Digital Archaeology: GIS (Other Keyword)
326-350 (521 Records)
The fieldwork conducted in Tyler Bastian’s 1969-1970 salvage trench at Biggs Ford revealed a unique window into two Late Woodland villages, a Montgomery Complex and a Keyser Complex. The post mold patterns observed in the initial analysis of the trench may indicate the footprints of both complexes. Linear post mold arcs and a ring of pits may be consistent with other known Montgomery Complex sites, namely the Winslow site in Montgomery County. Additionally, post mold patterns in the extreme...
Ollas and Inequality: Reflections on Space, Ceramics, and Power Relationships at the Sanchez site. (2018)
Spanish exploitation of Indigenous people’s labor was a foundational component of the initial colonization of New Mexico. Pueblo Indians and enslaved Plains peoples worked on Spanish public infrastructure projects, built Spanish Missions, tended friar’s livestock, and helped with the daily operations of outlying estancias. At the Sanchez site, evidence of daily labors can be seen in broken manos and metates scattered around the site, the presence of the adobe structures that were built by Pueblo...
"The Other Half of the Sky": Competitive Anarchy in Contact-Era Palau (2018)
This paper explores the way in which contact-era Palauan society negotiated between hierarchy and heterarchy to ensure long-term sociopolitical stability, developing and deploying a theory of competitive anarchy. The evaluation critiques the frequent correlation of complexity with hierarchy and centrality and does so through a geostatistical analysis. This investigation begins with the development of a proposed model of Palauan sociopolitical structure, derived through ethnographic descriptions...
Over the Hills and Far Away: Evaluating Competing Models for Early Ceramic Period Mobility in the Southern Rocky Mountains (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transition from the Late Archaic (1200 B.C. to A.D. 150) to the Early Ceramic (A.D. 150 – A.D. 1150) in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming is characterized by decreasing mobility, a trend reflected by the adoption of ceramic technology, limited stone architecture, and longer site occupation. Contrasted against this shift to longer occupations is...
Overland Travel Routes and Exchange Spheres of Pacific Nicaragua Using Obsidian and Ceramic Data from Chiquilistagua (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Centralizing Central America: New Evidence, Fresh Perspectives, and Working on New Paradigms" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The emergence of social complexity often incorporates social, political, and economic inter- and intra-regional interactions. In this paper we examine the emerging social spheres and exchange networks that developed during the Tempisque period (500 BC–AD 300) among small prehistoric agrarian...
P-Map: Digitizing the village of Pueblo Grande (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The prehistoric Hohokam village of Pueblo Grande, in the heart of Phoenix, was established as a City park and museum in 1929. The site includes one of the largest platform mounds in Arizona, a ballcourt (possibly two), thousands of features, and once contained a tower-like structure. Excavations have been conducted at Pueblo Grande since as early as 1901...
Paleoindians of Arkansas: From the Mountains to the Mississippi of the Interior Southeast (2018)
In the past two decades, advancing methodologies and the recovery of new cultural materials have expanded our knowledge of the earliest peopling of the Ozarks, Ouachita Mountains and Mississippi Valley of Arkansas. In the late 1990’s, GIS analyses in the Mississippi Valley of northeastern Arkansas highlighted the significant association of early cultures to the lithic resources of the landscape and subsequent collaboration with PIDBA in the past decade has put this state-level record in...
Paleolithic Occupations at Riparo Bombrini (Liguria, Italy): Understanding the Spatial Organization of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of Liguria: Recent Research and Insights" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Riparo Bombrini (Liguria, Italy) offers a unique setting to compare the spatial organization of Neanderthal and Homo sapiens occupations in a single archaeological site. The disappearance of Neanderthals is one of the greatest debates in prehistory since the period of their decline corresponds to the...
Participatory Mapping and Self-Management of Territory among the Kuikuro of the Upper Xingu, Amazonia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The use of cartography for land management is not new. However, the use of geotechnologies as instruments for strengthening indigenous communities, including the self-management of their territories, constitutes a new and wide-ranging possibility for the application of these tools. Participatory community mapping and territorial self-management are...
Pastoralism and Landscape Sustainability: A Mediterranean Perspective (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Exploring Long-Term Pastoral Dynamics: Methods, Theories, Stories" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The contraction of traditional pastoral practices in the last century has prompted a rapid transformation of those landscapes whose character had been shaped by pastoral mobility. A transformation that is accentuated by the consequences of climate change. This process is particularly relevant in Mediterranean landscapes,...
Paths of Connection in the Great Dismal Swamp: Wetland Watercourses as Indigenous and Maroon Landscape Features (2018)
Speckled with mesic islands and peat hummocks, the soggy lowlands and standing water of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia and North Carolina (USA) were home to thousands of African and African American Maroons ca. 1608-1863 and were a significant feature of the landscape of Indigenous Americans for many centuries prior. The Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Study and the Swampscapes project archaeologically investigate the landscape of resistance created by Maroons. The Dismal is far from a...
Patrones de movilidad como reflejo de la concepción del diseño urbano: Un caso del Centro Sur de Veracruz en el Clásico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Urban Question: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Investigating the Ancient Mesoamerican City" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. En la actualidad, la visita a las zonas arqueológicas está determinada por un recorrido establecido por cuestiones de conservación y disfrute. Sin embargo, la movilidad dentro de las ciudades prehispánicas estuvo organizada por el diseño urbano, y su desarrollo a través del tiempo,...
