Maya (Other Keyword)
226-250 (495 Records)
The archaeological site of Holtun is an intermediate sized Maya civic-ceremonial center with documented occupation from the Middle Preclassic through Terminal Classic periods (800 BC – AD 900) featuring well-preserved cultural deposits in multiple contexts. Previously, NAA was conducted on an assemblage from the Middle Preclassic ceramics in which four discrete compositional groups were identified. One such group in particular was composed almost exclusively of Mars Orange Paste Ware, a product...
Integrative 3D visualization for spatial analysis and interpretation of rock shelters in Quintana Roo, Mexico (2015)
The integration of multimodal and multiscalar 3D imaging and visualization techniques can be used to explore ritual and non-ritual uses of rock shelters by analyzing potentially meaningful relationships between natural and constructed features. Situating rock shelters within the greater context of Maya subsurface ritual practice may in turn help further define the Maya concept of caves. LiDAR and SFM can be integrated with traditional mapping techniques and ArcGIS to rapidly and precisely...
Inter-site Causeways as Political Infrastructure in the Northern Maya Lowlands (2015)
In the Maya lowlands, several polities oversaw the construction of long causeways that connected regional centers with smaller settlements. As infrastructure, such causeways have been shown to facilitate exchange of basic goods between people at different sites. Archaeologists also view these causeways as political statements that materialize the extent of a polity and emphasize hierarchical relations between settlements on the causeway. Recent research along the 18km long causeway between Uci...
Interaction as Movement, Movement as Interaction: The Tripod Vessel in the Maya Region (2015)
Interaction between the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan and the Maya region, and the subsequent influence of Teotihuacan on Maya material culture, has been much discussed. Although many scholars have noted the tripod cylindrical vessel as a diagnostic trait of Teotihuacan and as evidence of interaction and/or influence in other areas of Mesoamerica, further examinations of the tripod ceramic vessels and their imagery found in the Maya area have not been fully developed. The tripod vessel...
Interaction in the Late Classic Kaqchikel Area and Adjacent Pacific Coast: Least Cost Routes (2017)
Least cost analysis of prehistoric nodes of interaction in the Kaqchikel Guatemalan highlands and Pacific Coast indicates the locations of viable travel routes. Several classes of data, such as sculpture, obsidian and ceramics, indicate that there was communication and economic exchange in the Kaqchikel Maya area in the central highlands and Cotzumalguapan Piedmont during the Late Classic Period (600-830 A.D.). Today people walk between neighboring towns on foot paths and roads designed for cars...
The Intermediate Elite of the Puuc Maya Suburbs: Excavations at Terminal Classic Escalera al Cielo (2016)
Seven years of extensive horizontal excavations at the Terminal Classic suburban hilltop complex of Escalera al Cielo have uncovered nearly the full range of social and economic activities undertaken by a class of intermediate elites on the edge of the Kiuic polity. Rather than considering Escalera al Cielo as simply another rung in the settlement hierarchy, we view it as a constituted community that formed and maintained ties of affiliation with the urban elite of Kiuic and with the commoners...
An Interpretation of Motifs on Protoclassic Polychrome Pottery from Naj Tunich Cave (2017)
A good deal of academic attention has been focused on the iconographic analysis of Maya painted ceramics, principally from the Late Classic Period and to a lesser extent from the Early Classic. The tradition, however, begins in the first century A.D. during the protoclassic ceramic stage. Virtually no analysis has been undertaken on these earliest Maya artistic expressions probably because the motifs are largely geometric and figural representations are rare. I compiled a motif inventory from...
Introduction to Research at Naachtun: Archaeological and Paleoenvironmental Issues (2016)
The maya site of Naachtun is an important regional center of the Classic period, located in northeastern Peten. Founded after the decline of the Preclassic Centers of the Mirador Region, Naachtun is occupied roughly during a millenary until its abandonment (ca. AD 950). This site, settled on the margins of a huge bajo, is a good case study to understand strategies of resources management (water supply, soils, wood, fauna, and shells among others). All are available in its immediate vicinity, but...
