Caves and Rockshelters (Other Keyword)
101-125 (241 Records)
This is an abstract from the "How to Conduct Museum Research and Recent Research Findings in Museum Collections: Posters in Honor of Terry Childs" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From 1954 to 1957 Dr. Frison excavated Daugherty Cave (48-WA-302). Various perishable artifacts were recovered from the site including moccasins, basketry, cordage, wood, hide and sinew. It is a Late Archaic to Late Prehistoric site on the west side of the Bighorn...
The Implements of the Blade House: The Function and Symbolic Significance of Laurel-Leaf Bifaces from Caves in Central Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Indigenous Culture and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Large, finely made laurel-leaf chert bifaces have been recovered from the ancient Maya cave sites of Actun Chapat, Actun Tunichil Mucnal, Actun Yaxteel Ahau, and Je’reftheel, which are located in central Belize. By considering these laurel-leaf bifaces from the perspectives of lithic raw material, production techniques,...
An Important Cave Skeletal Assemblage Sees the Light of Day: A Reanalysis of Dos Pilas (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Subterranean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Petexbatun Regional Cave Survey, operating as a subproject of the Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project from 1990 – 1993, was the largest Maya cave project ever conducted. Centered at the important site of Dos Pilas in the Department of Petén, Guatemala, the cave survey recovered a large and important human skeletal assemblage...
Incensarios, Copal, and Speleothems: Interpreting the Function of Chultun 3 at Mul Ch'en Witz (2018)
Chultunes are ubiquitous throughout the southern Maya lowlands, but their function is still under debate. A central problem in the interpretation of these subterranean features is the paucity of artifacts recovered from within them. Within Chultun 3 at Mul Ch’en Witz, an area located within the larger site of La Milpa in northwestern Belize, several artifacts suggesting ritual activity were encountered. These artifacts include an intact vessel, an incensario, burnt jute, fire-affected limestone,...
Indicators of Skeletal Stress in a Small Skeletal Sample Spanning the Holocene in the Maya Mountains of Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Bladen Paleoindian and Archaic archaeological Project (BPAAP) is an ongoing research endeavor focused on excavations from two rock shelters in the Maya Mountains of southern Belize: Maya Hak Cab Pek, and Saki Tzul. Continued use of these rocks shelters from the Late Pleistocene to the collapse of Mayan civilization has resulted in a unique perspective on...
Injecting Rationality into a Reevaluation of Chalchihuites Mining (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Subterranean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As early as 1910, Manuel Gamio called attention to what he termed cavernas in the Chalchihuites area of Zacatecas. Later, in the 1960s, Charles Kelly and Philip Weigand labelled these features mines and proposed that they supplied Teotihuacan with turquoise. It has since been shown that the area is not a turquoise producing area....
Integrating Portable Spectroscopy into Rock Art Investigations (2018)
Molecular spectroscopy is an information rich technique that is rapid, non-destructive and easy to operate. These qualities combined with a mature market in handheld spectrometers makes molecular spectroscopy an ideal technique for on-site analysis which is suitable for austere environments. This paper will discuss the use of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy to in the Gordian knot project based upon the Californian polychrome rock art site Pleito in order to provide a...
The Intensification of Mimbres Cave Ritual: Empirical Phenomenon or Disciplinary Artifact? (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Subterranean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over two dozen cave shrines are known from the Mimbres Mogollon region, more than have been reported from any other cultural region in the United States Southwest and Northwest Mexico (SW/NW). Despite some variation, the archaeological record of these sites is remarkably consistent and readily allows for their identification as shrines...
Interpreting Small-Scale, Intra-site Spatial Variation of Finds from the MSA Deposits at Sibudu Cave, South Africa (2018)
Sibudu Cave in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is a key Middle Stone Age site that provides a high-resolution stratigraphic record of cultural change. The sequence from Sibudu is well-dated and has been the focus of intense geoarchaeological research. This paper examines the spatial distribution of lithic artifacts, faunal remains, worked ochre, burnt materials and botanical finds to see if these distributions provide meaningful information on the changing use of space at the site. The study will...
Introducing "Project Piedemonte": Between the Maloti-Drakensberg and the Great Escarpment in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "From Veld to Coast: Diverse Landscape Use by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This new project aims to map mobility patterns and social networks from prehistory to historical times in the western piedmont of the Maloti-Drakensberg, South Africa. It also considers the relationships between archaeological and rock art sites, and how rock art...
An Introduction to Chan Xaan Cave, Cuzamá, Yucatan, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Indigenous Culture and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The "ejidatarios" of Cuzama in Yucatán have developed a community tourist complex on the lands of the ancient hacienda of the same name, where they opened three cenotes. This work presents the first results of a survey carried out in a recently discovered cave and cenote known as Xaan Chan, where there are notable paintings...
Introduction: What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan? (2024)
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The fall of the metropolis of Teotihuacan with the 570 CE great fire in the core of the settlement shook Mesoamerica. Demographic displacements, balkanization into small polities, military competition between sites, were all events of the so-called Epiclassic. This symposium will review data from my interdisciplinary project “The Study of...
Investigating the Spatial Analysis of Chultuneob at Mul Ch’en Witz, Belize (2018)
Mul Ch’en Witz (Hill with Many Caves) was first excavated in the summer of 2017 by the Contested Caves Archaeological Project (CCAP), a subproject of the Three Rivers Archaeological Project (TRAP). The area, located just below the escarpment on which the core architecture of the ancient site of La Milpa, Belize is situated, was chosen for excavation because of the high density of chultunes encountered within a restricted area. The chultunes have similar entrance styles and diameters, and five of...
