Mesoamerica (Other Keyword)
51-75 (93 Records)
Archaeologists live in a North America divided by lines. These lines include the borders of nations, the boundaries of states and provinces and the limits that we as archaeologists have drawn around culture areas. These lines affect in subtle and complex ways, how we frame questions, how we define the boundaries of our studies, what journals we read, what colleagues we talk to, where we go to school and dozens of other aspects of archaeology. Most if not all of these lines had no meaning for the...
The Impact of Lawrence Straus on Mesoamerican Cave Studies (2016)
Lawrence Straus’ life work has focused primarily upon European cave archaeology, with most of his time spent in Spain. However his research within cave archaeology has in many ways aided the field of cave archaeology in Central America. Straus has both passively and actively helped in the advancement of Maya cave studies from his many roles in academia. As editor in chief for the Journal of Anthropological Research he aided in the publication of numerous seminal works that contributed to the...
Interaction and Exchange in Late Postclassic Xoconochco (2017)
Xoconochco is located along a well-travelled transportation route that links what is today Central and parts of Southern Mexico with Central America. The region has had cultural and economic ties with its neighbors to the north and to the south for millennia, a pattern that continued into the Late Postclassic period. In this paper we examine the nature of Xoconochco’s involvement in Mesoamerican exchange systems in the Late Postclassic period. We know that Xoconochco’s forest...
Izapa and the iconography of water and economics (2015)
The stelae of Izapa have long been analyzed within a mythic framework, drawing heavily on longstanding interpretations of mythological narratives like those of the Maya maize god. Such interpretations, while fundamental to understanding the complex meanings of such imagery, nevertheless often neglect other salient aspects of the scenes, including elements that speak to more economic concerns, particularly those that revolved around water transport. This paper argues that a re-analysis of the...
Las Huellas del Poder. Estrategias políticas en el este de Los Tuxtlas, Ver. (2017)
El ejercicio del poder en Mesoamérica puede ser medido y estudiado de diferentes formas. Una de estas formas tiene que ver con los despliegues políticos ligados a los programas arquitectónicos y las estrategias políticas implementados a partir de estos elementos. En este trabajo se pretende mostrar de forma visual los resultados de un estudio que evaluó la centralización del trabajo de la arquitectura pública como un índice de poder político.
The Late Classic Ballgame and Cross-Cultural Interaction at Xochicalco, El Tajín, and Copán (2017)
The proliferation of ballcourts at major sites such as El Tajín and Xochicalco during the Late Classic period suggests that the Mesoamerican ballgame and its associated architectural features played a crucial role in the expression of power and identity in the tumultuous centuries that followed the collapse of Teotihuacan. This paper investigates the role of Late Classic ballcourts in fostering, shaping, and manifesting cross-cultural interaction through focus on sites from three different...
The Legacy of a Tlamatini: H.B. Nicholson's Mesoamerican Archive (2017)
H.B. Nicholson was considered the Tlamatini of Aztec studies. He was also known as a warm and generous professor who dedicated his life to the study of Mesoamerican cultures. His legacy is highlighted by his remarkable collection of articles, books, photographs, and slides acquired over more than five decades. After his death in 2007, Nicholson’s family donated his entire private collection of books, articles, slides, and photographs to the University of California, Los Angeles. Five years ago,...
Life in the Tributary Province of Xoconochco (2015)
Our work on Late Postclassic Xoconochco/Soconusco has been greatly influenced by research carried out by Frances Berdan, particularly her focus on the Codex Mendoza and other Aztec documents and her approach that integrates multiple disciplines. In this paper I use ethnohistoric and archaeological data to review the role of the Soconusco region as an Aztec Tributary Province. More specifically, I examine what these data seem to tell us about how the Aztec conquest and the subsequent collection...
