Subsistence and Foodways (Other Keyword)
326-350 (486 Records)
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. Gastropolitics are the creation and maintenance of social and political relationships through the making and consuming of meals. Archaeology allows us to recover the residues of meals and associated culinary equipment from secure contexts. Foodways data, when integrated with other data classes such as paleodemography and spatial...
Phytochemical Characterization of Chicha de Molle Production at Cerro Baúl (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Culture Contact and Diversity in Southern Peru" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Converging evidence from archaeological excavations and ethnographic research in the Peruvian Andes has demonstrated that the indigenous alcoholic beverage chicha de molle has a time depth of at least the Middle Horizon (600 CE – 1000 CE). The most impressive example of large-scale, pre-Hispanic production of chicha de molle hails...
Phytolith Analysis of Woodland Period Carbonized Food Residues from Block Island, RI (2018)
Due to poor preservation, Woodland-era plant resources in New England, both wild and cultivated, have long been poorly understood. Previous macrobotanical analyses have suggested that Woodland subsistence strategies for plant resources in New England are unique to the region, with further intra-regional variation between coastal and interior contexts. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of phytoliths extracted from carbonized food residues found on ceramic sherds from the Early Woodland...
Plant and Animal Remains from Old Babylonian Ur (2018)
Archaeologists have been examining the great cities of ancient southern Mesopotamia for well over a century now, but as yet we have limited understanding of their subsistence economies. For decades researchers more or less ignored the wealth of faunal and botanical remains in and around ancient Mesopotamian architecture. Over the course of the twentieth century researchers began to recover animal bones and teeth, but as few digs dry-screened or floated their soils the resulting assemblages...
Plant Species and Their Uses in Mimbres and Salado Sites in Southwest 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. Examining climate patterns, archaeobotanical evidence, artistic depictions on pottery, and historic and modern uses of plants provides information on how Mimbres and Salado period farmers used local plant resources and influenced their distribution and availability. This presentation examines differences in archaeological plant remains found in Classic Mimbres...
Plant Tales from Pueblo Bonito, Room 28 (2018)
The plant record of Room 28 is filtered through a complex stratigraphy composed of early excavation backfill from adjacent rooms, Room 28 features and floor, and below to an older surface. Plant specimens from 11 macrobotanical, 7 flotation, 10 maize cob samples, and 13 pollen samples reveal an exceptionally rich record of the resources valued and used by Pueblo Bonito people. Their reliance on maize registers strongly, supplemented by a mix of native foods including pinyon nuts, cacti, cattail,...
Plant Use in the Platform-Chamber Complex: A Paleoethnobotanical Study of Structure 1 at Alto Pukara, Taraco Peninsula, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Alto Pukara is located on the Bolivian Altiplano near Lake Titicaca. It dates to the Middle Formative, a period which whitnessed the emergence of settlements, craft specialization, and hierarchical political development in the region. Excavations by Robin Beck in 2000 and 2001 uncovered two structures, which were identified as part of a...
Playing with Your Food to Feed the Masses: A Zooarchaeological Perspective at Teotihuacan, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Animals are invariably integrated into the intricate makings of human culture, providing material evidence to reconstruct ancient urban foodways that influence and structure sociopolitical identities, practices, and ideologies. We explore the concept of production and...
Pleistocene and Holocene People of Sonora (2018)
Recent interdisciplinary investigations have revealed that the Sonoran Desert region is not only one of the earliest regions occupied by humans on the American Continent but also has one of the longest occupation records. The earliers Sonorans were proboscidean hunters in the Late Pleistocene, Archaic foragers and hunters in the Early and Middle Holocene and maize farmers in the Late Holocene. Several sites in the state of Sonora, Mexico have a well-preserved archaeological record with...
Pluvial and Fluvial: Investigating the Environmental Resistance and Driving Force of Wheat Cropping in the Central Plain of China (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Tangible Things to Intangible Ideas: The Context of Pan-Eurasian Exchange of Crops and Objects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that wheat, one of the most important grain crops originating in the Near East, was introduced into the Central Plain of China as early as approximately 4,000 BP. However, it is not until around 2,000 BP or even later that wheat was widely...
Pocket Gophers as Food? The Zooarchaeological Investigation of An Unusual Woodland Period Assemblage (2018)
The Rainbow site (13PM91) is a multi-component Middle to Late Woodland period site situated within the tallgrass prairie of northwest Iowa. Excavated in the late 1970’s, the site remains an important example due to its well excavated and substantial faunal collection. The current study focuses on the reanalysis of a concentration of pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) remains found within the Early-Late Woodland horizon C (AD 550-620). The surprising number and spatial concentration of pocket...
Pollen Analysis at El Campanario (Peru): Preliminary Study from a Public Architecture (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The present research analyzed pollen samples recovered from public architecture at the site of El Campanario in Huarmey Valley (Peru). This exploration focuses on issues regarding archaeological palynology by presenting a case study with a preliminary set of samples in an attempt to open a line of research at El Campanario. The adobe platform, where the...
Post-Charring Bacterial Degradation of Archaeological Lentils by Bacterial Degradation (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Challenges and Future Directions in Plant Stable Isotope Analysis in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. According to common knowledge, the preservation of stable isotope values in archaeological seeds requires that they be charred at low temperatures, because charring reorganizes sugar and protein polypeptides into stable Maillard reaction products. Charred seeds are understood to be resistant to diagenetic...
