Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
1,301-1,325 (2,459 Records)
Durante el Clásico, las figurillas teotihuacanas, han sido consideradas representaciones de deidades. Recientes estudios, se han enfocado sobre la posibilidad de que esas figurillas representen retratos de altos dignatarios, como gobernantes o guerreros, y cuyas imágenes habrían sido veneradas como parte de una ideología de estado. Las figurillas despliegan una gran variedad de "tocados" entre los que destacan los de mariposas, que se asociarian con altos dignatarios y el poder político.Con la...
Los volcanes y Xochitecatl-Cacaxtla un paisaje sagrado (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Landscapes: Archaeological, Historic, and Ethnographic Perspectives from the New World / Paisajes: Perspectivas arqueológicas, históricas y etnográficas desde el Nuevo Mundo" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. En épocas prehispánicas, las comunidades rodeadas de sierras, sistemas montañosos y, principalmente, por los grandes volcanes de la zona medía de Mesoamérica, poseyeron una estructura ritual íntimamente ligada con...
The Lost Civilization: the Story of the Classic Maya (1974)
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.
Low-Density Urbanism in the Classic Maya Lowlands: A View from El Perú-Waka’, Guatemala (2016)
As a key example of indigenous New World urbanism, the development, organization, and abandonment Classic Maya cities are subjects of great anthropological importance. Despite their comparative significance, for much of the twentieth century Classic Maya centers (ca. 250-950 C.E.) have been viewed by the public and many scholars as "non-cities," the capitals of complex polities, but lacking the residential density characteristic of fully urban places. Roland Fletcher has recently proposed that...
Luminescence and radiocarbon dates from Plumbate production contexts (2016)
Plumbate, the most widely distributed pottery of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, has been sourced to the Pacific coastal region of Soconusco, near the present international border between Mexico and Guatemala. In recent fieldwork, several Plumbate production contexts were excavated. In addition to large volumes of Plumbate and Plumbate wasters, these deposits contain large amounts of wood ash and solid ceramic cylinders of various sizes, from finger-size up to rolling-pin size. Complicating...
Luminescence Dating at the Postclassic Site of Gonzálo Hernández, Chiapas, Mexico (2016)
In the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico, we are still struggling with refining the Postclassic ceramic chronology. At the site of Gonzálo Hernández, the evidence suggests that the principal occupation of the site was during the Late Postclassic period (ca. 1300-1520CE), but a small percentage of sherds date to earlier periods. In an effort to approach the local ceramic chronology from a new perspective, a small sample of sherds were dated using luminescence dating. The results have clarified...
Luminosity in the Ancient Maya World (2017)
It is only through light that darkness is visible. The anthropology of luminosity as put forth by Bille and Sørensen (2007) regards light as something to be manipulated, matter which is used in cultural practices. In what ways did the ancient Maya light up the night and illuminate dark places? Evidence for ancient lighting is contained in artifacts and features, epigraphy, iconography, language, ethnohistory, and history, as well as the ethnographic record. Some of the major topics that we will...
Macaw Mountain and Ancient Peoples of Southeast Mesoamerica (2015)
In A Forest of Kings, Linda Schele and David Freidel captivated readers with substance and inference about multiple Maya cities and their inhabitants. For Copan, they focused on long- and short-term developments culminating in the death of its last effective king, Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, whose death effectively coincided with the end of both dynastic rule and social cohesion at Macaw Mountain, Copan. Extraordinary finds and ideas have come to light since that 1990 publication, things those...
Macaws...Crotals...and Trumpet Shells (1980)
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.
Made in a Marketplace: A Comparison of Stone Tools Crafted from Local and Non-Local Raw Materials in Classic Maya Marketplaces of the Mopan River Valley, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Where Is Provenance? Bridging Method, Evidence, and Theory for the Interpretation of Local Production" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Is a stone tool crafted from a raw material found naturally occurring only outside the geographic zone and political control of a settlement, but made in the site’s central marketplace, a non-local or local good? In this paper, I present examples of such a situation at two Classic Maya...
Mahogany and Sugar for Tobacco, Booze, and Salt-Pork: Consumerism and Consumption at 19th-Century Lamanai, Belize (2015)
During the nineteenth-century, the Caribbean region was a hotbed of trade and commerce driven principally by extractive industries such as agriculture (principally sugar) and hardwood collection. Such ventures required large injections of capital into the creation and maintenance of discrete, productive landscapes as well as for hiring, housing, and feeding the workers who provided physical labor and management. The following presentation will explore a long-term residential area of one such...
Making and Breaking: Domestic Craft Production, Fragmentation, and Enchainment at Classic Period Chinikihá, Mexico and Currusté, Honduras (2016)
This paper examines the role of domestic craft production and the fragmentation and interment of locally made goods in the reproduction of social identities and networks of social relations at two Late to Terminal Classic (600-900 AD) sites, Chinikihá in the Western Maya Lowlands of Chiapas, Mexico and Currusté in the Ulúa Valley, Honduras. The life histories of the products of small-scale, household-based industries were intimately tied to the life histories of their producers, enchaining the...
Making and Keeping Secret Knowledge at Xultun, Guatemala (2016)
As repositories for scientific secrets and ritual expertise, the four extant Maya codex books have proven an indispensable source for understanding ancient systems of religion and socio-political thought. But despite the undoubted existence of codex books during the much earlier Late Classic period (600-900 C.E.), the tropical climate’s decay-inducing effect on organic material has thus far prevented their recovery in the archaeological record. In this paper, I discuss the Los Sabios mural at...
