Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
3,101-3,125 (3,437 Records)
The Maya port and site of Vista Alegre carried political and trade importance in the Terminal Classic to Early Postclassic periods. Located in the Laguna Yalahau of northern Quintana Roo, Mexico, the site is built on a small and low elevation island surrounded by mangrove. Inland from the site are freshwater wetlands (sabanas), while the near-shore waters of the restricted circulation lagoon are hypersaline. A significant research question is how the inhabitants of Vista Alegre accessed potable...
Thermal Processes on Tropical Archaeological Shell: An Experimental Study (2018)
Tropical archaeological shell middens throughout Australasia provide valuable information about subsistence practices, environmental changes, and human occupation. One of the major anthropic processes that can occur in any midden site is burning or heating of the shell, either from cooking or heat-treating shell for working. Thermal influences on marine shell are poorly understood across all disciplines, including archaeology. Burning or heating may not always show any visual signs and rather...
The thermal properties of textured ceramics: an experimental study (1990)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us using the...
They are what they eat: A need to know more about diet through residues, hieroglyphic texts, and images of the Classic Mayas (2017)
Among the various sources of information about what foodstuffs comprised the Classic Mayan diet, we lack resolution on daily, domestic, and the various ritual and event foodstuffs. Beyond the archaeologically recovered macrofossil and faunal data, the identifications of drugs and ritual foodstuffs are less well established. Speculative and presumed behaviors that surround these goods tend to bias methods of analysis towards known substances and preconceived interpretations, thereby potentially...
They Blinded Me with Science: Methods and Approaches at the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Landscapes in Northwestern Belize, Part I" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) was established to explore ancient Maya life in a 250,000 acre area of protected forest in northwest Belize, employing a regional perspective grounded in robust field methods. This regionally-oriented approach continues to guide research being conducted at PfB every year since...
Thieves, Stowaways, Hitchhikers, and Hangers-On: The Commensal Niche in the Prehistoric Caribbean (2018)
Prehistoric commensal animal relationships are understudied for the Caribbean, with little explicit consideration for the defining attributes of the insular commensal niche or what taxa may be rightly considered commensal. Here, I address these issues by clarifying the nature of Caribbean commensalism with respect to synanthropy, domestication, animal management, and phoresy. I consider which vertebrate and invertebrate taxa most likely enjoyed commensal relationships with humans in the...
Things Forgotten: The Unique of the Hell Gap Site (2018)
Forager campsites are commonly thought of as locations where social activities occur, but most archaeologists focus on subsistence (butchery, processing), stone tool production and use, and how these systems relate to mobility strategies. The record is often silent when it comes to the behaviors incidental to what appears central economic endeavors. Often camps yield information beyond subsistence. Ochre, needles, beads, bone rods, structures, and context of various activities provide more...
Things People Do with XRF (2019)
This is an abstract from the "2019 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of M. Steven Shackley" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past 15-20 years, archaeological chemistry has moved largely from centralized laboratories of interdisciplinary expertise to decentralized laboratories where expertise often times is lacking. This shift is most pronounced in the widespread adoption and use of inexpensive, compact, highly portable XRF...
Thinking of Starting a Stewardship Program? Lessons Learned from the National Site Stewardship Network Survey 2022 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Site Stewardship Matters: Comparing and Contrasting Site Stewardship Programs to Advance Our Practice" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the last 15 years, there have been several surveys of cultural site stewardship programs. None, however, reach the scale of the 2022 National Site Stewardship Network Survey, which included over 30 programs across the US and one in Scotland. This provided an opportunity to...
Thinking outside the map: Alternative approaches to data visualization (2017)
One of the more promising applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in archaeology is the potential to incorporate aspects of human perception and experience of the landscape. Visibility analysis has been applied extensively to archaeological contexts, and models of movement, acoustics and other sensory experiences have recently received greater consideration. But despite the promise of moving beyond measurements of geographic space, most applications of experiential modeling continue...
Thirty Years After La Mojarra: Epi-Olmec Writing Revisited (2017)
Almost a century after William H. Holmes published the first study of the incomparable Tuxtla Statuette, the La Mojarra Stela was recovered from the Acula River in Veracruz, Mexico. In the three decades that followed, the hieroglyphic script that pours over these objects has been scrutinized and debated, named and renamed, both deciphered and declared undecipherable. This paper reflects on the status of Isthmian studies and explores the intricacies of Epi-Olmec visual culture as it is understood...
“This is the true history of the people of Chajul”: Selected Aspects of the Narratives and Music of the Tz’unun Dance (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Baile del Tz’unun is one of the dance-plays performed in the western highlands of Guatemala. In the past it was an annual celebration in Chajul. It is also present in Aguacatan, and there is a documented history of musical exchange between these two regions. Oral tradition associated to the Baile del Tz’unun as well as in the same time to...
Thread production in Late Postclassic Tepeticpac, Tlaxcala: a technological and experimental study of archaeological spindle whorls. (2017)
Textile production was one of the most valuable social and economic activities in prehispanic Mesoamerica. In this study, we inquire into thread production in the site of Tepeticpac, Tlaxcala, one of the main altepemeh of Late Postclassic Tlaxcallan, using a technological, ethnoarchaeological and experimental analysis. In particular, we evaluate key attributes of archaeological spindle whorls in the spinning process, including weight, shape and moment of inertia. With the collaboration of three...