Living at the Ritz: Investigations of the Palace Complex at Lower Dover, Belize (2017)
Palatial complexes are distinct architectural features within ancient Maya civic ceremonial centers. Maya palaces are commonly multi-roomed complexes featuring attributes such as corbelled roofing, benches, private courtyards, and other decorative attributes. Archaeologists suggest palatial complexes serve as multifunctional spaces for the elite residents. These functions include residential space as well as ritual space for events such as feasts, dances, and other social events. Excavations at...
Long-Distance Connections Across the Southeastern US and Mesoamerica (2017)
Despite over a century of research, unquestionable evidence of routine and sustained interaction/communication between the U.S. Southeast and Mesoamerica remains elusive. Similarities in iconography and ritual are very general, possibly ancient. Mexican obsidian and tropical plants occur rarely and only at the outskirts of the Southeast, while earthen mounds and some Mississippian-like artifacts occur on the northern Mexican Gulf Coast. The most glaring (absence of) evidence is the lack of...
Luminescence Dating at the Postclassic Site of Gonzálo Hernández, Chiapas, Mexico (2016)
In the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico, we are still struggling with refining the Postclassic ceramic chronology. At the site of Gonzálo Hernández, the evidence suggests that the principal occupation of the site was during the Late Postclassic period (ca. 1300-1520CE), but a small percentage of sherds date to earlier periods. In an effort to approach the local ceramic chronology from a new perspective, a small sample of sherds were dated using luminescence dating. The results have clarified...
Macaw Mountain and Ancient Peoples of Southeast Mesoamerica (2015)
In A Forest of Kings, Linda Schele and David Freidel captivated readers with substance and inference about multiple Maya cities and their inhabitants. For Copan, they focused on long- and short-term developments culminating in the death of its last effective king, Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, whose death effectively coincided with the end of both dynastic rule and social cohesion at Macaw Mountain, Copan. Extraordinary finds and ideas have come to light since that 1990 publication, things those...
The Making of a Mesoamerican Blockbuster: Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed (2016)
This paper draws on a case study of the making of Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed, a “blockbuster” traveling exhibit, to examine issues related to the business, development, and curation of museum exhibits featuring Mesoamerican culture and history. On the business side, museums face challenges in funding exhibits, managing risk, and ensuring return on investment. Development efforts struggle to deliver exhibits in tune with the public’s changing tastes without sacrificing institutional goals to...
Mapping and 3D Modeling of Excavations Using UAVs, Photogrammetry, and LiDAR (2017)
Using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones) to carry photographic equipment and photogrammetric processing of resulting data simplifies and accelerates mapping, 3D modeling, and environmental reconstruction. Construction and expansion of highways through Mayapán and the surrounding region are destroying valuable archaeological remains and environmental features. The 2016 field season targeted these areas for rapid recording and depended on UAV photography and photogrammetric processing for site...
Mesoamerican contact on the Southwest Northern frontier (2017)
Research by ARCON, Inc. over the past two decades, using multi-disciplinary archaeology research tools and inter-regional comparative research, is bridging regional boundaries to help construct histories of ancient people. The role of cultural exchange is becoming more apparent with intellectual data for exploring the rise of high civilizations in ancient cultures. A variety of research discoveries includes ancient turquoise trade between Mesoamerica and the Southwest (turquoise trace analysis...
Mesoamerican Radiocarbon Database (MesoRad)
The Mesoamerican Radiocarbon (MesoRAD) database compiles published radiocarbon dates and isotopic data from archaeological sites in across Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica as a culture region is defined by shared cultural traits that span the areas of northern, central, and southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and parts of El Salvador and Nicaragua. In its final form, we hope that the database can be used as an open-access repository that will facilitate collaborative studies in the...
Metallurgical Production at Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico: New Discoveries from the R-183 Group (2017)
The Postclassic period urban center of Mayapan housed numerous household craft production industries, including metallurgical production. The recovery of metal artifacts, production debris, and metallurgical ceramics from contexts throughout the city suggests a number of independent production sites. One of the most significant archaeological contexts associated with metallurgical production is the R-183 group, an elite residential group in the southeast mid-city sector. Salvage excavations in...
