Rethinking Ramón: A Comment on Reina and Hill's Lowland Maya Subsistence

1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 916-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Miksicek ◽  
Kathryn J. Elsesser ◽  
Ingrid A. Wuebber ◽  
Karen Olsen Bruhns ◽  
Norman Hammond
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Famine Food ◽  
Alta Verapaz ◽  
Lowland Maya

A recent identification of ramon in Miranda's sixteenth-century relacion of Alta Verapaz more likely describes achiote. There is very little archaeological evidence to suggest that ramon was more than a famine food in ancient Maya times.

Ancient and Modern Maya Exploitation of the Jute Snail (Pachychilus)

1990 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F. Healy ◽  
Kitty Emery ◽  
Lori E. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Nutritional Value ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Maize Agriculture ◽  
Ecological Information ◽  
Economic Basis ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Molluscan Species ◽  
Lowland Maya

Although the economic basis of the ancient lowland Maya civilization was principally maize agriculture, throughout their long history the Maya remained proficient fishers, hunters, and gatherers. Research increasingly has suggested early and extensive Maya exploitation of the freshwater molluscan species Pachychilus, called jute by the modern Maya. This report reviews archaeological evidence for use of this stream- and river-dwelling invertebrate and summarizes recent data from the site of Pacbitun, in western Belize. Pachychilus not only was used for dietary purposes, but occasionally was included in Maya ritual deposits. Ecological information on the habitat of Pachychilus is given, as well as a description of its nutritional value and contemporary methods of collecting and processing jute in the modern Maya community of San Antonio (Cayo), Belize. It is concluded that Pachychilus was one minor but widespread element of the ancient Maya subsistence regime.Although the economic basis of the ancient lowland Maya civilization was principally maize agriculture, throughout their long history the Maya remained proficient fishers, hunters, and gatherers. Research increasingly has suggested early and extensive Maya exploitation of the freshwater molluscan species Pachychilus, called jute by the modern Maya. This report reviews archaeological evidence for use of this stream- and river-dwelling invertebrate and summarizes recent data from the site of Pacbitun, in western Belize. Pachychilus not only was used for dietary purposes, but occasionally was included in Maya ritual deposits. Ecological information on the habitat of Pachychilus is given, as well as a description of its nutritional value and contemporary methods of collecting and processing jute in the modern Maya community of San Antonio (Cayo), Belize. It is concluded that Pachychilus was one minor but widespread element of the ancient Maya subsistence regime.

Calakmul: New Data from an Ancient Maya Capital in Campeche, Mexico

1995 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 310-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Folan ◽  
Joyce Marcus ◽  
Sophia Pincemin ◽  
María del Rosario Domínguez Carrasco ◽  
Laraine Fletcher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
Chipped Stone ◽  
The City ◽  
Activity Areas

In this paper we summarize more than a decade of interdisciplinary work at Calakmul, including (1) the mapping project, which has covered more than 30 km2; (2) the excavation project, which has uncovered major structures and tombs in the center of the city; (3) the epigraphic project, whose goal is to study the hieroglyphic texts and relate them to the archaeological evidence; (4) the analysis of the architecture, ceramics, and chipped stone to define sacred and secular activity areas and chronological stages; and (5) a focus on the ecology, hydrology, and paleoclimatology of Calakmul and its environs with the aim of understanding more fully its periods of development and decline.

Lowland Maya Subsistence: Notes from Ethnohistory and Ethnography

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruben E. Reina ◽  
Robert M. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Potential Interest ◽  
Tropical Highlands ◽  
Highland Maya ◽  
Subsistence Activities ◽  
Alta Verapaz ◽  
Lowland Maya

Recent ethnohistorical investigations by the authors as part of a larger research effort focusing on Highland Maya ethnohistory have produced information on settlement patterns and subsistence activities for the Maya of the Alta Verapaz region. The environmentally transitional nature of this area—from tropical highlands to lowlands—makes this information of potential interest to Mayanists concerned with lowland civilization. Parallel subsistence activities known ethnographically from the present-day Itza of the Peten strengthens the applicability of this ethnohistorical information.

Ancient Maya Defensive Barricades, Warfare, and Site Abandonment

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel W. Palka
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
American Antiquity ◽  
Site Abandonment ◽  
Lowland Maya

In a recent report (Latin American Antiquity 11:283-299), Bruce Dahlin presents evidence from Chunchucmil, Yucatan, and other ancient lowland Maya centers, which indicates that low stone and earth barricade walls may have been important defensive constructions. He also postulates that population annihilation occurred during Maya warfare, particularly at Chunchucmil. In this commentary I explore alternative explanations regarding Maya defensive works and warfare derived from recent archaeological research and historic sources from the Maya lowlands. The existence of palisades or thorny bush on barricade walls, and more gradual abandonment of Maya sites during episodes of conflict, warrant further consideration and testing along with Dahlin"s intriguing hypotheses.

