Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
1,776-1,800 (2,459 Records)
Founded around 1000 B.C., the Maya site of Ceibal has yielded important insights into the development of public rituals and spaces in Preclassic Mesoamerica. Recent excavations at the Karinel Group, located just outside the ceremonial core of Ceibal, have complemented this knowledge with data from domestic contexts. By making detailed comparisons of public and household ritual practices, we seek to understand the social processes through which the community of Ceibal changed over time. Some...
The Preclassic Maya Site of Noh K'uh: A Network of Communities (2015)
In many societies around the world, the concept of community plays a central role in the formation of individual identities. Communities are subject to change and the focus on community identity provides a theoretical approach in which the individual can be situated in a broader sphere of social interaction. I research community through spatial analyses of human constructions at the Preclassic site of Noh K'uh in Chiapas, Mexico. My findings revealed that house-mounds clustered on hill-tops...
Preclassic Monumental Architecture at Xunantunich, Belize: Implications for Ritual Performance (2016)
Recent investigations in the Preclassic site core at the site of Xunantunich have revealed new evidence for ritual activity at the site’s earliest monumental structures. This ceremonial core, recently designated Early Xunantunich, is composed of three plazas, an E-Group, and several large, flat-topped platforms. The largest of these platforms forms the northern boundary of the site, measuring 100-115 meters wide and over 10 meters tall. Recent excavations of this platform revealed at least three...
Preclassic Platforms at Yaxnohcah: Central Eminences for a multinucleated site. (2017)
Yaxnohcah is an important Maya settlement in the southern Campeche lowlands, which, according to what present evidence suggests, had its main civic development during the Middle and Late Preclassic periods. The city’s layout includes some features that are specific to Yaxnohcah, as well as others shared with nearby and distant centres. One of central features of the Yaxnohcah settlement, which it shares with other sites, has been described as "clustered nucleation" or "dismembered" pattern for...
Preclassic Reservoirs and Urbanism at Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico (2017)
The need to collect and store rain water has been proposed as an important urbanizing force during the development of Maya civilization in the Elevated Interior Region on the Maya Lowlands, where surface water is naturally scarce and the dry season lengthy. We present data from Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico indicating that the construction of large reservoirs was an integral part of the development of this urban center in the Middle and Late Preclassic periods. Data collected to date indicate that...
Preclassic Roots of Well-Trodden Routes in the Central Maya Lowlands of Belize (2015)
Traditional approaches to ancient Maya territories focus on site hierarchies, which are defined by a capital with monumental architecture and an elite body that controls a hinterland population. In the central lowlands, E-Groups are among the earliest monumental architecture found and are almost always associated with sites that later develop into large Classic Maya capitals, such as Tikal and Naranjo. Thus, scholars suggest that E-Groups are in some way connected to early forms of Maya...
Precolumbian Art of North America and Mexico (Translated By Elizabeth Evans) (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.
Predictive Modeling and the Ancient Maya Landscape (2016)
The use of GIS-based analyses has been increasing in archaeology over several years, including predictive modeling from digital elevation models (DEMs). Critics of these methods suggest that these computational approaches leave no room for human agency, and can create improper landscape analyses. However, these methods can be properly used when operating in well-defined theoretical frameworks and correct scale. In this paper, we present recent ground survey data and ethnoarchaeological methods...
Prehispanic landscape and agriculture in the Teotihuacan Valley: the Tlaijnga área (2016)
Archaeological evidence indicates occupation in the Tlajinga área of the southern Teotihuacan Valley throughout the Classic and Postclassic (ca. 200-1500 DC) as well as the Colonial period. Excavations as well as soil profiles in this sector provide macro- and microbotanical remains that, together with stable carbón isotope values (δ13C) provide new insights with respect to agricultural activities, conforming evidence for maize (Zea mays) and opportunistic flora associated with food production....
Prehispanic plant remains from Altica, Teotihuacan Valley Mexico (2017)
Altica, situated in the southeastern sector of the Teotihuacan Valley, represents the earliest known farming community in this region. Its importance lies in the potential for the recovery of evidence for domestic plant use by these early inhabitants. Plant remains recovered over several decades in the Teotihuacan Valley provide an idea of the predominant plant communities in the area during the Early-Middle Formative, an indicator of local environmental conditions. Preliminary results from the...
Prehispanic Sculpture from Matacanela (2015)
This presentation offers a historiographic review of investigations that have documented and interpreted the stone monuments from the archaeological site of Matacanela, located in the Tuxtlas Mountains of southern Veracruz, Mexico. This study is designed to reconstruct the possible spatial location of these sculptures in an effort to improve our understanding of their original on-site contexts. In addition, the Matacanela sculptural corpus will be compared with the monuments and stylistic...
Prehispanic Settlement Regions of the IXtapalpa Peninsula Region, Mexico (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.
Preliminary Archaeological Investigations, Second Field Season (October 1967-1968) at the X-Kukican Zone, Yucatan, Mexico (1968)
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.
Preliminary Bibliography of the Chol, Lacandon, Yucatec Lacandon, Chol, Mopan, and Quejache of the Southern Maya Lowlands, 1524 - 1969 (1970)
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.
