Zooarchaeology (Other Keyword)
26-50 (1,581 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Mogollon, Mimbres, and Salado Archaeology in Southwest New Mexico and Beyond" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The purpose of this poster is to examine the shell assemblages found at the Dinwiddie, Gila River Farm, and 3-Up sites that were excavated by previous Archaeology Southwest field schools. The poster will focus on shell trade and exchange to determine if there are differences in shell trade between the three...
Analysis of Sorting Errors of Animal Remains from Shell Middens: Lessons Learned from the Čḯxwicən Project (2018)
Zooarchaeologists routinely analyze assemblages that were initially sorted into major animal type (birds, mammals, fish, invertebrates) by students or lab technicians with little experience in zooarchaeology. Sorting errors are likely made, which affect taxonomic representation and understanding of human-animal relationships. Recent study of the immense faunal assemblage (over 500,000 NSP) from Čḯxwicən, a 2800-year-old Lower Elwha Klallam village located on the coast of Washington (USA), allows...
Analysis of Sturgeon Fishing Encampments from Block Island, Rhode Island (2018)
Several archaeological deposits along the shores of Block Island, RI were exposed by the destructive wave action of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Once exposed, these deposits were threatened by continual coastal erosion and excavated by the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center as part of the 2013 Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Grant (P13AF00176); several of the excavated sites contained significant faunal assemblages. Faunal analyses of these sites included relative abundance and Number of...
Analysis of the Faunal Distribution at the Weed Lake Ditch site (35HA341), Southeastern Oregon (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Weed Lake Ditch is an open-air site located on the relict shores of Pluvial Lake Malheur in the Harney Basin of southeastern Oregon. Excavations by the University of Nevada, Reno and the Center for the Study of the First Americans (CSFA) have revealed multiple stemmed points and crescent lithic technology in buried contexts. Faunal remains from the site are...
Analysis of the Faunal Remains at the Arch Street Cemetery Site (2018)
Prior to moving the burials within the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia cemetery to a new location in 1860, a local newspaper of the time documented that the neighboring tenement houses used the open space as a dumping ground. Artifacts recovered from this deposit include pottery sherds, pieces of glass bottles, leather shoe soles, metal objects, and the remains of shellfish and domesticated animals. Many of the animal bones show signs of butchery, indicating that the remains are from food...
Analysis of the Faunal Remains from Holtun, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Holtun: Investigations at a Preclassic Maya Center" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Holtun is a civic-ceremonial center located in the Petén region of Guatemala, occupied from the Late Middle Preclassic to the Terminal Classic period (600 BCE–900 CE). Excavations conducted between 2010 and 2017 have resulted in a mid-size vertebrate faunal assemblage and a large archaeomalacological assemblage, including...
Analysis of the Faunal Remains of the Fatherland Site. In: the Fatherland Site: the Grand Village of the Natchez (1965)
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Analyzing the Relationship between Peri-abandonment Deposits and the Eastern Shrine of Xunantunich, Group B (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Peri-abandonment deposits in the Maya region have been a source of contention in recent years given the varied artifact assemblages and the lack of clear understanding for their purpose. This research describes peri-abandonment deposits at Xunantunich, Group B, an elite residential plazuela group located approximately 150 meters from the site core. Excavations...
Ancestral Pueblo Fishing Associated with Mixed Foraging Goals and Environmental Stability in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Stability and Resilience in Zooarchaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It is a common misconception that fishes were unimportant in the diet of past Pueblo people in the US Southwest. Yet, small numbers of fish remains are consistently recovered from late prehispanic/early historic (ca AD 1300–1600) archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande of New Mexico. The end of drought conditions may have impacted food...
Ancestral Pueblo Turkey Management on the Pajarito Plateau (C.E. 1150-1600) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Domestication, Husbandry and Management in North America and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we use bone apatite and collagen stable isotope analysis to examine long-term Ancestral Pueblo turkey management strategies on the Pajarito Plateau in the northern Rio Grande of New Mexico. Since previous preliminary research within this region identified...
Ancient DNA Analyses of Mongolian Aurochs Shows Connections to Ancient East Asian Cattle (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Biomolecular Approaches to Human-Animal Interactions Past and Present" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Taurine cattle were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent and introduced to East Asia over 5000 years ago. Wild aurochs, the ancestor of domesticated cattle, were also present in East Asia during the introduction of domesticated cattle. It has been suggested that East Asian aurochs show some...
Ancient DNA Analysis of Fish Remains from Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf-39), British Columbia, Canada (2017)
Excavations of Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf-39) in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, have recovered well-preserved faunal remains from stratified deposits that span the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. These remains represent a variety of taxa, including amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles. A previous morphological analysis of the fish remains from the site (n=1,235) identified the majority of the fish remains as sucker (Catostomus sp.) (n=669). Due to bone fragmentation and other...
Ancient DNA, Zooarchaeology, and the Case for Whale Hunting on the Northern Oregon Coast (2015)
Pre-contact whaling on the northern Oregon coast is an issue that has received limited attention from archaeologists. The discovery of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) phalanx with an embedded elk (Cervus elaphus) bone point from the Par-Tee Site (35CLT20) in Seaside, OR precipitated a discussion of ethnographic and archaeological evidence for whaling in the area. Previous genetic and archaeological research suggested that opportunistic whaling may have occurred in this region. We...
