Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
2,351-2,375 (2,387 Records)
Lacandon Maya fabricate incense burners ("the gods’ ceramic vessels") found by archaeologists in Maya ruins, caves, and abandoned "god houses". Ethnographies and my field notes describe the incense burners and how they are made and used. The function and symbolism of the burners provide clues to the importance of fire and smoke in past Maya rituals, including cremation. The incense burners are formed from clay with human heads, arms, and legs. The anthropomorphic bowls become bodies of gods...
Where We Live: Houses, Households, Barrios, and Towns in Postclassic Oaxaca (2015)
Greater La Amontonada, a cluster of Postclassic period sites in the Nejapa region of Oaxaca, Mexico, is an ideal location for investigating the ways in which people would have negotiated their roles as members of households, neighborhoods, and larger communities. Group members enact their relationships through everyday choices, habits, and routines that are materialized through daily action. The practices enacted in one community, the learning and doing, may be materialized differently than...
Who Are the Olmec in Eastern Guerrero? From Grafitti to Monuments in the Caves of Guerrero (2017)
The caves of Cauadzidziqui and Techan offer contrasting views of how Olmec style appears in eastern Guerrero. Cauadzidziqui presents large-scale paintings of individuals with Olmec style symbols and objects plastered over what is believed to be local late Archaic paintings—essentially graffiti placed in a sacred locale along a primary route between the highlands and coast. The Cave of the Governors presents 3 or possibly 4 jaguar sculptures carved out of living rock, flanking the interior...
Who owns the cosmogram? Adaptations in ritual activity in the wake of political transformation at Dainzú, Oaxaca Valley of Mexico (2017)
Dainzú, located in the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico, has a long history of religious-ceremonial significance. In the Classic Period (A.D. 200 – 900), the site expanded significantly from its once small core into an urban settlement covering around 4 km2. Our mapping project reveals that the new site construction was carefully planned out to represent a "cosmogram", or spatial representation of the ancient Zapotec ritual calendar. After the decline of Monte Albán, Dainzú was slowly abandoned as people...
Whole Vessel Caches: A Comparison of Offerings at Cerro de la Virgen with lower Río Verde Valley Public Space Offerings (2017)
Previous archaeological excavations in the lower Río Verde Valley in Oaxaca, Mexico have provided evidence for communal ceremonies since the Late Formative (400-150 BCE). The Terminal Formative (150 BCE-250 CE) period saw a continuation of communal ceremonies at hinterland sites along with the emergence of the region’s first polity, Río Viejo. The maintenance of these practices in the hinterland during the increasing urbanization occurring at Río Viejo suggests their importance in community...
Why Pilgrimage? The Ethnography and Archaeology of Journeys to the Center (2015)
Pilgrimage is a "dynamic concrete isolate" found throughout the world at all levels of socio-cultural integration. Pilgrimage involves a journey to a significant geographic location and a return to the place of origin. Pilgrimage shades into tourism and a pilgrim's destination may range from the site of a miraculous appearance of a deity to Graceland. In Mesoamerica, pilgrimage has become a major focus of archaeological research. Sites with ritual associations and little evidence of...
Wild Cane Cay, Southern Belize: Major Classic to Postclassic Maya Trading Port (2015)
A natural harbor, strategic location in the mouth of a navigable river and opposite the Paynes Creek salt works, Wild Cane Cay developed from a fishing village in the Early Classic (A.D. 300-600) to a major trading port from the Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) through the Postclassic (A.D. 900-1500). As skilled mariners, the Wild Cane Cay Maya were familiar with the shoals, storms, and other hazards of the sea, as well as the endless opportunities for travel on the sea. During the Classic period,...
Wild Resource use in Early Colonial New Spain (2016)
In 1570, 50 years after the conquest of Mexico, King Philip II of Spain sent one of his court physicians, Francisco Hernández de Toledo, to the new colony. The goal of this venture was to compile a detailed account of the natural history of New Spain, emphasizing indigenous medicine and the uses of local plant, animal, and mineral resources. The result of his efforts was a series of volumes, describing in detail the virtues of local Mexican resources, and his own observations of Mexico. This...
Willfully Obscured: Figurines and Caves in the Maya Late Classic Period (2015)
As both space and material are used to create interpretations or infer ancient ritual meanings concerning the Late Classic Maya, the consideration of caves and ceramic figurines provide interesting comparators as they evoke restrictions of intent and imagery within a regional setting. Opportunistic sampling of figurines from cave contexts for compositional analysis has resulted in chemically-based patterns from which one can glimpse directional patterns of movement from resource area to recovery...
William J. Folan and the Climate Fascination (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Session in Memory of William J. Folan: Cities, Settlement, and Climate" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We recall the moment that William J. Folan was struck by the Climate Fascination. In 1978 he had a visiting professorship at the University of Texas at San Antonio and we were sharing an office. He suggested that JDG should do an article on Maya Lowlands climate change. JDG responded that Willie was the expert who...
A Wind from the Depths of the Earth (2015)
Among the hundreds of caves I have observed in the Maya area a number stand out in possessing relatively large tunnel systems with restrictions near the entrances. When air is driven from the caves due to atmospheric pressure, the restrictions create a fast moving flow of air that is quite noticeable around the entrance to the cave. Ethnographic evidence suggests that modern Maya are quite aware of such air movements. Because rain was closely associated with caves among the ancient Maya and...
