Maya (Other Keyword)
401-425 (504 Records)
For 40 years the trafficking of Maya antiquities has been at the forefront of debate over the most effective way to discourage the illicit antiquities trade. Images of mutilated Maya stela and jungle-covered temples pitted by looters' trenches epitomize the effects of the global demand for looted artifacts. National and international measures have been introduced to protect Maya sites on the ground, prevent looted artefacts from crossing borders, or effect the repatriation of stolen cultural...
Sabios in Situ: Art-making and Representing Authority at Classic Period Xultun (2015)
The study of mural art has moved beyond analytical approaches that isolate these highly meaningful works from the anthropological contexts that produced them, toward approaches that underscore their inseparability from the complex circumstances surrounding their production. However, such contexts in the ancient world are not directly observable and therefore cannot be studied using ethnographic methods. Instead, sociological dimensions of ancient art must be reconstructed through careful...
Sacbe Construction, Agricultural Production, and Community Organization in the Classic Maya Community of Cerén, El Salvador (2015)
The exceptional preservation of the Classic Maya community of Cerén, El Salvador has afforded the opportunity to examine how one group of people constructed their built environment. The remarkably well- preserved site (public and domestic structures, earthen sacbe (road), agricultural fields, plant casts, and artifacts) greatly aids in our understanding of small-scale socio-political organization. This paper draws on data collected during the 2013 field season as well as earlier research. The...
Sacrifice in the Name of Ancestors: An Analysis of the Relationships between Terminus Groups and Site Cores in the Belize Valley (2017)
The functions of cosmologically oriented structures within the site core of Ancient Maya sites have been analyzed by archaeologist throughout time. However, the role of terminus groups in relation to the function of site cores have received little attention. In this paper, we analyze the function of the Zopilote Complex, a Terminus group located south of the Cahal Pech site core. Excavations on Str. 1 at Zopilote uncovered two elite burials accompanied by evidence of human sacrifice....
Salvage Excavations of a Painted Maya Tomb at Ayiin Winik, Northwestern Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2023, the Belize Estates Archaeological Survey Team (BEAST) field assessed recently acquired LiDAR data. This effort included documenting a previously unknown large ceremonial center, Ayiin Winik, located between the La Lucha Escarpment and the Rio Bravo in northwestern Belize. Exploration of the site identified a rare double ball court, a parapet-lined...
The Same, but Different (2015)
Variations in the architecture, settlement patterns, local environmental context, and occupational history of Maya archaeological sites are difficult to assess. Which differences are culturally meaningful? Which similarities indicate social relationships, and if so what sort of relationships? Which differences are simply a result of local climate and available building materials? In this paper I will examine some of the similarities and differences among the three Maya sites in North-Central...
The San Pedro Maya and the Western Frontier of British Honduras (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Making and Breaking Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands: Alliance and Conflict across the Guatemala–Belize Border" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Having fled the violence of the Caste War in Mexico, the San Pedro Maya occupied nearly two dozen small villages in the forests of western British Honduras and northeastern Petén from the 1850s to the 1930s. Archaeological and archival information attest to the fact that the...
Sea-Level Rise and Settlement at Ta’ab Nuk Na, Belize: Analyses of Marine Sediment From the I-line, 4m Transect (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Underwater Maya: Analytical Approaches for Interpreting Ancient Maya Activities at the Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ancient Maya created a culture with writing, religion, and vast trade networks. These trade networks are evident on the southern coast of Belize, where archaeologists have found sites dedicated to salt making. This paper will discuss Ta’ab Nuk Na, one of these...
Searching for Continuity in the Hinterlands: Households at Rancho San Lorenzo’s Floodplain North Settlement Cluster, Belize (2015)
In this paper I will summarize the results of the 2013 and 2014 field seasons at the Floodplain North settlement cluster, located within the Rancho San Lorenzo Survey Area in the Mopan River Valley, Belize. Investigations sought to identify continuous occupation from the Late Classic to Postclassic periods. Maya occupation at Rancho San Lorenzo peaked in the Late Classic, followed by a drastic decrease in population levels. However, pedestrian survey undertaken in 2013 revealed Postclassic...
