Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
2,176-2,200 (2,459 Records)
Subsistence economies during the Postclassic Period (ca. AD 1000-1524) in the northern Maya lowlands were shaped by a range of strategies that included agriculture, the cultivation of wild plants, hunting, trade and market exchange, and the management of animals. Stable isotope data from archaeological faunal remains offer important dietary information to reconstruct the subsistence strategies during this period. In this paper, we present paleodietary data from faunal remains recovered from...
Starfish in the offerings of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2017)
Recent excavations carried out by the Templo Mayor Project in Tenochtitlan’s sacred precinct uncovered a significant number of calcium carbonate plates, which, in spite of their advanced degree of deterioration, can be identified as consisting of the endoskeletons of sea stars. These organisms belong to the Asteroidea (from the Greek aster: "star" and eidos: "in the shape of") class, most of which exhibit radial symmetry and have thin, discernibly pentagonal bodies. Sea stars inhabit marine...
Statistical Examination of Settlement Patterns at Tikal, Guatemala (1980)
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.
Statistically Comparing Demographic Distributions of Mortuary Assemblages (2017)
This analysis includes data from 50 archaeological mortuary assemblages variously attributed to sacrifice, warfare, and standard mortality processes. The research compares two sites, both attributed to sacrifice, to those produced by the two alternative processes of warfare and standard mortality and explores the question of whether these assemblages may be differentiated from them based on the age distribution of deaths. The analysis incorporates a novel feature in that preservation bias is...
The Status of Excavations and Research at Blue Creek - 1997 (1997)
This report provides an overview of six years of fieldwork and research at the Blue Creek site. At this stage the project is designed to be an investigation of the internal structure of a single Maya city, with consideration of the city's temporal and functional dynamics as well as relationships with its neighbors. This report summarizes the status of these efforts both topically and in terms of fieldwork accomplished and future field seasons.
Status-role-behavior database on 11 premodern societies
Excel files describing all possible statuses and associated roles/behaviors for 10 premodern states (Aztec, Benin, Late Shang China, Old Kingdom Egypt, Mycenaean Greece, Protohistoric Hawaii, Inca, Old Babylonia, Late Classic Maya, and Zapotec) and 1 premodern society (Iceland).
A Step-by-Step Guide to Excavating Burials, or how a Bioarchaeologist can be in Two (or Three) Places at Once (2017)
Bioarchaeologists often are faced with the challenge of managing field excavations and lab analyses of skeletal remains at the same time, along with student and staff training and curation of osteological remains. I present results from recent fieldwork at the Classic Maya sites Actuncan and San Lorenzo, Belize that were excavated using a method designed for non-osteologists. This includes complex burial deposits that were re-entered, secondary burials, and comingled and disturbed remains that...
Stephen Kowalewski, su vida y obra: a life of regional survey and looking at the big picture (2015)
In this opening paper for the session in honor of Stephen Kowalewski we talk about Steve’s life and background, his experience in Southwestern and Mesoamerican archaeology, and about a life of teaching and mentoring in the classroom and in the field. We discuss Stephen Kowalewski’s work in archaeology and the rich regional datasets that we now enjoy as a result of his teachings and labors. This presentation also reflects on the theoretical and methodological approaches that Steve has employed...
Stingless Beeswax in Mesoamerican Investment Casting Processes (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mesoamerican metal objects have been studied in-depth in terms of alloys and production techniques, but little work has focused on the foundry materials used in the prehispanic casting process. In modern foundry practice, synthetic waxes, paraffins, or processed European honeybee wax...
Stone Figurines of the Middle Formative in Mesoamerica (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 1" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The first reported green stone figurines from controlled excavations in Mesoamerica occur in Middle Formative (900–400 BC) contexts. Among the best known are those from Offering 4 at La Venta. Mid-twentieth-century excavations at La Venta, conducted by Mathew Stirling, Philip Drucker, and Robert Heizer, also produced the largest...
Stone Monuments of Southern Mexico (1943)
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.
Stop and Go Traffic: Power, Movement, and Emplacement in the Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan Kingdoms (2015)
This paper explores the many sides of the natural and supernatural landscape surrounding the Classic period Maya kingdoms of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan with a particular focus on how the rulers of these polities struggled with one another for control of movement across the broken terrain of hills, cliffs, valleys, swamps, and rivers that define the Middle Usumacinta River basin. The standard image of a rather homogenous landscape in the Maya lowlands is quickly dispensed with in the Middle...
The Streets of Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Guatemala (2017)
Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Petén, Guatemala was settled shortly before 1000 BC. Sometime between 800 and 500 BC, the settlement was reconfigured into a city with an urban grid—a form until now unknown in the Maya lowlands. As a geometric form, grids regiment a series of lines into a harmonious rhythm over a larger area. Urban grids are formed not by single-dimension lines, but by streets, which are public spaces containing traffic, communication, exchange, and social interaction. Thus, urban grids are...
Strengthening the State: Intensification and Mixed Agricultural Strategies in Late Postclassic Puebla-Tlaxcala (2015)
The development of agricultural technologies is a key element in theory concerning the growth of Mesoamerican state societies. Cultivation of species under improved environmental conditions suggests intensification oriented strategies for the finance of political institutions, and to attend auto-consumption needs of households at the subsistence level. During the Late Postclassic, the Puebla-Tlaxcala region witnessed the rise and consolidation of various rival state-level polities known locally...
