Belize (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
26-50 (3,437 Records)
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. Under the directorship of Dr. Albert Gonzalez, the C. E. Smith Museum of Anthropology at California State University, East Bay (CSUEB) has dedicated much of its resources and staff time to exploring creative methods by which to connect BIPOC undergraduate students and recent graduates to the CRM network and related jobs in the region....
Accelerating History and Bayesian Models: The Rapid Emergence of Agropastoralism and the Tiwanaku State in the Lake Titicaca Basin, South America (2017)
Long-term cultural change can be non-linear and punctuated by brief episodes of accelerating history. Such episodes, or emergent phenomena, have been described by a diverse set of theoretical approaches such as complexity theory, complex adaptive systems, panarchy, resilience theory, "eventful" sociology and archaeology, and the Annales School of History. These episodes can result in profound, lasting changes for large groups of people, but can happen too fast to be clearly documented without...
Accelerating the "Maddeningly Slow Work of Archaeology" in the Forested Maya Lowlands (2017)
Investigations in the thickly forested Peten region is complicated by lack of roads, water, communications, visibility and other things we often take for granted even in archaeology. In most cases the time it takes for results of such field work to reach a general audience can be measured in years. Many of us have turned to technology to alleviate this situation but the gains can be less than what is expected. The advent of GPS handheld devices have been useful to locate sites (and ourselves)...
An Account of the Kings of Kanu’l as Recorded on the Hieroglyphic Stair of K’an II of Caracol (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Light on Dzibanché and on the Rise of the Snake Kingdom’s Hegemony in the Maya Lowlands" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Much remains unknown as to the hieroglyphic stair dedicated by 642 AD by K’an II, the great king of Caracol. Constituent panels were discovered at a number of different sites, including Caracol, Ucanal, Naranjo, and Xunantunich. The most recently discovered panels contribute greatly to our...
Accuracy, Precision, and Efficiency: Comparing Mapping Techniques in Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research in the Petén Lakes Region, Petén, Guatemala" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. New archaeological survey technologies have transformed the way in which sites are mapped. Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Petén, Guatemala, has been surveyed in a variety of ways including a theodolite with an electronic distance measurement (EDM), total station, lidar, and photogrammetry. This paper aims to compare various mapping...
Achieving Safe Workplaces in Cultural Resources Management (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Presidential Session: What Is at Stake? The Impacts of Inequity and Harassment on the Practice of Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we will take a three-part approach to examining and achieving safe workspaces in cultural resource management (CRM), considering demography, reports of harassment and assault in the workplace, and solutions. First, we will provide a snapshot of the participation of...
"Across the Agua to Managua" and Beyond: Getting Past Migration in Nicaraguan Prehistory (2018)
Despite being the largest country in Central America, Nicaragua’s archaeological record remains the least explored and most ignored. One consequence of this is that reconstructions of Nicaragua’s prehistory have tended to rely overmuch on rather sparse (and not necessarily reliable) ethnohistoric accounts in which migration from Mesoamerican homelands is heavily emphasized, generally to the detriment of other kinds of cultural phenomena, including indigenous developments that are not explicitly...
Acting, Reacting, and Entangling at the Edge of the Spanish Colony: Maya Life at Progresso Lagoon, Belize in the Context of Colonization (2018)
The Maya of northern Belize were located at the edge of the Spanish colony, far from the Spanish capital at Merida, and visited only occasionally by encomenderos and priests. How much of Maya life then was a reaction to Spanish colonization? The archaeological data from Progresso Lagoon, Belize suggest that most contact and colonial period material culture at the Maya community was shaped by ongoing Maya political and economic processes, rather than by Spanish intervention. In addition, Maya...
The Active Materiality of Obsidian (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. When Steve Shackley informed me that over 90% of obsidian samples from Puerto Escondido, Honduras, that he had analyzed came from an unidentified source, presumably nearby, he started a process of re-education that led me to a place where he may not be comfortable, but that I deeply appreciate. This involves a...
Activist Archaeology and Queer Feminist Critiques in Mesoamerican Archaeology (2017)
One of the strengths of prehistoric archaeology is its ability to document the full range of human variation. For Latin America, activist archaeology has the potential to inform postcolonial and Third World feminist critiques that challenge white supremacist legal systems that marginalize women of color and indigenous peoples. The false universalisms and cultural essentialisms found in human rights debates ignore the diverse experiences of women’s oppression, especially the indigenous, poor,...
Adapting to the Changing Environment in CRM Graduate Training (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. Graduate training in cultural resources and heritage management has evolved in the last few decades, from a focus almost exclusively on compliance archaeology, to one where descendant community outcomes and involvement take center stage. It also entails working with new, and often changing, legislation that can seem to conflict with...
Add to Cart? The Ethical Landscape of Buying Human Bone in the United States (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This project examines the ethical landscape of the acquisition and curation of human skeletal materials for teaching purposes using the NCSU Human Skeletal Remains Collection as a case study. Lack of legislation in the United States regarding the sale of human remains, and an increase in social media, permits certain organizations and individuals to become...
Additional Insights into the Significance of Cave Formations: The Case of Balamkú (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of its investigation of subterranean Chichén Itzá, the Gran Acuífero Maya (GAM) unsealed the entrance to Balamkú Cave in 2018. The entrance, located in a sinkhole, had been sealed and buried in an apparent act of deliberate termination. In addition, the entire first chamber of the cave including a staircase was buried with...
