Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
1,251-1,275 (2,459 Records)
A 2013 NASA LiDAR mission passed over the eastern extreme of the region being investigated by the Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project (BRAP), in the process partially imaging the secondary site of Acambalam II/III. A substantial portion of the site was ground-checked during the summer of 2016. This paper discusses post-collection LiDAR processing and the possibilities for feature detection and landscape use revealed by ground truthing. The data also provide interesting demographic...
Life and death in the southeastern Maya periphery: Bioarchaeological and isotopic analysis of the Uxbenká burial population (2017)
The southern Belize region is typically considered geographically and culturally peripheral to the primary activity areas of the ancient Maya. Although researchers have documented the development of a "southern Belize style" in terms of architecture and material culture, to date very little systematic work has been undertaken to understand health, diet, and mortuary behavior in the region. Ten years of excavations at Uxbenká have yielded rich evidence of a continuous occupation spanning from the...
LIFE CONDITIONS IN HUMAN SKELETAL SAMPLES FROM COLIMA AND QUINTANA ROO, MÉXICO: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ACROSS TIME (2017)
Life conditions of agrarian populations in Mesoamerica changed during the cultural periods. Scholars have seen a stature decrease and a pattern of increase of the morbidity indicators across the time (Del Ángel 1996; Márquez et al. 2002). The aim of this paper is compare skeletal stress indicators between Maya (Quintana Roo) and West México (Colima) settlements to evaluate life conditions, similarities and differences from 200 to 900 BC. These settlements share modes of production and weather...
Life in the Tributary Province of Xoconochco (2015)
Our work on Late Postclassic Xoconochco/Soconusco has been greatly influenced by research carried out by Frances Berdan, particularly her focus on the Codex Mendoza and other Aztec documents and her approach that integrates multiple disciplines. In this paper I use ethnohistoric and archaeological data to review the role of the Soconusco region as an Aztec Tributary Province. More specifically, I examine what these data seem to tell us about how the Aztec conquest and the subsequent collection...
Life is Bittersweet: The Rise and Fall of the Sugarcane and Rum Industry in the Nineteenth Century (2016)
The Nineteenth Century in the Yucatán Peninsula was a period of major transition. Amidst the backdrop of colonialism, slavery, indentured servitude, and an indigenous revolt during the Caste War (1847-1901), foreign and local residents of the remote region of northern Quintana Roo engaged in small-scale commodity industries such as sugarcane farming and rum making. While workers dealt with harsh and dangerous conditions, they also had access to an unusual array of cosmopolitan luxury goods...
Life on Floors: The Archaeometry of Teotihuacan´s Living Surfaces (2017)
Archaeometric studies promote interdisciplinarity. Therefore, through this framework we can analyze other materials which facilitate the understanding of the society which created, modified, and used them. To sum up, with this methodology we seek to comprehend the characteristics of the materials used to build the city of Teotihuacan. Currently, there are archaeomagnetic studies underway which intend to discover the Sun Pyramid Square’s chronology of occupation. Furthermore, we are also...
‘Limestone Bars’ as Power Objects among the Ancient Maya: a Consideration of Objects as Active Participants in Ritual Practice (2015)
This paper considers how people and things come together in a ritual setting and attempts to break down the division between the human participants and the materials engaged. Using contemporary perspectives surrounding post-Marxian materialism, it is argued that archaeology has the means to explore the ways in which materials exhibit their active nature in particular contexts. With this in mind, this study will reassess small bar-shaped limestone artifacts that have been recovered from...
The Liminal Space between Night and Day In the Mesoamerican Formative Period (2017)
Iconographic investigations have revealed how the spread of the symbolism associated with NIGHT and DAY and the liminal space that separates the two were the major focus for the layout of sacred space or ritual precincts throughout the Mesoamerican Formative Period. Night was perceived as the home of much of the spiritual power which the ancient Mesoamericans perceived as inherent within the cosmological structure of the cosmos. In order to control the public and supernatural interface of this...
The Liminal Space Between Two Plazas: Insights into Ancient Maya Ritualistic Cave Activities at Las Pacayas (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Subterranean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Cueva de los Quetzales was initially reported in 1991 by the Petexbatun Regional Cave Survey and more intensively investigated in 1993 in conjunction with the Altas Arquqológico de Guatemala’s excavation of the surface site of Las Pacayas. The site is located 12 km south of Dos Pilas and 7.5 km east of Aguateca. The cave is noteworthy...
Limited Good or Limited Goods: Response To Economic Opportunity in a Tarascan Pueblo (1972)
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.
Linguistic Archeology of the Sierra Sur, Oaxaca (2017)
In this paper the potential for productive relationships between linguistics and archeology is discussed in the context of the Sierra Sur region of Oaxaca, Mexico. The material remains of most traded goods decompose too swiftly to be studied hundreds of years after their circulation in trade networks. However, the vocabulary that describes these goods has the potential to survive in contemporary languages. Thus, comprehensive study of linguistic data can support historical and archeological...
Linguistic Look at the Olmecs (1976)
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.
Lithic Debitage, Thermal Damage, and Other Signs of Conflict (2023)
This is an abstract from the "La Cuernavilla, Guatemala: A Maya Fortress and Its Environs" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While fortifications speak to the potential for conflict, indicators of actual warfare are difficult to discern. The ancient Maya produced few lithic implements that were strictly martial in nature. Furthermore, evidence of destruction events, such as large-scale fires, preserve poorly in tropical environments. However, recent...
Lithic Production and Consumption at Tzintzuntzan, Mexico (2015)
Tzintzuntzan was the political capital of the Tarascan Empire and home to the royal uacúsecha dynasty during the Late Postclassic period (A.D. 1350-1525). This study presents the technological analysis of 1,155 lithic artifacts recovered during excavations at Tzintzuntzan from 1977 to 1978 and places these findings in context with prior lithic studies based on survey data. The excavation contexts include a palace, storehouse, residential structures, and the five ceremonial Yácatas located on the...
