Archaeometry & Materials Analysis (Other Keyword)
226-250 (357 Records)
This is an abstract from the "New Directions in Mongolian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The initial spread of pastoralism into the Mongolian steppe during the third millennium cal BC marked a major transformation in human subsistence. Dairying was practiced by early pastoralist groups, evidenced by the identification of milk proteins preserved in human dental calculus. However, we have a poor understanding of how the focused...
Personal Ornaments and the Middle Paleolithic Revolution (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Culturing the Body: Prehistoric Perspectives on Identity and Sociality" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Middle-to-Upper Paleolithic transition is a watershed. By the later Upper Paleolithic, all continents were occupied, all the world’s ecosystems were exploited, and all aspects of ethnographically observed hunter-gatherer culture the archaeological record can preserve are indeed found. Prior to about 100,000 years...
Phytolith Analysis of Experimental Fires: Insights into the Prehistory of Fire (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Cooking Hypothesis suggests the morphological changes in the Homo lineage, including larger brains, were due to incorporating controlled combustion to cook food. Most archaeological evidence for fire comes from cave sites, which are less likely to be exposed to post-depositional processes (e.g. wind and water) that can destroy combustion evidence. Yet the...
Pib Naah y la Partería: Birth Rituals and Midwifery at Río Amarillo, Copan, Honduras (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper explores evidence of women’s ritual practice at Río Amarillo, a site located 20 km from the Classic period center of Copan. While the ritual activities of royal women are largely hidden from view in Copan’s Acropolis, excavations at the site of Río Amarillo and in the groups surrounding it uncovered two contexts that were particularly...
Pigment Composition and Color Structure and Usage in the Lienzos De Chiepetlan, Guerrero, Mexico: A Non-destructive Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Materials to Materiality: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts Using Non-destructive and Micro/Nano-sampling Scientific Methods" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The community of Chiepetlan, Guerrero possesses six colonial lienzos. One manufactured during the 16th century, and four manufactured during the 18th century and used as legal documents in colonial land disputes. The...
Plant Exudates of Arizona: Use, Properties, and Testing (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Plant Exudates and Other Binders, Adhesives, and Coatings in the Americas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the material culture of the American Southwest, several plant and insect exudates were utilized as adhesives, coatings, paints, and dyes, as well as for medicinal purposes. Their use is described in ethnohistorical and anthropological accounts. However, many of these materials are misidentified in these...
Plant Fiber and Foraging Tools in the Eastern Great Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Analysis of the plant fiber from eastern Great Basin sites show a pattern of continuity in their selection and use over time, suggesting they were regularly preferred for specific tools. Archaeologists currently have no quantitative explanation of what may have influenced forager fiber choices. Explaining why a forager has chosen a particular...
Pottery Rituals and Ritual Pottery: Ceramic Production, Use, and Disposal among the Guancavilca of Coastal Ecuador (AD 800–1532) (2018)
The Colonche Valley of coastal Ecuador represents an east-west corridor as well as the apex of north-south interconnected valleys. Hilltop sites of the Manteno-Guancavilca (AD 800-1532) have been reported across the high flat ridgetops of these valleys since the early 20th century. Recent comparative analysis of surface vessels at newly discovered sites in the eastern Colonche Valley demonstrates the coalescence of examples of all types found at sites throughout the valleys. Mineralogical and...
Pottery, Practice and Provenance. Interpreting Ceramic Data from the Middle Preclassic site of Holtun, Guatemala (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Where Is Provenance? Bridging Method, Evidence, and Theory for the Interpretation of Local Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Formal studies of archaeological pottery have moved far beyond traditional typological approaches through applications of complementary instrumental analyses, borrowed mainly from the Natural Sciences. No contemporary study of archaeological pottery is complete without some form of...
The Power of Pyrotechnologies: Ceramic, Iron, and Bronze in the Rise of the Angkorian Khmer Empire, Cambodia (Ninth to Fourteenth Centuries CE) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Crafting with fire is a central feature in the expansion of premodern states. In mainland Southeast Asia, the Angkorian Khmer (ninth to fourteenth centuries CE) possessed a unique mastery of three types of pyrotechnological production: stoneware ceramics, copper-base alloys, and iron. While the products of each craft...
Pre-Colonial Hokkaido and East Asian Trade: Exchange and Identity Formation of the Okhotsk Culture (2023)
This is an abstract from the "From the Altai to the Arctic: New Results and New Directions in the Archaeology of North and Inner Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research explores ways precontact commodities trade networks, originating in distant nation-states and empires, can create the conditions to trigger changing social relations and novel identities far from market centers. I argue that a shift in the functional role of trade from...
Prehispanic Colors to Re-create New Images and Stories: Materiality and Technology of Color in the Colonial Houses of Chajul, Guatemala (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The houses of Chajul, region of Ixil, Guatemala, have preserved stucco coatings and mural paintings from the colonial period. Since 2019, the University of Valencia (Spain) has collaborated with the Jagiellonian University (Poland) within the framework of the Project of Conservation of Chajul Murals–COMUCH. The objective of this study has...
A Preliminary Investigation into the Political Economy of Santa Cruz, an Associated Community with Ichmul de Morley, Yucatan, Mexico (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 centers on the analysis of shell, lithics, and ceramics recovered from the ancient Maya community of Santa Cruz, located 3 km south of the secondary site of Ichmul de Morley in northern Yucatán. Ichmul de Morley appears to have had an expansive growth during the Late and Terminal Classic periods that might have encouraged local development of nearby...
