David Witt
SUNY: University at Buffalo, Anthropology, Department Member
- Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural Resource Management (Archaeology), Ancestral Pueblo (Archaeology), Northern Europe, Borders and Frontiers, and 31 moreRace and Ethnicity, Lithic Technology, Metallurgy, Chiefdoms (Archaeology), Social Inequality (Anthropology), Anglo-Saxon Studies, Anglo-Saxon archaeology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Iron Age, Hegemony, Old Norse Religion, Viking Age Archaeology, Nordic Studies, Asatru, NAGPRA, Norse mythology, Identity, Old Norse Literature, Chaco Canyon, Lithics, Southwestern Archaeology, Development of complex societies, Archaeological Method & Theory, Landscape Archaeology, Archaeological GIS, Viking Age Scandinavia, Southwestern United States (Archaeology in North America), Mesoamerican Archaeology, History of Archaeology, History of Anthropology, and History of Archaeology and Anthropologyedit
- I am a registered professional archaeologist and Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Anthropology of the State Univ... moreI am a registered professional archaeologist and Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Anthropology of the State University of New York at Buffalo. I have also earned two Masters of Arts degrees, in anthropology (focusing in archaeology) and geography (focusing in GIS and remote sensing).
My dissertation project focused on lithic technology as a material proxy of cultural identity within Chacoan outliers and local Puebloan communities within the Middle San Juan Region, and how these communities participated within the expanding Chacoan hegemony during the Pueblo II (A.D. 900 - 1140).
Theoretically, I am interested in the nature and role of borders and boundaries in cultural development, and their interaction with hegemony, phenomenology, agency, and identity. And yet, somehow, I've also wandered into phenomenology, archaeo-acoustics, and past cultural soundscapes.
Finally, I am currently employed with Washington State's Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation as an Assistant State Archaeologist. My primary duties include reviewing projects under the jurisdiction of §106, GEO 21-02, and large scale energy projects, and aiding in consultation with Tribal governments. Previously, I served as the Acting Director of the Office of Indian Nation Affairs with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. I have also worked as an environmental analyst with the DEC and interned with the New York State Department of Transportation as a GIS analyst.
I have a LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com/in/davidewitt, a Twitter @IDontDigDinos, and my OrcID is 0000-0001-8455-9167.edit
Humans inhabit rich social and physical worlds and archaeology is increasingly engaging with the multi-sensory experience of life in the past. In this article, the authors model the soundscapes of five Chacoan communities on the Colorado... more
Humans inhabit rich social and physical worlds and archaeology is increasingly engaging with the multi-sensory experience of life in the past. In this article, the authors model the soundscapes of five Chacoan communities on the Colorado Plateau, where habitation sites cluster around monumental great houses. The work demonstrates that the audible range of a conch-shell trumpet blown from atop these great houses consistently maps the distribution of associated habitation sites. Staying within the audible reach of great houses may have helped maintain the social cohesion of communities in the past which, the authors argue, also has implications for the management of archaeological landscapes in the modern world.
Research Interests:
Arthur Caswell Parker (1881–1955) was one of the first Indigenous archaeologists. As a Seneca-descended scientist from the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation, his cultural background aided with collaboration and research. Many archaeologists... more
Arthur Caswell Parker (1881–1955) was one of the first Indigenous archaeologists. As a Seneca-descended scientist from the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation, his cultural background aided with collaboration and research. Many archaeologists uncritically use Parker as an example of a Native archaeologist, anthropologist, and ethnographer. However, his career started at a time when the field of archaeology was still in its infancy, when practices now considered unethical were commonplace. Parker excavated and sold human burials, published records of sacred
ceremonies, and provided images of False Face Masks and Snow Snakes. Yet, an examination of his personal correspondence illustrates both a concern for archaeological practice as well as efforts to prevent sensitive cultural aspects from being released to the wider, non-Native public. These seemingly contradictory stances illustrate that Parker’s practice was more nuanced than previously believed. Parker’s writings and actions indicate a concern for the situation of the Seneca people and attempts to do what he thought best for others (even if they disagreed). Despite
all this, the simplistic assumption that Parker, as an Indigenous archaeologist, always acted in the best interest of his people continues to influence how Euro-Americans perceive how archaeology should be done. This belief must be interrogated in order that we may move archaeology forward to be a more respectful and equitable practice.
ceremonies, and provided images of False Face Masks and Snow Snakes. Yet, an examination of his personal correspondence illustrates both a concern for archaeological practice as well as efforts to prevent sensitive cultural aspects from being released to the wider, non-Native public. These seemingly contradictory stances illustrate that Parker’s practice was more nuanced than previously believed. Parker’s writings and actions indicate a concern for the situation of the Seneca people and attempts to do what he thought best for others (even if they disagreed). Despite
all this, the simplistic assumption that Parker, as an Indigenous archaeologist, always acted in the best interest of his people continues to influence how Euro-Americans perceive how archaeology should be done. This belief must be interrogated in order that we may move archaeology forward to be a more respectful and equitable practice.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Anthropology, Performative Social Science, History of Anthropology, Indigenous Politics, and 11 moreNew York history, Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Patrimony, Native American Anthropology, Native American (History), History of Archaeology, Haudenosaunee Studies, New York Archaeology, Archaeological Practice, Indigenous Allyship, and Arthur C. Parker
Archaeologists are employing a variety of digital tools to develop new methodological frameworks that combine computational and experiential approaches which is leading to new multisensory research. In this article, we explore vision,... more
Archaeologists are employing a variety of digital tools to develop new methodological frameworks that combine computational and experiential approaches which is leading to new multisensory research. In this article, we explore vision, sound, and movement at the ancient Maya city of Copan from a multisensory and multiscalar perspective bridging concepts and approaches from different archaeological paradigms. Our methods and interpretations employ theory-inspired variables from proxemics and semiotics to develop a methodological framework that combines computation with sensory perception. Using GIS, 3D, and acoustic tools we create multisensory experiences in VR with spatial sound using an immersive headset (Oculus Rift) and touch controllers (for movement). The case study simulates the late eighth and early ninth-century landscape of the ancient Maya city of Copan to investigate the role of landscape in facilitate movement, send messages, influence social interaction, and structure cultural events. We perform two simulations to begin to study the impact of vegetation on viewsheds and soundsheds of a stela at ancient Copan. Our objectives are twofold: (1) design and test steps towards developing a GIS computational approach to analyse the impact of vegetation within urban agrarian landscapes on viewsheds and soundsheds and (2) explore cultural significance of Stela 12, and more generally the role of synesthetic experience in ancient Maya society using a multisensory approach that incorporates GIS and VR.
