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A Grim End For Europe's First Civilization: The Fall Of Minoan Crete, Ashley Arp

Honors Theses

Early popular theories about the collapse of the Minoan civilization center around natural disasters, but geoarchaeological research from the past few decades has disproved these earlier theories. It is evident that the Minoan civilization continued to thrive for around a century after the volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami that had previously been credited as the cause for the collapse. Evidence of manmade destruction has been uncovered across the island of Crete c. 1450 BCE and this period was quickly followed by a drastic cultural shift that included more Mycenaean elements than had been found on the island previously. These destructions, …

Multisensory Experiences In Archaeological Landscapes—Sound, Vision, And Movement In Gis And Virtual Reality, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristy Primeau,, David E. E. Witt, Graham Goodwin

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Archaeologists are employing a variety of digital tools to develop new methodological frameworks that combine computational and experiential approaches which is leading to new multisensory research. In this article, we explore vision, sound, and movement at the ancient Maya city of Copan from a multisensory and multiscalar perspective bridging concepts and approaches from different archaeological paradigms. Our methods and interpretations employ theory-inspired variables from proxemics and semiotics to develop a methodological framework that combines computation with sensory perception. Using GIS, 3D, and acoustic tools we create multisensory experiences in VR with spatial sound using an immersive headset (Oculus Rift) and …

A Reimagining Of The Chacoan World, Larry Benson, Richard W. Loose

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

A new paradigm of the Chacoan world is presented, wherein Chaco Canyon is considered to be a mostly unoccupied architectural complex that functioned primarily as a pilgrimage destination. Chaco was the political, religious, and social focal point of people living in outlying regions. The resident population of the Canyon consisted of a small number of caretakers, charged with maintaining great house structures, food supplies, and their ceremonial contents. Chacoan chiefdoms were mostly located in large, well-watered, agriculturally-based communities situated at the base of mountains that ring the San Juan Basin, e.g., the Chuskas. Chiefly elites lived year-round in those areas, …

When Leaders Surrender Their Divine Lineage: The Loss Of Cosmic Connection Between Maya Local Lords And Their Supernatural Deities, Amy S. Peterson

Anthropology Department: Theses

The Maya who lived during the Classic Period (200 CE to 900 CE) went through many changes in their daily lives. In the Late Classic Period (600 to 900 CE), social, political and economic stressors caused even more change to their routines, leading to the “collapse” around 800-900 CE. Current hypotheses for this collapse included warfare, environmental factors, human degradation of landscapes, as well as internal and external influences. I hypothesize that in the Early Classic (200 to 600 CE), rulership of local communities by Maya lords, or ajawob, related mainly to their connection to a pantheon of supernatural …

The Ramey Incised Pottery Of Cahokia (Il) Usa: Diffusion And Reinterpretation Of Its Iconographic Message, Melissa Mattioli

Congreso internacional sobre iconografía precolombina, Barcelona 2019. Actas.

Una interpretación iconográfica adaptada y adoptada por toda la zona Mississippiana. Cahokia es el asentamiento más antiguo y más grande en la América del Norte precolombina. Situado a pocos kilómetros de la actual ciudad de St. Louis, MO (USA), este sitio arqueológico se convirtió en el mayor asentamiento Mississippiano desde la mitad del siglo XI hasta su abandono, al final del siglo XIV. El modelo cosmológico Mississippiano, trasmitido a través de la iconografía de la cerámica Ramey Incised, generalmente está relacionado con los mundos superior e inferior. Tradicionalmente, se reconoce que la presencia de la cosmógrafia de estilo Cahokiano fuera …

Oficiantes Mochica Medio En San José De Moro: El Sacerdote Lechuza Y La Sacerdotisa, Karim Ruiz Rosell

Congreso internacional sobre iconografía precolombina, Barcelona 2019. Actas.