Midnight Madness in Mesoamerica: Dark Doings in the Ancient World (2016)
After the sun went down, the world of ancient Mesoamerica was transformed into a dark landscape. Some sought sleep while others came alive for nocturnal naughtiness. Ancient Mesoamericans simultaneously embraced and respected the dark. Are nightly practices destined to remain obscured from our view, or can we illuminate such dark doings by expanding our focus from daily practices to include those of the night? A fundamental question explored in this paper is the extent to which there is material...
"A Mischief that is Past and Gone": Situating Ka’Kabish in the Larger Ancient Maya Political (2015)
Discussions of ancient socio-political interactions are most productive when site-specific archaeological data is incorporated into a multi-scalar analysis that includes centres of different distinction. The ability to integrate centres into a nuanced landscape is a luxury derived from a long legacy of archaeological work by different researchers. This work draws upon the increasing large corpus of data created for north-central Belize over the last 50 years. In this paper, we present a...
Negative Painted Ceramics in Mesoamerica: Functional Equivalency and Multiple Solutions. (2016)
Negative or resist-painted ceramics are present in diverse Mesoamerican ceramic traditions and at different time scales and a millenary functional continuity may be postulated thereof. At the lacustrine region of Michoacán, for example, they were first recorded at the Preclassic El Opeño site (1500 BCE) and manufacturing processes reached a level of technological complexity within the Postclassic Tarascan state. Recent archaeometric studies through SEM/EDX and Raman spectroscopy techniques on...
Obsidian blade production and husbandry in the Nejapa/Tavela region of Oaxaca, Mexico (2017)
Studies of obsidian tool manufacture in Mesoamerica typically focus on workshops located at source areas or at the major sites controlling them. In this paper, we explore production at the periphery, from the Nejapa/Tavela region of Oaxaca located roughly midway between the sources in Central Mexico and those in the Highlands of Guatemala. Rather than the thousands of artifacts representing the byproducts and errors of a single workshop, we are forced to rely upon the handful that found their...
Patterns of Elite Self-Presentation in North-Central Veracruz, Middle to Epiclassic Periods (2015)
Elite public imagery in north-central Veracruz during during the Cacahuatal phase (c. 350-600) focused on frontal presentations of single figures and a restricted iconography. The Late Classic brought considerable changes to elite self-presentation in the region, including a more complex multi-figure narrative format and the palma, a new costume object. Both of these changes were directly related to changes in the visual patterns of public sculpture and the performance of public rites. This...
Petroglyph panel in Tlaltetela, Veracruz, México (2017)
The Rio de los Pescados runs in a mountanous zone of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The river passes through various ecological zones of varying terrain before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Tlaltetetla is a small town located on a plateau approximately 60 meters above the basin of the Rio de los Pescados in central Veracruz. Approximately one kilometer from Tlaltetetla, there is a large petroglyph panel on a 7.6 meter high by 24.6 meter long rock wall in the river basin. There are over 100...
Possible Functions of a Late Prehistoric Coarseware from the Estuary Zone of Eastern Soconusco (2015)
Recent surveys in the mangrove zone of far-southern Pacific coastal Chiapas, Mexico, identified a coarse pottery, called "sewer-pipe ware," that was initially thought to have been used in sal cocida salt production during historic times. Distributional and excavation data along with functional considerations, however, point to a potentially more interesting hypothesis, namely that "sewer-pipe ware" vessels may be portable kilns or saggars used in the production of Plumbate pottery, a famous and...
Preclassic Maya Territories and Boundaries (2015)
Many Classic period (ca. AD 250-900) polities owe the location of their royal courts to decisions made by settlers in the Preclassic period (ca. 1000 BC – AD 250). This presentation evaluates the basic question of whether there is evidence of territories or political boundaries in the Preclassic Maya Lowlands. In the past, I have argued that Middle Preclassic residents constructed monumental E-Group architecture at specific places on the landscape as a conscious creation of distance between...