Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)
2,276-2,300 (2,459 Records)
The recent proliferation of three-dimensional scanning devices and model generation techniques has made the use of 3D models in bioarchaeological research a reality. Despite the numerous applications of 3D modeling both in the field and in the lab, the existing body of research and published literature about constructing, analyzing, and sharing these models within archaeology is slim. The primary goal of this study is to test the accuracy of two of the most popular techniques for digital...
Three-Dimensional Scanning and Printing in Undergraduate Archaeology Education (2015)
Three-dimensional imaging is a quickly growing part of archaeological documentation, investigation, education, and public outreach. Cost and expertise barriers to using 3D software and equipment continue to drop. Nonetheless, many efforts in 3D archaeology are driven by graduate students or focused undergraduates who become part of dedicated 3D laboratories or projects. Since 2013, we have been working with a different approach of incorporating three-dimensional imaging and printing at the...
Through a Smoke Cloud Darkly: The Possible Social Significance of Candeleros in Terminal Classic Naco Valley Society (2015)
Candeleros, fired clay artifacts with one to over 20 chambers, are widely distributed across Terminal Classic (AD 800-1000) contexts in the Naco valley of northwestern Honduras. Though reported from other parts of Mesoamerica, little is known about the varied ways this distinctive artifact figured in tasks engaged in by people of diverse ranks and might have been used in negotiating interpersonal transactions. This presentation provides initial responses to these queries based on a functional...
Thrown to the Fringe: Challenging the Myth of Columbus (2016)
European imperialism, in league with the Vatican, retained the Church’s political support by accepting its moral imperative to Christianize everyone not in its communion. Thus Columbus was a Crusader, and European international law gave heathen lands to the first Christian nation claiming discovery––the Doctrine of Discovery. Two centuries later, the Earl of Shaftesbury’s employee John Locke wrote treatises justifying his employer’s landlord class enclosing common lands in Britain, extending to...
Tikal in Environmental Context: Peter Harrison and Ancient Maya Water Management and Subsistence (2015)
Through the lens of Tikal, Peter Harrison developed an interest in how the ancient Maya thrived in the seasonally arid central Maya Lowlands. Initially this interest stemmed from his investigations of Tikal’s Central Palace and its adjacent reservoir. However, soon his interest spread beyond the elite center to questions of basic subsistence and the potential use of wetlands (bajos) for intensive agriculture. Our work at Tikal, the Bajo de Santa Fe, and smaller bajos benefitted from some of...
Time and Space at Naachtun: The Chronological Sequence, Settlement, and Land Use Patterns. (2016)
Since 2011, a program of surveying and mapping together with a series of more than 80 test pits have been conducted during four field seasons around the monumental epicenter of Naachtun, over a large residential area covering approximately 175 ha. These programs resulted in an accurate map of constructed and empty spaces, and in a relatively complete sequence of the site's occupation, from the very onset of the Early Classic to the Terminal Classic. The first objective of these investigations is...
A Time before Color: Revisiting the Codex Style (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In “The Maya Scribe and His World”, Michael D. Coe recognized a “Maya artist of enormous distinction” when analyzing the hand of the painter of the codex-style drinking cup now known as the Metropolitan Vase. This presentation is a reexamination of individual hands in the codex style...
Timing the Development of Household Complexity at Cahal Pech, Belize (2016)
Understanding the settlement and growth of ancient communities into spatially, demographically, and socio-politically complex polities is one of several critical research issues in Maya archaeology. The major polity of Cahal Pech, located in the Belize River Valley, provides a unique case study for understanding the development of complexity because of its long occupational history, from the Early Preclassic (~1200-1000 cal BC) until the Terminal Classic Period Maya “collapse” (~cal AD 800-900)....
Tintal, a Late Preclassic Maya City in the Mirador Basin, Peten, Guatemala (2015)
Tintal is an ancient lowland Maya city of the Kan kingdom located 28 km southwest of El Mirador in the north central Peten, Guatemala. Preliminary data from fieldwork conducted by the Mirador Basin Project establish that Tintal was a major urban center contemporaneous with similar large centers within the Mirador Basin such as El Mirador and Nakbe. These and other cities of the Basin were linked by a system of wide elevated causeways during the Middle and Late Preclassic Periods (ca. 600 B.C.–...
