Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (2,459 Records)
In the course of 13 field seasons, archaeologists have carried out 23 operations across the ruined city of El Perú-Waka’. During these investigations, excavators recovered upwards of a million ceramic sherds from a wide variety of contexts; palaces, pyramids, residences, sheet middens, construction fill, ritual deposits, spoil piles, termination deposits, votive deposits, surface collections, burials, caches, and tombs. The excavation contexts are good enough, the quality of preservation...
13th Baktun Rebirth at Izapa: discovery vistas with new technologies in applied structural archaeology are writing Preclassic history (2015)
Norman's latest "Izapa Sacred Space" book (2013; in English and Spanish) will be introduced, highlighting shared culture contacts near and far. Izapa popularity peaked at the end of 2012 and is being rekindled with the 13th baktun zenith sun (August 13) and new year (Sept 21) calendar monuments and applied technologies. New Izapa civilization discoveries in Preclassic Mesoamerican history have been examined with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) digital imaging technology recording of...
14C and Maya Long Count Dates: Refining the Approach to Classic Maya Chronologies (2016)
In 2013, an innovative study applied Bayesian statistical analysis to new AMS 14C samples taken from a Classic Maya lintel originating at Tikal. Because the lintel was inscribed with a Maya Long Count date, the authors argued that the results of their study confirmed the Calendar Correlation Constant known as the GMT. There are, however, two key problems with this new study and its conclusions. The first is an error of interpretation of the hieroglyphic text; the second is the questionable...
14C and Maya Long Count dates: using Bayesian modeling to develop robust site chronologies (2015)
Bayesian Statistics has now demonstrated its strong utility in archaeology, specifically through software that conditions radiocarbon data. Only recently has this technology been applied within Maya archaeology, however, in part because the Mayan calendar provides a much greater resolution in dating archaeological events than is possible with radiocarbon data. The Long Count in particular allows for the assignment of some events relative to each other, accurate to the day. In this paper, a...
The 16th Century Merchant Community of Santa Maria Acxotla, Puebla (2015)
Although merchants were an important component of the prehispanic and post-conquest landscape, not much is known about the internal organization of merchant groups and the structure of their respective communities. This paper examines the size, composition, and internal organization of the small merchant community of Santa Maria Acxotla located in the Puebla-Tlaxcala basin of highland Mexico. Census data collected 39 years after the conquest suggests that specialized merchant communities...
1996 BC Report (1996)
The Blue Creek project is marked by a broadening research design which remains focused on understanding the Blue Creek site core while, at the same time, allowing us to expand our forays into other sites and other issues. While past seasons have been marked by revolutionary changes in how we perceive Blue Creek, this year was marked by an increased depth of understanding. The year, we began shifting focus to the residential and agricultural aspects of the Blue Creek community as well as the...
1998 and 1999 BC Report (1999)
This report represents the efforts of the Blue Creek Archaeological Project during the 1998 and 1999 field seasons. The Blue Creek Project is a constantly evolving and growing research effort with the central goal of understanding the history, structure, and dynamics of the ancient Maya City of Blue Creek
2000 Years of Eating: Continuity and change in food practices among the Puuc Maya (2017)
This paper examines the evidence for what and how the Maya of the Puuc region ate during the long history of occupation of this region. Data collected from almost two decades of research by the Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project and covering close to two millennium of occupation are used in this exploration of eating. Household archaeology primarily from the site of Kiuic and the suburban site of Stairway to Heaven, and ceramic data from throughout the BRAP study area provide insights...
2004 Season Summaries of The Blue Creek Regional Political Ecology Project, Upper Northwestern Belize (2004)
2004 SEASON SUMMARIES OF THE BLUE CREEK REGIONAL POLITICAL ECOLOGY PROJECT: Blue Creek Regional Political Ecology Project Ceramic Report: 2004 Season Kerry Lynn Sagebiel Blue Creek 2004 Field Season Report: Geomorphology, Pollen, and Hydrology Investigations Timothy Beach, Ph.D., and Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach. Ph.D 2004 Season Excavations in the Gran Cacao Ballcourt, Northwestern Belize Jon C. Lohse, Ph.D., Jimmy Barrera, and Antonio Padilla 2004 Ixno’ha Excavation...
2008 Radiocarbon Dating Analyses (2008)
2008 Radiocarbon Analyses for Samples RGT 14C 2, RGT 14 C3, Tiltepec BR. 14-C-1
2014 Radiocarbon Data report (2014)
2014 radiocarbon data report
The 2022 Petén Lakes Lidar/GPS Georectification Project (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. Remotely sensed lidar data has proven to be a boon for Maya archaeology, from its beginnings at Caracol in Belize, Copan in Honduras, to consortiums of various archaeological projects like Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, La Corona, Holmul, and elsewhere. In a relatively simple regiment of sensing, detailed cartographic maps can be...
3,065 Sherd Disks and their Potential Uses in Calixtlahuaca in the Toluca Valley (2015)
Among the artifacts found at the site of Calixtlahuaca, excavations recovered an unusually large quantity of sherd disks. Calixtlahuaca is an Aztec Postclassic (AD 1130-1530) site located in the Toluca Valley of Central Mexico. These sherd disks, or tejos, were created from bowls and pots broken during antiquity. The potsherds were worked until they were circular in shape. Other researchers have suggested potential uses for these worked sherds, including gaming tokens (for the game patolli), net...
