Republic of Guatemala (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
2,451-2,475 (2,537 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Many decades ago Stanley Boggs discovered a particularly elaborate chert eccentric from San Andres, El Salvador, yet he never published the find. Here we compare it to the set of more elaborate eccentrics manufactured by "El...
Water, mines and wak’a at Belen valley in the highlands of Arica: the Inca making of a central place within the Andean transect of Arica and Parinacota (18°S) (2017)
Located on the edge of the Atacama Desert at the foot of the Carangas Altiplano, the Belén Valley witnessed substantial construction of imperial infrastructures during the late pre-Hispanic period. The Inca occupation was mainly related to agriculture, metallurgy and a sanctuary. The Belén Valley contains, in fact, the most important water resources in the upper basin of Azapa, copper and tin mines and an important mountain summit, which formed both economic and symbolic resources of special...
Wayfinding: Paths, Pathway Markers, and Navigational Monuments at Wari Camp and Beyond (2017)
Social life never proceeds in the absence of a spatial dimension that defines, brackets, segregates, alters or otherwise organizes interaction. The power to organize space emerges historically from the sweep of institutional arrangements across society and operates along many different dimensions and scales, at once establishing boundaries all the while insidiously permeating them. This historical process – this "social production of space" – is what we refer to as landscape. Landscape has been...
The Ways of the Maya: Salt Production in Sacapulas, Guatemala (1981)
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...
WDXRF Analyses and Understanding Variability in Time and Space: Trade in the Complex Society Island Chiefdoms (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. Our WDXRF sourcing program of geological and archaeological specimens (n=177) from the Society Islands, outlines the dynamics of inter- and intra-archipelago exchange over an 800 year period. Adzes from 21 sources were identified. Those traded in from the Marquesas Islands, an over 1,400 km voyage, are found with low...
We All Need to Talk about Archaeology in the CRM Power Nexus (2018)
The archaeological component of the National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 consultation embodies an intersection of power that has privileged archaeologists and their work at the expense of accomplishing all legal mandates and has elevated the practice of archaeology as a science above any need for negotiation for project-specific approaches. This cross-disciplinary conversation is necessary as the current situation increasingly affects the ability of other Cultural Resource Management...
Wealth Inequality in Polynesia: A Comparison of Evidence from the Hawaiian Islands, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and Aotearoa (New Zealand) from AD 1000–1800 (2023)
This is an abstract from the "To Have and Have Not: A Progress Report on the Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality (GINI) Project" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Polynesia has been largely overlooked in previous archaeological assessments of levels of wealth difference despite the pivotal role that research in the region has played in advancing our understanding of inequality in human societies. The Global Dynamics of Wealth Inequality (GINI)...
Wearing Culture: Dress and Regalia in Early Mesoamerica and Central America (2014)
Wearing Culture connects scholars of divergent geographical areas and academic fields-from archaeologists and anthropologists to art historians-to show the significance of articles of regalia and of dressing and ornamenting people and objects among the Formative period cultures of ancient Mesoamerica and Central America. Documenting the elaborate practices of costume, adornment, and body modification in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Oaxaca, the Soconusco region of southern...
Weaving Kin Studies and Multispecies Frameworks into Collaborative Paleoethnobotanical Research (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the last 20 years practitioners, activists, and scholars across disciplines have repeatedly pointed out the importance of incorporating other-than-human kin, relationality and reciprocity, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge into scientific practice when working with...
Weaving the Cosmic House: Chibchan Myth and Nicaraguan Spindle Whorls (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Cordage, Yarn, and Associated Paraphernalia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Bribri myth, the Creator God Sibó commanded Sál, the head of the spider clan, to weave cane and thatch to cover the cosmic house, which was built to encapsulate the world order. The house was supported by a central pole with eight surrounding posts representing each of the major clans. In 20+ years of archaeological research in Pacific...
The Western Stemmed Tradition During the Younger Dryas: The Newest Evidence from Connley Caves, Oregon (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed Tradition-Clovis Debate in the Far West" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations at the Paisley and Connley Caves have uncovered coeval Younger Dryas occupations with different but complementary Western Stemmed Tradition artifact assemblages. Whereas the perishable artifact assemblage at Paisley Caves provides important health and subsistence data, the large lithic...
What Archaeologists Can’t See: contrasting ethnohistorical and archaeological data in Talamanca, Costa Rica in the 16th century (2018)
Archaeologist Francisco Corrales and myself recently undertook the study of the exploitation of natural resources and their exchange in the areas close to Juan Vázquez de Coronado´s route in 1564, traced from the Pacific coast to the Caribbean in Southeastern and Southwestern Costa Rica. This presentation aims to underline how resources of the different altitudes on both slopes formed an important part of the various activities carried out by the inhabitants during the 16th. century and...
What Are the Chances? Estimating the Probability of Coincidental Artifact Association with Megafauna Remains (2018)
There has long been a debate about the frequency of megafauna hunting or dismemberment by early Paleoindians in North America. Proposed megafauna kill sites are heavily scrutinized. Sites which contain limited artifacts, but no projectile points are often discounted or classified as ‘possible’ kill sites due to their limited cultural materials. This begs the question, just how likely (or unlikely) are artifacts to be accidentally associated with megafauna remains? Using a computer model, the...
