Subsistence and Foodways (Other Keyword)
601-625 (650 Records)
This is an abstract from the "New Multidisciplinary Research at 48PA551: A Middle Archaic (McKean Complex) Site in Northwest Wyoming" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located in the Absaroka Mountains of northwest Wyoming site 48PA51 is unique for its pithouse, rock pile surrounded by deer skull caps with antlers, abundant hearths and pit features, large number of dart points and groundstone, and substantial faunal assemblage. These features and the...
Using Microartifacts to Investigate Prehistoric Cooking Methods at the Archaeological Site of Dust Cave (2018)
Microartifacts - generally considered to be artifacts measuring less than 6.35 mm (¼ inch) - have traditionally received little attention in North American archaeology. We argue that microartifacts are not simply smaller versions of larger artifacts, but rather provide different and complimentary data. This study investigates microartifacts from the archaeological site of Dust Cave (10,650-3,600 BCE), located in northwest Alabama, in order to better understand prehistoric diet and cooking...
Using Proteomics to Identify Ancient Pastoralism (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Pastoralism in a Global Perspective" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Biomolecular analyses (proteins, stable isotopes, lipids, and DNA) have been integral in identifying the economic roles of domesticated animals in archaeological contexts. Materials such as human remains, dental calculus, ceramic matrices, and archaeological residues can provide valuable information on which animals were used for primary and...
Using Strontium Isotope Analysis to Source Nonlocal Bighorn Sheep, Northeast Arizona (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological bighorn sheep (O. canadensis) have been recovered in high frequency from the Homol'ovi Settlement Cluster (HSC), northeast Arizona. This is salient because these animals are non-endemic to the Middle Little Colorado River Valley, with the nearest source being the Grand Canyon approximately 160 km away. This study uses strontium isotope analysis...
Using ZooMS to Reconstruct Neanderthal Faunal Exploitation in the Early Sequence of Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Crvena Stijena is one of the most significant Paleolithic sites in southeastern Europe. Although scientific excavations conducted here in the 1950s, 1960s, and since 2004 have uncovered several Middle Paleolithic faunal assemblages, the results of the early excavations were...
Using ZooMS to Understand Hunting and Fishing in the Roman Mediterranean (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Large scale fishing of small fish in the Scombrid and Clupeid families as well as hunting of tunas was part of the economy in the Roman empire through the production of fermented fish sauces (including garum), pastes, and other fish products. These products were produced in various grades at large factories on the Mediterranean and exported throughout the...
Verdant Signs: The Making and Shaping of Foodstuffs in Mesoamerican Texts (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond Maize and Cacao: Reflections on Visual and Textual Representation and Archaeological Evidence of Other Plants in Precolumbian Mesoamerica" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Verdant signs abound in the writing systems of ancient Mesoamerica. Hieroglyphic records of abundance, germination, and rebirth ground ritual speech in agricultural metaphors. A robust iconography of vegetal growth reflects both the natural...
Vertical Economy of Prehispanic Pacific Coast Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The prehispanic and indigenous cultures of the Pacific coast of Guatemala are usually known from ethnographic research and ethnohistorical sources that relate to specific local communities and to local archaeology that relates to specific sites. In this paper, I present how environmental diversity leads to interdependence and integration of the whole...
Viking Age Port of Trade in Gotland, Sweden: Understanding Inter- and Intra-site Logistics through Faunal Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study examines human-animal relations in the context of a Viking Age (9th to 11th century) port of trade and farming settlement of Ridanäs located in Gotland, Sweden. The objective is to gain an understanding of inter- and intra-site interactions through the faunal data. The primary questions focus on subsistence strategies, trade connections,...
Were Large Mammal Limb Bones Processed to Extract Marrow and Render Grease at the Danielson Ranch site (CA-VEN-395)? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Danielson Ranch (CA-VEN-395) is a multi-component site containing both significant prehistoric shell midden deposits and a historical ranch complex. CA-VEN-395 consists of five discrete loci dated to between 2690 and 860 cal BP, with the most recent occupation as late as 290-60 cal BP. Excavation revealed vertebrate faunal remains representing specimens from...
Wetland Soils and Ancestral Menominee Maize Agriculture in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Wetlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Today, the dense forests of the northern Great Lakes seem an unlikely place for expansive ancestral Native American agricultural fields, especially ones dedicated to sun-loving crops, like maize. The short growing season in these northern climes, dense forest, alternative staples like wild rice, and past settlement history all would suggest a limited...
What Ancient DNA Can Reveal about the Ubiquitous Fish of the Northwest Coast: Salmon, Herring, and Rockfish (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fisheries are of fundamental importance to Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest of North America today and in the past. This presentation summarizes what ancient DNA has revealed/is revealing about Indigenous use of salmon, herring, and rockfish from different archaeological contexts along the Northwest Coast. In the...
What is a Hill of Beans Really Worth?: Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of Urban Huari Foodways (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Seeing Wari through the Lens of the Everyday: Results from the Patipampa Sector of Huari" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Preliminary investigation into the use of plants at the site of Huari from the 2017 field season of the Programa Arqueológico Prehistoria Urbana de Huari resulted in new information placing the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) as a central component of the daily meal for those living in Patipampa in...
