Braden Cordivari

26 May 2026

This month’s Executive Board Reading Recommendation comes from VP for Website Administration AJ White. These informal selections are a way to highlight what we are reading and finding interesting. Here is what AJ has to say about his selection:

The paper, "Hanging around or moving on up? Multi-proxy perspectives on Bronze Age sheep/goats herding practices in the north-eastern Po Plain," published in Quaternary Science Reviews by Manfrin et al., came to my attention through its punny title. But I particularly appreciate how it uses archaeological science to clarify an ambiguity of the archaeological record. The paper notes that transhumance, the seasonal movement of livestock, is thought to have developed in Northern Italy during the Bronze Age, but little traditional archaeological evidence exists to support this hypothesis. The authors use a multiproxy approach, employing C, N, O, and Sr faunal isotopic data, to determine if Bronze Age livestock ate a local or migratory diet. The results suggest that herds were fed locally and the paper challenges the notion that transhumance emerged at this time, showing that archaeological science brings nuance to our understanding of the past.

Manfrin, M.S., Gillis, R.E., Polisca, F., Holt, E., Breglia, F., D’Aquino, S., Lamb, A.L., Madgwick, R., Millet, M.-A., Nederbragt, A.J., Nicosia, C., Piazzalunga, G., Shaw-Eleazar, K., Dal Corso, M., 2026. Hanging around or moving on up? Multi-proxy perspectives on Bronze Age sheep/goats herding practices in the north-eastern Po Plain (northern Italy). Quaternary Science Reviews 382, 109961. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.109961

Reconstruction of the landscape with possible land use indicated (Manfrin et al., 2026, Fig. 10)

Braden Cordivari

20 May 2026

Congratulations to Amit Ranjan (Ashoka University), the 2026 winner of the Eurofins EAG Laboratories-SAS Student Pilot Research Award! This award is designed to support the collection of preliminary chemical data for use in major funding applications.

Amit’s project is titled “Tracing the change and continuity in Provenance and Production Technology from Pre-Urban Phase to Urban Harappan phase at the site of Rakhigarhi.” This research aims to investigate continuity and change in ceramics production technology and provenance from the Pre-Urban Harappan to the Urban Harappan phases at Rakhigarhi, with particular attention to mound RGR-7. It examines whether ceramic production developed gradually from earlier regional traditions such as Hakra and Sothi-Siswal or underwent significant technological and material transformations because of intra-site and inter-regional interaction. The study integrates traditional typological analysis with archaeometric methods, such as ICP-MS and SEM-EDX, to locate local clay sources, characterize ceramic raw materials, and reconstruct production technology.

Amit Ranjan is a PhD student at Ashoka University, working with Dr. Kalyan Sekhar Chakraborty. He investigates ancient ceramic production technologies and provenance, aiming to reconstruct the development, transmission, and adoption of technological knowledge across generations and cultures. His work explores standardization in ceramic production, the selection and provenance of raw materials, tempering practices, firing conditions, and slipping techniques. Using advanced analytical methods—including ICP-MS, FTIR, XRD, SEM-EDX, and petrography—he analyzes the chemical and mineralogical composition of ceramics to understand the local and non-local production, technology, craft specialization, trade, and exchange, socio-economic and cultural significance. This interdisciplinary approach sheds light on the dynamics of ancient urbanism and inter-regional interactions in South Asia.

SAS is grateful to Eurofins EAG Laboratories for their support of this award. Congratulations again, Amit!

Braden Cordivari

08 May 2026

This is our second spotlight on a paper based on research supported by the SAS Student and ECR Research Support Award. 2023 winner Sutonuka Bhattacharya is a PhD student at the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Research Assistant at the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education in Chennai. She recently published “Grinding stones from the neolithic “Ashmound” site of Budihal, India” in Archaeological Research in Asia.

