Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Caitlin Earley.

At the site of Quen Santo, Guatemala, a hilltop center overlies an elaborate cave complex. First documented by Eduard Seler, the caves at Quen Santo have also been explored by modern-day archaeologists. Missing from modern analyses of Quen Santo, however, is a consideration of sculpture from the site: Seler recovered almost thirty stone monuments, most related to themes of death, ritual, and the ancestors. In this paper I explore the sculptural corpus of Quen Santo for the first time, arguing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marsha Fulton. Crystal Alegria.

The small cemetery overlooking Nevada City, Montana, holds this history of the town in a unique and personal way. To the nearby descendants, the cemetery symbolizes the continuity of family, community and history. In August, 2014, Extreme History partnered with Project Archaeology to map and assess the cemetery as part of a Teacher Workshop. The project revealed the value of the personal community connection to sacred places. By working with descendant members of the community, we were able to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Reese Cook.

Multiple ceramic samples were type identified and analyzed for the use in a regional comparative analysis of enslaved populations. The sampled ceramics were obtained from multiple contexts collected from various Caribbean locations. The comparative analyses clarify social dynamics, prosperity, and sustainability within enslaved populations. Afro-Caribbean, colonial tradewares, and exotics were compared by quantifying frequency and present/absent along with the level of diversity in the local...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Ranlett.

Since the Lower Palaeolithic, rare, exotic and unusual mineral and fossilized materials (e.g. amber, jet, belemnite, ammonite, soapstone) have constituted objects of interest for humans and our recent ancestors across Eurasia and Africa. There are examples of novel materials being collected, curated and/or minimally modified since nearly the beginning of prehistory. Beginning in the Upper Paleolithic, a number of these raw materials became, for the first time, a habitual part of human...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ximena Lemoine.

Human settlements and occupations of any size or length present novel selective pressures and scenarios not only for the human populations composing them, but also for wild plant and animal communities surrounding them. The presence of human settlements, particularly those with increasing sedentism and intensified local landscape use, have lasting effects on wild animal communities as they interact with, tolerate, and even utilize human spaces. What happens to wild animal populations when they...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Reid.

The site Toro Muerto, located in the Majes Valley of southern Peru, constitutes one of the largest and better studied rock art sites in South America. Approaching Toro Muerto through a ‘landscapes perspective,’ we can situate the site within a changing ideological, socio-economic, and political landscape beginning in the Middle Horizon (A.D. 600-1000) to the 18th century Colonial-period. This paper goes beyond the typical site-level analysis to place Toro Muerto at the center of a southern...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jody Clauter.

The Elk Mountain site (48CR301), also known as the Garrett Allen site, is located in south-central Wyoming in the Carbon Basin along Halleck Ridge. The site was excavated every year from 1969 until 1978, and a University of Wyoming field school was held at the site in 1979 and 1980. The excavations were highly productive and recovered artifacts included ceramics, manos, and metates; large amounts of lithic debris, tools, and faunal remains. Despite its productivity, a site report, site map...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erick López Reyes. Jonathan Santana Cabrera. Lourdes Colcha Guamán. Domingo C. Salazar García. Juan Abella Pérez.

In this contribution we present the preliminary results of a study that addresses the funerary practices and the osteobiographical profile of various sites from Guangala culture (Regional Development Period, 300 BC-800AD) and Manteño-Huancavilca culture (Integration Period, 800AD-1530AD). In this case, we have investigated human remains from the Guangala site OGSE-46 from Samarina, several locations from the Manteño-Huancavilca period in La Libertad (OGSE-47) and Chanduy; most of them have not...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joel Zovar.

Difficult realities have set in for some cultural resource professionals. Space (and funding) to protect cultural materials is at a premium, causing some curators and archaeologists to think about heritage preservation and site conservation in new ways. Using the presenter’s experiences developing an archaeology outreach website, this paper explores how digital asset management has become a useful addition to traditional methods of artifact and site conservation in Louisiana, a state with a rich...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Victoria Ingalls.

Ancient Maya iconography primarily depicted elite individuals in idealized states of being and rationalized their power and authority through ideological concepts. This study reexamines previous assumptions made concerning the Quadripartite Badge. This motif is examined based on iconographic associations and contexts, as well as temporal and spatial distributions. The spread of this motif is demonstrated through time and its spatial dispersals are noted for their political consequences. It is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maren Hopkins.

Ethnographic research conducted on Barry M. Goldwater Range East with members of the Tohono O’odham Nation identified a series of ancient and historic travel routes relevant in O’odham history and contemporary traditions. These routes range from ancient foot trails leading to the Sea of Cortez to historic wagon roads and modern highways connecting O’odham communities. The O’odham commemorate important places in their history through place-naming, storytelling, songs, and traditional cultural...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Morgan.

This paper will provide an overview of using the established Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Visual Resource Management (VRM) system to assess indirect visual effects on historic properties. Per Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, the introduction of visual elements that diminish the integrity of the property’s significant historic features constitutes an adverse effect. The VRM system was designed to inventory landscapes, identify those with high scenic values worth...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Nelson. Jordan Pratt.

