D A Contreras
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 29916 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | D A Contreras |
| NOMBRES | D A |
| APELLIDO | Contreras |
| FIRMA | CONTRERAS D A |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8127-8789 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 36 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 304 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 36 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2008 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 9 |
Chronology, Continuity, and Hiatus
Cultural sequences often rely on relative or typological chronological techniques, even as radiometric methods producing absolute ages become increasingly common. This reflects the perception that typological approaches are faster and sufficiently reliable, whereas radiometric precision demands greater time and financial investment. Here, we present a strategy for obtaining radiocarbon ages from monumental mudbrick structures (huacas), reporting …
Leveraging radiocarbon in the Central Andes
Middle Paleolithic Behavioral Insights from the Stelida Chert Source, Naxos (Greece)
This article provides the first detailed overview of Middle Paleolithic activity at the Naxian chert source of Stelida, based on an analysis of 780 artifacts collected from the 2013–2014 survey. While several Eurasian Middle Paleolithic lithic sources have been documented, the activity at most of these sites relates almost exclusively to resource extraction and the initial stages of tool production. The Middle Paleolithic material from Stelida re…
Archaeological 14C assemblages and the Chavín Phenomenon in the Central Andes
Reconsidering chronologies and cultural change on the south coast of Peru
Chronological and post-depositional insights from single-grain IRSL dating of a Palaeolithic sequence at Stelida, Naxos (Greece)
Google Earth Engine for archaeologists
A wealth of remotely sensed data has accumulated over the past several decades and now constitutes an analytical resource primed for archaeological applications. To date, remotely sensed big data (RSBD) analytics in archaeology have focused on filling spatial gaps in the distribution of sites and features, characterizing environmental landscapes, and monitoring cultural heritage sites. The scientific promise of these data to expand our understand…
Cappadocian obsidian exchange networks in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
Landscape Taphonomy Predictably Complicates Demographic Reconstruction
Expanded agroecological niches and redistributed risks in northern Peru’s Chicama Valley during late-Holocene Enso climate changes
South American arid lands present unique constellations of climatic risk to their human inhabitants, due to volatile events that can create markedly different hydroclimate conditions over interannual–centennial scales. However, a main driver of such volatility – the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) – occurs with semiregular periodicity. Paleoclimatic and archeological evidence indicate not only that the strength and periodicity of ENSO pattern…
Stages, Periods, and Radiocarbon
Some of the earliest archaeological materials radiocarbon-dated were from the Central Andes, and archaeologists from the region were also involved in early efforts at meta-analysis of assemblages of radiocarbon dates and Bayesian chronological modeling. Nevertheless, regional chronological schema still vary surprisingly little from their pre-radiocarbon antecedents. As a result, significant scope for increasing the impact of radiocarbon dates, as…
The Jarigole mortuary tradition reconsidered
The megalithic pillar sites found around Lake Turkana, Kenya, are monumental cemeteries built approximately 5000 years ago. Their construction coincides with the spread of pastoralism into the region during a period of profound climate change. Early work at the Jarigole pillar site suggested that these places were secondary burial grounds. Subsequent excavations at other pillar sites, however, have revealed planned mortuary cavities for predomina…
Detecting and mapping the 'ephemeral
Common assumptions about the ephemeral archaeological signature of pastoralist settlements have limited the application of geophysical techniques in the investigation of past herding societies. Here, the authors present a geophysical survey of Luxmanda, Tanzania, the largest-known settlement documented for the Pastoral Neolithic era in eastern Africa (c. 5000-1200 BP). The results demonstrate the value and potential of fluxgate gradiometry for th…
A New Minoan-Type Peak Sanctuary on Stelida, Naxos
