Caves and Rockshelters (Other Keyword)
126-150 (241 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of initiation of excavations at Meadowcroft Rockshelter in southwestern Pennsylvania. Meadowcroft was the first serious challenge to the Clovis-first peopling model that had dominated American archaeological thought for decades. Generations of students have passed through graduate schools since the early excavations...
Means, Motive, and Opportunity: Use of the Sun Pyramid Cave at Teotihuacan Post Termination (2018)
Ceramics and radiocarbon dates indicate that Teotihuacanos ceased using the cave beneath the Sun Pyramid around the middle of the third century CE, at a time when the city was only just entering its "Classic" period florescence. A reverential termination seems quite likely. Evidence also indicates that post termination use of the cave occurred. As there were approximately 1700 years in between cessation of initial use and modern discovery of the cave in 1974, this paper explores the question of...
Micromorphological Investigations of Site Formation History between Layers XVII and XVIII at Middle Paleolithic Rockshelter Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rockshelters are subject to many geological processes driven by natural and human agents alike. The sedimentary context that surrounds artifactual data is a vital resource to the scientific exploration of human behavior in the Middle Paleolithic. To connect assemblages and...
Microscopic Fibers and Dental Calculus from Midnight Terror Cave, Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Defining Perishables: The How, What, and Why of Perishables and Their Importance in Understanding the Past" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Midnight Terror Cave human remains collection consists of over 10,000 commingled bone fragments from at least 118 Maya sacrificial victims from the Classic period (250 CE–925 CE). Microscopic examination of dental calculus was carried out on a selection of teeth as part of a...
Middle Mekong Archaeological Project: Overview and New Data (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Middle Mekong Archaeological Project (MMAP) is a collaborative venture developed between Joyce White and Bounheuang Bouasisenpaseuth and other researchers working to develop an archaeological research program with the Lao Department of Heritage, with a primary focus on the prehistory of the Luang Prabang area. This...
Mirador Mountain, Ritual Landscapes, and the Protohistoric Maya Community at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mirador Mountain, or Chak Aktun for contemporary Lacandon Maya, dominates the landscape at Lake Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico. The mountain, which has a natural red stain on its east side, rises from an island. Late Preclassic Maya (ca. 200 BCE–200 CE) created temples, platforms, and plazas on the island Mountain for an...
Monumental Nature and Natural Containers: Caves as Ideal Loci for Ritual Action (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The utilization of subterranean spaces by humans is cross-temporal and cross-regional. In turn, and sometimes simultaneously, caves have been employed around the world as seasonal or permanent shelters, storage rooms, workshops, burial chambers, and as containers for artistic and ritual actions. In southern France, these last endeavors have been the focus of...
Morphological and Chemical Signatures of Chenopodium: Application of Optical and Electron Microscopy to Seeds from Experimental and Archaeological Contexts (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Humans are considered natural seed dispersing agents through the social acts of seed saving and seed sowing. The intentional and unintentional results of these human-plant relationships can lead to the development of genotypic and phenotypic traits that are beneficial to both the plant and to their human influencers. Anthropogenic seed dispersal of wild...
The Mountain Exile Hypothesis: How Humans Benefited from African High Altitude Ecosystems in Ethiopia (2018)
Although high-altitude mountain habitats are often regarded as unfavorable for human occupation; on the other hand tropical highlands in Africa are suggested as potential refugia during times of environmental stress. The presentation gives a review of new evidence of human occupation in the tropical highlands of Ethiopia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene period. A first correlation of the archaeological data with the climate record suggests a complex interplay between humans and their...
Multidisciplinary Investigations of a Late Paleoindian Bison Butchery Event from a Southwest Texas Rockshelter (2018)
Located in the Northeastern Chihuahuan Desert, Eagle Cave is one of the largest rockshelters in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. Archaeologists previously excavated Eagle Cave in the 1930s and 1960s; however, no evidence had been recovered indicating Paleoindian occupation of the site. From January 2015 through February 2017, the Ancient Southwest Texas Project of Texas State University re-excavated a 4-meter deep trench through the center of this massive rockshelter in order to document and sample...
Multimodal Digital Documentation of Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM), located in Western Belize, is among the most touristed archaeological caves in the Maya area and is well known for its striking physical characteristics and intact cultural deposits. Though well surveyed and studied, the cave and its many fragile and at-risk offerings had not been digitally documented. A collaborative program...
Nature and Culture, Fire and Ice: The Caves of El Malpais National Monument (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cave surveys and archaeological inventories conducted over the course of six months of over 40 caves at El Malpais National Monument have revealed both ritualistic and utilitarian purposes. Located in northwestern New Mexico, the monument, largely composed of multiple lava fields is within the larger Zuni-Bandera volcanic flow. Hundreds of recorded...
Neanderthal Activities in Caves: Was There a Ritual Dimension? (2018)
We know that Neanderthals used the mouths of caves for habitation, and on occasion buried their dead in such contexts. The behavioural repertoire was recently extended to include the assembly of a circle of stones deep in a cave in France. But can any evidence be taken to imply specifically 'ritual' behaviour? I build here on ongoing collaborative research on the emergence of art, and on wider Neanderthal activities in caves and their environs to address the question as to whether 'ritual' use...
