Environment and Climate (Other Keyword)
276-300 (436 Records)
The Neo-Assyrian empire is known as one of the major empires in the Ancient Near East. Ruling in Mesopotamia during the Iron Age, they had a well-organized agricultural system. In this paper, I will utilize phytolith analyses to investigate the impact of the Neo-Assyrian empire on agriculture and land-use. I will compare the elite-controlled agriculture with the crop choices of peasant farmers. It’s likely that the peasant farmers would have chosen more resistant and reliable types of plants for...
New Insights from Old Wood: A Case Study from the Southeastern United States (2018)
In the southeastern United States, as well as in North America more broadly, archaeological wood charcoal continues to be an underutilized data source. In this paper, I review previous North American studies and models of prehistoric fuelwood collection. I use these past studies to highlight how wood charcoal data might contribute new insights on the archaeological record. I also present findings from a recent analysis of wood charcoal from three sites in the North Carolina Piedmont. This new...
New Kid on the Block: El Niño-Modoki in Peru—Past, Present, and Future (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the climatological phenomenon referred to as El Nino Modoki, warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the central Pacific are flanked on the east and west by cooler SSTs. Over the last century, El Niño-Modoki has increased in frequency, but a long-term sequence has yet to be established prior to the last four centuries. At least on the north coast of...
The Nitrogen Challenge at Çatalhöyük (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Challenges and Future Directions in Plant Stable Isotope Analysis in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic values of archaeobotanical remains from the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük have presented us with a series of challenges for interpreting ancient crop management systems in a complex environment. An exceptionally wide range of δ15N values (0 to 18‰) obtained...
Non-Pollen Palynomorphs Reveal Environmental Fluctuations in the Terminal Pleistocene Southeastern United States (2018)
Paleobotanists and palynologists must be able to identify various types of plant remains from archaeological sites. Because of the difficulty of becoming familiar with the vast array of microfossils found in a typical pollen sample, non-pollen palynomorphs (such as fungal spores) are often overlooked in traditional palynological analyses. However, they can be indicators of various environmental changes such as fluctuations in plant and animal communities, erosion and fire events. This paper...
North Norwegian Heritage at Risk (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Putting Archaeology to Work: Expanding Climate and Environmental Studies with the Archaeological Record" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Climate is changing now at an even higher rate than expected in some of the worst-case climate scenarios, with increasing temperatures, changes in precipitation, decreasing permafrost, more frequent and severe storms, sea-level rise, reduction of sea ice, floods, avalanches, and...
Of Pirates and Pilots: The Impact of Climate on Illicit and Survival Behaviour on the Fringes of Global Society (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Relationships between people and landscapes can be used to inform upon social and behavioural variations. Hurricanes and shifting climactic dynamics around Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks NC directly affected this relationship. Historically, Ocracoke provided vital trade and communication links from the West Indies to North America. Pilot Town, on Ocracoke...
On the Front Lines-Addressing Climate Change at the Local Level in South Florida (2018)
How do you place a value on heritage at risk, and who gets to make these decisions? In South Florida, sea level rise is an issue of paramount importance, yet preservation of archaeological and historical sites are rarely the focus of resiliency planning efforts. This paper summarizes the efforts of various groups to combat this, though engaging with local governments and city planners to raise awareness of how archaeological sites will be impacted by sea level rise and insert it into policy at...
ood, Agricultural, and Environmental Risk Management during the Holocene in Mesopotamia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Using new microbotanical phytolith evidence, this article discusses what strategies were implemented to manage factors affecting agricultural strategies and staple food during the Late Holocene in a dry climatic condition in the Late Holocene at the Neo-Assyrian large site of Peshdar Plain located in Kurdistan, Iraq, Northern Mesopotamia. Located in the...
Opening Up a Can of Worms: Putting Archaeological Evidence for Intestinal Parasites in Conversation with Early Medieval Medical Manuscripts (2024)
This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 1: Landscapes, Food, and Health" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In what ways did early medieval people of the Atlantic Archipelago encounter parasitic worms within and about their bodies, and how did these gutsy matters affect their daily lived experiences? To begin answering these questions, we should consider, alongside environmental archaeological data, textual sources in the...
The Ostra Collecting Station Site: A Virtual Reconstruction (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Virtual reality is a tool that can be used to enhance archeological analyses. My research explores using excavation data to develop a 3D immersive and interactive simulated environment representative of an archaeological site. Incorporating virtual reality in site analyses provides an interface where data can be used to test various hypotheses and can be...
An Overview and Synthesis of Paleocoastal Research on the Yucatan Peninsula (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Global Submerged Paleolandscapes Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The broad carbonate platform and shallow continental shelf of the Yucatan Peninsula supported the rise of the northern lowland Maya and the dispersal of Paleoamerican peoples thousands of years earlier. Exploration—particularly in the region’s now-submerged cave systems—has revealed the remains of the Yucatan’s earliest human...
A Paleoclimate Study from Central Washington State along the Main-Stem Columbia River (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paleoenvironmental data is an important variable to consider when investigating and assessing prehistoric cultural change. This study presents a new paleoenvironmental reconstruction from central Washington State within the Columbia Plateau cultural area. This analysis represents the first large-scale paleoenvironmental reconstruction on the main-stem...
