru (AD 1–1000) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster presents recent analysis of faunal materials from three distinct funerary structures at Hualcayán, Ancash, Peru, in order to assess differences in taphonomic environments and funerary practices through interred faunal remains. This study compares species representation, bone modifications, and fragmentation from Early Intermediate Period and Middle...
Anti-Colonialism, State Development, and Araucanian Resilience in the South-Central Andes (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Disentanglement: Reimagining Early Colonial Trajectories in the Americas" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation centers on indigenous proto-state or polity formation in the early Spanish period in the south-central Andes and the sociocultural conditions that shaped a specific type of archaeological record, an unostentatious material culture for a polity-level of society. The historical focus is on the...
Applicability of Maxent Predictive Modeling in Locating Pre-Hispanic Quarries in the Callejón de Huaylas, Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stone in the Andes is an integral component of both the natural landscape and of the material expressions of cultural beliefs and practices. Growing evidence from multiple cultures indicates preferences for stone materials from certain sources, which held political, symbolic, and ideological importance. Determining quarry locations is a vital step in analyses...
An Application of Surovell’s Behavioral Ecology Models of Site Occupation Length in the Peruvian Andes (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In his monograph, Toward a Behavioral Ecology of Lithic Technology (2009), Todd Surovell models mathematically the economics of prehistoric hunter-gatherers’ production, use, and discard of lithic technologies. Although we see great potential in these models to extend our understanding of hunter-gatherer mobility patterns and landscape use, they have received...
Apropiación, síntesis y representación en la etapa Blanco y Negro de Chavín (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. La forma final del sitio de Chavín de Huántar se estableció fundamentalmente en la llamada etapa Blanco y Negro definida por Kembel. Hay allí elementos de la arquitectura y del paisaje que son indicios de algún programa de reestructuración social en clave de una renovada...
Archaeoacoustics at Chavín de Huántar: New Evidence for Social Complexity via Sonic Communication Technologies (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. A dynamic, pervasive link between materiality and humans, sound remains an underestimated and deeply misunderstood domain for archaeological study. Archaeoacoustics fieldwork with broad community contributions at Chavín de Huántar since 2008 has enabled the development of new...
Archaeological Contexts and Social Uses of Pututus in the Prehispanic Central Andes (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Music Archaeology's Paradox: Contextual Dependency and Contextual Expressivity" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pututus are marine shell trumpets (organologically, horns), known in the prehispanic Central Andes from the Archaic period to the Late Horizon. Different classes of those sound-producing artifacts have been discovered: some of them cut from various species of marine gastropods, and others produced in ceramics...