Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (4,066 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations of three Maya elite houses and a visita church at Hunacti reveal the mixed material signatures expected of a community deeply ambivalent to Spanish rule, strongly attracted to and at the same time repulsed by Spaniard house styles, Christian doctrine, and European goods. In a rural location at a distance from Franciscan...
American Pompeii: Old evidence on Late Classic ties between the Pacific Coast and the Antigua valley (2017)
An archaeological collection from finca Pompeya in the Antigua Guatemala valley provides significant information about Late Classic interaction with the adjacent Pacific coast. Excavated in 1893, the collection was eventually scattered to several museums in Germany, the United States, and Guatemala. However, it can be reconstructed from a photograph made not long after the discovery, and from newspaper reports that provide rough descriptions of the excavations. The objects themselves are still...
Anachronology in the Study of the Precolumbian Maya: Toward a Post-Postclassic (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part 2: Reconsidering “Human Sacrifice,” Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and Other European-Derived Concepts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. All Mayanists, and Mesoamericanists in general, are familiar with tripartite chronologies. The periodization of time in precolumbian Mesoamerica between a “Preclassic”/“Formative,” “Classic,” and “Postclassic” has been baked into the conceptual...
The anahuatl pectorals from the offerings of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2017)
The anahuatl pectoral is one of the shell ornaments that have been found in the offerings of the great temple of Tenochtitlan. In paintings and sculptures, it is worn by Tezcatlipoca and deities that are stars and warriors, as Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli and Mixcoatl. Inside the offerings, the anahuatl are associated to items related to the underworld, sacrifice and war. This has led to propose that these pectorals represented the stars, which were the warriors during the night. The presence of the...
Analysis of Anatomical Dissection at Point San Jose Hospital, Fort Mason, San Francisco (2018)
During a 2010 National Park Service project to remove lead contaminated soils from behind a historic hospital at Point San Jose (now Fort Mason), San Francisco, a medical waste pit containing commingled human and faunal remains was discovered. From 1864-1903, several military surgeons were posted at the Point San Jose Hospital to treat military personnel. Analysis of the human remains revealed evidence of anatomical dissection indicated by numerous incised cut marks, saw cut marks, and other...
An Analysis of Bark Beaters from the Postclassic Site of Mayapán (2018)
This project examines an assemblage of 37 bark beaters from Northwest Yucatán, principally from the Postclassic Maya site of Mayapán. Bark beaters are stone tools used in the production of bark paper. In Mesoamerica, these tools were important in several specialized craft industries, including the manufacture of codices and clothing for religious and political ceremonies. There is still much that is unknown about pre-Columbian bark paper production, as bark paper rarely survives in the...
Analysis of Cultural Retention in an Eighteenth-Century Enslaved African Community in the Dutch Caribbean (2021)
This is an abstract from the "NSF REU Site: Exploring Globalization through Archaeology 2019–2020 Session, St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The island of Sint Eustatius, once the world's wealthiest free-trade port, played an important role during exploitation and globalization of the New World. This research project addresses the retention and/or loss of traditional cultural practices of enslaved Africans in the wake...
Analysis of Culturally Derived Speleothem by INAA: An Analytic Approach to Sourcing (2018)
Recent investigations in various surface and underground cave sites indicate the existence of extensive political, economic, religious and military exchanges between polities in the Maya lowlands of Belize. The occurrence of "foreign" materials at surface and cave sites have become an increasingly well-documented phenomenon (Brady et al. 1997) and are indicative of transport of speleothems during ancient Maya cave visitations. This phenomenon has raise several questions such as the spatial...
Analysis of Culturally Derived Speleothem ny INAA: An Analytic Approach to Sourcing (2017)
The occurrence of "foreign" ceramic materials as well as the breakage and transport of speleothems during ancient Maya cave visitations have become an increasingly well-documented phenomenon (Brady et al. 1997). This phenomenon has raised several questions such as the spatial and temporal extent of these interactions, practices, meaning and specifically what does all this tell us about the relationship between Maya polities and proximal or distant caves. Geochemical analysis of geological...
Analysis of Debitage from an Intentionally Burned House at the Greenbrier Site (3IN1), a Late Mississippian Town in the White River Valley of Arkansas (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Debitage Analysis: Case Studies, Successes, and Cautionary Tales" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Located at the eastern edge of the Ozarks, the Greenbrier site is in a unique ecotonal location in close proximity to a diversity of lithic resources in the middle White River Basin. Ceramics at Greenbrier indicate that people here were closely connected to towns on the upper and lower White River and also to occupants in...
Analysis of elasmobranches from offerings 126, 141 and 165 found at the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2017)
Numerous fish from diverse species have been found inside the Great Temple offerings. These were transported from the coast to Tenochtitlan. During the seventh field season of the Templo Mayor Project, five sawfish rostra were found inside three offerings. By analyzing macro and microscopic structures, and through the comparison with modern specimens from the Ichthyology Collection of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology, at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, these animals...
An Analysis of Historic Glass Containers from St. George’s Caye, Belize (2017)
From 2009 to the present, an abundance of whole and partial glass bottle remains of various types have been recovered throughout excavations on St. George’s Caye, Belize. Much of the glass collection has been found within the island’s cemetery among an assemblage of various other historic artifacts. The majority of the bottles and bottle fragments have been identified as eighteenth and nineteenth century English cylindrical bottles. In 2016, analysis of this assemblage commenced in order to...
