Geoarchaeology (Other Keyword)
351-375 (619 Records)
This is an abstract from the "McDonald Creek and Blair Lakes: Late Pleistocene-Holocene Human Activity in the Tanana Flats of Central Alaska" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite the fact that archaeologists have long turned to the Alaskan archaeological record to answer questions about the first Americans, little is certain about the peopling of Beringia. The poor preservation of faunal remains in many central Alaskan archaeological sites has...
Micromorphological Approaches to Daily Life and Cultural Interaction at Uronarti Fortress, Sudan (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Geoarchaeology Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since 2012, the Uronarti Regional Archaeological Project has investigated cultural interactions and daily life along the Egypt-Kush border in the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2050–1650 BCE). In January 2019, eight micromorphological samples were collected from intact floor sequences and mudbrick walls from within the island fortress on Uronarti. These samples span the two...
Micromorphological Investigations of Site Formation History between Layers XVII and XVIII at Middle Paleolithic Rockshelter Crvena Stijena, Montenegro (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Late Middle Paleolithic in the Western Balkans: Results from Recent Excavations at Crvena Stijena, Montenegro" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rockshelters are subject to many geological processes driven by natural and human agents alike. The sedimentary context that surrounds artifactual data is a vital resource to the scientific exploration of human behavior in the Middle Paleolithic. To connect assemblages and...
Micromorphological Studies from the Clear Lake Basin California (2015)
Geoarchaeology has a wide range of applications for the understanding of the past. Within geoarchaeology, since the 1980s, micromorphological analysis has become a more common worldwide research tool for the study of soils from archaeological sites because it can play an important role in understanding site formation through the research of human waste, occupation debris, fuel residues and animal waste. It can serve as an aid in the reconstruction of human occupation, help identify economic...
Micromorphology and isotopic geochemistry of the Yangguanzhai moat deposit (2017)
Geoarchaeological research conducted at the Yangguanzhai Site was tasked with identifying the composition and formation processes associated with one of the most striking features of the site, the Yangguanzhai "moat." Originally, it was hypothesized that this moat was filled with thick packages of ash related to the manufacturing of pottery at the site. Therefore, micromorphology and isotopic geochemistry were employed to further examine moat sediments. Samples collected from the moat have δ13C...
Micromorphology of Middle to Later Stone Age sites at Mwanganda's Village, northern Malawi (2015)
The Mwanganda's Village site, northern Malawi, was first excavated in 1965-1966 under the direction of J. D. Clark, who reported the recovery of early Middle Stone Age (MSA) stone tools in possible association with the remains of an elephant. New work in 2009-2012 revealed that the elephant and the artifacts were not likely to have been behaviorally associated. The site lies within a series of river terraces dating from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. Near the top of the sequence an in...
Microscale Geoarchaeology in a Historic Context: Soil Micromorphology Analysis with the Fort Davis Archaeological Project (2015)
Microscale geoarchaeology, specifically soil micromorphology, has incredible potential for enriching archaeological understandings of the materiality of past experience through detailed information on the events, actions, and processes which create archaeological sites. Soil micromorphological analysis can parallel the strict time scales available through historic documentation with material evidence of specific human, non-human, and natural events. This paper shows how micromorphological...
Microstratigraphic and Geochemical Contributions to the Study of the Burial Practices and Taphonomy of the Mycenaean Shaft Grave of the ‘Griffin Warrior’, Pylos, Greece (2018)
Results of a microstratigraphic and geochemical approach are presented here in reference to study of the Mycenaean ‘Griffin Warrior’ shaft grave at ancient Pylos. Soil and sediment micromorphology are used to address questions concerning the preparation of the tomb, the mode of corpse deposition, and taphonomy of the burial. Processes and activities such as the preparation and configuration of the floor and other earthen constructions inside the tomb are considered, as well as the rapidity of...
A microstratigrapic perspective on early civic and ritual architecture: a case from the Kala Uyuni site, Bolivia (2015)
This paper brings a microstratigraphic perspective to debates about the origins of sociopolitical complexity though a study of floors from nondomestic structures. Such civic and ceremonial buildings are central to models of community formation and leadership development. In the Bolivian Middle Formative Period I (800-200 BCE) communities became aggregated and expanded the range of civic architecture as populations rose. Demonstrating these trends, the Kala Uyuni site expanded and developed two...
Middle Archaic Period Settlement Patterns and Subsistence Strategies in the lower Salt River Valley of Arizona (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaic period sites are rare in the lower Salt River Valley of south-central Arizona. Logan Simpson Design recently identified two middle Archaic period sites on the Holocene floodplain of the Salt River. Evidence suggests that the two sites were short-term riparian resource procurement and processing locales that were protected from flooding (and...
Migration, Population Change, and Climate at Cahokia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Migration and Climate Change: The Spread of Mississippian Culture" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we explore sociopolitical, economic, and climatological aspects of the population history of Cahokia and compare these with the timing of the appearance of Cahokia materials at hinterland sites to better understand some of the factors that may have contributed to the migration of people out of the American...
"Milk sweet and sower, bread in cakes": United and Divided Foodways in Post-Medieval Northern Ireland (2018)
Post-Medieval ethnic identities in the British Isles display similarities and differences. Across the landscape of Northern Ireland, where indigenous people were subject to English, Scottish, and Welsh colonization, a sharing of material culture is evident across all groups. For example, English fine earthenwares, locally produced coarse earthenwares and locally made tobacco pipes are equally distributed, regardless of property owners’ ethnicity. This suggests that a culturally blended...