What Do Archaeological Networks Reveal? Comparing New Guinean Material Culture with Ethnographic Network Structure (2021)
This is an abstract from the "People and Space: Defining Communities and Neighborhoods with Social Network Analysis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Network analysis has become increasingly common within archaeological practice during the last decade, yet little consensus exists as to what networks based on material culture actually reveal about ancient social life. Archaeologists have variably interpreted communities or cliques derived from...
What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Precolonial Sites in Chontales, Central Nicaragua? (2017)
The Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua (PACEN), directed by Alexander Geurds, has recently conducted archaeological research in Chontales, Central Nicaragua. The main focuses of the study include the identification of the different types of settlements, understanding site and mound morphologies, as well as re-defining the regional pottery sequence. Therefore, the authors of this paper carried out a systematic full-coverage high intensity survey of a 52 square kilometer area, a complete...
What Does a Fire Giant Eat? A Zooarchaeological Analysis of Surtshellir's Burnt Faunal Remains (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Social Archaeology in the North and North Atlantic (SANNA 3.0): Investigating the Social Lives of Northern Things" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the ninth and tenth centuries CE, a very distinctive and unique site was established inside the cave of Surtshellir. This lava tube was reputed to be the home of the mythological fire giant, Surtur and has been studied over the course of several years by a team led by the...
What Does ‘Collapse’ Look Like for Hinterland Sites: Site Distribution and Settlement Pattern in the Valley of Puebla Tlaxcala during the Classic-Postclassic Transition (2017)
This study aims to identify patterns of resilience by distinguishing diachronic socio-economic processes through the measurement of change and continuity of multi-level sites in the Puebla-Tlaxcala valley. This will be done via demographic, political, and economic markers during the Classic-Postclassic transition. This project focuses on identifying specific processes that lead towards socio-economic resilience during times of stress. Based upon surveys conducted in the 1960s and 70s, presented...
What Is at Stake in Archaeological Knowledge Production (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. Recent years have witnessed a sea change in anthropological discourse concerning how gender bias and a lack of diversity has affected the work that archaeologists produce, interest that dovetails with current concerns about equity and safety issues. More broadly, Black,...
What Lies Between Two Regions: Settlement and Landscape Archaeology at the Aguacate Sites, Belize (2017)
A series of exploratory surveys along the northern edge of the Belize River Valley in the area of the Aguacate lagoon has gradually revealed a surprisingly dense distribution of minor centers of the Classic Period Maya. These centers are situated in a zone of intersections, the nature of which shaped their presence in the landscape. Politically, the region lies at an interstice between the spheres of influence of several powerful, well-known polities. Geographically, the site complex is...
What Would Larry Do: Archaeological Practice with, by, and for Native American Communities (2018)
The fight for inclusion of Native Americans in archaeology and anthropology hasn’t been an easy road; it has been divisive, contested, and sometimes violent. The need for allies and advocates for Native American inclusion in the field has become apparent through the tireless work of Larry Zimmerman. His scholarship has shaped generations of archaeologists and anthropologists in numerous ways. The ethical dimensions of his work are a testament to the need for change in the field and are a...
What’s in a Dress?: An Archaeological Collection of Kapa Cloth from Nineteenth-Century Nu‘alolo Kai, Kaua‘i Island, Hawai‘i (2017)
Anthropological discussions of gender and sexuality in colonial-era Polynesia have often focused on the introduction of Western clothing styles and the relationship between changing modes of dress and the negotiation of new social identities. Because clothing is highly perishable, however, there have been few opportunities to address this topic through the archaeological record. My paper presents an analysis of an exceptionally well-preserved collection of archaeological cloth from Nu‘alolo Kai,...
"What’s in a Name?": Questioning the Idea of Olmec Origins for Jade Spoons (2017)
Jade has been long recognized by archaeologists as an important trade item among ancient Mesoamerican cultures. This is particularly true for ancient Olmec and Maya cultures where it also is seen as an indicator of social status. Unfortunately, the precocious development of Olmec society, lead many early archaeologists to an over-emphasis of Olmec influence on the Maya during the Formative Period (ca. 1000-400 BC). This is particularly noteworthy in the attribution of jade "spoons" to the...
What’s in a Seed?: Identifying Archaeological Chili Pepper Remains from Mesoamerica (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The chili pepper (Capsicum spp.) has cemented its place in ancient and modern Mesoamerica as a fixture in medicine, ritual, and cuisine. The timing and context of its domestication which began around 10,000 years BP, however, remains unclear. To address this, we conducted morphometric analyses of a diverse array of modern seeds from multiple species of wild...
"What’s in that hole?" Engaging Subterranean Spaces in the Three Rivers Area of the Southern Maya Lowlands (2017)
The importance of subterranean space has been well established through studies of Maya sacred landscape. The Maya word "che’en" is used for any natural feature that penetrates the earth such as caves, cenotes, rock shelters, chultuns, sinkholes, springs and crevices, all spaces where the sacred nature of animate Earth are expressed. In the Three Rivers area of the southern Maya lowlands, non-cave Maya archaeologists appear to be at a loss on how to engage landscapes where sacred landmarks take...
When Archaeology Meets History: Documenting the Conquest and Transition Period at Pachacamac, Peru. (2017)
Traditional accounts of the conquest of Peru are well known and universally accepted: in 1535, Francisco Pizarro – who had arrived two years earlier – decided to create a new capital in the neighbouring Rimac river valley, which would one day become the current city of Lima. In order to achieve this, Pizarro forcibly displaced all the contemporary inhabitants of Pachacamac, leaving this major Inka pilgrimage site completely abandoned. However, new finds recovered during the 2016 excavations at...