Download or read book Excavations at Camata written by Lee Hyde Steadman and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Comparative Perspectives on the Archaeology of Coastal South America written by Robyn E. Cutright and published by Center for Comparative Arch. This book was released on 2010 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteen papers by archaeologists from North and South America on the archaeology of coastal Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. The authors have all emphasized comparative approaches to prehispanic societies along the Pacific coast. They give preference neither to high theory nor to case-specific empirical details, but rather attempt to answer theoretically important research questions with appropriate methodologies and empirical datasets--ones that are amenable to a broad comparative view.

Download or read book Identity and Power in the Ancient Andes written by John Wayne Janusek and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-12-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Tiwanaku state was the political and cultural center of ancient Andean civilization for almost 700 years. Identity and Power is the result of ten years of research that has revealed significant new data. Janusek explores the origins, development, and collapse of this ancient state through the lenses of social identities--gender, ethnicity, occupation, for example--and power relations. He combines recent developments in social theory with the archaeological record to create a fascinating and theoretically informed exploration of the history of this important civilization.

Download or read book Andean Archaeology I written by William H. Isbell and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study of the origin and development of civilization is of unequaled importance for understanding the cultural processes that create human societies. Is cultural evolution directional and regular across human societies and history, or is it opportunistic and capricious? Do apparent regularities come from the way inves tigators construct and manage knowledge, or are they the result of real constraints on and variations in the actual processes? Can such questions even be answered? We believe so, but not easily. By comparing evolutionary sequences from different world civilizations scholars can judge degrees of similarity and difference and then attempt explanation. Of course, we must be careful to assess the influence that societies of the ancient world had on one another (the issue of pristine versus non-pristine cultural devel opment: see discussion in Fried 1967; Price 1978). The Central Andes were the locus of the only societies to achieve pristine civilization in the southern hemi sphere and only in the Central Andes did non-literate (non-written language) civ ilization develop. It seems clear that Central Andean civilization was independent on any graph of archaic culture change. Scholars have often expressed appreciation of the research opportunities offered by the Central Andes as a testing ground for the study of cultural evolu tion (see, e. g. , Carneiro 1970; Ford and Willey 1949: 5; Kosok 1965: 1-14; Lanning 1967: 2-5).

Download or read book Archaeological Research on the Islands of the Sun and Moon Lake Titicaca Bolivia written by Brian S. Bauer and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2004-04-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning in 1994, the Proyecto Tiksi Kjarka conducted a complete survey of the Islands of the Sun and Moon in southern Lake Titicaca, along with test excavations of important Inca, Tiwanaku, and pre-Tiwanaku sites. This book provides the final results of this work on one of the most important locations in the circum-Titicaca Basin, with detailed survey and excavation data indispensable for Andeanists and other scholars interested in the development of complex political, economic, and ritual systems in prehistory.

Download or read book Ritual and Pilgrimage in the Ancient Andes written by Brian S. Bauer and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-06-28 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Islands of the Sun and the Moon in Bolivia's Lake Titicaca were two of the most sacred locations in the Inca empire. A pan-Andean belief held that they marked the origin place of the Sun and the Moon, and pilgrims from across the Inca realm made ritual journeys to the sacred shrines there. In this book, Brian Bauer and Charles Stanish explore the extent to which this use of the islands as a pilgrimage center during Inca times was founded on and developed from earlier religious traditions of the Lake Titicaca region. Drawing on a systematic archaeological survey and test excavations in the islands, as well as data from historical texts and ethnography, the authors document a succession of complex polities in the islands from 2000 BC to the time of European contact in the 1530s AD. They uncover significant evidence of pre-Inca ritual use of the islands, which raises the compelling possibility that the religious significance of the islands is of great antiquity. The authors also use these data to address broader anthropological questions on the role of pilgrimage centers in the development of pre-modern states.

Download or read book Advances in Titicaca Basin Archaeology 1 written by Mark Aldenderfer and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2005-12-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in Titicaca Basin Archaeology-I is the first in a series of edited volumes that reports on recent research in the south central Andes. Volume I contains 18 chapters that cover the entire range of human settlement in the region, from the Early Archaic to the early Colonial Period. This book contains both short research reports as well as longer synthetic essays on work conducted over the last decade. It will be a critical resource for scholars working in the central Andes and adjacent areas.

Download or read book Handbook of South American Archaeology written by Helaine Silverman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-04-06 with total page 1172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perhaps the contributions of South American archaeology to the larger field of world archaeology have been inadequately recognized. If so, this is probably because there have been relatively few archaeologists working in South America outside of Peru and recent advances in knowledge in other parts of the continent are only beginning to enter larger archaeological discourse. Many ideas of and about South American archaeology held by scholars from outside the area are going to change irrevocably with the appearance of the present volume. Not only does the Handbook of South American Archaeology (HSAA) provide immense and broad information about ancient South America, the volume also showcases the contributions made by South Americans to social theory. Moreover, one of the merits of this volume is that about half the authors (30) are South Americans, and the bibliographies in their chapters will be especially useful guides to Spanish and Portuguese literature as well as to the latest research. It is inevitable that the HSAA will be compared with the multi-volume Handbook of South American Indians (HSAI), with its detailed descriptions of indigenous peoples of South America, that was organized and edited by Julian Steward. Although there are heroic archaeological essays in the HSAI, by the likes of Junius Bird, Gordon Willey, John Rowe, and John Murra, Steward states frankly in his introduction to Volume Two that “arch- ology is included by way of background” to the ethnographic chapters.

