Tag Archives: Archaeology

The Power and Potential of eHRAF: Cross-Cultural Research and Archaeology

Jeffrey Vadala Given that the archaeological record is often incomplete, how can archaeologists make reliable conclusions about human behavior in the past? Archaeologists employ a variety of approaches to this end, using statistical, interpretive, comparative…

Shaman Lords, Spider Diviners, and Hoards: An Archaeology of the Objects We Bury

Jeffrey Vadala Throughout history, humans have collected and buried groups of objects together, whether for ritual purposes (e.g., offerings to the gods) or pragmatic reasons (e.g., for secret stores of food). Today, many cultural groups…

Featured eHRAF teaching exercise: Comparison of prehistoric burial practices

This week’s featured eHRAF teaching exercise was produced in-house here at HRAF by Christiane Cunnar. Designed for classroom use or as a homework assignment, Exercise 2.3 Burial Practices: A world-wide comparison of burial practices in…

Featured Culture: Aztecs, cosmology, and ancient rituals in eHRAF

The Aztec Empire constituted the greatest empire in Mesoamerican prehistory, both territorially and demographically, extending from highland basins to coastal plains, valleys and lowland forests. The Mexica – as the Aztec people are known –…

Burning questions: evidence for off-site fire use by hunter-gatherers in eHRAF Archaeology

By Francine Barone An insightful publication by Fulco Scherjon, Corrie Bakels, Katharine MacDonald, and Wil Roebroeks in the June 2015 issue of Current Anthropology sheds new light on present-day and historical fire setting practices among…