The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

For two centuries after the close of the Classic period we know that profound cultural changes swept across Eastern Mesoamerica. What has been harder to ascertain are the vectors of transmission, and the relative importance of migration, commerce, proselytization, and military adventurism in the processes that brought new ideas to the region. This symposium takes a multidisciplinary approach that brings together archaeologists, bioarchaeologists, paleo-geneticists, iconographers, and epigraphers in pursuit of a more holistic understanding of the problem. Gravitating away from familiar but overly fixed dichotomies of ethnic identity, we look for overlaps between research hubs that cover the Gulf Coast, Northern Yucatán, the Central Petén, Belize, and the Pacific highlands reaching down to El Salvador and beyond. Bolstered by new methodologies and pan-regional data surveys, body-anchored approximations will be confronted with data from architecture, artworks, and artifacts. We hereby hope to revitalize discussion about the dynamics of collapse for Classic Maya kingdoms and highlight the various ways in which biological and cultural contacts evolved and many societies prospered after 800 CE, countering the assumptions of hermetically sealed communities in which new cultural concepts float through the ether, rather than being in heads and hands of people on the move.

Other Keywords
Maya: Classic • Iconography and epigraphy • Collapse • Maya: Postclassic • Architecture • Ceramic Analysis • Social and Political Organization • Iconography and Art • Survey • Style

Geographic Keywords
North America (Continent) • United Mexican States (Country) • Peten (State / Territory) • Belize (Country) • Cayo (State / Territory) • Stann Creek (State / Territory) • Toledo (State / Territory) • Yucatan (State / Territory) • Orange Walk (State / Territory) • Corozal (State / Territory)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • After the Crisis: Epigraphic Data on Political and Cultural Developments in the Maya Lowlands 800–1000 CE (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Simon Martin.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Maya inscriptions have long been considered an impoverished source on the momentous changes that gripped society at the close of the Classic era. Not only do we see a steep decline in quantity as major centers fall silent, but the texts that were produced...

  • Comercio y cultura en El Tajín de los primeros años del Epiclásico (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Arturo Pascual Soto.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La historia de los primeros años del Epiclásico (ca. 750-850 dC) en El Tajín, Veracruz, no es sólo la historia de esta antigua ciudad. Hay toda una serie de factores que participan de ella en distintos momentos de su desarrollo cultural. Varios de ellos se...

  • Cultural Transmission between the Southeastern Petén and Puuc Regions: The Frieze from La Blanca and the Origin of the Mosaic Technique (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cristina Vidal-Lorenzo. Gaspar Muñoz Cosme.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the Late Preclassic, certain buildings in the Petén region began to incorporate complex iconographic programs on their façades. The friezes with central masks, carved in limestone and covered with layers of stucco, are particularly striking examples of...

  • Dynamics of Growth and Transformation during the Terminal Classic: An Archaeological View from Nakum, Petén, Guatemala (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jaroslaw Zralka.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Terminal Classic period (ca. AD 800–950) brings important sociopolitical and cultural changes to the Maya lowlands. Some of these changes are seen in iconography and architecture, and may reflect the migration of new people as well as the spread of new...

  • Embodied Identities and Moving Bodies: The Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Ninth-Century Cultural Contacts from the Perspective of K’anwitznal (Ucanal), Guatemala (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Yasmine Flynn-Arajdal. Christina Halperin. Carolyn Freiwald. Katherine Miller Wolf. Miriam Salas.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Fifty years ago, Maya scholars argued that peoples from the Gulf Coast invaded and settled several sites in the Southern Maya Lowlands in the ninth century, including the site of Ucanal. These invasions were thought to have led to the collapse of Southern...

  • Entre montañas y ríos: La población del sureste de Petén tras el colapso maya (800 aC al 1000 dC) (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Mara Reyes. Lilian Corzo. Rocio Albarrán.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. El sureste del Petén está conformado por una diversidad de paisajes geográficos y ambientales que permitieron el desarrollo de asentamientos prehispánicos claramente jerarquizados desde épocas muy tempranas hasta muy tardías, incluyendo los dos siglos que...

  • Foreign Intimacies: Terminal Classic Shells, Novel Identities, and Gathered Elites (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Houston.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For close to a century, a remarkable set of shells have been found archaeologically across the Maya region and beyond. Most likely shaped and incised in a single workshop, they present a decided paradox, depicting specific warriors and elites yet, on these...

  • Materializing the Maya Collapse and Shifting Alliances during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries: Circular Shrines and Other “Mexicanized” Traits in Belize and Beyond (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Eleanor Harrison-Buck.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Across the Maya Lowlands, circular shrines have been reported that resemble smaller versions of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza. According to Ringle and colleagues (1998), Chichen Itza was one of many centers in a shrine network extending along the...

  • Molding a New Order: Ideological Transitions and Gulf Coast-Maya Lowland Interaction, AD 800–1000 (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew D. Turner.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As numerous studies have noted, changes in themes, compositions, and content in Maya stone monuments from the ninth and tenth centuries present a departure from their Classic counterparts, which in turn appears to reflect changes in social structure and...

  • Stylistic and Cultural Change at a Cosmopolitan Site: The Early Postclassic Period Pottery of Lamanai and Northern Belize (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jim Aimers. Elizabeth Graham.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Maya site of Lamanai is strategically located in northern Belize on the New River, which connects the Caribbean coast to the interior of the Maya area. In the Preclassic period into the early part of the Classic, Lamanai pottery shows close connections...

  • Yucatec and Gulf Coast Influences in Terminal Classic Western Belize: Examining the Evidence and Processes for Change (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jaime Awe. Claire Ebert. Julie Hoggarth.

    This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological investigations in western Belize have recorded a growing body of evidence that is indicative of non-central lowland Maya influences in this Maya subregion during the Terminal Classic period. Evidence for Yucatec and non-Maya influence in the...