Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,051-1,075 (4,066 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Unsettling Infrastructure: Theorizing Infrastructure and Bio-Political Ecologies in a More-Than-Human World" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Islands have been used by societies around the world to abandon, exile, or relocate those deemed unworthy. Repressive institutions, as a form of state infrastructure, have been created on the islands during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to detain political prisoners,...
Digital Dig Kits: Portable Affordable Archaeology for Twenty-First-Century Fieldwork (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent advances in lidar technologies have been profound for archaeology, amplifying the subdiscipline of digital archaeology. However, lidar units, both aerial and terrestrial, have remained cost prohibitive until recent products by Apple including the iPad and iPhone Pro series. These products are among the first consumer electronic devices with built-in...
Digital Documentation of Ancient Ritual Landmarks: Modeling Senses of Place with Photogrammetry, LiDAR, and Virtual Tours. (2017)
Ritual karstscape archaeological research at the pre-Hispanic Maya site of Pacbitun, Belize, by the Pacbitun Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP) has included experimentation with a range of digital recording technologies. The overall goal of these experiments has been to better document ritual landmarks and the archaeological materials within them than has been possible with traditional recordation methods such as hand-drawn maps, photographs, and written descriptions. Our efforts have...
The Digital Evolution at Chan Chich, Belize (2017)
In 2012, the Chan Chich Archaeological Project transitioned from paper field forms to a relational database on iPads in the field and an iMac in the laboratory. Since then, the database has evolved each season, becoming more powerful and more useful with each modification. The project has also adopted Structure from Motion as a standard method for documenting excavations over the past three seasons. The digital revolution has not been without its difficulties, but the evolution of the database...
Digital History and Storytelling though Routt National Forest Past and Present Photographs (2018)
Archaeology is changing from the data collection and specialized publishing to gaining deeper knowledge from past collections and sharing them to the wider public. Digital archives are now easily accessible with open source tools and the internet, which allows not only for collaboration with other researchers outside their agencies but engages a larger public with cultural heritage. This poster describes a digital archaeology project that uses historical photographs to engage and inform the...
Digital Methods for Conservation in Underground Archaeological Contexts: A Case Study from the Copan Acropolis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As site documentation methods become more high-tech and data-heavy, it raises issues of repeatability, access, and expense. In the case of the 3 kilometers of circuitous archaeological tunnels at the Classic Maya site of Copan, Honduras, it was imperative to document them in a manner that would be accurate, efficient, and accessible not only to scholars with...
Digital Preservation Era: A Toolbox for Archaeologists to Transition into the Digital Age (2018)
Digital tools, such as photogrammetry and virtual environments have been around for decades. However, it was not until the past decade that the academic community introduced such tools into their work and have taken such discipline seriously. For this reason, the practice, management, teaching and potential of digital archaeology has remained a lagging field. As a response, this paper will provide a guide for traditional archaeologists to assist in the transition to the digital medium. An...
Digital Technologies in the Periphery of the Ancient Maya site of Lamanai, Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Threats to ancient Maya cultural heritage sites – from modern construction, looting, agricultural intensification, and burgeoning tourism – are an ongoing challenge in Belize. This is especially true of the northwest region of Belize, in the periphery of the well-known site of Lamanai, which has been hard-hit by looting and a growing community of farmers...
Digitizing Archaeological Data from the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A wealth of digital data is produced during an archaeological excavation and because so much of the fieldwork is unrepeatable, once the site is fully excavated, the digital records must be archived in a manner that best facilitates reuse. This paper presents the ongoing undertaking of digitizing data for the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project...
Digitizing Previously-Recorded Archaeological Survey Areas on a Budget: How Technical Illustrations in Inkscape Are Advancing the Field (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research aims to examine nuances between site ranking, placement, and correlations to environmental zones in northwestern Belize. This study used a variety of technological tools such as Inkscape, a Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg) software and ArcGIS to provide in-depth analyses of the dynamic interactions of the ancient Maya at the household level....
Dinámicas medioambientales, infraestructura de almacenamiento y paisaje agrario en Cajamarquilla (Siglos VII- IX d.C.) (2017)
Cajamarquilla es uno de los centros urbanos preincas más grandes de la costa peruana (160 ha). Localizado en el valle del Rímac, el sitio fue uno de los centros dominantes de la cultura Lima entre los siglos VII y IX d.C. Si bien otros grandes centros Lima coexistieron durante esta época, solo Cajamarquilla se localiza tierra adentro y en un entorno geológico altamente inestable al pie de la cordillera andina. Ya que este fue un periodo caracterizado por notables alteraciones medioambientales,...
Directed Movement at Ancient Maya Centers (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Manifesting Movement Materially: Broadening the Mesoamerican View" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Is there a right way to enter a Maya center? A correct order to the viewing and experiencing of the place? How did the physical act of moving through a center inform the understanding of that place, its leaders, oneself? This paper presents the results of several seasons of fieldwork at the Belizean sites of Xunantunich...
