Recent Research at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

This symposium presents the latest results of analyses realized by the Proyecto Arqueológico del Centro Ceremonial de Tibes, Puerto Rico. Tibes is the earliest known civic-ceremonial center in the Greater Antilles and has been interpreted as one of the earliest political and economic centers in the Caribbean and first site of institutionalized stratification in the region. The main purpose of our research is the study of the social and cultural factors that led to the development of this center. The symposium includes presentations on recent excavations and findings of paleoethnobotanical, faunal, lithic, osteological, bioarchaeological, and regional analyses.

Other Keywords
Puerto Rico • Geoarchaeology • Ceramics • bioarchaeology • Ceremonial Center • Radiometric Dating • Zooarchaeology • Petroglyphs • Site Formation Processes • Settlement patterns

Geographic Keywords
Caribbean

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)

  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • The Archaeological Project of the Ceremonial Center of Tibes: Summary and Recent Discoveries (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only L. Curet. Lisa Stringer. William Pestle.

    This paper summarizes and reviews the results obtained in the past five years of the Archaeological Project of the Ceremonial Center of Tibes. Special attention will be paid to field discoveries, particularly to activity areas and architectural structures. The presentation will also served as introduction to the rest of the simposium.

  • The burials of Tibes, reconsidered (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only William Pestle.

    The 1970s Tibes excavations of the Sociedad Guaynía unearthed the remains of well over one hundred individuals from various portions of what is currently understood to be the earliest ceremonial center in the Caribbean. Despite attempts to avoid burials, more recent (and ongoing) excavations by the Proyecto Arqueológico del Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes have increased this number to a modest degree. Taken together, the resulting corpus of bioarchaeological material represents one of the...

  • Characterisation of charcoal assemblages from the ceremonial center of Tibes, Puerto Rico (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sonia Archila Montanez. Saul Torres Orjuela.

    Charcoal assemblages from five different excavation units dug at the ceremonial center of Tibes, Puerto Rico, have been studied in order to get information on human use and selection of woody taxa during the past. This archaeobotanical data will be related to the archaeological information which includes different features and cultural materials such as lithic artefacts, sherds, shells, human burials, and faunal remains.

  • Contextualizing Tibes and the Local Landscape (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Josh Torres. Johshua Torres.

    This paper provides archaeological evidence for the local landscape surrounding the Ceremonial Center of Tibes (ca. 500 and 1300 AD) on the south-central coast of Puerto Rico. Settlements identified during recent archaeological survey of the micro-region surrounding the site, in conjunction with archaeological data from well excavated sites in the area, is presented to spatially and temporally contextualize recent findings at Tibes. Settlement variability is characterized and local temporal...

  • Landscape Change at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes in Puerto Rico: A Late Holocene Hurricane Flood Event? (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Debra Green.

    This paper presents the results of a geoarchaeological study of the depositional history at the Ceremonial Center of Tibes in Puerto Rico. Geoarchaeological study of the sediment and soil relationship at Tibes reveals evidence of Holocene paleoflooding that occurred between AD 800 and AD 900. This flood event caused significant changes to the cultural landscape at Tibes. These site formation processes include river migration farther west and south of the paleochannel, deposition of reworked...

  • Results of the analysis of the coral from Tibes Ceremonial Center, Puerto Rico (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mariela Declet-Perez.

    This work presents and discusses the finals results of an investigation focused in the strategies for the acquisition and transportation of coral by indigenous societies, analyzing the material obtained from the Tibes Ceremonial Center, Puerto Rico. This study was focused on the “chaîne operatoire”, to demonstrate the utility of this type of material in archaeological studies in the Caribbean. With this approach we were able to identify the collection areas and methods, the manufacture and use...

  • Rock Art of the Ceremonial Center of Tibes, Ponce, Puerto Rico (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Gordon Ambrosino. Antonio Curet. Jill Segard.

    Located near the south-central coast of Puerto Rico, the site of Tibes is the earliest known civic-ceremonial center in the Greater Antilles. Systematic mapping, nighttime photography and 2-dimensional drawing, during the 2010 field season, revealed a total of seventeen petroglyph panels, displaying anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, geometric and abstract imagery. All of the rock art panels that remain in situ are integrated with several of the ceremonial plazas, which characterize the site. They are...

  • Zooarchaeology of the Vertebrate Fauna of Tibes: Uniformity in Transition (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Geoffrey DuChemin.

    This paper presents the results of a recent zooarchaeological analysis of vertebrate remains from the Tibes Ceremonial Center near Ponce, Puerto Rico. Two excavation units contained intact and undisturbed deposits with the potential to provide information pertaining to social dynamics and socio-cultural change at the site. Radiocarbon dates from the two units indicate that each archaeological deposit occurred during times of perceived dynamic social and cultural activities on the island. During...