Anthills are ubiquitous across the Great Basin, with the potential to affect archaeological sites through bioturbation. This study considers if lithic debitage found on the surface of anthills (and within) represents the redistribution of specific size grades, with an emphasis on vertical redistribution of smaller flakes from below ground to the surface. Our study targeted anthills near previously analyzed lithic plots around the perimeter of Rimrock Draw Rockshelter (35HA3855), a Paleoamerican...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Vitale.

This poster shall illustrate the several different mapping phases of the archaeological site of Xultun, Guatemala in order to demonstrate how the mapping process has significantly altered our understanding of the site. Xultun was first surveyed by Sylvanus Morely in the 1920’s whose maps included a handful of structures and stelae. The site remained largely uninvestigated for the next 50 years until Von Euw expanded the map, through his epigraphic work for the Peabody Museum. Xultun’s map did...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Brodbeck. Deil Lundin.

The Arizona Department of Transportation conducted a highway widening project on US 160 between Cow Springs and Tonalea which required archaeological excavations at site AZ-J-33-35 (NN) as mitigation. The site is along Begashibito Wash in the western reaches of the Klethla Valley in northern Arizona. The excavations at AZ-J-33-35 (NN) uncovered an architecturally unique resource processing/storage site where locally available plants and corn were harvested, processed, and stored. Evidence for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lucy Gill. Gabrielle Borenstein. Adam Watson.

The 18th century Northern Rio Grande basin of New Mexico was a politically volatile and contested landscape. Hispano settlers, including those who established the aldea of San Antonio del Embudo (now Dixon, New Mexico) along the Embudo River in 1725, found themselves entangled in a complex web of socioeconomic interactions and, at times, hostilities with diverse indigenous peoples. To what extent did these Spanish colonists adhere to European subsistence strategies or embrace native foodways? Do...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Barker. Jonathan Dombrosky. Amy Eddins. Kari Schlerer. Barney Venables.

Residue preservation within the matrices of artifacts is a complex process that can be better understood when multiple types of biomolecules (e.g., protein and fatty acid residues) are evaluated as part of a systematic whole. Commonly, types of residues are evaluated independently, which may relate to different types of biomolecules requiring distinctive methods for extraction and analysis. Thus, the archaeologist either encounters positive results (a hit for a particular residue, such as a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jayne-Leigh Thomas. Meghan Buchanan. April Sievert. Heather Alvey. Lee Drake.

In 1940, a collection of human skeletons were excavated from a historic cemetery on Mound F at Angel Mounds State Historic Site, near Evansville, Indiana. Based on the presence of a single historic grave stone, these remains were determined to be Euroamerican. However, after further study of morphological characteristics and copper staining, we suggest that several individuals are of Native American descent. An evaluation of the elemental composition of the copper staining using a portable X-ray...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexander Menaker.

This paper outlines developing dissertation research that integrates archaeological and historical evidence about the community of Andagua and the Ayo Valley in the Southern Peruvian Andes. Constructed as a Spanish colonial reducción, Andagua resides in a seldom-visited highland area, and today is merely considered a rural, provincial neighbor of Arequipa. Andagua, however, has a striking past evident in the substantial prehispanic remains that surround and lie buried beneath the contemporary...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Luisa Aebersold.

The Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area (RBCMA) is an area comprised of over 260,000 acres of protected land, which is owned and managed by Programme for Belize (PfB), an entirely Belizean conservation organization. This area is ideal for geoarchaeological research that encompasses human-environment relationships by analyzing sediments. This poster will present methods and results on preliminary geoarchaeological techniques completed on sediments at the University of Texas at Austin in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Angelina Perrotti. Michael Waters. Jessi Halligan.

Sporormiella sp. is a coprophilous fungi associated with large herbivore dung that can be used as a proxy to track megafaunal extinctions. The data is based on its abundance or absence within dated sediments, which is often presented as a percentage related to the total pollen sum. This poster presents the results of a fossil pollen and Sporomiella analysis from a sediment core extracted from the Page-Ladson Site, located in a sinkhole in the Aucilla River, Florida. The 5 meter core spans the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Ingram.

If interdisciplinary concepts such as resilience and vulnerability are to be useful to archaeologists, then understandable methods of identifying these complex social phenomena are needed. Archaeological approaches that use familiar methods and material indicators will encourage exploration of these interdisciplinary concepts. This presentation will demonstrate how both human resilience and vulnerability to climatic conditions can be identified using changes in residential abandonment rates...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah MacDonald.

When past populations experienced extended periods of resource shortages, acquisition and processing strategies changed to secure enough food. Understanding how faunal materials reflect those prehistoric reactions to subsistence stress remains a relatively unexplored topic in Southwest archaeology. Elden Pueblo, located in Northern Arizona, provides insight into this topic. As one of the final Sinagua occupation sites in the San Francisco Peaks region, the site’s abandonment during a cool and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Green. Richard Fitzgerald.

CA-LAN-1, the Tank Site, located in Topanga State Park has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. This paper will summarize the unique approach for the nomination because it considers eligibility for the site under both Criteria A and D. The Tank Site is eligible under Criterion A as an event because a major scientific discovery was made there during the archaeological field investigations from 1947-1960. The Tank Site is also eligible under Criterion D due to the fact that...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kaylee Spencer. Maline Werness-Rude.

