Quintana Roo (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)
451-475 (1,195 Records)
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. Por medio de esta presentación, intentamos entender y considerar la importancia ritual y simbólica de un temascal Preclásico ubicado en la ciudad de Naranjo, Petén, Guatemala. Trataremos este tema a partir de la ubicación del temazcal dentro del paisaje sagrado del epicentro monumental de Naranjo y de...
Geosourcing and Geopolitics: Handheld XRF Analysis of Obsidian from Households in the Yaxuna-Coba Region (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster presents results of sourcing analysis of artifacts from Classic period Maya sites in Northern Yucatán and Quintana Roo from household contexts using handheld X-ray fluorescence (hXRF). Previous analysis by Danielle Waite sourced artifacts from Coba and Yaxuna from excavations by the Proyecto de Interacción Política del Centro de Yucatán and...
Geospatial Analysis of Material Culture in the Hinterlands in Northwestern Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Belize archaeology field school, Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao (DH2GC), has been active since 2009, gathering cultural remains from different excavations. Using ArcGIS, the excavations and associated ceramic artifacts can be used for geospatial analyses of human settlement, occupation, and trading patterns. The general goal of the project is to create a...
A GIS and Remote Sensing Approach to Settlement Patterns, Cultural Landscape, and Utilization of Natural Resources in the Hinterlands: Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project (2023)
This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Besides using lidar data, the application of various methods (e.g., documentation by total station, aerial photographs, modern/historical maps, and archaeological data) helps to assure a more precise identification and interpretation process of the archaeological features. In addition, the geographical information...
GIS Modeling of Precolonial Maya Natural Resource Management Strategies during Major Climatic Changes (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This project analyzes the water management systems of a smaller Puuc community, tentatively labeled Site A that was recently identified using lidar (light detection and ranging) technology. This region is distinctive for having no natural surface water features. Precolumbian Puuc communities captured rainwater during the wet season in chultuns (underground...
Giving Back: Debt in Classic Maya Narratives (2018)
This paper considers textual and visual evidence of debt among Classic Maya nobles. It begins with an overview of lexical data and summarizes specific references to payment and accounting. The argument proceeds to some less obvious contexts such as ‘just-so’ myths, which reveal a notion of primordial transactions and gifts to be repaid in perpetuity. Finally, the paper considers the movement of inscribed objects. The argument is that giving those essentially inalienable possessions marked...
A Good Footing: The Importance of Plaza Design in the Northern Maya Lowlands (2018)
Ancient Maya architecture tends to follow predictable patterns. Many structures have a single, clear façade, for instance, conceptualized as a literal face. Northern sites, with their toothy-jawed monster buildings, express this idea with particular directness. Stairways and sculptural adjuncts, like altars and stelae, are integral elements that contribute to the idea of facing, both literally and metaphorically, and, as such, are critical to the visual identity of many Maya sites. With a few...
Granite Use at an Ancient Maya Boomtown (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Ground Stone Studies in the Eastern Maya Lowlands" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation, we discuss our research into the use of granite by the ancient inhabitants of Alabama: a Late to Terminal Classic boomtown of the eastern Maya lowlands. One of our initial hypotheses regarding the relatively sudden rise of the town toward the end of the Late Classic period focused on granite as a...
Grasping the Green Giant: The Epistemology of Ancient Maya Agriculture (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Provisioning Ancient Maya Cities: Modeling Food Production and Land Use in Tropical Urban Environments" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Agricultural production is a fundamental aspect of most societies, and research into agriculture has focused on invention, innovation, involution, intensification, and disintensification in varying forms worldwide. Generations of scholarship have accumulated knowledge and theorized...
Green Acres: The Valle de Yaxhom and Puuc Prehistory (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project: 25 Years of Research in the Puuc" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It has long been recognized that the two principal physiographic subdivisions of the Puuc are the wedge-shaped Valle de Sta. Elena, just south of the Puuc escarpment, and to its south, the Bolonchen Hill District. One goal of the PARB project was to explore the eastern manifestations of these two regions for...
The Grid Patterns in the Vestments and Headdresses of Female Statuary from the Classic Period Cultures of Central Veracruz (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Precolumbian Dotted-Diamond-Grid Pattern: References and Techniques" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Various researches report that the diamond, rhomboid, and square-gridded patterns and their stepped variants designate the surface of the earth as the fecund female progenitor, manifested in flowers, corn cobs, and sweet, nurturing waters. These patterns also designate the zoomorphic aspects of the shell or skin of...
Grinding It Out: Ancient Maya Embedded Economies and Changing Ground Stone Densities in Households at Actuncan, Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Embedded Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In Classic Maya economies, artifact distributions alone do not neatly reflect modes of production and exchange. The simultaneous existence of multiple modes of production (domestic, specialized, ritualized, etc.) and exchange (gift giving, tribute extraction, and markets) in households complicate our understanding of the strength of any given aspect. We...
The Grolier Codex and the early 1960s (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Grolier Codex was reportedly found with other objects, including the Kislak box, the Dumbarton Oaks turquoise mask, and other objects in the United States and abroad. In this brief talk, these objects and their context will be addressed, as well as the likelihood of their having been...
