Central America and Northern South America (Geographic Keyword)
76-100 (214 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences 2024" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At the site of Selin Farm (AD 300–1000) in northeastern Honduras, recent research revealed repeated episodes of large-scale feasting occurring over a period of nearly a thousand years leading up to major shifts in local social and political organization (Goodwin 2019; Reeder-Myers et al. 2021). Shell midden mounds at the site contain large...
Feathery Serpents of the Greater Nicoya Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Polychrome pottery from the Greater Nicoya region of Central America prominently features ‘feathery serpents’ that have been associated with the Mixteca-Puebla tradition of greater Mesoamerica. A closer look at the variety of ‘feathery serpents’ has discriminated between more Borgia-like images...
Female Figurines of the Greater Nicoya Region 500 BCE – 1250 CE (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Mesoamerican Figurines in Context. New Insights on Tridimensional Representations from Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Female figurines of the Greater Nicoya region feature a 2000-year history of thematic continuity. During the Formative and Classic periods (locally Tempisque and Bagaces periods), figurines were often red-slipped, nude females in a seated, kneeling or standing position with hands on hips;...
Fluid Stone: Geological Materials in Process (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Problem of the Monument: Widening Perspectives on Monumentality in the Archaeology of the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geological materials that constitute features in archaeological sites in Central America range from unfired clay and unmodified cobbles, to cut stone, and plasters produced by heating limestone. What these materials have in common is that from an archaeological...
Following in El Maestro’s Footsteps: Historical Ecology and Panamanian Capacity Building in Darién (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Unraveling the Mysteries of the Isthmo-Colombian Area’s Past: A Symposium in Honor of Archaeologist Richard Cooke and His Contributions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2012, Richard Cooke described the study of so-called Gran Darién as one of the most urgent concerns in Panamanian archaeology. Years later, that mandate resonated with us, and in 2019 we joined efforts beginning to fill in one of the greatest gaps in...
The Forest Foods of Ancient Arenal, Costa Rica (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond Maize and Cacao: Reflections on Visual and Textual Representation and Archaeological Evidence of Other Plants in Precolumbian Mesoamerica" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paleoethnobotanical investigations at two different domestic structures in Arenal, Costa Rica, reveal the plant resources utilized by past peoples living in this volcanically active setting from 1500 BCE to 600 CE. Over 100 different genera of...
Formation and Context of Sitio Chivacabe, Western Highland Guatemala (2018)
Located in the Highlands of western Guatemala, Chivacabe is a Pleistocene-age bone bed and Archaic-age archaeological site. In 2009 the site was subjected to intensive geoarchaeological investigation with the goals of identifying the relationship between the faunal and archaeological remains through developing an understanding of their context. Three allostratigraphic units were identified: The oldest unit, which contains the bone bed, consists of colluvially reworked tephra bracketed by...
Fragmented Records: Fuego-Patagonian Hunter-gatherers and Archaeological Change (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology on the Edge(s): Transitions, Boundaries, Changes, and Causes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. One common assumption in the interpretation of Fuego-Patagonian archaeological long stratigraphic sequences is that they represent occupational continuity. Several archaeological markers, including chronological and stratigraphic gaps, as well as recent molecular results erode that assumption, inviting us to...
Framing Intent, Power, and Agency in Eastern Honduras (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Advances and New Perspectives in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Throughout their history, the polities in eastern Honduras existed along a frontier, interacting with larger, powerful groups from a different cultural tradition to the west and with more closely related people to the south. During the period between 500 and 1200 CE, eastern Honduran groups adopted several significant elements...
From Coast to Coast: Recent Research in Southern Caribbean and Osa Peninsula, Greater Chiriquí Region (2018)
I present new data of investigations conducted in two almost unexplored zones on both coasts (Pacific and Caribbean) of the Greater Chiriquí Region. An exploratory survey, and test pit excavations of selected sites in the southern coast of Caribbean Costa Rica, allowed recording materials similar to those found on the Pacific coast. This reaffirms the proposed extension of related groups on both sides of the Talamanca mountain range. I provide comments about the relationships maintained between...
From the Canopy to the Caye: Two of Britain's Colonial Ventures in Nineteenth-Century Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "After Cortés: Archaeological Legacies of the European Invasion in Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the nineteenth century, Latin America was a hotbed of trade and commerce driven principally by extractive industries such as agriculture and hardwood collection. Such ventures required large injections of capital into the creation and maintenance of productive landscapes as well as for hiring, housing,...
Gender Divisions in Eating and Working: A Bioarchaeological Analysis of an Ancient Muisca Community (Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia, 1000–1400AD) (2018)
The Muisca inhabited a large territory in Northern South America (within present-day Colombia) and are often presented as a "classic chiefdom society." The roots of these interpretations can be traced back to European historical documents discussing Muisca socio-political life, which emphasized the role of social status and hierarchy within Muisca culture. The Muisca in particular have been held captive by the recordings of historical authors, and social structures observed through a European...