Addressing Objects in Limbo: Using Digital Resources to Increase Access to Native American Material Culture (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990, a large amount of contested Native American material culture remains in archaeological collections across the country. Universities, museums, and government agencies may retain such objects due to issues with cultural identification, competing claims from multiple...
Addressing Today’s Issues with Yesterday’s Tools (2018)
Dakota Access Pipeline. Ruby Pipeline. Ocotillo Wind Energy Facility. Topock Natural Gas Compressor Station. These are just a few examples of projects where the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) failed to protect cultural resources deemed significant by Native American tribes. In these instances, why did NHPA fail? Largely because NHPA does not consider impacts to the complete suite of cultural resources. It only addresses historic properties and historic properties "of traditional...
Adolf Bandelier’s 1892-1894 Expedition to the Central Coast of Peru (2017)
Adolf Francis Alphonse Bandelier (1840-1914) was an ethnologist and archaeologist best known for his work in the American Southwest. What is less well-known is Bandelier’s later years studying the ancient Andes, such as his 1892-1894 expedition on the central coast of Peru. Due to an unstable political environment, he moved his expedition to the Bolivian highlands and instead wrote about highland myths. Shortly thereafter, he passed away while pursuing historical sources in Seville, Spain to...
Advanced AMS 14C Dating of Contaminated Bones Associated with North American Clovis and Pre-Clovis Butchering Sites (2018)
When humans first colonized the Americas is becoming better understood by the addition of aDNA studies; however, the absolute dating of these late Pleistocene sites is crucial and depends upon accurate 14C dating of the fossils (i.e. bones, teeth and ivory). We re-dated vertebrate fossils associated with the North American butchering sites Wally’s Beach (Canada), La Prele, also known as Fetterman (Wyoming), Lindsay (Montana) and Dent (Colorado). Our work demonstrates the crucial importance of...
The Advantages of Landscape-Scale Cultural Assessments for Public Land Management (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Further Discussion on the Role of Archaeology in Resource and Public Land Management" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In response to a recent shift toward a regional landscape-scale approach to resource management on public lands, Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with multiple federal agencies developed a cultural heritage values and risk assessment strategy to support interagency land-use planning in the...
Advertising the Empire: Purépecha Strategies in the Imperial Heartland at Angamuco, Michoacán (2017)
Regime change is a social process that has occurred throughout human history and yet much is still unknown about how political developments shape local communities. This paper examines the impacts of the Late Postclassic (1350-1530 CE) Purépecha Empire on residents at Angamuco, an ancient city within the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin imperial heartland in Michoacán, Mexico. Imperial narratives in ethnohistoric texts emphasize that authorities controlled craft production, tribute, and social practices....
Advocacy for Archaeology: How Does a 35-Year Effort End Up in Failure and What to Do about It? (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Thirty-five years of very active advocacy of the importance of the archaeological record of Bermuda, England’s second and oldest continuing New World colony, has had little or no effect. Unlike many places in the world, which have embraced the scholarly significance of historical archaeology only within the past two decades, Bermuda continues to ignore...
Aeolian Geoforming at a Preceramic Mound in Coastal Peru (2017)
Los Morteros is a preceramic mound located on the North Coast of Peru composed of anthropogenic structures interlayered with aeolian deposits. A study combing multidisciplinary approaches and methodologies was used to evaluate the hypothesis of mound construction through intentional aeolian sand deposition via manipulation of strong winds across the desert environment. Wind velocities were measured across the site and in the surrounding valley. A complex wind model was created utilizing these...
Affording Archaeology: How the Cost of Field School Keeps Archaeology Exclusive (2019)
This is an abstract from the "What Have You Done For Us Lately?: Discrimination, Harassment, and Chilly Climate in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In response to the contemporary critiques about discrimination and inequality within the archaeological academic community, many individuals and advocacy groups have suggested field school scholarships as one tactic in promoting diversity in the field. In this paper, we will explore the...
African and Afro-Caribbean Cultural Identity, Vessel Function, and Inter-island Connectedness in Eighteenth- to Nineteenth-Century St. Croix, US Virgin Islands (2021)
This is an abstract from the "To Move Forward We Must Look Back: The Slave Wrecks Project at 10 Years" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of the Slave Wrecks Project, excavations at Christiansted National Historic Site on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, have resulted in the collection of thousands of artifacts associated with the Danish West India and Guinea Warehouse Complex. Within this assemblage, hundreds of sherds of Afro-Caribbean...
African Archaeology and the Ancestral Maya World (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Essential Contributions from African to Global Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lidar mapping has revealed extensive ancestral settlement patterns signifying a low-density urban system. Maya archaeologists are tasked with interpreting how the ancestral Maya interacted and kept this system working for over 1,000 years (ca. 100 BCE–900 CE) in the southern Maya lowlands of Central America. It was a complex...
The African-Caribbean Landscape of Wallblake Estate, Anguilla (2018)
Historical archaeologists have explored the plantation landscapes of the Caribbean for more than 50 years, and there have been archaeological excavations at historical sites on every major island. However, there are still islands where there have not been any previous excavations at historic sites, including plantations. Anguilla was one such island until June 2017 when archaeological survey and excavations began at the Wallblake Estate to understand the plantation landscape and the major...