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

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hans Barnard. Brett Kaufman. Ali Drine.

After Carthage was destroyed by Scipio Africanus Minor (Aemilianus) in 146 BCE, the Punic settlements that it controlled were occupied by the Romans. Exporting wine, olive oil, garum (a sauce made of the fermented intestines of small fish), and purple dye (of Bolinus brandaris and Hexaplex trunculus shell-fish), the eastern Maghreb continued to flourish. Many of the ancient monuments in modern Tunisia date to the centuries following the Roman conquest, until the center of power shifted to the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Susan Pfeiffer. Judith C. Sealy. Ronald F. Williamson.

Following the entry of Zea mays to northeast North America, there are indications of human population growth, suggesting crop intensification. Isotopic values from bone collagen have been inconsistent with this hypothesis, showing temporal and regional fluctuations that have led to hypotheses of sporadic overreliance on this super-crop. Following Katzenberg’s suggestion that intake of this carbohydrate should be measured through apatite rather than protein tissue, and with the permission of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Fernando Ozorio De Almeida. Guilherme Mongeló. Eduardo Góes Neves.

The aim of this presentation is to discuss the importance of the occupation of the so called meaningful places in Amazonia, such as rapids and waterfalls, in the development of regional networks which were archaeologically materialized by the concentration of different ceramic styles in the same site, and possibly through the appearance of new ceramic styles. We further argue that the economic viability of some of these places – and we present here the Teotônio site as an example - did not...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aaron Ott.

This poster displays the relationship between the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán and four smaller pyramids, of similar architecture, concurrently in operation during the period of Aztec dominance in central Mexico. I will demonstrate how the satellite pyramids worked in conjunction with Templo Mayor to form a cohesive religious network, reflecting shared ideology through common ritual use . Using the ethnographic analogy of medieval Catholicism, I will show how Mexica-Aztec religion utilized this...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kenneth Kelly.

The temporary (at least physically) community of Black Rock City, which is constituted for one week each year in the Nevada desert at the Burning Man festival, is made up of hundreds of camps. Many of these camps create architecture, or create reference to architectural style and history, that helps cement a sense of identity to that particular camp. The architectural referents are generally not obscure, as they are intended to be read by both camp members, and others who are not members of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only LisaMarie Malischke. Ian W. Brown.

Fort St. Pierre (1719-1729), located near present-day Vicksburg, Mississippi, was a short-lived French fort on the periphery of colonial Louisiane. Data from the 1974 through 1976 excavations have recently been collated with unreported excavation data acquired in 1977; and now provides a more complete picture of the perimeter of the fort (the palisade and dry moat) and the structural remains within this perimeter. Historical maps of this fort depict an orderly layout of fort structures; but the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jason King. Jason Herrmann. Jane Buikstra. Taylor Thornton.

The Golden Eagle site (11C120), located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, in Calhoun County, Illinois, is the only known Lower Illinois Valley mound site that includes an earthen enclosure. The site is frequently discussed in regional interpretations of moundbuilding traditions, though little is directly known about the site, particularly the embankment. Archaeological investigations have been limited to topographic mapping, pedestrian surveys, and limited inspection of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only William Balco. Michael Kolb.

Excavations in Salemi, Sicily have discovered a large, bell-shaped cistern dating from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. This feature appears to be contemporaneous with a large mosaic floor identified nearby in 1893. The Roman cistern contained a wide variety of domestic debris attesting both the economic interconnectivity and independence of this site. This paper discusses the use and abandonment of the cistern, contextualizing the site within the broader, western Sicilian region. ...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Charity Upson-Taboas.

Pre-Columbian Native Americans of Illinois have had a long history of plant production from foraging to cultivation via horticulture to domestication via agriculture. Isotopic analysis has been used as a standard for comparing diet from different sites and isotopic ratios are given as parts-per-mil (‰), and reflect the consumption of types of food. Carbon isotopes (δ13C) can indicate the types of plants eaten and nitrogen isotopes (δ15N) indicate the trophic level of protein sources in the diet....

DOCUMENT Citation Only R. Lyman.

North American zooarchaeologists believe that prior to 1970, most zooarchaeological reports were laundry lists—lists of taxa identified, perhaps with abundance data. Laundry lists make up 68 percent of titles published between 1900 and 1959; 24 percent of titles published between 1960 and 1979 are laundry lists. Some laundry lists concern samples so small that one should not expect more than a list of identified species; other laundry lists were produced by zoologists who had no knowledge of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Arthur. Matthew Curtis. Kathryn Arthur. Joséphine Lesur. Dorian Fuller.

Preliminary excavations from the Gamo Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Research project in southwest Ethiopia include three caves and one rockshelter, located on the western escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. The analyses of these four mid-altitude (average 2135 meters) sites will add to our understanding of the cultural, ecological, and technological transitions occurring within the last 6000 years. The cave and rockshelter sites indicate the use of a classic Later Stone Age lithic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Briana New. Merisa Stacy. Sarah Blessing. Jessa Ripley. Susan Kuzminsky.

Determining biological/cultural affiliation of prehistoric human skeletal remains for NAGPRA compliance is standard protocol in museums and academic institutions. However, the biological affiliation of skeletons of unknown provenience is not always straightforward, especially when they preclude the use of destructive analytical methods (e.g., DNA extraction). Although software is available for the estimation of ancestry of human skulls in forensic cases, few comparative datasets are available...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Susan Kuzminsky.