Seeking Molecular Evidence of the Ritual Function of Unslipped and Monochrome Slipped Ceramic Types at Naj Tunich, Guatemala (2016)
A large portion of the ceramic assemblage recovered from the Maya cave site of Naj Tunich, Guatemala consists of unslipped and monochrome slipped ceramic types generally considered to be “utilitarian” or “domestic” wares. This identification is based upon type-variety analysis rather than any evidence of the actual use to which they were put. That these ceramics were deposited in conjunction with domestic activities is at odds with the widely accepted interpretation that the Maya employed caves...
Serpents and Bowls: An Analysis of the War Serpent Vessel from Burial 61 at El Perú-Waka' (2016)
In 2012, Dr. Olivia Navarro-Farr and her team excavated the tomb (Burial 61) of a Maya ruler in a large ceremonial structure at the site of El Perú-Waka’ in Petén, Guatemala. A confluence of taphonomic, epigraphic, and ceramic evidence underscored the identification of these remains as likely pertaining to Lady K’abel, a queen already well known from texts associated with that ancient city. This poster will explore one of the artifacts found in Burial 61, called the War Serpent Vessel, placed...
Settlement Development and Social Landscapes at the Classic Period Maya center Uxbenká (2017)
Using a Human Behavioral Ecology (HBE) framework, the social and environmental factors that influenced community development have been modeled at Uxbenká, a Classic period Maya center located in the southern foothills of the Maya Mountains. This study focuses on settlement decision making dynamics using a chronological assessment of the expansion of settlements based on radiocarbon dating and ceramic typologies in conjunction with statistical analyses to test which factors influenced patch...
Settlement Pattern Analysis at a Hinterland Community in Northwestern Belize: Results of the Medicinal Trail Reconnaissance and Mapping Project (2017)
The Medicinal Trail Reconnaissance and Mapping Project (MTRAMP) began in 2013 and just completed its fourth season in 2016. Those four seasons, plus the integration of previous mapping endeavors, has refined our understanding of the size and distribution of households and numerous landscape features that have been, or continue to be, the focus of excavations. Intensive survey and mapping of the Medicinal Trail locality has revealed, (a) that the largest, and most complex architectural groups are...
Seventh Century Star Wars: Reassessing the Role of Warfare in Shaping Classic Period Maya Society in the Southern Lowlands (2015)
At the time that Forest of Kings was written, Mayanists were unsure of how impactful Maya warfare actually was. Did it serve symbolic and ritual purposes like the Aztec flower-wars? Or, was Maya warfare actually waged for territorial gain? Forest of Kings was one of the first books to situate Maya conflict as warfare for territorial control. But, the depth and nature of this control as well as the way in which warfare articulated with and affected broader Maya society could not be answered in...
Shared Practices and Identities in the Northern Settlement of Actuncan, Belize (2015)
This poster examines how urban families developed and shared neighborhood identities at the Maya city of Actuncan, Belize, ca. AD 800-900, a time when the city experienced rapid population growth as surrounding centers, including Xunantunich, declined. To investigate household relationships, this research considers the nature and location of activity patterns in and around three commoner households to infer shared practices and the shared identities that those activities both enabled and...
Shifting Allegiances at Yaxuna during the Early to Late Classic: Territory and the Loss of Independent Rule (2015)
The site of Yaxuna, Yucatan, Mexico was an independent Maya city from the Formative to Early Classic periods. While the size of its territory during the early periods is unknown due to the lack of regional data on other large early cities in Central Yucatan, the Early Classic dynasty at Yaxuna was violently and abruptly vanquished towards the end of this period. At this time, a 100 kilometer causeway was also constructed connecting Yaxuna to the large metropolis of Coba, which was at its...
Shifting Colonial Narratives at the Edge of the Spanish Colony: 15th-17th Century Maya Archaeology at Progresso Lagoon, Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "After Cortés: Archaeological Legacies of the European Invasion in Mesoamerica" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. There is no question that colonialism in the Americas brought huge and unanticipated changes for both European and Indigenous peoples. Yet Indigenous people often contextualized colonial efforts within their own worldview, or ontology, even as they interacted with European people, things, and colonial...
