Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
1,551-1,575 (2,459 Records)
The 3D map of the Great Temple complex has been elaborated in 2007-2014 with detailed features of thirteen overlapping architectural stages. We first analyze and describe visually each stage calculating dimensions and orientation of the main pyramid complex. Enlarging process gradually changing the spatial distribution and orientations of the temple complex will be discussed in terms of native perspective of cosmology and expanding political power. The E-W orientation and symbolic architecture...
New Approaches on the Mexican Quaternary Mammals Studies (2016)
The Mexican Quaternary Mammal Database (MQMD) data are focused on published mammal occurrences in paleontological localities and archaeological sites in México, covering the last 2.6 million years and up to the early Holocene, although some unpublished data from museum collections are included, as well as “grey” literature. More than 15,000 records have been secured from 876 documents. That large database includes records for more than 800 localities and 250 mammal species pertaining to 12...
A New Bak’tun – Maya Archaeology, Stewardship and Exhibitions Beyond 2012 (2016)
Mindful stewardship of cultural heritage is a collaborative and holistic effort, often carried out in changing social contexts and facing steep challenges. As archaeologists, we communicate our understanding of the past and the broad implications of archaeological research to the diverse publics that we serve. Drawing from recent work to organize and present the "Maya 2012: Lords of Time" exhibition, this presentation will highlight approaches taken to contextualize pre-Columbian Maya cultural...
A new classification of masks from Guerrero discovered in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2015)
This paper focuses on a new kind of typological analysis based on a quantitative procedure called Spectral Clustering. This technique uses Graph Theory to analyse the eigenstructure of an affinity matrix in order to partition data points into disjoint clusters. The original algorithms were developed a decade ago by mathematicians and machine learning professionals. To the best of our knowledge, this technique has not been applied before in archaeology despite its proven performance in...
New Content for New Audiences: The Repainted Pages and Life History of the Codex Vaticanus B (2016)
In this paper, we discuss the life history and pre-Hispanic modification of the understudied Codex Vaticanus B, commonly attributed to the Borgia group codices. Seven of the manuscript’s 96 pages were covered over with a new white background, composed of different materials than the original, and repainted with several chromatic palettes, likely by different artists. While the manuscript’s structure largely follows that of other Borgia group divinatory almanacs attributed to Nahua peoples from...
New Data and New Perspectives of the Feathered Serpent Symbolism and Polity at Teotihuacan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Intensive excavations carried out by the Proyecto Templo de Quetzalcoatl more than 20 years ago suggested that the pyramid symbolized human sacrifice, warfare, and rulership in Teotihuacan. The lack of a royal tomb inside the building indicated that more than 200 warriors were sacrificed in...
New Data on the Urban Grid at Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala (2016)
Gridded settlements are rare in the Americas and previously unknown in the Maya world until the Spanish conquest. Recent work has documented a modular orthogonal grid at Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala. The grid appears to have been imposed upon much of the site around 400-200 BCE. In other parts of the world, planned orthogonal grids are frequently associated with powerful central authority. If this were the case at Nixtun-Ch’ich’ then then this act of power is correlated with the emergence of...
New Discoveries in the Izapa "Protoclassic" and Early Classic Periods (2015)
Izapa is best known as a Formative period (850-50 BC) monumental center with elaborately carved monuments. The site is also known for its Late Classic period monumental construction in Group F, at the northern end of the site. Considerably less attention has been paid to the transitional Terminal Formative or "Protoclassic" period Hato and Itstapa phases (50 BC-AD 250), as well as the Early Classic period Jaritas phase (AD 250-400), which bridge the temporal gap between these two centers. This...
New Evidence for Late Classic Maya Food Processing at Xunantunich, Belize: Preliminary Results of Starch Grain Analysis (2016)
At Xunantunich, Belize, thousands of worked chert bladelets were found in Late to Terminal classic deposits near residences in Groups D and E. Initially, these implements were thought to represent tools used in craft production of slate or other materials. However, little crafting debris or debitage was encountered within deposits where the tools were recovered. Edge-wear analysis suggests the tools were used on organic material, either hardwood or softer materials like tubers. Starch grain...
New Faces, New Pressures, New Pots: Collective identities in action in the ceramic record at Lamanai, Belize (2015)
For the ancient Maya residing at the urban center of Lamanai, the period encompassing the Maya Collapse and its aftermath (A.D. 750-1150) was a time of significant changes in the fabric of day-to-day life. Widespread economic and political instability across the Lowland region seriously impacted both community and extra-local affairs. Networks of socio-economic interaction and affiliation were disrupted and people were on the move, seeking to relocate to more stable environs. The strong evidence...
New Frontiers in Wetland Archaeology: Mapping Maya Agricultural Systems with Lidar (2017)
Lidar has exponentially increased our knowledge of ancient agricultural systems and land use, especially within the Maya world. This paper explores a new Lidar dataset for the Maya Lowlands in Northwestern Belize where archaeological and geoarchaeological teams have studied ditched and raised field systems for over 25 years. Through surveys and excavations, researchers in Northwestern Belize have shed light upon the importance of Maya wetland agriculture, but questions of spatial scale still...
The new gold discoveries on the Isthmus of Panama (1859)
This 1859 newspaper article briefly describes the then new findings in Chiriqui. It concentrates on the gold figurines and artifacts presumably looted from graves.