Although the origin of the first Americans has been resolved through genetics, the routes that early humans traveled from Asia into North and South America are still the subject of intense scholarly debate. Recent genetic and archaeological data suggest an early migration may have occurred along the Pacific coast of the Americas. Based on these lines of evidence, it is hypothesized that Paleoamericans may show morphological affinities to prehistoric skeletons from coastal sites if an early...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Suzanna Pratt.

The islands of the British West Indies in the eastern Caribbean have been subjected to continuous sugarcane farming since the 17th century. Current land degradation in Antigua has been attributed to centuries of intensive monocropping. However, recent scholarly discussion of the concept of landesque capital challenges the idea that long-term cultivation is a main driver of landscape degradation. The Betty’s Hope plantation on Antigua operated from 1651-1944 and currently faces problems of land...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katelyn DiBenedetto. Levi Keach.

Kritou Marottou Ais Giorkis is an Early Neolithic (9.5 kya) site located, uniquely, in the western foothills of Cyprus’ Troodos Mountains. It is one of five near contemporary sites and has produced the largest chipped stone and faunal assemblages recovered thus far. There are also several preserved circular, cobbled platforms, whose function has yet to be determined. In fact, little is currently understood about the lifeways practiced at the site. This includes the intensity and duration of its...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Triozzi. Henry Towbin. Glen Keeton.

Computed Tomography (CT) scanning empowers researchers to analyze the physical properties of archaeological materials beyond their superficial qualities. Micro CT enables one to non-destructively observe and measure interior features of an artifact with high precision. It also allows one to segment conjoined materials by their relative densities. The processed images can be exported as 3-dimensional models and analyzed in an array of open-source software applications. In this case study we use...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ian Scharlotta.

Provenance analysis of obsidian and rhyolite artifacts from four Late Prehistoric sites located on the edges of the western Mojave Desert suggest direct procurement practices and the presence of a trade network through the Antelope Valley. Less clear is whether evidence for the movement of materials can effectively be used to infer particular cultural territories or specific cultural interactions. Ethnographic work in the Antelope Valley suggests that areas surrounding rhyolitic formations may...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Pochan Chen.

Dian is the most important polity from Warring States to Western Han period in the Dian Lake area of Yunnan, southwestern China. Except sparse records in Shiji, Hanshu and Huayangguozhi, our understanding of Dian all comes from archaeological discoveries, especially those large and complex cemeteries. Since 1950’, archaeologists excavated many important Dian cemeteries including Jinning Shizhaishan, Jiangchuan Lijiashan, Chenggong Tianzimiao, Qujing Batatai, Chengjiang Jinlianshan and Kunming...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Olivier Weller. Jérôme Dubouloz. Laurence Manolakakis.

The Michelsberg Culture saw the onset of major enonomic, social, technological and cultural transformations in agricultural societies around 4200 BC Cal. The most striking feature is without doubt the appearance in the landscape of large sites enclosed by complex systems of ditches and palissades. On the other hand, different modes of production and the exploitation of flint and salt show not only networks of raw material procurement but also a new organisation of territories and the role of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alice Hunt. David Hurst Thomas. Robert Speakman.

Recently, there has been significant interest in the use of portable x-ray fluorescence devices (pXRF) for cultural materials applications, particularly the non–destructive provenance determination of archaeological materials. Historic copper alloys, typically brasses and bronzes, can often be sourced using elemental analysis to reveal regionally and temporally specific impurities and trace element signatures. We investigate the analytical performance of five different pXRF spectrometers for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Deborah Olszewski. Maysoon al-Nahar. Daniel Schyle. Brian Byrd.

Wadi Madamagh, a small rockshelter in the Petra region of the Western Highlands of Jordan, contained high-density deposits of the Late Upper Paleolithic and the Early Epipaleolithic periods. It was first excavated in 1956 by D. Kirkbride, who placed two trenches into the site and briefly reported on the lithics, which have since been studied in detail (B.F. Byrd). A small test along one of Kirkbride’s trenches was conducted in 1983 (D. Schyle), and more intensive excavations were pursued in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Yerkes. William Parkinson. Attila Gyucha.

Ongoing investigations by the Körös Regional Archaeological Project at two Hungarian tells located 7 km apart, Szeghalom-Kovácshalom (SzK50) and Vésztő-Mágor (V15), exposed different dimensions and settlement layouts. The 4.25 ha Vésztő-Mágor tell is 9 meters high, while the 0.5 ha Szeghalom-Kovácshalom tell rises 3.5 m above an old Körös River meander. The first settlers at both tells were Middle Neolithic groups (Szakálhát phase 5200 B.C., cal), but their growth and development diverged during...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Helen Loney.

This poster will present some of the finds analysis from the Worcester Porcelain Project, which is conducting fieldwork in the suburbs and agricultural zones around the City of Worcester, in order to better understand the processes of industrial waste management prior to World War II. The study of industrial archaeology in Britain since the 1960s has emphasized monument and landscape studies, with emphasis on preservation and conservation of iconic factories and installations. In parallel to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Antonio Malpica Cuello.

En la misma costa del reino de Granada, situada al sur de la Península Ibérica, existen unos asentamientos conformados en época andalusí en los que la agricultura tiene unas características específicas. Ha de tenerse en cuenta que las condiciones geomorfológicas y climáticas no favorecen especialmente la creación de paisajes agrarios. Sin embargo, la disponibilidad de agua, que no siempre se concentra en un único punto, sino que se distribuye por todo el conjunto territorial, permite que haya...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anthony Sinclair.

