United Mexican States (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,626-1,650 (4,948 Records)
Investigations at the site of Qaraqara have sought to determine the antiquity of forest clearance and food production in Fiji. Located over 25 km inland from the coast, archaeological excavation has indicated that the site was used for habitation and cultivation, producing a ceramic-rich deposit that extends to a depth of 250 cm. Geoarchaeological analyses of sediment cores from Qaraqara reached 500 cmbs, and document the formation of stable soils by 3000 BP, during the Lapita period. Plant...
Evidence for the Emergence of Social Complexity in Early Formative Period Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico (2017)
The emergence of sociopolitical complexity, and its connections to other developments such as changing subsistence and domestic mobility, has been a central theme of archaeology for over a century. Mesoamerica has been no exception to this trend, and scholars of pre-Columbian Mexico and Central America have scrutinized socioeconomic correlates of changing political integration and centralization. One concept central to this research has been that of hereditary hierarchical inequality. In fact,...
Evidence of Early Human Occupation at "Cueva de los Hacheros", Michoacán (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology in South Central Michoacán México, Ongoing Studies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2016, Dr. Jose Luis Punzo-Díaz attended to a complaint from the municipality of Turicato regarding the rockshelter Cueva de los Hacheros. As part of Proyecto de Arqueología y Paisaje del Área Centro Sur de Michoacán, the site was excavated. During excavations, the project discovered evidence of multiple periods of human...
Evidence of Meteor Shower Outbursts Recorded in the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic Script Using Orbital Integrations (2018)
No firm evidence has existed that the ancient Maya civilization recorded specific occurrences of meteor showers or oubursts in the corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. In fact, there has been no evidence of any pre-hispanic civilization in the Western Hemisphere recording any observations of any meteor showers on any specific dates. The authors numerically integrated meteoroid-sized particles released by Comet Halley as early as 1404 BC to identify years within the Maya Classic Period, AD...
The Evolution of a Revolution: "The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization." (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Before the 1960s, books about ancient urbanism and cities often included no references to the prehispanic Americas. V. Gordon Childe’s "urban revolution" was conceived as a phenomenon of the "Old World" as the "cradle of cradle of civilization." Landmark projects in Central Mexico:...
Evolution of Elite Residence at San Martín Tilcajete, 500-100 B.C. (2017)
Between 1995 and 2014, we directed 11 seasons of horizontal excavation in and around the main plazas of two Formative Period sites, El Mogote and El Palenque, near San Martín Tilcajete in the Oaxaca Valley. Our results indicate that major changes occurred in public architecture and elite residence between the Early Monte Albán I phase (500-300 B.C.) occupation at El Mogote and the Late Monte Albán I phase (300-100 B.C.) site of El Palenque. In view of the evidence of fundamental cultural...
Evolution of the Aztec Tecpan Palace (2017)
Sahagún called the Aztec palace a place of wisdom, and in the mature Aztec empire, sages of all kinds gathered in the tecpans and were members of elite families. The power of ruling families was based, in part, on their more sophisticated education, including divination and curing, and palaces as centers of knowledge served their communities. We know this from descriptions of contact-era imperial palaces, and we also know that these impressive places were the products of the evolution of the...
The Evolution of the Two-Room Temple during the Middle Formative in an Interregional Perspective between the Mixteca Alta and the Valley of Oaxaca (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse II: Current Research in Oaxaca Part 2" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The study of the Zapotec temple, its origins and evolution, has significant implications to understanding the social complexity in early societies. This paper follows the proposal of the one-room temple as the origin of the two-room temple, also called Zapotec temple, and exposes its evolution showing the characteristics of those...
An Examination of Capitalism on Nineteenth-Century Haciendas in Yucatán, Mexico, (2013)
This paper presents archaeological and historical evidence of the changing roles of haciendas in the Mexican economy during the nineteenth century in Yucatán. Specifically, this paper looks at how haciendas changed before and just after the Caste War of Yucatán through the examination of hacienda site structures, population data, and material culture comparisons. Haciendas are agricultural estates that are maintained by a wealthy land-owner and a lower-class labor force to supply...
An Examination of Commingled Atlantoaxial Joints by Deviation Analysis (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Continued Advances in Method and Theory for Commingled Remains" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study builds on previous research that incorporated deviation analyses into sorting commingled human remains. This presentation will analyze a relatively untested joint surface, the atlantoaxial joint, to exclude potential commingled joint pairs. Virtual models were created at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville...
An Examination of Middle Formative through Early Classic Ceramic Attributes from Stratified Contexts at Matacanela, Veracruz (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Olmec Manifestations and Ongoing Societal Transformations in the Tuxtlas Uplands: A View from Matacanela" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study compares Middle Formative through Early Classic period ceramic attributes, including temper size, type, and abundance, from stratified deposits at Matacanela Site in Veracruz, Mexico to other contemporaneous sites located in the Tuxtla Mountains and riverine bottomlands in...
Examination of Mural Pigments with Portable XRF in the Caves of Eastern Guerrero with Comparisons to Local Colonial Lienzos and Documents (2017)
Rock art is now recognized as a key component of cultural expression in prehistory and a variety of new techniques have been developed to offer more insight into this area of archaeological expression. Here, we present our findings from the use of portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis at cave sites in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. The authors offer a scientific basis for deriving inference regarding the process of rock art creation in several caves located in eastern Guerrero through the...