Download or read book From These Bare Bones written by Alice Choyke and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 702 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fundamental component of the study of worked osseous objects is the identification of the raw materials chosen to make them. In archaeological contexts many objects become degraded to the point where identification is very difficult and the way in which these materials decay during burial and upon excavation can vary greatly. Correct identification is crucial to the investigation of objects, their conservation and future curation. Above all, understanding raw material selection aids our understanding of human-animal interaction in the past both on pragmatic and symbolic levels since the choices made by artisans vary by cultural tradition as well as availability. The 20 papers presented here explore a wealth of information pertaining to the use of osseous materials over the long period of human craftsmanship and tool manufacture by exploring several key themes: · Raw material selection and curation within tool types · Social aspects of raw material selection · New methods of materials identification It is demonstrated that the issue of raw material identification has numerous implications for conservation work, reproduction of objects, the physical characteristics of the tool or ornament, availability of raw materials, the materials chosen for procurement and the cultural reasons that lie behind the choice of raw materials from particular species and skeletal elements to produce planned tool and ornament types. Together, these papers emphasize the need for confident and correct materials identification and demonstrate that functionality is by no means the only, nor necessarily the most important, factor in the selection of osseous raw materials for the fabrication of tools and other cultural objects.

Download or read book Constructions of Time and History in the Pre Columbian Andes written by Edward Swenson and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes explores archaeological approaches to temporalities, social memory, and constructions of history in the pre-Columbian Andes. The authors examine a range of indigenous temporal experiences and ideologies, including astronomical, cyclical, generational, eschatological, and mythical time. This nuanced, interdisciplinary volume challenges outmoded anthropological theories while building on an emic perspective to gain greater understanding of pre-Columbian Andean cultures. Contributors to the volume rethink the dichotomy of past and present by understanding history as indigenous Andeans perceived it—recognizing the past as a palpable and living presence. We live in history, not apart from it. Within this framework time can be understood as a current rather than as distinct points, moments, periods, or horizons. The Andes offer a rich context by which to evaluate recent philosophical explorations of space and time. Using the varied materializations and ritual emplacements of time in a diverse sampling of landscapes, Constructions of Time and History in the Pre-Columbian Andes serves as a critique of archaeology’s continued and exclusive dependence on linear chronologies that obscure historically specific temporal practices and beliefs. Contributors: Tamara L. Bray, Zachary J. Chase, María José Culquichicón-Venegas, Terence D’Altroy, Giles Spence Morrow, Matthew Sayre, Francisco Seoane, Darryl Wilkinson

Download or read book Ancient Titicaca written by Charles Stanish and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003-03-12 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the richest and most complex civilizations in ancient America evolved around Lake Titicaca in southern Peru and northern Bolivia. This book is the first comprehensive synthesis of four thousand years of prehistory for the entire Titicaca region. It is a fascinating story of the transition from hunting and gathering to early agriculture, to the formation of the Tiwanaku and Pucara civilizations, and to the double conquest of the region, first by the powerful neighboring Inca in the fifteenth century and a century later by the Spanish Crown. Based on more than fifteen years of field research in Peru and Bolivia, Charles Stanish's book brings together a wide range of ethnographic, historical, and archaeological data, including material that has not yet been published. This landmark work brings the author's intimate knowledge of the ethnography and archaeology in this region to bear on major theoretical concerns in evolutionary anthropology. Stanish provides a broad comparative framework for evaluating how these complex societies developed. After giving an overview of the region's archaeology and cultural history, he discusses the history of archaeological research in the Titicaca Basin, as well as its geography, ecology, and ethnography. He then synthesizes the data from six archaeological periods in the Titicaca Basin within an evolutionary anthropological framework. Titicaca Basin prehistory has long been viewed through the lens of first Inca intellectuals and the Spanish state. This book demonstrates that the ancestors of the Aymara people of the Titicaca Basin rivaled the Incas in wealth, sophistication, and cultural genius. The provocative data and interpretations of this book will also make us think anew about the rise and fall of other civilizations throughout history.

Download or read book Advances in Titicaca Basin Archaeology III written by Alexei Vranich and published by U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The focus of this volume is the northern Titicaca Basin, an area once belonging to the quarter of the Inka Empire called Collasuyu. The original settlers around the lake had to adapt to living at more than 12,000 feet, but as this volume shows so well, this high-altitude environment supported a very long developmental sequence.