The Potential of Zn Isotope Ratios (δ66Zn) to Track Different Types of Plant Consumption (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There is currently a growing body of evidence that Zn isotope ratios (δ66Zn) are a useful tool to assess the trophic level of past humans and animals from archaeological sites. However, the isotopic variability which has been previously measured in herbivorous species remains unexplained. In this contribution, we explore and attempt to explain the...
Pots, Ethnoarchaeology, and Snake-Oil: James Skibo’s Lasting Impact on the Future of Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Method and Theory: Papers in Honor of James M. Skibo, Part I" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. James Skibo changed the way we study pottery. Jim’s archaeological career incorporated many different facets of archaeological research including experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, archaeology, and theory, all focusing on pottery research. One of his biggest influences is combining ethnoarchaeology and...
Pre-colonial Griddles in Central Nicaragua: An Archaeometric and Archaeobotanical Approach to Foodways at the Barillas Site, Chontales (2018)
Since 2007, the Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua, directed by Alexander Geurds, has excavated several archaeological sites in Chontales, Nicaragua, northeast of Lake Cocibolca. This papers reports on fragments of ceramic griddles recovered in layers dated to cal AD 1275 and 1290 at the Barillas site - unprecedented find challenging our views on ancient foodways in the region. The paucity of these comales has hitherto co-determined narratives on human mobility from Mesoamerica, due to...
Preclassic Faunal Utilization at Pacbitun, Belize. (2018)
Archaeological excavations within the Belize River Valley region have produced robust faunal assemblages that have increased our understanding of the Maya use of animals during the Preclassic. At Pacbitun, located on the southern periphery of the Valley, large scale horizontal excavations are providing insights into animal utilization during the Preclassic period at the site (1000 BC – AD 300). These investigations have probed into plaza floors, residential and ceremonial platforms, as well as...
Preclassic Maya Plant Use along the Usumacinta River: A Microbotanical Approach (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paleoethnobotanical evidence, in conjunction with other archaeological data, provides key information regarding ancient practices. This paper presents the results of microbotanical analyses —specifically the study of starch grains—carried out on diverse Preclassic Maya archaeological...
Prehispanic chinampas at El Japón, Xochimilco: Structure and Chronology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El Japón in San Gregorio Atlapulco, Xochimilco (Mexico City) was a Postclassic-Early Colonial chinampa community, previously reported and partially surveyed by Lechuga (1977), Parsons et al. (1982, 1985), Ávila López (1995) and González (1996). In 2013, investigators from the...
Prehistoric Agriculture in South Tibet: Archaeobotanical Perpespective from Bangga Site (2018)
To understand the evolution of agricultural economy in south Tibet, a large number of flotation samples and phytolith samples were collected during 2015-2017 field seasons at Bangga site. Preliminary analysis on these samples shows clues to the subsistence strategy, the nature of the site (pastoral or agropastoral)and probably the seasonality of the occupation of the site. Comparison with Changguogou site which is earlier in time indicates changes in subsistence strategy over time in this...
Prehistoric and Historical Period Agricultural Strategies in the Western Papagueria: Archaeological and O'odham Perspectives (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Transcending Boundaries and Exploring Pasts: Current Archaeological Investigations of the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper investigates prehistoric and historical period agricultural strategies in the Western Papagueria, a vast area of southwest Arizona and Northwest Mexico. It is the hottest and driest portion of the Sonoran Desert with temperatures that exceed 110o and rainfall...
The Prehistoric Diet: Genomic Analysis of Bonneville Estates Paleofeces, Nevada (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The genetic composition of paleofeces from Bonneville Estates Rockshelter (BER) can aid environmental and dietary reconstruction, as the genomic content of coprolites change as environmental conditions shifted from cool and moist in the Pleistocene to hot and dry in the Holocene and as new food sources appeared locally. In order to analyse the potential shift...
Prehistoric Fishing Practices in Bocas del Toro, Panama (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The pre-European population of the Bocas Del Toro Archipelago was more numerous and diverse than previously thought. Fish were a primary source of vertebrate protein throughout the region. Recent findings illustrate that the inhabitants of Sitio Drago consumed both maize and beans, not just root and tree crops as previously assumed. This presentation...
Preliminary Analysis of the Fauna from the McDonald Creek Site (2021)
This is an abstract from the "McDonald Creek and Blair Lakes: Late Pleistocene-Holocene Human Activity in the Tanana Flats of Central Alaska" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. McDonald Creek contains identifiable faunal remains from two primary climatic and cultural time periods: (1) a Younger-Dryas aged occupation, and (2) a pre-Clovis aged occupation dating to ca. 14,000 cal BP. The ca. 14,000 cal BP occupation contains most of the well-preserved...
Preliminary Results from Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of Pit Features at the Morton Village Site (11F2), Central Illinois (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 presents the preliminary results of paleoethnobotanical analysis of flotation samples from 38 external pit features from the Morton Village Site (11F2), located in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV). Previous research at Morton Village provides strong evidence that the village was occupied contemporaneously by both Mississippian and Oneota...