Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ángel Vega-deJesús.

Functionality of lithic assemblages from Puerto Rico has been traditionally based on tools morphology. These suggestions, which are rarely proven, are put to test in the present study in using use-wear analysis of 87 chert flakes from the early site of Cueva Ventana (2400 – 1010 b.C.). Experiments were conducted on 28 flakes of the same raw material, in which microscopic traces present on stone tool surfaces were compared with those present on the tools from the site. These experiments included...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Klassen. Terry Lustig. Damian Evans.

Further research to understand what makes agricultural and water management systems resilient is critical for the continued existence and growth of sustainable communities today, especially in urban contexts. Resiliency is a very useful concept for understanding how complex systems, but can be difficult to operationalize. In this paper, we argue that adaptive capacity can be used as a middle-range theory that allows archaeologists to engage in interdisciplinary discourses of system-level...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Khori Newlander.

Minimum analytical nodule analysis is a useful tool for recognizing the variability present within a lithic assemblage. In turn, this type of analysis permits a more complete understanding of lithic technological organization. Typically, lithic analysts use macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, as well as spatial associations, to partition lithic assemblages into subgroups, or analytical nodules, that we assume reflect a limited set of production episodes or the role of a particular type...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Rogoff.

Over the last several decades, the citizens of Punta Laguna, Mexico have developed a successful ecotourism venture in the spider monkey preserve in which they live. However, recent challenges to the usufruct agreement through which the preserve operates have jeopardized the future of the community's business. At present, the archaeological site of Punta Laguna, which lies within the preserve's boundaries, is little more than a passive backdrop to other tourist activities. We propose developing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Pintar. Amber Johnson. Sarah Lamkin.

Hunter-gatherer lifeways dominated the Salt Puna of South America for at least 5000 years before domesticated animals and plants appear in the archaeological record. The ruggedness of the landscape (with a baseline elevation of 3300 masl), the low ET and the distribution of resources dependent on a decreasing E-W rainfall gradient surely had an impact on prehistoric landscape use and mobility of ancient hunter-gatherers. In this poster we follow Binford (2001) in arguing there is a link between...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Pranavi Ramireddy. Jaime Ullinger. László Paja.

In well-preserved osteoarchaeological samples, traditional anthropological methods are employed to determine age at death, biological sex, differences in diet, activity level, pathologies, and genetics. Determining sex based on classical anthropological methods such as examining morphological and metric traits is often difficult or impossible with cremains due to fragmentation and post-depositional damage. A previous study conducted by Van Deest et al. in 2013 showed a correlation between...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sabrina Shirazi. Courtney Hofman. Torben Rick. Jesus Maldonado.

Conducting aDNA analyses can be limited by the preservation and availability of biological remains at archaeological sites. Soil can contain DNA (environmental DNA [eDNA]) from the animals and plants that were present In the landscape and provide a record of prehistoric plant and animal distributions. We designed and tested a protocol to capture DNA from several extinct and extant taxa from soil on the California Channel Islands as a potential tool for understanding the biogeography of island...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maryann Calleja. Debra Martin.

The archaeological site of Tell Abraq (UAE) has been the subject of multiple studies since its original excavation by Dan Potts. For five seasons between 1989 and 1998 a team of archaeologist excavated the Bronze Age site. The analysis of mortuary context and taphonomy can provide invaluable insights into past biological and cultural conditions. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can facilitate bioarchaeologists in the further investigation of mortuary placement of human remains...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin Junge. Shelby Anderson.

Changing Arctic coastal settlement patterns are often linked to late Holocene environmental change. In northwest Alaska, archaeologists hypothesize that environmental variability was a major factor in both growing coastal population density between 1000 and 500 ya, and subsequent decreasing population density between 500 ya and the contact era. After 500 ya people dispersed to smaller settlements in coastal areas, and perhaps, upriver. This hypothesized pattern is based on older research that...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine Hicks.

This paper focuses on the use of a geographical information system (GIS) as a tool to identify the distribution and association of mortuary artifacts and skeletal remains within the Spring Street Presbyterian Church burial vaults (ca.1820–1846). The GIS study presented here is one component of a microhistorical approach to exploring a 19th century neighborhood in New York City’s 8th Ward during a period of rapidly changing urban, social, and economic landscapes. Viewing the city through the lens...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennie Sturm.

Recent geophysical remote sensing investigations conducted in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico have included studies at the "Chetro Ketl field" complex. This area is widely interpreted as gridded agricultural fields, though a lack of other gridded fields in the canyon have led some to question whether the Chetro Ketl "field" served an agricultural function. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys conducted here resulted in the unexpected identification of a complicated series of buried features at...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michelle Eusebio. Philip Piper. Fredeliza Campos. Andrew Zimmerman. John Krigbaum.

Recent advances in isotopic analysis have enabled archaeologists to move beyond subsistence and diet toward the full chaîne opératoire of foodways that includes inference of past culinary practices. Together with faunal identification, isotopic analysis of organic residues derived from ancient pottery helps to create linkages between material culture (i.e., pottery) and how animals were prepared and consumed, which, in turn, may be used to infer aspects of identity. Isotopic databases of modern...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Hill.