Lithic Production and Procurement at Teotepec, Veracruz, Mexico (2016)
In this paper we present new data on lithic production, consumption, and importation during the Early and Middle Classic Periods (AD 300-650) at the site of Teotepec, located in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas region of Veracruz, Mexico. Using the results of recently completed technological and visual source analyses, we identify differences in production and consumption behavior across the site and over time, and situate this behavior within the larger region. Changes in importation in the region...
Little Finds Big Results: The Utility of Small Artifacts in the Spatial Analyses of Looted Sites (2015)
Ethnographically cave use in Mesoamerica is well-documented and there are many accounts of modern rituals occurring in or near caves. These analogies provide excellent evidence for understanding the meaning of caves and provide supporting evidence to demonstrate that they functioned as ritual spaces in ancient society, yet analogies have little resonance when considering ancient rites occurring deep within caves. For this type of question we are much more dependent on the archaeological record...
Livelihoods and Opportunities: Household, Land Use and Landscape Change at Tikal (2018)
Sometimes described as a mosaic, regional land use and landscape in the Maya lowlands offer a unique opportunity to investigate the spatial and temporal dimensions and the socio-ecological dynamics of a variety of cultural systems, settlement patterns, and the environment. Unfortunately, the majority of urban theory applied to the lowlands focuses exclusively on urban authority and power for the provisioning of resources. Such approaches offer useful discussion and debate about the scale and...
Living at the Ritz: Investigations of the Palace Complex at Lower Dover, Belize (2017)
Palatial complexes are distinct architectural features within ancient Maya civic ceremonial centers. Maya palaces are commonly multi-roomed complexes featuring attributes such as corbelled roofing, benches, private courtyards, and other decorative attributes. Archaeologists suggest palatial complexes serve as multifunctional spaces for the elite residents. These functions include residential space as well as ritual space for events such as feasts, dances, and other social events. Excavations at...
Living in Early Urban Center: Preliminary Results of the Tlalancaleca Archaeological Project, Puebla (2017)
The archaeological site of Tlalancaleca was one of the largest urban centers in Central Mexico during the Middle to Terminal Formative periods (ca. 650 BC-AD 200/250). The site consists of a central plateau with civic-ceremonial cores and its surrounding areas, which are divided into the Northern Sector and the Southern Sector. Our research over five field seasons indicates that the urban landscape underwent significant changes through time, including initial urban growth during the Middle...
Living on the Dead in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca (2015)
In exploring the bioarchaeology of ancient Oaxaca, an important component is the social context of human burials. This paper explores the placement of four burials, containing seven individuals, associated with the same Yucuita phase (500-300 BCE) household at Etlatongo, Oaxaca. This household appears to have been located in the same space for several generations, shifting slightly both horizontally and vertically through time. These burials are associated with the first occupation of this...
Llano Grande. ¿Un sitio chachihuiteño de explotación de la obsidiana? (2015)
Durante los trabajos arqueológicos de salvamento con motivo de la construcción de la carretera Durango-Mazatlán se reconoció el valle de Llano Grande, en la parte alta de la Sierra Madre Occidental en el estado de Durango. Diseminados a lo largo y ancho del valle hay nódulos pequeños de obsidiana, desde algunos de escasos tres centímetros hasta los más grandes que apenas rebasan los 10 centímetros; de hecho, por lo general los nódulos no sobrepasan el tamaño de un puño. En los cerros que rodean...
Lo ritual y lo doméstico: estudios químicos de suelos y paleoetnobotánicos en distintas esferas de actividad en la hacienda San Pedro Cholul, Yucatán. (2015)
Si bien existen registros escritos sobre aspectos económicos y productivos en contextos históricos mexicanos, haciendas específicamente, es importante subrayar que dichos registros hacen mención breve o nula acerca de la vida cotidiana y situación económica en la que los peones acasillados vivían. Ante la presente problemática, nos planteamos evaluar y discutir las actividades cotidianas realizadas en una vivienda de construcción humilde (Solar 30), por un lado, y en la capilla de la hacienda...
Local Chert Reduction, Maintenance, and Toolmaking: Terminal Classic Chert Use at Nohmul, Belize (dataset)
This dataset contains analysis of 381 chert artifacts excavated from structures 9 (circular) and 20 (patio quad) at the site of Nohmul in modern Belize. This material was originally excavated in two field seasons in 1978 and 1979 under the Corozal Postclassic Project by Diane Chase. The analysis of this material by Adrian SZ Chase and Jonathan Paige is published in the 2020 volume of Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology and should use that paper as a reference for this dataset (see abstract...
The Local Effect of Changing Intra-valley Exchange Networks (2019)
This is an abstract from the "I Love Sherds and Parasites: A Festschrift in Honor of Pat Urban and Ed Schortman" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Terminal Classic phase in the southwest Naco Valley, Honduras, a small plaza group, plaza 426, emerged as a regional actor in intra-valley exchange of pottery. The current interpretation of the structure’s reuse is that, as previously documented, a more centralized hub of political and economic...
Local engagement in UNESCO World Heritage sites: Mexico as a case study (2017)
The ‘critical importance of involving indigenous, traditional and local communities in the implementation of the [World Heritage] Convention’ (World Heritage Committee Decisions 31.COM/13A and 31.COM/13B, 2007) reflects discussions that have been taking place in WH since 1994, and has guided much of UNESCO's efforts regarding these communities in World Heritage Sites since. In 1994 social participation became a requirement in the nomination of new World Heritage Sites and since 2008 it has been...