New indicators of a "(much) older-than-Clovis" cultural presence at Chiquihuite Cave archaeological site in Zacatecas, Mexico (2017)
The systematic search for ancient human presence in the Zacatecas semi-desert of central-northern Mexico continued with new field explorations and excavations during 2016. A new season at the Chiquihuite Cave was meant to verify the weak signals of older-than-Clovis human presence obtained a few years ago. The new extended excavation inside the high-altitude cave revealed two old, clearly differentiated cultural components that had not been acknowledged before. The upper component is clearly...
New Information On the European Discovery of Yucatan and the Correlation of the Maya and Christian Calendar (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.
New Insights into Teotihuacan’s Year Sign Headdress and Its Olmec Origins (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study will explore the origin and meaning of the Teotihuacan’s year sign headdress and its connection to the Storm God (Tlaloc). Several scholars have noted the first appearance of the year sign worn by the Storm God starting from the Early Classic period at Teotihuacan. Evidence suggests a fair amount of interaction between Teotihuacan and other parts of...
New Investigations at Holtun: A Preclassic Maya Ritual Center (2016)
The site of Holtun is located in the department of the Peten at about 12 km south of the site of Yaxha and 35 km from Tikal. Holtun is considered a civic-ceremonial center and is part of a Group of Preclassic epicenters located south of Yaxha Lake. This paper will summarize the results of the field and lab seasons from 2012-2015. We will also discuss the preliminary results of the analysis of radiocarbon, fauna, lithics, ceramics, and soils. The analyses suggest that Holtun was a Preclassic...
New Isotope Data from Classic Maya Copan (2017)
site of Copan in western Honduras. Strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotopes are measured in human tooth enamel from 66 burials in the Late Classic (ca. 600-750 A.D.) Núñez Chinchilla residential group at. Approximately 50% of the individuals are identified as non-local based on strontium and oxygen isotope ratios. They came from a variety of places in the Maya area. Comparison with an Early Classic burial group suggests substantial changes took place in the origins of migrants with more...
New Perspectives from the Late Preclassic Period in the Mirador-Calakmul Basin (2017)
The Late Preclassic period (350 B.C.-A.D. 150) in the Mirador-Calakmul Basin is characterized by innovations in various aspects of ancient Maya society which are the reflections of an complex ideological, socio-,political, and economic power. These ingredients were responsible for the conception and creation of large and diverse works of architecture and engineering achievements. This paper will discuss the importance of the Late Preclassic period in El Mirador and contemporary cities within...
New Perspectives of Monte Albán-Atzompa Complex through New Lidar Mapping Survey (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Landscapes and Cosmic Cities out of Eurasia: Transdisciplinary Studies with New Lidar Mapping" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Monte Albán, the central mountain area in the Oaxaca Valley was largely modified around 500 BC and functioned as a ceremonial precinct and state headquarters for more than 1,300 years. As one of the objectives under the umbrella program of “Out of Eurasia,” we here explore the...
New Perspectives on Gulf Coast Olmec Iconography and Scripts via the Mesoamerican Corpus of Formative Period Art and Writing (2016)
The rich visual culture of the Formative period Gulf Coast Olmec has long been recognized as playing a foundational role in the origins and development of subsequent Mesoamerican writing systems and artistic traditions. Nonetheless, Formative period visual cultures remain relatively understudied, as does their role in and impact on the emergence of regional script systems, the developmental dynamics of which continue to elude adequate explanation. To advance the field’s understanding of script...
New Perspectives on the Maya Highland Site of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala (2017)
Recent data has been unearthed on Kaminaljuyu during the last five years. Despite Guatemala City´s growth, much information is still under the ground. A continuous program has allowed for the piecing together of various research programs carried out at the site. An effort to integrate most of the research and rescue programs has been done to obtain a comprehensive perspective of the culture history of the site. This paper will present data on recent research, focusing on the significant...
New Research into the Dynamics of human-environment relationships in the Maya region (2015)
Despite recent debates and new analytical opportunities in Maya archaeology provided by developments such as increased amounts of paleoclimatic data, the growing field of settlement archaeology and advances in Maya epigraphy, we still know very little about either short or long-term dynamics of human-environment relationships in the Maya region: for example, the choices humans make in response to extreme variability in rainfall patterns or changes in soil conditions. Does society become...
New research on ceramics and chronology from the Tlajinga district (2016)
The Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) undertook two excavation seasons in the southern district of the city known as Tlajinga. These have provided new information concerning the growth of the city southward and life in residential apartment complexes. Tlajinga comprises a group of residential neighborhoods where commoners lived and engaged in both local and city-wide interactions. Analysis of ceramics from the project provides an understanding of the temporality of household...
Night and the Underworld in the Classic Period Ulúa Valley, Honduras (2017)
As the sun set and the light dimmed in the Classic Period Ulúa Valley, Honduras, the nighttime sky and a soundscape of nocturnal animals emerged. The transition between day and night was marked not only by the shifting sensory experience of the nightscape but also by the passage of the sun through the underworld, as the realm of death and the ancestors came alive. The night was inhabited and animated by liminal animals and ancestors that moved between the world of the living and the dead. The...
Night in Day: How Mesoamerican Cultures Respond to Unanticipated (and Anticipated) Eclipse Phenomena (2016)
Effects of the sudden, dramatic inversion of day and night experienced during a total eclipse of the sun have been reported in cultures the world over. How to find meaning in the extraordinary shading, the odd color tones in the landscape produced by the sun’s corona, and the changes in animal behavior, not to mention the appearance of stars and planets flanking the black disk that accompanies darkness in the middle of the day? After a brief cross-cultural survey of where eclipse myths find...