Highlights:

• Techno-functional analysis: The study presents the first detailed analysis of sandstone grinding stones from the Neolithic Ashmound site of Budihal (∼2480–1580 BCE), integrating typology, 3D modelling, and surface analysis.
• Raw material and manufacture: Grinding stones were made exclusively from locally available sandstone slabs, with minimal initial shaping and consistent technological strategies involving flaking, rim formation, and pecking.
• Use-life and variability: Variations in surface concavity, rim thickness, and pecking intensity suggest functional differentiation, task-specific practices, and evidence of tool rejuvenation and reuse."

Grinding stones are among the most ubiquitous artefacts at Southern Neolithic sites in peninsular India, yet their technological, functional, and socio-cultural significance remains insufficiently explored. This paper presents a techno-functional analysis of sandstone grinding stones from the Neolithic site of Budihal (c. 2480–1580 BCE), located in the Shorapur Doab, Karnataka. It employs an integrated methodology combining typological classification, 3D modelling, and surface analysis to investigate raw material selection, manufacturing techniques, working surface modification, and use-life histories. The results highlight consistent technological strategies, including the selection of locally available sandstone slabs, minimal initial shaping, and the use of flaking and pecking for surface preparation. Variations in surface morphology and wear patterns suggest functional differentiation and possibly user-specific practices. Contextual evidence points to their use and storage within domestic contexts, with reuse and discard patterns reflecting broader Neolithic technological traditions.

We hope you enjoy reading about Sutonuka’s research, and congratulations to her and her colleagues! Find out more about how to share your work with a Spotlight.

Bhattacharya, S., Paddayya, K., Akhilesh, K., Goren-Inbar, N., Shelach-Lavi, G., Pappu, S., 2026. Grinding stones from the neolithic “Ashmound” site of Budihal, India. Archaeological Research in Asia 46, 100704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2026.100704

Documentation of a grinding stone (Bhattacharya et al. 2026, Fig. 4)

Braden Cordivari

05 May 2026

SAS is excited to announce the winner and honorable mention for the R.E. Taylor Poster Award given at the Society for American Archaeology’s 2026 Annual Meeting. This award acknowledges innovative student contributions to archaeological research through the use of scientific methods, and has enhanced the careers of prominent young scholars and professionals for more than two decades. 

Winner – Jordan J. Thompson (Washington State University)

This year’s winner is Jordan J. Thompson, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University. Jordan’s poster, entitled “Reexamining the Weitas Creek Site (10CW30): An Early Nimiipuu Hunting Camp,” presents a reanalysis of the site through conventional archaeological methods and a collaborative, community-engaged framework. New research including fine-grained excavation, chronometric dating, geoarchaeological analysis, lithic technological analysis of new and archival materials, and geochemical sourcing of lithic artifacts are woven together through an ethnogeological storytelling approach. These analyses provide a refined understanding of the chronology of the Weitas Creek site, dating to at least 10,300 BP, and provide insight into Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) changing landscape adaptations within the context of social dynamics in a liminal territory.         

As people develop subsistence strategies to meet the needs of the local environment, they repeatedly make investments in the landscape, which impose structure and ideology onto landscapes, indicative of local ontology and placemaking. Broadly, this research investigates human-environment relationships by examining how land use relates to mobility, knowledge, and placemaking as part of landscape exploration and the establishment of the seasonal subsistence cycle among the Nimíipuu (Nez Perce) in the context of social and ecodynamics over time in the liminal territory of the Bitterroot Mountains.

Congratulations, Jordan!

Honorable Mention – Max Shachar (University of Missouri-Columbia, MURR Archaeometry Laboratory)

SAS has awarded an Honorable Mention to Max Shachar of the MURR Archaeometry Laboratory for his poster “Compositional analysis of post-Tiwanaku Sama-Cabuza sherds and clays from Los Batanes, Tacna, Peru (12th century).” Los Batanes (Sama Valley, Tacna) was occupied by Tiwanaku descendant agropastoralists (12th c. CE) who produced a Tiwanaku-inspired ceramic style: Sama-Cabuza. We report on a pilot study of neutron activation analysis (NAA) of 18 Sama-Cabuza ceramic sherds from Los Batanes and three local clay samples conducted at MURR’s archaeometry lab. Like contemporaneous post-collapse communities, potters at Los Batanes relied on a variety of raw materials available in the local desert environment, using the same materials to produce decorated and non-decorated ceramics. The geochemical similarities present within two outlier sherds to highland sherd samples point to the existence of extensive ceramic trade networks at Los Batanes despite the collapse of Tiwanaku’s cultural sphere of influence.      

