Download or read book The Formative Ceramic Figurine Collection from the Site of Cahal Pech Cayo Belize written by Christina L. Zweig and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Enchaining Kinship written by Lisa LaVon DeLance and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 1013 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation examines the use and deposition of ceramic figurine fragments from the site of Cahal Pech, Cayo, Belize over the range of occupation of the site from the Formative Period to the Terminal Classic Period (ca. 1,100 BC to AD 900). This research considers critically the similarities and differences in figurine use and depositional practices between the site core and smaller neighboring structure groups examined synchronically, while also charting similarities and differences across the entire site diachronically.
Download or read book Pre Mamom Pottery Variation and the Preclassic Origins of the Lowland Maya written by Debra S. Walker and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2023-04-15 with total page 671 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pre-Mamom Pottery Variation and the Preclassic Origins of the Lowland Maya summarizes archaeological researchers’ current views on the adoption and first use of pottery across the Maya lowlands. Covering the early Middle Preclassic period, when communities began using and producing pottery for the first time (roughly 1000–600 BC), through to the establishment of a recognizably Maya tradition, termed the Mamom ceramic sphere (about 600–300 BC), the book demonstrates that the adoption was broadly contemporary, with variation in how the new technology was adapted locally. Analyzing ceramics found at sites in Belize, Petén (Guatemala), and Mexico, the contributors provide evidence that the pre-Mamom expansion of pottery resulted from increased dependence on maize agriculture, exploitation of limestone caprock, and greater reliance on a preexisting system of long-distance exchange. The chapters describe the individual experiences of new potting communities at various sites across the region. They are supplemented by appendixes presenting key chronological data as well as the principal types and varieties of pre-Mamom ceramic complexes across the various spheres: Xe, Eb, Swasey, Cunil, and Ek. A significant amount of new material has been excavated in the last decade, changing what is known about the early Middle Preclassic period and making Pre-Mamom Pottery Variation and the Preclassic Origins of the Lowland Maya a first read of the early ceramic prehistory of the Maya lowlands. It will be a valuable resource for students and scholars interested in the archaeology of the Maya lowlands, Mesoamerican social complexity, and ceramic technology. Contributors: E. Wyllys Andrews V, Jaime Awe, George J. Bey III, Ronald L. Bishop, Michael G. Callaghan, Ryan H. Collins, Kaitlin Crow, Sara Dzul Góngora, Jerald Ek, Tomás Gallareta Negrón, Bernard Hermes, Takeshi Inomata, Betsy M. Kohut, Laura J. Kosakowsky, Wieslaw Koszkul, Jon Lohse, Michael Love, Nina Neivens, Terry Powis, Duncan C. Pring, Kathryn Reese-Taylor, Prudence M. Rice, Robert M. Rosenswig, Kerry L. Sagebiel, Donald A. Slater, Katherine E. South, Lauren A. Sullivan, Travis Stanton, Juan Luis Velásquez Muñoz, Debra S. Walker, Michal Wasilewski, Jaroslaw Źrałka
Download or read book Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos written by Prudence M. Rice and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2019-04-14 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos explores the sociocultural significance of more than three hundred Middle Preclassic Maya figurines uncovered at the site of Nixtun-Ch'ich' on Lake Petén Itzá in northern Guatemala. In this careful, holistic, and detailed analysis of the Petén lakes figurines—hand-modeled, terracotta anthropomorphic fragments, animal figures, and musical instruments such as whistles and ocarinas—Prudence M. Rice engages with a broad swath of theory and comparative data on Maya ritual practice. Presenting original data, Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos offers insight into the synchronous appearance of fired-clay figurines with the emergence of societal complexity in and beyond Mesoamerica. Rice situates these Preclassic Maya figurines in the broader context of Mesoamerican human figural representation, identifies possible connections between anthropomorphic figurine heads and the origins of calendrics and other writing in Mesoamerica, and examines the role of anthropomorphic figurines and zoomorphic musical instruments in Preclassic Maya ritual. The volume shows how community rituals involving the figurines helped to mitigate the uncertainties of societal transitions, including the beginnings of settled agricultural life, the emergence of social differentiation and inequalities, and the centralization of political power and decision-making in the Petén lowlands. Literature on Maya ritual, cosmology, and specialized artifacts has traditionally focused on the Classic period, with little research centering on the very beginnings of Maya sociopolitical organization and ideological beliefs in the Middle Preclassic. Anthropomorphizing the Cosmos is a welcome contribution to the understanding of the earliest Maya and will be significant to Mayanists and Mesoamericanists as well as nonspecialists with interest in these early figurines
Download or read book Ceramic Innovation and Interregional Interaction written by Isabelle Martinez-Muniz and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 61 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis presents the results of the ceramic analysis of a sample of ceramics from the site of Cahal Pech, Belize, in an attempt to study the transition between the Cunil Ceramic complex and the Early Facet Jenney Creek/ Kanluk ceramic complex. The Cunil ceramics (1100-900 B.C.) are the earliest known ceramic complex discovered at Cahal Pech. This complex is immediately followed by the Early Facet Jenney Creek/Kanluk ceramic complex (c.a. 900-600 B.C.). Cunil ceramics served as mediums to display motifs considered to be Olmec-style or following a panMesoamerican style (Brown 2007; Awe 1992; Cheetham 1998). These motifs held symbolic and ideological meaning, and the ceramics bearing these decorations were meant to be displayed while serving food or drink (Brown 2007:9). The use of these pan-Mesoamerican concepts decreases significantly after the Cunil phase (Brown 2007: 9,) at a time when social differentiation starts to emerge in the Maya Lowlands and it can first be identified in the archaeological record (Healy et al. 2004; Brown 2007). This decrease in the occurrence of Cunil symbols also coincides with