Petrographic analysis has been commonly used to identify trade in ceramics and stone tools. At the Raven’s Nest site petrographic analysis was used to characterize the compositional variation in the ceramic assemblage recovered during excavation. The homogeneous nature of the ceramic pastes of the assemblage prompted additional petrographic study of local soils and geologic outcrops. Comparison of the local resources with the ceramics indicated the possibility for the local production of pottery...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dominique Meyer. Jamie Hodgkins. Caley Orr. Fabio Negrino. Matthias Czechowski.

Archaeological excavations are increasingly using digital surveying techniques for better documentation and visualization. Using high resolution imaging systems and UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems), photographic surveys were completed of the interior and exterior of the Arma Veirana Cave in Liguria, Italy. The aim is to contextualize the excavation within its environment for accurately geo-referencing the excavation trenches and to better understand how Neanderthals lived with respect to their...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathleen Forste.

The contents of archaeological features targeted for the recovery of botanical remains, such as hearths, ovens, pits, and floor surfaces, are more often than not the cumulative residue of multiple episodes of cooking, cleaning, or other activities that deposit and preserve plant parts. The actions responsible for this deposition can be illuminated when the patterns within the assemblage are interpreted within the framework of practice theory, which is well-suited for such applications due to its...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Max Seidita. Lucas Martindale Johnson.

This poster discusses the levels of access to various obsidian sources and source regions as a prerequisite to testing a market exchange model for the distribution of obsidian during the Postclassic period (A.D 1150 - 1530) at Santa Rita Corozal, Belize. A sample of 247 obsidian artifacts dating to the Postclassic period were assayed using portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) to determine the obsidian sources being exploited. Five sources were identified in the assemblage, including...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Gadsby. Lindsey Cochran.

Heritage sites worldwide are threatened by human action and inaction; archaeologists are observers of the era of human-induced global change. We are specially positioned to use our data to examine such change through the material record. Additionally, archaeologists have been recording observations about the condition of sites for many years, even if those observations are not always intended to monitor site condition or integrity. Archaeologists in the National Park Service have, in maintaining...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Green. Nicole Pezzotti.

The Wedgworth Midden Site (8PB16175) is a newly identified pop-up tree island site southeast of Lake Okeechobee, in Belle Glade, Florida. It is the last stratified muck site to be excavated in Palm Beach County since Belle Glade Mound in 1977. The site presents with cultural occupations from the Late Archaic into the Woodland Period and is considered a part of the Belle Glade Culture. We compared Wedgworth to the nearby Bryant Site (8PB46) specifically because the ceramic types present at the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eric Guiry. Michael Richards.

This presentation explores the utility of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses as a method for tracing the geographical origins of meat products from major livestock species. Samples (n= 250) from pigs and cattle consumed in the historical city of York, later renamed Toronto, in Canada are compared with animals raised in other areas, in both local as well as distant regions. Results show how cultural as well as environmental isotopic variables can be used to distinguish between animals...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dominic Bush. Mark Schurr.

Previous research on the faunal assemblage recovered from the Collier Lodge site (12PR36) centered on the presence and absence of taxa to reconstruct a possible diet breadth for inhabitants of this historic Indiana site. However, the focus of this year’s research is the inferences drawn from stable isotope analysis of said assemblage; specifically, the ratio of 12C to 13C and 15N to 14N. The former provides insights into the source of carbon obtained through diet, while the latter gives clues to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Keith Merwin.

Providing adequate lighting for subterranean work at a remote site in the Peten of Guatemala usually involves flashlights or gasoline generators and CFL lights on homemade power cords. Because of the cost of generators and the difficulty and cost of transporting fuel to the field site most tunnel work uses head lamps and flashlights. In an effort to be environmentally sensitive and to be more efficient the Holmul Archaeological Project has started using 12 volt LED light strips powered by a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joanne Murphy.

This paper aims to explore the value of faience and glass in Bronze Age Pylos with a view to reconstructing the wealth and status of the people with whom they were buried. These beads must have been imported to Pylos as finished objects since none of the raw materials are found locally and we have no evidence for their manufacture or production at Pylos. Indeed our analysis of a sample of the vitreous beads shows that some of these beads, or at least their substance, originated in Egypt and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sean Devlin.

Archaeologies of colonialism have presented models that draw out the complex political interactions of meaning making via material practices that take place at the intersection of daily lives between populations of colonized and the colonizer. Traditional approaches to the archaeology of slavery within the Anglo-Caribbean have tended to transpose these categories onto enslaved Africans and white settlers. The result is a tendency to emphasis meaning making through material in terms of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Martin McAllister. Brent Kober.

Law enforcement officers working for agencies not directly involved in land management, such as county sheriff’s departments, traditionally have not been trained to recognize evidence of crimes related to resource protection, for example, artifacts and human remains stolen in the commission of archaeological crimes. In a recent class presented by our firm and cohosted by the Lake County, California Sheriff’s Department and two California tribes, sheriff’s deputies and evidence technicians...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jarrod Burks.

Many Ohio Hopewell earthworks present an interesting challenge to archaeological geophysics: they are very large and contain vast amounts of what seems to be empty space. Both have limited our understanding of the breadth of the archaeological record at these complex sites; that is, until very recently. Large-area surveys at three Hopewell earthwork complexes in Ross County, Ohio (Hopewell Mound Group, High Bank Works, and Hopeton Works, ca. 30 ha each), have uncovered a wealth of new features,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alice LEPLONGEON. Erella Hovers. David Pleurdeau.

