Maya Multiples: Individuals, Entries, and Tombs in Structure A34 of Caracol, Belize

1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Z. Chase ◽  
Arlen F. Chase
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Single Event ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Archaeology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Funerary Rites ◽  
Professional Perceptions

It is commonly assumed in both the public and professional perceptions of Maya archaeology that tombs serve as time capsules, each representing a single event, and that burials of single individuals were the normal interment type, at least during the Late Classic period (A.D. 550-800). The investigation of Caracol Structure A34 provides excellent examples of tomb re-entry as well as of multiple-individual interment in sealed contexts, both of which contradict current assumptions. Analyses of the excavations also embody a true conjunctive approach by utilizing stratigraphy, osteology, artifacts, and epigraphy. When the archaeological data from Structure A34 are placed within a broader context, single-event single-individual tombs are shown to be but one manner of interment at Caracol. Although the large number of multiple-individual burials and the possibility of widespread tomb re-entry at Caracol may appear aberrant when compared with general interment practices at other Maya sites, the inferred funerary rites are well within the bounds of worldwide cultural practices relating to death and burial.

Ancient Agriculture and Population at Tikal, Guatemala: An Application of Linear Programming to the Simulation of an Archaeological Problem

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Bruce Dickson
Keyword(s):  
Linear Programming ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Ancient Agriculture ◽  
Intensive Farming ◽  
Root Crops ◽  
Potential Population ◽  
Maya Site

Population estimated for the Late Classic period at the Lowland Maya site of Tikal, Guatemala, is reviewed. Linear programming is described and suggested as a method for simulating the agricultural carrying capacity of the sustaining area of the site, thereby inferring its potential population. Archaeological data on the estimated size of the Tikal sustaining area is presented along with modern agricultural production and caloric output figures for maize, root crops, and ramon seeds. These data are used in the computation of a linear program. The results of the computer runs calculating the maximum population supportable by different combinations of milpa, intensive farming, and aboriculture are discussed. These results suggest that a mixed subsistence strategy in which ramon seed aboriculture and intensive root cropping were combined and were supplemented by kitchen gardening, hunting, gathering, and trade might have supported a population as high as 69,705 to 76,699 people within the boundaries of the site of Tikal during the Late Classic period.

THE LINEAGE MODEL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA IN LATE CLASSIC NORTHWESTERN BELIZE

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon B. Hageman
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Anthropological Study

Central topics of anthropological study from the 1940s through the 1970s, kinship and lineage became largely discredited during the 1980s. Recent scholarship, however, has indicated that kinship and lineage, when considered as the products of social activity, can make important contributions to studies of living and past populations. This paper explores lineage as a model of social organization distinguished by specific activities practiced by members of Late Classic Maya social groups. This model is derived from cross-cultural literature on lineages, but practices associated with lineage organization are historically and culturally specific. A suite of archaeological correlates, based on practices endemic to the Late Classic Maya, is evaluated against a test case from northwestern Belize. The implications of a landscape populated by lineages during the Classic period argue that archaeological investigations of hinterland areas are an important complement to more traditional studies focused on nucleated site centers.

Lithic Industry in a Maya Center: An Axe Workshop at El Pilar, Belize

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Whittaker ◽  
Kathryn A. Kamp ◽  
Anabel Ford ◽  
Rafael Guerra ◽  
Peter Brands ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Central Control ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Archaeology ◽  
Industrial Areas ◽  
Lithic Industry

AbstractCahal Tok (Place of Flint) is a limestone rise with some structural evidence, associated with the previously designated LDF Chert Site, close to the ceremonial center of El Pilar. Excavations uncovered evidence that during the Late Classic period, specialized flintknappers produced bifaces, primarily chert axes, at the Cahol Tok locus, first on a cleared limestone shelf then on a prepared cobble platform. Small flakes remained in situ whereas much of the larger debris was deposited to the east off the edge of the platform and into the LDF debitage dump. The identification of a specialized manufacturing locale near the ceremonial precinct of a major center is unusual in Maya archaeology. Central control of an important industry may be implied, although knapping could equally well be organized more independently. We expect that small industrial areas are actually present at most large sites, but may often be difficult to recognize.

