1,720,977 research outputs found
International Cooperative Research: An Introduction
Get PDFArchaeology has been transformed in recent decades. One change is the increasing international collaboration between professionals from different institutions and countries that share archaeological interests. However, the nature of collaborations has changed dramatically—and for the better—from the types of relationships between researchers, institutions, and fieldwork relationships with many non- Western countries as conducted in the first half of the twentieth century. First, the regulations and laws related to the protection of archaeological heritage in many countries have changed drastically in the last few decades. New regulations frequently prohibit the export of artifacts and other materials, as home countries exert greater control over all aspects of cultural patrimony. More importantly, they often stipulate that foreign researchers have local or governmental archaeologists as codirectors, defining a new era in collaborative research. The nature of these mandated relationships, of course, varies with the individuals involved, but these are increasingly truly cooperative.Fil: Lanata, Jose Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Diversidad Cultural y Procesos de Cambio. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Instituto de Investigaciones en Diversidad Cultural y Procesos de Cambio; Argentina. University of Cambridge; Estados UnidosFil: Duff, Andrew I.. Washington State University; Estados Unido
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Sourcing nonlocal bighorn sheep using strontium isotope analysis, Homol'ovi Settlement Cluster, northeast Arizona
Get PDFArchaeological bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) have been recovered in high frequencies from the Homol’ovi Settlement Cluster (HSC), northeast Arizona. This is salient because these animals are non-endemic to the Middle Little Colorado River Valley, with the nearest source being the Grand Canyon approximately 160 km away. This study uses strontium isotope analysis to source bighorn sheep recovered from the HSC to four potential source locations where bighorn sheep have been historically documented in the region: the Grand Canyon, San Francisco Peaks, White Mountains, and Black Mesa. When HSC bighorn samples are compared to baseline ranges calculated for each of the areas, patterns emerge. More specifically, results of the strontium isotope analysis rule out the San Francisco Peaks and White Mountains. Bighorn may have been procured from Black Mesa, Grand Canyon, or could represent an extirpated population local to the HSC area. After the isotopic results are contextualized within existing cultural data, the most likely location of procurement is Black Mesa, north of the HSC. I argue that the long-distance procurement of bighorn from this area represents a desire to maintain social connections with the Hopi Mesas, where the founders of the HSC originated
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Learning frameworks and technological traditions pottery manufacture in a Chaco period great house community on the southern Colorado plateau
Get PDFThe manufacture of ceramic wares in Chaco-era (A.D. 1000-1150) communities provides a unique opportunity to explore how women lived and portrayed their identity through the products that they produced. During this time in the southern Cibola region, people with traditions indicative of archaeological cultures residing north of the Mogollon Rim (Ancestral Puebloan) and those residing below the rim (Mogollon) were coming together and likely residing within the same communities. This is reflected in the archaeological record by the production of both brown and gray plain ware pottery. This thesis addresses one main concern; whether or not it is possible to examine women's roles within Chaco-era communities based on the production of ceramics. More specifically, I address how several attributes of the technological manufacture of ceramics can be reflective of both conscious and unconscious choices that women made and ultimately how this may reflect several aspects of the social situation that women were living within a multi-ethnic community. In this thesis I utilize several low technological means of examining ceramic wares focused on both utilitarian and decorated wares and the ability to locally produce them. The examined attributes reflect the entire operation sequence from clay procurement to the final visible product. Subsequently, the analysis presented here allows for an interpretation of how members produced pottery at community, roomblock and household levels. The technological production of the ceramic wares is then compared to several aspects of social theory including how ethnic, kinship and gender roles are signified in material culture. The results of the thesis suggest that at a community level, unpainted, textured pottery wares were manufactured with techniques indicative of two different learned traditions. However, at the roomblock and household levels, unpainted, textured wares were produced distinctly differently in only some areas in the community. I argue that this reflects social situations where women were participating in potting groups differently in different areas of the community, possibly resultant of post-marital residence. However, the general patterns in the distribution of the ceramic assemblage suggest that there was no restricted access in terms of ceramics wares or the raw materials used to produce them. I suggest this indicates a social setting where there was little pressure to conform to a predominant method of ceramic manufacture. Ultimately, this thesis provides additional data to interpret Chaco-era great house communities and differences in technological manufacture. While I have found it difficult to interpret some aspects of life at Cox Ranch Pueblo and its relationship within the Chacoan landscape, I suggest that the continued exploration of social patterns via technological choices that individuals make will allow us to examine how people negotiated their role in life as reflected in the material objects they create
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Palynological investigations during the colonial reducciones at Magdalena de Cao Viejo, Peru
