C T Halperin
Biographic Data
| ID | 13985 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C T Halperin |
| GIVEN NAMES | C T |
| FAMILY NAME | Halperin |
| SIGNATURE | HALPERIN C T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université de Montréal |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9490-1966 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 36 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 225 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
The Dark Side of Ruins in Ancient Maya Living Landscapes
Ruination studies allow one to see the past not as a fixed “thing” but as living landscapes. Over the past two decades, Mesoamerican scholars have increasingly recognized that ruins were an integral part of ancient Mesoamerican peoples’ experiences in and with the world and not just a modern invention of cultural heritage. Any understanding of ancient Maya ruins must consider the Indigenous ontologies, cosmologies, and myths of peoples of that re…
Council houses and new systems of governance in the Terminal Classic Southern Maya Lowlands
Classic period ( c . AD 300–810) governance in the Southern Maya Lowlands was characterised by a system of divine kingship with paramount rulers. What constituted ideal governing systems, however, changed over time with greater emphasis placed on power-sharing by the Postclassic period ( c . AD 1000–1521). Here, the authors document a colonnaded open hall at Ucanal, Guatemala, and explore its potential role as a council house and stage for civic …
Fecal Steroids as Tracers of Human Population and Waste Management Practices at the Ancient Maya City of Ucanal, Guatemala
Geochemical data compiled from dried sediments from three water reservoirs at the ancient Maya city of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala, reveal low to undetectable fecal biomarker concentrations. These low concentrations may be the result of the aerobic decay of sterols combined with well‐managed waste disposal practices. Despite generally low concentrations of fecal biomarkers, evidence was detected for increased fecal residues during the Late Classic a…
Assessing nutrient inputs, sediment organic matter sources, and the potential for cyanobacteria in ancient water reservoirs at the Maya city of Ucanal, Guatemala
Mercury contamination in ancient water reservoirs at the Maya city of Ucanal, Guatemala
Hidden Histories of Captive and Enslaved Maya Women in the Indigenous Americas
A pivot point in Maya history
Key tipping points of history are rarely found directly in the archaeological record, not least because an event's significance often lies in the perception of the participants. This article documents an early-ninth-century ritual fire-burning event at the Maya site of Ucanal in Guatemala and argues that it marked a public dismantling of an old regime. Rather than examine this event as part of a Classic period Maya collapse, the authors propose t…
Foreigners Among Us
Assessing key questions such as who the foreigners and outsiders in ancient Maya societies were and how was the foreign a generative component of identity, Foreigners Among Us reassess the arrival of foreigners as part of archaeological understandings of Pre-Columbian Maya and questions not only who these foreigners might have been but who were making such designations of difference in the first place. Drawing from identity studies, standpoint th…
Maya molded-carved ceramics as boundary objects
Shifting Social Relations During the Terminal Classic Period (Ca. A.d. 810–950/1000)
The end of the Classic period was a tumultuous moment in Maya history, not only because the power of many dominant political centers waned, but because the ways in which elites and non-elites related to each other were increasingly called into question. To understand the nature of changing social relations in the southern Maya lowlands during this time, this study examines the distribution and provenance of decorated ceramics during the Late Clas…
Comparing Inaa and pXRF analytical methods for ceramics
Ancient Recycling
Terminal Classic residential histories, migration, and foreigners at the Maya site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala
Architectural Aesthetics, Orientations, and Reuse at the Terminal Classic Maya Site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala
The Terminal Classic period (ca. a.d. 830–950/1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands is known as a time in which investments in public architecture and vaulted masonry buildings began to wane. Masonry constructions have often been noted to be of poorer quality in comparison with previous phases. Moving beyond models of scarcity, this paper examines the aesthetics, meanings, and reorientations of architectural projects at the site of Ucanal, Petén, G…
Convergence Zone Politics at the Archaeological Site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala
