Archaeometry & Materials Analysis (Other Keyword)
226-250 (484 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Transcending Modern Boundaries: Recent Investigations of Cultural Landscapes in Southeastern Utah" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For non-industrial communities, subsistence strategies are tightly constrained by ecological factors. Prehistoric peoples in the Bears Ears area were entirely dependent upon maize—a cultivar adapted to low-altitude, subtropical conditions in Mesoamerica—by at least 400 BC. Given the...
Landscapes of Maroon Societies in Ecuador (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Afro-Latin American Landscapes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation debates the permeability of eighteenth-century landscapes of colonialism and slavery in the Andean region, based on the ethnohistorical and ethnographic research of *cimarronaje and *palenques (maroonage) heritage in the Afro-Ecuadorian Ancestral Territory (between the Chota-Mira Valley and the province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador). A legacy...
Lapidary Objects from a Funerary Context: The Origin to the Last Abode (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ways to Do, Ways to Inhabit, Ways to Interact: An Archaeological View of Communities and Daily Life" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within of the daily activities of a population, there were the events of the death of community members. These practices led the population to look for certain objects that needed to be placed next to the deceased people in the burial process with different functions and meanings. But...
Las poblaciones arcaicas del Cabo Samaná, República Dominicana (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Coloring Outside the Lines: Re-situating Understandings of the Lifeways of Earliest Peoples of the Circum-Caribbean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El Monumento Natural Cabo Samaná, situado en la provincia de Samaná, en la República Dominicana, atesora una serie de importantes sitios arqueológicos de época arcaica en las cuevas y abrigos que jalonan el farallón rocoso. El equipo de arqueólogos de Guahayona Institute...
Las Ruinas de Arenal and the Buenavista del Cayo Polity: Political Dynamics in the Western Belize River Valley (2018)
The socio-political and economic interactions of Las Ruinas de Arenal, a small but architecturally rich center in the lower Mopan River Valley, are explored through a focused investigation of select Classic period (250-850 CE) pottery from general occupation and special deposits. The study combines ceramic typological data with evaluations of artistic style and paste chemical composition. Previous archaeological investigations by Taschek and Ball found scant evidence of foreign influence in Las...
Late Classic and Early Postclassic Residential Spaces of Rio Viejo, Oaxaca: Preliminary Results (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Río Verde Project-2022 examined changes in domestic economy at the city of Río Viejo during the Classic to Postclassic transition. Horizontal excavations were carried out in two low status residential areas. In both areas excavations moved from Early Postclassic domestic space near the surface into Late Classic residential areas...
A Late Pleistocene Palaeoenvironmental Record for Northern Namaqualand, South Africa: Geoarchaeology, Geochronology, and Stable Isotopes from Spitzkloof A Rockshelter (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations at Spitzkloof A Rockshelter, northern Namaqualand, South Africa, identified a deep stratified sequence with pulsed occupation dating to the Last Glacial Maximum (23–17 kcal. BP) and Marine Isotope Stage 3 (>51 ka BP), while the lowest layers are candidates for U-series dating. Importantly, this period encompasses a time of marked climate...
Lead Isotope Analysis of Bronze Bells from Spanish Colonization Era (2018)
This study focuses on using analytical techniques, such as Multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) and X-ray Florescence (XRF), to determine lead isotope levels of bronze bells from the Spanish colonization era within South Carolina and New Mexico. These values are compared both against one another geographically and against ore isotopic data within regional and possible imported geographic regions. The goal is to both discern whether these bells are locally...
Lead Isotopes and XRF Analyses of Spanish Colonial Bronze Bells from Galisteo Basin, New Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Few elemental and isotopic studies have been conducted on bronze bells recovered from 16th – 17th century Spanish Colonial missions. Mission bells shaped daily life as they not only provided a call to prayer and daily tasks, but also served to reinforce the power dynamics of colonialism. We recently completed a study of 85+ bronze bell fragments from Pueblo...
Lead Isotopes as Chronological Markers for Colonial Period Ritual Drinking Vessels in the Andes (2018)
Ritual drinking vessels called qeros have been produced in the Andes for millennia. In the colonial period, Andean artists produced wooden qeros, many of which were decorated using a polychrome inlay technique. Almost all extant polychromed wooden qeros attributed to the colonial period derive from museum and private collections and lack provenience and precise means of dating. Here, we investigate the chronology and production of qeros by characterizing lead white pigment (lead hydroxycarbonate...
Links between Maya Green and Maya Blue at Mayapán, 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. Elaborately decorated and painted objects, most typically murals and incense burners, were a central part of the religious and cultural life at the Postclassic period Maya capital of Mayapán. These objects required great skill to produce and requisite control over a variety of materials, including plaster, pottery, and the pigments used as colorants. One...
Lithic Procurement at Montlleó Open-Air Site (SW Europe): Tracing Past Human Routes (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. Montlleó open-air-site (Prats i Sansor, Catalonia) is located in one of the largest high-attitude valleys in the Pyrenees, the Cerdanya Valley, in SW Europe, at 1,144 masl. The site is in a natural road to cross the Pyrenees in the eastern part. The site, discovered in 1998 and excavated since the 2000 by a...
Local or Exogenous? The Different Facets of Chert During the Gravettian at Vale Boi (Southwestern Portugal) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Local and/or Exotic Interactions: Symbols, Materials, and Societies" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hunter-gatherers relied strongly on lithic raw materials, making them essential to characterize mobility and land-use, raw material provisioning, technology, social organization, exchange, and the functioning of social networks. As such, the characterization of hunter-gatherer lifeways is often the result of the...
