Maya: Postclassic (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nicholas Brokaw. Sheila Ward.

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. Some archaeologists believe that a key to the success of ancient Maya civilization was sophisticated tailoring of agriculture and forestry to varied environments. Some archaeologists and ecologists also think that ancient forestry is reflected in the tree species composition of modern forests. Based on studies in northwest Belize we...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Timothy Hare.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I present an analysis of the landscape connecting shifting ceremonial groups and settlement distributed across the Terminal Classic and Postclassic landscapes in the Mayapán region. Mayapán is the largest Postclassic urban center in the Maya Lowlands and has been the focus of previous research in the area. Traditional and lidar surveys at Mayapán reveal a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Victor Castillo.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations at Chiantla Viejo, in the western Guatemalan highlands, focused on studying how public ritual in spaces for communal gatherings mediated changes and continuities in small Maya communiies during the Spanish conquest. Excavations revealed a short occupation at Chiantla Viejo at the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hannah Bauer. Olivia Navarro-Farr.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological research on problematic deposits has provided a generic category for otherwise unexplainable bodies of evidence for ritual activity. This research focuses on data from two similarly constituted problematic deposits in the Maya area, one very well known from the North Acropolis at Tikal, and one lesser known from civic ceremonial structure M13-1...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gabrielle Vail.

Analysis of the iconography, hieroglyphic captions, and calendrical component of the Postclassic Maya codices, believed to derive from the Northern Maya Lowlands, provides important information about their possible antecedents. Portions of the Dresden Codex, for example, suggest clear links to the mural program painted on the interior of the Los Sabios structure from the site of Xultun, Guatemala, which includes a section with detailed calculations of a lunar cycle and another that may depict a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julie Hoggarth. Jaime Awe. Brendan Culleton. John Walden. Douglas Kennett.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Gordon Willey’s pioneering work in the Upper Belize River Valley presented some of the first perspectives on household and community archaeology in the Maya Lowlands. Beginning with that work, scholars came to identify Postclassic occupation at sites along the Belize River, primarily at Barton Ramie and later at Baking Pot. However, the Barton Ramie...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Allan Cobb. James Brady. Guillermo De Anda Alaniz.

One of the most enigmatic publications in Maya cave archaeology has been Edward H. Thompson investigation of the High Priest’s Grave at Chichen Itza in 1896. Thompson discovered a masonry shaft running down the center of the pyramid that gave access to a cave/cenote beneath the structure. This was the first account of a cave with a pyramid built over it and Thompson suggested that the cave contained seven chambers, hinting at the possibility of a Chicomoztoc. J. Eric Thompson in editing and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hemmamuthé Goudiaby. Jaqueline García Basto.

This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During most of the Classic era (250–900 CE), Maya funerary practices were locally defined. Particularly in the Maya Lowlands, burial programs would shift from one capital to the next, while remaining well-codified on a local level. The modes of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cecelia Klein.

This is an abstract from the "Animal Symbolism in Postclassic Mesoamerica: Papers in Honor of Cecelia Klein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. All sixteen birds carved on the sides of the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars at Chichen Itza have been traditionally identified as eagles. Because each pair of birds flanks a large relief of a seated jaguar holding a heart, it has been assumed in the past that the platform celebrated military orders like...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Paris. Roberto López Bravo. Gabriel Lalo Jacinto.

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Maya Embedded Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines the integration of small polity economies in highland Chiapas, and the ways in which polity size and proximity were factors. This region formed part of the western frontier of the Maya linguistic and cultural area, and has been characterized as a relatively autonomous economic and political periphery. Beginning in the Late Classic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mara Reyes. Lilian Corzo. Rocio Albarrán.

This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El sureste del Petén está conformado por una diversidad de paisajes geográficos y ambientales que permitieron el desarrollo de asentamientos prehispánicos claramente jerarquizados desde épocas muy tempranas hasta muy tardías, incluyendo los dos siglos que...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justine Shaw. Thania Ibarra Narvaez.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following a peak in construction activity during the Terminal Classic, most of the 105 sites documented in the Cochuah Region in the central Yucatan Peninsula were abandoned with only a fraction boasting minor Postclassic activity in the form of small shrines and temples. However, at a number of settlements, a much-reduced population continued during a newly...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Hernandez. Joel W. Palka.