Research Interests: Acoustics, Virtual Reality (Computer Graphics), Landscape Archaeology, Archaeological GIS, Remote sensing and GIS applications in Landscape Research, and 9 moreVirtual Reconstruction, Virtual Reality, Ancient Maya, Archaeoacoustics, Unity3d, Copan, Acoustical Archaeology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Oculus Rift
This is a chapter in the volume "Color in the Ancestral Pueblo Southwest" available from the University of Utah Press. The inextricable combination of color and raw material was the most fundamental characteristic of Ancestral Pueblo... more
This is a chapter in the volume "Color in the Ancestral Pueblo Southwest" available from the University of Utah Press.
The inextricable combination of color and raw material was the most fundamental characteristic of Ancestral Pueblo jewelry. Hue and substance were intrinsic to each other; together, they made ornaments visually conspicuous, sacred objects. In addition to their striking appearance, white shell, blue-green turquoise, and black and red stone were imbued with diverse religious meanings that were more than just symbolic. At the most profound level, adornments with these colors and materials were spiritually alive.
This chapter considers the conjunction of jewelry colors, raw materials, and symbolism with animism, the understanding that supernatural spirits are present throughout the world (Harvey 2005; Tylor 1871). We analyze these topics from the perspective of artifact life history (Fogelin 2007; VanPool and Newsome 2012; VanPool and VanPool 2012; Walker 1999), and in our interpretations draw on ethnographic data from descendant groups, a strategy justified by the conservatism and continuity of religious traditions (see Chapter 1).
Our underlying premise is that the symbolism and embodied spirits of different color and raw material combinations strengthened and expanded during each successive stage in an ornament’s life cycle. We also show that the extent of this amplification varied depending on a group’s degree of social differentiation and ceremonial elaboration. Our discussion begins with raw materials, continues with craft production and then bodily adornment, and ends with ritual deposition. The involvement of unmodified substances, production debris, and incomplete ornaments in ritual deposition highlights the paramount importance of color and raw material.
The inextricable combination of color and raw material was the most fundamental characteristic of Ancestral Pueblo jewelry. Hue and substance were intrinsic to each other; together, they made ornaments visually conspicuous, sacred objects. In addition to their striking appearance, white shell, blue-green turquoise, and black and red stone were imbued with diverse religious meanings that were more than just symbolic. At the most profound level, adornments with these colors and materials were spiritually alive.
This chapter considers the conjunction of jewelry colors, raw materials, and symbolism with animism, the understanding that supernatural spirits are present throughout the world (Harvey 2005; Tylor 1871). We analyze these topics from the perspective of artifact life history (Fogelin 2007; VanPool and Newsome 2012; VanPool and VanPool 2012; Walker 1999), and in our interpretations draw on ethnographic data from descendant groups, a strategy justified by the conservatism and continuity of religious traditions (see Chapter 1).
Our underlying premise is that the symbolism and embodied spirits of different color and raw material combinations strengthened and expanded during each successive stage in an ornament’s life cycle. We also show that the extent of this amplification varied depending on a group’s degree of social differentiation and ceremonial elaboration. Our discussion begins with raw materials, continues with craft production and then bodily adornment, and ends with ritual deposition. The involvement of unmodified substances, production debris, and incomplete ornaments in ritual deposition highlights the paramount importance of color and raw material.
Research Interests:
The practice of archaeology within the USA necessarily involves issues of sovereignty, multiple worldviews and colonialism. Archaeologists must acknowledge both the reality of colonialism's legacy as well as our role in either supporting... more
The practice of archaeology within the USA necessarily involves issues of sovereignty, multiple worldviews and colonialism. Archaeologists must acknowledge both the reality of colonialism's legacy as well as our role in either supporting or confronting that history, and consultation with indigenous communities is oftentimes the main (if not only) venue for interrogating this legacy. This article, written in a dialogic format, presents and explores the role of a government agency's consultation policy within this framework of colonialism and dual sovereignty. However, it also discusses the limitation of policies and identifies areas in which continued improvement is needed. This article provides insight into the issues that are in play within consultation, concerns that may not be expressed but nevertheless have an impact, and the broader issues that agency representatives must consider so that archaeologists may have a better understanding of the decisions made within consultation discussions.
--The paper can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20518196.2019.1654673. I'm not able to share copies via Academia, but if you'd like a copy and don't have access via your institution please message me.
--The paper can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20518196.2019.1654673. I'm not able to share copies via Academia, but if you'd like a copy and don't have access via your institution please message me.
Research Interests:
Chaco Canyon, NM, USA, was the center of an Ancestral Puebloan polity from approximately 850-1140 CE, and home to a dozen palatial structures known as "great houses" and scores of ritual structures called "great kivas". It is hypothesized... more
Chaco Canyon, NM, USA, was the center of an Ancestral Puebloan polity from approximately 850-1140 CE, and home to a dozen palatial structures known as "great houses" and scores of ritual structures called "great kivas". It is hypothesized that the 2.5 km 2 centered on the largest great house, Pueblo Bonito (i.e., "Downtown Chaco"), served as an open-air performance space for both political theater and sacred ritual. The authors used soundshed modeling tools within the Archaeoacoustics Toolbox to illustrate the extent of this performance space and the interaudibility between various locations within Downtown Chaco. Architecture placed at liminal locations may have inscribed sound in the landscape, physically marking the boundary of the open-air performance space. Finally, the implications of considering sound within political theater will be discussed.
Research Interests:
Arthur C. Parker (1881–1955) is well known amongst American archaeologists as former New York State Archaeologist, former director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences (now Rochester Museum and Science Center), first president of... more
Arthur C. Parker (1881–1955) is well known amongst American archaeologists as former New York State Archaeologist, former director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences (now Rochester Museum and Science Center), first president of the Society for American Archaeology, and prodigious author of over 450 publications. However, and unlike his career as archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnographer, and curator, his contributions to the Pan-Indian movement have gone largely unnoticed within the archaeological community. After introducing the Society of American Indians (SAI), this paper discusses Parker’s contributions to, and involvement with, the Pan-Indian Movement. By presenting Parker’s thoughts regarding race, education, and government policy as documented in SAI journals and their reflection in his professional practice, the paper informs a more complete understanding of his academic career as well the development of anthropology as a discipline.
Research Interests:
This paper investigates the nature of enculturation and agency within an expanding hegemony, specifcally the Roman Empire. However, rather than using the traditional concept of Romanization, the concept of creolization will be discussed... more
This paper investigates the nature of enculturation and agency within an expanding hegemony, specifcally the Roman Empire. However, rather than using the traditional concept of Romanization, the concept of creolization will be discussed and applied to the site of Divodurum Mediomatricorum (modern Metz, France),whose public architecture and landscape indicate different strategies utilized by the people of the indigenous Gallic society as they adapted various Roman practices in the creation of the Gallo-Roman culture. This paper will illustrate that the theoretical advancement of creolization can provide archaeologists with a better understanding of the processes of enculturation.