Citations data provide an important but under-utilised resource through which to appreciate the structure and relationships of archaeology as a discipline. This data can be visually mapped to present the key structures of scientific disciplines. This poster will present three network maps of archaeological research based on an analysis of citations index data from more than 20,000 archaeological research outputs published between 2004 and 2013 inclusive. Each map contains information on more...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Li Zhang.

This article detaches Erlitou from the paradigm of "state formation", and argues for an alternative approach: investigating the continuities and shifts in the multiple networks of politics, ideologies, and economics from the Longshan period to the Erlitou period. The development of political networks featured massive population relocations into the Luoyang basin to stabilize the new social order in the Erlitou polity. Transformed political and ethnographic patterns went hand in hand with changes...

DOCUMENT Citation Only YIU-KANG (Gary) HSU. Peter Bray. Mark Pollard.

Traditionally, archaeometallurgists have been focusing on the provenance of metal which assumes a direct linkage between the chemistry of metal ores and metal objects. On the basis of this assumption, they have attempted to reconstruct the flow of raw material across regions/cultures. However, this approach is potentially flawed, since the recycling of metal would alter the initial composition of objects, making the straightforward comparison of metal and ore chemistry problematic. Rather than...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bryn Letham.

Deglaciation following the last glacial maximum caused dramatic coastline changes around the world. Locating and analyzing archaeological evidence of human settlement requires an understanding of the relative sea level (RSL) history and related changes to the landscape. On the Northwest Coast of North America RSL was affected by local glacial and tectonic conditions, and current research demonstrates that sea level histories are locally contingent and vary widely. This paper presents a refined...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail Heller. Mary Schmidt.

Archaeologists have an obligation to ensure the long-term survival and accessibility of collections that embody the tangible remains of community heritage and collective history. This study presents two examples of collaboration between state- and university-based archaeologists that address the current curation crisis and provide much needed training for future professionals. The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology Research Center (OSARC) is the state’s repository and steward for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ariana Lambrides. Marshall Weisler.

Low coral atolls, consisting predominately of unconsolidated sand and gravel, are commonly less than 2 m above sea level; consequently, atolls are amongst the most precarious landscapes for sustained human occupation in Oceania. Constraints encountered by colonisers include nutrient-poor soils and salt laden winds which hindered plant growth, the absence of perennial surface freshwater, limited terrestrial biodiversity, and an inherent vulnerability to extreme weather events. Conversely, the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aviva Cormier.

The northeastern Petén of Guatemala is an ideal area for applying stable isotope analysis to reconstruct past population histories and to explore the interplay of migration and social complexity throughout the rise of the Maya. The strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of dental enamel is a productive alternative when bone collagen is not available or is severely altered by taphonomic processes or conditions of preservation. These isotopic analyses of dental enamel can be combined with...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kevin McGeough. Jerimy Cunningham.

One of the most popular genres of late-Victorian literature was the Bible Customs book. Often written by missionaries who had lived in Palestine for years, these books were intended to help illuminate the Bible based on observations of the flora, fauna, topography, and especially of the people living in the land in the 19th century. Organized according to subject or by Biblical verse, these books presupposed a connection between the people of Biblical times and 19th-century Palestine. In these...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Keitlyn Alcantara. Steven A. Wernke. Lane F. Fargher.

The Tlaxcaltecas are known as one of the few groups to maintain autonomy from the Late Postclassic expansion of the Aztec Triple Alliance in Central Mexico. This is particularly interesting given their location, surrounded by Aztec allies and tributaries. In their 2010 paper, Fargher et al. proposed that the success of the Tlaxcallan state was attributed to a political ideology that emphasized egalitarianism rather than imperialism. In a 2011 paper, Fargher et al. expanded upon this hypothesis...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hermann Gorbahn.

In the Central Andes, plants and animals were domesticated during the Middle Preceramic period (8000-5000 BP). The earliest civilizations, like Caral (Shady 1999,2006), arose around 5000 BP. This process of increasing complexity, however, is far from being understood completely. Whereas most sites of the Middle Preceramic Period with early domesticated plants, like Chilca 1 (Engel 1988), La Paloma (Engel 1980, Benfer 1999) and Huaca Prieta (Bird 1985, Dillehay et al.2012) are located on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jose Peña.

Archaeological investigations conducted at the site of Ingatambo highlight the Inka imperial policy in the provinces, which relied on the use of local ethnic groups in the state bureaucracy. Colonial documentation noted the movement of coastal communities within the Inka Empire to the Cajamarca region in order to serve in the tambos. Pottery sherds from the Ingatambo site illustrate that the coastal communities charged with administrating this site continued to produce pottery following the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Scales.

Between 2012 and 2014, the University of Georgia field school in archaeology undertook investigations at Raccoon Ridge, a highly disturbed Late Woodland-Early Mississippian site in the Georgia Piedmont. Systematic surface collections and shovel tests were used extensively to define the site’s geographical footprint. Geophysical survey, including shallow magnetic gradiometry and susceptibility, together with phosphate analysis were also utilized. Anomalies detected with these methods were...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Lena Jones. Cyler Conrad. Hannah Van Vlack. Seth Newsome.

Recent work on turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in the prehispanic Southwest (e.g., Speller et al. 2010, McCaffery et al. 2014) has highlighted both the long history of domestic turkey use in the Southwest and the concurrent exploitation of the local wild Merriam’s turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo merriami). This new information has added to the ongoing debate over whether turkeys were domesticated for ritual or for dietary purposes. At Tijeras Pueblo (LA 581), turkeys eating a maize-heavy diet...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amalia Perez-Juez. Ricardo J. Elia. Meredith Langlitz.

