INAA (Other Keyword)
1-18 (18 Records)
The occurrence of "foreign" ceramic materials as well as the breakage and transport of speleothems during ancient Maya cave visitations have become an increasingly well-documented phenomenon (Brady et al. 1997). This phenomenon has raised several questions such as the spatial and temporal extent of these interactions, practices, meaning and specifically what does all this tell us about the relationship between Maya polities and proximal or distant caves. Geochemical analysis of geological...
Assessing Ceramic Production and Exchange in the Early Monte Albán State (Oaxaca, Mexico) (2015)
In this paper we present the results of an ongoing study of ceramic production and exchange in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, during the Late to Terminal Formative (500 BC–AD 200)—the period when the Monte Albán state formed and consolidated control over its hinterland and surrounding regions. We have found that adopting a multifaceted approach that combines chemical (INAA) data with detailed qualitative and quantitative mineralogical (petrographic) data enables us to differentiate cultural from...
Ceramic Paste Distribution and Market Exchange in the Tlacolula Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. (2015)
Over four decades ago, economic anthropologists recognized the importance of marketplace exchanges in the contemporary Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, but the historic roots of this region’s exchange system were less clear. Was the Oaxaca market system a product of recent capitalism, Spanish Conquest, Aztec imperialism, or were underpinnings even deeper in the past? Here, we examine INAA studies of ceramic assemblages from two Classic-period (ca. AD 200-850) sites in the Tlacolula arm of the Valley of...
Ceramic Production, Supply, and Exchange in the San Francisco Presidio Jurisdiction (2015)
In the late eighteenth century Spain occupied the San Francisco Bay Area and rapidly transformed the region through the introduction of agriculture, animal husbandry, Roman Catholicism, the Spanish language and the use of pottery. This presentation focuses on the latter, and considers the questions surrounding local manufacture, importation, and exchange of ceramics among the missions, presidio and pueblos of the San Francisco Presidio Jurisdiction. Through the application of instrumental...
Chert Characterization and Provenance in the mid-Fraser Region of British Columbia (2015)
Globally, chert is the most common rock material found in archaeological contexts. Its prevalence on the Earth’s surface in Quaternary deposits and relative abundance in archaeological contexts indicate that it was an important resource material for ancient populations and, as such, can provide information about toolstone exploitation in prehistory. The results of this research suggest a local origin for the chert artefacts recovered from ST 109 at the Keatley Creek site (EeRl-7) in the...
Compositional Analysis of Ceramics from the Las Trancas Valley, Nasca, Perú. (2015)
In this paper we address the results of an Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) on a sample of sherds from Santa Luisa and Higosñoc, two Las Trancas Valley sites from the Southern Nasca Region (SNR), Perú. By sampling sherds dating from the Early to the Late Horizon, this study adds temporal depth to previous compositional work in the region. While results confirm previous analysis conducted in the SNR suggesting compositional uniformity during Early Nasca, results also reveal...
A compositional signature of multi-craft production?: Food vessels from Great Plaza of Huacas de Sican (2016)
This paper discusses the results of a recent compositional analysis by INAA of 225 samples of ceramics sherds excavated from the Great Plaza of Huacas de Sicán. The analysis revealed a limited number (3) of compositional groups and a high rate of arsenic and uranium in one group. The author argues that the high rate of arsenic indicates the side-by-side production of arsenical copper and ceramic vessels and that the vessels used at the Great Plaza were produced at the regional ceramic workshop...
Elemental Analysis of Chanka Pottery from Wari-era and Post-collapse Settlements using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (2016)
The Chanka were an ethnically distinct population that occupied territory in modern-day Apurimac, Peru. During the Middle Horizon (MH) (600-1000 AD) Chanka sites considered in this study were situated along roads connecting three major administrative centers of the Wari Empire: Huari, Pikillacta, and Jincamocco. After the imperial collapse during the Late Intermediate Period (LIP) (1000-1476 AD), evidence of increased violence suggests a shift in regional social organization. This study utilized...
Juntando La Junta: Bringing Together Ceramics Research in the La Junta Region of West Texas (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The La Junta de los Ríos (or La Junta) region of West Texas and Northeast Chihuahua is composed of villages scattered around the confluence of the Rio Conchos and Rio Grande. Based on limited investigations, La Junta village sites (AD 1200-1684) appear to be archeologically similar to, yet distinct from, adjacent Mogollon groups. While the region has been...