A long-recognised characteristic of Crete’s later Bronze Age [BA] state-level society – the ‘Minoan civilization’ of the 2nd millennium cal. BC – was the establishment of socio-economic connections with off-island populations. The nature of these relationships has been interpreted in various ways, from the establishment of overseas colonies to a more mutually beneficial relationship between local political agents and their Cretan partners, not le…
Matching Pragmatic Lithic Analysis and Proper Data Architecture
The documentation and analysis of archaeological lithics must navigate a basic tension between examining and recording data on individual artifacts or on aggregates of artifacts. This poses a challenge both for artifact processing and for database construction. We present here an R Shiny solution that enables lithic analysts to enter data for both individual artifacts and aggregates of artifacts while maintaining a robust yet flexible data struct…
From paleoclimate variables to prehistoric agriculture
Public Archaeology's Mammoth in the Room
Although archaeology has become increasingly concerned with engaging diverse publics, and has embraced the internet as a means of facilitating such engagement, attitudes towards Wikipedia have—understandably—been more ambivalent. Nevertheless, we argue here, Wikipedia's popularity and reach mean that archaeologists should actively engage with the website by adding and improving archaeological content. One way to do this is in the classroom: this …
Reaching the human scale
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
Characterization of the siliceous rocks at Stélida, an early prehistoric lithic quarry (Northwest Naxos, Greece), by petrography and geochemistry
(Re)constructing the sacred
Reconstructing the landscape evolution and the human occupation of the Lower Sagone River (Western Corsica, France) from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period
Spherulites and Aspiring Elites
This paper details the results of a survey of the obsidian sources on the island of Giali in the Dodecanese, Greece, together with a review of these raw materials’ use from the Mesolithic to the Late Bronze Age (ninth to second millennium Cal bc). Elemental characterization of 76 geological samples from 11 sampling locations demonstrates the existence of two geochemically distinct sources, termed ‘Giali A’, and ‘Giali B’. The latter material, ava…
Supplementary Data for Spherulites and Aspiring Elites
Olive cultivation in the heart of the Persian Achaemenid Empire
Summed radiocarbon calibrations as a population proxy
How far to Conchucos? A GIS approach to assessing the implications of exotic materials at Chavín de Huántar
Chavín de Huántar has long been recognized as a site of pan-regional importance in the first millennium bce Central Andes. Multiple lines of evidence link the site to costa, sierra and selva. Using exotic goods for which provenance is known – for example, obsidian, cinnabar, selected ceramics and marine shell – specific areas with which Chavín interacted can be identified. These interactions are considered in the context of distinct ways of think…
Quarrying Evidence at the Quispisisa Obsidian Source, Ayacucho, Peru
Artifacts made from Quispisisa obsidian are widely disseminated in the Peruvian Andes, but the geological source of the Quispisisa geochemical type was only recently located in southern Ayacucho. Following the positive identification of the source in 1999 by Richard Burger and colleagues, we found evidence of broad quarrying activities in unexplored portions of the source area. We describe 34 quarry pits, some as large as 80 m across, together wi…
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
The Utility of Publicly-Available Satellite Imagery for Investigating Looting of Archaeological Sites in Jordan
International response to the problem of looting of archaeological sites has been hampered by the difficulty of quantifying the damage done. The scarcity of reliable information negatively impacts professional and public policy making, rendering consensus about the scale of the problem and the effectiveness of policy responses difficult to achieve. We report here on the use of publicly-available satellite imagery for quantifying the damage caused…
Huaquerosand remote sensing imagery
This article presents a new initiative in combating looting from the air, building on previous work in Iraq and Jordan. Looted sites in the Virú Valley, Peru, are visible as pit clusters on dated versions of Google Earth. Compare these with earlier air photographs and Gordon Willey's famous survey of the 1940s, and we have a dated chronicle of looting events. This makes it possible to demonstrate that modern looting is certainly taking place and …
Landscape and Environment
Reaching the human scale