Groundstone Manos and Metates as a Measure of Ancient Maya Political Economy at Actuncan, Belize (2018)
Understanding the political economy of ancient Maya communities requires reconstructing the forms and scales of exchange, the articulated nature of exchange modes, and the degree to which elites controlled commoner access to goods. These issues are examined at the site of Actuncan, Belize, by documenting the chronology, morphology, raw material, and social context of a large sample of groundstone manos and metates distributed across structures ranging from a palace to large houses to patio...
Groundstone Production and Community Development at the Ancient Maya Site of Pacbitun, Belize (2018)
The archaeological site of Pacbitun is one of the ancient sites that was inhabited by the Maya for approximately two thousand years. It is located in west central Belize near the modern Maya village of San Antonio. In 2011, investigations in the periphery of the site core revealed a small group of mounds, of which one contained evidence of groundstone production. This group, designated as the Tzib Group, was targeted because one of the mounds, labelled Mano Mound, yielded numerous mano fragments...
Gulf Ballgame Viewership: The Ballgame and Center Functions (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Los Rituales del Juego de Pelota en la Costa del Golfo / Ballgame Rituals in the Gulf Lowlands" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In south-central Veracruz, higher-level centers during the Classic period had ballcourts. The prevailing “low-density urbanism” and a distributed urban network pose challenges for sociopolitical integration. How well did the ballgame accommodate at least nearby populations and contribute to...
Habitar en los bordes, ocupación Clásica en lomeríos y crestas montañosas al oriente de los volcanes de Los Tuxtlas (2018)
Los sitios localizados sobre la planicie costera y en el pie de monte de los volcanes de Santa Marta y San Martín Pajapan, en el sur de Veracruz, se caracterizan por la presencia de arquitectura monumental, grandes áreas domésticas, sitios acondicionados como estaciones portuarias, talleres de artefactos de basalto en formato pequeño y posiblemente áreas de cultivo. En el periodo de mayor ocupación (650-1000 dC.) los terrenos bajos estaban totalmente ocupados, por lo que el asentamiento comenzó...
he Best Offense Is a Good Defense: Monumental Defensive Works at La Cuernavilla (2023)
This is an abstract from the "La Cuernavilla, Guatemala: A Maya Fortress and Its Environs" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ancient Maya center La Cuernavilla is well known for its defensive features and its role as a fortress located between the Classic Maya cities of Tikal and El Zotz in the Buenavista Valley of modern-day Guatemala. Excavations of the defensive features as well as the analysis of the artifacts collected during excavations...
Head on a Platter: A Reexamination of a Cache Vessel Lid (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Narratives featuring the Maize God are well represented on Classic Maya ceramics. Appearing with numerous other characters and plants in underworld settings, this deity is abundantly documented in scholarly literature. Despite his ubiquity in ancient imagery, the Maize God remains a slippery creature, with an identity that overlaps with other supernaturals. ...
Heads, Skulls, and Sacred Scaffolds: New Studies on Ritual Body Processing and Display among the Ancient Maya of Yucatán (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Among late Maya religious complexes, Chichen Itza stands as a monumental landmark. Among the enigmatic aspects of Chichen’s ceremonial innovations count skull racks, where the heads of sacrificed victims were exhibited in rows. It was the first Mesoamerican city to erect a permanent, decorated...
Heart of an Ancient Maya City: Investigations of the Central E Group at Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient Maya E Groups were important loci of sociopolitical continuity, sociocultural change, and social memory across millennia of lowland Maya civilization. As sustained generational foci of sociopolitical machinations and social memory, the built environment and significance of E Groups would have been continuously generationally reformulated to meet...
Hermann Berendt and Charles Rau: Notes on the Origin of Maya Archaeological Collections during the 19th Century (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of correspondence, field notes, catalogs and other archival documents has contributed important information to understand the history of some of the first Maya archaeological collections in the United States and Europe. The field and lab work developed by pioneering explorers and researchers, such as Hermann Berendt (1817-1878) and Charles Rau...
Hidden in the Hills No Longer: LiDAR Coverage in the Puuc Region of Yucatan, Mexico. (2018)
LiDAR imagery is revolutionizing interpretations of ancient Maya demography, land use, and community organization, among other concerns. This paper provides preliminary observations on LiDAR coverage of 200 km2 of the Puuc region of northern Yucatan, Mexico, collected in 2017 by NCALM. The Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project has been working in this area since 2000,and although we have intensively studied settlement at both the urban and intersite level, LiDAR provides the opportunity to...
Hidden Structures at El Mirador: Challenges and Prospects (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Invisible structures present serious and difficult to solve challenges for Mayanists. Despite a generation of research into Classic period invisible structures, we know little about their prevalence, history, or range of uses. We know even less about invisible structures from the Preclassic. Invisible structures are...
Hidden Structures, Ground Penetrating RADAR, and the Demography of El Mirador (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Preclassic El Mirador polity collapsed around 150 C.E. One focus of explanations of El Mirador’s collapse is anthropogenic changes to Basin ecology, centered on 1) population growth and agricultural overexploitation; and 2) conspicuous consumption of stucco for elite construction. Reliable estimates of population are essential for evaluating these...