Las tumbas Mochica Medio de El Sacerdote Lechuza y La Sacerdotisa de San José de Moro (SJM) esbozan una identidad individual particular y relacionan a los individuos enterrados con una élite ceremonial en la que habrían desempeñado funciones de oficiantes adscritas a los rituales en los que dichos personajes aparecen en la iconografía. Por un lado, la tumba del Sacerdote Lechuza, llena de alusiones iconográficas a la lechuza (metales y cerámica) que remiten a la figura del Sacerdote Lechuza; por otro lado, la tumba de la Sacerdotisa, con varios elementos del “Tema de la Presentación” tallados en concha …

Ancient Peruvian Textiles In The Vatican Museums And Their Link To The Musée Du Trocadéro Collections, Jean-François Genotte

PreColumbian Textile Conference VIII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VIII (2019)

The Vatican Museums keep a small collection of about sixty textile fragments mostly Lambayeque, Chimu and Chancay dating back to Late Intermediate Period. Unfortunately, the archaeological provenance of these items is not known. This paper offers a first overview of the history of the collection, describing its contents and, in more details, its most interesting fabrics. We will then suggest that some fragments of the Vatican collection might have been part of textiles once kept in the Musée du Trocadéro, and nowadays preserved in the Quai Branly Museum in Paris.

Los Museos del Vaticano conservan una pequeña colección de unos …

Recontextualizando El Patrimonio Arqueológico: Los Textiles Paracas Descubiertos Por Engel En Cabezas Largas, Jessica Lévy Contreras

PreColumbian Textile Conference VIII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VIII (2019)

Resumen El archivo de Frédéric Engel, arqueólogo suizo quien trabajó en la costa sur del Perú entre los años 1950 y 1960, representa un patrimonio documental importante conservado en el Museo Nacional de Antropología, Biodiversidad, Agricultura y Alimentación (MUNABA) de la Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina en Lima. Gracias a la revisión de los registros gráficos y fotográficos de las excavaciones realizadas en Cabezas Largas, sitio ubicado en la Península de Paracas, y particularmente de los materiales hallados en la tumba T.27, este artículo presenta los principales textiles asociados a la parafernalia ritual de siete fardos funerarios para tratar de …

Frontmatter For Egyptian Textiles And Their Production: ‘Word’ And ‘Object’. (Hellenistic, Roman And Byzantine Periods), Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

Covers

Dedication

Contents

Introduction by Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert

Contributors

Many Makers: Collaborative Renewal Of Chahta Nan Tvnna (Choctaw Textiles), Jennifer Byram

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Using an Indigenous research model of relationality to community and to land, this paper presents the production of a 1700’s style skirt in bison and dogbane fiber by a group of Choctaw textiles artisans. By translating existing archaeological and textual resources into newly produced garments, these practices communicate the research to the Choctaw community in an accessible and inspiring format. Textiles discussed in this paper are made with twining and oblique interlacing techniques using dogbane, bison, and nettle yarns decorated with natural dyes, pigments, or shells. Members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma revitalized a traditional art that had been …

Transformative Power Of Stitchery: Sashiko From Cold Regions Of Japan And Embroidery Work Of The Nui Project, Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper seeks to reveal the transformative power of stitchery by examining textile practices in Japan and articulating how a threaded needle can be viewed as the co-agent of stitchers, infusing their materials with properties in a “processual” and relational manner that reflects the currents of their lifeworld.^[1] I will contrast and compare two practices, one ancient and one modern, one responding to life’s necessities and the other simply to the act of stitching. In the ancient world, stitchery was essential for human survival, and later in rural Japan, sashiko stitchery was a medium that connected textiles with daily …

Reawakening Chahta Nan Tvnna (Choctaw Textiles), Jennifer Byram

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Choctaw people have crafted textiles from the land for thousands of years. Native to Mississippi and Alabama, U.S.A., the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma resides today in the Southeastern part of the state and numbers over 200,000 citizens. This paper comes out of the tribe’s Historic Preservation department’s work in conjunction with community efforts to reawaken Chahta nan tvnna, Choctaw textiles. By piecing together disparate parts of the Choctaw textile narrative, the Choctaw community is creating new textile work that recalls the ancestors and brings the identity of Chahta nan tvnna to new generations of Choctaw artisans.

