Society for American Archaeology

This collection contains the abstracts and presentations from the Society for American Archaeology annual meetings. SAA has partnered with Digital Antiquity to archive their annual conference abstracts and make the presentations available. This collection contains meeting abstracts and presentations dating from 2015 to the present.

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The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) is an international organization dedicated to the research, interpretation, and protection of the archaeological heritage of the Americas. With more than 7,000 members, the society represents professional, student, and avocational archaeologists working in a variety of settings including government agencies, colleges and universities, museums, and the private sector.


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  • Understanding Section 3 of NAGPRA (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Carroll.

    This is an abstract from the "Beyond Collections: Federal Archaeology and "New Discoveries" under NAGPRA" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) became law on November 16, 1990. In the 29 years since NAGPRA was enacted, much attention has been paid to Native American human remains and other cultural items subject to NAGPRA already in museum and Federal agency collections. However, there’s...

  • Understanding settlement organization through geophysical survey at the Morton Village Site, IL (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy Horsley. Michael Conner. Jodie O'Gorman.

    Geophysical surveys at the Morton Village site are revealing the nature and distribution of occupation across this landscape and helping to guide the excavation program. Magnetometer surveys undertaken between 2010 and 2014 of 7.3 ha have identified numerous structures and pits. Results indicate a densely occupied village covering about 3.5 ha with more dispersed facilities outside this core. No evidence of a stockade has been found. By targeting specific magnetic anomalies, excavation is...

  • Understanding Site Function and Textile Production in Southwestern Iberia (3400–2000 BCE): The Loom Weights from Perdigões (Alentejo, Portugal) (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Victoria Priola. António Valera.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The 16 ha site of Perdigões is comprised of ditched enclosures and negative features that were opened and closed throughout its long and complex occupation beginning in the Late Neolithic, continuing throughout the Chalcolithic, and into the early Bronze Age. This site includes around 12 roughly concentric circular ditches and several hundred circular...

  • Understanding Sociopolitical Change through Ceramic Morphological Diversity in the Ancient Nubian Hinterlands (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jessika Akmenkalns.

    Ceramics have played a central role in archaeological studies of ancient Nubia. They have been used to refine the regional chronology and to enhance our understanding of social, political, and economic processes. While many such studies have focused primarily on large, centralized polities, fewer attempts have been made to investigate how hinterland communities engaged with changing life ways throughout the region’s long cultural history. This paper examines a collection of ceramic samples taken...

  • Understanding Stylistic and Technical Variation in Middle Chalcolithic Painted Pottery Decoration—A Test from Tel Tsaf (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jirye Kang.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research explores the social interaction between Tel Tsaf and northern Mesopotamia through pottery decoration similarities. This ongoing research questions another possible connection between northern Mesopotamia and Tel Tsaf in the central Jordan Valley, representing one of the most southern sites discovered. The Middle Chalcolithic (5600-4500 BC) site...

  • Understanding Temporal Patterns of Occupation at Small Sites: The case of early Neolithic al-Khayran, west-central Jordan (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Kroot.

    Beyond their identification and recording during survey, small sites have only occasionally and sporadically been the object of significant research in archaeology. Yet, such sites can be of great significance when trying to understand a wide variety of social systems and practices. While the potential practices associated with small sites in the past are virtually limitless, some patterns are commonly found within specific forms of settlement systems. Within autonomous village-based settlement...

  • Understanding Textile Production at Cividade de Bagunte (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jordan Bowers.

    This is an abstract from the "The Iron Age of Northwest Portugal: Leftovers of Behavior" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Textiles are a near ubiquitous feature of human society from antiquity through present-day. Unfortunately, most places around the world do not have the environmental conditions that allow for the preservation of textiles and the many tools associated with textile production. At Cividade de Bagunte, the only evidence for textile...

  • Understanding the Architecture of the Virgin Branch Ancestral Puebloan Using a Digital 3D Model-Based Process (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Benjamin Van Alstyne.

    On the Shivwits Plateau, there is scarce information concerning how the Virgin Branch Ancestral Puebloan people constructed their pueblos. This is a result of post-depositional processes that have destroyed much of the building materials. Thus, to further our understanding of the Ancestral Puebloan efforts to live in a semi-arid environment, this research incorporates information obtained from Puebloan ethnographies, experimental archaeology, and excavations. The data is combined through a...

  • Understanding the ceja de selva in relationship to the Central Andean coast and highlands during the Early Horizon (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Clasby.

    Andean archaeologists have long debated the degree to which the ceja de selva or eastern Andean montane forest was involved within the larger historical processes that led to the development of sociopolitical complexity in Central Andean highlands and coast. For some scholars such as Julio C. Tello and Donald Lathrap, the apparent tropical forest influence in Chavín iconography as well as the similarity of eastern slope ceramics to contemporary highland and coastal assemblages suggested that the...

  • Understanding the Diet of Late to Terminal Classic Period Maya Groups in the Sibun River Valley, Belize, through Food Web Reconstruction (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Morgan McKenna. Gabriel Wrobel. Amy Michael. Amy Commendador. Patricia McAnany.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A stable isotope based dietary study, coupled with previously collected zooarchaeological and botanical data, expands our understanding of ancient Maya dietary variation in the Late and Terminal Classic periods in the Sibun River Valley of central Belize. A food web was created based on the analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in plants and...

  • Understanding the dispersion of ceramic styles in the lower Amazon: what is Koriabo? (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cristiana Barreto. Helena Lima.

    Archaeologists working in the lower Amazon have been identifying a particular ceramic style with a vast regional distribution, including the Caribbean, the Guyanas, the Amazon estuary and, more recently, the lower Amazon floodplain. This paper will discuss the distribution and varibility of this style in the lower Amazon, its correlation with Carib speaking groups, and the possible contexts, processes and practices that generated such dispersion.

  • Understanding the Emergence and Spread of Chupadero Black-on-white Ceramics through Network Analysis (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Brenton Willhite.

    It has been hypothesized that social ties between the Salinas Pueblo Province and the Jornada Mogollon sparked cultural change in both regions. In this study, I use Social Network Analysis to characterize these interactions from A.D. 900 to 1450 via the spread of Chupadero Black-on-white pottery. Integral to the study of social interaction and the emergence of Chupadero Black-on-white ceramics is the nature of the pithouse-to-pueblo transition in each region. Prior to the emergence of pueblo...