NAA Analysis of Ambato Ceramics from the Southern Andes (Eastern Valleys of Catamarca and Tucuman, Argentina) (2016)
We analyze the provenience of clays used in the manufacture of Aguada ceramics, mainly black incised, characteristic of the Ambato valley of southeastern Catamarca (Argentina). This ceramic style is also present in lesser quantities in sites of other neighboring valleys/regions, most of it manufactured with the same clay. The research is part of a broader project to study economic organization and the emergence of complex societies in northwestern Argentina. Research that took place in the...
Not so Exotic After All?: Results from A Characterization of "Puebloan" and "Micaceous" Ceramics from Dismal River Aspect Sites (2015)
Small numbers of supposedly "Southwestern" sherds appear at many sites on the Great Plains. Some Dismal River aspect (AD 1650-1725) people living on the Central and High Plains had extensive contact with people in northern New Mexico and may have lived with Puebloan migrants in the late 1600s. Exotic ceramics appear at several Dismal River sites including red slipped wares and micaceous sherds. Using a combination of NAA and petrography, we characterized a sample of these sherds from several...
Partnering for Power: Castillo de Huarmey Relations with the Wari (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Decade of Multidisciplinary Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. By Middle Horizon Epoch 2 (AD 800–850) the Wari polity was a generation old and assumed to reflect a complex hegemony based on ruins of a cosmopolitan capital in the Ayacucho-Huanta valley and artifact associations among ethnically distinct communities throughout the Andes. The complexity includes shared artistic...
Production and Pilgrimage: Summarizing a Decade of INAA in the Southern Nasca Region (2016)
This poster presents a comprehensive evaluation of INAA work on ceramics from the Southern Nasca Region from the Early Horizon through the Late Intermediate period. For the first time we present previously unpublished work from the Las Trancas Valley in Nasca. The results from the analysis confirm previous studies suggesting centralized production in the region during the Early Intermediate period and decentralized production before and after this period. We attribute this long-term pattern to...
Recruited or Annexed Lineages: A Chemical Analysis of Purén and Lumaco Pottery and Clays (2016)
The Purén-Lumaco Project conducted an archaeological survey of the Purén and Lumaco Valley in Chile (approximately 30 km) from 1994-2004. During the survey, Dillehay and colleagues noted 300+ prehistoric and historic localities that ranged from agricultural features to multifunctional mounds. Those archaeological features represent an Araucanian polity dating to the Early Prehistoric (AD 500-1550) and early Hispanic (AD 1550-1700) periods. The chiefdom-level polity was strong politically and...
Rural Craft Production and Market Participation in Late Classic Oaxaca: A Case Study from Yaasuchi (2015)
Many models of the Zapotec economy during the Classic Period (AD 200 – 850) have relied on an assumption of mutual dependence between rural farmers and urban craft specialists, yet little research has focused explicitly on the economic behavior of rural households. To address this assumption, over 300 archaeological ceramics from the rural site of Yaasuchi - including samples from two domestic structures and a ceramic firing feature - were characterized via INAA to establish provenance. Results...
Title: Exploring the Keresan Bridge: Acoma Glaze Ware Pottery Production and Exchange in an Inter-Regional Context (2017)
In recent years, patterns of decorated pottery production and exchange, as revealed through mineralogical, chemical and isotopic characterization analyses, have been central to modelling the inter-regional dynamics of late precontact social networks in the American Southwest. However, the role of the Acoma region within these networks remains poorly studied and largely unknown. In particular, questions remain about the significance of the Acoma or Western Keres region as a potential "bridge"...
Using Natural Breaks to Work Together: Compositional Analysis of Archaeological Ceramics using Petrography and NAA (2015)
Historically, the application of petrographic techniques and NAA to the compositional analysis of archaeological ceramics in the New World emerged from two very distinct intellectual foundations. Initially, petrographers focused on studying temper to characterize the types of materials used, their geological sources, and their coarseness in an effort to reconstruct the cultural development of potting traditions and interaction among cultures. NAA, on the other hand, was originally used to...
You’re Not from Around Here, Are You? Ceramic Figurines and Interregional Interaction in the Tres Zapotes Region (2017)
The multi-year study of the ceramic figurines of Tres Zapotes recovered from archaeological explorations at the site center and the surrounding area indicate patterns of interactions throughout the development of the region. Supplemental museum specimens from past excavations at Tres Zapotes, residing in the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution, were also incorporated into laboratory analysis. The data are examined for evidence of exchange with other communities,...