Tizatl y tizatlalli: el uso de diatomea fósil en el engobe blanco de la cerámica Coyotlatelco en Santa Cruz Atizapán (2017)
La utilización de restos de diatomea fósil referida en las fuentes históricas como tizatl o tizatlalli, sin duda, fue una práctica cultural de larga historia en las poblaciones del valle de Toluca. Existe evidencia que nos sugiere la continuidad de una larga tradición cromática desde, por lo menos, hace aproximadamente 3500 años. Esta ponencia se centra fundamentalmente en torno al uso de engobe blanco en los materiales cerámicos Coyotlatelco, procedentes de varios sitios localizados en el...
Tlaloc Imagery in Western Belize and its Implications for Central Mexican and Lowland Maya Interaction (2016)
Recent archaeological investigations in western Belize have recovered evidence for the representation of Tlaloc imagery in the iconographic record of this sub-region of the Maya lowlands. In Central Mexican Civilizations, Tlaloc represented the important rain deity, equivalent, in many ways, to Cha’ac in the Maya area. In the case of western Belize, Tlaloc imagery appears to become increasingly popular at the end of the Classic period, and is depicted on a variety of mediums, including stucco...
TMP-1-2-2: Electronic Files from the Teotihuacan Mapping Project (2012)
This is an incomplete work in progress, written by Cowgill at various times in 2003 and 2004, with minor edits since then. It is a volume in the Urbanization at Teotihuacan series, edited by Rene Millon. This volume aggregates information about the Teotihuacan Mapping Project, including background, methods, and the types and locations of relevant files. It is complementary to a set of Access files recording tract-by-tract data.
To Burn like the Sun: Rituals of Fire and Death among the Classic Maya (2015)
The dichotomies of hot and cold, light and darkness were essential to Classic Maya cosmology. The celestial and underworld journey of solar deities offered a fundamental mythic charter, and fire was the ultimate transformative force, providing a bridge between earthly and otherworldly realms. Such ideology is especially patent in rites of death, sacrifice, and veneration. Monuments from western kingdoms describe censing rituals performed months, years, and even decades after the death of...
To move mountains: cycles of indigenous mobility and resettlement in highland Mexico (2016)
The quaint and seemingly static Oaxacan Chontal villages, tucked away in the highlands of southern Mexico, conceal behind a long history of population movements and resettlement. For the last five centuries and more, entire communities migrated and changed places as an adaptive response to intricate ecological, economic, political, and social factors. While the dispersed settlement pattern largely ‘fused’ together in the 16th century colonial congregations, many other communities went through a...
To the Mountain: Heritage preservation through archaeological literacy in San Jose Succotz, Belize. (2017)
Maya archaeology has seen a steady shift to the integration of community heritage interest and ownership in the design, execution and outcomes of research and preservation efforts. This poster describes a heritage outreach project focused on archaeology literacy development among grade school children in the community of San Jose Succotz, Belize, adjacent to the Xunantunich archaeological reserve. We authored a fully illustrated book entitled To the Mountain (2016) for the Succotz community,...
A Toast to the Gods and Ancestors: The Role of Beverages in Classic Maya Elite Cave Ritual in West Central Belize (2017)
For the past two decades, considerable archaeological attention in the Maya area has been paid to ritual cave practices and absorbed residue analysis of pottery, yet these two areas of research have not intersected. In this paper, we discuss the results of the kinds of liquid residues identified in monochrome and unslipped pottery vessels from caves around the site of Pacbitun in west central Belize, where extensive research in Classic Maya elite behavior has taken place. While we know the elite...
Tomography and Photography Studies of Funerary Urns from South Central Michoacán México (2018)
This poster presents the results of the application of computational methods to classified archaeological deposits contained within cinerary urns. The method uses morphological properties and textural parameters to create quantitative descriptors that can be related to archaeological interpretations of the objects. The Pre-Columbian cinerary urns were discovered in the municipality of Huetamo, Michoacan, Mexico. The method uses information obtained from a Computed Tomography scan of each urn...
