Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,876-1,900 (4,066 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Finding Fields: Locating and Interpreting Ancient Agricultural Landscapes" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As we look at agricultural intensification and the archaeological correlates, we need to understand that capital based investment and arable farming are only one path to intensification. Labor-based economies, especially those of the Americas before European conquest, present an entirely distinct track toward...
Interact! How Do Archaeologists “Care” for Human Ancestors’ Remains? (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Conceptions of “care” are increasingly a topic of interest in anthropological archaeology, and often sit at the intersection of discussions around ethics, best practices, and archaeological research, teaching/training, and curation involving the physical remains of human Ancestors. Care may be perceived as related to preserving the physical integrity of an...
Interaction and Exchange at Kaminaljuyu: Trade and Ritual (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, had a strategic location along important trade routes. Because of this, the site had the opportunity to access important goods such as obsidian, jade, cacao, salt, and other important goods. Some of the exchange might have involved the ball game. Recent findings from excavations near Ball...
Interaction and Exchange in Late Postclassic Xoconochco (2017)
Xoconochco is located along a well-travelled transportation route that links what is today Central and parts of Southern Mexico with Central America. The region has had cultural and economic ties with its neighbors to the north and to the south for millennia, a pattern that continued into the Late Postclassic period. In this paper we examine the nature of Xoconochco’s involvement in Mesoamerican exchange systems in the Late Postclassic period. We know that Xoconochco’s forest...
Interaction and Isolation in Manislan Mariånas: 1500 BC–AD 1769 (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Social Archaeologies and Islands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper addresses long-term processes of inter- and intra-island interaction and isolation in the Manislan Mariånas (Mariana Islands), spanning their first occupation (ca. 1500 BC) to the end of the Jesuit colonial mission (AD 1769). I focus on mobility, ocean communication and networking, engagement with the sea, and social intersectionality. CHamoru...
Interaction in the Late Classic Kaqchikel Area and Adjacent Pacific Coast: Least Cost Routes (2017)
Least cost analysis of prehistoric nodes of interaction in the Kaqchikel Guatemalan highlands and Pacific Coast indicates the locations of viable travel routes. Several classes of data, such as sculpture, obsidian and ceramics, indicate that there was communication and economic exchange in the Kaqchikel Maya area in the central highlands and Cotzumalguapan Piedmont during the Late Classic Period (600-830 A.D.). Today people walk between neighboring towns on foot paths and roads designed for cars...
Interdisciplinary Investigations of the San Gabino Site, Chontales, Nicaragua (2017)
Excavations at the site of San Gabino took place in 2015 under the auspices of Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua (PACEN), directed by Dr. Alexander Geurds. Discovered during a systematic surface survey of the Mayales River subbasin, north of the town of Juigalpa, the site was selected for stratigraphic excavation due to the chronological significance of its surface finds, in particular colonial-period glazed ware pottery. Colonial wares proved absent elsewhere during the survey, making...
Interdisciplinary Research in Maya Archaeology: Interests from the PfBAP (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. The Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) has operated in NW Belize for more than three decades. While much of the research effort has been under what might be described as traditional archaeology, the research program today is significantly informed by geoarchaeology interests and lidar. Initial efforts...
Interdisciplinary Science and Fishers’ Local Ecological Knowledge of Sawfishes in the Yucatán Peninsula (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Past Human-Shark Interactions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Knowledge of sawfishes is still scant for Latin America. Pristis pristis (largetooth sawfish) and Pristis pectinata (smallthooth sawfish) are critically endangered. In the Yucatán Peninsula (YP) these species populated coastal landscapes. We collected 290 surveys of fishers’ Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) with a geospatial component and reviewed 74...
The Interior Frontier: Intercultural Exchange in the Formative Period (1000 B.C.-A.D. 400) of Quillagua, Antofagasta Region, northern Chile (2017)
Today the modern village of Quillagua, an oasis in the hyperarid Atacama Desert, is of limited regional economic importance. However, there is strong evidence to support the argument that, in the past, the village was a node of ancient routes linking the populations of the Pampa, the Pacific Coast, the River Loa, and the Salar of Atacama. Documents from the 18th century suggest that Quillagua was, in fact, an "internal frontier" between populations residing to the north and south of the oasis....
INTERNAL CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT OF CULTURAL TANGIBLE ASSETS IN MEXICO: A first step to their protection (2017)
Mexico is a country with a cultural heritage that has given him a unique identity. We have a wealth of collections ranging from the paleontological and archaeological, to the historical and ethnographic. These collections require a control that will allow both federal institutions and individuals to be aware of what they have under their care, as it is one of the serious problems they face today. One of the main objectives of this brief presentation will be: To give an insight into the control...
Internal Networks and the Materiality of Imported Gold in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia (AD 600–1600) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Materials in Movement in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Muisca of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia are known for making extensive use of imported gold to manufacture both votive metalwork and body ornamentation over a millennium. To better understand the materiality of this imported raw material, we present new computational models of the compositional datasets pertaining to Muisca...
