Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
3,501-3,525 (4,066 Records)
For thousands of years and on a global scale, shellfish have been a key resource for peoples living in island and coastal environments. Not only were they critical food resources, but can act as records of paleoenvironmental conditions. In this study, we evaluated whether the crocus clam (Tridacna crocea) could satisfactorily record ambient water temperature via the incorporation of oxygen isotope ratios into the calcium carbonate matrix during shell growth. Modern Tridacna crocea were collected...
Standards for Crime Scene Investigation: An OSAC Update (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Forensic Archaeology: Research & Practice" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) is a federal effort coordinated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create standards of best practice for all disciplines within forensic science. In 2015, NIST created an OSAC subcommittee to address the lack of standards within crime scene investigation. ...
Starfish in the offerings of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2017)
Recent excavations carried out by the Templo Mayor Project in Tenochtitlan’s sacred precinct uncovered a significant number of calcium carbonate plates, which, in spite of their advanced degree of deterioration, can be identified as consisting of the endoskeletons of sea stars. These organisms belong to the Asteroidea (from the Greek aster: "star" and eidos: "in the shape of") class, most of which exhibit radial symmetry and have thin, discernibly pentagonal bodies. Sea stars inhabit marine...
Stark Variation: New Insights into Dire Wolves and their Interactions with Humans (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dire wolves are an iconic extinct Pleistocene species in the Americas and their interactions with humans at Paleoindian sites has been largely unknown. Here we explore potential interactions between dire wolves and Paleoindians at sites in the San Pedro Valley, Arizona. We also present new radiocarbon dates and the results of our ancient DNA...
The State of State Archaeological Site Files (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Transformations in Professional Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The North Carolina Office of State Archaeology (NCOSA) has spent several years digitizing its archive of reports and site records to improve access for cultural resource managers and researchers. As we work towards making those files available for professional archaeologists to search remotely, we have compiled data on how other states make...
The State of the Art in Stating Risk: Assessment of Climate Vulnerability Assessments for National Park Service Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Resources (2018)
Across America, the National Park Service has conducted an array of vulnerability assessments for climate change impacts for cultural heritage resources, including archaeology, historic structures, cultural landscapes, and others. A project is currently underway to analyze these assessments. This process is designed to improve the practice of vulnerability assessments as well as scientific understanding of cultural resources vulnerability to climate change. In this paper we share preliminary...
Statecraft, Politics, and Kingship in the Northern Maya Lowlands, with a Focus on the Puuc Region (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Regimes of the Ancient Maya" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines the nature of northern Maya lowland statecraft, politics, and kingship and how they differ and parallel that of the southern lowlands. In keeping with the goal of the symposium this paper focuses on the concept of “regime” recognizing the Maya, especially when considering the northern and southern areas, created distinct political...
Statistically Comparing Demographic Distributions of Mortuary Assemblages (2017)
This analysis includes data from 50 archaeological mortuary assemblages variously attributed to sacrifice, warfare, and standard mortality processes. The research compares two sites, both attributed to sacrifice, to those produced by the two alternative processes of warfare and standard mortality and explores the question of whether these assemblages may be differentiated from them based on the age distribution of deaths. The analysis incorporates a novel feature in that preservation bias is...
Status and Identity at the Margins of Empire: Foodways in pre-Inka and Inka Cuzco (2017)
Diet and cuisine are key practices in the daily negotiation of status and identity, particularly when studied at the household level. In the Maras region of rural Cuzco, the developing Inka state and a rival polity known ethnohistorically as the Ayarmaka maintained autonomous economic, social, and political practices. While other groups in the Cuzco region exchanged goods and shared some cultural practices with the Inka, the Ayarmakas did not. In the 15th century, the Ayarmaka suddenly abandoned...
The Status of Excavations and Research at Blue Creek - 1997 (1997)
This report provides an overview of six years of fieldwork and research at the Blue Creek site. At this stage the project is designed to be an investigation of the internal structure of a single Maya city, with consideration of the city's temporal and functional dynamics as well as relationships with its neighbors. This report summarizes the status of these efforts both topically and in terms of fieldwork accomplished and future field seasons.
Steering through North American Archaeology: Reflections on the Effectiveness of an Open Textbook Steering Committee (2018)
As an open educational resource, this textbook has been designed to incorporate the perspectives and expertise of a variety of different scholars and stakeholders from across North America. Early in the process, a ‘steering committee’ was established to try and ensure balanced coverage, maintain a relatively consistent voice, and iron out any difficulties that may arise. The steering committee has also been responsible for some of the small but important details like hunting down copyrights,...
