Archaeometry & Materials Analysis: Residue Analysis (Other Keyword)
1-25 (53 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Drinking Beer in a Blissful Mood: A Global Archaeology of Beer" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Bronze Age of China, alcohol practice was an integral part of rituals and the spiritual world as a social agent in hierarchical societies. Multiple types of alcoholic beverages appeared in the earliest writings of the late Shang dynasty some 3,200 years ago. However, little research has been done to characterize how...
Ancient Indigenous Cuisine: Multiproxy Investigations of Food Choice and Cooking (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The application of pottery function analysis alongside analysis of adhered food residues on ancient pottery offers new insights into past foodstuff selection and cooking methods, aka cuisine. Identification of phytoliths and starches present in carbonized food residues provides evidence of specific plant species processed in ceramic cooking vessels, while...
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? The Characterization of “Resins” Binding Composite Artifacts from the Northern Colorado Plateau (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. Like many museums across the American West, the Utah State University Eastern Prehistoric Museum houses a collection containing well-preserved perishable objects. Many of these artifacts incorporate organic binders, such as hafted arrows and pitched containers. Yet scant attention has been given in the literature...
An Approximation Towards the Function of Candeleros in the Plaza of the Columns Complex, Teotihuacan (2018)
Candeleros are ceramic artifacts that are almost exclusively found at Teotihuacan and appear in the archaeological record during the Late Tlamimilolpa, Xolalpan and Metepec phases. Their unconventional shape led scholars to propose different hypotheses regarding their specific function (i.e. "candle holders", incense burners, lighting devices, domestic ritual paraphernalia). This paper studies 368 candeleros (fragments and complete pieces) recovered from the 2015 and 2016 excavations carried out...
Archaeology and Organic Residue Analysis: Formulations, Considerations, and Interpretations in Researching Psychoactive Substances (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over that last 30 years, organic residue analysis has transitioned from the occasional experimental project to a key component of scientific archaeological investigations. Methodologies have advanced, frequencies of studies have increased, and the range of investigated substances and characterized biochemicals expanded. Still, in some circles, the great...
Chemical Residue Analysis, Foodways, and Ceramic Consumption in Tlajinga, Teotihuacan (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th 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 Tlajinga includes surface collection associated with the Teotihuacan Mapping Project and the excavation of one apartment compound, during the 70’s. Recent investigations carried out by the Proyecto...
A Collaborative Proposal for Identifying Psychoactive Drug Ingredients in Supposed Ritual Pottery and Other Implements from the Prehispanic Andes (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years several studies have documented plant secondary metabolite containing residues in archaeological find material, extending the supposed utility of vessels and other implements to the ceremonial and religious-ritual domain. Inter alia cacao, coca and tobacco related compounds were identified with LC/MS/MS analytics in the nanogram scale. We...
An Empirical Study of the Economy of the Classic Maya Regal Palace of La Corona, Guatemala (2018)
This paper reports on the final results of a multi-facetted study of the northern section of the regal palace of La Corona. This study sampled (n=328) both plaster and soil in three adjacent patios and adjoining middens. The plaster samples underwent a geochemical analysis (ICP-MS), while the soil samples underwent flotation analysis which recovered macro-botanical remains and micro-artifacts. These results were then combined to traditional artifactual data derived from five middens excavated...
Evidence for Pleistocene Horse Hunting on the Columbia Plateau from the Rock Island Overlook Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Second-Oldest Sites in the Pacific Northwest" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent reanalysis of selected artifacts from a 1974 archaeological salvage excavation at the precontact Rock Island Overlook site, 45CH204, in central Washington State indicates that cultural deposits are much older than previously reported. Projectile point chronology and obsidian hydration dating suggest the Rock Island Overlook site...
Evidence for Winter Bear Hunting from Lava Tube Caves in Southwest Washington (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The southwestern flanks of Mt. Adams, Washington, contain numerous lava tube caves. These lava tubes can be quite complex, containing narrow passages on multiple levels. In the course of exploring these lava tubes, modern cavers have inadvertently discovered a total of sixteen projectile points and a flake tool, within twelve different lava tubes. These...
Experiencing Foodways and Community in Southeast Asian Archaeology (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Thinking about Eating: Theorizing Foodways in Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The cultural aspects of science and technology—the science, culture, and art in everyday life—can be demonstrated through food and foodways. Foodways is the chaîne opératoire of what happens to food and associated materials from their acquisition until their discard. It is also a series of cultural formation processes, where...
Exploring the Cause of the Athabaskan Migration through Isotopic and Geospatial Evidence (2018)
Linguistic and archaeological evidence suggests that Athabaskan-speaking peoples rapidly spread south from present-day Central Alaska and Northwest Canada into the Great Plains region around 1000 years ago. Historically, explanations of this important event have centered on relatively small geographic regions and traditional methodologies. This paper offers an alternative view at both a much larger scale and using distinct methods. I argue that this significant migration event was driven by the...
Fats and Oils: Toward a Collaborative Archaeology of Ancestral Haudenosaunee Foodways (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological analysis of Indigenous food systems in Southern Ontario has primarily focused on production and adaptation. Scholars tend to use models that focus on population, environment, and technology to predict and explain general changes in subsistence through time. This work, however, does not always include a partnership with Indigenous...
