Anthropology Department

The long term Taraco Archaeological Project conducted two excavation field seasons in 2022 and 2023 in the Early Formative period sectors of sites Chiripa, Chiriamaya, and Chiripata, located next to each other along the Taraco Peninsula, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. The team conducted a range of collection strategies during the excavations, with a focus on contextual recording of artifact and ecofact material, systematically collecting archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and bio-archaeological material.

"City Life at Classic Maya Palenque, Mexico" is a Collaborative Research project with primary funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Palenque, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Chiapas, Mexico, is well-known for its important role in the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing. Previous work there on the temples and residence of the ruling family have produced one of the best-understood case studies of the development of a Classic Maya state during the Late Classic Period (approximately 600-800 AD). Less is known about life outside of the precincts of the ruling family.

Driving 20,000 miles this year, we visited multiple Ancestral Places together and developed research projects aligned with the priorities of our Tribal Mentors, including TEK officers, Tribal Vice Chairwomen, and the Flicker (InterTribal Ecological Restoration) Crew.

We also built a weekend-long event at Blodgett UC research forest to discover modes and policies for co-management of UC properties aligned with Tribal priorities, including our unique combination of archaeology and cultural fire.

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.

The discovery of new hunter-gatherer and early farming occupations on the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus is dramatically changing our understanding of the timing and nature of the first occupants of the island. Archaeological evidence suggests that Epipalaeolithic hunters-gatherers in Cyprus arrived by at least 13,000 years ago. These early islanders remained deeply connected to their mainland (Levantine and/or Aegean) counterparts and, like them, experimented with plant and animal management.

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.

Agarwal, S., Glencross, B., & Beauchesne, P. (2011). Bone Growth, Maintenance and Loss in the Neolithic Community of Çatalhöyük, Turkey: Preliminary Results. UC Berkeley: Archaeological Research Facility Stahl Reports. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9m13784c
ip.org/uc/item/9m13784c

This past field season was the second of two excavation seasons which focused on the earliest levels at the site of Chiripa. We managed to expose two major areas where the deposits were sitting on sterile and contained early ceramics and other material. The Berkeley team is focusing on studying the early engagement with tubers and chenopods,w th laboratory work ongoing throughout the year.

Authors: Jun Sunseri, Matthew Moore, Rebecca Allen, Zack Emerson