Download or read book Becoming Villagers written by Matthew S. Bandy and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2010-12-15 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shift from mobile hunting and gathering to more sedentary, usually agricultural, lifeways was one of the most significant milestones in the prehistory of humanity. This transformation was spurred by an alignment of social and ecological forces, pressures, and adaptations, and it took place in broadly comparable ways in many prehistoric settings. Based on a Society for American Archaeology symposium and subsequent Amerind Advanced Seminar in 2006, Becoming Villagers examines this transformation at various places and times across the globe by focusing not on the origins of agriculture and village life but rather on their consequences. The goal of the volume is to identify regularities in the ways that societies developed in the centuries and millennia following a transition to village life. Using cases that range from China to Bolivia and from the Near East to the American Southwest, leading archaeologists situate their specific areas of specialization in a broad comparative context. They consider the forces acting to divide and fragment early villages and the social technologies and practices by which those obstacles were, in some cases, overcome. Finally, the volume examines the long-term historical trajectories of these early village societies. This transformative collection makes a powerful case for a renewed and invigorated archaeological focus on large-scale comparative studies. It will be an essential read for anyone interested not only in early village societies but also in the ways in which archaeology relates to anthropology, other social sciences, and history. CONTENTS: “Becoming Villagers: The Evolution of Early Village Societies,” Matthew S. Bandy and Jake R. Fox “Population Growth, Village Fissioning, and Alternative Early Village Trajectories,” Matthew S. Bandy “A Scale Model of Seven Hundred Years of Farming Settlements in Southwestern Colorado,” Timothy A. Kohler and Mark D. Varien “‘Great Expectations,’ or the Inevitable Collapse of the Early Neolithic in the Near East,” Nigel Goring-Morris and Anna Belfer-Cohen “‘Ritualization’ in Early Village Society: The Case of the Lake Titicaca Basin Formative,” Amanda B. Cohen “The Sacred and the Secular Revisited: The Essential Tensions of Early Village Society in the Southeastern United States,” Thomas Pluckhahn “Substantial Structures, Few People, and the Question of Early Villages in the Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest,” Patricia A. Gilman “Sea Changes in Stable Communities: What Do Small Changes in Practices at Catalhoyuk and Chiripa Imply about Community Making?” Christine A. Hastorf “The Emergence of Early Villages in the American Southwest: Cultural Issues and Historical Perspectives,” Richard H. Wilshusen and James M. Potter “A Persistent Early Village Settlement System on the Bolivian Southern Altiplano,” Jake R. Fox “First Towns in the Americas: Searching for Agriculture, Population Growth, and Other Enabling Conditions,” John E. Clark, Jon L. Gibson, and James Zeidler “The Evolution of Early Yangshao Period Village Organization in the Middle Reaches of Northern China's Yellow River Valley,” Christian E. Peterson and Gideon Shelach

Download or read book The Northern Titicaca Basin Survey written by Charles Stanish and published by U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY. This book was released on 2014-01-01 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark book synthesizes the results of more than a decade of fieldwork in southern Peru—where Stanish and his team systematically surveyed more than 1000 square kilometers in the northern Titicaca Basin—and it details several hundred new sites in the Huancané-Putina River valley.

Download or read book Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes written by Nicholas Tripcevich and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-09 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ​Over the millennia, from stone tools among early foragers to clays to prized metals and mineral pigments used by later groups, mineral resources have had a pronounced role in the Andean world. Archaeologists have used a variety of analytical techniques on the materials that ancient peoples procured from the earth. What these materials all have in common is that they originated in a mine or quarry. Despite their importance, comparative analysis between these archaeological sites and features has been exceptionally rare, and even more so for the Andes. Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes focuses on archaeological research at primary deposits of minerals extracted through mining or quarrying in the Andean region. While mining often begins with an economic need, it has important social, political, and ritual dimensions as well. The contributions in this volume place evidence of primary extraction activities within the larger cultural context in which they occurred. This important contribution to the interdisciplinary literature presents research and analysis on the mining and quarrying of various materials throughout the region and through time. Thus, rather than focusing on one material type or one specific site, Mining and Quarrying in the Ancient Andes incorporates a variety of all the aspects of mining, by focusing on the physical, social, and ritual aspects of procuring materials from the earth in the Andean past.

Download or read book Ancient Tiwanaku written by John Wayne Janusek and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-05-12 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major synthesis exploring Tiwanaku civilization in its geographical and cultural setting.

Download or read book Early New World Monumentality written by Richard L. Burger and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2012-05-20 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In studies of ancient civilizations, the focus is often on the temples, palaces, and buildings created and then left behind, both because they survive and because of the awe they still inspire today. From the Mississippian mounds in the United States to the early pyramids of Peru, these monuments have been well-documented, but less attention has been paid to analyzing the logistical complexity involved in their creation. In this collection, prominent archaeologists explore the sophisticated political and logistical organizations that were required to plan and complete these architectural marvels. They discuss the long-term political, social, and military impacts these projects had on their respective civilizations, and illuminate the significance of monumentality among early complex societies in the Americas. Early New World Monumentality is ultimately a study of labor and its mobilization, as well as the long-term spiritual awe and political organization that motivated and were enhanced by such undertakings. Mounds and other impressive monuments left behind by earlier civilizations continue to reveal their secrets, offering profound insights into the development of complex societies throughout the New World.