Central America (Geographic Keyword)
101-125 (239 Records)
Excavations at the site of San Gabino took place in 2015 under the auspices of Proyecto Arqueológico Centro de Nicaragua (PACEN), directed by Dr. Alexander Geurds. Discovered during a systematic surface survey of the Mayales River subbasin, north of the town of Juigalpa, the site was selected for stratigraphic excavation due to the chronological significance of its surface finds, in particular colonial-period glazed ware pottery. Colonial wares proved absent elsewhere during the survey, making...
Interregional Connections of Northeast Honduras during the Postclassic Period (2017)
In 2016, archaeological investigations were carried out in Guadalupe, an extended prehispanic settlement near Trujillo, on the Northeast Coast of Honduras. The site was inhabited during the Postclassic period (Cocal) and might have functioned as a coastal trading center. This is indicated by its strategic location near the coast and next to an ancient river bed connecting the coast to the hinterland, especially to the Valle de Aguán, a culturally and economically important, but hitherto poorly...
Interregional Exchange and the Rise of Inequality in the Intermediate Area (2015)
Interregional exchange has long played a prominent role in explanations of hierarchical development among early complex societies in lower Central America and throughout the Intermediate Area. It is argued to have been a primary basis of social power among highly developed chiefdoms of the sixteenth century, and to have played a vital role in the onset of inequality approximately 1000 years earlier. However, while interregional exchange was undoubtedly an important element of early inequality in...
Intertwined Histories and Relational Personhood: Maya Co-essences (Spirit or Way Companions) Past and Present (2016)
It is widely recognized that co-essences or spirit companions (wayob) were a part of ancient Maya understandings of personhood. Partly because ethnographic analogies are used to understand ancient practices, it is easy to assume that beliefs and experiences surrounding Maya co-essences were static over many hundreds of years. In examining archaeological, epigraphic, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic data, this paper investigates the history of co-essences and, in turn, the way in which co-essences...
Investigaciones arqueológicas en el Caribe Sur Nicaragüense (2015)
Los primeros datos arqueológicos obtenidos para la costa Caribe de Nicaragua, surgieron en la década de los setenta del pasado siglo con los trabajos del norteamericano, Richard Magnus, (1974, 1975 y 78) y el arqueólogo nicaragüense, Jorge Espinoza, 1974, sobre todo en la Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur (RAAS), ya que la norte RAAN, los estudios son muy escasos; entre 1998 y 2006, se desarrollaron estudios conjuntos entre la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona UAB y la Universidad Nacional...
Investigating the Maya Polity at Lower Barton Creek, Cayo, Belize (2017)
Over fifty years of settlement research in the Belize River Valley has made the region one of the most intensively investigated areas of the Maya Lowlands. Recent LiDAR research by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project identified the previously unknown center of Lower Barton Creek in the southern extent of the Belize Valley, filling in a major gap in our understanding of settlement histories. In this paper, we present the results of settlement survey based on spatial analysis...
Investigations at San Andres Semetabaj and the Problematics of Middle to Late PreClassic Highland Archaeology (2017)
The site of San Andres Semetabaj, Guatemala, located on the northern edge of Lake Atitlan, is central, geographically and chronologically, to major theoretical and culture-historical controversies and problems of PreClassic highland archaeology. The size, nature, and importance of the site have been underestimated, in part due to limited available information based only on smaller preliminary seasons and a looted tomb and also due to the assumption by many that the very large structures there...
La Milpa East, Hun Tun, and Medicinal Trail Communities: Ancient Maya Hinterland Settlements East of La Milpa, Belize. (2017)
The hinterland east of La Milpa is distinctive of an upland landscape with bajos on its edges, a few formal courtyard groups, monuments, and numerous informal clusters of mounds. Multiple landscape modifications such as terraces, depressions, chultuns, and linear features are present in these eastern hinterland settlements as well. This paper will provide an overview of the excavations into three specific hinterland communities: La Milpa East, Hun Tun, and the Medicinal Trail Community, as well...
