Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Dega. David Perzinski.

This paper takes site data from two recently excavated locales on Saipan and discusses the archaeology, physical anthropology, and bioarchaeology of the sites. The goal is to frame these within larger questions of origins, changes in the island's demography through time, and to assess several migration models for settlement of Saipan and the Northern Marianas.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthieu Le Bailly. Nicolas Goepfert. Gabriel Prieto. John Verano.

The health status of domestic’s camelids is an original research topic in the past Central Andes. The discovery of more than 200 well preserved camelids in Huanchaquito in the northern coast of Peru was the opportunity to perform paleoparasitological analyses on twenty samples taken from preserved intestines and faeces recovered during the excavations. Extractions of the parasites using RHM standard protocol raised to the observation in 55% of the samples of several helminth taxa belonging to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brenda Arjona.

Obsidian tool production in Mesoamerica has been considered primarily the work of men. It is important to examine the roles that women might have had in obsidian crafting. This paper uses results from a study of an obsidian assemblage from an unusual burial excavated at Puerto Escondido, Honduras, to explore the implications of women possibly being involved in stone tool production. In this burial one person was laid out on a bench, wearing an obsidian mirror, in a below-ground chamber, that was...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Melanie Miller. Sabrina Agarwal. Carl Langebaek.

The Muisca inhabited a large territory in Northern South America (within present-day Colombia) and are often presented as a "classic chiefdom society." The roots of these interpretations can be traced back to European historical documents discussing Muisca socio-political life, which emphasized the role of social status and hierarchy within Muisca culture. The Muisca in particular have been held captive by the recordings of historical authors, and social structures observed through a European...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kevin Cabrera.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bioarchaeology engages with past behaviors to answer sex and gender roles that are influenced by biological and cultural components leading to social presentation of the individual. The skeletal sample for this study focuses on 55 individuals from Copan, Honduras by incorporating available mortuary data, ceramic phases, dental development, physiological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Caroline Donovan. Jennifer Kahn.

This is an abstract from the "Gender in Archaeology over the Last 30+ Years" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. My research examines ongoing issues of gender disparity in male-dominated academic professions like archaeology. Here, I investigate the link between gender and publishing of archaeological research in Oceania amongst a broad cross-section of archaeologists. Similar research conducted on North American archaeologists has found significant...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shimaine Clem. Emily A. Schach. Jane E. Buikstra.

At the site of Chiribaya Alta (900-1350 AD), located in the Osmore Valley of southern Peru, certain Chiribaya grave goods are associated with either adult males or females. For example, females are often buried with weaving tools, and males with musical instruments. It is not possible to estimate the biological sex of children from their skeletal remains. Therefore, children are often excluded from studies addressing gender identities. Here, we use grave goods known to be associated with sexed...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Philippa Jorissen.

The archaeological study of historical human-environment interactions is important to elucidate the inherent links between cultural and biological/environmental diversity through time. Such studies are particularly significant in island settings, often characterized by sensitive biogeographical and ecological histories underlying current environment and social conditions. Zooarchaeology is a leading sub-discipline in the study and creation of archaeological human-environment interaction...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael O'Brien.

This is an abstract from the "The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis and Human Origins: Archaeological Perspectives" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As archaeology increasingly turns to explanatory models of cultural evolution based on a Darwinian perspective, three processes—dual inheritance, cultural transmission, and, more recently, niche construction—have assumed prominent positions. Until the early 1980s, the behavioral sciences tended to draw a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kelsey Witt. Laurent Frantz. Greger Larson. Angela Perri. Ripan Malhi.

Several ancient DNA studies have been conducted on dogs in the Americas, yet all have focused on the mitochondrial genome. In this study, we sequenced 79 complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) and seven nuclear genomes of ancient dogs from more than twenty archaeological sites, ranging in age from 10,000 to 800 years before present (ybp) to gain insight into the population history of dogs in the Americas. We compared the ancient dogs’ mitogenomes and nuclear genomes to those of modern dogs...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carolyn Freiwald. John Walden. Rick Smith.

This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya, Part II" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Emerging genomic and isotopic approaches have opened new doors to reconstructing diet, mobility, kinship, demography, and identity in the past and have the potential to transform our understanding of the ancient Maya world. These methods offer ways to reconstruct where...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jessica Stone. Reniel Rodriguez Ramos. William Pestle. Maria Nieves-Colón.

This is an abstract from the "Coloring Outside the Lines: Re-situating Understandings of the Lifeways of Earliest Peoples of the Circum-Caribbean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Caribbean, archaeological and linguistic research have contributed a wealth of knowledge to our understanding of human settlement, yet many issues surrounding dispersal trajectories, adaptation to island environments, and population dynamics over time are still...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joshua Englehardt. Angélica Cibrian Jaramillo.