Ancient Maya builders working in the Northern Lowlands often introduced and distributed columns throughout the architectural volumes they created in a way that distinguished them from their southern neighbors. While northern column usage served pragmatic needs by being load-bearing and facilitating entrance and egress, we explore the possibility that selection and placement of structural supports also seems to have functioned in a highly ideological fashion. We will use case studies from sites...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Keith Stephenson. Karen Smith.

The presence of Middle Woodland period complicated stamped pottery in the lower Savannah River valley would represent the earliest examples of this type of surface treatment in the South Appalachian region, if the dating were certain. Here, we attempt to construct a chronology of complicated stamping for the lower Savannah River valley by reference to sites and assemblages for which age can be inferred by independent means. We simultaneously attempt an attribute-based analysis of complicated...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Suzi Wilson.

The cognitive developments that occurred in the Homo genus over 100,000 years ago enabled expansive forms of consciousness, facilitated increased creative capacities, and in so doing allowed hominins to consider concepts that were previously unimaginable. These developments are rooted in social origins, possibly extending back to the Australopithecines, and their emergence is expressed through the first burials of the dead – both by Neanderthal and Homo sapiens. However, these burials of Europe...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Russell Cutts. Sarah Hlubik.

Recognizing fire evidence in the record can be challenging and contentious. Aside from baked earth features – hearths, daub, etc. – a widely reported associated artifact is fire-cracked rock (FCR). Unlike flaked stone assemblages, FCR lacks a standardized description, criteria, test or model; archaeologists often learn identification ‘in the field.’ Recent actualistic studies have demonstrated that a previously undescribed type of FCR has likely been unknowingly lumped with other ‘angular...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Melissa Eiring. Sarah Wigley. Cynthia Munoz. Raymond Mauldin.

We report on stone tool patterns derived from several recent archaeological excavation projects in Central Texas that provide a record of lithic use spanning most of the prehistoric sequence in the region. The projects, located within a few kilometers of one another, effectively sample debitage and tools reflecting Late Paleoindian, Early and Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, and the Terminal Late Prehistoric periods. Supported by several radiocarbon dates, these assemblages span roughly 10,000...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Spencer Pelton. Joshua Boyd.

End scrapers are a widely recognized tool in the archaeological record, but their performance characteristics are poorly understood. We use experimental results and adapt marginal value theorem (MVT) for use in lithic studies to devise a formal model of end scraper performance that predicts the optimal time at which one should resharpen their end scraper under several scenarios of raw material abundance. Our study is the first to apply MVT to end scarper performance through an actualistic study,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jesse Tune.

Cumberland fluted-bifaces are recognized as being lanceolate, full-fluted points that immediately post-date Clovis in the Midsouth United States. A review of the existing literature reveals brief descriptions of morphology, preliminary explanations of production technology, and speculation about regional fluted-point chronologies. This study examines Cumberland fluted-point technology and regional landuse patterns to develop a greater understanding of human adaptive behaviors during the Younger...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shannon Landry.

The greater Sinagua region spans a distinct convergent geographical and cultural setting which provides a range of resources. Ridge Ruin is a prominent Sinaguan site occupied during the transition from the Pueblo II to Pueblo III period. In 1941, John MacGregor published a bulletin summarizing the results of his Winona Village and Ridge Ruin excavations. In MacGregor’s report and in the few publications on Ridge Ruin since, the majority of research has concentrated on the famous burial of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Colleen Delaney. Shawna Couplin. Charles Fazzone. Kathleen M Marsaglia.

The Spanish chroniclers of the 18th century document extensive and intensive long distance regional trade networks among indigenous peoples throughout southern California (and beyond). Archaeologists are currently reevaluating these long held interpretations of Chumash regional exchange networks in the southern California region during the late prehistoric period. We report a pilot study focused the determination of the lithology/mineralogy of stone bowls/mortars collected from various sites in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Victoria Bochniak.

Arrow Rock, located in the Pryor Mountains of southern Montana, is a place for travelers to offer gifts in return for their safe passage through the Pryor Gap. These gifts are mostly left by members of the Crow community and meant for the Awa-Kulay, or Little People, living in the mountains. The Little People are described as dwarves that are both human and supernatural beings that can act as spiritual guides for the Crow Tribe. Throughout Crow history stories are told of the Little People being...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hilary Duke. Sonia Harmand-Lewis.

Behavioral variability is a cornerstone characteristic of Homo sapiens that evolved among earlier hominins. Archaeological lithic evidence records changes in hominin behavior and knowledge systems over time. Major changes are evident among lithic assemblages ~1.76 mya in Africa, with the emergence of large, bifacial, core tools (e.g., handaxes). This technology shows marked change from earlier assemblages, conforming to different reduction strategies. The behavioral and cognitive implications of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Debora Trein.

This paper discusses the results of geochemical and micromorphological analysis of sediment samples in and around a monumental temple structure at the site of La Milpa, northwest Belize. This analysis forms part of a project that aims to examine community agency and practice in public monumental spaces, in particular how the actions of diverse groups of agents influence the functions of monumental architecture. Artifact and architectural evidence gathered over five field seasons at Structure 3...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gregory Burns. Jelmer Eerkens.