Research Interests:
This project was undertaken as part of a Department of Anthropology at SUNY Buffalo class in Museum Management (APY 514). The purpose of this class was to reevaluate and reassess a heritage collection housed by the university in order to... more
This project was undertaken as part of a Department of Anthropology at SUNY Buffalo class in Museum Management (APY 514). The purpose of this class was to reevaluate and reassess a heritage collection housed by the university in order to teach graduate students museum laboratory methodologies in cataloging, restoring, and maintaining artifact collections.
The collection (UB-316A) being assessed in this report is from the eastern portion of Fort Niagara State Park. It is comprised of historic artifacts including significant amounts of ceramic, glass, various metal objects, and bone, indicating a mixed domestic and military atmosphere. The collection is likely the result of surface surveying conducted during the demolition of military buildings in 1965 and construction of recreational facilities for the park in 1970.
The collection (UB-316A) being assessed in this report is from the eastern portion of Fort Niagara State Park. It is comprised of historic artifacts including significant amounts of ceramic, glass, various metal objects, and bone, indicating a mixed domestic and military atmosphere. The collection is likely the result of surface surveying conducted during the demolition of military buildings in 1965 and construction of recreational facilities for the park in 1970.
Research Interests:
Archaeological landscapes embody shifting conceptualizations of the individuals who live, work, and play at those locations, both in the past and present. I explore these shifts in relationship between place, human, and non-human beings... more
Archaeological landscapes embody shifting conceptualizations of the individuals who live, work, and play at those locations, both in the past and present. I explore these shifts in relationship between place, human, and non-human beings at three sites in the Finger Lakes Region of New York: Ganondagan (17th century CE Seneca village), Bare Hill (a location often associated with Seneca origins), and Lamoka Lake (a village dating to 2400-2600 BCE). These sites, which are respectively managed by New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation (OPRHP); New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC); and jointly by The Archaeological Conservancy and DEC, reflect not only dynamic landscapes in the past (as illustrated by the historical and cultural ecologies of the sites) but also reflect the modern relationships people hold with these locations as embodiments of the past. In this paper, I lay the foundations to explore the disruptive effects of colonialism to current Indigenous and non-Indigenous understandings of these sites, the practice of site management as a form of colonialism, and how management preserves (or conversely, erases) previous relationships and understandings.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, History and Memory, Colonialism, Cultures and heritage tourism, and 9 moreMemory Studies, Social and Collective Memory, Cultural Heritage Management, Public Memory, Conservation, Preservation and Site Management of Archaeological Sites, Management planning for heritage sites, Cultural Heritage and Preservation, New York Archaeology, and New York State Archaeology
The inextricable combination of color and raw material was the most fundamental characteristic of Ancestral Pueblo jewelry. For white and shell, blue-green and turquoise, and black and various types of stone, the color and the material... more
The inextricable combination of color and raw material was the most fundamental characteristic of Ancestral Pueblo jewelry.
For white and shell, blue-green and turquoise, and black and various types of stone, the color and the material each had
diverse sets of sacred meanings that gave ornaments their value. Together, this symbolic content was abundant, repetitive,
and more than representational. At the most profound level, a piece of jewelry was spiritually alive, whether it was worn or
deposited intact, broken, or as production debris in ritual offerings. This paper examines the conjunction of Ancestral Pueblo
jewelry colors, raw materials, symbolism, and animism from the perspective of artifact life history. Our purpose is to
demonstrate that the sacred meanings and embodied spirits of different color/raw material combinations strengthened and
expanded during each successive stage in an ornament’s life cycle. Recognizing that not all jewelry passed through all
stages, we begin with raw materials, then continue through craft production and bodily adornment, and end with ritual
deposition.
For white and shell, blue-green and turquoise, and black and various types of stone, the color and the material each had
diverse sets of sacred meanings that gave ornaments their value. Together, this symbolic content was abundant, repetitive,
and more than representational. At the most profound level, a piece of jewelry was spiritually alive, whether it was worn or
deposited intact, broken, or as production debris in ritual offerings. This paper examines the conjunction of Ancestral Pueblo
jewelry colors, raw materials, symbolism, and animism from the perspective of artifact life history. Our purpose is to
demonstrate that the sacred meanings and embodied spirits of different color/raw material combinations strengthened and
expanded during each successive stage in an ornament’s life cycle. Recognizing that not all jewelry passed through all
stages, we begin with raw materials, then continue through craft production and bodily adornment, and end with ritual
deposition.
Research Interests:
Arthur Caswell Parker was one of the first of his kind as an indigenous archaeologist. As a Seneca scientist with roots on the Cattaraugus territory where his grandparents lived, he had a foot in two worlds that may have aided with... more
Arthur Caswell Parker was one of the first of his kind as an indigenous archaeologist. As a Seneca scientist with roots on the Cattaraugus territory where his grandparents lived, he had a foot in two worlds that may have aided with collaboration and research. However, his career started at a time when the archaeological field was still in its infancy, and many Native American tribes considered archaeological research and collecting practices to be unethical. Although the installation of the NAGPRA legislation moves to improve the discourse between tribes and archaeologists, a strong dichotomy in the rhetoric concerning archaeology in Native American communities remains. Different people will have opposing views on archaeology and Parker himself. In this paper, we aim to bring to light the differing views held by individuals within the Seneca Nation by exploring traditional and modern beliefs. This study delves into contrasting perspectives in regards to Arthur C. Parker and archaeology within the Seneca Nation of Indians.
Research Interests:
The Buffum Street Site in South Buffalo, New York, is the location of a multicomponent Seneca Village, with an historic component dating between AD 1780 and 1844. This village served as the focal point of the Buffalo Creek Reservation,... more
The Buffum Street Site in South Buffalo, New York, is the location of a multicomponent Seneca Village, with an historic component dating between AD 1780 and 1844. This village served as the focal point of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, and important cultural features such as a mission church, the first permanent school in Buffalo, ancestral mounds, and burial grounds within an earth ring were present. The famous Seneca orator, Red Jacket, lived here while he fought against the loss of the Seneca land base. After the sale of the Buffalo Creek Reservation in the 1840s, the land has been slowly parceled off and is now the site of a suburban neighborhood. A 6.8 acre lot surrounding the former Public School 70 and the 1.6 acre Seneca Indian Park are all that remains of this important cultural and historic landscape. However, a major development involving the school threatens what remains. Despite knowing of the area’s importance to the Seneca people, municipal boards have approved the proposed changes; these approvals have been contested in court. This paper will present the site’s history, and link municipal actions with the ongoing pattern of colonial dispossession experienced by the Seneca people.
