Republic of Guatemala (Country) (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Scott Fitzpatrick.

This is an abstract from the "Social Archaeologies and Islands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. More than 3,000 years ago peoples ventured into Remote Oceania using a combination of sophisticated watercraft, wayfinding techniques—including a celestial compass—and sailing strategies passed down orally through rote learning across generations. Over the course of 2,000+ years, different groups settled islands in Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julie Lierenz.

This is an abstract from the "From Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Metal Tool Production and Use by Indigenous Hunter-Gatherers in North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Archaic period in North America was a time of technological innovation and experimentation with new tool materials. Conical copper projectile points appeared in North America during this time and recent radiocarbon evidence shows that they were in use by 7,500 years ago....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicole Smith-Guzmán. Jeny Smid Núñez. Jonathan Cybulski. Luis Sánchez Herrera.

This is an abstract from the "Unraveling the Mysteries of the Isthmo-Colombian Area’s Past: A Symposium in Honor of Archaeologist Richard Cooke and His Contributions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Burial space reuse and prolonged interaction with the dead were common practices in the Isthmo-Colombian Area, dating back to at least the Early Ceramic period. However, it is unknown whether the individuals interred in disturbed, multiple burial...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Catharina Santasilia.

Tlatilco is an Early Formative society located in the Basin of Mexico dating from c. 1250-600 BCE. The site which was discovered by Mexican archaeologist, Miguel Covarrubias in the 1930s has undergone several phases of archaeological seasons often with very little material published. Many of the cultural objects uncovered were dispersed into museum collections in North America, used primarily as illustrative material. My research involves gathering iconographic and archaeological data from major...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stacy Drake. Marla MacKinnon. America Guerra.

In 2016, The Field Museum was awarded a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The overall mission of this project is to "research, explore, develop, and implement thoughtful, practical, and forward-thinking practices for the ethical care of human remains." The project is working to bring together stakeholders from collections-holding institutions, scientific research institutions, and Native American and First Nations communities to move beyond...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cristina Verdugo. James Brady. Lars Fehren-Schmitz.

This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dental modification in Mesoamerica dates to the Early Preclassic Period and persisted into the 16th century. Investigations have suggested a number of possible explanations, generally aesthetic or ritual, for the practice. There is little consensus in the field. A total of 1194 teeth were recovered from Midnight Terror Cave (MTC), Belize,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Arianne Boileau. Kitty Emery. Ashley Sharpe. Grace Zhang. Dongya Yang.

This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Zooarchaeological Methods" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Maya world, zooarchaeological studies have recorded regionally focused declines in animal abundances due to drying conditions and land clearance. However, zooarchaeological data alone cannot document fluctuations in animal population structure or diversity, an insight that can be provided by ancient DNA analysis. In this study, we use...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Haden Kingrey. Matthew Napolitano. Geoffrey Clark. Scott Fitzpatrick.

The oldest identified sites on Yap are identified by presence calcareous sand tempered (CST) pottery from deeply stratified deposits. With few exceptions, CST pottery, made from locally produced clay, has been recovered from Rungluw and Pemrang, two sites in southern Yap, western Micronesia (northwest tropical Pacific). Although poor preservation conditions and small sample sizes make it difficult to reconstruct vessel size, detailed analysis of sherds demonstrates at least two sub-types. Recent...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Angelina Locker. Stacy Drake.

As a uniquely sustained archaeological research program that has annually excavated in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area for 25 years, the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) offers a wealth of knowledge for bioarchaeological research. This paper examines ancient Maya burials from northwestern Belize, spanning the Late Preclassic (250 BCE – 250 CE) to the Terminal Classic (850 – 950 CE). Detailed here are stable isotope, ancient DNA, and osteological analyses from a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frederick Lange.

To paraphrase the symposium organizers, for decades changes in the pre-Columbian material culture of Central America were attributed to either migration or conquest. When I began archaeological research in Costa Rica in 1969 the endless debate was about Mesoamerican influence. Technological and iconographic linkages were frequently cited, but rarely were the mechanisms of the proposed linkages adequately defined or demonstrated archaeologically. In 2008, perhaps unduly influenced by having moved...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Loren Davis. Masami Izuho. Alexander Nyers. Fumie Iizuka. David Madsen.

This is an abstract from the "The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While paleogenetic studies indicate that the majority of the genomic heredity of indigenous peoples of the Americas can be traced to late Pleistocene human populations in far eastern Asia, we do not yet understand whether a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eric Proebsting.

This is an abstract from the "Advancing Public Perceptions of Sustainability through Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past thirty years, landscape archaeology has been used to study Thomas Jefferson’s retreat home and plantation located in Bedford County, Virginia. A goal of this work has been to cultivate a deeper understanding of the individuals who lived and labored on Poplar Forest plantation as well as how their households...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Josue T. Guzman.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Plus Ultra: An examination of current research in Spanish Colonial/Iberian Underwater and Terrestrial Archaeology in the Western Hemisphere." , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Tar-coated under the sun, mounted on concrete bases instead of carriages, outdoor-displayed in courtyards, walls and bulwarks of maritime fortifications built in Viceroyalty Period, or along boulevards and squares of several Mexico...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Borislava Simova. E. Christian Wells. Lisa LeCount.