  • Understanding the Forecasted Labor Shortage: Undergraduate Views of Archaeological Careers (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Clark Sturdevant. Carol Colaninno.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There is a projected dearth of qualified archaeological professionals in the coming decade. As such, it becomes essential to discover the underlying causes of a lack of interest in pursuing a career in archaeology among individuals otherwise interested in the field. Social cognitive career theory posits that self-efficacy, expected outcomes, and goal...

  • Understanding the Health of the People of Pender Island (B.C.) Through Portable X-ray Fluorescence of Human Remains (2015)
    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....

  • Understanding the Interplay between Domesticate Choice and the Environment: The Case of the Humble Australian Sheep (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melanie Fillios. Sarah Ledogar.

    This is an abstract from the "Questioning the Fundamentals of Plant and Animal Domestication" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Domestication could be described as a drawn out, nuanced dance between humans and animals – a dance that shapes not just the animal actors – but the physical, cultural and economic environment of all the players. Recent examples of this effect abound in areas colonized by Europeans, particularly those with drastically...

  • Understanding the Landscape and Material Sources through Community Partnership in Abiquiú, New Mexico (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Danny Sosa Aguilar. Bernardo Archuleta.

    This paper aims to discuss how the success of community partnership has led to an understanding of the way people moved across the landscape in the past. Situated in northern New Mexico, the Pueblo de Abiquiú contains a rich history that dates back at least into 2,800 – 4,000 BP (Before Present). Using portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, obsidian artifacts found at the pueblo suggests that groups are bringing obsidian from at least three known local sources. However, there is an...

  • Understanding the local communities through the study of lithics and communication routes in the Northwestern Maya Lowlands during the Classic Maya: recent studies in the region. (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Flavio Silva De La Mora. Rodrigo Liendo.

    The region known as the Northwestern Maya Lowlands encloses a large geographic and cultural area that included and was part of a large system of exchange of goods, people and ideas. Archaeological evidence recovered in the region serve as evidence of the complex system of communication routes and local settlements that were part of local communities and practices. The communication routes and archaeological sites localized between the Usumacinta River and Tulija River serve as a case study of...

  • Understanding the Neolithic Transition: Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Analysis of Subneolithic and Neolithic Animals and Inhabitants of the SE Baltic Coast (3200-2500 cal BC) (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tosha Dupras. Gytis Piliciauskas. Rimantas Jankauskas. Giedre Piliciauskiene.

    The Neolithic transition in the boreal zone of the Baltic region deviated significantly from the “classic” European model, and in 2014-2015 a multidisciplinary research project targeting why this occurred was undertaken. Twenty-one 14C AMS dates were obtained for 11 Late Mesolithic– Early Bronze Age (7000-1000 cal B.C.) graves and for 6 human bones found in settlements or refuse layers. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes analyses of bone collagen were conducted for 40 human bones and teeth from...

  • Understanding the occupation history of oversized pit houses in the southern Brazilian highlands: Bayesian modelling and high resolution chronology of the Baggio 1 site (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonas DeSouza. Mark Robinson. Jose Iriarte. Francis Mayle. Paulo DeBlasis.

    The function of the oversized pit houses constructed by southern proto-Je groups in the southern Brazilian highlands has been a matter of debate for decades. In this paper, we contribute to the debate by presenting a unique sequence from House 1 of the Baggio 1 site in Campo Belo do Sul, Santa Catarina state. For the first time, we obtained a large number of radiocarbon dates for twelve occupation floors in an oversized pit structure. We applied Bayesian modelling to develop a fine-grained...

  • Understanding the Organization of Built Space Using Spatial Statistics in GIS (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only John Duncan Hurt.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists who study the hillforts of Northwest Iberia have often used the layouts of individual settlements as the basis for inference and speculation on a wide range of phenomena, largely toward the end of establishing some understanding of the "social structure" of Iron Age communities. This often amounts, however, to little more than informal...

  • Understanding the paleogeography and Maya ditched fields along the Rio Hondo, Belize and Mexico (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Colleen Hanratty. Thomas Guderjan. Sheryl Luzzader-Beach. Timothy Beach. Samantha Krause.

    In recent years, we have identified numerous sets of ditched agricultural fields along the Rio Hondo floodplain. In this paper we examine the paleogeographic and archaeological contexts of these fields. The commonalities of their settings offer perspective on their social functions and insight into who controlled them and how this control was manifest into settlement patterns. We discuss the geography of the riverine zone, the settings in which ditched fields are found and known related...

  • Understanding the Production of Majiayao Painted Pottery in Gansu: New Data and New Thoughts (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Yi-Xian LIN. Ian Freestone. Hui WANG.

    This paper examines the evidence for local production of painted pottery of the Majiayao Culture in Gansu province based on their distinguishing characteristics in mineralogical, compositional and technological aspects, and on correlations of these features with the geographical source. An empirical observation of a contemporary family-scale workshop in Lintao County, where the most splendid pieces of Majiayao painted pottery have been found, suggests that the technological difficulties in the...

  • Understanding the Relationship Between Sample Size and Variation in Ceramic Relative Chronologies at the Petrified Forest National Park (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Stewart.

    Petrified Forest National Park contains an extensive prehistoric ceramic variability, exhibiting ceramics from multiple regions at later prehistoric sites. Like much of the Southwest, most of the research at the park is survey oriented, recording only a sample of ceramics on site. The high diversity of ceramics and small sample sizes has the potential to create a recording bias when using ceramics to relatively date sites. This project investigates the relationship between site diversity and...

  • Understanding the Ritual of Peri-abandonment Deposit Behavior Evidenced by Late Classic Maya Figurines at the Site of Baking Pot, Cayo District, Belize (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Gillaspie. Julie Hoggarth. Jaime Awe.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project is an archaeological field school operating in the Cayo District of Western Belize and has excavated at multiple sites in Belize annually since 1988. In the past five years, the project has focused on excavation of peri-abandonment deposits, or deposits of artifacts built up during and after the...

