Mesoamerica: Northern (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (26 Records)
This is an abstract from the "13,000 Years of Adaptation in the Sonoran Desert at La Playa, Sonora" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The La Playa site is a compelling example of large-scale anthropogenic modification within a landscape of change through deep time. The development of irrigation technology and agricultural intensification in the Sonoran Desert was deeply entwined with changing climatic and geomorphic conditions. As the largest...
Archaeology in the Plaza: Public Display of the Past in Banamichi, Sonora (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Just off the main highway, the Ruta del Río Sonora, in Banámichi, Mexico, is the Plaza de la Piedra Histórica (Plaza of the Historic Rock). Raised upon the shoulders of Ópata / Teguïma inspired stone figures is a petroglyph originally found in the floodplain below. The imagery on the rock was interpreted by archaeologist William Doolittle in 1984 as "the first...
Archaeology of Culiacán Valley: An Integral Approach (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Culiacán valley is located in central Sinaloa. It is well known in archaeological literature because of the excellent quality of its pottery. Nevertheless, archaeological knowledge is limited due to the lack of continuity in research during last seventy years. This work presents a new perspective on the region through integral research carried out by the...
Arqueología de la infancia en la Frontera Norte Mesoamericana durante el Epiclásico. El caso de El Ocote, Aguascalientes. (2018)
El estudio enfocado en la arqueología de la infancia nace con la necesidad de conocer el papel desempeñado por los infantes en la sociedad. Es a partir de este enfoque que se han ido perfeccionando los diferentes métodos y técnicas para investigar la infancia en el pasado. Los niños pertenecen a uno de los sectores de población más vulnerable social y biológicamente, es por ello que en los trabajos arqueológicos se comienzan a considerar como objeto de estudio, sobre todo cuando se busca conocer...
Assemblages and Power in the Casas Grandes Region. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "25 Years in the Casas Grandes Region: Celebrating Mexico–U.S. Collaboration in the Gran Chichimeca" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists working in the Casas Grandes region generally acknowledge that sites such as Paquimé reflect a social system defined by systemic inequality. Yet, to date little work has been done to document exactly what "inequality" likely meant for people living in the region during the...
Casas Grandes Fauna (2019)
This is an abstract from the "25 Years in the Casas Grandes Region: Celebrating Mexico–U.S. Collaboration in the Gran Chichimeca" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The prehistoric inhabitants of the Casas Grandes region of northwest Chihuahua, Mexico, exploited a wide range of local and non-local fauna. This paper explores the value of different animal species throughout the prehistory of this region and how various animals were utilized for daily...
Cerro de En medio, a Hidden Epiclassic Site in the Northern Frontier of Mesoamerica (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the analysis of the role of violence underlying the settlement pattern at Cerro de En medio, Aguascalientes, Mexico, located in the northern frontier of Mesoamerica. Violence is one of the social forces that shape the decision making involved in selecting a place to settle. This paper focuses on understanding the role of defensibility as a...
Contacts before "Contact". Comments about the interaction between nomads and sedentary societies in Northern Mexico desert Highlands (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents an analysis of the contacts process between sedentary farmers and nomadic groups who inhabited the Mesoamerican Northern Frontier, before the XVI Century. Archaeological previous research suggested that villages standing on the northern mesoamerican...
Containing Archaeology: Categorization, Hidden Labor, and the Social Lives of Archaeological Ephemera (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1940, textile fragments and botanical specimens were packed into matchboxes from cave sites in Coahuila, Mexico during Walter Taylor’s archaeological excavation. By the 1990s the specimens were accessioned into the Smithsonian, and the archaeological notes archived, yet the matchboxes themselves never received any record. Instead, collections managers...
The Contribution of Tree-Ring Studies to Archaeological Research in Northwestern Mesoamerica (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite more than fifty years of excellent archaeological research in Northwestern Mesoamerica, progress has been impeded by a lack of precise chronological controls to understand site developments and pinpoint the direction of political influence and cultural change....
Defining petrographic fabrics among regional wares at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (2018)
Situated in the Malpaso Valley of Zacatecas, Mexico, the site of La Quemada was one of a series of polities that developed along the northern frontier of Mesoamerica during the Epiclassic period (A.D. 500-900). Widely distributed ceramic wares suggest interaction among northern frontier polities, but it remains unknown whether they are the product of widely recognized social categories (i.e., shared style) or direct, face-to-face interaction among individuals (i.e., shared composition)....
El Ombligo Burial Mound and Its Material Networks (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Guasave, Sinaloa, has historically been identified as representing the northern Mesoamerican frontier based on the presence of Aztatlán culture tradition materials dating to circa AD 1150. To explain the purported Mesoamerican affiliation, researchers in the region have deployed hypotheses focusing on economic and ideological connections between the...