E-Groups were among the first monumental spaces constructed in Middle Preclassic Maya centers and served as important venues for negotiating social interactions and political integration of newly settled peoples. Starting in the Late Preclassic period, their roles began to shift. At some sites, such as Tikal and Uaxactun, votive offerings signifying communal ritual were replaced with dedicatory stelas or royal interments marking exclusionary practices and political appropriation of these spaces....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kirby E Farah.

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Oral History, Coloniality, and Community Collaboration in Latin America" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the small central Mexican town of Xaltocan, a complex web of written and oral histories, material culture, and modern political and social movements have shaped a local heritage that celebrates the town’s long history. Archaeological research, which has intensified at Xaltocan over the past 30 years,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Abby Baka. K. Blake Vernon. Madeline Mackie. Jerry Spangler. Alexandra Greenwald.

This is an abstract from the "American Foragers: Human-Environmental Interactions across the Continents" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Pleistocene-Holocene transition (PHT) archaeological record on the Colorado Plateau is notably sparse, especially when compared to the surrounding Great Basin, Rocky Mountain, and Plains regions. Whether this dearth is due to low human populations in the region during the PHT, or due to insufficient fieldwork...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aspen Kemmerlin.

This is an abstract from the "Pedagogy in the Undergraduate Archaeology Classroom" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent trends in archaeological pedagogy include the adoption of active learning models as well as courses that incorporate community and public archaeology frameworks. These shifts have primarily been centered on archaeological field schools and on-campus excavations. In contrast, despite the growing concern over legacy and orphaned...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yajaira Núñez-Cortés. Francisco Corrales-Ulloa.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Central Pacific region is one of the least explored areas of Costa Rican archaeology. Recent research conducted at Lomas Entierros and Sardinal sites allow us to contribute to the understanding of the history of occupation in the area, but also to consider the emergence, occupation and abandonment of prominent political centers inhabited during AD...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Abtosway.

The Central American elaborate metate is a perplexing group of ground stone artifacts. Their function continues to be the subject of debate, with interpretations ranging from hallucinogenic and food preparation to ritual seating. It is difficult to deny, however, the substantial labor investment represented and likely symbolic significance. X-Ray fluorescence spectroscopy has proven an invaluable tool in the non-destructive geochemical sourcing of archaeological obsidian, providing insights into...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stacy Drake.

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. Studies of ancient Maya mortuary patterns have asserted that Maya burials do not adhere to a singular mortuary pattern (Ashmore and Geller 2005, Fitzsimmons 2009, Geller 2004, Ruz Lhuillier 1965, Welsh 1988). However, many of these same studies also suggest that a review of data specific to certain contexts (inter-site, time period,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kim Ruf.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Using Costa Rican precolumbian jade, jadeite, and greenstone artifacts from the collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, this study aims to amplify and widen the range of research carried out on the Isthmo-Colombian Area. It particularly seeks to examine and discuss the role of those objects as indicators of rank and prestige as...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rachel Egan. Christine Dixon.

The recent research on archaeological evidence for nightly practices has profoundly shaped interpretations of the past. As scholars begin to investigate this unexamined portion of ancient life, it is essential to include associations of night beyond the time of day. Volcanic events strongly influenced life throughout ancient Mesoamerica and provide an alternative avenue of investigation into ancient experiences of a form of night created by ash. Volcanic eruptions, particularly those of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Myrtle Shock. Laura Furquim. Jennifer Watling. Eduardo Neves.

In the Brazilian Amazon, mid-Holocene maize (Zea mays) grains have been found in archaeological deposits of the Monte Castelo shell mound. The morphological differences are pronounced between these and grains from both modern maize races of the Amazon and those found beginning around 1,500 years ago at other sites in the region. Our research explores the history, from 3900 BP, and use of this extinct maize. The presence of cultivars rich in carbohydrates in the Amazon has traditionally been...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Lentz. Brian Lane.

This is an abstract from the "Plant Exudates and Other Binders, Adhesives, and Coatings in the Americas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Both the ancient and modern Maya have employed a broad range of plant exudates, gums, resins, and other natural products for many centuries. Numerous plant species indigenous to Mesoamerica possess bioactive compounds that have served as medicine, pesticides, fish poisons, dyes, adhesives, unguents, tanning...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Camila Alday.

This is an abstract from the "Textile Tools and Technologies as Evidence for the Fiber Arts in Precolumbian Societies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research aims to study the earliest fabric artifacts made by marine hunter-gatherers who inhabited the Peru-Chile desert coast. Thanks to the aridity of this area, I use a remarkable amount of well-preserved plant-fiber materials, most belonging to the world’s oldest Chinchorro mummies buried...