An Examination of the Archaeology of Northwestern Mexico and Southern Arizona and New Mexico (1957)
This report provides an examination of the archaeology of northwestern Mexico, southern Arizona, and New Mexico and an exploration of the relationship between the areas to each other. In order to consider the archaeology of southern Arizona and New Mexico and that of northwestern Mexico, the extensive geographical area has been delimited into two major subareas. These areas have been termed the Sonoran Subarea and the Sinaloan Subarea. This is approached by consideration of stages suggested by...
Examining Archaeology, Society, and the Promise of Integrating ‘Big’ Data from Archaeological and non-Archaeological Sources. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Vision in the Age of Big Data" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In order for digitally published data to be useful it has to be useable, and in the case of big-data, interoperable with other data sources. This paper explores one way in which this can be accomplished through an examination of how archaeological site densities across the eastern and midwestern United States relate to social factors such as...
Examining Early Maya Public Architecture at Gallon Jug, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent trends in archaeological research in the Maya lowlands focus on developing understandings of the nature of the entangled relationships between urban centers and peripheral populations. The Preclassic origins and development of centralized political authority at the urban center of Chan Chich in northwestern Belize is currently understudied in relation...
Examining Environment, Ecology and Patterns of Maya Culture at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2018)
Our study examines the interplay of the environment, topography, conflict, and social change. Recent research stresses the role of environmental and ecological fluctuations in the Classic Maya collapse (AD 700-1000). Scholars have linked drought cycles and changing climate to increased warfare and culture change at the end of the Classic Period (AD 200-900). However, numerous studies highlight that not all places in the Maya area collapsed, some communities grew and continued to be places of...
Examining Everyday Lives: Non-Elite Maya Households and the Terminal Classic Collapse (2018)
In this paper I will discuss recent archaeological investigations at the Floodplain North settlement cluster, located within the Rancho San Lorenzo Survey Area in Belize’s Mopan River valley. My research investigates the adaptive responses of non-elite Maya to Terminal Classic (AD 780-900) socioeconomic and political transformations. Preliminary analysis indicates occupation continued at Floodplain North after the Terminal Classic collapse and the abandonment of nearby settlements. Materials...
Examining Flaked Stone from Caracol, Belize, at the Urban Scale (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Urban Question: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Investigating the Ancient Mesoamerican City" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Household and city scales are typical units of archaeological analysis at Maya sites. More recent models of urban space include intermediate scales referred to as “neighborhoods” that encompass clusters of households and “districts” that effectively integrate neighborhoods. Using flaked stone...
Examining Intermediate Elite Relationships with Apical Elite Polity Rulers through Ritualization, Ancestor Veneration and District-Scale Identity Formation at the Late Classic Maya Polity of Lower Dover, Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditionally anthropologists envisioned ritual as playing a functional role in the formation and ongoing cohesion of ancient complex societies. More recent perspectives consider ritual to represent a powerful tool of resistance, and therefore pivotal not just to the integration, but also the disintegration of polities. Situations in which a higher order...
Examining Production in Maya Households: A Case from the Settlement Zone of Dos Hombres (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Economic integration of households outside of site cores has often been under theorized in Maya scholarship. In this paper I explore the evidence of craft production and spatial relationships in several of these residential groups as well as the implications for connections with social, political, and economic institutions. These groups make decisions...
Examining Rural Responses to Political Collapse: The Early Postclassic at Monte El Santo, Oaxaca, Mexico (2017)
Recent archaeological research at the site of Monte El Santo, Oaxaca, Mexico examines how the rural community of Monte El Santo responded to the political collapse of the Río Viejo polity during the Early Postclassic Period (800-1100 CE). The collapse ushered in important changes for the coastal inhabitants of the Lower Río Verde Valley- the site of Río Viejo experienced a sharp decline in population, and a newly formed population center at San Marquitos grew to rival Río Viejo in size. While...
Examining the Bread-Basket Model: Puuc Intra and Inter-Site Diversity in Plant Foods (2018)
The Puuc mountains in the northwestern Maya lowlands have proven themselves to be double-faced in regard to pre-Columbian human settlement. On one side, the valleys exhibit the region's most fertile soils. On the other hand, rainfall is scarce and access to the underground water table is comparatively difficult. Nonetheless, authors such as Smyth (1991) have long suggested that the Puuc represented some of the bread-basket for the wider northwestern lowlands. As part of a broader study, in this...
Examining the Causes of Migration into East Polynesia: A Bayesian Chronology Perspective on the Ideal-Free Distribution Model (2017)
The colonization of the islands of East Polynesia was one of the most rapid and expansive migratory events in human history. While extensive research focuses on determining the chronology of East Polynesia colonization, far less attention has been placed on elucidating the processes that influenced this migration. The Ideal Free Distribution Model of human behavioral ecology has proven useful for exploring a range of issues regarding colonization and mobility in varying ecological contexts...
Examining the Impacts of Non-human Animals on Sequences of Agricultural Change (2018)
Historical sequences of agricultural change are influenced by several key factors. While much attention has been paid to the political context of agricultural production, as well as environmental changes brought about by certain techniques, less has been paid to the active manipulation of productive environments by non-human animals. Within the context of some recent theoretical advances in archaeology and ecology, it has become apparent that animals - intentionally or unintentionally introduced...
Examining the Institutionalization and Transformation of Maya Kingship at Actuncan, Belize using Collective Action Theory (2018)
Here, I summarize the major research questions and results from the Actuncan Archaeological Project, which has been on-going since 2001. The project was initially designed to examine the ways Preclassic Maya leaders institutionalized political authority from the perspective of household archaeology, but has expanded to include excavation of civic architecture and remote sensing in open spaces. My research is informed by collective action theory, and the degree to which leaders engaged in...