Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
2,126-2,150 (2,387 Records)
Among the myriad types of votive offerings created by the Classic Maya, many contain chipped-stone obsidian and flint materials. These caches often consist of debitage, cores, flakes, blades, and sometimes so-called "eccentrics", which are elaborately chipped ceremonial items that sometimes take the form of god effigies. The contexts of these deposits can include the stairways, centerlines, and corners of important structures, below stelae and other monuments, and in the center of royal or elite...
Strontium Isotope Values for Early Colonial Cows at San Bernabe, A Spanish Mission in the Peten Lakes Region of Guatemala (2016)
The earliest Spanish explorers in the 15th century brought ships stocked with European domesticated animals. Yet for nearly two centuries, the Maya living in Guatemala’s Peten Lakes region continued to rely on traditional wild animal species. A small number of cow and horse bones have been identified in Contact period contexts at Zacpeten and Tayasal, but significant changes in animal use are only visible after the Spanish began to build missions in the region during the early 1700s. We explore...
Structure 20 and 9 chert data from Corozal Postclassic Project 1978 and 1979 excavations of Nohmul, Belize (2019)
"Stone tools and debitage recovered from Terminal Classic Period contexts at the site Nohmul, Belize were collected in 1978 and 1979 as part of a dissertation project. Our analysis of this Nohmul chert assemblage has found evidence for local reduction of cobbles and core maintenance, as well as the production and maintenance of tools. Nohmul is situated roughly 30 kilometers from the Northern Belize Chert Bearing Zone, and the site of Colha, Belize – the argued center of lithic production in the...
Structure 4G1, Ciudad Vieja, El Salvador: A Sanctuary of Earth and Stone (2015)
The archaeological site of Ciudad Vieja, El Salvador, represents the ruins of the Conquest-period town of San Salvador. Although founded as a Spanish conquest town with a small Spanish population, the inhabitants of San Salvador were mainly indigenous Mesoamericans including Mexican warriors and their families who traveled with their Spanish allies during and after the initial military conquest and transplanted members of colonized Nahua-speaking Pipil groups from western and central El...
The Structure A-15 Maneuver: A Novel Application of Structure from Motion Mapping at Chan Chich, Belize (2015)
The Chan Chich Archaeological Project (CCAP) has been utilizing Structure from Motion (SfM) technology to document investigations at various scales ranging from individual artifacts to landscapes for the past two field seasons at Chan Chich, Belize. SfM is an imaging analysis algorithm that creates 3D models from a series of overlapping digital photographs, and the resulting data can be exported as a digital elevation model, an orthorectified image, or a 3D model. In 2013, the CCAP successfully...
Study of the Neolithic Social Grouping: Examples from the New World (1958)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
A Study of the Role of Cannibalism in Aztec Culture (2015)
It is generally agreed upon that the Aztec practiced cannibalism, but scholars have proposed various hypotheses explaining what function this practice had in the Aztec culture. This study focuses on the nature and ritualistic function of Aztec cannibalism. The Aztec would only consume the flesh of outsiders, mostly war captives, as part of religious rituals which provided a foundation for their culture. A detailed examination of the ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence for cannibalism among...
Studying Past Human-Environment Interactions with High Precision AMS 14C at Penn State (2017)
The newly established PSU AMS Radiocarbon (14C) Facility provides high-precision measurements of 14C content in a wide range of carbon-bearing materials. Our primary mission is the study of human-environment interactions in the past and present with the goal of working with archaeologists in the context of inter-disciplinary environmental research. The facility operates a NEC 1.5 SDH 500kV Tandem Pelletron accelerator optimized for relatively small samples, requiring only 700µg of graphitized...
Style, Memory, and the Production of History: Aztec Black-on-Orange Pottery in Xaltocan, Mexico (2017)
This paper will explore shifting patterns in ceramic consumption and stylistic design during the Postclassic period (AD 900-1350) at the site of Xaltocan in the Basin of Mexico. Xaltocan is the only site in the northern Basin of Mexico associated with a large percentage of early Black-on-Orange pottery. This same pottery is rare at contemporaneous sites located a few kilometers away. Because Black-on-Orange ceramics were used by elites and commoners alike, and also cross-cut various ethnic and...
Subadult Human Sacrifices in Midnight Terror Cave (2016)
Children throughout Mesoamerica were preferred sacrificial victims, especially to water deities. Because caves were associated with rain, ethnohistoric sources mention the sacrifice of children in caves. The importance of children in sacrifice was documented early on by Edward Thompson’s dredging of the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza. More recently archaeological investigations of caves have recovered and identified the skeletal remains of children that have been interpreted as sacrificial...
Subadult human sacrifices in Midnight Terror Cave (2015)
Children throughout Mesoamerica were preferred sacrificial victims, especially to water deities. Because caves were associated with rain, ethnohistoric sources mention the sacrifice of children in caves. The importance of children in sacrifice was documented early on my Edward Thompson’s dredging of the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza. More recently archaeological investigations of caves have recovered have recorded the skeletal remains of children that have been interpreted as...
Subsistence in the Peripheries: Modeling Ancient Maya Milpa Cycles in Western Honduras and Southern Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Provisioning Ancient Maya Cities: Modeling Food Production and Land Use in Tropical Urban Environments" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient Maya agricultural practices varied based on heterogenous landscapes across the Maya Lowlands. While such variations may cause hesitation in comparative models, we find utility in assessing such differences to understand dynamic past human behaviors. Following the methods...