Las cabezas de estuco, recuperadas en el Grupo Casa del Coral, El Mirador, Peten (2015)
Reconocimientos e investigaciones recientes llevadas a cabo en las últimas dos temporadas de campo en la periferia este del gran centro de El Mirador han dado a conocer lo majestuoso en cuanto al arte de esculpir y tallar el estuco por pobladores clásicos de este sitio. Dando como resultado el descubrimiento de más de 20 piezas de estuco de incalculable valor cultural por ser piezas únicas en el área maya, todas estas piezas consideramos que representaron escenas de la vida diaria de los...
Late Classic Maya Granite Working Community at the Tzib Group, Pacbitun, Belize (2016)
The ancient Maya site of Pacbitun is located between two major ecozones, the Belize River Valley and the Mountain Pine Ridge. Excavations from 2012 to 2015 at the Tzib group in the periphery of Pacbitun first revealed evidence of large scale mano and metate production. Excavations into a large mound, dubbed "Mano Mound" because the surface was covered with mano perform fragments, revealed that it was not only a debris pile, but also the workshop platform as well. Large granite flakes, hammer...
LEAVING NO STONE UNTURNED: INVESTIGATING PRECLASSIC LITHIC PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, AND EXCHANGE AT SAN ESTEVAN, BELIZE AND K’O AND HAMONTÚN, GUATEMALA (2015)
From the gathering of agricultural surplus to the construction of small homes or large scale monuments, stone tools played a major role in many dimensions of everyday Formative Maya life. This presentation will examine the degree in which the production of stone tools made of chert and chalcedony were controlled by empowered political authorities or social groups at the sites of San Estevan in Northern Belize and K’o and Hamontún in the northeastern Petén region. The dynamics of the...
Leaving Their Mark on the Wall: Determining Sex in Ancient Maya Rock Art (2017)
Handprints and stencils are ubiquitous elements in rock art throughout the world. Numerous well preserved examples have been noted in Maya caves. These elements provide a clue as to the sex of the person whose hand is recorded on the cave wall. Recent studies have shown that sex may be estimated with a high degree of accuracy using anthropometric hand measurements. Sex is estimated by applying a variety of mathematical models based on sexual dimorphism in hand dimensions to direct measurement...
Let’s Talk Turkey: Turkey Use and Management at Postclassic Mayapán (2017)
The ancient Maya utilized two species of turkeys: the Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata) native to the Yucatán Peninsula, northern Guatemala, and northern Belize and the Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) from Central Mexico. The exact timing of Wild Turkey domestication and its introduction to the Maya area is unknown, although evidence as early as the Preclassic exists. The Ocellated Turkey was never fully domesticated but many scholars have proposed the Maya may have managed the species. To...
The Life of the Adolescent Paleoindian Female from Hoyo Negro, Quintana Roo, Mexico (2017)
Cave divers discovered remains of an adolescent human female in an immense, submerged chamber of the Sac Actun cave system in 2007. Until recently, her remains had only been studied from photographs, photo-based 3-dimensional models, and minimal sampling. Now her skeleton has been removed from the cave, conserved, and subjected to bioarchaeological, chemical, and histomorphological analysis. Her unusually complete and well-preserved skeleton, a rarity for late Pleistocene females in the...
Linear Features in the Bajo de Azucar, Guatemala: Multiple Origins and Uses (2015)
Examination of satellite imagery in 2006 revealed a number of linear features of varying lengths in a remote section of the Bajo de Azucar, a large swampy depression in northeast Guatemala. Ground exploration and excavation of several of these features in 2007 and 2008 documented a combination of natural and anthropogenic origins. We argue that the ancient Maya modified and extended natural channels within the bajo for several possible reasons: 1) to facilitate transportation across a difficult...
The Lithics of Conchal, Nicaragua and the story they tell (2015)
During the excavations of Conchal, Department of Rivas, Nicaragua relatively few lithic materials were encountered. While there were only 315 lithic pieces found, much can be learned from these pieces; this includes the daily activities that the prehistoric population conducted. By examining the data from the excavations, it was determined that the population began as a semi-nomadic one that eventually permanently inhabited the area. The formal and informal tools, along with the site furniture...