The Maya archaeological site of Ucanal is located in Peten, Guatemala, close to the contemporary border with Belize. In pre-Columbian times, the site also sat at the frontiers of some of the largest political centers, Naranjo in Peten, Guatemala, and Caracol, in Belize. Entangled between these dominant centers and with ties to peoples in the Upper Belize Valley, the Petexbatun region in Guatemala, northern Yucatan, and elsewhere, Ucanal was a cri…
Introduction to the Special Section
The Maya area has long been characterized as a mosaic of polities large and small, with cultural connections, linguistic dialects, ethnicities, and economic networks that shifted, expanded, and contracted over time. In this paper, we examine different ways of constructing boundaries. From physical demarcations in the landscape to habitual practices of interaction and affiliation, the lines that tied and divided were both unstable and multiple. We…
Ucanal Stela 29 and the Cosmopolitanism of Terminal Classic Maya Stone Monuments
The Terminal Classic period (ca. AD 800-1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands witnessed a precipitous decline in the erection of carved stone monuments, a decline that corresponds to shifts in political ideologies and the disappearance of many prominent royal dynasties. Although Southern Lowland sites are often considered peripheral to the events and innovations occurring elsewhere in Mesoamerica during this time, a recently discovered stela, Stela…
A Late Postclassic (ca. AD 1350-1521) Border Shrine at the Site of Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala
Shrines were a regular component of ceremonial architecture in the public plazas of Postclassic Maya centers. Small shrines and natural landmarks such as caves and outcrops at the borders of settlements or in wilderness locations also served, and in some cases continue to serve, as important ritual loci for Maya peoples. These more peripheral locales were not only critical access points to the supernatural, but also served to delineate places. Be…
Profane illuminations
Infrastructures of moving water at the Maya site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala
The weight of ritual
Social Identities in the Classic Maya Northern Lowlands
Traci Ardren begins her book by recalling the words of a previous esteemed professor who suggested that students of ancient cultures see either the differences between their cultures and those of others or see their similarities. While she does not explicitly state where she stands on the matter, it is clear throughout the interweavings of the book that she stands with the latter group. This book explores social identities in ancient Maya society…
Temporalities of Late Classic to Postclassic (Ca. Ad 600-1521) Maya Figurines From Central Petén, Guatemala
Maya figurine styles from the Late Classic to Postclassic periods (ca. AD 600-1521) from central Petén, Guatemala undergo an abrupt change at the Terminal Classic-Postclassic transition (ca. AD 830-1000). Despite the intimate association of figurines with households, such shifts parallel those on stone monuments and decorated vessels, underscoring the role of figurines in processes of political upheaval. Documenting figurine chronologies over bro…
Ancient cosmopolitanism
The consideration of cosmopolitanism in archaeology provides a useful lens for thinking about and expanding how to conceive of inter-regional interactions and experiences of belonging in the ancient world. Previous models in Mesoamerican archaeology often implicitly follow a cosmopolitanism of elite male citizens of the world. In incorporating a feminist perspective to the analysis of inter-regional relations, this paper examines Maya women's rol…
Anthropological Archaeology in 2016
Ideas of collaboration and cooperation are often implicit, taken-for-granted elements in archaeological models and theorizing. Overshadowed by a growing archaeological preoccupation with warfare, violence, conflict, and crisis, cooperative acts and collaborative dispositions appear to lack the same emotional resonance and change-stimulating properties that attract archaeological attention. Nonetheless, many archaeological publications in 2016 dir…
Classic Maya Textile Production
Textiles in ancient Mesoamerica served as a critical economic resource and symbolic display of status, wealth, and social affiliation. The economic significance of textiles can be explored, in part, by the archaeological identification and distribution of production tools: spinning and weaving implements. In the Maya area, however, few studies have examined the organization of textile production, and systematic documentation of tool distributions…
Caves and Ancient Maya Ritual Use of Jute
A number of previous authors have suggested, based on limited data, that Pachychilus spp., freshwater gastropods often called jute , may have played a role in ancient Maya ritual. Data collected by the authors demonstrate that jute shells consistently appear as part of faunal assemblages in ceremonial caves across the southern Maya Lowlands. At surface sites, jute are often associated with ceremonial architecture, particularly ballcourts. Previou…