Direction, Gender, and Cosmology in the Pre-Columbian Textile Technologies of Mesoamerica (2017)
Despite the paucity of actual archeological textiles in Mesoamerica, alternative sources provide a picture of pre-Columbian textile technologies. These include: Colonial-era depictions and descriptions, tools, and especially continuities to ethnographic practice. Together, these reveal the centrality of textiles to these societies, and even hint at how textiles conceptually embodied and reflected indigenous cultural norms and notions. I argue that these sources suggest some hitherto...
Disasters in Temporal Context: Linking the Past and the Present—The RVCC Puerto Rico Hub (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Equity in the Archaeology of Disaster, Past, Present, and Future" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The IPCC 6th Assessment Report (2023) highlights that human-induced climate change triggers widespread and rapid changes that disproportionately affect communities in socially produced conditions of vulnerability to disasters. Academic convergence is needed as we search for solutions. Archaeology stresses that past...
Disconnects in Archaeology Higher Education: Insights from SAA Faculty, Professionals, and Students (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The impending growth of the cultural resource management field (Altschul and Klein 2022) has brought the demand for well-trained archaeology graduates in the United States into sharp focus. In this qualitative study, we explored the relationships and disconnects between archaeology practitioners’ stated needs and desires in new graduates to the resources...
Discoveries in Southeastern Bolivia Shed Light on Indigenous Cultural Dynamics of South America (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Southeastern Bolivia is one of the least-understood regions in South American archaeology. However, it is of pivotal significance in regard to Indigenous cultural history and the dynamics of cultural interactions, especially given its location at the interface between the Andes and Amazonia. Ethnohistorically and ethnographically a large number of ethnic...
Discovering Camp Guernsey: An African American Civilian Conservation Corps Camp (2024)
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Geophysical and Geospatial Research in the National Parks" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC) of the National Park Service has completed the initial stages of identifying the hitherto undocumented Camp Guernsey, a segregated, African American Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Senecaville, Ohio. Using lidar and minimal ground truthing, MWAC staff, in collaboration...
Discovery of a Late Preclassic Ceremonial Bundle at the Ancient Maya Center of Yaxnohcah Using Environmental DNA Analysis (2023)
This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A dark-stained feature near the base of a 1 m thick platform in the Helena complex of the Ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah was found to contain remains of medicinal plants, a plant containing hallucinogens (likely used for divination), and a plant used in the manufacture of weaponry (spears and bows). The feature was...
Discussing early societies Fishtail points and early social practices seen from the Southern Cone (2017)
The early peopling of South America is related to great environmental and material variability. Discussions must deal with early archaeological records including a variety of lithic assemblages in tropical lands, the Pacific coast, the Andes and the extensive southern plains and plateaus. In this context, fishtails are the most widespread point type exhibiting a dispersed pattern throughout most of South America during terminal Pleistocene times. They are therefore useful to think about with...
The Disembodied Eye in Maya Art and Ritual Practice (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ritual use and display of skulls, digits, and femurs is well documented in Mesoamerica. But except for the heart, few sources describe how organs and soft body tissues were curated during the brief time they could been have been viable for manipulation or display. Nevertheless, there is rich...
Displays of identity: A community-engaged approach to studying identity through photo diaries (2017)
This study is part of a larger research project, which looks at displays of social identity and the effects of influence from outside contemporaneous groups in pre-Columbian Peru. In studying past communities, we look beyond our own interpretations of "who" we perceived people to be and begin asking questions that reveal who they thought they were and how they chose to advertise that to those deemed "other." The nature of this research requires working closely with contemporary local...
Disregarded Ritual: A Critical Reassessment of North American Subterranean Features (2018)
This paper critically reassesses the use of subterranean features among prehistoric Native Americans of North America. A survey of the archaeological and ethnographic literature suggests that pre-historic Native Americans used subterranean features in a ritual context, although the ritual component is rarely acknowledged directly. The significance of the features becomes apparent when the context, mainly construction and artifact deposition, is considered. Many of these subterranean features...
Dissertation - Community Identity and Social Practice during the Terminal Classic Period at Actuncan, Belize (2015)
This research examines the relationship between the ways in which urban families engaged local landscapes and the development of shared identities at the prehispanic Maya city of Actuncan, Belize. Such shared identities would have created deep historical ties to specific urbanized spaces, which enabled and constrained political expansion during the Terminal Classic period (ca. A.D. 800–900), a time when the city experienced rapid population growth as surrounding centers declined. This research...
Distributed Site Cores and Low-Density Urban Settlement at the Site of Zibal, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The sites of Zibal and Kich’pan Uitz in western Belize, recorded as minor Maya centers by the Aguacate Regional Archaeology Project, have recently been investigated via remote sensing, survey and test excavation. As a result, we see that these two clusters of monumental structures, along with their secondary nodes, are located in a continuous fabric of...
The Distribution of Early Ceremonial Complexes beyond the Maya and Olmec Areas Examined through the Analysis of Low-Resolution Lidar Data (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent work by the Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project (MUAP) identified over 400 standardized ceremonial complexes within the Maya and Olmec areas dating to the Middle Preclassic period (1050–400 BC). According to this research, the spread and development of these centers likely resulted from intensive interregional interaction. This paper builds on...