Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis (Other Keyword)
226-250 (823 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Looms are essential tools for weaving — they provide the necessary structure to produce even, consistent fabric. By simplifying and accelerating the weaving process, looms also encourage creativity and experimentation. Often, the archaeological research process resembles the woven arts: we weave stories...
The Development and Application of Isoscapes for Archaeological Provenance Studies in the Neotropics: Recent Developments and Future Directions (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Integrating Isotope Analyses: The State of Play and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Isotope studies have become a common and effective method for inferring the geographic origins of a wide range of materials in various research disciplines, including archaeology. In recent years, such isotope approaches have also become more rigorous and quantitative, and increasingly make use of isoscapes (isotope...
Deviancy, an Alternate Means of Child Veneration at the Maya Site of Colha (2018)
The veneration of space is a process that at times incorporates deviant practices as a method of signifying key importance. The deposition of burnt infant remains and associated grave goods diverges from burial norms at the Maya site of Colha. In May of 2017, archaeologists with the Programme for Belize Archaeological project returned to the site after a multi-year hiatus. The burnt skeletal remains of an infant, between the ages of 1.5 and 2.5 were found in association with burnt pottery...
A Diachronic Analysis of Gender Based Mortuary Practices in the Belize River Valley (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Burial practices can offer important insights into gender roles within ancient Maya society. We present the results of a diachronic analysis of osteology, grave goods, burial architecture, and contextual data from 108 burials from the Belize River Valley polities of Baking Pot, Blackman Eddy, Cahal Pech, Lower Barton Creek, and Lower Dover. Analyses of grave...
Diet and Foodways in the Wari Imperial Hinterlands: Stable Isotope Analysis of the La Real Burial Population (600–1000 CE), Arequipa, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis is employed to assess diet in times of Wari influence in the southern hinterlands between the early (600–800 CE) and late (800–1000 CE) Middle Horizon (MH). We analyze bone collagen from 57 individuals interred at La Real, corresponding to two chronologically distinct mortuary contexts at this Majes Valley site...
Diet and Mobility in the Diverse Geographies of the Lower Central American Land Bridge (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Unraveling the Mysteries of the Isthmo-Colombian Area’s Past: A Symposium in Honor of Archaeologist Richard Cooke and His Contributions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Richard Cooke dedicated his career to the study of past human groups on the lower Central American land bridge (southern Nicaragua to northern Colombia) and their diversification in the tropical landscapes of the region. He has argued that the diverse...
Diet Reconstruction of Ancient Population from Banlashan Cemetry, a Neolithic Hongshan Archaeological Culture Site in China—Based on Stable Isotopic and Dental Microwear Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hongshan culture is a famous archaeological cultures in the Neolithic Age in China, and its economic structure has always been the focus of academic attention. According to the bone material unearthed from the cemetery, the diet characteristics of the late Hongshan people can be effectively recovered through the integrating stable isotopic and dental microwear...
Diet, Identity and Status in Colonial Huamanga (Ayacucho), Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper explores ideas of identity and status at the earliest Jesuit church in Ayacucho, Peru (ca. 1605-1767 CE), La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús de Huamanga (ICJH). Starting with an exploration of indigenous resistance to Spanish colonialism, this case study uses stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen as proxies for diet and burial location as a proxy...
Diet, Migration and Social Changes: The Preclassic Burials of Ceibal (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project uncovered 43 burials with a minimum number of 58 individuals that date from the Middle Preclassic to the Protoclassic period (ca. 700 BC-AD 200). These remains have the potential to provide valuable insight into the processes of political...
Dietary and Environmental Reconstruction with Stable Isotopes of Early, Middle and Late Holocene Humans from Northern Malawi (2018)
The early Holocene African humid period (AHP, ~12,000-6000 bp) was followed by the Middle Holocene dry phase (MHDP, ~6000-3500 BP), and the modern climatic regime was established during the later Holocene (~3500 bp to present). The relationship of environmental change to human social and territorial organization adaptations are fairly well-documented in northern, eastern and southern Africa. However, the Holocene terrestrial record of environmental change in east-central Africa is poorly...
Dietary Histories in Early China: Gender and Food in Urban and Rural Eastern Zhou Communities (771–221 BCE, Ancient Zhenghan City, China) (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotope analysis of human skeletal samples allows bioarchaeologists to study human diet from discrete periods of life and can provide fine-grained dietary histories of individuals. Previous research on the Eastern Zhou Dynasty identified dietary differences between adult females and males, and a study of childhood diet for two urban Eastern Zhou...
The Dietary Importance of Maize and Aquatic Resources during the Regional Development Period at El Dornajo, Southwest Ecuador (2018)
Earlier studies of subsistence at the site of El Dornajo in southwestern Ecuador examined faunal, macro- and macro-botanical remains. These studies indicated that residents consumed large quantities of shellfish and marine fish during both the Formative and Regional Development periods (2800 BC – 700 AD), with a marked decrease and differential access based on socioeconomic status in the later period. It has been hypothesized that site residents increased their reliance on domesticated plant...
The Dietary Practices of the Ancient Inhabitants of the Chengdu Plain (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The extent to which aquatic resources influenced the dietary patterns of the Chengdu Plain's inhabitants is poorly understood, despite the region's intricate network of river channels. This research examines the nitrogen isotope makeup of specific amino acids in collagen derived from human bone samples collected from three sites in Sichuan. The objective...
