Mesoamerica: Maya lowlands (Geographic Keyword)
1-25 (1,004 Records)
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. In the late-nineteenth century, Maya refugees fleeing the violence of the Caste War of Yucatan (1847-1901) briefly reoccupied the ancient Maya ruins of Tikal. Unlike the numerous Yucatec refugee communities established to the east in British Honduras, those who settled at Tikal combined with Lacandon Maya, and...
3D Models of Small Artifacts: A Visual Workflow of the Structure-from-Motion Photography of Pottery Sherds and Vessels (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation consists of video demonstrations with live commentary in which the author describes how to create 3D models of small ceramic artifacts using structure-from-motion photography (photogrammetry). In particular, the focus will be on troubleshooting common issues that arise during model generation of sherds and fragmentary and complete...
3D Visualization of Cultural and Archaeological Features in the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The development of digital technologies and the use of advanced photogrammetry programs for modeling archaeological excavations and sites have opened new possibilities for spatial analysis in archaeology and the reconstruction of archaeological contexts. Among its main objectives, the Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Archaeology Project investigates the...
A 5,000-Year History of Landscape Evolution in the Rio Blanco Valley of Uxbenká, Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaic people and Classic Period Maya played important roles in shaping their environments. Through early deforestation and later agricultural erosion humans have modified the world they lived in. This study aims to show the role the Maya had in the environmental change in their region. We report results of analysis of a 5,500-year-long profiles soil from...
86Sr/87Sr Evidence for the Role of Animals in Ritual Economies among the Ancient Maya in the Belize River Valley (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditional zooarchaeological methods studying trade rely on the identification of animals found outside their natural habitat ranges. More recently, strontium isotope (86Sr/87Sr) analyses have proven to be a powerful tool for studying the movement of animals found in archaeological contexts. Strontium isotopic evidence from the Maya lowlands has...
An Account of the Kings of Kanu’l as Recorded on the Hieroglyphic Stair of K’an II of Caracol (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Light on Dzibanché and on the Rise of the Snake Kingdom’s Hegemony in the Maya Lowlands" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Much remains unknown as to the hieroglyphic stair dedicated by 642 AD by K’an II, the great king of Caracol. Constituent panels were discovered at a number of different sites, including Caracol, Ucanal, Naranjo, and Xunantunich. The most recently discovered panels contribute greatly to our...
Accuracy, Precision, and Efficiency: Comparing Mapping Techniques in Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Research in the Petén Lakes Region, Petén, Guatemala" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. New archaeological survey technologies have transformed the way in which sites are mapped. Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Petén, Guatemala, has been surveyed in a variety of ways including a theodolite with an electronic distance measurement (EDM), total station, lidar, and photogrammetry. This paper aims to compare various mapping...
Acting, Reacting, and Entangling at the Edge of the Spanish Colony: Maya Life at Progresso Lagoon, Belize in the Context of Colonization (2018)
The Maya of northern Belize were located at the edge of the Spanish colony, far from the Spanish capital at Merida, and visited only occasionally by encomenderos and priests. How much of Maya life then was a reaction to Spanish colonization? The archaeological data from Progresso Lagoon, Belize suggest that most contact and colonial period material culture at the Maya community was shaped by ongoing Maya political and economic processes, rather than by Spanish intervention. In addition, Maya...
Adapting Photogrammetry and 3D Modeling Beyond Archaeological Recordation for Use in Public Education (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The expansion of digital technology has allowed archaeologists to quickly adopt new techniques and digital tools for use in the field. From the early days of analog recording and hand-drawn maps to contemporary tools like photogrammetry and 3D modeling, the rapid evolution of technology has led to greater accuracy and efficiency when collecting and...
Adversaries and Ancestors: A Comparison of Two Skull Caches from Northwest Honduras (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At La Sierra, in the Naco Valley, the crania of five individuals were discovered in a niche at the front of a Late Classic (AD 600-950) house. Each skull was sitting on its own plate surrounded by obsidian blades. Sixteen kilometers to the southwest, at the site of El Coyote, an ossuary containing two interment episodes of at least fourteen individuals...
The Afterlife of the Discovery of a Lifetime: Preservation of the Maya Murals of San Bartolo, Guatemala (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2001, rarely preserved Maya murals were discovered at the site of San Bartolo, Guatemala. Subsequent archaeological excavations revealed an elaborate artistic program of wall paintings and numerous hieroglyphic texts buried in successive architectural phases dating from ca. 400-100 B.C. The corpus of paintings found within the Las Pinturas pyramid includes...
Agency and Pilgrimage in a Living Landscape: Contemporary Lacandon Maya Visits to Ancient Ruins (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Vibrancy of Ruins: Ruination Studies in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this presentation, we analyze Lacandon Maya communication with nonhuman forces through pilgrimages to ritual landscapes, particularly ancient Maya ruins in the lowlands of Chiapas, Mexico, and Petén, Guatemala. Through archaeological and ethnographic evidence we examine these spaces where Lacandon Maya have undertaken...
