Highland Mesoamerica: Postclassic (Other Keyword)
76-100 (276 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Regional and Intensive Site Survey: Case Studies from Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper we will present the results of the geostatistical analysis of the ceramics recovered during the archaeological prospecting works at Malpaís de Tacámbaro site in the La Garita sector. This is a big settlement located on top of a volcanic flow in the municipality of Tacámbaro, the south central of Michoacán....
Divine Food and the Warriors of Curicaueri (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Tzintzuntzan, Capital of the Tarascan Empire: New Perspectives" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Tarascan cosmovision, feeding the gods daily, especially Curicaueri, was vital because it ensured that the world would continue to function; this food was the human sacrifice. At the foot of the platform, one of the most significant pieces of evidence of this act of surrender to the gods was found, where an enormous...
Dressed to Kill: Richly Adorned Animals in the Offerings of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2019)
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. Over the course of four decades, the Templo Mayor Project (1978–2018) of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has excavated more than two hundred offerings in the area corresponding to Tenochtitlan’s sacred precinct. These rich Mexica deposits from the fourteenth, fifteenth, and...
Economic Institutions in Ancient Greece and Mesoamerica (2018)
New studies have led to a deeper comprehension of economic variation and change in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica and the Archaic and Classical Greek world. Archaeological data on city-state settlement patterns, specialized production, trade, and household consumption, and new archival material and re-analysis of texts, have replaced primitivism, substantivism, and ideal-types. In urbanization and demographic scale the two areas are comparable. Mesoamerican and Greek agricultural production was...
The Effect of Prehispanic Metallurgy on the Environment of a Tropical Rain Forest in Jicalán, Michoacán, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Technological Transitions in Prehispanic and Colonial Metallurgy: Recent and Ongoing Research at the Archaeological Site of Jicalán Viejo, in Central Michoacán, West Mexico" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A core of 23 cm was recovered from a lake bed, now a dam, in Jicalán Viejo. The core was sampled for pollen analysis at every centimeter. Pollen analysis describes the presence of a tropical rain forest with tree...
El Malinche and Tlaxcallan: A Field Guide to Taking Down Democracy (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. Contact between the Conquistadores and the native peoples of Mexico 500 years ago was a watershed moment in human history. At its heart was the relationship between El Malinche (Hernán Cortés) and the Tlaxcalteca. Although much has been made of the role the resulting alliance played in the...
El paisaje del Yuvui Tayu de Ñuu Ndaya, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, México (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El yuvui tayu (reinado) de Ñuu Ndaya o Chalcatongo fue uno de los más importantes durante la época precolonial en la Mixteca Alta de Oaxaca. Esto lo sabemos gracias a los códices precoloniales y a los documentos coloniales. En el 2008 y 2016 realizamos dos recorridos arqueológicos de superficie en la parte norte de esta región, estos nos permitieron...
El papel del suelo en la conformación del contexto arqueológico en el área de El Fuerte en la antigua Tlaxcallan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tlaxcallan: Mesoamerica's Bizarro World" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Este trabajo de investigación se desarrolló en el actual estado de Tlaxcala en un área denominada "El Fuerte", que formó parte del Estado tlaxcalteca en época prehispánica, y se inserta dentro del "Proyecto Arqueológico del Tlaxcallan. Hogares, Terrazas y Gobernanza en el Posclásico Tardío". El presente trabajo es un acercamiento a la...
Embodying Collective Identity: Analysis of Late Postclassic Facial Ornamentation Practices in Tlaxcallan, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tlaxcallan: Mesoamerica's Bizarro World" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In pre-Hispanic central Mexico, communities practiced various forms of embodying social identity through the use of facial adornments. Ornaments were placed in the ears, nose, and lips to materialize aspects of both self and collective identity, such as age, gender, status, kinship, and ethnicity. Recent research at the Late Postclassic (AD...
An Empire of Water and Stone: Aztec Kingship and Sacred Landscapes (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. My project will center around the Acuecuexco Aqueduct Relief (also referred to as the Ahuitzotl’s Aqueduct Relief) and its implications as a monument celebrating a public works project by an Aztec emperor. Only one other comparable example is known to date: the Chapultepec carving of Montezuma II. Although the later carving has received significantly more...
An Empirical Analysis of Highland-Lowland Interaction in the Aztatlán Tradition (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Aztatlán tradition constituted the primary economic and cultural development during the Early/Middle Postclassic (AD 900-1350) in west Mexico. Though politically decentralized, this culture was rooted on the Pacific coastal plain and featured vast trade networks. Located 100 km inland, the Etzatlán Basin is the westernmost lake basin in the Jalisco...
Enriched Spatial Syntax Analysis of Two Late Postclassic Terraces in Tlaxcallan, Mexico (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tlaxcallan: Mesoamerica's Bizarro World" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The work studies, from a human ecology perspective, the process of adapting the environment to the needs of the pre-Hispanic population of Tlaxcallan during the period of 1250-1519 A.D. It is proposed that the construction of the environment is the result of the interaction among ecological, historical, political, economic and symbolic factors...