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) is traditionally defined by flake, point and elongated blank production associated with retouched tools (e.g. scrapers and retouched points). However, a great cultural variability is observed, whether it is linked with spatial (e.g. Brandt 1986, Clark 1988), or temporal (Early vs Late MSA, e.g. Douze 2011) variability. Here we present results from a comparative analysis of the lithic assemblages from Porc-Epic Cave (e.g. Clark and Williamson 1984, Pleurdeau, 2005) and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Peart. Sara Watson. Hannah Keller. Naomi Cleghorn.

Fluctuating sea levels during Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3) resulted in radically shifting environmental zones and shoreline position along the southern African coast. Investigation of the intensity of site use and find types relative to modeled coastline proximity provides insight into early human responses to such environmental perturbations. Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 (KEH1), a coastal cave site in Western Cape Province, is the only documented locality along the modern coast that preserves a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Mongelluzzo.

Ancient Maya palaces from the Classic Period exhibit a high degree of similarity in terms of architectural layout. While the significance of the similarities has been explored previously, the differences have not been understood as well. This paper attempts to explicate differences in morphology and begin to understand their meaning.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mechell Frazier.

Changes documented from the pre-Classic to Classic period (A.D. 475-1450) suggest that a larger social or political movement was occurring within the Hohokam regional system, but the motives behind this change are poorly understood. To fully understand this phenomenon it is necessary to examine how the change differed within the Hohokam regional system. Researchers can observe this relationship through the study of what Nelson (2006:345) calls "interaction markers", artifacts and architectural...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jason Nesbitt.

The Caballo Muerto Complex is well known for the presence of numerous Initial Period platform mounds thought to have functioned as temples. What is less known, is that some of the mounds, including Huaca Herederos Grande and Huaca Cortada were associated with smaller-scale buildings that also seem to have functioned as religious structures. In this paper, I discuss investigations of a square abode building found at the base of Huaca Cortada. Excavation of the structure demonstrated that the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Pierre De Maret. Serge Bahuchet.

A large scale comparative research project on the state of the peoples living in the Rain Forests of Central Africa, the Guyana’s in South America and in Melanesia, has highlighted the anthropic character of tropical rain forests. It has particularly underlined the strong correlation between biodiversity and cultural diversity and how domesticated and wild resources interact in the various subsistence systems. Activities associated with shifting cultivation contribute to man-made biodiversity in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only April Smith. Xiaofei Li. Laurie Reitsema.

During pregnancy, women experience lordotic posturing to compensate for the weight of the growing fetus. Biomechanical stress from lordotic posturing causes bone remodeling of the lumbar spine during pregnancy resulting in lumbar wedging, which may persist after giving birth. Persistence of lumbar wedging in skeletal samples has potential applications for estimating parity in the archaeological record. This research analyzes the possibility that lumbar wedging is observable in the skeletal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rochelle Marrinan.

The Grand Mound Shell Ring (8Du1) is a Mississippi-period site on the southern end of Big Talbot Island in Duval County, Florida. The site consists of an annular shell midden, composed primarily of oyster, with a sand burial mound deposited over the western ring arc. Excavations by faculty of the University of North Florida recovered a large vertebrate faunal sample marked by the presence of numerous avian species, some of which today are extinct. This paper presents the vertebrate faunal data...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Melissa Baltus.

By replacing representational thinking with a relational perspective, archaeologists hope to better understand the past-as-lived and experienced. Here I seek to locate the relational in the “mundane”, with a consideration of pottery production, use, and deposition as part of the many changing relationships associated with the urbanization and abandonment of the pre-Columbian city of Cahokia. These relationships include pastes as well as potters, engaging humans and non-humans, in the shifting...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Virginia Clifton.

By 1875 Ouray, Colorado was a booming mining town with a prosperous red light district (Vanoli Site 5OR30) after rich silver veins were discovered in the surrounding mountains. As the town rapidly expanded and prospectors flooded into the mines, the red light district flourished, entertaining the thousands of miners in the area. In 1977, excavations led by Steve Baker investigated the lives of patrons and prostitutes who frequented the Vanoli red light district. As a result, thousands of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Uzi Baram.

For talented story-tellers, the past can be conjured up and presented through thrilling narrative arcs and vivid imagery. The result can make the listener feel like they are in an ancient place. But the audience listens, with only awe as the result. With expanding digital technologies, the archaeological past can be animated. Students can immerse themselves in reconstructed buildings and landscapes and move through ancient places, examine material culture from multiple angles, and even engage in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Anna Guengerich.

The highland Andes underwent major transformations in settlement organization between AD1000-1300, in the first half of the Late Intermediate Period. Settlement patterning shifted to higher altitudes, and in some areas, new sites were accompanied by defensive features. Most research has focused on the structural pressures that led to these changes, such as an increase of violence in the wake of Middle Horizon polity collapse, or a shift to pastoralism as a result of climate change. This paper...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Denise Arnold.

This paper traces the gradual acquisition of increasingly complex mental and haptic operations as a girl learns to weave in the Andes. She starts early with fingertip ‘synaesthetic’ knowledge of fleece thickness and quality as she prepares raw materials and spins them, and the mental-visual knowledge of counting herd animals in her pasturing duties. She passes on to the visual recognition of selection and counting patterns in simple crossed-warp weaves, in belt straps, and then to the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joseph Waller. Alan Leveillee.

