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"This thesis presents the results of a regional cave survey in the San Francisco Hills near the lowland Maya site of Cancuén, Petén, Guatemala. The survey was a component of the Cancuén Archaeology Project directed by Dr. Arthur Demarest of Vanderbilt University. The project investigated eleven caves through a combination of surface collection and excavation. The study was divided into North and South regions reflecting the natural landscape. The North Area is comprised of tall, tower-like hills that contain the caves Hix Pec, Cueva de las Tinajas, China Ochoch, Ventana Maya, Torre Quib, and Torre Hun. The South Area is defined as a low, hilly region that is naturally separated from the large hills to the north by a swampy area. The caves investigated in the south region include Saber, CHOC-05, Ocox, and Cabeza de Tepezquintle. The analysis of recovered artifacts used a gift-giving economic framework to place cave ritual in the context of social theory. The ceramics revealed that the caves were utilized by highland and lowland Maya populations from the Middle Preclassic through the Late Classic periods. The heaviest utilization occurred during the Early Classic period, but no substantial Early Classic period populations are known in the Cancuén region. I use the works of Mauss (2000), Weiner (1992), and Levi-Strauss (1969), to argue that the Maya economy was largely dependant on obligatory ritual gift-giving transactions with supernatural beings that inhabited caves. The gods required the Maya to perform rituals continually in exchange for the gift of the world. I use the principle of mimesis, or mimicry, to explain how the physical objects left in caves were transformed into offerings to the supernatural realm through their destruction. Offerings to the prehistoric equivalent of the modern Earth Lord were the most vital transactions for the success of the ancient Maya economy because his permission must be granted to harvest the resources necessary for production, such as stone, wood, and food. Activities associated with gift-giving, such as ancestor worship and pilgrimage, resulted in the development of social relations between the ritual participants. Today, the caves continue to be imbued with sacred power for many communities in the surrounding region. The continual ritual utilization of these caves adds to the life histories of those places. This thesis is an attempt to understand a part of that history. -pdf available by request"
Ancient Mesoamerica
Tikal's Early Classic Domination of the Great Western Trade Route: Ceramic, Lithic, and Iconographic Evidence2012 •
Materializing Ritual Practices
Nondédéo et al 2022 - The Role of Altars in Maya Public Rituals2022 •
Los altares, que estén monolíticos o construidos en mampostería, constituyen un elemento central de los rituales públicos de los antiguos mayas. Generalmente asociados con la arquitectura, estos altares se relacionan en muchos casos con la axialidad ya que marcan el eje central y a veces principal del edificio al pie del cual se localizan. Además, se distinguen de los demás altares, los que forman pares con las estelas, por poseer uno o varios depósitos rituales organizados al pie de ellos, disimulados por debajo de los pisos estucados. Estos depósitos reúnen diferentes ensamblajes de materiales con significados bien específicos. Simple recolectores de ofrendas para la dedicación o con una connotación sacrificatoria explícita, estos altares, que estén o no portador de una iconografía, podrían tener una función que se relacione con el tipo de ofrendas presentes por debajo o al pie de ellos. En esta ponencia, presentaremos varios casos de altares fechados del Clásico Temprano, que proceden de contextos públicos y que fueron encontrados y excavados en 2017 en el sitio arqueológico de Naachtun. Dichos altares están asociados con una serie importante de depósitos, formados por recipientes colocados labio contra labio, que muestran cierto patrón, ciertas recurrencias y una asociación posible con el sacrificio, en todo caso con el depósito de cráneo humano. A través de un estudio pluridisciplinario, mezclando datos y comparaciones arqueológicos, comparaciones iconográficas, estudios bio-antropológicos y análisis químicos de los residuos presentes en las vasijas, intentaremos reconstituir a través de los materiales conservados, el destino o la función de estos altares que consagran conjuntos arquitectónicos.
Ancient Mesoamerica
Economy, Exchange, and Power: New Evidence from the Late Classic Maya Port City of Cancuen2014 •
The site of Cancuen held a strategic position as “head of navigation” of the Pasión River and the physical nexus of land and river routes between the southern highlands, the Maya lowlands, and the transversal route to Tabasco and Veracruz. For that reason, the well-defined ports of Cancuen were critical to both Classic Maya highland/lowland commerce and interactions with the far west. All aspects of Cancuen were related to its role as a port city. By the late eighth century, evidence suggests that in the site epicenter peninsula ports and other aspects of the economy were elite controlled and supervised, based on associated architectural complexes, artifacts, imports, and placement. Recent evidence indicates that, in addition to previously discussed long-distance exchange in exotics such as jade and pyrite, Cancuen also was involved in very large-scale obsidian transport and production, as well as probable exchange of other piedmont commodities such as cacao, cotton, salt, achiote (...