This was also presented as "The Buffum Street Site: Community Action and Contested Landscapes" at the 2019 NYSAA Conference. That paper is available on Academia.edu at https://www.academia.edu/38996492/The_Buffum_Street_Site_Community_Action_and_Contested_Landscapes
This was also presented as "The Buffum Street Site: Community Action and Contested Landscapes" at the 2019 NYSAA Conference. That paper is available on Academia.edu at https://www.academia.edu/38996492/The_Buffum_Street_Site_Community_Action_and_Contested_Landscapes
Research Interests:
The Buffum Street Site in South Buffalo, New York, is the location of a multicomponent Seneca Village, with an historic component dating between AD 1780 and 1844. This village served as the focal point of the Buffalo Creek Reservation,... more
The Buffum Street Site in South Buffalo, New York, is the location of a multicomponent Seneca Village, with an historic component dating between AD 1780 and 1844. This village served as the focal point of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, and important cultural features such as a mission church, the first permanent school in Buffalo, ancestral mounds, and burial grounds within an earth ring were present. The famous Seneca orator, Red Jacket, lived here while he fought against the loss of the Seneca land base. After the sale of the Buffalo Creek Reservation in the 1840s, the land has been slowly parceled off and is now the site of a suburban neighborhood. A 6.8 acre lot surrounding the former Public School 70 and the 1.6 acre Seneca Indian Park are all that remains of this important cultural and historic landscape. However, a major development involving the school threatens what remains. Despite knowing of the area’s importance to the Seneca people, municipal boards have approved the proposed changes; these approvals have been contested in court. This paper will present the site’s history, and link municipal actions with the ongoing pattern of colonial dispossession experienced by the Seneca people.
Research Interests:
Researchers have been applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine the roles of visibility and movement in archaeological landscapes around the world. However, few studies have investigated the role sound potentially played in... more
Researchers have been applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine the roles of visibility and movement in archaeological landscapes around the world. However, few studies have investigated the role sound potentially played in structuring experience in ancient cities. To begin to fill this gap, this paper builds on our initial investigations to develop new geospatial and virtual reality (VR) methods to examine ancient acoustics. For the ancient Maya, sight and sound worked in concert to create synesthetic experiences that influenced daily life and shaped society. To explore this interaction, we apply a combination of GIS modeling: viewshed analysis, soundshed analysis, and an Urban Digital Elevation Model (Urban DEM) generated from airborne LiDAR and 3D modeling data. This approach provides an opportunity to perform computational analysis on a simulated ancient landscape rather than the contemporary landscape. We then take these GIS-derived computational data into a VR environment to combine sound and vision to illustrate the complementary roles of visual and auditory experience at ancient Copan.
Research Interests:
Recent methodological developments in archaeology center on reconstructing the lived experiences of people. However, these efforts, which focus on viewsheds and movement, tend to ignore another sense which played an important role in how... more
Recent methodological developments in archaeology center on reconstructing the lived experiences of people. However, these efforts, which focus on viewsheds and movement, tend to ignore another sense which played an important role in how people observed and navigated the wider, physical world: that of sound. While the topic of sound has been discussed within phenomenological theory, and has been investigated at the site level through the growing study of archaeoacoustics, landscape level applications have been limited. Sound is governed by physical laws that are as applicable to past societies as they are today. We present a GIS tool developed over the past two years that allows us to model the presence and propagation of culturally significant sounds. With it, we investigate the interaudibility present within the built landscape of Chaco Canyon. This tool allows us to illustrate how events at shrines, stone circles, isolated kivas, and great houses may have been heard at other locations, and explore the relationship between sound, ritual, and performance space. Not only have the modeling results and outputs produced by this tool begun to shape hypotheses, but they are guiding the development of subsequent GIS tools within an archaeoacoustics Sound Analysis Toolbox.
Research Interests:
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation manages approximately 4 million acres of state owned land and an additional 910,000 acres through conservation easements with the stated goal “to conserve, improve, and protect... more
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation manages approximately 4 million acres of state owned land and an additional 910,000 acres through conservation easements with the stated goal “to conserve, improve, and protect New York’s natural resources and environment….” New York state law interprets “environment” broadly, including cultural and historic resources within the concept. Thousands of archaeological sites, ranging from Archaic camps to Revolutionary War battlefields to historic mills, are located on, and enhance the value of, state land, and NYSDEC is charged with their conservation. This paper discusses the role that NYSDEC plays in managing these resources, and how the agency cooperates with colleges throughout the state as they conduct field schools on various sites. We will focus on the inherent contradictions present within the goal of “conserving” cultural resources, while also working with schools to obtain the information necessary to better manage those very resources for the public good and train future generations of archaeologists in the skills required to manage cultural resources.
Research Interests:
During the past few decades, researchers have developed methodologies for understanding how past people have experienced their wider world. The majority of these reconstructions focused upon viewsheds and movement, illustrating how... more
During the past few decades, researchers have developed methodologies for understanding how past people have experienced their wider world. The majority of these reconstructions focused upon viewsheds and movement, illustrating how individuals visually observed their environment and navigated through it. However, these reconstructions have tended to ignore another sense which played a major role in how people experienced the wider, physical world: that of sound. While the topic of sound has been discussed within phenomenology at the theoretical level, and has been approached at the site level through the growing study of “acoustic archaeology,” it has not seen much practical application at the landscape level. This multimedia presentation illustrates how GIS technology can be utilized to develop soundscapes, exploring how people heard their wider surroundings, as well as saw them.
Research Interests:
Archaeological artifacts can be used to foster a powerful feeling of national pride, or they can be held up as a sign of previous degeneracy and destroyed to 'purify' a populace. For example, artifacts such as Egyptian pyramids,... more
Archaeological artifacts can be used to foster a powerful feeling of national pride, or they can be held up as a sign of previous degeneracy and destroyed to 'purify' a populace. For example, artifacts such as Egyptian pyramids, Mesopotamian Lammasu, Afghani Buddhas, and Malian Sufi Shrines represent cultures and conditions that do not fit the fundamentalist identity of Islamists groups. While modern states have often—and rightfully—raised these artifacts as evidence of equality with Euro-American cultures, fundamentalist Islamic groups are not simply spurning this connection to their cultural heritage, they are destroying the remnants of those cultures to make it more difficult for those connections to be made. By contrasting case studies where states explicitly tie themselves to the ancient world against states or other actors that wish to destroy artifacts that connect to a non-fundamentalist past, it is possible to see how these different approaches lead to the creation and curation of different identities. Through this examination of the intersection of agency, history, and belief, it will be possible to show the roles archaeological artifacts and previous cultures play in modern identity creation.
