Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
326-350 (2,387 Records)
Nearly every excavation at the site of Cahal Pech has recovered ceramic figurines. The ubiquitous nature of these figurines in a multitude of stratigraphic levels illustrate the importance of a figurine industry during the Formative Period. A comparative analysis of figurine attributes in this collection, in addition to collections found at neighboring sites in the Belize River Valley, reveals a unique style of figurine representation not found in any other regional figurine style in...
Building Nature: An Analysis of Landscape Modifications in the Classic Period Maya Polity of Pacbitun, Cayo District, Belize. (2016)
This presentation offers an analysis of the architectural modifications made to the limestone karst landscape in the Classic period Maya polity of Pacbitun in the Cayo District, Belize. The Maya concepts ch’een (hole in the ground for communication with the supernatural world), and k’aax (wilderness) provide the overall framework for this paper. Through two case studies, I explore the range of karst features the Pacbitun Maya used as ch’een, the variety of ways the landmarks were modified for...
Building Power: The Teotepec Palace as Materialized Ideology (2016)
Discussions of Classic Period (ca. AD 300-900) architecture in southern Veracruz, Mexico generally emphasize patterning in mound-plaza arrangements, with an array of configurations vying for preeminence across the coastal lowlands. Often lacking from these analyses, however, is a more nuanced consideration of the built environment's ideological implications. This paper examines palaces as important reflections of power's materialization in southern Veracruz. Specifically, we consider the palace...
"Bundling the sticks": tallies in Classic Maya inscriptions (2016)
This presentation addresses a set of references to “sticks” in Classic Maya inscriptions, which have been traditionally interpreted as weapons. The available contexts, however, indicate that “sticks” were involved in tribute payment transactions. Although there is no archaeological evidence of these presumably perishable wooden items, the author highlights some visual and material data that support the use of tallies by the Maya. The discussion then centers on less straightforward textual...
Burial Distribution as a Reflection of Social Organization in Late Postclassic Tlaxcallan (2016)
The Late Postclassic state of Tlaxcallan represents a void in Aztec hegemony that is still poorly understood. Ethnohistoric studies, extensive archaeological survey and limited excavation suggest that the social and political organization of this group diverged from the empire’s policies of rule, allowing for much local authority and cooperative governance. Fargher et al. (2010) argue that a unique form of social organization may have contributed to the state’s ability to remain autonomous from...
Burial Practices of the Teuchitlán Tradition and Changes Through Time: A taphonomic Approach (2016)
Are there changes in burial practices of the Teuchitlán Tradition over time, and can any of these potential changes be identified? The data used in this analysis of burial practice was gathered from the 45 Teuchitlán Tradition burials housed at the Centro Interpretativo Guachimontones in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, Mexico. The osteology collection spans from the Late Formative Tequila II phase (350 B.C – 100 A.D) through the Late Postclassic Atemajac II phase (1400-1600). The analysis of the burials...
Burial treatment in the area of La Noria, Tamtoc, SLP, Mexico (2015)
Archaeological information confirms that between the second and fifteenth centuries AD Tamtoc evolved into a complex urban society that left evidence of their cultural identity through the vestiges of their ancient city. Testimony to this is the architectural complex designed for the preparation of complex funeral rituals, currently known as La Noria. In this area we have 67 burial mounds dug Postclassic (900-1500 AD), recovering 92 graves with the remains of 147 individuals of different ages...
Butterfly Imagery among the Classic Period Zapotecs of the Valley of Oaxaca (2017)
This paper explores the meaning of butterfly imagery among Classic period Zapotecs of the Valley of Oaxaca. Images of butterflies, or parts of their anatomy, sometimes appear on effigy vessels found in tombs. The effigy vessels represent rulers, or other individuals of high social-standing, as jaguars, owls or the Fire Serpent. I argue that rulers of Zapotec urban centers were perceived to have a number of specific naguales or alter-egos that constitute the moral basis of political power. The...
The Butterfly-Solar Complex in West Mexico: Information Transmittal and Design Structure (2017)
During the Classic period, butterfly motifs encountered throughout Mesoamerica are indicative of diverse kinds of interaction with the city of Teotihuacan. Highly standardized stuccoed and painted ceramics from the lacustrine region of Michoacán, West Mexico, were used as the principal medium to project a major iconographic theme: the Butterfly-Solar Complex, which was very likely related to a Teotihuacan solar militaristic ideology. Symbolic meanings were encoded in symmetrical panels which...
By Themselves They Celebrated His Feast Day: Regional Variation in Postclassic Central Mexican Domestic Ritual (2016)
This poster examines the variation in domestic ritual practices in Postclassic Central Mexico, using data from the Basin of Mexico, the Toluca Valley, and Morelos. I use cluster analysis to identify patterning in censer and figurine use, based on the functional attributes of these artifact classes (use mechanics for censers, subject matter for figurines). These clusters are then compared spatially and temporally to identify patterns based on ethnicity and the expansion of the Aztec Empire. The...
Cacaxtla en el devenir histórico mesoamericano: una propuesta desde sus expresiones plásticas. (2016)
El sitio arqueológico de Cacaxtla es famoso por la pintura mural y la importancia que ésta tiene como fuente de información para el entendimiento del desarrollo prehispánico de la región. Sin embargo, esta expresión plástica en particular es la que mayor atención ha recibido y en ocasiones se desarticula de aquellas hechas en otros materiales como la cerámica o la lítica encontradas en el Gran Basamento y en su periferia. En ese sentido, esta ponencia tiene como objetivo exponer la necesidad de...
