Formative (Other Keyword)
101-125 (172 Records)
Over 400 pieces of bone and eggshell were collected during excavation at the Nine Gal Tavern site (11CH541) located in western Champaign County, Illinois in 1987 and 1991 by a team led by archaeologist Lenville Stelle. The majority of the remains analyzed were recovered within feature context in the immediate vicinity of the established Nine Gal Tavern structure. The purpose of this paper is to describe the identification of these faunal remains which are housed at the Anthropology Program at...
O'na Tok: A Preclassic Zoque Center in Western Chiapas, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Trade and Exchange" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Preliminary explorations at the previously unknown Zoque site of O’na Tök reveals within a mid-montane wet forest, a multifaceted archaeological landscape containing an early ceremonial center, an expansive area of long architectural platforms, and nearby caves used for ritual purposes. Artifacts recovered on the surface suggest occupation during...
O'na Tök: A Zoque Center in Western Chiapas, México (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In June of 2016, the archaeological site designated O'na Tök was recorded as a primary center in the western portion of the Central Depression of Chiapas, Mexico. Preliminary studies of cultural material recovered on the surface and test pits suggest the Zoque of O'na Tök participated in an exchange network with contemporary centers during the Early...
Obsidian Exchange and Use in Early Formative Chalcatzingo (2018)
In the Middle Formative, Chalcatzingo was one of Highland Mexico’s dominant settlements. At its peak, Chalcatzingo had a well-developed obsidian blade technology and established lines of trade with the Gulf Coast. Chalcatzingo’s role in the exchange of obsidian in earlier periods is less well understood. This paper combines geochemical sourcing and technological analysis of an Early Formative obsidian assemblage from Chalcatzingo in order to elucidate this role. Geochemical sourcing enables a...
The Obsidian Industries of Altica, Mexico (2015)
Preliminary analysis of obsidian artifacts recovered from survey and excavation at the Early/Middle Formative site of Altica in the Teotihuacan Valley indicate the presence of several distinct modes of raw material acquisition, reduction, and utilization. These various modes are described from a technological perspective and possible logistical, social, economic, and political correlates are considered. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology...
Obsidian Tool Functions at Early Formative Altica, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In central Mexican archaeology, tool functions have often been assumed for lithic artifacts based on material types and tool forms, which are classified broadly with labels such as bifaces, scrapers, blades, and flakes. Integrating the method of use-wear analysis derived through experimental archaeology is the most effective way to improve our understanding of...
The Offerings of Cerro de la Virgen, Oaxaca, Mexico: Ontological Perspectives on a Unique Assemblage of Ritual Deposits (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recent ontological turn in archaeological research has resulted in a proliferation of theoretical approaches inspired by non-representational and non-anthropocentric scholarship. In relational ontologies such as those of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, objects could possess a life force that allowed them to engage with other animate beings, to animate other...
Olmec Archaeology in the Arroyo Pesquero Region (2015)
Studies on the Olmec frequently focus on the ostentatious nature of the society such as large centers and monumental works of art, often ignoring the important role of smaller sites in regional hierarchies. In order to remedy this bias, we initiated the Proyecto Arqueológico Arroyo Pesquero, which is investigating sites in the Eastern Olmec Heartland. This project is unique in Olmec studies in that it takes a bottom-up approach to the study of the Middle Formative Olmec by collecting...
Organic Inclusions in Amazonian Ceramics: A Petrographic Approach (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Step by Step: Tracing World Potting Traditions through Ceramic Petrography" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Organic inclusions, such as freshwater spicules (cauixi) and tree bark ash (caraipé) are one of the most diagnostic elements of pottery production in the Amazon basin. At the Monte Castelo shell mound (southwestern Amazonia), Bacabal pottery represents the widespread use of sponge spicules in the ceramic paste,...
The Origins of Maya Civilization: New Evidence from Ceibal and Sites in the Middle Usumacinta Basin (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The analysis of new LiDAR data has revealed many previously unknown early Middle Preclassic sites in the Middle Usumacinta drainage. The sites are monumental in their extensions and consist of a large rectangular feature or platform oriented slightly east of north, delineated by low mounds...
Over the Hills and Far Away: Evaluating Competing Models for Early Ceramic Period Mobility in the Southern Rocky Mountains (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transition from the Late Archaic (1200 B.C. to A.D. 150) to the Early Ceramic (A.D. 150 – A.D. 1150) in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming is characterized by decreasing mobility, a trend reflected by the adoption of ceramic technology, limited stone architecture, and longer site occupation. Contrasted against this shift to longer occupations is...
Paleoenvironment, Population, and the Origins of Resource Intensification on the Eastern Edge of the Colorado Plateau (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Geoarchaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Site 5ME13127, a Formative-Era camp at the eastern edge of the Colorado Plateau, was excavated in 2018. Macrofloral and faunal analyses indicate small seeds and lagomorphs dominated subsistence by AD320-420, and the bow was adopted by AD560-650. Sediment cores from Kannah Creek fen on Grand Mesa (27km southeast) provide paleoenvironmental context for interpretations of...
The Paracas Phenomenon as an Interaction Sphere during the First Millenium B.C. (2016)
During the first millenium B. C. the southern coast experiments deep changes in social processes form small household formations to complex societies with central places within interaction networks of short, small and long distance. Thus, Paracas suggests a non-existent homogeneity. Since the Middle Formative, contacts with the North Coast lead to a fusion of local and regional features. During Late Paracas regional traditions, dominate spheres characterized by larger sites linked to smaller...