Research Interests:
The Chacoan polity of northwestern New Mexico exercised hegemony throughout the San Juan Basin and surrounding highlands during the Pueblo II (A.D. 900 – 1140) period. Hegemony is defined as the predominant influence in ideological,... more
The Chacoan polity of northwestern New Mexico exercised hegemony throughout the San Juan Basin and surrounding highlands during the Pueblo II (A.D. 900 – 1140) period. Hegemony is defined as the predominant influence in ideological, political, military, and/or economic matters exercised by one culture over another. Furthermore, it is an historical process, and as such is theorized as “eventful,” along the lines of Sewell (2005) and Beck et al. (2007). The extent and nature of this hegemony on thirteen sites comprising nine communities within the Middle San Juan Region is discussed, illustrating multiple ways local and migrant communities influenced and interacted with the expanding hegemony during the late Pueblo II. This interaction between communities and Chaco includes instances of trade, emulation, migration, and coercion. The incorporation of these events allow for further refinement of Paul Reed’s (2011) cultural history of the Middle San Juan Region. For this project, Chacoan hegemonic influence is illustrated by the combination of lithic and architectural traits within the various communities. This paper is the result of dissertation research on the nature of Chacoan hegemony in the Middle San Juan Region, New Mexico, as well as associated research on borders and boundaries in the area.
Research Interests:
As Chacoan hegemony expanded into the Middle San Juan region, the great house communities at Aztec North and Point Pueblo were local representations of a growing frontier. Point Pueblo and its surrounding community were established as... more
As Chacoan hegemony expanded into the Middle San Juan region, the great house communities at Aztec North and Point Pueblo were local representations of a growing frontier. Point Pueblo and its surrounding community were established as early as the mid to late AD 900s and may represent one of the earliest and longest lived great houses along the San Juan River. Aztec North and its community along the terrace north of the Animas River was established during the late 1000s, but eventually was transformed by the monumental built environment of Aztec West and East. These two great house communities developed along different trajectories representing the dynamic cultural landscape characteristic of the Middle San Juan river valleys prior to the expansion of Chacoan colonies at Salmon and Aztec West. Point Pueblo and Aztec North were engaged in regional networks and power structures, which necessarily reacted to the evolving nature of political, religious, demographic, and economic boundaries. Through an examination of site layout, architecture, population, and ceramics, among other material items, this paper investigates how local Middle San Juan folks negotiated the shifting centers of power as Chacoan hegemony was established.
Research Interests:
The study of borders, boundaries, and frontiers has been approached by archaeologists and other social scientists in various regions of the world, including the American Southwest. These terms do not indicate mere lines in the ground, but... more
The study of borders, boundaries, and frontiers has been approached by archaeologists and other social scientists in various regions of the world, including the American Southwest. These terms do not indicate mere lines in the ground, but zones of interaction through which people, goods, influence, and even control, extend in both directions to various degrees. This interpretation allows for the incorporation of concepts such as hegemony, which is the predominant influence in ideological, political, military, and/or economic matters exercised by one society over another. Addressing these concerns, this paper will present a history of the theory and methodology to study such phenomena, as well as provide examples of more modern, theoretically advanced, approaches. Finally, the expansion of the Chacoan system will be broadly discussed in this light, and examples of hegemonic growth will be highlighted, while providing a basis for other papers in this panel.
Research Interests:
The role of Chacoan influence within the American Southwest during the Pueblo II and Early Pueblo III periods (A.D. 900-1140) has been long debated. Recent research has shed more light upon the nature and degree of this influence within... more
The role of Chacoan influence within the American Southwest during the Pueblo II and Early Pueblo III periods (A.D. 900-1140) has been long debated. Recent research has shed more light upon the nature and degree of this influence within the Middle San Juan Region, an area defined by the confluence of the San Juan, Animas, and La Plata Rivers in northwest New Mexico. This region includes the Chacoan outliers of Salmon Pueblo and Aztec Ruins, as well as numerous smaller sites. The establishment of these outliers is interpreted as an act by Chacoan elites to establish a hegemony, which is the predominant influence in ideological, political, military, and/or economic matters by one group over another. The integration of Chacoan settlements into the surrounding communities is hypothesized to be a measure of the success of these efforts, and is investigated by identifying material proxies to social identity. These proxies occur in a variety of artifact classes, including lithics, ceramics, architecture, and settlement patterns. Recent research utilizing these classes has indicated both Chacoan migration into the region as well as local emulation of Chacoan style, illustrating the establishment and expansion of Chacoan hegemony into the region, and local reactions to the hegemony.
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Lithic artifacts have been recovered from the Tommy Site, the Point Site, and the Sterling Site, neighboring great house communities south of Farmington, New Mexico, along the San Juan River. The artifacts were analyzed according to raw... more
Lithic artifacts have been recovered from the Tommy Site, the Point Site, and the Sterling Site, neighboring great house communities south of Farmington, New Mexico, along the San Juan River. The artifacts were analyzed according to raw material, reduction strategy, and use wear and illustrate differences in utilization between the three sites. Statistical patterns are compared to those derived from artifacts recovered from Salmon Ruins, a Chacoan Outlier to the east, and Box-B site, a small house site along the San Juan. Observed differences in lithic industry and utilization between the sites are interpreted through Sackett’s theory of isochrestic style and implications are discussed.
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In 2006 and 2007, the Totah Archaeological Project excavated a room block at the Point Site, a great house community located on the San Juan River outside Farmington, NM. The lithics from the room block were analyzed according to raw... more
In 2006 and 2007, the Totah Archaeological Project excavated a room block at the Point Site, a great house community located on the San Juan River outside Farmington, NM. The lithics from the room block were analyzed according to raw material, reduction strategy, and use wear. They were compared to the lithic artifacts from Sterling Site, a neighboring great house communities along the San Juan River. Implications of observed differences in lithic industry and utilization between the communities will be discussed.
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As head of UB Archaeological Survey, Dr. Doug Perrelli is concerned with the impact of erosion and deposition on archaeological and historical sites though out the Cattaraugus Creek watershed. However, work toward managing the impact of... more
As head of UB Archaeological Survey, Dr. Doug Perrelli is concerned with the impact of erosion and deposition on archaeological and historical sites though out the Cattaraugus Creek watershed. However, work toward managing the impact of these forces has been minimal. As such, the development of models and Best Management Plans in concert with other stakeholders throughout the watershed is recommended, and specific actions are detailed within the report.