The archaeological field school is a traditional means of training students in the practical skills of survey, excavation, recording, and artifact processing. Recent discussions about field schools have emphasized the need to approach fieldwork from a holistic perspective and incorporate the theory and practice of archaeological stewardship: preservation, interpretation, management, and public outreach of archaeological resources. In this paper we describe our experience in the development of a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Karine Lefebvre.

La conquista española conllevó importantes trastornos en el paisaje del antiguo México. En la región de Acámbaro (Guanajuato), estos cambios se reflejaron ya desde una fase muy precoz, puesto que la colonización fue temprana y los especies animales y vegetales introducidos por los europeos se adaptaron rápidamente. Por otro lado, el dominio de los conquistadores sobre el territorio se acompañó de una renovación del patrón de asentamiento, que tuvo por consecuencia liberar numerosas tierras...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennie Sturm.

In American archaeology, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has enjoyed its longest use in the Southwest. While this method has long been used to locate features of archaeological interest, much of the focus has now shifted from using this technique as a prospection tool to one that can be used directly in the study of archaeological sites. This reflects an increasing sophistication in the ways practitioners process, interpret, and visualize GPR data, which capitalizes on this method's...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Josh Allen.

Twenty years of cultural resource management efforts have culminated in over four thousand acres of inventoried land in southeastern Sacramento County. With nearly one hundred recorded lithic scatters, middens, bedrock mortars, rock art, and rock shelter sites this data offers the chance to better understand prehistoric settlement patterns along the Cosumnes River and Deer Creek drainages. The data, normally contained in fragmented surveys and limited testing, is an initial look at the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Briana Doering.

Ethnographic records indicate that salmon fishing was a primary activity for Athabaskan people living in Alaska’s interior. Evidence of fish use in antiquity is difficult to assess due to the highly degradable nature of delicate fish bones. Fishing in the archaeological record is identified by fishing tools in addition to faunal remains. This poster will discuss the antiquity of salmon fishing in Alaska's interior through a GIS-based comparison of anadromous fish streams and evidence of fishing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lourenco Pinto.

The use of style is in its infancy in southern African rock art studies with work on style originating with broad generalisations which linked modes of subsistence, material culture and lifeways to style. Recent studies have focused on regional art traditions. The author presents a research case study that advocated for the use of style as praxis. Looking at specific depictions of cross-cultural motifs from the Makgabeng plateau, South Africa, this paper explores the intricate spatio-temporal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Abraham Arnett.

Fifty years ago Paul Martin and John Renaldo of the Field Museum of Natural History directed the excavation of Carter Ranch Pueblo in the Hay Hollow Valley of east central Arizona. Decades later, archaeologists recognized a regional system of settlements in and around the San Juan Basin linked to great houses in Chaco Canyon via roads and highly visible material cultural characteristics. Although Carter Ranch Pueblo displays typical Chacoan attributes, its inclusion within the Chaco regional...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lydia Pittman.

What role did miniature vessels play in the lives of pit house and pueblo peoples of the ancient American Southwest? Were they toys? were they ritual? what is the evidence of their uses?To begin answering these questions I have complied data to explore the contexts of miniature vessels. This poster explores a case study of Mogollon sites (A.D. 200-1450) from Southwestern New Mexico. In this poster I will discuss traces of the life histories of miniature vessels including where they are found...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shannon Horton. Karen Harry.

This poster will examine the variation of corrugated ceramics from the Virgin Branch Puebloan sites located on the Shivwits Plateau and in the lowland region of the Moapa Valley. Variation between these two regions is examined, as well as changes in corrugated designs over time and differences between wares. These data allow us to evaluate patterns of social interaction, trading networks and learning interactions between sites and regions. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ana Morales-Arce. Norma French.

The genetic study of pre-Columbian populations that inhabited the Basin of Mexico has recently started. The genetic analysis of different periods in specific spatial territories could contribute to understand patterns of interaction for pre-Columbian populations that lived in vast Mesoamerica. I use ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis to explore genetic similarities and differences within and between pre-Columbian bone samples, provided by the INAH, Mexico, belonging to post-Classic (900-1521 AD)...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Stirn. Rebecca Sgouros. Robert Curran. Megan Jones. Connor Johnen.

Following nearly a decade of high-elevation research in the Wind River Range of Wyoming, the Teton Archaeological Project seeks to record and interpret prehistoric alpine occupations of the Teton Range. The 2014 field season was multi-focused with three primary goals of; exploring previously unsurveyed areas for archaeological sites, investigating ice-patches for thawing artifacts, and testing the survivability of lipid biomarkers on high-elevation surface artifacts. The work performed in this...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kris Reinicke.

This is the first archaeological investigation into a 17th century Spanish fortification whose remnants lie within a dynamic urban slum setting in La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Fortín de la Perla does not enjoy protection by any government or cultural agency and its condition has substantially deteriorated due to natural and cultural processes. During the first quarter of the 20th century, parts of the Fortín’s structure and immediate surroundings were settled by poor workers and country...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Rorabaugh.

Recently anthropologists have increasingly recognized the role that the control of knowledge has in the production and reproduction of social inequality in small scale societies. In the case of the pre-contact Coast Salish of the Pacific Northwest, ethnographic data emphasizes the role that the control of elite prerogatives had in the maintenance of their status. Drawing upon cultural transmission models, these social relationships would be reflected not only in the prestige goods often...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Watson. Samantha Fladd. Katelyn Bishop. Megan Conger. Sara Morrow.

