BZ (ISO Country Code) (Geographic Keyword)
26-50 (62 Records)
This research examines the relationship between the ways in which urban families engaged local landscapes and the development of shared identities at the prehispanic Maya city of Actuncan, Belize. Such shared identities would have created deep historical ties to specific urbanized spaces, which enabled and constrained political expansion during the Terminal Classic period (ca. A.D. 800–900), a time when the city experienced rapid population growth as surrounding centers declined. This research...
The Economic Base of an Ancient Maya City (2005)
Intensive agriculture supported large ancient Maya populations. However, there have been few attempts to understand how agriculture was integrated with the political economy of a Maya city and that city’s interaction with other polities. The site of Blue Creek in northern Belize offers the opportunity to begin to assess these relationships. Blue Creek had access to enormous agricultural resources and direct access to the riverine coastal trade system. The combination of these factors enabled...
Excavations at the Blue Creek Ruin Northwestern Belize, 1992 Interim Report (1993)
1992 Field Report - Interim
Fashioning Meaning through Ceramic Candeleros in the Terminal Classic Naco Valley, Northwestern Honduras (2015)
Candeleros are simply made ceramic artifacts that consist of one or more cylindrical chambers that are usually circularly arranged and often show signs of burning. These objects are found widely across Mesoamerica though they are rare in most locales. The 100 km2 Naco Valley in northwestern Honduras diverges from this pattern in that: candeleros are frequently found in Terminal Classic (800-1000 CE) assemblages here; they vary in size from items containing a single chamber to others with upwards...
The Gilded Age in Eastern Yucatán, Mexico: the Age of Betrayal or the Rise of the Middle Class? (2015)
The social transformations produced by rapid industrialization and expansion of henequen production in the late nineteenth century in western Yucatan were not what happened in Maya-speaking communities further to the east. The Gilded Age in eastern Yucatan was attenuated because communities suffered the protracted aftershocks of the Caste War of Yucatan (1847-1901), which may have repressed wealth disparities instead of heightening them. In this paper, I examine the archaeology of haciendas and...
The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context: Case Studies in Residence and Vulnerability (2014)
In The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context, contributors reject the popularized link between societal collapse and drought in Maya civilization, arguing that a series of periodic "collapses," including the infamous Terminal Classic collapse (AD 750), were caused not solely by climate change-related droughts but by a combination of other social, political, and environmental factors. New and senior scholars of archaeology and environmental science explore the timing and intensity of droughts...
Introduction to the 1995 Field Season (1995)
Our Goals are to examine the site of Blue Creek to better understand the political and economic interaction between the Maya of the Coastal Belize Zone and those of the Eastern Peten Zone. In addition, we view the Blue Creek project as an opportunity to undertake a comprehensive, integrated community study.
THE JEWELERS OF THE PALACE CRAFTING FOR THE GODS: THE LAPIDARY OBJECTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMPERIAL TECHNOLOGICAL STYLE (2015)
After the defeat of Azcapotzalco in AD 1428, the rulers of Tenochtitlan employed different strategies to recreate and reinforce their identity during the Triple Alliance. One of them was the regional request of master artisans, called tolteca, for working at the Aztec capital. Some of these craftsmen and their workshops were located inside the palaces of the tlatoque. Among them were the jewelers that crafted sacred objects for the gods and prestige goods for the elites. The technological...
Kukulkcan's Realm: Urban Life at Ancient Mayapan (2014)
Kukulcan's Realm chronicles the fabric of socioeconomic relationships and religious practice that bound the Postclassic Maya city of Mayapán's urban residents together for nearly three centuries. Presenting results of ten years of household archaeology at the city, including field research and laboratory analysis, the book discusses the social, political, economic, and ideological makeup of this complex urban center. Masson and Peraza Lope's detailed overview provides evidence of a vibrant...
Large Format Feature Planview and Profile Maps and Selected Artifact Illustrations (2011)
This information resource is comprised of large format feature planview and profile maps and selected artifact illustrations from the Blue Creek Central Precinct, Ditched Fields, Chan Cahal, and Kin Tan
Learning heritage while teaching archaeology at Tahcabo, Yucatán: archaeologists’ perspectives on the opportunities and risks of local community engagement (2015)
While a great deal of archaeological research in the Maya area has been conducted with the interests of the academic community and tourism industry in mind, there are fewer examples of archaeology conducted with the needs of local "publics" foregrounded. We propose greater dialogue between archaeologists and the people who live near (and within) places where archaeologists conduct research, and consider the dissemination of archaeological information to communities involved in archaeological...
The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript (2004)
This volume offers new calendrical models and methodologies for reading, dating, and interpreting the general significance of the Madrid Codex. The longest of the surviving Maya codices, this manuscript includes texts and images painted by scribes conversant in Maya hieroglyphic writing, a written means of communication practiced by Maya elites from the second to the fifteenth centuries A.D. Some scholars have recently argued that the Madrid Codex originated in the Petén region of Guatemala and...
Maya Daykeeping: Three Calendars from Highland Guatemala (2009)
In Maya Daykeeping, three divinatory calendars from highland Guatemala - examples of a Mayan literary tradition that includes the Popul Vuh, Annals of the Cakchiquels, and the Titles of the Lords of Totonicapan - dating to 1685, 1722, and 1855, are transcribed in K'iche or Kaqchikel side-by-side with English translations. Calendars such as these continue to be the basis for prognostication, determining everything from the time for planting and harvest to foreshadowing illness and death. Good,...