A Mito-Style Structure at Chavín De Huántar
Excavations west of the monumental core at Chavín de Huántar, Peru in 2005 revealed a well-preserved plastered structure with a central circular hearth, in the style of the Mito Architectural Tradition. This find challenges standard definitions of both the Mito Tradition and Chavín itself. I discuss the material remains and associated radiocarbon dates from this feature, and use these new data to re-assess Chavín's involvement in interregional ne…
Spherulites and Aspiring Elites
This paper details the results of a survey of the obsidian sources on the island of Giali in the Dodecanese, Greece, together with a review of these raw materials’ use from the Mesolithic to the Late Bronze Age (ninth to second millennium Cal bc). Elemental characterization of 76 geological samples from 11 sampling locations demonstrates the existence of two geochemically distinct sources, termed ‘Giali A’, and ‘Giali B’. The latter material, ava…
Detecting and mapping the 'ephemeral
Common assumptions about the ephemeral archaeological signature of pastoralist settlements have limited the application of geophysical techniques in the investigation of past herding societies. Here, the authors present a geophysical survey of Luxmanda, Tanzania, the largest-known settlement documented for the Pastoral Neolithic era in eastern Africa (c. 5000-1200 BP). The results demonstrate the value and potential of fluxgate gradiometry for th…
Implications of the fluvial history of the Wacheqsa River for hydrologic engineering and water use at Chavín de Húntar, Peru
Channeling of water through a variety of architectural features represents a significant engineering investment at the first millennium B.C. ceremonial center of Chavín de Huántar in the Peruvian Central Andes. The site contains extensive evidence of the manipulation of water, apparently for diverse purposes. The present configuration of the two local rivers, however, keeps available water approximately 9m below the highest level of water‐bearing…
(Re)constructing the sacred
Olive cultivation in the heart of the Persian Achaemenid Empire
Stages, Periods, and Radiocarbon
Some of the earliest archaeological materials radiocarbon-dated were from the Central Andes, and archaeologists from the region were also involved in early efforts at meta-analysis of assemblages of radiocarbon dates and Bayesian chronological modeling. Nevertheless, regional chronological schema still vary surprisingly little from their pre-radiocarbon antecedents. As a result, significant scope for increasing the impact of radiocarbon dates, as…
Reconstructing landscape at Chavín de Huántar, Perú
Landscape Taphonomy Predictably Complicates Demographic Reconstruction
Landscape Setting as Medium of Communication at Chavín de Huántar, Peru
The Central Andean ceremonial centre of Chavín de Huántar is situated in a dramatic, mountainous and dynamic environment high on the eastern slope of the Peruvian Andes, yet the site's landscape setting has remained in the shadow of its monumental architecture, complex lithic art and highly elaborated material culture. Nevertheless, that dynamic landscape setting was an integral part of the site's significance as a ceremonial centre and may be re…
The Jarigole mortuary tradition reconsidered
The megalithic pillar sites found around Lake Turkana, Kenya, are monumental cemeteries built approximately 5000 years ago. Their construction coincides with the spread of pastoralism into the region during a period of profound climate change. Early work at the Jarigole pillar site suggested that these places were secondary burial grounds. Subsequent excavations at other pillar sites, however, have revealed planned mortuary cavities for predomina…
Public Archaeology's Mammoth in the Room
Although archaeology has become increasingly concerned with engaging diverse publics, and has embraced the internet as a means of facilitating such engagement, attitudes towards Wikipedia have—understandably—been more ambivalent. Nevertheless, we argue here, Wikipedia's popularity and reach mean that archaeologists should actively engage with the website by adding and improving archaeological content. One way to do this is in the classroom: this …
Google Earth Engine for archaeologists
A wealth of remotely sensed data has accumulated over the past several decades and now constitutes an analytical resource primed for archaeological applications. To date, remotely sensed big data (RSBD) analytics in archaeology have focused on filling spatial gaps in the distribution of sites and features, characterizing environmental landscapes, and monitoring cultural heritage sites. The scientific promise of these data to expand our understand…