During the 2014 field season, investigations continued at Roberts Great House, a Late Bonito Subphase (1100-1140 CE) site in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Severely threatened by erosion, the site was originally explored by Frank H. H. Roberts in 1926. The aims of the 2014 season of fieldwork were to assess the pace of erosional processes and resolve questions concerning the duration of the site’s occupation and the nature of its abandonment. After thoroughly mapping and imaging arroyo down-cutting,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lynn Kim.

Although significant research has been accomplished on the Inka Empire, there are still questions about how the Inka integrated diverse people and lands, especially those regions near their imperial frontier, such as the Camata Valley. Understanding how the valley became part of the Inka imperial frontier will shed light into studies of colonialism, borderlands, landscapes, and imperialism. The goal of this poster is to explore patterns across the landscape of the Camata Valley. More...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Neil Hauser. Jenny Milligan. Lynley Wallis. Alan Watchman. Wayne Wilson.

Title: Evaluating NAA, pXRF, and LIBS from the Perspective of Ochre from Gledswood Shelter 1, Queensland, Australia Authors: Neil Hauser, Jenny Milligan, Lynley Wallis, Alan Watchman, and Wayne Wilson Gledswood Shelter 1, Queensland, Australia was utilized by prehistoric people for 40,000 years. As part of the investigation of ochre from Gledswood Shelter 1, several samples recovered from different levels of the shelter were subjected to NAA (neutron activation analysis), pXRF (portable X-ray...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauriane Bourgeon.

While research is still ongoing, the earliest date for the first modern humans in America is well accepted at 14,000 cal BP. Some archaeological sites propose a date prior to the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, however. This is the case of the Bluefish Caves which proposes a human presence in northern Yukon as early as 25,000 uncal BP. Here, approximately 18,000 bone specimens recovered from Cave II have been determined and examined under stereomicroscope. This zooarchaeological and taphonomic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tatsuya Murakami. Shigeru Kabata. Julieta M. López J.. José Juan Chávez V.. Hironori Fukuhara.

Tlalancaleca was one of the largest settlements before the rise of Teotihuacan in Central Mexico and likely provided cultural and historical settings for the creation of Central Mexican urban traditions during later periods. Yet its urbanization process as well as socio-spatial organization remain poorly understood. This paper presents preliminary results of mapping, ground survey, surface collection, manual auger probe, and test excavations, which were carried out over the three seasons of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Annemieke Milks. Matt Pope.

Evidence for hunting amongst hominin groups in northwestern Europe has emerged as a key archaeological research question over the past century. There are three clear archaeological signatures that suggest the possible manufacture and use of simple wooden weapons in Middle Pleistocene Europe: the collection of wooden spears from Schöningen in Germany from MIS 9, a wooden implement from Clacton-on-Sea from MIS 11, and a horse scapula with a possible impact fracture from Boxgrove from MIS 13....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maurizio Forte. Nicola Lercari.

The 3D-Digging Project started at Çatalhöyük in 2009 with the intent to digitally record in 3D all the archaeological stratigraphy in some areas of excavation assembling different devices and technologies for virtually reconstructing all the process in desktop and virtual reality systems. The introduction of 3D data recording and 3D simulation marks a qualitatively new phase of the research process at archaeological sites. This shall facilitate a new mode of inference that can fundamentally...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles Holmes. Ben Potter. Josh Reuther. Barbara Crass.

Research begun in the 1990s focused within a small valley system, Shaw Creek Catchment (SCC), within the middle Tanana valley. Investigations show that long-term habitation and resource exploitation began about 14,200 cal.BP at Swan Point, the oldest site in Alaska. Both Swan Point and Mead date to the terminal Pleistocene. Together they constitute key sites for interior Alaska archaeology with their distinct multi-component records illustrating changes in environment, technology, fauna, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elic Weitzel.

Paleoenvironmental data from the Younger Dryas and Early Holocene indicate that plant and animal communities in the southeastern United States changed substantially between these periods. These reconstructions indicate that during the Early Holocene, climatic amelioration and changes in forest composition may have led to increases in populations of large-bodied animals that were depressed during the Younger Dryas. Based on these data, I hypothesized that there would have been a narrowing of diet...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ash Scheder Black.

Geospatial and temporal mapping technologies continue to rapidly evolve, making possible archaeological visualizations capable of revealing patterns in the past from new and potentially dramatic perspectives. The TemporalMapping.org project, now in collaboration with the University of Oxford’s PalaeoChron.org, will share techniques and research results from data visualization efforts including a global 30-arc second resolution model of sea level change from 475,000 BP to Present and a high...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy De Smet. Tanya M. Peres. Jesse W. Tune.

In May 2014 we collected magnetic gradiometry, frequency-domain electromagnetic-induction (EMI), and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data at the Magnolia Valley site (40RD314) in Rutherford County, Tennessee with the Middle Tennessee State University 2014 Field School, a component of the MTSU Rutherford County Archaeology Research Project (RCARP). We collected data using Geometrics G-858 cesium vapor magnetometer, GSSI’s Profiler EMP-400 multifrequency electromagnetic conductivity meter, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Hays. Richard Weinstein.

Poverty Point and Tick Island were two of the most important sites in the southeast during the Late Archaic period. Previously we have demonstrated a probable connection between the sites, which are separated by over 700 miles, through the identification of Lower Mississippi Valley loessal PPOs at Tick Island, and St Johns pottery, likely from the area of Tick Island, found at Poverty Point. In this paper we identify an additional set of artifacts that are found at both sites but are not know...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Schrader. Michele Buzon.

