Mesoamerica (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Amy Thompson. Adrian Chase.

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Property Regimes" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The role that governance and property regimes play in the everyday life of citizens is something we grapple with, actively or passively, every day. In the archaeological record, these topics often prove challenging to evaluate without written records. However, using robust survey data from settlements and civic-ceremonial/administrative architecture...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alan Sandstrom.

Pilgrimage is a "dynamic concrete isolate" found throughout the world at all levels of socio-cultural integration. Pilgrimage involves a journey to a significant geographic location and a return to the place of origin. Pilgrimage shades into tourism and a pilgrim's destination may range from the site of a miraculous appearance of a deity to Graceland. In Mesoamerica, pilgrimage has become a major focus of archaeological research. Sites with ritual associations and little evidence of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heather McKillop.

A natural harbor, strategic location in the mouth of a navigable river and opposite the Paynes Creek salt works, Wild Cane Cay developed from a fishing village in the Early Classic (A.D. 300-600) to a major trading port from the Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) through the Postclassic (A.D. 900-1500). As skilled mariners, the Wild Cane Cay Maya were familiar with the shoals, storms, and other hazards of the sea, as well as the endless opportunities for travel on the sea. During the Classic period,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nadia Johnson.

In 1570, 50 years after the conquest of Mexico, King Philip II of Spain sent one of his court physicians, Francisco Hernández de Toledo, to the new colony. The goal of this venture was to compile a detailed account of the natural history of New Spain, emphasizing indigenous medicine and the uses of local plant, animal, and mineral resources. The result of his efforts was a series of volumes, describing in detail the virtues of local Mexican resources, and his own observations of Mexico. This...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Erin Sears.

As both space and material are used to create interpretations or infer ancient ritual meanings concerning the Late Classic Maya, the consideration of caves and ceramic figurines provide interesting comparators as they evoke restrictions of intent and imagery within a regional setting. Opportunistic sampling of figurines from cave contexts for compositional analysis has resulted in chemically-based patterns from which one can glimpse directional patterns of movement from resource area to recovery...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joel Gunn. Lynda Florey Folan.

This is an abstract from the "A Session in Memory of William J. Folan: Cities, Settlement, and Climate" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We recall the moment that William J. Folan was struck by the Climate Fascination. In 1978 he had a visiting professorship at the University of Texas at San Antonio and we were sharing an office. He suggested that JDG should do an article on Maya Lowlands climate change. JDG responded that Willie was the expert who...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Allan Cobb. Jeremy Coltman.

Among the hundreds of caves I have observed in the Maya area a number stand out in possessing relatively large tunnel systems with restrictions near the entrances. When air is driven from the caves due to atmospheric pressure, the restrictions create a fast moving flow of air that is quite noticeable around the entrance to the cave. Ethnographic evidence suggests that modern Maya are quite aware of such air movements. Because rain was closely associated with caves among the ancient Maya and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maxine Oland. Debra Walker.

Chetumal Bay had political and economic importance for local Maya populations for more than 2000 years. When the Spaniards entered the region in the 16th century, they settled near its political capital and attempted to incorporate it into a larger colonial world system, only to be met with wide-scale resistance. This paper examines the shifting dynamics of the Chetumal Bay territory, from the Preclassic through Postclassic-Colonial Periods, with perspectives drawn from Cerros and Progresso...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Juliette Testard.

Recent strontium analyses have revealed that many women buried in the Feathered Serpent Pyramid in Teotihuacan changed their environment at least two times during their lifetime. This suggests that their role, especially in cultural interactions, was particularly important, an hypothesis already presented by Gillespie and Joyce (1997) for maya societies. An iconographic study of mural painting, figurines and sculptures from Cacaxtla-Xochitecatl and Xochicalco, two epiclassic cities well known...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shankari Patel.

This paper queries models of Mesoamerican fertility that define women’s social roles in terms of dependency, and interrogates narratives that link gender relations to nature where they are beyond critique. The problem with the category women is that it is often thought of as an ahistorical and eternal facet of biology hidden within an implicit model of human nature. Biology becomes a metaphor for social relations and wifehood or motherhood is then characterized as a relation of dependency...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Margarita Mancilla Medina. Laura Angélica Ortíz Tenorio. Mirsa Alejandra Islas Orozco.

The excavation of the Great Temple, one of the most important precincts in Mexica society, began more than thirty years ago. Since then, the examination of thousands of artifacts and organic materials has greatly increased our knowledge about Mexica cosmovision. During its seventh field season, the Templo Mayor Project has excavated thirty-six offerings. The flooded context of these oblatory deposits enabled the conservation of various organic materials that commonly degrade with the passage of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Carlos Lazcano Arce. Marianne Sallum.