Introduction Into The History Of The Textile Collection At The Ethnological Museum Berlin, Beatrix Hoffmann

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

When the Ethnological Museum at Berlin was founded, it counted already with several hundred pieces from South America. Only a minor part them belonged to pre-Columbian cultures from the Andes. While most of these pieces were ceramics almost no ancient fabrics could be found in the collection. This reflected the collector’s interests focusing on objects made of ceramic, stone or metal and on human remains. Consequently, the first pieces of fabric reached the museum at Berlin as parts of mummy cloths. This did not change until 1879, when the collection of Reiss and Stübel was acquired for the museum. It …

The Arizona Openwork (Tonto) Shirt Project, Carol James

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

In 1923 a pair of hikers came across a series of objects in a cave near the Salt River in Arizona. Among the objects was an elaborate sprang shirt, later given to the Arizona State Museum where it remains to this date. The cotton yarn in the shirt was subjected to Carbon Dating and assigned a probable origin date of the 12th century. In order to better understand the shirt, a replica was made in early 2015. Diverse technical challenges included hand spinning an appropriate cotton yarn, mapping the pattern, accurately copying the irregularities, and creating the neckline. The project …

Mexica Textiles: Archaeological Remains From The Sacred Precincts Of Tenochtitlan And Tlatelolco, Leonardo López Luján, Salvador Guilliem Arroyo

PreColumbian Textile Conference VII / Jornadas de Textiles PreColombinos VII (2016)

In contrast with the rich written and iconographical data from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries concerning Mexica textiles, discoveries of such materials in archaeological contexts in Mexico City are quite rare. This paucity is reflected in our archaeological collections, in spite of the fact that the imperial Mexica capital received in tribute and trade copious amounts of unprocessed cotton, thread, cord, fabric, and clothing, and that the sister cities, Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, were bustling centers of textile production. The few Mexica examples extant today are in poor condition and have survived thanks to being carbonized during rituals prior to their …

Shattered Ceilings: Roof Tile Analysis On Survey Archaeology Projects, Rebecca Salem

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Finding a roof tile on an archaeological survey demonstrates that a structure had previously stood nearby. Rarely found in their entirety, tiles are fabricated from terracotta, which, while durable when in its proper place, breaks when falling from a roof. The nature of these fragmentary finds has made tile analysis limited and tiles are often not included in publications or only a select few are included with ceramic finds. Additionally, unlike pottery with its typographic chronology, roof tiles have restricted dating potential. However, there are several specific types of tile that can greatly help with dating. Though limited, some of …

What Can Gis + 3d Mean For Landscape Archaeology?, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Until recently Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have held center stage in the archaeologist's geospatial toolkit, and there is no doubt that archaeologists have moved beyond the mapdbut into what? In the early years, criticisms voicing GIS as environmentally-deterministic were abundant. What methods and tool have archaeologists used to overcome these criticisms? New geospatial technologies such as airborne lidar and aerial photogrammetry are allowing us to acquire inordinate amounts of georeferenced 3D datad but do these 3D technologies help overcome criticisms of environmental determinism? TogetherdGIS þ 3Dd can link georeferenced 3D models to underlying data adding a ground-based humanistic perspective lacking …

Listening For Licia: A Reconsideration Of Latin Licia As Heddle-Leashes, Magdalena Öhrman

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

The semantic field of Latin licium and its plural form licia is undoubtedly wide, with the term applied to thread both generally and in specific legal, medical and magical usage as well as in relation to weaving, and this paper does not aim to survey Latin usage of this term comprehensively. Rather, it focuses on one of the uses of licia in Latin literary sources, namely those where licia appears to denote heddle-leashes. Two much-discussed passages occur in Augustan poetry where licia may be used in this sense: Vergil’s Georgics 1.285 and Tibullus elegy 1.6.79. Both passages have been subject …

