Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
1,676-1,700 (2,459 Records)
The ancient Maya script evolved over the course of about 1800 years, during which hundreds of distinctive functional graphic units (graphemes) were employed. Previous studies have shown that only a small subset of these graphemes was used at any given time, with bursts of innovation in certain epochs, particularly when the production of monuments spiked. This study revisits the question of the historical development of the Maya script, using the Maya Hieroglyphic Database, a comprehensive...
Patterns of Plant Use at Los Soldados and Beyond (2015)
There has been much speculation regarding the nature of agriculture and subsistence among the Formative Gulf Coastal Olmec, and regional subsistence reconstructions based on primary plant data are now beginning to bear fruit. Recent excavations in the rural Olmec heartland and the neighboring Sierra de los Tuxtlas have yielded pertinent archaeobotanical data that have revealed considerable local variation in plant foodways. We build on these studies by presenting archaeobotanical data from Los...
Patterns of Postclassic Ceramic Exchange in the Toluca Valley and Surrounding Areas of Central Mexico (2015)
In Central Mexico, the Late Postclassic period encompasses the expansion of both a robust market system and the growth of the Aztec Empire. However, increasingly refined chronologies in multiple subregions have made it clear that changes in economic and political organization did not happen simultaneously, nor did they happen consistently across the region. This poster presents data on the changing geographic patterning and intensity of ceramic exchange at the site of Calixtlahuaca, in the...
Paying Homage to the Ancestors: The (Preclassic) Cunil Phase Maya of Cahal Pech (2016)
More than 20 years of investigations at Cahal Pech have served to establish that the site has one of the longest sequence of occupation in the Maya lowlands. First settled at the end of the Early Preclassic period, the settlement gradually grew in size and affluence during the Middle and Late Preclassic periods, and eventually became one of the primary Classic period centers of the upper Belize River Valley. Cahal Pech’s rise to prominence, however, was not a product of Classic period...
Paynes Creek Salt Works: Ten Field Seasons of Underwater Maya Survey, Mapping, and Excavations (2016)
The unexpected discovery of wooden buildings preserved in the mangrove peat sediment below the sea floor in Paynes Creek National Park, southern Belize, provided an opportunity to re-evaluate the nature of salt production in the ancient Maya economy and the nature of ancient Maya wooden architecture. Innovative techniques based on shallow underwater survey elsewhere were used to systematically search in a salt-water lagoon system for wooden structures and associated briquetage—the pottery used...
Peces de las ofrendas asociadas a Tlaltecuhtli (2015)
Se describe el contenido ictiológico de tres ofrendas asociadas al monolito de Tlaltecuhtli (1486-1502 d. C.). y se dimensionan los resultados comparándolos con otras ofrendas del mismo sitio (Complejo A: 1440-1469 d. C.). La Ofrenda 120 contenía escasos elementos de siete taxa; la Ofrenda 125, ocho taxa con un individuo cada uno (excepto un caso), con ejemplares completos y taxidérmicos; y la Ofrenda 126, siete taxa con uno a dos ejemplares, tanto completos como taxidérmicos. Las ofrendas a...
The Pennsylvania State University Kaminaljuyu Project - 1969, 1970 Seasons, Part I - Mound Excavations (1973)
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.
People and Space in Maya Palaces (1978)
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.
The People Behind the Practice: An Ethnological Encounter with a Maya Forest Gardener (2016)
In recent years, alternative subsistence strategies have been explored by archaeoethnobotanists and others to describe ways in which the ancient Maya managed their land. Through a contextualized analysis of contemporary Maya interaction with their environment, ethnobotanists hope to gain insight into the past. Forest gardening, a sustainable, agroforestry system similar to permaculture practices, offers a glance into how the Maya cooperate with the land. This paper seeks not to provide an...
Peopling the Landscape: Scott Fedick and his contributions to household subsistence strategies (2015)
Over the past several decades, Scott Fedick’s pedagogical approach to understanding local-scale environmental and biological diversity has inspired and influenced numerous students and colleagues perspectives on Maya household subsistence strategies. The first part of my presentation will discuss my participation in the Yalahau Regional Human Ecology Project and how Scott’s heterogeneous approach to resources management strategies influenced my later research on local subsistence strategies...
Peppers and People in Mesoamerica: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Tracing the Origin and Domestication of Chiles (Capsicum annuum var. annuum L.) (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Symposium in Honor of Dolores Piperno" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dolores Piperno’s career has been defined by pioneering work in multidisciplinary and collaborative plant research. Following in her footsteps, this interdisciplinary team comprised of archaeologists/archaeobotanists, an ethnobotanist, and a biogeographer assembled to investigate the origins and domestication of Capsicum annuum var. annuum...
Perceptions of Changing Landscape Mosaics in Southern Belize (2017)
What drives human uncertainty when confronting gradual change versus catastrophic, rapid change? Based on longitudinal ethnographic data that includes household behavioral observations, oral histories and structured survey interviews of land use change, and continuous participant observation data, we describe the ways farming families in southern Belize have responded to changing environments over time, within the context of a mosaic of livelihood strategies. Ethnographic interviews with...