Analysis of Households in Calle de Isabel II, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1910 (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Analysis of Households in Calle de Isabel II, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1910 Calle de Isabel II was the main street of La Puntilla, a neighborhood located in a small peninsula outside the San Juan city walls. Throughout the 19th century a series of construction projects were undertaken in this area, including dwellings, schools and...
Analysis of Human Skeletal Remains from Late Postclassic Iximché, Guatemala (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Analysis of human skeletal remains from the Postclassic Kaqchikel Maya capital of Iximché, Guatemala, supports the interpretation that many of the partial skeletal remains were trophies taken in war or were from war captives sacrificed at the site. Other, more complete, remains...
An Analysis of Lime Plaster Floor Samples from the Holmul Region, Guatemala (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the summers of 2018 and 2019, the author collected 19 lime plaster floor samples from the ancient Maya sites of Cival, Holmul, and Witzna. These three sites are located in the Holmul region, which is situated in the Petén along the border with Guatemala and Belize. The majority of the plaster samples were collected during the Holmul Archaeological...
Analysis of Marine Sediment by Chemical Signatures to Discover Evidence of Ancient Maya Activities at Site 74, Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster examines multi-element chemical analysis on sediment at the underwater Site 74 in Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize. Site 74 was once an ancient Maya salt work. Due to sea-level rise, sea water and mangrove peat now cover the site. Sediment from the site was exported under permit to the Louisiana State University Laboratory for inductively coupled...
Analysis of Marine Sediment of Ancient Maya Saltworks in Paynes Creek National Park, Southern Belize. (2017)
In this paper we present the results of archaeological research at two Classic period Maya salt works currently submerged in a shallow salt-water lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park, Southern Belize. These two contexts are part of the more than 100 locations so far identified in the area where salt was produced by boiling brine over fires near wooden structures. Through the study of marine sediment recovered at excavations from sites 24 and 35, we were able to document environmental and...
Analysis of Marine Sediment to Explain Sea-level Rise in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize (2017)
Archaeological research in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize provides insight into environmental changes over time. Sea-level rise has affected coastal Maya settlements during both the Classic and Postclassic Periods. Marine sediment samples from five submerged Classic Period Maya sites were exported under permit to the Archaeology lab at Louisiana State University where the samples were analyzed using loss-on ignition and microscopic sorting. The results from loss-on ignition as well as...
An Analysis of Maya Eccentric Forms from the Holmul Region, Petén, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geometric, anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and abstract forms comprise the variety of lithic silhouettes of Central America. Commonly called eccentrics, these elaborate, technically remarkable forms are often recovered from ritual offerings and elite burials. This paper addresses more than sixty eccentrics recovered in the Holmul region, primarily from the...
Analysis of microbotanical remains from dental calculus: a new approach for ancient diet studies. (2017)
Paleodiet analysis from individuals found inside the Great Temple ritual deposits have been succesfully conducted by analyzing carbon and nitrogen isotopes, with the aim of distinguishing between marine and terrestrial diets. Recently, we incorporated microbotanical analysis of dental calculus to these studies in order to search for plants remains, with the goal of having a broad picture of ancient diet and paramasticatory use of the oral cavity. For this purpose we selected individuals with...
An Analysis of Obsidian Consumption in the Postclassic Coatlan del Rio Valley (2018)
This poster presents a technological analysis of obsidian artifacts from two Aztec-period surface collections in the Coatlan del Rio Valley, located in what is now the modern state of Morelos, Mexico. The deposits are from residential terraces collected in 4 x 4 m units. Designs on ceramics collected with the lithics indicate primary occupation after 1400 CE. This study has two primary objectives: first, we technologically classify the artifacts in the collections; second, we evaluate whether...
Analysis of Plant Remains from Aventura, an Ancient Maya Site in Northern Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Households at Aventura: Life and Community Longevity at an Ancient Maya City" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents an analysis of botanical remains recovered from archaeological contexts at the Aventura site, located in what is now northern Belize. A total of 478 large carbonized plant fragments, 167 flotation samples, and 10 eDNA samples were included in this analysis. Samples were recovered from a...
Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates on Terminal Pleistocene Horses from North America Shows Synchronous Local Extirpation and Overlap with Paleoindian Technocomplexes (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches in Zooarchaeology: Addressing Big Questions with Ancient Animals" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Absolute dating in archaeology is dominated by radiocarbon dating, a method that is frequently conducted on zooarchaeological material, creating a large and diverse global dataset that is readily accessible. Though radiocarbon dates are certainly valuable on their own, their value extends...
Analysis of the Built Environment of the Group B Acropolis at Baking Pot: Results of the 2019 Field Season (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ceremonial center of Baking Pot, Belize is one of the longest occupied sites in the Belize River Valley, starting in the Late Middle Preclassic (600–300 BC) and spanning through the Terminal Classic (AD 750–900/1000) period, with some evidence of reoccupation during the Late Postclassic (AD 1200–1521) period. Considerable research efforts over the past...
Analysis of the Faunal Remains from Holtun, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Holtun: Investigations at a Preclassic Maya Center" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Holtun is a civic-ceremonial center located in the Petén region of Guatemala, occupied from the Late Middle Preclassic to the Terminal Classic period (600 BCE–900 CE). Excavations conducted between 2010 and 2017 have resulted in a mid-size vertebrate faunal assemblage and a large archaeomalacological assemblage, including...