Feeding Stonehenge: The Potential of Coprolites as Tools for Reconstructing Diet (2018)
The Feeding Stonehenge project combined zooarchaeology with pottery residue analysis to explore the diets and provisioning of the inhabitants of Neolithic Durrington Walls, the settlement associated with the construction of the iconic Stonehenge monument in southern Britain. A lack of preserved plant remains at the site, and an overwhelming dominance of porcine and ruminant lipids in the pottery, suggests that animal products were the major source of nutrition. This research tests this...
Feeding Vessels in Later European Prehistory (2018)
Small vessels with spouts, from which liquid can be poured, are known from settlements and graves of the European Bronze and Iron Ages. Sizes, shapes and decorations are highly variable, and although they generally fit the period-specific style, they represent a functional type. One explanation for this vessel form is libation – the act of pouring a liquid as a sacrifice to a deity. Recent discoveries, however, reinforce an association with children’s graves and suggest a function as feeding...
Food Residue Analysis on Soapstone Cooking Vessels in the Chumash Homeland: Implications for Changing Foodway Patterns during the Mission Period across the Colonial Landscape (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 discusses the results of pollen, phytolith, starch, and organic residue (FTIR) analyses conducted on soapstone cooking vessels in museum collections uncovered in the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara areas, California. The vessels were excavated from distinct chronological and spatial contexts in the Chumash homeland: a pre-Mission period site...
A Fragrance Workshop from the Mendesian Perfume Industry at Tell Timai, Egypt (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2012, a salvage excavation exposed a workshop at Tell Timai, the Greco-Roman-Egyptian city of Thmouis. The workshop consisted of a parallel line of amphora bases, piping, and ovens. Adjacent to it was a hoard of coins and jewelry dating the feature to the end of the reign of Ptolemy XII and the beginning of the reign of Cleopatra VII. Thmouis was a...
From General to Specific: Targeting Freshwater Resources in Pottery Residues Using Compound-Specific Isotope Analysis (2018)
Direct detection of resources processed in pottery by means of the chemical analysis of absorbed pottery residues is a valuable technique, but identifying specific resources in pottery residues is tricky and problematic. This is due to issues with resource mixing from multiple uses of pottery, as well as the relative rarity of biomarkers unique to specific resources. Advances in compound-specific isotope analysis permit identification of isotopically distinct resources in residues, such as C4...
Geophyte Exploitation in Northern Great Basin: Starch Granule Analysis of Bedrock Metates in Warner Valley, Oregon (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Hearths, Earth Ovens, and the Carbohydrate Revolution: Indigenous Subsistence Strategies and Cooking during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geophytes store starch in underground organs considered highly valued food resources across many human societies. For example, Indigenous people in the northern Great Basin plan social activities around the seasonal...
Identification of Adhesive on Bone-Handled Microblades from the Houtaomuga Site in Northeast China (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the emergence and progress of composite tools in the Upper Paleolithic, the adhesive became one of the most widely used materials by early human societies. However, the precise composition identification of adhesive in archaeological remains is a real analytical challenge, because the adhesive mainly consists of organic materials that are susceptible to...
Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Capacity Building for Characterizing Plant Exudates: On Supporting the Resilience of Future Endeavors in Residue Analysis (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. Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential when it comes to characterizing plant exudates and other archaeological residues. But how do we push the ball forward and become confident that we are producing new insights into material culture from our work, especially at this time when collaboration has become...
An Intimate Bond: New Evidence for Human-Pig Relationships in Chinese Diaspora Communities (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pigs and humans have formed a mutualistic and symbiotic relationship since antiquity. In North America, large quantities of pig bones have been recovered from Chinese diaspora sites, indicating the importance of pigs to Chinese immigrant foodways. By analyzing pig dental calculus...
Investigating Organic Residues on Prehistoric Cooking Technologies in the Aleutian Islands (2018)
Stone bowls and griddle stones were in use in the Aleutian Islands for the past 9.000 years. People invested great time and effort into the manufacture and maintenance of these artefacts which insinuates their importance in prehistoric Aleutian food processing practices. A sudden increase in stone bowl occurrence around 3.500 years ago emphasizes their importance during this particular time. What was it that made these artefacts so important? We believe the answer to this question lies in their...
An Investigation of Middle Archaic Maize at Site LA 112766 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper provides evidence of the presence of maize in southeastern New Mexico radiocarbon dated to 1,000 years prior to any in a dataset of 30 known southeastern New Mexico “Old Maize” sites. The oldest maize site is Keystone Dam radiocarbon dated to 3540 cal BP. Site LA 112766 radiocarbon dates to 4825–4575 BP. An investigation of the macrobotanical,...
Landscape with Bees: Apiculture in Yucatán after the Spanish Invasion (2019)
This is an abstract from the "After Cortés: Archaeological Legacies of the European Invasion in Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we examine how European colonization and the shift to industrial capitalism altered beekeeping in Yucatán from AD1600 to the present. Honey and wax produced from stingless bees were circulated throughout the Mesoamerican world system during the Postclassic period. In the wake of the European...