Although a temporally diagnostic type artifact, the pre-contact cultural role of Olivella beads is poorly understood for Central California and the San Francisco Bay Area. While important as an item of trade and burial wealth, the nature of Olivella bead origin and conveyance is uncertain. Stable isotope sourcing, using oxygen and carbon from serial sampling shell carbonate, provides a potential to locate where shell was collected for bead production. We document developments in a technique for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicole Raslich.

Cultural Heritage Management has various perceptions when utilized by indigenous communities and archaeologists. Heritage management professionals advocate preserving sites from looters, limiting access to curb erosion and protecting historical places from the degradation of time. Preservation methods may include stopping traditional uses of these locations unless otherwise specified through legislation. Most often, sites are located and archived through historical and archaeological research....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katrinka Reinhart.

Elite ritual has been a primary focus in Chinese archaeology. Well known studies of the oracle bones from Anyang and bronze ritual vessels have shed light on elite ritual practices but have also generated a bias linking ritual with elites. Indeed there is strong evidence of elite ritual activity in palace temples of the early Bronze Age site of Yanshi Shangcheng (the Shang city at Yanshi), located in the Central Plain area of northern China. However, there is also evidence of similar rituals in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelsey Clardy.

Public architecture is reflective of society. Council houses were an important example of public architecture during both prehistoric and pre-removal times and were prevalent across the Southeast. The original purpose of these council houses was to provide a place for the people to conduct official meetings in the winter months. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Council House in Okmulgee, OK is an example of post-removal public architecture that was...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristen Wroth. Dan Cabanes. Paul Goldberg. Vera Aldeias. Dennis Sandgathe.

Phytolith analysis can be used to investigate the relationship between hominins, plants, and environmental change. It has proven useful in understanding specific hominin behaviors (e.g., use of fire and fuel composition), and diachronic changes in plant species for paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The integration of phytolith analysis with soil micromorphology allows for an identification of the ways phytoliths were deposited in archaeological sites, and addresses both site formation...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelly Ervin. Alex Colvin. Philip Chaney. Kathryn Braund. April Antonellis.

Native American land ownership underwent significant geographic changes following European settlement. This intensified after the American Revolution due to demographic changes, tribal migration, and aggressive Euro-American expansion. This paper presents the results of a collaboration between Auburn University, the National Park Service, and federally recognized tribes to plot land loss from ca. 1790 through the 1850s, with particular emphasis on the impact of the War of 1812 on native...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Angelina Sweeney. Robyn Dodge. Fred Valdez, Jr.. Lauren Sullivan.

This poster presents results of recent provenance research of Lemonal Cream ceramics from the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) region located within the Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area in Northwestern Belize. We used laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) on Lemonal Cream wares from four different sites within the PfBAP region to determine the elemental signatures and compared them to the elemental signature of clay deposits uncovered...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kellii Casias. Kelly Dixon.

One of the many unintended consequences of the Prohibition Era was an unorganized but collective social resistance movement across the nation. Research in the town of Anaconda, Montana, focused on the years of 1923 through 1926, granted a unique opportunity to capture a snapshot of collective social resistance in a company...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Margaret Jodry.

Recent Smithsonian study of belongings placed with a 40 year-old man and an eleven year-old girl suggests that the adult may have been a healer. A bundle lying beneath his head includes turtle shell bows, antler pestles, red ochre, a deer bone stylus, sandstone abraders, and an Edward's chert biface. Perforated shell beads and coyote teeth, non-perforated badger claws and Swainson's hawk talons, and other items accompanied this Elder. His participation in body painting, scarification, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Mathena. Molly K. Zuckerman. Nicholas P. Herrmann. Toni J. Copeland.

There are numerous historical, bioarchaeological, and paleopathological studies of treponemal disease, but most have focused on the origin and antiquity of syphilis. Therefore, little is known about the evolution and ecology of the other treponematoses, such as yaws. In modern populations, research options are limited by difficulty in culturing the causal bacteria, lack of animal models, and ethical issues with human testing. Treatment with antibiotics has also limited clinical research into...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carola Flores-Fernandez. Carola Flores Fernandez.

The islands off California have long been recognized for their predictable and abundant shellfish resources, which provided a wealth of food for ancient people. Although fluctuations in the marine environment through time affected resource availability periodically (for example El Nino Southern Oscillation ), the effects were variable on a local scale, resulting in local marine microclimates. California mussel (M. californianus) is the most abundant shellfish species in the archaeological sites...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ema Perea. Ilana Johnson. Luis Jaime Castillo.

Archaeological research in Cerro Chepén started with the purpose of characterizing the cultural manifestations in the Jequetepeque valley, especially the political and social relationships of the inhabitants of these sites and the activities related to the regional center of San José de Moro. The poster includes the results of the research conducted in Sector 2 of Cerro Chepén, which is one of the most important sites for the Late Moche and Transitional periods in the Jequetepeque Valley. The...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dylan Kemp. Kelly Dixon. Nikki Manning.

Urban locations have an entire component of the landscape that is often overlooked, historic underground spaces. Not to be confused with the underground art and culture scene that occurs in a thriving, modern city; the historic underground can provide insight into a city’s past social, cultural, and ecological heritage. Because this particular part of the landscape is often neglected in anthropological research, there are not a lot of resources available to understand the historic uses of these...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amanda Rasmussen.