Ancient Dogs of the Tennessee River Valley (2017)
Skeletal remains of domestic dogs, particularly dog burials, are common from prehistoric archaeological sites in the Southeastern United States. Efforts to describe these ancient canines have traditionally focused on body size and cranial morphology, however, more recently paleopathology has played a key role in understanding ancient canine lifeways and the interactions between humans and domestic dogs. Mortuary analysis can also bolster interpretations of life histories and dogs’ roles within...
Ancient Human-Animal Interactions in Chachapoyas Region: Isotopic Analysis of Zooarchaeological Remains from Kuelap, Peru (2018)
This study uses isotopic analysis of fauna remains as a proxy for reconstructing the ancient Chachapoya environment of the northeastern highlands in Peru. Large middens have been excavated at the monumental center of Kuelap (900-1535 CE), yet there is little previous research focused on the fauna remains at this or other archaeological contexts in the region. The goal of this project was to reconstruct animal resource exploitation and provide insight into dietary variation and environment at...
Ancient Maya Animal Use at El Mirador: Subsistence, ceremony, exchange and environmental resiliency (2017)
El Mirador (Peten, Guatemala) is among the largest Preclassic settlements in the Maya lowlands. The site has attracted attention due to its size and antiquity, but also for its location within a region containing few permanent or perennial water sources. This study presents a preliminary analysis of the site’s faunal remains to assess diet, ritual, habitat use and exchange. Comparison of the El Mirador data with other Preclassic faunal assemblages allows us to assess the degree to which animal...
Ancient Maya Diet, Environment, Animal Use and Exchange at El Mirador: The Zooarchaeological Evidence (2018)
The site of El Mirador (Petén, Guatemala) is among the largest Preclassic settlements in the Maya lowlands. The site has attracted attention due to its size and antiquity, but also for its location within a region containing few permanent or perennial water sources. This study summarizes current zooarchaeological evidence from the site to assess past diet, habitat use, environment, and exchange. Comparative analysis demonstrates that the inhabitants of El Mirador conformed to certain widespread...
Ancient Maya Use of Fauna from the Wetlands and Beyond (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and the History of Human-Environment Interaction in the Lower Belize River Watershed" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding how the ancient Maya interacted with wetland environments has been a topic of research for roughly 50 years. Previous studies suggest these resource-rich environments provided a diverse assortment of flora and fauna for the ancient Maya to utilize. Wetlands provide an ideal...
Ancient Shoreline Management on the Central California Coast (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Insights into Pyrodiversity and Seascape Management on the Central California Coast" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While extensive archaeological investigation regarding indigenous landscape management practices has been conducted in this region, little work has been done regarding shoreline management practices affecting intertidal and wetland regions, such as kelp harvesting and the exploitation and...
Andean Hunting and Pastoralism: Measures of Animal Health, Care, and Environmental Change (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Complex Human-Animal Interactions in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The origins of domesticated llamas and alpacas from their wild ancestors took place in arid and rugged environments. Zooarchaeological remains of camelids record the wellbeing, mobility, and longevity of individual animals. Records from several high-resolution assemblages from the central Andes show different life histories over time,...
Animal Architecture: Historicizing Nonhuman Material Culture (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As new research continues to reveal the cognitive richness and social complexity of animal lives and as recently developed technologies expand the materials that can serve as traces of the past (as well as the information that can be gleaned from them), the range of activities and actors that...
Animal as Social Actor: A Case Study of a Pre-Colonial Northern Tiwa Structure (2018)
This paper explores the role of animals as social actors, namely the way natural animal behaviors influence human religious settings. The paper focuses on the case study of a floor organization of a formally closed thirteenth century Northern Tiwa kiva in the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico. The worldview and beliefs of the Northern Tiwa were deeply shaped by the species and biomes with whom they co-habited. Through the synthesis of material data, ethnographic information and behavioral...
Animal Bones from Hazor, Israel and a Cautionary Tale of Interpreting Past Ritual (2018)
Within recent years, feasting and other forms of ritual consumption have become more frequently identified in the archaeozoological record of the ancient Near East. Reasons for more frequent identification of ritual sacrifices and feasts vary, but two driving forces certainly are archaeological context, bones found in or near special architecture, and the cultural milieu formed by the region’s ancient textual record. In contrast, I have a skeptical tale to tell of ritual production and...
Animal diaspora and culture change (2015)
Animal introductions are frequently equated with the introduction of new dietary ingredients; however, this paper will argue that access to 'meat' is seldom the motivation for the importation of exotic species. By examining a number of case-studies pertaining to Britain it will be proposed that many faunal introductions were both inspired by, and resulted in, social, economic and ideological change. Many species were associated with specific deities and because they were imported from beyond the...
Animal Economies and Emergent Complexity in the European Bronze Age (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Animal Bones to Human Behavior" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Bronze Age is marked by dramatic social changes throughout much of the Old World. In Eastern Europe, and elsewhere, we see the emergence of regional hierarchies characterized by political and economic centralization and heightened status differentiation. While focus traditionally has been placed on the manufacture and exchange of metals, significant...