  • Understanding the Settlement Structure of the Middle Yangshao Period (Miaodigou Phase) based on Recent Archaeological Discoveries in the Wei River Valley (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Weilin Wang.

    As one of the most influential archaeological cultures in prehistoric China, the Miaodigou Phase of the Yangshao Culture has been found widely in many regions. During the Miaodigou Phase, a common cultural identity appeared across China for the first time, which had great significance for the later formation of Chinese civilization. However, archaeological research has until recently been limited to the study of ceramic styles. In recent years, investigations at the Yangguanzhai site in Shaanxi...

  • Understanding the Short-term Occupations of the Lateglacial and Early Mesolithic Groups in Western Europe (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicolas Naudinot. Gregor Marchand.

    Prehistoric archaeology is now focusing on past hunter-gatherers societies behaviors and relationships with their environments. In Western France, the Late glacial and the Early Holocene were the stage of an important research dynamic. The chrono-cultural organization has been revised relying in particular on the excavation of new key sites. This research shed greater light on the human territories and paleo-economic behaviors. Understanding human mobility depends on our control of time linked...

  • Understanding the Tapajó Socio-Political System through the Study of Landscapes and Material Culture (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joanna Troufflard.

    The socio-political organization of the Tapajó people living in the Lower Amazon region during late precolonial times has been studied through two main sources: contact chronicles and archaeological data coming from the Santarém site located at the mouth of the Tapajós River. Based on these sources, researchers have formulated three models to explain the socio-political organization of the Tapajó. However, recent surveys and excavations conducted in the upland Belterra plateau provide new data...

  • Understanding the Transition to Villages: A Comparison of Maize between Basketmaker III Sites and an Early Pueblo I Village (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emma Ashby.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Comparative morphological and other analysis on maize samples informs us of crucial nutritionary changes in key Ancestral Puebloan cultural stages. The transition of the Basketmaker III (500-750 CE) period to the Pueblo I (750-950 CE) period in the Southwestern Utah archeological record is marked by distinct technological changes and larger, more densely...

  • Understanding the World of the Scribe: Challenges and Opportunities of Cataloguing the Kerr Photographic Collection of Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joanne Baron. Frauke Sachse. Daniel Boomhower.

    This is an abstract from the "A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The majority of photographs in “The Maya Scribe and His World” were taken by Justin Kerr. Kerr’s development of rollout photography transformed the field, allowing Maya ceramics to be documented and studied more easily. With the creation of the searchable online database Mayavase.com,...

  • Understanding the “Local Scale” in Pictish Landscape Research (Northern Scotland, 300–900 CE) (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Hansen.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The material record of Late Antique and Early Medieval northeastern Britain (ca. 300–900 CE) consists largely of monuments and obtrusive settlements attributed to the people known as the Picts. While features of the landscape from this period, such as the distinctive Pictish symbol stones, have been studied both in isolation and with respect to their...

  • Understanding variability in distribution and consumption in low-wealth households from the Classic period (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Hutson.

    This paper explores data on consumption of durable goods in Classic period domestic contexts both in cities (Chunchucmil, Tikal) and rural areas (Ceren, hinterlands of Izamal and Copan). The goal is to document variation in distribution systems across the lowlands. Though some of this variation may be due to the intensity of market systems, other variation may be due to the wealth and resourcefulness of individual households and some due to long-term trends in economic prosperity throughout the...

  • UNDERSTANDING VARIATION: STYLISTIC ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF ROCK ART FROM THE MAKGABENG PLATEAU, LIMPOPO PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA (2015)
    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...

  • Understanding Vertebral Anomalies and Growth Patterns During the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1470) in the Huanchaco Bay Area, Peru (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Genesis Torres Morales. Celeste Gagnon. Gabriel Prieto. John Verano.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The mass sacrifice of Chimú children in the Moche Valley has become the largest event in the world. Two mass occurrences were discovered at the sites of Huanchaquito Las Llamas (HLL) and Pampa la Cruz (PLC). At PLC the sacrificial events date to the Late Intermediate period (AD 1000–1470). This research explores birth defects of the lumbosacral spine that...

  • Understandings of Household Architecture at Night in the Middle Chamelecón Drainage, Honduras (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren E. Schwartz.

    Interpretations of Mesoamerican households tend to focus on activities that might rightly be associated with daylight hours and mostly informed by material culture that is moveable and multipurpose. However, intensive examinations of the non-movable or architectural composition of household settings have recently revealed even more about these diverse and socially complex domestic spaces. This examination initiates an analysis of the interaction between humans and their built-environment as it...

  • Underwater and Above-Water: Archaeology and Ethnography of Underwater Gathering and Diving Practices along the Coast of Southernmost South America (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Albert Garcia-Piquer. Susana Morano. Jorge Gibbons. Nelson Aguilera. Alfredo Prieto.

    This is an abstract from the "Underwater and Coastal Archaeology in Latin America" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The coasts of the Fuego-Andean-Patagonian archipelago, south of Chiloé Island, have a length of over 80,000 km and roughly comprise three distinct areas: the Chonos archipelago, the western channels, and the Fuegian channels. The underwater world of this archipelago as a whole must have been a rich and coveted treasure. The...

  • Underwater Archaeological And Forensic Investigations Carried Out At Großer Glasowsee, Brandenburg/Germany (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Martin U Mainberger.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In spring 1945, upon returning from a bombing mission targeting SS-facilities in Oranienburg / Germany, a U.S. Army heavy bomber B17 aircraft was observed to crash into a small lake north of Berlin. Two crewmembers remain unaccounted for. After the detection of the tail section of the plane in...

  • Underwater Archaeological Survey of Freshwater Lagoons in the Lacanja Basin, Chiapas, Mexico (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jason Paling. Marx Navarro Castillo. Justin Lowry.

    The intrinsic relationship between human beings and bodies of water is unquestionable. Among the ancient Maya it has been observed that many of their agricultural cults were linked to existing bodies of water where they settled. In the Maya Northern Lowlands, multiple underwater archaeological studies of cenotes record this behavior as offerings of luxury items and human sacrifice are often recovered and noted. The Rancho Ojo de Agua archaeological project focuses on the basin of the Lacanhá...

