Boundaries of the Past as Viewed through the Fences of Today: Shifting Methods of Archaeological Inquiry in the Southern Maya Lowlands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Making and Breaking Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands: Alliance and Conflict across the Guatemala–Belize Border" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

An exploration of how modern borders of different kinds have influenced, and sometimes impeded, our understanding of ancient borders and territories. The Guatemala-Belize border has ramifications in terms of the ways in which scholars interact and how the archaeology is accomplished, including through differing rules and general philosophies of the governing bodies in the two areas. The modern border drawn around the archaeological site of Ucanal in Guatemala greatly impacts how we study it today in terms of remote sensing, including both LiDAR and photogrammetry, and how the place is considered within the larger ancient regional sphere. Official, protected areas are covered by jungle cover, while the farthest extents of the ancient site exist beyond this border and have been converted to grazing land. The two environments have what amounts to an arbitrary dividing line but necessitate vastly different approaches of inquiry.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Making and Breaking Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands: Alliance and Conflict across the Guatemala–Belize Border

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24681