Weaving A Song. Convergences In Greek Poetic Imagery Between Textile And Musical Terminology. An Overview On Archaic And Classical Literature, Giovanni Fanfani

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

In an analysis of the household-management (οἰκο- νομία) in the first book of the Politics, Aristotle discusses the nature and use of tools (ὄργανα), both inanimate (τὰ ἄψυχα) and animate (τὰ ἔμψυχα). While such a distinction is functional, in Aristotle’s argument, to illustrate the priority of the latter group (represented by the assistant, ὁ ὑπηρετής, and the slave, ὁ δοῦλος) over the first, what interests us here lies mainly within the realm of inanimate tools. As commentators to the passage have not failed to notice, a first literary frame of reference for Aristotle’s exemplum fictum is to be found …

Remarks On The Interpretation Of Some Ambiguous Greek Textile Terms, Stella Spantidaki

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

The study of written sources of the Classical period (5th and 4th centuries BC) reveals the existence of a very rich vocabulary related to textile production. There are terms referring to materials, tools, manufacture and decoration techniques, colours, people and places related to textile manufacture. Many terms are quite clearly defined, while others present major difficulties in their interpretation. Usually these concern terms for tools, such as κερκίς (pin beater or shuttle) and ἡλακάτη (distaff or spindle) or terms describing fabrics with some kind of decoration. Among the decorative terms, some refer to specific decorative techniques, such as κατάστικτος (embroidered) …

Ars Polymita, Ars Plumaria: The Weaving Terminology Of Taqueté And Tapestry, John Peter Wild, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

In Roman Egypt papyrologists and archaeologists sometimes seem to inhabit two different, if parallel, worlds, each apparently unaware of the treasures to be found in the other. This paper, however, is a co-operative venture between an ancient historian with papyrological interests – Kerstin Droß-Krüpe – and an archaeologist – John Peter Wild. In the research field of textiles we overlap, and we want to offer you insights from each of our worlds. At some point in the later 2nd century AD an unnamed magnate in the territory of the Lingones in central Gaul dictated a will in which he stipulated …

Conceptualizing Greek Textile Terminologies: A Databased System, Kalliope Sarri

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

One of the major challenges in costume and textile research is dealing with the vast number of terms related to textiles and garments, especially because similar terms are found in different languages and dialects, in various regions and over long periods of time, where they have survived in a complicated network of linguistic and cultural interrelations. There have been many attempts to collect textile terms in glossaries as parts of costume studies or as parts of museum archival projects. These glossaries however are usually limited to specific topics, geographical areas, languages, and time periods.

Creating a diachronic and global costume …

3d Tool Evaluation And Workflow For An Ecological Approach To Visualizing Ancient Socio-Environmental Landscapes: A Case Study From Copan, Honduras, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Shona Sanford-Long, Jack Kerby-Miller

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Architectural reconstructions are the centerpieces of ancient landscape visualization. When present, vegetation is relegated to the background, resulting in underutilized plant data—an integral data source for archaeological interpretation—thus limiting the capacity to take advantage of 3D visualization for studying ancient socio-environmental dynamics. Our long-term objective is to develop methods of 3D landscape visualization that have value for examining changes in land use and settlement patterns. To begin to work toward this objective, we have (1) identified 3D tools and techniques for vegetation modeling and landscape visualization, (2) evaluated the pros and cons of these tools, (3) investigated biological and ecological …

The Relevance Of Maize Pollen For Assessing The Extent Of Maize Production In Chaco Canyon, Carrie C. Heitman, Phil R. Geib