  • Underwater Archaeological Surveys in Shakan Bay, SE Alaska (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelly Monteleone. Andrew Wickeret. E. James Dixon.

    The coastline of SE Alaska was submerged by post-Pleistocene sea level rise from at least 16,000 cal yrs BP until it stabilized about 10,600 cal yrs BP. The submerged continental shelf was modeled using bathymetry and other data to identify areas exhibiting high potential for the occurrence of archaeological sites. Two seasons of underwater archaeological survey have been conducted at this location (NSF OPP -#0703980 and 1108367), using multibeam sonar, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler,...

  • Underwater Archaeology at DPAA: Efforts to Address U.S. Military Loss Incidents (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Eric Young. Piotr Bojakowski. Richard Wills.

    This is an abstract from the "A Multidimensional Mission: Crossing Conflicts, Synthesizing Sites, and Adapting Approaches to Find Missing Personnel" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A significant portion of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)'s unresolved loss cases involve incidents that occurred over water, at sea, or otherwise within a body of water. In the context of underwater forensic archaeology, addressing these cases require a...

  • Underwater archaeology in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia: Use of the littoral zone in the Tiwanaku period (AD 500-1150) (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christophe Delaere.

    Since 2014, the project of underwater archaeology in Lake Titicaca (ULB), gives priority to the study of the Yampupata strait between the Island of the Sun and the Copacabana Peninsula. This research strategy was chosen because of different elements: First of all, the Island is a homogenous insular territory whose affordable dimensions (14,3 Km2) allow underwater activities. Secondly, one of the main characteristics of this territory is its dense, complex and continuous occupation which has been...

  • Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection and Management in Pacific Island States (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Akatsuki Takahashi.

    The waters of the Pacific Ocean contains a wealth of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) encompassing the history of humanity from the Stone Age to the Atomic Age and witnessing climate change. This paper presents a summary of the outcomes of the UCH Programme in Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Notable progress includes the reference to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the UCH in SAMOA Pathway outcome document (2014), national and regional capacity building workshops, and...

  • Underwater Geoarchaeology of Perennial Lakes in the Great Basin (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Neil Puckett.

    Underwater archaeology in the Great Basin has been generally ignored because underwater researchers often do not associate this desert with inundated environments. Despite this misconception, many large lakes, marshlands, and rivers are found throughout the region. For instance, northern Nevada includes 168 sizable man-made perennial reservoirs that partially or completely cover 188 known sites. In addition, during the late Pleistocene large lakes of fluctuating size covered many of the valleys...

  • Underwater Investigations of Mass Burials in Two Cenotes at Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bradley Russell. Stanley Serafin. Eunice Uc Gonzalez. Carlos Peraza Lope.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With support from The National Geographic Society and The Waitt Foundation, the Mayapán Taboo Cenote Project conducted investigations at Cenote Sac Uayum, a sacred, water-bearing sinkhole located at the Postclassic Maya political capital of Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico (AD 1150-1450). The work brought together an international collaboration of researchers from the...

  • The Underwater Search for the Remains of the Spanish Manila Galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Dewey.

    This is an abstract from the "Pacific Maritime History: Ships and Shipwrecks" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper covers the underwater remote sensing and diver search for the remains of the Spanish Manila galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos, also known as the Beeswax Wreck, off the Oregon coast. The all-volunteer Maritime Archaeological Society has conducted a multiyear remote sensing survey and diving expeditions to search the area near the...

  • Underwater Transect Excavations, Sediment Coring, Remoting Sensing at the Paynes Creek Salt Works (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather McKillop. Harry Roberts. Karen McKee. Terrance Winemiller. John Jones.

    Following the discovery and mapping of over 100 salt works in a shallow, salt-water lagoon system, a collaborative, interdisciplinary research project was initiated with funding from NSF to examine the ancient landscape, sea-level rise, use of the wooden buildings for salt production and as residences, and reconstruct the underwater sites using 3D GIS. Sediment coring across the lagoon system identified red mangrove peat, an indicator of actual sea-level rise, as well as a plethora of pollen...

  • Underwater, terrestrial, and intertidal core extractions at the Walk Bridge, Norwalk, CT: An alternative to traditional Phase I survey (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Sportman. David Leslie.

    The CTDOT Walk Bridge Replacement Project in Norwalk, Connecticut presented several challenges, making it unsuitable for a traditional Phase I archaeological survey. The urbanized Area of Potential Effect (APE) has been heavily industrialized since the mid-19th century. The pervasive ground disturbance, landmaking, and hazardous soil contamination that characterize the APE presented obstacles to typical survey methods such as hand-excavated shovel test pits. Documentary research identified...

  • The Undiscovered Country: New Insights into the Anchan Tradition of Central Arizona (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Abraham Arnett. Joey LaValley. Travis Cureton.

    Between November 2016 and September 2017 archaeological surveys performed by Logan Simpson on behalf of the Tonto National Forest in the Hell's Hole region of central Arizona revealed an abundance of previously undocumented Anchan and early Salado Tradition Settlements. Numerous single room habitations or field houses and large masonry structures with fully enclosing plaza or compound walls indicate a substantial population in an area traditionally considered a hinterland between the Sonoran...

  • Undiscovered Country: Preliminary Results of Eleven New Sites Identified in the Susquetonscut Brook Valley, Eastern Connecticut, USA (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Ort. Dianna L. Ducette.

    PAL, Inc (the Public Archaeology Laboratory) conducted archaeological investigations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island in preparation for upcoming modifications to an existing pipeline. The project in particular crossed large areas of Eastern, Central and Western Connecticut that have not previously been systematically surveyed. This paper will focus on those sites identified in Eastern Connecticut, specifically those found along the Susquetonscut Brook, a tributary of the...

  • Undiscovered Country: The Ground Stone Tools Assemblage from Hell Gap National Historical Landmark (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Lynch. Marcel Kornfeld.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One of the most complete records of human activity on the North American Plains, between 13,000 and 8500 years ago, is found at the Hell Gap National Historic Landmark in Wyoming. The area was inhabited continuously during this period as evidenced by the five main site localities. While we know a good deal about the activities on site from chipped stone...