The Salt Pond archaeological site was identified during environmental review planning for a proposed residential subdivision in the 1980s. Archaeological investigations in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s provided glimpses into Native American settlement and subsistence strategies within Rhode Island's coastal zone. Continued multi-disciplinary study of this culturally significant place has provided a wealth of new information on the late pre-contact environment, Native American village...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bill Sillar.

The paper uses archaeological, historical, ethnographic and geological approaches in an investigation of a small volcano in the department of Cuzco, Peru. Kinsich’ata erupted around 10,000 years ago, but its presence in the landscape is attributed to the animating deity Viracocha in an origin myth that ties Kinsich’ata into a wider narrative cycle locating the social order within the experienced landscape. Kinsich’ata’s eruption disrupted the landscape, altering the path of the river Vilcanota...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Carter.

In the 1960’s, Ivan Sutherland envisioned a time in the near future in which people would be able to physically enter into an alternative, "digital" world. The ability to not only see the environment around them, but also to touch, smell, hear and be affected by the environment itself would provide a unique digital phenomenological experience where viewers become participants and build on their own personal narratives in a non-linear, almost life-like, virtual experience. In reimagining a 15th...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kalyan Chakraborty.

Illustration of various means has always helped in visualising complex information, and archaeologists have used means such as photographs, drawings and even three-dimensional illustration to present complex archaeological data. Archaeologists began using three-dimensional models of various archaeological monuments only in 1990s. However, in recent years, and with high-end computer applications, archaeologists are able to document different stages of excavations using 3D illustration, which has...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Payne. Anthony De La Rosa. Kelly Michel.

Nake’muu Pueblo is situated at the tip of a mesa above the confluence of Water Canyon and Cañon de Valle at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico. This area of LANL is not accessible to the public. Nake'muu is an ancestral site to the Pueblo de San Ildefonso. The site is important as a Coalition period (A.D. 1200-1325) site and because it was reoccupied during the Pueblo Revolt (A.D. 1680-1682). Nake’muu is also the only pueblo at LANL that retains standing walls. For...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Herbert Maschner.

The promise of the information age is access to data. Advances in online data availability have permeated nearly every scientific and humanities field providing access to unprecedented quantities of research materials. But the key missing element in archaeological (and paleontological research) is access to the material remains that are key to investigating the past. Because of logistical barriers, conservation concerns, conditions of ownership, or other factors limiting access, many of the most...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Pateman. Kelley Scudder. Christopher Davis.

The National Museum of The Bahamas/Antiquities, Monuments and Museum Corporation (AMMC) is the agency designated to identify, manage and conserve tangible and intangible cultural resources throughout The Bahamas. The AMMC is in the process of developing a protocol model that will further enhance the identification and conservation of identified and yet to be identified archaeological sites. An essential component of the development of this process is the inclusion of members of each island...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy Pauketat. Susan Alt.

Various archaeological approaches exaggerate relations with objects at the expense of the affectivity of substances, phenomena, materials, and spaces. New data from the 11th century foundations of the Cahokian world suggest that the experience of substantial, phenomenal, material and spatial qualities were the primary constituents of a form of religious conversion also known as Mississippianization. Circular buildings at the Emerald site embodied these qualities and point to the creation of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bernard Means.

The Virtual Curation Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) uses 3D scanning technologies to capture archaeological discoveries from all over the world. Used effectively, these 3D digital artifact models can help cultural heritage institutions share their amazing discoveries to a global audience and not simply to their fixed geographic locations. How to share these 3D digital artifact models to an audience wider than undergraduate students and professional archaeologists has proven...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mallory Matsumoto. Misha Miller-Sisson.

Excavations during the 2014 field season at the Maya site of Uxul in Campeche, Mexico revealed an Early Classic ceramic burial vessel that was embellished with hieroglyphic elements and contained an infant skeleton. The hieroglyphic elements on the vessel body and lid visually represent the underworld and feature components of larger phrases that are used in Classic Maya monumental and ceramic texts to record processes of death and renewal. The occurrence of both iconographic and hieroglyphic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Hodge. Camilla Mazzucato.

GIS-based data visualization offers a dynamic, compelling tool not only for promoting on-campus collections, but also for studying and managing these resources within frameworks of engagement, openness, and reflexivity. The Stanford University Archaeology Collections (SUAC) cares for over 30,000 archaeological and ethnographic artifacts from campus lands and around the world. These items manifest a range of complex histories and present-day significances. The collections were recently...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcela Bernal. Lucero Aristizábal. Carl Langebaek. Freddy Rodríguez. Luz Pérez.

This paper studies the relation between feasts and other issues that are traditionally related the power of Muisca chiefs in their communities. The research question deals with the linkage between different dimensions of the social stratification in the La the Muisca site of Tibanica, including: feasting itself, health, kinship and nutrition. It is argued that there is no lineal relation between such variables, and that Muisca social organization is best understood from a multidimensional and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jamie Forde.

In this paper I present data from recent excavations at the highland Mixtec site of Achiutla, Oaxaca, Mexico, to shed light on how indigenous residents there negotiated changes and continuities in exchange relationships from the Postclassic (AD 900-1521) to Early Colonial (AD 1521-1650) periods. Various lines of evidence demonstrate that Achiutla had significant economic ties to both the Basin of Mexico and the Oaxaca coast, and that the site was an important locus along trade routes between the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julien Riel-Salvatore. Fabio Negrino.

