Archaeometry & Materials Analysis (Other Keyword)
451-475 (484 Records)
Trans-Himalayan archaeology was always neglected by the historians and Archaeologist. But some recent excavations and my Ph.D field work presented an interesting view of Trans-Himalayan culture. The burial culture of this region dated back to 600-200BCE. I found here the remains of Pyro-technological activities. Steatite bead was first time found in Trans-Himalaya. They are in size from 2 to 4 mm in diameter, 1to3 mm in height, and hole width is about 1 mm. The beads were examined by using SEM...
Transition and Resilience: Commoner Occupation in the Rio Amarillo East Pocket of the Copan Valley during the Postclassic Period (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Pre-Columbian Cultures of Honduras after AD 900" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent and ongoing research at residential groups at the sites of Río Amarillo and Quebrada Piedras Negras is providing a better understanding of the lives of commoners and of the population dynamics during the latter part of the Late Classic through the Postclassic Period. These sites share the second-widest pocket of the Copan River...
Trek Up the River: A Cobble Tool Technology as Clue to Interior California's Antiquity (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. An early quartzite cobble lithic technology is evidenced by a multi-site pattern of datasets including waste cores and tools with highly patinated flake scars on remains deeply embedded in the natural desert pavement of the Pleistocene shorelines along the Lower Colorado River (LCR). Reduction technology is represented at Vista del Lago (CA-SBr-1456) located...
Tribute from the Underworld: The Historical Ecology of the Maya Postclassic Fish Trade with Otoliths from Mayapán and Caye Coco (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Preliminary results are presented for the analysis of fish otoliths from the Maya Postclassic sites of Mayapán in Mexico, and Caye Coco in Belize. Fish otoliths are used investigate seasonality of fish harvest for the inland fish trade, and to contrast the diversity, trophic levels, and population structure of fish between both the archaeology sites, and...
Two Decades (Almost) of Regional Clay Surveys by the EAF: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum: Celebrating 20 Years Serving the Archaeological Community " session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. An early and ongoing goal of the EAF was to not only generate compositional data on archaeological artifacts but also to build comprehensive collections and elemental databases of natural materials that had potentially been used to manufacture craft objects. To date, EAF...
Una perspectiva sobre el empleo del barro cocido en el beneficio del cobre: Caso de Jicalán Viejo, Michoacán (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Technological Transitions in Prehispanic and Colonial Metallurgy: Recent and Ongoing Research at the Archaeological Site of Jicalán Viejo, in Central Michoacán, West Mexico" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Jicalán Viejo, es uno de los sitios prehispánicos donde se han encontrado vestigios de escoria metálica asociada al proceso metalúrgico del cobre. Al igual que las escorias, el barro utilizado en la manufactura de...
Understanding Food Production in Teotihuacan: New Approaches (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Teotihuacan was one of the largest and most prominent ancient cities in Mesoamerica during the Classic period (150-600 CE). The city housed an estimated population of 100,000 people at its height, all in need of food, shelter, and basic necessities. Spaces dedicated to the production and consumption of foodstuffs in...
Unexpected Expertise: Archaeological Science and the Creative Skills of Indus Craftspeople (2018)
Wright’s doctoral and subsequent work brilliantly employed archaeological science to show how relatively simple technological tools (single-chamber kilns) were used by skilled craftspeople in clever ways to create surprisingly technologically complex objects (black-on-grey pottery, resulting from several different cycles of atmospheric conditions during firing), objects which also provided information about patterns of social boundaries and technological style. In homage to this work, we will...
Unstable Frontiers: Isotopic Model of Agricultural Dispersal in the Subtropical Andes (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The south of Mendoza province, Argentina, has been characterized as the southernmost limit of pre-Hispanic agricultural dispersion in South America. This limit, originally defined by the presence of macrobotanical remains, was re-discussed in light of the stable isotope data of δ13C and δ15N obtained on collagen and apatite from human remains. These...
Unveiling the Artisan Secrets of the Lapidary Goods from the Great Temple of the Aztecs (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent studies have demonstrated that the cultural provenance and diversity of the goods found in the offerings from the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan are more complex than the archaeologists thought, overlapping their acquisition by tribute, exchange, war prizes, or looting. In the case of the...
Using Compound Specific Isotope Analysis of Amino Acids to Distinguish Aquatic and Terrestrial Diets of Early Holocene Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Sweden (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this study, we present the results of compound specific carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis on amino acids from bone collagen of Early Holocene humans and contemporaneous terrestrial and marine fauna recovered from multiple sites in southern Sweden. These analyses were aimed at individuals spanning the Early Mesolithic to the Middle Neolithic Pitted...
Using Faunal Stable Isotopes to Assess Past Hunting Practices and Landscape Modification Along the Feather River, CA (2018)
Isotopic studies of faunal remains provide an ecological framework from which to interpret human behavior, including diet, subsistence, settlement, and mobility. In this study, we present isotopic analysis of four well-dated sites that span a 3500-year record along the Feather River, the biggest tributary of the Sacramento River located in Northern Central California. Through carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur stable isotopes we explore the effects of human population growth on the type(s) of browse...
Using Isotopic Geochemistry to Relate Ceramics to Raw Materials (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Geological and Technological Contributions to the Interpretation of Radiogenic Isotope Data" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The provenance of ceramics assessed through chemistry is most commonly approached through a comparison of ceramics with other ceramics of known origin. More rarely are chemical analyses employed to relate objects to their geological context. This problem derives from the inherent limitations of...