Preliminary Results of an Integrated Approach for the Study of Ceramic Vessels of Fishing Communities in Prehispanic Huanchaco, North Coast of Peru (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. The archaeology of Peru has been dominated by the study of ceramics through the lenses of culture-history approach, which emphasize form, decoration, and style. These variables were successfully applied to identify archaeological cultures and chronological periods. Subsequently, this approach helped to organize the...
A Preliminary Study of Epiclassic Human Mobility at Cerro Magoni in Tula, Mexico Using Stable and Radiometric Isotope Analyses (2018)
In this poster, we present preliminary mobility data for ten individuals recovered from the summit of Cerro Magoni, an Epiclassic (ca. AD 600-900) hilltop settlement in Tula, Mexico. For decades it has been hypothesized that the Tula area may have experienced an influx of immigrants from northwestern Mexico during the Epiclassic period, and that these newcomers played an important role in the rise Tula Grande. Results presented here provide an important step forward towards testing the long-held...
A Preliminary Study of Epiclassic Human Mobility at La Mesa in Tula, Mexico Using Stable and Radiometric Isotope Analyses and Radiocarbon Dating (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this poster, we present preliminary mobility data for individuals recovered from La Mesa, an Epiclassic hilltop settlement in Tula, Mexico. For decades it has been hypothesized that the Tula area may have experienced an influx of immigrants from northwestern Mexico during the Epiclassic period, and that these newcomers played an important role in the rise...
Proceso Constructivo en los Montículos Circulares Prehispánicos de Urcuquí / Constructive Process at Prehispanic Circular Mounds of Urcuquí (2018)
El paisaje cultural arqueológico de Urcuquí se caracteriza por la presencia de montículos artificiales circulares –Tolas-, de la época prehispánica. Sus dimensiones promedio fluctúan entre treinta y cincuenta metros de diámetro y entre dos y cuatro metros de altura. El objetivo de esta ponencia es proponer el proceso de construcción de estas estructuras, a partir de una relectura de la información obtenida del registro arqueológico de superficie y subsuelo empleando técnicas mixtas: excavación...
Puertos, materiales y productos de intercambio (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Coastal Connections: Pacific Coastal Links from Mexico to Ecuador" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Desde los primeros estudios arqueológicos desarrollados en el occidente mesoamericano han sido encontrados diversos rasgos culturales, vocablos y artefactos similares a materiales existentes en el noroeste sudamericano. Destacan entre ellos los materiales Capacha, los de tumbas de tiro y la metalurgia, aportando...
Quichunque: Un santuario inca de altura en la sierra norte de Lima (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Quichunque es un sitio arqueológico con indicios de haber tenido “génesis” local y evidencia de reocupación inca. Es el resto de un santuario de altura con infraestructura monumental superpuesto sobre la cima y laderas superiores de una montaña a 4.798 m. Su posición espacial privilegiada con vista a las principales cordilleras y montañas de la sierra...
Quilcapampa: A Wari Colony on an Interregional Trail on the Coast of Southern Peru (2018)
In the ninth century AD, Wari settlers founded the site of Quilcapampa in the Sihuas Valley of southern Peru. The first definitive Wari settlement in Arequipa, the site was founded astride an inter-valley trade route that had been used for at least a millennium. This paper will discuss both the site's clear link to Wari, as evidenced by its architecture, ceramics, and foodways, as well as the possible links to the Nazca region where Wari control was likely fractured due to conflict and possible...
Re-Contextualizing Pre-Columbian Gold and Resin Artifacts from Panama in the National Museum of the American Indian (2018)
Until recent years the study of Pre-Columbian gold and resin objects from Panama was slow to progress due to the relative scarcity of archaeological projects excavating these materials. While the original contexts of many museum objects have been lost, the collection of Panamanian gold and resin in the National Museum of the American Indian was re-evaluated for its potential to answer key questions about the ancient craftspeople of this region. To ensure accurate provenience information was...
A Re-evaluation of Surface-Collected Projectile Points or Knives from the Poverty Point (16WC5) Site Using Reflectance Spectroscopy (2021)
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. Nondestructive reflectance spectroscopy (VNIR-FTIR) was applied to 845 chert projectile points/knives (ppks) from the Poverty Point site (16WC5) in order to characterize the toolstone lithic networks utilized by the Late Archaic (4000–2500 BP) inhabitants of that site. This was the first systematic application...
Reanalyzing "The Rise": A Gobernador Phase Navajo Habitation Site in Northwest New Mexico. (2018)
In 2003, a master’s thesis project examined a multicomponent Navajo habitation site dating to the 17th-18th centuries in the Dinétah region of northwest New Mexico. The initial survey program carried out a number of activities, including site mapping, surface collection, and artifact analyses; however, certain questions were left unanswered. A new phase of research initiated in the summer of 2017 aims to better characterize the site and explore the possibility of a pastoral adaptation on the...
Recipe and Quality of Lime Plaster Samples from Plaza One, Teotihuacan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1959, the Teotihuacan Mapping Project, led by Rene Millon, excavated at the site of Plaza One in Teotihuacan and acquired a myriad of artifacts, including lime plaster samples. This presentation focuses on the examination of these plaster samples via Optical Microscopy and SEM-EDS, which are used to evaluate the similarities and differences in the building...
Recognizing Early Use of Fire in the Paleolithic of Europe (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Controlling the use of fire was a technological milestone in human evolution. The beginnings of the control of fire remain controversial because preserved hearths containing a combination of combustion residues are easily altered and their identification in the archaeological record can be hindered by taphonomic biases. Excavations at the Gruta da Aroeira...