What Is Good to Eat Is Good to Translocate: The Intangible Dimension of Non-Native Animal Introduction and Consumption in the Pre-Columbian Caribbean (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Intangible Dimensions of Food in the Caribbean Ancient and Recent Past" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite occupying the Caribbean since ca. 6500-6000 BP, Amerindians did not introduce continental animals to the islands until approximately 2000 years ago. In most cases, non-native taxa, while consumed, did not rival local marine resources in dietary importance; yet there is limited evidence to support an...
What the Shell: the Zooarchaeology of Cerro San Isidro, Peru (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Zooarchaeologists have extensively documented the importance of marine resources in the ancient Andes, and the first field season at Cerro San Isidro (Ancash, Peru) proves no different. The multi-component hilltop site lies in the agriculturally rich 'Moro Pocket' of the middle Nepeña Valley, at least an eight-hour walk from the ocean on the north-central...
What's It Alder About? Paleobotanical and Zooarchaeological Analysis of Feasting Remains from the DgRv-006 Village, Galiano Island, SW British Columbia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of feasting activity in precontact societies can illuminate hierarchical social structures that existed within a community, because of the labor and wealth investments required to produce a successful feast. It can also highlight the integrative aspects of feasts, since they often involved widespread participation. We present results of...
What’s Cooking? A Proteomic Approach to Analyse Ceramic Residues from Tell Khaiber 1 (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Analysis of biomolecules absorbed in unglazed ceramics can provide valuable information about pottery use in antiquity, including detailed information on ancient diet. Such investigation has mostly focused on the analysis of lipids, but recently the more labile proteins have seen increased attention as they are capable of providing more specific information....
What’s For Dinner: An Examination of Animal Resources Utilized in the Okeechobee Basin Area of Florida. (2018)
In order to gain a better understanding of the faunal diet composition of Native Americans in south-central Florida, an examination was conducted to determine which types of animals appeared most frequently within tree island assemblages. Of the 19,149 bones examined from a 2016 excavation, all were identified to at least an animal’s taxonomic order, although identification to the species level was usually not possible due to the fragmentary nature of the sample. This information was compared...
What’s in the Menu? Harappan Culinary Practices during the Urban Phase of the Indus Age (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Farm to Table Archaeology: The Operational Chain of Food Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of ancient food residues does not only provide information on the ancient diet but also sheds light on the nature of food selection, processing, storage and finally the discard of food wastes. The presence of large quantities of animal bones, primarily from cattle/buffalo and sheep/goat in all Harappan...
Where Are the Brewers? Feasting and Operational Chains in Anglo-Saxon England (2018)
The importance of alcohol in the landscape of feasting has been well documented across cultures, and early medieval Europe is no exception. The mead-hall in Anglo-Saxon Britain functioned as a location where social bonds were strengthened both vertically and horizontally; Vikings in Iceland relied on barley beer to demonstrate the power and generosity of chieftains. Production of alcohol in the large quantities required for feasting necessitates some degree of specialization, but to what degree...
Where There's a Weir, There's a Way (2024)
This is an abstract from the "*SE Stakes and Stones: Current Archaeological Approaches to Fish Weir Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pennsylvania has over 80,000 miles of streams and rivers. A project by the author to identify V-shaped stone fish weirs in this state has yielded over 280 structures using an array of data sources. Many of these weirs occur on the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, which drain into the Chesapeake Bay....
Who Hunted the Most Bison? (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The bison jumps and bison pounds of the Northern Plains are prominent features of the landscape, but conditions are different on the Central and Southern Plains. Early historic documents tell of large long-distance communal hunts conducted from horticultural villages. Thousands of hunters used surrounds to take the animals, but no kill sites of that kind...
Wild and Cultivated Plant Usage of a Late Precontact Site (11S1754) in the American Bottom (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Stemler Site (11S1754), a small Mississippian settlement in the American Bottom, was occupied during the Late Stirling and Early Moorehead Phases (ca. AD 1150-1275), as the population at Cahokia and the broader region was decreasing. It has been theorized that an over-reliance upon maize (Zea mays) led to the dispersal of people from and collapse at...
Winter Garden Hunting along the Rio Grande Flyway: A Case Study in the Procurement of Migratory Birds by Puebloans along the Rio Grande (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Birds in Archaeology: New Approaches to Understanding the Diverse Roles of Birds in the Past" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Garden hunting is a topic that has received substantial attention in archaeofaunal research over the past 30 years. However, these studies have tended to focus on hunting in active gardens during the growing season, or in fallow fields. Consequently, these past studies have often focused on the...
Wooden Features on the Jicarilla Apache Nation: An Analysis of Navajo and Apache Land Use (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Jicarilla Apache Nation (JAN) reservation was established in Northern New Mexico in 1887 with additional lands added to the southern boundary in 1907-08. Today, the reservation comprises approximately 879,917-acres of pinyon-juniper uplands and sagebrush flats in lower elevations. Prior to the establishment of the JAN reservation, these lands comprised...