Maya: Classic (Other Keyword)
776-800 (857 Records)
This is an abstract from the "La Cuernavilla, Guatemala: A Maya Fortress and Its Environs" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the first centuries of the CE, the Maya Lowlands underwent many changes in its political landscape, which were caused by the abandonment of the main Formative centers, including El Palmar, which was the most powerful center in the Buenavista Valley. Taking advantage of these compulsive times, Tikal begins to become the...
To Eat, Discard, or Venerate: Faunal Remains as Proxy for Human Behaviors in Lowland Maya Terminal or Problematic Deposits (2018)
Deciphering middens, feasting, ritual, or terminal deposits in the Maya world requires an evaluation of faunal remains. Maya archaeologists have been and continue to evaluate other artifacts classes, but often simply offer NISP values for skeletal elements recovered from these deposits. To further understand their archaeological significance, we analyzed faunal materials from deposits at the sites of Baking Pot and Xunantunich in the Upper Belize River Valley. We identified the species, bone...
To Love and to Leave or to Never Have Loved at All?: Abandonment Deposits within the Late Classic Maya Palace at Actuncan, Belize (2018)
In 2012, excavations were conducted within a Late Classic noble palace at the ancient Maya site of Actuncan, located in western Belize. Remains of a large deposit of Terminal Classic materials were recovered from a corner of the palace’s primary courtyard. Based on its location on the courtyard surface and below collapse, the deposit was assumed to date to the period of the palace’s abandonment. The placement of this deposit was contemporary with Actuncan’s 9th-century renaissance as a...
Tools Fit for a Queen: Interdisciplinary Study of a Set of Ancient Maya Weaving Implements (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Materials to Materiality: Analysis and Interpretation of Archaeological and Historical Artifacts Using Non-destructive and Micro/Nano-sampling Scientific Methods" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper reviews our interdisciplinary study examining a set of carved deer bones comprising what appears to be a weaving or sewing kit for an ancient Maya royal woman bearing the Sa’ emblem glyph associated with...
Towards a More Systematic Approach to Analyzing Artistic Influences: A View from the Pacific Coast of Southeastern Mesoamerica (2018)
Artistic evidence of interactions is among the most salient and most debated in terms of the relationships that it represents between different polities and regions. Traditionally, the focus of analysis is on stylistic and iconographic influences and a discussion of retention of original meanings or evidences of disjunctions. Based on my research on the topic of Classic Period interactions from the Pacific Coast of Chiapas, I have come to the conclusion that our perspectives are much too...
Toying with Classic Maya Society: Ceramic Figurine Whistles and Children’s Socialization at Ceibal, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We analyze 253 Late and Terminal Classic (c. AD 600-950) Maya ceramic figurine whistles (ocarinas) and fragments excavated at Ceibal, Guatemala, as materials of socialization. The figurines are mold-made and represent repeating characters. Based on mortuary contexts and other evidence, we argue they were used in household performances and associated with...
Tracing Mobility in Pacific Coast and Highlands of Southern Mexico during the Classic Period (2018)
This study presents the strontium isotopic analysis of enamel, dentine and bones of four individuals recovered from two sites (Miguel Aleman and PIN7), dating respectively from the Early and Late Classic period, both located the Pacific coast of Chiapas. The enamel samples of the four individuals have a Sr isotopic composition that varies between 0.70540 and 0.70631 for the 87Sr/86Sr ratio. The results were compared to data available for human bones and teeth, as well as rock, plant, water, and...
Traditional Dishes and Culinary Improvisations: Elite Gastronomy in the Maya Area (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past few decades, understandings of cuisine in the Maya area have been radically amplified by the use of new techniques. Some methods offer the opportunity to directly connect artifacts and features with actual plant food residues. The ability to recover microscopic residues of food from sediments, artifacts, and human teeth has revealed not only...
Traditional Dishes and Culinary Improvisations: Elite Gastronomy in the Maya Area (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Macrobotanical and Microbotanical Archaeobotany Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past few decades, understandings of cuisine in the Maya area have been radically amplified with the use of new techniques. Some methods offer the opportunity to directly connect artifacts and features with actual plant food residues. The ability to recover microscopic residues of food from sediments, artifacts,...
Transnational Labor in Maya Archaeology, 1910–1930 (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Discussions of knowledge production and working conditions in archaeology increasingly draw scholarly attention to labor, as represented in recent work by Allison Mickel, Paul Everill, and others. For the most part, discussions of labor focus on the interpretative losses spurred by colonial relations of knowledge production and unfair working conditions,...
The Treasure You Seek Will Not Be the Treasure You Find: Bushing the Path between Expected and Observed at Las Cuevas (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Over the past decade, aerial lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) technology has transformed understanding of prehistoric landscape modifications throughout the Maya Lowlands, including the Late Classic (A.D. 700—900) center of Las Cuevas. The site, situated on the southeastern edge of the Vaca Plateau in western Belize, is not immense, but is distinguished...
Tribute Lists and Bureaucrats: Understanding Classic Maya Politics (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Regimes of the Ancient Maya" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, I will explore how much we know about Maya politics during the Classic period (AD 250–950), in view of new perspectives that leave behind the centralization vs. decentralization debate. Rather than viewing Maya states as unitary, unchanging, and centralized or decentralized, new perspectives have revealed variation, multiple sources of...
