Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
2,076-2,100 (4,066 Records)
Recent research at the ball court complex and other areas of the ancient hinterland community of Chawak But’o’ob in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area in northwestern Belize indicates the existence of a sophisticated interplay of environment and ideology at this agrarian site. The intersection of landscape, hydrology, and architecture here hints at mythological underpinnings of Maya commoner ritual that only partially overlap those in evidence in ancient urban contexts.
Late Classic Maya Granite Working Community at the Tzib Group, Pacbitun, Belize (2016)
The ancient Maya site of Pacbitun is located between two major ecozones, the Belize River Valley and the Mountain Pine Ridge. Excavations from 2012 to 2015 at the Tzib group in the periphery of Pacbitun first revealed evidence of large scale mano and metate production. Excavations into a large mound, dubbed "Mano Mound" because the surface was covered with mano perform fragments, revealed that it was not only a debris pile, but also the workshop platform as well. Large granite flakes, hammer...
Late Classic/Early Postclassic Chiapanec, Zoque, and Maya socioeconomic interaction in and around the Chiapas Central Depression: further interpretations of the results of an Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of clay sources and paste recipes in Fine Orange ceramics. (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Late Classic through Postclassic transition in Central Chiapas, c. 750-900 AD, was a time of dynamic change in population, social, and political organization, some of which was incurred by the entry of the Chiapanec people into the Central Depression. The Spanish Conquistadors, arriving in the area some six centuries later, described the Chiapanec as...
Late Formative Obsidian Procurement in Xochitecatl-Cacaxtla (2017)
This study inquires into the obsidian commercial networks of Late Formative in the site of Xochitecatl-Cacaxtla employing an analysis of pXRF on 102 pieces of obsidian artifacts. In addition, we performed a technological approach of the material recovered from ceremonial and domestic contexts in order to know in which stage of the process did it arrive. With this, we intent to know how each source was represented throughout the site, revealing the internal maneuvers used by two different...
A Late Formative Period Site in Chimborazo Province, Ecuador (2017)
Compared to the coastal areas of Ecuador, the central highlands of Ecuador are not well known archaeologically, especially for the Formative Period. This paper will report on preliminary survey and excavation research carried out in the Chibunga River Valley, to the south of the modern city of Riobamba, during the 2009 and 2012 field seasons. Test excavations were carried out at the site of Collay, located on a mesa at 3100 masl, to obtain a sample of material culture and material for dating....
Late Formative Through Early Classic Occupation History in Eastern Soconusco (2017)
Deposits in the mangrove zone south of Izapa have abundant debris from salt and ceramic production, consistent with pyro-industrial specialization based on fuel wood and other resources. These archaeological deposits are also relatively intact, and thus they offer the opportunity to test hypotheses about demographic trends derived from more chronologically ambiguous deposits of the coastal plain and piedmont. A regional demographic bottleneck has been suggested for the Early Classic, when survey...
Late Pleistocene Archaeology in Argentina 47 years later (2017)
In the 1970s Ruth Gruhn and Alan Bryan spent several weeks in Argentina as part of a one-year trip around South America. In those years, Ruth and Alan started to challenge the Clovis-First Model for the peopling of the America, and their visit to South America was instrumental in consolidating their ideas as well as stimulating the research of Late Pleistocene archaeological sites. Subsequent travels to the region, especially the one made by Alan in 1980, contributed to generating the hypothesis...
Late Pleistocene Faunal Utilization: Some Current Thoughts on Paleoindian Diet and Tool Source Selection (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Accumulated evidence regarding the range of prey utilization and tools made from animal remains is rapidly growing and overdue for a summary consideration of Clovis and Pre-Clovis sites in North America. This discussion is heavily weighted with data from Florida sites along the Wakulla and Aucilla Rivers, and the Old Vero Site. Recent proboscidean data from...
Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Archaeozoology and Paleontology at the Basin of Mexico: A Reappraisal 40 Years after Early Views (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 2" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Back in 1970s, a great effort was undertaken to synthethize the knowledge of human and environmental relationships in the Basin of Mexico, which could be extended to at least 24,000 years BP. Since then, further studies were warranted after initial results and research has been...
LATE PRE-COLONIAL CIRCULAR VILLAGES IN THE BRAZILIAN STATE OF ACRE (2017)
The archaeology of Acre has been widely drawing the attention of the scientific community due to the discovery of an ancient civilization building geometric earthworks labeled "geoglyphs". In the course of field surveys realized at the geoglyph sites other types of archaeological sites were documented as well, including sites consisting of small artificial earthen mounds arranged in a circular form. At first, the mound sites were also classified as geoglyphs, but through the recent fieldwork it...
The Late Preclassic Households of Noh K’uh, Chiapas Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Late Preclassic (400 B.C. – A.D. 200) site of Noh K’uh is located in the Mensäbäk basin, over 30 kilometers west of the Usumacinta. Within this understudied region, the site of Noh K’uh was an important ceremonial center during the Late Preclassic, and was composed of several hilltop aggregates that clustered around a moderate monumental core. The site’s...
The Late Preclassic Monumental Foundation of Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research in the Petén Lakes Region, Petén, Guatemala" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological site of Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala, exhibits urban planning different from “typical” Maya cities. In addition to its urban density and gridded layout, it possesses large monumental architecture along its central axis that distinguished it as a prominent city during the Preclassic period. This axis...
