Archaeological Anthropology Commons^™

Fluorine Dating Of Human Bone At The Pre-Columbian Maya Cemetery Of Caves Branch Rockshelter, Belize, Morgan Isaacs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis tests the ion-selective electrode fluorine dating method on the remains from the Maya mortuary site Caves Branch Rockshelter (CBR) in Belize. CBR is a cemetery containing at least 400 burials from the late Preclassic to the Postclassic periods. The intensive use and reuse of the site has disturbed the burial matrices, making it difficult to seriate the burials. Fluorine dating analyzes the amount of fluorine that has accumulated in bone over time. In principle, an older burial will contain more fluorine from groundwater than a more recently buried bone; however, this principle must be tested at each site …

Middle Preclassic Period Maya Greenstone "Triangulates": Forms, Contexts, And Geology Of A Unique Mesoamerican Groundstone Artifact Type, Terry G. Powis, Sherman Horn Iii, Gyles Iannone, Paul F. Healy, James F. Garber, Jaime J. Awe, Sheldon Skaggs, Linda A. Howie

Publications and Research

Over the past twenty years our understanding of the Middle Preclassic (900–300 BCE) period has become much clearer through archaeological investigations at a number of sites located in the Upper Belize River Valley region of the eastern Maya Lowlands. While the picture of Middle Preclassic Maya life, including their material culture, has sharpened, there are aspects that remain uninvestigated. One artifact type, identified as greenstone triangulates, has been found at several Belize Valley sites and in a variety of contexts. Although a number of these multifaceted, polished groundstone items have been recovered, little research has focused on their distribution and …

To The Mountain!, Leah M. Mccurdy, Sylvia Batty, Rebecca Friedel

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications - Archive

Fajina Archaeology Outreach produced and published a trilingual (English, Spanish, Maya) children’s book called To the Mountain! to promote archaeological and cultural heritage among children in Belize.

To the Mountain! follows two ancient Maya kids, Little Moon and Running Jaguar, on an adventure! There is a big construction project going on at the temple of the Clay Mountain Capital. They’ve got to see how it’s coming along! Join the kids as they trek through the jungle, over the river, and up the big white road to reach the capital!

To the Mountain! incorporates significant Maya plants, animals, and locations with …

Linearly Stressed To Death: Consideration Of Early Childhood Stress As A Main Contributor To The Regional Variability In Classic Maya Mortuary Profiles, Nicholas Billstrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Late and Terminal Classic periods were times of great social, economic, and political change in Maya civilization. Scholars have suggested that increasing levels of dietary stress during this time may have been the result of ecological instability, drought, warfare, and significant levels of population movement across the Maya lowlands. All of these processes may have affected human health and left measurable markers of stress in human skeletal material. The burial population recovered from two sites on Ambergris Caye, located near the coast of Belize, have significantly more sub-adult individuals than sites in inland Belize, such as Actuncan, suggesting the …

Producing Goods, Shaping People: The Materiality Of Crafting, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

The study of craft production has a long and venerable history in archaeological research on ancient societies. In this chapter, I consider the crafting of useful and desired things from a materiality perspective by looking at the interactions between the craftpersons, the materials with which they work, and the ways that their end products are valued in society. I use two examples: working with fibers by the Maya of Mesoamerica and with metals by the Moche of Andean South America. These are two very different kinds of materials whose characteristics affect how one interacts with them. Crafting was a part …

Maya Construction History: Explorations Through Buildings Archaeology And Conservation, Leah M. Mccurdy

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

The Ugly Duckling: Insights Into Ancient Maya Commerce And Industry From Pottery Petrography, James Aimers, Elizabeth Haussner, Dori Farthing

Anthropology

No abstract provided.

Reevaluating The Late Classic Lu-Bat Glyphic Phrase: The Artist And The Underworld, Patrick Carroll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of hieroglyphic texts is vital to the interpretation of the ancient Maya and how their worldview contributed to their daily lives. Hieroglyphic decipherment has been an arduous undertaking and a wide variety of the Late Classic Maya writing styles has also been documented. When specific hieroglyphic phrases are not fully understood it has been necessary to utilize other sources of information to help increase the understanding of these texts. The “lubat” glyphic phrase has been utilized in multiple mediums throughout the Late Classic period and is described as an artist’s signature. This artist signature is directly related to …

The Contact Period Of Central Peten, Guatemala In Color, Timothy W. Pugh, Leslie G. Cecil

Faculty Publications

When Bernal Díaz del Castillo passed by Nojpeten with Hernán Cortés in 1525, he remarked upon the Itza capital’s brilliant whiteness, even from a great distance (Jones 1998:69). However had he stood in the central plaza, he would have discerned that the sun’s reflection eclipsed artifacts and architecture of a variety of colors. The archaeological record is frequently similarly whitewashed by our focus upon form, weight, and distribution. Nevertheless, color helped imbue the Contact period (AD 1525-1697) world of the Maya of the Petén lakes region of Guatemala with significance. This paper investigates the colors of ritual paraphernalia encountered in …

A Web-Based Interactive Tool For Multi-Resolution 3d Models Of A Maya Archaeological Site, G. Agugiaro, Fabio Remondino, Gabrio Girardi, Jennifer Von Schwerin, H. Richards-Rissetto, Raffaele De Amicis

