Maya: Preclassic (Other Keyword)
26-50 (220 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Multidisciplinary Investigations in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the preliminary findings pertaining to the exhumation and bioarchaeological examination of a collection of Preclassic period human remains recovered from a lime kiln in El Mirador Basin, Guatemala. The disarticulated and fragmented skeletal remains of nine individuals were compressed into a...
The Bioarchaeological and Mortuary Patterns at Holtun, Guatemala: an Analysis of Residential and Plaza Burials (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Maya area, bioarchaeological and mortuary analysis can help identify patterns of mortuary ritual and social experience of past peoples. However, there is very little bioarchaeological and mortuary evidence for the developing complexity and social experience of the Preclassic period. Major ceremonial centers like Naranjo, Tikal, and Yaxha surround...
Birthing Dynasties and Raising Suns: Royal Women and Preclassic Maya Ritual (2023)
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. Underneath a Classic Maya palace at Ucanha, builders buried a Terminal Preclassic platform outfitted with monumental portraits of rain gods. Analogous architecture appears throughout the Maya lowlands from the Middle Preclassic to Early Classic periods, and several scholars suggest their role in expediting the apotheosis of royal figures into...
Bringing Two Halves Together: Combining Modern Phylogenetics and Zooarchaeological Analysis to Understand Past and Present Trends of Freshwater Mussels (Unionidae) in Mesoamerica (2018)
For over a century, the taxonomy of the Central American freshwater mussels (family Unionidae) has been the subject of numerous classifications and reclassifications, with naturalists identifying morphologically identical taxa as different genera or species, while at the same time classifying obviously distinct taxa under the same name. Zooarchaeologists at the mercy of these erratic classification schemes have been unable to effectively compare datasets. This study uses a combined...
Building a Frontier? Preliminary Investigations into a Late Preclassic Maya Triadic Temple Group (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For the ancient Maya, the second century B.C. was a period of growth and consolidation; populations boomed, and a common set of cultural ideas spread across the Maya Lowlands. This expansion of ideas is evident in the widespread presence of chicanel ceramics, the spread of a unified Late Preclassic figural style found on mural and carved monuments, and in the...
Buildings from the Ground Up: Early Maya Architectural and Settlement Practices at the Belize Valley Site of Pacbitun, Belize (2018)
Archaeological research in the Upper Belize River Valley has recently produced information that dramatically improves our knowledge of the earliest Maya. Investigations, particularly at the site of Pacbitun, has revealed evidence of radiometrically and ceramically dated cultural stratigraphic deposits for the early and late Middle Preclassic subperiods (900-300 BC). Excavations were undertaken in the site core, principally Plazas A and B, to determine the nature and extent of these communities...
Bundled Time: An Analysis of an Intrasite Sac-Be Assemblage at Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico (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. After Mexico declared its independence from Spain in 1821, foreign explorers began traveling throughout the Maya area and documenting sites, structures, and monuments then unknown in the United States and Europe. In photographs, drawings, and written reports, these explorers depicted Maya ruins as deserted and lifeless, and...
Caches, Memory, and Ritual at the Maya City of Cival (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2013 and 2014, a series of excavations were conducted on Structure 9 at the Preclassic period center of Cival. Structure 9 is the western radial pyramid associated with the site’s central E-Group complex. These excavations uncovered a series of caches, termination rituals, and deliberate destruction of architectural features across five major phases of...
Caves, Ancestors, and the Underworld: Bedrock Manipulation as a Strategy in the Development of Middle Formative Period Maya Socio-Political Complexity, Based on Evidence from Ka’Kabish, Northern Belize (2018)
Growing evidence suggests the ancient Maya conceptualized caves, as well as small crevices in the karstic bedrock (both natural and artificial), as sacred ch’een – portals of shamanic communication, which existed in a liminal realm between the physical world and the ancestral powers of the cave-riddled Underworld. Ch’een represented important ritual foci for the ancient Maya, as well as receptacles for sacred offerings. The interment of prominent ancestors and symbolically valuable materials...
Centering the Edge: The Preclassic Ceramics of Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "“The Center and the Edge”: How the Archaeology of Belize Is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For many years the notion of a core (or center) versus periphery (or edge) dominated models of prehistoric Maya development. However, in 1979 David Freidel argued against the idea that there was a center or edge, asserting that the lowland Maya belonged to an interaction sphere....
Ceramic Evidence of Normal and Anomalous Diffusion from Mesoamerica into Northwest Nicaragua (2018)
The ceramic record of Pacific Nicaragua can be interpreted as showing evidence of migration in the form of both normal and anomalous diffusion. Normal diffusion is seen in the Department of Chinandega through the ceramics of the early facet of the Late Preclassic Cosigüina complex, which derive from the Providencia Sphere. This ceramic sphere originates from the southern highlands of Guatemala and western El Salvador and now extends at least to northwest Nicaragua. The evidence of superdiffusion...
Ceramics and Social Process at Holtun, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Holtun: Investigations at a Preclassic Maya Center" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we present data from 13 years of pottery research at the Maya site of Holtun, Guatemala. Using results from type: variety classification, attribute studies of paste and form, and chemical composition analysis we outline the sequence at Holtun and relate it to important events in the history of the site and region....
Ceramics of the Middle Usumacinta Region: Relationships over Time (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. Since the beginning of the Middle Usumacinta Archaeological Project, researchers have observed that ceramics from several archaeological sites in the region share similarities with those from the site of Ceibal, located in Petén, Guatemala. After...