A Local Perspective of Inca Imperial Influence in Coastal Colesuyo of the Southern Andes (2018)
The effects of the Inca empire across the Andes were multiple and diverse. Relying on their sophisticated institutions, the empire originated a strong physical, political, and economic connectivity across the pre-Hispanic Andes that on occasions went beyond imperial boundaries or political borders. People, things and ideas travelled across the empire provoking a cascade of interactions some of which were not directly intended by the center of power. The multi-component site of Tacahuay located...
Luis Barba: 2024 Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research Honoree (2024)
This is an abstract from the "2024 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Luis Barba" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Luis Barba is the 2024 Fryxell Award honoree, in recognition of his excellence in interdisciplinary research contributing significantly to American archaeology. Luis started his career with academic degrees in chemical engineering, geology, and anthropology. His research interests and over 200 publications focus on...
Magic Soul Containers of the Classic Maya in Archaeological Context (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Magic, Spirits, Shamanism, and Trance" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Classic Maya (CE 250–800) texts include a phrase k’a’ay u sak nikte’, faded his white flower, as a reference to the ending of the sweet breath of rulers and as a metaphor of their death. The breath—allegory of white flower—is evidently an allusion to soul force. Scholars identified on Tikal Stela 5 a reference for a White Flower Soul Container,...
Making and Moving Pottery in the Northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru (2018)
Pukara, in the northern Lake Titicaca Basin, was a regional center during the Late Formative Period (200 BC- AD 200). The Classic Pukara style is associated with monumental public constructions and sunken temples, elaborate stone sculpture, and a unique polychrome pottery tradition. Spotted felines, disembodied heads, camelids and plants, and anthropomorphic figures were incised and painted on incense burners, trumpets, and other special purpose ceramic vessels that were circulated in the...
Making Bead Makers: Durability and Change in a Community of Practice among the Manteño-Guancavilca of Ecuador. (2018)
Shell beads are rarely considered a major artifact category. However, research on bead production among the Manteño-Guancavilca (AD 800-1532) of coastal Ecuador highlights the fundamental importance of this category of artifacts. By recording six measurements and four qualitative observations for each of 7651 beads from six sites (two regions, three stretches of time), this research has been able to recognize two distinct châines opératoires. At approximately AD 1200, bead makers shifted from a...
Making the Exotic from the Familiar: The Source and Production of Carnelian Beads during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in Mongolia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Directions in Mongolian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in Mongolia, communities across the region adopted mobile pastoralism and horse-riding technology. In conjunction with these changes in subsistence and mobility patterns, innovative funerary practices emerged that incorporated monumental construction and new mortuary offerings. Included in these grave...
Manufacture Marks on Shell Fishhooks: Technological Knowledge and Tradition of Coastal and Maritime Societies along the Pacific Coast of Chile (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fishhooks on Choromytilus chorus shells (mussel) can be found along the northern coast Chile (18° to 30° Lat. S) and were manufactured between 7500 and 4000 yrs cal BP. Manufacture marks on these artefacts are prominent features to observed, describe, and compare. In this way, the study of shell fishhooks’ manufacture techniques allows us not only to...
Mapping Thermal Features at Quartz Lake, Alaska (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Few archaeological sites from the late Holocene Dene/Athabascan tradition have been extensively studied, leaving researchers with many questions about everyday practices. Specifically, the function and spatial distribution of thermal features has yet to be extensively evaluated. Despite the ubiquity of cooking in daily life and cooking features in the...
A Material Science Consideration of New World Encounters: Multi-method Approaches to the Archaeology of the Caribbean (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following a recent review of excavated materials from the island of Mona (Puerto Rico), this paper examines the transformation of cultural and technological practices brought about by New World encounters. We focus on the affective material conditions that emerge in the 16th century Caribbean by applying a materials science approach to the newly integrated...
Materials Characterization at the National Museum of the American Indian: (Mostly) Non-destructive Analysis (2018)
The use of portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) for in-situ elemental analysis is becoming widespread in archaeology and cultural heritage studies. Archaeologists and conservators routinely use pXRF instruments in the field and many museums use them in-house for identification of pigments, metals, and inorganic pesticide residues, characterization of minerals and determination of alloy composition. The NMAI Conservation Department has been using pXRF for over fifteen years for a variety of...
Maya Monumental ‘Boom’: Spatial Development, Rank Ordering, and Planning Considerations at Alabama, East-Central Belize (2018)
In the 1980s, archaeological investigations by the Point Placencia Archaeological Project (PPAP) noted the rapid, single-phase development of monumental construction at the Maya site of Alabama in the Stann Creek District. Though never fully investigated by PPAP, this rapid, ‘boom-like’ development during the late facet of the Late Classic to Terminal Classic periods is being pursued in current investigations by the Stann Creek Regional Archaeology Project (SCRAP). This presentation, by...
The Mayan Style Lapidary Objects in Mesoamerica Outside the Maya Region: Provenance, Manufacture, Distribution, and Symbolism (2018)
Across Mesoamerica and outside the Maya Region, archaeologists have found different greenstone lapidary objects with glossy appearance and particular iconography and aesthetics that were considered as jadeite and crafted by the Maya. Unfortunately, their detailed analysis to confirm these assumptions is scarce. In this paper, we will show the study of Mayan style lapidary items from different sites, like Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, Teteles, Tula, Tamtoc, and Tenochtitlan. We employed Micro-Raman...