Using Lithic Conveyance to Reconstruct Paleoindian Cultural Landscapes in the Great Basin (2018)
Archaeologists commonly use the geographic patterning of sourced artifacts to understand how prehistoric cultures used their landscapes, yet exactly what this patterning indicates remains unclear. The Paleoindian literature reflects a tendency to assume that toolstone conveyance reflects direct acquisition (i.e., mobility) motivated by subsistence and technological concerns, rather than acquisition (i.e., exchange) motivated by social concerns. Yet the challenge of actually distinguishing...
Using Paleoenvironmental Data to Learn about Past Inuit Societies: A Case Study from the Rising Whale (KTZ304) Site at Cape Espenberg, Northwest Alaska (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Current Research and Challenges in Arctic and Subarctic Cultural Heritage Studies" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. To precisely contextualize and date climate variations and practices related to living spaces at the onset of the Little Ice Age, archaeoenvironmental analyses were conducted within a winter dwelling (Feature 21) at the Rising Whale site, Cape Espenberg. Two high-resolution datasets were employed: tree...
Using Surface Roughness to Identify Heat Treatment in Lithic Technology (2018)
The heat treatment of stone to enhance flaking attributes was an important advancement in the adaptive toolkit of early humans. The earliest evidence for this is the heat treatment of silcrete 164 ka at the Middle Stone Age site Pinnacle Point 13B in South Africa. Heating stone prior to knapping alters the physical and chemical composition of the stone, and it has long been recognized that flaked heat-treated stone has a glossier surface. We expect this glossiness to result from a smoother...
Using Traditional and Nontraditional Isotopic Tracers of Diet and Mobility of Brazilian Shell Mound Populations (ca. 8000–1000 years BP) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of shell mounds can shed light on human occupation and adaptations at coastal environments worldwide. In South America, human groups occupied the territory close to the Atlantic Ocean for millennium (ca. 8000 to ⁓1000 years BP), building hundreds of shell mounds, some with impressive dimensions. After 2000 BP, it is assumed that these populations...
Valle de Bonanza (Zacatecas, Mexico): Desert Varnish and Technology in a Surface Lithic Assemblage (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Valle de Bonanza (northeast of the Mexican state of Zacatecas) is a surface-only archaeological site located in a highly eroded desert landscape on the edges of a vast endorheic basin in Concepcion del Oro county. The site consists of a sand-and-dust surface affected by intensive deflation that caused the formation of a palimpsest of crudely made flaked stone...
The Valle de Mairana, Bolivia (c. 1000-1532 CE): Elucidating the Everyday (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sometime during the Late Intermediate Period or the Late Horizon, the Valle de Mairana, Bolivia became part of the farthest reaches of the Inka empire, which at its height spanned the Andean mountain range from Colombia to Argentina. However, relatively little is currently known about the people who lived in this valley during these centuries. How did the...
Variation in 5βstanols Excretion in Humans and Its Implications for the Application of Fecal Biomarkers in Archaeology (2018)
Fecal biomarkers have proven to be a valuable tool to identify the likely source of fecal matter and have successfully been applied in archaeology. They provide direct evidence of the digestive physiology and diet of the source, and critical data to assess the origin of fecal deposits. 5βstanols can be used as fecal biomarkers because they uniquely form in the gut of higher mammals during metabolic reduction of sterols. However, the actors of this microbial conversion still have to be elucidated...
Vibrant Recipes: The Variability and Composition of Special Clay Linings in Mississippian Shrines from the Illinois Uplands of Greater Cahokia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In several Mississippian sites circa 1050 CE, shrine houses and some other features were lined with a special bright yellow clay or clay mixture. This study looks at the variability and composition of these clay linings to determine what is the key vibrant ingredient in these ceremonially active clay linings. In this study methods of texture analysis, X-Ray...
Virgin Branch Puebloan Adaptations on the Colorado Plateau: Recent Excavations at Granary House (AZ A:14:46) (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The upper reaches of the Virgin Branch Puebloan region—particularly, the western Colorado Plateau—has largely remained understudied, partly resulting from difficulties accessing many areas yielding cultural activity. While the majority of data collection has been amassed through surveys, excavations on the western Colorado Plateau have significantly broadened...
Water Mountain, Ritual, and Maya Community Cohesion at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Investigations in Chiapas, Mexico" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Maya established communities at Mensabak, Chiapas, instead of other adjacent lakes because of its impressive water mountain on an island where a major river is born. People traveled and pilgrimaged up the Tulijá River to live near Mirador Mountain (Chakaktun “red-hollow stone / cave-of water” in Lacandon Mayan) where they...
The Weaknesses of a Colonial Mindset: A Study of Indigenous Spirituality during the Maya Caste War (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A major feature of colonization of the Americas was the weaponization of the Christian faith. In colonial Latin America it was distorted and weaponized to push a political agenda of forced conversion upon Indigenous peoples. In the instance of the Maya Caste War, however, this idea was flipped on its head by Indigenous peoples who used their spirituality...
Were the Fiber-Tempered Sherds from Claiborne (22Ha201) Made at the Site? (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. This presentation discusses the preliminary results of our study concerning fiber-tempered sherds from six loci in the Southeast in order to determine if any of the fiber-tempered pottery found at Claiborne, a Poverty Point culture site in coastal Mississippi, were made locally or imported. We analyzed...