Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
2,251-2,275 (4,066 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper will discuss the processes and methods of relief visualization of LiDAR-derived digital elevation models (DEM’s) and classification of secondary data to identify archaeological remains on the Maya landscape in northwestern Belize. The basis of the research explores various GIS and cartographic techniques to visualize topographical relief. Graphic...
Mapping the Mines: Simulating Transit Routes between Mining Centers in the Colonial Andes with GIS (2017)
Least cost path has been the method most commonly employed by archaeologists in attempts to determine routes from one site to another. This is due to the relative ease of use of this particular tool, as well as because of the parsimonious logic of this approach. The tool is also particularly useful where material remains of roads are no longer visible. However, the use of network analysis provides a more realistic possible route by taking into account known possible paths. Network analysis...
Marco Gonzalez, Ambergris Caye, Belize - Evidence for Salt Production (2018)
Investigations carried out at Marco Gonzalez, a Maya site on Ambergris Caye in Belize, were aimed at examining site formation processes, particularly the dynamics that led to dark surface and subsurface soils (Maya Dark Earths), which have a higher nutrient capacity than would be possible under natural conditions. Sediments of critical interest in soil formation were those deposited in the Late Classic period and associated with intensive processing. Features of the ceramics in the deposits as...
Marine shells and green stones as funerary objects from Tomb II, Tingambato, Michoacán (2017)
A través de la historia, los rituales y formas de enterrar a los muertos han variado entre grupos culturales y regiones. Mesoamérica y particularmente su área occidente no fueron la excepción. En este territorio se han descubierto tumbas acompañadas de ofrendas desde épocas correspondientes al periodo Formativo y que, con el paso del tiempo, constituyeron verdaderas tradiciones funerarias. La zona arqueológica de Tingambato se encuentra en el límite sur del poblado que lleva el mismo nombre en...
Maritime Archaeology in the port of Acapulco: latest research (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Plus Ultra: An examination of current research in Spanish Colonial/Iberian Underwater and Terrestrial Archaeology in the Western Hemisphere." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Acapulco was one of two main gateways to New Spain, forming part of a complex interaction and network with Asia. Acapulco witnessed events of regional, national and even global importance. The Maritime Archeology Project of the Port of...
Maritime to the Max: The Keys to Success for Small Island Populations in the Caribbean (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The land-sea dichotomy has structured many historic debates surrounding coastal populations in the pre-Columbian Caribbean. Settlement, subsistence, exchange and cultural affiliation have all been measured on a terrestrial versus marine continuum which often undervalues the primacy of...
The Marketplace Next Door: Socioeconomics at Ximbal Che’, an Intermediate-Elite Maya Household at Yaxnohcah (Campeche, Mexico) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents new data from excavations at Ximbal Che’, an intermediate-elite residential group at the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah, located in southern Campeche, Mexico. Households have for decades been recognized as important loci for production, consumption, and social reproduction in ancient Maya societies. In recent years, studies of...
Mas alla de la Arqueologia (2017)
Archaeological research frequently produces material elements we seek to safeguard for the benefit of future generations, a goal that requires organizational support and a mix of resources. When the research materials pass to the responsibility of communities or groups with limited preparation and resources for management of said materials, we encounter a serious disconnect between the accomplishments of research and the long-term viability of archaeological resources. In Mexico the long...
Maschenstoffe in Süd- und Mittelamerika: Beiträge zur Systematik und Geschichte primärer Textilverfahren (1971)
Basler Beiträge zur Ethnologie; 9
"A Masculine Occupation": Women in CRM (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond Leaky Pipelines: Exploring Gender Inequalities in Archaeological Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many studies of women in the field of archaeology focus on academic institutions; however, more archaeologists are employed by the public and private sectors. In this paper, we examine the place of women holding positions in cultural resource management. By examining first-hand experiences of women in the...
Material Culture and Chronology at Colha, Belize: Recent Findings and Future Directions (2018)
Lithics, ceramics, and other artifacts, recovered from the 2017 Colha, Belize field season, are utilized to gain insight into chronological developments and changes at the ancient Maya site. Maya material culture recovered from excavations at Colha are presented and interpreted by context. Each artifact category is briefly defined, described, and placed into a general site context. The estimated time range for the recovered material culture extends from the Late Archaic to the Late Preclassic....
Material Culture Associated to Elite Females in 16th Century Puerto Rico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Primary Sources and the Design of Research Projects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents a case study on how to approach the study of elite women in Puerto Rico during the 16th century using primary sources and archaeological evidence. The main objective of the research was to reconstruct aspects of the daily life of women through their cultural assemblages, as recorded during the early colonization of...
Material Culture Correlates of Polity Restructuring and Decline: Changes in Ceramic Production and Use at the End of the Late Classic Period in the Copan Valley (2017)
Features of material culture can be actively constructed and transparently manipulated to various sociopolitical ends, with the installation of elaborate monuments and possession of ornate goods making bold statements of power and authority. While other more common elements of material culture may provide perhaps less conspicuous commentary on the "state of the union," they can also be equally symbolic of the conditions under which they were created. This paper examines the material culture...