Expanded agroecological niches and redistributed risks in northern Peru’s Chicama Valley during late-Holocene Enso climate changes
South American arid lands present unique constellations of climatic risk to their human inhabitants, due to volatile events that can create markedly different hydroclimate conditions over interannual–centennial scales. However, a main driver of such volatility – the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) – occurs with semiregular periodicity. Paleoclimatic and archeological evidence indicate not only that the strength and periodicity of ENSO pattern…
Investigaciones en la fuente de la obsidiana tipo Quispisisa, Huancasancos-Ayacucho
Investigaciones en la fuente de la obsidiana tipo Quispisisa, Huancasancos-Ayacucho Daniel A. Contreras Stanford University Nicholas Tripcevich University of California - Berkeley Yuri I. Cavero Palomino Universidad Nacional San Cristobal de Huamanga L geograficas ubicadas a distancias muy lejanas de dichas fuentes geologicas (Burger y Asaro, 1977; Burger y Glascock, 2009; Glascock et al., 2007). El tipo geoquimico de obsidiana llamado Quispi- si…
Reconstructing landscape at Chavín de Huántar, Perú
Implications of the fluvial history of the Wacheqsa River for hydrologic engineering and water use at Chavín de Húntar, Peru
Channeling of water through a variety of architectural features represents a significant engineering investment at the first millennium B.C. ceremonial center of Chavín de Huántar in the Peruvian Central Andes. The site contains extensive evidence of the manipulation of water, apparently for diverse purposes. The present configuration of the two local rivers, however, keeps available water approximately 9m below the highest level of water‐bearing…
Landscape and Environment
The Utility of Publicly-Available Satellite Imagery for Investigating Looting of Archaeological Sites in Jordan
International response to the problem of looting of archaeological sites has been hampered by the difficulty of quantifying the damage done. The scarcity of reliable information negatively impacts professional and public policy making, rendering consensus about the scale of the problem and the effectiveness of policy responses difficult to achieve. We report here on the use of publicly-available satellite imagery for quantifying the damage caused…
A Mito-Style Structure at Chavín De Huántar
Excavations west of the monumental core at Chavín de Huántar, Peru in 2005 revealed a well-preserved plastered structure with a central circular hearth, in the style of the Mito Architectural Tradition. This find challenges standard definitions of both the Mito Tradition and Chavín itself. I discuss the material remains and associated radiocarbon dates from this feature, and use these new data to re-assess Chavín's involvement in interregional ne…
Huaquerosand remote sensing imagery
This article presents a new initiative in combating looting from the air, building on previous work in Iraq and Jordan. Looted sites in the Virú Valley, Peru, are visible as pit clusters on dated versions of Google Earth. Compare these with earlier air photographs and Gordon Willey's famous survey of the 1940s, and we have a dated chronicle of looting events. This makes it possible to demonstrate that modern looting is certainly taking place and …
Quarrying Evidence at the Quispisisa Obsidian Source, Ayacucho, Peru
Artifacts made from Quispisisa obsidian are widely disseminated in the Peruvian Andes, but the geological source of the Quispisisa geochemical type was only recently located in southern Ayacucho. Following the positive identification of the source in 1999 by Richard Burger and colleagues, we found evidence of broad quarrying activities in unexplored portions of the source area. We describe 34 quarry pits, some as large as 80 m across, together wi…
How far to Conchucos? A GIS approach to assessing the implications of exotic materials at Chavín de Huántar
Chavín de Huántar has long been recognized as a site of pan-regional importance in the first millennium bce Central Andes. Multiple lines of evidence link the site to costa, sierra and selva. Using exotic goods for which provenance is known – for example, obsidian, cinnabar, selected ceramics and marine shell – specific areas with which Chavín interacted can be identified. These interactions are considered in the context of distinct ways of think…
Summed radiocarbon calibrations as a population proxy
Investigaciones en la fuente de la obsidiana tipo Quispisisa, Huancasancos-Ayacucho