The Investigation of a Sascabera near the Las Monjas Complex in Chichen Itza (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Some 75 m southwest of the Las Monjas complex at Chichen Itza and just west of Sacbe No. 7, lie a series of eleven sascaberas that are shown schematically on the Carnegie map. While ceiling collapse has undoubtedly occurred in the millennium since their creation, some, such as Sascabera #2, have an extensive enclosed dark zone space. In...
Investigations of Plastered Constructions at Las Cuevas, Belize (2018)
The ancient Maya site of Las Cuevas, in Western Belize features a cave system that runs beneath the main plaza. Investigations by the Las Cuevas Archaeological Reconnaissance project suggest that the site functioned as a Late Classic ritual pilgrimage venue and that the cave was used for large public centrally-organized performances. The cathedral-like cave entrance contains monumental architecture consisting of at least 76 plastered platforms. I hypothesize that the level of managerial...
Just for the Celt of It: Investigations and Discoveries Beneath the Petroglyph Panels of Aktun Kuruxtun, Yucatan (2018)
During 2011 excavations deep beneath the petroglyph panels in Aktun Kuruxtun, Mexico, members of the Central Yucatan Archaeological Cave Project (CYAC) uncovered a small tunnel leading into a previously unknown chamber of the cavern. The discovery came in the final days of the field season, however, and the chamber was too choked with flood sediments to be methodologically investigated. As a result, the passage was reburied. Last summer, CYAC returned to the cave and successfully explored the...
Karst Landscapes and Uses of Caves among the Prehispanic Zoque people of Cerro Brujo, Ocozocoautla, Chiapas (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cerro Brujo is located in central Chiapas and is part of a mountain ridge that forms different karstic rock shelters, caverns, and caves. Early Zoque groups inhabited the area, took advantage of the resources, and developed symbolic activities in the interior of the cave system. Nearly a decade ago, the speleological "Grupo Jaguar" started expeditions to...
Las poblaciones arcaicas del Cabo Samaná, República Dominicana (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Coloring Outside the Lines: Re-situating Understandings of the Lifeways of Earliest Peoples of the Circum-Caribbean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El Monumento Natural Cabo Samaná, situado en la provincia de Samaná, en la República Dominicana, atesora una serie de importantes sitios arqueológicos de época arcaica en las cuevas y abrigos que jalonan el farallón rocoso. El equipo de arqueólogos de Guahayona Institute...
Lithic Analysis of an Early Later Stone Assemblage at Malony’s Kloof, a Rock Shelter in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Temporal organization systems which separate lithic artifacts into designations based on age, geographic area and technology are vital in order to operationalize archaeological information and allow for researchers to make their findings transferable and reproducible. Each Stone Age has characteristics that allow researchers to designate technologies...
Lithic Miniaturization and Behavioral Variability in Southernmost Africa 18–11 kcal. BP (2018)
Lithic miniaturization, the systematic production of small stone artifacts by controlled fracture, was a pervasive feature of late Pleistocene lithic technology. Smaller toolkits enabled humans to exploit raw materials more efficiently, to produce composite tools more effectively, to reduce a wider range of rocks, and to increase mobility by lightening toolkits. These benefits allowed humans to occupy a wider range of ecological niches. Archaeologists working in southern Africa have long...
Lithic Technological Changes from the Paleoindian to the Late Archaic: A Pilot Study (2018)
How do subsistence-related changes impact lithic technology over the course of thousands of years? Three stratified rockshelters in Belize contain evidence of Paleoindian through Classic Maya period occupations. This span of time witnessed the initial hunting and gathering subsistence economy of the Paleoindian period, the introduction of horticulture and increasing reliance on cultivars in the Early Archaic, and the emergence of full-scale agriculture in the Late Archaic. Explaining variations...
A Look at the Formative in Northwestern Colorado: Similarities and Differences in the Cultural Assemblages within the Fremont in the Colorado River Drainage Basin (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations in Northwest Colorado indicate that between 1100 BP and 800 BP, some Fremont structures in the area contained elements similar to sites found throughout the upper Colorado Plateau. Adobe rimmed hearths, grass and cedar in roof construction, and rock slab coverings on roofs are evident in Northwest Colorado and elsewhere. The question is,...
Looking under the Rocks: Geoarchaeological Investigations of Earth Oven Facilities in Various Settings of the Lower Pecos, Texas (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The multi-year Ancient Southwest Texas (ASWT) Project at Texas State University has investigated numerous earth oven facilities (more commonly known as burned rock middens or BRMs) in the Lower Pecos of southwest Texas. The investigated prehistoric sites ranged from large,...
Lost Rites of the Ancient Maya: Esoteric Rituals in Caves (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Indigenous Culture and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past 30 years archaeologists have made large strides in understanding the function and meaning of ancient Maya ritual caves sites. Ethnographic analyses have made major contributions to interpretive efforts and advanced the field in innumerable ways. Throughout Mesoamerica, there have been many long-term sustained...
Maya Pilgrimage to Interactive Places: Human Bones in Caves at Mensabak, Chiapas (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Investigations in Chiapas, Mexico" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation focuses on the anthropology of pilgrimage as a journey to places outside of everyday realms. For Maya societies, pilgrimages are important for maintaining the relationships between people and nonhuman persons linked to the ritual landscape. In this context, the presence of human bones in caves around the lakes at...