Material Culture and Technology (Other Keyword)
601-625 (718 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Contact period studies tend to focus on the interactions between indigenous peoples and non-native peoples and the commerce produced from said interactions. As such, a plethora of information can be gleaned from the study of tools and materials procured during this time period with a focus on changes in tool form or material choice, if any. As a result of...
A Short Historiography of David Killick (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Science and African Archaeology: Appreciating the Impact of David Killick" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. David Killick came to archaeology perhaps earlier in life and almost surely in a more unconventional way than did most of us: at a prestigious, all-boys boarding school in what was then colonial Rhodesia. Student trips to the nearby Matobo Hills, an extraordinary landscape of balancing granite...
Short Reduction Sequences at the First European Peopling: An Example of Expedient Technology? (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Expedient Technological Behavior: Global Perspectives and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The early European peopling (about 1.5 Ma) is characterized by a low number of sites and lithic assemblages often consisting of a few hundred pieces. Despite these limitations, it is possible to define the technical behavior of these early Europeans with sufficient accuracy. The reduction sequences are always...
SIBA: Stone Interchanges within the Bahama Archipelago (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in the Archaeology of the Bahama Archipelago" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents results from Project SIBA, an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project that aims to: 1) characterise the regional social networks that bound the Lucayan archipelago to the wider Caribbean region, and; 2) provide an understanding of the creation and maintenance of indigenous exchange networks. The...
Silcrete Heat Treatment Technology during the MIS 5/4 Transition at Pinnacle Point 5-6 and Vleesbaai, South Africa (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The heat treatment of silcrete is an important technological strategy during the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in South Africa. Heat-treating silcrete improves its quality for tool making and use. Although it is found as early as ~162,000 years ago (ka) at Pinnacle Point 13B, heat-treated silcrete does not become common in South African MSA assemblages until...
Simulating Organic Projectile Point Damage on Bison Pelves (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A Bison latifrons pelvis was discovered eroding out of shoreline sediment at American Falls Reservoir in Idaho in 1953. The ischium section had a unique groove and hole with a depth of 35 mm and 10 mm in diameter. The pelvis was X-rayed in 1961 for indicators of the origin of the damage and this could not be ascertained. An experiment was developed to...
SIMuR Simulation: The Interdisciplinary Creation of a Virtual Reality Environment Archaeological Pedagogy, Research and Outreach (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2019, a three-year NSF IRES grant (#1854153) was awarded to Bridgewater State University, Ilia State University, and the Cyberarchaeology Lab at U.C. San Diego to engage U.S. undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research of historical and ongoing human-environmental interactions in the Shiraki Plateau in the southeastern part of the country of...
Site Assemblage Insights from the Middle Tanana and Middle Susitna River Basins, Alaska: Understanding the Later Denali/Northern Archaic Transition (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses and compares site assemblages dating to the Denali and Northern Archaic transition in central Alaska. This time period, ~10,000-6,000 cal BP, represents an understudied period in the region. The paper presents data from the Carpenter, Hollembaek, North Gerstle Point, and Swan Point assemblages. It further discusses apparent adaptive...
Site Hierarchy and Ceramic Display: Regional Variation in Bronze Age Ceramic Assemblages in the Eastern Carpathian Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tell settlements have played a key role in the study of Middle Bronze Age (2000–1500 BC) societies in the Carpathian Basin since the end of the nineteenth century. Researchers primarily use data from these sites and cemeteries in discussions over relative and absolute chronologies, questions of variability in material culture, the extent of interaction...
Small Stemmed Projectile Points, Bow and Arrow, and the Presence of New Human Populations in the Final Late Holocene of South Patagonia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Late Holocene, a variety of stemmed projectile points have been recorded in the Atlantic side of central-south Patagonia. Although some of the so-called Fell IV stemmed projectile points may have been part of a...
Social Identification and Collective Action at La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico (500-900 CE) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. According to the collective social identification framework, sustained collective action depends on the degree to which groups of individuals share networks of social interaction (i.e., relational identification) and recognize membership in the same social categories...
The Social Implications of Pottery Technology, Production, and Design from the Basketmaker Communities Project (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Adopting the Pueblo Fettle: The Breadth and Depth of the Basketmaker III Cultural Horizon" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Dillard site (5MT10647)-the earliest community center identified in the Mesa Verde region-may contain among the oldest examples of multi-household pottery production during the Basketmaker III period. A thorough understanding of how pottery was produced, decorated, and obtained at this early...
The Social Significance of Jemez Mountains Obsidian at Aztec Ruins National Monument (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studying the sources of obsidian in the American Southwest has provided valuable insights into both resource procurement and the social and political processes that underlie it. We report on a large sourcing study from Aztec Ruins National Monument, a Chacoan community significant both for its political history and for its multiple great houses....
