Subsistence Continuity Linked to Consumption of Marine Protein in the Formative Period in the Interfluvic Coast of Northern Chile: Re-Assessing Contacts with Agropastoral Groups from Highlands

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 679-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Andrade ◽  
Ricardo Fernandes ◽  
Katia Codjambassis ◽  
Josefina Urrea ◽  
Laura Olguín ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Marine Resources ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Radiocarbon Data ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Bone Remains ◽  
Marine Protein

From material culture evidence dating as early as 7500 cal BC, it has been established that populations from the interfluvic coast in northern Chile adapted to a maritime economic livelihood. During the 2nd millennium BC, local populations began to experience major social changes arising mainly from an increase in contacts with agropastoral populations from the highlands of the Andes. New radiocarbon data and stable isotope (δ15Ncol, δ13Ccol, and δ13Cap) analyses of human bone remains from interfluvic coastal individuals were obtained. The data showed that these individuals, at the time of contact with highland populations, maintained a mode of subsistence relying principally on marine protein. This suggests that, although instances of social change may have arisen, the livelihoods linked to the consumption of marine resources would have remained constant, demonstrating a high degree of resistance in changing local lifestyles.

scholarly journals The Life and Death of a Child: Mortuary and Bodily Manifestations of Coast–Interior Interactions during the Late Formative Period (AD 100–400), Northern Chile

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christina Torres-Rouff ◽  
Gonzalo Pimentel ◽  
William J. Pestle ◽  
Mariana Ugarte ◽  
Kelly J. Knudson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Interregional Interaction ◽  
Intercultural Identity ◽  
Late Formative

Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.

Singa Transitional: Rock-art Saywas Marking Boundaries of Identity and Socializing Landscape in Huánuco, Peru

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-263
Author(s):  
Jonathan J. Dubois
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Regional Survey ◽  
Intermediate Period ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
The North ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Early Horizon ◽  
Landscape Feature

This paper introduces a new art style, Singa Transitional, found painted onto a mountainside near the modern town of Singa in the north of Huánuco, Peru. This style was discovered during a recent regional survey of rock art in the Huánuco region that resulted in the documentation of paintings at more than 20 sites, the identification of their chronological contexts and an analysis of the resulting data for trends in changing social practices over nine millennia. I explore how the style emerged from both regional artistic trends in the medium and broader patterns evident in Andean material culture from multiple media at the time of its creation. I argue that the presence of Singa Transitional demonstrates that local peoples were engaged in broader social trends unfolding during the transition between the Early Horizon (800–200 bc) and the Early Intermediate Period (ad 0–800) in Peru. I propose that rock art placed in prominent places was considered saywa, a type of landscape feature that marked boundaries in and movement through landscapes. Singa Transitional saywas served to advertise the connection between local Andean people and their land and was a medium through which social changes were contested in the Andes.

Neolithic diet at the Brochtorff Circle, Malta

2001 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.P. Richards ◽  
R.E.M. Hedges ◽  
I. Walton ◽  
S. Stoddart ◽  
C. Malone
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Analysis ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Marine Resources ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Resource Stress ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometer ◽  
Agricultural Potential ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Isotope Analyses ◽  
Marine Protein

From Neolithic Malta, there is evidence of increasing population size accompanied by increasingly elaborate material culture, including the famous megalithic architecture. Stoddart et al. (1993) argued that social tensions and controls increased as food resources diminished. One important requirement of this argument is that the Neolithic inhabitants of Malta depended entirely on domesticated plants and animals for subsistence and therefore, with increased population sizes, the poor agricultural potential of these islands was stretched. However, it is possible that the consumption of wild foods, particularly marine resources, in the Neolithic would make up any shortfall in the agricultural foods. A direct way of measuring the amounts of marine protein in human diets is through chemical analysis of human bone. Stable isotope analyses undertaken on seven Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon dated humans from the Neolithic at the Brochtorff Circle indicated that there is no evidence for the significant use of marine foods by these Neolithic individuals. These new data indicate that agricultural foods were the dietary staple for this sample of the Maltese Neolithic population and therefore support the argument that increasing population during the Neolithic could have resulted in increasing resource stress.

Emblems, Leadership, Social Interaction and Early Social Complexity: The Ancient Formative Period (1500 bc–ad 100) in the Desert of Northern Chile

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 615-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Gallardo ◽  
Gloria Cabello
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Craft Specialization ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Prestige Goods ◽  
Social Distinction ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Political Form

Social complexity is synonymous with inequality, a political form whose origin is associated with a reduction in residential mobility, the intensification of production, craft specialization, long-distance exchange, public architecture, the proliferation of prestige goods and ceremonial feasts. Archaeological evidence of these processes, however, is insufficient without the identification of practices related to prehistoric leadership. In the early Andean area, this social distinction was deposited in emblems or insignias of authority, objects of visual prestige whose value resided in myths and divinities. Similar arrangements of material culture, around the first millennium before Christ, appear contextually related with the first village-based communities in Northern Chile.

