Mesoamerica: Maya highlands (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Megan Leight. Brent Woodfill. Alexander Rivas.

Investigations at Cancuen, Sebol, Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, and other sites at the base of the Guatemalan highlands since the late 1990s have shown the importance of the region for importing and refining a variety of highland goods for the lowland market. While most of the emphasis has been placed on the goods for which there is direct evidence of production and exchange—obsidian, jade, iron pyrite, and other lithic commodities present in abundance at these and other sites—Demarest, Dillon,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marlen Garnica. Ramiro Edmundo Martinez Lemus. Eugenia Robinson.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological investigations in the eastern zone of Guatemala have reported many sites with painted rock art or petroglyphs. There are other similar representations in rock shelters in Guatemala especially at La Casa de las Golondrinas in the Antigua Valley. At these sites, the representation of serpents is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Barbara Arroyo. Gloria Ajú. Javier Estrada.

Kaminaljuyu is a site of critical importance that has been partly destroyed by Guatemala City. However, there is important evidence buried in locations that have not been previously considered for research. Most of the excavations at Kaminaljuyu have taken place inside mounds, offering information on a sector of the society. This research has yielded data on the site´s chronology, function of the mounds, and site layout. Recent excavations have uncovered important information regarding specific...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gavin Davies.

Combining archaeological, ethnohistoric and ethnographic data with an analysis of least cost routes, the current paper examines the network connections and craft industries that fueled Lake Atitlan’s prehispanic economy and connected it to the wider Mesoamerican World. The documentary evidence, which I synthesize here, indicates that the lake’s principle exports were perishable goods such as textiles, mats, rope products and foodstuffs. While insufficient to produce significant wealth, I argue...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gavin Davies.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ruler stelae are a well known class of monument in the Southern Maya region but have so far been recovered only from only the largest sites, such as Kaminaljuyu, Takalik Abaj, and Chocola, all of which are considered to have been regional capitals. The recovery of a basal fragment of one of these monuments near the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ernesto Arredondo. Arthur Demarest.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Semetabaj site in the Guatemalan Highlands is one of the earliest sites in the region and the largest. Research carried out by E. Shook in 1978 revealed an interesting pattern of interaction with the northern Highlands and the south coast of Guatemala. The new research offers a review of the data and new proposals, which include its role as an economic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gregory Borgstede.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines dynamic changes in Maya settlement patterns through a comparison of expansion and contraction of settlement patterns during the pre-Columbian, historic, and contemporary periods. In particular, it looks at when and why settlements are formed, within what is generally considered to be a single...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Miranda George. Ellizabeth Paris. Roberto López Bravo.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Moxviquil is located in the Jovel Valley of highland Chiapas, and contains a funerary cave from which human and faunal osteological remains have been recovered. The site’s occupation spans the Late Classic (AD 600–900) to Early Postclassic (AD 900–1250) periods. Approximately one-third of the remains belong to the species *Canis familiaris,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Payson Sheets.

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. The ancient Ceren sweat bath was a communal facility of notable sophistication, especially for a commoner village. Household 2 supported its functioning with ollas full of water, pine kindling, and presumably structural maintenance. Loma Caldera’s phreatomagmatic eruption phases, with lava bombs, caused...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Monika Banach. Mark Howell.

This is an abstract from the "The Maya Wall Paintings of Chajul (Guatemala)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Baile del Tz’unun is one of the dance-plays performed in the western highlands of Guatemala. In the past it was an annual celebration in Chajul. It is also present in Aguacatan, and there is a documented history of musical exchange between these two regions. Oral tradition associated to the Baile del Tz’unun as well as in the same time to...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Warden. Benjamin Baaske.

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Landscapes in Northwestern Belize, Part II" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Large collections of culturally significant material are often at a heightened risk of destruction simply due to their collective proximity. Organizations and individuals have begun to recognize the vulnerability of the artifact. The artifact is not something that can be easily copied and reprinted. Artifacts often possess a highly...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maria Belen Mendez Bauer.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In prehispanic times the tops of the mountains and volcanoes were used as natural markers of geographical spaces; many of these points served as referents in the construction of cultural landscapes based on the sacred. The valley of Quetzaltenango, in western Guatemala, is surrounded by ten prominent hills and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Payson Sheets.

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. Many decades ago Stanley Boggs discovered a particularly elaborate chert eccentric from San Andres, El Salvador, yet he never published the find. Here we compare it to the set of more elaborate eccentrics manufactured by "El...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Frauke Sachse.

This is an abstract from the "The Role of Women in Mesoamerican Ritual" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Popol Vuh, the creation of the world and humankind is conceptualized as a process of birth. The old creator couple Xmucane and Xpiyacoc are described as the first diviners, just like their counter parts Oxomoco and Cipactonal who are the first calendar priests in Central Mexican mythology. This paper explores the relation between human...