Social and Political Organization: States and Empires (Other Keyword)
26-50 (136 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Nuevos datos de la dinastía Kaanu’l en el Clasico Temprano de la tierras bajas mayas: Proyecto Promeza Dzibanche/Kaanu’l 2023-2024." session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La presente ponencia tiene como objetivo ofrecer un panorama general de los trabajos de conservación realizados en el área central de la Zona arqueológica de Dzibanché, durante la temporada 2023/2024. Específicamente se platicará sobre las intervenciones...
Contextualizing Xunantunich in the Late Classic Belize Valley through Investigations of Structure A9 (2018)
Xunantunich, an ancient Maya site in the Belize Valley, rose rapidly from a minor political center to a powerful regional polity during the Late Classic period (AD 600-900). Previous researchers suggested that this rapid rise was influenced by Xunantunich’s relationship with the more powerful polity of Naranjo in the nearby Petén Province of Guatemala. Their argument was based in part on a Late Classic period building program at Xunantunich resulting in a site layout that resembles that of sites...
Continuity of Resistance after the Maya Social War: 1901-2024 (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Rising Up Against Authority: Archaeological Approaches to Rebellion" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> The Maya Social War (originally called the Caste War of the Yucatan) was a massive rebellion and disruption of the mid 19<sup>th</sup> century political, social, and economic systems of the Yucatan Peninsula. This rebellion (1847 – 1901) can be identified within some archaeological contexts. But this eruption is...
Control, Visibility, and Storage at Monte Sierpe, a Late Horizon Site in the Pisco Valley, Peru (2018)
The Pisco Valley was an important node for the Inka empire’s control of what is now the southern coast of Peru, as evidenced by the presence of the large Inka administrative center of Tambo Colorado. This valley additionally would have been a strategic location for sociopolitical and economic exchanges between the Inka empire and the Chincha kingdom, whose capital is located just to the north in the Chincha Valley. This preliminary research utilizes survey data and GIS analyses to examine access...
The Cult of Xochipilli (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Flower World: Religion, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Xochipilli, the Flower Prince, was widely revered through various manifestations as the patron god of the noble classes throughout southern Mexico. As such he was credited with patronage over palaces, royal marriages, feasts, wealth finance, and belief in an exclusive elite afterlife and...
Cultura material y agencia local en Chile Central en los tiempos del Inka (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Indigenous Stories of the Inka Empire: Local Experiences of Ancient Imperialism" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Las evidencias indican que el uso de actividades de amplia convocatoria asociada a prácticas ceremoniales fue una estrategia fundamental para la integración de las cuencas de los ríos Aconcagua y Maipo-Mapocho (Chile central) al Tawantinsuyu. La cultura material permite inferir la participación de...
Datos arqueológicos del asentamiento prehispánico de Dzibanché, Quintana Roo (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Light on Dzibanché and on the Rise of the Snake Kingdom’s Hegemony in the Maya Lowlands" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El asentamiento prehispánico de Dzibanché, se localiza en el Sur de Quintana Roo, tiene una extensión aproximada de 60 km2, superficie que incluye las áreas destinadas a la producción de alimentos y áreas habitacionales. Dzibanché fue el asiento de la dinastía Kaanu’l, durante el periodo del...
Decentralized Negotiation and Imperial Flexibility in the Margins of the Inca Empire (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Indigenous Stories of the Inka Empire: Local Experiences of Ancient Imperialism" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Marginal imperial regions are places where more flexible modes of dominion can be expected, where distinctions between state impositions and local appropriation of imperial infrastructure and material culture are less clear. Particularly in regions with decentralized polities, political negotiations are far...
Deep Histories of Conquest: Mesoamerica, Iberia, and New Spain (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and Material Culture of the Spanish Invasion of Mesoamerica and Forging of New Spain" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As the discipline best suited for studying changes in human societies over long periods of time and the materiality of our existence, archaeology offers a valuable perspective on historic cross-cultural encounters viewed as deep history with tangible ramifications. At the quincentennial of...
Dental Evidence for Structural Resilience and Vulnerability at Ancient Copan, Honduras (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Late Classic Copan was a densely populated, socially complex center of ancient Maya political and economic activity. Society was structured around status, residences, and complex demonstrations of identity and lived experiences. Despite these multiplicitous variations in social positions, previous analyses have found high rates of nonspecific stress...
Digital Humanities and Religious and Social Archaeology of Medieval Central Eastern Europe: New Trends and Approaches (2024)
This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 2: Crossing Boundaries, Materialities, and Identities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The present paper introduces the ERC project RELIC and its sister WEAVE project REPLICO, modeling how the general population was involved in significant historical processes such as Christianization and state formation, by conducting a complex, comparative analysis and contextualization of...
Dimensions of Health in the Andes: A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Morbidity Patterns in Mountain Landscapes (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Living and Dying in Mountain and Highland Landscapes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper uses a bioarchaeological approach to examine the morbidity profiles of highland communities in the Cusco region of Peru during the centuries that witnessed the rise, fluorescence, and demise of the Inka Empire (ca. 1300-1550 CE). Through original analysis of human skeletons from the sites of Huanacauri and Matagua and a...
The Dynamics of State Integration: A Neighborhood Perspective from San Lucas, Copán, Honduras (2018)
In the early 2000s, Mesoamerican archaeologists adopted the "dynamic" model of state organization, positing that political centralization strengthened and diminished over time. Such fluctuations are due primarily to the inherent tension between the institutions of kinship and kingship, and consequent struggle for power in political, economic, and religious spheres. I argue that the intermediate scale of the neighborhood is best suited for analyzing how local- and state-level power structures...