Get PDFThis thesis presents data regarding the impacts of the Colonial reducciones, a period of Colonial upheaval and forced migration of Andean native populations during the sixteenth century, on native's use of plants at the site of Magdalena de Cao Viejo, Peru. Palynological data generated from various contexts of the 2008 and 2012 excavations at Magdalena de Cao Viejo are reviewed. Specifically, I employ a human ecological approach to examine the pattern of plant use before and after Spanish conquest, in an effort to shed light on if and how the establishment of the Colonial reducciones changed the way the natives utilized their environment. I provide characterizations of plant taxa found in contexts including adobe bricks (Moche and Colonial era), fills and floors, and a stratigraphic profile. I have tested two specific areas at the site to see if there was a difference in pollen present from the Colonial church and the domestic compound area. A palynological analysis was conducted on thirty-five sediment samples from Magdalena de Cao Viejo. Pollen records are typically used to record fluctuations in pollen taxa and can be used to determine if there was a change in economic plant use. Pollen analysis may shed light on vi human economics, as well as providing insights into anthropogenic and natural changes in environmental conditions on a local and regional scale. The identification of pollen from Magdalena de Cao Viejo has offered a view of plant use, both for consumption and architectural purposes. Twenty-nine non-arboreal and three arboreal taxa were identified, including many economic types. These identifications show similar plant types continued to be utilized during the Spanish Colonial Period. Thus, interpretations of the pollen present at Magdalena de Cao Viejo create a better understanding of how native lifeways changed or did not change under Spanish influence. There has been a dearth of palynological research on Colonial Period archaeology in this region. Therefore, this study provides informative data for the interpretation of the Colonial reducciones
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Inferring the interaction of two Chaco-era communities through painted ceramic design analyses
Get PDFArtifacts constitute the majority of the archaeological record and are the largest contributor to our ability to understand extinct cultural systems. Of these material remains, ceramics are among the most abundant and the most informative, especially in terms of their variability, both functionally and stylistically (Binford 1964:430). Stylistic analysis of ceramics has been the foundation for ceramic seriation and much of the chronology in the American Southwest, and may also be utilized to understand behavior. Design elements are the individual design units painted on the ceramics, which are analyzed and recorded for intra- and inter-site comparisons of Cox Ranch Pueblo and Cerro Pomo, two Pueblo II (A.D. 1050-1130) communities located 8 km apart in west-central New Mexico. Similarities and differences that result from various living and learning environments can lead to the identification of interaction both within and between contemporaneous sites. Based on the analysis of painted ceramics excavated from middens and Great House deposits at both sites, it is possible to infer behavioral trends and levels of interaction within and between these two communities. Through the analysis of painted designs on the sherds from Cox Ranch Pueblo and Cerro Pomo, I address the question: “Did people living and working in close proximity influence each other’s painted design choices on an intra-site and inter-site level?” While this question will not be definitively answered in this study, evidence supporting learning and preference patterns based on residence proximity are presented indicating that those who lived near each other may have influenced the ceramic painted design choices of their neighbors. The data collection and analyses also indicate that Cerro Pomo and Cox Ranch Pueblo became more homogenous in their painted design element choices over time. Additionally, the Great Houses in these two communities appear to have been integrative and specialized use locations for the whole community, much like the role of the Great Houses in Chaco Canyon (Cameron and Toll 2001:12)
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How great were Cedar Mesa great house communities, A.D. 1060-1270?
Get PDFQuestions about the structure of ancient communities and the socially constructed landscape have been explored and explained in other parts of the northern Southwest (e.g. Cameron 2009; Gilpin 2003; Kantner and Mahoney 2000; Varien and Wilshusen 2002), but until recently, the size and structure of Pueblo period communities on central Cedar Mesa in southeast Utah have not been intensively investigated. Two great houses --the Et Al and Owen sites-- other landscape features (such as shrines, great kivas, and roads), and numerous residential sites suggest the presence of a substantial ancient community on the mesa, which was part of a larger network of communities in southeast Utah and the Northern San Juan region. This thesis examines three scales of the Pueblo II and Pueblo III period (A.D. 1060-1270) community associated with the Et Al great house-- the first-order community, the community of participation, and the regional community" and proposes that Et Al functioned as a symbol and locus of integration for the Et Al community. Et Al and Owen may also be the material remnants of competition among individuals vying for political power and personal prestige on the mesa top and across the region. Evidence of feasting at publicly used sites provides evidence for both community integration and individual competition. Using previous research in the Northern San Juan, known sites on Cedar Mesa, and site data gathered during the summer of 2011, I describe aspects of the community that utilized the Bullet Canyon drainage and surrounding areas and argue that the inhabitants of Cedar Mesa constructed landscape features which connected them to more widely held Puebloan ideology and cosmology. Et Al and Owen were not anomalous great houses on the margin of the Mesa Verde region, but represent structures used by a substantial community, which was part of a larger network of great house communities in the prehispanic Pueblo world
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Ceramic evidence for Pueblo-Mogollon cohabitation at Largo Gap in New Mexico
