Download or read book Tikal written by David L. Lentz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-23 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The primary theoretical question addressed in this book focuses on the lingering concern of how the ancient Maya in the northern Petén Basin were able to sustain large populations in the midst of a tropical forest environment during the Late Classic period. This book asks how agricultural intensification was achieved and how essential resources, such as water and forest products, were managed in both upland areas and seasonal wetlands, or bajos. All of these activities were essential components of an initially sustainable land use strategy that eventually failed to meet the demands of an escalating population. This spiraling disconnect with sound ecological principles undoubtedly contributed to the Maya collapse. The book's findings provide insights that broaden the understanding of the rise of social complexity - the expansion of the political economy, specifically - and, in general terms, the trajectory of cultural evolution of the ancient Maya civilization.

Download or read book Excavations in Residential Areas of Tikal Nonelite Groups Without Shrines written by William A. Haviland and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2014-12-10 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excavations in Residential Areas of Tikal—Nonelite Groups Without Shrines is a two-volume presentation of the excavations carried out in and near small residential structures at Tikal, Guatemala, beginning in 1961. These reports show that Tikal was more than a ceremonial center; in addition to its numerous temples, the great Maya city was home to a large population of people. These volumes look at the residential structures themselves as well as domestic artifacts such as burials, ceramic test pits, chultuns. Tikal Report 20B is primarily analytical in nature, reviewing and interpreting the data from Report 20A to draw new conclusions about settlement, demography, and society at Tikal. Together, Tikal Reports 20A and 20B augment the data presented in Tikal Reports 19 and 21.

Download or read book Excavations in the Great Plaza North Terrace and North Acropolis of Tikal Tikal Report 14 written by William R. Coe and published by University of Pennsylvania Museum of. This book was released on 1990-09-01 with total page 1100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is integral and pivotal to the entire Tikal publications series. Produced in six separate casebound volumes (3 of text, 2 of illustrations, a map box for oversize plans and sections), this monumental study looks at the very hub of Tikal. Tikal Report 14 is a tribute to its author, William R. Coe, who not only was able to salvage Tikal from the jungle but meticulously recorded all the resulting data in detailed plans, sections, drawings, and photographs, as well as the written word. This is an integrated site report of unprecedented size and scope. Tikal Report 14 will be of vital interest to field archaeologists and historians studying aspects of Mesoamerican culture.

Download or read book Excavations in Residential Areas of Tikal Groups with Shrines written by Marshall J. Becker and published by UPenn Museum of Archaeology. This book was released on 1999-01-29 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intensive excavations in settlement areas within greater Tikal generated far more than an understanding of the complex gradations of social classes at this lowland Maya site. Identification of a specific architectural pattern associated with relatively small shrines on the eastern side of certain residential groups, and of a distinctive mortuary program, provides a means by which a "plaza plan" can be predicted using good site maps alone. This discovery enabled archaeologists to predict locations for high-status burials in residential as well as in ceremonial areas. Application of these findings at sites beyond Tikal has been demonstrated to be successful throughout the region and even beyond the Maya heartland. Identification of this "plaza plan" also has led us to recognize nine other architectural group plans at Tikal, providing a model for planning excavation strategies and developing theories of cultural change at Tikal and other Maya sites. University Museum Monograph, 104

Download or read book Bones of Complexity written by Haagen D. Klaus and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Provides data and information that can be used for comparative analysis and as a foundation for further exploration. Inviting research from various geographic, cultural, and temporal locales from around the globe, the editors present a complex snapshot of the past."--Anne L. Grauer, editor of A Companion to Paleopathology "This cohesive collection of empirically based studies integrates biological and archaeological data in order to investigate social behavior and its linkages with human health. Relevant to anyone interested in the intersections of culture, health, and biology."--Jaime M. Ullinger, codirector, Quinnipiac University Bioanthropology Research Institute Drawing upon wide-ranging studies of prehistoric human remains from Europe, northern Africa, Asia, and the Americas, this groundbreaking volume unites physical anthropologists, archaeologists, and economists to explore how social structure can be reflected in the human skeleton. Contributors identify many ways in which social, political, and economic inequality have affected health, disease, metabolic insufficiency, growth, and diet. The volume makes a strong case for a broader integration of bioarchaeology with mortuary archaeology as its distinctive approaches offer new ways to look at power, resources, social organization, and the shape of human lives over time and across cultures. A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen

Download or read book Mesoamerican Elites written by Diane Z. Chase and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2003-03-01 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Mesoamerican Elites, Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase present a wide variety of essays, all of which evaluate current archaeological knowledge of the privileged ruling classes, or elites, in Mesoamerica. Some experts argue that Mesoamerican societies consisted only of elites and peasants, while others argue that considerable intermediate social levels also existed. In light of such diverse opinions, this volume addresses problems in the interpretation of archaeological evidence regarding ancient Mesoamerican social structure.

