Application of the Geospatial Method to On-Floor Assemblages: A Case Study from the Classic Maya City of El Palmar, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

On-floor assemblages provide clues as to how complex administrative and domestic activities interplayed within a structure. By combining photogrammetry, total station and GIS, we developed a geospatial method that plotted each on-floor remain accurately on a GIS map. This poster presents its application to horizontal excavations that took place at the Guzmán Group, an outlying group of the Maya archaeological site of El Palmar, Mexico. During the 2019 summer season, the excavations uncovered the south room of Structure GZ7 with new glyphic texts carved on a curtain holder. The texts suggest that this room was occupied by a young member of non-royal elite lakamob (banner-bearers) who played critical roles in dynastic alliances during the Late Classic period (AD 600-800). After the excavations, attributes of these on-floor materials were connected to their locations in the GIS map which allowed for in-depth artifactual and spatial analyses of the structure. The results provide new insight into our nuanced understanding of Classic Maya banner-bearers’ ritual, administrative, and daily practices.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 31967