Fort Halifax, located in Halifax Township, Pennsylvania, was occupied from 1756 to 1757 during the French and Indian War. Fort Halifax Township Park, where the fort is believed to be located, contains rich expanses of prehistoric and historic archaeological data. Since the Fort Halifax Park contains information regarding several occupations, the collected archaeological data has been useful in identifying the spatial relationships between occupations. This data, when further analyzed through the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Anderson.

In 2012 the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, Southern Methodist University, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota began a multi-year research project investigating Paleoindian land use, Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene environments, and archaeological preservation potential in the Little Missouri National Grasslands (LMNG) and surrounding areas. Field research in 2013 and 2014 included resurvey and test excavation at known or suspected Paleoindian localities to determine the nature and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kevin Nolan. Mark Hill.

Geoscience approaches are being applied for prospection and intra-site analysis with increasing frequency in a variety of contexts around the world. There currently are a variety of archaeochemical procedures in use, each of which suffers from inherent limitations Colorimetric measurement is limited in the number of elements measured simultaneously. Inductively Coupled Plasma techniques are expensive and restricted to a narrow range of institutions. Yet the recent availability of Portable...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Nash. Michele Koons.

Between 1939 and 1955, Paul Sidney Martin and John Rinaldo of the Field Museum excavated or tested more than 30 archaeological sites in the Pine Lawn/Reserve region of New Mexico. Researchers from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the United States Forest Service, and elsewhere have since 2010 been working to re-locate and record those sites, many of which were never properly registered with state and federal authorities. This paper shares results of that research as well as exploratory...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Jane Berman.

Chert is an imported non-local raw material that the Lucayans (Bahamas) obtained by way of direct procurement or trade and exchange with the Greater Antilles. The physical composition, morphological characteristics, and measurements of chert microlith assemblages from four Lucayan sites are compared to determine differences and similarities. The observed variability is explained in terms of inter-site differences in tool use and site function, and temporal changes in inter-island socio-political...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Todd Ahlman.

During slavery, enslaved and freed Africans throughout the Caribbean engaged in commodity production and exchange for many different but complementary reasons. Slaves and freedman raised crops and animals and produced crafts that they traded as well as engaged in rented labor, both allowed them to barter for other goods and earn cash. For some, this exchange allowed them to survive the hardships of slavery and marginalization. Others were able to accumulate goods and cash that allowed them to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonathan Baines.

In terms of niche construction, the development of agriculture at the end of the Palaeolithic was a realignment and expansion of existing hunter-gatherer plant ecology modifications to a transforming human and natural setting. This paper suggests that people's engagement with their surroundings altered under pressure of changes in the environment and their subsistence, residence and mobility strategies. Increased foraging efficiency and stability were sought. These relied on a suite of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eva Jobbova.

Despite recent debates and new analytical opportunities in Maya archaeology provided by developments such as increased amounts of paleoclimatic data, the growing field of settlement archaeology and advances in Maya epigraphy, we still know very little about either short or long-term dynamics of human-environment relationships in the Maya region: for example, the choices humans make in response to extreme variability in rainfall patterns or changes in soil conditions. Does society become...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren Cook.

McFaddin Beach (41JF50), in Jefferson County, Texas is a 32 kilometer-long beach, stretching from High Island in the west to Sea Rim State Park (next to the mouth of the Sabine River) in the east. Since the 1950s, artifacts from almost all periods of Texas pre-history have been recovered on this beach. The projectile points found on McFaddin Beach are redeposited material from an offshore, submerged location. Results indicate that projectile point distribution is significantly correlated to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emma Dellopoulos. Shelby Putt.

The Acheulian techno-complex is comprised mostly of bifacal handaxes, which became increasingly symmetrical through time, especially after 400kya. Symmetry has recently been considered a highly significant aspect of the Acheulian toolkit. It has many potential opportunities for a better understanding of the evolution of cognition in early Homo; however, little is known about how this complex skill was transmitted. Could the increasing symmetry of handaxes in the archaeological record be evidence...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sally Lynch.

The Late Moche Period (AD 500-800) of the North Coast of Peru is marked by significant alterations to the iconography of elite fineline ceramics. In particular, the earlier imagery, depicting conventionalized narratives of ritual performances and exploits of male Moche divinites or their mortal avatars disappears in certain locales. In southern valleys, at sites such as Galindo, Late Moche elite ceramics largely depicted abstract geometrical imagery including the widespread step-and-mountain...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dylan Clark.

Humans use an array of senses to experience the world, vision being how we primarily characterize most experiences. Color, contrast, and brilliance are all factors that are both consciously and unconsciously considered when visually interacting with the material world. These are not passive factors that are simply filed away by the brain, but active communicators that trigger responses in the mind of the viewer. This influence on human behavior has a direct impact on material culture. Since...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sharlot Hart.

Not much is found in the scholarly literature regarding site boundary definitions: boundaries defined for management purposes may be different from pre-Columbian geographical boundaries. This is the case at University Indian Ruin (UIR), a 13-acre parcel listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and owned by the University of Arizona. Homeowners in the neighboring community, also listed on the National Register as Indian Ridge, routinely retrieve sherds while performing yard...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marie-Annick Prevost.