Contributions in New World Archaeology
Burials, offerings, flints and the cult of ancestors: the case of Nakum Structure X, Peten GuatemalaUnpublished version of PhD dissertation, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
The ancient Maya expressed their highly developed and complex ideological and cosmological systems through diverse methods. The Maya conveyed these beliefs through a range of symbols and various ritual practices. Imagery on ceramics and other media, as well as written texts, also indicate that many cultural traditions, such as the Maya creation story and the myth of the hero twins, were shared across broad temporal and spatial landscapes (Sharer and Traxler 2006). The methods used to express these ideologies, however, differed from region to region, in contrast to other shared Pan-Maya ideologies and symbolic systems. This ritual variation is principally observed in burial practices, architectural styles, and settlement configuration (Ashmore and Sabloff 2002; Becker 2004; Pendergast 1990). Ritual caching activity was a Pan-Lowland Maya tradition (Coe and Houston 2015). The ritual caching of objects, particularly offerings containing eccentric chert and obsidian lithics, was a common Lowland manifestation of the complex ideologies of the ancient Maya. The wide variety of eccentric forms suggest that these ritual implements further served to communicate elements of ancient Maya ideology through ritual expression. It appears, however, that distinct styles of eccentric caching practices existed from region to region. Regional variation is evident in the context of cache deposition, as well as in the forms of eccentrics used in these caches. Factors influencing the production, morphology, and use of eccentric lithics may reflect differences in social function of cache, as well as differential access to raw materials or distinct collectives of craftspeople. My thesis presents a methodological and theoretical framework, within which I will investigate ancient Maya ritual caching of chert and obsidian eccentrics. Specifically, I will focus on eccentric caches recovered from sites in the Upper Belize Valley, with an emphasis on data from the major polity of Xunantunich. I examine forms and contexts of eccentric lithic caches from these sites. Using these data, I explore the eccentric caching traditions of the major and minor centers in the Belize Valley. I then use this comparative data to compare local traditions with other regions within the Central and Southern Maya Lowlands to determine whether the caching of eccentrics can yield information on regional differences in ritual behavior.
Contributions in New World Archaeology
Excavating data: Harmonization of burial data from Uaxactun, GuatemalaThe Origins of Maya States
Cultural ; and Environmental Components of the First Maya States: A Perspective from the Central and Southern Maya Lowlands2016 •
The Early Classic Enconter: El Zotz
The Early Classic Encounter: An examination of the Cultural and historical implications of an Ancient Maya Palace at El Diablo, El Zotz.2017 •
Latin American Antiquity
Calakmul: New Data from an Ancient Maya Capital in Campeche, Mexico1995 •
2006 •
2012 •
2014 •
2016 •
Teotihuacan: The World Beyond the City
Teotihuacan and Lowland Maya Interactions: Characterizing a Mesoamerican Hegemony2020 •
Latin American Antiquity
Ideological Pathways to Economic Exchange: Religion, Economy, and Legitimation at the Classic Maya Royal Capital of Cancuén2013 •
Ancient Mesoamerica
(2005a) The Rise of Secondary States in the Southeastern Periphery of the Maya World: A Report of Recent Archaeological and Epigraphic Research at Pusilhá, Belize2004 •
Mexicon. Revista sobre Estudios Mesoamericanos
“Entre los sueños de Tezozomoc y la caída de Azcapotzalco. Lo onírico y el poder en la cuenca de México”.2018 •
Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State
Maya Lithic Studies: Papers From the 1976 Belize Filed Symposium1976 •
Journal de la société des américanistes
“In the days of my life.” Elite activity and interactions in the Maya lowlands from Classic to Early Postclassic times (the long ninth century, AD 760-920)Ethnoarchaeology
Interpreting an Early Classic Pecked Cross in the Candelaria Caves, Guatemala: Archaeological and Indigenous Perspectives2014 •
2020 •
Journal of Field Archaeology
Early Maya Ritual Practices and Craft Production: Late Middle Preclassic Ritual Deposits Containing Obsidian Artifacts at Ceibal, Guatemala (Aoyama et al. 2017)2017 •
… in the eastern …
The Context, Significance, and Technology of Copper Metallurgy at the Late Postclassic Spanish Colonial Period, Lamanai Belize2008 •