Genomic Data from Paquimé: Understanding the Cultural and Genetic Ties of the Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paquimé, located in the Casas Grandes region of Northern Mexico, presents a rich cultural tradition with ties to populations to the South and North. Ancient mitochondrial DNA from Paquime’s occupants has not provided evidence of large-scale in-migration that led to the fluorescence of the site, as some scholars have hypothesized. This paper focuses on...
A GIS Approach to Settlement Patterns and Predictive Modeling in Chihuahua, Mexico (2018)
In this study I analyzed the pattern of settlement for known Medio period (A.D. 1200–1450) sites in the Casas Grandes region of Chihuahua, Mexico. Locational data acquired from survey projects in the Casas Grandes region were evaluated within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) framework to reveal patterns in settlement and site distribution. Environmental and cultural variables such as elevation, topographic aspect, slope, soil, distance to nearest water, and distance to nearest known...
Human-Animal Relations in Chihuahua, Mexico: Exploring the Ontological Turn in Zooarchaeolgy (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Projects taking place in the state of Chihuahua have, in recent years, begun to expand the understanding of local lifeways. The analysis of human-animal relations is perceived to have contributed to a greater understanding of ways in which researchers can reconstruct the lifeways in the past. This paper examines prehistoric lifeway patterns indicated by...
Mesoamerica en la frontera: Understanding Large-Scale Connectivity Using Hohokam and Trincheras Pottery Designs (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Crossing Boundaries: Interregional Interactions in Pre-Columbian Times" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than merely a physical barrier, the international border between the United States and Mexico has become an ideological boundary that shapes modern perceptions of prehistoric cultures and limits the transfer of academic knowledge. Such is the case in the study of the prehistoric Hohokam and Trincheras...
Migrating Genes, or How to Avoid the Free-Ranging Genome (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Increasing the Accessibility of Ancient DNA within Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Migration studies address huge distances, such as the colonization of the Americas, and smaller regions, such as the peopling of specific sites. The use of genetics as a medium to enhance our understanding of population movement can be an asset. There are potential pitfalls, however, such as the misrepresentation of DNA...
New Dendrochronological and Radiocarbon Dates for Northwest Mexican Cliff Dwellings (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the years, several thousand archaeological wood samples have been collected across Northwest Mexico, but dating them has proven problematic because of short tree ring sequences, poor sample quality, and complex growth patterns. A majority of these originated in cliff dwelling sites, which form a central part of an inter-regional network of relatively...
Postcards in the Landscape: Considering Lower Pecos Pictographs as Nahua Pilgrimage Destinations (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Manifesting Movement Materially: Broadening the Mesoamerican View" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chicomoztoc, the place of seven caves, from which the Nahua ancestors emerged, appears in many central Mexican pictorial manuscripts as a place of origin and one of pilgrimage. Like the mythical Aztlan, its location has not been confirmed; perhaps several such places served different groups of people. However, recent...
Reconstructing Past Environmental Landscapes in the Semi-arid Regions of North America Using Stable Isotope Analysis of Faunal Bones (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotope values of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in animal bones are influenced by the environmental and climatic conditions present during the lifetime of the organisms. Stable isotope analysis of faunal bones thus permits the reconstruction of past environmental...
Rethinking Our Concepts to Rethink Our Data: Interpreting the Material Culture of Northwest Mexico in Light of Indigenous Theory (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It has been a while since anthropology experienced an ontological turn that calls to question the universal application of Western concepts, such as nature, culture, and humanity. That questioning, however, has not permeated enough into anthropology, but even much less into...
Rock Art and Ritual Routes: Visual Complexity in Cerro de la Nariz, Wakiri kitenie (Potosino Highlands, Mexico) (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Polychromy, Multimediality, and Visual Complexity in Mesoamerican Art" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Some features of a rocky site in the Potosino semi-desert of north-central Mexico will be presented, where an ancient rock world and ritual expressions of contemporary ethnic groups, in particular the Wixarika (Huichol Indians), coincide. For the latter, the site is an important step in their ritual journey to...
Social Identification and Collective Action at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (500-900 CE) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. According to the collective social identification framework, sustained collective action depends on the degree to which groups of individuals share networks of social interaction (i.e., relational identification) and recognize membership in the same social categories...
The Spanish Conquest in the Petatlan, Sinaloa: Cultural Change and Social Reorganization (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Historically, archaeological research in northern Sinaloa, Mexico, focused on the coastal plains, with minimal attempts to comprehend the adjacent archaeological groups scattered in the hinterlands of the Sierra Madre along major water systems. These regions are most often interpreted through the lens of ethnohistorical accounts that provide a window on...
Stable Isotope Analysis of the Early Agriculture Period at La Playa (SON:F:10:3), Sonora, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotopic analyses of carbon and nitrogen in bone can provide insight into the consumption of plants and animals. Bone collagen differentially tracks the consumption of proteins, and bone apatite reflects individual’s diet through the intake of lipids, protein, and carbohydrates. Analyses of 29 individuals from the Early Agricultural period (EAP)...