The Tumultuous Times: The Shifting Alliances of Caracol Monarchs in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Rise and Apogee of the Classic Maya Kaanu’l Hegemonic State at Dzibanche" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The most extensive historical record of Caracol was produced under the reign of Tutum Yohl K’inich Tz’uutz’ II (formerly known as K’an II / Ruler V), who reigned from AD 618 to 658. In addition to outlining his life and deeds, as well as those of his father Yajawte’ K’inich Tz’uutz’ II (a.k.a. Lord Water /...
Tunnel Vision: Results from the 2018 Investigations of Structure A7 at Xunantunich, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite nearly a century of archaeological investigation, the ceremonial center of Xunantunich, Belize has yielded little insight on the center’s earliest occupants and the architectural growth of the site through time. Previous research indicated that Xunantunich was initially settled as a small village during the Preclassic period (~1000 BC-AD 250), with...
Turning a Critical Eye on the History of Maya Cave Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A major reformulation of the history of Maya cave archaeology has recently been proposed for the second half of the twentieth century. Jon Spenard, in his dissertation, has suggested that modern cave archaeology began to emerge during the Post War Period (1950 – 1980) based on work carried out in Belize. This paper takes a closer look at...
Turtles, Faces, and Hieroglyphs: 3D Recording of Monuments from La Tortuga and San Isidro (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Investigations in Chiapas, Mexico" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The adoption of 3D digital recording strategies at archaeological sites yields numerous benefits: detailed preservation of data while the original may be at risk of damage or erosion, increased visibility of small details, and precise tracking of change over time, to name a few. Additionally, there are nearly limitless...
Understanding Ancient Maya Expedient Lithic Technology: Raw Material, Production, and Use (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Expedient Technological Behavior: Global Perspectives and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Expedient flaked stone tools, generally defined as those which are produced as needed, without standardization, and with little to no investment, are less often examined in the archaeological record than formal stone tools, those which require more skill and effort to produce following a prescribed method or...
Understanding Animal Use at the Wetland Maya Site of Chulub (2018)
Reconstructions of ancient Maya animal use often emphasize the importance of terrestrial species, such as deer, to the overall diet. While these species played an important role, much less attention has been paid to the use of aquatic resources despite the presence of resource rich perennial wetlands in the Maya lowlands. To further understand this crucial area of the Maya-environment relationship, we investigated the site of Chulub located in the Western Lagoon Wetlands of Belize. This site...
Understanding Diachronic Patterns of Feasting at the Late Classic Maya Polity of Lower Dover, Belize. (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Traditional anthropological perspectives depict feasting events as a way of promoting social cohesion, as well as reinforcing inequalities. As described by Spanish observers, Postclassic and Colonial (~AD 1280-1600) Maya elites hosted elaborate feasts to reward their followers’ loyalty. Similar events are shown on polychrome pottery, depicting Classic Maya...
Understanding Infrastructural Power, Collective Action, and Urban Form: Situating Neighborhoods and Districts at Caracol, Belize (2018)
Ancient Maya cities possessed a unique urban form characterized by two factors: mixed agricultural land use within residential areas and dispersed households consisting of extended family groups. These two factors contributed to the low-density nature of Maya cities, and conditioned urban form and the structure of neighborhoods and districts. The requirements of top-down administration resulted in the creation of districts to delineate areas of provisioning for the city’s urban services....
Understanding Maya Rituals of Power in the Candelaria Caves, Guatemala: A View from the Polychrome Ceramics of the Early Classic (2018)
The Candelaria Caves System, with its approximately 18 km of passageways, forms the second largest underground karstic complex in the Maya Area. As result of their location at the highland-lowland transition and close to Great Western Trade Route, it was an important pilgrimage center for people of different cultural and geographical regions. The Early Classic period (A.D. 250-500) marked the introduction of polychrome ceramics, mainly Dos Arroyos-group ceramics, which played an important role...
Understanding the Diet of Late to Terminal Classic Period Maya Groups in the Sibun River Valley, Belize, through Food Web Reconstruction (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A stable isotope based dietary study, coupled with previously collected zooarchaeological and botanical data, expands our understanding of ancient Maya dietary variation in the Late and Terminal Classic periods in the Sibun River Valley of central Belize. A food web was created based on the analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in plants and...
Understanding the Ritual of Peri-abandonment Deposit Behavior Evidenced by Late Classic Maya Figurines at the Site of Baking Pot, Cayo District, 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 Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project is an archaeological field school operating in the Cayo District of Western Belize and has excavated at multiple sites in Belize annually since 1988. In the past five years, the project has focused on excavation of peri-abandonment deposits, or deposits of artifacts built up during and after the...
Understanding the World of the Scribe: Challenges and Opportunities of Cataloguing the Kerr Photographic Collection of Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks (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. The majority of photographs in “The Maya Scribe and His World” were taken by Justin Kerr. Kerr’s development of rollout photography transformed the field, allowing Maya ceramics to be documented and studied more easily. With the creation of the searchable online database Mayavase.com,...
Underwater Archaeological Survey of Freshwater Lagoons in the Lacanja Basin, Chiapas, Mexico (2018)
The intrinsic relationship between human beings and bodies of water is unquestionable. Among the ancient Maya it has been observed that many of their agricultural cults were linked to existing bodies of water where they settled. In the Maya Northern Lowlands, multiple underwater archaeological studies of cenotes record this behavior as offerings of luxury items and human sacrifice are often recovered and noted. The Rancho Ojo de Agua archaeological project focuses on the basin of the Lacanhá...