Preliminary LiDAR Analysis and Excavation of Residential Water Features at the Ancient Maya Site of Yaxnohcah, Central Yucatan (2016)
The collection, storage, and management of water was an ongoing challenge—and necessary focus—for the ancient Maya, who occupied a physical environment with a pronounced annual dry season and a general lack of perennial surface water necessary to support and sustain an expansive population. The urban center of Yaxnohcah, located within the central lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula, provides an ideal test case for studying how the residents of this important Maya center managed their crucial, and...
Preliminary Lidar-Based Analyses of Naachtun Settlement Patterns and Land Use (2017)
Located in the northern Petén, Guatemala, the Maya site of Naachtun has been investigated since 2010 by a pluri-disciplinary French-Guatemalan team. Some of its goals aim to reconstruct the political history of the site and its spatial evolution through time, and to understand the management of local resources and the impact of anthropic activities on the landscape. Archaeological and environmental excavations and studies have been carried out in the city center and surroundings areas while a...
Preliminary LiDAR-based Analyses of the La Corona – El Achiotal Corridor (2017)
Located in the northwestern Petén, Guatemala, the Maya sites of La Corona and El Achiotal have been investigated since 2008 by a multi-disciplinary US and Guatemalan research project. While a primary goal of this project has been to reconstruct the region’s political history, we are now beginning to investigate the management of local resources and general human impact on the landscape. In fact, the area between La Corona and El Achiotal is almost entirely unknown archaeologically, especially...
Preliminary Observations on the Nature of the Balamkú Ceramic Assemblage (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Gran Acuífero Maya conducted preliminary excavations in the entrance chamber of Balamkú yielding a small but interesting ceramic assemblage containing sherds of large incensarios and large numbers of miniature vessels that generally parallel the material documented at Balankanche cave. The high incidence of both incensarios and...
Preliminary Obsidian Analysis for the Site of Holtun, Petén, Guatemala 2011-2015 (2016)
Holtun is a medium-sized civic-ceremonial center located in the Maya lowlands in the central lakes region of Petén, Guatemala that was occupied from the Preclassic (~600BC) through the beginning of the Postclassic (AD1000). During the 2011, 2014, and 2015 field seasons of the Holtun Archaeological Project approximately 147 pieces of obsidian were recovered from a mixture of contexts including fill, plaza, ceremonial, and household. Analyses of obsidian artifacts included typological analysis,...
Preliminary Results of the Zacatepec Archaeological Project (2016)
The archaeological site of Zacatepec, Oaxaca is located in the coastal mountains of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, in between the modern towns of Putla de Guerrero and Pinotepa Nacional. First identified in 2014, a two month field season was undertaken in June and July of 2015 to uncover a larger portion on the site and identify the time period with which the site is affiliated. This presentation summarizes the results of the summer 2015 field season which incorporated both a survey and an...
The Preliminary Results of Topographic Mapping at El Palmar (2015)
El Palmar is known as one of the major Classic Maya polities in the central Maya lowland, but the nature of its spatial configuration has remained underexplored. This paper presents the preliminary results of topographic mapping that we have carried out from the 2007 through 2014 field seasons. Using two total stations, our topographic mapping has covered a total of 100 hectares, including the site core and three outlying groups. In the field we documented not only architectural features and...
Preliminary Results of Wood Charcoal analysis for Household groups in San Bartolo (2015)
This paper presents preliminary results of analysis of charcoal remains recovered from well stratified household middens at the Maya archaeological site of San Bartolo located in the Department of the Peten, Guatemala. It presents reconstructed use patterns of local trees for typical San Bartolo residential households, as well as a discussion of how these patterns changed over time, and what factors, cultural and environmental, may have influenced these changes using secondary evidence. SAA...
Preliminary Results on Regional Postclassic Aztatlán Obsidian Usage Patterns (2015)
The usage and trade of obsidian from various sources is well established during the Postclassic in West Mexico. Different qualitatively similar obsidian sources were used in different ways within sites, which suggests preferences for certain sources over others for different types of reduction. No studies, however, have explored this differential usage regionally. Here, I have macroscopically and microscopically analyzed collections from three Aztatlán regional centers in Nayarit: Coamiles, San...
A Preliminary Study of Epiclassic Diet at Cerro Magoni in Tula, Mexico using Stable Isotope Analysis and AMS Radiocarbon Dating (2017)
In this paper, we present preliminary paleodietary data and radiocarbon dates for 12 burials recovered from Cerro Magoni, an Epiclassic (ca. AD 600-900) hilltop settlement in Tula, Mexico. Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) analyses of bone collagen were used to assess the diet of individuals buried near the summit of the settlement. The production of bone collagen requires essential amino acids derived from protein, therefore stable carbon analyses reflect the origins of dietary protein,...
Preparing for the Future through Rock Mounds and Research (2015)
Mentoring and strong teaching methods are the hallmarks of Scott Fedick's career. When just an undergraduate, Fedick took a chance on Anna Hoover and guided her into studying an ancient agricultural technique that is actually still practiced today. Chi'ich mounds, or small rock/pebble mounds, are utilized where surface soils are thin of temperatures are dry and arid. Serving as both mulch and root stabilizers for vines, shrubs and trees, these little features can be found n archaeological...