Archaeometry & Materials Analysis (Other Keyword)
76-100 (357 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research at Jornada Mogollon Sites in South-Central New Mexico" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Compared to other regions of the Southwest, little is known about prehispanic turquoise acquisition and exchange in southern New Mexico and adjacent parts of Texas or in Chihuahua, Mexico. Here, we explore the distribution of sites with turquoise in the Tularosa and Hueco Basins as well as in northern Chihuahua. In...
Do Not Be Distracted by the Talking Dog: Aspirational Status Display by Medieval Elites at San Giuliano (Lazio Province, Italy) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Thinking Big in the Andes: Papers in Honor of Charles Stanish" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chip Stanish once told me that a good archaeologist should be able to be thrown out of a plane anywhere in the world and find something interesting to say about the material record there. Inspired by many years under Chip’s tutelage and drawing on my earlier work in the Andes, I here present data from my current research at...
Does Exposure to Heat Alter Stable Isotope Values of Ostrich Eggshell? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological sites in Africa and Asia often contain large amounts of eggshell fragments from ostriches (Struthio spp.), indicating that these birds and their eggs were a valuable source of protein and calories for hunter-gatherers. Despite their abundance, however, ostrich eggshell (OES) remains understudied. Stable isotopic values preserved in...
Domestic Activity Areas in a Late Classic Residential Courtyard Group at Chan Chich, Belize (2018)
Households represent a foundational element of any society. The everyday activities that occur within domestic spaces construct and reinforce the social, economic, and political framework upon which societies are built. The 2017 field season of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project saw the first explicit study of domesticity and everyday life at the ancient Maya site of Chan Chich with investigations of final phase domestic activity areas in Courtyard D-4. This Late Classic residential group...
Domestic Life and Ceramic Consumption in Tlajinga, Teotihuacan (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tlajinga is the southernmost district of Teotihuacan, a cosmopolitan city that thrived in Central Mexico during the Classic period. Previous research done in this neighborhood includes surface collection associated with the Teotihuacan Mapping Project and the excavation of one compound, designated 33:S3W1 during...
Early Globalization of the Han Empire in Its Southern Frontier and the Expansion of Iron Economic Network (2018)
Even though the framework of early globalization has been proved as effective in illuminating ancient interregional interaction in many regions, its value and contribution to the archaeological study of ancient China has been overlooked in the literature. Focusing on the Han Empire, we employed statistical methods to exam variations in assemblages and frequencies of iron objects, one type of critical state finance in the Han political economies, from burials in the southern frontier of the...
Early Islamic Glazed Ceramics from Bukhara and Tashkent: An Archaeometric Analysis (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in Central Asian Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of the archaeometric analysis of 150 early Islamic style glazed ceramics from Central Asia. The glazed ceramics, introduced to the region in the ninth century CE, served as important cultural markers and demonstrated the intentional affiliation that the residents in Mā Warāʾ an-Nahr developed with...
Economic and Style Trends of Shell Beads from the Tule Creek Village Site (CA-SNI-25) of San Nicolas Island, California (2018)
Native peoples of Southern California developed complex systems of trades through non-monetary exchanges of items such as beads. Through these exchanges and interactions, socioeconomic structures within intra-local and extra-local communities evolved to fit individual governing societies. The Tule Creek Village was the epicenter of cultural and social development during the Late Holocene on San Nicolas Island. It harbored a myriad bead types distributed among the residential and ceremonial...
Economic Integration across Political Boundaries in Highland Chiapas (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Embedded Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines the integration of small polity economies in highland Chiapas, and the ways in which polity size and proximity were factors. This region formed part of the western frontier of the Maya linguistic and cultural area, and has been characterized as a relatively autonomous economic and political periphery. Beginning in the Late Classic...
Elemental and Isotopic Geochemistry to Source Shell-Tempered Ceramics – Late Woodland and Mississippian Contexts in the Yazoo Basin (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sourcing shell-tempered ceramics using compositional analyses has revealed to be challenging, if not impossible in some contexts. Recent pilot studies have shown that freshwater mussel shells from archaeological sites located in different drainages in Eastern and Southeastern United States display different elemental compositions. The present research further...
Emotions Underground: Facial Expression in the Andean Past through the Portrait Vessels (Huacos Retratos, a Heterodox Approach to the Emotions of the Past) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The critical role of emotions in any social framework is a problematic element to address from the archaeological record. The nuances of nonverbal communication preceded articulated language and the production of any other communication record in the human species. Behavioral studies, supported by neuroanatomical registration, allow the detailed...
Epifluorescence Microscopy of Experimentally Heated Animal Bones: Applications to Archaeological Micromorphology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Charred Organic Matter in the Archaeological Sedimentary Record" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Burned bones are an important constituent of the archaeological sedimentary record. Their presence is usually indicative of human activity and may provide information about past human behavior. In micromorphological thin sections, charred bone fragments may appear as opaque and amorphous, and extremely difficult to...
The Esperanza to Middle Marcala Phase Subsistence Practices at El Gigante Rockshelter (11,000–7400 cal B.P.) (2018)
The earliest human occupation of the El Gigante Rockshelter in the highlands of western Honduras dates to the Early Esperanza phase at 11,010 cal B.P. This paper examines the perishable and imperishable remains from the Early Esperanza through Middle Marcala phase occupation from 11,010-7,430 cal B.P. and what they inform about human adaptation and forager subsistence practices in the highlands during this early period of Honduran prehistory.