The Stromsvik Macroblade Cache from Copan, Honduras: A Symbolic Analysis (2017)
Among the myriad types of votive offerings created by the Classic Maya, many contain chipped-stone obsidian and flint materials. These caches often consist of debitage, cores, flakes, blades, and sometimes so-called "eccentrics", which are elaborately chipped ceremonial items that sometimes take the form of god effigies. The contexts of these deposits can include the stairways, centerlines, and corners of important structures, below stelae and other monuments, and in the center of royal or elite...
Strontium Isotope Values for Early Colonial Cows at San Bernabe, A Spanish Mission in the Peten Lakes Region of Guatemala (2016)
The earliest Spanish explorers in the 15th century brought ships stocked with European domesticated animals. Yet for nearly two centuries, the Maya living in Guatemala’s Peten Lakes region continued to rely on traditional wild animal species. A small number of cow and horse bones have been identified in Contact period contexts at Zacpeten and Tayasal, but significant changes in animal use are only visible after the Spanish began to build missions in the region during the early 1700s. We explore...
Structure 20 and 9 chert data from Corozal Postclassic Project 1978 and 1979 excavations of Nohmul, Belize (2019)
"Stone tools and debitage recovered from Terminal Classic Period contexts at the site Nohmul, Belize were collected in 1978 and 1979 as part of a dissertation project. Our analysis of this Nohmul chert assemblage has found evidence for local reduction of cobbles and core maintenance, as well as the production and maintenance of tools. Nohmul is situated roughly 30 kilometers from the Northern Belize Chert Bearing Zone, and the site of Colha, Belize – the argued center of lithic production in the...
Structure 4G1, Ciudad Vieja, El Salvador: A Sanctuary of Earth and Stone (2015)
The archaeological site of Ciudad Vieja, El Salvador, represents the ruins of the Conquest-period town of San Salvador. Although founded as a Spanish conquest town with a small Spanish population, the inhabitants of San Salvador were mainly indigenous Mesoamericans including Mexican warriors and their families who traveled with their Spanish allies during and after the initial military conquest and transplanted members of colonized Nahua-speaking Pipil groups from western and central El...
The Structure A-15 Maneuver: A Novel Application of Structure from Motion Mapping at Chan Chich, Belize (2015)
The Chan Chich Archaeological Project (CCAP) has been utilizing Structure from Motion (SfM) technology to document investigations at various scales ranging from individual artifacts to landscapes for the past two field seasons at Chan Chich, Belize. SfM is an imaging analysis algorithm that creates 3D models from a series of overlapping digital photographs, and the resulting data can be exported as a digital elevation model, an orthorectified image, or a 3D model. In 2013, the CCAP successfully...
A Study of the Materiality of Codex Tonindeye: Some Preliminary Results (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 2: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Codex Tonindeye, also known as the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, is one of the most striking examples of prehispanic Mixtec historiography and artistry. Brought from Mexico to Italy, it was preserved for centuries in the Dominican convent of San Marco, Florence, until the middle of the nineteenth century, when it was sold...
Study of the Neolithic Social Grouping: Examples from the New World (1958)
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.
A Study of the Role of Cannibalism in Aztec Culture (2015)
It is generally agreed upon that the Aztec practiced cannibalism, but scholars have proposed various hypotheses explaining what function this practice had in the Aztec culture. This study focuses on the nature and ritualistic function of Aztec cannibalism. The Aztec would only consume the flesh of outsiders, mostly war captives, as part of religious rituals which provided a foundation for their culture. A detailed examination of the ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence for cannibalism among...
Studying Past Human-Environment Interactions with High Precision AMS 14C at Penn State (2017)
The newly established PSU AMS Radiocarbon (14C) Facility provides high-precision measurements of 14C content in a wide range of carbon-bearing materials. Our primary mission is the study of human-environment interactions in the past and present with the goal of working with archaeologists in the context of inter-disciplinary environmental research. The facility operates a NEC 1.5 SDH 500kV Tandem Pelletron accelerator optimized for relatively small samples, requiring only 700µg of graphitized...
Style, Memory, and the Production of History: Aztec Black-on-Orange Pottery in Xaltocan, Mexico (2017)
This paper will explore shifting patterns in ceramic consumption and stylistic design during the Postclassic period (AD 900-1350) at the site of Xaltocan in the Basin of Mexico. Xaltocan is the only site in the northern Basin of Mexico associated with a large percentage of early Black-on-Orange pottery. This same pottery is rare at contemporaneous sites located a few kilometers away. Because Black-on-Orange ceramics were used by elites and commoners alike, and also cross-cut various ethnic and...
Subadult Human Sacrifices in Midnight Terror Cave (2016)
Children throughout Mesoamerica were preferred sacrificial victims, especially to water deities. Because caves were associated with rain, ethnohistoric sources mention the sacrifice of children in caves. The importance of children in sacrifice was documented early on by Edward Thompson’s dredging of the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza. More recently archaeological investigations of caves have recovered and identified the skeletal remains of children that have been interpreted as sacrificial...