Geoarchaeology (Other Keyword)
176-200 (845 Records)
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 Occupants of Cyprus: Coastal Arrivals and Inland Explorations (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Seashore Sites and Environments in Geoarchaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Epipalaeolithic (c. 10-20 kya) hunters-gatherers in Southwest Asia experimented with plant and animal management and developed long-ranging, complex networks of exchange and movement, but little remains known of this period in Cyprus. The Ancient Seafaring Explorers of Cyprus Project (ASEC) extends the broader understanding of...
Early peopling of the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert, 18 years later (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Geoarchaeology in First Americans Research, Part 1" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pampa del Tamarugal (PdT), an inland basin in the Atacama Desert’s lowlands, has become a focus for South American early peopling. Two pulses of increased rainfall in the highlands, between 18 and 9.5 ka cal BP, affected the desert’s hyperarid lowlands through runoff and elevated water tables. Excavations have uncovered six...
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...
Engines of transformation; purveyors of wealth. Volcanoes as apus in the Indigenous Andean psyche. (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Celebrating the Contributions of Volcanologists Minard Hall and Patricia Mothes to Ecuadorian Archaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Andes, many large mountains are volcanoes, although Indigenous Andean peoples don't necessarily distinguish 'mere mountains' from those that are seismologically active. The name given to the largest and most significant in a region and accorded the highest veneration is...
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...
Environmental Legacy of Precolumbian Maya Mercury: Using the Present to Understand the Past (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 Mexico and Central American region has a history of mercury use that began at least two millennia before European colonization in the sixteenth century. Archaeologists have reported deposits of cinnabar (HgS) and other mercury materials at Classic period (ca. 250–900 CE) Maya settlements across the region;...
The Ethnogeology of Sedimentation and Land Formation in the Lower Mississippi Delta of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Lower Mississippi Delta is one of the most dynamic geological landscapes in world, experiencing a complex mix of alluvial sedimentation and coastal erosion. Additionally, both historic and prehistoric human populations have been drawn to this region by virtue of the extreme productivity of the estuarine environments created by the interactions between...
Evidence for Forest Clearance and Food Production in Lapita and Post-Lapita Fiji (2018)
Investigations at the site of Qaraqara have sought to determine the antiquity of forest clearance and food production in Fiji. Located over 25 km inland from the coast, archaeological excavation has indicated that the site was used for habitation and cultivation, producing a ceramic-rich deposit that extends to a depth of 250 cm. Geoarchaeological analyses of sediment cores from Qaraqara reached 500 cmbs, and document the formation of stable soils by 3000 BP, during the Lapita period. Plant...
Evolving Hohokam Irrigation Strategies at La Plaza: A Multidisciplinary Approach (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hohokam irrigation canals were first excavated in the lower Salt River Valley in the early Pioneer Period (A.D. 1-700), possibly as early as A.D. 200 at Las Acequias in east Tempe. In the area, substantial expansion occurred in the Sedentary Period (A.D. 900-1150) and continued into the Classic Period (A.D. 1150-1450). During this time, Canal Tempe was a...
Excavation at an Early Upper Paleolithic site of the Tarvagataiin Am, Northern Mongolia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While early modern human dispersals occurred in Northern Eurasia around ~45–40ka ago, a cultural phenomenon often labeled as the Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) is identified in Central and Eastern Europe, but also in West, Central, and Northeast Asia. Despite significant progress in our understanding of the timing and routes of these population movements,...