Central America (Geographic Keyword)
201-225 (242 Records)
For the past decade, we have applied a series of nested geospatial techniques to better understand the development and evolution of the Olmec city of San Lorenzo and the surrounding regional landscape. Built on a foundation of more than two decades of traditional archaeological excavation, settlement survey and artifact analysis, the geospatial project expands the coverage and confirms much of what is known about San Lorenzo’s evolution and settlement ecology. The project also provides...
A Satellite-Based Perspective on Ancient Climate in Tropical and Desert Regions (2015)
This research documents the effects of human activity upon tropical forests and desert landscapes. The investigation uses both satellite and airborne imagery to understand the dynamics of human adaptation and interaction upon these landscapes, and the role of natural and human-induced past and present changes to climate variability. These two subjects are highly interrelated since human-induced landscape changes can have strong impacts on climate, while natural climate variability can in turn...
Seeking Isla Palenques's Deeper Meaning (2015)
Although Isla Palenque is an important Panamanian archaeological site that has been investigated several times from the 1960s through the 80s, there remain important questions associated with the human occupation of the settlement. Current changes in Panama’s tourism growth make this emergent study important, because while this site has remained relatively "unchanged" for decades, current construction projects are beginning to limit study of the island that has been notoriously difficult to...
A Seriation of Local Ceramics from Cosmapa Oriental, Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua (2017)
Many local ceramic wares in northwestern Nicaragua are, as of yet, undescribed. Excavations at the site of Cosmapa Oriental in the municipality of Chichigalpa, Department of Chinandega, Nicaragua were conducted by Dr. Clifford Brown of Florida Atlantic University in 2013. Analysis of the ceramic sample in 2015 revealed two occupational periods at the site: a Late Preclassic occupation related to cultures in El Salvador; and a Classic to Early Postclassic occupation, which include Las Vegas and...
Some Methodological Problems with the Study of Non-Urban Caves in Northern Belize (2015)
Cave archaeology in northern Belize is poorly developed because the soft dolomitic limestone does not permit the formation of large and impressive caves. Several studies of small caves associated with public architecture have been conducted within the Rio Bravo Conservation Management Area, Orange Walk District, Belize. These studies suggest that caves played much the same role in the sacred geography that has been documented elsewhere in the Maya area. Nevertheless, there are no systematic...
Some Thoughts on Altar 3, Pacbitun, Belize (2017)
The rise of public monumental architecture in the Maya Middle Preclassic (900-400 BC) and the eventual development of divine kingship during the Early Classic (AD 250-550) constitute social processes that remain comparatively obscure. Nevertheless, they are increasingly illuminated as new empirical evidence is uncovered from research projects such as the Pacbitun Regional Archaeology Project. Ongoing work at Pacbitun, Belize, has brought to light considerable new information that can clarify...
Structure 20 and 9 chert data from Corozal Postclassic Project 1978 and 1979 excavations of Nohmul, Belize (2019)
"Stone tools and debitage recovered from Terminal Classic Period contexts at the site Nohmul, Belize were collected in 1978 and 1979 as part of a dissertation project. Our analysis of this Nohmul chert assemblage has found evidence for local reduction of cobbles and core maintenance, as well as the production and maintenance of tools. Nohmul is situated roughly 30 kilometers from the Northern Belize Chert Bearing Zone, and the site of Colha, Belize – the argued center of lithic production in the...
Surviving Sudden Environmental Change: Answers from Archaeology (2012)
Archaeologists have long encountered evidence of natural disasters through excavation and stratigraphy. In Surviving Sudden Environmental Change, case studies examine how eight different past human communities-ranging from Arctic to equatorial regions, from tropical rainforests to desert interiors, and from deep prehistory to living memory-faced and coped with such dangers.Many disasters originate from a force of nature, such as an earthquake, cyclone, tsunami, volcanic eruption, drought, or...
