Highland Mesoamerica: Classic (Other Keyword)
26-50 (217 Records)
A high-resolution chronology of two residential compounds (17:S3E1, 18:S3E1) recently excavated in the Tlajinga district of Teotihuacan has been developed using high-precision AMS 14C dating and artifact seriation datasets. The Tlajinga district is located along the southern Street of the Dead and was a possible entrance for migrants and visitors to the densely populated urban center of Teotihuacan during the Classic Period. Ceramic evidence suggests this district was occupied during the height...
The Beginnings of Archaeological Administration and Labor at El Tajín, Veracruz, 1900-1938 (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the history and ethnography of archaeology, only recently has archaeological labor – both administrative and physical – become an area of interest. In the Mexican context, recent historical research has dated the emergence of institutional archaeology to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911). However, there are few site-scale studies that explore...
Bitumen as Stabilizer in Earthen Architecture of the Mesoamerican Gulf Coast (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Plant Exudates and Other Binders, Adhesives, and Coatings in the Americas" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Investigations on monumental earthen architecture in the Classic period La Joya site in Central Veracruz led to the hypothesis that a bitumen additive was used as a stabilizer in construction. The use of bitumen resulted in increased resistance to weathering in a humid tropical environment, as well as control of...
Building Community Ties Using Archaeology in Tlajinga, Teotihuacan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Teotihuacan is an ancient city located in Mexico that was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It was the largest city in the Americas during its peak between 100-550 CE and its significance as an early, cosmopolitan center has been demonstrated over decades of continuous study. The Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) began in 2012...
The Burial Artifacts of Epiclassic Los Mogotes, Basin of Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The hilltop, Epiclassic period (ca. 600-900 CE) site of Los Mogotes (ZU-ET-12) sits on the boundary between the northern Basin of Mexico and the southern Mezquital valley. Hence, it is well-placed to understand local and regional transformations between the fall of Teotihuacan (ca. 650 CE) and the rise of Tula (ca. 900 CE). In this paper, we examine burial...
Caminos a Los Horcones, Chiapas: An Least Cost Path Analysis of Early Classic Trade Routes (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Early Classic Period (250-600 CE), the site of Los Horcones rose to become and important gateway community sitting strategically on the flanks of Cerro Bernal where it controlled the terrestrial trade route along Pacific Coast into the Soconusco region. Archaeological research of this important regional center has revealed a complex history of...
Canids in the Faunal and Iconographic Record at La Quemada: An Analysis from the Perspective of Huichol Ethnography (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The presence of canids (members of the biological family Canidae, including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and foxes) at the archaeological site of La Quemada in Zacatecas, Mexico has been established through multiple lines of evidence, including broad representation in...
The Cave and the Cross: Agricultural Subsistence, Rainfall Prediction, and Ritual in the Sixteenth-Century Mixteca-Puebla Region (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Subterranean in Mesoamerican Cultural Landscapes" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The inhabitants across the Northern Mixteca and the drier sectors of the Tehuacan Valley developed technological innovations to counter the effects of recurrent drought on subsistence. Among measures implemented to conserve soil and water there are terraces, dams, reservoirs, and canals, as well as seed selection and cultivation...
Ceramic Chronology in the Absence of a Horizon (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, I present an initial ceramic seriation for the Epiclassic site of Chicoloapan Viejo, in the southern Basin of Mexico, with a discussion of issues particular to periods of political fragmentation. I demonstrate that two phases can be distinguished at Chicoloapan Viejo, based on...
Ceramics, Ground Stone and Miscellanea at the Zaragoza-Oyameles Obsidian Quarry in Puebla, Mexico (2018)
One result of the intensive, 5-m interval surface survey of the Zaragoza-Oyameles obsidian source area in Puebla, Mexico was the recovery of several artifact classes suggestive of prolonged habitation. Ceramic and ground stone artifacts recovered indicate that domestic activities were an important component of the obsidian procurement and production economy. Ceramics tended to concentrate in areas that also contained higher quantities of ground stone, but did not correlate with any one stage of...
Changing Representations of Gender in Ceramic Figurines During the Emergence of the Teotihuacan State (2018)
This paper investigates transformations in the construction and expression of gender in the Basin of Mexico from the late Middle Formative through Classic periods (approx. 600 BC- AD 600). Ceramic figurines from the sites of Teotihuacan, Axotlan, Cerro Portezuelo, and Huixtoco are used to explore how elements of gender were constructed and communicated in the region over the course of a millennium, and how these practices underwent a radical transformation during the emergence and expansion of...
Characterization Using Raman Spectroscopy of Amazonite and Turquoise of Tomb II, Tingambato, Michoacán, México (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 archaeological site of Tingambato is located in the state of Michoacán, in a transitional zone between the highlands and the lowlands of the Balsas River. This geographical location allowed a long distance interchange...
Chemical Analyses and Activity Areas at Cerro de en Medio: A Multidisciplinary Approach (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This interdisciplinary archaeological study centers on Cerro de en Medio (CDEM), an ancient site in the northern reaches of Mesoamerica during the late Classic period (600-900 CE). Advanced chemical analyses of occupation floors provide insights into CDEM's activities, revealing its intricate social dynamics. The research combines this chemical analysis...