The Late Terminal Classic in the Cochuah Region: Neither Classic, Nor Postclassic (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the course of three field seasons, eight round foundation braces supporting perishable pole-and-thatch buildings were excavated in the Cochuah region of west-central Quintana Roo, Mexico. Dating to the period immediately after the region was largely abandoned during what is known as the “Maya collapse,” the structures reveal small populations living...
Late to Terminal Classic Changes in Architecture and Caching Patterns at Structure N10-15 in the N10[3] Palace Group at Lamanai, Belize (2017)
The Maya site of Lamanai in northern Belize exemplifies one of the longer occupation spans in the Maya Lowlands—continuously inhabited from the Preclassic (ca. 1500 B.C.) through the Spanish and British colonial periods (post A.D. 1540). The N10[3] architectural group (Ottawa), located in the Central Precinct of Lamanai, has been interpreted as a palace group of significance due to its lengthy occupation span and its location adjacent to two important ceremonial plaza groups. During the Late to...
Late-Terminal Classic Community Mobility and Migration at El Perú-Waka’ (2018)
Recent archaeology at the Classic Maya city of El Perú-Waka’ has revealed a number of distinct communities making up the urban occupation. These communities possess their own cycles of settlement, florescence, and abandonment. Taken together, these cycles seem to show two distinct aspects that directly pertain to Classic Maya urbanism. One, it shows the urban landscape to be in a continuously changing state. The urban ruins encountered by researchers are the end product of centuries of such...
A Latin American choreography: entanglements of solidarity and collaboration for a forensic archaeology (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Weaving Epistemes: Community-Based Research in Latin America" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A Latin American choreography: entanglements of solidarity and collaboration for a forensic archaeology Latin America was and still is one of the most prominent areas for the development of forensic archaeology and anthropology. It is a common sense between researchers of the field that this latin america perspective started...
Law, private property, and the construction of the family in the archaeological record of colonial Moquegua (2017)
In 1884, Friedrich Engels attributed the development of the nuclear family unit to the rise of the capitalist state and the subsequent emergence of private property in 16th century Europe. In The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, he posited that private property resulted in the restructuring of kinship practices where women gradually lost authority over their own activities, spaces, and their lives, and where the division of labor became gendered and spatialized. In this...
Lawrence C. Todd: Biographical Sketch and Introduction (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Tribute to the Contributions of Lawrence C. Todd to World Prehistory" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the course of a five-decades-long career, Lawrence C. Todd, Professor Emeritus, Colorado State University, has made substantive contributions to the practice and theory of anthropological archaeology and world prehistory, introduced thousands of undergraduate students to the discipline in his classes, and...
Laws that Continue Depriving Indigenous Peoples of Their Cultural Heritage in Guatemala: Lesson for Archaeologists (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Guatemala, the Law for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage of the Nation establishes that archaeological sites are the property of the nation and are under the exclusive protection of the state. From the point of view of Indigenous Peoples, this law is racist,...
Lead (Pb) Isotope Analysis as a Means of Tracking Animal Migration and Trade in Mesoamerica (2017)
This study examines the first use of lead (Pb) isotope analysis as a means of tracking animal movement and exchange in the Maya area. Strontium and oxygen isotope ratios have been previously used to track animal and human movements archaeologically in Mesoamerica. Lead has been used to track movement and exchange in other parts of the world, and its application to Mesoamerican archaeology holds great potential for refining sourcing strategies. This study identifies local and non-local fauna at...
Lead Isotope Analysis of Bronze Bells from Spanish Colonization Era (2018)
This study focuses on using analytical techniques, such as Multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) and X-ray Florescence (XRF), to determine lead isotope levels of bronze bells from the Spanish colonization era within South Carolina and New Mexico. These values are compared both against one another geographically and against ore isotopic data within regional and possible imported geographic regions. The goal is to both discern whether these bells are locally...
Lead Isotopic Evidence for Foreign-Born Burials in the Classic Maya City of Holmul, 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. La Sufricaya, a Classic Period Maya civic-ceremonial complex in the city of Holmul, Petén, Guatemala, has several epigraphic elements that potentially link it to the Maya city of Tikal and the central Mexican metropolis of Teotihuacan. The La Sufricaya area boasts elaborate elite residential buildings, plazas, a ball court, and carved stelae; rulers from...
Learning by Example: Exploring the Importance of Case Studies in Learning NAGPRA (2018)
Although the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) has existed for over a generation, educators and professionals continue to discuss the best ways to prepare learners for the complex and contextually specific process of repatriation. Every consultation and every repatriation differs, even when the same tribes and institutions are involved. Because of this, learners can benefit from seeing multiple examples of how NAGPRA is implemented and how different stakeholders...
Learning heritage while teaching archaeology at Tahcabo, Yucatán: archaeologists’ perspectives on the opportunities and risks of local community engagement (2015)
While a great deal of archaeological research in the Maya area has been conducted with the interests of the academic community and tourism industry in mind, there are fewer examples of archaeology conducted with the needs of local "publics" foregrounded. We propose greater dialogue between archaeologists and the people who live near (and within) places where archaeologists conduct research, and consider the dissemination of archaeological information to communities involved in archaeological...
Learning Together: A Specialized Residence for Acolytes at Group C, Xunantunich (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholars have sought to identify ancient Maya spaces where specialized knowledge was transferred and acquired. Several historic accounts, including that of Bishop de Landa’s in Yucatan, mention specialized residences for youths while they were being schooled. Analogous to boarding schools, housing exclusively for acolytes creates a focused environment for...