Birds, Reciprocity and Knowledge Exchange in Northern NM : Zooarchaeology and Oral Histories at Picuris Pueblo

Informant describing knowledge

Based on oral historical interviews funded in part by the Stahl Fund conducted in August of 2024, this talk explores community and Indigenous values and memories about birds at Picuris Pueblo. This oral historical research is part of a larger investigation into avian-human relationships at Picuris Pueblo in tandem with a legacy collection of avifaunal remains from the 1960s excavations at the pueblo.

Archaeobotanical Sample Processing, Taraco Archaeological Project

Flot station

Certain loci within the Lake Titicaca Basin are thought to be significant to plant and animal domestication in the Andes; archaeological work has been conducted at key sites such as Chiripa, Lukurmata, and Wankarani in pursuit of knowledge surrounding the domestication transition by archaeologists of many subdisciplines. A base of knowledge regarding certain aspects of this transition has been established over the decades, particularly through the work of the Taraco Archaeological Project (TAP), yet many questions remain about its timing and context.

Taraco Archaeological Project

Flotation samples

This research project involved travel to the community of Chiripa, Bolivia for the 2023 field season of the Taraco Archaeological Project. During the season, excavations were conducted at three sites in the Taraco Peninsula. Around 200 samples were processed via flotation, as well as about 60 which were processed via dry screening, yielding macrobotanical remains that were exported for anaysis at the McCown Archaeobotany Laboratory .

New Light on Scribal Practice in the Dakhla Oasis (Excavations at Amheida, Egypt))

During the excavation season at Amheida this year, a reassessment of local scribal practices in the Dakhla Oasis in the Roman era revealed a number of connections and trends through multiple forms of evidence, namely archaeological (small finds), art historical (tomb walls), architectural (buildings), papyrological (paleography), and ceramic (ostraka). The preliminary results of this study show that scribal practices in the Dakhla Oasis adhere to those elsewhere in the Roman Empire despite its extreme geographical remoteness.

Geophysical Survey of a Choleric Mass Grave in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Cemetery outside the walls of San Felipe del Morro Fort

In 1855, Puerto Rico was struck by the cholera epidemic, killing 20,000 to 50,000 individuals – 4-10% of the total population at the time. Due to the high volume of corpses piling up and fear of the disease’s further spreading, a cemetery outside of the walls of El Morro was established. This cemetery remained untouched for over a century, due to fears that the disease might resurface. Today, however, this cemetery is in danger of being destroyed, as tourists in Old San Juan have been recently granted access to this section of the fort, uncovering human remains as they walk in the trail.

Material Culture and Archaeology of Citizenship on the United States/Mexico Border

Martha Diaz-Longo

This work is based on my dissertation research which looks at the skeletal, material culture, and ethnographic evidence of structural violence in Latin America, and how this leads to immigration. Structural violence can be seen in these various avenues and used in conjunction with one another in providing a better framework that is not necessarily driven by the researcher’s interpretation but by the individuals who experienced this structural violence firsthand.

Pasquino Group Research in Sperlonga, Italy

Grotto of Tiberius: Scenes from the Odyssey and Iliad

 Thanks to the Stahl Award, I was able to travel to complete fieldwork in Sperlonga, Italy in June 2022. The project in Sperlonga involves the digital documentation of thousands of marble fragments from the so-called “Grotto of Tiberius” – an ancient cave decorated in the Roman period with an elaborate sculptural program depicting scenes from the Iliad and Odyssey. This year, my work in Sperlonga involved the sorting, counting, categorization, and documentation of sculptural fragments related to a sculpture known as the Pasquino Group.

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