Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

The Rise And Fall Of A Parallel-Walled Structure: Assessing The Site Sequence At Pachamta, Teresa Raczek, Prabodh Shirvalkar, Esha Prasad, Lalit Pandey

Faculty Articles

In this article, we investigate the chronology of a large parallel-walled mudbrick structure at the site of Pachamta in Rajasthan, India. Pachamta is larger than the contemporaneous Harappan site of Kalibangan and part of a society collectively known as the Ahar Culture. Recent excavations at Pachamta provided an opportunity to elaborate on the available dates for this society and to investigate the chronology of an enigmatic parallel-walled structure. The chronology and function of such prominent structures remains murky, although scholars have suggested that these buildings served as public storage because they resemble the granary at Harappa. Through excavation, our team …

Introduction: Toward An Engaged Feminist Heritage Praxis, Tiffany C. Fryer, Teresa Raczek

Faculty Articles

We advocate a feminist approach to archaeological heritage work in order to transform heritage practice and the production of archaeological knowledge. We use an engaged feminist standpoint and situate intersubjectivity and intersectionality as critical components of this practice. An engaged feminist approach to heritage work allows the discipline to consider women’s, men’s, and gender non-conforming persons’ positions in the field, to reveal their contributions, to develop critical pedagogical approaches, and to rethink forms of representation. Throughout, we emphasize the intellectual labor of women of color, queer and gender non-conforming persons, and early white feminists in archaeology.

Chai And Conversation: Crafting Field Identities And Archaeological Practice In South Asia, Teresa Raczek, Namita S. Sugandhi

Faculty Articles

In this article, we present examples from four research projects in India that were influenced by the values and ethics of decolonized and participatory research, and shaped by engendered perspectives. Each project built on earlier experiences that forced us to critically examine the ways we engaged with participants, crafted our field identities, and formed relationships. Using insights from linguistic anthropology and attending to intersectional inequalities and the construction of epistemic authority, we showcase how conducting an ethnography of communication and employing tactics of intersubjectivity influenced archaeological outcomes. We argue that close attention to context of communication, identity expression, and intersectional …

Many Faiths, One Beginning: Universality In Norse, Maya, Greek And Celtic Faiths

Symposium of Student Scholars

Numerous religious faiths have pervaded the world for much of known human history, but these belief systems often have significant variation in their core tenets, especially with those that have no contact. Religions which are in close proximity to one another tend to have some degree of syncretism, such as having comparable deities, due to having some transmission of their cultures. One group of similar base beliefs is the Indo-Europeans, with its members having been studied for parallels before. To contend with these previous studies, this project will look at the beliefs of the Norse, Greek, and Celtic cultures, all …

Ceramic Analysis And Radiocarbon Dating, Savana Deems

Symposium of Student Scholars

Ceramic Analysis and Radiocarbon Dating

Savana Deems

Student Scholar Symposium Spring 2016

Radiocarbon dating is not always a fool proof method of dating an archaeological site. There are many factors that can skew the data, such as back fill for a cultural feature coming from an area where a forest fire occurred thousands of years before, or at the very least, this data may not give the entire narrative of the occupation of a site. Sometimes a project may not be able to afford the hundreds of dollars required per sample to analyze charcoal remains. Ceramics however, are free to …

Prehispanic Use Of Chili Peppers In Chiapas, Mexico, Terry G. Powis, Emiliano Gallaga Murrieta, Richard Lesure, Roberto Lopez Bravo, Louis Grivetti, Heidi Kucera, Nilesh W. Gaikwad

Faculty Articles

The genus Capsicum is New World in origin and represents a complex of a wide variety of both wild and domesticated taxa. Peppers or fruits of Capsicum species rarely have been identified in the paleoethnobotanical record in either Meso- or South America. We report here confirmation of Capsicum sp. residues from pottery samples excavated at Chiapa de Corzo in southern Mexico dated from Middle to Late Preclassic periods (400 BCE to 300 CE). Residues from 13 different pottery types were collected and extracted using standard techniques. Presence of Capsicum was confirmed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)/MS-MS Analysis. Five pottery types …

Recent Investigations Of Mission Period Activity On Sapelo Island, Georgia, Richard W. Jeffries, Christopher R. Moore

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Prior to their retreat to Florida in 1684, Muskogean-speaking Guale Indians inhabited much of what is now the Georgia coast. The arrival of Spanish missionaries in Florida and Georgia in the mid-1500s began what is known archaeologically as the mission period (1568-1684), a time of sustained interaction between the Spanish and the Guale people. Over time, population loss due to European-introduced diseases and conflict with English-backed Native American slave raiders resulted in a drastic reconfiguration of Guale society and the abandonment of the Guale's ancestral homeland (Worth 2007).

Sapelo Island (Figure 6.1) is the site of at least one Spanish …

The San Pedro Mission Village On Cumberland Island, Georgia, Carolyn Brock

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The San Pedro de Mocama mission, located on Cumberland Island, Georgia, was the principal Spanish mission of the Mocama-speaking Timucua Indians from 1587 to the early 1660s. This paper describes some of the results of archaeological fieldwork and research (Rock 2006) completed at the mission village site, technically known as the Dungeness WharfSite (9CM14). (Figure 7.1).

Archaeologically, most mission studies have focused on the missions themselves, particularly on their churches, conventos, and kitchens. At the San Pedro mission village site, however, the church complex has not been located and may have been lost to erosion. Therefore, in the course of …

Cacao Use And The San Lorenzo Olmec, Terry G. Powis, Ann Cyphers, Nilesh W. Gaikwad, Louis Grivetti, Kong Cheong

Faculty Articles

Mesoamerican peoples had a long history of cacao use—spanning more than 34 centuries—as confirmed by previous identification of cacao residues on archaeological pottery from Paso de la Amada on the Pacific Coast and the Olmec site of El Manatí on the Gulf Coast. Until now, comparable evidence from San Lorenzo, the premier Olmec capital, was lacking. The present study of theobromine residues confirms the continuous presence and use of cacao products at San Lorenzo between 1800 and 1000 BCE, and documents assorted vessels forms used in its preparation and consumption. One elite context reveals cacao use as part of a …