The Material Culture of Maroon Communities in the Early Circum-Caribbean (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Disentanglement: Reimagining Early Colonial Trajectories in the Americas" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines early maroon settlements of the Circum-Caribbean and is based upon original research in a wide assortment of Spanish archives, as well as archaeological investigations of African sites in the Americas. As in Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, in Spanish Florida, I find Africans readily adapted...
Material Encounters and Indigenous Transformations in Early Colonial El Salvador (2017)
Mapping and excavations of the Conquest-period and early colonial site of Ciudad Vieja, the ruins of the first villa of San Salvador, El Salvador, afford a view of material culture encounters and indigenous transformations in northern Central America. The Ciudad Vieja archaeological research has focused on material culture encounters between Spanish and indigenous populations in the realms of landscape, architecture, technology, economy, society, and religion. The time span for Ciudad Vieja runs...
A Material Science Consideration of New World Encounters: Multi-method Approaches to the Archaeology of the Caribbean (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following a recent review of excavated materials from the island of Mona (Puerto Rico), this paper examines the transformation of cultural and technological practices brought about by New World encounters. We focus on the affective material conditions that emerge in the 16th century Caribbean by applying a materials science approach to the newly integrated...
Material Signatures for Idolatry in Sixteenth- to Eighteenth-Century Viceregal Yucatan (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rampant idolatry and Mayan resistance to the religious conquest, narrated in Early Viceregal Yucatan documents, bespeaks an underlying visual component for continuing traditional religious practices. Franciscan rural chapels, churches, and convents interior mural paintings and architectural facade sculptural details provide the material signatures to...
Material Transformations and Vegetal Ontologies in the Postclassic and Colonial Mesoamerican Flower Worlds (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 1: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prehispanic visual sources and colonial alphabetic texts provide rich descriptions of what scholars have termed "the Flower World" in Mesoamerica. This idealized celestial realm was filled not just with flowers, but an array of other precious substances, ranging from gemstones to precious metals, to bird feathers and...
The Materiality of Migration (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Immigration and Refugee Resettlement" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper considers what archaeologists can contribute to contemporary issues through doing what we do best—analyzing material culture to create narratives. I use this approach to personify a particular group of liminal, stereotyped people whose anonymity is critical for their survival—undocumented migrants. This paper is part of a...
The Materiality of Sound: Detecting Performing Patterns On Two Mesoamerican Bone Rasps (2017)
This presentation focuses on some results of an interdisciplinary study carried out on two scraping idiophones made of human bones from ancient Mesoamerica (omichicahuaztli). Both the instruments are today on exhibit at the Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico "Luigi Pigorini" in Rome. The detailed analysis of the bone surfaces allowed us to reconstruct the taphonomic processes that affected the bones and the steps employed to transform them into musical instruments. Our research team...
Materialización de las nuevas interacciones en la zona fronteriza entre Mesoamérica y el Área Istmo-colombiana durante el Postclásico Temprano: Un acercamiento desde Los Naranjos, noroeste de Honduras (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. En los territorios considerados como los márgenes fronterizos entre Mesoamérica y el Área Istmo-colombiana, la transición entre el Clásico y Postclásico (siglos IX-XII dC) corresponde a un periodo de reorganización de sus sociedades. Particularmente en el noroeste de Honduras se caracterizaron notables evoluciones en los centros...
Materializing ideas. Preliminary analysis of roof tiles images from the Nuestra Señora de Loreto I and San Ignacio Mini I missions (1610 – 1631) (2017)
In this paper we will be discussing the iconography of the roof tiles found in the primitive missions of Nuestra Senora de Loreto and San Ignacio Mini located in the region of the Guairá. The aim is to analyze the material and symbolic universe that circulated in the primitive Jesuits missions (1610 - 1631). In order to achieve this goal, we will first analyze the technologies of production, the iconographic types and interpret the possible meanings acquired in the representations shown on the...
Materializing Ritual: Sorcery, Transformation, and Divination in Greater Nicoya (2017)
Themes involving spiritual transformation have long been noted in the material culture of pre-Columbian Greater Nicoya, with standardized ritual imagery appearing in local Sapoá period (AD 800-1250) ceramic type-classes such as Papagayo and Pataky Polychromes. A recent iconographic re-evaluation suggests that at least some varieties from these ‘independent types’ were designed to work together, to complement one another in both ritual messaging and formal function. Here we focus explicitly on...
Materializing the Maya Collapse and Shifting Alliances during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries: Circular Shrines and Other “Mexicanized” Traits in Belize and Beyond (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 I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Across the Maya Lowlands, circular shrines have been reported that resemble smaller versions of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza. According to Ringle and colleagues (1998), Chichen Itza was one of many centers in a shrine network extending along the...
The MAUP and the Milpa: Analytical Scale and the Problem of Lowland Maya Sustainability (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Provisioning Ancient Maya Cities: Modeling Food Production and Land Use in Tropical Urban Environments" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Researchers assess sustainability using spatial bounds, be they for a single community or the entire planet. But the specific boundaries we use matter greatly, because practices (and populations) that are unsustainable at one scale may be sustainable at another depending on a host of...