Geoarchaeology (Other Keyword)
151-175 (715 Records)
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)
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)
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...
Domestic Life at Río Viejo, Oaxaca (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent fieldwork has investigated the Late Classic and Postclassic occupation at the floodplain site of Río Viejo in Oaxaca, Mexico. The residential features uncovered detailed domestic life in the settlement after political decentralization. Though causal factors for the Late Classic political decline at Río Viejo are yet to be confirmed, archaeological...
"Down to Earth": The Primacy of the Terrestrial (2023)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Mouth of the cave.
Environmental and Socio-Environmental Dynamics in the Subtropical Maya Lowlands: Hydrosystems and Agrosystems of the Wetlands (bajos) around Naachtun (2016)
The eco-socio-system of the wetlands (bajos) situated around the city of Naachtun is studied in relation with the water and soil resources (availability, use, management), between environment, climate and societies. The objectives are to characterize the evolution of the hydrosystems and agrosystems during the last 3 millennia and particularly during the Classic Period. The approach is systemic and multi-scalar, based on interdisciplinary works with geoarchaeological, geomorphological,...
Environmental Conditions of Northwestern Zimbabwe during the Transition from Foraging to Farming: Using Isotopes, Sediments, and Soils to Reconstruct Late Holocene Climate Change in Hwange National Park (2015)
Hunting-and-gathering in northwestern Zimbabwe was largely replaced by pastoralism and farming between ca. 2,000 and 1,200 years ago. In order to understand whether climate change influenced this transition, we collected environmental and archaeological data during a multi-year research program that included: rockshelter excavation, salvage excavation along eroding stream cuts, and geomorphological and soils analyses of various locales in Hwange National Park. The strontium, carbon, and oxygen...
The Environmental Conquest of West Mexico: The Lake Pátzcuaro and Malpaso Valley Case Studies (2017)
Though the next century will bring great environmental challenges the impact of global warming pales in comparison to the dramatic environmental changes associated with European Colonialism, beginning in the late 15th century. Chief among them is the Conquest of the Americas involving the breakdown of millennial-aged systems of land engineering and tenure, compounded by depopulation, and the introduction of the Euro-agro suite. Throughout Central Mexico the initial century of Conquest...
The environmental context of the Middle Pleistocene occupation at the Shishan Marsh, Azraq, Jordan (2017)
The Greater Azraq Oasis Area occupies a hyper-arid area of the Syro-Arabian Desert. Geomorphological and paleoecological evidence suggests that at times during the Pleistocene the region experienced moister conditions than at present. This particular study centers on the environment surrounding the Middle Pleistocene hominin occupation dated approximately 250,000 BP. Archaeological and archaeozoological remains from this occupation have provided significant information about the wide range of...
Environmental Effects of Cyclical Reservoir Drawdown on Archaeological Resources: A Preliminary Case Study from Fall Creek Reservoir, Lane County, Oregon (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Willamette Valley Project of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) manages 13 reservoirs in northwestern Oregon. The USACE’s flood control mission requires annual water level drawdowns that expose the reservoir bed to cycles of lacustrine deposition, wave-action, and alluvial and colluvial erosion. Previous assessments of the impacts of...