United Mexican States (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
3,926-3,950 (4,948 Records)
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 and/or Transformation: The Anadara granosa-Dominated Shell Mounds of the Australian Tropics (2017)
Mounded shell deposits dominated by the mudflat bivalve Anadara granosa are highly visible features on the north Australian coast. Because of their distinctive, often monumental, features they have been a focal point for research into hunter-gatherer groups in these coastal environments. Interpretations of these mounded deposits have oscillated between those concerned with the functioning of prehistoric economic systems and those invoking ceremonial and ritual behaviours. In this paper we review...
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...
Ritual Fauna Use in an Elite Ancient Maya Burial: Examination of an Animal Long-Bone Cache in the Recently Discovered Royal Tomb at Xunantunich, Belize (2017)
Animal use in elite burials can provide a more holistic perspective on the importance of specific fauna as prestige goods or as status and power markers in the Maya world. This presentation discusses a discrete cache of animal long-bones located at the feet of a human burial recovered from the newly discovered royal tomb at Xunantunich during the 2016 field season of the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) project. Maya zooarchaeologists have long held that the use of specific...
Ritual Fires and Ancient Maya Termination Deposits at Naachtun (Guatemala): An Archaeobotanical Perspective (2017)
Termination rituals have been a well-documented practice among ancient Maya societies. Generally including the spread of broken artifacts on floors, the manipulation of ancestor bones, and the intentional destruction of architectural structures, termination deposits are believed to have served to symbolically "kill" a building at the time of its abandonment. Regardless of the nature or function of these different deposits, their frequent association with ashes, charcoal and burn marks clearly...
Ritual Human Sacrifice among the Tarascans (2018)
This study reports on osteological remains excavated from the Great Platform at Tzintzuntzán, the Postclassic (A.D. 1300-1522) Tarascan ceremonial capital. The osteological deposit was first uncovered by Alfonso Caso in 1937-1944, re-visited by Rubin de Borbolla and Roman Piña Chan during the 1960’s, by Efrain Cardenas in 1992, and most recently in 2011 by the Proyecto Especial de Michoacán. In 1992, 194 skull fragments (MNI=40) and 28 modified femur fragments were recovered while the most...
Ritual Landscapes and Cave Networks of Eastern Guerrero, Mexico (2017)
This paper presents an overview of the findings from the Formative period caves of Cauadzidziqui (pre-Olmec and Olmec-style paintings), Techan or Cave of the Governors (Olmec style monuments carved into the walls), and Ocotequila (Middle Formative painting), as well as Chiepetlan (Paleo-Indian, Late Postclassic-Early Colonial) and Cueva de las Lluvias (Classic period floor carvings). Also assessed is the importance of the locations chosen for Formative period caves in the sacred landscape of the...
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 Transformation in Formative Period Oaxaca: A Comparative Analysis of Deity Impersonation, Nagualism, and Hybrid Beings (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. A hallmark of ancient Mesoamerican art and religion is the ability of powerful ritual practitioners, sometimes referred to as “shamans,” to transform themselves. The Olmec were-jaguar is probably the best-known example of the phenomenon. However, artifacts from different regions of Mesoamerica demonstrate that this was a diverse...
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 y sacrificio de cocodrilos en la ofrenda constructiva del Juego de Pelota de Tlalixcoyan, Veracruz (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. Trabajos de investigación sobre arquitectura dañada del Juego de Pelota realizados en el Complejo Monumental de Tlalixcoyan, Centro de Veracruz, permitieron documentar ofrendas de dedicación y múltiples etapas constructivas durante el Clásico. En una de las etapas iniciales, los constructores...
Ritual, Material Culture, and Interaction in the Epiclassic Basin of Mexico: Contextualizing a Temple Assemblage from Chicoloapan (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Interactions during the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic (AD 650–1100) in the Central Highlands: New Insights from Material and Visual Culture" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Central Mexico’s Epiclassic period (550–850 CE) was a time of significant social change, marked by the breakdown of the Teotihuacan state, political fragmentation, the migration of large numbers of people, and the adoption of new practices and...
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....
Ritualidad acuática en Media Luna y su relación con el juego de pelota (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. El análisis del contexto arqueológico sumergido, Media Luna, localizado en San Luis Potosí, México, ha permitido profundizar en los ritos mortuorios y en los actos de oblación que las comunidades de Río Verde realizaban en torno al agua durante el periodo Clásico y Posclásico Temprano...
Ritualism and Metal Objects in Michoacan (2017)
The area of the current state of Michoacan has been considered one of the most important producers of metal objects during the Prehispanic period. These objects are always related to various rituals because of its peculiar characteristics of color, sound, shape and even smell. From the analysis of more than 1,800 metal objects from extensive collections, particularly at the Regional Museum of Michoacan and the State Museum of Michoacan, by the Project Archaeology and Landscape of the Center -...
Rituals of Maya Royal Women in Classic Period Inscriptions (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Classic Maya period inscriptions provide us with extensive documentation of the rituals and ceremonies that Maya elites performed as part of their royal duties. Throughout this paper we will discuss those that were overseen by women belonging to the royal houses of the polities of the Maya lowlands, which have been recorded through the images and...
Rock Art and Ritual Routes: Visual Complexity in Cerro de la Nariz, Wakiri kitenie (Potosino Highlands, Mexico) (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Polychromy, Multimediality, and Visual Complexity in Mesoamerican Art" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Some features of a rocky site in the Potosino semi-desert of north-central Mexico will be presented, where an ancient rock world and ritual expressions of contemporary ethnic groups, in particular the Wixarika (Huichol Indians), coincide. For the latter, the site is an important step in their ritual journey to...
Rock Art As Place-Making Strategy: A Papua New Guinea Case Study (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rock art and its ethnographic study provide important insights to understand people’s connection to place. In this research, formal and informed methods were used to analyze four stenciled rock art sites in Auwim village, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG). One thousand and seventy-seven rock art motifs were identified while the ethnographic data...
Rock Art at Chalcatzingo, Morelos: Methodology and Techniques for Recording, Documenting and Elaborating Preservation Strategies (2018)
This presentation describes the process of recording and documenting the pictographs found at the site of Chalcatzingo, Morelos, in central Mexico. It shows the way in which state of the art technology is used for the first time at the site for this purpose. Iconographic analysis, landscape archaeology and the analysis of painting techniques and materials are as well employed to enrich the interpretation of rock art at the site. Upon this basis we elaborate a hypothesis about their relations...
Rock Art in Northern Sonora between Stones and Pigments: Preliminary Archaeometric Analysis (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Rock Art Documentation, Research, and Analysis" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sonora has a great concentration of rock art in North America. In order to advance in the analysis and documentation of the rock art groups, the project “Cave Documentation and Patina Study in Northern Sonora” was proposed, focused on Cucurpe (Sierra Madre Occidental) and Caborca (Sonoran Desert). The...
Rock Art of Seminole Canyon State Historical Park: Deterioration and Prospects for Conservation (1985)
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.
Rock Art of Seminole Canyon State Historical Park: Deterioration and Prospects For Conservation (1902)
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.