It is more and more recognized that mobile hunter-gatherers can have a significant impact on their environment. In the Northeast, one of the traits of the Late Archaic period is the intense consumption of nuts and acorns and possible management of this key resource to increase its productivity. The botanical macro-remains recovered at the site of côte Rouge, located near Québec City, indicate that butternuts and hazelnuts were indeed consumed but their low densities in the archaeological record...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Wigley. Antonia Figueroa. Laura Levi.

This paper examines the construction of residential and ritual space at the prehispanic Maya site of Wari Camp, located in northwestern Belize in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area. We explore the productive activities of temple and pair groups at the site through examination of lithic and ceramic material recovered from excavations conducted at the northern satellite of the site in 2012. In addition, environmental and soil data from the site provides insight into the relationships...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Sharp.

Warfare, as a social practice, can have profound consequences ranging from reorganization of sociopolitical boundaries to forced migration of communities and large-scale settlement pattern changes. This study quantitatively examines the increased concern for defense in the Early Intermediate Period (EIP) (200 BC–AD 600) by comparing defensibility of archaeological sites to the surrounding landscape in highland Ancash, Peru. Sites located on opposite sides of the Cordillera Blanca, specifically...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elisabeth Granley. Rebecca Bria. Elizabeth Katherine Cruzado Carranza.

The preparation and consumption of food during feasting rituals is an ancient tradition in the Andes, occurring both on a small scale (participation of one family or kin group) and on a large scale (community-wide involvement). This poster presents a recent analysis of lithic tools from Hualcayán, an ancient Recuay community (1-600 AD) in highland Ancash, Peru. Excavations at Hualcayán yielded a variety of ground stone and expedient chipped stone tools and debris from a range of different...

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Savage. Gyles Iannone. James Conolly. Jack Barry.

Recent studies have demonstrated the revolutionary potential of LiDAR as a means of mapping archaeological features within densely forested and/or inaccessible landscapes. In a matter of days, aerial LiDAR scans can survey swaths of forest which would take decades to map on foot. However, in order to effectively exploit the analytical potential of LiDAR datasets, we must understand how the spatial information captured by these systems compare with those produced by traditional ground survey. To...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eleanora Reber.

Nahal Tillah is an Early Bronze I site in the Southern Levant with evidence for a strong Egyptian trade presence. Twenty-eight sherds from four different vessel types underwent absorbed pottery residue analysis to identify possible traded resources and to confirm vessel functions. Although wine and olive oil are believed to be the major trade resources in the region, wax was an unexpectedly important resource in the pottery sampled, particularly among the Southern Levantine styled jars. SAA...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren Maas.

The purpose of this research was to investigate questions of aesthetic preference or choice and other driving factors that influenced the ceramic selection by people who resided at two sites: the Gregory Lincoln/HSPVA Site in Houston, TX and the Levi Jordan Plantation Site in Brazoria County, TX as well as to compare the assemblages from these two African American sites from differing environments. These ceramics assemblages, with the exception of one context, had been previously analyzed, but a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frankie Pack. Kathryn Kulhavy. Graciela Cabana.

The destructive nature of traditional DNA extraction techniques presents one of the primary obstacles to accessing genetic information from museum and archaeological collections. Here we assess a recently published "non-destructive" DNA extraction protocol by Bolnick and colleagues in terms of the amount and quality of DNA extracted from a set of samples of even greater antiquity than those tested in the original analysis. DNA was successfully extracted from archaic period samples from the Eva...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Madeleine Smith. Abigail Buffington.

The macrobotanical record from Khirbat ez-Zona, a Late Roman castellum, reveals a pattern of crop refuse that does not fit the grand narrative of Roman agricultural practice or previous studies of contemporaneous military structures in the region. The Eastern Mediterranean witnessed a considerable boom in both population and agricultural productivity during the Late Roman period. This productivity can reflect the practices of an empire from religious ritual and pilgrimage, to preparation for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christian Mesia.

Recent research has expanded drastically the sample size available for performing ceramic analyses at Chavin de Huantar during the last decade. Initial efforts have showed that the ceramic complexity previously described during the end of the last century has fallen short and that it is necessary to rethink Chavin ceramics in terms of the new data available. In of In this regard this paper attempts to organize and classify the corpus of ceramics dated from the Middle Formative (1200 – 800 BCE)...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sonja Kassa. Anne Parfitt. Patrick McCutcheon.

The presence of obsidian in chipped stone tool assemblages in central Washington State is well known. Local, low quality obsidian sources have been documented occurring in conjunction with more commonly found nonlocal, high quality obsidian sources. Though the archaeological occurrence of obsidian is well documented in this area, a systematic study of the organization of technology using evolutionary archaeological approach can help clarify how obsidian was selected and incorporated into stone...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hannah Lau.

Cooperation occurs at all scales of social life: among individuals, among households, and among groups that supersede the household level. In some cases, such cooperation precipitates the formation of complex social structures and institutions and perpetuates their endurance. The variability of forms such cooperation can take at all scales of social complexity is broad, but an increasing degree of scalar cooperation correlates with increasing social complexity. This study uses zooarchaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Peiyu Chen.

This research takes two kinds of analytical unit, dwelling and hypothetical corporate group, to analyze and compare spatial relationship between the east and west sectors in Montegrande, a Early Formative site locates in Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. The map-based analysis reveals different changing pattern during the two phases of occupation. The primary result shows that east sector went through a significant transition from phase 1 to phase 2 in the configuration of corporate group and in the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristy Ely.

