Republic of Guatemala (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
976-1,000 (2,898 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Obsidian, a volcanic glass, was widely used in Mesoamerica for cutting tools, weapons, jewelry, and ritual objects since the Paleoindian period (ca. 9000 BC). Because its sources have unique chemical signatures, obsidian provides a durable and measurable index of interactions...
An evaluation of stingless bee wax as a pattern material in Mesoamerican investment casting (2017)
Mesoamerican metal objects have been studied in-depth in terms of alloys and production techniques, but little work has been carried out on the foundry materials used in the pre-Hispanic casting process. In modern foundry practice, synthetic waxes, paraffins, or processed European honeybee wax (from the Apis genus) are commonly used as pattern materials. One possible ancient Mesoamerican pattern material is the wax of the stingless bee Melipona beecheii, a species known to be cultivated by the...
Everyday Life in a Maya Center: New Data towards Social, Economic, and Ritual Behavior at the Ancient City of Dos Hombres (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 current research in the Dos Hombres civic ceremonial center utilizes the lens of "everyday life" in order to understand the internal ritual, economic, social, and ideological activities of this ancient city, as well as how it interacted with the surrounding household hinterlands, and the socio-political and economic role this...
Everyday Objects and the Lived Experience: Inhabiting Gufuskálar, a Late Medieval Icelandic Fishing Station (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SANNA v2.2: Case Studies in the Social Archaeology of the North and North Atlantic" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Early Icelandic fishing stations are understood primarily through the shifting role of fishing within the Icelandic economy and the importance of fish provisioning within the North Atlantic. Thus, less focus has been placed on studying the lived experiences and domestic lives of people who worked at and...
Evidence for complex society at Middle Preclassic La Venta settlements (2017)
In the past, abundant ceremonial evidence found at La Venta and other Gulf Coast Olmec sites has spawned widely ranging views on the emergence of complex society in Mesoamerica. Evidence of dense local riverine settlement was gained from my survey at La Venta and surrounding sites in 1986-7, revealing household sites both on La Venta and surrounding villages on abandoned river courses. The chronological sequence has been guided by over 50 radiocarbon dates recovered from a series of domestic...
Evidence for Forest Clearance and Food Production in Lapita and Post-Lapita Fiji (2018)
Investigations at the site of Qaraqara have sought to determine the antiquity of forest clearance and food production in Fiji. Located over 25 km inland from the coast, archaeological excavation has indicated that the site was used for habitation and cultivation, producing a ceramic-rich deposit that extends to a depth of 250 cm. Geoarchaeological analyses of sediment cores from Qaraqara reached 500 cmbs, and document the formation of stable soils by 3000 BP, during the Lapita period. Plant...
Evidence for the Emergence of Social Complexity in Early Formative Period Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico (2017)
The emergence of sociopolitical complexity, and its connections to other developments such as changing subsistence and domestic mobility, has been a central theme of archaeology for over a century. Mesoamerica has been no exception to this trend, and scholars of pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America have scrutinized socioeconomic correlates of changing political integration and centralization. One concept central to this research has been that of hereditary hierarchical inequality. In fact,...
Evidence of diet and food consumption from Chavin de Huantar during the Middle and Late Andean Formative (1200 – 550 BCE) (2017)
Excavations carried out at the Wacheqsa sector at Chavín de Huantar identified archaeological contexts from the Middle Formative (1200 – 900 cal BCE) and Late Formative (900 – 550 Cal BCE). In this paper we present preliminary results of starch analysis carried on in culinary equipment (ceramics) retrieved from domestic occupations from the Middle and Late Formative periods and a large midden, originated from the discard of feasting remains during the Late Formative period. Microbotanical...
Evidence of Exchange in Precolumbian Ceramics from Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro, Panama (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Materials in Movement in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Isla Colon, the largest island in the Bocas del Toro archipelago on Panama’s northwest coast, has a unique density of archaeological features in the region. Sitio Drago, the largest site yet found on the island, includes ceremonial and settlement mounds and a diverse and sizable assemblage of subsistence remains and cultural materials....
Evidence of Maya Metalworking from Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Investigations in Chiapas, Mexico" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Evidence of precolumbian Maya metallurgy is increasingly coming to light with numerous finds occurring in the Guatemalan highlands and the northern part of the Yucatan peninsula. In this paper, we present new evidence of Maya metallurgy from the Mensabak region of Chiapas, Mexico, that dates to the Late Postclassic / early Spanish...
Evidence of Meteor Shower Outbursts Recorded in the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic Script Using Orbital Integrations (2018)
No firm evidence has existed that the ancient Maya civilization recorded specific occurrences of meteor showers or oubursts in the corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. In fact, there has been no evidence of any pre-hispanic civilization in the Western Hemisphere recording any observations of any meteor showers on any specific dates. The authors numerically integrated meteoroid-sized particles released by Comet Halley as early as 1404 BC to identify years within the Maya Classic Period, AD...
Evidencias arqueológicas del “ika” tojolabal, una tradición ancestral (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La ceremonia del temascal, el baño ritual prehispánico, está presente desde épocas remotas en muchos sitios arqueológicos de Mesoamérica hasta la actualidad. Para la etnia tojolabal es de gran importancia terapéutica relacionada con la salud del grupo familiar que habita en la casa, en especial la...
Evolution of Elite Residence at San Martín Tilcajete, 500-100 B.C. (2017)
Between 1995 and 2014, we directed 11 seasons of horizontal excavation in and around the main plazas of two Formative Period sites, El Mogote and El Palenque, near San Martín Tilcajete in the Oaxaca Valley. Our results indicate that major changes occurred in public architecture and elite residence between the Early Monte Albán I phase (500-300 B.C.) occupation at El Mogote and the Late Monte Albán I phase (300-100 B.C.) site of El Palenque. In view of the evidence of fundamental cultural...
