Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
2,651-2,675 (4,066 Records)
This paper highlights the preliminary results of an ongoing study that aims to further characterize the origins and subsequent development of arsenic bronze technologies on the north coast of Peru. While the production of arsenic bronze on the north coast has been studied in detail over the last several decades, the spatial and temporal origins for the use/production of these alloys – and how they spread throughout the region during the Middle Horizon (600 – 1000 CE) period – are not yet fully...
The Origins of Complex Maya Societies: The Middle Preclassic Period in the Mirador-Calakmul Basin (2017)
Recent multidisciplinary investigations in the Mirador-Calakmul Basin have provided evidence of human sedentary occupation by about 2600 B.C. Data from coring of shallow lakes and from small residential structures with postholes in bedrock below Middle Preclassic platforms show evidence of corn pollen, isotopes, and human presence by this early period. Archaeological investigations at sites such as Nakbe, El Mirador, Xulnal, Wakna and El Pesquero, among others, have identified architectural...
The Origins of Maya Civilization: New Evidence from Ceibal and Sites in the Middle Usumacinta Basin (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The analysis of new LiDAR data has revealed many previously unknown early Middle Preclassic sites in the Middle Usumacinta drainage. The sites are monumental in their extensions and consist of a large rectangular feature or platform oriented slightly east of north, delineated by low mounds...
The Origins of Sociopolitical Complexity in Western Belize: Investigating Preclassic Occupation in the Site Core of Xunantunich (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous studies in the Maya area indicate many lowland Maya site cores developed gradually with continuous construction and modifications extending back to the Preclassic era (1200 BC–AD 300). In spite of this developmental sequence, few sites exhibiting Preclassic transition phases have been intensively investigated. One example is the Belize Valley site...
Origins: Contextualizing the Beginning and Development of the PfBAP (2017)
The introduction of a large-scale regional project in northwest Belize began as a more modest endeavor in northeast Guatemala. How the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) began, how it has modified through several decades, and what we anticipate as its future are discussed. A brief review of select projects within the PfBAP are mentioned as examples of overall program interests. Importantly, the PfBAP relationships with the Belize Government, local communities, and other entities...
Orinocan Prehistory and its Wider Relationships (2017)
The archeological sequence developed in the Upper Orinoco in the vicinity of the Atures Rapids has not only local continuity through time but exhibits broader relationships with northern South America. The earliest preceramic components in the region, dated to ca. 10,000 BP, can be linked to comparable occupations that have been documented in the Sabana de Bogota. Slightly later preceramic components represented by distinctive contracting stemmed projectile points show links to sites in central...
Osteoarthritis in Hands, Feet, Spine, and Temporomandibular Joint from Individuals Buried at Tiwanaku Sites in Moquegua, Peru (2017)
This study evaluated evidence of osteoarthritis in the multiple joints of the wrist and hand (ulnae, radii, carpals, and metacarpals, finger phalanges), ankle and feet (tibia, tarsals, metatarsals, foot phalanges), spine (cervical, thoracic, lumbar vertebrae), and temporomandibular joint from human skeletal remains previously excavated from Tiwanaku sites within the Moquegua Valley of Peru (AD 500-1000). Osteoarthritis, a type of degenerative joint disease with a complex etiology, has been shown...
The Osteobiography of Human Remains from the Seaview and Indian Town Trail Archaeological Sites (2024)
This is an abstract from the "At the Frontier of Big Climate, Disaster Capitalism, and Endangered Cultural Heritage in Barbuda, Lesser Antilles" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Climate change and privatization activities related to disaster capitalism threaten land ownership rights and landscape preservation in Barbuda. Barbuda is home to multigenerational residences, businesses, schools, and buildings of cultural significance. Also, on this land...
An Osteobiography of Skeletal Remains from Holtun, Guatemala (2018)
Excavations at the site of Holtun, Guatemala during the 2014 – 2017 field seasons yielded eighteen human burials from various temporal periods and site locations. Holtun was inhabited by the ancient Maya from the Middle Preclassic (1000 – 300 BCE) to the Terminal Classic Period (600 – 900 CE). Recent archaeological investigations have identified the Preclassic period at Holtun as a time characterized by increasing social inequality, but few burials have been recovered to infer the impact of...
An Osteobiography of Tomb Op. 42, Ent. 5 from Copán, Honduras (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Marking and Making of Social Persons: Embodied Understandings in the Archaeologies of Childhood and Adolescence" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research constructs an osteobiological narrative of two females and a male from Copán, Honduras, who were placed together within a Classic period (AD 600–822) tomb in the residential group Salamar (8L-10) Op. 42. Utilizing mortuary and isotopic data, this case study...
The Other Flying Serpent (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From at least the Epiclassic period onward, the Feathered Serpent was frequently accompanied by a Cloud Serpent. In the mythology of the Nahuas he was known as Mixcoatl or Camaxtli in his anthropomorphic form, and was either the father or half-brother of Quetzalcoatl. A patron of the hunt, he...
"The Other Half of the Sky": Competitive Anarchy in Contact-Era Palau (2018)
This paper explores the way in which contact-era Palauan society negotiated between hierarchy and heterarchy to ensure long-term sociopolitical stability, developing and deploying a theory of competitive anarchy. The evaluation critiques the frequent correlation of complexity with hierarchy and centrality and does so through a geostatistical analysis. This investigation begins with the development of a proposed model of Palauan sociopolitical structure, derived through ethnographic descriptions...