Nubia, once colonized by the Egyptian Empire during the New Kingdom Period (ca. 1550-1070 BCE), became increasingly independent and powerful with the rise of the Napatan State during the Third Intermediate and Napatan Periods (ca. 1070-664 BCE). This research addresses the social impacts of the New Kingdom/Napatan political and economic transition via the bioarchaeological examination of diet (carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis) and dental health (ante-mortem tooth loss, caries). We...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Pozorski.

Recent excavations at the site of Huerequeque, some 24 km inland at an altitude of 450 m, exposed several large and elaborate hearths, including three ventilated examples. While hearths for cooking and warmth are very common within residential architecture at Huerequeque, these special hearths are consistently associated with non-domestic architecture. One example occupies the center of an intermediate-sized mound structure adjacent to the main platform mound at the site where it served as a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jillian Hendrix. Steven Hackenberger. Diane Ward. Amanda Kaminski. Timothy Ward.

Analyses of organic residues on ceramics complement other types of archaeological evidence used to characterize diets of populations colonizing and adapting to Caribbean Islands. Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) is used to identify compounds sampled from 20 sherds excavated from two households (the Goddard Site 200 B.C. - A.D. 300 and Chancery Lane Site A.D. 800-1500). Measurable peaks of fatty acid residues are present on six samples from the Goddard Site. Smaller traces of fatty...

DOCUMENT Citation Only C. L. Kieffer. Kyle Ports. Marisol Cortes-Rincon. Rissa Trachman.

This research focuses on the faunal material from the caves and sacred deposits at Agua Lluvia and along the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project in northwestern Belize. The analysis and interpretation of faunal material in caves can be problematic for zooarchaeologists. Unlike other archaeological features, caves have the added complexity of bioturbation, irregular stratigraphy, and inconsistent preservation. Similarly, faunal remains found within caves can easily be disregarded on the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Rowe. Collin Rucker.

During the Late Paleocene and Early Eocene, a tropic/sub-tropic forest located in a large swamp was located in present day east-central Colorado. Overtime the swamp was enveloped by subsequent volcanic eruptions which resulted in the creation of the Paleosol-Dawson Arkose formation. The primary area of this geological formation is located in Elbert County, between Colorado Springs and the small town of Agate on the plains of Colorado. Large stands of tropical wood, including sycamore, walnut,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kirk French.

Emblematic of Palenque’s ancient name, Lakamha’ or Big Water, the city is scattered with natural cascades and uniquely constructed aqueducts, bridges, and pools. In May 2014, the Palenque Pool Project began excavating and consolidating the largest of the three pools in the Picota Group, 1 km west of the site center. Prehispanic construction of the feature required the Maya to excavate through bedrock and below the water table. The main pool is equipped with entrance and exit drains as well as a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jamie Civitello.

Since 2012, the Valles Caldera National Preserve has partnered with Earthwatch Institute to bring volunteer-scientists into the field to participate in archaeological research. Volunteers stay overnight on the Preserve for 11 days and work side-by-side with Preserve archaeologists to excavate a large obsidian quarry in the heart of the caldera. The volunteers gain skills in applying archaeological methods, while living and working in one of the most spectacular landscapes of northern New Mexico....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nanebah Nez.

The area known as Fossil Creek in Central Arizona is of significant cultural importance to the Western Apache people. It is known to them as Tu’dotłiz (TWO DOE CLIZ), or "blue water." Tu’dotłiz is associated with the Dilzhę́’é (Tonto Apache) creation story, and a clan origin location imbued with ancient placenames. It is a venue for ceremonies, home of the Gảản (Apache mountain spirits), a source of holy water and herbs, and place where prominent Apache historical figures once lived. As one...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Malainey. Timothy Figol. James Skibo.

Our study of precontact Aboriginal pottery from Western Canada involves morphological, use-alteration and stylistic analyses of individual vessels and the creation of precise three-dimensional vessel models using computer-assisted design (CAD) software that is free-of-charge to students and educators. "Whole vessel" morphological analysis is then performed on the models using the CAD program. Manuals on how to generate and analyze accurate CAD models of whole or partially reconstructed vessels...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Campbell.

The Transitional Archaic (4,100 -2,700 BP) is an often overlooked and underrepresented period in the Northeast; especially in the Maritime Provinces. To explain the origins of these "broadpoint using" cultures, archaeologists over the past few decades have embraced either a cultural diffusion or migration model. In this paper, I reopen the debate by examining existing collections from Maine and the Maritime Provinces, including the newly discovered Transitional Archaic component at the Boswell...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Caroline Funk. Nancy Bigelow. Debra Corbett. Brian Hoffman. Nicole Misarti.

Our multidisciplinary research team is beginning to model the role of humans in shaping the characteristics of existing southern Bering Sea and North Pacific terrestrial and marine ecologies in the Western Aleutians. During this past research season, we defined new cultural loci, acquired on and off-site pollen/tephra cores, and surveyed the coastal zone on areas of Kiska, Segula, and Little Sitkin Islands. The cultural occupations span Aleut prehistory and the World War II Japanese occupation....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alper Basiran. Ass. Prof. Cevdet Merih EREK.

UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), or "drones" as they are commonly referred to, are increasingly common in archaeology. Drones are an emerging technology that can provide low cost tools for aerial photography, regional surveys, site identification, excavation documentation, mapping and 3D photogrammetry. UAVs offer a huge potential for archaeological projects, being able to collect large amounts of high-resolution surface data. They are often cheaper than other aerial photography systems,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jane Buikstra. Kristen Bos. Kelly Harkins. Johannes Krause. Anne Stone.

