Toledo (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)
876-900 (1,140 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the results of a multiyear research project at the lithic production community of Took’ Witz, a hinterland group located near the ancient Maya city of El Palmar (Campeche, Mexico). Our research explored the large-scale utilitarian lithic production that occurred at the site, as well as the activities and material cultures at three...
Return to Aztlan: Aztec Pachuca Green Obsidian in Maya Sites at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum: Celebrating 20 Years Serving the Archaeological Community " session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeology at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico, recovered large amounts of green obsidian from mines at Pachuca, Hidalgo, which were managed by Mexica-Aztecs in Late Postclassic times (ca. 1300–1520 CE). Excavations in coeval Maya habitation sites at Mensabak recovered obsidian...
A Return to Roots: The Maya—Teotihuacan Inscription at Copan’s Temple 26 (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Teotihuacan: Multidisciplinary Research on Mesoamerica's Classic Metropolis" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the mid-eighth century, Copan’s fifteenth ruler, K’ahk’ Yipyaj Chan K’awiil, oversaw the completion of Structure 10L-26 (or Temple 26), which was crowned with a stone inscription located within the superstructure. This inscription features a parallel display of Maya full-figure glyphs alongside...
Reuse, Rubble, and Relations to Place at Ancient Maya Cities (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Reinvent, Reclaim, Redefine: Considerations of "Reuse" in Archaeological Contexts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper traces histories of reused stone and space at ancient Maya cities. Space/Place theorists have documented the ways that physical spaces have layers of meaning tied to their history of use. In the Maya area, archaeologists have documented myriad ways in which Maya individuals have engaged with and...
Revenge of the Nerds, or Why Do Modern Archaeologists Identify with Early Antiquarians? (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Politics of Heritage Values: How Archaeologists Deal with Place, Social Memories, Identities, and Socioeconomics" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Laws for the preservation of tangible heritage posit historical and cultural significance as a form of intrinsic value that makes objects worth preserving. In the nineteenth century, arguments for this sort of preservation were meant to counteract vernacular practices that...
Revisiting the Mortuary Function of Chultunes (2018)
Excavations at Mul Ch’en Witz uncovered a series of chultunes just below the escarpment on which the ceremonial core of La Milpa is located. Of the six chultunes identified during the 2017 field season, Chultun 3 has produced the most cultural material. In addition to several complete vessels excavated, human bone fragments were recovered. The remains, found next to the chultun capstone, revive questions surrounding the mortuary function of chultunes. Dennis Puleston, among others, considered...
Revisiting the Polychromatic Stucco of Lamanai, Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A significant assemblage of Late to Terminal Classic stucco was discovered at the archaeological site of Lamanai in northern Belize. Originally forming a frieze adorning the upper facade of the palatial Structure N10-28, the stucco fragments are remarkable for their overall preservation and their extensive polychromatic pigmentation. In 2023 a new phase of...
Revisiting the “Lost Shores” and “Forgotten Peoples” of the Southeastern Chiapan Lowlands (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In spite of the intensity of interest in the ancient Maya, very little research has been conducted to date in lowland eastern Chiapas. This region, crossed by several important rivers and trade routes, connects multiple important areas, including the southern Maya lowlands, the Guatemalan and Caribbean highlands, and the Gulf and Caribbean...
Revitalizing Ancient Knowledge: A Community-based Outreach Project Sharing Classic Maya Epigraphy in Ox Mul Kah (San Antonio), Belize (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 introduces a community engagement program I designed to teach Classic Maya epigraphy to members of my community, Ox Mul Kah (San Antonio, Belize). While the Classic Maya ancestors left us with an elaborate culture, which was passed on to modern communities like Ox Mul Kah, many Maya today are unaware of the ancestral achievements like...
Rio Amarillo’s Temazcal: Fertility, Toads, and Childbirth in the Copan Valley, Honduras (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. In 2014, rescue excavations in a residential group on the outskirts of Río Amarillo, 20 km from the ancient center of Copan, revealed the presence of a Pib Naah (temazcal/sweat bath), with clear ties to women’s rituals and Maya concepts of fertility. This evidence led the author to name this structure...
The Rise and Fall of the Forest Canopy: An Application of Compound-Specific Stable Isotopic Analysis to a Holocene Sequence of Soils as a Record of Human Impacts in Southern Belize (2018)
Derived from lipid-rich plant tissues (primarily leaf waxes), long chain n-alkanes are a durable organic biomarker whose relative abundance is used in paeloecological studies as a proxy marker of plant species composition, and as an indicator of biomass burning. Isotopic composition of individual n-alkane components preserves signals that reflect both hydroclimate and canopy height. These properties can be employed to examine spatially integrated signals of anthropogenic land clearance in lake...
The Rise of Northern Maya Ceramic Chronologies: Emerging Perspectives on Middle to Late Preclassic Processual Dynamics and the Legacy of Joseph W. Ball (2018)
Seminal and persistently relevant work by Ball has shaped and reshaped our understanding of Middle to Late Preclassic population movements on the Yucatan Peninsula and the establishment of local potting communities and traditions. Evidence of Middle Preclassic ceramic production in the northeastern-most Maya Lowlands had remained elusive until the mid 1990s. Early Nabanche affinities observed in the locally produced pottery of northern Quintana Roo suggested an expansion of peoples across the...
