Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,951-1,975 (4,066 Records)
Like many other regions, the colonial experience in the Caribbean included the arrival of foreign archaeologists, mostly from the United States or Europe representing museums, universities, or scientific academies forming what has been called ‘imperial science.’ The objects, specimens, and archival documentation gathered during their research were taken back to their countries and today form part of major collections in museums throughout the world. Theodoor deBooy of the Museum of the American...
Islands of Ideology: Exploring Group Formation in Hawaiʻi and Sāmoa (2024)
This is an abstract from the "States, Confederacies, and Nations: Reenvisioning Early Large-Scale Collectives." session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Social consent was essential to promote cooperation and group identity. Because of disciplinary attention to top-down processes of power accumulation and political classification, how social notions of social consent in middle-range societies were modified and diversified is poorly understood. The societies...
An Islandscape IFD: Predicting Archaeological Settlements from Grenada to St. Vincent, Eastern Caribbean (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Fifty Years of Fretwell and Lucas: Archaeological Applications of Ideal Distribution Models" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Building on the Caribbean-wide models presented in Giovas and Fitzpatrick (2014) and predictive models recently synthesized for Grenada, this study focuses on a fine-grained analysis of environmental and cultural factors affecting settlement locations in the multi-island/archipelagic region from...
Isotopes of Coastal Ecuador (2017)
A preliminary report is presented on research into the diet, health, and mobility patterns for prehistoric coastal Ecuador, based on an analysis of both modern data and archaeological data from Site 035 Salango. An assessment of dietary habits provides insight into a broad range of societal developments, such as the implementation and timing of maize agriculture. Additional insights are provided by an osteological evaluation of human remains, with a particular focus on evidence of pathologies...
Isotopic Analysis and Social Identities from Classic Period (ca. 300-900 CE) Burials at the Maya Site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ucanal, is an archeological site situated in the Petén area of the southern Maya Lowlands. Close to the modern-day border between Guatemala and Belize, it is situated on the Mopan River which seems to have facilitated the trade of objects between different neighboring sites. While we know that this site was a nexus for the movement of goods from afar, less is...
Isotopic and Paleogenomic Evidence of Maya Persistence at Late Postclassic and Early Colonial Chactemal (Santa Rita Corozal), Belize. (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Santa Rita Corozal, hereafter known as Chactemal, is a Maya site located in what is now northern Belize on the coast of Chetumal Bay. Chactemal was home to some of the earliest known Maya peoples in northern Belize during the Middle Preclassic (~800-300 BCE), was continuously occupied throughout all subsequent phases of Maya chronology, grew to become an...
An Isotopic Evaluation of the Classic Andean Mobility Models in Northern Chile during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 900-1450) (2017)
Research on the Late Intermediate Period (AD 900-1450) in northern Chile has been strongly influenced by two mobility models: John Murra’s classic vertical archipelago model and the more recent gyratory mobility model. The use and application of these two models, however, is problematic since there is insufficient supporting archaeological evidence. The use of stable isotope analysis allows a direct approach for studying diet and mobility patterns, in contrast to material culture. The aim of...
Isotopic Perspectives on Animal Husbandry Practices (2017)
This paper presents carbon and nitrogen isotope data from camelid (llama and alpaca) bone, hair, and wool textiles from sites throughout the north coast of Peru spanning the Early Intermediate Period through the Late Intermediate Period (200 BC – AD 1476). Through these case studies this paper explores how stable isotope data can be interpreted using various statistical methods to infer a deeper understanding of human-animal interactions in the past than would be possible using only traditional...
Issues Reconstructing the Ancient Population of El Mirador, Guatemala (2018)
El Mirador, in the northern Peten, has redefined our ideas about the Maya Preclassic. Its massive architecture and its complex system of sacbes compare to the largest Classic period centers. Unlike many of its smaller Preclassic neighbors, El Mirador collapsed at the dawn of the Classic. Understanding El Mirador’s organization, economy, and relationship to its environment requires detailed knowledge of the site’s population trajectory. Reconstructing El Mirador’s population trajectory, we face a...
It Brings Me No Joy to Tell You All This, but We Actually Found Gold Once: A Discussion of Visitor Engagement Using Historical and Archaeological Interpretation in Alaska Public Lands (2021)
This is an abstract from the ""Is There Gold in that Field?" CRM and Public Outreach on the Front Lines" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While they usually do not work in the capacity of Public Information Officers or interpretive staff, cultural resource managers and archaeological technicians are often the ones who are literally "fielding" questions from the public. These questions invariably deal with what "grand discoveries" we have made with...
It Was Not Always the Frontier: Multicultural Interaction between Isthmo-Colombian and Mesoamerican Peoples in Central Costa Rica (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Postclassic Mesoamerica: The View from the Southern Frontier" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Evidence for interregional exchange between Central Costa Rica and Greater Nicoya dates back to AD 300, and lasted until the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century. Previous scholarship postulates that these regions were located in a changing boundary between Mesoamerican and Isthmo-Colombian peoples. While this may be...
It's a Date: A Comparison of Pipe Stem and Ceramics Relative Dating at Christiansted National Historic Site (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dating techniques, both relative and absolute, are key members of the archaeological toolkit. They serve to chronologically situate the remnants of past peoples, material or otherwise, in the overarching narrative of a place or region. However, not all methods of dating are created equal, and the utility of a particular method for clarifying the historical and...
It's Complicated: Making Sense of Material Monoculture in Multicultural Societies (2018)
Ethnohistoric and colonial documents typically focus on detailing a socioeconomic and political landscape dominated by Chorotega and Nicarao groups for contact-period Pacific Nicaragua. Yet these texts simultaneously indicate that other groups living in isolated communities or urban barrios were also commonplace and included Maribios, Mazatec, Chondal, Matagalpans, Sumo-Ulwa, and possibly Lenca and/or Maya-speaking peoples, among others. As archaeologists, we are aware—many of us dutifully...
