Sacramento Archeological Society, Inc.’s
Annual Meeting
Saturday, December 2, 2023
1:00 p.m. – 6:00+ p.m.
at U. C. Davis campus, Young Hall, Room 224 and Zoom
Followed by dinner at local restaurant
The Annual Meeting will be conducted in person at U. C. Davis campus, Young Hall, Room 224 and broadcasted via Zoom start at 2:00 PM PT with a presentation by Patricia McNeill and formally conclude at about 4:30 PM after the SAS Annual Meeting. After which all attendees are invited to attend a dinner to socialize at a local restaurant. If you are unable to attend in person, you may join the webinar starting as early as 1:40 PM.
The schedule for the event is as follows:
1:00 – Set up, meet and greet
2:00 – Featured talk “Ostrich eggshell beads: a trade item in Knersvlakte, South Africa” by Patricia McNeill, U. C. Davis PhD candidate
3:00 – SAS Annual Meeting
5:00 – Socialize at restaurant
“Ostrich eggshell beads: a trade item in Knersvlakte, South Africa”
Patricia, a 2022 scholarship recipient will discuss her research into trade and tool making in the North West corner of Cape Province in South Africa during the Later Stone Age.
Ostrich eggshell beads are a common artifact in South Africa and were widely traded. To reconstruct trading networks Strontium isotopes (⁸⁷SR/⁸⁶SR) can be used as a tracing tool for biogenic materials, such as teeth, bone, and egg shell. Strontium from the local geology gets incorporated into biological tissues as they grow, but the ratio of strontium isotopes varies across the landscape. This regional signature becomes permanently embedded in these tissues and when a bead for example is traded from one region to another, archaeologists can trace the bead back to place of origin; hence the reconstruction of trading networks. Patricia McNeill in her dissertation research has been investigating hunter-gatherer mobility and resource catchment area in the arid Knersvlakte of Namaqualand, Western Cape, South Africa. In this presentation she will introduce the region, discuss archaeological finds and present her analysis of ostrich waste fragments discovered there. One of the tools she uses to analysis mobility of Stone Age people in the region is radiogenic strontium isotopes.
Patricia McNeill is a PhD candidate at University of California, Davis. She received her B.A. Summa com laude Evolutionary Anthropology and M.A. at University of California, Davis. She has conducted extensive research at the Center for Experimental Archaeology at Davis. Her field experience includes Varsche Rivier 003, Namaqualand, South Africa, Ranis, Saale-Orla Kreis, Thüringen, Germany and Bureau of Land Management, Eagle Lake Field Office, California. She has four publications.