Symposium On Beach Erosion in Middle America: Introduction: Vol. XXV (1976)
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They are what they eat: A need to know more about diet through residues, hieroglyphic texts, and images of the Classic Mayas (2017)
Among the various sources of information about what foodstuffs comprised the Classic Mayan diet, we lack resolution on daily, domestic, and the various ritual and event foodstuffs. Beyond the archaeologically recovered macrofossil and faunal data, the identifications of drugs and ritual foodstuffs are less well established. Speculative and presumed behaviors that surround these goods tend to bias methods of analysis towards known substances and preconceived interpretations, thereby potentially...
A Thousand Years after the Volcano Erupted: TBJ Deposits and Use at Ciudad Vieja, El Salvador (2016)
The impact of the eruption of Ilopango Volcano in the early sixth century A.D. has been a focus of Payson Sheets' research for more than four decades. The signature of this eruption is the distinctive "tierra blanca joven" (TBJ) layer found at sites in central and western El Salvador. Our excavations in 2013-15 at Ciudad Vieja, the archaeological remains of the Conquest-period town of San Salvador, have allowed us to identify a hitherto unknown site in the distribution of TBJ tephra. In some...
Trade and inter-community networks around Managua, Nicaragua (2016)
Trade and inter-community connections are keys to understanding how the ancient region around the modern city of Managua, Nicaragua interacted and participated in the larger Central American and Mesoamerican trade corridor. This poster will present potential interpretations of long distance and local connections through a cost and pathway analysis using ArcGIS. This study will incorporate recent research on obsidian sources from the site of Chiquilistagua into the model of interactions, as well...
Trade and Tribute Routes among the Spanish and Pipil in Cuscatlan, El Salvador (2016)
In ancient societies political, ideological, and environmental factors played a role in determining settlement patterns and trade routes. The use of GIS-based modeling approaches, such as least cost path analysis, provide us with a greater understanding of how ancient people moved and interacted in the landscape and the possible trade routes that existed among them. In this study I use network and least cost path analyses to reconstruct the network of trade and communication routes surrounding...
Trade, Exchange, Production and Consumption at Sitio Drago, Bocas del Toro, Panama (2015)
Sitio Drago is a large (18 ha) pre-Columbian settlement strategically located on the NW corner of Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro, Panama. Prior to the 21st Century Bocas del Toro had been characterized as recently colonized, poorly populated, having a relatively low degree of sociopolitical elaboration and isolated. Continuing research over the last 10 years on Isla Colon, focusing on Sitio Drago, illustrates that the site and by extension, the region, has a much longer population history, a...
Transects, Trowels, and Technology: Recreating the Ancient Landscape at Pacbitun, Belize (2016)
The ancient Maya site of Pacbitun, Belize was first systematically recorded in the 1980s. Since then, archaeologists have continuously worked on recreating the site’s ancient landscape. In addition to traditional survey methods, the Pacbitun Regional Archaeological Project (PRAP) has implemented non-invasive survey tools like terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and, more recently, the analysis of aerial LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data. In this poster we present a comparative analysis of...
Transformations in Political Economy and Routes of Exchange on the Eve of the Classic Maya Collapse: New Evidence from the Port Kingdom of Cancuen and the Classic Maya Frontier (2015)
The Classic period archaeology and history of the Pasion River "highway" and its connecting land routes demonstrate the vital role of riverine exchange systems and also register major changes in routes, agents, and economies. The riverine port city of Cancuen held a critical position at the intersection of both river and land routes that connected the southwest Classic Maya cities to other Peten centers, to southern highland trading partners, and to the more distant realms of Tabasco and...
Traveling and trading in Ancient Costa Rica (2015)
Evidence of trading between Greater Nicoya and the Central region of Costa Rica increases in the later Pre-Columbian periods (AD 800-1550), likely tied to the expansion of commercial networks from more complex chiefdoms. Different trading routes have been proposed, including the Central Pacific as one the possible gateways to the Central Valley. The feasibility of trade routes in that region is explored and evaluated here taking into account the known archaeological sites and routes followed by...
