Archaic (Other Keyword)
426-450 (452 Records)
Ancient Athens is cited as the contentious caldron from which the western political tradition emerged. During the formative Archaic period (ca. 700-480 BC), Athenian history was marked by major political developments (e.g., early law codification, citizenship formalization), social stratification (e.g., classes), and conflict (e.g., tyrants). To date, such processes are known to us through texts, artistic representations, and elite-centered mortuary grounds. The collaborative Phaleron...
The Ups and Downs of Uploading Data to the Eastern Archaic Faunal Database with the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) (2016)
Uploading faunal data from eastern Archaic sites to the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) as members of the Eastern Archaic Faunal Working Group (EAFWG) was a very exciting prospect. We are pleased to be involved in a project that will address significant questions about animal use during the Archaic period. However, making the data comparable entailed some challenges and compromises. While most zooarchaeologists agree on taxonomic designations, developing ontologies for elements, portions,...
Using Micro and Macrobotanical Analyses to Assess Socio-economic Strategies at 48PA551, the McKean Occupation in the Sunlight Basin, Wyoming (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located in the Absaroka Mountains of northwest Wyoming site 48PA51 is unique for its pithouse, rock pile surrounded by deer skull caps with antlers, abundant hearths and pit features, large number of dart points and groundstone, and substantial faunal assemblage. These features and the...
Using Microartifacts to Investigate Prehistoric Cooking Methods at the Archaeological Site of Dust Cave (2018)
Microartifacts - generally considered to be artifacts measuring less than 6.35 mm (¼ inch) - have traditionally received little attention in North American archaeology. We argue that microartifacts are not simply smaller versions of larger artifacts, but rather provide different and complimentary data. This study investigates microartifacts from the archaeological site of Dust Cave (10,650-3,600 BCE), located in northwest Alabama, in order to better understand prehistoric diet and cooking...
Using Technologically Diagnostic Debitage to Better Determine the Integrity of an Archaeological Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For a cultural resource to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, it must meet specific criteria. For significant archaeological sites, this usually means the resources can produce data that address important questions about the past (i.e., National Register Criterion D). The integrity of design is of...
Using the Anasazi Origins Project Faunal Remains to Determine Archaic Subsistence Patterns (2015)
The purpose of this study is to prevent the loss of important archaeological information by examining a collection of faunal remains from the Anasazi Origins Project (AOP) that have been virtually untouched since their excavation. Re-evaluation of these collections will allow us to identify their research potential, as well as possible cultural significance that was not identified during initial investigations. The collection being examined for this study is the Anasazi Origins Project....
The Utility of Public LiDAR Data for Detecting and Documenting Low-Relief Archaeological Sites: A Case Study from the Pockoy Island Shell Rings, Charleston County, South Carolina (2018)
This paper evaluates the utility of high-resolution LiDAR-derived elevation data for remotely surveying difficult-to-access coastal areas to identify possible archaeological sites, which can then be targeted for further investigation. To determine the effective limits of the elevation data to visualize low-relief structures, locations of previously-recorded Archaic and Woodland-period shell rings along the lower Atlantic coast were examined. Thirty-four rings were identified, including two...
Valle de Bonanza (Zacatecas, Mexico): Desert Varnish and Technology in a Surface Lithic Assemblage (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Valle de Bonanza (northeast of the Mexican state of Zacatecas) is a surface-only archaeological site located in a highly eroded desert landscape on the edges of a vast endorheic basin in Concepcion del Oro county. The site consists of a sand-and-dust surface affected by intensive deflation that caused the formation of a palimpsest of crudely made flaked stone...
Valley of No Masters: Exchanging Experiences at the Valley of the Masters, Northeastern Brazil (2018)
Field schools, and Methods and techniques in Archaeology classes are mandatory steps to achieve Master’s or a PhD degree in most graduate programs in Brazil. We, as instructors noticed a certain mismatch in students’ behavior in regard to decision-making in both situations: reticence during field activities, boldness during class discussions and debates. This dichotomy seemed to be related to field experiences in which the students had fewer opportunities to engage with other "more...
Variation in the Configuration of the Middle Snake River and its Relationship to Prehistoric Fishing Site Locations (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology on the Edge(s): Transitions, Boundaries, Changes, and Causes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The configuration of the various elements of a river system can have significant impacts on the availability, abundance, and nutritional profitability of aquatic organisms utilized as food by groups of human foragers. These factors may have influenced where and when Late Archaic foragers decided to fish along the...
Vegetation Change at Poverty Point, Louisiana (2018)
This paper presents pollen data as a proxy of past vegetation at Poverty Point, a large Archaic mound site in northeast Louisiana. The paleoecological focus of this presentation revolves around the rate and nature of change over time. Patterns and changes in taxonomic diversity are presented and discussed in light of environmental productivity. The rate of vegetation change is calculated and related to ecosystem stability. Additionally, changes in individual taxonomic representation are examined...
The VerHage Site: A Late Archaic Seasonal Village located in Wallkill Drainage of Southeastern New York. (2018)
In summer 2017 Landmark Archaeology, Inc. conducted data recovery excavations at four Late Archaic sites in southeastern New York within the Wallkill drainage near the town of Goshen. Excavations at the VerHage Site, a Late Archaic Lamoka Phase (ca. 3000-2500 BC) site and the largest of the four investigated sites, identified pit features, post-molds and house patterns, yielded a large lithic assemblage, and found glacial erratics used for food processing and tool production. The recovery of a...
