USING MULTIPLE LINES OF EVIDENCE TO IDENTIFY PREHISPANIC MAYA BURNT-LIME KILNS IN THE NORTHERN YUCATÁN PENINSULA

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 558-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth E. Seligson ◽  
Tomás Gallareta Negrón ◽  
Rossana May Ciau ◽  
George J. Bey
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Spatial Analyses ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Burnt Lime ◽  
Lime Kilns ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
Socioeconomic Organization ◽  
Lime Production ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

This study discusses the investigation of a series of pit-kilns in and around the prehispanic site of Kiuic in the Puuc region of the northern Maya lowlands and presents the multiple lines of evidence that identify these structures as lime production features. The study reports the results of systematic excavations, archaeometric analyses, archaeological experiments, ethnographic inquiries, and spatial analyses. Burnt lime has been used for architectural, dietary, hygienic, and other purposes by the Maya for at least three millennia and yet its importance in prehispanic Maya society is belied by the lack of lime production features identified in the archaeological record. The identification of these structures as lime production features has implications for understanding subregional differences in socioeconomic organization and resource management practices among the prehispanic Maya. This report provides a model for using multiple methods and analyses to investigate and identify lime production kilns that can be applied to societies and landscapes throughout the Maya area and the broader premodern world.

PREHISPANIC MAYA BURNT LIME INDUSTRIES: PREVIOUS STUDIES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth E. Seligson ◽  
Soledad Ortiz Ruiz ◽  
Luis Barba Pingarrón
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Burnt Lime ◽  
The Past ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Lime Consumption ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
Lime Production

AbstractBurnt lime has played a significant role in daily Maya life since at least as far back as 1100 b.c., and yet its ephemeral nature has limited archaeological studies of its production. The application of new surveying and remote sensing technologies in recent decades is now allowing for a more in-depth investigation of the burnt lime industries that existed in different subregions of the Maya area. This article provides an overview of the current understanding of pre-Hispanic Maya burnt lime production. It then presents an analysis of the factors influencing the development and identification of distinct subregional lime production industries, including: lime consumption requirements and inter-site spacing; natural environment; local social and economic trajectories; and the objectives and survey universes of archaeological investigations. In reporting the tremendous advances made over the past few decades, this paper encourages archaeologists to include a focus on identifying lime production features in their research agendas.

Documenting ancient plant management in the northwest of North AmericaThis paper was submitted for the Special Issue on Ethnobotany, inspired by the Ethnobotany Symposium organized by Alain Cuerrier, Montréal Botanical Garden, and held in Montréal at the 2006 annual meeting of the Canadian Botanical Association.

Botany ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Lepofsky ◽  
Ken Lertzman
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Botanical Garden ◽  
Plant Management ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Definitive Evidence ◽  
European Contact ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

Ethnographic literature documents the pervasiveness of plant-management strategies, such as prescribed burning and other kinds of cultivation, among Northwest Peoples after European contact. In contrast, definitive evidence of precontact plant management has been elusive. Documenting the nature and extent of precontact plant-management strategies has relevance to historians, archaeologists, managers, conservationists, forest ecologists, and First Nations. In this paper, we summarize the various lines of evidence that have been, or could be, used to document ancient cultivation in the northwest of North America. We organize this discussion by the ecological consequences of ancient plant-management practices and their documented or potential visibility in the paleo-, neo-ecological, and archaeological records. Our review demonstrates that while finding evidence of ancient plant management can be difficult, such evidence can be found when innovative research methods are applied. Further, when various independent lines of evidence are compiled, reconstructions of past plant-management strategies are strengthened considerably.

The Site of Noh K'uh, Chiapas, Mexico: A Late Preclassic Settlement in the Mensäbäk Basin

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Juarez ◽  
Sebastián Salgado-Flores ◽  
Christopher Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Complex Societies ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
River Region ◽  
Western Frontier ◽  
Maya Area

In this report we introduce the site of Noh K'uh, a Late Preclassic (400 BC–AD 250) community in the western frontier of the Maya Lowlands. This new body of data contributes to the study of how complex societies emerged both within the Usumacinta River region and the Maya area overall.

CLIMATE-CHANGE STUDIES IN THE MAYA AREA

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel D. Gunn ◽  
Ray T. Matheny ◽  
William J. Folan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Annual Meeting ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Paradigms ◽  
Physical Forces ◽  
Maya Area

The series of papers on climate change published in this issue are the result of the symposium “Environmental Change in Mesoamerica: Physical Forces and Cultural Paradigms in the Preclassic to Postclassic,” held at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in March 2000 in Philadelphia. The authors bring their expertise in paleoclimatological studies to bear on the Maya Lowlands and Highlands from the beginning of the Holocene to the Postclassic and modern times. The studies reveal that climate has changed during the past 4,000 years to a considerable degree that correlates in a reasonable way with archaeological periodizations. Several climate-change models are presented as an effort to understand better past cultural and natural events.

