complex societies (Other Keyword)
1-13 (13 Records)
This multi-component project addresses how societies in Iron-Age Botswana (550-1650 CE) experienced the change from small, rural-centered life to centralized power based on increasing involvement in trade across the Indian Ocean. How this change occurred remains a central focus, with increasing pressures on the environment in this desert-margin landscape a likely contributing factor. It features the Bosutswe region, situated on the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert, where the site of Bosutswe...
Cosmology in the New World
This project consists of articles written by members of Santa Fe Institute’s cosmology research group. Overall, the goal of this group is to understand the larger relationships between cosmology and society through a theoretically open-ended, comparative examination of the ancient American Southwest, Southeast, and Mesoamerica.
Early Horizon Foodways and Settlement Nucleation: Preliminary Insights From Samanco, a Maritime Center in the Nepeña Valley, North-Central Peru (2016)
This paper examines the relationship between foodways and settlement nucleation at Samanco, a maritime center located in the Nepeña Valley littoral. Samanco comprises hundreds of orthogonal stone structures agglutinated into compounds spanning over 40 hectares. The site is similar to several other contemporary settlements in Nepeña, interpreted to be part of an integrated peer network. Excavations at Samanco yielded extraordinary amounts of food refuse, including mollusk, fish, faunal, and plant...
Evaluating Mobility, Monumentality, and Feasting at the Sapelo Island Shell Ring Complex (2011)
Two of the most salient anthropological questions regarding southeastern shell ring sites are related to the season(s) that they were occupied and whether or not the deposits represent monumental constructions and/or feasting remains. This paper addresses these questions through the analysis of growth band of clams (Mercenaria spp.) (N = 620) and stable oxygen isotope ratios of clam and oyster shells (Crassostrea virginica) (N = 58) at the Sapelo Island Shell Ring complex located on the Georgia...
The Importance of Being Ad Hoc: Patterns and Implications of Expedient Lithic Production in the Bronze Age in Israel (2015)
Analysis of the ad hoc component of lithic assemblages from three Bronze Age sites in Israel shows common technological patterns without significant chronological and geographical differences. Like more formal components of lithic industries, expedient and opportunistic production of tools can be characterized using technological criteria and parameters which discern recurrent patterns in lithic manufacture. Irregular flakes, variable in shape, size, and raw material, and with only minimal...
Letting the Gini Out of the Bottle: Hazards of Measuring Inequality Archaeologically (2016)
Since the 1980s, archaeologists have measured economic inequality by borrowing the Gini index from economics, and applying it to the archaeological record in various ways. Burial assemblages were the earliest targets, and more recent efforts have expanded to house sizes, areas of agricultural fields, and household possessions. Each of these sources provides potentially enlightening information about the distribution of wealth within an ancient community. Each source has its advantages and...
Marshland of Cities: Deltaic Landscapes and the Evolution of Early Mesopotamian Civilization (2003)
Prevailing theories of the evolution of early complex societies in southern Mesopotamia presume a uniform, arid landscape transited by Tigris and Euphrates distributaries. These theories hold that it was the seventh millennium BCE introduction of irrigation technologies from the northern alluvium to the south that began the punctuated evolution of Mesopotamian irrigation schemes. In this view, irrigation-dependent agro-pastoral production was the primary stimulus to urbanization and, millennia...
On the Periphery of Collapse: An Archaeobotanical View from the Mycenaean Hinterland at Tsoungiza (2015)
The site of Tsoungiza, situated in the Nemea Valley of southern Greece, offers a glimpse into processes of agricultural and land-use practices in the Mycenaean hinterland and their intersection with the waxing and waning of Mycenaean political, economic, and social control. After abandonment in the Early Helladic III period (ca. 2,000 B.C.), the site was re-occupied during the late Middle Helladic III (ca. 1,650 B.C.), at a time of regional population expansion associated with the rise of the...
The Organization and Economic Activity Related to the Extraction and Production of Utilitarian Tools in the Mopan Valley, Belize (2015)
A major topic of recent study about the ancient Maya is the role of elites and non-elites in the ancient Maya economy. Such studies have illustrated that different types of objects operated within varying economic modes; therefore the methods of production and distribution of diverse types of objects should be examined individually. This paper will examine the economic role of utilitarian chert tools in the Late to Terminal Classic Maya economy. This paper will utilize an examination of the...
Queer and Complex: Everyday Life and Politics in Mesoamerican Prehistory (2015)
When we speak of complex societies, archaeologists focus primarily on broad systems of power, socio-political access, and economic control. These discussions, both explicit and implicit, continue to be framed by heteronormative, androcentric and classist assumptions. Elites and men (as conceptual and literal heads of households) remain the primary frame of reference for how states operate and who and what matters in our discussions of complexity. In this paper, I explore how notions of...
Shaping Space: Built Space, Landscape, and Cosmology in Four Regions (2010)
In this article, the authors seek to understand cosmological expressions in architecture and the built landscape in Mesoamerica, Northern Mexico, the US Southwest, and the US Southeast.
Social variability and leadership strategies in the Llanos of the Orinoco (2016)
Ethnohistoric descriptions and archaeological evidence suggest that in the Llanos regions of Casanare (Colombia) and Barinas (Venezuela) between the Andes and the Orinoco/Amazon basin, agricultural intensification provided the resources that enabled aspiring elites to pursue their political strategies during prehispanic times. Warfare and feasting were especially important strategies in the early complex societies of Barinas. The presence of nearby highly developed Muisca chiefdoms, however,...
Water Management in the Ancient States of South India and Sri Lanka (2016)
Water management practices have been instrumental in the rise and collapse of many complex societies. Informed through case studies from South India and Sri Lanka this paper explores the importance of water management in their developmental trajectories during the Chola (848-1279 CE) and Sinhalese Empires (377 BCE-1310 CE). Initial conditions that led to the impetus for water management include environment and climate changes. Continued growth and prosperity relied on the development and use of...