Virtual Reality and Archaeological Practice (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Virtual reality (VR) is a tool that offers an opportunity to approach archaeological analyses and communications through a different lens. VR provides a platform where data can be continuously updated and modified as is becomes available as well as adding an element of interactivity. VR allows the user to engage with a simulated environment, walk around,...
The Walker Lake Landscape: Combining Geophysical Studies to Clarify Regional Change and the Archaeological Record (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Global Submerged Paleolandscapes Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The high desert basin surrounding Walker Lake, Nevada, has been subject to multiple landscape shifts since the lake reached its Late Pleistocene highstand, 15,679 cal BP. Research has identified at least four lake transgression and regression events postdating 5000 BP, and after its nineteenth-century historic highstand, the lake has...
Walking the Footwear Landscape on the Western Plains Margin: The Implications of 3,500 Years of Footwear from Franktown Cave, Colorado (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Archaeological Footwear" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Franktown Cave (5DA272) on the Palmer Divide south of Denver contains an assemblage of perishable artifacts unrivaled on the western Great Plains, and among these perishables is footwear from occupations dated 3300 BC–AD 1280. The footwear has proven to be the most useful for determining regional and cultural associations. Most of the analysis of...
Weediness: Modern, Historic, and Prehistoric Plants at Poverty Point, LA (2015)
With construction beginning about 3,700 years ago, Poverty Point (16WC5) in northeast Louisiana is one of the earliest and largest sites of its kind in the United States. What were conditions like when people began constructing the mounds? What kind of environment did they live in? How did this change (or not change) over time? This poster presents lithological and palynological evidence covering the period before, during, and after prehistoric occupation at this site. Comparing and...
Wetland Maize Farming by 6000 BP Gave Way to Upland Farming with the Rise of Ancient Maya Settlements and Political Centers (2023)
This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent research in the American neotropics suggests that cultivation of plants for food began early in the Middle Holocene (ca. 7500 BP) and continued for millennia prior to the adoption of surplus agricultural production of domesticated staple foods by 5000 BP in South America and 4000 BP in the Maya lowlands. Data...
What Happened to the Victims? Constructing a Model of Care for Cranial Trauma from Non-lethal Violence at Carrier Mills, Illinois (8000 – 2500 BP) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Systems of Care in Times of Violence" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A different model of care is required for trauma resulting from non-lethal violence. In the prehistoric Midwest, raiding and warfare were endemic, making trauma from non-lethal violence a part of everyday life. As such, the peoples living in this region would have needed a model of care specifically designed to treat individuals suffering from...
What Makes a Home? Searching for Wetus in Archaic New England (2017)
Archaic Period dwellings have largely gone unnoticed in New England due to poor preservation and thousands of years of bioturbation. However, a concentration of post molds, large and small pits, and fire hearths uncovered at the Halls Swamp Site in southeastern Massachusetts are attributes that characterize, and have been associated with, the few Native American semi-subterranean dwellings identified in New England. Recognizing structural attributes is essential for understanding Native American...
When Good Projects Go Well: A Partnered Project in Southern Oregon between the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, a Private Land Owner, and Associated Federal Agencies (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When a private landowner consistently finds artifacts on their property and wants to be open to outside research opportunities, it can be difficult to find the funds necessary for a thorough cultural resource inventory when there is no development project associated. Encouraging education as a tool to promote advocates for the cultural resources, developing...
Where You Least Expect It: A Preliminary Report on Excavations at 26EK16689 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Site 26EK16689 is a multiple component open archaeological site near West Wendover, Nevada, approximately three miles from Danger Cave. Despite a history of inundation, ground disturbance, and generally rough treatment, excavations have shown that site 26EK16689 preserves extensive and intact cultural deposits with good organic preservation. In addition,...
White Caps and Laptops: Results from the 2019 and 2020 Surveys of Submerged Precontact Landscapes in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Global Submerged Paleolandscapes Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sea-level rise models since the last glacial maximum demonstrate that the North American landmass available for precontact human habitation was larger than at present. In the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, less than 1 m2 of the continental shelf has been sampled and tested archaeologically. Out of 106 sediment cores acquired for...
The White Shaman Mural: The Story Behind the Book (2017)
The prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands created some of the most spectacular rock art of the ancient world. Perhaps the greatest of these masterpieces is the White Shaman mural. This presentation provides an introduction to our recently-published book The White Shaman Mural: An Enduring Creation Narrative, which is one of the most comprehensive analyses of a rock art mural ever attempted. Drawing on twenty-five years of archaeological research and analysis, as well as...
Why Do We Farm?: Risk Assessment of the Foraging Farming Transition in North America (2018)
The evolution of the genus Homo is characterized by the emergence of numerous biological and cultural traits including bipedalism, encephalization, and language. A more recent adaptation led humans to transition from a foraging subsistence strategy to one based on farming. This is significant because foraging persisted for approximately 95% of human existence until farming emerged about 12,000 years ago. For nearly a century, anthropologists have studied the foraging-farming transition and...
The World as His Oyster: Our Journey with Alan Simmons (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. Our journey with Alan Simmons began in Tucson, Arizona as graduate students at different institutions working for the Arizona State Museum. Through time we grew together personally and professionally and maintained contact even though often separated by space. Alan...