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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Subsistence Economy In Urban Mayapán : Sustainability And Resiliency Through Diversity, Caroline Elizabeth Antonelli
The Subsistence Economy In Urban Mayapán : Sustainability And Resiliency Through Diversity, Caroline Elizabeth Antonelli
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Agrarian states are often viewed as premodern manifestations of complex urbanism, with environmental constraints limiting growth and their sustainability. Pre-Columbian states in the Northern Maya Lowlands were one context where these conditions were thought to apply. However, despite environmental constraints such as a scrub forest, periodic droughts and hurricanes, and an uneven distribution of resources, civilization flourished. Critical to the success of these states were social and economic institutions that supported highly effective landscape management strategies. The impact of these systems is still apparent today.Multiscalar approaches are critical to understanding the complex structures of subsistence economies in premodern urban places. …
Economy, Exchange, And Political Power At Lomas Entierros, Central Pacific Costa Rica, Yajaira Maria Nunez-Cortes
Economy, Exchange, And Political Power At Lomas Entierros, Central Pacific Costa Rica, Yajaira Maria Nunez-Cortes
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Archaeology's focus on long-term transformations in society provides a unique perspective to understand the rise and development of political and economic power and its effects on different groups of society. Comparative archaeological analyses of complex societies have demonstrated that there is a high degree of variability in the expression of such complexity, as well as in the processes that led to its emergence around the world. Within this broader context, this study focuses on intra-site and household economy patterns to gain insight into the sources of political and economic power, and reveal other forms of organization that may differ from …
Migration, Resettlement, And Transition In The Aftermath Of The Maya Collapse : A Case Study Of A Terminal Classic Maya Community In Northern Belize, Josalyn M. Ferguson
Migration, Resettlement, And Transition In The Aftermath Of The Maya Collapse : A Case Study Of A Terminal Classic Maya Community In Northern Belize, Josalyn M. Ferguson
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
While there is consensus that the processes of decline and abandonment at many sites associated with the Terminal Classic Maya “collapse” (A.D. 750-1050) included the movement of peoples across the Maya lowlands, there has been little focused archaeological research on the resettlement and regeneration of these migrant groups. The movement of peoples across the Maya landscape was partially encouraged by a declining and ever increasingly taxed environment, as well as a revolution in exchange systems, with a notable increase in entrepreneurialism across the Maya subarea. This more integrated economic system focused on a wider range of commodities that served to …
Human Interactions With The Late Holocene Landscape On Martha's Vineyard, Jessica Watson
Human Interactions With The Late Holocene Landscape On Martha's Vineyard, Jessica Watson
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The role of humans in pre-Contact ecosystems has been a focus of archaeological attention for decades in New England, where Native groups continue to live after over 10,000 years of settlement. On Martha’s Vineyard, a small island off the southern coast of Massachusetts, research has often focused on models of coastal specialization, particularly within the many shell middens that litter the coastline. This dissertation seeks to understand human interactions with this environment from two shell middens: the Frisby Butler and Hornblower II sites, located on the shores of Squibnocket Pond in southwestern Martha’s Vineyard. This study was motivated by three …
Finding The Foundation : Exploring A Historic Stockade Property In Schenectady, New York, Hanna Marie Pageau
Finding The Foundation : Exploring A Historic Stockade Property In Schenectady, New York, Hanna Marie Pageau
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Schenectady County Community College Community Archaeology Program researchers have been excavating in the Stockade Historic District, an area dating back to the Dutch colonization period. Sites located on the current property of the First Reformed Church of Schenectady, located within the district, include a house razed in 1938, but which appears according to existing deed records, to have originally been built in the late 1700s. Two primary finds have come from the excavation, including the presence of two different strata with significant amounts of burnt debris that is believed to represent the most significant fires on the property (1861/1948). In …