Our study examines the interplay of the environment, topography, conflict, and social change. Recent research stresses the role of environmental and ecological fluctuations in the Classic Maya collapse (AD 700-1000). Scholars have linked drought cycles and changing climate to increased warfare and culture change at the end of the Classic Period (AD 200-900). However, numerous studies highlight that not all places in the Maya area collapsed, some communities grew and continued to be places of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cristina Verdugo. James Brady. Lars Fehren-Schmitz.

This is an abstract from the "Studies in Mesoamerican Subterranean Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dental modification in Mesoamerica dates to the Early Preclassic Period and persisted into the 16th century. Investigations have suggested a number of possible explanations, generally aesthetic or ritual, for the practice. There is little consensus in the field. A total of 1194 teeth were recovered from Midnight Terror Cave (MTC), Belize,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Camilla Speller. Erin Thornton. Aurélie Manin. Kitty Emery.

This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Domestication, Husbandry and Management in North America and Beyond" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As one of the few intensively managed species in Mesoamerica, the turkey plays a key role in understanding cultural interactions and subsistence, particularly in the Mayan lowlands. Two populations of turkeys were exploited in this region: the local, wild ocellated turkey...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jeremy Coltman. Karl Taube.

This is an abstract from the "Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Refining Our Understanding of an Enigmatic Mesoamerican Being" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Most representations of the feathered serpent at Chichen Itza depict a plumed rattlesnake, a being of wind and carrier of rain, with Central Mexican origins dating back to Early Classic Teotihuacan. In Classic Maya art, feathered serpents are not rattlesnakes and lack plumage aside from a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ashuni Emmanuel Romero Butrón.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The municipality of Puerto Morelos is located in northern Quintana Roo, Mexico. Beginning in the past century, and continuing through present day, researches have reported numerous archaeological sites in this region. However, many of them do not have a precise location, and we do not know about their conservation status. As a result of this issue and the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nelda Issa Marengo. José Osorio León. Francisco Pérez Ruíz.

This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human skeletal assemblages from Chichen Itza and its surrounding regions are complex, which makes Chichen Itza a prime location to study mortuary practices. The complexity stems most likely from Chichen Itza’s multicultural relationships with other groups not only within the Yucatán Peninsula...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Allen Christenson.

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. According to the Popol Vuh, the first truly successful human beings were created from maize by the goddess Xmucane: “The yellow ears of maize and the white ears of maize were then ground fine with nine grindings by Xmucane. Food entered their flesh, along with water to give them strength. . . . The yellowness of humanity came to be when they were...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mary Miller.

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 Grolier Codex was reportedly found with other objects, including the Kislak box, the Dumbarton Oaks turquoise mask, and other objects in the United States and abroad. In this brief talk, these objects and their context will be addressed, as well as the likelihood of their having been...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Vera Tiesler. Virginia Miller.

This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Among late Maya religious complexes, Chichen Itza stands as a monumental landmark. Among the enigmatic aspects of Chichen’s ceremonial innovations count skull racks, where the heads of sacrificed victims were exhibited in rows. It was the first Mesoamerican city to erect a permanent, decorated...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mark Willis. Satoru Murata.

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. During the summer of 2016, large-scale unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mapping was conducted in the Western Lagoon near Crooked Tree, the largest inland perennial wetland in all of Belize. Our aim was to record a series of linear features in the wetlands that may represent ancient Maya canals...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yuko Shiratori. Carolyn Freiwald.

This is an abstract from the "Recent Research in the Petén Lakes Region, Petén, Guatemala" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Petén lakes region, Guatemala, has a rich and diverse ecology and abundant locally available resources including terrestrial, amphibious, and aquatic animals. The Postclassic (1100–1525 CE) sites in this region are mainly located on the lakeshore, suggesting that the Postclassic people were attracted to the lakeshore...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Chuchiak IV.

Upon initial contact with the lowland Yucatec Maya, the Europeans discovered that a significant number of Maya slaves existed within the Maya communities that they encountered. War captives, orphans, and forced and enslaved sexual servants from the lower classes, Maya slaves and their possession became by the late Postclassic and early colonial period the major source of wealth and power of the traditional Maya Nobility. Divorced from control over specified traditional patrimonial landholdings...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Judith Ruiz. Isabel Casar Aldrete. Vera Tiesler Blos.

This is an abstract from the "New Perspectives on Ritual Violence and Related Human Body Treatments in Ancient Mesoamerica" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A number of non-reverential, highly processed human assemblages containing mutilated sternal bones have been documented in different parts of Postclassic period Mesoamerica and beyond after being described by Carmen Pijoan in a massive ritual deposit from Tlatelolco, in the Aztec capital. In...