Internal Variations among the Elite Classic Maya at El Zotz (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses the internal structure of the elite Classic Maya at the site of El Zotz, in the Petén region of Guatemala. By examining the behavior of elites living in different parts of El Zotz at the end of the Late Classic, I will consider whether the aristocracy of the Pa’ka’n court acted as a cohesive unit with shared behaviors, or if they were...
An Interpretation of Motifs on Protoclassic Polychrome Pottery from Naj Tunich Cave (2017)
A good deal of academic attention has been focused on the iconographic analysis of Maya painted ceramics, principally from the Late Classic Period and to a lesser extent from the Early Classic. The tradition, however, begins in the first century A.D. during the protoclassic ceramic stage. Virtually no analysis has been undertaken on these earliest Maya artistic expressions probably because the motifs are largely geometric and figural representations are rare. I compiled a motif inventory from...
An Interpretation of the Rock Art in La Cueva de la Huachiza, Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán (2017)
The Cueva de la Huachizca is a tectonic cave formed within a basaltic flow in the municipio of Salvador Escalante just south of Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacán. The cave was initially recorded in 2014 by Dr. Jose Luis Punzo-Diaz as part of Proyecto Arqueología y Paisaje del Area Centro Sur de Michoacán (PAPACSM). An investigation of the cave conducted this summer recorded pecked petroglyphs of a man facing an eagle, above a spiral motif. These motifs resemble those from contact period Codice de...
An Interpretative Framework and Description of Ritualized Obsidian from Caracol, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceremonial life at Caracol, Belize can be assessed through a technological and contextual analysis of ritualized obsidian objects. These items are typically termed "obsidian eccentrics", although "ritualized obsidian" more...
Interpreting a Subterranean Feature at Chichen Itza (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Indigenous Culture and Beyond" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the 2019 season, a subterranean feature was excavated atop a pyramidal structure in the pueblo of San Felipe Nuevo, 839 m northeast of the El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza. The entrance is a round, finely finished, chultun-like entrance 53 cm in diameter. The walls are plastered, which suggests its function as a...
Interpreting Coefficients of Variation in Archaeological Assessments of Cultural Transmission (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Old Technology, New Methodology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. To test hypothesized effects of cultural transmission on material cultural evolution, archaeologists primarily use the coefficient of variation (CV). Interpretation of archaeological CVs is necessarily comparative, and foundational papers have assessed variation across broad geographic regions, and relative to either theoretically-derived threshold CVs or...
Interpreting Identities: An Ahegemonic Archaeological Approach (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology as an Engine or a Camera?" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mulch’en Witz (glossed ‘Hill of Many Caves’) is located in northwestern Belize within the periphery of the ancient Maya site of La Milpa. Preliminary investigations have recorded a high concentration of chultuns associated to architectural features and groups and, thus far, all cultural material dates to the Late Classic period (CE 600-800). Human...
Interpreting Lesser Antillean Island Domestic and Ritual Practices through Household and Ceramic Analysis at the Goddard Site, Barbados (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Biggs analyzed data collected by Hackenberger and others in 1986 during an archaeological rescue on the Goddard Site, Barbados, West Indies. For this study, students redeveloped ceramic and shell spatial datasets, compiled site maps, and rendered new computer maps of house features and artifact distributions. The semi-circular house (with hearths and...
Interpreting Maya Economic Activity Using Paleoethnobotany (2017)
Paleoethnobotany is a subfield of archaeology that requires an extensive knowledge of archaeology and botany. Because highly specialized skills are required, presenting data can be difficult. Botanical data must be conveyed in a way that is understood by fellow archaeologists while adhering to standards of botanists. Conveying this information becomes even more difficult when we begin to combine micro and macro botanical methods. Botanical datasets can contribute to a wide range of topics that...
Interpreting Precolumbian Mobility in Eastern Honduras Using Strontium and Oxygen Isotope Assignment Models (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Eastern Honduras was and is a culturally diverse region on the southern periphery of Mesoamerica. Limited research has been conducted in this region, especially when compared to the Maya in western Honduras. We present isotopic data from individuals interred at two sites, Cueva del Río Talgua and Cueva de las Arañas, which were primarily used during the...
Interpreting the Past: How Transdisciplinary Research Advances the Field of Maya Archaeology (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. Human-nature relationships are key to understanding past societal developments. The value of conducting transdisciplinary research, involving new methods and other investigators, has become increasingly apparent as the field of Maya Studies has matured. While there has continued to be a significant increase in the...
Interregional Connections of Northeast Honduras during the Postclassic Period (2017)
In 2016, archaeological investigations were carried out in Guadalupe, an extended prehispanic settlement near Trujillo, on the Northeast Coast of Honduras. The site was inhabited during the Postclassic period (Cocal) and might have functioned as a coastal trading center. This is indicated by its strategic location near the coast and next to an ancient river bed connecting the coast to the hinterland, especially to the Valle de Aguán, a culturally and economically important, but hitherto poorly...
Interrogating Decolonization (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. “Decolonization” is now frequently used as the term for repatriating human remains and artifacts housed in institutions of the dominant European-derived societies of the Americas. The term does not fit a postcolonial position. “Decolonization” implies, as a derivative from an action verb, an agent performing an act, i.e., an agent of the dominant society’s...