The Making of a Hinterland: Evaluating Classic period Copan’s Political Organization and Territorial limits with Data from the Cucuyagua and Sensenti Valleys. (2016)
The ability of Maya Ajaws to project political power outside of their capitals is a widely debated topic: some investigators sustain centralized territorial models for Maya political organization, and others defend segmentary models. The location of Copan on the southern fringe of the Maya world gives a unique opportunity to study this phenomenon because political boundaries in this multicultural environment are more visible than in other Maya kingdoms. We will explore the tempo and degree of...
The Making of a Mesoamerican Blockbuster: Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed (2016)
This paper draws on a case study of the making of Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed, a “blockbuster” traveling exhibit, to examine issues related to the business, development, and curation of museum exhibits featuring Mesoamerican culture and history. On the business side, museums face challenges in funding exhibits, managing risk, and ensuring return on investment. Development efforts struggle to deliver exhibits in tune with the public’s changing tastes without sacrificing institutional goals to...
Making the MED: Building an Online Ethnobotanical Database (2016)
Construction of the Mesoamerican Ethnobotanical Database (MED) began in 2010 and is wrapping up in 2016. The MED began as an informal collection of images for the use of one archaeological project and became an NSF-supported online reference for public use. Based on the collections of the Searle Herbarium and hosted by the Field Museum, this online searchable database contains images of over 2500 plant vouchers, close-ups of reproductive plant parts, and seeds where available. Images are linked...
Male-Female Sexuality in the "Fruit Bearing" Maya New Year Celebrations: Understanding the Past and Present Heritage through Participatory and Archaeological Studies (2016)
Among contemporary Tz’utujil Maya, the Mam are the “Year Bearers” of an ancient 260-day ritual calendar still used today in highland Guatemala, celebrated annually when the seasons change from dry to wet. This spring celebration corresponds with Semana Santa (Holy Week) and is when the maize is planted and cacao and other fruits are harvested. Preceding Easter, young male initiates travel on foot down from the highlands to the cacao groves that have existed in the coastal lowlands since ancient...
Managing a Tikal Outpost: The Palace and Associated Architecture (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. La Cuernavilla’s palace complex is made up of 14 elongated structures around two internal patios seated on a wide raised platform. Its location at the foot of the escarpment in the extreme northeast of the Lower East Group protects and restricts its access from the surrounding Buenavista Valley. Causeways into the escarpment...
Manufacturing Techniques of Olmec Art Sculptures from Arroyo Pesquero in the MAX (Museo de Antropología de Xalapa) (2016)
Since its discovery in 1969, the site of Arroyo Pesquero, in Southern Veracruz, has been an emblematic town with an Olmec offering that guards some similarities with the sites of Manatí and La Merced, related to the divinities of water and fertility. In the bed of the river were deposited masks, axes and other objects in jade with an excellent manufacturing and beauty. The sculptures of this site with an archaeological context are now stored at the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa. In this...
The Many Lives of Maya Antiquities: Tracking Distribution and Redistribution through Auction Catalogues (2017)
Glossy sales catalogues published by high-end auction houses present a seemingly endless supply of antiquities for purchase from around the world. These catalogues offer insight into market trends and allow the volume of antiquities being bought and sold at auction to be monitored. At a time when the internet auction market is growing, and the publication of information in catalogue form is declining, it is important to record and share data from available sales catalogues. This paper presents...
Mapping and 3D Modeling of a Terminal Postclassic Site in the Northern Yucatán (2017)
During our 2016 field season, we mapped and created 3D models of several sites in the Northern Yucatán that were scheduled for destruction due to highway expansion. We used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones) to carry photographic equipment to collect both vertical and oblique photos of the site. The resulting photos were processed in photogrammetric software to generate an orthorectified photo mosaic and a 3D model of the entire area. These products were integrated into a GIS to facilitate...
Mapping and 3D Modeling of Excavations Using UAVs, Photogrammetry, and LiDAR (2017)
Using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones) to carry photographic equipment and photogrammetric processing of resulting data simplifies and accelerates mapping, 3D modeling, and environmental reconstruction. Construction and expansion of highways through Mayapán and the surrounding region are destroying valuable archaeological remains and environmental features. The 2016 field season targeted these areas for rapid recording and depended on UAV photography and photogrammetric processing for site...
Mapping and 3D Modeling of Mayapán's Monumental Center (2017)
During our 2016 field season, we mapped and created 3D models of Mayapán's monumental center and several major architectural features. Located in the Northern Yucatán approximately 40km south of Modern Mérida, Mexico, Mayapán was the largest ancient Maya political capital of the Postclassic Period and was one of the most densely nucleated of all Maya cities. It was a key center of political, religious, and economic activity. Mayapán's monumental zone is relatively small, but contains a dense...
Mapping Caves: Telling the Story (2017)
Maps are symbols. While we often think of them as representations of the real world, they are in fact interpretations of the space no matter how accurately and precisely produced. Maps tell a story-YOUR story. Maps make an argument. No two people will map a space in exactly the same way and no two stories will be completely alike. While some researchers are primarily concerned about precision and accuracy in representation, others focus on more humanistic, sensory, or phenomenological elements....
Mapping Heat: Pinpointing Early Human Interactions with Chili Pepper in Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeobotany of Early Peopling: Plant Experimentation and Cultural Inheritance" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Our project investigates the origins and domestication pathways of the Mesoamerican chili pepper (Capsicum annuum var. annuum L.). Undertaken by an interdisciplinary team and relying on a tripartite methodological framework, this study employs morphometric analyses of extant and archaeological Capsicum...