Warfare, Violence, and Conflict (Other Keyword)
1-25 (84 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In September 2019, American Veterans Archaeological Recovery (AVAR) served as the lead partner of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) in the search for aircrew losses associated with a World War II-era B-24H crash in southern England. Fieldwork consisted of a site survey and bulk excavation. Over a...
Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency's mission is to provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel from past conflicts to their families and the nation. We search for missing personnel from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars, and other recent...
Assyrians at the Gate: Rethinking the Siege at Tel Lachish (2018)
Sennacherib’s destruction of Tel Lachish, Judah (now Israel) in 701 BC was accomplished using state-of-the-art technologies and tactics. We know through the Lachish reliefs once located at Nineveh and now housed at the British Museum, that the Assyrians used a siege ramp to conquer the city. Unfortunately, the ramp was partially destroyed by archaeologists in the 1930’s and comparatively little is known about its original dimensions and use in the siege. Computational technologies including...
The Atlatl Motif in Rock Art (2021)
This is an abstract from the "From the Plains to the Plateau: Papers in Honor of James D. Keyser" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rock art researchers often claim that an oval with a vertical line through it represents an atlatl, but many of these depictions are not very convincing examples of atlatls. A better way to identify atlatls is to find examples that show anthropomorphs holding an atlatl while throwing a dart or holding an atlatl in a...
The Battle of the Little Bighorn Gunshot Trauma Analysis: Suicide Prevalence Among the Soldiers of the 7th Cavalry (2018)
The Battle of the Little Bighorn cost the U.S. army 268 men, which accounted for just over one percent of its entirety. Many of the men were killed during battle by Native American firearms and bow and arrows (Scott et. al, 2002, pg. 12). It is possible that some men perished by their own hand or by friendly fire. Through osteological data provided by the State Historic Preservation Office of Montana as well as historical documentation, this presentation will provide an analysis of gunshot wound...
Becan Reconsidered (2018)
BECAN RECONSIDERED -- Joe Ball’s early career centered strongly on Becan, which during the early 1970’s figured prominently in many interpretations of Classic Maya society and culture history. The initial Becan research predated our effective understanding of Maya inscriptions, the large-scale conflicts and alliances that affected the southern lowlands, and also the now-widespread data for climate change and the Classic "collapse". Because of its lack of inscriptions Becan has been...
Beyond the Brutality: Ritualized Violence in the Archaic Period Southeast (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Debra L. Martin" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Archaic period of the southeastern United States is characterized by major environmental and ecological changes that likely stimulated ideological changes visible in the archaeological record. This period also demonstrates widespread direct violence that transcends ecologically based explanations. In particular, the...
Beyond the Wall: Defensive Arrangements, Conflicts and Coexistence Inside an Andean Oasis during the Late Intermediate Period (1100–1450 AD) (2018)
Located on the western foothills of the Andes, in the region of Tacna, the study area seems to have been densely occupied during the Late Intermediate Period (1100–1450 AD) as the recent archaeological research carried out in the area has demonstrated it. The many agricultural terraces and irrigation canals, as well as the numerous residential settlements, some of which are fortified, seem to demonstrate a strong desire for control and management of resources among the different groups occupying...
Bioarchaeology of the Little Bear Creek Site: New Insights into Health, Violence, Mortuary Behavior, and Identity in Prehistoric North Alabama (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although many prehistoric shell burial mound sites within the Pickwick Basin of the Tennessee River Valley of Alabama have been the subject of extensive archaeological and osteological analyses, The Little Bear Creek Site (1CT8) was excluded from such modern study until recently. However, the most recent skeletal inventory of the site revealed high levels of...
A Bird's-Eye View: Utilizing Wartime Aerial Imagery to Recover the Remains of a US Servicemember from the Vietnam War (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is responsible for the recovery and identification of missing US servicemembers from past conflicts, including the Vietnam War. This case study involves over 25 years of investigation efforts that led to the recovery of an O-1 Bird Dog pilot shot down over Laos in 1967. The long investigative history for this case...
Can Firing Position of WWII Soldiers Be Determined by Shell Scatters? Preliminary Data from Experimental Archaeology (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 describes results from an experiment designed to determine if there is consistency in the shell scatter patterns of the Colt 1911, Thompson M1A1 Submachine Gun, M1 Carbine and M1 Garand, all common weapons of the American World War II Soldier. Forensic Ballistic evidence has proven to be a valid method of inquiry when determining the movements of...
Care Provision for Victims of Violence in Late Prehistoric Tennessee (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Systems of Care in Times of Violence" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper addresses care provision for victims of violent trauma during the Mississippian period in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee. Previous research in the region has identified several cases of individuals surviving incidents of intentional violence. However, there has been little attention given to whether healthcare provisioning would...
Ceramic Resource Selection and Social Violence in the Gallina Area of the American Southwest (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research examines the relationship between social violence and ceramic resource procurement. Do people in middle-range societies alter resource use in response to conflict? Specifically, does social strife influence the distance to which potters in middle-range societies will travel to collect ceramic resources? Distance and quality are primary elements...
