Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands

DOCUMENT Citation Only Arthur Demarest.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prior to the Vanderbilt projects the Alta Verapaz was one of the least explored regions of the highlands with previous research limited to some test pits and cave explorations. With few known impressive constructions or monuments, the Alta Verapaz was assumed to be peripheral to both highland polities and the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Thomas Babcock.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The K’iche’an ethnohistoric documents posit movement of Chontal-Nahuan groups into, and conquest of, the central Guatemalan highlands. A list of K’iche’ rulers was used to establish a timeline for occupation of the archaeological sites of Chujuyub, Jakawitz, and Q’umarkaj. Accordingly coinciding with the fall of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Eugenia Robinson. Ron Bishop.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Research on the ceramic collections from Q’umarkaj housed at the Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, provides an opportunity to apply Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis to pottery from the site. This research has the potential to delimit areas of ceramic production and trade in the Terminal...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Victor Castillo.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations at Chiantla Viejo, in the western Guatemalan highlands, focused on studying how public ritual in spaces for communal gatherings mediated changes and continuities in small Maya communiies during the Spanish conquest. Excavations revealed a short occupation at Chiantla Viejo at the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brent Woodfill. Erin Sears.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In April 2018, members of Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros were contacted by a local contractor who found something he said was of archaeological importance. Upon examination, he had uncovered the largest figurine workshop yet discovered in Mesoamerica. After receiving emergency financing from the National...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Barbara Arroyo. Gloria Ajú.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, had a strategic location along important trade routes. Because of this, the site had the opportunity to access important goods such as obsidian, jade, cacao, salt, and other important goods. Some of the exchange might have involved the ball game. Recent findings from excavations near Ball...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Caitlin Earley.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent archaeological work at the western Guatemalan site of Quen Santo by the Proyecto Arqueológico de la Región de Chaculá (PARCHA) has investigated the chronology of the site and resulted in the discovery of new monuments. In this paper, I present the results of recent study of these monuments. After reviewing...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marlen Garnica. Ramiro Edmundo Martinez Lemus. Eugenia Robinson.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The archaeological investigations in the eastern zone of Guatemala have reported many sites with painted rock art or petroglyphs. There are other similar representations in rock shelters in Guatemala especially at La Casa de las Golondrinas in the Antigua Valley. At these sites, the representation of serpents is...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gavin Davies.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ruler stelae are a well known class of monument in the Southern Maya region but have so far been recovered only from only the largest sites, such as Kaminaljuyu, Takalik Abaj, and Chocola, all of which are considered to have been regional capitals. The recovery of a basal fragment of one of these monuments near the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gregory Borgstede.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper examines dynamic changes in Maya settlement patterns through a comparison of expansion and contraction of settlement patterns during the pre-Columbian, historic, and contemporary periods. In particular, it looks at when and why settlements are formed, within what is generally considered to be a single...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Maria Belen Mendez Bauer.

This is an abstract from the "Art, Archaeology, and Science: Investigations in the Guatemala Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In prehispanic times the tops of the mountains and volcanoes were used as natural markers of geographical spaces; many of these points served as referents in the construction of cultural landscapes based on the sacred. The valley of Quetzaltenango, in western Guatemala, is surrounded by ten prominent hills and...