Rises and Falls of Uaxactun Dynasty: Combining Epigraphic and Archaeological Evidence (2019)
This is an abstract from the "At the Interface the Use of Archaeology and Texts in Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The dynastic history of Uaxactun is one of the most ancient among the political centers of the Maya Lowlands in the Preclassic and Classic periods. The beginning of history of a dynasty concerns to the III cent. BC, and its end to the final years of the IX cent. AD. On an extent more than a thousand-year history the dynasty...
Rising from the Bush: Investigations of Elite Households Adjacent to Site Cores in the Belize Valley (2018)
Since 2010, the BVAR Project has conducted intensive research at the recently discovered site of Lower Dover, located directly across the Belize River from Barton Ramie. A major part of the BVAR investigations is to determine the socio-political relationship between Lower Dover, Barton Ramie, Blackman Eddy, and Baking Pot. Other research questions have focused both on the monumental architecture of the site core, and on plazuela groups in the periphery of site’s epicenter. One such peripheral...
Rising from the East: The Preclassic Foundations of Lowland Maya Societies in Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Preclassic period (1200/1100 BC–AD 300) represents one of the most significant cultural transitions for lowland Maya societies. Over the course of ~1,500 years, communities settled permanently on the landscape, committed to agriculture, and began building monumental...
Risk and Resilience in the Dynamic Lower Lacantun River Landscape (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Maya have inhabited diverse environments in southern Mesoamerica, typified by marked seasonal contrasts between wet and dry periods. Access to water as a resource for agriculture and transportation varied spatially and seasonally for Maya communities, with scholarly and public attention often focusing on the challenges posed by...
Ritual and Cultural Process in the E-Group Complex at Holtun, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Holtun: Investigations at a Preclassic Maya Center" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we present data from investigations of Group F, or the E-group complex at Holtun, Guatemala. Named for the group at Uaxactun where this specific architectural compound was first identified, the Holtun E-group contains a large pyramidal structure to the west and a range structure to the east. First believed to be celestial...
Ritual and Movement in the Preclassic Hinterlands of the Mopan River Valley (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Preclassic Landscape in the Mopan Valley, Belize" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Evidence from the Mopan River valley continues to clarify the nature and extent of Preclassic occupation of the region. The hinterland community of San Lorenzo sits directly across the river from both Xunantunich and Actuncan, sites with substantial Preclassic construction and ritual use. Using data gathered from this ancient...
Ritual and Political Landscapes of the Preclassic Maya: A View from the Cival Region (2018)
The link between Lowland Maya ritual and power relations during the Preclassic period has been so far approached primarily through iconographic, burial and artifact data at the local scale. Very little evidence exists linking notions of political authority, ritual practices and landscapes at the regional level. Recent survey and excavation data from the Cival region of Northeastern Peten, reveals a vast and complex settlement pattern. The Preclassic Maya city of Cival was surrounded by a network...
Ritual Cave Utilization in the Middle Usumacinta Region: Socio-political Implications of Ritual Cave Use at the Maya Residential Sites Associated with Piedras Negras (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, I will examine the significance of ritual cave use in the emergence and development of Classic Maya polities. Caves are critical settings to understand the diversity of ritual practices and the involvement of such contexts within socio-political systems. My work in caves in the Middle Usumacinta Valley will further our understanding of...
Ritual Cave Utilization Near Tenosique in Tabasco, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of the Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project, I conducted reconnaissance in three caves with archaeological remains, named Santo Tomás, San Marcos, and Corregidora. The three caves are located in the Tenosique municipality in Tabasco, Mexico near the border with Guatemala. A...
Ritual Deposits within the Eastern Pyramidal Structure at Group D, Xunantuntich – Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Between the 2012-2016 field seasons, the Mopan Valley Preclassic Project conducted investigations of an eastern pyramidal structure (Str D-6) at Group D, Xunantunich. Group D is a sacbe terminus architectural group which is connected to Xunantunich’s main plaza. The location of the sacbe suggests that Group D was part of an important ritual circuit. Over 5...
The Ritual Requirements for Opening a Maya Cave (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1966 a cave near Chichen Itza was reported to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) by Maya living in the area. The cave was investigated by Victor Segovia Pinto, after which the sinkhole entrance was filled with rocks. When archaeologists from the Gran Acuífero Maya opened the cave 52 years later, workers on the...
Ritual Use of the Rejolladas of Tahcabo, Yucatán (2018)
In Tahcabo, Yucatán, 5% of the town’s municipal land is contained within rejolladas. Rejolladas, like cenotes, are sinkholes formed in the karstic bedrock of Yucatán, although they do not reach to the level of the water table. They make for ideal gardens when located within settlements, as their low elevation allows for the collection of deep and moisture-rich soil that provides an advantage for the cultivation of almost any plant. At the nearby site of Kulubá it has also been shown that...
Ritual, Politics, and the Structure of Community Networks in Classic Maya Society (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Applications of Network Analysis" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ritual and performance play important integrative functions in the creation, maintenance, and negotiation of social ties that bind communities together. The shared experience of these public displays establishes strong bonds between individuals, defining their membership in certain social groups while reinforcing cultural norms and values....