Itza Maya (Culture Keyword)
1-2 (2 Records)
Costly signaling theory indicates that highly visible acts of public generosity and display, which exact costs not easily recouped, however, can provide social benefits to those engaged in such acts. Such signaling is associated with the strength or fitness of the provider. Analyzing slipped and fineware ceramics in display contexts, and obsidian use and architecture, this presentation explores how Maya elites and rural sub-elites engaged in costly signaling and modified their actions by cost...
When Trash Becomes Treasure: A Postclassic Maya Obsidian Core Cache from Nojpeten (2014)
This paper examines an obsidian cache offering excavated near the corner of a Postclassic Maya platform structure in Nojpeten, on the island of Flores, Guatemala. The cache consists of approximately 190 obsidian prismatic blade cores and core fragments, but the original number of cores placed in the cache likely fell between 173 and 182, with a best estimate of 177, 178, or 180. The cores were found about 20 cm southwest of the structure in a circular concentration measuring approximately 35 cm...