Changing Patterns of Ritual Activity in an Unlooted Cave in Central Guatemala

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent K.S. Woodfill ◽  
Stanley Guenter ◽  
Mirza Monterroso
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Interregional Trade ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Ritual Activity ◽  
Trade Route ◽  
Northern Highlands

AbstractThe Cave of Hun Nal Ye, located in central Guatemala, was discovered unlooted by a local landowner in 2005 and was immediately subject to investigation by the authors. The cave contained ritual remains dating to between the Terminal Pre-classic and Terminal Classic. In addition to allowing a detailed reconstruction of ritual activity in the northern highlands, its presence along the Great Western Trade Route allows archaeologists to examine hypotheses about interregional trade during the Classic period. In particular, changes in the ritual assemblage between the Early and Late Classic indicate that the cave was an important trade shrine for merchants and travelers passing between the highlands and lowlands until ca. A.D. 550, at which point it became a local shrine used to reinforce elite power. These changes are then linked to larger patterns occurring in other parts of the trade route, especially to Tikal and the kingdoms along the Pasión and Usumacinta rivers.

Analysis of the Context and Contents of an Ulua-Style Marble Vase from the Palmarejo Valley, Honduras

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Christian Wells ◽  
Karla L. Davis-Salazar ◽  
José E. Moreno-Cortes ◽  
Glenn S. L. Stuart ◽  
Anna C. Novotny
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Stable Isotope Analysis ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Residential Group ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Political Economic

Ulúa-style marble vases played important social, political, economic, and religious roles in southern Mesoamerica during the seventh through eleventh centuries A.D. However, most such vessels known to archaeologists are part of looted collections or else were unearthed before the advent of modern archaeological practices. As a result, little is known about the context, use, and chronology of these objects. Recent investigations at the site of Palos Blancos in northwest Honduras discovered an Ulúa-style marble vase in an undisturbed mortuary context. Excavation of the burial context, along with bioarchaeological and stable isotope analysis of the human remains, suggests that the vase was placed as an offering, possibly to an ancestor of the residential group. Phosphate and pollen studies indicate that the vase once held a corn-based beverage . Radiocarbon dating of four charcoal samples from immediately below and adjacent to the vase yielded a range of dates from the beginning of the Late Classic period, ca.A.D. 600-800. Through analyses of the context and contents of the vase, this research contributes to a more holistic understanding of the use and meaning of Ulúa-style marble vases in southern Mesoamerica.

scholarly journals Heritales 2017 - Beyond the academia. Re-thinking Heritage trough cinema and others art forms

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Zozaya-Montes ◽  
Nicola Schiavottiello
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Positive Feedbacks ◽  
The Public ◽  
Intangible Heritage ◽  
Future Events ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The University

The UNESCO World Heritage city of Évora (Portugal) hosted the second Heritales – International Heritage Film Festival in September 2017. In this edition the festival focused on current and past sustainable communities, selecting works that explored and problematized the relationship and coexistence of modernity and sustainability when applied to human groups and societies. The films presented the everyday life, knowledge, crafts and know-how of ordinary people highlighting the changes and challenges that the expansion of consumer-based economies, globalization and world politics have brought. As organizers, by focusing on sustainability in heritage context, we wanted to go beyond current preservation strategies of the tangible and intangible heritage, to promote a reflection on the “culture of sustainability” itself, looking at how sustainable ways-of-existence have characterized various communities and cultural practices worldwide. Since its first edition, the festival has been a space for the promotion of a critical understanding of cultural heritage, aimed to the broader public. By using emblematic historical places as stage, Heritales has challenged the mainstream cultural heritage scientific communication. Its proposal is to approach heritage’s issues through multiple types of media and artistic work such as films and documentaries but also cultural heritage’s games, exhibitions, theatre and performance, with talks and several communication strategies to facilitate the encounter between the authors and the public. Although the festival has received many positive feedbacks and the support of various entities such as the UNESCO Chair of the University of Évora (Portugal) and the FCT (Science and Technology Foundation, Portugal) it is still at its early stage of action. In this paper we would like to present the results of our experiment and analyse its concept and results, so that more collaborative and sustainable methodologies can also become a part of our plan of actionfor the organization of future events.

