United Mexican States (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
1,726-1,750 (4,948 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Puebla/Tlaxcala Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite being one of ancient Mexico’s largest and most enigmatic ceremonial centers, Cholula has often been overlooked in regional interpretations. Research has been conducted intermittently for over 200 years, yet much of it has never been reported. Furthermore, the 2,500-year history of the ceremonial center has created a jigsaw puzzle of...
Exploring Turkey Exploitation and Management in the Maya Lowlands (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Domestication, Husbandry and Management in North America and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As one of the few intensively managed species in Mesoamerica, the turkey plays a key role in understanding cultural interactions and subsistence, particularly in the Mayan lowlands. Two populations of turkeys were exploited in this region: the local, wild ocellated turkey...
Expressions of Ballgame Ritual Participation at Matacanela in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas (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 this presentation, we consider the accumulated evidence for ballgame ritual participation throughout the Classic period center, Matacanela, located in the south-central Tuxtla Mountains. We also account for related symbols from settlements in the immediate outskirts and incorporate them...
Extending Teotihuacan's Past: Ceramic Insights from Lidar-Based Surface Survey (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Mesoamerican and Andean Cities: Old Debates, New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation, we will explore the density patterns of ceramics in the Teotihuacan Valley, from the Patlachique phase to the Mexica occupation. Our research is based on an initial ceramic analysis conducted using a recent lidar-based surface survey. To manage and visualize the density maps more efficiently, we...
Extending the Notion of Night: Volcanic Eruptions in Mesoamerica (2017)
The recent research on archaeological evidence for nightly practices has profoundly shaped interpretations of the past. As scholars begin to investigate this unexamined portion of ancient life, it is essential to include associations of night beyond the time of day. Volcanic events strongly influenced life throughout ancient Mesoamerica and provide an alternative avenue of investigation into ancient experiences of a form of night created by ash. Volcanic eruptions, particularly those of...
Extracting Copper from Sulphidic Ores: The Jicalán Viejo Smelting Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Technological Transitions in Prehispanic and Colonial Metallurgy: Recent and Ongoing Research at the Archaeological Site of Jicalán Viejo, in Central Michoacán, West Mexico" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Contrary to other Mesoamerican cultural and political entities, the Purépecha Empire is renowned for its remarkable development of metallurgical production. Ongoing research at the site of Jicalán Viejo involves the...
Extracting the Proverbial Bedrock of Society: A Report Precolumbian Maya Granitic Rock Quarries in the Mountain Pine Ride, Belize (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. Sourcing studies have consistently pointed to the plutons of the Mountain Pine Ridge (MPR), Belize, as the preferred source of granitic rock for making ground stone objects used by precolumbian Maya communities throughout the eastern lowlands. Nonetheless, questions about how the raw material was extracted remain...
Exudates and Resins Used by the Maya as Potential Candidates for Natural Bioactive Adhesives, Gums, and Protective Coatings (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Plant Exudates and Other Binders, Adhesives, and Coatings in the Americas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Both the ancient and modern Maya have employed a broad range of plant exudates, gums, resins, and other natural products for many centuries. Numerous plant species indigenous to Mesoamerica possess bioactive compounds that have served as medicine, pesticides, fish poisons, dyes, adhesives, unguents, tanning...
The Eyes of God (2018)
The deities of El Tajin seem to share a characteristic scroll eyebrow in bas reliefs as well as in mural paintings. I will follow the representation of such an icon, trying to recognize posible origins, the outreach of the element and the symbolic associations in Mesoamerican time and space.
A Fabric-Impressed Potsherd from San Andrés, Tabasco, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite over a century of intense research, little has been published on the non-durable technology of the Olmecs. This is due to the "tyranny" of preservation, which strongly biases the archaeological record in most areas toward durable artifacts. Recent analysis of a probably accidentally impressed potsherd from San Andrés, within the urban polity of La...
Factors Involved in the Abandonment of Certain Peripheral Southwestern Settlements (1952)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.
Family Trees & Feathered Serpents at Chichén Itzá: Expanding H.B. Nicholson’s Understanding of Kukulcan (2017)
While H.B. Nicholson’s magnum opus about Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl concentrates on ethnohistory, he acknowledges that some imagery at Chichén Itzá may highlight the feathered serpent’s role as patron. I propose other readings for Kukulcan ("Feathered Serpent" in Yucatecan Maya) at Early Postclassic Chichén Itzá. Linguistic and ethnographic evidence indicates that the feathered serpent symbolizes lineage and ancestry and that rattlesnake physiognomy intersects with fertility. These readings...
Famine Foods and Food Security in Ancient and Modern Yaxuna (2017)
Food as an object of study can reveal relationships between biological necessity, culture, and oppression. The 1996 World Summit on Food Security declared that "food should not be used as an instrument for political and economic pressure," yet archaeology shows myriad ways in which food access was manipulated in the past, and the ramifications of those manipulations. In the Maya area, prestige foods have tended to be the focus of analysis. In this paper, we emphasize the importance of the...
