Formative (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Young. Sadie Weber.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Murra’s model of the vertical archipelago continues to reverberate in discussions of ecological exploitation across Andean regions, while other scholars have argued that such frameworks essentialize Andean societies by projecting ethnohistorical data onto the deep past. New ceramic, microbotanical, and isotopic evidence from Atalla and other sites in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Diana Carvajal Contreras.

The concept of formative in Colombia is traditionally framed as a transitional period within the unilineal cultural evolution in the Americas, characterized for several indicators such as sedentary life, diversity of socio-economic forms and the emergence of new technologies such as pottery. In this paper, we revised two archaeological sites: Monsu and Puerto Hormiga, incorporating zooarchaeological analysis, technological and use–wear analyses to provide understanding into past human behavior...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Burger.

Chavin de Huantar continues to play a central role in our understanding of the Central Andes during the Initial Period and Early Horizon and thus an understanding of it chronological position remains crucial. This talk will present a critique of the contribution of recent work at Chavin to this theme, including a consideration of both ceramic and radiocarbon sequences. A new set of radiocarbon measurements based on the analysis of animal bone from the residential sector will be presented and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Guy Hepp.

This is an abstract from the "A Construir Puentes / Building Bridges: Diálogos en Oaxaca Archaeology a través de las Fronteras" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since its publication in 1976, *The Early Mesoamerican Village has been a landmark for the systematic study of early settled communities. Based on research in the Valley of Oaxaca, *EMV has helped many students of archaeology to better understand household and community organization and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kimberly Munro.

This is an abstract from the "Peering into the Night: Transition, Sociopolitical Organization, and Economic Dynamics after the Dusk of Chavín in the North Central Andes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines the Upper Nepeña Valley, along the Jimbe River branch and its tributaries. Numerous Early Horizon centers were documented throughout the upper valley, with a distinctive settlement pattern and construction at sites within the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Mendelsohn.

In southern Mesoamerica, the transition from the Formative period to Classic period (100 B.C.- A.D. 400) was a time of population decline, cessation of monumental construction, and the abandonment of many sites. Environmental explanations such as drought and volcanic activity have been proposed as potential trigger factors for the widespread collapse at the close of the Formative period. Current evidence suggests that residents of the early capital of Izapa, located on a piedmont environmental...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeffrey Brzezinski. Guy Hepp.

This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse II: Current Research in Oaxaca Part 2" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A hallmark of ancient Mesoamerican art and religion is the ability of powerful ritual practitioners, sometimes referred to as “shamans,” to transform themselves. The Olmec were-jaguar is probably the best-known example of the phenomenon. However, artifacts from different regions of Mesoamerica demonstrate that this was a diverse...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eduardo Neves.

The archaeological record of the Middle Holocene is lacking in many areas of lowland South America. The reasons for such hiatuses are yet not clear, but there is an emerging pattern showing that the areas where one finds complete records of human occupation that span most of the Holocene are typically located on estuaries, extensive floodplains or other wetlands normally placed at ecotones. On the other hand, mounting paleoeocological data shows that the climatic conditions of the Middle...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Lesure. Greg Schachner. Kate Bishop. Brittany Jackson. R. J. Sinensky.

This paper examines the large-scale texture and timing of demographic transitions associated with the development of settled agricultural life in the Americas. Based on previous work concerning the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT) worldwide, we draw on two sources of published data (skeletal remains and surface survey) to trace Formative-era population growth rates across a huge region, including the US Southwest, Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Andes. The goal is to assess the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yuji Seki. Diana Alemán. Percy Santiago. Nagisa Nakagawa. Megumi Arata.

Pacopampa is one of the largest ceremonial centers in the Formative Period located at the north highlands of Peru. Almost all the ritual space was destroyed after the Formative Period, however, the square sunken court was reused by the people belonging to the Early Cajamarca Period. Some platforms and rooms were constructed at the center of the court and a series of ritual activities associated with a lot of miniature pottery could be observed. After that unusual activities the court was orderly...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gerardo Aldana. Marcus Thomson. Thomas Thelen. Toni Gonzalez.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In "The Forms of Capital," Pierre Bourdieu writes: “[t]he social world is accumulated history, and if it is not to be reduced to a discontinuous series of instantaneous mechanical equilibria between agents who are treated as interchangeable particles, one must reintroduce into it the notion of capital and with it, accumulation and all its effects.” His attempt...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brigitte Faugere.

This is an abstract from the "Mesoamerican Figurines in Context. New Insights on Tridimensional Representations from Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Western Mexico, as in Mesoamerica generally, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines are rather often found in groups, either in caches or in funerary context. These particular contexts allow substantial advances in our understanding of their uses and possible meanings, in particular...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Brodie.

