Warfare (Other Keyword)
226-250 (267 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Rising Up Against Authority: Archaeological Approaches to Rebellion" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper reflects on the roles of sociopolitical paradigms and memory in the staging of resistance, rebellion and civil war, using case studies from Iron Age through Early Modern Scandinavia. Various event cascades always precede and follow more 'visible' episodes commonly described in textual records, but are...
They Have NOT “Risen Up and Rebelled”: Mapuche Offense and Defense in the 16th and 17th Centuries (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Rising Up Against Authority: Archaeological Approaches to Rebellion" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The so-called “War of Arauco” in south-central Chile in the 16th and 17th Centuries is often referred to as a “rebellion,” “uprising,” or “insurrection” by the indigenous Mapuche against the colonizing Spanish. These terms suggest, and popular ideas perpetuate the idea, that the Spanish effectively colonized southern...
Thirteenth-Century Villages and the Depopulation of the Northern San Juan Region by Pueblo Peoples (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Research, Education, and American Indian Partnerships at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The initial 40 years of research conducted by the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center included several excavation projects that focused on a primary stated research goal of the center: discover why Pueblo peoples completely and permanently vacated the northern San Juan region late in the...
To Fight or Not to Fight: Comparing Evidence of Violence on Human Skeletal Remains at Sites in and around Chaco Canyon and the Mimbres Region (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The intent of this presentation is to compare patterns of violence on human skeletal remains recovered from archaeological sites in the San Juan Basin associated with Chaco Canyon and the Mimbres region in the US Southwest. The Chaco sites date to AD 850–1300, while the Mimbres sites date to AD 650–1300. Bioarchaeological signatures of violence on the...
"Trade & Instruments of War": the Carolina Gun and England’s Struggle for Empire on the Southeastern Frontier (1763-1781) (2020)
This is a poster submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. By the dawn of the eighteenth century, Native Americans in the Southeast (and beyond) had already grown accustomed to items of European manufacture. Of these goods, firearms were undoubtedly the most consequential. The earliest guns given or traded to native peoples were not specifically manufactured for this purpose; however, by this period, England had begun producing muskets according...
Trenches, Embankments, and Palisades: Terraforming Landscapes for Defensive Fortifications in Coast Salish Territory (2016)
The Coast Salish hunter-gatherer fishers of the Northwest Coast built substantial defenses, involving the labor of multiple households and entire villages. These fortifications, perched upon high bluff promontories or at the points of narrow coastal sandspit ridges, often involved deep trenches and steep embankments that were enclosed by tall palisades of cedar planks. Such constructions would have dominated the viewshed of their seascape. In this presentation, I’ll highlight the degree of...
The Tumultuous Times: The Shifting Alliances of Caracol Monarchs in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Rise and Apogee of the Classic Maya Kaanu’l Hegemonic State at Dzibanche" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The most extensive historical record of Caracol was produced under the reign of Tutum Yohl K’inich Tz’uutz’ II (formerly known as K’an II / Ruler V), who reigned from AD 618 to 658. In addition to outlining his life and deeds, as well as those of his father Yajawte’ K’inich Tz’uutz’ II (a.k.a. Lord Water /...
U.A.V., SO.N.A.R., D.E.M.s, and C.R.I.M. (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Material Aspects of Global Conflict" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper explores the applications of modern technology to further the analyses and understanding of the consequences of global conflict. Partnered with the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency (DPAA), the Center for the Recovery and Identification of the Missing (CRIM) uses such technology to facilitate recovery missions in...
united in blood! Rituals of violence and warfare in Iron Age britain (2017)
Discussions of ritual in society often focus on how ritual is used to bring individuals, communities, and larger social groups together. The role of ritual in violent interactions and warfare is less often considered and often what discussion there is focuses on the use of warfare to procure captives for public rituals, such as execution. Virtually ignored in this discussion is the role ritual plays in routinizing violence and warfare and how this ultimately impacts individuals and societies....
Unrest after conquest: Indigenous rebellions in the Roman West (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Rising Up Against Authority: Archaeological Approaches to Rebellion" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Roman wars of conquest brought with them the violent subjugation of millions of people. But what happened in the years and generations after the military campaigns? While there was considerable diversity among regions and communities, many groups launched armed uprisings, sometimes shortly after the initial...
Updated Perspectives on Sennacherib’s Siege at Tel Lachish (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From gypsum reliefs that once decorated the walls of the Assyrian capital at Nineveh, archaeologists know that Sennacherib’s army laid waste to the city of Lachish, Judah (now Israel) in 701 BC. There remains no consensus on how these events unfolded, but many researchers agree that the Lachish reliefs were intended to serve as both historical record and...