A Zooarchaeological And Geochemical Analysis Of The Faunal Remains From The Tripolye Site Verteba Cave, Ukraine, Sarah Heins Ledogar
A Zooarchaeological And Geochemical Analysis Of The Faunal Remains From The Tripolye Site Verteba Cave, Ukraine, Sarah Heins Ledogar
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This study combines zooarchaeological and geochemical analyses to examine the use of animals excavated from Verteba Cave (Ukraine), a unique archaeological site associated with the Eneolithic Tripolye culture (4900 – 2900 BC). Verteba Cave is atypical among Tripolye sites because it is located within a cave, and contains a large amount of human skeletal remains. Although research has been focused on understanding Tripolye subsistence economy, the strategies engaged for procuring domestic animals and the role of animal products in Tripolye life has been underexplored. The role of animals in social behaviors (i.e., mortuary practices, feasting) has not yet been thoroughly …
The Pottery And The People Of The Pethick Site In Schoharie County, New York, Jamie Marie Meinsen
The Pottery And The People Of The Pethick Site In Schoharie County, New York, Jamie Marie Meinsen
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
In the summer of 2014, the New York State Museum Cultural Research Survey Program and the Anthropology Department at the University at Albany undertook the excavation of the Pethick Site. An archaeological field school was organized for the detection and study of the site’s Native American features associated with an agricultural village. Through the efforts of students and professional archaeologists, hundreds of Native American artifacts were found in addition to historical ceramics, glass, brick fragments, pipe stems, and metal nails. The Pethick Site produced about 58 sherds of pottery related to the time after the arrival of Europeans to the …
Child Abuse In The Archaeological Context, Nicole Marie Popielarz
Child Abuse In The Archaeological Context, Nicole Marie Popielarz
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Children have been a widely ignored subject in archaeology so it follows that child abuse has not been studied in detail in the archaeological context. This paper combines both forensic anthropology studies and Bioarchaeological studies to see if child abuse is a modern phenomenon. Signs of both non-accidental trauma and neglect have been documented by authors in the archaeological record. The purpose of this paper will be to describe signs of both nonaccidental trauma and neglect. Then examples in archaeological studies will be reviewed. The future of the study of abuse in the archaeological context is also discussed at some …
The Initiation And Maintenance Of The Early Woodland Interaction Sphere (Ca. 3,000-2,000 B.P.) : The View From Six Northeastern Mortuary Sites, Francis Wanton Robinson Iv
The Initiation And Maintenance Of The Early Woodland Interaction Sphere (Ca. 3,000-2,000 B.P.) : The View From Six Northeastern Mortuary Sites, Francis Wanton Robinson Iv
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This dissertation explores the complex links between long distance exchange, burial elaboration and the potential emergence of social differentiation in formally non-stratified, small-scale societies. The author investigated these inter-related phenomena as they occurred during the Early Woodland period (ca. 3,000-2,000 cal yr BP) in the Northeastern region of the North American Eastern Woodlands. The Early Woodland interaction sphere represents one of the first inter-regional, large-scale exchange networks to ever develop north of Mesoamerica. The reasons and processes behind its genesis continue to be poorly understood, however.
Household Economies : The Production And Consumption Of Plumbate At Miguel AlemáN, The Conquista Campesina Complex And The PiñUela Complex, Marx Navarro-Castillo
Household Economies : The Production And Consumption Of Plumbate At Miguel AlemáN, The Conquista Campesina Complex And The PiñUela Complex, Marx Navarro-Castillo
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico, where the sites of Miguel Alemán, the Conquista Campesina Complex (Conq-18) and the Piñuela Complex (PIN) are located, has been an object of study by archaeologists since the beginning of the nineteenth century. My project focused at this locale is concerned with craft production as related to the organization and the development of hierarchical social relations and how this relationship is reflected through diverse indexes. Although Plumbate ceramics are my principal source of information, I studied other ceramic types as well.