  • An Undisturbed Earlier Stone Age Locality on the Southern Coast of South Africa, Exposed by Fire (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Clancey Butts. John K. Murray. Jayde Hirniak. Hannah Keller. Naomi Cleghorn.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Knysna Estuary and River Basin on the southern coast of South Africa provided attractive resources for Pleistocene foragers. Isolated Earlier Stone Age (ESA) finds, including large bifacially flaked core tools, are commonly found in upland areas around the basin, particularly during construction projects, but dense vegetation cover has thus far prevented...

  • Unearthed Burial from Rising Sea Levels: A Collaborative Community Approach for Tackling Climate Change in the Torres Strait Islands, Australia (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelsey Lowe. Enid Tom. Michael Westaway. Jaime Swift. Annie Lau.

    This is an abstract from the "Crucial Issues in United States Department of Defense Cultural Resources Management " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Torres Strait Islands, Australia, covers 50,000 km2 and includes 300 islands, with only 17 home to community settlements. Although regional maritime culture includes seascapes rich in cosmological and spiritual meaning, many sites that constitute cultural identity are under threat due to rising sea...

  • Unearthing a Pipeline: An Archaeological Investigation into Line 3 in Northern Minnesota (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Rybka.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent archaeological studies have shown how the methods and sensibilities of the discipline can be usefully drawn on to explore the history and relations of the Anthropocene—our current epoch of cultural and environmental instability. However, certain massively spatio-temporally distributed objects that define this era, what Timothy Morton calls...

  • Unearthing a town from the sky: Kom Wasit, the bird’s eye archaeological point of view. (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Israel Hinojosa-Balino. Henrik Brahe.

    In this presentation we will show the way we used an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) to reproduce an accurate map of Kom Wasit, an archaeological site of the Nile Delta located in the province of Beheira. An orthophoto was generated using photogrammetry and GIS, which combined layers of information such as the magnetometry results and the topography survey. It was therefore possible to recreate what can be dug in the future and to understand the settlement pattern of this Late Dynastic town. SAA...

  • Unearthing Difficult Histories: The Delicate Balance of Public, Community, and Campus Archaeology in West Philadelphia's Black Bottom (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas Smit. Megan Kassabaum. Sarah Linn. Latiaynna Tabb.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses the conception, implementation, and ongoing results of Heritage West, an archaeology project co-developed by academic archaeologists at the University of Pennsylvania and community stakeholders. Heritage West delves into the intertwined narratives of migration and urban renewal in the Black Bottom—a historically Black neighborhood...

  • Unearthing Earthen Architecture: A Geoarchaeological and Environmental Perspective (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marta Lorenzon.

    This is an abstract from the "Advances in Geoarchaeology and Environmental Archaeology Perspectives on Earthen-Built Constructions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation combines the findings of two distinct studies focusing on earthen building materials in different border regions, shedding light on the evolution of earthen architectural practices. The first study delves into the geoarchaeological analysis of earthen materials and...

  • Unearthing Holocene lowland landscapes as tool to detect archaeological sites, a case study from Lower Khuzestan (SW Iran) (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Frieda Bogemans. Rindert Janssens. Cecile Baeteman.

    Over the past century archaeological research in Upper Khuzestan has shown a long history of settlements in the alluvial plains. The Lower Khuzestan plain has barely been studied with research has been restricted to superficial surface surveys. The nearby presence of the Persian Gulf and the downstream parts of the rivers Karun and Jarrahi, the first one being the largest river in Iran, offer great potential for human settlements and activities. In lowlands, however, processes of sedimentation...

  • Unearthing Maya Rituals: The Power of Ethnographic Analogy (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Neil E. Kohanski.

    This is an abstract from the "Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Subterranean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper seeks to explore the pivotal role of ethnographic analogy in archaeological research, with a focus on the Maya ritual within subterranean spaces. While ethnographic analogy remains indispensable to the archaeological enterprise, it has faced significant resistance within the archaeological community. This presentation aims to...

  • Unearthing Potential: Using Earth Rock Ovens as a High-Impact Practice in the Undergraduate Archaeology Course (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christine Jones.

    This is an abstract from the "AI-Proof Learning: Food-Centered Experimental Archaeology in the Classroom" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. High-impact practices (HIPs) using hands-on activities, experiential learning, and collaborative learning employ methods that educators in archaeology have already been using for decades. The pedagogical push to use HIPs recently involves widespread recognition that not only do these methods work to engage...

  • Unearthing Sandpoint’s Chinatown: the Archaeology of Sandpoint, Idaho’s Overseas Chinese (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Molly Swords.

    Established in the early 1880s, Sandpoint, Idaho became a bustling railroad and lumber town with commercial businesses sprouting up along the Northern Pacific railroad tracks. Overseas Chinese came through the town when building the railroad, but quickly moved on along with the construction. Who then, were the Overseas Chinese that came and settled, making Sandpoint their home? Archaeological investigations of the original town site uncovered a structure referred to as Sandpoint’s "Chinatown"...

  • Unearthing the Deep Roots of the Long-term Human History and Environmental Interaction in the Atacama Desert (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Calogero Santoro. José M Capriles. Claudio Latorre. Eugenia Gayo. Ricardo De Pol Holz.

    New archaeological evidence demonstrates that by 12,800 years ago, bands of hunter-gatherers effectively occupied the hyperarid basins of the Atacama Desert. The selection of the habitats they exploited and the location of their activity areas were constrained by specific environmental circumstances that coincide with positive moisture anomalies that provided abundant resources. The distributions and properties of which were likely managed by these people to create complex landscapes using...

  • Unearthing the History of Mokil Atoll: A Fresh Perspective through Zooarchaeological Exploration (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Philippa Jorissen. Michelle Lefebvre. Scott Fitzpatrick.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There has been a dearth of research on atolls in the central-eastern part of the Caroline Islands, especially from a zooarchaeological perspective. We present the first zooarchaeological analysis for Mokil atoll, which has been continuously inhabited since 1700-1500 cal. BP. The material was excavated in 2013 on the islet of Kahlap. The majority of the...