Toward a Comparative Approach: Postclassic (AD 900-1521) Ceramics from the Pátzcuaro and Zacapu Basins, Michoacán, Mexico (2015)
Research on the Purépecha Empire (AD 1350-1521) in western Mexico has traditionally focused on elite activities after imperial formation. Consequently, there is limited information about the mechanisms for imperial development and changes in internal social, political, and economic structures that must have occurred in pre-imperial contexts. Study of artifact production is particularly important for understanding political reorganization strategies because producers and consumers may have been...
Towards a Wave-of-Advance Model for Predicting the Spread of Prismatic Blade Technology in Mesoamerica (2018)
The diffusion and spread of material culture is a cornerstone of archaeological research, particularly understanding the variables which dictate the structure of dispersal. Recent evolutionary approaches have sought to address technological spread through mathematical modeling. One model, the reaction-diffusion model, suggests diffusion occurs at the population scale as a wave-of-dispersal. While previous researchers demonstrated the efficacy of this approach regarding the peopling of a...
Tracing mortuary trends at Cahal Pech using Stable Isotope data (2016)
Recent research focusing on environmental change in the Belize River Valley during the Classic period provides clear evidence for deteriorating conditions during the Late Classic period. These findings help explain shifts in socio-political and religious systems, as well as fluctuations in population distributions of the Late Classic and Terminal Classic Maya. Some archaeological research suggests complete abandonment of ceremonial sites occupied by the Maya elite. Mortuary practices can be used...
Tracing Pathways of Power, Identity, and Landscape at Río Amarillo, Copan Valley, Honduras (2017)
During the Late Classic period, the ancient community of Río Amarillo was actively engaged in the politics of the city of Copan, whether willingly or not. Some have suggested that the fertile bajos of the Río Amarillo East Pocket may have produced food for the city to its west, ameliorating shortages that could have arisen due to its rising population. Archaeological research conducted by the Proyecto Arqueológico Río Amarillo, Copan (PARAC) since 2011 has recovered information regarding both...
Tracing the Emergence of Maya Lordship at Secondary Centers of the Copan Polity: An Examination of Residential Differentiation and Access at Centers in the Cucuyagua and El Paraiso Valleys (2017)
In this paper we contend that Copan fundamentally transformed the political structures and social institutions of centers in outlying areas as it expanded and integrated these regions. Evidence from our areas of study, the Cucuyagua and El Paraiso valleys, suggest that these regions had long lived autocthonous populations prior to Copan’s expansion into these regions in the Late Classic period. Using evidence from other non-Maya sites in Western and Central Honduras we contend that while varied...
Tracing the Footsteps of the Mapa Tradition in the Central Mexican Highlands (2015)
More than four decades ago H.B. Nicholson compared the so-called Palace Stone from Xochicalco to a page in a Late Postclassic or Early Colonial manuscript. Showing numerous calendrical dates and toponymic signs connected by a path marked by footprints the monument readily recalls the mapa tradition that is so well documented in the central Mexican highlands at the time of the Spanish conquest. In this paper we explore the Epiclassic evidence of this tradition, discussing not only central...
Tracking Luxury Craft Production across Mayapán's Physical and Social Landscapes (2015)
Considering luxury production activities in Mayapán's urban landscape reveals new data regarding a complex and diverse economic system. We explore the evidence for luxury production activities at households attached to elite palaces at this Postclassic Maya capital city. Surplus crafting at Mayapán varied according to scale, intensity, and the value of surplus items. Crafting of valuables such as effigy censers, figurines, copper objects, and stucco sculptures, was more closely supervised (or...
Tradición regional e impacto cultural foráneo: Los logros y tareas a través de las tres temporadas de campo por el Proyecto Arqueológico Estero Rabón (2016)
El sitio arqueológico de Estero Rabón, conocido como un centro secundario de la primera capital olmeca San Lorenzo, se encuentra a unos 12 km hacia el oeste de dicha capital. Según los estudios realizados en esta región y el sitio mismo, el sitio tuvo muy larga ocupación humana a partir de pre olmeca hasta el Clásico Tardío/Terminal llamado la fase Villa Alta. Sin embargo, no existió un proyecto sistemático a través de la excavación arqueológica. Por ello, no habíamos sabido los detalles del...