Geoarchaeology (Other Keyword)

126-150 (619 Records)

Digging Deep: Place-based Variation in Māʻohi Agricultural Production Systems across the Late Pre-Contact Society Islands, French Polynesia (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Kahn. Dana Lepofsky.

This is an abstract from the "Supporting Practical Inquiry: The Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Thomas Dye" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding the socio-ecological contexts of past agricultural systems in complex societies requires expansive datasets, particularly when the goal is to mesh top-down and bottom-up perspectives that generate data at different scales of analysis. Here, we bring together ethnohistoric and...


Digging the Anacostia River Landscape: Geoarchaeology and the Buried Past in the National Capital (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Gregory Katz.

The historic Anacostia River valley was a focal point for settlement by local Native American populations as well as European Colonial and post-Colonial populations. However, the valley floor had low-topographic relief, large marshes, and soils prone to erosion, leading to many grand efforts of dredging and land reclamation. Flooding led to further raising of the landscape in the early 20th century, and to the deeper burial of archaeological sites. Fortunately, the Anacostia River valley was...


Dirt, dynasties, and devastation in North China: Geoarchaeological perspectives from the Luoyang Basin (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Storozum. Yifei Zhang. Ren Xiaolin.

Anthropogenic disturbance of alluvial systems is increasingly influential through time, but the interplay of climatic systems and basin hydrology complicate attempts to fingerprint how humans influence these systems. We evaluate the importance of climate change, fluvial dynamics, and anthropogenic environmental modification in forming the Holocene sedimentary record of the Luoyang Basin, a tributary of the Yellow River, located in western Henan Province, China. Our fieldwork indicates that an...


Dirt, Rocks, and Water: Irrigation Here, There, Then, and Now (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only William Doolittle.

Regional specialists spend most of their time studying many topics in one area. Indeed, it would be next to impossible to be an authority on a region and its complexities if one did otherwise. Topical specialists, travel widely and study numerous variations on a single theme. Each of these specializations has its pros and cons. Neither is superior to the other. They are complementary. This presentation focuses on ancient irrigation in the American Southwest and present-day parallels from other...


Discerning Paleolithic Places Rather Than Pleistocene Palimpsests: Olival Grande and the Early Upper Paleolithic in Central Portugal (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Thacker.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The expansive, open-air archaeological site of Olival Grande contains the earliest, well-dated Upper Paleolithic assemblage known from the Rio Maior vicinity. Fabric analysis, sedimentology, and geochemistry studies detail manifold site burial mechanisms, very slow rates of deposition, and significant post-depositional processes at the hillslope site. This...


Discovering Landscape Modification through Pollen Data Analysis at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Crystal Ptacek. Beatrix Arendt. John Jones. Derek Wheeler. Fraser Neiman.

Pollen analysis can advance our understanding of change and spatial variation in the landscape of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation from its initial settlement in the 18th century to the present. In this poster, we present and evaluate data from an intensive, multi-year campaign of stratigraphic sampling conducted in the largely ornamental mountaintop landscape immediately surrounding Jefferson's mansion. Comparing these data to stratigraphic samples not from Monticello Mountain allows us...


The Discovery of California Megalithic Structures: The Geology and Geomorphology of the Artificial (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Janes.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recent discovery of megalithic structures on the central coast of California was accomplished by geologic analysis of mounds and stone piles on the crest of Tomales Point in the Point Reyes National Seashore. These features were generally ignored by both geologists and archaeologists because at a distance they look like bedrock outcrops. However, the...


Dissertation - Community Identity and Social Practice during the Terminal Classic Period at Actuncan, Belize (2015)
DOCUMENT Full-Text Kara Fulton.

This research examines the relationship between the ways in which urban families engaged local landscapes and the development of shared identities at the prehispanic Maya city of Actuncan, Belize. Such shared identities would have created deep historical ties to specific urbanized spaces, which enabled and constrained political expansion during the Terminal Classic period (ca. A.D. 800–900), a time when the city experienced rapid population growth as surrounding centers declined. This research...


Documenting the Legendary 1844 Flood from a Kaw Village in the Kansas River Valley (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Kessler.

