Maya: Classic (Other Keyword)
751-775 (857 Records)
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. Obsidian blades and related debitage from four elite tombs recently excavated at El Peru-Waka have the potential to answer the question of why and how the ancient Maya placed this material above, around, and sometimes within the...
Taking Ancient Maya Vases off their Pedestals: A Case Study in Optical Microscopy and Ultra Violet Light Examination (2018)
Ancient Maya polychrome vases, especially those that are decorated with elaborately painted scenes, fill the display cases and collection drawers of museums and galleries around the world. Unfortunately, the majority of these are unprovenienced and many also lack clear provenance. Furthermore, modern restorations and/ or falsifications further muddy our understanding and blur the line between authentic and inauthentic. In order to learn more about these ceramics, and help to restore some of...
A Tale of Two Cities: A Comparison between Preclassic and Classic Formation of Two Maya Cities (2018)
Research on ancient Maya cities is generally modeled after large sites with massive architecture, dynastic burials, and written records documenting the activities of divine rulers. However, the development of these cities is the exception, rather than the norm, since the majority of Maya sites did not reach such enormous proportions, yet many of them likely qualified as cities from a functional standpoint. Hence, a research on non-massive cities, "from the bottom up," is crucial to understand...
A Tale of Two Types of Cities: The Rise and Decline of Low-Density Urbanism in Champotón, Campeche (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. Over his distinguished career William Folan made a substantive contribution to knowledge of the scale, form, and nature of Maya urbanism. Classic Maya cities are often classified as a low-density agrarian-based urban tradition, a cross-cultural concept characterized by expansive settlement zones, lack of...
Tangled Web: Political Pragmatics in the Mopan River Valley (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Regimes of the Ancient Maya" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We explore the pragmatics of Classic Maya politics in the Mopan River valley of western Belize during the Classic period. Drawing on Okoshi-Harada’s (2012) reconstruction of sixteenth-century Maya political dynamics and Inomata’s (2006) view of polities created through the interaction among social agents in specific historical and spatial contexts, we see...
The Team for the New Age: Naranjo and Holmul under Kaanul’s Sway (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. The paper presents the results of the last decade of archeological and epigraphic research that clarify the history of the reigns of Holmul and Naranjo during the expansion of the Dzibanché dynasty in eastern Petén in the second half of the sixth century and the first half of the seventh century...
The Teeth Tell All: Dentition, Demography, and Paleopathology at Early Classical Mayan Site of Tulix Muul, Belize (2018)
In 2013 a rescue mission to salvage and preserve details of the shrine complex at Tulix Muul, a Classic Maya site in northwestern Belize, yielded a Maya mural. While the arrangement of the mural at the shrine echoes notions of nobility, this rare landmark discovery lies in contrast to what we can infer about the social status of exhumed remains from the Tulix Muul archaeological site. This poster will address the multifaceted insights we can glean from certain aspects of the past life histories...
The Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque: Improving Architectural Analysis, Conservation Assessment, and Public Dissemination via Terrestrial LiDAR and 3-D Mapping (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Temple of the Inscriptions—K’inich Janab Pakal’s funerary building—is an outstanding evidence of Palenque elite’s grandiose architectural programs in the 7th century AD. Are terrestrial LiDAR and drone-based 3-D mapping viable techniques to inform a new architectural analysis on the construction of this iconic temple? Can digital monitoring based on...
Teotihuacan References Found within Classic Maya Inscriptions (2018)
This paper explores Teotihuacan references found within the corpus of ancient Maya inscriptions. Classic Maya inscriptions analyzed for this investigation were derived from monumental architecture to ceramics. In the last decade more references to Teotihuacan within Classic Maya hieroglyphic writing have surfaced within the archaeological record and in museum collections. However, recently there has not been an in-depth study that analyzes the context of these recently uncovered references....
Teotihuacan Style in Maya Stone: New Evidence from La Sufricaya (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Teotihuacan Entrada of 378 CE is one of the most archaeologically rich events in the Maya Lowlands. Systematic examination enables archaeologists to measure the resulting impact of Teotihuacan's presence in the Maya area. Recent excavations at the site of La Sufricaya in Petén, Guatemala, provide fresh evidence to support Teotihuacan's influence in the...
Terminal Classic Ancestors and the Eastern Shrine of Chikin Chi’Ha, Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and the History of Human-Environment Interaction in the Lower Belize River Watershed" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Investigations of an eastern shrine building in a residential group at Chikin Chi’Ha exposed a complex burial of an adult male and three children under the age of two who were placed near his head and feet. While there is abundant evidence for the construction and use of Classic period...
Terminal Classic Residential Groups at Holtun, Guatemala (2018)
Holtun, located in the central lakes region of the Maya lowlands, was occupied from the Preclassic through the Postclassic. To date the Holtun Archaeological Project has mapped approximately 13 groups in the site core and over 30 residential groups in the periphery to the north. The majority of these surface residential structures date to the Terminal Classic and Postclassic. The residential groups excavated to date vary in their proximity to the site core, number of structures, construction...