Subsurface Spatial Signatures of the Quotidian from the Olmec Heartland: Insights from Ground-penetrating Radar Surveys of the Los Soldados site, Veracruz. (2015)
Archaeological examinations of the Olmec civilization in the tropical lowlands of Mexico have focused largely on the elite and grandiose aspects of the society. Research conducted through the PAAP instead chose to explore non-monumental aspects of the Olmec. Investigations of the Los Soldados site in southern Veracruz included ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys of four areas. Although GPR is a geophysical method not often successful in tropical lowland settings, it proved successful in the...
Subterranean sculptural narratives of ancient Maya mythological beliefs (2016)
In this paper we present recent analyses conducted on the elaborate artwork in Actun Halal, an important ancient Maya cave site in western Belize. Actun Halal contains a wide variety of art forms, ranging from monumental modified speleothem sculptures four meters in height to small, detailed bas-relief sculptural works executed in layers of travertine only millimeters thick. Akin to the elegant scenes rendered in murals and on polychrome pottery vessels, the sculptural works in Actun Halal tell...
Summary of Excavation and Research at Tikal, Guatemala: 1956-1861 (1962)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
The Sun, the Xiuhcoatl and the eagle: incense burners found at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2015)
In 2009 a spectacular offering containing incense burners was excavated close to the area in which the Tlaltecuhtli monolith was located. Three of these artifacts preserved complex decoration, similar to the iconography that characterizes the incense burners discovered in 1900. Two of the handles of these ritual objects represent disarticulated eagle legs, while the other symbolize the segmented body of a mythical creature, the Xiuhcoatl. The eagle was an essential animal for the Mexica: it was...
Surface Ceramic Distributions at Matacanela, Southern Veracruz, Mexico (2015)
Prior archaeological research in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, southern Veracruz, Mexico demonstrates significant sociopolitical transformations spanning the Formative through the Postclassic periods. Ongoing fieldwork at the site of Matacanela, located within the central portion of the Tuxtla Mountains, is contributing to this understanding. This paper discusses the results of the first season of fieldwork at Matacanela with a focus on patterning in the distribution of surface ceramic material....
Survey_Areas Shapefiles (2010)
The aim of the LEAP projects was to publish multi-layered e-publications and develop and link them to associated digital archives. The original LEAP project was funded by the AHRC while the LEAP II, A Trans-Atlantic LEAP, was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This shapefile is part of a 2011 LEAP II project "Placing immateriality: situating the material of highland Chiriquí" by Karen Holberg. All files associated with this record must be downloaded to ensure that the shapefile...
Surviving the Maya Collapse: A View from Moxviquil, Chiapas, Mexico (2016)
Although the famous "Maya collapse" in the 9th century A.D. destabilized many powerful Southern Lowland Maya Late Classic kingdoms, the small polities of highland Chiapas not only survived, but thrived. Excavations in the Central Highlands of Chiapas suggest that the small cities and towns in this region maintained their roles as political centers throughout the Late Classic-Early Postclassic period transition. Recent excavations at Moxviquil provide evidence for the economic and social...
Sustainability and Climate Change in the Ancient Maya Area: Evidence from Remote Sensing and Long-Term Land Use (2018)
The sub-tropical forests that once covered the ancient ruins of much of Mesoamerica are being rapidly removed due to modern subsistence practices. Yet, archaeological and ecological research shows that this is not the first time that extensive human-caused deforestation has occurred in this region, minimally representing the third iteration of such an event. Analyses of lake-cores and remote sensing imagery provide evidence for extensive land clearing around 1000 BCE and again after CE 250, with...
Swamp, settlement, and society: Maya archaeology at Pulltrouser and Cuello in 1979. (2015)
In 1979, the Pulltrouser Swamp project led by Peter Harrison and B.L.Turner II shared a field camp with the Cuello Project. With one group investigating a ridge-top Preclassic Maya community exploiting some wetland resources, and the other studying Maya wetland use and the nature of swamp-edge settlements, there was ample opportunity to compare and contrast fieldwork results. With overlaps in research interests, and some ad hoc sharing of expertise, the synergism was both social and...
The Symbolic Centre: The Pre-Classic Legacy of Yaxnohcah’s E-Group (2017)
For nearly two thousand years, the E-Group at Yaxnohcah served as this city’s spiritual and administrative heart. From the early facet of the middle Pre-Classic through the Terminal Classic, as the rest of the site grew, morphed, and ultimately fell into disuse, this group continued to be remodelled, refurbished, and rededicated. Further, in a stunning testimony to social memory, and after a period of clear abandonment, it became the focus of Post-Classic activity that included the erection of...
Symbolism of Frogs and Toads in Postclassic Mesoamerica (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Animal Symbolism in Postclassic Mesoamerica: Papers in Honor of Cecelia Klein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Frogs and toads were important animals in Mesoamerica with several species of Mexican frogs. They were especially associated with the rainy season. Some species of frogs are active above ground only in the reproductive period while some species of toads spend part of the year underground. These batrachians are...
The symbolism of Prehispanic twins from Ñuu Savi, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2015)
In Mesoamerica twins were associated with a rich symbolism and imagery. The study of this topic has focused mainly on Nahua and Maya societies because of the large number of available stories and associated imagery. In archaeological contexts, finding twins is unusual. During the 2014 season of the Cerro Jazmin Archaeological Project two infants were found and excavated in a domestic terrace dating to the Ramos phase (300 BCE-300 CE). Osteological analyses indicate that they were two premature...
The symbolism of the animals found inside Offering 125 of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2017)
In the seventh field season of the Templo Mayor Project, we discovered various ritual deposits in an inverted pyramidal monument located west of the monolith of the Tlaltecuhtli Goddess. We determined that this space symbolized the threshold to the underworld, or realm of the dead. In this space we made the exceptional discovery of the Offering 125, associated with the ruler Ahuítzotl (1486-1502 CE). In this offering we found three flint knives that were dressed like Ehécatl-Quetzalcóatl (God of...