the emergence of the Early Facet Jenney Creek/ Kanluk Complex. These ceramics differ from the Cunil ceramics in decoration, surface treatment, materials used for their manufacture, and form. The presence of Olmec style motifs in Cahal Pech, without a doubt, indicates that the people of this site were involved in some type of regional interaction. The emergence of the Olmec civilization towards 1250 B.C. marks the first known development of a large-scale chiefdom or state polity in Mesoamerica (Cheetham iii 1998). Archaeological excavations at San Lorenzo, the seat of the Olmec civilization, produced information pointing to the existence of sustained trade networks with other regions of Mesoamerica. Findings of Olmec style motifs and ceramics also lend support to theories claiming the existence of extensive networks of exchange and interaction within the Maya region. During the transition from Cunil to Jenney Creek/Kanluk, not only did the residents of Cahal Pech cease to use Olmec motifs on serving vessels, but also the ceramics used at Cahal Pech changed significantly. Some ceramic groups maintained some continuity, but new, previously unknown groups emerged. Transformation in the ceramics produced by the inhabitants of Cahal Pech can inform the social changes that occurred during the transition between these two ceramic complexes from Cahal Pech, Cunil and Early Facet Jenney Creek/Kanluk. The query this project pursues addresses the influence of internal means for change in ceramic production, and well as the effect that Cahal Pech's involvement in a regional network had on its ceramic assemblage. Some questions this project addresses when examining the ceramic sample presented include: What local factors may have contributed to the development of new ceramic groups? Did new ceramic decoration and production techniques did in effect develop at Cahal Pech, or were such innovations introduced from neighboring areas? How do changes in the ceramics of Cahal Pech reflect social changes? The possibility that foreign ceramics were introduced to the Belize Valley raises the question of where these materials came from and who was involved in regional and long distance interaction with Cahal Pech, since the wide distribution of Olmec style materials suggests that people sustained trade and exchange networks over iv considerable distances. After detailing the findings from analysis of the ceramic sample, I consider how this ceramic sample points to the combination of internal and external catalysts for change in the production reflects in this ceramic sample. Engaging these issues might help to determine the role that Cahal Pech played at a local level, and furthermore on a regional level. v.
Download or read book New Perspectives on Formative Mesoamerican Cultures written by Terry G. Powis and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2005 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These seventeen perspectives' on Mesoamerican cultures were originally presented at a symposia at the 66th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology held in New Orleans in 2001.
Download or read book Framing Complexity in Formative Mesoamerica written by Lisa Delance and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2022-09-28 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh examination of variable social and economic processes, Framing Complexity in Formative Mesoamerica explores nascent social complexity during the Preclassic/Formative period in Mesoamerica and addresses broader social questions about egalitarian and transegalitarian prehispanic Mesoamerican cultural groups. Contributors present multiple lines of evidence demonstrating the process of social complexity and reconsider a number of traditionally accepted models and presumed tenets as a result of the wealth of empirical data that has been gathered over the past four decades. Their chapters approach complexity as a process rather than a state of being by exploring social aggregation, the emergence of ethnic affiliations, and aspects of regional and macroregional variability. Framing Complexity in Formative Mesoamerica presents some of the most recent data—and the implications of that data—for understanding the development of complex societies as human beings moved into urban environments. The book is an especially important volume for researchers and students working in Mesoamerica, as well as archaeologists taking a comparative approach to questions of complexity. Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Sarah B. Barber, Jeffrey S. Brezezinski, M. Kathryn Brown, Ryan H. Collins, Kaitlin Crow, Lisa DeLance, Gary M. Feinman, Sara Dzul Gongora, Guy David Hepp, Arthur A. Joyce, Rodrigo Martin Morales, George Micheletti, Deborah L. Nichols, Terry G. Powis, Zoe J. Rawski, Prudence M. Rice, Michael P. Smyth, Katherine E. South, Jon Spenard, Travis W. Stanton, Wesley D. Stoner, Teresa Tremblay Wagner
Download or read book Maya Figurines written by Christina T. Halperin and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rather than view the contours of Late Classic Maya social life solely from towering temple pyramids or elite sculptural forms, this book considers a suite of small anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and supernatural figurative remains excavated from household refuse deposits. Maya Figurines examines these often neglected objects and uses them to draw out relationships between the Maya state and its subjects. These figurines provide a unique perspective for understanding Maya social and political relations; Christina T. Halperin argues that state politics work on the microscale of everyday routines, localized rituals, and small-scale representations. Her comprehensive study brings together archeology, anthropology, and art history with theories of material culture, performance, political economy, ritual humor, and mimesis to make a fascinating case for the role politics plays in daily life. What she finds is that, by comparing small-scale figurines with state-sponsored, often large-scale iconography and elite material culture, one can understand how different social realms relate to and represent one another. In Maya Figurines, Halperin compares objects from diverse households, archeological sites, and regions, focusing especially on figurines from Petén, Guatemala, and comparing them to material culture from Belize, the northern highlands of Guatemala, the Usumacinta River, the Campeche coastal area, and Mesoamerican sites outside the Maya zone. Ultimately, she argues, ordinary objects are not simply passive backdrops for important social and political phenomena. Instead, they function as significant mechanisms through which power and social life are intertwined.
