Isotopic and Animal aDNA Analyses in the Southwest/Northwest

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Isotopic and Animal aDNA Analyses in the Southwest/Northwest" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

There is a long history of applying “hard science” techniques to the archaeology of the Southwest/Northwest, with transformational results. Dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating, archaeomagnetic dating, and a variety of methods of provenance analysis used to address ceramics and stone artifacts have refined the chronologies of our models of past processes and illuminated ancient networks. Recently, studies focused on stable isotope data derived from animal bones and shells, as well as trees used as construction timbers, have revealed complementary and sometimes unexpected patterns at local, regional, and interregional scales. Research on DNA recovered from archaeological fauna has also yielded critical insights. Data resulting from work with the remains of many animals (including turkeys, macaws, dogs, bighorn sheep, deer, marine mollusks, and cattle) and plants (including trees, shrubs, and corn) have been used to model ancient migrations (using animals as proxies for humans), document and better understand domestication, demonstrate relationships among different ancient groups, explore livestock management practices, define procurement areas, and trace changes in resource use associated with the Entrada. This group of papers consists of case studies intended to provide a glimpse of the state-of-the-art in terms of applying these techniques to key research questions in Southwest/Northwest archaeology.