Formative (Other Keyword)
1-25 (172 Records)
In 1987, the author’s doctoral dissertation featured a comprehensive analysis of calibrated radiocarbon dates associated with the earliest ceramic complexes in the Americas towards a model for the emergence of sedentary lifeways. This resulted in a critical evaluation of James Ford’s posthumously published model for the Early Formative diffusion of pottery as well as other cultural features in a region extending from the Southeastern U.S. through Mesoamerica and the Isthmo-Colombian Area to the...
The Active Materiality of Obsidian (2019)
This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When Steve Shackley informed me that over 90% of obsidian samples from Puerto Escondido, Honduras, that he had analyzed came from an unidentified source, presumably nearby, he started a process of re-education that led me to a place where he may not be comfortable, but that I deeply appreciate. This involves a...
The Adoption of Agriculture in the Tehuacan Valley, Mexico: Stable Isotope Data for 10,000 Years of Environmental and Dietary Change (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Subsistence Crops and Animals as a Proxy for Human Cultural Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. An enduring focus in anthropological research concerns the causes for adoption of agriculture in multiple regions across the globe near the onset of the Holocene. The Tehuacan Valley of Puebla, Mexico, represents a unique location to explore long-term trends of human-plant coevolution as the dry climate of the valley...
Altica ceramics and figurines: Stylistic and chronological analyses (2017)
Craft specialization and exchange feature prominently in explanations for the development of the first complex societies in Mesoamerica. It is clear from analyses of surface collections at Altica that during the Early and early Middle Formative periods (c. 1300-850 B.C.) its inhabitants exported obsidian tools and imported pottery from long distances, including the southern Gulf Coast. Altica is one of the few early agricultural settlements located in the northern Basin of Mexico from which we...
Anarchy in the Trenches: Perspectives on Buen Suceso (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In many ways, Buen Suceso is a unique archaeological site. Not only is it a multicomponent site, with evidence for occupation throughout almost the entirety of the ~2,200-year Valdivia sequence and specialized use by the much later Manteño culture, but it exhibits an occupational...
Apishapa Structures and Subsistence Strategies in Purgatoire Canyon Colorado (2018)
From 2002 to the present we excavated five Apishapa Structures in the Purgatoire Canyon. This presentation will provide a brief synthesis of structural types and food ways of the sites inhabitants. It appears that maize and a variety of wild plants made up a considerable portion of the Apishapa diet. Analysis of the floral remains from these sites indicate the sites inhabitants relied heavily on available edible plants but also consumed exotics such as pecans. This brief synthesis puts forth our...
Archaeobotanical Data and Site Reports for El Ujuxte and La Blanca, Guatemala Excavations
These are the raw data files associated with the analysis of archaeobotanical remains recovered from excavations of the Middle Formative La Blanca and Late Formative El Ujuxte, Guatemala. Aside from the raw botanical data, these files include the 1996,1997, and 2000 informes from El Ujuxte and the 2005 and 2008 informes from La Blanca.
Archaeomagnetic Directional Studies as a Tool for Understanding Feature Form and Function: A Case Study of Two Burned Rock Features in a Multicomponent Site in East Texas, USA (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Fire-Cracked Rock: Research in Cooking and Noncooking Contexts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Directional archaeomagnetic techniques were used to propose use-history models for two burned rock features at archaeological site 41AN162, in Anderson County, Texas, USA. While common in the region, such burned rock features are rarely associated with cultural artifacts that indicate their function. Archaeologists have...
Architectural Conservation at Cuetlajuchitlán, an Archaeological Site in Northern Guerrero, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the most successful ways in which we adapt to the environment is through the creation of architecture. This is the reflection of our aspirations and our achievements as a species; it is in architecture where we capture part of our cultural identity. In this sense, and as part of cultural identity, architecture can help us to observe and analyze the...
Arroyo Pesquero y su "otra" ofrenda (2018)
Desde el descubrimiento de una ofrenda masiva de objetos rituales hallada fortuitamente en un arroyo, el sitio Arqueológico de Arroyo Pesquero enclavado en el área nuclear olmeca ha generado una serie de discusiones acerca de la autenticidad de piezas dispersas en museos y colecciones privadas. Las piezas más representativas son máscaras y hachas de piedra verde con una iconografía propia de la cultura olmeca. Sin embargo, una parte del material del sitio se ha subestimado. Por Medellín Zenil...
"The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization" y nuestras excavaciones en el Sur de la Cuenca de Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cuando llegó a nosotros el contenido The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization se nos abrió un horizonte nuevo para explorar una región fundamental de nuestro patrimonio arqueológico como es el sur de la cuenca de México. Guiados por las enseñanzas...
Breaking the Site Museum Mold: Designing the Dos Mangas Community Museum (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Working with the Community in Ecuador" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations began in Dos Mangas in 2006, and continued with excavation of a Valdivia village site, Buen Suceso, in 2009. Those and subsequent excavations carried out by Sarah Rowe have combined archaeological inquiry with community engagement activities such as presentations in the primary school, workshops for community guides,...
Brothers of Invention: Comparing Trends in Innovation in the New World Formative (2016)
Competition between Andean Formative centers seems to have stimulated rapid rates of innovation in technology, architecture, art, and behaviors such as ritual. This in turn seems to reflect a significant change of the role and nature of religion as a force promoting or resisting change, introducing a motivation for radical transformation within a background of conservative, heavily tradition-based practices. These processes are particularly evident in recent investigations in Chavin de Huantar,...
