Daniel A. Contreras

The Chavín Phenomenon and Its Regional Manifestation

Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Pre-Hispanic Ritual Use of Psychoactive Plants at Chavín de Huántar, Peru

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Climate stability and low population pressure predict peaceful interactions over 10,000 years of Central Andean history

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Leveraging Radiocarbon in the Central Andes: From Chronologies to Research Agendas

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Middle Paleolithic Behavioral Insights from the Stelida Chert Source, Naxos (Greece)

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Landscape taphonomy in the Bonneville Basin

Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Integrating archaeological and geomorphic data to improve reconstruction of past population dynamics by accounting for landscape taphonomy.

PIs: Daniel Contreras (U Florida), Brian Codding (UC Santa Barbara)

This project develops new methods estimating past population sizes, in order to more accurately reconstruct past population dynamics. Accurately reconstructing past population dynamics is critical for addressing many key questions about the human past, including the origins of modern behavior, the emergence of agriculture, and the development of states. Although estimates of past population size are widely employed, current archaeological methods struggle to adequately account for the fact that the available records of past human habitation are biased by local geologic processes, which preserve sites of some ages while destroying others. This can lead to systematic bias in estimates of past population, erroneous reconstructions of past population dynamics, and mistaken interpretations of social processes. This project develops a novel approach that analyzes ages of archaeological sites relative to local frequencies of landforms of varying ages, using the Bonneville Basin (Utah and Nevada) as a test case. By providing a method that is capable of more accurately describing past populations, this project will enable improved analysis of past human responses to environmental changes as well as the potential impacts of human populations on past environments. Archaeologists increasingly turn to assemblages of radiocarbon dates as measures of past population sizes. Improving the accuracy of this technique by accounting for landscape change over time will allow us to explore the drivers of past population dynamics in the Bonneville Basin, especially the interactions between human demography, subsistence adaptations, land use, and environmental change. By developing a new methodology for addressing biases in assemblages of radiocarbon dates, illustrating the potential of the method through this Great Basin case study, and disseminating the tools that other researchers can use to replicate the approach, this project will open new possibilities in reconstructing past population dynamics. In addition, by standardizing an approach and providing computational tools for coupling the archaeological radiocarbon record and local landscape history recorded in landform ages, this work will enable further research that addresses compelling questions including the role of population dynamics in long-term sustainability and resilience, in the onset of the Anthropocene, and in such social transformations as the beginnings of agriculture and urbanism.

Archaeological 14C Assemblages and the Chavín Phenomenon in the Central Andes

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Chronological and Post-Depositional Insights from Single-Grain IRSL Dating of a Palaeolithic Sequence at Stelida, Naxos (Greece)

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Reconsidering Chronologies and Cultural Change on the South Coast of Peru: A Compilation and Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates from Nasca, Ica, and Paracas

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Cappadocian Obsidian Exchange Networks in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A: A Southern Levantine Perspective from El-Hemmeh (Jordan)

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Google Earth Engine for Archaeologists: An Updated Look at the Progress and Promise of Remotely Sensed Big Data

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Landscape Taphonomy Predictably Complicates Demographic Reconstruction

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Seeking Synchronicity: Re-examining the Peruvian Early Horizon through Bayesian Modeling of 14C Dates

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Jarigole Mortuary Tradition Reconsidered

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

El Niño Southern Oscillation and Enhanced Arid Land Vegetation Productivity in NW South America

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Detecting and Mapping the `Ephemeral': Magnetometric Survey of a Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Developing Transdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability Challenges: The Need to Model Socio-Environmental Systems in the Longue Durée

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Expanded Agroecological Niches and Redistributed Risks in Northern Peru's Chicama Valley during Late-Holocene ENSO Climate Changes

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Stages, Periods, and Radiocarbon: 14C Dating in the Archaeology of the Central Andes

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Freston Causewayed Enclosure, Suffolk: Initial Insight and Hypothetical History

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Traditions Émergentes: Chavín et Cupisnique

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Influence of Ancient Herders on Soil Development at Luxmanda, Mbulu Plateau, Tanzania

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A New Minoan-type Peak Sanctuary on Stelida, Naxos

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Comment on Arnold et~al. ``Drought and the Collapse of the Tiwanaku Civilization: New Evidence from Lake Orurillo, Peru'' [Quat. Sci. Rev. 251 (2021): 106693]

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Matching Pragmatic Lithic Analysis and Proper Data Architecture: The QuARI R Shiny Database Interface

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Estudios Paleodemográficos Basados En Conjuntos de Dataciones Radiométricas. Una Revisión Crítica

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Review of Global Perspectives on Long Term Community Resource Management, by Ludomir R. Lozny and Thomas H. McGovern, Eds.

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Earliest Occupation of the Central Aegean (Naxos), Greece: Implications for Hominin and Homo Sapiens' Behavior and Dispersals

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

From Paleoclimate Variables to Prehistoric Agriculture: Using a Process-Based Agroecosystem Model to Simulate the Impacts of Holocene Climate Change on Potential Agricultural Productivity in Provence, France

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Public Archaeology's Mammoth in the Room: Engaging Wikipedia as a Tool for Teaching and Outreach

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hacia Una Geoarqueología Del Paisaje Andina: Paisaje, Medioambiente, y Acción Humana En Chavín de Huántar

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Reaching the Human Scale: A Spatial and Temporal Downscaling Approach to the Archaeological Implications of Paleoclimate Data

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Regional Paleoclimates and Local Consequences: Integrating GIS Analysis of Diachronic Settlement Patterns and Process-Based Agro-ecosystem Modeling of Potential Agricultural Productivity in Provence (France)

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Characterization of the Siliceous Rocks at Stélida, an Early Prehistoric Lithic Quarry (Northwest Naxos, Greece), by Petrography and Geochemistry: A First Step towards Chert Sourcing