Maya (Other Keyword)
476-500 (504 Records)
This study uses Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions to trace the evolution of alternative writing conventions during the Classic period (ca. 250-900 CE). The third person ergative pronoun u- is represented by up to a dozen different graphemes in Classic Maya writing. These glyphs are also the most common set of signs found in the corpus of hieroglyphic inscriptions, regardless of media. The variation and frequency of these signs provide data to model cultural forces that shaped this writing system....
Using LiDAR and Ground Survey to Understand Regional Settlement Patterns in Terminal Classic Central Yucatan (2017)
The first research performed by the Proyecto de Interaccion Politica del Centro de Yucatan centered on understanding the impact of Chichen Itza in the region to the southwest of this Terminal Classic city. Working in an area of roughly 500 square kilometers around the site of Yaxuna we performed traditional ground reconnaissance and mapping at numerous centers in the region from 2007 to 2013 to better understand regional settlement patterns and how they changed with the establishment and growth...
Utilizing LED and Solar Power at a Remote Field Site in the Holmul Region (2016)
Providing adequate lighting for subterranean work at a remote site in the Peten of Guatemala usually involves flashlights or gasoline generators and CFL lights on homemade power cords. Because of the cost of generators and the difficulty and cost of transporting fuel to the field site most tunnel work uses head lamps and flashlights. In an effort to be environmentally sensitive and to be more efficient the Holmul Archaeological Project has started using 12 volt LED light strips powered by a...
The View from Above: The Semi-Autonomous Elite Maya Hilltop Complex of Escalera al Cielo (2017)
Escalera al Cielo (EaC) is a Terminal Classic Period Maya elite hilltop complex located 1.5 km to the west of the site of Kiuic in the Puuc Region of the Northern Lowlands. Previous research on the hilltop focused largely on investigating the organization and day-to-day activities associated with the northern residential architectural group. The southern group, located atop the highest spur of the hill and consisting of four vaulted masonry structures accessed by a grand staircase, was believed...
Virtual Copan - From 3D data collection to analysis inside a web visualization tool (2015)
The 3D modelling technology is getting more used for the research, preservation, reconstruction, documentation, communication of cultural assets. Heritage 3D models, accessible on the web, are the most powerful solution to disseminate culture and, at the same time, a great source for tourism, research and education. While the use of 3D technologies in CH have been around for many years there are still some blocking factors that slow down a wider approach. On the technological side we still miss...
Volcanic ash in the ceramics of the greater Palenque Region and Usumacinta Drainage, Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico (2015)
Knowledge about the movement of pottery with volcanic constituents throughout the northwestern Maya Lowlands, from Preclassic through Postclassic times is closely tied to sub-regionally specific resources of the Usumacinta Drainage—from its origin in the highland to the Gulf delta. Following pioneering work in the region by Blom, Berlin, Ochoa, and Rands, we focus on sites in the greater Palenque subregion and their links to sites along the Usumacinta and in the Chiapas Sierras. Although Karl...
The Volcano That Went Boom: Payson Sheets’ Contributions to Understanding the Tierra Joven Blanca Eruption of the Ilopango Caldera, El Salvador (2016)
Payson Sheets’ seminal work on the Tierra Joven Blanca (TBJ) eruption of the Ilopango Caldera, El Salvador was one of the first projects to address the impact of large-scale disasters in Mesoamerica. The on-going research on this eruption has been important for understanding the event as well as developing method and theory for reconstructing the cultural impact(s) of sudden massive stresses. While originally dated to AD 290±110, the TBJ eruption has been re-dated to the mid 5-6th century and...
Walls, Ditches and Spoil: Methodological Issues in the Study of Pre-Columbian Fortifications (2017)
A critical facet of studying past warfare is the analysis of fortifications. Fortifications are often visible on the surface, making these archaeological features identifiable through surface reconnaissance. Moreover, test pits and trench excavations into gated areas or across various sections of fortifications can be used to establish the martial functions of these archaeological features. Yet, the study of past warfare and fortifications often stumbles in the interpretive stage. How do we know...
Waste not, want not: A multi-proxy perspective on soil formation at Marco Gonzalez, Ambergris Caye, Belize (2015)
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...
Whose Land? Governance of Land Tenure, Property, and Inequality in the Maya Lowlands (2024)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Property Regimes" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The role that governance and property regimes play in the everyday life of citizens is something we grapple with, actively or passively, every day. In the archaeological record, these topics often prove challenging to evaluate without written records. However, using robust survey data from settlements and civic-ceremonial/administrative architecture...
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...