Dietary Practices of the Muisca at Nueva Esperanza Archaeological Site during the Late Muisca Period (1000 AD - 1600 AD) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study analyzes the impact of environmental stressors on dietary practices within the Muisca society at the Nueva Esperanza archaeological site in the Cundiboyacense highlands during the Late Muisca Period (1000 AD - 1600 AD). This coincides with climatic changes associated with the beginning of the period known as the "Little Ice Age,” which was a...
Dietary Variation at Point San Jose, San Francisco: Stable Isotope Evidence from a Late 19th Century Medical Waste Pit (2018)
This study used stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to evaluate dietary variation among 30 adult individuals from a commingled assemblage recovered at Point San Jose (now Fort Mason), California (1863-1903). These remains comprise mostly middle-aged adults, both male and female, and two or more ancestral groups. The assemblage was recovered from a medical waste pit with evidence of anatomical dissection, suggesting that these individuals were likely of low socioeconomic status. Right...
Differences in Kinship Structure between Chanka Moieties: An Ancient DNA Study (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Chanka were a cultural group that lived in Andahuaylas, Peru during the Late Intermediate Period (LIP, AD 1000-1400). At the beginning of the LIP, the Chanka moved into smaller communities at higher elevations and utilized an agro-pastoral lifestyle. Similar to other groups throughout the Andes during the LIP, the Chanka experienced high degrees of...
Differential Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in a LIP and Late Horizon Skeletal Sample of Southern Peru (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Culture Contact and Diversity in Southern Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Moquegua Valley of southern Peru is known for multiple studies regarding the presence, origin, and evolution of tuberculosis in the pre-contact Americas. These studies have primarily focused on tuberculosis in Middle Horizon and Late Intermediate Period contexts and the continued presence and evolution of the disease during...
Differentiating Chopping/Hacking Sharp Force Trauma Characteristics on Bone Following Burning of Remains (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bioarchaeologists and forensic anthropologists are often involved in the analysis and interpretation of perimortem trauma occurring to human remains with the goal of recognizing trauma characteristics that can be utilized in understanding the tool class used to inflict the trauma. Accurate interpretation of skeletal trauma also relies on the correct...
Dimensions of Health in the Andes: A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Morbidity Patterns in Mountain Landscapes (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Living and Dying in Mountain and Highland Landscapes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper uses a bioarchaeological approach to examine the morbidity profiles of highland communities in the Cusco region of Peru during the centuries that witnessed the rise, fluorescence, and demise of the Inka Empire (ca. 1300-1550 CE). Through original analysis of human skeletons from the sites of Huanacauri and Matagua and a...
Disease Ecology of Human Treponematoses in the Southwest US/Northwest Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human treponemal diseases (yaws, endemic syphilis, and venereal syphilis) have a long and storied past in the North American Desert West, with the earliest case dating back roughly 1,500 years. The identification of lesions associated with treponemal disease at two Cienega phase (400 BCE–50 CE) sites in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, however, move...
Dismemberment as Postmortem Disablement: The Disparate Mortuary Sites of the Collected (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Storeroom Taphonomies: Site Formation in the Archaeological Archive" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Acknowledgment of the educational value of pathological conditions in human cadavers prompted scholars of anatomy and anthropology to partition bodily tissues of the dissected among their colleagues. This scientific network of shared body parts, for the purpose of specialized study, segregated the divisible body into...
Distinctive Burials of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Marginalized in Life and Death (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Phaleron cemetery is most well-known for the archaic burials of 79 young men who had been shackled, probably violently executed, and interred in three trenches. However, there are 80 additional individuals whose mortuary contexts fall outside expected forms, now categorized as “distinctive,”...
Disturbing the Ancestors: Interpreting Early Intermediate Period Commingled Remains at La Iglesia, Huanchaco Perú (2018)
While the Inca, Moche, and Chimu cultures boast grand sites along the north coast of Perú, much is to be learned about the earlier Gallinazo (50 BC/100 AD–500 AD) Salinar (200 BC–200 AD), and Cupisnique (ca. 1500–300 BC) cultures from small, coastal settlements. The 2017 field season of the Programa Arqueologico Huanchaco investigated these earlier Peruvian cultures during a five week excavation near the Iglesia de Huanchaco, approximately 15 km northeast of the Huacas de Moche. Initial ceramic...
Diverse Perspectives on Precolonial Maya Human Remains and the Foreigners who Study Them (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Ethical Dilemmas in the Study and Care of Human Remains beyond North America" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ethics surrounding the study of the skeletal remains of the “ancient Maya” are fraught and variable. For much of the second millennium AD, large swaths of the southern Maya lowlands were sparsely occupied by indigenous peoples, with population booms spurred by internal migration only in recent decades....
Divine Food and the Warriors of Curicaueri (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Tzintzuntzan, Capital of the Tarascan Empire: New Perspectives" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Tarascan cosmovision, feeding the gods daily, especially Curicaueri, was vital because it ensured that the world would continue to function; this food was the human sacrifice. At the foot of the platform, one of the most significant pieces of evidence of this act of surrender to the gods was found, where an enormous...