Dzibanché: The Capital of the Kaanul (Snake) Kingdom Seen through Lidar (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Light on Dzibanché and on the Rise of the Snake Kingdom’s Hegemony in the Maya Lowlands" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dzibanché is an archaeological zone in southern Quintana Roo encompassing several large ceremonial complexes, Dzibanché, Tutil, Kinichna and Lamay connected by causeways. According to contemporary texts, it was the early capital of the Kaanul (Snake) kingdom with vast hegemonic influence across...
El Achiotal in Context: Settlement and Geopolitics in the Northwest Peten, Guatemala (2018)
This paper presents research carried out by members of the Proyecto Regional Arqueologico La Corona at the site of El Achiotal since 2009, with emphasis on new findings since 2015. Occupation at the site spans the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods (roughly the 1st to 5th Centuries AD, with the possibility of some earlier occupation). An inscribed stela discovered in 2015 provides critical insight into the geopolitics of the Early Classic period and establishes greater time-depth for some...
El caso Huarco y la hegemonía Inca en el valle bajo de Cañete (2018)
En el valle bajo de Cañete, la élite Huarco compartía una tradición cultural similar con las élites vecinas a lo largo de la costa centro-sur; a la llegada de los incas, esta tradición se mantuvo pero reconfiguraron sus estrategias políticas y económicas. De esta manera lograron proteger sus relaciones interregionales en este territorio, con el fin de aprovechar los beneficios de la presencia inca en el valle. El Huarco, de acuerdo a los relatos etnohistóricos fue un señorío fuerte e...
Embodied Empire: Life and Death of Wari Elites from Castillo de Huarmey (2018)
The discovery of an undisturbed burial context at Castillo de Huarmey, bringing to light remains of Wari immediate elite members, finally embodied long discussed highest social levels of Wari Imperial elites. Until that time they characteristic was derived almost exclusively from indirect sources, mainly material remains of high quality material culture and architecture. Now, there is a chance to get a glimpse on their actual life stories, occupation, and to see their faces. Analysis of the...
Examining the Institutionalization and Transformation of Maya Kingship at Actuncan, Belize using Collective Action Theory (2018)
Here, I summarize the major research questions and results from the Actuncan Archaeological Project, which has been on-going since 2001. The project was initially designed to examine the ways Preclassic Maya leaders institutionalized political authority from the perspective of household archaeology, but has expanded to include excavation of civic architecture and remote sensing in open spaces. My research is informed by collective action theory, and the degree to which leaders engaged in...
Excavaciones y conservacion de la arquitectura y relieves del edificio Tutil 2, Dzibanche. (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Nuevos datos de la dinastía Kaanu’l en el Clasico Temprano de la tierras bajas mayas: Proyecto Promeza Dzibanche/Kaanu’l 2023-2024." session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Como parte del proyecto PROMEZA: Dzibanché 23-24, se realizaron labores de mantenimiento arquitectónico y exploraciones arqueológicas en el edificio 2 del Complejo Tutil. Éste último se localiza a unos 2km al poniente del centro monumental de Dzibanché, y...
Excavations at Great Zimbabwe: Commoner Housing versus Elite Enclosures (2018)
Salvage excavations in the 1970s at the famous capital of Great Zimbabwe, southern Africa, uncovered several residential complexes dating to Periods IVb (AD 1300-1450) and IVc (AD 1450-1550). Overall, granaries and middens surrounded closely-spaced houses of commoner families living between the Outer and Inner Perimeter Walls. These high-density concentrations stood in marked contrast to the open spaces typical of elite enclosures. One midden against the Outer Perimeter Wall yielded a copper...
Factional Ceramic Economies in the Inka Imperial Heartland (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Alfareros deste Inga: Pottery Production, Distribution and Exchange in the Tawantinsuyu" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Inka ceramic workshops have been identified in many Inka provinces, but the process of making and disseminating Inka pottery in the imperial heartland of Cuzco has been largely unknown until recently. Previously, scholars assumed Inka pottery was made in state-sponsored workshops near the urban...
Feeding the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite Society: Subsistence Strategies of Cities, Towns, and Urban Centers in the Horn of Africa (800 BCE–900 CE) (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Cultivating Cities: Perspectives from the New and Old Worlds on Wild Foods, Agriculture, and Urban Subsistence Economies" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Local and long-distance trade and productive agricultural systems contributed to establishing complex socioeconomic institutions in the Horn of Africa between 800 BCE and 900 CE. Several important urban centers and towns, such as Yeha, Aksum, and Matara, emerged...
The Force Awakens: The Nature and Chronology of Wari Presence in the Huarmey Valley (2018)
Since the fundamental work of Dorothy Menzel, it has been suggested that a new center of power and prestige arose on the North-Central Coast of Peru during the late Middle Horizon, and that its focal point was probably located in the Huarmey Valley. Unfortunately, this hypothesis has not been empirically confirmed for more than 40 years, due to the lack of strong evidence based on systematic archaeological research. Since 2010 an international team of scholars performs multidisciplinary research...
Frayed at the Edges: Insights into Classic Period (250–900 CE) Maya Political Organization from the Southeast Maya Kingdom of Copan, Honduras (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Regimes of the Ancient Maya" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While ongoing research has clarified much about the strategies Classic period (250–900 CE) Maya rulers used to establish, integrate, and administer their Lowland Maya kingdoms, studies of frontier zones, such as the southeast edge of the Maya area, both provide insights into Maya political organization and highlight local challenges not faced by rulers in the...
From Marginalized to Impactful: Belizean Archaeology and the Classic Period Maya (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. The impact of Belizean centers and settlement on ancient Maya civilization of the Classic period (CE 250–900) has been recognized in the last 50 years of research. Before 1975 Belize was seen as being on the fringes of the Maya world and portrayed as a backwater. Most...