There has been a lot of focus on the disruptive effects of dramatic climatic shifts on Paloelithic population dynamics, but the topic of cultural continuity across such events has been less intensely investigated. This paper presents data from some of our recent research projects in Liguria, especially from the site of Riparo Bombrini, to investigate the nature of the apparent resilience of the proto-Aurignacian in the face of events like the Phlegrean Fields eruption and the reasons why the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Egan.

Payson Sheets’ seminal work on the Tierra Joven Blanca (TBJ) eruption of the Ilopango Caldera, El Salvador was one of the first projects to address the impact of large-scale disasters in Mesoamerica. The on-going research on this eruption has been important for understanding the event as well as developing method and theory for reconstructing the cultural impact(s) of sudden massive stresses. While originally dated to AD 290±110, the TBJ eruption has been re-dated to the mid 5-6th century and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Errin Weller.

Over multiple field seasons, Dr. Payson Sheets has led the Proyecto Prehistorico Arenal in the Northwest corner of Costa Rica. A landscape characterized by repeated volcanic eruptions has resulted in the preservation of prehistoric footpaths. Dr. Sheets established a methodology combining satellite imagery and archaeology that could differentiate between erosional, historic, and prehistoric footpath features. This paper will focus on this methodology and Dr. Sheets’ contribution to remote...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patrick Ryan Williams. Donna Nash. Anita Cook. William Isbell.

Between 500 and 600 AD, the first expansive state of the central highlands of Peru emerged in the Ayacucho Basin. This state, known as Wari after its capital city located in the same region, established far flung colonies covering much of the mountainous region of modern day Peru. Research in the heartland sites of Conchopata and Wari and in the provincial sites of Cerros Baul and Mejia have yielded new insights into the economic production of the early imperial state, including significant new...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia Chirinos Ogata.

The Wari empire built at least two main centers in the Cajamarca region as part of its expansion to different regions of the Central Andes. One of them, Yamobamba, 25 km southeast on the road to Huamachuco, presents an architectural pattern that corresponds to Wari canons, including square patios, narrow corridors, and peripheral galleries. In particular, its distribution, size, and orientation show a strong resemblance to Jincamocco (Ayacucho), almost 900 km away. Recent research at Yamobamba...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brady Liss. Thomas Levy.

Recent excavations by the Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project at Khirbat al-Jariya (KAJ), an Iron Age (ca. 1200-586 BCE) copper smelting center in Jordan’s Faynan region, aimed to explore the site’s rich metallurgical history. KAJ is characterized by architectural features and large slag (smelting waste byproduct) mounds visible on the surface, attesting to its significance as a copper production site. These renewed excavations investigated the abundant metallurgical remains by probing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leah Marajh.

Water management practices have been instrumental in the rise and collapse of many complex societies. Informed through case studies from South India and Sri Lanka this paper explores the importance of water management in their developmental trajectories during the Chola (848-1279 CE) and Sinhalese Empires (377 BCE-1310 CE). Initial conditions that led to the impetus for water management include environment and climate changes. Continued growth and prosperity relied on the development and use of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Emily Holt. Anke Marsh.

The Nuragic culture of Bronze Age Sardinia (c. 1700-900 BCE) is known for building thousands of monumental stone towers called nuraghi throughout the island. However, toward the end of the Bronze Age, Nuragic leaders stopped building nuraghi and instead constructed underground temples over naturally occurring springs. Previous research assumes that this architectural shift took place rapidly in the Final Bronze Age (c. 1175-1020 BCE), representing a sudden rise in the importance of water ritual....

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Freidel. Mary Jane Acuna. Carlos Chiriboga.

Vernon Scarborough’s path-breaking work on lowland Maya water management has focused attention on the way that the Maya conceptualized and utilized landscape and its water sources for political, religious and economic purposes. Research in northwestern Peten suggests that canoe traffic linked the site of El Achiotal adjacent to the Central Karstic Uplands to the San Pedro Martir River by way of the San Juan River commanded by El Peru-Waka’. The Mirador hill at Waka’ was conceived as a water...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Roland Fletcher.

Angkor, in Cambodia, between the 7th and the 13th century depended on the largest urban water management infrastructure of the agrarian urban world. The key elements of this infrastructure came into being before the global climate transition of the 9th-10th century CE. That infrastructure was vital for coping with the start of the Medieval Warm Phase when other societies around the world experienced severe crises. By the 14th century, some parts of Angkor’s infrastructure were nearly 500 years...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andres Mejia Ramon. Luis Barba. Deborah Nichols. Sergio Gomez.

As showcased by the "Feeding Teotihuacan" symposium at the 79th Annual Meetings of the Society, there has been a surge of interest in understanding Teotihuacano agriculture or food production. Nevertheless, there is still the glaring question of how the ancient inhabitants dealt with water collection and irrigation in the semi-arid environment of the Northeastern Basin of Mexico. Although canal systems have been previously identified and excavated in various sites throughout the Teotihuacan...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erik Johannesson.

Subject to continuous change, landscapes represent palimpsests of successive alterations over time. As such, landscapes have history. Following Carole Crumley’s major contributions to historical ecology, this paper charts diachronic change in mortuary landscapes in Mongolia against the backdrop of three major nomadic polities: the Xiongnu (200 BC-200 AD), The Turk Empire (550-850 AD), and the Mongol Empire (1200-1400 AD). The construction of impressive funerary stone monuments has been a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Leslie Aragon.

