Quintana Roo (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)

151-175 (937 Records)

Classic Maya Urban Settlement Dynamics: Planning and Mobility Introduced (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Damien Marken. Charlotte Arnauld.

Following decades of debate, most scholars accept Classic Maya cities as the hearts of spatially expansive, low-density urban settlements. This introductory paper will summarize past and current perceptions of Maya urbanism, emphasizing potentially overshadowed considerations of urban planning, mobility, and community dynamics – fundamental cross-cultural features of urbanization – and their detection in lowland settlement patterns. The recent florescence of research deriving insight from urban...


Classic Veracruz Sculptures and Bodies in Fragments (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Rex Koontz.

This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 2" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of a larger study on Classic Veracruz fragmented bodies and sculptures, I sketch two case studies of contexts in which fragmented yokes, decapitated heads, and figurine body fragmentation come together in Protoclassic and Early Classic Tres Zapotes and Cerro de las Mesas.


Classic Veracruz Tuxtlas Polychrome Ceramics (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Cherra Wyllie.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tuxtlas Polychrome ceramics of south-central Veracruz, Mexico occupy a visible presence in precolumbian museum collections. Boldly rendered deities and zoomorphic figures are the focal point of bowls, plates, and vases, their images alluding to a complex supernatural world. While well represented among the corpus of Classic Veracruz artifacts, these vessels...


Climate Change and Classic Maya Water Management (2011)
DOCUMENT Full-Text Lisa Lucero. Joel D. Gunn. Vernon L. Scarborough.

The critical importance of water is undeniable. It is particularly vital in semitropical regions with noticeable wet and dry seasons, such as the southern Maya lowlands. Not enough rain results in decreasing water supply and quality, failed crops, and famine. Too much water results in flooding, destruction, poor water quality, and famine. We show not only how Classic Maya (ca. A.D. 250–950) society dealt with the annual seasonal extremes, but also how kings and farmers responded differently in...


A Closer Look at the Use of Cueva de Sangre through Skeletal Remains (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Heriberto Marquez.

This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The use of caves is a part of an essential role in Maya cosmology and ideology. The Petexbatún Regional Cave Survey identified 22 caves and over 11 kilometers of cave passages between 1990 through 1993 at Dos Pilas, Guatemala. This study reexamines 205 human remains collected from Cueva de Sangre. Previous studies (Minjares, 2003) of the...


Coastal Hydrogeological Context of Potable Water Sources of the Vista Alegre Maya Port Site, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Patricia A. Beddows. Dominique Rissolo. Emiliano Monroy-Rios. Dominique Meyer. Beverly Goodman-Tchernov.

Ongoing investigation at the ancient Maya port site of Vista Alegre has revealed a multi-phased and significant occupation spanning the Preclassic to Postclassic periods. However, the vital source of potable water that would have supported this coastal settlement remains unknown. We present a hydrogeological assessment of the region to understand changing water sources over the last 2 millennia. Potential groundwater foci at the intersections of conjugate fracture sets are presently either...


Coastal Land Loss and the Future of Louisiana's Archaeological Record (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Brian Ostahowski.

This presentation examines the effects of land loss to the coastal archaeological record. Impacts observable at different scales (coast-wide, regional, and the individual archaeological site) demonstrate that our ability to understand Louisiana's past may be permanently altered. New directions for future research and community engagement are proposed.


Coba's Periphery and Rethinking Site Boundaries (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephanie Miller. Aline Magnoni. Traci Ardren. Travis Stanton.

Time and again the application of new technologies has allowed archaeologists to rethink their understandings of ancient cultural landscapes. Lidar, in particular, is one technology that has rapidly transformed our analytical capabilities by simultaneously providing wide regional and finely localized views of archaeological sites. In this paper, we present new lidar data that is reshaping our understanding of the Northern Maya Lowland metropolis of Coba. In particular we discuss features on...