Agricultural Strategies and Intensification: A Study of Risk Management in the Southern Maya Lowlands (2018)
The decisions and consequences behind the intensification of agricultural strategies among past societies has long been a topic of debate among archaeologists. These discussions are often dominated by factors of population dynamics and production capacity. This paper will explore the less discussed factor of risk management. Controlling the variation of production in regard to fluctuating natural and social pressures was critical to past agrarian societies and undoubtedly played a role in the...
Agriculture, Land Management and Expressions of Elite Control at the Ancient Maya City of Tikal (2018)
While it seems evident that the elites and royal personages at Tikal influenced at least some aspects of day-to-day activities of the Maya inhabitants, it has not been clear how this influence became manifest, particularly in regard to agriculture and other aspects of land management decisions. Recent paleoethnobotanical and archaeological studies at Tikal, however, bring some insight to this cultural black box. Three examples from the paleoethnobotanical record provide empirical evidence that...
Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: An Introduction (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Among the many Middle Preclassic sites in the Middle Usumacinta region, Aguada Fénix is, by far, the largest and possibly one of the oldest. A large, rectangular platform was built at its center, measuring 1,400 × 400 m. The construction of this artificial...
Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Aguada Fénix and the Middle Usumacinta Region: Interregional Interactions and Social Transformations in the Middle Preclassic Period" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The recently discovered site of Aguada Fenix in eastern Tabasco, Mexico is one of the largest monumental constructions in Mesoamerica. It was built in a standardized architectural pattern that we call the Middle Formative Usumacinta Pattern (MFU). Its...
Aguada Fénix: An Early Middle Preclassic Monumental Site in the Middle Usumacinta Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Preclassic Maya Social Transformations along the Usumacinta: Views from Ceibal and Aguada Fénix" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Aguada Fénix, located on the San Pedro River in northeastern Tabasco, Mexico, was recently discovered by the Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project through LiDAR mapping. The site layout corresponds to what the project has defined as the Middle Formative Usumacinta Pattern...
Aguadas of the Bajo el Laberinto Region: Form, Distribution, and Biocultural Importance (2024)
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Aguadas are permanent or temporary water reservoirs distributed throughout the Elevated Interior Region (EIR). These wetlands have formed complex ecosystems that are essential for the survival of many species and are sometimes the only source of fresh water for animal and human communities in the...
Albarradas, Solarés, and Classic Maya Land Tenure in Northwestern Belize (2018)
The traditional, but yet poorly-defined, view of Classic Maya (AD 250-850) land tenure was that control was somehow vested in the royal and elite parts of society with "commoners" occupying land at royal pleasure. The exceptions to this pattern were known in "urban" cities such as Coba and Chunchucmil in the northern Yucatan and some coastal locations such as Playa del Carmen and Cozumel. However, the latter instances are commonly thought to date to the Postclassic period and were believed to...
All Politics Isn’t Local: The Role of Oxpemul in Classic Maya Geopolitics (2018)
Oxpemul was one of several centers surrounding the city of Calakmul, within the region known as Uxte’tuun. Archaeological research at Oxpemul reflects occupation continuity from the Formative through Classic periods. However, hieroglyphic inscriptions indicate a late fluorescence in the mid to late eighth century. This paper explains this seeming contradiction from the perspective of broader geopolitical dynamics, particularly the rivalry between Calakmul and Tikal. Unlinke other centers in...
The Allegory of Xibalba: Confronting Shadowy Realities in the ancient Maya Underworld (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Technique and Interpretation in the Archaeology of Rock Art" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cave archaeologists around the world are increasingly utilizing many new platforms and techniques to document subterranean artwork, including digital imaging and scanning technologies. In this presentation I "throw shade" at these high-tech approaches by revisiting and focusing upon the oldest of the old-school technologies...
Ally, Client or Outpost? Examining the Relationship between Xunantunich and Naranjo in the Late Classic Period (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. Investigations at Xunantunich indicate that this important site in the Belize River Valley, rose rapidly to regional prominence during the Late Classic Hats’ Chaak Phase (AD 670 – 780). While the social, political, and economic reasons for this late and rapid rise are still not...
Alternative Interpretive Lenses for Landscape at Mulch’en Witz, La Milpa, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology as an Engine or a Camera?" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper discusses ongoing archaeological investigations at the Late Classic Period (CE 600-800) Maya site of Mulch’en Witz, La Milpa, Belize. Survey and excavation at the site have revealed an unconventional geographical density of man-made subterranean spaces ("chultuns") in association with provocative architectural and geological features....
Ambivalence and Apostasy at the Sixteenth century Visita Town of Hunacti, Yucatan (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations of three Maya elite houses and a visita church at Hunacti reveal the mixed material signatures expected of a community deeply ambivalent to Spanish rule, strongly attracted to and at the same time repulsed by Spaniard house styles, Christian doctrine, and European goods. In a rural location at a distance from Franciscan...
Anachronology in the Study of the Precolumbian Maya: Toward a Post-Postclassic (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part 2: Reconsidering “Human Sacrifice,” Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and Other European-Derived Concepts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. All Mayanists, and Mesoamericanists in general, are familiar with tripartite chronologies. The periodization of time in precolumbian Mesoamerica between a “Preclassic”/“Formative,” “Classic,” and “Postclassic” has been baked into the conceptual...