Geoarchaeological fieldwork has documented an alluvial deposit associated with a flood event which overtopped a relatively high terrace in the Kansas River Valley near present day Topeka, Kansas. The deposit, defined as an overwash phase, exhibits structures indicative of flowing water. The overwash phase’s position, overlying a historic Kaw Village, corroborates second hand historic accounts which date its origin to a flood in the year A.D. 1844. This flood event probably resulted in the rapid...


"Down to Earth": The Primacy of the Terrestrial (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Graham. Francesca Glanville-Wallis. Daniel Evans. Julia Stegemann. Simon Turner.

This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The concept of the Critical Zone makes clear that our future depends on the layer between the atmosphere and bedrock: the earth—which tellingly also serves as the name for our planet. Our Earth’s soils record the past and structure the future. Tim and Sheryl have worked in many places in the world, but I know them...


Drought and Cultural Instability (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Brenner.

This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geologists and biologists work with archaeologists to address compelling questions about cultures of the past. Earth scientists who study tree rings, ice cores, speleothems, and lake sediment cores can provide information about the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental contexts in which ancient cultures developed,...


The Earlier Stone Age Occupation of Wonderwerk Cave: Combining the Archaeology and Geology (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Chazan.

The archaeology and geology of the Earlier Stone Age of Wondewerk Cave (Northern Cape Province, South Africa) present a paradoxical picture. On the one hand there is a record of hominin occupation spanning a period of at least one million year that includes multiple proxies indicating the use of fire. However, the micromorphological study of the sediment shows almost no anthropogenic signal and the density of artifacts is extraordinarily low. This paper presents an overview of the current...


The Early Agricultural Period at La Playa, Mexico, A Geoarchaeological Investigation (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Cajigas.

La Playa (SON F:10:3), in Sonora, Mexico, has the remains of an irrigation canal system associated with the Early Agricultural period (2100 B.C.-A.D. 50), a period characterized by the development of agriculture in the southwest United States and northwest Mexico. Satellite imagery analysis and magnetic gradiometry surveys covering over 53,000 m2 of the site, document almost 8,700 m2 of agricultural fields, 15 km of irrigation canals, and over a dozen circular structures. Irrigation canals were...


Early Middle Paleolithic Blade Lithic Technology from the Site of Via San Francesco (Liguria, Northwestern Italy): Geoarchaeology, Chronology, and Cultural Features (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Fabio Negrino. Tobias Lauer. Andrea Zerboni. Sahra Talamo. Guido Mariani.

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. During MIS 5, in northwestern Europe, there are lithic assemblages characterized by the application of laminar methods performed on volumetric cores through a careful maintenance of lateral and distal convexities. In southern Europe, although blades are reported in several Mousterian contexts, nothing comparable to...


Early Pleistocene Hominin Expansion and Landscape Evolution in the Armenian Highlands (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Jenni Sherriff. Boris Gasparyan. Katie Preece. Mark Sier. Keith Wilkinson.

This is an abstract from the "Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding the chronology and environmental context of the earliest hominin expansions into Eurasia is of considerable interest in paleoanthropology. Several Early Pleistocene archaeological sites in the Armenian Highlands and wider Caucasus region have demonstrated the importance of the region for understanding...


Early Subsistence and Settlement in the Basin of Mexico: Preceramic and Pre-Urban Indicators (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily McClung De Tapia. Guillermo Acosta-Ochoa.

The race to stay ahead of modern human impact on preceramic and early ceramic sites in the Basin of Mexico is particularly dramatic. Recent investigations at sites located in three sectors of the Basin of Mexico, all of which are threatened to some degree, contribute to a broader understanding of the kinds of communities that anticipated increased complexity in social, economic and political spheres that ultimately developed into early urban centers such as Cuicuilco and Teotihuacan. ...


Early Upper Paleolithic Horse Hunting on the East European Plain (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only John F. Hoffecker. Vance Holliday.

Between 40,000 and 30,000 cal B.P., small herds of horses were hunted in Europe. Much of the evidence is derived from the central plain of Eastern Europe, including multiple sites at Kostenki-Borshchevo on the Middle Don River (Russia) and Mira on the Lower Dnepr River (southern Ukraine). These sites contain large bone beds analogous to the bison bone beds of the Great Plains, and the analysis of their depositional context and taphonomic characteristics yields information on how horse mare-bands...