Paleoecological Analysis Using Select Coprolites & Sediments Recovered from Paisley Caves, Oregon (2018)
Coprolites recovered from archaeological context provide direct access to understanding past human interactions with their environments. The Paisley Caves of south-central Oregon are notable for the presence of hundreds of preserved coprolites, the oldest confirmed as being human in origin and approximately 14,350 cal. BP years old. Our project focused on analyzing a series of coprolites and their corresponding sediments to look for variabilities in the paleoenvironment in the area immediate to...
Paleoecological Continuity and Change Over Time in South Florida (2018)
Florida National Parks preserve millions of acres of wetlands, subtropical estuaries and prehistoric waterways interconnecting thousands of tree islands, middens and shell work islands, comprising one of the largest and most complex prehistoric maritime landscapes worldwide. Recursive human and natural dynamics shaped these landscapes over deep time, but they are now beginning to be impacted by rising sea level and climate change. What can we learn from changes on the landscape and human and...
Paleoecology of the Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Lamb Spring Site, Colorado (2018)
The Lamb Spring site located in central Colorado is a late Quaternary locality with stratified Pleistocene and Holocene faunal remains. The late Pleistocene component is dominated by mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) but contains other grazing taxa like horse, bison, American camel, Harlan’s ground sloth, etc. The general lack of microfauna from this horizon makes detailed paleoecological interpretations difficult. However, the megafauna point to a dominance of grassland with the possibility of...
Paleoecology, Paleoclimate, and Paleoeconomy at the Turner River Mound Complex, Everglades National Park (2018)
The Turner River Mound Complex is an intensively modified landscape consisting of numerous shell mounds and other shell work features such as ridges, walkways, canals and ponds. Located in the Ten Thousand Islands region of Everglades National Park, a subtropical mangrove estuary, the complex is an unusual example of the prehistoric tradition of shell-built architecture in Southwest Florida. In this project we combine traditional zooarchaeological analyses, stable isotope sclerochronology, and...
Paleoenvironment, Population, and the Origins of Resource Intensification on the Eastern Edge of the Colorado Plateau (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Geoarchaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Site 5ME13127, a Formative-Era camp at the eastern edge of the Colorado Plateau, was excavated in 2018. Macrofloral and faunal analyses indicate small seeds and lagomorphs dominated subsistence by AD320-420, and the bow was adopted by AD560-650. Sediment cores from Kannah Creek fen on Grand Mesa (27km southeast) provide paleoenvironmental context for interpretations of...
PALEOENVIRONMENTAL AND PALEOCLIMATIC RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CRVENA STIJENA SITE (MONTENEGRO, SOUTH EUROPE) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The small vertebrates from Crvena Stijena are a good proxy for the investigation of the changes in the ecosystems in the past, related to climatic variations. We investigate the local paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes that occurred in the area and compare the...
Paleoenvironmental Conditions of Holocene Southern Mozambique: Multiproxy Data from Coastal Lake Nyalonzelwe Cores (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. To understand the role climate played in facilitating the development and expression of human behaviors, our interdisciplinary research team cored the interdunal Nyalonzelwe lake (Inhambane coast, southern Mozambique) during the summer of 2019. Lake Nyalonzelwe sits 5 m above MSL and is sheltered from the Indian Ocean by a Pleistocene dune system. Its...
Paleoenvironmental Context of Calusa Cultural Evolution on Mound Key, Estero Bay, Southwest Florida (2018)
The Calusa occupied Mound Key in Estero Bay, southwest Florida, from approximately AD600 to the 1700s with this location serving as a cultural and political center from ca. AD950. As a fisher-gatherer-hunter society, they heavily exploited the shellfish and finfish resources of the estuary. During this time, Estero Bay’s estuarine ecology and coastal geomorphology developed in response to variable rates of sea-level rise (SLR) and climate change. Our work integrates archaeological and geological...
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of Two Paleoindian Sites in North-Central New Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mapping environmental change through time can help archaeologists better understand patterns of human resource use. This poster presents the δ13C and δ18O values for bison teeth at two Paleoindian sites (Boca Negra Wash and Water Canyon) in north-central New Mexico. The δ13C and δ18O values are compared across the two sites to evaluate if there is a change...
Paleoenvironmental Signatures of a Persistent Place at Kharaneh IV, Jordan (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Water in the Desert: Human Resilience in the Azraq Basin and Eastern Desert of Jordan" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental data are pertinent to understanding the processes that form persistent places. This paper presents new physical and chemical geoarchaeological data, including faunal C and O isotopes, sediment composition, and geological survey data, from Kharaneh IV, a large Early...
Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of a Classic Taino Ritual Site at Cinnamon Bay, St. John (AD 1000–1490) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster presents preliminary analysis of paleoethnobotanical data from excavations at a Classic Taino site (AD 1000–1490) located at Cinnamon Bay on St. John, US Virgin Islands. Excavations began in 1992 when it was determined that the site was at risk of being lost to erosion. Until now, there has been no analysis of the paleoethnobotanical samples...
Paleoindian Sites from Central Mexico: Paleoenvironment and Dating (2018)
During the last 20 years we have studied systematically several important Paleoindian sites from Central Mexico doing detailed stratigraphic studies, paleoenvironmental reconstructions (pollen, diatoms, tephra studies) and radiocarbon dating. The sites include: Peñon Woman III skeleton, Santa Isabel Iztapan Mammoths with associated lithics, Tlapacoya Man Skull, Tocuila Mammoths, Tequixquiac Late Pleistocene Fossils and Tepexpan Man Skeleton. We present here a general model of strong...