scholarly journals Política de la supervivencia / Politics of Survival

2017 ◽  
pp. 249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Giorgi
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Heterogeneous Materials ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Politics Of The Body ◽  
Act Up ◽  
The One

Resumen: Distintas intervenciones desde prácticas activistas y culturales en torno al VIH escenifican poéticas y políticas del resto corporal en las que se juegan, por un lado, una reorganización de los modos en que se dramatiza en umbral entre lo vivo y lo muerto en lo público –redefiniendo así el tejido mismo de lo que llamamos “comunidad”—; y por otro, indican los modos en que estos activismos impulsan una disputa sobre los “marcos de temporalización” desde los cuales lo viviente se vuelve reconocible políticamente y donde la noción de supervivencia adquiere una centralidad decisiva. Combinando materiales heterogéneos el artículo busca iluminar los modos en que los activismos y las culturas en torno al VIH configuran un terreno decisivo para pensar políticas de la supervivencia del presente. Palabras clave: VIH, ACT-UP, Supervivencia, Temporalidades, Biopolítica. Abstract: Different interventions from activist and cultural practices around HIV staged poetics and politics of the body remmant. They implie, on the one hand, a reorganitzation of the dramatization of the threshold between the living and the dead in the public space; and on the other, they indicate the ways in which these activisms mobilize a dispute over the “frames of temporalization” from which the living becomes politically recognizable and where the notion of survival acquires a decisive centrality. Combining heterogeneous materials, the article seeks to illuminate the ways in which activism and cultures on HIV constitute a decisive ground for thinking about the present policies of survival. Keywords: IHV, ACT-UP, Survival, Biopolitics.

A MAYA CARVED SHELL PLAQUE FROM TULA, HIDALGO, MEXICO

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald McVicker ◽  
Joel W. Palka
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Field Museum ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Chichen Itza ◽  
Terminal Classic Period

In the early 1880s, a finely carved Maya shell picture plaque was found at the Toltec capital of Tula, central Mexico, and was subsequently acquired by The Field Museum in Chicago. The shell was probably re-carved in the Terminal Classic period and depicts a seated lord with associated Maya hieroglyphs on the front and back. Here the iconography and glyphic text of this unique artifact are examined, the species and habitat of the shell are described, and its archaeological and social context are interpreted. The Tula plaque is then compared with Maya carved jade picture plaques of similar size and design that were widely distributed throughout Mesoamerica, but were later concentrated in the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza. It is concluded that during the Late Classic period, these plaques played an important role in establishing contact between Maya lords and their counterparts representing peripheral and non-Maya domains. The picture plaques may have been elite Maya gifts establishing royal alliances with non-local polities and may have become prestige objects used in caches and termination rituals.

Linguistic Divergence and the Collapse of Preclassic Civilization in Southern Mesoamerica

1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce H. Dahlin ◽  
Robin Quizar ◽  
Andrea Dahlin
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Proximate Cause ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
Early Classic Period

Based on published lexicostatistical dates, two intervals in the prehistory of southern Mesoamerica stand out as fertile periods in terms of the generation of new languages: the Terminal Preclassic/early Early Classic Periods, and the Early Postclassic Period. After comparing archaeological evidence with language distributions within the subregions of southern Mesoamerica during the first of these periods, we conclude that the cultural processes during both periods had the same potential for producing rapid rates of linguistic divergences. Just as rapid proliferation of linguistic divisions was symptomatic of the well-known collapse of Late Classic Maya civilization, so it can be taken as a sign of a collapse of Terminal Preclassic civilization. Both collapses were characterized by severe population reductions, site abandonments, an increasing balkanization in material culture, and disruption of interregional communication networks, conditions that were contributory to the kind of linguistic isolation that allows language divergences. Unlike in the Terminal Classic collapse episode, small refuge zones persisted in the Early Classic Period that served as sources of an evolving classicism; these refuge zones were exceptions, however, not the rule. Although the collapse of each site had its own proximate cause, we suggest that the enormous geographical range covered by these Early Classic Period site failures points to a single ultimate cause affecting the area as a whole, such as the onset of a prolonged and devastating climatic change.

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