Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,301-1,325 (4,066 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse II: Current Research in Oaxaca Part 2" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of the Zapotec temple, its origins and evolution, has significant implications to understanding the social complexity in early societies. This paper follows the proposal of the one-room temple as the origin of the two-room temple, also called Zapotec temple, and exposes its evolution showing the characteristics of those...
An Examination of Ancestry: Exploring the Peopling of the Americas Through Paleoindian Cranial Indices in Comparison with the Howells Collection (2017)
The original peopling of the Americas has puzzled researchers for decades. While some evidence points to a single wave of migration, still other data suggest two or more waves. Their reasonable estimated arrival dates range from 14,500 to over 20,000y.b.p., although some scholars push back their arrival even farther. Drawing from archaeology, genetics, historical linguistics, and physical anthropology, the peopling of the Americas debate encompasses research from a wide range of experts. In this...
An Examination of Commingled Atlantoaxial Joints by Deviation Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Continued Advances in Method and Theory for Commingled Remains" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study builds on previous research that incorporated deviation analyses into sorting commingled human remains. This presentation will analyze a relatively untested joint surface, the atlantoaxial joint, to exclude potential commingled joint pairs. Virtual models were created at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville...
Examination of Mural Pigments with Portable XRF in the Caves of Eastern Guerrero with Comparisons to Local Colonial Lienzos and Documents (2017)
Rock art is now recognized as a key component of cultural expression in prehistory and a variety of new techniques have been developed to offer more insight into this area of archaeological expression. Here, we present our findings from the use of portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis at cave sites in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. The authors offer a scientific basis for deriving inference regarding the process of rock art creation in several caves located in eastern Guerrero through the...
Examining Archaeology, Society, and the Promise of Integrating ‘Big’ Data from Archaeological and non-Archaeological Sources. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Vision in the Age of Big Data" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In order for digitally published data to be useful it has to be useable, and in the case of big-data, interoperable with other data sources. This paper explores one way in which this can be accomplished through an examination of how archaeological site densities across the eastern and midwestern United States relate to social factors such as...
Examining Early Maya Public Architecture at Gallon Jug, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent trends in archaeological research in the Maya lowlands focus on developing understandings of the nature of the entangled relationships between urban centers and peripheral populations. The Preclassic origins and development of centralized political authority at the urban center of Chan Chich in northwestern Belize is currently understudied in relation...
Examining Environment, Ecology and Patterns of Maya Culture at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2018)
Our study examines the interplay of the environment, topography, conflict, and social change. Recent research stresses the role of environmental and ecological fluctuations in the Classic Maya collapse (AD 700-1000). Scholars have linked drought cycles and changing climate to increased warfare and culture change at the end of the Classic Period (AD 200-900). However, numerous studies highlight that not all places in the Maya area collapsed, some communities grew and continued to be places of...
Examining Everyday Lives: Non-Elite Maya Households and the Terminal Classic Collapse (2018)
In this paper I will discuss recent archaeological investigations at the Floodplain North settlement cluster, located within the Rancho San Lorenzo Survey Area in Belize’s Mopan River valley. My research investigates the adaptive responses of non-elite Maya to Terminal Classic (AD 780-900) socioeconomic and political transformations. Preliminary analysis indicates occupation continued at Floodplain North after the Terminal Classic collapse and the abandonment of nearby settlements. Materials...
Examining Flaked Stone from Caracol, Belize, at the Urban Scale (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Urban Question: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Investigating the Ancient Mesoamerican City" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Household and city scales are typical units of archaeological analysis at Maya sites. More recent models of urban space include intermediate scales referred to as “neighborhoods” that encompass clusters of households and “districts” that effectively integrate neighborhoods. Using flaked stone...
Examining Intermediate Elite Relationships with Apical Elite Polity Rulers through Ritualization, Ancestor Veneration and District-Scale Identity Formation at the Late Classic Maya Polity of Lower Dover, Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditionally anthropologists envisioned ritual as playing a functional role in the formation and ongoing cohesion of ancient complex societies. More recent perspectives consider ritual to represent a powerful tool of resistance, and therefore pivotal not just to the integration, but also the disintegration of polities. Situations in which a higher order...
Examining Production in Maya Households: A Case from the Settlement Zone of Dos Hombres (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Economic integration of households outside of site cores has often been under theorized in Maya scholarship. In this paper I explore the evidence of craft production and spatial relationships in several of these residential groups as well as the implications for connections with social, political, and economic institutions. These groups make decisions...
Examining Rural Responses to Political Collapse: The Early Postclassic at Monte El Santo, Oaxaca, Mexico (2017)
Recent archaeological research at the site of Monte El Santo, Oaxaca, Mexico examines how the rural community of Monte El Santo responded to the political collapse of the Río Viejo polity during the Early Postclassic Period (800-1100 CE). The collapse ushered in important changes for the coastal inhabitants of the Lower Río Verde Valley- the site of Río Viejo experienced a sharp decline in population, and a newly formed population center at San Marquitos grew to rival Río Viejo in size. While...
Examining the Bread-Basket Model: Puuc Intra and Inter-Site Diversity in Plant Foods (2018)
The Puuc mountains in the northwestern Maya lowlands have proven themselves to be double-faced in regard to pre-Columbian human settlement. On one side, the valleys exhibit the region's most fertile soils. On the other hand, rainfall is scarce and access to the underground water table is comparatively difficult. Nonetheless, authors such as Smyth (1991) have long suggested that the Puuc represented some of the bread-basket for the wider northwestern lowlands. As part of a broader study, in this...
