Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
1,976-2,000 (2,456 Records)
Interaction was important early in the development of complex societies during the Formative period in Mesoamerica. Despite its small size, Altica was integrated into Early-Middle Formative exchange networks as it obtained some ceramics, obsidian blades, and ornaments of exotic stone and exported Otumba obsidian that began to circulate widely at this this time. There likely were other early villages within proximity to the Otumba source engaged in procuring obsidian for trade to other sites, but...
The Role Of Environment In The Collapse Of The Ancient Maya (2015)
Understanding the socioeconomic demise and depopulation of much of the Maya lowlands from the eighth to tenth centuries has been influenced historically by environmental evidence and human-environment frameworks emanating from beyond archaeology. Climate change was involved as early as 1917, but subsequently muted by the excesses of environmental determinism. The role of environment was subsequently reinstated in the latter parts of the 20th century, especially influenced by compelling evidence...
Role of Handstones in Mesoamerican Ballgame (2015)
Handstone is one of the artifacts that is associated with the Mesoamerican ballgame. However, barely any research has been published about them, since 1961, when Stephan Borhegyi first analyzed them. He identified that the handstones vary in size and shape. In the past, it has been suggested that they could be used to serve the ball when initiating the ballgame. Recent analysis of their size, abrasion, and context in imagery identifies the improbability of using them as a serving tool. Not a...
The Role of Lithic Artifacts in the Interpretation of RB-25-A5 (2016)
In 2014, the California State University, Los Angeles Sacred Landscape Archaeological Project (SLAP) began investigation of a deep pit with a small grotto at its northern end. In 2015, the pit was excavated to bedrock only to discover that the feature was a collapsed chultun. Noteworthy was a plastered platform that encircled the collapse pit. A dense concentration of artifacts was associated with the platform and pit but this dropped rapidly only a few meters from the platform indicating the...
The Role of Offerings in interpreting Architecture: Evaluating Human Remains at Xultun, Peten, Guatemala (2015)
During the 2014 field season at Xultun, Peten, Guatemala, two sets of human offerings and a tomb were identified in the center of "Los Arboles" (XUL12F19); however, the relationship between the different sets of remains and the structure remains unclear. While the Maya are known for placing offerings around tombs and in entryways as closing ceremonies, human offerings are a less-common subset. To date, their role in Maya society is not entirely understood although their presence has been claimed...
The role of pedogenesis in palaeosols of Mexico basin and its implication in the paleoenvironmental reconstruction (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Legacies of The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization, Part 1" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Most of the paleoenvironmental information for the Basin of Mexico for the basin comes from sedimentary proxies, which unfortunately are incomplete for the terminal Pleistocene and the Holocene. In this paper, we present a temporal and spatial reconstruction of past soil cover in the...
The Role of the Sweatbath in Classic Maya Ritual Performance (2015)
This paper reviews the scholarship regarding Mesoamerican sweatbaths and their role in performance, specifically choreographing locations for transformation and sympathetic transition in supernatural space. The recently discovered sweatbath at the site of Xultun in Guatemala, known as Los Sapos, will be inserted into this dialogue in conjunction with that regarding plazas and Maya theatricality more broadly. After both contextualizing Los Sapos and presenting interpretations regarding its...
The roles of the figurines of Oaxaca (2015)
The figurines were an essential part of prehistoric people in Mesoamerica. In Oaxaca, these figurines were essential for daily and religious life in the village stages. It has been subject of several hypotheses in its role and significance in life due to the same range and presence in most places in the Oaxaca region. However, we were unable to determine a specific role for each stage or a decisive site because we need to carry out further excavations in contexts that include them. In this...
Roots and the Subsistence of the Ancient Maya (1966)
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 Roots of Urbanization: Early Middle Preclassic Transformations to a Sedentary Lifestyle at Ceibal, Guatemala (2018)
Our research at the Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, has led to new insights into processes involved in the transition of mobile hunting and horticultural populations to a more sedentary lifestyle and emergent social inequalities. Like in other areas of the world, the first architectural constructions at Ceibal, were public-ritual configurations, built communally by a still mobile population around 950 BC. Sedentism developed gradually and may have first involved people with higher social status...
The roseate spoonbills of Tenochtitlan’s Great Temple and their relation to deceased warriors, nobles, and kings (2015)
During recent excavations conducted in the Urban Archaeology Program (PAU) and the Templo Mayor Project of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), six offerings containing roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) skeletal remains were found at the foot of Tenochtitlan’s main pyramid. A careful analysis of these bones reveals that the Mexica buried not only complete individual birds in this important ritual scenario, but also their multicolor feathered skins. Although the...