Ucanal Stela 29 and the Cosmopolitanism of Terminal Classic Maya Stone Monuments
The Terminal Classic period (ca. AD 800-1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands witnessed a precipitous decline in the erection of carved stone monuments, a decline that corresponds to shifts in political ideologies and the disappearance of many prominent royal dynasties. Although Southern Lowland sites are often considered peripheral to the events and innovations occurring elsewhere in Mesoamerica during this time, a recently discovered stela, Stela…
Temporalities of Late Classic to Postclassic (Ca. Ad 600-1521) Maya Figurines From Central Petén, Guatemala
Maya figurine styles from the Late Classic to Postclassic periods (ca. AD 600-1521) from central Petén, Guatemala undergo an abrupt change at the Terminal Classic-Postclassic transition (ca. AD 830-1000). Despite the intimate association of figurines with households, such shifts parallel those on stone monuments and decorated vessels, underscoring the role of figurines in processes of political upheaval. Documenting figurine chronologies over bro…
Vernacular Architecture in the Pre-Columbian Americas
Circulation as Placemaking
What do portable objects have to do with the making of places? Portable objects are seemingly peripheral to understandings of place, as landscape studies often revolve around human experiences in relation to relatively fixed features, such as monumental buildings, agricultural fields, and settlements. Attention to the fleeting movements and intersecting juxtapositions of portable things, people, and landscapes, however, reveals placemaking as rel…
Architectural Aesthetics, Orientations, and Reuse at the Terminal Classic Maya Site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala
The Terminal Classic period (ca. a.d. 830–950/1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands is known as a time in which investments in public architecture and vaulted masonry buildings began to wane. Masonry constructions have often been noted to be of poorer quality in comparison with previous phases. Moving beyond models of scarcity, this paper examines the aesthetics, meanings, and reorientations of architectural projects at the site of Ucanal, Petén, G…
Anthropological Archaeology in 2016
Ideas of collaboration and cooperation are often implicit, taken-for-granted elements in archaeological models and theorizing. Overshadowed by a growing archaeological preoccupation with warfare, violence, conflict, and crisis, cooperative acts and collaborative dispositions appear to lack the same emotional resonance and change-stimulating properties that attract archaeological attention. Nonetheless, many archaeological publications in 2016 dir…
Infrastructures of moving water at the Maya site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala
Terminal Classic residential histories, migration, and foreigners at the Maya site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala
Late Classic (A.D. 600–900) Maya Market Exchange
Archaeologists studying ancient state societies often divide political economic models into separate prestige goods and subsistence goods systems. For the Maya during the Late Classic period (ca. A.D. 600–900), scholars have suggested that the elite centrally controlled the production and circulation of prestige goods while local communities and households were responsible for subsistence goods manufacture and exchange, which operated in a largel…
Convergence Zone Politics at the Archaeological Site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala
The Maya archaeological site of Ucanal is located in Peten, Guatemala, close to the contemporary border with Belize. In pre-Columbian times, the site also sat at the frontiers of some of the largest political centers, Naranjo in Peten, Guatemala, and Caracol, in Belize. Entangled between these dominant centers and with ties to peoples in the Upper Belize Valley, the Petexbatun region in Guatemala, northern Yucatan, and elsewhere, Ucanal was a cri…
Introduction to the Special Section
The Maya area has long been characterized as a mosaic of polities large and small, with cultural connections, linguistic dialects, ethnicities, and economic networks that shifted, expanded, and contracted over time. In this paper, we examine different ways of constructing boundaries. From physical demarcations in the landscape to habitual practices of interaction and affiliation, the lines that tied and divided were both unstable and multiple. We…
Ancient cosmopolitanism
The consideration of cosmopolitanism in archaeology provides a useful lens for thinking about and expanding how to conceive of inter-regional interactions and experiences of belonging in the ancient world. Previous models in Mesoamerican archaeology often implicitly follow a cosmopolitanism of elite male citizens of the world. In incorporating a feminist perspective to the analysis of inter-regional relations, this paper examines Maya women's rol…
The weight of ritual
Maya molded-carved ceramics as boundary objects