In the prehispanic Salt River Valley (SRV), the extensive canal systems that provided irrigation to the desert farmers, known by archaeologists as the Hohokam, also serve as tangible networks that link villages along an individual canal’s route. Many of the villages in the valley are incredibly long-lived, spanning hundreds of years and multiple generations, providing unique time-depth in which to study how social relationships changed within a region of the Southwest. In order to better...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ronald Faulseit. Gary Feinman. Linda Nicholas.

The Late Classic period in the Valley of Oaxaca is marked by shared practices in residential organization, design, the layout of houses, and domestic artifact assemblages both within and between sites throughout the region. This degree of homogeneity allows for cross-site comparison of excavated residences to examine household wealth inequality on a systemic and regional scale. In this paper, we employ different indices to explore multiple lines of evidence (e.g., patio size and other...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Mazow.

The existence of weaving swords in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant is hinted at in both the textual and archaeological records. Furthermore, weaving swords as grave goods would fit the generally accepted pattern of weaving tools in association with female burials. Yet when swords have been found in graves with positively identified females, the deceased have been described as ‘warrior women’ or the burial reinterpreted so as to disassociate biological sex and gender. In recognizing the use of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Mathiowetz.

West Mexican archaeologists long have noted that around AD 900 the material culture record in this broad region exhibits a pronounced increase in the presence of modeled ceramic spindle whorls, particularly along the Pacific coastal plain of Nayarit and south-central Sinaloa. Although limited evidence of cotton in this region is present in the Classic period, the heightened cotton cultivation and consumption that seemed to accompany the dramatic social transformations in the Aztatlán culture...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carrie Todd. Gabrielle Vail.

Ethnohistoric sources point to the importance of textile production in the northern Maya lowlands in the years immediately preceding and following the Spanish conquest. Archaeological evidence of textiles and their creation comes from a variety of sources, including fragments of cloth recovered from the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá; spindle whorls found in domestic and ceremonial contexts at Chichén Itzá, the nearby cave site of Balankanche’, and other archaeological sites in the vicinity; and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Venicia Slotten. David Lentz.

Our understanding of the diet, subsistence, and agricultural practices of ancient Maya commoners has been remarkably enhanced thanks to many years of archaeological investigations at Cerén led by Payson Sheets. The recovery of paleoethnobotanical remains at the site has revealed not only the storage of various well-preserved foodstuffs, but also extensive house gardens and agricultural fields filled with lasting impressions and carbonized remains of a diverse set of plant species including...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alexandra Parsons. Rochelle Marrinan. Margo Schwadron.

In 1968, a dredging project alongside the Anhinga Trail in Taylor Slough, Florida unearthed an unusually large collection of worked bone objects. Peat deposits in the slough afforded excellent preservation conditions – some of the bone tools still contain wooden shafts and pitch. Sometime after its discovery, the collection was split between different institutions and lost. This important collection has recently been relocated and rejoined and is described in this paper. The assemblage consists...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lisa Matisoo-Smith.

Recent reports of ancient DNA recovery from samples that are 10s if not 100s of thousands of years old attest to the amazing developments in aDNA technology in recent years. Unfortunately, most aDNA from the Pacific Islands is poorly preserved and highly degraded. Despite the relatively short history of settlement on many Pacific Islands, ancient DNA is often difficult, if not impossible, to obtain from archaeological samples recovered from Pacific sites. Still, we are able to recover aDNA...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mischa Johns. Carl Halbirt.

Since the City of St. Augustine's Archaeological Preservation Ordinance was enacted in 1986 more than 200 wells have been excavated. This presentation takes a look at some of the styles and circumstances of their construction and examines the the distribution of these various styles across the city's archaeological zones during the city's centuries of development. Through the varieties of well construction used over the centuries we hope to glean insight into the path that the city has taken...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joanna Hambly.

Former sea caves at East Wemyss in Scotland are unique because of the carvings within them. These include around 40 surviving Pictish (5th-9th century AD) symbols and animal representations; a possible Viking boat; early Christian crosses; and 19th century monograms and graffiti related to local New Year rituals. Located in a former coal mining area, today you are far more likely to read bad news stories about the impact of vandalism, structural instability and coastal erosion upon this unique...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Travis Jones. Todd Kristensen. Jeff Speakman.

In January of 2015, researchers from the Royal Alberta Museum, Canada, and the University of Georgia Center for Applied Isotope Studies collaborated on one of the largest geochemical analyses of archaeological obsidian via portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) to date in western Canada, a region previously lacking large scale obsidian XRF analysis. This study is part of a larger project to synthesize obsidian use in the Eastern Rocky Mountains. The Canadian sample consists of approximately 750...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Manuel San Roman. Omar Reyes. Javier Cárcamo. Jimena Torres.

The Chonos archipelago (43°50’-46°50’S) at the western Patagonian channels of Chile was peopled by marine hunter gatherers known as Chonos. Archaeological occupation spans from 6260 cal years BP unto the 18th century. Recently the archaeological record has been described and characterized through surveys, test pits and systematic excavations in different parts of the region. This work presents a first synthesis of faunal resource exploitation for a range of islands, considering archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Diana Moreiras Reynaga.