Investigating Landscapes in the Maya Lowlands: Integrating Geospatial and Environmental Sciences to Identify Archaeological Features in Northwestern Belize (2015)
Satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are invaluable noninvasive archaeological tools. The combination of remotely sensed datasets with GIS, geomorphological and ecological factors, and environmental variables associated with known archaeological features can produce a multivariate statistical predictive model. The authors will test the utility of integrating high resolution multispectral satellite imagery, lower resolution multitemporal satellite imagery, georeferenced...
Investigating the Development of Social Inequality through Preclassic-Period Maya Household Ritual (2015)
In this paper we will discuss how ritual activities in both emergent elite and commoner Maya households contributed to the development of social complexity and hierarchy during the Preclassic period at the site of Holtun, Guatemala. Our working hypothesis at the site is that while certain households successfully manipulated traditional ritual practices and symbols related to political and religious authority, all households would have contributed to the cultural milieu in which the dominant...
Investigations at the Site of Dos Hombres and its Hinterlands: A Multiscale Perspective of Ongoing Investigations (2016)
Ongoing investigations at the site of Dos Hombres are being conducted towards a multiscale perspective. Investigations in the hinterlands of Dos Hombres have revealed much about household and community organization there based on architectural, material culture, and water management feature remains. Evidence in the civic ceremonial center of Dos Hombres is being gathered towards a greater understanding of its role economically in the region, its occupation history, and socio-political...
Isotopic Evidence of Animal Management and Long-Distance Exchange at the Maya Site of Ceibal, Guatemala (2016)
Animal management and resource exchange are essential to the development of state-level societies. Archaeological evidence for these activities has been particularly difficult to track in the Maya area, but recent advances in isotopic research may allow a novel opportunity to observe these practices. This study reviews new evidence for animal management and long-distance exchange at the lowland site of Ceibal, Guatemala, a large Maya community occupied throughout the Preclassic and Classic...
Izapa and Highland El Salvador: Terminal Formative and Classic Period Ties (2017)
This paper explores coastal and highland interaction in southern Mesoamerica between coastal Chiapas and highland El Salvador. Published accounts of Salvadoran excavations have reported that ties between highland Salvadoran sites and Mesoamerica declined at the close of the Formative period with the eruption of the Ilopango volcano. The dating of the Ilopango eruption has since been updated, and an renewed look at interaction between these zones is necessary. This paper reviews archaeological...
Jade Faces: Heirlooms and Emulations in Olmec and Maya Art (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Dancing through Iconographic Corpora: A Symposium in Honor of F. Kent Reilly III" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. From the colossal heads of the Olmec to the severed head of the Maya Maize God in the Popol Vuh, the head and face have been of singular importance in Mesoamerican art and thought. If the human body is an axis mundi, the head and face give that axis a physical manifestation of individuality. A nexus of...
The Jovel Valley of Highland Chiapas from the Classic Period to the Postclassic Period (2017)
In contrast to the sociopolitical instability and depopulation observed at many sites in the Southern Maya Lowlands during the Classic to Postclassic transition, Highland Chiapas was characterized by stability and demographic expansion, as suggested by our excavations in the Jovel Valley, where small cities and towns maintained their roles as political and economic centers throughout this period. In this paper, we examine patterns of continuity and change evidenced by recent excavations at the...
"Just the leftovers!" Pre-Christian ritual in highland Maya colonial documents (2015)
In this paper I will present an analysis of colonial texts in indigenous languages that describe or paraphrase pre-Hispanic ritual. I will present comparisons between the structure and poetics of such texts and those of contemporary Christian sacramental practice as attested in sixteenth and seventeenth century doctrines and catechisms. Based on the analysis of intertextuality, I will show that pre-Hispanic ritual genres became a template for the Spanish mendicant friars and their native...
Juvenile Death and Ancestor Veneration: Comparing Child Burials of the Preclassic Maya at K’axob and Cuello, Belize (2015)
Recently, children have been a growing focus of mortuary analysis as archaeologists have been interested in how past societies responded to childhood mortality. This study is a comparative analysis of two Preclassic Maya sites, K’axob and Cuello, and the child burials, 25 and 19 burials respectively. The age ranges of the individuals are infant, child, and adolescent. Placement of the burial, burial offerings, type of grave, and other variables are analyzed to determine how children were...