The Early–Middle Pleistocene Settlement of Northern Armenia (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Adler. Keith Wilkinson. Jennifer Sherriff. Mark Sier. Boris Gasparyan.

This is an abstract from the "Pleistocene Landscapes and Hominin Behavior in the Armenian Highlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Northern Armenia and southern Georgia, divided in the Haghtanak-Bagratashen area by the Debed River, witnessed considerable volcanic activity between ~2.1 and 1.6 Ma, toward the end of which the earliest evidence of Homo outside Africa is found at Dmanisi. The rich assemblages of lithic, faunal, and human fossil...


Earthen dwellings from Banda, Ghana: Geoarchaeological analyses of archaeological and modern structures (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Melissa Goodman Elgar. Amanda Logan.

West African earthen architecture is among the most elaborated in the world as recognized by the World Heritage site status of Asante buildings at Kumasi. However, its history is poorly known. This study begins to redress this gap by employing bulk sediment analyses and soil micromorphology to characterize building remains recovered at the Ngre Kataa site, in Banda, Ghana and a contemporary earthen compound in the region. The study was conducted in tandem with archaeological and...


The Earthworks at Western of Amazon, Brazil: A Geoarchaeological Perspective (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Lilian Rebellato. Denise Paul Schann. Wenceslau Geraldes Teixeira. Antônia Damasceno Barbosa. William Woods.

In this paper, we will bring a geoarchaeological perspective in order to identify settlement patterns in two geometric earthworks (geoglyphs) located in the eastern region of the state of Acre in the Brazilian Amazon. Physical and chemical soil analysis suggests how the past inhabitants on those sites affected the soils. The results show that the settlement pattern and the most important differences from the other regions we have looked at, for instance, in the várzea (floodplain) area. In...


The Effect of Prehispanic Metallurgy on the Environment of a Tropical Rain Forest in Jicalán, Michoacán, Mexico (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabriela Domínguez-Vázquez. Dulce Maria Bocanegra-Ramírez. Isabel Israde-Alcántara.

This is an abstract from the "Technological Transitions in Prehispanic and Colonial Metallurgy: Recent and Ongoing Research at the Archaeological Site of Jicalán Viejo, in Central Michoacán, West Mexico" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A core of 23 cm was recovered from a lake bed, now a dam, in Jicalán Viejo. The core was sampled for pollen analysis at every centimeter. Pollen analysis describes the presence of a tropical rain forest with tree...


El papel del suelo en la conformación del contexto arqueológico en el área de El Fuerte en la antigua Tlaxcallan (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Iziar Martínez Rojo. Serafín Sánchez Pérez. Lane Fargher.

This is an abstract from the "Tlaxcallan: Mesoamerica's Bizarro World" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Este trabajo de investigación se desarrolló en el actual estado de Tlaxcala en un área denominada "El Fuerte", que formó parte del Estado tlaxcalteca en época prehispánica, y se inserta dentro del "Proyecto Arqueológico del Tlaxcallan. Hogares, Terrazas y Gobernanza en el Posclásico Tardío". El presente trabajo es un acercamiento a la...


El sistema de desagües del Juego de Pelota de Monte Albán (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Miguel Angel Galvan Benitez.

This is an abstract from the "Avances en los estudios de la arquitectura de Monte Albán" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La recolección y almacenamiento de agua pluvial es una de las prácticas más antiguas en Mesoamérica. La investigación arqueológica en diversos sitios ha permitido la identificación y documentación de depósitos subterráneos, depósitos a cielo abierto, almacenamiento en recipientes y más común el sistema de desagües. En Monte Albán...


Entangled Biodiverse Landscapes: Human and Environmental Dynamics in the Mountain Steppes of Armenia (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Cromartie. Sébastien Joannin.

This is an abstract from the "Living Landscapes: Disaster, Memory, and Change in Dynamic Environments " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we investigate the entanglement of agro-pastoral and ecological processes on the creation and maintenance of vegetation biodiversity in the mountain steppe of Armenia, an area that has been a steppe for the entire Holocene (Cromartie et al. 2020). Focusing on the Bronze and Iron Age we discuss how...


Entrance to the cave (2015)
IMAGE Uploaded by: Jonathan Haws

Mouth of the cave.