This past week, New Orleans played host to the annual Society for American Archaeology 2024 meeting, where project members from the FINISTERRA initiative presented groundbreaking findings and spearheaded significant discussions. The event, a cornerstone for academic exchange and archaeological research, saw our team members deliver compelling insights into various aspects of our aspect.
FINISTERRA PI, João Cascalheira, introduced the FINISTERRA project with a poster that mapped out the project’s aims, scope, and the interdisciplinary methods it employs. This presentation set the tone for the rest of the meeting, highlighting our team’s approach to merging traditional techniques with innovative methodologies.
Lucía Cobo-Sanchez offered an exciting glimpse into her faunal analysis from the Escoural cave in Southern Portugal. Her poster focused on the presence and taphonomy of rabbit remains, which provided attendees with a better understanding of the site’s ecology, its implications for our knowledge of late Middle Paleolithic environments, and the relationship between carnivores and humans using the cave.
Further stirring interest, PhD candidate Joana Neto Belmiro discussed the movement of chert raw materials in the archaeological record of Southern Portugal. Her findings revealed that these materials traveled over 200 km from Southern Spain and Central Portugal, suggesting a complex network of resource exchange and mobility among prehistoric groups.
Milena Carvalho, our team’s stable isotopes expert, shared her latest research on the Lapa do Picareiro site, which brought to light the environments experienced by Late Neanderthals in Central Portugal. Her work not only adds depth to our understanding of Neanderthal habitats but also underscores the dynamic adaptations these ancient populations made in response to their changing surroundings.
The meeting also featured a symposium on expedient lithic technologies, organized by PhD candidate Nolan Ferar and FINISTERRA PI João Cascalheira. The session included 12 talks that spanned a wide range of chronologies and geographies, each enriching the discourse on stone tool expedient technologies and their applications through time and space.
In an exciting development, our team announced that these studies, among others, will be published in an upcoming Springer Nature book focused on the expediency of stone tool technologies. This publication is expected to be a significant contribution to the archaeological field, encapsulating the innovative spirit and scholarly rigor of the discussions held at the symposium.
As the curtains fall on this year’s SAA meeting, the contributions of the FINISTERRA project members have not only enriched the event but have also set the stage for future work. With an array of new data and collaborative projects on the horizon, the impact of this meeting will resonate well beyond the confines of the conference halls. Stay tuned for more news and developments as our team continues to work on these and other exciting topics.