The Epiclassic outside of the Basin: Measuring Population and Settlement Dynamics in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley, 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. Shared characteristics between settlements create the archaeological classification of the "Epiclassic" in central Mexico. These characteristics include rise in militarism, increase in long-distance networks, the upswing in regional centers vying for power, and a boost in art, architecture, and...
Epiclassic Palaces: Exploring Social Behavior from Spatial Design (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Interactions during the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic (AD 650–1100) in the Central Highlands: New Insights from Material and Visual Culture" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The built environment expresses the social values applied during architectural design, although these criteria are not always used consciously. Thus, the buildings constructed for the elite of a community show how this group conceives its...
Estudios Químicos sobre la Cal de Tlaxcallan del Posclásico Tardío (1250-1519 d.C.) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Tlaxcallan: Mesoamerica's Bizarro World" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La cal fue uno de los principales cementantes en Mesoamérica y es considerada un rasgo clave para identificar niveles de complejidad social debido al alto costo energético que conllevó su producción artesanal en sociedades preindustriales. La cal también fue utilizada ampliamente en la antigua Tlaxcallan durante el Posclásico Tardío (1250-1519...
Evidencias arqueológicas del “ika” tojolabal, una tradición ancestral (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Heat, Steam, and Health: The Archaeology of the Mesoamerican Pib Naah (Sweat Baths)" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La ceremonia del temascal, el baño ritual prehispánico, está presente desde épocas remotas en muchos sitios arqueológicos de Mesoamérica hasta la actualidad. Para la etnia tojolabal es de gran importancia terapéutica relacionada con la salud del grupo familiar que habita en la casa, en especial la...
Excavaciones en un barrio de Cholula (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Cholula to Chachoapan: Celebrating the Career of Michael Lind" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Se reportan las excavaciones realizadas en los terrenos de la UDLAP en los años 1968 y 1979 a 1 km al este de la Gran Pirámide de Cholula. En 1968 se localizó un parte de un complejo habitacional y se identificaron diferentes áreas de actividades, entre ellas un horno para la producción de cerámica. En 1979, a 30 m al este...
Excavations of Early Postclassic Commoner Households at Jalieza, Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper summarizes the results of two seasons of excavations at Cerro Tecolote, the Early Postclassic (A.D. 750-1000) settlement at Jalieza in the southern Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. While the Valley of Oaxaca has been the focus of intensive and seminal archaeological research for over a century, the Early Postclassic is poorly understood in this region....
Experimental Investigation of Primary Copper Smelting in Central Michoacan (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. Copper was the main metal produced and worked in Mesoamerica, but data for pre-modern primary production and processing remain elusive. Systematic research at Itziparátzico, a Late Postclassic location in Central...
Exploring Long-Term Environmental Dynamics and Human Transformation of Aquatic Spaces in Lake Texcoco, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Lake Texcoco was the largest of the five lakes that existed in the Basin of Mexico. Drained almost completely in the early 1900s, most of its western part has been occupied by Mexico City’s metropolitan area, though its eastern part remains undeveloped, which permits exploring the prehistory of the lake. In addition...
Exploring the Role of Fire in Tarascan Ritual Contexts of the Zacapu Basin, Michoacan, 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. Studies of ritual activities often focus on paraphernalia, architectural structures, and other aspects of performance. While these are all important features, other more subtle elements that are nevertheless crucial to these activities are often not considered in...
Extracting Copper from Sulphidic Ores: The Jicalán Viejo Smelting Site (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Technological Transitions in Prehispanic and Colonial Metallurgy: Recent and Ongoing Research at the Archaeological Site of Jicalán Viejo, in Central Michoacán, West Mexico" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Contrary to other Mesoamerican cultural and political entities, the Purépecha Empire is renowned for its remarkable development of metallurgical production. Ongoing research at the site of Jicalán Viejo involves the...
A Few Considerations Regarding Jade Circulation during the Aztec Period (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Approaches to Cultural and Biological Complexity in Mexico at the Time of Spanish Conquest" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. It is well a known fact among researchers that the only confirmed jade deposits in Mesoamerica are found in the middle Motagua Valley in Guatemala. This gem’s brightest shades of green were the most appreciated among Mesoamerican people, yet, barely three hundred objects made with emerald green...
Fifty Shades of Gray . . . Obsidian: A Tale of Supply, Demand, and the Ties that Bind at Xaltocan, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Twenty Years of Archaeological Science at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In central Mexico, where obsidian was the primary tool stone used by Indigenous peoples, one can get a good sense of sources by separating green obsidian (from Pachuca) from gray obsidian (from Otumba, Ucareo, and several other sources). Compositional analysis can further clarify the gray sources....
Financing the Domestic Economy: A Study of Craft Production and Technological Change in Central Mexico (2018)
Studies of technological change often leave unasked how people finance their adoption of new technologies, focusing instead on concepts of risk and uncertainty. The means of finance—whether by surplus production, saving, assuming debt, sharing costs, or other mechanisms—depends on the particulars of the economy in question and can have systemic and long-term consequences for adopters. To show why finance matters in explanations of technological change and how archaeologists can study it, this...