Bioarchaeological Evidence for a Spanish-Native American Conflict in the Sixteenth-Century Southeast

1990 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 718-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Blakely ◽  
David S. Mathews
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
The Other ◽  
Crude Death Rate ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Demographic Profile ◽  
Hernando De Soto ◽  
Males And Females

As the state of Georgia marks the four hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of Hernando de Soto, we reflect on the other actors in the encounter. The King site, a Native American village in the sixteenth-century chiefdom of Coosa, yielded an unusually high crude death rate of 36 per 1,000. We attribute the elevated mortality to casualties from a clash with the Spaniards. Twenty percent of the King site skeletons exhibit injuries-deep gashes and cuts across two extremities–inflicted by steel weapons. Although enemies of the Coosa possessed some European weapons, the demographic profile of the fatalities–young women and middle-aged males and females–implicates the Spaniards. Comparison with European battle casualties supports the notion that the Spaniards were responsible for the injuries. The chronicles reveal de Soto’s army to have been the likely perpetrator. The victims probably either resisted enslavement or attempted to free others from enslavement. The site offers the first archaeological evidence of Spanish violence in the interior Southeast.

scholarly journals Lidar Uncovers Thousands of New Maya Structures

Eos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenessa Duncombe
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Lowland Maya

Jungle-piercing lidar surveys over ancient Maya sites give scientists the most extensive maps of lowland Maya civilization to date.

The History of the Idea of Glued Linen Armour

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-514
Author(s):  
Sean Manning
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
World History ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Textile Technology ◽  
The World ◽  
Close Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Texts

Many people have heard that ancient warriors wore armour of many layers of linen cloth glued together. Critics emphasize the lack of archaeological or written evidence for this construction; supporters emphasize that their reconstructions resemble armour in ancient art and pass practical tests. Both present the theory as one that first appeared in the 1970s. This article make two contributions to the debate. It shows how sixteenth-century scholars used a peculiar medieval chronicle to understand the linen armour in ancient texts, and how paraphrases and mistranslations of their theory ultimately lie behind the glued linen of today’s experiments, and it places this debate in the world history of fabric armour and the history of armour scholarship. It proposes that theories about the armour in vase paintings and sculptures should be based on archaeological evidence, types of armour documented in other cultures, or a close study of ancient textile technology, not on simply examining artwork and reading ancient texts.

Kawaika-a in the Historic Period

1942 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-120
Author(s):  
Erik K. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Historic Period

The westernmost of the great Pueblo IV sites of the Jeddito Valley is Awatovi, occupied through the exploration and mission periods to 1700. The next upstream is Kawaika-a, inhabited, on the basis of archaeological evidence, at least to the end of the fifteenth century: a tree-ring date of A.D. 1495. Historical evidence has been thought to indicate sixteenth-century occupation of Kawaika-a, and destruction by Tovar in 1540. It has even been taken to show that Kawaika-a was sparsely repopulated by 1583, and finally deserted only between that date and 1598.

Wood of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Pine (Pinus spp.) by the Ancient Lowland Maya

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher T. Morehart ◽  
David L. Lentz ◽  
Keith M. Prufer
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Basic Element ◽  
Wood Charcoal ◽  
Regular Component ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Surface Sites ◽  
Dominant Taxon ◽  
Pinus Spp ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractThe recovery of pine (Pinus spp.) charcoal remains from ceremonial contexts at sites in the Maya Lowlands suggests that pine had a significant role in ancient Maya ritual activities. Data collected by the authors reveal that pine remains are a regular component of archaeobotanical assemblages from caves, sites that were used almost exclusively for ritual purposes, and that pine is often the dominant taxon of wood charcoal recovered. Comparisons with archaeobotanical data from surface sites likewise reveals that pine is common in ceremonial deposits. The authors propose that the appearance of pine remains in ceremonial contexts indicates pine was a valued element of Maya ritual paraphernalia. By basing interpretations with analogous information from ethnography, ethnohistory, iconography, and epigraphy, the use of pine during rituals is argued to be have been linked with a symbolic complex of ritual burning and offering “food” sacrifices to deities. The possibility is raised that burning pine, perhaps as torches, during some ancient rituals was similar to the modern use of candles. The diversity of ceremonial contexts yielding pine suggests that burning pine may have been a basic element of ritual activities that was essential to establish the legitimacy of ritual performances.

An Alternative Order: The Dualistic Economies of the Ancient Maya

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vernon L. Scarborough ◽  
Fred Valdez
Keyword(s):  
Political Organization ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Ancient Economy ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractHarkening back to the debates associated with “dualistic economies” in addressing emerging nation states, we examine aspects of the ancient economy of the lowland Maya. Resource-specialized communities were knit together in a network of interdependencies that allowed high degrees of self-sustaining separation from the large monumental centers about which we know most. The social and biophysical environs of the ancient Maya permitted multiple economic spheres that influenced their political organization and affected their lack of developed hegemonic controls. Evidence is presented from the present-day ecological set aside of the Programme for Belize in northwestern Belize.

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