Taphonomy and Site Formation (Other Keyword)
151-171 (171 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Whiskey Flats (41MD50), located in Midland County, Texas, was situated around Mustang Pond in Mustang Draw. Two separate bone concentrations (Area 1 and Area 2) were recovered within a ~40m distance of each other. Area 1, a now dry pond, consisted of a modern bison and modern horse bonebed radiocarbon dated to ~A.D. 1750. Area 2, a terrace north of...
Taphonomic Analysis with Multisite Big Data in the Central Mesa Verde Region (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding taphonomic patterns across large spatial scales can greatly enhance archaeological interpretation. However, standardized data curation across many sites is a significant challenge. Thus, opportunities for taphonomic analyses that employ big multisite datasets are rare. Data...
A Taphonomic Comparison of Two Late Pleistocene Zooarchaeological Assemblages in Northwest Italy and South Africa (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Consortium Poster Symposium" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A driving question in paleoanthropology is the extent of behavioral divergence in hominin species, particularly Anatomically Modern Homo sapiens (AMH) and Neanderthals. Generally, direct comparisons are restricted to Europe, where both hominin species were interacting within the same environmental constraints....
Taphonomic Examination of the Skeletal Collection from Etlatongoa, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2018)
Recent excavations at the Middle Formative (850 – 400 BCE) site of Etlatongo, in the Mixteca male bearing striking red stains on the anterior cranium. These findings may suggest alteration of remains associated with burial rituals. However, human remains may be modified through several post-mortem taphonomic effects, including: trauma, rodent activity, discoloring, staining, cultural modification, interment rituals, damage throughout archaeological investigation procedures, biological and...
Temporalities of Disaster Taphonomy: A Contemporary Archaeological Case Study in Southern Puerto Rico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Taphonomy in Focus: Current Approaches to Site Formation and Social Stratigraphy" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Disaster landscapes dominate Puerto Rico’s Anthropocene, past and present. Yet, since the devastating 2017 hurricane season, climate change and coloniality have materialized unprecedentedly as roofless homes, shifting coastlines, and abandoned lots. As recovery practices become a part of everyday life in...
Termination deposits at Aguateca and Ceibal, Guatemala (2018)
Excavations at Aguateca and Ceibal revealed a series of dense deposits associated with the ritual destruction of buildings. At Aguateca, such deposits were found in and around Structures M7-22 and M7-32 of the Palace Group, probable royal administrative-residential buildings. Excavators also unearthed similar deposits around Structures L8-6 and L8-7, temple pyramids in the Main Plaza. These deposits date to c. AD 810 when enemies attacked Aguateca. At Ceibal, dense deposits of broken objects...
Testing the Stratigraphic Integrity of Shallow Deposits through Zooarchaeology at Lamanai, Belize (2018)
Identifying formation processes of shallow archaeological sites can be difficult. At Lamanai, Belize, the main problem consists of distinguishing between pre- and post-Spanish contact deposits buried at a depth of 10 to 60 cm. Evidence of interaction with the Spanish includes a few European objects and two Christian churches. However, identifying pre-contact deposits is more challenging. Maya archaeologists typically rely on ceramic typology to establish chronology, but the main pottery type in...
‘To be or not to be…’ A Taphonomic Perspective on Pseudoartifacts (2018)
An anthropocentric perspective governs most of archaeological research into lithic assemblages. Hence, spatial and morphological trends in the lithic record are interpreted primarily in terms of human technological behavior without a systematic assessment of unintentional and/or non-human factors as sources of variation. Surprisingly, controversies on the natural vs. anthropic character of several lithic assemblages or ‘industries’ did not prompt the adoption of taphonomic approaches by lithic...
Todd’s Taphonomy: Addressing Questions Too Often Left Unasked (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Larry Todd has played a central role in applying taphonomy to studies of prehistoric human behavior. He developed standardized and, most importantly, reproducible methods of observational quantification. We here present studies of Trinil (Java) and Hadar (Ethiopia), both of which figure prominently in...
Toxic Taphonomy (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Taphonomy in Focus: Current Approaches to Site Formation and Social Stratigraphy" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We are living through an era that has been described as “the apotheosis of waste,” a globe brimming with greenhouse gasses, mountains of tailings, lagoons of pig-shit, and hangars of acidic sludge. The massive scale and persistence of industrial waste has not only transformed the air, water, and soil that...