Evolution of the Aztec Tecpan Palace (2017)
Sahagún called the Aztec palace a place of wisdom, and in the mature Aztec empire, sages of all kinds gathered in the tecpans and were members of elite families. The power of ruling families was based, in part, on their more sophisticated education, including divination and curing, and palaces as centers of knowledge served their communities. We know this from descriptions of contact-era imperial palaces, and we also know that these impressive places were the products of the evolution of the...
The Evolution of the Two-Room Temple during the Middle Formative in an Interregional Perspective between the Mixteca Alta and the Valley of Oaxaca (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse II: Current Research in Oaxaca Part 2" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of the Zapotec temple, its origins and evolution, has significant implications to understanding the social complexity in early societies. This paper follows the proposal of the one-room temple as the origin of the two-room temple, also called Zapotec temple, and exposes its evolution showing the characteristics of those...
An Examination of Ancestry: Exploring the Peopling of the Americas Through Paleoindian Cranial Indices in Comparison with the Howells Collection (2017)
The original peopling of the Americas has puzzled researchers for decades. While some evidence points to a single wave of migration, still other data suggest two or more waves. Their reasonable estimated arrival dates range from 14,500 to over 20,000y.b.p., although some scholars push back their arrival even farther. Drawing from archaeology, genetics, historical linguistics, and physical anthropology, the peopling of the Americas debate encompasses research from a wide range of experts. In this...
An Examination of Commingled Atlantoaxial Joints by Deviation Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Continued Advances in Method and Theory for Commingled Remains" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study builds on previous research that incorporated deviation analyses into sorting commingled human remains. This presentation will analyze a relatively untested joint surface, the atlantoaxial joint, to exclude potential commingled joint pairs. Virtual models were created at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville...
Examination of Mural Pigments with Portable XRF in the Caves of Eastern Guerrero with Comparisons to Local Colonial Lienzos and Documents (2017)
Rock art is now recognized as a key component of cultural expression in prehistory and a variety of new techniques have been developed to offer more insight into this area of archaeological expression. Here, we present our findings from the use of portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis at cave sites in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. The authors offer a scientific basis for deriving inference regarding the process of rock art creation in several caves located in eastern Guerrero through the...
Examining Archaeology, Society, and the Promise of Integrating ‘Big’ Data from Archaeological and non-Archaeological Sources. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Vision in the Age of Big Data" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In order for digitally published data to be useful it has to be useable, and in the case of big-data, interoperable with other data sources. This paper explores one way in which this can be accomplished through an examination of how archaeological site densities across the eastern and midwestern United States relate to social factors such as...
Examining Rural Responses to Political Collapse: The Early Postclassic at Monte El Santo, Oaxaca, Mexico (2017)
Recent archaeological research at the site of Monte El Santo, Oaxaca, Mexico examines how the rural community of Monte El Santo responded to the political collapse of the Río Viejo polity during the Early Postclassic Period (800-1100 CE). The collapse ushered in important changes for the coastal inhabitants of the Lower Río Verde Valley- the site of Río Viejo experienced a sharp decline in population, and a newly formed population center at San Marquitos grew to rival Río Viejo in size. While...
Examining the Causes of Migration into East Polynesia: A Bayesian Chronology Perspective on the Ideal-Free Distribution Model (2017)
The colonization of the islands of East Polynesia was one of the most rapid and expansive migratory events in human history. While extensive research focuses on determining the chronology of East Polynesia colonization, far less attention has been placed on elucidating the processes that influenced this migration. The Ideal Free Distribution Model of human behavioral ecology has proven useful for exploring a range of issues regarding colonization and mobility in varying ecological contexts...
Examining the Impacts of Non-human Animals on Sequences of Agricultural Change (2018)
Historical sequences of agricultural change are influenced by several key factors. While much attention has been paid to the political context of agricultural production, as well as environmental changes brought about by certain techniques, less has been paid to the active manipulation of productive environments by non-human animals. Within the context of some recent theoretical advances in archaeology and ecology, it has become apparent that animals - intentionally or unintentionally introduced...
Examining Tula Region Ceramic Compositional Analysis (2017)
Chemical characterization of ceramics using Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) in Central Mexico has proven to be an important analytical approach for assessing exchange, especially between sub-regions within the Basin of Mexico and neighboring areas. Recent efforts based upon Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Period decorated ceramics have extended the sampling to the ceremonial centers and settlements of Tula Chico and Tula Grande, the resulting chemical analysis defined a more robust...
Excavating Acapulco. Archaeology at the fortress of San Diego. (2017)
In 2015 and 2016 archaeological work was carried out at the historic fortress of San Diego, Acapulco, in the Pacific coast of Mexico by the project "Maritime Archaeology of the Port of Acapulco". Excavation on the outer wall yielded materials from pre-Hispanic times, all the way to the XX century. Diverse ceramics such as local wares, majolica’s from many parts of Mexico and porcelains from China and Europe, were recorded. Glass, metal and a variety of animal and human bones were also collected....
Excavating and Interpreting Ancestral Action – Stories from the Subsurface of Orokolo Bay, Papua New Guinea (2018)
Orokolo Bay is a rapidly changing geomorphic and cultural landscape in which the ancestral past is constantly being interpreted and negotiated. This paper examines the importance of subsurface archaeological and geomorphological features for the various communities of Orokolo Bay as they maintain and re-construct cosmological and migration narratives. Everyday activities of gardening and digging at antecedent village locations bring Orokolo Bay locals into regular engagement with buried ceramics...