Examining the Causes of Migration into East Polynesia: A Bayesian Chronology Perspective on the Ideal-Free Distribution Model (2017)
The colonization of the islands of East Polynesia was one of the most rapid and expansive migratory events in human history. While extensive research focuses on determining the chronology of East Polynesia colonization, far less attention has been placed on elucidating the processes that influenced this migration. The Ideal Free Distribution Model of human behavioral ecology has proven useful for exploring a range of issues regarding colonization and mobility in varying ecological contexts...
Examining the Impacts of Non-human Animals on Sequences of Agricultural Change (2018)
Historical sequences of agricultural change are influenced by several key factors. While much attention has been paid to the political context of agricultural production, as well as environmental changes brought about by certain techniques, less has been paid to the active manipulation of productive environments by non-human animals. Within the context of some recent theoretical advances in archaeology and ecology, it has become apparent that animals - intentionally or unintentionally introduced...
Examining the Institutionalization and Transformation of Maya Kingship at Actuncan, Belize using Collective Action Theory (2018)
Here, I summarize the major research questions and results from the Actuncan Archaeological Project, which has been on-going since 2001. The project was initially designed to examine the ways Preclassic Maya leaders institutionalized political authority from the perspective of household archaeology, but has expanded to include excavation of civic architecture and remote sensing in open spaces. My research is informed by collective action theory, and the degree to which leaders engaged in...
Examining the Maya Collapse through Ancient DNA (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholars have examined the causes and impacts of the Maya collapse for over a century, using every available line of evidence. In the last decade ancient DNA (aDNA) has proven to be a powerful tool in understanding large-scale population transformations...
Examining the Ramifications of the Formation of a Late Classic Maya Polity on Local Exchange Systems at Lower Dover, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditionally scholars envisaged Classic Maya economic centralization and commercialization as being poorly developed. However, the discovery of markets at several Maya political centers has begun to shift these perspectives. One important question which remains was how much did centralized markets affect the redistribution of items within hinterland...
Examining the Religious Dynamics of the Columbian Exchange: Islands of Belief and Conversion (2017)
The major moments of cultural exchange in global accounts of encounter have happened across the oceans and therefore island communities have often been first to experience contact and shape the nature of this encounter. This is certainly the case in the Caribbean where the island Taino were the first to encounter Europeans in the New World. The archaeology of Mona Island provides insights into both the origins of indigenous Taíno identities and religious communities, and the processes of...
Examining Tula Region Ceramic Compositional Analysis (2017)
Chemical characterization of ceramics using Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) in Central Mexico has proven to be an important analytical approach for assessing exchange, especially between sub-regions within the Basin of Mexico and neighboring areas. Recent efforts based upon Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Period decorated ceramics have extended the sampling to the ceremonial centers and settlements of Tula Chico and Tula Grande, the resulting chemical analysis defined a more robust...
Excavaciones en el Grupo Saraguate, Complejo La Danta, El Mirador (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El Grupo Saraguate, está localizado sobre la segunda plataforma del Complejo La Danta que había sido fechado para el Clásico Tardío 600-900 dC. El Grupo Saraguate se caracteriza por contar por varios edificios de baja altura, que se distribuyen en aglutinadas plazas y patios, la presencia de entierros, y piedras de...
Excavating Acapulco. Archaeology at the fortress of San Diego. (2017)
In 2015 and 2016 archaeological work was carried out at the historic fortress of San Diego, Acapulco, in the Pacific coast of Mexico by the project "Maritime Archaeology of the Port of Acapulco". Excavation on the outer wall yielded materials from pre-Hispanic times, all the way to the XX century. Diverse ceramics such as local wares, majolica’s from many parts of Mexico and porcelains from China and Europe, were recorded. Glass, metal and a variety of animal and human bones were also collected....
Excavating and Interpreting Ancestral Action – Stories from the Subsurface of Orokolo Bay, Papua New Guinea (2018)
Orokolo Bay is a rapidly changing geomorphic and cultural landscape in which the ancestral past is constantly being interpreted and negotiated. This paper examines the importance of subsurface archaeological and geomorphological features for the various communities of Orokolo Bay as they maintain and re-construct cosmological and migration narratives. Everyday activities of gardening and digging at antecedent village locations bring Orokolo Bay locals into regular engagement with buried ceramics...
Excavation and architecture of Gualupita Morelos. (2017)
Archaeology is the way to understand our most ancient past. Trough the study of material remains, we can understand how people from one civilization or another lived. Materials are the object of study for the archaeologist; in the working places of archaeologists, it is common to find a lot of pottery shreds, litchis objects, clay figurines, and more artefacts that speak about the past. In this poster, we are going to talk about an objet, one that it is so important that no other objects would...
Excavation and Survey in the Argentine Andes: Preliminary Field Report of the First IFR Field School in Uspallata, Mendoza (2017)
The first field school in the Uspallata valley, Mendoza, took place in 2016 and was organized by the Institute for Field Research (IFR). Its goals were to clarify the use of the landscape over the last two thousand years by people with an economy that incorporated hunting, gathering, small-scale agriculture, and possibility llama herding. Research was near one of Mendoza’s best known archaeological sites, Cerro Tunduqueral. This site’s dense rock art has been known for decades, but little is...