Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
1,651-1,675 (2,459 Records)
While the connections between ancient mural paintings and twentieth-century urban mural programs may seem tenuous, certain technical, structural, and physical considerations of the medium itself link exemplars from past and present. The inextricable relationship between murals and their architectural supports as well as its scale can compel a different type of viewing and visceral engagement than other types of two-dimensional media; it forces a relatedness that must be unpacked. In this paper,...
Paisaje Cultural en Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz. Nuevas Perspectivas e Interpretaciones (2016)
En esta ponencia se presentan datos e interpretaciones derivados del Proyecto Arqueológico Paisaje Cultural en Los Tuxtlas Veracruz, llevado a cabo entre el 2013 y el 2015, en el cual se examinaron sitios arqueológicos ubicados en la Sierra de Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz. La información recabada permitió hacer ajustes en la cronología de la región, un registro detallado de algunos sitios anteriormente analizados y una mayor comprensión de la relación de los asentamientos humanos con el paisaje...
Paisaje religioso: Adoratorios y eventos cívicos (2016)
El paisaje dentro de los ámbitos de la arqueología, advierten en primera instancia que el paisaje en sí, no es un sinónimo del medio ambiente. Los paisajes son sintéticos; los sistemas culturales estructuran y organizan las interacciones entre la gente y su medio ambiente; según Cosgrove (1985). En este sentido el paisaje es el escenario para todas las actividades de una comunidad, como consecuencia de esto tenemos que el mismo se encuentra en constante cambio. En un contexto cultural...
The Palace Group at Xochicalco, Morelos, México (2017)
Xochicalco is a hilltop site located in the mountain range of the western part of the modern Mexican state of Morelos. Archaeological investigations carried out in the upper part of the site between 1994 and 2009 have provided several breakthroughs in our understanding of one of the most representative sites of the Epiclassic period in Mesoamerica. The site’s major building complex, known as the Acropolis, is situated on the very top of the hill. Covering approximately a hectare, this group...
Palaces at La Joya, Classic Period Central Veracruz: Architectural and Ideological Evidence (2017)
La Joya was the capital of a very small state during the 1st millennium AD in South Central Veracruz. This region is rarely associated with major political power, though obviously it was of high prestige in the Mesoamerican world in terms of the distribution of the paraphernalia associated with the ballgame ritual. Two contemporary monumental platforms at the site can be interpreted as palaces, with administrative, residential, ritual, and service areas, one possibly housing a political and the...
The Palenque Pool Project: An energetic analysis of monumental construction costs (2017)
The Palenque Pool Project began excavations of the largest pool of the Picota Group in the Classic Maya site of Palenque in 2014. This group is located one kilometer from the Palace on the western edge of the site. Although the function of the pool is still unknown, its placement adjacent to one of Palenque's two stelae and its similarity to modern Maya examples, suggests ceremonial use. Prior research shows that a laborer could transport 586 kg of limestone per five-hour person-day from the...
The Palenque Pool Project: Preliminary Investigations into Monumental Construction Costs (2016)
The Palenque Pool Project began excavations of the largest pool of the Picota Group in the Classic Maya site of Palenque in 2014. This group is located one kilometer from the Palace on the western edge of the site. Although the function of the pool is still unknown, its placement adjacent to one of Palenque's two stelae and its similarity to modern Maya examples, suggests ceremonial use. As a part of the 2015 field season samples were taken from two regions that appear to have been limestone...
The Palenque Pool Project: Sourcing the Sand from the Main Picota Pool (2015)
Many sites in the Maya Lowlands relied heavily on water storage features in order to sustain the annual dry season. However, in Palenque the opposite challenge was presented, as there was an abundance of perennial water flowing through the city. Palenque’s ancient name of Lakamha’ or Big Water was indicative of this issue. In response, there were intricate water management systems constructed in order to divert the water underground through aqueducts. In May of 2014, the Palenque Pool Project...
Paleoclimatological Patterning in Southern Mesoamerica (1983)
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.
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of the Northern Frontier of Mesoamerica: Stable Isotopic Analysis of Lagomorphs from La Ferrería, Durango, Mexico (2015)
Central to understanding the social and economic dynamics of past societies is the reconstruction of the environment in which they developed. The marginal environmental region of Northwest Mexico, in particular, has been a focus of debate concerning the importance of environmental change in the rise and decline of complex societies in the region. This study analyzes 49 Leporid (rabbit and hare) bones from the settlement of La Ferrería in modern Durango, Mexico for stable isotope ratios of...
Paleoethnobotanical Remains Associated with the Sacbe at the Ancient Maya Village of Cerén (2015)
Paleoethnobotanical research conducted during the 2013 field season at Joya de Cerén in El Salvador focused on the analysis of plant remains found on the surface and associated features of an ancient Maya sacbe (causeway) that were well protected beneath tephra deposited by the volcanic eruption of Loma Caldera around AD 660. Plant remains were retrieved from the sacbe surface, adjacent drainage canals, and agricultural fields on either side of the sacbe. Because the plant remains found in...
Paleogenomic perspectives of archaeological human samples from Durango, Mexico. (2015)
Despite the great number of methodological obstacles, the molecular biology applied to the field of Archaeology has proven to be an important complementary tool to interpret the population dynamics of ancient populations. The mitochondrial DNA, as it is inherited in a matrilineal way, has information about the relationships of the human groups under a population context. In collaboration with LANGEBIO, several archaeological human samples from Durango Mexico have been subjected to ancient DNA...
