Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brett A. Houk.

The Chan Chich Archaeological Project has documented two types of terminal, above floor "problematic" artifact deposits in a number of different locations and contexts at the site of Chan Chich, Belize. The first type comprises light scatters of "exotic" ceramics and other artifacts on the steps to range buildings in epicentral courtyards. The second type is a dense artifact deposit in an ashy matrix at the base of a platform face in a hilltop, elite courtyard. Compositionally, the second type...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marieka Brouwer Burg. Eleanor Harrison-Buck. Samantha Krause.

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. There are many persistent issues that hamper archaeological interpretations of human-landscape interactions, from modern-day disturbances to more distant postdepositional processes and changing environmental conditions. These circumstances often make it a challenge to tease out cultural behaviors and the resulting...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Whittaker Schroder.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Discussions of political collapse in archaeology have shifted recently to approaches that incorporate the adaptive cycles of resilience and reorganization that highlight the continuity of certain cultural practices, belief systems, and worldviews alongside the disintegration of political systems. This approach has garnered support especially in the Maya area...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ashley Booher. Brett A. Houk.

Chan Chich is one of the dozen largest Maya ruins in Belize, reaching its apogee during the Late Classic period, ca. A.D. 750. The site has a number of notable site planning characteristics, including a massive public plaza, and two wide, radial causeways, that show connections to neighboring sites and suggest common ideas about city building. Some of these shared planning ideas reflect top-down design concepts related to specialized political and ritual functions for various buildings and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carmen Pérez. Yoko Sugiura. Wesley Stoner.

La cerámica Coyotlatelco ha jugado un papel importante en el Epiclásico del Altiplano Central de México. Dicho complejo cerámico se constituye por formas de servicio como ollas, cazuelas, cajetes, platos y vasos, y exhibe características definidas por un alto grado de pulimento y decoración pintada en rojo sobre bayo, cremoso o blanco. Los resultados del análisis NAA y el estilístico, realizados al Coyotlatelco tanto de la cuenca de México como del valle de Toluca señalan que éste no parece...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yasmine Flynn-Arajdal.

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. Iconographic sources indicate that the wearing of earspools by ancient Maya peoples was so ubiquitous that it was an essential part of personhood, a status put into jeopardy when earspools were removed and replaced with paper in scenes of almost naked captives or of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Paris. Ashley Megan Williams. Gabriel Laló Jacinto.

This is an abstract from the "Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents an analysis of obsidian artifacts from the ancient Maya city of Tenam Puente. The site is located in the eastern Chiapas highlands, and was occupied from approximately AD 500 to 1100. We analyze a sample of 859 obsidian artifacts from the site’s monumental zone, which were excavated by the Proyecto Tenam Puente,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Megan Leight. Brent Woodfill. Alexander Rivas.

Investigations at Cancuen, Sebol, Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, and other sites at the base of the Guatemalan highlands since the late 1990s have shown the importance of the region for importing and refining a variety of highland goods for the lowland market. While most of the emphasis has been placed on the goods for which there is direct evidence of production and exchange—obsidian, jade, iron pyrite, and other lithic commodities present in abundance at these and other sites—Demarest, Dillon,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marisol Cortes-Rincon. Erik Marinkovich. Cady Rutherford. Spencer Mitchell. Kyle Ports.

This study investigates the nature and intensity of ancient Maya household economies in northwestern Belize. The primary focus will be centered on investigative ways in which settlement pattern data offers insight to understanding production systems in hinterland communities. The preliminary patterned relationship that emerged among settlement features and land resources allowed for the interpretation of land management strategies and production systems implemented in different environment zones...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Schreiner.

This is an abstract from the "Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations over several decades in the Mirador Basin of northern Guatemala, combined with detailed experimental data, have revealed extraordinary use of lime products in the construction and maintenance of Maya causeways, architecture, and associated art. This paper will consider both the quantitative utilization...

DOCUMENT Citation Only C. Fred Andrus. Alice R. Kelley. Daniel H. Sandweiss.

El Niño-related changes in marine and terrestrial productivity impacted Chicama residents in several ways, including altering available marine species, soil productivity, and by extension, the technological and economic innovations necessary to adapt. The combination of marine and terrestrial resources were central to the economy of people living in the Chicama Valley throughout the Holocene. Estimates of El Niño’s effects on past marine productivity typically rely on open ocean proxies distant...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Halperin.

In many ways, simple molded Maya figurines during the Late Classic period become ordinary objects, aided in part by the technological capability of reproduction through molds. Nonetheless, molds do not automatically create ordinary, accessible, everyday objects, and, in turn, ordinary objects are not without their ability to delight and affect the senses. This paper draws on newly collected ceramic production evidence from the site of Ucanal, Guatemala, as well as a compilation of research on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Freeman. Jeanne Moe.

