Baja California (Other Keyword)
1-9 (9 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Novel Statistical Techniques in Archaeology II (QUANTARCH II)" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events influence climatic variation on a global scale, considerably impacting modern human and animal populations. There is, however, a dearth of literature regarding the long-term effects of ENSO variation on prehistoric vertebrate populations. Here we examine how kangaroo rat (Dipodomys...
ENSO and the rabbits of Baja California (2015)
The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a major source of climatic variation worldwide, with significant impacts on modern human and animal populations. However, few detailed records exist on the long-term effects of ENSO on prehistoric vertebrate populations. Here we examine how lagomorph deposition rate, population age structure and taxonomic composition from Abrigo de los Escorpiones, a well-dated, trans-Holocene vertebrate fauna from northern Baja California, Mexico, vary as a function of...
Feedback Loops, Demographic Circumscription, and Changing Labor Organization on Isla Cedros, Baja California, Mexico (2016)
Discussions of resilience theory (see Redman 2005; Folke 2006; and others) and its application to ancient human ecological systems view the process of cultural change as perpetually dynamic and involving patterns reliant upon a wide range of underlying factors constantly altered by a variety of catalysts and forces. This differs from more linear arguments of transformation by unidirectional external forcing. One such complex transformation occurred on Isla Cedros Baja California, in the Late...
The Late 1570s Manila Galleon Shipwreck in Baja California (2017)
Our fourteen Mexico-United States expeditions from 1999 to 2015 to a wreck site along the desert shore of Baja California, and study of contemporary documents, have enabled us to reconstruct the story of the earliest eastbound Manila galleon shipwreck. The results include dating the ship to the period 1574 through approximately 1578, recovering her history, and explaining her tragic fate. We have discovered lead sheathing with iron nails from her lower hull, large amounts of beeswax from her...
Perishable Disparity: Mortuary treatment in Baja California Sur (2015)
Missionary and explorer accounts document status differences in adornment, possession of ceremonial items, and body proportions in the marine foraging populations of the Cape Region, Baja California Sur, Mexico. The antecedent and concurrent Las Palmas Culture (ca. A.D. 1200 to 1700) was originally defined by William Massey based on excavation of small exclusive-use mortuary caves. Each cave held one or two primary interments and several secondary bundle burials representing both sexes and all...
Remembering the “Forgotten Peninsula” (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Humble Houses to Magnificent Monuments: Papers in Honor of Jerry D. Moore" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While better known for his exceptional work on households and South American archaeology, Jerry Moore’s contribution to sparking a surge in the archaeology of the “Forgotten Peninsula” of Baja California should not go unmentioned. Most importantly, he brought a strong dose of anthropologically informed and...
The Stoneware from the Baja California Manila Galleon (2017)
Stoneware has long been held by archaeologists as a problematic artifact category. Stoneware is troublesome to date with any precision, difficult to source, and decidedly less flashy than even the most pedestrian porcelains. However, a study of the stonewares from the Manila galleon wreck site Baja California, in the form of sherds from large utilitarian storage jars, is an opportunity for gaining additional knowledge about the contents of a ship that, in the late sixteenth century, was in the...
Using Rock Art to Infer the Migration of Peoples (2015)
The Great Mural rock art region of Baja California is unique in several ways. The content and style of the art is severely constrained and well differentiated from other nearby rock art styles. Within the Great Mural region there is some variation over time and space. This variation combined with the overall conservative nature of the art allows for inferences about the movement of people making the art. There are stylistic elements of Great Mural panels in the Sierra de San Borja that indicate...
Year-round shellfish harvesting during the Middle to Late Holocene on the northwest coast Baja California (2017)
Knowledge of patterns of subsistence and seasonal settlement strategies on the northwest coast of the Baja California Peninsula is still scarce. In order to identify shellfish harvesting patterns from Middle to Late Holocene, oxygen isotope determinations from 66 California mussel shells (Mytilus californianus) from three archaeological sites in the coastal area of Bajamar-Jatay were analyzed. The results suggest that mussels were collected mainly during the fall and winter seasons (63.6%);...