A GIS model was utilized to help understand Paleoindian land-use, site formation processes and major landform changes in the North Dakota National Grasslands since the terminal Pleistocene. This landscape has changed dramatically over the last 12,000 years and geoarchaeological methods can help understand what the landscape and environment may have looked like during the Paleoindian period. Further, a recent survey has shown that soil erosion in the North Dakota National Grasslands is occurring...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elisabeth Culley.

Archaeology has long flirted with Peircean semiotics as an heuristic for interpreting prehistoric behaviors and the cognitive processes that support them. Yet beyond the widespread adoption of Peircean terminology (icon, index, symbol), the discipline has been unable to operationalize the approach as a viable research method. This paper introduces Peircean Semiotics as a means of re-classifying non-utilitarian artifacts in terms of their target audiences and concomitant social consequences....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Houston Martin.

The lack of Middle Holocene sites on the Northwestern Plains provided grounds for further research on its source. A range of explanations have been proposed for the low frequency of archaeological sites dating between 8000 and 5000 BP in southeastern Wyoming, including geological, cultural, and researcher bias. Some suggest that human populations occupying the plains during this time were reduced. However, others point out that conditions during and following this time period may have destroyed...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leslie Cooper. Elizabeth Bollwerk. Jillian Galle.

Previous investigations (Cooper and Smith 2007, Smith and Cooper 2011) of colonoware from 33 sites occupied by enslaved peoples in South Carolina and Virginia have revealed significant inter-regional variation in vessel abundance over time. Additionally, analyses of attributes such as soot residue and vessel thickness identified intra-regional homogeneity and heterogeneity in use and manufacture. This study tests whether these trends continue when the dataset is expanded to include additional...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Hensler.

Spanish colonization of the South Atlantic coast in the 16th and 17th centuries had wide reaching effects on the greater Southeast. The Big Bend region of the Ocmulgee River Valley lies about 160 km from the coastal mission effort. However, Native Americans in the area were in contact with Coastal Native groups both prior to and after European contact, making the area a good case study to better understand how changes in the social structure of Native groups on the coast affected the interior...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephanie Bosch. P. Nick Kardulias.

The Wansack Site (36ME61) is a multicomponent, prehistoric site located in western Pennsylvania (Mercer County). Four seasons of excavation (1974-1977) yielded ample evidence of occupation spanning the Archaic, Woodland, and Late Prehistoric. The present study analyzes the patterns of raw material procurement, seen through the lithic artifacts collected from the site. The primary method utilized to do this is X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Samples of chert from Flint Ridge, Upper Mercer, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Uthara Suvrathan.

This poster presents a preliminary attempt to systematically interpret and analyze historical cartographic data from South Asia. Information from historic maps of South Asia is combined with archaeological settlement data to reconstruct the nature and distribution of regional administrative and religious centers in south central India. Preliminary research in the area suggests that regional administrative centers often occupied a place in local pilgrimage and trade networks. However, this...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Clarissa Cagnato. Olivia Navarro-Farr. Griselda Pérez. Damaris Menéndez.

The discovery of a fire shrine atop the adosada of Structure M13-1 at El Perú-Waka’ supports the archaeological and epigraphic records which have at various places in the Maya region (including Waka’) made reference to the arrival in AD 378 of Siyaj K’ak’. This event resulted in the introduction of the fire shrine cult, glossed as Wite Naah in Mayan, from Teotihuacan to the Maya Lowlands. M13-1’s cal AD 7th century fire shrine is the final phase of the main temple’s fronting platform. Careful...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Hubbard.

Excavations at Tel Tsaf, Israel have provided evidence of large mudbrick silos, animal pens and potential feasting activities. Tel Tsaf dates to the earlier part of the Chalcolithic period which spans from c. 5200-3600 BC and marks a transition from egalitarian villages to the eventual cities of the Early Bronze Age in the region. Towards the end of the Chalcolithic period social stratification becomes more visible within the archaeological record as evidenced by hoards of copper items in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frank Hole.

An incursion of immigrants into the Khabur River drainage of northeastern Syria exemplifies a set of historical processes that are sometimes suspected, but often discounted as unrealistic or unprovable. The principal processes are (1) emigration from a homeland and immigration into a new land, (2) selective transmission of culture traits to a new locale, (3) divergent adaptation, (4) assimilation of new traits, and (5) formation of a new cultural tradition. These processes are exemplified by...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Braden Dison.

Tannehill Historical State Park encompasses a resource rich environment that has supported human settlement for thousands of years. Dozens of possible sites have been identified across the park’s landscape, but few are thoroughly investigated, leaving a gap in current understanding of settlement patterns and land usage in prehistoric times. Josselyn Site 2G, a large surface collection, is one site where little is known. It holds projectile points indicative of the Middle Archaic, Late Archaic,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only William Barse.

The Culebra and Ronquin Paleosols and Their Vessel Assemblages William P. Barse Rim sherds from the Culebra and Ronquin sites along the Orinoco River reflect a broadly- shared range of common vessel shapes. The suite of bowls, jars, platters and other shape categories reflect the existence of a common household repertoire of vessels used in food serving, storage and preparation activities. This presentation reviews the commonalities in the range of vessel shapes recovered from secure,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah McCormick.

