Archaeometry & Materials Analysis (Other Keyword)
251-275 (484 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The shells of Codakia orbicularis clams are common at archaeological sites throughout the Bahama archipelago. These clams were harvested as food, and their abundance indicates that they were processed in habitation areas. Previous studies have suggested that the shells record daily, tidal, and seasonal growth sequences that can be used to determine when...
Meat and Potatoes: A Mixed 7,000-Year-Old-Diet (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation examines the diets of 16 prehistoric burials at Soro Mik’aya Patxja, a high-elevation Archaic Period site occupied 7,000 years ago in the Peruvian Andes. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes were analyzed to infer the prehistoric hunter-gatherer diets during a period that preceded the domestication of tubers, quinoa, and vicuña. Plants such as...
Medio Period Borderland Dynamics at 76 Draw (2019)
This is an abstract from the "25 Years in the Casas Grandes Region: Celebrating Mexico–U.S. Collaboration in the Gran Chichimeca" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The New Mexico/Chihuahua border was also a borderland between AD 1200 and 1450 where the contemporaneous Casas Grandes, Salado, and El Paso phase cultures overlapped. The excavation of 76 Draw, a Medio period site on the northern periphery of the Casas Grandes region, is designed to...
The Mesoamerican Knife Handles at the Museo delle Civiltà (Rome): A Cultural Biography (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 1: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Museo delle Civiltà (Rome) holds two famous Late Postclassic Mesoamerican knife-handles, sculpted in wood and encrusted with a mosaic of turquoise, malachite, lignite, Spondylus, Strombus, mother-of-pearl, and gold. Both represent crouching figures—one anthropomorphic and the other zoomorphic—facing toward the...
Metallurgical Traditions of a Mongolian Habitation Site (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Two models are employed to explain iron objects in assemblages from nomadic peoples of Mongolia. One argument posits that pastoralists imported Chinese iron objects, and when they practiced metallurgy, used methods learned from Chinese craftsmen. Another model, notably argued for by Jang-Sik Park, suggests that nomads...
Mica in Xalla: A Glittering Archaeological Indicator of Power and Specialized Production (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Palace of Xalla in Teotihuacan: A Possible Seat of Power in the Ancient Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mica, a shiny silicate mineral with a layered structure, was highly valued by the Teotihuacan people. Mica has unique physical properties, but we propose that the most striking one was of an optical nature, owing to the fact that it is a multicolored, specular material. The Teotihuacan elite groups...
Micro Currencies Can Rapidly Appear Among Energy Maximizers: A Case Study from the Southern Sierra Nevada Foothills (2018)
A recent, large-scale archaeological investigation in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills revealed the development of a locally circumscribed steatite bead-making industry. Made from a local steatite source, these rough, thin, square beads are accompanied by the entire range of production debris and bead making tools, collectively dating to the post-Mission historic period. I argue these steatite beads represent a micro-currency developed as an energy maximizing response to decreased...
Microanalysis of Late Stone Age Rock Art Ochre Pigments in Eswatini (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Eswatini is home to several rock art sites of the Late Stone Age in Southern Africa. Ochres, iron-oxide rich pigments, are present in many of these sites but their compositions are yet unknown. Previous studies of ochres have shown the potential for the identification of trade, resource management, and other aspects of human behavior. The analysis of...
Microanalysis of Taphonomic Alteration on Skeletal Material - A Novel Approach to Identifying Damaging Sulfur Compounds (2018)
The geochemistry of taphonomic alterations affecting buried bone has been little studied, yet has vast implications for scientific interpretation of archaeological and paleontological specimens in a world now embracing chemical methods in geoarchaeology. This investigative study of black surface staining on mammalian sub-fossil bone excavated from the bed of the Santa Fe River in northern Florida exemplifies the need to carefully evaluate post-depositional alteration. Such stains typically are...
Microanalytical Insights into Pigment Selection and Preparation in British Columbia Rock Art (2018)
Pictographs are important archaeological locales that can provide insight into histories of mineral use and pigment preparation. We present the results of a series of microanalytical explorations of a pictograph panel at Boling Point, Babine Lake, British Columbia. Examination by high-resolution microanalysis (SEM-EDS, TEM, FTIR, micro-Raman) has revealed evidence pertaining to source selection of the iron-oxides used to produce the pictographs, the weathering and condition of the panels, and...
Microscopic and Spectrometric Techniques Applied to Identify Luxury Materials in a Fifteenth-Century Aztec Shield (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. In the collections of the world, only six aztec feathered objects exist: three shields and a headdress in Europe, and two shields in Mexico. Mexico’s National Museum of History conserves one shield, made of mammal hide,...
Mill Cove Complex Native Copper: A Lead Isotopic Study (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. Long-distance movement of copper across North America is often noted by archaeologists but little studied, with its provenance typically assumed to be the Great Lakes region. Such claims need to be tested, and recent studies have approached this problem using laser-ablation instrumentation to...
