The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use

DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul Thacker. Carlos Periera.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Castro settlements, prominent from the Late Chalcolithic through the Iron Age in western Iberia, are often described as hillforts or defensive hilltop villages. The delineation of sites as castros often influences archaeological interpretations, bolstering focus on the strategic advantages of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ann Peters.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Paracas Necropolis mortuary tradition is famous for its embroidered garments and imagery, though the textile bundles built around each individual also have a complex sequence of other artifacts within huge cotton wrapping cloths, stitched and bound in place; other offerings are adjacent. Cordage is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Staci Willis. Heather Thakar. Massimo Capulli.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Across the globe and over the millennia, cordage has been used as a key element to fasten the hulls of wooden plank boats and ships. As such, cordage has been an integral element of naval technology. Furthermore, the communal nature of constructing sewn plank boats arguably puts cordage at the heart of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lois Martin.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations at the Moon Pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico, have uncovered fierce predators—including eagles, pumas, wolves, and rattlesnakes—buried inside. Analysis indicates that many were alive at the time of sacrifice: some in cages, and others bound. Some show evidence of long captivity,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nysa Loudon.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within the last 30 years of ancient textile and cordage research, new and revisited archaeological evidence and ethnographic studies have shown that prehistoric people in Europe were using a wider range of plant species to produce cordage, netting, mats, and textiles than previously thought. This...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Billie Follensbee.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While only small fragments of actual cordage have been recovered in Gulf Coast Olmec excavations, depictions of cordage figure prominently in Olmec and Olmec-related art. Reliefs of string, rope, and knots appear as costume components on Colossal Heads, on figures in the round, and in relief images on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Byram.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since 2018, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Historic Preservation department has worked to reawaken pre-European contact knowledge of fiber technologies. Drawing on archaeological and ethnographic sources, this applied archaeology work is approached through both collaborative models of research and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christine Hernandez. Gabrielle Vail.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ropes and cords in the form of twisted vegetal fibers, or entwined vegetation or serpent bodies, are a common component of Mesoamerican iconography from the Formative period (1500 BCE–250 CE) into the contact era. They serve a variety of functions such as measuring/framing devices, bindings for captives...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Edward Jolie. W. Rex Weeks.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ethnographic, iconographic, and archaeological records attest to the sophisticated and sumptuous textiles produced by Maya peoples in ancient and contemporary times. However, historical neglect of cordage industries in archaeology, combined with poor organic preservation and gaps in the ethnographic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Kallenbach. Richard Rosencrance.

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fiber technologies in the North American Great Basin have incredible antiquity and diversity, including fine cordage, rope, and braids spanning at least the last ~13,000 years. The Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada State Museum, and the Lakeview Bureau of Land...