New Alternatives to Terrestrial Laser Scanning: The Case of Poorly-Lit Features and Sites (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 3D modeling is an integral part of many archaeology projects. Photo-based 3D modeling using Structure from Motion and Multiview Stereo (SfM/MVS) algorithms is widely used. SfM/MVS requires minimal field gear and can produce very high-quality output: Agisoft’s PhotoScan Professional® is the most popular commercial implementation of SfM/MVS. Adequate...
New Archaeological Data from “Ortvala Cave” (Multilayer Cave Complex from Georgia, South Caucasus) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. “Ortvala Cave” (Double Eye) is located in the southern part of Georgia (South Caucasus), a distance of 98 km from present day Georgian-Armenian border, and represents a multilayer cave complex, combining deposits of Mousterian culture (Lower Paleolithic), as well as the deposits of Chalcholithic, Early Bronze, and medieval periods. Archaeological and...
New Dates for Bonfire Shelter, a Multicomponent Rockshelter in West Texas (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Big Bend Complex: Landscapes of History" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bonfire Shelter is a well-known but imperfectly understood multicomponent rockshelter site located in a short tributary canyon of the Rio Grande in West Texas. The site is particularly known for three “bone beds” deposited between about 14,000 and 2,500 BP, two of which appear to represent mass bison kills. Three years of renewed investigation...
A New Excavation In Southeast Turkey: Kece Cave (2018)
Kece Cave is located in Kahramanmaras - Elbistan Province in Turkey. The first excavation was carried out in 2015 and since that year, it has been continued by excavation team that includes different university experts. According to preliminary reports, first excavations were realized on terraces in front of the cave and inside. Preliminary findings have been remarkable. Although during the last season excavation, most amazing findings than before were obtained in the terrace excavation area and...
New Excavations at Fell Cave, South Patagonia, Chile (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The work of Junius Bird at Fell Cave played a crucial role in the acceptance of the association between early human populations and megafauna in South America. The evidence for behavioral association of cut-marked bones of american horse, camelids and ground sloth with hearths, stone and bone tools is still considered among the stronger proofs of Late...
New Investigations at Bonfire Shelter: A Consideration of Bison Jumps and Their Implications for Paleoindian Social Organization (2018)
Bonfire Shelter (41VV218) is a nationally significant site in the Lower Pecos region of the West Texas borderlands that preserves evidence of what may be the oldest and southernmost "bison jump" in North America. At least two major episodes of bison hunting are evident at Bonfire Shelter, one associated with Paleoindian Plainview and Folsom projectile points, and another associated with Late Archaic Castroville and Montell points. The approximately 12,000-year-old layers comprising Bonebed 2...
New Investigations at Pachamachay and Panaulauca Caves, Junín, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We present the results of 2019 excavations at Pachamachay and Panaulauca, two Early Holocene archaeological sites in the high Andes of central Peru. These classic sites, previously excavated in the 1970s and 80s, provide evidence for early and persistent use of the high-elevation (>4000 m above sea level) Andes mountains. We used a low-impact approach to...
New Investigations at Russell Cave, Alabama (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Russell Cave (1Ja181), located in Jackson County, Alabama, contains one of the longest prehistoric occupational sequences known in the southeastern U.S., spanning approximately 9,000 years. Excavations were conducted by the Chattanooga Chapter of the Tennessee Archaeological Society (1953-1955) the Smithsonian Institute in conjunction with the National...
New Investigations of Bone Bed 1, Bonfire Shelter: A High-Resolution Analysis of Late Pleistocene Deposits (2018)
This paper reports the results of new excavations of Late Pleistocene deposits at Bonfire Shelter, a stratified rockshelter in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Val Verde County, Texas. Previous excavations identified three bone deposits. Bone Bed 1, the oldest deposit, yielded a single uncalibrated radiocarbon date of 12,460 +/- 490 BP. Investigators in the 1960s and 1980s argued that the patterned distribution of megafaunal elements associated with large limestone cobbles in Bone Bed 1 suggests...
New Perspectives on Bonfire Shelter, Texas (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bonfire Shelter contains an extensive stratified record of human prehistory in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Southwest Texas, and a correspondingly long history of competing interpretations of that record. The initial investigations of the site in the 1960s led to the announcement of the earliest...
A New Radiocarbon Dated Record of Holocene Weapon Technology from The Trail Creek Cave Site, Seward Peninsula, Alaska (2018)
The Trail Creek Caves site on the Seward Peninsula in western Alaska was excavated by Helge Larsen in 1949-1950, and is among the most important archaeological sites in central Beringia. It contains a lengthy, rich and well-preserved paleoecological and archaeological record dating to the late Pleistocene, and the largest collections of mid-Holocene age organic tools from the region. However, poor chronological and stratigraphic controls have hampered the interpretive value of the site. New...
No Knapping in the Shelter: Lithic Analysis from the Chuchuwayha Rock Shelter, Similkameen Valley, British Columbia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Chuchuwayha Research Project focuses on the past use of the Similkameen Valley in south-central British Columbia. The driving question of this research project is how have the Similkameen people used the landscape of the Similkameen Valley over time. The Chuchuwayha rock shelter provides the best lens to understand the use and occupancy in the...