  • Unearthing the Material Culture of Nineteenth-Century Irish Immigrants in the "City of Homes": A Case Study from Elfreth’s Alley, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Deirdre Kelleher.

    In contrast to many other American cities, which developed distinctive ethnic neighborhoods during the nineteenth century, Philadelphia’s European immigrant populations were largely dispersed throughout the city during this period. Irish immigrants lived in every ward of Philadelphia as newcomers from various European countries settled along alleyways and courtyards throughout the city. Using Elfreth’s Alley National Historic Landmark as a case study, this paper argues that the dispersion,...

  • Unearthing the Mysteries of the Frank Palmer Archaeology Collections (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Monica Corpuz.

    The Frank Palmer collections were the founding collections of the first museum in Los Angeles, the Southwest Museum, opened in 1914, and also for the Southwest Society’s exhibit in the Pacific Electric Building in downtown Los Angeles of 1907. Their profound importance to the individual founders of the museum, the Southwest Society and to the general populace of Los Angeles is well documented in meeting minutes, newspaper clippings and articles in magazines. The artifacts assembled by Frank...

  • Unearthing the Past at Shiloh Mound, Tennessee: Collaborative Insights from Partnering with David G. Anderson (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only John Cornelison.

    This is an abstract from the "*SE Big Data and Bigger Questions: Papers in Honor of David G. Anderson" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Shiloh Mound site in Tennessee is a rare example of a protected Native American mound group. This paper presents the outcomes of a pioneering archaeological expedition co-led by David G. Anderson, shedding light on the lifeways of ancient inhabitants through meticulous excavation and interdisciplinary analysis....

  • Unearthing the past: Tracing Settlement Continuity in Dutsen Kura Hill, Central Nigeria. (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chiamaka Mangut. Kristina Douglass.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper reports the possibility of the settlement continuity from the Later Stone Age (LSA) to the present in Dutsen Kura on the Jos Plateau, Central Nigeria. Archaeological survey and preliminary excavation at Dutsen Kura reveal fascinating results that suggest a continuous Later Stone Age occupation and a transition from stone working population to...

  • Unearthing the Truth: Exhumation of a Catholic priest to establish paternity (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ann Marie Mires.

    This is an abstract from the "Forensic Archaeology: Research & Practice" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A niche is opening for Forensic Archaeologists to assist in establishing paternity to Catholic priests through exhumation. In June 2018, I was contacted by Jim Graham who for 25 years has tried to prove that he is the son of a deceased Catholic priest after being presented with an obituary and told the man could be his biological father....

  • Unentangling Hotspots and Episodes in Pre-domestication Cultivation of Cereals: Examples from West and East Asia (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dorian Fuller.

    This is an abstract from the "Subsistence Crops and Animals as a Proxy for Human Cultural Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The growth of empirical archaeobotanical data has highlighted that domestication processes in cereals were spread out over both time (millennia) and space (100,000s rather than 10,000s of km2). Updated data from West Asian cereals and pulses, alongside Chinese millets and rice, are analyzed. These data allow...

  • Unexpected Discoveries and Partnerships: A Revolutionary War Discovery in Coastal Georgia (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrea Farmer.

    This is an abstract from the "US Army Corps of Engineers: Current Work in CRM, Research, and Creative Mitigation" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1779, several British vessels were scuttled in the Savannah River, successfully stopping the advance of the French fleet off the coast of Georgia. The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, the largest Civil Works project in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District’s history, provided a unique...

  • Unexpected Expertise: Archaeological Science and the Creative Skills of Indus Craftspeople (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather Miller. Gregory L. Braun.

    Wright’s doctoral and subsequent work brilliantly employed archaeological science to show how relatively simple technological tools (single-chamber kilns) were used by skilled craftspeople in clever ways to create surprisingly technologically complex objects (black-on-grey pottery, resulting from several different cycles of atmospheric conditions during firing), objects which also provided information about patterns of social boundaries and technological style. In homage to this work, we will...

  • The Unexpected Fauna of Pleistocene Saudi Arabia and the Earliest Evidence of Hominin Butchery Activity (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mathew Stewart.

    Work in the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia, has been fundamental for establishing the importance of the Arabian Peninsula for Pleistocene hominin populations and their dispersals out of Africa. Recent palaeontological and archaeological exploration in the Western Nefud Desert has uncovered numerous fossiliferous palaeolake deposits and associated archaeology. Fossil assemblages include taxa with both African and Eurasian affinities and indicate a greater diversity in large mammals than resides in...

  • Unexpected Social Complexity in the mid-Zaña Valley, North Coast, Peru (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kayeleigh Sharp.

    Based on recent fieldworks, this paper argues for a major rethinking of the Gallinazo-Mochica relationship. Investigations in the mid-Zaña Valley have revealed unexpected architectural and social complexity at the site of Songoy-Cojal. The predominantly residential Cojal show​s an abundant co-presence of stylistically Gallinazo and Mochica remains. In addition to fineline decorated ceramics perhaps from farther south, there is a strong Gallinazo-like presence, which may be characteristic of in...

  • Unfreezing Archaeological Palimpsests: A View from the Iberian Peninsula during the Third and Second Millennia BCE (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katina Lillios.

    This is an abstract from the "In Defense of Everything! Constructive Engagements with Graeber and Wengrow’s Provocative Contribution" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. *The Dawn of Everything* is a deep well of insights, provocations, and information about the human condition and the human capacity for creativity, particularly with respect to social organization and inequality. The fundamental question the authors ask is “how did we get stuck?”...

  • Ungendering Sex in Moche Ceramics (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Weismantel.

    This is an abstract from the "The Future Is Fluid...and So Was the Past: Challenging the 'Normative' in Archaeological Interpretations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Moche ceramic art (Peru, first millenium) is a corpus of veristic images including explicit depictions of sex acts and human genitalia. Because anatomical sex is so visible in these artifacts, the temptation to collapse sex and gender is strong – but what if we begin, instead, by...

  • Ungulate Bone Fat Exploitation at the Adoption of Horticulture in Western Iowa (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Meredith Wismer.