Minimally-Invasive Geoarchaeological Investigation of a Sub-marsh and Intertidal Precontact Site in New Hampshire (2018)
Many precontact archaeological sites in New England exhibit poor preservation of organic materials but they occupy relatively stable upland landforms. Conversely, intertidal and submerged sites often contain exceptional organic preservation but exist in or near high-energy and erosive environments. This paper describes minimally-invasive geoarchaeological investigations of an Archaic to Terminal Archaic site in New Hampshire that is buried by salt marsh peat, exposed at a rapidly-eroding...
Mitigation Report of Three Archaeological Sites, NM-06-942, NM-06-2833, and Nmas 5475, Eddy County, New Mexico (1984)
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.
Mixing and Moving Earth: The Geoarchaeology of a Newly Rediscovered Middle Woodland Earthen Enclosure in Central Kentucky (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Earthwalker Circle is a small Middle Woodland era (ca. 200 BCE–CE 500) ceremonial ditch and embankment enclosure located on privately-owned land at the border of Kentucky’s Bluegrass and Knobs physiographic regions. This enclosure was recently rediscovered as part of a regional assessment of LiDAR-derived visualizations and drought-based aerial...
Modeling Channel Morphology at the Clovis-Type Site, Blackwater Draw, New Mexico (2017)
Blackwater Locality No. 1 (the Clovis-type site) served as a catchment for spring-fed streams during the late Last Glacial Maximum (~19,150-12,900 cal yr BP), providing a water source for the Paleoindian occupants of the Southern High Plains. During episodes of high effective moisture, water flowed out of the basin via an outlet channel into Blackwater Draw proper. Coinciding with the changing climate of the early Younger Dryas (~12,900-11,500 cal yr BP), the flowing waters of the outlet channel...
Modeling Landscape Evolution Across the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition at Blackwater Locality No. 1 (2016)
Blackwater Locality No. 1 (the Clovis-type site) served as a catchment for spring-fed streams during the late Last Glacial Maximum, providing a water source for the Paleoindian occupants of the Southern High Plains. During episodes of high effective moisture, water flowed out of the basin via an outlet channel into Blackwater Draw proper. Coinciding with the changing climate of the early Younger Dryas, the flowing waters of the outlet channel were obstructed, impounding the waters of a shallow...
Molecular and Compound-Specific Stable Isotope Analysis of FAMEs on Charred Plant Tissues: A Comparative Approach of Experimental and Archaeological Evidence (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Charred Organic Matter in the Archaeological Sedimentary Record" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. GC-C-IRMS analysis of FAMEs has been used successfully to distinguish among different animal fat groups. However, plant oils from different tissues (with the exception of seeds) have not been widely investigated even though organic residues from leaf, root, and wood tissues are preserved at archaeological sites (e.g....
Monte Castelo Shellmound and Early Ceramic Technologies in Amazon: A Perspective on Long-Term Landscape Management and the Origins of Pottery in the Americas (2018)
Recent research has confirmed that the some of the oldest ceramics of the Americas are associated with Amazonian shellmounds. Excavations at Monte Castelo site produced a representative assemblage of these early technologies, and has also demonstrated a long history of ceramic production and use, with significant changes during the Middle Holocene that accompany the intensification of landscape management and the emergence of several other cultural innovations in that period. In this...
Monte Verde, South-Central Chile: Stratigraphy, Climate Change, and Human Settlement (1988)
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.
Monumental Construction at Cahokia, a geoarchaeological perspective (2016)
Monumental Construction at Cahokia, a geoarchaeological perspective Amber Laubach and Sarah E. Baires Examining Pre-Columbian earthen mounds from both a macro and micro-scale lens can reveal geotechnical knowledge of construction as well as the cultural significance of this pervasive past practice in the Eastern Woodlands. Micromorphology soil samples provide a rich volume of data to examine fine-grained construction fill composition, pedogenic activity and the relative rate of monumental...
Monumentality and Cultural Resilience in Coastal Louisiana (2016)
Resilience is the ability of complex systems to adapt to change in the wake of disturbance. Here, we describe the relationship of natural deltaic land evolution and anthropogenic monument construction using a case study of Ellesly Mound, an earthen monument located in the Lafourche subdelta of the Mississippi Delta. Borehole and LIDAR data show that Ellesly mound is situated above naturally deposited crevasse sediments underlain by organic-rich facies indicating a relatively low-lying vegetated...
Monumentality and Social Complexity in the Ecuadorian Upper Amazon: Mound Builders in the Upano Valley, Ecuador (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Upper amazon frequently was conceived as a transitional area where social development was limited for the scarce resources and the harsh environmental conditions. In the last decades studies in the ceja de selva, pie de monte and the upper amazon reveal that this region hosted an intense cultural development. Wide discussions in the academic forums...
Mound-building, Site Structure, and Land Use Patterns in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (2017)
Mound sites are a notable characteristic of mid- to late-Holocene occupation throughout the Central California. Most recent archaeological research on the region’s mounds has focused on the their dense clustering along the San Francisco Bay margins; in contrast, much less attention has been focused on the mounds of the adjacent Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Although often grouped together, few systematic studies have been undertaken to evaluate differing site patterning, the structure of...
Multi-Millennial Fire Histories from Sedimentary Archives: Human and Climate Impacts (2015)
Sedimentary archives offer the opportunity to build millennial length fire history reconstructions with which to evaluate hypotheses of anthropogenic and climatic impacts on fire prone forests. Particularly when calibrated with centennial length fire history records from tree-rings, sedimentary paleofire proxies can be used to build spatially explicit records of fire regime changes. As part of the Jemez Fire & Humans in Resilient Ecosystems Project, this paper presents the results of multiple,...