A paleopathological analysis of skeletal remains uncovered in La Cueva de los Hacheros, Turicato, Michoacán. (2017)
This poster deals with the study of skeletal remains belonging to eighteen individuals deposited within La Cueva de los Hacheros, a site located in the municipality of Turicato, Michoacán. Unfortunately, as a result of looting by landowners, the site has an altered context. Despite that fact, a salvage excavation and a comprehensive analysis of the remains yielded valuable data for interpreting the site and learning more about the individuals buried within. The skeletal analysis made it possible...
Paleopathology analysis of animal bones found inside the Templo Mayor offerings (2017)
In the excavations conducted by the Templo Mayor Project during the last decade, more than 100 individuals –including birds and mammals- have been found. Thanks to interdisciplinary research combining biology, ecology and veterinarian medicine approaches, it has been possible to study bone anomalies produced by different diseases and trauma in several specimens, such as golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), roseate spoonbills (Platalea ajaja), jaguars (Panthera onca) and wolves (Canis lupus). These...
Paleosols and human activities in the lakebed area of Basin of Mexico during the Middle Holocene (2015)
During 2013 - 2014 archaeological research was undertaken in San Gregorio (Xochimilco) and Tepexpan, Basin of Mexico, to recover evidence for human activity associated to the preceramic period in the lakebed area of Chalco-Xochimilco and Texcoco. One of the specific objectives of this research is to characterize soil conditions north and south of modern Mexico City, during the early agriculture period (6500-4000 BP) by means of paleopedological analysis, and evaluate environmental and...
Panama_Hydro Shapefile (2010)
The aim of the LEAP projects was to publish multi-layered e-publications and develop and link them to associated digital archives. The original LEAP project was funded by the AHRC while the LEAP II, A Trans-Atlantic LEAP, was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This shapefile is part of a 2011 LEAP II project "Placing immateriality: situating the material of highland Chiriquí" by Karen Holberg. All files associated with this record must be downloaded to ensure that the shapefile...
Panamanian Duhos (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.
Paper Matters: Cultural Change in Post-Conquest Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and Material Culture of the Spanish Invasion of Mesoamerica and Forging of New Spain" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paper-making was an indigenous technology of great historical depth; on the eve of Conquest, thousands of reams of paper were brought into the imperial capital of Tenochtitlan, where it was used for a host of bureaucratic and ritual purposes. Yet a generation or two after the conquest,...
Paradox no More? Postclassic Mazapa and its Regional Context (2017)
During the 2014 through 2016 field and laboratory seasons of the RRATZ Project, the archaeological site of Mazapa was recorded, mapped, and its pottery and obsidian artifacts analyzed. These efforts reveal that Mazapa, located near Chonegal, Veracruz, is one of the largest Late Postclassic sites known for the southern Gulf lowlands; it contains approximately 170 structures that range from low housemounds to platforms measuring 7 meters high. Although sizeable Postclassic settlements have been...
Parallels between pseudo-cloisonné and Huichol votive gourds: iconography, processing, and disposal (2015)
Pseudo cloisonné is a characteristic ceramic type of West Mexico. It has generally drawn the attention of researchers because of its complex iconography and elaborate manufacture, which have led many to regard it as a prestige/exchange good. The study of this ceramic type, supported by ethnographic analogy with votive gourd bowls produced by the Huichol of northern Jalisco, suggests the possibility that many pseudo cloisonné pieces may not have been considered as prestige/exchange goods. The...
Past Meets Future: Combining GIS, 3D technologies, and legacy data to reanalyze ceramics at Copan, Honduras (2016)
The archaeological site of Copán—a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Honduras—was a primary center for cultural and economic exchange in the Maya world from the fifth to ninth centuries. Our research investigates the sociopolitical climate of the city immediately preceding this collapse. This poster presents the results of a pilot study intended to evaluate the potential of using a combination of digital technologies and legacy data to reanalyze a subset of diagnostic ceramics from select sites...
Paths towards Complexity in the Maya Lowlands: Implications of Architectural Change at Cahal Pech (2016)
The elucidation of how permanent settlements and social complexity evolved in the Maya lowlands has been a long-standing question among Mayanists. Recently, it has been proposed that the first permanent architecture in the Pasion River region (i.e., Ceibal) emerged as ritual complexes around 1000 B.C. rather than villages with permanent households (i.e., Inomata and colleagues 2013). Nevertheless, Middle Preclassic evidence from the Belize Valley (i.e., Cahal Pech) has depicted a different...
Patrones de desecho en los grupos domésticos de la Hacienda San Pedro Cholul. (2015)
A partir de 2009 la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán ha realizado exploraciones arqueológicas al interior de la hacienda henequenera San Pedro Cholul, teniendo como principal enfoque el estudio de la vida cotidiana de los antiguos pobladores. Como parte del proyecto, hasta el momento se han intervenido 3 solares habitacionales y sus respectivas viviendas. Mediante la recolección de superficie y la excavación de dichos espacios se han recuperado diversos elementos materiales que nos han permitido...
Patrons and Artists: New Information on the Producers of Codex-Style Ceramics of the Mirador Basin (2015)
Codex-style ceramics are a distinctive product of the Late Classic Mirador Basin of north-central Peten, Guatemala. Through the archaeological work of the Mirador Basin Project and the chemical analyses of affiliated scholars we now have a considerable amount of information on the physical production of these vessels. In this presentation we present new evidence on the artists who produced these vessels, as well as the nobles for whom they were painting. These data provide much needed new...
Patterns of Elite Self-Presentation in North-Central Veracruz, Middle to Epiclassic Periods (2015)
Elite public imagery in north-central Veracruz during during the Cacahuatal phase (c. 350-600) focused on frontal presentations of single figures and a restricted iconography. The Late Classic brought considerable changes to elite self-presentation in the region, including a more complex multi-figure narrative format and the palma, a new costume object. Both of these changes were directly related to changes in the visual patterns of public sculpture and the performance of public rites. This...