Zooarchaeology (Other Keyword)
726-750 (1,354 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Lucayan Taino of the Bahama archipelago actively bred and managed the hutia rodent (genus Geocapromys) for centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Seven field seasons of excavations at the pre-Columbian Lucayan site of Palmetto Junction on Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands have produced exponentially more hutia skeletal material than has been...
Macaws and Parrots of the Arizona Mountains (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Birds in Archaeology: New Approaches to Understanding the Diverse Roles of Birds in the Past" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the highest concentrations of macaws and parrots in the US Southwest was recovered from four sites in the mountains of east-central Arizona: Grasshopper, Kinishba, Point of Pines, and Turkey Creek Pueblos. This study reexamines the evidence for acquisition, care, and discard of the birds...
Machine Learning Species Identification with ZooMS Collagen Fingerprinting (2018)
The creation of a robust method of species identification using collagen fingerprinting, also known as ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) has been useful for objectively defining the composition of the fragmentary component of archaeological assemblages. The method usually works through the measurements of the sizes of collagen peptides following enzymatic digestion, which yield a fingerprint that can be genus or even species-specific. However, even these peptide biomarkers have been...
Macroscale Analysis of Faunal Remains in the Hohokam Area of Southern Arizona: Preliminary Results (2015)
Pre-Contact societies in southern Arizona developed large-scale, agriculturally-based communities with essentially no access to domesticated meat. Their hunting opportunities were limited, as well, by the need to live close to water sources for irrigation. The resulting trade-offs between community needs have important implications for political organization, labor choices, and gender roles. In this poster, we present preliminary results of a GIS analysis of relationships between species...
Making Archaic Snaileries out of Shell Heaps: Human Behaviors and Ecological Niches (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Do Good Things Come in Small Packages? Human Behavioral Ecology and Small Game Exploitation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Global evidence for human consumption and management of gastropods predates the Neolithic Revolution - the period noted for independent experimentation and domestication of terrestrial plants and animals. Archaeological data indicates that gastropods, terrestrial and aquatic, were vital resources...
Making Mounds Out of Midden: A Behavioural Analysis (2016)
The contents of shell-bearing sites are routinely used to make inferences regarding resource availability, subsistence practices, technology, and as proxies for past environments. Variability in the genesis of shell matrix within an archaeological site and the cultural context of its use and reuse can introduce bias into these interpretations. The authors previously developed a model of shell matrices inferred as midden, mound, and feasting deposits based on visual characteristics, artifact...
The Making of Agro-pastoral Landscape of the Tibetan Plateau: A Zooarchaeological Perspective (2018)
The vertical ingredient of the Tibetan Plateau plays a unique role in making of the highland agro-pastoral landscape. We divide the Tibetan Plateau into three eco-altitudinal zones: areas below 3,000 m.a.s.l.; areas between 3,000 and 4,200 m.a.s.l.; and areas above 4,200 m.a.s.l. Today, pastoralists and farmers utilize different faunal and floral taxa in the three zones, partly as risk aversion strategies. In this paper, I review the zooarchaeological evidence dated between 6,000 and 1,000 BP...
Mammalian Enamel Stable Isotopic (δ13C, δ18O) Evidence for Environmental Change during the MSA-LSA Transition at the Kisese II Rockshelter, Tanzania (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Environmental perturbations are invoked as an influence of hominin speciation, dispersal and technological innovations. Archaeological occurrences preserving the transition from the Middle Stone Age to the Later Stone Age are critical to gauging environmental influences of human adaptations, yet there is a dearth of well-dated sites in eastern Africa. The...
Mammalian Zooarchaeology, Alaska: a Manual for Identifying and Analyzing Mammal Bones from Archaeological Sites in Alaska (1979)
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.
Managing the Effects of Climate Change and Foraging Risk through Dietary Portfolio Diversity, an Example from 13,000 years of Human-Environment Interactions on the Great Plains of North America (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Defining and Measuring Diversity in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Food security and risk management are prominent contemporary global challenges, with ~795 million people undernourished worldwide. Climate change is projected to affect the availability, accessibility and stability of food sources, further exacerbating global malnutrition, but this is not a novel human challenge. Food security risk...
The Many Lives of Wari Dogs: A Summary of Zooarchaeological and Isotopic Research (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dogs in the Archaeological Record" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The widespread perception of the dog as humans’ closest companion species allows their remains to be used as proxies for human diet and mobility patterns. But these highly social animals held their own variable social and economic roles. Therefore, dog remains can provide information on the organization of animal management systems in past complex...
The Many Roles of Roman Dogs (2017)
The Romans had a strong interest in the natural world. Their relationships with animals extended from animals as food source to animals as exotic curiosities and everything in between. Dogs held a complicated position for the Romans, filling a wide range of roles. For example, dogs could be companions, war weapons, street cleaners, or victims of sacrifice. This variety shows how dogs were conceptualized sometimes as individuals and pets, sometimes as pests, and other times as powerful and almost...
The Maplebank Site: New Findings and Reinterpretation along the North American Northwest Coast (2017)
Most discussions of the ‘complex’ fishing-gathering-hunting peoples of the Northwest Coast (NWC) focus on the Marpole Phase sites around the Fraser River Delta, BC. These contain evidence of developed social structures, an economy based on huge salmon runs and storage, and sophisticated art/architecture, and discussions of contributing factors to these traits usually focus on the perennial access to the Fraser River salmon runs. In contrast to Marpole sites are nearby ‘Islands’ sites, located...