Variations in Ceramic and Obsidian Dispersal among the Ancestral O'odham (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It has been long understood that the trade routes for obsidian differ from that of other materials such as ceramic among the Ancestral O'odham (also known as the Hohokam). Previously conducted sourcing studies have shown that many materials including ceramic are exchanged among communities that share an irrigation canal. However, obsidian is seemingly...
Violence and Selected Funerary Treatment: Insights from a Collective Open Tomb of the Upper Nepeña Drainage, Peru (AD 1300–1500) (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. The recent PARAMa project undertook the excavation of several open sepulcher funerary contexts in the Upper Nepeña Drainage, among which two structures were thoroughly excavated. Their content, predominantly skeletonized and partially mummified human remains, were analyzed, representing the first systematic...
Violence as a Contested Asset and Dynamics of Warrior Ideology at State Edges: Thugs and Harmony? (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. Characteristic of many states is a legal monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Conversely, in small-scale normatively egalitarian societies entitlements to wield violent force are often diffuse and informally adjudicated. State formation thus frequently involves the formalization...
Violence or Funerary Ritual? Performances of Life and Death in the Middle and Late Archaic Period of North Alabama (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study takes a holistic biocultural approach to re-conceptualize the forms and patterns of violence taking place at two neighboring Archaic Period shell mound sites on the Tennessee River in North Alabama, Mulberry Creek (1CT27) and Little Bear Creek (1CT8). Bioarchaeological documentation was supplemented by archival records in an attempt to...
Walls, Ditches and Spoil: Methodological Issues in the Study of Pre-Columbian Fortifications (2017)
A critical facet of studying past warfare is the analysis of fortifications. Fortifications are often visible on the surface, making these archaeological features identifiable through surface reconnaissance. Moreover, test pits and trench excavations into gated areas or across various sections of fortifications can be used to establish the martial functions of these archaeological features. Yet, the study of past warfare and fortifications often stumbles in the interpretive stage. How do we know...
War and Peace and the Origins of Political Control in the Central Andean Coast: 3000 BC–AD 600 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The central Andes has a long history of the rise and fall of centralized political organizations, beginning with construction of the first large-scale ceremonial centers in the New World between 3000 and 1800 BC. Some see these early centers as pilgrimage centers, lacking significant political power, while others argue they were urban...
War, Power, and History in the Mississippian Period Central Illinois Valley (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper considers the impact of warfare-induced settlement nucleation on the sociopolitical organization of the thirteenth-century Central Illinois River Valley. Concurrent with the beginning of a period of intense warfare, Mississippian groups in the region abandoned their small, dispersed farmsteads and aggregated into the region’s...
Warfare Among 15th Centruy Agriculturalists In the Missouri River Valley of South Dakota
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 National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R 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 at comments@tdar.org.
Warfare and Captive Sacrifice in the Moche World: New Data from Excavations at Pampa la Cruz, Moche Valley, Northern Coastal Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Depictions of combat and the capture and killing of captives are well known in Moche (ca. AD 200-850) art. Since 1995, the iconographic record has been joined by archaeological evidence of the practices themselves. The most dramatic discoveries were made in Plazas 3A and 3C at the Pyramid of the Moon between 1995 and 2001, with scattered deposits...
Warfare and Early Agriculture in SE Europe and Midwestern North America: comparing Neolithic/Early Copper Age and Late Prehistoric Fortifications and Bell-shaped pits. (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Theorizing Warfare: Global Perspectives on Defense and Fortification" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. SE Europe during the Neolithic and Early Copper Age (5500-4000 cal. B.C.E), and Eastern North America during the Late Prehistoric period (1000-1650 A.C.E.), are marked by similar socioeconomic changes in tribal societies. There is evidence for new food production and exchange patterns, but also for increased conflict....
Warfare and Mortality at Koger's Island, Alabama (1996)
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 National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R 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 at comments@tdar.org.
Warfare and Social Complexity On the Northwest Coast (1987)
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 National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R 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 at comments@tdar.org.
Warfare and the Origins of Social Complexity in Southern Central America (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Southern Central America is rich in examples of early complex societies, and yet, the timing and mechanism for the emergence of social complexity and differentiation are still not well understood. Recent works are moving archaeologists in the region to question, on the one hand, the definition of social complexity itself, and on the other...
Warfare and the Polity in Early China (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Intercommunity conflict and sociopolitical complexity are both complicated topics, not only because of their large literatures and diverse approaches, but because of the multifaceted nature of the phenomena involved. For my talk I would like to focus on what I see as two key variables relevant to both warfare and political community. These...