Geoarchaeology (Other Keyword)
201-225 (715 Records)
While directly-dated sites are somewhat rare, northern Florida contains an extremely rich archaeological record of diagnostic artifacts from the Paleoindian and Early Archaic periods. Very commonly, Early Archaic diagnostics are discovered at the same sites as Paleoindian diagnostics. The Paleoindian components are presumed to be Pleistocene in age, while the Early Archaic is generally but not universally associated with early Holocene ages. Recent research we have been conducting in...
Fluid Stone: Geological Materials in Process (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Problem of the Monument: Widening Perspectives on Monumentality in the Archaeology of the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geological materials that constitute features in archaeological sites in Central America range from unfired clay and unmodified cobbles, to cut stone, and plasters produced by heating limestone. What these materials have in common is that from an archaeological...
Fluorescence Applied to Modern Carnivore Excrements. A Reference Collection for Archaeological Deposits (2018)
Traditionally, coprolite identification in archaeology has been limited to hyenids, the most well-preserved and recognizable fossilized faeces, although non-hyena carnivore coprolites are also present in some Pleistocene deposits displaying a wide range of morphological variation (e.g., elongate, spherical, globular, sub-cylindrical, oval, tubular). Common micromorphological characteristics of these different excrements are the appearance of an amorphous phosphatic, optically isotropic and, a...
The Follo Railroad Environmental Monitoring Project in Medieval Oslo, Norway (2018)
In conjunction with a large urban infrastructure project, renewing the Norwegian railroad through the listed monument of the Medieval town of Oslo, an environmental monitoring programme was established. The Medieval town consists of extensive archaeological remains preserved in situ. The monitoring programme focusses on the following questions: What is the influence of building an encased railroad next to a medieval monument? How are the unsaturated conditions influenced next to the new...
Food from the Barranca: A 13,000-Year Perspective from the Yuzanú Drainage of the Mixteca Alta (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Oaxacan Cuisine" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Barrancas are marginal spaces in the cultural ecology and cultural perceptions of modern-day inhabitants and visitors of the Mixteca Alta. They tend to be little-contested commons where the poor graze their animals, hunt, gather fuelwood and occasional culinary curiosities. They rarely figure in the villagers' get-rich schemes or outsiders' research...
Formation and Context of Sitio Chivacabe, Western Highland Guatemala (2018)
Located in the Highlands of western Guatemala, Chivacabe is a Pleistocene-age bone bed and Archaic-age archaeological site. In 2009 the site was subjected to intensive geoarchaeological investigation with the goals of identifying the relationship between the faunal and archaeological remains through developing an understanding of their context. Three allostratigraphic units were identified: The oldest unit, which contains the bone bed, consists of colluvially reworked tephra bracketed by...
Formation Processes of Late Pleistocene Archaeological Sites in the Atacama Desert (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Middens to Museums: Papers in Honor of Julie K. Stein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We investigated site formation and modification of surficial and shallow Paleoindian sites (ca. 13-11 cal. ka) located in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert. Sites occur primarily on inactive Pleistocene to Pliocene alluvial terraces, in and beneath desert pavements, a sparsely studied context for archaeological sites. Our...
Four Thousand Years of Disaster, Vulnerability, and Resilience in the Lower Yellow River, China (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Equity in the Archaeology of Disaster, Past, Present, and Future" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For the past 4,000 years, humans have assaulted the environments of the lower Yellow River Valley. For millennia this region has been an entirely cultivated and (mis)managed anthropogenic landscape. Indeed, the lower Yellow River is called the “river of sorrow” and flows through a land of famine. At the same time, though,...
From Kebara to KwaZulu-Natal: Integrating Micromorphology and Mineralogical Analyses in the Study of Diagenesis in Combustion Features (2015)
Since the 1990’s, Paul Goldberg’s micromorphological analyses at Kebara and Hayonim Caves (Israel) as well as his collaborative efforts to understand chemical diagenesis in caves have served as benchmarks for the high-resolution study of Paleolithic combustion features. This paper highlights the results of micromorphology, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy and microscopic x-ray diffraction measurements, which were employed together order to understand different diagenetic...
From Microstratigraphy to Ritual Behavior: the study of Earthen Monuments in Eastern North America. (2015)
Traditionally the study of prehistoric earthen monuments has focused on their staged surfaces and the buildings and artifacts recovered there. Mound construction was simplified to volume, and the type of labor and oversight necessary to move basket loads of dirt. With rigorous attention to stratigraphy, there is a new interest and awareness of these earthen monuments as complex constructions. Selection, preparation, placement and maintenance of earthen materials allowed the establishment of...
From Pozuelo to Paracas: An Approach to the Processes of Formation and Social Complexity in Early Societies in the Chincha Valley (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Thinking Big in the Andes: Papers in Honor of Charles Stanish" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paracas, believed to be the oldest complex society on the southern coast of Peru, occupied the Chincha Valley during part of the Formative Period (400–200 BCE). Although there is evidence of the Paracas occupation throughout the Chincha Valley, little is known about the formation of Paracas within the valley. Relatively...
From the Ashes: Volcanic Construction Materials in Pre-Columbian Ecuador (2018)
In many ways, volcanic eruptions define the pre-Columbian history of highland Ecuador: the shaping of the landscape, migration patterns, mythology, and ideology. Ecuador is one of the most volcanically active countries on earth, and it’s impossible to examine the archaeology without considering both the direct and indirect impacts of volcanic eruptions. Through millennia, the imposing presence of the volcanos on the northern Ecuadorian landscape inspired fear and veneration, with the...