It’s all a bit retro: Investigating early phase rock art on the Dampier Archipelago, Northwest Australia. (2017)
Murujuga, located off the northwest coast of Australia, possesses one of the largest and most vibrant open air rock art galleries on the planet. On Murujuga, low erosion rates, durable geology, and growing evidence from the wider region has allowed for archaeological contextualization of rock art into deep time; giving researchers the opportunity to investigate both the changing social dynamics of groups and the stimuli for this change over thousands of years. The main objective of this paper is...
It’s Complicated: Additional Insight into the Source(s) for Poverty Point Copper (2024)
This is an abstract from the "*SE Not Your Father’s Poverty Point: Rewriting Old Narratives through New Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As the largest and most complex archaic period earthwork site in Eastern North America, and the center of an extensive exchange network covering a wide region of eastern and central North America, Poverty Point has been the subject of considerable research efforts. Among this body of research, Hill and...
It’s Our Mess Now: Changing Values, Problematic Legacies, and Visioning Change in Archaeological Collections Management (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, many leadership positions at archaeological repositories and museums have been filled by a new generation of archaeologists, collections managers, and curators. These early- and mid-career professionals’ education and training has taken place since the enactment of NAGPRA, and our...
It’s the Journey not the Destination: Maya New Years Pilgrimage as Circumambulatory Movement and Regenerative Power (2017)
Maya ethnohistory suggests that burning incense, erecting monuments, penis bloodletting, and pilgrimage were all activities associated with New Year ceremonies. These annual rites were calendrically-linked and aimed at ensuring agricultural renewal and earthly regeneration. Today, Maya New Year ceremonies involve initiation of young men prior to marriage and sexual relations, requiring self-sacrifice and long-distance pilgrimage with male elders. Cross-examining these data along side...
It’s What’s on the Inside That Counts: New Approaches to Sourcing Mayan Chert Artifacts from Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The distribution of prehistoric artifacts across spatial and temporal realms is frequently used to investigate trade, exchange, mobility, and socioeconomic relationships in the past. In the Maya region, chert was a key component in ancient toolkits due to its widespread availability and suitability for knapping into tools. Previous studies in the Maya...
Izapa and Highland El Salvador: Terminal Formative and Classic Period Ties (2017)
This paper explores coastal and highland interaction in southern Mesoamerica between coastal Chiapas and highland El Salvador. Published accounts of Salvadoran excavations have reported that ties between highland Salvadoran sites and Mesoamerica declined at the close of the Formative period with the eruption of the Ilopango volcano. The dating of the Ilopango eruption has since been updated, and an renewed look at interaction between these zones is necessary. This paper reviews archaeological...
I‘a, Loko, and Loko I‘a Kalo: The Riches of Pu‘uloa Lagoon and How They Came to Be (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Supporting Practical Inquiry: The Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Thomas Dye" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I‘a (fish), loko (fishponds), and loko i‘a kalo (taro fishponds) represent the traditional riches of Pu‘uloa Lagoon, now called Pearl Harbor. With a single narrow entrance, the deeply indented and multi-lobed embayment cut 8 km deep into the central southern O‘ahu coastline, creating a calm,...
Jade axes from the site of Pearls, Grenada. A field-based microwear analysis (2017)
This paper reports upon the wear trace analysis of 20 ground stone axes from the Ceramic Age site of Pearls, Grenada. The selection contains several exotic lithic materials including twelve jadeitites, for which the nearest known source is over eleven hundred kilometres away. Pearls is a heavily disturbed site on the Atlantic coast of Grenada, of which much of the material record is held in private custody. Yet, the site holds central importance in the wider interacting region, as a lithic,...
Jade Faces: Heirlooms and Emulations in Olmec and Maya Art (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From the colossal heads of the Olmec to the severed head of the Maya Maize God in the Popol Vuh, the head and face have been of singular importance in Mesoamerican art and thought. If the human body is an axis mundi, the head and face give that axis a physical manifestation of individuality. A nexus of...
Jadeite and Exotic Greenstones in the Huastec: The Mayan Style Lapidary Prestige Goods at Rancho Aserradero and Tamtoc (2017)
The archaeologist of INAH recovered hundreds of lapidary items at Tamtoc and Rancho Aserradero. Among these pieces, there are glossy greenstone objects restricted to the burials of both sites. The chemical composition and mineralogical characteristics of them with Micro-Raman, XRF, and FTIR, allowed us to identify two exotic raw materials, jadeite and green quartz from the Motagua Valley in Guatemala. Also, with the technological analysis of their manufacturing traces with Experimental...
Jaguar Fur, Snake Skin, Woven Baskets, and the Milky Way: The Dot-Grid Pattern from Nicaragua to Ecuador (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Precolumbian Dotted-Diamond-Grid Pattern: References and Techniques" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dotted grids abound in art of Pacific Nicaragua southward through Costa Rica and Panama to Ecuador, whether on painted and incised ceramic vessels or chiseled stone sculptures. These images reflect ancient fiber arts now lost to the elements in these tropical lands. The designs, recorded on clay and stone, appear to...
Jequetepeque-Jatanca Acropolis as a Mesocosm: The Role of Architecture During the Late Formative Period (2017)
Jequetepeque-Jatanca, located on 3 km away from Cerro Cañoncillo, was occupied during the late Formative period by several successive cultures suggesting that it was a site of consistent religious and political importance to many different societies. The Jatanca archaeological complex consists of an Acropolis, the oldest and only elevated structure, along with five Compounds that are distinguished by their sizes and dates of construction. Among all, the Acropolis is the most important, due to...