Project Archaeology is a comprehensive national archaeology education program, jointly sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management and Montana State University, which uses archaeological inquiry to foster understanding of past and present cultures; improve social studies and science education; and enhance citizenship education to help preserve our archaeological legacy. To date it has reached more than 15,000 educators with curriculum guides, activity guides, and professional development. These...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Juan Gonzalez. Brandi Reger. Sarah Hardage. Russell Skowronek.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The South Texas Sand Sheet (STSS) spans ~7,000 km2, and consists largely of sand sheet deposits, mostly under three meters thick, stabilized by vegetation, but active SE-NW longitudinal dune ridges make up less than 5% of its area. Evidence of human presence in the STSS in prehispanic times is sparse. Limited archeological investigations have revealed a record...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Byram. Kent Lightfoot. Jun Sunseri.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fluted point weaponry types and the expansion of Indigenous people across North American megafauna habitats 13,050–12,650 cal BP are considered in light of historical polearm use. Confronting megaherbivores such as Proboscidea and Bison or megacarnivores such as Arctodus, Panthera, and Smilodon with thrust or thrown spears was likely less effective than...

DOCUMENT Full-Text Francis McManamon.

This is an abstract from the "Attention to Detail: A Pragmatic Career of Research, Mentoring, and Service, Papers in Honor of Keith Kintigh" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Keith Kintigh is having quite a career in archaeology. I use the active voice because, as those of us who work with Keith well know, he’s not finished yet! Throughout his career, Kintigh has promoted the benefits and values of an archaeological perspective steadfastly. Since...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Stuart.

This is an abstract from the "Decipherment, Digs, and Discourse: Honoring Stephen Houston's Contributions to Maya Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The 1980s saw dramatic new insights into the decipherment of ancient Maya writing, much of it spurred by collaborations with my friend and colleague Steve Houston. One of these was the recognition of inscribed "name-tags" on various types of portable objects and monuments, serving to specify...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin Cramb.

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Property Regimes" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The tradition of resource-use prohibition known as rahui is found throughout the Pacific Islands. Rahui typically involves placing certain resources or areas of the land and sea under the protection of a central authority. For rahui to exist the concept of collective resource exploitation must also exist. This appears antithetical to the traditional...

DOCUMENT Citation Only José De Calasanz Ligorred Perramon.

This is an abstract from the "2024 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Luis Barba" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. En nuestra ponencia presentaremos el fruto de años de relación entre el Laboratorio fundado por el doctor Luis Barba, que fue nuestro profesor en los años ochenta cursando la licenciatura en Arqueología en la ENAH de la Ciudad de México. Desde entonces, nos asomamos como arqueólogos al patrimonio invisible y/o abandonado...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Vania Carrillo Bosch. Aline Magnoni. Travis Stanton.

The objective of the paper is to present and compare the notions held by the contemporary residents of the town of Yaxcabá, the municipality’s head, and the village of Yaxunah in Central Yucatán, about the protection and conservation of the archaeological sites on their lands. Even though Yaxcabá and Yaxunah are less than 20 km apart, these two population centers display social, political, and economic differences and have been influenced by varying amounts of exposure to archaeological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Isabel Medina-González. Manuel Espinosa-Pesqueira. Gregory Pereira.

Within the large and rich vein of archaeological studies on Western Mesoamerican metallurgy (ca. 800-1500 a.C.), a large body of literature is devoted to the metal production of the Tarasco Kingdom (1420-1522 a.C.), since by 1450 a.C. this became the most important centre of Pre-Columbian metalworking. Indeed many scientific studies have focused on the material and the technological aspects of Tarascan metal artefacts, particularly of copper and copper alloy bells. In comparison, little in known...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Linda Howie. Heather McKillop. E. Cory Sills.

The pottery recovered from Late Classic Maya salt works sites can reveal important information about both the production and distribution of this highly valued trade item. Determination of the geographic origin of the serving vessels and storage jars recovered from salt works, for example, provides direct evidence of trade connections to other areas, as well as the geographic extent of the exchange networks through which salt was distributed. From local perspective, the technological...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Judith Sichler.

Historic records indicate that during the late 18th and into the 19th century preserved North Atlantic fishes were shipped to the West Indies as a relatively cheap source of protein to feed enslaved persons and also the planter class. However, in historic zooarchaeological analyses of faunal assemblages from the Caribbean, the presence of these food remains is often not identified. Using two sites from the Danish West Indies, a case will be made for the use of fine-screen techniques to ensure...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Nicole Boudreaux. Laura Levi. Christian Sheumaker.

It is now well recognized that Late Classic Maya communities varied politically, economically, and environmentally. The corollary, however, that community and household variation went hand-in-hand in the Maya area often goes unrecognized or under problematized. Research that explores differences in household provisioning practices across a range of communities should help to rectify this situation. Referencing data from two large prehispanic Maya sites in northwestern Belize, this paper asks the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mauricio Torres. Andrea Chávez. Andrea Méndez. Byron Ortiz.

El Parque Arqueológico Cochasquí se encuentra en las estribaciones sur orientales del macizo montañoso de Mojanda, en la provincia de Pichincha a 52 Km al norte de Quito. El sitio está conformado por 15 pirámides truncas, casi todas conservando sus rampas que facilitan el acceso a la parte superior. En el mismo espacio se puede encontrar varios montículos circulares. En 1932 Max Uhle - el primer arqueólogo en realizar excavaciones dentro del sitio – concluyó que las pirámides fueron sitios...