Fang & Feather: The Origin of Avian-Serpent Imagery at Teotihuacan and Symbolic Interaction with Jaguar Iconography in Mesoamerica (2018)
The Central Mexican city of Teotihuacan rose to prominence in the last century BC and lasted for six centuries The civic plan was arranged around two main perpendicular avenues lined with temples and public monuments. By the third century AD, the population was housed in apartment compounds. On the walls were murals depicting ornately dressed administrators, armor-clad warriors, and fantastic creatures. These murals were the birthplace of the Feathered Serpent. My research proposes that the...
Fantastic Archaeologist: Stephen Williams and the Perennial Task of Debunking Pseudoarchaeology (2018)
The history of archaeology is replete with assertions about lost tribes, sunken continents, and ancient aliens in the context of failed hypotheses, deliberate hoaxes, and intentional frauds. Williams chronicled these, in the process helping others hone skills in critical thinking. New technologies proliferate spurious explanations of the past that archaeologists must continually address. As the Talmud says, "It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, but you are...
Fantastic Archaeology Revisited: Still Wild After All These Years (2018)
In his 1991 classic, Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Archaeology, Stephen Williams set out to document the ways in which fraud has masqueraded as truth in North American prehistory. More than just a catalog of the improbable and unfalsifiable, Fantastic Archaeology also served as gateway to scientific archaeology for many in the general public. Smitten with a "weird tale," many in the Cambridge, MA area found their way to Prof. Williams’ Harvard University course upon...
Farms with a View: The Evolution of Agriculture at Kealakekua, Hawai‘i (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Research and CRM Are Not Mutually Exclusive: J. Stephen Athens—Forty Years and Counting" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Above the 400 foot sea cliff at Kealakekua Bay on the leeward Kona coast of Hawai‘i are the remnants of extensive pre-Contact Hawaiian agricultural infrastructure. Inventory survey and data recovery on 100-plus acres at the top of the sea cliff provided an opportunity to examine a relatively large...
Fashioning Meaning through Ceramic Candeleros in the Terminal Classic Naco Valley, Northwestern Honduras (2015)
Candeleros are simply made ceramic artifacts that consist of one or more cylindrical chambers that are usually circularly arranged and often show signs of burning. These objects are found widely across Mesoamerica though they are rare in most locales. The 100 km2 Naco Valley in northwestern Honduras diverges from this pattern in that: candeleros are frequently found in Terminal Classic (800-1000 CE) assemblages here; they vary in size from items containing a single chamber to others with upwards...
Fauna from Sinkholes at the Site of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research in the Petén Lakes Region, Petén, Guatemala" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Petén Lakes region of Petén, Guatemala, sits on karst bedrock and is home to a series of lake chains, the largest of which is Lake Petén Itzá. Nixtun-Ch’ich’ lies on the lake’s western arm. The lowland’s limestone topography allows for high drainability of water resulting in scarce surface hydrology. Aside from the few...
Faunal Analysis Data for Terrace S25 (2015)
This file contains all of the data from Dr. Heather Laphams analysis of the animal bones collected during the 2015 excavation of Terrace S25 on Cerro Danush, Dainzú-Macuilxóchitl, Oaxaca, Mexico
Faunal Analysis Report for Terrace S25 (2015)
This is the report by Dr. Heather Lapham of the analysis of the faunal materials recovered during the 2015 excavations of Terrace S25 on Cerro Danush.
Feasting and Concentrated Pottery Production in East Cape, Papua New Guinea (2017)
East Cape, the southeastern tip of Papua New Guinea mainland, is one of the pottery production areas in southern Massim. Domestic pottery production has continued to the present day, mainly made by female potters to supply their own needs. However, more extensive pottery production beyond the household level occasionally occurs, especially when funerals (toleha) are held. Toleha are organized by the matrilineal descent group (guguni) of a dead person; the potters who belong the descent group get...
Feasting and Gift Giving in Pre-Contact and Spanish Colonial Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands of Micronesia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Feasting and gift-giving in the ethnography, history, and archaeology of native peoples in Southeast Asia and its islands in the Western Pacific are often given primacy in accounts of academic fieldwork. Some ethnohistoric accounts on the pre-Contact and Spanish Colonial Chamorro people indigenous to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands of Micronesia also...
Feasting and Performativity at Late Formative Etlatongo (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Previous research on feasting in antiquity has demonstrated the importance of surface appearance and vessel form to interpret the performative aspects of rituals such as feasts. As part of the hosts’ strategies, of particular importance are vessels that invoke exotic imagery and/or outside groups through iconography and or aspects of overall vessel design....
Feasts for the People, Crumbs for the Bird: Communicating Archaeological Data on Ancient Crop Diversity (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advancing Public Perceptions of Sustainability through Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Food security and food adequacy are at the core of many sustainability debates. Growing urban populations and a simultaneous decline in staple crops are severe threats to both. While the relation between rising demographics and subsistence has been a focus of scholarly debate in anthropology, crop diversity in ancient...