Archaeometry of Pre-Columbian Sites and Artifacts

David A. Scott and Pieter Meyers, Editors

1994

436 pages

PDF file size: 19.5 MB


Description

Based on the 28th International Archaeometry Symposium jointly sponsored by the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Getty Conservation Institute held in Los Angeles in 1992, this volume offers a rare opportunity to survey under a single cover a wide range of investigations concerning pre-Columbian materials. Twenty chapters detail research in five principal areas: anthropology and materials science; ceramics; stone and obsidian; metals; and archaeological sites and dating.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • Anthropology and Materials Science
    • The Materials Science of Material Culture: Examples from the Andean Past
      Heather Lechtman
    • Ceramics
    • Pre-Columbian Pottery: Research in the Maya Region
      Ronald L. Bishop
    • Kiln Firing at Batán Grande: Today and in Formative Times
      Ursel Wagner, Rupert Gebhard, Enver Murad, Josef Riederer, Izumi Shimada, and Fritz Wagner
    • Ceramics Among the Hohokam: Modeling Social Organization and Exchange
      David R. Abbot and David M. Schaller
    • Stone and Obsidian
    • New World Obsidian: Recent Investigations
      Michael D. Glascock
    • Obsidian Artifacts from Oaxaca, Mexico: Source Identification and Hydration Dating
      J. Michael Elam, Michael D. Glascock, and Hector Neff
    • Obsidian from Pueblo Grande, Arizona: Modeling Social and Economic Patterns in Lithic Procurement
      Jane Peterson, Douglas R. Mitchell, and M. Steven Shackley
    • Beads from Sipan: A Functional Analysis
      Leonard Gorelick and John Gwinnett
  • Metals
    • Silver and Lead in the Late Prehistory of the Mantaro Valley, Peru
      Ellen G. Howe and Ulrich Petersen
    • Pre-Hispanic Copper Alloy Production at Batán Grande, Peru: Interpretation of the Analytical Data for Ore Samples
      J. F. Merkel, I. Shimada, C. P. Swann, and R. Doonan
    • Native Copper Technology and Society in Eastern North America
      S. Terry Childs
    • Chemical Seriation of Northeastern North American Archaeological Sites Using Copper Artifacts
      R. G. V. Hancock, L. A. Pavlish, R. M. Farquhar, P.J. Julig, and W. A. Fox
    • Pre-Columbian Gold Processing at Putushio, South Ecuador: The Archaeometallurgical Evidence
      Thilo Rehren and Mathilde Temme
    • Pre-Hispanic Platinum Alloys: Their Composition and Use in Ecuador and Colombia
      David A. Scott and Warwick Bray
    • Pre-Hispanic Goldwork from the Museo de America, Madrid: A New Set of Analyses
      Salvador Rovira
  • Archaeological Sites and Dating
    • A Methodology for the Study of Buried Archaeological Sites
      Luis Barba
    • Exceptional Molecular Preservation in the Fossil Record: The Archaeological, Conservation, and Scientific Challenge
      Noreen Tuross and Marilyn L. Fogel
    • Stratigraphic Dating and Cultural Sequences of Pre-Hispanic Northern South America
      Thomas van der Hammen
    • Coloration in Etowah Textiles from Burial No 57
      Lucy R. Sibley and Kathryn A. Jakes
    • Radiocarbon Dates of Teponaztlis from Mexico
      Reiner Protsch von Zieten and Rainer Berger