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Archaeological Anthropology

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Andean Archaic

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Macusani Obsidian From Southern Peru: A Characterization Of Its Elemental Composition With A Demonstration Of Its Ancient Use, Nathan M. Craig, Robert Speakman, R. Popelka-Filcoff, Mark Aldenderfer, Luis Flores Blanco, Margaret Brown Vega, Michael Glasscock, Charles Stanish Jan 2010

Macusani Obsidian From Southern Peru: A Characterization Of Its Elemental Composition With A Demonstration Of Its Ancient Use, Nathan M. Craig, Robert Speakman, R. Popelka-Filcoff, Mark Aldenderfer, Luis Flores Blanco, Margaret Brown Vega, Michael Glasscock, Charles Stanish

Nathan M Craig

Transparent obsidian artifacts have been reported for the northern Lake Titicaca Basin. Based on instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of these artifacts a distinct chemical group was identified. Yet, the location of the source of transparent obsidian in the southern Andes remained unreported in the archaeological literature. This paper reports on the chemical composition and geographic location of a source of transparent obsidian from the Macusani region of Peru. Through the use of INAA and portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) we demonstrate that Macusani obsidian or macusanite comprises (at least) two chemical groups. One of these groups was used for making …


Terminal Archaic Settlement Pattern And Land Cover Change In The Rio Ilave, Southwestern Lake Titicaca Basin, Perú, Nathan M. Craig, Mark Aldenderfer, Paul Baker, Catherine Rigsby Dec 2009

Terminal Archaic Settlement Pattern And Land Cover Change In The Rio Ilave, Southwestern Lake Titicaca Basin, Perú, Nathan M. Craig, Mark Aldenderfer, Paul Baker, Catherine Rigsby

Nathan M Craig

Researchers have argued the modern Altiplano land cover—one of bunch grasses and few indigenous tree species—is an anthropogenic artifact of land use practices initiated after the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century a.d. Recent paleoenvironmental studies of the Lake Titicaca Basin challenge this assertion. Archaeological survey and excavation data from the Rio Ilave drainage indicate that settlement aggregation and reduced residen¬tial mobility began in the Late Archaic Period about 3000 cal b.c. Terminal Archaic occupational intensity increased after 2000 cal b.c. and continued up until about 1300 cal b.c., which marks the beginning of the Formative in the basin. …


Four-Thousand-Year-Old Gold Artifacts From The Lake Titicaca Basin, Southern Peru, Mark Aldenderfer, Nathan M. Craig, Robert J. Speakman, Rachel Popelka-Filcoff Jan 2008

Four-Thousand-Year-Old Gold Artifacts From The Lake Titicaca Basin, Southern Peru, Mark Aldenderfer, Nathan M. Craig, Robert J. Speakman, Rachel Popelka-Filcoff

Nathan M Craig

Artifacts of cold-hammered native gold have been discovered in a secure and undisturbed Terminal Archaic burial context at Jiskairumoko, a multicomponent Late Archaic–Early Formative period site in the southwestern Lake Titicaca basin, Peru. The burial dates to 3776 to 3690 carbon-14 years before the present (2155 to 1936 calendar years B.C.), making this the earliest worked gold recovered to date not only from the Andes, but from the Americas as well. This discovery lends support to the hypothesis that the earliest metalworking in the Andes was experimentation with native gold. The presence of gold in a society of low-level food …


Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis Of Ochre Artifacts From Jiskairumoko, Peru, Rachel S. Popelka-Filcoff, Nathan M. Craig, Michael D. Glascock, David Robertson, Mark Aldenderfer, Robert J. Speakman Jan 2007

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis Of Ochre Artifacts From Jiskairumoko, Peru, Rachel S. Popelka-Filcoff, Nathan M. Craig, Michael D. Glascock, David Robertson, Mark Aldenderfer, Robert J. Speakman

Nathan M Craig

Ochre is very common in the Terminal Archaic-Early Formative archaeological site of Jiskairumoko, (Rio Ilave, Lake Titicaca Basin, southern Peru). Within the site, ochre was found on tools, palettes, and in burials and soil deposits within structures in several contexts, suggesting both symbolic and functional uses of ochre. Variations in the color and contexts imply possibilities for different uses of ochre.. Instrumental neutron activation analysis was used to analyze the ochre samples found in Jiskairumoko. Multivariate analysis of the elemental data by principal components analysis suggests trends in the data related to the compositional variation of ochres on the site. …


Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis Of Ochre Artifacts From Jiskairumoko, Peru, Rachel S. Popelka-Filcoff, Nathan M. Craig, Michael D. Glascock, David Robertson, Mark Aldenderfer, Robert J. Speakman Dec 2006

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis Of Ochre Artifacts From Jiskairumoko, Peru, Rachel S. Popelka-Filcoff, Nathan M. Craig, Michael D. Glascock, David Robertson, Mark Aldenderfer, Robert J. Speakman

Dr David Robertson

Ochre is very common in the Terminal Archaic-Early Formative archaeological site of Jiskairumoko, (Rio Ilave, Lake Titicaca Basin, southern Peru). Within the site, ochre was found on tools, palettes, and in burials and soil deposits within structures in several contexts, suggesting both symbolic and functional uses of ochre. Variations in the color and contexts imply possibilities for different uses of ochre.. Instrumental neutron activation analysis was used to analyze the ochre samples found in Jiskairumoko. Multivariate analysis of the elemental data by principal components analysis suggests trends in the data related to the compositional variation of ochres on the site. …


Multivariate Visualization And Analysis Of Photomapped Artifact Scatters, Nathan M. Craig, Aldenderfer Mark Jan 2006

Multivariate Visualization And Analysis Of Photomapped Artifact Scatters, Nathan M. Craig, Aldenderfer Mark

Nathan M Craig

Simultaneous analysis of relationships between multiple artifact classes is required for characterization of many types of activity areas. This paper illustrates improved forms of multivariate visualization, spatial analysis and integration of experimental results that are possible with GIS based photomapping. Techniques are demonstrated through analysis of a hearth associated artifact scatter exposed during excavations of a Late Archaic pithouse at Jiskairumoko, Peru. A multivariate density raster is created and additive color visualization is used for simultaneous display of three artifact distributions. Performing unconstrained clustering in a GIS, space is classified by simultaneous relative density relationships between multiple object types.


The Formation Of Early Settled Villages And The Emergence Of Leadership: A Test Of Three Theoretical Models In The Rio Ilave, Lake Titicaca Basin, Southern Peru, Nathan M. Craig Jan 2005

The Formation Of Early Settled Villages And The Emergence Of Leadership: A Test Of Three Theoretical Models In The Rio Ilave, Lake Titicaca Basin, Southern Peru, Nathan M. Craig

Nathan M Craig

No abstract provided.