Maya: Postclassic (Other Keyword)
126-150 (174 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. I present a workflow for optimizing the classification of airborne laser scanning point data and the selection of appropriate surface visualization techniques to improve the identification of archaeological and environmental features at the Postclassic city of Mayapán. The initial 2013 digital elevation model enabled the identification of thousands of...
Residuos químicos en el patio de una unidad habitacional del Clásico Tardío en Chinikihá, Chiapas (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Las prácticas que tienen lugar en las unidades habitacionales se relacionan profundamente con procesos que ocurren a escala local y regional (Liendo et al., 2015: 12). El Proyecto Regional Palenque, incluyó el estudio de unidades habitacionales, tomando a los residuos químicos como estrategia para acercarse a las prácticas cotidianas que transforman los...
Return to Aztlan: Aztec Pachuca Green Obsidian in Maya Sites at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Elemental Analysis Facility at the Field Museum: Celebrating 20 Years Serving the Archaeological Community " session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeology at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico, recovered large amounts of green obsidian from mines at Pachuca, Hidalgo, which were managed by Mexica-Aztecs in Late Postclassic times (ca. 1300–1520 CE). Excavations in coeval Maya habitation sites at Mensabak recovered obsidian...
Revisiting the Mortuary Function of Chultunes (2018)
Excavations at Mul Ch’en Witz uncovered a series of chultunes just below the escarpment on which the ceremonial core of La Milpa is located. Of the six chultunes identified during the 2017 field season, Chultun 3 has produced the most cultural material. In addition to several complete vessels excavated, human bone fragments were recovered. The remains, found next to the chultun capstone, revive questions surrounding the mortuary function of chultunes. Dennis Puleston, among others, considered...
A Royal Portrait at Chichen Itza? Central Mexican Emblems of Authority in the Northern Maya Region (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The city of Chichen Itza has defied attempts to identify individuals who ruled the city and its basic political organization. Scholars once argued for a shared governance system called multepal, basing this assertion on glyphic references to a series of people who apparently jointly held power. Subsequent scholarship challenged this assertion, as revised...
A Rural Travel Stopover at the Late Postclassic Maya Site of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico: Overland Trade, Cross-Cultural Interaction, and Social Cohesion in the Chiapas Frontier (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A small rural stopover site in the frontier along overland Late Postclassic (ca. 1300–1500 CE) Maya and Aztec trade and travel routes was identified at Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico. This site is similar in function to rural Old World and Andean caravan stop overs, such as caravanserai and way stations, where travelers and traders obtained...
Settlement Fission in the Western Guatemala Highlands (2019)
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. This paper examines dynamic changes in Maya settlement patterns through a comparison of expansion and contraction of settlement patterns during the pre-Columbian, historic, and contemporary periods. In particular, it looks at when and why settlements are formed, within what is generally considered to be a single...
Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Maya Port site of Conil (2018)
The ancient Maya port site of Conil is located in the modern community of Chiquilá on the north coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico. In 1528 Francisco de Montejo, a Spanish conquistador, reported that Conil was a large town consisting of 5,000 houses. William Sanders was the first archaeologist to work at the site in 1954, but the site core was not formally mapped until 2005 by Glover. Further work was conducted in 2014, 2016, and 2017 as part of El Projecto Costa Escondida (PCE). Data collection and...
The Shadow Realm: How Belizean Archaeology Has Illuminated the Maya Postclassic Era (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. Without Belizean archaeological data, we would know very little about the Maya Postclassic period (CE 950–1530). While viewed as a period of lesser cultural development by earlier researchers, Postclassic archaeological research in Belize was published as early as 1898 but...
The Significance of Debt to Household and Political Economies of Postclassic and Contact Period Maya Societies (2018)
Debt was important to late Maya societies in religious and political terms. This paper explores the many facets of debt that tied together household and regional economies, including bottom-up mechanisms employed by families and communities, as well as top-down institutions that garnered support for religious and political bureaucracies. Graeber’s distinction between moral and impersonal economies outlines a comparative continuum with profound implications for issues of human rights in the past....
Social Interaction and Exchange Networks in Eastern Honduras: Late Classic-Early Postclassic Period (AD 600-1000) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Pre-Columbian Cultures of Honduras after AD 900" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ceramics have been the most reliable indicator of social interactions in eastern Honduras. However, these material indicators have also been described sometimes as being rather homogeneous throughout the region. On the other hand, some scholars point out intraregional variations regarding eastern Honduran ceramic assemblages and what...
The Social Transformation of the Terminal Classic Maya to Postclassic Maya in Northern Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Terminal Classic (AD 800-1000) and Postclassic (AD 1000-1500) periods of Maya civilization in northern Belize were times of significant change and social transformation. Changes and developments during the Terminal Class are visible archaeological at several northern Belizean communities including Colha, Lamanai, and La Milpa. We evaluate changes at...
Spinning Makes the World Go Round: Spindle Whorls from Nohcacab, Q. Roo, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A spindle whorl was an integral tool in textile production, it had social, religious, political, and economic significance for the ancient Maya. The spindle whorls carried many roles such as functional tools, symbolic displays, gender, and status representations while interconnecting traditions, mastery, and the artistic expression of a weaver.
Stingless Beeswax in Mesoamerican Investment Casting Processes (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Mesoamerican metal objects have been studied in-depth in terms of alloys and production techniques, but little work has focused on the foundry materials used in the prehispanic casting process. In modern foundry practice, synthetic waxes, paraffins, or processed European honeybee wax...