Caches, Burials, and Vases, Oh My: Ritual Deposits in an Elite Courtyard at the Ancient Maya Site of Pacbitun, Belize (2018)
Recent investigations in a large, enclosed courtyard on the southwest corner of the ancient Maya site of Pacbitun, Belize, revealed evidence of successive emplacements of ritually important deposits. Initial analysis of the ceramic material suggests that the entire courtyard plaza has only one or two floors, with construction and use only during the Late to Terminal Classic period (600 – 900 CE). Five caches and two cyst graves were related directly to the plaza floor. The caches consisted...
Cahal Pech Mortuary Practices in Regional Perspective (2016)
In Patricia McAnany’s influential work Living with the Ancestors, she argued that the practice of venerating ancestors by placing human burials in eastern structures originated with commoners and was appropriated by the ruling elite as potent political displays. Within the Belize Valley, sites at all levels of the settlement continuum had eastern structures that contained numerous human inhumations, suggesting ancestors may have been politically powerful for elites and non-elites. However,...
Calakmul, Campeche: Its comings and goings in a market economy (2016)
This paper covers, in detail, the principal characteristics of Structure II in Calakmul including its architecture, artifacts and associated activities.
Calculating Population an Agricultural Intensity Levels from Field Remains: a Comment On COE'S Review (1985)
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.
Caldera_River 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...
Calibrating Variation in Domestic Midden Assemblages Among Aztec Period Households in Western Morelos (2017)
Archaeologists and geographers calibrate the flow of commodities among households and settlements to infer patterns of production, consumption, economic function, and social class. Michael Smith and his colleagues developed sophisticated measurements of wealth and social class using residential architecture attributes and domestic artifact assemblage diversity from excavations at three Aztec Period sites in Morelos. Here, data from over 4,000 surface collection units in eight Aztec Period sites...
Calixtlahuaca Archaeological Project
This project will archive data and materials from the Calixtlahuaca Archaeological Project, a NSF-funded fieldwork investigation of an Aztec-period urban center near Toluca, Mexico.
Can government be self-organized? A mathematical model of the collective social organization of ancient Teotihuacan, Central Mexico (2015)
Teotihuacan was the first extensive urban civilization of Mesoamerica and one of the largest of the ancient world. Following a tradition in archaeology to equate social complexity with centralized hierarchy, it is still widely believed that its origin and growth was controlled by a dynastic lineage of powerful individuals. However, much data is indicative of a government of co-rulers, and artistic traditions expressed an egalitarian ideology while deemphasizing individuals. Yet this...
Canals, Sacbeob and Defining Space in Ditched Agricultural Fields in the Three Rivers Region, Northwestern Belize (2018)
In 2016 the Northwestern Belize Lidar Consortium acquired nearly 300 square km of LiDAR imagery that covers large areas of ancient Maya agricultural systems, including ditched and raised fields, reservoirs, terraces, and sacbeob. This new imagery allows us to map beneath the canopy and shows that over nearly 20 years without LiDAR we studied only a small spatial sample of these complex systems. We have tested these systems with multiple excavations, and used multiple proxies such as...
Capitalism and Material Culture of the Poor: Consumption, Reuse, and Discard of Glass Bottles at Hacienda San Pedro Cholul, Yucatan (2015)
In Yucatan at the turn of the twentieth century, industrialization of henequen production and the export of binder twine heightened socioeconomic inequality and encouraged consumption of non-local manufactured items within native communities. Yet, the official history of capitalist expansion and globalization in Latin America has been written by and for the dominant class. Often, the material record shows that new and traditional technologies were appropriated in particular ways by poor people...
Captive Bodies, Captive Power: Reexamining the Role of the Captive in Ancient Maya Art (2017)
Stripped, humiliated, and often sacrificed, the captive in ancient Maya art acted as a potent symbol of defeat. Captives are a central theme of Maya art, appearing on media from painted vases to carved stone monuments. However, discussions of ancient Maya captives often focus on their captors: rulers, usually depicted as conquering warriors. "Captive Bodies, Captive Power" investigates, instead, the captives themselves. Treating the captive body as a cultural project that both modeled and...
Captives, Messengers, Pilgrims, Refugees, Wives: Classic Maya Written Accounts on Travel in the Upper Usumacinta (2015)
This presentation reviews references to travel in Classic Maya inscriptions at the archaeological sites of the Upper Usumacinta region. Although direct accounts of going to or coming from specific places are few, many texts and captioned images mention non-local individuals or describe events at other sites. The vast majority of such contexts involve warfare, but there are also references to visiting dignitaries, exiles, artisans, messengers, pilgrims, and, above all, brides from other royal...
Capturing the Fragrance of Ancient Copan Rituals: Floral Remains from Maya Tombs and Temples (2018)
Pollen analysis of Classic-period temple and tomb spaces in Copan’s Acropolis revealed a range of plants important to ancient Maya ritual practice. Some of these species were not represented in macroremains in ritual or household contexts. Scholars have described temple spaces as thick with the odor of burned offerings and copal, but added to this would also have been the fresh and heady fragrance of blooming buds and greenery, adding a fecund perfume to the areas of ritual supplication. These...
Cara Blanca Pool 6: Colonial Logging and the Evolving Landscape (2018)
Cara Blanca, in central Belize, consists of 25 pools that run east to west along the base of a limestone cliff. The Pre-Colombian significance of the pools has been studied by the Valley of Peace Archaeology Project, yet little attention has been paid to their Post-Contact influence on the local and regional landscape. This paper explores the role that Pool 6, a shallow lake centrally located in the line of lakes and cenotes, played in colonial logging operations around Cara Blanca. The 2014...