This poster introduces my doctoral research project which entails a stable isotope analysis of human sacrificial subjects recovered from the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan and its sister city Tlatelolco (present-day Mexico City) dating to the Late Postclassic period (A.D. 1400 — 1519). The collections include adult and subadult sacrificed individuals from the Templo Mayor and Templo R. This research focuses on expanding our knowledge about dietary and mobility patterns of sacrificial...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Derek Hamilton. Kerry Sayle. Colin Haselgrove. Gordon Cook.

The Middle Iron Age in southern central Britain (c. 300–150 cal BC) is a period that is often seen as becoming regionally inward-looking. A primary focus of the mixed agriculturalists is on building and maintaining massive hillforts. There is very little long-distance exchange or trade noted in the archaeological record, and the metalwork at the time takes on insular forms (e.g. involuted brooches) that separate it from the Continental connections observable in both the Early and Late Iron...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Katie Richards. Lindsay Johansson.

The meaning of the term Fremont has been heavily debated for almost as long as it has existed. For over half of a century many archaeologists have argued that the term is only useful in that it encapsulates the highly variable practices of a region. Others have argued that defining Fremont is impossible and even unproductive. We disagree with these assertions. We believe that there are sufficient similarities in material culture and social organization across the Fremont region to suggest that a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Richards-Rissetto.

Until recently, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have held center stage in the archaeologist’s geospatial toolkit. GIS has moved archaeologists beyond the map—but into what? In the early years, criticisms voicing GIS as environmentally-deterministic were abundant. In the ensuing years what methods and tool have archaeologists used to overcome these criticisms? How successful have we been? What shortcomings continue? New geospatial technologies such as airborne lidar and aerial photogrammetry...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Knut Bretzke.

The southern route for human dispersal out of Africa has moved from being a hypothetical idea to being considered a plausible path of human expansion. Fundamental for this development is the intensified field work in Arabia over the past decade. The stratified Paleolithic assemblages from Jebel Faya in the Emirate of Sharjah, U.A.E. play a critical role in this context. Given that Jebel Faya is separated from the African coast of the Red Sea by about 2000 km the question arise what Jebel Faya...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tristan Harrenstein.

Part of the Florida Public Archaeology Network’s mission is to work with local governments to both protect archaeological sites and to ensure that these communities receive the benefits related to their preservation. However, many of the smaller communities in Florida are unaware of the opportunities available for state and federal assistance in preserving their heritage. This paper details a new project designed to educate local governments and historical societies about the benefits and legal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sally Crawford.

It has been incredibly difficult to identify children's material culture in the archaeological record using the standard parameters of the last century - is it miniature? does it look like a (modern) toy? was it found actually buried with an actual child? But recent developments in the theory of the archaeology of childhood, particularly in relation to children's toys, play spaces and activities, offer new ways of asking questions of objects to reconsider whether they might be child-related,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Pohl. Christopher von Nagy. Joseph Gamble. Gabriel Lima Estudillo. Eliseo Padilla Gutiérrez.

Cave murals, painted in Olmec style with iconographic links to the major Gulf coast center of La Venta, appear to communicate the dynamism of interregional relationships in an era of rising urbanism. The paintings seem to evoke the evolution of hierarchical positioning among political and religious actors. They might reveal the tools for local and long-distance power building. Yet the work that has clarified the nature of Oxtotitlán Cave and its associated site of Quiotepec has extended the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Field. Jaime Pagán-Jiménez. Menno Hoogland. Jason Laffoon. Corrine Hofman.

The exploitation of plants in the tropical belt by Europeans had a major influence on the distributions of many species. The Lesser Antillean islands received their fair share of new arrivals. But what plant species inhabited the Lesser Antillean islands just prior to 1492? Establishing which plant species occurred immediately before colonial times would increase our understanding of the impact of alien introductions, provide information about biogeographical range changes, and, in addition,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Sutherland. Montana Martin.

Constructing monuments is, in essence, a construction of memory. Conversely, destruction of monuments can be the erosion of memory. Pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas built and maintained monuments as a form of memory-making and place-making. Digital Elevation Models (DEM) provide us an opportunity to re-discover the monuments and re-animate the memories that have been obscured since European arrival. Using LiDAR data, geo-referenced with historic maps, we look at the present state of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Verenice Heredia Espinoza.

Recent full coverage systematic surveys in the Tequila region have produced new and significant data to understand the nature of the well-known Teuchitlán tradition which has been variously described as a state-like society, a segmentary state, and a chiefdom. The evidence presented for these various models remains shaky and speculative. Here, I evaluate and test the current evidence, including the published literature, while providing empirical data from the region. Then, I interpret these data...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Arsenault. Serge Lemaitre.

The last few years of archaeological fieldwork in Eastern Canadian Shield have allowed the identification of some new figures in the graphic content of sites already documented by other researchers in Ontario. But this context has led also to the discovery of new rock art sites in this province as well as in Québec. These rock painting sites but also the new engraving sites found help more than ever to better understand the variability and complexity of the iconographic themes privileged by the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Marston. Emily Ubik.