Three Rivers Watersheds: Regional Water Resources of Northwestern Belize and Beyond (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Landscapes in Northwestern Belize, Part II" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research seeks to understand the interconnections and interactions of the water resources of Northwestern Belize, via its contributing Three Rivers Watersheds. The Three Rivers Watersheds drain Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize via the Rio Azul/Blue Creek, Rio Bravo, and Booths River systems. These Three Rivers merge to form the...
Three Walks Through Tzacauil: Engaging the Rural Landscape of Central Yucatán 2000 Years Ago, 1000 Years Ago, and Today (2018)
Tzacauil is a small archaeological site in the hinterlands of Yaxuná, a major center in the central Yucatán region of the northern Maya lowlands. Excavations of Tzacauil’s nine house groups suggest that a community formed here twice: first during the Late Formative period (250 BCE – 250 CE) and again in the Terminal Classic period (700 – 1100 CE). Both of these occupations coincide with population peaks at nearby Yaxuná. Judging by the ample open spaces surrounding the site’s house groups,...
Three-Dimensional Spatial Evidence of the Development of Agriculture in the Sigatoka River System, Viti Levu, Fiji (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Geospatial Studies in the Archaeology of Oceania" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transition from coastal foraging to inland/upland horticulture in Viti Levu, Fiji appears to be marked by the early incorporation (~3000 BP) of fruit arboriculture in the primary tributaries of the Sigatoka River, with later (~2500 BP) evidence for the development of more intensive agriculture involving root and tuber farming and pond...
A Thriving Non-Royal Lineage at Blue Creek; Evidence From a Sequence of Burials, Caches and Architecture (2002)
As the fortunes of the Maya city of Blue Creek (Belize) rose in the Late Preclassic and Early Classic, so did those of its elite, non-royals. In one elite residence, the Structure 37 Plazuela, we see evidence of a lineage marked by the interment of an early venerated ancestor, possibly its founder. Later, as this lineage became important on a community-wide basis and as the community itself grew in wealth and stature, another individual was interred nearby, bearing accoutrements of a shaman....
Through a Scanner...Darkly? LiDAR, Survey, and Mapping at the Ancient Maya Center El Pilar (2018)
Survey at the ancient Maya center El Pilar, along the border between Belize and Guatemala, has incorporated LiDAR imagery since 2013, allowing expansive – yet targeted – coverage of settlement beyond the monumental core. Successive field seasons have revealed a complex picture of landscape modification, resource extraction, and settlement concentration in different micro-environmental zones around the city center. Our fieldwork in 2017 had three foci: 1) explore and map the Amatal Supercluster,...
Through a Smoke Cloud Darkly: The Possible Social Significance of Candeleros in Terminal Classic Naco Valley Society (2015)
Candeleros, fired clay artifacts with one to over 20 chambers, are widely distributed across Terminal Classic (AD 800-1000) contexts in the Naco valley of northwestern Honduras. Though reported from other parts of Mesoamerica, little is known about the varied ways this distinctive artifact figured in tasks engaged in by people of diverse ranks and might have been used in negotiating interpersonal transactions. This presentation provides initial responses to these queries based on a functional...
Thule Culture in South Greenland, 1500–1900 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Climate and Heritage in the North Atlantic: Burning Libraries" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In collaboration with the NABO RESPONSE and Activating Arctic Heritage teams, Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu (Greenland National Museum and Archives) have intensively surveyed the Uunartoq Fjord, Igaliko Fjord, and Tunilliarfik Fjord, inner and outer fjord systems in South Greenland. The goal was to establish...
Ties to the Ancestors: Examining a Late Classic Household at Las Ruinas de Arenal, Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There has been a long history of settlement and household archaeology in the Belize River valley that has added significantly to our understanding of everyday people in the Maya lowlands. Recent studies that include LiDAR provide a broader landscape perspective. LiDAR can also be useful in determining labor investment in domestic architecture through...
Tikal's Missing Carved Wooden Lintel (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1879, the Guatemalan Secretary of Agriculture Salvador Valenzuela saw the damage to the temples of Tikal by the removal of many of its carved wooden lintels, and observed that; “The beams of the doors of these towers, which form the lintels of the doors, were pulled out by a foreign doctor [Gustave Bernoulli] the year before last, and that which time...
A Time before Color: Revisiting the Codex Style (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In “The Maya Scribe and His World”, Michael D. Coe recognized a “Maya artist of enormous distinction” when analyzing the hand of the painter of the codex-style drinking cup now known as the Metropolitan Vase. This presentation is a reexamination of individual hands in the codex style...
The Time the Tikal State Emerged (2023)
This is an abstract from the "La Cuernavilla, Guatemala: A Maya Fortress and Its Environs" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the first centuries of the CE, the Maya Lowlands underwent many changes in its political landscape, which were caused by the abandonment of the main Formative centers, including El Palmar, which was the most powerful center in the Buenavista Valley. Taking advantage of these compulsive times, Tikal begins to become the...
Tiwanaku colonization and the great reach west: Preliminary results of the Locumba Archaeological Survey 2015-2016 (2017)
Locumba represents a key intermediate location for consideration of the timing and affiliation of Tiwanaku colonization of the Moquegua, Sama, Caplina and Azapa valleys. Models of Tiwanaku state colonization, diasporic enclaves, and a "daisy chain" of secondary and tertiary colonization from initial provinces in Moquegua are considered. Ongoing systematic regional survey in the 2015 and 2016 seasons of the Locumba Archaeological Project has defined 74 site sectors, including 16 sectors of...