Chemical Analyses of Activity Areas at Cueva de las Varillas in Teotihuacan (2024)
This is an abstract from the "What Happened after the Fall of Teotihuacan?" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We present the chemical analysis of human activities in a cave occupied during the Epiclassic and Postclassic periods (AD 600–1500) at Teotihuacan. The archaeological context is formed by different cultural occupations within the same space, but during different periods of time. Due to the cultural and temporal diversity, we implemented a...
Chemical Residue Analysis, Foodways, and Ceramic Consumption in Tlajinga, Teotihuacan (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Tlajinga is the southernmost district of Teotihuacan, a cosmopolitan city that thrived in Central Mexico during the Classic Period. Previous research done in Tlajinga includes surface collection associated with the Teotihuacan Mapping Project and the excavation of one apartment compound, during the 70’s. Recent investigations carried out by the Proyecto...
Classic Veracruz Sculptures and Bodies in Fragments (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Sculpture of the Ancient Mexican Gulf Coast, Part 2" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As part of a larger study on Classic Veracruz fragmented bodies and sculptures, I sketch two case studies of contexts in which fragmented yokes, decapitated heads, and figurine body fragmentation come together in Protoclassic and Early Classic Tres Zapotes and Cerro de las Mesas.
Comparing the Megalopolises of New and Old Worlds: Examining the Urban Infrastructure of Teotihuacan and Imperial Rome (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Two of the ancient world’s largest cities were Teotihuacan in Mexico and Rome in Italy. Although their estimated population sizes are wildly divergent—the first of many features to be examined—the actual infrastructure, and thus the possibilities for the enhancement of social...
Connecting Dead, Living, and Supernatural through Plants: Botanical Mortuary Offerings at Monte Albán (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines the plants used as mortuary offerings at the Zapotec city of Monte Albán (500 BCE–900 CE). After their passing, the deceased became Ancestors able to offer protection to their descendants. I explore the possibility that food (specifically plants) might have helped to provide and strengthen a bridge between the...
Conservación de la pintura mural de una tumba Zapoteca de la Sierra Norte de Oaxaca (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse: Current Research in Oaxaca Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Enclavado en la entrada de la región de la Sierra de Juárez, Oaxaca, San Pedro Nexicho es una comunidad zapoteca asentada sobre los vestigios arqueológicos de un sitio que data de la época Clásica y Posclásica, en cuya época más tardía constituyó el Señorío de Ixtepeji. A partir del año 2015 la fundación Alfredo Harp Helú se interesó...
Contextualizing Ritual Violence: Kinship, Ethnicity, and Human Sacrifice in Epiclassic Central Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ritual violence has a long time-depth within Mesoamerica. While archaeologists and ethnohistorians have studied the political and cosmological significance of this practice extensively, less is understood about how or why particular individuals were targeted for...
Contribution of Stephan F. de Borhegyi to the Archaeology in Guatemala: Investigation in the Borhegyi’s Archives at the Milwaukee Public Museum (2018)
Archaeologist Stephan Borhegyi contributed significantly to the development of archeology in Guatemala in the late 1950s and early 1960s with his investigations both in the highlands and on the Pacific Coast. He was a pioneer in underwater archeology at Lake Amatitlán and carried out studies at other sites around the lake. He also made important entries on different archaeological sites in the Highlands and on the Pacific Coast, particularly on the Bilbao site. In Guatemala, his works were...
The Contribution of Tree-Ring Studies to Archaeological Research in Northwestern Mesoamerica (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Journeying to the South, from Mimbres (New Mexico) to Malpaso (Zacatecas) and Beyond: Papers in Honor of Ben A. Nelson" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite more than fifty years of excellent archaeological research in Northwestern Mesoamerica, progress has been impeded by a lack of precise chronological controls to understand site developments and pinpoint the direction of political influence and cultural change....
Cords of Restraint and Authority: Teotihuacan’s Net Jaguars and Technologies of Ensnarement (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent excavations at the Moon Pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico, have uncovered fierce predators—including eagles, pumas, wolves, and rattlesnakes—buried inside. Analysis indicates that many were alive at the time of sacrifice: some in cages, and others bound. Some show evidence of long captivity,...
Corporal Animal Forms as Ritualized Bodies in Burial 5, Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Multispecies Frameworks in Archaeological Interpretation: Human-Nonhuman Interactions in the Past, Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Applying a relational ontological approach to faunal bones I identify animals, secondary animal by-products, and faunal artifacts as persons—in the corporal animal forms of puma, eagle, wolf, and rattlesnake—whom actively engaged with entangled sociopolitical communities of humans....
Creating the Pax Tolteca: Diversity, Autonomy, and Centralization from the Epiclassic to the Early Postclassic Periods in the Northern Basin of Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper studies the role that economic and ecological diversity plays in the establishment of communities, the maintenance of sociopolitical autonomy, and the centralization of regional state power. We focus on the transition from the Epiclassic period in the northern Basin of Mexico, a time...