This paper will first examine skeletal evidence for disseminated TB in the Americas prior to the Era of Exploration. We then consider this American tuberculosis in the context of traditional models and more recent molecular evolutionary models based on contemporary Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strain variation. The most parsimonious current global history for TB places its origin in Africa, then spreading to South and Southeast Asia. Subsequent dispersal to Europe and increased virulence...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kenichiro Tsukamoto.

El Palmar is known as one of the major Classic Maya polities in the central Maya lowland, but the nature of its spatial configuration has remained underexplored. This paper presents the preliminary results of topographic mapping that we have carried out from the 2007 through 2014 field seasons. Using two total stations, our topographic mapping has covered a total of 100 hectares, including the site core and three outlying groups. In the field we documented not only architectural features and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Haubt.

The Rock Art Database is a rock art heritage project at the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU) at Griffith University. It is designed to bring members of the greater rock art community together in one centralized global network to discuss and share rock art information. The platform functions as a hub including data repository and data visualization tools to curate and share digital data sets and encourages members to contribute to the system to improve and streamline rock art...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bong Kang.

Many aquatic and terrestrial animals such as whales, sea lions and turtles, tigers, wild cats, deer, boars, and weasels were identified on the rock art of Bangudae, located in the southeastern part of Korean peninsula. The scenes of human figures, whale hunting, boats, and net and fence huntings are also presented. Some Korean scholars have suggested that domesticated animals such as cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, and dog appear in the rock art. This paper argues that domesticated animals do not...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Evans. Anastasia Steffen.

The Valles caldera holds a key position in the prehistoric human landscape of North America. Located in north-central New Mexico at the highest point of the Jemez Mountains, this area connects the Southwest with the Plains and anchors the southern extent of the Rocky Mountains. In addition to an abundance of high elevation resources, the Jemez volcanic field offered North America’s easternmost sources of high-quality obsidian toolstone. The caldera provides a unique setting for investigating...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Richard Davis.

Since its discovery more than 50 years ago, the Anangula phase has been recognized as the first known occupation in the eastern Aleutian Islands. The initial discovery of the Anangula Blade Site near Umnak Island, and the more recent find of Hog Island in the Unalaska District revealed assemblages in many ways characteristic of highly mobile terrestrial hunter-gatherers with only minimal evidence of a maritime economy. This seeming paradox of island dwellers heavily invested in terrestrial...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Gustas.

The peopling of the Americas continues to be a relevant issue in contemporary archaeology. Due to the very small number of discovered sites which predate 10,000 years before present, the chronology and method of these migration events are not well understood. Previous research has been unsuccessful in consistently identifying sites from this time period and better models are needed to successfully locate sites in this landscape which has gone through radical change over the last 16,000 years....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Schurr. Patrick Donohue. Antonio Simonetti.

Fine earthenwares imported from England are a distinctive type of artifact frequently found on early nineteenth century Native American and Euro-American sites. Relatively rapid changes in decorative motifs and technologies can easily be identified by eye and provide information about site chronology and economic status. However, visual analyses of sherds usually can usually provide only general information because of the fragmentary nature of most assemblages. For example, transfer printed...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Riccardo Bertolazzi.

Roman African provinces are characterized by an extraordinary number of epigraphic sources concerning the dynasty of the first African emperor, Septimius Severus. Among these are many statues dedicated to Severus’ Syrian wife Julia Domna, whose presence at the side of both her husband and her son Caracalla is recorded by the historical accounts on this period. A survey of the African inscriptions that commemorated the erection of statues in her honor leads to the conclusion that at least...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jacob DeGayner.

This poster presents the experiences to date associated with the execution and development of an advanced spatial documentation program at the National Park Service Southern Arizona Office, including sample products, case studies, success metrics and challenges associated with development and implementation. In late 2013, resource managers and support staff of the NPS Southern Arizona group decided to invest in the capacity to complete 3D digital documentation projects in-house. The goals of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Weiland.

Social storage and social complexity indicated in the scale of Hopewell earthwork building, craft specialization, and mortuary goods suggest surplus created though subsistence intensification. However, artifacts and features associated with practical storage of such a surplus are uncommon at most Ohio Hopewell habitation sites. This study takes a step toward resolving this apparent contradiction by developing a predictive model from descriptive and quantitative characteristics of storage...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mariane Gaudreau.

It is widely accepted that the study of material culture and oral narratives are two different but equally important avenues for looking into the past. While the distinct sets of data they produce frequently corroborate and/or complement each other, allowing for a deeper understanding of the past, discrepancies are not uncommon. In those cases, "scientific" data often take precedence and local knowledge is marginalized. While archaeologists see oral narratives as useful "tools" to archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Trabert. David Hill. Margaret Beck. B. Sunday Eiselt. Jeffrey Ferguson.

Small numbers of supposedly "Southwestern" sherds appear at many sites on the Great Plains. Some Dismal River aspect (AD 1650-1725) people living on the Central and High Plains had extensive contact with people in northern New Mexico and may have lived with Puebloan migrants in the late 1600s. Exotic ceramics appear at several Dismal River sites including red slipped wares and micaceous sherds. Using a combination of NAA and petrography, we characterized a sample of these sherds from several...

DOCUMENT Citation Only G. Logan Miller.