Shifting Tides along the North Coast of Quintana Roo: Recent Research at Conil and Vista Alegre (2015)
In the northern lowlands, there is strong evidence for a coastal Maya presence since at least the Middle Preclassic, and scholars have long discussed how inland-coastal connections served as a catalyst for the development of social complexity. The scope and scale, however, of maritime commerce and interaction was closely linked to the ever-changing political and economic landscape. The work of the Proyecto Costa Escondida at the neighboring port sites of Conil and Vista Alegre highlight the...
The Sinkhole as Ch'een: A Closer Look at Ancient Maya Sacred Geography (2015)
During the 2014 field season, the California State University, Los Angeles Cave Research Project focused its investigation on a sinkhole at the site of La Milpa that had been given a cursory examination by the TRAP in 2012. An initial inspection suggested that the feature might well have been considered a ch’een by the ancient Maya. Ch’een is generally translated as cave but the indigenous term includes a large number of earth openings that were recognized as sacred landmarks. Excavations...
Site Map Validation and Quantifying Linkages between Multispectral and Lidar Remote Sensing for Settlement Pattern Mapping (2017)
Fifteen years of field survey and image processing of commercial satellite optical data have contributed to robust site maps of San Bartolo and Xultun, among other PROSABA sites in northeastern Peten. The recent acquisition of lidar-derived DSM and DTM data through PACUNAM has made new types of analyses possible, including the validation and enhancement of the site maps. We present recent mapping discoveries in the PROSABA region and research into the validation and extrapolation of settlement...
Situating Power and Locating Knowledge: A Paleoethnobotanical Perspective on Late Classic Maya Gender and Social Relations (2008)
Viewing household production in terms of a political economic balance of “give and take” circumvents difficulties related to gender attribution in archaeology and challenges timeless gender stereotypes. This chapter proposes such an archaeological approach to gender by examining the charcoal assemblages from two Late Classic period Maya archaeological sites in the upper Belize Valley of western Belize. These sites occupied distinct positions within a complex political economic landscape, and...
Situating the narrative style and legacy of A Forest of Kings (2015)
In this paper, we situate A Forest of Kings, which combined archaeological and art historical data, within the genre of ethnographic fiction. We consider its waxing and waning throughout time as a popular narrative form and its legacy that continues to this day. A Forest of Kings was conceived and written at a significant moment within the history of ethnographic fiction. While it is strongly grounded in the reflexive and representational practices of the late 1980s and early 90s, A Forest of...
The Smoking of Bones: An Ethnographic Examination of the Maya’s Use of Tobacco and Tobacco Substitutes (2016)
Epigraphic studies have confirmed what Classic period iconography has long shown—the Ancient Maya cultivated and smoked tobacco. Ethnographic studies among various Maya groups have brought to light a wide range of uses for tobacco, from pleasure, to healing, to witchcraft. In this paper I will address several lesser discussed topics related to tobacco. First, I will discuss ethnographic data relating to the use of other plants that are mixed with tobacco to alter its effects or tastes. Second, I...
The Smoking of Bones: An Ethnographic Examination of the Maya’s Use of Tobacco and Tobacco Substitutes (2015)
Epigraphic studies have confirmed what Classic period iconography has long shown—the Ancient Maya cultivated and smoked tobacco. Ethnographic studies among various Maya groups have brought to light a wide range of uses for tobacco, from pleasure, to healing, to witchcraft. In this paper I will address several lesser discussed topics related to tobacco. First, I will discuss ethnographic data relating to the use of other plants that are mixed with tobacco to alter its effects or tastes. Second, I...
The Social Function of the Title "K’uhul Chatahn Winik" (2016)
Dozens of Maya ceramics from the Late Classic period feature the epithet "k’uhul chatahn winik", ‘divine person of Chatahn’. Most of these are codex-style vessels of unknown provenance, but some specimens have been recovered during archaeological explorations at Calakmul, Nakbe, and Tintal. Moreover, the same title appears in monumental inscriptions, most prominently at Calakmul, where there are at least four examples. Despite a recent increase in research on this specific title, the different...