Sourcing (Other Keyword)

1-24 (24 Records)

Analysis of Culturally Derived Speleothem ny INAA: An Analytic Approach to Sourcing (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Humberto Nation. Leah Minc. Holley Moyes. James Brady.

The occurrence of "foreign" ceramic materials as well as the breakage and transport of speleothems during ancient Maya cave visitations have become an increasingly well-documented phenomenon (Brady et al. 1997). This phenomenon has raised several questions such as the spatial and temporal extent of these interactions, practices, meaning and specifically what does all this tell us about the relationship between Maya polities and proximal or distant caves. Geochemical analysis of geological...


Appendix 3: Obsidian Sourcing and Hydration of Eight Specimens in the Bovine Bluff Site: an Early Puebloan Site In the Upper Moapa Valley (1985)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas M. Origer.

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.


The Applicability of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS): A Case Study of Sourcing Ceramics in the Northern Mimbres Area (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Garrett Leitermann.

The use of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) has been the primary technique for ceramic sourcing studies within archaeology for the last several decades. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is an atomic emission spectroscopy technique that provides archaeologists with a time and cost effective alternative to NAA. LIBS has been used by the author on a large sample of corrugated sherds originating from two Classic Mimbres sites within the Gila National Forest of New Mexico in an attempt to...


Clay Fingerprints: The Elemental Identification of Coarse Earthenwares from the Mid-Atlantic (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Lindsay Bloch.

Working with fragmentary collections, it is often difficult for archaeologists to assess potentially diagnostic vessel forms or surface treatments on utilitarian ceramics. It is therefore a challenge to identify the production origins for many of these wares. Surveying the products from 24 historic earthenware kiln sites in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, this paper considers the reliability of visual attributes such as paste color and inclusions for distinguishing the...


A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Instrumental Techniques at Differentiating Outcrops of Edwards Plateau Chert at the Hyper-Local Scale (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles Speer.

Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) has become a common tool in compositional studies of archaeological materials due to its quick analytical time and ever-increasing capability with new models and technology. Additionally, pXRF is also beginning to see widespread use for sourcing archaeological materials. This study compares pXRF with two other widely accepted analytical techniques, Laser Ablation – Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and Instrument Neutron Activation...


Developing a New Methodology for Sourcing Calcite and Quartz Crystals (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Caius Chickanis. Monica Briseno.

Quarts and calcite crystals are used by shamans throughout Mesoamerica for divination. Ethnographic accounts mention shamans who, lacking actual crystals, use pieces of broken glass. This suggests that crystals may not occur in all areas so that crystals could have been actively traded in Pre-Columbian times. Testing this hypothesis requires developing a methodology for sourcing quarts and calcite crystals using trace elements incorporated into the crystal matrix during growth. So far as we...


Development and Applications of a Minimally Destructive Method of Sourcing Shell via LA-ICP-MS (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Evan Peacock.

Shell artifacts and shell-tempered ceramics can be chemically sourced to point of origin because shellfish are in approximate chemical equilibrium with the waterways they inhabit. Analyzing artifacts or shell temper via Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry is attractive due to the minimally destructive nature of the method. A pilot study in Mississippi funded by the NCPTT verified the potential of the method for sourcing shell-tempered pottery. Subsequent work includes the...


Dismal River ceramic sherd data (2015)
DATASET Sarah Trabert.

These are the results from an analysis of ceramics from 43 Dismal River sites. A full description of the sites and the results can be found in the Trabert 2015 document.


Dismal River ceramic sherd INAA data (2015)
DATASET Sarah Trabert.

A sample of ceramics from 25CH1 and 14SC1 were submitted for INAA. This file contains the results. These data are also on file with the Missouri Research Reactor.


Elemental Analysis of Late Archaic Copper from the McQueen Shell Ring, St. Catherines Island, Georgia (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Hill. Gregory Lattanzi. Matthew Sanger. Matthew Napolitano. Laure Dussubieux.

Excavations conducted at the McQueen Shell Ring site on St Catherines Island off the coast of Georgia recovered several fragments of a copper artifact. These fragments represent an artifact made from a thin sheet of copper, and were recovered from a Late Archaic feature with calibrated radiocarbon dates placing its use between 2300 and 1800 BC. Seven of these fragments were analyzed at the Elemental Analysis Facility of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History to determine elemental...


Erb Tanks Master Lithic Database (2015)
DATASET Theodore Marks.

This database stores provenience and metric data for lithic artifacts excavated from 2009-2012 at Erb Tanks Rockshelter, a Middle and Later Stone Age site from the Central Namib Desert, Namibia. In addition, trace element data derived from pXRF analysis of lithic artifacts as well as several lithic raw material sources are included in the database. Coordinates for lithic raw material sources are provided in decimal degree format. Coordinates for Erb Tanks Rockshelter are redacted for the site's...


It’s What’s on the Inside That Counts: New Approaches to Sourcing Mayan Chert Artifacts from Belize (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Alana Pengilley. Fred Valdez Jr..

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The distribution of prehistoric artifacts across spatial and temporal realms is frequently used to investigate trade, exchange, mobility, and socioeconomic relationships in the past. In the Maya region, chert was a key component in ancient toolkits due to its widespread availability and suitability for knapping into tools. Previous studies in the Maya...


A novel method to accurately source obsidian and basalt artifacts (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Bruce Kaiser. Jennifer DeGraffenried. Nathan Nelson.