Cerro Cumbray: A Chimu Frontier Outpost (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cerro Cumbray is a Chimu hilltop settlement located near the modern town of Simbal, Peru. During the 2018 field season, the authors used aerial photography via drone to create a site map and conducted a limited pedestrian survey in order to better understand site chronology and context. While Cerro Cumbray lacks indications of large-scale fortification; the...
Cerro de En medio, a Hidden Epiclassic Site in the Northern Frontier of Mesoamerica (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 analysis of the role of violence underlying the settlement pattern at Cerro de En medio, Aguascalientes, Mexico, located in the northern frontier of Mesoamerica. Violence is one of the social forces that shape the decision making involved in selecting a place to settle. This paper focuses on understanding the role of defensibility as a...
Chankillo as a Fortification and Post-Chavín Warfare in Casma, Peru (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Peering into the Night: Transition, Sociopolitical Organization, and Economic Dynamics after the Dusk of Chavín in the North Central Andes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Chankillo is a large ceremonial center in the Casma Valley, northern coast of Peru, built in 250 BC to worship the sun. It contains, besides the earliest astronomical observatory known to date in the Americas, an impressive hilltop fort. Previously,...
Chronology of a Fortified Mississippian Village in the Central Illinois River Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geophysical survey and excavations from 2010–2016 at Lawrenz Gun Club (11CS4), a late pre-Columbian village located in the central Illinois River valley in Illinois, identified 10 mounds, a central plaza, and dozens of structures enclosed within a stout 10 hectare bastioned palisade. Nineteen radiocarbon measurements were taken from single entities of wood...
Communities, Violence and Fortification: A Study of Longshan Landscapes (2018)
The Late Neolithic period in Central China, known as the Longshan period, has long been associated with violence and warfare. There have been several theories as to what are the catalysts for for this period of increased violence. This paper will review the evidence of warfare and violence during this period. Using disparate spatial data this paper will investigate the implications of warfare and violence on the settlement patterning of the Central Plains of China. Through this investigation we...
Conflict and Territoriality: An Archaeological Study of Ancestral Northern Coast Salish-Tla’amin Defensiveness in the Salish Sea Region of Southwestern British Columbia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Complex Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers of North America" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Coast Salish ethnohistory describes how various locations associated with settlements were used for defence within the Salish Sea region of southwestern British Columbia. During times of conflict, these linked places formed defensive networks that functioned to maximize defensibility at both the settlement and allied settlement scales....
Conquer the South : From the First Contacts to the 'Integration'. Study of the Defensive Settlement Patterns' Evolutions and Modifications between the Late Intermediaite Period and the Late Horizon in the Tacna Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Lost in Transition: Social and Political Changes in the Central Southern Andes from the Late Prehispanic to the Early Colonial Periods" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the south Central Andes, in the upper basin of the Sama River, the fortresses built during the Late Intermediate Period to deal with the endemic conflicts that affected the Andes between the 14th and 15th centuries appeared to have undergone many...
Constructing Difference: Defense, Sensory Experience, and Social Difference at a Late Prehispanic Hillfort (Arequipa, Peru) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The fortified settlement of Auquimarka was one of many hilltop fortifications built during the Late Intermediate Period (1000 – 1450 CE) in the Colca Valley of the southern Peruvian highlands. While most fortifications fell into disuse following Inka expansion into the region, Auquimarka...
Creative Problem-Solving for Unconventional Conditions: Archaeological Recovery of a WWII Aircraft Crash Site, Ko’olau Mountain Range, Island of O’ahu, State of Hawaii, U.S.A. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "A Multidimensional Mission: Crossing Conflicts, Synthesizing Sites, and Adapting Approaches to Find Missing Personnel" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Conventional archaeological sites, with their relatively level topography and wide-open spaces to accommodate excavations, are not typically encountered by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) Archaeologist. The majority of sites encountered by DPAA field...
Cultural Changes During the Protohistoric Period: An Oneota Case Study (2018)
George Milner points out in his 2015 work, "Population Decline and Culture Change in the American Midcontinent: Bridging the Prehistoric and Historic Divide", that reactions and changes by Native Americans during the Protohistoric period were highly localized, and that each tribe was affected differently through direct and indirect contacts with Europeans. The La Crosse locality was inhabited by the Oneota until c. 1625 when the area was abandoned for the Riceford Creek locality (in southeastern...
Decapitation and the Vulnerable Nature of Joints among the Aztecs (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prisoners of war were ritually killed by heart extraction and were often decapitated. Archaeologists at Templo Mayor found skulls with the first cervical vertebrae attached, indicating death by decapitation. Lethal weapons such as flint sacrificial knives were also found near decapitated...
Defensive Landscape and the Naturalization of Social Inequalities in Southwestern Colombia (2200–1800 BP) (2018)
The prehispanic societies from the Cauca river Valley, Colombia, have been portrayed as classical examples of the development of political complexity caused by intergroup conflict for basic resources in constrained environments. However, the existence of warfare in the region itself has not been backed by strong archaeological evidence. The re-analysis of the earth structures of the archaeological site of Malagana, in southwestern Colombia, suggest the existence of regional warfare, which...