Material Culture and Technology (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hilary Duke. Sonia Harmand.

The eastern African Early Pleistocene witnessed critical shifts in climate, environment, hominin anatomy and behavior. The lithic record shows change within this broader context. After 1.8 Ma, Large Cutting Tools (LCTs), such as bifaces, entered the hominin lithic repertoire. These artifacts are widely viewed as the first evidence of lithic shaping. Many archaeologists theorize both cognitive and practical differences between "flaking" and "shaping" among knapping strategies. Most of these...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Abel Traslaviña. James Zimmer-Dauphinee. Steven Wernke.

Archaeologists always strive to use every available source of information when conducting research, and historic imagery and aerial photography are nothing new to the field. However, new technical developments are bringing another dimension to these old sources of information. Many historic aerial photos were taken in a series of densely overlapping photos to minimize the effects of lens distortion for use in surveillance, cartography, or other purposes where accuracy in measurement was...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kaitlin LaGrasta.

This is an abstract from the "Recent Research on Glass Beads and Ornaments in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. George Hamell’s 1992 paper “The Iroquois and the World’s Rim: Speculations on Color, Culture, and Contact” considers color symbolism in the Seneca (Onöndowa’ga:’) context to contemplate the metaphysics of the colors red, black, and white in Seneca cosmology and material culture. While widely cited within archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Peterson.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. North America’s Native Copper Industry is one of the oldest metalworking traditions in the world, with metal use in this region dating to over 9,500 years ago. While several studies have focused on copper mining and use, few have focused on copper production. As a result, little attention has been given to the waste materials generated during the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Wood. Virginia Richards.

This is an abstract from the "What’s Canoe? Recent Research on Dugouts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Long before colonization, coastal inhabitants in Carolina’s Lowcountry used dugout canoes for trading, fishing, and gathering oysters. When the English intruded into this watery environment in 1670, many settlers migrated from Barbados, bringing captive Africans and hopes for establishing a profitable system of slave-based, staple-crop...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tamara Dogandzic. Li Li. Shannon McPherron.

This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The shape and size of lithic artifacts are a main source of information about the technical and technological behaviors of past peoples. The mechanics of how flakes are formed is thus one of the central questions of lithic studies and one that Harold Dibble was intently focused on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Natasha Singh. Ewa Dutkiewicz. Sibylle Wolf. Nicholas Conard.

This is an abstract from the "Examining Spatial-Temporal Variation in the Lithic Technology of the Early Upper Paleolithic" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Researchers have often called the Swabian Aurignacian the Ivory Age, and in fact, this term is entirely fitting due to the great number and diversity of ivory artifacts. These artifacts include a wide variety of both tools and symbolic artifacts including beads, figurines and flutes. Here we...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joseph Ryan.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Kofun period of Japan, stretching from the mid-3rd century to the late-6th century AD, witnessed the formation of an almost archipelago-wide sociopolitical consolidation centered on the paramount elites of the Nara Basin. Considered by many scholars to have been an early state, this Yamato polity exercised unprecedented control over the production,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathleen Holen. Steven Holen.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prey animal bone modification by humans has long been part of the archaeological record; however, debate continues as to whether this evidence alone is sufficient to justify interpretation of technological activity. This is especially true if such evidence is used in support of archaeological sites older than 16 kya in the Americas. This poster synthesizes...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Deborah Ruscillo.

From the earliest occurrence of the boar's tusk helmet from Grave Circle B at Mycenae (ca. 1650BCE) to the latest from a sub-Minoan tomb from the North Cemetery at Knossos (ca. 1000BCE) presents a span of 650 years of reverence for this important accessory of Bronze Age warriorhood. Depictions and copies of this helmet in other cultures, including in the Hittite, Egyptian, and even later Roman cultures, demonstrate its pervasive and deeply respected meaning. Helmets of this kind were known to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Fernandes. Vincent Delvigne. Jean-Paul Raynal.

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. Studies about characterization and sourcing of the various siliceous materials (flint, chert, silcrete, and hydrothermal silicite) used by prehistoric foragers became progressively routine. However, simply locating the stratigraphic origin of a rock is insufficient as it may have been collected from varied...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Bennett. Sally Reynolds. Sarah Maryon.