Lithic artifacts typically dominate the assemblages of Late Pleistocene sites in North America. Paleo Crossing (33ME274), a Clovis site in northeast Ohio, provides an excellent example of this pattern. Thousands of chipped stone artifacts have been recovered at the site during surface collections and subsurface excavations. However, lithic microwear analysis on a sample of artifacts from Paleo Crossing indicates that the site’s inhabitants expended a great deal of effort on the production of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sebastian Warmlander. Vanessa Muros. Ellen Pearlstein. Kym Faull. David Scott.

Twenty-three forowa metal vessels from Ghana, housed in the Fowler Museum at UCLA, were investigated with regard to manufacture and deterioration. Technical examination revealed that all vessels were manufactured from skillfully hammered brass sheets, and purpose-built for storing shea butter, a multi-purpose substance derived from shea nuts. Most vessels contain remnants of shea butter, which has become discolored: while shea butter extracted using native methods is off-white to yellow, the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Walters. Rebecca Storey.

Recently, children have been a growing focus of mortuary analysis as archaeologists have been interested in how past societies responded to childhood mortality. This study is a comparative analysis of two Preclassic Maya sites, K’axob and Cuello, and the child burials, 25 and 19 burials respectively. The age ranges of the individuals are infant, child, and adolescent. Placement of the burial, burial offerings, type of grave, and other variables are analyzed to determine how children were...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jay Stephens. Pam Vandiver.

Polychrome slipped and decorated pottery from Corinth, Greece, developed over two centuries from monochrome, dark brown slips and washes on a calcareous yellow clay body to a wide range of decorative techniques. Once significant experimentation with color variability began, five colors were produced. Some slip colors involve multiple-step processing to control glass content and degree of sintering; the control of particle size to produce variable roughness and a matte or semi-matt or glossy...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jim Railey.

Control and manipulation of stored food was an important force driving human social evolution. Among the more distinctive forms of storage facilities are bell-shaped pits, which have a global distribution and were common in ancient north-central China. In this paper, size variation of 86 bell-shaped pits, spanning the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age in China’s Yuanqu Basin, are examined in relation to other evidence of sociopolitical complexity and change. The data show a significant increase in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jessica-Louise McNeil. Alex Marginson. Chris Clarkson. Alex Mackay`.

Although the analytical worth of lithic refitting is rarely disputed, it is widely acknowledged that the technique is time- and labour- expensive. This project describes a new method aimed at improving the efficiency and efficacy of refitting studies by using colour scanning technology to capture the discrete colour signatures of individual lithic artefacts. This technique allows an assemblage to be digitally and objectively divided into small colour-based raw material units (RMUs) that have a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ursel Wagner. Benilde Costa. Werner Häusler. A. Silva. Friedrich Wagner.

Roman Haltern 70 type amphorae found at Castro do Vieito, an archaeological site in the north of Portugal, in the former Roman province of Lusitania, were studied by 57-Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, X ray diffraction and X ray fluorescence with the aim of elucidating their firing conditions and their site of production. For comparison, sherds found at eight kiln sites in the south of Spain, in the former Roman provinces of Baetica and Lusitania, were studied. Moreover, clays collected near the kiln...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Irish.

Monochrome red jars and bowls featuring unique unit-stamped designs have been excavated from Late Classic contexts throughout the southern Petén and the areas surrounding the Maya Mountains. Adorning apparently utilitarian vessels, these unit-stamps show both a consistency in size and application across their spatial range, as well as a great diversity in the preferred motifs depicted. Combining a new ceramic chronology developed at Lubaantun and data from across southern Belize and the southern...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aviva Finkelstein.

Bioarchaeology has undergone some amazing advancements since the 1970s. Due to ancient DNA and isotopic analysis, we are now able to understand health, ancestry, and diet, among other topics. Unfortunately, these methods of investigation are largely inaccessible to many descendant communities due to prohibitive costs and the destructive nature of many forms of analyses on human remains. Archaeologists are beginning to respond to these concerns, by developing non-destructive analytical tools....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Diana Zaragoza.

The Huastec, in pre-Hispanic times, always has been considered as a cultural area within Mesoamerica, improperly researchers have taken this as a dogma, which makes that the general use of the concept damages the comprehension of what really happened. By this assertions, over a "Huastec culture", the understanding of this rich multi-cultural region, is complicated. The opinions derived from linguistics, ethnohistory, archaeology and anthropology become difficulties that shape the region into...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Pool.

Pottery is thought to have been introduced into the Mogollon region sometime between A.D. 1 and A.D. 500, probably closer to A.D. 500 than A.D. 1. Dating of the HO-Bar Site and the paucity of ceramics suggest these ceramics are some of the earliest ceramics of the Mogollon Early Pithouse period. A geoarchaeological analysis of the site indicates a main occupation between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200. Typological and functional analyses of 355 sherds and 26 rims from the excavation of approximately 30...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel McTavish. Richard Edwards, IV.

In the Lake Koshkonong locality, Oneota sites are commonly placed near abundant ecotones. Preliminary analyses have compared the diverse suite of resources utilized by the Oneota groups in the region. Just as maize agriculture can tether groups to the landscape (e.g., planting, harvesting, defending surplus), we explore the possibility that the harvesting of watershed resources (e.g., wild rice, fish) could have a similar effect, as both a draw and a tethering agent to a particular location. ...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kirsten Vacca.

Archaeological investigations of pre-European contact Hawai’i rarely consider gendered space within the household—specifically, female spaces. Some scholarship addresses male spaces, yet few researchers currently attempt to understand the household and the landscape in terms of complex gendered interactions. In addition to this lack of household research, issues of androcentrism and historical linearity plague many Hawaiian ethnohistories, leaving fundamental gaps in knowledge that can be filled...