Otolith Metrics and Fishing Strategies on the North Coast of Peru (2017)
In this paper I compare Otolith metrics from two coastal sites in the Moche Valley, Gramalote and Cerro La Virgen. This comparison is aimed at evaluating possible shifts in fishing strategies as reflected in the range and normative values of fish size over time. Gramalote is a small politically autonomous fishing village occupied during the Initial Period. Cerro La Virgen is a large town occupied as part of the expanding political empire of the Chimu during the Late Intermediate Period. The two...
Our Future Is Applied: The Applied Archaeology MA Program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Future of Education and Training in Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since 2009 the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) Applied Archaeology MA program has prepared students for archaeology careers outside of the academy. Through constant contact with employers and alumni, as well as an advisory board of archaeology professionals, the IUP program has been responsive to changes in the job market. The...
Our Sites at Risk: Climate Related Threats to NPS Administered Archeological Sites (2018)
Over the past 15 years NPS archeological sites from Texas to Maine have faced devastating impacts from hurricanes and other climate related events. During this time, Hurricanes such as Isabel, Ivan, Katrina, Sandy and most recently Harvey and Irma have caused extensive damage to NPS archeological sites. Although not subjected to direct impacts from these recent hurricanes, National Capital Region (NCR) parks have been heavily damaged by their collateral impacts, typically in the form of...
Ours and Theirs: Chapels and Community Dynamics at Rancho Kiuic, Yucatán, México (2017)
Drawing on recent excavation and oral history data from the site of Rancho Kiuic, this paper will compare information related to two chapels located within the community. Formerly known as San Sebastián, the community functioned from the late Colonial to National periods as a ranching operation occupied by several generations of Maya-speaking landowners and laborers. Though the two chapels (Capillas I and II) share a number of structural and temporal characteristics, their respective locations,...
Out of Clay and into Stone: The Emergence of Warriors at Chichen Itza (2018)
In the Early Classic period a distinct characteristic of Central Mexican art is the appearance of warriors in public art. To the contrary, these figures generally appear on more private, personal items in the art of the Classic Maya, though their proliferation on these media distinctly rises in the Late Classic. In a remarkable development, the presence of warriors in public art explodes in Early Postclassic Chichen Itza. While central Mexican influence may have sparked this development, this...
Out of Mexico: An Archaeological Evaluation of the Migration Legends of Greater Nicoya (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. Ethnohistoric documents pertaining to the Greater Nicoya archaeological subarea document legends in which the inhabitants of western Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica traced their ancestry to migrations from the north, presumably in Mexico. Linguistic data indicate that speakers of Chorotega, an Oto-Manguean language, and...
Out of site, Out of Mind: Women's Hidden Labor and the Making of Modern American Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Sins of Our Ancestors (and of Ourselves): Confronting Archaeological Legacies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While some work has been done over the past few decades to uncover the roles of female archaeologists who supported their husband's careers with little acknowledgment, less work has been done to explore the diversity of forgotten women's labor that helped support American archaeology since the late 19th...
Outcomes of Site Stewardship: Exploring the Vast Archives of Site Preservation (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Democratizing Heritage Creation: How-To and When" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Data collected through site stewardship programs are unique and provide insights into the long-term preservation of archaeological sites. Stewardship programs across the country are working with communities to document changes over time from environmental and human-driven causes. Site changes are recorded using photography, monitoring...
Outreach and Education: Approaches and Strategies from the Montana State Historic Preservation Office (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Outreach and Education: Examples of Approaches and Strategies from the Pacific Northwest" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Having a public that is knowledgeable about, and interested in, archaeology benefits us all. However, achieving that goal requires we learn from each other to better serve our mission and build communities. The Montana State Historic Preservation Office (MT SHPO), which is part of the Montana...
Outreach, Education, and Archaeological Collections: Public Archaeology at the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Touching the Past: Public Archaeology Engagement through Existing Collections" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist (OWSA) has become increasingly focused on implementing public outreach initiatives to more effectively engage Wyoming’s citizenry in archaeological investigations and collections care. Our office manages the University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository, and the...
Outside Looking In: The Piedras Negras Near Periphery Re-examined (2018)
Surveys in 1997 and 1998 recorded 89 Classic Maya sites with 254 structures in the near periphery of Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Twenty-five sites were test pitted and five were intensively excavated. Recent re-analysis of the ceramic, lithic and architectural data from these sites provides new insights into how the Late Classic Maya (A.D. 625-825) in the near periphery participated in the Piedras Negras kingdom. Population size and implications for conflict are considered. Comparison of material...
Overcoming Centralization in the Ancient Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: Toward a Novel Model of Indigenous Low-Density Urbanism in Northern Colombia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Theorizing Prehistoric Large Low-Density Settlements beyond Urbanism and Other Conventional Classificatory Conventions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper develops a novel model to understand the social organization of landscapes and urban settlements in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This region's history mainly stems from the imposition of European categories to interpret the sociopolitical organization of...
Overcoming Variability in Zooarchaeological Data Quality (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Numerous paleoclimate proxies from Aotearoa New Zealand indicate the Little Ice Age (ca. 1450 – 1900 CE) caused marked changes in local conditions that could have affected the productivity of marine fisheries. Considering the critical relationships that have always existed between fisheries and Māori economic, social, and spiritual life, any changes in...