This is an abstract from the "Regional and Intensive Site Survey: Case Studies from Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeogenetics, a term coined by Colin Renfrew in 2000, is a relatively new line of inquiry into the archaeological past. Archaeogenetic techniques use ancient DNA and genomic sequencing to reveal population-level data that may be used to elucidate processes central to archaeological research, such as group migrations...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Swogger.

When is a copy not a fake? In 2014, the Carriacou Archaeology Project (University of Oregon; University of London) excavated a unique stone zemi at the Grand Bay site on the island of Carriacou, Grenada. The decision was made to create casts of the zemi in order to facilitate simultaneous display of the object in multiple island museums. It was hoped this would allow both museums to advocate the small island of Carriacou as a site of particular archaeological significance, to stimulate...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ashley Eyeington.

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Eagle Nest Canyon, Texas: Papers in Honor of Jack and Wilmuth Skiles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bonfire Shelter is a large prehistoric rockshelter site situated at the northern end of Mile Canyon in southwest Texas. Early investigators determined the site to be the location of multiple bison jump events; however subsequent investigations have disputed this interpretation. My research focuses on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heidi Luchsinger.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For decades, archaeologists have used coring for subsurface testing and paleolandscape reconstruction, but only sporadically. Non-invasive and efficient, core extraction produces intact stratigraphic columns collected in clear plastic tubes that can be brought back to the lab for analysis. Unlike shovel testing and backhoe trenching, coring has no depth...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Samantha Krause. Timothy Beach. Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach. Eleanor Harrison-Buck.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and the History of Human-Environment Interaction in the Lower Belize River Watershed" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The lagoon system around the island of Crooked Tree in northern Belize provides a compelling hydrological landscape with a strongly seasonal flood regime. The area also presents evidence of long occupation and use by the Maya. Our ongoing investigations include geoarchaeological testing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Roy Jaijel.

The maritime Maya site of Vista Alegre, located in the northeastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula is being investigated with the aim to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the daily life of the past inhabitants, and their interaction with their surrounding environment. Results from a sediment core campaign resolved the character, environmental associations, and ages of underlying sediments. To achieve a continues lateral understanding of the underlying sediments, a seismic survey was...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Daniel Bair. Richard Terry.

This is an abstract from the "Prehispanic Maya Marketplace Investigations in the Three Rivers Region of Belize: First Results" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient markets are difficult to identify as most utilitarian items and consumables were perishable. Our objective was to use geochemical analyses of extractable phosphorus and metallic residues in soils to distinguish the unique geochemical patterns of market plazas from other types of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only José M. Capriles. Nicholas Tripcevich. Axel Nielsen. Michael Glascock. Calogero Santoro.

Obsidian is not only an excellent raw material for the manufacture of stone tools but because of its compositional homogeneity, it can also be related to specific geographic sources. The geochemical characterization of obsidian sources can help to determine the geographic origin of different stone tools as well as aid to infer patterns of resource utilization and exchange. Although some of the most important obsidian sources in the Andes have been identified and adequately characterized, many...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Glascock.

The indigenous peoples of South America have been producing pottery for more than 7,500 years. Pottery was made into vessels for the cooking and storage of foods, funerary urns, toys, sculptures, and a wide range of art forms. Due to the regional differences in the composition of raw materials used to manufacture and decorate pottery, geochemical investigations of pottery have proven successful for studying trade and exchange, changes in technology, provenance, etc. Some of the methods used to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alejandro Figueroa. Whitney Goodwin. Brigitte Kovacevich. Michael Callaghan. Christopher Roos.

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. In this paper we present the results of an exploratory program aimed at providing multi-component soil sampling and analysis of plaster floor surfaces at the Maya site of Holtun, Guatemala. Our research sampled three different plaza settings at the site: the monumental E-Group plaza, an elite residential patio adjacent to the E-Group...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elodie Treffel.

This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Por medio de esta presentación, intentamos entender y considerar la importancia ritual y simbólica de un temascal Preclásico ubicado en la ciudad de Naranjo, Petén, Guatemala. Trataremos este tema a partir de la ubicación del temazcal dentro del paisaje sagrado del epicentro monumental de Naranjo y de...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joshua J. Wells. Robert Carl DeMuth. Stephen Yerka. Eric Kansa. Sarah Whitcher Kansa.

This is an abstract from the "Capacity Building or Community Making? Training and Transitions in Digital Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Digital Index of North American Archaeology (DINAA) is the largest compilation of completely free and open information about archaeological site descriptions and serves as an index to an ever-growing network of primary data and publications resulting from investigations at those archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elise Dufour. Nicolas Goepfert. Gabriel Prieto. John Verano.

Excavations at the Chimú site of Huanchaquito located in the Moche Valley (northern coast of Peru) leaded to the discovery of an exceptional sacrificial deposit of more than 200 domestic camelid skeletons. This finding adds to the many testimonies of the presence of camelids on the Peruvian coast during the pre-Hispanic era. The abundant presence of animals suggests - but does not bring definitive evidence - that breeding took place locally in an unfavorable arid environment. Measurements of...