    Fat in the form of bone marrow and/or grease is a valued resource among foragers, and is more frequently exploited during times of subsistence stress. Risk-reduction in the face of resource stress is one potential theory for why prehistoric people incorporated horticulture into existing hunting and gathering practices. During the Woodland period (2800-1350 BP), the tallgrass prairie region of western Iowa provided a rich environment where numerous prey species could be found, including bison and...

  • Unidentified Oddity of the Petrous Portion of the Temporal Bone: A Case Study from a Historic Cemetery in Louisiana (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christine Halling. Ryan Seidemann.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While there are several commonly tracked non-metric and pathological features of the temporal bone, rarely are they found on the internal petrous portion. In this case study, the bilateral presentation of perforations located on the internal, superior aspect of the petrous portion of the temporal bone are discussed. The lesions are laterally placed near to the...

  • Uniform Probability Density Analysis and Population History in the Tewa Basin, New Mexico (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Ortman.

    One of the basic challenges facing archaeology is translating surface evidence into population estimates with sufficient chronological resolution for demographic analysis. The problem is especially acute when one is working with sites inhabited across multiple chronological periods. In this paper I present a Bayesian method that deals with this situation. This method combines uniform distributions derived from a local pottery chronology with pottery assemblage data to reconstruct the population...

  • Unique Ecologies of British Columbia (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chelsey Geralda Armstrong. Dana Lepofsky. Leslie Main Johnson. Nancy Turner.

    It is widely understood that humans have varying degrees of influence on a wide range of ecological patterns and processes. In British Columbia an array of landscape management practices have been documented among Indigenous communities resulting in novel ecosystems. Yet, little is known about the range and extent of these eco-human dynamics in pre-settler colonial contexts. We explore the concept of "unique ecologies" as a way of better understanding the untold past of ecological and cultural...

  • Unit-Stamped Red Jars in the Southern Lowlands: New Insights into Ceramic Production and Exchange (2015)
    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...

  • A United Europe of Things: Similarities and Differences in Small Finds across Later Medieval Europe (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jakub Sawicki.

    This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 2: Crossing Boundaries, Materialities, and Identities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The idea of “unity of culture” in medieval Latin Europe is well known in historical texts, especially when it concerns the so-called “Europe north of the Alps.” Scholars have often suggested that due to long-distance trade, widespread knowledge of Latin, and shared religious ideas, we can...

  • united in blood! Rituals of violence and warfare in Iron Age britain (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Eric Harkleroad.

    Discussions of ritual in society often focus on how ritual is used to bring individuals, communities, and larger social groups together. The role of ritual in violent interactions and warfare is less often considered and often what discussion there is focuses on the use of warfare to procure captives for public rituals, such as execution. Virtually ignored in this discussion is the role ritual plays in routinizing violence and warfare and how this ultimately impacts individuals and societies....

  • “United with Them in Good Feeling and Friendship”? Material Insights into 17th century Onöndowa'ga:' Hodinöhsö:ni' Incorporations (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dusti Bridges.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Onöndowa'ga:' (Seneca) Hodinöhsö:ni' (Six Nations Iroquois) communities in what we now call New York State incorporated a number of other Indigenous peoples, both individuals and large groups, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Other settler scholars have interpreted the status of these incorporees as akin to enslavement—particularly for the Wendat...

  • Uniting the archaeological body: the bioarchaeological investigation of human remains and mortuary behaviors (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Megan Perry.

    This is an abstract from the "The Future of Bioarchaeology in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bioarchaeology has the unique power to deeply investigate mortuary space not only to identify lived experiences from human remains but also to illuminate elements of mortuary ritual. However, these two aspects of bioarchaeology still remain conceptually separated: one is biological and the other socio-cultural, one is scientific and the other...

  • Universal Access to Archaeological Parks and Sites: A State of the Question (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cynthia Dunning Thierstein. John Peterson. Anne Comer.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. What if archaeological sites and parks were accessible to as many people as possible? This question seems obvious, but it is not yet in practice. It is now recognized that everyone should have access to culture, regardless of their social status, cultural background, or mobility possibilities. It is also believed that the process of inclusion brings added...

  • Universal Access to Archaeological Parks and Sites: A State of the Question Part II (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Anne Comer.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For whom does “access” address and do current laws, nationally based, regarding accessible design foster enough guidance for effective site updates – if not, what can we as heritage professionals do to foster a more inclusive visitor experience, and how can we support archaeological park managers to create more inclusive programming? This session explores...

  • The universe of ritual manifestations at Tak’alik Ab’aj (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christa Schieber de Lavarreda.

    Archaeological record of 27 years of research at the ancient site Tak’alik Ab’aj at the southwestern pacific piedmont of Guatemala have summed evidence of a wide range of different ritual activities and patterns, which as well are represented through a huge diversity of materials and artistic or handicraft skills employed. The pivotal role of Tak’alik Ab’aj as a long distance trade center and precocious cultural and religious "mecca" with "international flair" is reflected in the materials and...

  • The University of Iowa American Indian Concerns Archaeological Field School—Putting the Zimmerman Vision to Work (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only John Doershuk.

    As an established scholar, Larry Zimmerman spent several years around the turn of the millennium at the University of Iowa where he served as a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology and Director of the American Indian and Native Studies Program. With the encouragement and support of then State Archaeologist of Iowa William Green, Larry and I initiated a program of study in 1999 emphasizing the teaching of high quality archaeological field techniques coupled with active exploration of...

  • University of Maryland Forensic Aviation Archaeology Field School (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marilyn London. Adam Fracchia.

    This is an abstract from the "Applying the Power of Partnerships to the Search for America's Missing in Action" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The University of Maryland Department of Anthropology has partnered with DPAA since 2016 for the recovery of American MIA military personnel. UMD faculty developed a summer field school through the Education Abroad program, with support from the UMD Department of Anthropology and the University of Vienna’s...

  • Unleashing the Beast: Exploring Peri-abandonment Deposits in the Maya Lowlands (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stanislava Romih.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The BVAR project has been investigating peri-abandonment deposits, also known as problematic or terminal deposits, at sites located along the Belize River in Western Belize. These investigations have focused on understanding the formation of such deposits as well as their significance across sites in the Belize Valley region. The project has employed a new...

