Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Multi-Proxy Assessment Of The Impact Of Environmental Instability On Late Holocene (4500-3800 Bp) Native American Villages Of The Georgia Coast, Carey J. Garland, Victor D. Thompson, Matthew C. Sanger, Karen Y. Smith, Fred T. Andrus, Nathan R. Lawres, Katharine G. Napora, Carol E. Colaninno, J. Matthew Compton, Sharyn Jones, Carla S. Hadden, Alexander Cherkinsky, Thomas Maddox, Yi-Ting Deng, Isabelle H. Lulewicz, Lindsey Parsons

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Circular shell rings along the South Atlantic Coast of North America are the remnants of some of the earliest villages that emerged during the Late Archaic (5000-3000 BP). Many of these villages, however, were abandoned during the Terminal Late Archaic (ca 3800-3000 BP). We combine Bayesian chronological modeling with mollusk shell geochemistry and oyster paleobiology to understand the nature and timing of environmental change associated with the emergence and abandonment of circular shell ring villages on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Our Bayesian models indicate that Native Americans occupied the three Sapelo shell rings at varying times with some generational overlap. By …

Ancient Maya Rural Settlement Patterns, Household Cooperation, And Regional Subsistence Interdependency In The Río Bec Area: Contributions From G-Liht, Scott R. Hutson, Nicholas P. Dunning, Bruce Cook, Thomas Ruhl, Nicolas C. Barth, Daniel Conley

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Research on intensive agricultural features contributes to the social relations of farming, including the means by which farmers mobilize labor and the possible destination of surplus. Lidar provides high-resolution data on ancient houses and agricultural features at a regional scale. This paper uses lidar data from NASA’s G-LiHT airborne imager to derive insights about rural demography, interhousehold cooperation, and subsistence interdependency among the ancient Maya. We assess the differences in intensity of agricultural investment in rural and urban areas of the Río Bec region of southern Campeche and Quintana Roo, Mexico, leading to inferences about regional food exchange and complex …

Reflecting On Pasuc Heritage Initiatives Through Time, Positionality, And Place, Scott R. Hutson, Céline Lamb, Daniel Vallejo-Cáliz, Jacob Welch

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper reports on heritage initiatives associated with a 12-year-long archaeology project in Yucatan, Mexico. Our work has involved both surprises and setbacks and in the spirit of adding to the repository of useful knowledge, we present these in a frank and transparent manner. Our findings are significant for a number of reasons. First, we show that the possibilities available to a heritage project facilitated by archaeologists depend not just on the form and focus of other stakeholders, but on the gender, sexuality, and class position of the archaeologists. Second, we provide a ground-level view of what approaches work well …

Exchange Networks From Close-Up: The Case Of Lipari Obsidian, Andrea Vianello, Robert Tykot

Anthropology Faculty Publications

A systematic study on obsidian tools in Calabria and Sicily carried out by the authors have revealed the uniqueness in the patterns of production, exchange and consumption of Lipari obsidian. The study has concentrated on the Middle Neolithic primarily, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts recognised at a later stage in the research since many contexts, especially in Sicily, have been excavated by pioneering archaeologists, some over a century ago, or were mislabelled. The chronology is Early Neolithic to Early Bronze Age, with very few materials dating Middle Bronze Age. A review of chronological contexts is in progress, which …

Producing Goods, Shaping People: The Materiality Of Crafting, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The study of craft production has a long and venerable history in archaeological research on ancient societies. In this chapter, I consider the crafting of useful and desired things from a materiality perspective by looking at the interactions between the craftpersons, the materials with which they work, and the ways that their end products are valued in society. I use two examples: working with fibers by the Maya of Mesoamerica and with metals by the Moche of Andean South America. These are two very different kinds of materials whose characteristics affect how one interacts with them. Crafting was a part …

Working With Clay, Rosemary A. Joyce, Julia A. Hendon, Jeanne Lopiparo

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Evidence from sites in the lower Ulua valley of north-central Honduras, occupied between a.d. 500 and 1000, provides new insight into the connections between households, craft production, and the role of objects in maintaining social relations within and across households. Production of pottery vessels, figurines, and other items in a household context has been documented at several sites in the valley, including Cerro Palenque, Travesía, Campo Dos, and Campo Pineda. Differences in raw materials, in what was made, and in the size and design of firing facilities allow us to explore how crafting with clay created communities of practice made …

Late Classic Maya Provisioning And Distinction In Northwestern Belize, David J. Goldstein, Jon B. Hageman

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Memory And Ritualized Practice In Prehispanic Honduras, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper discusses ritualized practices in domestic spaces as signs of an ongoing and dynamic engagement between the people living there and non-human material and incorporeal social actors, using archaeological evidence from the ancient town of Cerro Palenque and related sites in northwestern Honduras occupied from the 7th to 11th centuries. The paper considers the ways that figurines, pottery, and other kinds of material culture were given meaning through their involvement in these ritualized practices, the materiality of the objects themselves, and their association with human bones. These practices are situated in particular spaces and occur at particular points in …

Late-Paleoindian Versus Early-Archaic Occupation Of Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming, Douglas H. Macdonald, Richard E. Hughes, Jannifer W. Gish

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No Abstract available for this article.

