Peten (State / Territory) (Geographic Keyword)
351-375 (1,157 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Questioning the Fundamentals of Plant and Animal Domestication" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is the only native vertebrate animal domesticated in North America. As such, the history, timing and process of its domestication is critical to our understanding of past human-animal relationships in the ancient Americas. This paper summarizes recent advancements in reconstructing the...
Environmental History of the Petén Campechano (2023)
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. Paleoenvironmental inferences are based on pollen and geochemical data from sediment cores collected in Lakes Silvituc and Uxul, and Oxpemul Reservoir, near three archaeological sites that supported agricultural activity between ca. 900 BC and AD 750, under the control of the Kaan Dynasty. These sites show patterns...
Environmental Justice and the Water Temple at Cara Blanca, Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Unsettling Infrastructure: Theorizing Infrastructure and Bio-Political Ecologies in a More-Than-Human World" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Nestled between stark white limestone cliffs and freshly burned agricultural fields, the Cara Blanca, Belize, water temple complex sits teetering on the edge of a 60+ m deep cenote. The Ancestral Maya built the structures so as to integrate the structure and the landscape—with...
Environmental Legacy of Precolumbian Maya Mercury: Using the Present to Understand the Past (2023)
This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Mexico and Central American region has a history of mercury use that began at least two millennia before European colonization in the sixteenth century. Archaeologists have reported deposits of cinnabar (HgS) and other mercury materials at Classic period (ca. 250–900 CE) Maya settlements across the region;...
Epigraphy and History at La Corona (2018)
The ancient Maya ruins of La Corona (ancient Saknikte') has an unusually large textual and historical record. The site's inscriptions, despite their highly fragmented and incomplete state, present epigraphers and archaeologists with a detailed account of a royal family that ruled there at least from the 6th to 8th centuries. Excavations in the last several years have revealed many more inscribed sculptures. This paper will focus on the distinctive characteristics of La Corona as a literate...
Epigraphy and the Archaeology of Settlement in the Dolores Region, Peten, Guatemala (2019)
This is an abstract from the "At the Interface the Use of Archaeology and Texts in Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper summarizes recent research into the timing, distribution, and causes of ancient Maya settlement in the area of Dolores, Peten, Guatemala, in the western Maya Mountains. Integrating evidence from hieroglyphic inscriptions, ceramic studies, and GIS modeling of least-cost pathways and viewsheds, I propose an...
Erasing Borders: Integrating the Settlement Hierarchies of Central Belize and the Petén, Guatemala (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Making and Breaking Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands: Alliance and Conflict across the Guatemala–Belize Border" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the last 18 years, the Department of Conservation and Rescue of Prehispanic Archaeological Sites (DECORSIAP) in Guatemala has carried out extensive systematic surveys of the northeast region of Petén, Guatemala in order to better understand the internal and external...
Espacios subterráneos en Yaxchilán: Las cuevas como elementos modeladores del paisaje constructivo (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Investigations in Chiapas, Mexico" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A lo largo de tres temporadas de campo el “Proyecto Investigación Arqueológica en Yaxchilán y su entorno. Área del Meandro en el Usumacinta”, se ha centrado en realizar el reconocimiento de superficie de toda el meandro sobre la que se asienta Yaxchilán. Como parte de este proyecto, se detectaron alrededor de 20 pequeñas cuevas con...
The Esperanza to Middle Marcala Phase Subsistence Practices at El Gigante Rockshelter (11,000–7400 cal B.P.) (2018)
The earliest human occupation of the El Gigante Rockshelter in the highlands of western Honduras dates to the Early Esperanza phase at 11,010 cal B.P. This paper examines the perishable and imperishable remains from the Early Esperanza through Middle Marcala phase occupation from 11,010-7,430 cal B.P. and what they inform about human adaptation and forager subsistence practices in the highlands during this early period of Honduran prehistory.
An Ethno-ecological View of the Evolution of "Solares": A Yucatan Maya Houselot Case Study (2018)
Using a household ecology model, this longitudinal comparison of the flora and fauna of village yards attempts to show how and why solares and their contents have evolved over the last two and one-half decades. Particular emphasis is placed on showing how such changes might be detected in and impact current and future archaeological explorations of Maya farming communities. Changes in water usage, economic activities, family structure and social organization, religious beliefs, evolving house...
Ethnoarchaeology of Water Resources in a Landscape without Rivers: Using Limestone Solution Cavities to Study Settlement and Subsistence Activities in a Yucatec Maya Community, Mexico (2018)
Ethnoarchaeological investigations in the Yucatec Maya community of Xculoc recently included inventorying the location and uses of a range of small-large water sources. This karst landscape has no surface rivers, ponds, or lakes. Currently, the community uses a deep well at the former hacienda in this location. However, at least 60 years ago most families that coalesced into this village were distributed in relation to smaller reliable water sources near the current community location. Field...
Evaluating Prehistoric Migration in Pacific Coastal Nicaragua through the Analysis of Strontium Isotope Ratios (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Strontium isotopes are increasingly used to infer migration amongst ancient populations. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio in tooth enamel is primarily influenced by the underlying geology of the region where an individual resided during tooth formation in childhood or adolescence. Older geological formations tend to present a higher 87Sr/86Sr ratio, while lower ratios...
