Publications by authors named "Charles Stanish"
Article Synopsis
- Polar and alpine ice records reveal the historical emissions of toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and thallium, offering insights into environmental changes over the last three millennia.
- While the Northern Hemisphere has been well-studied in relation to major historical events, the Southern Hemisphere's pollution levels and historical contexts before the late 19th century remain largely unexplored.
- Recent findings from East Antarctic ice cores indicate that lead pollution began in the 13th century, was exacerbated during the Spanish Colonial period, and aligns with significant global events similar to trends observed in the Northern Hemisphere.
Article Synopsis
- - Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis is being used to explore human migration and social organization, and researchers advocate for combining various types of evidence in studies.
- - This paper examines six individuals from two cemeteries in southern Peru, using a transdisciplinary approach that integrates aDNA with archaeologic, biogeochemical, and historical data.
- - Findings indicate that these individuals are genetically similar to populations from the north Peruvian coast, supporting historical accounts and suggesting significant state-sponsored resettlement in the pre-Colonial Andes.
Underwater ritual offerings in the Island of the Sun and the formation of the Tiwanaku state.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
April 2019
Considerable debate surrounds the economic, political, and ideological systems that constitute primary state formation. Theoretical and empirical research emphasize the role of religion as a significant institution for promoting the consolidation and reproduction of archaic states. The Tiwanaku state developed in the Lake Titicaca Basin between the 5th and 12th centuries CE and extended its influence over much of the south-central Andes of South America.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent theoretical innovations in cultural evolutionary theory emphasize the role of cooperative social organizations that unite diverse groups as a key step in the evolution of social complexity. A principal mechanism identified by this theory is feasting, a strategy that reinforces norms of cooperation. Feasts occur throughout the premodern world, and the intensification of feasting is empirically correlated to increased social complexity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article describes and analyzes a highly significant archaeological context discovered in a late Paracas (400-200 BCE) sunken patio in the monumental platform mound of Cerro Gentil, located in the Chincha Valley, Peru. This patio area was used for several centuries for ritual activities, including large-scale feasting and other public gatherings. At one point late in this historical sequence people deposited a great deal of objects in what is demonstrably a single historical event.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA 2,300-year-old architectural and astronomical complex in the Chincha Valley, Peru.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
May 2014
Recent archaeological research on the south coast of Peru discovered a Late Paracas (ca. 400-100 BCE) mound and geoglyph complex in the middle Chincha Valley. This complex consists of linear geoglyphs, circular rock features, ceremonial mounds, and settlements spread over a 40-km(2) area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWar and early state formation in the northern Titicaca Basin, Peru.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
August 2011
Excavations at the site of Taraco in the northern Titicaca Basin of southern Peru indicate a 2,600-y sequence of human occupation beginning ca. 1100 B.C.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArchaeological excavations at a U-shaped pyramid in the northern Lake Titicaca Basin of Peru have documented a continuous 5-m-deep stratigraphic sequence of metalworking remains. The sequence begins in the first millennium AD and ends in the Spanish Colonial period ca. AD 1600.
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