Preclassic Maya (Other Keyword)
1-10 (10 Records)
As part of the on-going research into the development of socio-political complexity at the Maya site of Yaxnohcah, the Proyecto Arqueológico Yaxnohcah has been conducting investigations in the Baalche’ Group, a large courtyard group located at the center of the site. The group sits adjacent to many prominent architectural features, including a Preclassic period E-Group assemblage, a ball court, and a water reservoir. Radiocarbon dating and ceramic analysis has revealed that the Baalche’ Group...
Defining the Spatial to Find the Social: Applying Generative Planning Theory and GIS to Distinguish Communities at Ceibal, Guatemala (2016)
While residential zones in many Mesoamerican cities were perceptibly defined by physical boundaries, the spatial division of Maya urban centers is not very clear. Following empirical urban theories outlined by Michael Smith (2010; 2011), we employ generative planning theory as a framework for defining residential zones in the peripheries of Ceibal, Guatemala. We believe that physical zones likewise represent social boundaries, in this case local communities that comprised the larger Ceibal...
Economic Interaction and the Rise of Socio-Political Complexity in the Maya Lowlands: The Case from the Mirador Basin (2016)
Investigations in 51 ancient cities of varying sizes in the Mirador Basin of northern Guatemala have revealed a variety of data relevant to the economic catalysts that were involved in the rise of social, political, and economic sophistication among the Preclassic Maya. The real "business" of the early Maya dealt with agricultural productivity and a powerful distribution mechanism to distribute and facilitate unification among a web of sites in the Mirador Basin. However, a variety of other...
Households, Ritual, and the Origins of Social Complexity in the Maya Lowlands: A View From the Karinel Group, Ceibal, Guatemala (2016)
Payson Sheets’ work at Ceren has greatly influenced investigations of ancient Maya households at both Aguateca and Ceibal. Here we focus on recent excavations at the Karinel Group, a residential area at Ceibal. Due to its early foundation, Ceibal presents an opportunity to investigate multiple aspects of the origins of ancient Maya society. We discuss the development of the patio group, the typical Maya arrangement of stone house platforms around an open space, often rebuilt and reoccupied for...
Incorporation and Independence in the Preclassic Western Maya Lowlands: Integrating Local and Regional Traditions at Rancho Búfalo, Chiapas, Mexico (2015)
In this paper, I explore tensions between territorial integration and local resilience at Rancho Búfalo, Chiapas, a five hectare Preclassic center that was geographically intermediate to the cultural territories of the Olmec, Lowland Maya, and Pacific Coast. This site's residents' employed a localized approach to extra-local architectural packages, ceramic spheres and burial traditions, that complicates traditional narratives of ethnic and political incorporation in Preclassic Southern...
Investigations at San Andres Semetabaj and the Problematics of Middle to Late PreClassic Highland Archaeology (2017)
The site of San Andres Semetabaj, Guatemala, located on the northern edge of Lake Atitlan, is central, geographically and chronologically, to major theoretical and culture-historical controversies and problems of PreClassic highland archaeology. The size, nature, and importance of the site have been underestimated, in part due to limited available information based only on smaller preliminary seasons and a looted tomb and also due to the assumption by many that the very large structures there...
The Mirador Basin: A Synthesis of Research and Conservation Programs in northern Guatemala (2015)
Major research programs in the Mirador Basin of northern Guatemala and southern Campeche, Mexico, have provided new data relevant to the origins, dynamics, and collapse of complex societies in the Maya Lowlands. Data suggests that the origins of sedentary societies began earlier than previously thought, and that the dynamics of complexity included complex agricultural sophistication, elaborate communication and trade systems, logistics development, and vast political, economic, and social...
Results of Recent Investigations at El Tintal, Petén, Guatemala (2017)
El Tintal, located in northern Petén, is part of a group of ancient Maya cities that emerged during the Preclassic period in the central karstic uplands. The El Tintal Archaeological Project is interested in understanding the historical development of the population that inhabited the settlement from the beginning to its abandonment. This paper will focus on the results of our recent investigations at El Tintal that yield information on the origins of the city and its regional interactions,...
The Search for Sierra Red: Discerning Ceramic Diversity at Late Preclassic Yaxnohcah (2017)
The principal ceramic type for the Petén Late Preclassic period, first identified by Edith Ricketson in the 1930s, and dubbed Sierra Red three decades later, has just about the widest distribution of any ceramic type in the Maya lowlands. In particular, the omnipresent simple flaring walled bowl form is virtually synonymous with the period, yet, after five years of excavation at Preclassic Yaxnohcah, Sierra Red remains an elusive minor type. Middle Preclassic Um Phase is well represented as is...
Social Memory in Maya Hinterland Communities: Recent Excavations at San Lorenzo, Belize (2016)
During the Preclassic period in the Maya lowlands, public structures became the materializations of ideology and memory, functioning to add permanence and significance to the growing ritual landscape. Most Preclassic public ritual structures, however, are documented within formal ceremonial centers. Little is known about Preclassic public spaces within hinterland communities. Recent excavations at the Xunantunich hinterland site of San Lorenzo have uncovered a Preclassic round platform buried...