  • Unleashing the Beast: New Methodologies in Exploring Peri-Abandonment Deposits in the Maya Lowlands (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stanislava Romih. Rafael A. Guerra.

    The BVAR project recently renewed its investigations of peri-abandonment deposits at several sites along the Belize River in Western Belize. Also referred to as de facto refuse and problematic or sheet-like deposits, these cultural remains are predominantly recovered in palace rooms and courtyards in site cores across the Maya lowlands. The purpose of the BVAR investigations is to better understand the formation of such deposits as well as their temporal and spatial significance across sites in...

  • Unlikely Allies: Modern Wolves and the Diets of Pre-contact Domestic Dogs (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Amanda Burtt. Larisa R.G. DeSantis.

    This is an abstract from the "New and Ongoing Research on the North American Plains and Rocky Mountains" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Assumptions of prehistoric domestic dogs as scavengers has been pervasive in archaeology and beyond. This project clarifies these assumption by investigating the dietary behavior of prehistoric domestic dogs via dental microwear data or features on the tooth surface that indicate types of food consumed. In order...

  • Unlocking the data behind the Chora of Metaponto publication series: "on-the-fly" solutions for sharing and archiving an evolving collection
    PROJECT Uploaded by: Jessica Trelogan

    As archaeological research moves from the traditional model of print publication (as the definitive word), to a larger continuum of interpretation and reinterpretation, access to the supporting data is crucial. To do so, however, adds extra burden on academic units with large legacy collections, publication backlogs, and dwindling budgets. Digital repositories provide a home for static collections, but are not ideal for dynamic collections generated and evolving throughout the research...

  • Unlocking the Secrets of Maya Writing: Justin Kerr and the Decipherment of Maya Script (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christian Prager.

    This is an abstract from the "The Rollout Keepers: Papers on Maya Ceramic Texts, Scenes, and Styles in Honor of Justin and Barbara Kerr" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The documentation effort within the realm of Maya writing research spans nearly a century and a half, commencing with the systematic recording of Maya inscriptions during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Throughout the initial half of the twentieth century, archaeologists...

  • Unmanned Aerial Systems in Federal Cultural Resource Management (2018)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Frederick. Ray Hewitt. Marilyn Walker Cunningham.

    Although use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), or what are commonly known as drones, has become popular among the general public over the years, federal land management agencies are just beginning to realize their potential for cultural resource management. The Bureau of Land Management, Las Cruces District Office (LCDO), has recently obtained UAS resources and trained staff capable of collecting data that is useful for a variety of resource management issues. In particular, the LCDO UAS team...

  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Archaeological Survey: Results from Portugal and Mozambique (2015)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Brandon Zinsious. Jonathan Haws.

    Any technological advance that can save archaeologists time, money and manpower should be explored thoroughly. This poster presents the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or Drones, as a supplemental tool to traditional archaeological survey. Examples from Portugal and Mozambique are included to give visual representations of the possible uses of drone technologies. We used a commercially-available Phantom 2 quadcopter with a GoPro camera for coastal survey in Praia Ray Cortico, Portugal....

  • Unmodified Cobbles and Boulders from the Middle Stone Age Occupation of Witberg 1, Southern Kalahari, South Africa (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Benjamin Schoville.

    This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Witberg 1 is an open-air Middle Stone Age (MSA) occupation within diatom-rich sediments in the southern Kalahari, suggestive of a small ancient lake system (~360,000–140,000 years-ago). The occupation horizon is dense with flakes, blades, cores, and MSA points, mostly less than 10 cm. However, there are numerous...

  • Unpacking the Dishes: The Agency of (mis)Translation in the Hybrid Ceramics of Seventeenth-Century New Mexico (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Klinton Burgio-Ericson.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Equally of New Spain and the Pueblo Indian world, seventeenth-century New Mexico presents a fraught social context where diverse materials and imagery became entangled through the creativity of Native artists. Archaeological remnants testify to ceramics’ importance in these exchanges, including combinations of Euro-American forms with Indigenous materials,...

  • Unpacking the Geoarchaeologist’s Geospatial Tool Bag: A Case Study Using Predictive Modeling on the Central Coast, Pismo Beach, California (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jasmine Kidwell.

    This is an abstract from the "Geoarchaeology Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While geographic information system (GIS) based modeling applications are not new to archaeological practice, they offer a suite of tools and techniques for building a robust geoarchaeological dataset when used judiciously. Such models utilize geologic unit and age, soils, slope, aspect, distance to water, distance to known resource procurement areas, or other...

  • Unprecedented Times Lead to New Internship Strategies (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Abigail Musch. Anna Semon.

    This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the North American Archaeology Lab at the American Museum of Natural History transitioned a long running internship program to a remote micro-internship. We had to consider if offering a remote internship was feasible, what it would require on our end, what projects could be done remotely, what the interns would get out of...

  • Unraveling a Neanderthal Palimpsest from a Zooarcheological and Lithic Perspective: Abrigo de la Quebrada level IV (Valencia, Spain) (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cristina Real Margalef. Aleix Eixea. Alfred Sanchis. João Zilhão. Valentín Villaverde.

    Excavations at Abrigo de la Quebrada (Chelva, Valencia) have revealed 9 archaeological levels belonging to Neanderthal occupations. Level IV, characterised by a high density of lithic (>18,000) and bone (>100,000) remains, has been dated with AMS between 43,930±750 BP (Beta-244002) and >50.8 ka BP (OxA-24855). Human presence in the shelter has been favoured by its location, giving rise to a kind of natural trap where hunting animals would be feasible. The immediate environment is varied (abrupt...

  • Unraveling Global and Local Ceramic Production Networks: An LA-ICP-MS Analysis of Ceramics from Barbados, Jamaica, and Great Britain (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lindsay Bloch. Douglas Armstrong. Jillian Galle.

    A wide variety of ceramics are recovered in plantation contexts on Barbados and Jamaica, from hand-built coarse earthenwares to refined tablewares, as well as industrial wares for sugar production. The origins for these ceramics are often uncertain. In addition to the importation of ceramics from Great Britain and elsewhere in the Americas, many potters and workshops existed on the islands to produce both quintessentially Caribbean pots as well as European-style vessels. To better understand...