and Conflict (Other Keyword)
26-40 (40 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Puebla/Tlaxcala Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the “Historia de Tlaxcala,” mestizo chronicler Diego Muñoz de Camargo commemorates the first significant military endeavor between Tlaxcalan forces and the European soldiers under the command of Hernán Cortés. This study analyzes how Muñoz Camargo constructed the narrative of the siege and battle, and how he framed the Tlaxcalan victory as a...
The Spiro Panoply: An Examination, Structural Analysis, and Hypothetical Re-creation of Middle Mississippian Defensive Equipment and Weapon Systems (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the recognition that violence, warfare, and trophy display within the North American Southeast was endemic during the Mississippian Cultural Period, an in-depth analysis of the equipment used by warring groups is now necessary. By examining the “Conquering Warrior” and associated human effigy pipes from the Great Mortuary at Spiro Mounds and...
Thirteenth-Century Villages and the Depopulation of the Northern San Juan Region by Pueblo Peoples (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Research, Education, and American Indian Partnerships at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The initial 40 years of research conducted by the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center included several excavation projects that focused on a primary stated research goal of the center: discover why Pueblo peoples completely and permanently vacated the northern San Juan region late in the...
To Fight or Not to Fight: Comparing Evidence of Violence on Human Skeletal Remains at Sites in and around Chaco Canyon and the Mimbres Region (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The intent of this presentation is to compare patterns of violence on human skeletal remains recovered from archaeological sites in the San Juan Basin associated with Chaco Canyon and the Mimbres region in the US Southwest. The Chaco sites date to AD 850–1300, while the Mimbres sites date to AD 650–1300. Bioarchaeological signatures of violence on the...
Updated Perspectives on Sennacherib’s Siege at Tel Lachish (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From gypsum reliefs that once decorated the walls of the Assyrian capital at Nineveh, archaeologists know that Sennacherib’s army laid waste to the city of Lachish, Judah (now Israel) in 701 BC. There remains no consensus on how these events unfolded, but many researchers agree that the Lachish reliefs were intended to serve as both historical record and...
Violence as a Contested Asset and Dynamics of Warrior Ideology at State Edges: Thugs and Harmony? (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond “Barbarians”: Dimensions of Military Organization at the Bleeding Edge of the Premodern State" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Characteristic of many states is a legal monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. Conversely, in small-scale normatively egalitarian societies entitlements to wield violent force are often diffuse and informally adjudicated. State formation thus frequently involves the formalization...
War and Peace and the Origins of Political Control in the Central Andean Coast: 3000 BC–AD 600 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The central Andes has a long history of the rise and fall of centralized political organizations, beginning with construction of the first large-scale ceremonial centers in the New World between 3000 and 1800 BC. Some see these early centers as pilgrimage centers, lacking significant political power, while others argue they were urban...
War, Power, and History in the Mississippian Period Central Illinois Valley (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper considers the impact of warfare-induced settlement nucleation on the sociopolitical organization of the thirteenth-century Central Illinois River Valley. Concurrent with the beginning of a period of intense warfare, Mississippian groups in the region abandoned their small, dispersed farmsteads and aggregated into the region’s...
Warfare and Captive Sacrifice in the Moche World: New Data from Excavations at Pampa la Cruz, Moche Valley, Northern Coastal Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Depictions of combat and the capture and killing of captives are well known in Moche (ca. AD 200-850) art. Since 1995, the iconographic record has been joined by archaeological evidence of the practices themselves. The most dramatic discoveries were made in Plazas 3A and 3C at the Pyramid of the Moon between 1995 and 2001, with scattered deposits...
Warfare and the Origins of Social Complexity in Southern Central America (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Southern Central America is rich in examples of early complex societies, and yet, the timing and mechanism for the emergence of social complexity and differentiation are still not well understood. Recent works are moving archaeologists in the region to question, on the one hand, the definition of social complexity itself, and on the other...
Warfare and the Polity in Early China (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Intercommunity conflict and sociopolitical complexity are both complicated topics, not only because of their large literatures and diverse approaches, but because of the multifaceted nature of the phenomena involved. For my talk I would like to focus on what I see as two key variables relevant to both warfare and political community. These...
Warfare and the Rise of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southeast Asia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Warfare and the Origins of Political Control " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have long been interested in the development of social complexity and associated institutions of governance and political control. Within Southeast Asia, historical societies such as Angkor provide insights around premodern state societies. This paper deals with evidence from the late prehistoric era, addressing the role of...
Warrior Art, Osteological Evidence of Violence, and Colonial-Era Changes in Warfare and Male Status on the Western Great Plains (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond “Barbarians”: Dimensions of Military Organization at the Bleeding Edge of the Premodern State" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Indigenous Plains warfare is one of the anthropological archetypes of tribal war, often seen as just as much of a status-related game as real violence directed toward larger social and political ends. This view misrepresents colonial-era warfare by focusing on only one aspect social...
Why Are We Thinking “Beyond Barbarians”? Interrogating Dimensions of Military Organization in Non-State Societies (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond “Barbarians”: Dimensions of Military Organization at the Bleeding Edge of the Premodern State" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There are good reasons to problematize and theorize dimensions of military organization. Despite the wellspring of research on the archaeology of warfare over the last 30 years, conceptual gaps remain. Warfare among small-scale societies remains typified as total war, while the study of...
Women as Actors in Systems of Violence: Their Roles and Identities in the Precolonial US Southwest (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When examining violence in archaeological contexts, the roles of females have often been undertheorized or omitted completely. Violence research is quick to identify males as warriors and aggressors but women should not be ignored as actors in past violence. Our perception and interpretation of females as actively engaged in violent interactions in the...