Development of a Unique Sourcing and Artifact Analysis Technique and Database for Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, USA. Using the Tracer III SD xrf laboratory system as a key component, a very precise and detailed methodology was developed for the elemental measurement, material type identification, and geological source location of artifacts found on Dugway Proving Grounds.Following 8 steps led to a very precise and accurate elemental analysis of the Dugway basalt and obsidian artifacts and...


Plural Communities on the Plains: Dismal River People and the Puebloan Diaspora
PROJECT Uploaded by: Sarah Trabert

European colonization of North America profoundly impacted the lives of Native Americans. One method by which some Puebloan people, living in New Mexico, chose to escape Spanish colonial control was to leave their homeland and settle with other Native Americans living outside the borders of colonialism. One small group of Puebloan migrants traveled as far as western Kansas, joined a community of people already living there, and built a pueblo. This research focuses on how the lives of that...


Plural Communities on the Plains: Dismal River People and the Puebloan Diaspora (2015)
DOCUMENT Full-Text Sarah Trabert.

This study considers how significant multi-regional processes, such as Spanish colonization of the U.S. Southwest and the later Puebloan diaspora, affected the lives of Native peoples living on the Central Great Plains. Social and economic connections existed between Puebloan people and several Great Plains groups, including those known to archaeologists as the Dismal River Aspect (AD 1600-1750). One significant Dismal River site in western Kansas, the Scott County Pueblo (14SC1), includes the...


Prehistoric Long - Distance Interaction in Oceania: An Interdisciplinary Approach (1997)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Marshall I. Weisler.

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.


Preliminary Obsidian Analysis for the Site of Holtun, Petén, Guatemala 2011-2015 (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Dawn Crawford. Brigitte Kovacevich.

Holtun is a medium-sized civic-ceremonial center located in the Maya lowlands in the central lakes region of Petén, Guatemala that was occupied from the Preclassic (~600BC) through the beginning of the Postclassic (AD1000). During the 2011, 2014, and 2015 field seasons of the Holtun Archaeological Project approximately 147 pieces of obsidian were recovered from a mixture of contexts including fill, plaza, ceremonial, and household. Analyses of obsidian artifacts included typological analysis,...


Provenance Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from 76 Draw, New Mexico (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Shilo Bender. Lauren Trimble. Todd VanPool. Christine VanPool.

During the 13th and 14th Centuries, southern New Mexico was a borderland where the Medio period Casas Grandes, Salado, and El Paso phase cultures intersected. The complex cultural setting is illustrated by contemporaneous settlements associated with the various cultures in close proximity of each other. Recent research at 76 Draw, a large Medio period settlement near Demin, New Mexico, focused on understanding the nature and degree of interaction among the various cultures. We hope to contribute...


Recent Research on Megalithic Stele sites of the Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Duff. Ashenafi Zena. Addisalem Melesse. John Wolff.

This presentation discusses a new research effort to identify, document, date and better understand the numerous megalithic stele sites of the Gedeo Zone in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Regional State (SNNPRS) of southern Ethiopia. The Gedeo Zone is home to numerous stele, features that occur as isolates, in small groups, and as localities with numerous stele. Stele range from 1 meter to over 5 meters in length, and though some remain standing, most have collapsed. Stele are...


Sources and Sourcing of Volcanic Glass in Hawai`i: Implications for Exchange Studies (1990)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Marshall Weisler.

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.


Sourcing Interactions: X-Ray Diffraction of Central Plains Tradition Ceramics during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Zachary Day. LuAnn Wandsnider. Matthew Douglass.

Recent research by Roper (1995 and 2007) questions the long-held perspective that the various phases of the Central Plains tradition (CPt) consisted of small village dwelling populations with distinct borders. New evidence suggests a more fluid distribution of autonomous farmsteads following major stream systems throughout the Central Plains (USA). This debate has led to various questions surrounding the interaction amongst communities and individuals in the CPt populations with an emphasis on...


Sourcing Lithic Raw Materials in the Namib Desert: Exploring land use and technological organization (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Theodore Marks. Grant McCall. James Enloe. Andrew Schroll. James McGrath.

Under a technological organization perspective, archaeologists seek to understand how prehistoric societies organized their activities across landscapes and how variation at individual sites articulates with changes in large scale land use systems. Lithic sourcing offers a powerful tool for testing hypotheses about technological organization and land use, but its application across the globe has, until recently, been hindered by expense and methodological difficulties. In this paper, we use pXRF...


Sourcing the Black "Marble" Knight’s Tombstone at Jamestown, Virginia, USA (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcus M. Key. Jr..

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Opening the Vault: What Collections Can Say About Jamestown’s Global Trade Network", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The goal of this project was to determine the source of Jamestown’s Knight’s tombstone. From 1627, it is the oldest such tombstone in the Chesapeake Bay, USA region. We chose a geoarchaeological approach using the fossils contained in the stone to determine its source. We sampled two archived...


The Use of a Bench-top SEM in Ceramic Characterization in Oceania (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Sheppard.

Thanks to the efforts of Bill Dickinson petrographic analysis of ceramic thin sections has been able to make an almost unparalleled contribution to sourcing studies in Oceania. In this paper I will report on use of one of the new generation desktop SEMs which will help us continue and build on Bill’s work. Examples will be drawn from studies of Lapita period ceramic assemblages in the Solomon Islands. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and...