PeoPLE 3K: Understanding the Population Dynamics of the Americas in the Context of Regional and Global Environmental Change (2018)
From the civilizations in Easter Island to the Mayas or to the collapse of the prehistoric populations in the Great Basin, researchers have proposed a wide range of hypotheses to disentangle the causes and drivers behind such pronounced demographic change. PeoPLE (PalEOclimate and the PeoPLing of the Earth) 3K is a new working group recently created by Past Global Changes (PAGES) to examine in detail how environmental change over the last 3000 years has affected, either by facilitating...
The People of the Lagoon: Sambaquis and Ecological Management on the Southern Brazilian Coast (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sambaquis (shellmounds) are conspicuous structures at ecologically productive and diversified coastal settings along the Brazilian extended seashore. We have studied one of those hot spots in some detail. At Santa Marta lagoon area, on the southern coast, mound builders have long...
Persistence in Ruins: Animation, Remembrance, and Rupture at Etlatongo, Oaxaca (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Vibrancy of Ruins: Ruination Studies in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rather than static vestiges of the past, we view ruins and material objects from the past as important generative components of communities and human projects. Informed by a relational ontology that views some objects and matter as charged and animate, we situate our research at Etlatongo in broader Mixtec and Mesoamerican...
Platform Mounds and Pueblos: A Focus on Diversity and Function (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Why Platform Mounds? Part 2: Regional Comparisons and Tribal Histories" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A unique set of architectural forms, known as platform mounds, emerged in the Phoenix Basin during the early Classic period, presumably evolving from older Hohokam dance mounds. Usually surrounded by walls enclosing compounds, platform mounds initially served as the focal points of dispersed rancheria-style villages...
Political and Economic Dynamics of Maritime Communities of the South Coast of Peru During the First Millenium BC: The Excavations of the Paracas Archaeological Project at Disco Verde and Puerto Nuevo (2016)
Extensively excavated by Frederic Engel in the 1950’s and 1960’s, Disco Verde and Puerto Nuevo are very well known in the archaeological literature of the south coast of Peru for their occupations dating back to the first millennium BC. Recent excavations by the Paracas Archaeological Project in these two sites have resulted in the recovery of crucial information to improve our understanding of the role maritime communities played in the expansion and intensification of long-distance exchange...
Pozuelo: The Earliest Ceramic from Chincha Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From the Paracas Culture to the Inca Empire: Recent Archaeological Research in the Chincha Valley, Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Nuestras recientes excavaciones arqueológicas en el valle de Chincha fueron realizadas en el sitio arqueológico de Pozuelo descubierto por Lanning y Wallace en la década de 1960. Desde entonces, Pozuelo ha sido citado como el sitio que contuvo a la cerámica más temprana del valle de...
Prehistoric and Historical Period Agricultural Strategies in the Western Papagueria: Archaeological and O'odham Perspectives (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Transcending Boundaries and Exploring Pasts: Current Archaeological Investigations of the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper investigates prehistoric and historical period agricultural strategies in the Western Papagueria, a vast area of southwest Arizona and Northwest Mexico. It is the hottest and driest portion of the Sonoran Desert with temperatures that exceed 110o and rainfall...
Prehistoric Dogs in the Uruguay Lowlands (2018)
This paper presents archaeological information about domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) recovered in prehistoric sites in the southeastern lowlands of Uruguay. The presence of dog in the archaeological record is associated to horticultural activities of hunter-gatherers adapted to the very dynamic conditions of this flood ecosystem during the Holocene. Dog findings in mounds have a recurrent and unique association with burials. This context allows a starting discussion on the economic,...
A Preliminary Analysis of Early Ramos Phase Ceramics from the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico (2018)
During the Late Formative period, social relations were transformed due to increasing political centralization and urbanization in regions throughout Oaxaca. In the Nochixtlán Valley of the Mixteca Alta, Early Ramos phase (300-100 B.C.) ceramics from urban centers in the region reflect significant stylistic change from the preceding Yucuita phase (500-300 B.C.) ceramics. This presents an opportunity to explore how social change may be reflected in stylistic changes of material culture from this...
Producing Community and Communal Production: Examining Evidence for Collective Practices at Complex B, Cerro de la Virgen, Oaxaca, Mexico (2018)
Recent research in the lower Río Verde Valley of Pacific coastal Oaxaca, Mexico has indicated that, during the Terminal Formative Period (150 BC - AD 250), public buildings were loci of communal practices such as feasting, collective labor, cemetery burial, and object caching. Idiosyncrasies in these practices among Terminal Formative sites in the valley suggest that political authority and community identity was constituted on the local level. While the best evidence for these practices comes...
Production and Exchange of the Earliest Ceramics in central Mexico (2018)
Compositional studies in central Mexico have largely focused on serving wares of the later Teotihuacan and Postclassic periods. Studies of the region’s earliest ceramics of the Formative period have been almost completely ignored. The earliest ceramics made in the region tend to be much coarser than the later serving wares, so we cannot use the existing reference databases to source them. Here we build the Formative reference database with a large sample of chemical and petrographic data...
Provenance Analysis of Tempering Materials using Quantitative Petrography in the Formative Basin of Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Cross-Cultural Petrographic Studies of Ceramic Traditions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramics sourcing studies in the Basin of Mexico suffer from the interior drainage problem. Sediment erodes from the mountains and mixes as it drains inward toward the lake at the center. Material composition, and the ceramics made from them, grades subtly over space as a result, making provenance analysis difficult. In a prior...