With Turkeys on Spears and Maize on Arrows: Defining and Defending the Province of Chetumal (2015)
Chetumal Bay had political and economic importance for local Maya populations for more than 2000 years. When the Spaniards entered the region in the 16th century, they settled near its political capital and attempted to incorporate it into a larger colonial world system, only to be met with wide-scale resistance. This paper examines the shifting dynamics of the Chetumal Bay territory, from the Preclassic through Postclassic-Colonial Periods, with perspectives drawn from Cerros and Progresso...
Women, metaphors of alterity. Expressing elites interactions at Cacaxtla-Xochitecatl (Tlaxcala) and Xochicalco (Morelos) (2015)
Recent strontium analyses have revealed that many women buried in the Feathered Serpent Pyramid in Teotihuacan changed their environment at least two times during their lifetime. This suggests that their role, especially in cultural interactions, was particularly important, an hypothesis already presented by Gillespie and Joyce (1997) for maya societies. An iconographic study of mural painting, figurines and sculptures from Cacaxtla-Xochitecatl and Xochicalco, two epiclassic cities well known...
Women, Reproduction, and Fertility: How "Common-Sense" Assumptions of the Present Filter into the Mesoamerican Past (2015)
This paper queries models of Mesoamerican fertility that define women’s social roles in terms of dependency, and interrogates narratives that link gender relations to nature where they are beyond critique. The problem with the category women is that it is often thought of as an ahistorical and eternal facet of biology hidden within an implicit model of human nature. Biology becomes a metaphor for social relations and wifehood or motherhood is then characterized as a relation of dependency...
Wooden scepters in the offerings of Tenochtitlan’s Great Temple: A symbolic interpretation (2015)
The excavation of the Great Temple, one of the most important precincts in Mexica society, began more than thirty years ago. Since then, the examination of thousands of artifacts and organic materials has greatly increased our knowledge about Mexica cosmovision. During its seventh field season, the Templo Mayor Project has excavated thirty-six offerings. The flooded context of these oblatory deposits enabled the conservation of various organic materials that commonly degrade with the passage of...
Work and Specialization in the Epiclassic Period (650-950 CE) at Xochitecatl-Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala (2017)
During the Epiclassic Period (650-950 CE) was the peak of Xochitecatl-Cacaxtla. It became the most important center in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley. There were numerous small groups who vied for a place in the landscape after the fall of Teotihuacan in the central highlands. There was a clear hierarchical division, as the society was formed by the elite, priests, and groups of peasants. The artisans were different specialists whose work allowed for the biological and social reproduction of...
Working with the Ejido: Negotiating Archaeology and Local Politics in Michoacán, Mexico (2015)
Ejido communities became common after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) as a way of dividing land and leadership among an equal number of individuals. The Ejido of Fontezuelas in the eastern Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, controls the rugged landform known as the Classic through Postclassic period (AD 200-1521) site of Angamuco. Since 2009, the Legacies of Resilience Project has negotiated and worked with Fontezuelas community members. Here we discuss some of the obstacles that we encountered...
The Workings of Classic Maya Marketplace Exchange from the Perspective of the Buenavista del Cayo Marketplace (2016)
Marketplace exchange among the Classic Maya is frequently inferred from the degree of homogeneity in consumption practices among households of differing statuses. The actual presence of marketplaces among the Classic Maya has been a point of debate, but recent empirically based investigations at a few Lowland sites have provided evidence for their existence. The Late Classic marketplace located in the East Plaza of Buenavista del Cayo, Belize is such an example. Examination of marketplace...
World Museum Map Final Map (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 final map project is part of a 2011 LEAP II project "Placing immateriality: situating the material of highland Chiriquí" by Karen Holberg. The files contained in this record include an .mxd map project and an image of the...
World_Oceans Shapefile (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...
World_PoliticalBoundaries Shapefile (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...
Writers on the Storm: A Terminal Classic Migrant Maya Scribal Household (2016)
Despite the fact that images of Maya scribes in Classic period art are not uncommon, the identification of scribes and their households within the archaeological record remains elusive. The association of several utensils typically correlated with Maya scribal toolkits, and a prominent house mound at the Terminal Classic Maya community of Strath Bogue, has prompted the identification of this structure as a scribal household. This identification is of particular significance given that the site...
Xalla, Teotihuacan: A Multifunctional Palace for the Ruling Elite of Teotihuacan (2017)
In corporate societies such as Teotihuacan, it is not easy to detect the places where the ruling elite dwelt, made decisions, managed goods and labor, or participated in cult activities. Teotihuacan is very different from the Maya urban sites: no royal tomb has been found, rulers are not depicted or easily recognized. The corporate organization may have permeated the ruling elite, where a possible council of lords may have headed the Teotihuacan state. Xalla, with a surface of ca. 50,000 m2, is...
Xaltocan, resultados preliminares del salvamento en la interconexión aeroportuaria (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Aproximaciones arqueológicas y paleontológicas en Santa Lucía, México" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Se presentarán los resultados preliminares del análisis cerámico, lítico y osteológico de los materiales obtenidos durante las excavaciones en los sitios registrados en la interconexión de la construcción del nuevo Aeropuerto Felipe Angeles en el municipio de Nextlalpan en la localidad de Xaltocan, que es un...
Xanthosoma violaceum and the Maya Diet: Root Crop Use in Ancient Maya Agriculture (2015)
Research on ancient Maya agriculture has historically been focused on seed crop cultivation, but the recent discovery of a Classic period manioc field near the site of Ceren, El Salvador has shed new light on the possibility of intensive root crop cultivation by the ancient Maya. Another root crop, however, Xanthosoma violaceum (colloquially known as "malanga"), was also encountered in a household garden. Through the use of multiple lines of evidence, I have compiled a summation of malanga’s...