Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
551-575 (4,066 Records)
A truism was established very early in Maya studies that the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza had a religious function while the nearby Cenote Xtoloc was the source for domestic drinking water. Part of the attraction of this idea was no doubt its close paralleling of the popular Western dichotomy, sacred vs. profane. The problem with truisms, statements so obviously true that they say nothing new or interesting, is that they direct attention elsewhere. This is probably why the Temple of...
Centering the Edge: The Preclassic Ceramics of Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For many years the notion of a core (or center) versus periphery (or edge) dominated models of prehistoric Maya development. However, in 1979 David Freidel argued against the idea that there was a center or edge, asserting that the lowland Maya belonged to an interaction sphere....
Central American and West Indian Archaeology: Being an Inroduction to the Archaeology of the States of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the West Indies (1916)
This resource contains the entire 343 page book published in 1916 by T.A.Joyce. There are a number of illustration and two Maps of the area and archaeological findings that were known at the time. The cover is not shown but the PDF contains all if the inside pages (including front piece that is a color illustration of a Pottery Figure from Panama; Talamancan that at the time was housed in the Museum of Archaeology at Cambridge UK) and illustrations.
The Central American Ceramics Research Project: A Case Study on How to Make Old Museum Collections Relevant Again (2018)
The Central American Ceramics Research Project, a student driven and collaborative research program carried out between 2009-2013, completed a scholarly survey of more than 13,000 ceramic objects in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The project originated as an effort to update old catalog information and bring to light important but largely forgotten collections of ceramics. However, it quickly developed into a major collaborative research effort that brought...
Central Andes Kotosh Religious Tradition, Third Millennium BCE: Hearth Designs as Andean Portals between Worlds (2017)
On top of Caral Peru’s amphitheater mound, an entry passageway opens to an inner sanctum—tiered benches surrounding a sunken floor and a central ceremonial hearth. This concentric design recessed into the earth repeats in diverse ways throughout third millennium BCE Kotosh Religious Tradition temples in the central Andes. Whence the concentric sunken design and hearth? I propose the hearth functioned as Andean portals for communication with unseen worlds, giving offerings, remembering ancestors....
The Central Maya Highlands during the Postclassic: a marginal region on the eve of the Spanish conquest? (2017)
Compared to its Guatemala counterpart, the region of the Chiapas highlands is known to have a marginal history in the Postclassic period. This misrepresentation is due to limited investigations since the 1960´s and to inexistent ethnohistoric sources, which could provide clues for the interpretation of ethnic and settlement patterns on the eve of the Conquest. However, Spanish documents described "cacicazgos" as Chamula and Zinacantan near Jobel Valley, which is the focal point of our study....
Central Texas Plant Baking (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Hot Rocks in Hot Places: Investigating the 10,000-Year Record of Plant Baking across the US-Mexico Borderlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Burned rock middens, large accumulations of thermally fractured stone and charred earth representing earth oven facilities, are ubiquitous in the hunter-gatherer archaeological record of Central Texas, upon and near the Edwards Plateau. The subject of study for over a century,...
Ceramic Chronology and Current Visions of the "Terminal Classic" and Collapse in the Southern Maya Lowlands: A Brief Desultory Philippic (2017)
Recent popular interpretations have proposed that the "Terminal Classic" in the southern lowlands was a gradual transition or slow multi-stage process or that many ninth and tenth century centers continued to prosper; or even have proposed a "What collapse?" scenario. Yet systematic site by site review of ceramic chronologies and evidence reveals that these characterizations and, indeed, the whole debate are poorly informed due to errors in ceramic typologies and limited understandings of the...
The Ceramic Chronology of Vista Alegre: An Updated Typological Assessment (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ceramic sequence developed for Vista Alegre, a Maya port site on the northern coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico, demonstrates both the site’s persistence through time and its extensive trade relationships across the Maya world. The Proyecto Costa Escondida (PCE) team has synthesized an official site chronology from an ongoing analysis of the ceramic...
Ceramic Compositional Analysis from Chiquilistagua, Nicaragua (2017)
This paper discusses patterns of production and distribution of pottery recovered from the site of Chiquilistagua through the use of X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) compositional data. Dominant types found in the Chiquilistagua assemblage include Usulatan, Espinoza, Segovia, Chavez Astorga, and Nejapa Roja. Occupational episodes at Chiquilistagua extend across the Tempisque and Bagaces ceramic spheres, which have been associated with widespread...
Ceramic Differences at the Household/Neighborhood Level at Cerro Mejía: Evidence of a Possible Multiethnic "Mitmaqkuna" Community on the Southern Frontier of the Wari Empire (2017)
This poster will present the results of the analysis of household ceramic assemblages from the slopes of the secondary Wari center Cerro Mejía in the Moquegua Valley. The slopes of Cerro Mejía are divided into distinct domestic neighborhoods by fieldstone walls. Based on differences between these neighborhoods observed during excavations it has been hypothesized that this site was a multiethnic community similar to Inca mitmaqkuna with local inhabitants from throughout the region and possibly...
A Ceramic Investigation into the Relationship between Emergent Complexity and Religion on the South Coast of Peru (2017)
This paper investigates negotiations of power on the south coast of Peru through ceramic attribute analysis. The ceramic sample comes from the site of Cerro Tortolita, which contains both ceremonial and habitation zones. This site’s emergence in the upper Ica Valley during the 3rd century AD coincided with a broader increase in local settlement hierarchy. The timing of Cerro Tortolita’s rise and its religious nature provide a unique opportunity to isolate and investigate the relationship between...