Colha, Northern Belize: A History and Record of Research (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Palma Buttles. Fred Valdez.

The northern Belize prehistoric Maya site of Colha was first archaeologically documented by the Corozal Project in the early 1970s. The most significant archaeological research at the site was conducted as The Colha Project (1979-1983), with subsequent projects of specialized interests (1994-2017). Though known primarily for its lithic dimension as a major production and distribution center of stone tools, many other aspects of Maya society have been identified from the numerous seasons of...


Collective Biographies: Ancient Maya Objects in Collections, Past and Present (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Megan E. O'Neil.

This paper explores the collecting, repositioning, and separating of ancient Maya objects, both in the ancient past and the twentieth century. Archaeological context provides evidence of ancient Maya aggregation of disparate objects in tombs, caches, or sculptural tableaux as well as evidence of repositioning or separating things. These changes are fundamental aspects of objects’ life histories. Yet in the twentieth century, ancient monuments and object sets also have been divided -- and new...


Colonial and Caste War Continuities in the Beneficios Altos Province of Yucatán (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Kaeding.

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeologies of Contact, Colony, and Resistance" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Caste War of Yucatán has been referred to as "the most successful Indian revolt in New World history." Scholars have attributed the origins of this important conflict to a variety of causes, including circumstances that arose as Mexico established its independence from Spain; late colonial period political reforms; policies in...


The Colonial Peten: An Ethnohistory of Indigenous Sovereignty and a Failed Spanish Colonial Project (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Alyce De Carteret.

This is an abstract from the "Disentanglement: Reimagining Early Colonial Trajectories in the Americas" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Colonialism—to speak generally—can be characterized as endeavors that aim not just to entangle, but to wholly incorporate, disparate regions under the control of a foreign body. Indigenous disentanglement from these exploitative projects has taken many forms—daily negotiations, subtle refusals, outright rebellions....


Commemorating the Preclassic Monumental Construction at Tayasal, Guatemala (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Yuko Shiratori. Timothy Pugh.

Research into the Main Group at Tayasal, Guatemala, revealed that the Postclassic inhabitants re-occupied areas and buildings that were constructed during the Preclassic period. Most of those buildings in the Main Group stand on a massive elevated platform, which was also constructed during the Preclassic period. The Preclassic period was the period during which the construction of monumental architecture such as E-groups and Triadic Group occurred at numerous sites including Tayasal. It was...


Communing with the Gods: The Paleoethnobotany of Fire Rituals (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Friedel. M. Kathryn Brown.

The importance of fire in Maya rituals is well-known, both archaeologically and ethnographically. Fire, which is symbolic of the life cycle in Maya ideology, has been used as a means of communicating with the supernatural world in order to manage specific aspects of everyday life, such as the success of the agricultural season. In the archaeological record, we find evidence for ancient fires as features consisting mostly of burnt plant remains, some of which resemble modern Maya fire altars both...


Community and Collaboration at Aventura (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Sylvia Batty. Josue Ramos. Antonio Beardall. Debra Wilkes Gray. Cynthia Robin.

This is an abstract from the "Households at Aventura: Life and Community Longevity at an Ancient Maya City" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With a five millennia history spanning forager-horticulturalist, precolumbian Maya, historic, and contemporary periods, Aventura is a community with a long history. The Aventura Archaeology Project addresses community at many levels, in its study of the past and in its collaboration with local cultural heritage...


Community Archaeology and (Post)Colonial Identities in Northernmost Belize (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Zachary Nissen.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper investigates the "who/what" that constitutes "the local community" in engaged community archaeologies. It will do so by discussing community events organized by the Aventura Archaeology Project, as well as preliminary ethnographic and oral historical work I have conducted in the San Joaquin Village and Corozal Town areas of northernmost Belize. This...


Community Archaeology and the Production of Space at Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Kurnick.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have considered the relationships between the production of space and the production of social inequality in past societies. Those practicing community and other forms of engaged archaeology have also examined the relationships between the production of space and inequality in the present, including at archaeological sites developed for tourism....