Steatite On The Juniata: Early Pottery At The Sunny Side Site (36bd267), Central Pennsylvania, Douglas H. Macdonald, Eric P. Scuoteguazza, David L. Cremeens

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Archaeological excavations recovered early steatite-tempered pottery at the Sunny Side site (36BD267), Bedford County, Pennsylvania. The Sunny Side site is on a floodplain/terrace of Yellow Creek near its confluence with the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River. A 70-cm-wide hearth was excavated along with associated Selden Island steatite-tempered pottery and lithic debris at a depth of 94 cm below ground surface in a buried Ab horizon. A hickory wood charcoal sample from the hearth was dated to 3500±100 B.P. (CAL BC 2120 - 2090 and BC 2050 - 1540). The early pottery at the Sunny Side site confirms prior work …

An Integrated Assessment Of Archaeobotanical Recovery Methods In The Neotropical Rainforest Of Northern Belize: Flotation And Dry Screening, Jon B. Hageman, David J. Goldstein

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This report presents results of a study examining the ancient use of plants at four Late Classic (CE 600-900) Maya rural farmsteads in northwestern Belize. Our research specifically targeted residential middens for macrobotanical recovery. Samples yielded the remains of more than a dozen plant families, representing some genera that do not currently grow in the area. These plants were used in the Late Classic, countering the idea that ancient botanical remains do not survive in Neotropical archaeological contexts. We also evaluated two macrobotanical sample processing methods vis-à-vis one another: flotation and dry screening. Our results indicate that flotation recovered 58% …

Power Plants: Paleobotanical Evidence Of Rural Feasting In Late Classic Belize, Jon B. Hageman, David J. Goldstein

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Local Interaction And Long Distance Connections In The Ulua Valley: The View From Cerro Palenque, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The site of Cerro Palenque, the largest settlement in the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley) in Honduras during the ninth and tenth centuries AD, was a locus of craft production of figurines and pottery, feasting, the ballgame, and other events associated with its ballcourt. Based on the analysis of imported obsidian, the evidence for ritual and craft production, and the layout of the settlement, Cerro Palenque maintained long distance trade connections with Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. It also took part in local rituals and events with its smaller neighbors in the valley.

Heterarchy As Complexity: Archaeology In Yoro, Honduras, Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce, Russell Sheptak

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Based on archaeological evidence from the Cuyumapa Valley in Honduras, including the presence of multiple ballcourts, this paper argues that archaeologists need to pay more attention to Carole Crumley's concept of heterarchy when considering social relations, political relations, and power in ancient societies such as those of the Maya and their neighbors in Mesoamerica. We redefine complexity to include less centralized but regionally heterogeneous societies in which social and political relations are not all centralized into a single hierarchical structure. The Cuyumapa Valley falls in the zone traditionally described as the southeastern edge or periphery of Mesoamerica. Yet our research …

The Age, Function, And Distribution Of Keyhole Structures In The Upper Susquehanna River Valley, Douglas H. Macdonald

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper provides a summary of current data regarding the age, geographical distribution, and function of keyhole structures in the upper Susquehanna River Valley of north-central Pennsylvania and south-central New York. Keyhole structures have been identified at 11 sites in the West and North Branches of the Susquehanna River Valley. The feature type likely originated in the West Branch Valley from which it spread to the north, south, and east. Their main period of use was during the latter portion of the Late Woodland period, between approximately 1230 and 1670 A.D. Given the locations of the sites along major waterways, …

Lost And Found: (Re)-Placing Say Ka In The La Milpa Suburban Settlement Pattern, Jon B. Hageman, Brett A. Houk

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The site of Say Ka, less than 4 km from the major center of La Milpa, has generated a large degree of interest among researchers in northwestern Belize in part because of its elusiveness. After being recorded by archaeologists in 1990, Say Ka was "lost"; attempts to relocate it failed for nearly a decade (Figure I). It was fortuitously rediscovered in 1999, and three seasons of excavation began in 2004. This paper considers the history of Say Ka, its rediscovery, the results of initial excavations, and the possible implications of this minor center for studying the La Milpa suburban zone.