Burnt lime production and the Pre-Columbian Maya socio-economy: A case study from the northern Yucatán

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 281-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Seligson ◽  
Tomás Gallareta Negrón ◽  
Rossana May Ciau ◽  
George J. Bey
Keyword(s):  
Burnt Lime ◽  
Lime Production

The Economic Geography of Chert Lithic Production in the Southern Maya Lowlands: A Comparative Examination of Early-Stage Reduction Debris

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Scott Speal
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Geographic Scale ◽  
Tool Manufacture ◽  
Specialized Production ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Comparative Examination

AbstractIt has been known for several decades that certain regions of the Maya Lowlands were characterized by specialized production of chert tools in ancient times. The extent, intensity, organization, and net social effects of centralized lithic production in the Maya area as a whole, however, are not well understood. In order to address issues of broader relevance to social and economic processes, lithicists working in the Maya region need to develop analytical approaches suited to the study of complex economies. The research presented here attempts to establish simple baseline measures for use in comparing the production of siliceous stone tools, both formal and expedient, at different scales across the Maya area. Scholarship in this region has been chronically plagued by prolonged, unresolved debates—mostly a factor of the multitude of single-site-focused projects employing different methodologies and research emphases. The present study therefore proposes a new direction in Maya lithic studies with the goal of enhancing comparability of data on ancient economic structure through the use of standardized statistics that facilitate spatial analysis. Using the proportion of early-stage core reduction debris to the total of all debitagefrom a given context, for instance, enables the analyst to roughly assess the amount of tool manufacture taking place locally. By extension, inferences can be made about the degree of economic integration and interdependence characterizing any given geographic scale, including the architectural group, site, region, and so on. Preliminary analysis of patterns in early-stage reduction illustrates differential spatial distributions of chert tool production and consumption at several scales from across the southern Lowlands, allowing for the refinement of current models of ancient Maya lithic economy.

Fire Intensity Assessment through the Analysis of Artifacts and Building Materials

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Inomata
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Heat Exposure ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Building Fire ◽  
Intensity Assessment ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Tropical Lowlands ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

AbstractDifferent types of artifacts and building materials react in varying manners to heat exposure, and the analysis of their degrees and patterns of thermal alterations provide important clues to the intensity of fire to which they were subjected. Such data allow researchers to examine the presence or absence of a building fire, the quantity of fuel, and the intentional or accidental nature of the fire. This approach is particularly important in the tropical lowlands, where evidence of fire in the forms of charcoal and ash may not be well preserved. At the rapidly abandoned site of Aguateca, Guatemala, the amount of charcoal and ash was small, but the examination of numerous artifacts left in situ and of building materials identified clear evidence that many buildings were burned at the time of abandonment. Similar lines of evidence were also found in artifact-poor, gradually abandoned structures at Ceibal, Guatemala. These results suggest the possibility that the burning of structures at the time of abandonment may have been more common in the Maya Lowlands than generally thought.

scholarly journals The Interwoven Effects of Regionalism in Southeast Thessaly

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Katherine Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Subsistence Agriculture ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Seasonal Movement ◽  
Animal Management ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Mobile Pastoralism

This study investigates possible evidence of seasonal movement of animals – transhumance – in the Greek archaeological record. By engaging with the so-called Agropastoral Debate in Thessaly this analysis argues that regionalism and rising urbanization forced a marked reliance on wool-based economy. The increased demand for wool created herd sizes larger than what local subsistence agriculture could support. Shepherds were required to move with their herds and utilize either short- or long-distance transhumance within Thessaly. This multidisciplinary approach examines transhumant domestication through ethnographic, ethnohistoric and literary sources integrated with palaeobotanical, material, cultural, and zooarchaeological evidence at Classical-Hellenistic sites in the regions of Thessalian Phthiotis (Pharsalos) and Achaia Phthiotis (New Halos, and Kastro Kallithea) in southeast Thessaly. Preliminary data supports mobile pastoralism in antiquity and argues for transhumant domestication in Thessaly by at least the Hellenistic period. This study is part of a larger research project interested in animal management practices and domesticated sheep and goat herd movements in ancient Thessaly.

scholarly journals On Spatial Management Practices: Revisiting the "Optimal" Use of Urban Land

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Ogryzek ◽  
Radoslaw Wisniewski ◽  
Tom Kauko
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Urban Land ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Characteristic Matrix ◽  
Land Use Type ◽  
Spatial Analyses ◽  
Land Use Types ◽  
Spatial Management

Abstract The article takes a fresh look at the concept of the "optimal" use of urban land. It discusses the procedure for choosing the "optimal" use of land within the context of rational spatial management practices and sets out a model solution for determining "optimal" land use types for given spatial and functional situations. A necessary set of geoinformation for informed decisions on choosing the "optimal" land use type is proposed. The study adds to the available knowledge concerning spatial analyses and simulations of "optimal" zoning processes; in doing so it applies the characteristic matrix method for inducing the optimal use of an area to diagnose the value of urban space and, in this way, to determine the "optimal" use under given circumstances. The article concludes by stating that the algorithm for selecting the "optimal” land use of an area significantly improves the decision-making process when carrying out the transformation of land use - the most important instrument for planning optimisation and organisation.

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