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This poster presents the results of a quasi-quantitative experiment to characterize chert materials obtained from sites and sources within the Middle San Juan Region, New Mexico, United States. The project’s goal is to develop a... more
This poster presents the results of a quasi-quantitative experiment to characterize chert materials obtained from sites and sources within the Middle San Juan Region, New Mexico, United States. The project’s goal is to develop a inexpensive methodology for differentiating Narbona Pass chert—a stone associated with the Chacoan polity—from other materials.
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This poster demonstrates recent applications of remotely sensed data to track Chacoan roads in the Middle San Juan Region, specifically the use of high resolution (1 m) Digital Elevation Models obtained from Light Detection and Ranging... more
This poster demonstrates recent applications of remotely sensed data to track Chacoan roads in the Middle San Juan Region, specifically the use of high resolution (1 m) Digital Elevation Models obtained from Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) data to track a potential route between the Aztec Community and the Holmes Group through the Farmington Glade and surrounding mesas. These data sources, in combination with historical aerial imagery, spaceborne orthoimagery, and archaeological site data obtained from the New Mexico Cultural Resources Information System (NMCRIS), allow for the continued development of a geographic record for potential Chacoan roads that is ready for ground truthing.
Research Interests: Southwestern United States (Archaeology in North America), Southwestern Archaeology, Archaeological Prospection, Ancestral Pueblo (Archaeology), LiDAR for Landscape Archaeology, and 8 moreLidar and Satellite Remote Sensing, Chacoan archaeology, Chaco Canyon, Southwestern US Archaeology, Ancestral Pueblo, LiDAR for Archaeology, Ancestral Puebloans, and Chacoan roads
Sound has been a long disregarded aspect of the cultural landscape, despite being an important factor in how we, as human beings, interact with the wider world. By incorporating a consideration of sound, archaeologists can more fully... more
Sound has been a long disregarded aspect of the cultural landscape, despite being an important factor in how we, as human beings, interact with the wider world. By incorporating a consideration of sound, archaeologists can more fully understand the embodied experience explored through phenomenological approaches. In this poster, we investigate the interaudibility present within the built landscape of Chaco Canyon, using a GIS tool we have developed over the past two years. Focusing on Downtown Chaco, we present a soundscape, illustrating how events at shrines, stone circles, isolated kivas, and great houses may have been heard at other locations as part of a sacred performance space.
Research Interests:
This poster is the result of a master's project designed to investigate the utility of imagery obtained by the ASTER space-borne instrument to aid in the detection of surface archaeological sites along the San Juan River of northwestern... more
This poster is the result of a master's project designed to investigate the utility of imagery obtained by the ASTER space-borne instrument to aid in the detection of surface archaeological sites along the San Juan River of northwestern New Mexico and the surrounding area within the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. The methodologies used various unsupervised (IsoData) and supervised (maximum likelihood, minimum distance, and spectral information divergence) classification methods. These methods were attempted, and subsequently compared, to determine if any method, or a combination of the methods, would provide more accurate results within the project area. If these methods determined any potential archaeological site locations within the study area, these locations would have been communicated to Linda Wheelbarger, principal investigator of the Totah Archaeological Project, for field identification. Unfortunately, these methods did not result any in usable data, and no potential site locations were identified.
Research Interests:
Chacoan hegemonic influence, dating from A.D. 1000 to 1140, is investigated at 13 sites throughout the Middle San Juan Region, centered on the modern city of Farmington, New Mexico. These sites, which represent a range in both size and... more
Chacoan hegemonic influence, dating from A.D. 1000 to 1140, is investigated at 13 sites throughout the Middle San Juan Region, centered on the modern city of Farmington, New Mexico. These sites, which represent a range in both size and origin of occupants, all uniquely experienced various economic, ideological, political, and martial influences, and interacted with the Chacoan polity in different ways and for different reasons.
This dissertation project investigates the growth and evolution of that interaction through a comprehensive analysis of lithic artifact style, which is contrasted with architectural style. Style is approached through both isochrestic (hidden) and iconological (visible) concepts. By utilizing these two forms of style, it is possible to utilize lithic artifact style as 1) a material proxy for ethnicity and as 2) an indication of the various forms of influence. By investigating both the ethnic identity of individuals within communities and the foreign influence experienced by those individuals, examples of hegemony are elucidated throughout the archaeological record of the project area.
The growth and evolution of Chacoan hegemony is traced through the project time period, which encompasses the Mid- to Late-Pueblo II Period. This project demonstrates that some communities actively participated with the Chacoan polity during its period of expansion, while others may have utilized measures to limit Chacoan influence. Furthermore, the different regions experienced Chacoan expansion differently: the San Juan and Animas valleys experienced colonial expansion, whereas the La Plata Valley primarily experienced economic interaction.
This dissertation project investigates the growth and evolution of that interaction through a comprehensive analysis of lithic artifact style, which is contrasted with architectural style. Style is approached through both isochrestic (hidden) and iconological (visible) concepts. By utilizing these two forms of style, it is possible to utilize lithic artifact style as 1) a material proxy for ethnicity and as 2) an indication of the various forms of influence. By investigating both the ethnic identity of individuals within communities and the foreign influence experienced by those individuals, examples of hegemony are elucidated throughout the archaeological record of the project area.
The growth and evolution of Chacoan hegemony is traced through the project time period, which encompasses the Mid- to Late-Pueblo II Period. This project demonstrates that some communities actively participated with the Chacoan polity during its period of expansion, while others may have utilized measures to limit Chacoan influence. Furthermore, the different regions experienced Chacoan expansion differently: the San Juan and Animas valleys experienced colonial expansion, whereas the La Plata Valley primarily experienced economic interaction.
Research Interests:
"This paper is the result of a master‘s project to incorporate the use of imagery obtained by the ASTER space-borne instrument to aid in the detection of surface archaeological sites along the San Juan River of northwestern New Mexico and... more
"This paper is the result of a master‘s project to incorporate the use of imagery obtained by the ASTER space-borne instrument to aid in the detection of surface archaeological sites along the San Juan River of northwestern New Mexico and the surrounding area within the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. The methodologies used various unsupervised (IsoData) and supervised (maximum likelihood, minimum distance, and spectral information divergence) classification methods. These methods were attempted, and subsequently compared, to determine if any method, or a combination of the methods, would provide more accurate results within the project area.
If these methods determined any potential archaeological site locations within the study area, these locations would have been communicated to Linda Wheelburger, principal investigator of the Totah Archaeological Project, for field identification. Unfortunately, these methods did not result any in usable data, and no potential site locations were identified."