Stela and Altar Rituals: Caches, Inscriptions and Iconography in Tikal, Petén, Guatemala (250-950 AD) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mayan stelae and altars are a key epigraphic and iconographic source for understanding the political history of the Classic period (250-900 AD). Tikal produced a particularly large number of these monuments in a variety of architectural contexts: Twin Pyramids Groups, Plazas, Great Temples, residential groups and even remote areas, probably corresponding...
A Step-by-Step Guide to Excavating Burials, or how a Bioarchaeologist can be in Two (or Three) Places at Once (2017)
Bioarchaeologists often are faced with the challenge of managing field excavations and lab analyses of skeletal remains at the same time, along with student and staff training and curation of osteological remains. I present results from recent fieldwork at the Classic Maya sites Actuncan and San Lorenzo, Belize that were excavated using a method designed for non-osteologists. This includes complex burial deposits that were re-entered, secondary burials, and comingled and disturbed remains that...
Stephen D. Houston’s Bloody, Courtly, Fiery, and Luxurious Contributions to Exhibitions of Maya Art (2019)
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. As a graduate student, Stephen Houston contributed references as well as two personal communications to the catalogue for The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art, including drawing Linda Schele and Mary Miller’s attention to key details of an exhibition centerpiece: the Kimbell Art...
Stephen Houston's Impact on Maya Archaeology: Celebrating His Completion of 3 K'atuns (2019)
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. Stephen Douglas Houston was drawn to archaeology and ancient scripts from a young age, fascinated by the rune stones of his mother’s native Sweden. While he is most widely seen as an epigrapher to outsiders, Mayanists recognize that he is, in fact, a world class field archaeologist that knows...
Stephen Kowalewski, su vida y obra: a life of regional survey and looking at the big picture (2015)
In this opening paper for the session in honor of Stephen Kowalewski we talk about Steve’s life and background, his experience in Southwestern and Mesoamerican archaeology, and about a life of teaching and mentoring in the classroom and in the field. We discuss Stephen Kowalewski’s work in archaeology and the rich regional datasets that we now enjoy as a result of his teachings and labors. This presentation also reflects on the theoretical and methodological approaches that Steve has employed...
Stephen Williams and The Vacant Quarter Phenomenon (2018)
Stephen Williams proposed the idea of a Vacant Quarter based on the abandonment of numerous Mississippian polities throughout much of the Midsouth and Midwest. The unprecedented, large-scale depopulation of an approximately 130,000 square kilometer area has been linked with population movements as well as interpolity conflict. By taking a dendroclimatological approach we evaluate the role of climate change in this process, while also being cognizant of social processes. We postulate a staggered...
Stewarding Cultural Landscapes: Managing an Eroding Coastal Site at Pu`uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Perched sand deposits and pocket beaches dot the shoreline at Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park on the island of Hawai'i. Keone'ele Cove, situated along the northern boundary of the park, is a key part of the cultural landscape where Hawaii’s ruling class landed canoes and hosted gatherings, and where native Hawaiians continue these practices in...
Stingless Beeswax in Mesoamerican Investment Casting Processes (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mesoamerican metal objects have been studied in-depth in terms of alloys and production techniques, but little work has focused on the foundry materials used in the prehispanic casting process. In modern foundry practice, synthetic waxes, paraffins, or processed European honeybee wax...
Stitching Histories: Women in the Puerto Rican Clothing Industry between 1910-1930. (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 case study focuses on the reconstruction of stories of women who worked in the clothing industry, specifically dressmakers and seamstress in the Mercado neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico, between 1910-1930. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the viability of using primary sources such as maps, population census and...
Stone Figurines of the Middle Formative in Mesoamerica (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 1" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The first reported green stone figurines from controlled excavations in Mesoamerica occur in Middle Formative (900–400 BC) contexts. Among the best known are those from Offering 4 at La Venta. Mid-twentieth-century excavations at La Venta, conducted by Mathew Stirling, Philip Drucker, and Robert Heizer, also produced the largest...
Stone Goods and the Organization of Late Classic Period Regional Economies of the Middle Usumacinta River Region (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Embedded Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we present the results of the analysis of nearly 42,000 chert and obsidian artifacts from sites in the Middle Usumacinta River region to examine economic production and exchange at the level of the polity. Our study includes a range of household and non-household contexts, revealing entanglements of the lithic economy within the...
Stone tools for steel-age Mexicans?: aspects of production in a Zapotec stoneworking industry (1973)
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...
Stone Tools from the Buen Suceso Site, Santa Elena, Ecuador (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the summer of 2018, the lithic artifacts of two units of the Late Valdivia (2100 BC - 1800 BC) occupation of the Buen Suceso site were analyzed as an undergraduate research project. The Valdivia people were a settled agricultural society based on the utilization of marine, forest, and riverine resources. The people of Buen Suceso lived on the edge of the...
Stone tools use at Cerros: the ethnoarchaeological and use-wear evidence (1987)
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...