A Story Written in Sherds: Ceramic Use Patterns at Río Amarillo Reveal Strategies of Survival in the Terminal Classic to Postclassic Copan Valley, Honduras (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The site of Río Amarillo, on the far eastern side of the Copan Valley, was integrated into the economy of the Copan polity during the Classic period. However, the groups surrounding the core of Río Amarillo long outlasted both Copan’s center and the secondary center of Río Amarillo. This paper will explore the ceramic evidence from the hinterlands to...
Strontium Isotopic Evidence Reveals Sustained Levels of Intraregional Migration at the Postclassic City of Mayapán (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We examine the process of migration using strontium isotope ratios from human enamel to shed light on the organization of the Mayapán polity during the formation (1200–1250 CE), apogee (1250–1400 CE), and decline (1400–1500 CE) of the city (N = 58). Our results support consistent local aggregation within the Chicxulub Basin and immigration from across the...
Stylistic and Cultural Change at a Cosmopolitan Site: The Early Postclassic Period Pottery of Lamanai and Northern Belize (2023)
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. The Maya site of Lamanai is strategically located in northern Belize on the New River, which connects the Caribbean coast to the interior of the Maya area. In the Preclassic period into the early part of the Classic, Lamanai pottery shows close connections...
Surviving the Apocalypse: A Late Terminal Classic Household in Northern Yucatan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Following the widespread Terminal Classic florescence that saw booming occupations at every site in the Cochuah region of west-central Quintana Roo, Mexico, many settlements were entirely abandoned. However, some sites possessed late Terminal Classic populations, living in novel architecture yet continuing other Classic Maya material practices. One such round...
A Tale of Two Ports: A Preliminary Assessment of Ceramic and Artifactual Assemblages from Conil and Vista Alegre (2018)
Coastal communities in the Maya Lowlands played a myriad of roles in the ebb and flow of political, economic, and social formations over the past 3000 years, yet these roles have remained along the periphery of Maya studies. Though ever present, Maya coastal sites were atypical – perhaps even idiosyncratic – in terms of how they were imagined and lived-in by the Maya. Critical to our understanding of these coastal settlements is the material culture traded and utilized by the occupants of these...
Terminal Classic Practices Reflected in Diet and Geolocation: The B-4 Peri-abandonment Deposit at Xunantunich, Belize (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study applies isotopic analyses of carbon (ẟ13Ccoll) and nitrogen (ẟ15Ncoll) from bone collagen, with carbon (ẟ13Cap), oxygen (ẟ18O), and strontium (87Sr/86Sr) to faunal remains excavated from a peri-abandonment deposit at the ancient Maya site of Xunantunich during the Terminal Classic period. Peri-abandonment deposits represent a distinct phenomenon in...
Testing Methods of Microbotanical Analysis on Samples from the Copan Valley, Honduras (2018)
The Copan Valley in western Honduras has been the subject of a number of studies concerning human-environmental interaction, with particular emphasis on questions of ancient sustainable practices and whether or not land-use mismanagement contributed to the end of the Maya dynasty at Copan. The current PARAC project seeks to identify the range of foods consumed by the inhabitants of the Copan Valley during the Late Classic to Postclassic period. This paper will describe analyses conducted on...
Testing the Stratigraphic Integrity of Shallow Deposits through Zooarchaeology at Lamanai, Belize (2018)
Identifying formation processes of shallow archaeological sites can be difficult. At Lamanai, Belize, the main problem consists of distinguishing between pre- and post-Spanish contact deposits buried at a depth of 10 to 60 cm. Evidence of interaction with the Spanish includes a few European objects and two Christian churches. However, identifying pre-contact deposits is more challenging. Maya archaeologists typically rely on ceramic typology to establish chronology, but the main pottery type in...
Thermal Identification of Groundwater Discharges within Saline Lagoons Surrounding Vista Alegre, Quintana Roo, Mexico (2018)
The Maya port and site of Vista Alegre carried political and trade importance in the Terminal Classic to Early Postclassic periods. Located in the Laguna Yalahau of northern Quintana Roo, Mexico, the site is built on a small and low elevation island surrounded by mangrove. Inland from the site are freshwater wetlands (sabanas), while the near-shore waters of the restricted circulation lagoon are hypersaline. A significant research question is how the inhabitants of Vista Alegre accessed potable...
"These, therefore, are our roots, our existence": Ancestral Roots as the Embodiment of Identity in K'iche' Maya Society (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond Maize and Cacao: Reflections on Visual and Textual Representation and Archaeological Evidence of Other Plants in Precolumbian Mesoamerica" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Title of Totonicapán, a sixteenth-century K’iche’ Maya text, the authors declare that the founders of their royal lineage were the “roots” from which they grew and were nourished, as a maize plant draws its sustenance from its roots:...
Tiempos de cera y miel: Iconografía, ecología y sacralidad de las abejas nativas en el Códice Madrid (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Adventures in Beekeeping: Recent Studies in Ecology, Archaeology, History, and Ethnography in Yucatán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La evidencia escrita más completa sobre el cultivo de abejas en el mundo maya procede del libro jeroglífico prehispánico denominado Códice Tro-Cortesiano. En los almanaques de las abejas que están en las páginas 89b y 103 a la 112 hay abundante información sobre diversos aspectos de la...