Maya (Other Keyword)
476-495 (495 Records)
Set in a coastal wetland environment, Marco Gonzalez—to paraphrase the session abstract—is a repository of sediments, fauna, artefacts and plant remains, pertinent to an understanding of human-environment interactions. Marco Gonzalez is also an area of naturally occurring coral sand, grasses and sedges that has been transformed over time into cultivable land. Our preliminary results indicate, however, an inadvertent, rather than planned, transformation. Nonetheless, the site can be characterised...
Water Management and City Founding at Yaxuná, Yucatán (2015)
Like many other sites in the northern Maya lowlands, Yaxuná and its environs incorporate a number of cenotes (natural pits in the limestone bedrock that expose underlying groundwater) into the built environment. Interestingly, all but one of these permanent water sources lie beyond the limits of the site’s public and residential core. Residents of the ancient city compensated for this, at least on a seasonal basis, by constructing an aguada (a natural, or in this case human-modified, pond) in...
Water Mountains and Water Trails: The View from Northwest Peten (2016)
Vernon Scarborough’s path-breaking work on lowland Maya water management has focused attention on the way that the Maya conceptualized and utilized landscape and its water sources for political, religious and economic purposes. Research in northwestern Peten suggests that canoe traffic linked the site of El Achiotal adjacent to the Central Karstic Uplands to the San Pedro Martir River by way of the San Juan River commanded by El Peru-Waka’. The Mirador hill at Waka’ was conceived as a water...
Wayfinding: Paths, Pathway Markers, and Navigational Monuments at Wari Camp and Beyond (2017)
Social life never proceeds in the absence of a spatial dimension that defines, brackets, segregates, alters or otherwise organizes interaction. The power to organize space emerges historically from the sweep of institutional arrangements across society and operates along many different dimensions and scales, at once establishing boundaries all the while insidiously permeating them. This historical process – this "social production of space" – is what we refer to as landscape. Landscape has been...
Weeds, Seeds, and Other Maya Needs (2016)
Our understanding of the diet, subsistence, and agricultural practices of ancient Maya commoners has been remarkably enhanced thanks to many years of archaeological investigations at Cerén led by Payson Sheets. The recovery of paleoethnobotanical remains at the site has revealed not only the storage of various well-preserved foodstuffs, but also extensive house gardens and agricultural fields filled with lasting impressions and carbonized remains of a diverse set of plant species including...
What Lies Between Two Regions: Settlement and Landscape Archaeology at the Aguacate Sites, Belize (2017)
A series of exploratory surveys along the northern edge of the Belize River Valley in the area of the Aguacate lagoon has gradually revealed a surprisingly dense distribution of minor centers of the Classic Period Maya. These centers are situated in a zone of intersections, the nature of which shaped their presence in the landscape. Politically, the region lies at an interstice between the spheres of influence of several powerful, well-known polities. Geographically, the site complex is...
"What’s in that hole?" Engaging Subterranean Spaces in the Three Rivers Area of the Southern Maya Lowlands (2017)
The importance of subterranean space has been well established through studies of Maya sacred landscape. The Maya word "che’en" is used for any natural feature that penetrates the earth such as caves, cenotes, rock shelters, chultuns, sinkholes, springs and crevices, all spaces where the sacred nature of animate Earth are expressed. In the Three Rivers area of the southern Maya lowlands, non-cave Maya archaeologists appear to be at a loss on how to engage landscapes where sacred landmarks take...
When is Chert More Than Just Chert? Case studies of Elite Distribution of Utilitarian Goods in Northwestern Peten, Guatemala and Western Belize (2016)
At a basic level, the lowland Classic Maya economy was a complex web of prestige exchange, centralized distribution, and local market economies. In fact, while it is important not to consider the lowland Classic Maya economic system as monolithic, it is also as critical to understand how it articulated with the different levels of social hierarchy. Beyond this, we should also make a point of understanding the roles these specific economic systems played in the distribution of utilitarian goods...
When the Cat’s Away: Obsidian at Rio Amarillo Before and After the Collapse of Copan, Honduras (2016)
The architecturally diminutive, but economically robust, Classic Maya polity of Copan must have had an integral role in the production and exchange of Ixtepeque goods; perhaps even control of portions of the source itself. Indeed, after the collapse of the Copan state, Ixtepeque becomes one of the most heavily traded obsidians in the Maya world. This proverbial opening of the floodgates suggests that Copan used Ixtepeque materials primarily for local and regional exchanges, increasing its value...
Where and How did the Maya Practice Agriculture in the Classic Period City of Naachtun, Guatemala? (2016)
Maya communities occupied and cultivated the tropical lowlands of Naachtun (Peten, Guatemala) for nearly a millennia (AD 150-950). Major goals of the Peten-Norte Naachtun project include understanding why the city was founded, the reasons for its development and why it was abandoned. Due to constraining environmental conditions (non-permanent water supply, shallow soils), the availability and management of water and soil resources in the city and around the bajo are closely tied to settlement...
