Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Imagery In Nasca Cross-Knit Looped Textiles From The Milwaukee Public Museum, Katherine A. Cianciola

Theses and Dissertations

Textiles associated with the Nasca culture (0-650 C.E.) from Peru’s South Coast have been recognized for their complex and colorful ecological, anthropomorphic, and geometric imagery. Little, however, has been written about their three-dimensional cross-knit looping and embroidery. Cross-knit looping produced three-dimensional figures that were part of an elaborate border on clothing and a style specifically associated with the Nasca (Sawyer 1997:24, 27, 41, 97, 131-132, 136 for example). This thesis focuses on Nasca textiles primarily from the Malcolm K. Whyte (Accession Numbers: 18046 and 20517) collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and includes three-dimensional cross-knit looping of ecological and …

Ancient Andean Tattooing Practices, Madison Auten

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the practice of tattooing in the ancient Andean world focusing on Peru. I ask the question: What can we learn about how people in the ancient Andean world used tattoos? For example, who were the people receiving tattoos, where on the body were tattoos located and what did they depict? To address this, I collected data on tattoos preserved on human remains. Mummies originating from Peru were examined and their tattoos were photographed. The mummies I examined come from collections in three museums in the United States, including: the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), the Field Museum (FM) …

Regional Perspective Of Recuay Mortuary Practices: A View From The Hinterlands, Callejón De Huaylas, Peru, Victor Manuel Ponte

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations of burial chambers in the north-central highlands of Peru constitute the corpus of this thesis. Most of the stone structures correspond chronologically and culturally to the Recuay Tradition, a time span of 100 to 800 CE. The study area is located in the Cordillera Negra of the Callejón de Huaylas basin (Ancash Department). CRM projects developed in the impact zone of the Pierina mine have contributed valuable information on the mortuary practices of a Recuay agro-pastoral community. This thesis relied on grave goods inventories, osteological analysis, and types of stone architecture in the burial chamber. Data from this …

Andean Archaeological Featherwork At The Milwaukee Public Museum: A Case Study In Researching Potential Context For Limited-Provenience Artifacts, Diane Kay Newbury

Theses and Dissertations

The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) has a collection of 134 archaeological Peruvian featherworked items accessioned in the last century with minimal provenience information. The collection is composed primarily of feather fans and ornamental devices with the remainder being sections of tunics and smaller apparel items. Due to the long-standing prevalence of grave looting in Peru and subsequent sale to collectors, many ancient Andean examples in modern museums are bereft of contextual information. Archaeological collections with limited excavation provenience may be viewed as having less research potential. However, the artifacts themselves may carry indications of their original context. As a result, …

Faunal Subsistence Strategies Among Initial Period Coastal Fishers At The Gramalote Site In The Moche Valley Of Peru, Rachel Catherine Mctavish

Theses and Dissertations

This faunal analysis focuses on vertebrate remains from the northern coastal site of Gramalote in the lower Moche Valley of Peru. Gramalote dates to the Initial Period (1800-900 BC), a time of great change due to a rise of inland agricultural and increasing sedentism. This intrasite analysis of fauna at Gramalote seeks to contextualize potential subsistence shifts through time. Subsistence specialization regarding fish exploitation of coastal fishers is explored through faunal analysis of vertebrates at this site. For an ecological perspective, this project examines the application of Moseley's Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization and Optimal Foraging Theory models.

The sample …

In The Shadow Of The Peñon: A Zooarchaeological Study Of Formative Diet, Economy, And Sociopolitics In The Río Pukara Valley, Peru, Matthew Christopher Warwick

Theses and Dissertations

In the Lake Titicaca Basin, the Formative Period saw extensive changes in the scale and nature of sociopolitical complexity, ritual practice and economic organization associated with the transition from small villages to the rise of regional Late Formative polities. These changes were partially fueled by the development and intensification of agro-pastoral economies. Consequently, it is essential to compare and contrast subsistence and herding practices associated with the domestic and political economies, given that these forces supported life at the village- as well as the polity-level. A growing database exists for animal exploitation associated with Formative through Tiwanaku Periods in the …