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Opinion is hardly unanimous, but many authors endorse the idea that Chaco Canyon is and was a marginal place for growing corn (Zea mays), a chief source of food energy for Puebloan groups in the Southwest. Poor soils with “toxic” levels of salts, inadequate and unpredictable precipitation, and a short growing season have all been identified as contributing to the agricultural marginality of the place (Benson 2011a; Bryan 1954; Force et al. 2002; Judd 1954:59–61). Benson has been the most vocal proponent of this view of late, and his research has culminated in the conclusion that “the San Juan Basin, …

Prehistoric Earth Oven Facilities And The Pathoecology Of Chagas Disease In The Lower Pecos Canyonlands, Karl Reinhard, Adauto Araujo

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Understanding the endemic region of a disease is part of developing a concept of the disease’s natural history and its threat to human health in both ancient and modern times. Chagas disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and has recently been identified as an emergent disease in North America. Ancient endemicity and reemergence has been demonstrated by an examination of a mummy found on the border between Coahuila, Mexico and Texas, USA. This mummified man, who died over 1000 years ago, exhibits the gross pathology of megacolon, which is consistent with Chagas disease. We are now exploring the …

Flax Fibre: Innovation And Change In The Early Neolithic A Technological And Material Perspective, Susanna Harris

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Flax (Linum sp.) was one of the first domestic plants in Neolithic Europe, providing a potential cultivable source of fibres for the first farmers. As the plant provides both oil and fibre, it is a matter of enquiry as to whether the plant was first domesticated for its seeds or stem. Through examining new data collected by the EUROEVOL Project, UCL it is possible to chart the earliest archaeobotanical evidence for flax species in Europe. This provides the basis on which to consider the origin of fibres from the flax plant (linen) as a basis for change and innovation in …

The Aegean Wool Economies Of The Bronze Age, Marie-Louise Nosch

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper will explore the importance of wool in the emergence of complex societies during the Bronze Age in the Aegean. The 2nd millennium BC Aegean witnesses the emergence of a highly particular system of wool economy, beginning with the Minoan and followed by the Mycenaean centralized palace economies with strict administration of flocks, herders, wool, and textile production by thousands of women and children. This system monitors annual production targets and surplus production, and production strategies ensuring that the palaces’ needs are met. Textile production is the largest sector of the palace economy and employs the highest number of …

Textile Materials And Techniques In Central Europe In The 2nd And 1st Millennia Bc, Karina Grömer

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

For over a millennium, the site of Hallstatt, located in the Austrian Alps, was a meeting point between north and south, east and west, serving as a melting pot of new ideas and innovations. About 300 textile units (more than 700 single fragments) from Bronze and Iron Ages are known from the prehistoric salt mines, dating from 1500-300 BC. They display a wide range of textile techniques and provide insight in different aspects of textile craft. Their outstanding preservation allows us to investigate many crucial steps in the chaîne opératoire of textile production. The 2nd millennium BC is a time, …

Movement As A Means Of Social (Re)Production: Using Gis To Measure Social Integration Across Urban Landscapes, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristin Landau

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This paper contributes to the archaeological study of movement in urban environments where built forms and natural features worked together to play a key role in structuring human mobility.We propose an analytical method using least cost analysis in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to empirically measure social integration. The method defines mobility as the potential for pedestrian movement, and identifies locations where people were most likely to walk to or through in a landscape. The calculated mobility data are then employed to identify with whom people were most likely to interact and the degree to which they were socially connected …

Maguey Hammock: A Weaving Of Resistance And Persistence In Puerto Rico, Soraya Serra Collazo

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Textiles are primary technology to almost all societies. Puerto Rico and the Caribbean are no exceptions. There is an object that has been weaved in the region since pre-Columbian times and it is still passing through the fingers of local artisans. Hamaca, an invention of the American inhabitants,² is an indigenous voice incorporated into many languages. It was in the Caribbean, where Europeans saw its utility, and it was quickly incorporated as the best way of sleeping in their transatlantic voyages. Its production has spread throughout the world and today it is made in many countries. In Puerto Rico …