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

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 II" 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: Postclassic • Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Maya: Classic • Migration • Mobility • Collapse • Epiclassic • Iconography and epigraphy • Iconography and Art • sacrifice

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

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)
Documents
  • Alimento para las deidades: Nuevas prácticas sacrificiales y post sacrificiales en los centros mesoamericanos del Epiclásico y Posclásico inicial (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Nelda Issa Marengo Camacho. Judith Ruiz González. Carlos Serrano Sánchez.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Durante las últimas décadas se han documentado varios conjuntos de restos humanos no reverenciales y altamente procesados en diferentes estados de manipulación dentro el territorio de Mesoamérica. En un principio se les apreció como hechos aislados hasta...

  • The Art of Interconnection: Chichen Itza and the Gulf Coast (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Claudia Brittenham.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. We often talk about the connections between Chichen Itza and Tula, but these two great cities were far from alone in the ancient Mesoamerican world. In this presentation, I will explore artistic and architectural similarities between Chichen Itza and the...

  • Comparing Demographic Shifts versus Permanence across the Maya Lowlands: A Multiproxy Approach to the Centuries Surrounding the “Maya Collapse” (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Allan Ortega. Vera Tiesler.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. he so-called Maya collapse has been seen as an entelechy of the depopulation and emigration of the great Maya cities of the lowlands during the ninth and tenth centuries AD. However, proper paleodemographic and archaeodemographic works that support this...

  • Dusk and Dawn: Change and Continuity in Funerary Programs in the Maya Lowlands during the Ninth and Tenth centuries CE (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Hemmamuthé Goudiaby. Jaqueline García Basto.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During most of the Classic era (250–900 CE), Maya funerary practices were locally defined. Particularly in the Maya Lowlands, burial programs would shift from one capital to the next, while remaining well-codified on a local level. The modes of...

  • Examining the Maya Collapse through Ancient DNA (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jakob Sedig. Esther Brielle. Roslyn Curry. David Reich. Vera Tiesler.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholars have examined the causes and impacts of the Maya collapse for over a century, using every available line of evidence. In the last decade ancient DNA (aDNA) has proven to be a powerful tool in understanding large-scale population transformations...

  • In the Wake of Collapse: Eastern Mesoamerican Body Modifications and Identities during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Vera Tiesler.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Most Eastern Mesoamerican populations are known for their remarkable diversity and sophistication in dental works and head shaping procedures during the Classic period. Here, these permanently inscribed body modifications have come to light in thousands...

  • Looking at the Blind Spot of the Maya Collapse: Highlands Occupation during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Chloé Andrieu. Charlotte Arnaud.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Various studies have suggested that, as a consequence of the radical crises that the Maya cities underwent at the end of the Classic period, a portion of Central Lowlands population could have migrated towards the Yucatán peninsula. However, very few...

  • Reappraising Mobility during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE among Lowland Maya Populations: A Bioarchaeological and Isotopic Approach (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Raúl López. Gloria Hernández.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Conventional inferences of Maya mobility have been based on cultural exchange. The isotopic composition measured in human skeletal remains provides a direct measure of past peoples’ movements. Founded on published isotopic datasets across the Maya area,...

  • Reexamining the Chacmool, One More Time (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Virginia Miller.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The striking recumbent stone figure known as a chacmool is a defining feature of the Mesoamerican Terminal Classic and Postclassic, occurring not only at Chichen Itza and Tula, where the largest number of figures is documented, but also in later Mexica...

  • The Toltec Diaspora as Political Action (2023)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only William Fowler.

    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 II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological chronologies and material-culture evidence indicate large-scale migrations of Nahua peoples to eastern Mesoamerica in the ninth and tenth centuries CE linked to the collapse of the Toltec state at Tula Chico in about 850 CE. This event...