Societal Boundaries and Material Production: Stylistic and Spatial Analyses of Ceramics from Late Intermediate Sites in the Huamanga Province of Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Social actors interact with their material environment rather than simply reacting to it; they manipulate the meanings of, or meaningfully constitute, material culture according to their own needs and interests. As such, people use material culture to communicate and negotiate self-identity, as well as group affiliation and dissociation, and leaders can...
Some Like It Hot: Prehistoric Heat Treatment of Petrified Wood (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prehistoric petrified wood artifacts found at the Rainbow Forest Site at Petrified Forest National Park often exhibit heat treatment. Prehistoric heat treatment of petrified wood has shown significant changes in color, texture, and workability. This experimental archaeology project focused on heating petrified wood flakes in a ceramic kiln at different...
Sourcing Obsidian in the Central Mesoamerican Region Using XRF Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Obsidian tools and flakes are commonly examined in sourcing studies in areas with abundant volcanogenic deposits. Obsidian provenance research in the central Mesoamerican region has shown extensive networks of obsidian trade during the Formative and Classic periods. In this study, we used portable XRF to analyze a previously unstudied collection of over...
Spatial Arrangement of the Northern Archaic Component at the McDonald Creek Site, Central Alaska (2021)
This is an abstract from the "McDonald Creek and Blair Lakes: Late Pleistocene-Holocene Human Activity in the Tanana Flats of Central Alaska" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. McDonald Creek is a multicomponent campsite located in the central Tanana Valley south of Fairbanks, Alaska. In addition to late Pleistocene components, archaeological excavations at the site have uncovered a productive Northern Archaic occupation dating to the middle Holocene....
Spatial Variation in Tool Use: Acheulean Forager Patterning at Elandsfontein, South Africa (2018)
Despite more than a century of scholarship, our knowledge about the use of stone artifacts remains relatively sparse. Major advances in the analysis of microscopic wear have been the primary focus of much previous research. However, post-depositional processes and the logistics of microscopic analysis limit sample sizes in these studies. New approaches that quantify macroscopic damage patterns on the assemblage scale provide a robust basis for drawing behavioral inferences about hominin tool...
Spear-Thrower or Bow? Refining Comparative Metrics to Track the Cultural Transmission of Bow Technology in the Andes (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The appearance of new projectile technology can be among the most significant shifts in a region’s history. To metrically distinguish dart and arrow projectile points, we present new data on hafted archaeological projectile...
Spindle Whorls from Angkor Borei, Cambodia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Angkor Borei, Cambodia was a major center of the Funan civilization during the early first millennium CE. As with many sites in Cambodia, Angkor Borei has also been heavily looted. This poster presents our analysis of 362 ceramic spindle whorls from a looted collection undergoing repatriation to Cambodia. We compared the collection to a previously developed...
Spinning Knowledge: Applications of High-Resolution Photogrammetry and Experimental Archaeology with Lithic Gorgets at Poverty Point WHS (2024)
This is an abstract from the "*SE Not Your Father’s Poverty Point: Rewriting Old Narratives through New Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Photogrammetry, the production of 3D models from composite photographs, presents numerous possibilities in archaeological research and expands the accessibility of the field. We will discuss the potentials of high-resolution photogrammetry as an important resource, not only for research and analysis, but...
Spinning Makes the World Go Round: Spindle Whorls from Nohcacab, Q. Roo, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A spindle whorl was an integral tool in textile production, it had social, religious, political, and economic significance for the ancient Maya. The spindle whorls carried many roles such as functional tools, symbolic displays, gender, and status representations while interconnecting traditions, mastery, and the artistic expression of a weaver.
Spinning through Time: Comparing Spindle Whorl Assemblages from the Southern Levant (2018)
Spindle whorls, a flywheel attached to a shaft used for the production of thread, are one of the only artifacts related to the textile industry which survives in the archaeological record. At the crossroads between Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, the southern Levant is at the intersection of cultural and technological change, particularly throughout the chronological scope of my study: the Pottery Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze I periods. There has yet to be a comprehensive study of...
The Square or the Round? Agro-pastoral Household Structure in Southeastern Kazakhstan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Empirical Approaches to Mobile Pastoralist Households" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Iron Age agropastoralists of the Talgar region built a variety of houses including rectangular double-walled mud-walled houses, semi-subterranean pit houses, mud brick platforms, and central circular rooms with multiple plastered floors. In earlier periods of prehistory the description of transition from mobile to sedentary...
State Control of Production and Distribution of Inka-Style Pottery in the Southern Border of Tawantinsuyu (Inka State) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Andean and Amazonian Ceramics: Advances in Technological Studies" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study aims to identify the nature and degree of state control over the production and distribution of Inka-style ceramics in Aconcagua Valley and Maipo-Mapocho basin (Central Chile) during the Late Period (AD 1400–1536) and what role the Diaguita may have played in this process. The analysis focuses mainly on aríbalos...