Round and Round We Go: Cholula, Rotating Power Structures and Social Stability in Mesoamerica (2015)
Rotating power structures of the mayordomías circulares in Cholula show extreme stability through time. We will analyze how these systems work and why they are so effective using notions of social capital to show how these and other organizations in Cholula build up social capital needed to keep Cholula’s baroquely complicated system of ritual festivals running. In so doing, we will show that the system can be sourced to the early post conquest when it was maintained by the city's merchants and...
Round structures: Their function(s) (2015)
Round foundation braces for perishable walls are seldom the focus of excavation owing to their relatively unimpressive physical characteristics. However, these structures become common throughout the Northern Lowlands at the end of the Terminal Classic period, appearing in 50 percent of the surveyed sites. This paper will examine their possible function, and explain why they became so widespread. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and...
The ruin of the Maya heartland: successes, failures, and consequences of four decades of antiquities trafficking regulation (2015)
For 40 years the trafficking of Maya antiquities has been at the forefront of debate over the most effective way to discourage the illicit antiquities trade. Images of mutilated Maya stela and jungle-covered temples pitted by looters' trenches epitomize the effects of the global demand for looted artifacts. National and international measures have been introduced to protect Maya sites on the ground, prevent looted artefacts from crossing borders, or effect the repatriation of stolen cultural...
The Rulers of the Kanu’l Dynasty from the Perspective of Dzibanche, Quintana Roo, Mexico. (2016)
This paper discusses data on the presence of the Kanu'l dynasty in southern Quintana Roo, Mexico, particularly at the major site of Dzibanché. The hieroglyphic inscriptions give us explicit testimony on three important Kanu'l characters during the Early Classic: Yuhkno'm Ch'e'n I, Sky Witness, and Yahx ? Yopaat. In addition, we will talk about the presence of another Kanu'l character from Late Classic, associated with the Pom Plaza from Dzibanche, together with an explanation of the associated...
Ruptura y Continuidad : el impacto de la conquista tarasca en la región de Acámbaro - Maravatío (2017)
A mitad del siglo XV, el joven reino tarasco llevó a cabo una importante fase de expansión de su territorio. Es en este marco que la región de Acámbaro-Maravatío, ubicado a unos 130 km de laguna de Pátzcuaro (corazón del reino), cayó en mano de los tarascos. Pero la conquista no se persiguió más allá y el sector de Acámbaro se convirtió en una zona de frontera. La dominación tarasca de la región fue breve, apenas unos 80 años. Sin embargo, estas ocho décadas fueron suficientes para que el poder...
Rural Craft Production and Market Participation in Late Classic Oaxaca: A Case Study from Yaasuchi (2015)
Many models of the Zapotec economy during the Classic Period (AD 200 – 850) have relied on an assumption of mutual dependence between rural farmers and urban craft specialists, yet little research has focused explicitly on the economic behavior of rural households. To address this assumption, over 300 archaeological ceramics from the rural site of Yaasuchi - including samples from two domestic structures and a ceramic firing feature - were characterized via INAA to establish provenance. Results...
Rural economies at agrarian houselots before and after the rise of urban Mayapán (2016)
This paper examines wealth and occupational diversification of rural houselots of the Terminal Classic and Postclassic northern Plains of Yucatan. Eight dwelling groups are compared that were situated in different types of rural/peripheral contexts. Ubiquitous Terminal Classic dwellings in the study area were located at the margins of a modest town (the Rank IV center of Tichac/Telchaquillo) far from cities of any size or political significance. In contrast, Postclassic houses were within one or...
Rutas y caminos de los sitios costeros de la Sierra de Santa Marta en el Clásico tardío, una propuesta teórico- metodológica (2016)
Esta ponencia se centra en la reconstrucción de las vías de comunicación en la zona costera de la Sierra de Santa Marta al Sur del Estado de Veracruz. Presenta una nueva manera para poder reconstruir el paisaje comunicacional del área, mediante la aplicación de un esquema de comunicación combinando los estudios de arquitectura para el periodo Clásico tardío del área con el uso de programas SIG. Es presentado como un trabajo perfectible en el sentido que pudiera ser aplicado para reconstruir...
S1E1 (2023)
Site Survey Form Scan for Square S1E1.
S1E2 (2024)
Site Survey Form Scan for Square S1E2
S1E3 (2023)
Site Survey Record Form Scan for Square S1E3
S1E4 (2024)
Site Survey form for square S1E4
S1E6 (2024)
Site Survey Form From Square S1E6
S1W1 (2024)
Site Survey Form From Square S1W1