Download or read book The Biological Standard of Living in Comparative Perspective written by John Komlos and published by Franz Steiner Verlag. This book was released on 1998 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inhalt: Part I: The Americas, Asia and Australia: Mit Beitr�gen von: Stephen L. Morgan; Stephen Nicholas / Robert Gregory / Sue Kimberley; Henk-Jan Brinkman / J.W. Drukker; Ricardo Salvatore / J�rg Baten; Ricardo D. Salvatore; Insong Gill; Richard H. Steckel / Paul W. Sciulli / Jerome C. Rose; Michael R. Haines; Philip R. P. Coelho / Robert A. McGuire; Lee A. Craig / Thomas Weiss; Timothy Cuff; John Komlos; Brian A'Hearn; Barry Bogin / Ryan Keep; Markus Heintel; W. Peter Ward Part II: Europe: Mit Beitr�gen von: Edwin Horlings / Jan-Pieter Smits; Jos� M. Martinez Carri�n / Juan J. Perez Castej�n; Gloria Quiroga Valle; Sebasti�n Coll; Lydia Sapounaki-Dracaki; Bernard Harris; Markus Heintel / Lars G. Sandberg / Richard H. Steckel; Joaquim da Costa Leite; Jesper L. Boldsen / Jes S�gaard; Holle Greil; Sally Horrocks / David Smith; Philip T. Hoffman - Joerg Baten / John Komlos: Conclusion "Die mit umfangreichen Literaturverweisen bereicherten Beitr�ge bieten ueberraschend konkrete Einblicke in die Sozialstruktur der verschiedensten Bev�lkerungsgruppen und ihre Lebensbedingungen." Das Historisch-Politische Buch .

Download or read book The Inscriptions of Calakmul written by Joyce Marcus and published by U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Calakmul is a large Maya site in the Yucatán Peninsula of southern Mexico, just north of Tikal and the Guatemala border. In the 1980s, Joyce Marcus sketched and photographed the inscriptions on the monuments of Calakmul, in an effort to understand the nature of Maya territorial organization through the hieroglyphic record. Through the inscriptions, she was able to identify a sequence of rulers and royal couples, and their association with temples and other architecture at the site. Foreword by William J. Folan.

Download or read book An Inconstant Landscape written by Thomas G. Garrison and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting the results of six years of archaeological survey and excavation in and around the Maya kingdom of El Zotz, An Inconstant Landscape paints a complex picture of a dynamic landscape over the course of almost 2,000 years of occupation. El Zotz was a dynastic seat of the Classic period in Guatemala. Located between the renowned sites of Tikal and El Perú-Waka’, it existed as a small kingdom with powerful neighbors and serves today as a test-case of political debility and strength during the height of dynastic struggles among the Classic Maya. In this volume, contributors address the challenges faced by smaller polities on the peripheries of powerful kingdoms and ask how subordination was experienced and independent policy asserted. Leading experts provide cutting-edge analysis in varied topics and detailed discussion of the development of this major site and the region more broadly. The first half of the volume contains a historical narrative of the cultural sequence of El Zotz, tracing the changes in occupation and landscape use across time; the second half provides deep technical analyses of material evidence, including soils, ceramics, stone tools, and bone. The ever-changing, inconstant landscapes of peripheral kingdoms like El Zotz reveal much about their more dominant—and better known—neighbors. An Inconstant Landscape offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of this important but under-studied site, an essential context for the study of the Classic Maya in Guatemala, and a premier reference on the subject of peripheral kingdoms at the height of Maya civilization. Contributors: Timothy Beach, Nicholas Carter, Ewa Czapiewska-Halliday, Alyce de Carteret, William Delgado, Colin Doyle, James Doyle, Laura Gámez, Jose Luis Garrido López, Yeny Myshell Gutiérrez Castillo, Zachary Hruby, Melanie Kingsley, Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, Cassandra Mesick Braun, Sarah Newman, Rony Piedrasanta, Edwin Román, and Andrew K. Scherer

Download or read book The Dynamic Society written by Graeme Snooks and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the nature and process of change in human society over the past two million years. The author draws on economic, historical and biological concepts to examine the driving forces of change and looks to likely developments in the future. This analysis produces some very thought-provoking and controversial conclusions.

Download or read book The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context written by Gyles Iannone and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context, contributors reject the popularized link between societal collapse and drought in Maya civilization, arguing that a series of periodic “collapses,” including the infamous Terminal Classic collapse (AD 750–1050), were not caused solely by climate change–related droughts but by a combination of other social, political, and environmental factors. New and senior scholars of archaeology and environmental science explore the timing and intensity of droughts and provide a nuanced understanding of socio-ecological dynamics, with specific reference to what makes communities resilient or vulnerable when faced with environmental change.Contributors recognize the existence of four droughts that correlate with periods of demographic and political decline and identify a variety of concurrent political and social issues. They argue that these primary underlying factors were exacerbated by drought conditions and ultimately led to societal transitions that were by no means uniform across various sites and subregions. They also deconstruct the concept of “collapse” itself—although the line of Maya kings ended with the Terminal Classic collapse, the Maya people and their civilization survived. The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context offers new insights into the complicated series of events that impacted the decline of Maya civilization. This significant contribution to our increasingly comprehensive understanding of ancient Maya culture will be of interest to students and scholars of archaeology, anthropology, geography, and environmental studies.