Where is Temple? : Construction and Use of Ceremonial Group at Tayasal (2015)
Since the 1970s, a ceremonial group dating to the Late Postclassic period at the archaeological site of Tayasal has been excavated by several archaeological projects. These efforts have greatly contributed to the understanding of the Late Postclassic period and the Itza Maya communities in the Petén lakes region. The ceremonial group includes a Postclassic "basic ceremonial group" on the west and a probable Late Preclassic E-group on the east. Excavations revealed architectural arrangements and...
Where There's Fire, There's Smoke: Contemporary Lacandon Maya Incense Burners and Ritual Transformation (2015)
Lacandon Maya fabricate incense burners ("the gods’ ceramic vessels") found by archaeologists in Maya ruins, caves, and abandoned "god houses". Ethnographies and my field notes describe the incense burners and how they are made and used. The function and symbolism of the burners provide clues to the importance of fire and smoke in past Maya rituals, including cremation. The incense burners are formed from clay with human heads, arms, and legs. The anthropomorphic bowls become bodies of gods...
Wild Cane Cay, Southern Belize: Major Classic to Postclassic Maya Trading Port (2015)
A natural harbor, strategic location in the mouth of a navigable river and opposite the Paynes Creek salt works, Wild Cane Cay developed from a fishing village in the Early Classic (A.D. 300-600) to a major trading port from the Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) through the Postclassic (A.D. 900-1500). As skilled mariners, the Wild Cane Cay Maya were familiar with the shoals, storms, and other hazards of the sea, as well as the endless opportunities for travel on the sea. During the Classic period,...
Willfully Obscured: Figurines and Caves in the Maya Late Classic Period (2015)
As both space and material are used to create interpretations or infer ancient ritual meanings concerning the Late Classic Maya, the consideration of caves and ceramic figurines provide interesting comparators as they evoke restrictions of intent and imagery within a regional setting. Opportunistic sampling of figurines from cave contexts for compositional analysis has resulted in chemically-based patterns from which one can glimpse directional patterns of movement from resource area to recovery...
A Wind from the Depths of the Earth (2015)
Among the hundreds of caves I have observed in the Maya area a number stand out in possessing relatively large tunnel systems with restrictions near the entrances. When air is driven from the caves due to atmospheric pressure, the restrictions create a fast moving flow of air that is quite noticeable around the entrance to the cave. Ethnographic evidence suggests that modern Maya are quite aware of such air movements. Because rain was closely associated with caves among the ancient Maya and...
With Turkeys on Spears and Maize on Arrows: Defining and Defending the Province of Chetumal (2015)
Chetumal Bay had political and economic importance for local Maya populations for more than 2000 years. When the Spaniards entered the region in the 16th century, they settled near its political capital and attempted to incorporate it into a larger colonial world system, only to be met with wide-scale resistance. This paper examines the shifting dynamics of the Chetumal Bay territory, from the Preclassic through Postclassic-Colonial Periods, with perspectives drawn from Cerros and Progresso...
The Workings of Classic Maya Marketplace Exchange from the Perspective of the Buenavista del Cayo Marketplace (2016)
Marketplace exchange among the Classic Maya is frequently inferred from the degree of homogeneity in consumption practices among households of differing statuses. The actual presence of marketplaces among the Classic Maya has been a point of debate, but recent empirically based investigations at a few Lowland sites have provided evidence for their existence. The Late Classic marketplace located in the East Plaza of Buenavista del Cayo, Belize is such an example. Examination of marketplace...
Writers on the Storm: A Terminal Classic Migrant Maya Scribal Household (2016)
Despite the fact that images of Maya scribes in Classic period art are not uncommon, the identification of scribes and their households within the archaeological record remains elusive. The association of several utensils typically correlated with Maya scribal toolkits, and a prominent house mound at the Terminal Classic Maya community of Strath Bogue, has prompted the identification of this structure as a scribal household. This identification is of particular significance given that the site...
Xunantunich Reloaded:Examining the Socio-Political Significance of Structure A9 (2017)
Recent excavation of Structure A9 at the site of Xunantunich, Belize, confirmed that the mound represents the remains of a medium-size temple dating to the Late Classic period. Sub-surface excavations along the central axis of the mound revealed a large, vaulted chamber containing the remains of an elite individual. Two hieroglyphic panels flanking the building’s front staircase identify a link between Xunantunich and three other Classic Maya polities: Caracol, Naranjo, and Calakmul. Exploration...
You Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee; Consumer Goods at the 19th Century Maya Refugee Site at Tikal, Guatemala (2017)
In the mid-nineteenth century Maya refugees fleeing the violence of the Caste War of Yucatan (1857-1901) briefly reoccupied the ancient Maya ruins of Tikal. These Yucatec speaking refugees combined with Lacandon Maya, and later Ladinos from Lake Petén Itza to form a small, multi-ethnic village in the sparsely occupied Petén jungle of northern Guatemala. The following paper will discuss the recent archaeological investigation of the historic refugee village at Tikal, with a focus on the recent...