The Greater Chiriquí Fringes: A Perspective from the Coiba National Park Islands on the Pacific Coast of Panama (2018)
The islands of the Coiba National Park (CNP) are located on the continental platform of Panama and the southeastern fringes of the Greater Chiriquí cultural region. During the period of the earliest human migrations to the isthmus (ca. 13,000 - 10,000 a.P.) these islands were connected to the mainland, although the current state of research cannot provide evidence of being inhabited earlier than ca. 1800 B.P. Multidisciplinary research aimed to study the long-term impacts of human on the insular...
Greater Nicoya Metates and the Art Market: A Case Study (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A distinctive tradition of intricately sculpted metates—commonly known as grinding stones—flourished along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica circa 300-900 CE. The Greater Nicoya burials that contain carved metates often include grave goods made of precious materials such as jade and gold. As a result, these sites have been subject to looting since...
Hinterland Domestic Economies: A Summary of Recent Investigations at the San Lorenzo Settlement Cluster (2018)
This paper summarizes recent archaeological investigations at the San Lorenzo settlement cluster in the Mopan River Valley of Western Belize. Current research at this ancient hinterland settlement is concerned with better understanding household economic organization and integration during the Late and Terminal Classic (A.D. 670-890) occupations of this site. Households are fundamental units of economic organization in both past and present societies. The examination of ancient household...
Holocene Human Adaptations on the Pacific Coast of Central America (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Holocene human adaptations to the Pacific coast of southern Mesoamerica and Central America are documented at a number of locations from southern Mexico to Panama. Evidence comes from Archaic-Period shell mounds, Early Formative sites at the edge of dry land behind the mangrove...
How Advances in Archaeobotany Benefit Us All: Perspectives from Zooarchaeology, Bioarchaeology, and Isotope Research (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Symposium in Honor of Dolores Piperno" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The origin of agriculture in the American tropics drastically altered human societies and their environmental settings. Through the domestication of various plants for subsistence, medicine, and technological purposes, human populations grew and expanded at an unprecedented rate across the landscape from the Middle Holocene onward, spreading...
How Unusual Is the Trajectory of Precolumbian Social Change in San Ramón, Costa Rica among the Trajectories of Chiefdom Development? A Comparison Exercise (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Centralizing Central America: New Evidence, Fresh Perspectives, and Working on New Paradigms" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent literature on comparative archaeology has pointed out the need for systematic comparisons of trajectories of social change that use primary quantitative data and standardized variables. This type of comparison has the potential to discover and explore the diversity and complexity in the...
Identification of Mitochondrial Haplogroups in Native Mexican and Mestizo Populations (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Currently in Mexico there are around 68 ethnic groups, grouped into 11 linguistic families, representing 15% of the Mexican population. The mitogenome (mtDNA) has allowed us to make inferences about the history of and relationships between these populations. However, the evaluation of the mitochondrial genetic structure in the Mexican population has...
The Imbalanced Archaeology of Honduras: Challenges and Potentials (2018)
This paper presents a brief overview over past and current trends in non-Maya archaeology of Honduras. From the beginnings of archaeological investigations in Honduras, there has been a strong research focus on the Maya city of Copan in the extreme west of the country. But already in early years, pioneers like William D. Strong, Doris Stone and Claude Baudez made valuable contributions, in order to reveal the hidden history of central Honduras, the Atlantic and the Pacific coast. The lack of...
Impermanent Architecture, Monumentality, and Landscape Transformation in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Problem of the Monument: Widening Perspectives on Monumentality in the Archaeology of the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From AD 100 to AD 1600, the northern and southern faces of of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta were permanently transformed by preHispanic societies who built hundreds of stone and rammed earth towns throughout an area encompassing over 7,000 square kilometers. Despite the...
In the Third Degree: Modeling and Photogrammetry at the Ancient Maya Site of Pacbitun, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological site of Pacbitun is located in west central Belize and has a long history of occupation at the site. Starting in the Middle Preclassic (600 – 400 BC) and continuing until AD 800-900. Recent student research projects have led to three differing uses of photogrammetry. First has been for public education and outreach, with students converting...
The Indigenous Worldview of Water in the Isthmus of Panama (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Unraveling the Mysteries of the Isthmo-Colombian Area’s Past: A Symposium in Honor of Archaeologist Richard Cooke and His Contributions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The rivers are natural limits to many cultures between the knowing and unknowing worlds. Also, they were the border between different territories and a fundamental element in establishing a settlement in a place or not. The names of the rivers are...
Internal Networks and the Materiality of Imported Gold in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia (AD 600–1600) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Materials in Movement in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Muisca of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia are known for making extensive use of imported gold to manufacture both votive metalwork and body ornamentation over a millennium. To better understand the materiality of this imported raw material, we present new computational models of the compositional datasets pertaining to Muisca...
An Interpretative Framework and Description of Ritualized Obsidian from Caracol, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ceremonial Lithics of Mesoamerica: New Understandings of Technology, Distribution, and Symbolism of Eccentrics and Ritual Caches in the Maya World and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceremonial life at Caracol, Belize can be assessed through a technological and contextual analysis of ritualized obsidian objects. These items are typically termed "obsidian eccentrics", although "ritualized obsidian" more...