Evaluating the Food Values of Alternative Crops and Implications for Drought Effects on the Ancient Maya (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Far from being limited to maize, beans, and squash, the ethnographic Maya are known to make use of 497 species of food plants indigenous to the Maya Lowlands. This study presents initial results of determining “food values” based on nutritional content for these plant species, and the methods used to determine the values. The results have significant...
Everyday Life During the Late Terminal Classic in the Cochuah Region (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following a peak in construction activity during the Terminal Classic, most of the 105 sites documented in the Cochuah Region in the central Yucatan Peninsula were abandoned with only a fraction boasting minor Postclassic activity in the form of small shrines and temples. However, at a number of settlements, a much-reduced population continued during a newly...
Evidence for Early Sedentary Occupation in the Yaxnohcah Region, Campeche, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Early settlement at Yaxnohcah appears to have been widespread throughout a landscape covering over 40km2. In this paper, we specifically discuss the distribution of this settlement in the period from 900-700 BCE and contrast it to the distribution from 700-300 BCE. Initial analyses suggest that the spatial range of the settlement contracted in the latter...
Evidence of Maya Metalworking from Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Investigations in Chiapas, Mexico" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Evidence of precolumbian Maya metallurgy is increasingly coming to light with numerous finds occurring in the Guatemalan highlands and the northern part of the Yucatan peninsula. In this paper, we present new evidence of Maya metallurgy from the Mensabak region of Chiapas, Mexico, that dates to the Late Postclassic / early Spanish...
Evidencias arqueológicas del “ika” tojolabal, una tradición ancestral (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La ceremonia del temascal, el baño ritual prehispánico, está presente desde épocas remotas en muchos sitios arqueológicos de Mesoamérica hasta la actualidad. Para la etnia tojolabal es de gran importancia terapéutica relacionada con la salud del grupo familiar que habita en la casa, en especial la...
Examining Early Maya Public Architecture at Gallon Jug, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent trends in archaeological research in the Maya lowlands focus on developing understandings of the nature of the entangled relationships between urban centers and peripheral populations. The Preclassic origins and development of centralized political authority at the urban center of Chan Chich in northwestern Belize is currently understudied in relation...
Examining Environment, Ecology and Patterns of Maya Culture at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2018)
Our study examines the interplay of the environment, topography, conflict, and social change. Recent research stresses the role of environmental and ecological fluctuations in the Classic Maya collapse (AD 700-1000). Scholars have linked drought cycles and changing climate to increased warfare and culture change at the end of the Classic Period (AD 200-900). However, numerous studies highlight that not all places in the Maya area collapsed, some communities grew and continued to be places of...
Examining Everyday Lives: Non-Elite Maya Households and the Terminal Classic Collapse (2018)
In this paper I will discuss recent archaeological investigations at the Floodplain North settlement cluster, located within the Rancho San Lorenzo Survey Area in Belize’s Mopan River valley. My research investigates the adaptive responses of non-elite Maya to Terminal Classic (AD 780-900) socioeconomic and political transformations. Preliminary analysis indicates occupation continued at Floodplain North after the Terminal Classic collapse and the abandonment of nearby settlements. Materials...
Examining Flaked Stone from Caracol, Belize, at the Urban Scale (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Urban Question: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Investigating the Ancient Mesoamerican City" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Household and city scales are typical units of archaeological analysis at Maya sites. More recent models of urban space include intermediate scales referred to as “neighborhoods” that encompass clusters of households and “districts” that effectively integrate neighborhoods. Using flaked stone...
Examining Intermediate Elite Relationships with Apical Elite Polity Rulers through Ritualization, Ancestor Veneration and District-Scale Identity Formation at the Late Classic Maya Polity of Lower Dover, Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditionally anthropologists envisioned ritual as playing a functional role in the formation and ongoing cohesion of ancient complex societies. More recent perspectives consider ritual to represent a powerful tool of resistance, and therefore pivotal not just to the integration, but also the disintegration of polities. Situations in which a higher order...
Examining Production in Maya Households: A Case from the Settlement Zone of Dos Hombres (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Economic integration of households outside of site cores has often been under theorized in Maya scholarship. In this paper I explore the evidence of craft production and spatial relationships in several of these residential groups as well as the implications for connections with social, political, and economic institutions. These groups make decisions...
Examining the Bread-Basket Model: Puuc Intra and Inter-Site Diversity in Plant Foods (2018)
The Puuc mountains in the northwestern Maya lowlands have proven themselves to be double-faced in regard to pre-Columbian human settlement. On one side, the valleys exhibit the region's most fertile soils. On the other hand, rainfall is scarce and access to the underground water table is comparatively difficult. Nonetheless, authors such as Smyth (1991) have long suggested that the Puuc represented some of the bread-basket for the wider northwestern lowlands. As part of a broader study, in this...
Examining the Institutionalization and Transformation of Maya Kingship at Actuncan, Belize using Collective Action Theory (2018)
Here, I summarize the major research questions and results from the Actuncan Archaeological Project, which has been on-going since 2001. The project was initially designed to examine the ways Preclassic Maya leaders institutionalized political authority from the perspective of household archaeology, but has expanded to include excavation of civic architecture and remote sensing in open spaces. My research is informed by collective action theory, and the degree to which leaders engaged in...