Art Style as a Communicative Tool in Archaeological Research

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Art Style as a Communicative Tool in Archaeological Research" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Mesoamerican scholar Linda Schele often said for those who study ancient cultures, their primary focus should be reviving the voices of the people who created those cultures. In this symposium, we recognize that the many cultures of Native North America, which lacked formal writing systems, often have sophisticated identifiable art systems. Within these systems, elements of style functioned as a form of communication. As a diagnostic category of art, style is best understood as the formal qualities of a work of art that link it to other works of art. Over the last 40 years, several major southeastern art styles such as Braden, Craig, and Holly Bluff have been identified through stylistic analysis. Within these papers, stylistic origins, groupings, and functions will illustrate the many systems of Native American styles that developed over time and across geography. When these artistic systems are grouped into their various stylistic components, they function to reanimate the voices of the past. Examining visual style with archaeological information can reveal, almost audibly, the ideological systems and cosmological beliefs of their ancient North Americans creators.