Local Chert Reduction, Maintenance, and Toolmaking: Terminal Classic Chert Use at Nohmul, Belize (dataset)
This dataset contains analysis of 381 chert artifacts excavated from structures 9 (circular) and 20 (patio quad) at the site of Nohmul in modern Belize. This material was originally excavated in two field seasons in 1978 and 1979 under the Corozal Postclassic Project by Diane Chase. The analysis of this material by Adrian SZ Chase and Jonathan Paige is published in the 2020 volume of Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology and should use that paper as a reference for this dataset (see abstract...
Long-Term Highland Maya Environmental Interaction: Integrating Archaeological, Ethnographic and Ecological Data (2016)
My ethnographic research documenting the sacred geography of the northern rim of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, has identified numerous contemporary sacred locations linked to ecologically critical areas. Some of these are archaeological monuments, while surface surveys of most others evidence pre-Hispanic materials. Additionally, previous survey (and limited excavation) documented a number of area archaeological sites dating to the Maya Preclassic, with some exhibiting habitation up to the present;...
The Lower Central American Influences on Honduran Polychromy (2016)
Traditionally, polychrome pottery from Late Classic and Early Postclassic Honduras has been considered as falling under or being subjected to the Mesoamerican sphere of influence, as well as showing certain Central Mexican affiliations. Yet, the Lower Central American connection has rarely been explored. This connection is nonetheless present as can be observed throughout the diversity of Honduran polychromy. In this paper, the influence of the Greater Nicoyan style on Honduran polychrome...
Machetes, Metates, and Majolica: San Pedro Maya Involvement in the Colonial Economy at Kaxil Uinic Village, Belize (2017)
Following the outbreak of the Caste War in the Yucatán (1847-1901), a group of San Pedro Maya established the village of Kaxil Uinic in northwestern Belize (formerly British Honduras). In the wake of the Battle of San Pedro between British and Maya forces in 1867, the Lieutenant Governor of British Honduras issued a decree to delegitimize San Pedro Maya claims to land, undermining their subsistence economy and forcing them into wage labor for the logging and chicle industries. O. Nigel Bolland...
Machine Age Maya: the Industrialization of a Guatemalan Community (1958)
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Mammals in a Colonial Context (2017)
The archeozoological studies about secondary contexts (dumps and construction fills) are important as they explain the customs of the people in a particular time. These studies, normally, are excluded from the archeological studies as funerary offerings, burials, activity areas, and so on, are the aim study of the archeology. Moreover, the secondary contexts, as they are not related to systemic contexts, are considered informatively poor. We studied the faunal remains of a Mexican colonial dump...
Material Encounters and Indigenous Transformations in Early Colonial El Salvador (2017)
Mapping and excavations of the Conquest-period and early colonial site of Ciudad Vieja, the ruins of the first villa of San Salvador, El Salvador, afford a view of material culture encounters and indigenous transformations in northern Central America. The Ciudad Vieja archaeological research has focused on material culture encounters between Spanish and indigenous populations in the realms of landscape, architecture, technology, economy, society, and religion. The time span for Ciudad Vieja runs...
Material manifestation of ritual survival after abandonment (2015)
The presence of burials placed on the floor of the palaces and private patios within elite complexes but without offerings are truthful testimonies about the time of the Mayan settlements abandonment at the end of the Classical Terminal period. Such burials have been found at the Acropolis of La Blanca (Petén, Guatemala). Years later, during the Early Postclassic period, when those buildings had already partially collapsed and debris covered Terminal Classic material vestiges, other individuals...
The Materiality and Mobility of Jade in the Upper Usumacinta Basin (2015)
Distributions of jade in the Upper Usumacinta basin suggest that the movement of jade followed political connections and were not purely instances of down-the-line trade motivated by economic gain. Jade objects were likely gifted between elites to solidify political relationships. Some sites along the Usumacinta River received a wealth of jade, while others were relatively impoverished and turned to replicas or other forms of symbolic capital. The materiality of jade during the Classic period...