From the Worm to the World: A Legacy of Julie Stein (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Middens to Museums: Papers in Honor of Julie K. Stein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the scholarly contributions of Julie Stein, her key paper on the impact of worms on archaeological sites is among several that have been foundational to not just geoarchaeology but to those of us dealing with the bioturbation of archaeological sites. In this, she is a direct descendant of Charles Darwin. From this, and...
From Tlacolol to Metepantle: A Reappraisal of the Antiquity of the Agricultural Niches of the Central Mexican Symbiotic Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the benefit of a culture-ecological mindset and thousands of man-hours spent in the then still extensive countryside of the Basin of Mexico, The Book devoted many pages to the discussion of traditional farming techniques, potential maize yields, and abandoned agricultural...
From Wetlands to Deserts: The Role of Water in the Prehistoric Occupation of Eastern Jordan (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Water in the Desert: Human Resilience in the Azraq Basin and Eastern Desert of Jordan" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Azraq Basin of Jordan, dramatic landscape changes from wetlands to desert resulted in shifts in settlement and land use over time suggesting that, like today, water availability was crucial for past populations. Changing environmental conditions throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene had...
A Functional Approach to Classic Maya Regal Palaces: Case Studies from La Corona and Cancuen (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Regimes of the Ancient Maya" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Regal palaces, found in the epicenter of great many polities, were a defining element for most Classic Maya political regimes. While they varied in size and shape, all regal palaces seem to have anchored two essential dimensions of Classic Maya politics: the household of royal families and the administrative-ceremonial cores of regimes. In this paper, we take...
Geoarchaeological Analysis and Landform Characterization of the Melrose Air Force Range, New Mexico (Draft) (1997)
The application of a geoarchaeological perspective in conjunction with known culture history, archaeological survey, remote sensed data, and a geographic information system has produced a workable model for predicting the likelihood of encountering archaeological sites, and the degree of site visibility, on the Melrose Air Force Range, New Mexico. The results of this project, though no substitute for on-the-ground archaeological survey, provides the managers of Melrose Air Force Range a means...
A Geoarchaeological Analysis of the Site Formation Processes at Brown Hole and WR-1. (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. WR-1 and Brown Hole are two submerged archaeological sites in the West Run of the Aucilla River. This thesis utilizes a geoarchaeological approach to evaluate the depositional sequences of these sites as well as their potential for further archaeological investigation. The sedimentary histories of the sites represent adjacent depositional facies within a...
Geoarchaeological and Historical Research on theRedistribution of Beeswax Galleon Wreck Debris by the Cascadia Earthquake and Tsunami (!A.D. 1700), Oregon, USA (2013)
Geoarchaeological and historical research indicate the wreck of a Manila galleon in northwest Oregon (USA) occurred prior to the last Cascadia earthquake tsunami and coastal subsidence at A.D. 1700, which redistributed and buried wreck artifacts on the Nehalem Bay spit. research has focused on site formation processes associated with the tsunami impacts. Wreck debris was initially scattered along the spit ocean beaches, then washed over the spit by nearfield tsunami (6–8 m elevation), and...
Geoarchaeological Approach to Resolving the Origins of Bison Bone Beds at Bonfire Shelter, 41VV218, Val Verde County, Texas (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Big Bend Complex: Landscapes of History" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bonfire Shelter is a large prehistoric rockshelter site situated at the northern end of Mile Canyon in southwest Texas. Early investigators determined the site to be the location of multiple bison jump events; however, subsequent investigations have disputed this interpretation. My research focuses on answering the questions of whether the...
Geoarchaeological Approach to Resolving the Origins of Bison Bone Beds at Bonfire Shelter, 41VV218, Val Verde County, Texas (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bonfire Shelter is a large prehistoric rockshelter site situated at the northern end of Mile Canyon in southwest Texas. Early investigators determined the site to be the location of multiple bison jump events; however subsequent investigations have disputed this interpretation. My research focuses on...
A Geoarchaeological Approach to Site Formation and Structures of Inter-zonal Paleoindian Sites in Southern Peru (2018)
A key question in the settlement of the Americas is how early forager groups adapted to different ecological settings while maintaining social connections. Quebrada Jaguay (QJ-280) on the Pacific Coast and Cuncaicha Rockshelter in the Andean highlands of southern Peru, exhibit very different subsistence adaptations, yet these sites were linked within a common settlement system in the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Here, we present the results of multidisciplinary geoarchaeological...
A geoarchaeological approach to the interpretation of incomplete spatial data (2015)
As in all archaeology, geoarchaeologists sample discrete loci and use those data to make generalizations about broad areas. When interpolating and extrapolating from known data points, errors may be introduced which can bias interpretation. Here, examples from CRM illustrate some of the challenges of analyzing discontinuous or otherwise incomplete spatial data. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity...
Geoarchaeological Assessment of Agricultural Quality in an Eolian Landscape (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Research in Petrified Forest National Park" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The region of Petrified Forest National Park on the southern Colorado Plateau is often considered to be a marginal area during prehistoric occupation. This is due to the expected low potential for agriculture, and the location in between major cultural centers. This study uses geoarchaeology to engage the question of whether this...
Geoarchaeological Context of Holocene Subsidence at the Ferry Berth Lapita Site, Mulifanua, Upolu, Samoa (1998)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.