Building Social Complexity: Differences in Bedrock Use at Early Formative Etlatongo in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Construction materials such as earthen fills have frequently been an afterthought for many archaeologists interested in understanding past social relations in Mesoamerica. In this paper we reconcile this situation by assessing how the relationship between humans and materials, in regard to the use of construction fills, may have played out a significant role...
Camping and Hot-Rock Cooking: Hunter-Gatherer Land Use across the Southwest Pecos Slopes (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding changes in mobility and subsistence practices among Jornada Mogollon hunter-gatherer groups remains a substantial research issue. Residents across the Permian Basin largely maintained a hunting-and-gathering cultural adaption throughout prehistoric times, although some segment of the local population practiced cultivation during the Late...
Ceramics and Community: A Yucuita Phase Ceramic Cache at Etlatongo (2018)
Feasting is a well-documented phenomenon in Mesoamerica as a means of community integration and interaction. Ceramic analysis of Op. B, Pozo 20, Feature 1 from the site of Etlatongo may point to one such feasting event at the site. This Yucuita phase (500-300 BC) feature was a primary refuse deposit of ceramic, lithic, and faunal artifacts intermixed with extremely ashy sediment, probably from a specific event. An overview of the stratigraphy of the feature and an inventory of the assemblage...
Changing Urban Networks in Formative Central Mexico: A View from Tlalancaleca, Puebla (2018)
It is likely that Formative urban centers and their interactions with one another provided cultural and historical settings for the creation of Central Mexican urban traditions during later periods. Yet their urbanization process remains poorly understood. Our research over the last six field seasons indicates that some residential groups were settled at Tlalancaleca towards 800 BC and the settlement was urbanized with a significant population growth during the later Middle Formative period (ca....
Chert at Chalcatzingo: Implications of Knapping Strategies and Technological Organization for Formative Economics (2015)
The site of Chalcatzingo, at the eastern edge of the state of Morelos, Mexico, has been an important source of information about shifting economic and social dynamics during the Formative period. Lithic analyses focusing on the site's specialized obsidian knapping have played a significant role in showing Chalcatzingo's place as a trade hub situated at the boundary between the central highlands and Gulf Coast regions. This paper reports on the site's chert lithic assemblage and presents the...
Chiapa de Corzo: rutas de intercambio e interacción cultural entre las regiones zoque y maya (2018)
Chiapa de Corzo se distinguió como una de las principales capitales zoques en la Depresión Central de Chiapas por casi dos milenios, hasta su abandono a finales del periodo Clásico. Su localización sobre una meseta elevada, que dominaba el valle del río Grande o Grijalva, resultó estratégica en el control de una de las principales vías de comunicación y transporte de recursos entre la costa y las tierras altas mayas. El sistema de comunicaciones asociado al río Grijalva constituyó el eje de una...
Circular Worlds: Comparison and Reflections on the Earthen Architecture of Lowland South American Circular Villages (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. As a mentor, Tom Dillehay has formed and influenced me and archaeologists from the southern cone of South America on a variety of themes, including the peopling of America, plant domestication, and the arrival of monuments. In particular, Dillehay had a significant impact on how we think about the uses,...
Climate Change and Polyculture Agroforestry Systems: Examples from Amazonian Dark Earths (2018)
In this presentation, we discuss pre-Columbian Amazonian Dark Earth (ADE) polyculture agroforestry systems and its implications for management and conservation efforts on Amazonian sustainable futures under current threat from climate change and development. We present and compare new multi-proxy paleoclimate, palaeoecological and archaeobotanical data from two mid to late Holocene records of land use history of ADE in Santarem (Lower Amazon) and the Itenez Forest Reserve (SW Amazonia). Our data...
Clouds for Water, Forest for Healing: Prehispanic Cultural Dynamics in the Cloud Forests of the Northern Andes (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Tropical Montane Cloud Forests" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The cloud forests along the eastern and western foothills of the northern Andes have received little attention in the overall archaeology of South America. These regions of broken geography and dense forests have historically been considered culturally poor, with little impact on the sociocultural transformations of the Andean and...
Coastal-Highland Interaction in Early Formative Period Mesoamerica: The Ceramic Affiliations of La Consentida (2018)
Early Formative period pottery from the site of La Consentida in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico, bears indications of both local developments and interregional influences. In previous papers, I have presented stylistic evidence for interaction between La Consentida and potters from distant West Mexican traditions such as Capacha and Opeño. While some of La Consentida’s decorated Tlacuache phase vessels suggest involvement in a system of long-distance interaction along Mesoamerica’s Pacific coast, more...
Colors in the Chupicuaro Ceramic Tradition: A Diachronic Perspective during the Late Formative (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. In Northwestern Mesoamerica, polychromy is a characteristic of Chupicuaro pottery during the Late Formative. It is the case for the hollow figures whose decoration is obtained by overlapping geometric motives painted in white and black on a red background. The figurines were also polychrome, even if the paints...
Constituting the Divine: Coastal Cuisine and Public Places in the Formative-period Lower Río Verde Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Food was central to the constitution of sacred public spaces during the Formative period in the lower Río Verde valley on Oaxaca’s Pacific coast. Public facilities at small sites and at the region’s largest precolumbian architectural complex, the Río Viejo acropolis, were the location not only of collective food consumption but also of food...