Understanding Archaeology in the Dunes: OSL Dating of the Tolleston Beach at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Its Implications for Interpreting the Archaeological Record (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The puzzling scarcity of archaeological sites on the Tolleston Beach at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore prompted an investigation into the development of this dune field in an attempt to determine whether the distribution of known archaeological sites is governed by ancient human behaviors, or influenced by its dune setting, which can affect site preservation...
Understanding Ritual Events within the Architectural Context of Building on a Cumulative Construct: The Case of the Çatalhöyük East Mound (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Closure: A Global Perspective" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Looking at closure, abandonment and subsequent foundation events as interlinked and sometimes overlapping actions, opens the door to questioning rituals and ‘rules,’ and asking whether ritual emerges from practice or hovers above daily pragmatism. The Çatalhöyük East Mound (7100-5950 BCE), a deeply cumulative settlement in Central Anatolia, with...
Using Modern Ostrich Eggshell to Establish a Color Alteration Index and Determine the Physical and Chemical Effects of Heat Exposure (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ostrich eggshell (OES) is common in archaeological sites throughout Africa and Asia and is often recovered with evidence of pre- and postdepositional burning. The physical nature of OES protects some isotopic data that remain locked away in the crystalline shell matrix, allowing researchers to use these data thousands of years later to...
Using Technologically Diagnostic Debitage to Better Determine the Integrity of an Archaeological Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For a cultural resource to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, it must meet specific criteria. For significant archaeological sites, this usually means the resources can produce data that address important questions about the past (i.e., National Register Criterion D). The integrity of design is of...
Weathering of Surficial Lithic Assemblages in the Hyperarid Core of the Atacama Desert, Chile (2018)
Surficial archaeological sites are widespread in arid environments. However, due to the difficulties in numerically dating them, they are usually considered as coarse indicators of past behaviors. Here, we explore the use of lithic weathering to develop local relative chronologies, and to better incorporate these assemblages into archaeological research. We test whether the most weathered artifacts should be considered the oldest; an assumption that has informally served to compare assemblages....
What Faunal Remains from Wolf Scat in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Can Tell Us about Canid Presence in the past (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The authors analyzed scat collected from gray wolf (Canis lupus) packs in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem from 2019 – 2021. Faunal remains in the scat were identified to element, using comparative collections from the Draper Museum of Natural History, and assessed for surface modification and abrasion. This information was supplemented by species...
What Lies Beneath: Underwater Ground Penetrating Radar Survey of the Inundated Liebman Site, an Early Paleoindian Site in Lebanon, Connecticut. (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Liebman Site (71-31) is an Early Paleoindian site preserved beneath Lake Williams, a ~270-acre lake initially created by 19th century milling operations of Bartlett Brook in Lebanon, Connecticut. Originally discovered by John Parkos and excavated by John Pfeiffer in the 1990s when water levels were reduced, the site is generally inaccessible to...
Where Are the “Interesting” Skulls? The Practice and Taphonomy of Modern Interaction with Human Remains in Open Tombs (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Ancestors: New Approaches to Andean "Open Sepulchers"" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Modern interaction with ancient human remains is near-ubiquitous in aboveground open-air tombs, used in the Andes during the late prehispanic period (ca. 1000–1532 CE). These spaces are host to a range of activities, from looting and sale of artifacts by professional huaqueros to exploration by local history enthusiasts....
Where Is the Waterline? Integrating Terrestrial and Underwater Investigations in the Aucilla River, Florida (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Global Submerged Paleolandscapes Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past decade, research in the Aucilla River of northwestern Florida has focused upon understanding the geoarchaeological context of numerous formerly terrestrial, now inundated sinkhole spring sites and the landscapes surrounding them. Dozens of terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene-aged diagnostic artifacts have been...
Women and Menarche Lodges: Archaeological Evidence of Coming-of-Age Structures on the Columbia-Fraser Plateau (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Closure: A Global Perspective" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Women’s or menarche lodges are non-domestic structures noted within North American ethnographies as the places where a young girl spent her first menses, learning from the women around her as she moved into the next life stage. On the Columbia-Fraser Plateau, our previous work identified a small, burned structure with few artifacts, rubified...
Zooarcheological Contributions to the Smithsonian’s National Taphonomic Reference Collection (2018)
Taphonomy, the study of how organisms fossilize and information that is lost and gained along the way, has emerged as pivotal to reconstructing the paleoecology of animal communities and ancient human lifeways. Through taphonomic analysis, we can decipher the sources of bone accumulations at paleontological and archaeological sites and the processes involved in bone modification and preservation. Such inquiries rely upon well-documented reference collections that link certain bone modifications...