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Continuous technological advances in surveying, computing and digital-content delivery are strongly contributing to a change in the way Cultural Heritage is “perceived”: new tools and methodologies for documentation, reconstruction and research are being created to assist not only scholars, but also to reach more potential users (e.g. students and tourists) willing to access more detailed information about art history and archaeology. 3D computer-simulated models, sometimes set in virtual landscapes, offer for example the chance to explore possible hypothetical reconstructions, while on-line GIS resources can help interactive analyses of relationships and change over space and time. While for some research purposes …

An Integrated Assessment Of Archaeobotanical Recovery Methods In The Neotropical Rainforest Of Northern Belize: Flotation And Dry Screening, Jon B. Hageman, David J. Goldstein

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This report presents results of a study examining the ancient use of plants at four Late Classic (CE 600-900) Maya rural farmsteads in northwestern Belize. Our research specifically targeted residential middens for macrobotanical recovery. Samples yielded the remains of more than a dozen plant families, representing some genera that do not currently grow in the area. These plants were used in the Late Classic, countering the idea that ancient botanical remains do not survive in Neotropical archaeological contexts. We also evaluated two macrobotanical sample processing methods vis-à-vis one another: flotation and dry screening. Our results indicate that flotation recovered 58% …

The Emergence Of The Maya Tlaloc: A Late Classic Religious Icon, Amanda Toyie Groff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Iconography has the capability to memorialize and guarantee one's place in history; iconography can also provide powerful insight into human culture, and explore social and cultural values in a visual manner. Iconography can incorporate information about group identities, allegiances, religious affiliations, propaganda, and acceptance within both modern and ancient societies. By studying a specific iconographic figure, the Central Mexican god Tlaloc, as a visual representation of a belief or identity, we can glean a greater understanding of the cultural transmission of iconographic symbols. The substantial use of this icon, in both Central Mexico and the Maya region, reveals iconography as …

In The House: Maya Nobility And Their Figurine-Whistles, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Studies a large collection of clay figurines in the Copan Valley of Honduras. Describes the different kinds of figurine-whistles that high status Maya had in their houses.

Bodies Moving In Space: Ancient Mesoamerican Human Sculpture And Embodiment, Holly Bachand, Rosemary Joyce, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Judith Butler’s proposal that embodiment is a process of repeated citation of precedents leads us to consider the experiential effects of Mesoamerican practices of ornamenting space with images of the human body. At Late Classic Maya Copán, life-size human sculptures were attached to residences, intimate settings in which body knowledge was produced and body practices institutionalized. Moving through the space of these house compounds, persons would have been insistently presented with measures of their bodily decorum. These insights are used to consider the possible effects on people of movement around Formative period Olmec human sculptures, which are not routinely recovered …

A Flexible Corporation: Classic Period House Societies In Eastern Mesoamerica, Julia A. Hendon, Rosemary A. Joyce

Anthropology Faculty Publications

House society models, based on the work of Levi-Strauss but since refined by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, provide a good model for understanding social organization among the ancient Maya and their neighbors in Mesoamerica based on a comparative study of societies in the Copan Valley, the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley), and the Cuyumapa Valley, all in Honduras. Social Houses are flexible, enduring social groupings that define kinship flexibly, recognizing adoption, marriage, shared residency, and other factors as ways to create ties that endure over generations.

Household Archaeology And Reconstructing Social Organization In Ancient Complex Societies: A Consideration Of Models And Concepts Based On Study Of The Prehispanic Maya, Julia A. Hendon

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Studies of the settlement pattern in the Copan Valley, Honduras, indicate that a House society model provides the best way to understand the social organization of the Late Classic period Maya. The House society model, based on Levi-Strauss's original work but since modified by anthropologists and archaeologists, does not replace household archaeology. Instead, the model allows archaeologists to discuss the continuation of social identity over time.

Early Evidence Of Maya Hieroglyphic Writing At Kichpanha, Belize, Eric C. Gibson, Leslie C. Shaw, Daniel R. Finamore

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Archaeological research, conducted intermittently at Kichpanha, Belize, from 1973 to 1983 was primarily limited to surveying and mapping. During the 1985 season, test excavations initiated in the 1983 season were continued (Gibson 1985a). House mounds and plazuela groups yielded further evidence of extensive use of the site from the Xe and early facet Mamom phases (relatively dated to approximately 900-700 B.C.), until its near total abandonment in the Early Postclassic (ca. A.D. 900-1000). In this paper we present some preliminary results of the 1985 season at Kichpanha in the context of our research foci which included economic relationships with the …

Maya Lithic Studies: Papers From The 1976 Belize Filed Symposium, Thomas R. Hester, Norman Hammond

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

As a result of intensified archaeological activity in northern Belize, and specifically the work of the joint British Museum-Cambridge University research project (directed by Norman Hammond), a variety of new data have been obtained on the prehistory of this region. Of the many sites that have been mapped, tested, or otherwise investigated in the past few years, one stands out as a major center of ancient Maya lithic technology. This is the site of Colha, located south of Orange Walk Town, along the highway between that town and Belize City. Personnel of the British Museum-Cambridge University Corozal Project began limited …