Free-threshing wheat (Triticum aestivum and T. durum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) were staple cereal crops in the ancient Near East. Although modern varietals of these species have significant variation in growing times, water requirements, and grain yields, few studies have distinguished varietals in the past. Traditional approaches have used grain seed size and shape to identify different crop varieties. These coarse metrics, including length:breadth and thickness:breadth ratios, give only a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Horowitz. Marcello Canuto.

At a basic level, the lowland Classic Maya economy was a complex web of prestige exchange, centralized distribution, and local market economies. In fact, while it is important not to consider the lowland Classic Maya economic system as monolithic, it is also as critical to understand how it articulated with the different levels of social hierarchy. Beyond this, we should also make a point of understanding the roles these specific economic systems played in the distribution of utilitarian goods...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brenton Willhite.

Several methodologies have been developed to analyze flaked stone debitage. Among the more popular methodologies are flake typologies similar to Sullivan and Rozen’s (1985) "interpretation free typology", which focused on measuring breakage patterns by classifying debitage into complete flakes, broken flakes, flake fragments and debris. While many discussions have focused on the usefulness of these measures, especially in regards to gaining an understanding of reduction methods via the relative...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Zachary Hruby.

The architecturally diminutive, but economically robust, Classic Maya polity of Copan must have had an integral role in the production and exchange of Ixtepeque goods; perhaps even control of portions of the source itself. Indeed, after the collapse of the Copan state, Ixtepeque becomes one of the most heavily traded obsidians in the Maya world. This proverbial opening of the floodgates suggests that Copan used Ixtepeque materials primarily for local and regional exchanges, increasing its value...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nikki Manning.

During the fall of 2012 a local, urban archaeological survey project was conducted to see what evidence remained of the Missoula, Montana historic “underground” landscape. Now heading into the fourth year of research and expanding geographically into other cities of the American West, the project which actually began from public inquiries into the existence of a small town underground continues to hold the interest of the local community and beyond. As the project has continued to grow in scope...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Adrian Whitaker. Christina Giovas.

A notable feature of hunter-gatherer adaptations in mainland coastal settings throughout the world, is the ubiquity of marine mammal hunting. This pattern is less commonly seen in insular settings, which is surprising since marine mammals are often the only large mammal available. We develop a model based in evolutionary ecology that predicts ecological, social, and technological conditions that shape the choice to hunt marine mammals. We then evaluate this model in light of data from the island...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Louise Purdue. Cyril Castanet. Lydie Dussol. Eva Lemonnier. Aline Garnier.

Maya communities occupied and cultivated the tropical lowlands of Naachtun (Peten, Guatemala) for nearly a millennia (AD 150-950). Major goals of the Peten-Norte Naachtun project include understanding why the city was founded, the reasons for its development and why it was abandoned. Due to constraining environmental conditions (non-permanent water supply, shallow soils), the availability and management of water and soil resources in the city and around the bajo are closely tied to settlement...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jose Lopez.

Manuals of American prehistory, divided South America into bio geographical zones, associated with archaeological traditions, and classify the basin of the Río de la Plata, as one marginal area of others with a more defined cultural profile. Systematic research and multidisciplinary projects, have discussed the boundaries of those units of archaeological and cultural analysis, as well as theoretical principles which held it. The basin of the Río de la Plata was associated with the "Pampa"...

DOCUMENT Citation Only P. Jeffrey Brantingham. Charles Perreault.

Few dispute that the Tibetan Plateau represents one of the harshest environments on the planet. It is reasonable to expect that human colonization of the Plateau entailed exposure to strong selective pressures. Successful colonization of the Plateau therefore implies the development of adaptations in response to these selective pressures. Genetic, physiological and morphological data from Plateau populations are consistent with a general model for biological adaptation under strong selective...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Edward Herrmann. Rebecca Nathan.

Buffalo jumps have long been part of Crow oral histories. In 1962, at Grapevine Creek in Montana, Joseph Medicine Crow recounted oral histories to identify two buffalo jumps and associated drive lines above cliffs overlooking the floodplain. In 2015, a team of archaeologists, and Crow tribal monitors from the Tribal Historic Preservation Office employed geoarchaeological methods to investigate whether bison bones might be preserved in primary context in the drainage. We focused on recorded oral...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brigid Grund. Todd Surovell. Spencer Pelton.

The Wold Bison Jump in Johnson County, Wyoming, is one of many prehistoric, mass kill sites scattered across the Plains. At Wold, a foraging basin of prime ungulate grazing habitat abuts the gently sloping backside of a bluff. Funnel-shaped drivelines of cairns extend across the top of the bluff towards a treacherous cliff. The drive was configured to constrain stampeding bison (Bison sp.) as prehistoric hunters communally drove them from the foraging basin to the precipice. Previous GIS...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Harry Lerner.

The majority of lithic use-wear research has been geared towards the development of newer more quantitatively precise methods involving evermore sophisticated forms of microscopy. As vital as such efforts are there is still a place in today’s interdisciplinary world for more traditional approaches when coupled with new ideas. This presentation will look at the results of a GIS analysis of experimental use-wear traces from images generated using conventional incident light microscopy....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo.

This paper presents evidence that suggests a very different environment than the observed landscape tropical forest of today. A comparison of two regions, the white waters system of the upper Amazon river (region of Iquitos, Peru) and the black water system of the Mesay river drainage (Chiribiquete National Park, Colombia), illustrates the strong possibility that these areas were grasslands in the past. This is considered to be a byproduct of (consider using anthopogenic activities) human action...