Download or read book Archaeological Investigations in the Eastern Maya Lowlands written by Jaime J. Awe and published by Institute of Archaeology National Institute of Culture and H. This book was released on 2004 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Journal of Mesoamerican Studies written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Beyond Collapse written by Ronald K. Faulseit and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book interprets how ancient civilizations responded to various stresses, including environmental change, warfare, and the fragmentation of political institutions. It focuses on what happened during and after the decline of once powerful regimes, and posits that they experienced social resilience and transformation instead of collapse.
Download or read book Ancient Maya written by Arthur Demarest and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-12-09 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Maya comes to life in this new holistic and theoretical study.
Download or read book Maya E Groups written by David A. Freidel and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As complex societies emerged in the Maya lowlands during the first millennium BCE, so did stable communities focused around public squares and the worship of a divine ruler tied to a Maize God cult. “E Groups,” central to many of these settlements, are architectural complexes: typically, a long platform supporting three struc¬tures and facing a western pyramid across a formal plaza. Aligned with the movements of the sun, E Groups have long been interpreted as giant calendrical devices crucial to the rise of Maya civilization. This volume presents new archaeological data to reveal that E Groups were constructed earlier than previously thought. In fact, they are the earliest identifiable architectural plan at many Maya settlements. More than just astronomical observatories or calendars, E Groups were a key element of community organization, urbanism, and identity in the heart of the Maya lowlands. They served as gathering places for emerging communities and centers of ritual; they were the very first civic-religious public architecture in the Maya lowlands. Investigating a wide variety of E Group sites—including some of the most famous like the Mundo Perdido in Tikal and the hitherto little known complex at Chan, as well as others in Ceibal, El Palmar, Cival, Calakmul, Caracol, Xunantunich, Yaxnohcah, Yaxuná, and San Bartolo—this volume pieces together the development of social and political complexity in ancient Maya civilization. James Aimers | Anthony F. Aveni | Jamie J. Awe | Boris Beltran | M. Kathryn Brown | Arlen F. Chase | Diane Z. Chase | Anne S. Dowd | James Doyle | Francisco Estrada-Belli | David A. Freidel | Julie A. Hoggarth | Takeshi Inomata | Patricia A. Mcanany | Susan Milbrath | Jerry Murdock | Kathryn Reese-Taylor | Prudence M. Rice | Cynthia Robin | Franco D. Rossi | Jeremy A. Sabloff | William A. Saturno | Travis W. Stanton A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase
Download or read book Mesoamerican Figurines written by Christina T. Halperin and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines figurines from the Olmec to the Aztec civilizations. This book also analyzes these objects by their stylistic attributes, archaeological content, function.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Death written by Robert Chapman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1981-10-22 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together studies on the disposal of the dead and the archaeological research potential of found remains.
Download or read book To Be Like Gods written by Matthew G. Looper and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, Association for Latin American Art Book Award, 2010 The Maya of Mexico and Central America have performed ritual dances for more than two millennia. Dance is still an essential component of religious experience today, serving as a medium for communication with the supernatural. During the Late Classic period (AD 600-900), dance assumed additional importance in Maya royal courts through an association with feasting and gift exchange. These performances allowed rulers to forge political alliances and demonstrate their control of trade in luxury goods. The aesthetic values embodied in these performances were closely tied to Maya social structure, expressing notions of gender, rank, and status. Dance was thus not simply entertainment, but was fundamental to ancient Maya notions of social, religious, and political identity. Using an innovative interdisciplinary approach, Matthew Looper examines several types of data relevant to ancient Maya dance, including hieroglyphic texts, pictorial images in diverse media, and architecture. A series of case studies illustrates the application of various analytical methodologies and offers interpretations of the form, meaning, and social significance of dance performance. Although the nuances of movement in Maya dances are impossible to recover, Looper demonstrates that a wealth of other data survives which allows a detailed consideration of many aspects of performance. To Be Like Gods thus provides the first comprehensive interpretation of the role of dance in ancient Maya society and also serves as a model for comparative research in the archaeology of performance.
Download or read book Tribes and Temples written by and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