Max is interested in using archaeological science to understand craft production processes, trade and exchange, and technological responses to social and/or environmental transformation. Most of his work takes place in the South-central Andes during the Late Intermediate Period (1000-1450 C.E.), a time of intense cultural and demographic change in the wake of the Tiwanaku and Wari empires collapse. Many traditional ceramic technologies common during the Middle Horizon (500-1000 C.E.) appear to be lost and/or replaced. Max seeks to understand how humans navigate the loss of technological knowledge long-term. What can loss, innovations, and revivals of technological knowledge tell us about the social conditions under which artisans operated? How can we use archaeological science to delineate these adaptations?

Congratulations, Max!

Braden Cordivari

29 April 2026

We are pleased to announce four finalists for the R.E. Taylor Poster Award Competition at the Society for American Archaeology’s 91^st Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California (April 29-May 3, 2026). If you plan to participate in the meeting, please visit their posters and learn about their fantastic research!

April 30, Thursday Afternoon

1-3pm

Jordan Thompson (Washington State University)

Poster 71-a: Reexamining the Weitas Creek Site (10CW30):  An Early Nimíipuu Upland Hunting Camp

4-6pm

Lisseth Rojas-Pelayo (University of Florida)

Poster 111-f: From Notes to Maps: A Legacy GIS Approach for Examining Mariash-Recuay Transformations at Chavín de Huántar                            

May 1, Friday Morning

10am-12pm

Amy Socha (University of Michigan)

Poster 183-e: Don't Sink Your Dugout: Load Capacity as a Proxy for Use of Dugout Canoes

May 2, Saturday Afternoon

1-3pm

Max Schachar (University of Missouri)

Poster 304-c: Compositional analysis of post-Tiwanaku Sama-Cabuza sherds and clays from Los Batanes, Tacna, Peru (12th century)

Braden Cordivari

27 April 2026

April’s Executive Board Reading Recommendation comes from General Secretary Kate Klesner. Kate has chosen an exciting new paper on organic residue analysis in South America, published open access this month in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences by Agustina Vázquez Fiorani, Mark Schurr, Valeria Franco Salvi, and Eleanora A. Reber.

In this paper, the authors use lipid residue analysis, a technique that detects ancient organic compounds preserved inside ceramic vessel walls, to reconstruct what people were cooking and eating in three Formative Period villages (200 and 800 CE) in the Tafí Valley of northwestern Argentina. Working with 172 ceramic vessels from villages which each had an ecologically distinct micro-environment, they combine gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), compound-specific isotope analysis (GC-C-IRMS), and bulk isotope analysis of charred food crusts to identify the signatures of food preserved in the ceramics. While organic materials rarely survive in this part of the Andes due to soil acidity and humidity, this research was able to identify preserved lipids in a large enough group of the samples (36%) to be able to demonstrate that neighboring communities, despite sharing socio-material practices, were pursuing meaningfully different subsistence strategies based on their local environments. The villages in the northern valley show stronger signatures of fat processing from camelids and C3/C4 plants, while the southern village exhibits clearer evidence of C3 plant exploitation. This is the first large-scale direct chemical evidence of subsistence micro-diversity within the Southern Andes, and it opens exciting new avenues for understanding how early communities adapted flexibly to their immediate landscapes rather than following a single, uniform model.

Vázquez Fiorani, A., Schurr, M., Franco Salvi, V., Reber, E.A., 2026. Revealing micro-environmental subsistence diversity in the Southern Andes through organic residue analysis in pottery (Tucumán, Argentina, 200–800 CE). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 18, 96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-026-02462-0.

Inter-site patterning of carbon stable isotopes (Vázquez Fiorani et al. 2026, Fig. 6)