Ceremonial Spaces and Public Events at the Preclassic Maya Centers of Ceibal, Guatemala, and Aguada Fénix, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Humble Houses to Magnificent Monuments: Papers in Honor of Jerry D. Moore" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dr. Jerry Moore’s work has been highly influential not only in Andean archaeology but also in the archaeology of Mesoamerica and other parts of the world. Dr. Moore’s pioneering analysis of the lived experience of the built environment has inspired us to examine ceremonial spaces at Maya sites, including plazas...
The Ch'ulel of Architecture of Power: Preclassic Ritual Behavior in the Northern Maya Lowlands (2018)
How does a building become architecture of power? How can this power be release or lost? There are many ways in which a building can be imbued with certain attributes that allow expressing and regulating unequal power relations. Along with the form and style of buildings, ritual is perhaps one of the most important means. Through ritual performance, actors imbue the building with the ch'ulel, ensouling and animating it; obliged the ch'ulel to leave the building, killing the animate construction,...
Changes in Obsidian Procurement and Use from the Preclassic to the Classic Periods at Holtun, Guatemala (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Holtun: Investigations at a Preclassic Maya Center" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Imported obsidian is often representative of regional trade patterns in Meosamerica. Such patterns for the Central Lowland Maya have been documented and allow for comparisons between sites and between periods within a single site. In this paper we compare the procurement and use patterns of obsidian between the Preclassic and Classic...
Chemical Composition of Maya Slips: Analysis and Interpretation of Preclassic Sherds from Holtun, Guatemala Using pXRF Technology (2018)
Slip, a fluid suspension of clay that is applied to the surface of a piece of ceramic, allows for increased control over the functional and aesthetic properties of the finished vessel. The potter can select a slip to provide a more appealing color, texture, and/or luster to the vessel’s surface, while maintaining the favorable functional qualities of the paste.While slip color has long been used as an attribute for classification in the Maya lowlands, only recently have the raw materials of...
Chemical Indices as a Key to Context: The Use of pXRF to Reassemble Maya Mural Fragments from San Bartolo, Guatemala (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. The dissemination of wall paintings from the Late Preclassic period Maya site of San Bartolo, Guatemala, have focused on the in situ north and west walls of the buried chamber named Sub-1A. In contrast to their excellent...
A Closer Look at the Use of Cueva de Sangre through Skeletal Remains (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The use of caves is a part of an essential role in Maya cosmology and ideology. The Petexbatún Regional Cave Survey identified 22 caves and over 11 kilometers of cave passages between 1990 through 1993 at Dos Pilas, Guatemala. This study reexamines 205 human remains collected from Cueva de Sangre. Previous studies (Minjares, 2003) of the...
Coastal Hydrogeological Context of Potable Water Sources of the Vista Alegre Maya Port Site, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico (2018)
Ongoing investigation at the ancient Maya port site of Vista Alegre has revealed a multi-phased and significant occupation spanning the Preclassic to Postclassic periods. However, the vital source of potable water that would have supported this coastal settlement remains unknown. We present a hydrogeological assessment of the region to understand changing water sources over the last 2 millennia. Potential groundwater foci at the intersections of conjugate fracture sets are presently either...
Colha, Northern Belize: A History and Record of Research (2018)
The northern Belize prehistoric Maya site of Colha was first archaeologically documented by the Corozal Project in the early 1970s. The most significant archaeological research at the site was conducted as The Colha Project (1979-1983), with subsequent projects of specialized interests (1994-2017). Though known primarily for its lithic dimension as a major production and distribution center of stone tools, many other aspects of Maya society have been identified from the numerous seasons of...
Commemorating the Preclassic Monumental Construction at Tayasal, Guatemala (2018)
Research into the Main Group at Tayasal, Guatemala, revealed that the Postclassic inhabitants re-occupied areas and buildings that were constructed during the Preclassic period. Most of those buildings in the Main Group stand on a massive elevated platform, which was also constructed during the Preclassic period. The Preclassic period was the period during which the construction of monumental architecture such as E-groups and Triadic Group occurred at numerous sites including Tayasal. It was...
A Comparative Bioarchaeology of Health and Status in Pre-Classical K’axob and Cuello (2018)
This paper explores whether there is a statistical difference in rates of non-specific infection between two Maya pre-classic villages, K’axob and Cuello, and whether these findings can be correlated to social status within and between the two villages. Using representative skeletal samples from these populations, an osteological analysis is performed to determine the presence of non-specific infection markers in the form of periosteal reactions. Any signs of reaction are scored by level of...
Comparative Stable Isotopic Analyses between Dental Enamel and Bone Collagen among Central American Archaeological Samples Spanning 8,000 Years (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Advances in Interdisciplinary Isotopic Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen stable isotope analyses are popular tools within the field of archaeology. Applications for stable isotope analyses of human and faunal bone collagen and dental enamel include environmental reconstructions, modeling subsistence patterns, and investigating human-animal relationships, as well as potential to...
Continuities and Transformations: A Sociopolitical History of the Central E-Group of Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 2" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations at the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah, located in the Bajo el Laberinto region of the Maya lowlands, have demonstrated that the construction, maintenance, and elaboration of its central E-Group-style plaza-pyramid complex was integral to the multimillennial...