The Lineage Model And Archaeological Data In Late Classic Northwestern Belize, Jon B. Hageman

Anthropology Faculty Publications

As central topics of anthropological study from the 1940s through the 1970s, kinship and lineage became largely discredited during the 1980s. Recent scholarship, however, has indicated that kinship and lineage, when considered as the products of social activity, can make important contributions to studies of living and past populations. This paper explores the lineage as a model of social organization distinguished by specific activities practiced by members of Late Classic Maya social groups. This model is derived from cross-cultural literature on lineages, but practices associated with lineage organization are historically and culturally specific. A suite of archaeological correlates, based on …

Importation Of Obsidian At Cerro Palenque, Honduras: Results Of An Analysis By Edxrf, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The results of source analysis by EDXRF of obsidian artifacts from the Mesoamerican site of Cerro Palenque in Honduras are reported and changes over time discussed. Sources of obsidian include Ixtepeque, El Chayal, Jalapa, San Martin Jilotepeque, and San Barolome in Guatemala. Some Pachuca obsidian from Mexico was also found. Honduran sources include La Esperanza and La Union. The implications of the obsidian sources are discussed in the context of changes at Cerro Palenque over time as it becomes the largest settlement in the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley) in the ninth century AD.

Construction Of Digital Elevation Models For Archaeological Applications, Jon B. Hageman, David A. Bennett

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The use of interpolation in archaeology is becoming common. As archaeologists incorporate geographic information systems (GIS) and computer mapping programs into their research, questions of interpolation become fundamental considerations in the representation and manipulation of topographic data. To date, however, few archaeologists have dealt with these questions. Uncritical use of interpolation algorithms can result in unrealistic representations of the landscape in a mapping program or can result in an inaccurate digital elevation model (DEM) used in a GIS. This, in turn, can lead to an ineffective predictive model of site location. By carefully selecting an interpolation algorithm that is well …

Las Culturas Del Pleistoceno Tardío En Suramérica, Tom D. Dillehay

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Explotación Y Uso De Los Recursos Marinos Y Patrones De Residencia Entre Los Mapuches: Algunas Implicaciones Preliminares Para La Arqueología, Tom D. Dillehay, Ximena Navarro

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bodies Moving In Space: Ancient Mesoamerican Human Sculpture And Embodiment, Holly Bachand, Rosemary Joyce, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Judith Butler’s proposal that embodiment is a process of repeated citation of precedents leads us to consider the experiential effects of Mesoamerican practices of ornamenting space with images of the human body. At Late Classic Maya Copán, life-size human sculptures were attached to residences, intimate settings in which body knowledge was produced and body practices institutionalized. Moving through the space of these house compounds, persons would have been insistently presented with measures of their bodily decorum. These insights are used to consider the possible effects on people of movement around Formative period Olmec human sculptures, which are not routinely recovered …

In The House: Maya Nobility And Their Figurine-Whistles, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Studies a large collection of clay figurines in the Copan Valley of Honduras. Describes the different kinds of figurine-whistles that high status Maya had in their houses.

Bone Cutting, Placement, And Cannibalism? Middle Preceramic Mortuary Patterns Of Nanchoc, Northern Peru, Jack Rossen, Tom D. Dillehay

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Mortuary practices of the Middle Preceramic period (ca. 8500-4000 B.P.) are discussed for the Nanchoc region of the upper Zaña Valley, northern Peru. Careful breaking, cutting, and placement of human bones from adult males during the Las Pircas Phase (8500-6000 B.P. ) gave way to more haphazard breakage and discard during the subsequent Tierra Blanca Phase (6000-5000 B.P.). The evidence of cannibalism is considered. Bone breakage, cutting, and possibly cannibalism is believed to have been part of a broader process of ritualization that mitigated the spiritual danger of the transition from hunting-gathering to horticulture.

Este trabajo discute las prácticas mortuorias …

A Flexible Corporation: Classic Period House Societies In Eastern Mesoamerica, Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce

Anthropology Faculty Publications

House society models, based on the work of Levi-Strauss but since refined by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, provide a good model for understanding social organization among the ancient Maya and their neighbors in Mesoamerica based on a comparative study of societies in the Copan Valley, the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley), and the Cuyumapa Valley, all in Honduras. Social Houses are flexible, enduring social groupings that define kinship flexibly, recognizing adoption, marriage, shared residency, and other factors as ways to create ties that endure over generations.

Household Archaeology And Reconstructing Social Organization In Ancient Complex Societies: A Consideration Of Models And Concepts Based On Study Of The Prehispanic Maya, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Studies of the settlement pattern in the Copan Valley, Honduras, indicate that a House society model provides the best way to understand the social organization of the Late Classic period Maya. The House society model, based on Levi-Strauss's original work but since modified by anthropologists and archaeologists, does not replace household archaeology. Instead, the model allows archaeologists to discuss the continuation of social identity over time.

The Uses Of Maya Structures: A Study Of Architecture And Artifact Distribution At Sepulturas, Copan, Honduras, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This dissertation presents a compositional analysis of the architecture and a distributional analysis of the associated artifacts resulting from excavation of some ninety buildings dating from the Late to Terminal Classic Period at the Maya site of Copan, Honduras. The study of all artifacts recovered from primary contexts, both in situ and redeposited, focuses first on a determination of their function, second on an analysis of their distribution within the site, and third on their associations with one another in order to identify the kinds of activities carried out at various locations. A second line of evidence used is the …