Mineralogical and Micromorphological Analysis of Gypsum Washes at Casa Grande National Monument (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The great house at Casa Grande National Monument, Arizona, occupied circa 1350-1450 CE, is a four-story Hohokam structure made of puddled earth. All of the interior surfaces are finished similarly with individual clay (illite and palygorskite) and gypsum washes. Together, these two fine-finish materials give the walls a uniquely consistent red color and sheen....
Mobility, Foodways, and Ancient Statecraft in the Gobi-Steppe of Mongolia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Steppe by Steppe: Advances in the Archaeology of Eastern Eurasia" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From the appearance of monumental traditions in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–1000 BC) through the emergence of the Xiongnu state (ca. 250 BC–150 AD), populations of the semiarid Gobi-steppe of Mongolia underwent a series of dramatic transitions. These changing dynamics altered how people interacted with and moved within...
Modern Migration Theory and Their Applicability to Prehispanic Mesoamerican Populations (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part 1: Reconsidering “Human Sacrifice,” Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and Other European-Derived Concepts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Modern migration theories are based on a capitalistic view of economic forces for people (mostly males) to migrate in search of better economic conditions. However, the dynamics that characterize modern times are hardly applicable to prehispanic...
Molecular and Isotopic Analyses of Charred and Uncharred Sediments: Investigating Environmental Signatures at the Middle Palaeolithic Rock Shelter of Abric del Pastor (Alcoy, Spain) (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. Our understanding of Late Pleistocene Neanderthal habitats is largely based on anthracological and palynological reconstructions set within broader global climatic frameworks. This approach has yielded important environmental information, however, so far it has not been possible to identify fluctuations in climate or...
Molecular Starch Degradation and Their Fingerprints: Insights from Modern African Taxa (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient starch analysis is a controversial technique, as the polymer’s chemical survivability over long periods of time is not understood. Our objectives are to establish the molecular composition of starch granules from sub-Saharan taxa of ethnobotanical relevance subjected to diagenetic processes, and to determine if these byproducts have diagnostic...
Monumental Architecture in Central Mexico during the Terminal Formative: New Findings from the Tlalancaleca Archaeological Project, Puebla (2018)
Tlalancaleca was one of the largest settlements before the rise of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico and has been known for the presence of early talud-tablero facades (a combination of sloping walls and vertical panels) and other cultural elements inherited by Teotihuacan. This paper presents preliminary results of excavations, which were carried at monumental structures at Tlalancaleca. It examines the construction techniques used for monument building (including talud-tablero facades), the degree...
The More the Merrier: Using a Suite of Analytical Techniques to Arrive at Reliable Chert Ascription (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. Determining the provenance of Florida cherts has been a major goal of archaeological researchers in the state for decades, and inquiry has largely focused on refining the existing petrographic and microscopic methods. When these methods of provenance were first developed, geochemical approaches using X-ray...
Morphological and Chemical Signatures of Chenopodium: Application of Optical and Electron Microscopy to Seeds from Experimental and Archaeological Contexts (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Humans are considered natural seed dispersing agents through the social acts of seed saving and seed sowing. The intentional and unintentional results of these human-plant relationships can lead to the development of genotypic and phenotypic traits that are beneficial to both the plant and to their human influencers. Anthropogenic seed dispersal of wild...
Movement and Animacy of Bodies in Pre-Columbian Florida (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Individual Bodies to Bodies of Social Theory: Exploring Ontologies of the Americas" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pre-Columbian Florida burial mounds exhibit multiple modes of burial, including extended, flexed, mixed (and mass) bundles, skull only, and cremation, as well as emplaced objects in various conditions and configurations. These different forms often occur within a single mound, and have been explained...
Multi-isotopic Investigation of Late Pleistocene Human Diet from the Site of Taforalt, Morocco (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Paleolithic to Neolithic transition generally denotes a dietary change from hunting, gathering, and fishing to agriculture. However, due to the limited number of Pleistocene sites that have yielded preserved human remains, our knowledge of the diets of pre-agriculturist human populations is still limited. Previously published isotopic studies have...
A Multi-method Analysis of Ceramic Production at Precolumbian Peñitas, Nayarit (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located along the Rio San Pedro in west central Nayarit, Mexico, the site of Peñitas was an important precolumbian center with at least two major occupational eras, achieving its greatest prominence during the Early/Middle Postclassic period as a major center within the Aztatlán Tradition. While few sites along the coastal plain have received detailed...
A Multi-technique Approach to Investigating Reliance on Big Game Hunting in the Northwestern Great Basin (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Stability and Resilience in Zooarchaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Multiple archaeometric techniques were used to inform on prey acquisition in the Archaic to Terminal Prehistoric periods (1450–4700 cal BP) in the northwestern Great Basin. Stable isotope analysis, cementum increment analysis, and AMS radiocarbon dating were performed on artiodactyl teeth excavated from Paiute Creek Shelter (PCS) in Nevada’s...
The Multilayered Chert Sourcing Approach: An Analytical Technique for Chert and Flint Provenance Studies in Archaeology (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. Chipped stone tools present an excellent means for gaining a deeper understanding of prehistoric resource management. Successfully reconstructing past economic behavior, however, crucially depends on the ability to trace these materials back to their original sources. While techniques to source obsidian are...