13 research outputs found
Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador
Paleoethnobotanical Remains and Land Use Associated With the Sacbe at the Ancient Maya Village of Joya de Ceren
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Preliminary Paleoethnobotanical Analysis at G-995 La Chiripa, Costa Rica
My research investigates the human-environmental interactions of Prehispanic peoples in the Arenal region of Costa Rica. This area is an ideal location to look at resilient practices in the past, since domestic settlements in Arenal persevered through powerful volcanic eruptions that impacted the landscape every few centuries. As a paleoethnobotanist, I collected soil samples that will help reconstruct the past foodways and environmental management strategies of these past peoples over time through the study of archaeological plant remains preserved within an ancient domestic structure (La Chiripa) that was situated near the Arenal Volcano. At this site, distinct ash deposits distinguish between periods of human occupation, with abandonments, ecological recovery, and then re-occupations after each volcanic eruption, spanning from 1450 BCE to 1530 CE. In 2018, supported by Stahl funds, I constructed a flotation machine and processed the soil samples collected from this ancient household structure in order to recover any plant remains that were preserved below the ground surface. With a theoretical framework of practice theory, historical ecology, and household archaeology, my archaeobotanical research will examine the dynamics of residential groups procurement, production, redistribution, and transmission of goods and cultural practices to subsequent generations over thousands of years of archaeological representation in this volcanic setting. This dissertation research will provide invaluable information regarding ancient household practices, long-term residence stability, and environmental resilience in Pre-Columbian Central America
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Trees, shrubs, and forests at Joya de Cerén, a Late Classic Mesoamerican village
The Late Classic Maya village of Joya de Cerén's extraordinary preservation caused by the Loma Caldera volcanic eruption around 650 CE allows for a unique opportunity to understand what plant species ancient Mesoamerican farmers utilized in their daily lives for food consumption, medicinal applications, fuel, and construction purposes. While Cerén has unusually good preservation of earthen-made household structures, gardens, and extensive outfields growing maize, manioc, and numerous weedy species, this article will review the collection of anthracological remains recovered from excavations at the site since 1978. Wood charcoal recovered via flotation samples taken throughout the archaeological site reveal the surrounding ecosystems that Cerén villagers would have exploited to regularly obtain their wood resources. Additionally, various fruit trees were cultivated within the village center, as evidenced by limb, trunk and fruit impressions preserved as plaster casts. The data collected from the long history of archaeobotanical research at Cerén suggests that these ancient rural agriculturalists practiced sustainable land management strategies and incorporated a diverse assemblage of tree species into their daily practices. The ancient agriculturalists effectively coped with an ever-changing landscape and opportunistically established their settlement in a biodiverse setting that had plentiful resources from a range of ecosystems available for their daily needs
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Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador
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90. Pearsall Ecuadorian Comparative Wood Reference Collection: Scanning Electron Micrographs of Charred Samples (Part 1)
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90. Pearsall Ecuadorian Comparative Wood Reference Collection: Scanning Electron Micrographs of Charred Samples (Part 2)
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Field Starch Extraction from Ground Stone: Experiment and Protocol Recommendations
This report presents an experiment in which four starch sampling methods are compared in order to identify the most successful and effective technique for starch extraction from large groundstone and milling features in the field. Testing archaeological specimens in situ is necessary when the artifact is too large or cumbersome to bring back to a laboratory. In addition, preliminary testing in the field allows researchers to obtain quick results thatprovides guidance for ongoing excavation and sampling methods
Ecosystem impacts by the Ancestral Puebloans of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA
The Ancestral Puebloans occupied Chaco Canyon, in what is now the southwestern USA, for more than a millennium and harvested useful timber and fuel from the trees of distant forests as well as local woodlands, especially juniper and pinyon pine. These pinyon juniper woodland products were an essential part of the resource base from Late Archaic times (3000-100 BC) to the Bonito phase (AD 800-1140) during the great florescence of Chacoan culture. During this vast expanse of time, the availability of portions of the woodland declined. We posit, based on pollen and macrobotanical remains, that the Chaco Canyon woodlands were substantially impacted during Late Archaic to Basketmaker II times (100 BC-AD 500) when agriculture became a major means of food production and the manufacture of pottery was introduced into the canyon. By the time of the Bonito phase, the local woodlands, especially the juniper component, had been decimated by centuries of continuous extraction of a slow-growing resource. The destabilizing impact resulting from recurrent woodland harvesting likely contributed to the environmental unpredictability and difficulty in procuring essential resources suffered by the Ancestral Puebloans prior to their ultimate departure from Chaco Canyon