During the Epiclassic Period (650-950 CE) was the peak of Xochitecatl-Cacaxtla. It became the most important center in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley. There were numerous small groups who vied for a place in the landscape after the fall of Teotihuacan in the central highlands. There was a clear hierarchical division, as the society was formed by the elite, priests, and groups of peasants. The artisans were different specialists whose work allowed for the biological and social reproduction of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rodrigo Solinis-Casparius. Anna S. Cohen. Florencia Pezzutti. Christopher T. Fisher.

Ejido communities became common after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) as a way of dividing land and leadership among an equal number of individuals. The Ejido of Fontezuelas in the eastern Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, controls the rugged landform known as the Classic through Postclassic period (AD 200-1521) site of Angamuco. Since 2009, the Legacies of Resilience Project has negotiated and worked with Fontezuelas community members. Here we discuss some of the obstacles that we encountered...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bernadette Cap.

Marketplace exchange among the Classic Maya is frequently inferred from the degree of homogeneity in consumption practices among households of differing statuses. The actual presence of marketplaces among the Classic Maya has been a point of debate, but recent empirically based investigations at a few Lowland sites have provided evidence for their existence. The Late Classic marketplace located in the East Plaza of Buenavista del Cayo, Belize is such an example. Examination of marketplace...

GEOSPATIAL Karen Holberg.

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...

GEOSPATIAL Karen Holberg.

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...

GEOSPATIAL Karen Holberg.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Josalyn Ferguson.

Despite the fact that images of Maya scribes in Classic period art are not uncommon, the identification of scribes and their households within the archaeological record remains elusive. The association of several utensils typically correlated with Maya scribal toolkits, and a prominent house mound at the Terminal Classic Maya community of Strath Bogue, has prompted the identification of this structure as a scribal household. This identification is of particular significance given that the site...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Linda R. Manzanilla.

In corporate societies such as Teotihuacan, it is not easy to detect the places where the ruling elite dwelt, made decisions, managed goods and labor, or participated in cult activities. Teotihuacan is very different from the Maya urban sites: no royal tomb has been found, rulers are not depicted or easily recognized. The corporate organization may have permeated the ruling elite, where a possible council of lords may have headed the Teotihuacan state. Xalla, with a surface of ca. 50,000 m2, is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elihud Castillo Leal.

This is an abstract from the "Aproximaciones arqueológicas y paleontológicas en Santa Lucía, México" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Se presentarán los resultados preliminares del análisis cerámico, lítico y osteológico de los materiales obtenidos durante las excavaciones en los sitios registrados en la interconexión de la construcción del nuevo Aeropuerto Felipe Angeles en el municipio de Nextlalpan en la localidad de Xaltocan, que es un...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Theresa Heindel.

Research on ancient Maya agriculture has historically been focused on seed crop cultivation, but the recent discovery of a Classic period manioc field near the site of Ceren, El Salvador has shed new light on the possibility of intensive root crop cultivation by the ancient Maya. Another root crop, however, Xanthosoma violaceum (colloquially known as "malanga"), was also encountered in a household garden. Through the use of multiple lines of evidence, I have compiled a summation of malanga’s...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Oswaldo Chinchilla.

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. An enduring contribution of “The Maya Scribe and His World” was Michael Coe’s call for attention to the Popol Wuj as a source for the interpretation of ancient Maya deities. Developed in subsequent works, this approach has yielded important insights on ancient Maya art and religion, and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeremias Pink. Ronald K. Faulseit. Erica Ausel.

Imagery related to the deity Xipe Totec is well-recognized in Late Classic Zapotec iconography, most notably on a few large ceramic figures known as "Xipe Statues." Unfortunately, the majority of these objects lack detailed contextual information, limiting our ability to fully understand their ritual or ceremonial significance. Our excavation of an elite residential complex has yielded numerous Xipe statue fragments, as well as painted and incised human bones, including two drilled mandibles...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Diane Slocum. Doug Tilden. Jaime Awe.

Recent excavation of Structure A9 at the site of Xunantunich, Belize, confirmed that the mound represents the remains of a medium-size temple dating to the Late Classic period. Sub-surface excavations along the central axis of the mound revealed a large, vaulted chamber containing the remains of an elite individual. Two hieroglyphic panels flanking the building’s front staircase identify a link between Xunantunich and three other Classic Maya polities: Caracol, Naranjo, and Calakmul. Exploration...

DOCUMENT Citation Only María Antonia Aguilar Pérez.

El municipio veracruzano de Playa Vicente es fundado oficialmente en 1873 a partir de un caserío que se desarrolló alrededor de una playa formada a orillas del río Tesechoacán, el asentamiento es producto de la ruta que seguían los comerciantes de madera que bajaban de la sierra de Oaxaca hacía las costas veracruzanas. Sin embargo antes de que se establecieran allí los nuevos lugareños el área estuvo habitada tiempo atrás, pero de aquellos pobladores poco se ha sabido. En la última década se han...