Download or read book Supply side Sustainability written by T. F. H. Allen and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While environmentalists insist that lower rates of consumption of natural resources are essential for a sustainable future, many economists dismiss the notion that resource limits act to constrain modern, creative societies. The conflict between these views tinges political debate at all levels and hinders our ability to plan for the future. Supply-Side Sustainability offers a fresh approach to this dilemma by integrating ecological and social science approaches in an interdisciplinary treatment of sustainability. Written by two ecologists and an anthropologist, this book discusses organisms, landscapes, populations, communities, biomes, the biosphere, ecosystems and energy flows, as well as patterns of sustainability and collapse in human societies, from hunter-gatherer groups to empires to today's industrial world. These diverse topics are integrated within a new framework that translates the authors' advances in hierarchy and complexity theory into a form useful to professionals in science, government, and business. The result is a much-needed blueprint for a cost-effective management regime, one that makes problem-solving efforts themselves sustainable over time. The authors demonstrate that long-term, cost-effective resource management can be achieved by managing the contexts of productive systems, rather than by managing the commodities that natural systems produce.

Download or read book The Transition to Statehood in the New World written by Grant D. Jones and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1981-12-31 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 1982 collection of eight original anthropological essays provides an exciting synthesis of theory and practice in one of the key issues of contemporary cultural evolutionary thought. The contributors ask why complex, highly stratified societies emerged at several locations in the New World at the same point in prehistory. Focusing primarily on the initial centers of civilization in Mesoamerica and the Andean region, they consider the sociopolitical, environmental and ideological factors in state formation. The essays discuss the prehistoric conditions and processes that simulated the development of the first state-level societies in Mesoamerica and Peru, and explore the difficulties archaeologists must face in their direct analysis of physical remains. In general, the contributors recognize a growing need for better archaeological solutions to the question of state origin and for more sensitivity to the problems as well as to the possibilities of ethnographic analogy.

Download or read book Sources and Methods of Historical Demography written by J. Dennis Willigan and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sources and Methods of Historical Demography covers the fundamental sources, methods, and approaches to explanatory modeling for describing, analyzing, and understanding demographic features of past societies. The book discusses the intellectual ancestry of historical demographic research, beginning in the 17th century; as well as the logic of basic techniques for reconstructing and analyzing information from fundamental source materials. The text also describes the full range of disciplines that have made major contributions to historical demography, and examples of empirical research. The book concludes by arguing the case for conducting historical demographic research with a broad, interdisciplinary ideal in mind. Historians and sociologists will find the book invaluable.

Download or read book Ancient Maya Commoners written by Jon C. Lohse and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of what we currently know about the ancient Maya concerns the activities of the elites who ruled the societies and left records of their deeds carved on the monumental buildings and sculptures that remain as silent testimony to their power and status. But what do we know of the common folk who labored to build the temple complexes and palaces and grew the food that fed all of Maya society? This pathfinding book marshals a wide array of archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic evidence to offer the fullest understanding to date of the lifeways of ancient Maya commoners. Senior and emerging scholars contribute case studies that examine such aspects of commoner life as settlement patterns, household organization, and subsistence practices. Their reports cover most of the Maya area and the entire time span from Preclassic to Postclassic. This broad range of data helps resolve Maya commoners from a faceless mass into individual actors who successfully adapted to their social environment and who also held primary responsibility for producing the food and many other goods on which the whole Maya society depended.

Download or read book A Companion to Gender Prehistory written by Diane Bolger and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 933 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative guide on gender prehistory for researchers, instructors and students in anthropology, archaeology, and gender studies Provides the most up-to-date, comprehensive coverage of gender archaeology, with an exclusive focus on prehistory Offers critical overviews of developments in the archaeology of gender over the last 30 years, as well as assessments of current trends and prospects for future research Focuses on recent Third Wave approaches to the study of gender in early human societies, challenging heterosexist biases, and investigating the interfaces between gender and status, age, cognition, social memory, performativity, the body, and sexuality Features numerous regional and thematic topics authored by established specialists in the field, with incisive coverage of gender research in prehistoric and protohistoric cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Pacific

Download or read book The Ancient Maya written by Heather McKillop and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2004-08-19 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thanks to powerful innovations in archaeology and other types of historical research, we now have a picture of everyday life in the Mayan empire that turns the long-accepted conventional wisdom on its head. Ranging from the end of the Ice Age to the flourishing of Mayan culture in the first millennium to the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, The Ancient Maya takes a fresh look at a culture that has long held the public's imagination. Originally thought to be peaceful and spiritual, the Mayans are now also known to have been worldly, bureaucratic, and violent. Debates and unanswered questions linger. Mayan expert Heather McKillop shows our current understanding of the Maya, explaining how interpretations of "dirt archaeology," hieroglyphic inscriptions, and pictorial pottery are used to reconstruct the lives of royalty, artisans, priests, and common folk. She also describes the innovative focus on the interplay of the people with their environments that has helped further unravel the mystery of the Mayans' rise and fall.