Keeping It in the Family?: An Investigation into the Relatedness of Individuals Found in an Ancient Maya Chultún (2017)
The ancient Maya site of Blue Creek, located in northern Belize, has revealed archaeological evidence suggesting regional occupation from the Preclassic through Terminal Classic periods. The excavation of one Late Classic group (550 C.E. - 830 C.E.), Kin Tan, by the Maya Research Project revealed a chultún containing the remains of five commingled individuals of various ages. Examination of these skeletal remains revealed some commonalities in postcranial non-metric traits among those interred...
La Florida/Namaan: a Classic Maya River Port (2015)
The Classic Maya polity Namaan is referred to in the inscriptions of several sites in Mexico and Guatemala, attesting to its importance as an ally by many neighbors. Namaan has long been identified as the site of La Florida, located on the San Pedro River in western Peten, Guatemala. This position lay at an intersection of routes connecting the large cities of central Peten to the fertile Tabasco Plain and the Usumacinta River Valley. Though many archaeologists and epigraphers have visited the...
La vida alrededor del Río Holmul: Patrón de Asentamiento de Cival y la Región de Holmul (2015)
La investigaciones sobre el patrón de asentamiento en la región arqueológica de Holmul, analiza el relieve terrestre y los cambios en el paisaje observados en el registro arqueológico, a través de la comparación de los emplazamientos, de los distintos tipos de grupos arquitectónicos y la relación entre sus distintos componentes naturales y culturales. La topografía de la región es de naturaleza caliza con abundancia de fenómenos kársticos, localizada en un amplio terreno de bajos rodeada por...
Land and Society: Evaluating Diversity In Land Use Strategies Among The Classic Lowland Maya Through Terrace Design And Maintenance (2017)
Agrarian production in the Central Maya Lowlands during the Classic period was comprised of a variety of techniques that were used to satisfy dietary needs and to stimulate its subsistence economy. Rainfall totals and intensity along the variable topography of the region may have predisposed areas with less vegetative structure to soil erosion. Previous research suggests the application of terraced features by the Maya as a means to lessening the effects of surface runoff while also...
The Land of the Windy Water Lords: Secondary Centers in the Motul de San Jose Polity, Guatemala (2015)
Motul de San José dominated a swath of the northern shore of Lake Peten Itza in central Peten, Guatemala, during the Late Classic. Its Ik’ Emblem Glyph has now been translated as "Windy Water," an apt name for this zone. Excavations at two small sites in the periphery of Motul de San José, Kante’t’u’ul (approx. 3km northwest) and Chachacklu’um (approx. 5km east) aimed to investigate the relations between these secondary centers and their political overlords at Motul de San José. Settlement...
Landscape and Formative Households at Tzacauil and Yaxuná, Yucatán (2016)
A population boom during the Late Formative period (ca. 250 BCE-250 CE) corresponded with the expansion of permanent, aggregated settlements across Mesoamerica. In central Yucatán, Yaxuná was a centralizing focus during the Formative, yet it was not the only place that attracted settlers – so did the nearby, smaller site of Tzacauil. In this dynamic time, what was the relationship between a large center like Yaxuná and its humbler neighbors like Tzacauil? Was Tzacauil an autonomous hamlet, or is...
Large-Scale Production of Basic Commodities at Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala: Implications for Ancient Maya Political Economy (2016)
Salinas de los Nueve Cerros is a major Precolumbian Maya city that grew around the only non-coastal salt source in the Maya lowlands. Residents of the city were able to transform the neighborhoods adjacent to and atop the salt dome into a large-scale production operation with the capacity to produce over 10,000 metric tons of salt a year, which were then distributed throughout the western lowlands via the Chixoy, Pasión, and Usumacinta river networks. By the Late Classic period, the city had...
Late Classic Ceramic Production and Communities of Practice at Uxbenka, Belize (2017)
Archaeological approaches to ancient Maya communities often assume that spatially distinct architectural groups are tantamount to social groups, but proximity is likely not the only salient organizing principle. Members of prehistoric communities, like modern ones, defined the community in which they belong based on who they choose to interact with, which often lies at the intersection of kin, status, gender, ethic, economic, and spatial affiliations. Employing a communities of practice...