If these methods determined any potential archaeological site locations within the study area, these locations would have been communicated to Linda Wheelburger, principal investigator of the Totah Archaeological Project, for field identification. Unfortunately, these methods did not result any in usable data, and no potential site locations were identified."
Research Interests:
The political and cultural inclusion of provinces within the Roman Empire has traditionally been described as Romanization, a form of acculturation. However, while Romanization may have applicability in investigating the processes in... more
The political and cultural inclusion of provinces within the Roman Empire has traditionally been described as Romanization, a form of acculturation. However, while Romanization may have applicability in investigating the processes in which elites adopt Roman norms, the concept is flawed when applied to the non-elite population. To address and overcome these flaws, the concept of creolization—the merging of two cultures to create a third culture—is used to explore the process through which the Gallic population of Divodurum Mediomatricorum participated in the creation of a new Gallo-Roman identity.
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Turquoise, Water, Sky: Meaning and Beauty in Southwest Native Arts presents an accessible discussion of the importance and utilization of turquoise by Southwestern cultures throughout the past 1500 years, albeit heavily focused on the... more
Turquoise, Water, Sky: Meaning and Beauty in Southwest Native Arts presents an accessible discussion of the importance and utilization of turquoise by Southwestern cultures throughout the past 1500 years, albeit heavily focused on the modern era. Primarily meant for a lay audience, this short volume is divided into six chapters and interspersed by approximately 160 images and illustrations. While beautiful, these images greatly limit the amount of text in the book. Turquoise, Water, Sky begins with a discussion of the prehistoric use of the material and its meaning in both past and contemporary contexts. However, the majority of the volume presents an evolution of contemporary form of both Puebloan and Navajo stonework. This portion will likely be the most appealing aspect of the book for the intended general audience, but it has limited utility for archaeologists and others interested in lithic studies.
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The Buffum Street Site in South Buffalo, New York, is the location of a multicomponent Seneca Village, with an historic component dating between AD 1780 and 1844. This village served as the focal point of the Buffalo Creek Reservation,... more
The Buffum Street Site in South Buffalo, New York, is the location of a multicomponent Seneca Village, with an historic component dating between AD 1780 and 1844. This village served as the focal point of the Buffalo Creek Reservation, and important cultural features such as a mission church, the first permanent school in Buffalo, ancestral mounds, and burial grounds within an earth ring were present. The famous Seneca orator, Red Jacket, lived here while he fought against the loss of the Seneca land base. After the sale of the Buffalo Creek Reservation in the 1840s, the land has been slowly parceled off and is now the site of a suburban neighborhood. A 6.8 acre lot surrounding the former Public School 70 and the 1.6 acre Seneca Indian Park are all that remains of this important cultural and historic landscape. However, a major development involving the school threatens what remains. Despite knowing of the area’s importance to the Seneca people, municipal boards have approved the proposed changes; these approvals have been contested in court. This paper will present the site’s history, and link municipal actions with the ongoing pattern of colonial dispossession experienced by the Seneca people. This was also presented as "The Buffum Street Site: Community Action and Contested Landscapes" at the 2019 NYSAA Conference. That paper is available on Academia.edu at https://www.academia.edu/38996492/The_Buffum_Street_Site_Community_Action_and_Contested_Landscapes
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Sound has been a long disregarded aspect of the cultural landscape, despite being an important factor in how we, as human beings, interact with the wider world. By incorporating a consideration of sound, archaeologists can more fully... more
Sound has been a long disregarded aspect of the cultural landscape, despite being an important factor in how we, as human beings, interact with the wider world. By incorporating a consideration of sound, archaeologists can more fully understand the embodied experience explored through phenomenological approaches. In this poster, we investigate the interaudibility present within the built landscape of Chaco Canyon, using a GIS tool we have developed over the past two years. Focusing on Downtown Chaco, we present a soundscape, illustrating how events at shrines, stone circles, isolated kivas, and great houses may have been heard at other locations as part of a sacred performance space.
Research Interests:
During the past few decades, researchers have developed methodologies for understanding how past people have experienced their wider world. The majority of these reconstructions focused upon viewsheds and movement, illustrating how... more
During the past few decades, researchers have developed methodologies for understanding how past people have experienced their wider world. The majority of these reconstructions focused upon viewsheds and movement, illustrating how individuals visually observed their environment and navigated through it. However, these reconstructions have tended to ignore another sense which played a major role in how people experienced the wider, physical world: that of sound. While the topic of sound has been discussed within phenomenology at the theoretical level, and has been approached at the site level through the growing study of “acoustic archaeology,” it has not seen much practical application at the landscape level. This multimedia presentation illustrates how GIS technology can be utilized to develop soundscapes, exploring how people heard their wider surroundings, as well as saw them.
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Archaeological artifacts can be used to foster a powerful feeling of national pride, or they can be held up as a sign of previous degeneracy and destroyed to 'purify' a populace. For example, artifacts such as Egyptian pyramids,... more
Archaeological artifacts can be used to foster a powerful feeling of national pride, or they can be held up as a sign of previous degeneracy and destroyed to 'purify' a populace. For example, artifacts such as Egyptian pyramids, Mesopotamian Lammasu, Afghani Buddhas, and Malian Sufi Shrines represent cultures and conditions that do not fit the fundamentalist identity of Islamists groups. While modern states have often—and rightfully—raised these artifacts as evidence of equality with Euro-American cultures, fundamentalist Islamic groups are not simply spurning this connection to their cultural heritage, they are destroying the remnants of those cultures to make it more difficult for those connections to be made. By contrasting case studies where states explicitly tie themselves to the ancient world against states or other actors that wish to destroy artifacts that connect to a non-fundamentalist past, it is possible to see how these different approaches lead to the creation and curation of different identities. Through this examination of the intersection of agency, history, and belief, it will be possible to show the roles archaeological artifacts and previous cultures play in modern identity creation. Coauthored with Joshua Heath.
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Researchers have been applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine the roles of visibility and movement in archaeological landscapes around the world. However, few studies have investigated the role sound potentially played in... more
Researchers have been applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine the roles of visibility and movement in archaeological landscapes around the world. However, few studies have investigated the role sound potentially played in structuring experience in ancient cities. To begin to fill this gap, this paper builds on our initial investigations to develop new geospatial and virtual reality (VR) methods to examine ancient acoustics. For the ancient Maya, sight and sound worked in concert to create synesthetic experiences that influenced daily life and shaped society. To explore this interaction, we apply a combination of GIS modeling: viewshed analysis, soundshed analysis, and an Urban Digital Elevation Model (Urban DEM) generated from airborne LiDAR and 3D modeling data. This approach provides an opportunity to perform computational analysis on a simulated ancient landscape rather than the contemporary landscape. We then take these GIS-derived computational data into a VR environment to combine sound and vision to illustrate the complementary roles of visual and auditory experience at ancient Copan.