360 grados. Uso y función de las estructuras circulares de la zona costera de la sierra de Santa Marta, Los Tuxtlas, Ver. (2016)
La arquitectura es una forma de expresión cultural producto de la abstracción humana, a través de ella el hombre materializa ciertas ideas y va modificando su entorno para construir paisajes que son determinados por los procesos históricos y que responden a sus necesidades funcionales, prácticas y estéticas. En la zona costera de la Sierra de Santa Marta se tiene el registro de pequeñas estructuras arquitectónicas superficiales de forma circular asociadas a los sitios portuarios de la costa. En...
3D Digitization of Spindle Whorls from Pre-Contact Central Mexico (2016)
Three-dimensional digitization technology is opening up a new world of opportunities for the analysis and manipulation of artifacts without the risk of extraneous handling of the original, which could compromise preservation. This poster examines the practice of digital scanning on a collection of Mesoamerican spindle whorls at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, Florida, discussing the hardware and software used for digitization, as well as the process of creating accurate three-dimensional...
A 3D Landscape Analysis of Stelae Visibility at Copan, Honduras (2015)
From the early 5th to early 9th centuries, a dynasty of sixteen kings ruled at the ancient Maya site of Copan, Honduras. In the mid-7thth century, Chan Imix K'awiil or Ruler 12, is believed to be the first of Copan’s rulers to erect stelae outside the city’s main civic-ceremonial group. Why did he do this? Did these stelae exist as solar markers? Did they serve as territorial markers? Or, were they part of a communication system? Scholars have set forth these and other hypotheses, to explain the...
About the Reliability of Archaeological Information (2018)
To study Mesoamerican architecture and urbanism, their graphic description is required. This description must be accurate, and it is traditionally expressed in coded and scaled drawings. For decades, archaeologists have produced extensive documentation of their excavations, which institutional services in charge of the registration of monuments have supplemented to obtain complete inventories in order to support conservation and restoration activities. However, this material has been...
Accelerating the "Maddeningly Slow Work of Archaeology" in the Forested Maya Lowlands (2017)
Investigations in the thickly forested Peten region is complicated by lack of roads, water, communications, visibility and other things we often take for granted even in archaeology. In most cases the time it takes for results of such field work to reach a general audience can be measured in years. Many of us have turned to technology to alleviate this situation but the gains can be less than what is expected. The advent of GPS handheld devices have been useful to locate sites (and ourselves)...
Acknowledging Anonymous Artists: Examining the Painted Stucco Facade from a temple at Kiuic, Yucatan (2016)
Excavations in the main plaza of Kiuic in Yucatan, Mexico, revealed the presence of a dismantled stucco façade south of the temple it once adorned. The façade dates to the temple’s initial Late Classic construction (600-800 AD) and is thought to have been stripped from it during a second construction phase in the Terminal Classic (800-1000 AD). Preliminary analysis of the deposit provided insight into the methods used to sculpt the stucco revealing its theme to have been a historic-narrative...
Acrobatic Games of Mesoamerica (2015)
In this paper I examine the context and performance of acrobatic games in Mesoamerica using archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic representations of contorsionists, tightrope walkers, equilibrists, dancers on stilts, jugglers, and participants in rotational devices, like the Palo Volador and the Huahua. I underline the importance of acrobatic games in ritual festivities and secular events where improvisational and professional performers staged spectacles and played tricks designed...
Activist Archaeology and Queer Feminist Critiques in Mesoamerican Archaeology (2017)
One of the strengths of prehistoric archaeology is its ability to document the full range of human variation. For Latin America, activist archaeology has the potential to inform postcolonial and Third World feminist critiques that challenge white supremacist legal systems that marginalize women of color and indigenous peoples. The false universalisms and cultural essentialisms found in human rights debates ignore the diverse experiences of women’s oppression, especially the indigenous, poor,...
Activity Area Analysis of Elite and Commoner Spaces in the Ancient Maya City of Actuncan, Belize (2016)
This report describes the results of a geochemical analysis of nearly 1,000 samples from earthen and plaster surfaces at Actuncan, a prehispanic Maya city in western Belize. Studies of the social, political, and economic relationships between elites and commoners demonstrate that the lived experiences of both groups were dramatically different. However, we know little about how social roles and relationships impacted the organization and daily use of domestic and public spaces. Multivariate...
Activity Area Analysis of Terminal Classic period Civic Architecture at Actuncan, Belize (2016)
Researchers have long hypothesized that the 9th century Maya collapse resulted in the end of divine kingship as the dominant political form in the southern Maya Lowlands. In post-royal settlements, tall pyramids and labyrinthine palace spaces are deemphasized in favor of more publically-accessible open courtyards and broad platforms. Some scholars have argued for the increasing prevalence of council houses based on architectural layouts and the iconography of sculptural programs. However, little...
Adapting and Improvising: Materiality and the Politicization of Historic Structures (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Documenting the Built Environment (General Sessions)" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper explores how tactics of improvisation and adaptation of colonial era structures to meet modern needs have changed over time in the historic town of Tihosuco, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Until 2019, when Tihosuco was declared national patrimony due to its role in the Caste War of Yucatan (1847-1901), much of the...
Additional Insights into the Significance of Cave Formations: The Case of Balamkú (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of its investigation of subterranean Chichén Itzá, the Gran Acuífero Maya (GAM) unsealed the entrance to Balamkú Cave in 2018. The entrance, located in a sinkhole, had been sealed and buried in an apparent act of deliberate termination. In addition, the entire first chamber of the cave including a staircase was buried with...