Maya Political Economy: A Spatial, Temporal, and Contextual Analysis of Jade Deposits throughout the Southern Lowlands (2009)
Jade is a valuable tool for studying Maya political economy because it is not only geologically rare but socially and ritually significant. Control of jade acquisition, production, and distribution became a measure of the power, prestige, and authority of the increasingly competitive polity elites. However, there is no catalog of jade artifacts for the Maya region. Therefore, this study compiles jade data from eight Southern Lowland sites with well-documented collections, creating a publicly...
Note on the Aboriginal Races of the North-Western Provinces of South America (1884)
This 1884 article by White refers to a strip of country about 600 miles in length and 250 miles in width on the west of the pacific ocean. The author describes his interpretation of the cultures and provides regional/locational differences. He also describes past and present burial rituals and techniques.
Obsidian Reflections: Symbolic Dimensions of Obsidian in Mesoamerica (2014)
Departing from the political economy perspective taken by the vast majority of volumes devoted to Mesoamerican obsidian, Obsidian Reflections is an examination of obsidian's sociocultural dimensions—particularly in regard to Mesoamerican world view, religion, and belief systems. Exploring the materiality of this volcanic glass rather than only its functionality, this book considers the interplay among people, obsidian, and meaning and how these relationships shaped patterns of procurement,...
Patterns of Maya Jade Disposal at Blue Creek, Belize (2004)
Jade was the most valued material in the Classic Maya world. Large numbers of jade artifacts have been recovered from diverse contexts from the Maya site of Blue Creek, Belize. This database allows for analysis of the distribution and disposal of jade artifacts. Further, jade’s role in Classic Maya political economies is unclear, with views alternating between jade having functioned as a currency and jade having been controlled by royal elites. The Blue Creek database is used to test the...
A PHYTOLITH AND STARCH RECORD OF FOOD AND GRIT IN MAYAN HUMAN TOOTH TARTAR (1997)
Diet often is reconstructed based on indirect evidence. Tooth tartar traps food particles, preserving a record of food consumed. Dental calculus removed from primary and secondary burials at Kichpanha was examined to identify imbedded phytoliths, starch granules, and debris as indicators of diet. The purpose of this study is to determine whether phytoliths and starch granules are preserved and recoverable from human dental calculus, to establish appropriate methods for this recovery and to...
A Prehistory of South America: Ancient Cultural Diversity on the Least Known Continent (2014)
A Prehistory of South America is an overview of the ancient and historic native cultures of the entire continent of South America based on the most recent archaeological investigations. This accessible, clearly written text is designed to engage undergraduate and beginning graduate students in anthropology. For more than 12,000 years, South American cultures ranged from mobile hunters and gatherers to rulers and residents of colossal cities. In the process, native South American societies...
Public Architecture, Ritual, and Temporal Dynamics at the Maya Center of Blue Creek, Belize (2004)
This paper summarizes more than a decade of excavations in the monumental core precinct of the Maya center of Blue Creek in Northwestern Belize.
Putting Archaeobotany Under the Microscope: A Case Study for Increased Use of Starch-Grain and Residue Analyses on the North Coast of Peru (2015)
Due to the arid environment and subsequent excellent preservation on the north coast of Peru, evidence obtained from macrobotanical remains here has been the primary sources of information on plant use. However, despite the richness of the macrobotanical record, the combination of arid conditions and the nature of many plants, such as potatoes and beans – which are consumed in their entirety – macrobotanical remains can only tell us so much. In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues...
Putting Archaeobotany Under the Microscope: A Case Study for Increased Use of Starch-Grain and Residue Analyses on the North Coast of Peru
Due to the arid environment and subsequent excellent preservation on the north coast of Peru, evidence obtained from macrobotanical remains here has been the primary sources of information on plant use. However, despite the richness of the macrobotanical record, the combination of arid conditions and the nature of many plants, such as potatoes and beans – which are consumed in their entirety – macrobotanical remains can only tell us so much. In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues...
Raw Artifact & Chemical Data - Community Identity and Social Practice during the Terminal Classic Period at Actuncan, Belize (2015)
Raw Artifact & Chemical Data
Research on a Dog Burial from Rio Muerto, Peru (2015)
This poster presentation examines the place of the dog in the ancient Andean society of Tiwanaku. The mummified remains of a small dog were recovered from a domestic context at the Rio Muerto site, located in the Osmore River drainage of far southern Peru. Although dog burials in Peru are not unusual, they appear mostly in high-status contexts in art and in mortuary practice. Offerings of young camelids and dogs have been found buried beneath floors and entryways of houses at Rio Muerto M43 and...
Rethinking Deodoro Roca Rockshelter (Ongamira, Córdoba, Argentina). Seventy years of archaeological ideas (2015)
The hunter-gatherer archaeology of the Ongamira Valley has been a landmark in the archaeology of Argentina’s Central Region. The cultural sequence built in the 1950s is still used by many archaeologists to interpret regional peopling, subsistence, land use and mobility. However we believe it is time to review the use of rockshelter-generated data under a new approach that embraces landscape archaeology. Stable isotope-based paleo-environmental reconstructions create a baseline and permit...