Establishing Ceramic Source Groups in Florida Using a Multi-method Approach (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than 500 ceramic artifacts from four prehistoric sites in Pinellas County, Florida, were analyzed nondestructively using a portable XRF spectrometer to address research questions about local production and potential movement or exchange over significant distances. All dating to the Safety Harbor period (ca. AD 900–1500), at least 100 diagnostic...
Establishing Provenance of Ochre from the La Prele Mammoth Site: A Geochemical Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Red ochre is a ferrous iron oxide mineral used for cultural expression and utilitarian tasks by hominins beginning 250,000 years ago. The use of ochre continued into the New World. While its use by Paleoindians has been noted, the function and significance of ochre for these groups is not well understood. To conceive the importance of ochre to Paleoindians, it...
Estudios de las especies de moluscos en Quilcapampa La Antigua. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Wari and the Far Peruvian South Coast: Final Results of Excavations in Quilcapampa" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El sitio arqueológico de Quilcapampa se ubica en la margen derecha del valle medio del rio Sihuas al sur de Perú. Los datos recuperados durante dos temporadas de campo lo ubican cronológicamente en el Horizonte Medio, asociándolo directamente a la cultura Wari, evidenciando actividades específicas, entre...
Estudios Químicos sobre la Cal de Tlaxcallan del Posclásico Tardío (1250-1519 d.C.) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tlaxcallan: Mesoamerica's Bizarro World" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La cal fue uno de los principales cementantes en Mesoamérica y es considerada un rasgo clave para identificar niveles de complejidad social debido al alto costo energético que conllevó su producción artesanal en sociedades preindustriales. La cal también fue utilizada ampliamente en la antigua Tlaxcallan durante el Posclásico Tardío (1250-1519...
Ethno-Archaeometry of Ochre Mineral Pigment Extraction, Transport, and Use in the Kenya Rift Valley (2018)
Ochre occurs in African archaeological sites from the later Middle Pleistocene to the ethnographic present. Ochre is used worldwide for symbolic and functional purposes, and is often considered to be evidence for symbolic behavior by cognitively modern Paleolithic humans. Geochemical provenience analysis, complemented by ethnographic studies of ochre source exploitation, transport, and use, can elucidate whether culturally mediated source exploitation differs significantly from a least-cost...
Evaluating Prehistoric Migration in Pacific Coastal Nicaragua through the Analysis of Strontium Isotope Ratios (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Strontium isotopes are increasingly used to infer migration amongst ancient populations. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio in tooth enamel is primarily influenced by the underlying geology of the region where an individual resided during tooth formation in childhood or adolescence. Older geological formations tend to present a higher 87Sr/86Sr ratio, while lower ratios...
Every Block of Stone Has a Statue Inside: Epipalaeolithic Engraved Plaquettes and Art at Kharaneh IV (2018)
Artistic objects are thought to be one of the hallmarks of the Natufian period, marking a florescence of artistic behavior appearing prior to the origins of agriculture. However, with continuing research into Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic sites in the Levant, new discoveries of ‘symbolic’ artifacts are increasing our understanding of even earlier artistic and symbolic pursuits. In this paper we present an engraved plaquette from the Middle Epipalaeolithic context of Kharaneh IV, eastern...
Evidence for Close Management of Sheep in Ancient Central Asia: Foddering Techniques and Transhumance in the Final Bronze Age (2018)
Ancient animal management strategies have important implications for debates on modern pastoral landscape use in Eurasia. As livestock production intensifies in in semi-arid regions there is a need to identify the diverse set of strategies employed by pastoralists. Sequential carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope analysis of teeth from domesticated sheep at Bronze Age sites in Kazakhstan exhibit varied isotopic sequences. Sheep from Kent exhibit an inverse relationship where low δ18O values...
Examining Inter-regional Interaction in the Tiwanaku State (C.E. 500-1100) using 87Sr/86Sr Analysis of Building Material from a Provincial Ceremonial Center (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent approaches to inter-regional interaction emphasizing the study of heterogenous identities in peripheral contexts advance scholarly debate about sociopolitical organization in the archaic Andean state of Tiwanaku (C.E. 500-1100). The present study employs 87Sr/86Sr analysis to determine the source region of four archaeological ichu grass (Stipa ichu)...
Excavating the Archives: A Reanalysis of Artifacts Recovered from Catclaw Cave (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1949, a master’s student at the University of Arizona, Barton Wright, undertook the first salvage excavation project at Catclaw Cave in anticipation of the construction of Davis Dam. The assemblage recovered by Wright and his team remains one of the best persevered dry shelter collections recovered from the region. This poster represents the results of...
Excavations at the Crane Dune Site (41CR61), a Prehistoric Habitation, Burial, and Lithic Cache Site in Crane County, Texas (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Crane Dune site (41CR61) was identified by AmaTerra archaeologists during a survey for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) prior to widening Highway 385 in Crane County, Texas. The site consists of at least two components (Late Prehistoric and Late Archaic) centered on stabilized sand dunes. The cultural occupations span a 40-50 cm thick dark...
Experimental Identification of Heat-Treated Silcrete Using Colorimetry and Reflectance Spectrophotometry (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Consortium Poster Symposium" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The heat treatment of stone for tool production represents one of the oldest technologies for transforming the material properties of a natural product to better suit human needs. The earliest evidence for such technology is the heat treatment of silcrete at the South African Middle Stone Age site Pinnacle Point...