Analyses of settlement locations (such as hamlets and farmsteads) within the Volcán Barú region of Panama and their associated periods of occupation suggest that during certain times, such as the Chiriquí Period, soil fertility was an important factor in determining the location. However, during other periods, it does not seem to have been significant. There also is a centralization of the population during the late formative, or Late Bugaga Phase, which correlates with previous findings of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Carpenter. Elisa Villalpando. James Watson.

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. Our research at the extraordinary La Playa Site (SON F:10:3) is now entering its twenty-third year. This site is located at the Boquillas Valley about 10 km north of Estación Trincheras and some 27 km west of Santa Ana, Sonora. The La Playa site presents an archaeological landscape revealing evidence of continuous...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Beekman.

This is an abstract from the "Coastal Connections: Pacific Coastal Links from Mexico to Ecuador" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Much research on the links between Mesoamerica and South America has focused on the methods of exploitation of shell (e.g. Spondylus, Strombus) and its possible trade across sub-regions. However, superficially similar methods of exploitation may be local solutions to common problems and methods for sourcing shell remain...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy Sullivan.

Data from a surface survey of 105 sq km in and around the site of Chiapa de Corzo indicate that over the course of the Late Formative, serving vessels of Sierra Red, a style that originated in the Maya Lowlands, were widely adopted across the Chiapa de Corzo polity. At the capital early Sierra Red serving vessels largely conformed to the size of serving vessels from the Maya Lowlands. In the hinterland, however, the Sierra Red vessels people were using had dimensions that conformed more tightly...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Zoe Rawski.

This is an abstract from the "The Preclassic Landscape in the Mopan Valley, Belize" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the last five years, intensive investigations of Structure F1 at Early Xunantunich, Belize, have shed light on a dynamic and important time in the site’s early history. The monumental platform structure played an important role in the early ceremonial center, creating the site’s northern boundary, hosting large public rituals,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ricardo Higelin Ponce De Leon. Alicia C. Gonzales. Jeffrey Blomster.

Sedentism and agriculture had major impacts on early human societies by increasing social complexity. Some scholars attributed an intensification of inequalities to a greater dependency on agriculture. This dependency, consequently lead to decreased health status of the non-elite/rulers population. Our goal is to address the overarching question of, how did agriculture impact ancient societies? And specifically, does the emergence of agriculture correlate with decreased health? Therefore, we...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexander Jurado. Tatsuya Murakami.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fieldwork recently undertaken at Tlalancaleca, Puebla, explored a residential complex dating to the Texoloc phase (650 – 500 BC) of the Middle Formative period. Horizontal excavations exposed a residential platform and several wattle and daub rooms flanking a central patio. This paper presents interpretations regarding: (1) the status of inhabitants; and (2)...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Véronique Darras. Brigitte Faugère.

Chupicuaro reached its cultural and demographic peak between 400 and 100 BCE. This Formative culture was integrated into the western Mesoamerican sphere and was characterized by its homogeneity, with diversified but still poorly understood relationships with Central Mexico, particularly in the sites of Cuicuilco and Cerro de los Tepalcates, and Tlaxcala-Puebla area. The decades before our era underwent both socio-spatial reconfigurations, probably due to rapid environmental change in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lacey Carpenter. Leah Minc.

This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The two occupations at Tilcajete, El Mogote and El Palenque, offer a unique perspective on the political and economic changes surrounding the rise of Monte Albán. Located in the southern arm of the Valley of Oaxaca, El Mogote was an important Rosario phase (700–500 BCE) community that grew in size and political importance during the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Colin Ferriman.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Environmental studies associated with the Dead Horse Lateral Pipeline project of Grand County Utah afforded archaeologists from Cultural Resource Analysts Inc. an opportunity to intensively study the cultural resources within and around the pipeline corridor. This multifaceted research examined both micro analyses associated with individual sites, artifacts,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Veronica Perez Rodriguez.

This is an abstract from the "Advancing Public Perceptions of Sustainability through Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Researchers that study pre-Hispanic urbanism in the Mixteca Alta often remark that the region today is eroded and sparsely populated. Places that in the past supported urban populations in the tens of thousands today seem to struggle to sustain a few hundred. Some have called this the Mixtec paradox. Research on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kim Richter.

This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 1" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although the Huasteca belongs to the Mesoamerican culture area and the Gulf Coast region, some scholars have asserted that its culture, emblematized by its sculptural tradition, was isolated. The examination of Huastec stone sculptures from different periods reveals not only its links to other artistic traditions in Mesoamerica but...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alicia Gonzales. Jeffrey Blomster. Ricardo Higelin Ponce de León.

Recent excavations at the Middle Formative (850 – 400 BCE) site of Etlatongo, in the Mixteca male bearing striking red stains on the anterior cranium. These findings may suggest alteration of remains associated with burial rituals. However, human remains may be modified through several post-mortem taphonomic effects, including: trauma, rodent activity, discoloring, staining, cultural modification, interment rituals, damage throughout archaeological investigation procedures, biological and...