True Potential: a database on osteological material in Nicaragua (2017)
Archaeological research in Nicaragua has yielded an abundance of human osteological material. Excavations at sites like Monkey point on the Caribbean coast and RURD-UNAN in Managua have uncovered impressive and extensive human inhumations. These sites are among the only four sites in Nicaragua were an extensive osteological study has been done and published. Yet many more unpublished literature mentions or has documented osteological remains. What is the real extent of the uncovered osteological...
Two Newly Discovered Maya Chert Tool Workshops in the Belize Valley: Results of the 2014 Surface Reconnaissance (2015)
Few lithic workshops have been found in the Belize Valley of Western Belize. This paper presents the results of surface reconnaissance and debitage collection at two newly discovered chert tool workshops near the villages of Esperanza and Teakettle in the Cayo District of Western Belize. Each of these workshops consists of a single large mound of debitage and includes tools aborted or broken at various stages of manufacture. At both locations, the main tool types produced were oval bifaces and...
Understanding Environmental Thresholds through Geoarchaeology: Case Studies from the Maya Lowlands (2016)
All depositional environments can leave complex records of environmental change over time. We consider floodplains, alluvial fans, and wetlands of the Maya lowlands at present day Neundorf, Belize. We have documented a rich history of sedimentation, water chemistry, and archaeological data that show a measurable environmental and archaeological signature that date back over 4,000 years in this region. This research uses soil geomorphology to study the chronology and processes of wetland...
Understanding Exchange in Late Pre-Hispanic Central America. Current Thinking on Culture Areas and Ethnicity (2015)
This paper argues that improving understanding of exchange in Central American prehistory is hampered by static cultural taxonomies, and traditions of thinking and publishing that are limited in terms of the 'archaeology of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama', dividing the field to the point where scholars are uncomfortable discussing Pre-Hispanic Central America as such. This has put an unsatisfactory halt to the discussion about how to understand and conceptualize this isthmian region. If ethnic...
Understanding the paleogeography and Maya ditched fields along the Rio Hondo, Belize and Mexico (2015)
In recent years, we have identified numerous sets of ditched agricultural fields along the Rio Hondo floodplain. In this paper we examine the paleogeographic and archaeological contexts of these fields. The commonalities of their settings offer perspective on their social functions and insight into who controlled them and how this control was manifest into settlement patterns. We discuss the geography of the riverine zone, the settings in which ditched fields are found and known related...
The Upper Usumacinta Travel Corridor, A Game of Chutes and Ladders (2015)
Like other major rivers the Usumacinta had parallel land routes. Unlike most rivers the Usumacinta lies bound within whitewater canyons below Yaxchilan, cut off from its flanking trails except at gaps dictated by the geography. In the Classic Period, the river and its trails formed a ladder-like grid offering great mobility, but requiring tradeoffs between speed and safety. For both the ancient Maya and modern boatmen the Usu’ was a fast, efficient, and dangerous route to the lowlands. Two...
Using Ancient Plant Macroremains to Understand Resource Consumption in the Past and Present (2017)
Many people recognize the need for markedly different mode of living amid a growing body of scientific evidence that the current world population is environmentally unsustainable. Exploring ancient foodways and landscape management techniques may improve our ability to imagine highly productive modes of food production and resource consumption dissimilar to that of our current global reality. Here, I show how a reconstruction of macrobotanical and faunal remains builds a narrative of...
Using GIS to Explore the Strategic Location of Ancient Maya Centers Within the Vaca Plateau of Western Belize (2015)
Settlement patterns studies in archaeology have shown that a myriad of environmental, political, social, and ideological factors influenced where ancient people chose to settle on the landscape. In efforts to better understand these complex behaviors, archaeologists have increasingly turned to GIS-based modeling approaches including viewshed and least cost path analyses. This study draws upon these techniques to explore visibility and movement across the north Vaca Plateau of west-central...