This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Archaeological Footwear" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human footprints have been found throughout the world. At White Sands (New Mexico) they hint at early human presence in the Americas, and during the summer of 2022 a new footprint site was reported from Utah. These sites are linked by their geological setting, dried lake beds and ancient playas, a common feature of the Americas. One question often...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kirsten Hawley. Claudia Johnson. Shelby Rader. Charles Beeker.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geochemical studies of archaeological ceramics often assume little to no post-depositional change to the makeup of the artifact. This study uses ICP-MS trace element and lead (Pb) stable isotope analysis to investigate how a freshwater submerged depositional environment affects the geochemical signatures of archaeological ceramics. We test the null...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jiaqi Wang. Chunxue Wang. Shaowu Lv. Lixin Wang. Quanchao Zhang.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the emergence and progress of composite tools in the Upper Paleolithic, the adhesive became one of the most widely used materials by early human societies. However, the precise composition identification of adhesive in archaeological remains is a real analytical challenge, because the adhesive mainly consists of organic materials that are susceptible to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Molly Herron. Madeline Mackie. Todd Surovell.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although mammoth ivory appears distinctive from other organic materials when found in large pieces, many morphological characteristics that distinguish ivory – such as Schreger lines – cannot be easily identified in small fragments. However, other characteristics, including dental tubules and canals, can be microscopically identified. In this study, I...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yiheng Xian.

This is an abstract from the "From Tangible Things to Intangible Ideas: The Context of Pan-Eurasian Exchange of Crops and Objects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Hekou Turquoise Mining Site in Shaanxi Province can provide significant clues to the provenance of turquoise in early China. In this study, we analyzed turquoise ore samples from other turquoise mines near Hekou Mining Site in eastern Qinling Mountains and established an origin...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julia Furlong. Jerry R. Galm. Stan Gough.

The Late Paleoindian Sentinel Gap site, located along the Columbia River in central Washington, provides a unique data set of bifaces and projectile points/knives (pp/ks) from a single occupation episode dating to c. 10,200 radiocarbon years BP. In addition to over 60 partial and complete bifaces and 11 pp/ks recovered during excavations, 15 lithic debris accumulations interpreted as debitage "dumps" were excavated. The refitting of flakes from one of these features revealed the original core...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeanne Binning.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Frequently, in the reported results of the analysis of flaked-stone artifact assemblages, pressure flakes, ostensibly from small bifaces (arrow points, dart points, and knives), are distinguished. This category of debitage is difficult to identify unless the knapper who created the pressure flakes used the Ishi pressure method (this approach creates a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Chastain. Jianli Chen. Xingshan Lei.

Bronze ritual vessels from Shang- and Zhou-period China display a combination of features—complex, three-dimensional forms; exquisitely fine surface detail; and monumental size—that was achieved by casting in multi-part ceramic molds. The ceramic material used to form these casting molds is soft, powdery, and silica rich, making it altogether different from pottery clays in both its physical qualities and its production sequence. Why was such a material chosen? Which specific materials...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Garrett Toombs.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lithic artifact functions are often determined by the form of an artifact rather than by an analysis of functional characteristics. Some ways in which artifact function can be determined include experimental archaeology, use wear, and paleoethnobotanical analyses. Determining artifact function provides information about the types of tasks people performed,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anais Levin. John Walden. Lauren Garcia. Julie Hogarth. Jaime Awe.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lithic tool production and use offers a way to understand domestic activities and how they developed in relation to broader socio-political changes. The Late Classic (AD 600-900) Maya polity of Lower Dover, Belize emerged in the midst of a densely occupied landscape, and this transition saw the incorporation of three autonomous communities – Tutu Uitz Na,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sheldon Skaggs. Brian Gil. Nicole Diaz. Peter Cherico. Terry Powis.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological site of Pacbitun is located in west central Belize and has a long history of occupation at the site. Starting in the Middle Preclassic (600 – 400 BC) and continuing until AD 800-900. Recent student research projects have led to three differing uses of photogrammetry. First has been for public education and outreach, with students converting...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Francisco Pugliese. Roberto Ventura Santos. Carlos Zimpel. Eduardo Neves.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Monte Castelo has one of the earliest records of ceramic production in the New World. Occupation of the site dates to between 6000 and 700 BP and demonstrates covariances between technological changes and environmental scenarios since the beginning of its chronology. We present petrographic, chemical, and isotopic data on ceramics from different periods to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Bisulca. Marilen Pool. Nancy Odegaard.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The mesquite tree (Prosopis spp.), endemic to the desert regions of the American Southwest, has been utilized by indigenous peoples for centuries. The anthropological literature often cites the use of the mesquite gum in the material culture of the O’odham as a paint, adhesive and dye, and also notes its medicinal applications. Most described is the use of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara Borsodi. Lydia Luncz. David Braun. Jonathan Reeves.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Little is known about behaviors associated with the percussive technology of the Early Stone Age (ESA). Primatology provides a rare opportunity to observe how percussive behaviors produce damage patterns on stone tools. Although primate behavior provides a framework for inferring behaviors associated with ESA percussive tools, the distinction between...