Lithic Analysis Of The Becker Site : Continued Reevaluation Of The Culture-Historic Approach, Christopher Joseph Sobik
Lithic Analysis Of The Becker Site : Continued Reevaluation Of The Culture-Historic Approach, Christopher Joseph Sobik
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The Becker Site was originally interpreted as a River Phase, Late Archaic central base camp. While excavations at the site yielded numerous Normanskill projectile points, the diagnostic artifact for this phase, several rounds of radiocarbon testing yielded dates firmly in the Woodland Period. A literature review of the history of the use of the culture historic approach in New York State Archaeology, as well as several modern critiques on the same subject was undertaken with the goal of interpreting the site free of its constraints. A lithic analysis of both the formal tools and lithic debitage was undertaken in order …
Turrialba, Una Encrucijada : ArqueologíA Regional Y Rutas De ComunicacióN En Un Valle Del TróPico HúMedo De Costa Rica (11.000 A.C.-1600 D.C.), Ricardo Vazquez Leiva
Turrialba, Una Encrucijada : ArqueologíA Regional Y Rutas De ComunicacióN En Un Valle Del TróPico HúMedo De Costa Rica (11.000 A.C.-1600 D.C.), Ricardo Vazquez Leiva
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Routes are related with human occupation and social changes from the end of the Pleistocene to the beginning of the Spanish colonization in the Turrialba Valley, Costa Rica. The archaeological research was conducted in conjunction with the Angostura Hydroelectric Project, within a 120-km-square survey area and 145 sites. A limited number of them were excavated.
A Biocultural Perspective On The Transition To Agriculture In Ukraine, Jordan Kenneth Karsten
A Biocultural Perspective On The Transition To Agriculture In Ukraine, Jordan Kenneth Karsten
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
The development of agriculture and its spread around the globe is one of the most consequential events in the history of our species. The transition to agriculture is associated with many cultural developments, such as craft specialization, urbanization, and the creation of social hierarchies. Many social theorists believe that these changes associated with the adoption of farming were beneficial to the human condition, however, not all agree. The goal of this research is to evaluate the impact of the adoption of agriculture on human health. To do this, bioarchaeological analysis is employed, comparing the skeletal and dental health of Mesolithic …
Cultural Control And Agency : A Quantitative Analysis Of Mazama Sp. And Odocoileus Sp. Osteological Remains From MayapáN, Yucatan, Mexico, Vivian S. James
Cultural Control And Agency : A Quantitative Analysis Of Mazama Sp. And Odocoileus Sp. Osteological Remains From MayapáN, Yucatan, Mexico, Vivian S. James
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Mayan management of deer populations at Mayapán in the Yucatán, México has been suggested by historical texts, iconography, and archaeological investigation. Therefore, the main research question of this thesis is: Was deer management or husbandry practiced at Mayapán? Two Cervidae species are identified in the Mayapán faunal assemblage, Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer) and Mazama americana (brocket deer). It is likely that Mazama pandora (Yucatan brocket deer) is also present and possibly another Odocoileus subspecies. Consequently, the second research question of this thesis is: How many deer species or subspecies were present in Postclassic Period Mayapán? There is a considerable non-overlapping …
Farmers On The Edge : A Study Of Late-Preclassic Maya Houses And Rejolladas At The Site Of Xuenkal, Yucatan, Mexico, Justin Patrick Lowry
Farmers On The Edge : A Study Of Late-Preclassic Maya Houses And Rejolladas At The Site Of Xuenkal, Yucatan, Mexico, Justin Patrick Lowry
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Ancient economies are dominated by the production of food crops. At Xuenkal there is a good case to study how economies developed in the northern Maya lowlands between the late Preclassic Period and the Early Classic Period. Xuenkal is located in a unique zone of the Yucatan peninsula where the numerous karst sinks were appropriated and controlled by the earliest agriculturalists or horticulturalists. This dissertation will include arguments for both the development of complexity in this region and how this complexity was directly affected by the presence and cultivation of these constricted resource areas. Using the principle of first occupation …