Terminal Classic Ritual Deposits and Reoccupation at Xunantunich, Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ritual behavior during the Terminal Classic period (~AD 750-900) in the Belize Valley reflects the ecological and political concerns of the Maya during a time of prolonged drought and balkanization. Following their abandonment, some major regional centers were revisited, often in the context of pilgrimage. These activities left behind expansive deposits,...
Terminal Classic Terminal Deposits at Chan, Belize (2018)
This presentation examines a series of terminal deposits at the ancient Maya farming community of Chan in Belize, Central America. We propose a contextual analysis of terminal deposits to facilitate the development of archaeological interpretations that move beyond the static category of "problematical deposits." The terminal deposits at Chan are located in its community center, primarily in two locations: in the eastern temple and southern range structure of Chan’s central group. The deposits...
Terminal Deposits and Terminal Classic Collapse: An Analysis of the Proportional Distribution of Artifacts from Terminal Deposition Events at the Site of Baking Pot, Belize (2018)
Throughout the Maya Lowlands, archaeologists have identified Terminal Classic deposits associated with the final activities in ceremonial and domestic spaces. These features include concentrations of cultural material deposited in the corners of plazas and courtyards. At the site of Baking Pot, Belize, the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) project has identified several of these terminal deposits. This presentation will shed light on the types of artifacts that were deposited...
Termination deposits at Aguateca and Ceibal, Guatemala (2018)
Excavations at Aguateca and Ceibal revealed a series of dense deposits associated with the ritual destruction of buildings. At Aguateca, such deposits were found in and around Structures M7-22 and M7-32 of the Palace Group, probable royal administrative-residential buildings. Excavators also unearthed similar deposits around Structures L8-6 and L8-7, temple pyramids in the Main Plaza. These deposits date to c. AD 810 when enemies attacked Aguateca. At Ceibal, dense deposits of broken objects...
Terraces, Quarries, and Berms, Oh My! Evaluating Land Use and Landscape Modification at the Ancient Maya City El Pilar (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ongoing research at El Pilar—an ancient Maya city located along the Belize/Guatemala frontier—has documented hundreds of landscape-modification features in the area surrounding the monumental civic center. The complexity and variety of these features, which include terraces, berms, quarries, check-dams, and aguadas, indicate the sophistication of Maya...
Testing a Multi-Modal Remote Sensing Approach for Detecting Ancient Maya Sites With Low-Resolution Data (2018)
In the absence of LiDAR and similar high-resolution data products, an alternative approach was developed to model and predict site location information from low-resolution, publicly available datasets such as ASTER, LANDSAT, and aerial photographs. Manipulating and combining the analyses of multiple datasets permits refinement of modeling and detection capabilities. A large database of known sites, in assorted topographic and vegetative conditions and degrees of exposure, was used as a...
Testing the Efficacy of Sulfur Isotopes from the Maya Site of Chulub (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotope analysis of carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) are often used to reconstruct ancient Maya diets. While these two isotopes provide us with a broad understanding of past subsistence practices, carbon and nitrogen are limited in their ability to differentiate freshwater and terrestrial based diets. Similar problems exist in other areas of the...
They Blinded Me with Science: Methods and Approaches at the Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Landscapes in Northwestern Belize, Part I" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP) was established to explore ancient Maya life in a 250,000 acre area of protected forest in northwest Belize, employing a regional perspective grounded in robust field methods. This regionally-oriented approach continues to guide research being conducted at PfB every year since...
Three Rivers Watersheds: Regional Water Resources of Northwestern Belize and Beyond (2019)
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. This research seeks to understand the interconnections and interactions of the water resources of Northwestern Belize, via its contributing Three Rivers Watersheds. The Three Rivers Watersheds drain Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize via the Rio Azul/Blue Creek, Rio Bravo, and Booths River systems. These Three Rivers merge to form the...
Through a Scanner...Darkly? LiDAR, Survey, and Mapping at the Ancient Maya Center El Pilar (2018)
Survey at the ancient Maya center El Pilar, along the border between Belize and Guatemala, has incorporated LiDAR imagery since 2013, allowing expansive – yet targeted – coverage of settlement beyond the monumental core. Successive field seasons have revealed a complex picture of landscape modification, resource extraction, and settlement concentration in different micro-environmental zones around the city center. Our fieldwork in 2017 had three foci: 1) explore and map the Amatal Supercluster,...
Ties to the Ancestors: Examining a Late Classic Household at Las Ruinas de Arenal, Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There has been a long history of settlement and household archaeology in the Belize River valley that has added significantly to our understanding of everyday people in the Maya lowlands. Recent studies that include LiDAR provide a broader landscape perspective. LiDAR can also be useful in determining labor investment in domestic architecture through...
Tikal's Missing Carved Wooden Lintel (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1879, the Guatemalan Secretary of Agriculture Salvador Valenzuela saw the damage to the temples of Tikal by the removal of many of its carved wooden lintels, and observed that; “The beams of the doors of these towers, which form the lintels of the doors, were pulled out by a foreign doctor [Gustave Bernoulli] the year before last, and that which time...
A Time before Color: Revisiting the Codex Style (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In “The Maya Scribe and His World”, Michael D. Coe recognized a “Maya artist of enormous distinction” when analyzing the hand of the painter of the codex-style drinking cup now known as the Metropolitan Vase. This presentation is a reexamination of individual hands in the codex style...