Material Culture and Technology (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kaoru Akoshima.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The paper explores some problems concerning the relationship between aspects of lithic technology and the cultural evolutionary theory. There are three fundamental realms in stone tool analysis, namely, typology, technology, and functional studies. These research phases are integrated into the study of "technological organizations" in the sense of Binford...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jian Xu.

Recent archaeological discoveries in Guizhou, China have moved some scholars to describe and argue for the material existence of a legendary state, Yelang; roughly contemporary with Chinese powers from the late Eastern Zhou to the early Western Han dynasty. Except for precious objects reserved for high ranking people, traditionally-identified indicators of early urban civilizations are largely absent in Guizhou. If the appearance of luxury objects and their applications in well-regulated...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shannon McPherron.

This is an abstract from the "Inference in Paleoarchaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Insights into flake formation have come from fracture mechanics, controlled experiments, replication studies, and attribute analysis of lithic assemblages. Fracture mechanics would seem to offer great potential for offering insights into how the variables that knappers manipulate actually change flaking outcomes, and its strength is that it is based on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin Williams. Richard M. Niquette.

In order to further understand Paleoindian lithic technological organization, we examined blade and haft elements of Clovis, Gainey, and Dalton hafted bifaces. Samples inspected were from across the Midwest, the Southeast, and the Northeast. Due to the rarity of these hafted bifaces, images of individual bifaces were used to take traditional linear measurements on the hafted bifaces in this study. Results indicate key differences in retouch and resharpening patterns throughout the Paleoindian...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Hinkelman. Robert Cook.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cultural groups in the Middle Ohio River Valley experienced significant changes in mobility, subsistence, and social organization from the Late Woodland (AD 700 – 1000) to the Early Fort Ancient period (AD 1000 – 1300). Technology changed as well, particularly the production and morphology of projectile points. It is possible that constraints related to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carla Klehm. Mark Helper. Elisabeth Hildebrand.

This is an abstract from the "African Archaeology throughout the Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Beads play a prominent role in personal ornamentation in life and death: desired, exploited, and widely traded throughout prehistory. Although manufacture and use provide important social context, evaluating the materials used and their source locations is a crucial component of understanding how these industries arise. This paper features an...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amanda Samuels. Christopher Wolff. Donald Holly. Michelle Bebber. Metin Eren.

This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The impacts of colonialism on Indigenous groups’ technological traditions have often been viewed through acculturative lenses that only reach surface deep. While there have been more recent trends criticizing this methodology, acculturative approaches are still prevalent, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Billie Follensbee.

This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many Formative period Mesoamerican greenstone artifacts are readily identifiable as ornaments, as they have clear counterparts in both form and function in later cultures. Other such artifacts, however, have proven puzzling to scholars, who initially categorized them as “miscellaneous objects,” “objects of unknown use,” or “implements for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Melody Pope.

This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Use-wear and residue analysis draws attention to complexities of technological processes that otherwise remain out of reach archaeologically. Enigmatic wear traces described by microwear analysts as “polish 23,” “polish 10,” and “polis non familiar” occur on distinctive chipped stone tools from Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Susan Kooiman.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Method and Theory: Papers in Honor of James M. Skibo, Part I" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. James Skibo’s seminal works on pottery function created a valuable model for assessing the role of pottery in the lives of past peoples. While this approach has broad applicability for ceramic assemblages worldwide, its efficacy has been demonstrated through a series of studies on ancient pottery assemblages...

DOCUMENT Citation Only S. Andrew Wise.

Ceramic discoidals represent a commonplace but often overlooked artifact found at many Mississippian sites. Generally, these important cultural objects are classified by archaeologists as gaming pieces. This assumption is based on European descriptions of Native American games. However, uncertainty remains regarding the function and significance of this class of artifact with no conclusive evidence that discoidals were used exclusively for games. Additionally, comparing ceramic discoidals with...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Susannah Johnson. Karen Schollmeyer.

Tabular pieces of worked bone, commonly referred to as gaming pieces, have been found in archaeological sites throughout North America and the US Southwest. This project focuses on gaming pieces in Southwestern archaeological sites, with an emphasis on the Gila River basin. Data on gaming pieces in this area are compared to the Great Basin and surrounding regions, where much of the current research on these items has been focused. The analysis and comparison of context and other characteristics...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julia Furlong.