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Chacoan hegemonic influence, dating from A.D. 1000 to 1140, is investigated at 13 sites throughout the Middle San Juan Region, centered on the modern city of Farmington, New Mexico. These sites, which represent a range in both size and... more
Chacoan hegemonic influence, dating from A.D. 1000 to 1140, is investigated at 13 sites throughout the Middle San Juan Region, centered on the modern city of Farmington, New Mexico. These sites, which represent a range in both size and origin of occupants, all uniquely experienced various economic, ideological, political, and martial influences, and interacted with the Chacoan polity in different ways and for different reasons. This dissertation project investigates the growth and evolution of that interaction through a comprehensive analysis of lithic artifact style, which is contrasted with architectural style. Style is approached through both isochrestic (hidden) and iconological (visible) concepts. By utilizing these two forms of style, it is possible to utilize lithic artifact style as 1) a material proxy for ethnicity and as 2) an indication of the various forms of influence. By investigating both the ethnic identity of individuals within communities and the foreign influence experienced by those individuals, examples of hegemony are elucidated throughout the archaeological record of the project area. The growth and evolution of Chacoan hegemony is traced through the project time period, which encompasses the Mid- to Late-Pueblo II Period. This project demonstrates that some communities actively participated with the Chacoan polity during its period of expansion, while others may have utilized measures to limit Chacoan influence. Furthermore, the different regions experienced Chacoan expansion differently: the San Juan and Animas valleys experienced colonial expansion, whereas the La Plata Valley primarily experienced economic interaction.
Research Interests:
Arthur Caswell Parker was one of the first of his kind as an indigenous archaeologist. As a Seneca scientist with roots on the Cattaraugus territory where his grandparents lived, he had a foot in two worlds that may have aided with... more
Arthur Caswell Parker was one of the first of his kind as an indigenous archaeologist. As a Seneca scientist with roots on the Cattaraugus territory where his grandparents lived, he had a foot in two worlds that may have aided with collaboration and research. However, his career started at a time when the archaeological field was still in its infancy, and many Native American tribes considered archaeological research and collecting practices to be unethical. Although the installation of the NAGPRA legislation moves to improve the discourse between tribes and archaeologists, a strong dichotomy in the rhetoric concerning archaeology in Native American communities remains. Different people will have opposing views on archaeology and Parker himself. In this paper, we aim to bring to light the differing views held by individuals within the Seneca Nation by exploring traditional and modern beliefs. This study delves into contrasting perspectives in regards to Arthur C. Parker and archaeology within the Seneca Nation of Indians.
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The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation manages approximately 4 million acres of state owned land and an additional 910,000 acres through conservation easements with the stated goal “to conserve, improve, and protect... more
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation manages approximately 4 million acres of state owned land and an additional 910,000 acres through conservation easements with the stated goal “to conserve, improve, and protect New York’s natural resources and environment….” New York state law interprets “environment” broadly, including cultural and historic resources within the concept. Thousands of archaeological sites, ranging from Archaic camps to Revolutionary War battlefields to historic mills, are located on, and enhance the value of, state land, and NYSDEC is charged with their conservation. This paper discusses the role that NYSDEC plays in managing these resources, and how the agency cooperates with colleges throughout the state as they conduct field schools on various sites. We will focus on the inherent contradictions present within the goal of “conserving” cultural resources, while also working with schools to obtain the information necessary to better manage those very resources for the public good and train future generations of archaeologists in the skills required to manage cultural resources.
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The Chacoan polity of northwestern New Mexico exercised hegemony throughout the San Juan Basin and surrounding highlands during the Pueblo II (A.D. 900 – 1140) period. Hegemony is defined as the predominant influence in ideological,... more
The Chacoan polity of northwestern New Mexico exercised hegemony throughout the San Juan Basin and surrounding highlands during the Pueblo II (A.D. 900 – 1140) period. Hegemony is defined as the predominant influence in ideological, political, military, and/or economic matters exercised by one culture over another. Furthermore, it is an historical process, and as such is theorized as “eventful,” along the lines of Sewell (2005) and Beck et al. (2007). The extent and nature of this hegemony on thirteen sites comprising nine communities within the Middle San Juan Region is discussed, illustrating multiple ways local and migrant communities influenced and interacted with the expanding hegemony during the late Pueblo II. This interaction between communities and Chaco includes instances of trade, emulation, migration, and coercion. The incorporation of these events allow for further refinement of Paul Reed’s (2011) cultural history of the Middle San Juan Region. For this project, Chacoan hegemonic influence is illustrated by the combination of lithic and architectural traits within the various communities. This paper is the result of dissertation research on the nature of Chacoan hegemony in the Middle San Juan Region, New Mexico, as well as associated research on borders and boundaries in the area.
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Chaco Canyon, NM, USA, was the center of an Ancestral Puebloan polity from approximately 850–1140 CE, and home to a dozen palatial structures known as “great houses” and scores of ritual structures called “great kivas”. It is hypothesized... more
Chaco Canyon, NM, USA, was the center of an Ancestral Puebloan polity from approximately 850–1140 CE, and home to a dozen palatial structures known as “great houses” and scores of ritual structures called “great kivas”. It is hypothesized that the 2.5 km2 centered on the largest great house, Pueblo Bonito (i.e., “Downtown Chaco”), served as an open-air performance space for both political theater and sacred ritual. The authors used soundshed modeling tools within the Archaeoacoustics Toolbox to illustrate the extent of this performance space and the interaudibility between various locations within Downtown Chaco. Architecture placed at liminal locations may have inscribed sound in the landscape, physically marking the boundary of the open-air performance space. Finally, the implications of considering sound within political theater will be discussed.
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... Creole material culture represents not the gradual replacement of one way of life by another, but the ... (Cunliffe 1997: 63). We are not sure what precipitated this, but it could be that the local ... the focus of this paper, which... more
... Creole material culture represents not the gradual replacement of one way of life by another, but the ... (Cunliffe 1997: 63). We are not sure what precipitated this, but it could be that the local ... the focus of this paper, which is concerned with the first century of Roman rule in Gaul. ...
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... Because of the time-sensitive nature of archaeology, remote sensing techniques, which promise the delivery of ... B. Electric Resistivity & Electromagnetic Surveying Aerial photography remained the only form of remote sensing... more
... Because of the time-sensitive nature of archaeology, remote sensing techniques, which promise the delivery of ... B. Electric Resistivity & Electromagnetic Surveying Aerial photography remained the only form of remote sensing available for archaeology ...