Peaks Above, Plains Below: The Deeper Context of Settlement Patterning in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Crete (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 presents an analysis of the long-term dynamics of settlement patterning on the Greek island of Crete, with a particular focus on the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. Alongside - or in the absence of - other forms of archaeological data, changes in settlement patterning have been central to debates around political and economic change on the...
People, Place, and Identity: Funerary Landscapes and the Development of the Early Medieval Kingdom of Northumbria (2018)
Early medieval Britain witnessed dramatic changes to the socio-cultural landscape due to the withdrawal of Roman authority, climatic change, and the arrival of migrants from the continent and from different regions of Britain. The analytical and scientific analysis of the burial record, from a landscape perspective, allows an investigation of key questions related to the scope and nature of this migration, the development of social identity, and how portions of Britain expanded from small...
Perplexing Landscapes: The Role of Natural Landscape Features in Late Preclassic Site-Design of Noh K’uh in 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. The Late Preclassic (400 BC–AD 250) ceremonial center of Noh K’uh was designed in a quincunx pattern to commemorate the importance of cardinality and cosmological symbols. This kind of architectural design was commonplace in Preclassic Mesoamerica, as the earliest populations shaped their ceremonial spaces in reverence to natural...
Photogrammetry Modeling and GIS Analysis at Rumiqolqa (Cusco, Peru), a Multi-ethnic Labor Colony Occupied during Inca and Spanish Colonial Rule (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster employs digital archaeological mapping methods such as photogrammetry and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine domestic labor practices, architectural style, and town planning at Rumiqolqa, a massive colony in Cusco, Peru where a multi-ethnic population of forcibly resettled workers quarried stone for Inca and then Spanish colonial...
Photogrammetry, Spatial Patterning, and Site Formation of the Hominin-Bearing Layers at the Lower Paleolithic Site of Dmanisi, Georgia (2018)
The Lower Paleolithic site of Dmanisi, Georgia, is well known for its rich archaeological and paleontological deposits, which include bones from at least five individuals attributed to Homo erectus. Taphonomic analyses show that carnivores contributed greatly to the accumulation of faunal material, while contributions by hominins were present, but uncommon. Recent excavations in the hominin-bearing layers of Block 2 at Dmanisi have revealed a complex underlying basalt formation that likely...
A Place to Heal: Archaeology at St. Elizabeths Hospital (2018)
Established in 1852 as the Government Hospital for the Insane, St. Elizabeths is situated on a bluff overlooking the historic City of Washington. Charles Nichols, the first superintendent, sought to provide a therapeutic setting in a picturesque environment for mentally ill patients to recover. Originally located outside the main core of the city, the campus has witnessed massive changes over its 150 years of operation. These changes often coincided with innovative new treatment practices for...
Placemaking in Southwestern Oregon (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 takes a Geographic Information Systems approach to understanding the role of place in determining settlement patterns in southwestern Oregon. Persistent use of settlement locations transforms these spaces to places, or locations where memory and identity become embedded. In order to test how this phenomena influences settlement location, a site...
Places, Ports and Their People: The Rise of the Peruvian Post-Colonial State in the Arequipa Coast (2018)
In this paper I provide insight into the earliest decades of the Peruvian post-colonial state (1821-1879) from the vantage point of the Arequipa coast. The Andean south, with its center in Arequipa, had a traditional mercantile basis that favored improvements in trade, particularly those that resulted in the rapprochement of the city of Arequipa to the sea. After independence (1821-1824), new ports were established; the operation of certain coves sanctioned; and extractive activities shaped the...
Playing the Game: an Analysis of Hohokam Ballcourt Structures (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite nearly a hundred years of research, Hohokam Ballcourt Structures remain a conundrum for archaeologists. What they were used for, who could access the courts (or the events that occurred in them), or even if the communities that built them utilized them for activities besides ballgames all remain ambiguous. This poster elucidates a performance...
Post-Classic Canal Excavations at Yaxnohcah, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Yaxnohcah is a large site in Campeche, Mexico with evidence of continual occupation from the early Middle Preclassic into the Postclassic. In 2014, the Yaxnohcah Archaeological Project commissioned a high resolution lidar scan of the region, which has allowed for accurate modeling of surface hydrology and significantly contributed to our understanding of...
Pottery Offerings and Ritual Gestures in Sutar Conti, a Ceremonial Site on the Processional Pathway of the Licancabur Pampa, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Inter-nodal archaeological studies show how pottery, among other functions, is part of the offerings found in ceremonial contexts associated with journeys through the Atacama Desert. Focusing on ethnohistorically recognized processional pathways, with the Licancabur volcano as a ceremonial node, our investigation centers on Sutar Conti, a site renowned for...
Prearchaic Settlement Decisions in the Great Basin (2018)
Researchers propose that the first people to occupy the Great Basin preferentially settled near pluvial lakes to exploit highly profitable wetland habitats. However, a systematic evaluation of this hypothesis has yet to be undertaken. Here we test predictions from an ideal free distribution model to determine if the settlement decisions of Prearchaic foragers were indeed biased toward pluvial ecosystems. The results not only elucidate Prearchaic settlement patterns, but also establish...
Precontact Indigenous Fire Stewardship: From the Valley to the Forest (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Future Directions for Archaeology and Heritage Research in the Willamette Valley, Oregon" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Indigenous peoples lived in the Willamette Valley and adjacent highly productive upland forests for millennia and successfully coexisted with the region’s fire regimes. Like today, wildfires posed a threat to past societies and their livelihoods. Precontact Indigenous peoples of the Willamette...