Ceramic Manufacturing and Distribution Networks in Early Jamaica: Interpretive Implications of LA-ICP-MS and NAA Analyses on Coarse Earthenwares from 18th-Century Plantation Contexts (2018)
Archaeologists have long been intrigued by hand‐built, open‐fired coarse earthenwares found on 18th‐ and 19th‐century sites occupied by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and United States. In Jamaica, these hand‐built coarse earthenwares, often referred to as Yabbas, were likely manufactured and marketed by enslaved specialists. Several different varieties of glazed and/or kiln‐fired coarse earthenwares, not easily assigned to a known ware-type, are also routinely found in plantation contexts....
Ceramic Production during the Terminal Classic at Holtun, Guatemala (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The use of provenance studies to answer anthropological questions related to the production and access of ceramics is well documented for the Maya region. Mineralogical and chemical compositional analyses are often used to identify the material origins, or provenance, of ceramics. In this paper, the authors report on Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) and...
Ceramic production for Castillo de Huarmey, Peru: multiple productions and buzzing potters (2017)
The paste analysis of the ceramics found in the Castillo de Huarmey, a Middle Horizon Wari political center on the north coast of Peru brought forth the existence of a variety of production areas and a panorama of multiple producers with different agendas or practices. Much of the ceramics appear to have been made with material available in the Huarmey lower valley, coastal area, and probably the adjacent Culebras Valley. The fine painted Wari ceramics and fine reduced impressed wares present a...
Ceramic production in ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico: a case study of Tlajinga 33, Ph.D. Thesis (1992)
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...
Ceramic Technological Trends in the Three Rivers Region: A Late Classic Maya Overview (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. It is now well recognized that Late Classic Maya communities were highly variable politically, economically, and environmentally. Researchers often assume that community and household variation are corollary with the broader political climate— and this remains under problematized. Thus, research that explores differences in...
Ceramic variability and social interaction in the Middle Orinoco: On multi ethnic communities and ceramic traditions in the Late occupation period (500-1500 AD) (2017)
The Átures Rapids in the Middle Orinoco region are mentioned in the historical sources as a key trading center linking the Western Llanos of the Orinoco and the Guyana, where people, goods and ideas were exchanged. A recent study in Picure Island, located in the rapids, present a variety of ceramic temper wares, beads and quartz crystals associated in stratigraphically excavated contexts. The ceramic sherds recovered in Picure are closely related to other archaeological sites in the Middle...
Ceramic variation and ritual behavior at Altar de Sacrificios, Petén, Guatemala (2017)
Located at the headwaters of the Usumacinta and the confluence of the Salinas and Pasión Rivers, Altar de Sacrificios is uniquely positioned with strategic access to points far beyond its sandy shores. Despite the geopolitical importance of this site, Altar has not featured prominently in recent narratives about the political history of Classic Maya society. After more than fifty years, a new phase of archaeological investigations seeks to bring Altar out of the shadows and reevaluate this...
Ceramics and Political Dynamics of the Manteño Culture on the Coast of Manabí, Ecuador (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. An association between the intricacies of sociopolitical complexity and the diversity in pottery production has been discerned within pre-Columbian societies. To illuminate the facets of the Manteño sociopolitical framework, this study undertakes a comparative analysis of pottery assemblages across Manteño Julcuy, Cabo Pasado, Nuevo Manta, Puerto Cabuyal,...
Ceramics and Polity at Motul de San José and its Periphery (2017)
Motul de San Jose entered its Golden Age during the Late Classic. It was located at a critical crossroads in the Central Peten Lakes region, sitting between the east-west San Pedro Martir River that connected it to the Western Peten kingdoms all the way to Yaxchilan, and a north-south route that tied it with Tikal in the north and Dos Pilas and the other Petexbatun centers in the south. The political alliances between Motul and these kingdoms were materialized through the gifting of Ik’ Style...
Ceramics and Social Process at Holtun, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Holtun: Investigations at a Preclassic Maya Center" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we present data from 13 years of pottery research at the Maya site of Holtun, Guatemala. Using results from type: variety classification, attribute studies of paste and form, and chemical composition analysis we outline the sequence at Holtun and relate it to important events in the history of the site and region....
Ceramics and Society within the Late Classic Motul de San José Polity: A Multidisciplinary Perspective (2017)
Over the past 15 years, Late Classic ceramics from Motul de San José and surrounding sites in the Central Petén Lakes area have been subjected to a variety of technical analyses. Modal and petrographic analyses of ceramics from sites throughout the Motul area have been used to explore intra-polity patterns of production and exchange for both elite and mundane vessels. At the same time, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) has been conducted on sherds from Motul to define production...
Ceramics from Q’umarkaj: Heritage Collection and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research on the ceramic collections from Q’umarkaj housed at the Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, provides an opportunity to apply Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis to pottery from the site. This research has the potential to delimit areas of ceramic production and trade in the Terminal...
Ceramics Inside and Out: Food, Style, and Identity in Coastal Northeastern Honduras during the Selin Period (AD 300–1000) (2018)
Prehispanic populations of northeastern Honduras were positioned at the border of Mesoamerica and Lower Central America. Previous research on ceramic style suggests local affiliation shifted over time from north to south as part of an adept strategy to navigate the complex political and social landscape of the region through the promotion of an inclusive group identity. This study explores the actual implementation of that strategy by investigating communal feasting contexts where symbolically...