Community Building and Engagement through Maya Archaeology: Challenges, Successes, and Future Goals for the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project (2021)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Claire Ebert. Antonio Beardall. Tia Watkins. Julie Hoggarth. Jaime Awe.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Community building through education and public outreach has been a central component of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project since its inception over 30 years ago. One of our primary goals is to actively engage with local communities and students in archaeological heritage management in western Belize since they are the most impacted...


Community Engagement in Archaeology through Photogrammetry (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Hannah Julia Paredes. Olivia Navarro-Farr. Mary Kate Kelly.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Photogrammetry is a rapidly-evolving technology that is applicable to a wide array of archaeological contexts and reconstructions. Researchers affiliated with the Proyecto Arqueológico Waka’ (PAW) at the site of El Perú-Waka’, Petén, Guatemala, initiated a program of photogrammetric recording of stelae during the 2018 season. In this process, a series of...


Community Formation through Movement: Focal Nodes and Community Landscapes of the Mopan River Valley, Belize (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Victoria Ingalls.

This is an abstract from the "Manifesting Movement Materially: Broadening the Mesoamerican View" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Movement is often implicitly assumed when exploring the ancient makeup of communities. We conceptualize movement at different scales of interaction – at the hyperlocal through households, as well as between and across communities, polities, and landscapes. Here, I will explore how movement to/from focal nodes on a...


A Comparative Bioarchaeology of Health and Status in Pre-Classical K’axob and Cuello (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Katherine McElvaney.

This paper explores whether there is a statistical difference in rates of non-specific infection between two Maya pre-classic villages, K’axob and Cuello, and whether these findings can be correlated to social status within and between the two villages. Using representative skeletal samples from these populations, an osteological analysis is performed to determine the presence of non-specific infection markers in the form of periosteal reactions. Any signs of reaction are scored by level of...


Comparative Stable Isotopic Analyses between Dental Enamel and Bone Collagen among Central American Archaeological Samples Spanning 8,000 Years (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Carol Woodland. Keith M. Prufer.

This is an abstract from the "Advances in Interdisciplinary Isotopic Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen stable isotope analyses are popular tools within the field of archaeology. Applications for stable isotope analyses of human and faunal bone collagen and dental enamel include environmental reconstructions, modeling subsistence patterns, and investigating human-animal relationships, as well as potential to...


Comparing Demographic Shifts versus Permanence across the Maya Lowlands: A Multiproxy Approach to the Centuries Surrounding the “Maya Collapse” (2023)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Allan Ortega. Vera Tiesler.

This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. he so-called Maya collapse has been seen as an entelechy of the depopulation and emigration of the great Maya cities of the lowlands during the ninth and tenth centuries AD. However, proper paleodemographic and archaeodemographic works that support this...


A Comparison of Lithic Caches from Ucanal and Xunantunich: Is It Possible to Identify Eccentric Traditions as Communities of Practice at the Regional Level? (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Zachary Hruby. Jaime Awe. Christina Halperin. Catharina Santasilia.

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. Two recently discovered ritual deposits from the eastern Maya Lowlands seem to reveal similarities in the kinds of eccentrics used in Late Classic Maya caches from different political centers. Upon closer examination, however, they...


A Comparison of XRF and Visual Sourcing Methods in the Identification of Guadalupe Victoria Obsidian at Matacanela, Sierra de los Tuxtlas (2018)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcie Venter. Sean Carr. Shayna Lindquist.

Several Pre-Classic assemblages in the Mesoamerican Gulf lowlands are characterized by obsidian from the Guadalupe Victoria source. Tools produced are characterized by flake-core reduction strategies. The combined visual characteristics of the source material and technology employed are important chronological indicators. But, general similarities in the appearance of the raw material and factors such as variable thickness create the potential for overlap with other sources, such as Pico de...