Perceptions of the Matacanela Archaeological Site by the People of Zapoapan de Cabañas (2015)
The town of Zapoapan de Cabañas, located south of Lake Catemaco, Veracruz is adjacent to the archaeological site of Matacanela. Even though little historical continuity exists between the archaeological site and the contemporary settlement, perceptions that Zapoapan’s inhabitants have about the site are informative because they suggest how the site is internalized and integrated into daily life. The historical memory of the inhabitants of Zapoapan de Cabañas, through oral tradition and the reuse...
Peri-abandonment Deposits at Chan Chich, Belize (2017)
This poster details peri-abandonment features from the Maya site of Chan Chich in northwestern Belize. The term peri-abandonment relates to deposits or features dated to around the time of abandonment of the site. Previous research in the southern and eastern lowlands has documented widespread above-floor terminal artifact deposits in primarily epicentral contexts thought to have formed at or near the time of abandonment at many sites in the region. Excavations at Normans Temple complex at Chan...
The Periphery Gold Production Areas of Oaxaca: Tradition and Distinctiveness (2017)
In no other part of Mexico have been found so many gold objects as in Oaxaca. The Mixtecs and Zapotecs from central Oaxaca created amazing pieces with such great mastery as well as in the aesthetic and technological aspects. The Oaxaca artisans worked principally with gold and silver. The mineral needed in order to make these objects was relatively abundant in Oaxaca. Nevertheless, outside the realm of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca and the Mixtec area, mineral resources existed in most of the...
Persistence of Aztec Religious Belief Materialized in the Early Colonial Religious Architecture of the Central Mexican Highlands (2015)
Late Classic conceptualizations of sacred space, cosmologies, calendrical systems, and religious symbols combined to form a powerful and enduring core of indigenous religious beliefs that persisted well into the Early Colonial period in the central highlands of Mexico. Indigenous builders and artisans reconstructed their temples, now Christian, within pre-existing Aztec sacred space, often following indigenous alignments of cosmological significance. The elaborate facades of these churches were...
The Personification of Sacrificial Fire: An Undescribed Deity in Imperial Mexica Sculpture (2017)
A recurring theme in H.B. Nicholson’s groundbreaking analysis of Central Mexican deities is the application of a holistic approach to the analysis of Mexica stone sculpture, which includes visual and iconographic analysis, and comparison to early colonial texts. This paper will analyze a poorly understood deity that appears in late Mexica stone sculpture based on Nicholson’s innovative methodology. This fanged being appears only in stone sculpture from the imperial capital, and has previously...
Pest, Prey or Domesticate: Odocoileus virginianus in the Maya World (2016)
In 1982, Pohl and Feldman questioned whether the ancient Maya had been in the process of domesticating white-tail deer. The possibility that the Maya actively managed deer populations in proximity to human settlements deserves detailed consideration. Although white-tail deer remains are abundant in zooarchaeological assemblages, comprehensive size and demographic studies have not yet been undertaken to help establish which motives might inspired efforts toward herd management. A lack of metrical...
The Peten Campechano: A Functional and socioeconomic analysis of its settlement patterns (2016)
The 1980’s construction of the road to the archaeological site of Calakmul, Campeche made it necessary to record 86 sites on and alongside its trajectory and in the area around the Chumpich Lagoon down to Uxul on the Guatemalan border. The systematic location and mapping of each site and their associated cultural elements as well as flora, geology and paleoclimatology have permitted us to identify a variation in their architecture as well as settlement patterns and access to resources. In this...
Peter Harrison: Remembering a Friend and Colleague (2015)
Peter Harrison introduced himself to me immediately after I presented my first SAA paper in 1991. We shared an interest in architecture, and I was then attending Trent University where he had taught. From that moment until his death Peter was extremely supportive personally and professionally. In this paper I introduce this session with reference to Peter’s support for me and other (then) young archaeologists, both personally and through his Ahau Foundation. I will highlight his work related...
Petroglyph Concentration Final Map (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 final map project is part of a 2011 LEAP II project "Placing immateriality: situating the material of highland Chiriquí" by Karen Holberg. The files contained in this record include an .mxd map project and an image of the...
Petroglyph panel in Tlaltetela, Veracruz, México (2017)
The Rio de los Pescados runs in a mountanous zone of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The river passes through various ecological zones of varying terrain before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Tlaltetetla is a small town located on a plateau approximately 60 meters above the basin of the Rio de los Pescados in central Veracruz. Approximately one kilometer from Tlaltetetla, there is a large petroglyph panel on a 7.6 meter high by 24.6 meter long rock wall in the river basin. There are over 100...
Petroglyph_Concentration 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...
Petroglyph_Viewshed 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...
Petroglyphs 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...