This is an abstract from the "New Research into the Old Cordilleran" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Raw material sourcing of crystalline volcanic rock (CVR) artifacts through geochemical analysis has a decades long history in Olympic Peninsula archaeological research and is an important aspect of site interpretation. Recent archaeological investigations at three Olcott sites by Archaeological and Historical Services, EWU as a part of Washington...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heidi Noneman. Todd VanPool. Christine VanPool.

Geochemical provenance analysis of obsidian is a productive avenue for studying social interaction and lithic raw material procurement strategies in the U.S. Southwest. Here the results of the analysis of 180 obsidian artifacts recovered from 76 Draw, a Medio period (A.D.1200 to 1450) settlement in New Mexico are presented. The combined assemblage reflects local geochemical sources, as well as obsidian from more distant geochemical sources often seen in assemblages associated with the Ancestral...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tatsuki Tsujimori.

This is an abstract from the "Two Approaches to Archaeological Jades: Source Characterization and Social Valuation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Jadeite jade (jadeitite) is an important material for archeological objects from the middle Jōmon period (~5000–3500 BCE) through the Kofun period (250–710 CE) in Japan. During the last two decades, in the field of geological science, studies of jadeitite worldwide have brought new knowledge about its...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gina Barnes.

This is an abstract from the "Two Approaches to Archaeological Jades: Source Characterization and Social Valuation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The occurrence of nephrite is primarily linked to ophiolite locations around the world and is associated with serpentinite (S-nephrite); however, most nephrite in China is associated with metamorphosed magnesian limestone (dolomarble) deposits (D-nephrite). Characterizing D-nephrite by chemical...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Skinner.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The implementation of controlled experiments to identify and describe the behaviors of the past has been influential in understanding the material evidence left behind in the archaeological record. This in combination with the advent of new 3D scanning technologies and geometric morphometric analysis methods can be used to establish novel approaches to topics...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joana Belmiro. Joao Cascalheira. Celia Goncalves.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geometric microliths are one of the most important lithic technological adaptations of the Mesolithic in Westernmost Europe. At Muge shellmiddens, previous studies have revealed great variability in the morphology of these implements, especially the triangles, although the reason for such variability is still unclear. Three hypotheses have been suggested to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nathaniel Kitchel.

This is an abstract from the "Case Studies in Toolstone Provenance: Reliable Ascription from the Ground Up" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Artifacts made of high-quality red chert appear regularly in terminal Pleistocene fluted point period sites throughout New England. Although archaeologists in the region often attribute this material to the Munsungun Lake geologic formation of northern Maine, no large-scale effort had been made to evaluate...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bradford Andrews.

This is an abstract from the "Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Conventional wisdom suggests that the bow was not present in Mesoamerica until the Postclassic period (AD 900–1519). This date is chronologically convenient because it is consistent with the notion that the bow diffused from North America after AD 700. New evidence from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tayla Hanson. Emma Kissel. Charlotte Nash.

This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Ancient Glass around the Indian Ocean" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents research on glass bangle fragments believed to be from the Al Hasa oasis in Saudi Arabia, donated to the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History (MNCH). Glass bangles were manufactured and widely traded across the Middle East and South Asia, but there has not yet been a comprehensive...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Laure Dussubieux. Ariane de Saxcé. Nimal Perera. Mangala Katugampola.

This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Ancient Glass around the Indian Ocean" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A little more than 25 years ago, glass furnaces were discovered at Giribawa, a site located in the northwest part of the island of Sri Lanka. Chemical analysis revealed that raw glass and glass beads were certainly manufactured at this site. Excavations have resumed at Giribawa in 2022, with a special focus on the glass...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Danielle Huerta.

This is an abstract from the "Hill People: New Research on Tijeras Canyon and the East Mountains" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paa-ko Pueblo, also known as the mission of San Pedro due to its colonial period component, is one of the better studied sites in the East Mountain region. However, the research presented here represents the first systematic look at late Rio Grande Glaze Ware (RGGW) pottery excavated from the site’s colonial context(s)....

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Richards.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Method and Theory: Papers in Honor of James M. Skibo, Part II" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pots with rims formed into distinct collars appear in the western Great Lakes during the early eleventh century A.D. and appear to have been produced well into the fourteenth century A.D. Such "collared ware" has a wide, though uneven distribution in the region and includes at least three types of true collared...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown. Shawn Morton.

This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation, we discuss our research into the use of granite by the ancient inhabitants of Alabama: a Late to Terminal Classic boomtown of the eastern Maya lowlands. One of our initial hypotheses regarding the relatively sudden rise of the town toward the end of the Late Classic period focused on granite as a...