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to confirm by ceramic analysis that Mogollon and Pueblo people co-resided within communities in west-central New Mexico during the Chaco era of the Pueblo II period (A.D. 1050-1130). Previous studies have demonstrated that distinct ceramic traditions are present within the same archaeological sites; yet questions still remain as to whether or not gray wares, associated principally with Pueblo culture, were manufactured locally or were imported to the region. My study objective was thus to determine, first, whether gray wares are produced locally and, second, whether or not ceramic traditions at Largo Gap follow the same trends as those of nearby great house sites. Various methods were used to address this question. These include measuring apparent porosity and conducting oxidation analysis in order to examine differences between brown and gray wares. Additionally, electron microprobe analysis was conducted on a subset of sherds and local clays collected in the vicinity of the site in order to provide chemical composition via point analysis of the clay pastes. It was thus hypothesized that if the chemical composition of gray wares overlaps with either the brown wares or local clays, then these gray wares were in fact vi produced locally. This would support the interpretation that Pueblo and Mogollon peoples coresided within the Largo Gap community. My results indicate cultural distinction between brown and gray wares, which tend to differ in the type of clays used and temper typically added to each. These technological choices are shown to be cultural and not based on the intended function of vessels. Additionally, chemical overlap is demonstrated between some gray and brown ware sherds, as well as between gray wares and local clays. Based on broader regional ceramic trends, study results also suggest an adaptation of Pueblo ceramic tradition to the local environment at Largo Gap. This is supported by the fact that attributes occurring in brown wares are also present within the gray wares in some cases. The results of this study suggest that a Pueblo cultural element was present at Largo Gap during the Chaco era of the Pueblo II period
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Serving up ethnic identity in Chacoan frontier communities the technology and distribution of Mogollon and Puebloan ceramic wares in the Southern Cibola Region
Get PDFTwo great houses in west-central New Mexico, Cerro Pomo and Cox Ranch, are situatedat Chaco's southern frontier and contain ceramic evidence for the co-residence of Mogollon and Pueblo groups. Brown ware is generally attributed to the Mogollon, whereas gray and red ware is attributed to the Pueblos. Mogollon Brown Ware dominates the assemblage, and bowls with smudged interiors are prevalent. In fact painted red ware bowls, common at contemporaneous sites to the north in traditional Pueblo territory, are comparatively rare at these sites. This study explores the possibility that smudged brown ware was used in place of red ware as serving bowls, a potential indicator of Mogollon historical practice. The distribution of smudged brown ware and red painted ware is documented, and the functional similarities between the two are explored using vessel size and sherd apparent porosity to measure the vessels' original function and raw material attributes. In addition, the possible function of these wares was directly measured with protein residue and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analyses. The sherd size data indicate that painted red ware and brown smudged ware bowls were manufactured in similar sizes and therefore were functionally similar; however the whole vessel sizes of brown and red bowls are not statistically similar. Apparent porosity data varies slightly between brown and red ware bowls suggesting that although they could have served a similar purpose, they were manufactured from distinct clays. Similarly, the unrefired apparent porosity varies slightly between brown and gray jars. These differences may relate to different vessel function, but they may also be within the known limits for cooking jars. On this northern periphery of Mogollon territory, the regional spatial patterning in the distribution of red, gray, and brown wares indicates that the frequency of smudged brown ware generally increases from north to south. Furthermore, this distribution demonstrates that numerous sites in the Southern Cibola region exhibit a mixture of Mogollon and Pueblo ceramic traditions, indicating that ethnic co-residence was not unique to Cox Ranch and Cerro Pomo. Overall, it seems that the residents of sites in this transitional zone were placing higher value on smudged ware and choosing to use it rather than red ware. This technological difference could be signaling the expression of Mogollon ethnicity in the Southern Cibola region and the southern periphery of the Chacoan regional system
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Complementary compositional analyses of ceramics from two great house communities in west-central New Mexico
Get PDFCerro Pomo and Cox Ranch Pueblos, in west-central New Mexico, represent some of the southernmost examples of the Chacoan great house pattern, and are located within the northern reaches of the traditional Mogollon culture area. These great houses and the smaller sites around them exhibit a blend of characteristically Puebloan and Mogollon traits, evident in architectural patterns and in the use of both grey and brown ceramic utility wares. Grey corrugated wares are traditionally associated with Ancestral Pueblo peoples, and brown wares with the Mogollon. The coexistence of these suites of material culture traits within individual sites is a pattern that persists into later periods in the region. Settlements within this region of cultural overlap provide a unique opportunity for the study of identity and interaction along both spatial and historical scales. With that potential in mind, this work focuses on ceramic compositional variation in assemblages from the Cerro Pomo and Cox Ranch great house communities. Visual analyses of tempering materials and refired paste color, paired with electron microprobe assays of clay pastes, reveal distinct differences within and between wares. These complementary methods provide data which are examined here with three aims. These are: 1) assessment of the interpretive potential of ceramic provenance work in the study area; 2) creation of a visual, provenance-related typology that can be used by analysts in the laboratory; and 3) evaluation of local ceramic production and distribution with the intent to elucidate aspects of identity, interaction, and history. Results indicate that brown wares were likely produced with local clays and tempers, whereas grey wares were produced elsewhere and brought into the study area. The prevalence and local nature of the brown ware tradition indicates an expression of Mogollon cultural identity, while the ubiquity and proportions of grey and decorated wares indicate shared ties to Ancestral Pueblo groups to the north and other groups throughout the region. Visual provenance-related typology appears to be possible at a coarse, yet useful level of resolution. Finally, an argument is constructed against ethnic co-residence as an explanation for ceramic patterning in the study area
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