Investigaciones en la fuente de la obsidiana tipo Quispisisa, Huancasancos-Ayacucho Daniel A. Contreras Stanford University Nicholas Tripcevich University of California - Berkeley Yuri I. Cavero Palomino Universidad Nacional San Cristobal de Huamanga L geograficas ubicadas a distancias muy lejanas de dichas fuentes geologicas (Burger y Asaro, 1977; Burger y Glascock, 2009; Glascock et al., 2007). El tipo geoquimico de obsidiana llamado Quispi- si…
Olive cultivation in the heart of the Persian Achaemenid Empire
Landscape Setting as Medium of Communication at Chavín de Huántar, Peru
The Central Andean ceremonial centre of Chavín de Huántar is situated in a dramatic, mountainous and dynamic environment high on the eastern slope of the Peruvian Andes, yet the site's landscape setting has remained in the shadow of its monumental architecture, complex lithic art and highly elaborated material culture. Nevertheless, that dynamic landscape setting was an integral part of the site's significance as a ceremonial centre and may be re…
Reconstructing the landscape evolution and the human occupation of the Lower Sagone River (Western Corsica, France) from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period
Spherulites and Aspiring Elites
This paper details the results of a survey of the obsidian sources on the island of Giali in the Dodecanese, Greece, together with a review of these raw materials’ use from the Mesolithic to the Late Bronze Age (ninth to second millennium Cal bc). Elemental characterization of 76 geological samples from 11 sampling locations demonstrates the existence of two geochemically distinct sources, termed ‘Giali A’, and ‘Giali B’. The latter material, ava…
Supplementary Data for Spherulites and Aspiring Elites
Characterization of the siliceous rocks at Stélida, an early prehistoric lithic quarry (Northwest Naxos, Greece), by petrography and geochemistry
(Re)constructing the sacred
Reaching the human scale
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
From paleoclimate variables to prehistoric agriculture
Public Archaeology's Mammoth in the Room
Although archaeology has become increasingly concerned with engaging diverse publics, and has embraced the internet as a means of facilitating such engagement, attitudes towards Wikipedia have—understandably—been more ambivalent. Nevertheless, we argue here, Wikipedia's popularity and reach mean that archaeologists should actively engage with the website by adding and improving archaeological content. One way to do this is in the classroom: this …
A New Minoan-Type Peak Sanctuary on Stelida, Naxos
A long-recognised characteristic of Crete’s later Bronze Age [BA] state-level society – the ‘Minoan civilization’ of the 2nd millennium cal. BC – was the establishment of socio-economic connections with off-island populations. The nature of these relationships has been interpreted in various ways, from the establishment of overseas colonies to a more mutually beneficial relationship between local political agents and their Cretan partners, not le…
Matching Pragmatic Lithic Analysis and Proper Data Architecture
The documentation and analysis of archaeological lithics must navigate a basic tension between examining and recording data on individual artifacts or on aggregates of artifacts. This poses a challenge both for artifact processing and for database construction. We present here an R Shiny solution that enables lithic analysts to enter data for both individual artifacts and aggregates of artifacts while maintaining a robust yet flexible data struct…
Expanded agroecological niches and redistributed risks in northern Peru’s Chicama Valley during late-Holocene Enso climate changes
South American arid lands present unique constellations of climatic risk to their human inhabitants, due to volatile events that can create markedly different hydroclimate conditions over interannual–centennial scales. However, a main driver of such volatility – the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) – occurs with semiregular periodicity. Paleoclimatic and archeological evidence indicate not only that the strength and periodicity of ENSO pattern…
Stages, Periods, and Radiocarbon
Some of the earliest archaeological materials radiocarbon-dated were from the Central Andes, and archaeologists from the region were also involved in early efforts at meta-analysis of assemblages of radiocarbon dates and Bayesian chronological modeling. Nevertheless, regional chronological schema still vary surprisingly little from their pre-radiocarbon antecedents. As a result, significant scope for increasing the impact of radiocarbon dates, as…
Archaeology (30 obras) · Geography (29 obras) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (26 obras) · Geology (17 obras) · History (14 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (13 obras) · History (11 obras) · Ecology (10 obras) · Radiocarbon dating (9 obras) · Ancient history (8 obras)