POWER MATERIALIZED: THE DART-THROWER AS A PAN-MESOAMERICAN STATUS MARKER

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Slater
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Graphic Communication ◽  
Highly Effective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
High Social Status

AbstractThroughout the deep history of Mesoamerica, the dart-thrower (a.k.a. atlatl) played a vital utilitarian and symbolic role. Although it was a highly effective tool exploited for practical purposes such as hunting and warfare, ample evidence exists which reveals its association with themes of authority, power, and prestige. The survival of ornamented dart-throwers, as well as the context in which the implement appears in Mesoamerican material culture and forms of graphic communication, reveal its role in the production and assertion of high social status. This argument will be supported by archaeological and ethnographic evidence which demonstrates that the dart-thrower served as a pan-Mesoamerican symbol of power beginning no later than the Middle to Late Formative period and continuing through the Conquest.

Rethinking numismatics. The archaeology of coins

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fleur Kemmers ◽  
Nanouschka Myrberg
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Constructive Dialogue ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Organization ◽  
The 19Th Century

AbstractThis paper sets out to re-member coins into archaeological discourse. It is argued that coins, as part of material culture, need to be examined within the theoretical framework of historical archaeology and material-culture studies. Through several case studies we demonstrate how coins, through their integration of text, image and existence as material objects, offer profound insights not only into matters of economy and the ‘big history’ of issuers and state organization but also into ‘small histories’, cultural values and the agency of humans and objects. In the formative period of archaeology in the 19th century the study of coins played an important role in the development of new methods and concepts. Today, numismatics is viewed as a field apart. The mutual benefits of our approach to the fields of archaeology and numismatics highlight the need for a new and constructive dialogue between the disciplines.

Population Migrations, Colonization, and Social Changes in the Late Prehistoric Lower Yangtze River

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianlong Jiao
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Yangtze River ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Yangtze River Delta ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
The North ◽  
Population Migrations ◽  
Lower Yangtze ◽  
Liangzhu Culture

This chapter presents a case study that challenges commonly used approaches in Chinese archaeology to population migration, diffusion, colonization, and material culture change. The dramatic decline of the Liangzhu culture in the Lower Yangtze River Delta around 2000 BC has been extensively investigated. Environmental disasters such as rising sea-level and flooding were suggested by some as the main factors, while others highlighted internal social conflicts or the exhaustive use of jades as the responsible forces. This chapter instead argues that the decline of Liangzhu culture was a dynamic process in which waves of population migrations from the Guangfulin culture in the north was the primary cause. These migrants were organized colonizers who were forced to expand southward by violent conflicts in the Central Plain. Archaeological data suggest the Guangfulin conquered the Liangzhu land and restructured the cultural landscape of the Lower Yangtze River Delta.

Egypt in the Roman and Late Antique World

2021 ◽  
pp. 335-342
Author(s):  
Ellen Swift ◽  
Jo Stoner ◽  
April Pudsey
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Social Archaeology ◽  
Secure Foundation ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Byzantine Period ◽  
Shared Culture ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Early Islamic Period

Following a short section summarizing the interpretative contributions of the book as a whole, this chapter takes a wider perspective, drawing on the material studied in the preceding chapters to first compare Egypt to the wider Roman world, and, second, examine the transition from the Roman to late antique period and beyond in Egypt. First, the overall contribution of the book is emphasized: a new interpretation which takes a social archaeology approach to everyday life. The point is also made that the work is grounded in a careful re-evaluation of object dating, and informed by neglected archive information. In addition to providing a secure foundation for the book, this fundamental research provides an important resource for future studies. Next, evidence for both similarities and differences to wider Roman culture is presented, and the multiple ways in which Roman-style material culture may have functioned within the social context of Egypt are examined. Finally, the relationship between the objects studied and wider social changes is investigated; the transition from the Roman to the late antique period, and beyond. This includes a consideration of the impact of Christianity, and wider evidence, through dress objects, of shared culture across the Byzantine Christian world, as well as evidence of economic change at the end of the Byzantine period in Egypt. Some aspects of continuity and change into the early Islamic period, as reflected through the material studied, are also briefly considered.

Two new scorpion species of genus Brachistosternus (Scorpiones: Bothriuridae) from northern Chile

Zootaxa ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 1623 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDRÉS A. OJANGUREN-AFFILASTRO ◽  
PABLO AGUSTO ◽  
JAIME PIZARRO-ARAYA ◽  
CAMILO I. MATTONI
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Dunes ◽  
The Other ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
High Altitudes ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Andes Mountain ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Mountain Chain

Brachistosternus (Leptosternus) cepedai n. sp. and Brachistosternus (Leptosternus) coquimbo n. sp. are described from Coquimbo region, in northern Chile. Brachistosternus cepedai n. sp. occurs in coastal dunes and is closely related to Brachistosternus (L.) sciosciae Ojanguren-Affilastro, 2002. On the other hand, Brachistosternus coquimbo n. sp occurs at high altitudes in the Andes mountain chain and is related to Brachistosternus (L.) montanus Roig Alsina, 1977, and to several Andean species from Argentina and Chile. Adaptative characters of the psammophilous Br. (L.) cepedai n. sp. are discussed. 39 scorpion species are now known from Chile, ten of them occur in the Coquimbo Region, being the region with the more diverse scorpion fauna in the country.

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