Search results for " Archaeology"
showing 10 items of 936 documents
Ofrendas y rituales postclásicos dedicados a Chaahk en el sitio maya de Chilonché (Petén, Guatemala)
2020
La adaptación de los mayas postclásicos a las nuevas condiciones de vida surgidas a raíz de la crisis generalizada del final del período Clásico mediante respuestas resilientes se ha convertido en un tema de creciente interés por parte de los investigadores mayistas en las últimas décadas. El estudio de vestigios arqueológicos adscritos al Postclásico puede ayudar a entender por qué ciertas tradiciones fueron abandonadas, mientras que otras han perdurado a lo largo del tiempo, como es el caso de las ceremonias del culto a la lluvia. Ejemplo de ello son los hallazgos de ofrendas y otros vestigios arquitectónicos realizados en Chilonché, un antiguo asentamiento urbano maya fundado en la cuenc…
Ivory Craftsmanship, Trade and Social Significance in the Southern Iberian Copper Age: The Evidence from the PP4-Montelirio Sector of Valencina de la…
2013
Because of its great potential to provide data on contacts and overseas trade, ivory has aroused a great deal of interest since the very start of research into Iberian late prehistory. Research recently undertaken by the German Archaeological Institute in Madrid in collaboration with a number of other institutions has provided valuable contributions to the study of ivory in the Iberian Copper Age and Early Bronze Age. One of the archaeological sites that is contributing the most data for analysing ivory from the Copper Age in southern Iberia is Valencina de la Concepción (Seville), which is currently the focus of several debates on the development of social complexity. This article contribu…
Land-use dynamics and socioeconomic change: An example from the Polop Alto valley
1999
AbstractThe Polop Alto valley, in eastern Spain, serves as the focus of a study of long-term temporal and spatial dynamics in human land use. The data discussed here derive from intensive, pedestrian, non-site survey. We employ the concept of artifact taphonomy to assess the various natural and cultural processes responsible for accumulation and distribution patterns of artifacts. Our results suggest that the most significant land-use changes in the Polop Alto took place at the end of the Pleistocene and accompanying the late Neolithic, while much less notable changes in land-use patterns are associated with the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition and the initial use of domestic plants and …
Seasonality and Intensity of Shellfish Harvesting on the North Coast of British Columbia
2013
ABSTRACT Biogeochemical and growth increment analyses show contrasting seasonal patterns of butter clam collection and rates of harvest intensity between archaeological shell midden sites from the Dundas Islands archipelago and the mainland coast in Prince Rupert Harbour, northern British Columbia. Growth increment analysis shows more intensive clam harvest in the Dundas Islands in comparison to the residential sites in Prince Rupert Harbour. Stable oxygen isotope analysis shows multi-seasonal collection of clams in the Dundas Islands and a more seasonally specific emphasis in Prince Rupert Harbour. Comparison of these results to those of similar studies in the Namu region on the central co…
Bodegas, lagares y almazaras en el territorio de Kelin (siglos V-III a. C.): el caso de la Rambla de la Alcantarilla (Requena, Valencia)
2016
Archaeological evidences date the expansion of grape vineyards in the territory of the Iberian Iron Age city of Kelin from the 5th to 3rd centuries BC; although the origins are documented in the 7th BC. One of the singularities of this territory is the existence of outdoors stone structures for the production of wine and oil. All are located in a specific area of the territory (la Alcantarilla and Los Morenos ravines) (Requena, Valencia), and are associated with archaeological materials that allow date them as Iberian. In this paper we approach the rural settlement pattern in la Alcantarilla ravine and we present in detail the archaeological sites of Rambla de la Alcantarilla and Solana de …
The Maya wall paintings from Chajul, Guatemala
2020
The recent renovation of a house in Chajul in western Guatemala has revealed an unparalleled set of wall paintings, most probably from the Colonial period (AD 1524–1821). The iconography of the murals combines pre-Columbian elements with imported European components in a domestic rather than a religious setting, making them a unique example of Colonial-period art. Here, the authors present the results of iconographic, chemical and radiocarbon analyses of the Chajul house paintings. Dating to the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries AD, the paintings may be connected to a revival of the local religious organisation (cofradías) in the context of waning Spanish colonial control.
Insights into the economic organization of the Phoenician homeland : a multidisciplinary investigation of the later Iron Age II and Persian period Ph…
2018
This paper details the results of a large-scale multi-disciplinary analysis of Iron Age pottery from a settlement in the core of the Phoenician homeland. The research presented is centred upon a large corpus of Phoenician carinated-shoulder amphorae (CSA) from the later Iron Age II and Persian period contexts at the coastal site of Tell el-Burak. Traditional typological investigations are combined with a focused archaeometric approach including a new quantitative method for the morphometric analysis of amphorae, thin-section petrography, geochemistry and organic residue analyses, aimed at gaining a more detailed understanding of the organization of the Phoenician economy. Despite gradual, b…
New Insights into the Provenance of the Obsidian Fragments of the Island of Ustica (Palermo, Sicily)
2016
In this study we applied a multidisciplinary approach, coupling geophysical and geochemical measurements, to unveil the provenance of 170 obsidian flakes, collected on the volcanic island of Ustica (Sicily). On this island there are some prehistoric settlements dated from the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age. Despite not having geological outcrops of obsidian rocks, the countryside of Ustica is rich in fragments of this volcanic glass, imported from other source areas. The study of obsidian findings was carried out first through visual observations and density measurements. At least two different obsidian families have been distinguished, probably imported from Lipari and Pantelleria isla…
Connecting Gien Castle to its Landscape: Faunal, Environmental and Buildings Analyses (Loiret, France)
2021
International audience; Gien castle is a listed monument of French architectural heritage. Today it houses the National Museum of Hunting and its collection. Organised visits to the site have traditionally lacked any clear mention of the castle’s historical background. Recently, however, archaeological excavations and building analysis in 2011–2015 produced a wealth of new knowledge about the castle’s medieval origins and history, and about its relationship to its landscape. During the ninth and tenth centuries and then in the fifteenth century the castle occupied a strategically exceptional position reflecting the connection with its environment, notably the strong connection between the c…
Morphometry of Middle Bronze Age palstaves. Part II - spatial distribution of shapes in two typological groups, implications for production and expor…
2013
10 pages; International audience; For archaeologists, metallic artifacts are key materials to assess Middle Bronze Age production areas and cultural exchanges. Here, a set of 629 bronze palstaves excavated in northern France, belonging to Breton and Norman typological groups, was treated by (open) outline-based morphometrics with orthogonal polynomial regression. Using robust statistics developed for outlier detection, these Norman and Breton palstave outlines can be divided into two groups: those for which the shape fluctuates close to the standard shape, called "congruent" axes, and those which are far enough from this standard to be considered as "non-congruent", although they possess mo…