Mapping Bison: Oral Traditions from Picuris Pueblo, NM, on Bison Procurement (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster explores resilience and survivance of important animal-human economic, spiritual, and cultural traditions through the geospatial lens by mapping and describing ethnographic and archaeological interactions with Bison bison and Picuris Pueblo in the long term. In the Puebloan world, bison-human interactions are constrained by geographic and later...
Mapping Faunal Data to tDAR Ontologies to Address Data Comparability and Archaic Period Use of Animals in the Interior Eastern United States (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With support from a National Science Foundation grant, the Eastern Archaic Faunal Working Group (EAFWG) uploaded faunal datasets for 24 Archaic Period (10,000-3,000 BP) archaeological sites in the Interior Eastern United States into the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) to address research questions about the roles of...
Marine Fish Zooarchaeological Data from Iceland and the Central North Atlantic Marine Historical Ecology Project (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Arctic Pasts: Dimensions of Change" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper will discuss a new NSF-funded project, the Central North Atlantic Marine Historical Ecology Project (CAMHEP), as well as provide an overview of the current overall state of marine fish zooarchaeological data from Iceland. CAMHEP will utilize marine zooarchaeological data from Icelandic archaeological sites dating from the first settlement of...
Marine Foragers at the Top of the World: Zooarchaeological Analysis of a Thule Period Small Site at Uivvaq, Alaska (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Thule period is significant as a predecessor to modern Iñupiat culture, and yet understanding Thule life remains partial to the selectiveness of archaeological investigations. Much of the Alaskan Thule period research has focused on large settlements along the northwest coast (e.g. Point Hope, Walakpa, and Utqiaġvik). Smaller sites, such as the Uivvaq...
Marine Turtle Consumption at the 17th Century Site of Port Royal, Jamaica (2017)
The 17th century city of Port Royal, Jamaica was one of the most economically important English ports in the New World. Inhabiting the south side of the island, this defensive fortification protected the entrance to Kingston Harbour. It is well documented that 17th and 18th century ships stopping at this economic center would often provision by hunting marine turtles. Sold at the west market on High Street in Port Royal, these animals were also consumed locally. This paper aims to identify the...
Marine Turtle Consumption: From Ancient Taboo to Conservation Management (2018)
Remains of marine turtles occur regularly in the archaeological record. They provide insights into ancient subsistence and community practices. They also contain crucial information that can be used to create baselines for conservation. Their explanatory power is increased when the species exploited are identified. Here we describe an osteomorphological method which allows us to analyze fragmented postcranial elements of common Cheloniidae (Caretta Caretta and Chelonia mydas) to species and...
"Marineness" and Variability in Maritime Adaptations in the Late Ceramic Age Northern Lesser Antilles (2016)
Archaeological investigations in the northern Lesser Antilles have demonstrated Amerindians’ dependence on marine foods and maritime exchange throughout the Late Ceramic Age. While these data confirm the assumption that small island populations were, by necessity, maritime adapted, they also reveal subtle variability in the degree to which islanders’ depended on marine resources and the extent to which they engaged in interisland exchange networks. We use environmental and archaeological data to...
The Maritime Fur Trade before the Maritime Fur Trade on the Pacific Coast of North America (2017)
The maritime fur trade on the Northwest Coast of North America (ca. AD 1778-1850) was a historically consequential process that unfolded throughout the Indigenous territories of the Pacific Coast. Tens of thousands of astronomically valuable sea otter pelts were traded by Indigenous chiefs with visiting ship captains, who then transported these pelts across the Pacific and sent profits home. The massive wealth generated by this colonial trade encircled the globe but also amplified existing...
Maritime to the Max: The Keys to Success for Small Island Populations in the Caribbean (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The land-sea dichotomy has structured many historic debates surrounding coastal populations in the pre-Columbian Caribbean. Settlement, subsistence, exchange and cultural affiliation have all been measured on a terrestrial versus marine continuum which often undervalues the primacy of...
Martha’s Vineyard Beach Economy: Scavenged Seals and Washed-up Whales at the Frisby Butler Site (2018)
Marine mammals, including whales and seals, were a source of meat, blubber, baleen, and bone to the settlers of Martha’s Vineyard from the earliest occupation until the historic period. Numerous species of whales have been observed in New England’s shallow waters, including migratory species like the North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) and other marine mammals like the Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Wampanoag on Martha’s Vineyard and...
Mass Procurement and Feasting at Houtaomuga site, Northeast of China (2017)
Houtaomuga is a late Neolithic site located in the northeast of China. A special feature G2 has produced a large sample of aurochs (Bos primigenius) skeletal remains. Examination of the assemblage in G2, including bone quantity, surface modification and mortality profile suggests a site of mass aurochs procurement that took place during late summer to fall. Feasting is suggested to be a likely reason that could lead to this mass deposition.
Material Wealth and Herding Power: A Pastoralist Perspective on Divine Lordship from Pashash, Peru (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Pastoralism in a Global Perspective" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fluctuating political allegiances during the Early Intermediate period (200 BCE–600 CE) were coopted by competing leaders throughout the central Peruvian highlands and more broadly in the south-central Andes. The relationships and conflicts that resulted from socioeconomic negotiations among local networks; alongside the vacuum of power left...