Bone tools are an important component in the study of the archaeological record worldwide. They have become especially useful in the study of perishable objects. This is because they are one of the few preserved items left behind that were required for processes such as weaving, and leatherworking. This research seeks to identify and replicate the manufacturing techniques required to produce a selection of bone objects that were found at the Dillard and Switchback sites, which are from the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Tutchener.

This poster outlines the initial findings of the first phase of fieldwork conducted in the central Cape York region of Queensland. The Cape York region of far northern Queensland has been the focus of intercultural interaction on the Australian continent for many years. It was not until the mid 19th century that colonial expansion in this area flowed up from the south and was the cause of major conflict between Europeans and Indigenous Australians. This history of invasion, genocide, mining...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Briggs.

The Mississippian standard jar is a specific kind of vessel form that, in tandem with maize agriculture and shell-tempering, was disseminated throughout the Eastern Woodlands during the late prehistory. As previous researchers have noted, the jar appears to be specifically adapted for slow, long-term boiling, especially when compared to earlier Woodland Period jars that are generally better suited for short-term cooking. Following the proposition that pots are tools, I characterize the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erick Casanova Vasquez. Rebecca E. Bria. Elizabeth K. Cruzado C..

In the Peruvian Andes, archaeological analysis of prehistoric ceramics disproportionately focuses on materials recovered from ritual spaces compared to domestic areas. This bias limits our understanding of the role of ceramics in domestic contexts. To address the imbalance, this poster focuses on characteristics of ceramics in recovered from survey and excavations at a residential sector of the Hualcayán site. This sector, called Panchocuchu, contains most of the site’s domestic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anna Schneider.

Garden Canyon Village is a large multi-component site located in southeastern Arizona. The main occupation dates to the Classic Period, but the rich resources of the Huachuca Mountains drew ancient people to the site from Preceramic times through the end of the Prehistoric Period (A.D. 1450). Located 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico Border and 65 miles southeast of the Tucson Basin, Garden Canyon Village was located on the frontier of the Hohokam, Mogollon, Mimbres, and Trincheras culture...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Caitlin Smith.

The production, distribution, and consumption of food are central to the human experience. What we eat and how we prepare, consume, and share our victuals permeates every society, past and present. Therefore, it is crucial that our study of past human societies include attention to the role of foods and diet in our observations and interpretations of archaeological and biological data. Recent research in South Australia has highlighted the need for further exploration into the social structure...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joseph Cronin. Rebecca E. Bria.

Feasting has long been recognized as one of the most widespread and significant political and ritual activities in the prehispanic Andes. In spite of this deep significance, the undecorated ceramics that undoubtedly played important roles in these ritual events are often overlooked for analysis in favor of their more elaborate, decorated counterparts. Here, we present a quantitatively constructed typology for undecorated ceramic vessels recovered from an Early Horizon ceremonial mound at the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tito Mijangos.

En el año 2012 en el Valle de Etla, Oaxaca, México, se realizó el hallazgo de un contexto funerario múltiple, ubicado cronológicamente en la fase Tierras Largas (1400-1150 a.C.), por su ubicación se encuentra aparentemente relacionado con el asentamiento arqueológico de San José Mogote; la particularidad del depósito radica en que, aparentemente el espacio fue utilizado durante un periodo de tiempo relativamente largo –tres o cuatro generaciones- y con un uso exclusivamente funerario, dicho uso...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jordon Loucks.

This study explores the materiality of cultural boundaries manufactured around immigrant communities in industrial localities in New York State. The immigration of thousands of Irish to the United States throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was met with an intense animosity. Religious and economic differences combined with an anti-immigrant sentiment to provide the Irish-American with a continuation of the racist attitudes similar to the ones that plagued English Improvement. Using...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Attila Gyucha. WILLIAM A. PARKINSON. RICHARD W. YERKES. PAUL R. DUFFY.

Regional-scale archaeological surveys can reveal long-tem patterns in human settlement in the landscape. However, many survey projects focus solely on defining the extent and age of settlements. A combined use of various methods is required to develop more nuanced understanding of changes in settlement patterns over time. This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary research project on the settlement history of the Szeghalom microregion in the Körös Region of SE Hungary. During our...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Manuel San Roman. Jimena Torres. Flavia Morello.

The results of Offing 2 Locus 2 archaeological site are presented and used to discuss broader implications for Patagonia hunter-gatherer contexts during Late Holocene. The site is located near Dawson Island, within a strategic geographical position between Fueguian-Patagonian archipelagos and South America mainland . Radiocarbon dating states occupation around 800 BP. Evidence is characteristic of shellmidden deposits and chronological evidence indicates a short occupational sequence. Lithic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chelsea Fisher.

Like many other sites in the northern Maya lowlands, Yaxuná and its environs incorporate a number of cenotes (natural pits in the limestone bedrock that expose underlying groundwater) into the built environment. Interestingly, all but one of these permanent water sources lie beyond the limits of the site’s public and residential core. Residents of the ancient city compensated for this, at least on a seasonal basis, by constructing an aguada (a natural, or in this case human-modified, pond) in...