Comparing Inaa and pXRF analytical methods for ceramics
Ruins in Pre-Columbian Maya Urban Landscapes
There is a growing recognition that ancient cultures actively reworked their own pasts (and thus their futures) by reusing and modifying relics and ruined buildings. In the Maya area, architectural ruins of the Pre-Columbian past are often considered as isolated from major centres or as subsumed by new architectural constructions. In contrast, this article examines recent survey and excavations from the North-central sector of Tayasal, Guatemala,…
A Late Postclassic (ca. AD 1350-1521) Border Shrine at the Site of Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala
Shrines were a regular component of ceremonial architecture in the public plazas of Postclassic Maya centers. Small shrines and natural landmarks such as caves and outcrops at the borders of settlements or in wilderness locations also served, and in some cases continue to serve, as important ritual loci for Maya peoples. These more peripheral locales were not only critical access points to the supernatural, but also served to delineate places. Be…
Ancient Recycling
Assessing nutrient inputs, sediment organic matter sources, and the potential for cyanobacteria in ancient water reservoirs at the Maya city of Ucanal, Guatemala
Mercury contamination in ancient water reservoirs at the Maya city of Ucanal, Guatemala
A pivot point in Maya history
Key tipping points of history are rarely found directly in the archaeological record, not least because an event's significance often lies in the perception of the participants. This article documents an early-ninth-century ritual fire-burning event at the Maya site of Ucanal in Guatemala and argues that it marked a public dismantling of an old regime. Rather than examine this event as part of a Classic period Maya collapse, the authors propose t…
Caves and Ancient Maya Ritual Use of Jute
A number of previous authors have suggested, based on limited data, that Pachychilus spp., freshwater gastropods often called jute , may have played a role in ancient Maya ritual. Data collected by the authors demonstrate that jute shells consistently appear as part of faunal assemblages in ceremonial caves across the southern Maya Lowlands. At surface sites, jute are often associated with ceremonial architecture, particularly ballcourts. Previou…
Classic Maya Textile Production
Textiles in ancient Mesoamerica served as a critical economic resource and symbolic display of status, wealth, and social affiliation. The economic significance of textiles can be explored, in part, by the archaeological identification and distribution of production tools: spinning and weaving implements. In the Maya area, however, few studies have examined the organization of textile production, and systematic documentation of tool distributions…
Late Classic (A.D. 600–900) Maya Market Exchange
Archaeologists studying ancient state societies often divide political economic models into separate prestige goods and subsistence goods systems. For the Maya during the Late Classic period (ca. A.D. 600–900), scholars have suggested that the elite centrally controlled the production and circulation of prestige goods while local communities and households were responsible for subsistence goods manufacture and exchange, which operated in a largel…
Archaeology and Capitalism
Pottery politics
Ruins in Pre-Columbian Maya Urban Landscapes
There is a growing recognition that ancient cultures actively reworked their own pasts (and thus their futures) by reusing and modifying relics and ruined buildings. In the Maya area, architectural ruins of the Pre-Columbian past are often considered as isolated from major centres or as subsumed by new architectural constructions. In contrast, this article examines recent survey and excavations from the North-central sector of Tayasal, Guatemala,…
Circulation as Placemaking
What do portable objects have to do with the making of places? Portable objects are seemingly peripheral to understandings of place, as landscape studies often revolve around human experiences in relation to relatively fixed features, such as monumental buildings, agricultural fields, and settlements. Attention to the fleeting movements and intersecting juxtapositions of portable things, people, and landscapes, however, reveals placemaking as rel…
Chemical analysis of Late Classic Maya polychrome pottery paints and pastes from Central Petén, Guatemala
Les ordures de la maisonnée
Que peuvent nous apprendre les pratiques de rejet sur les maisonnées de la période maya classique ? La plupart des analyses archéologiques des dépotoirs se sont concentrées sur l’analyse du contenu : description, classement et comparaison de ce que contenaient les dépotoirs, afin de documenter les populations qui ont laissé de tels vestiges. L’étude des pratiques concrètes par lesquelles on se débarrasse des détritus peut encore nous en apprendre…
Household Garbage
What can the practices of discard tell us about Classic period Maya households? Most archaeological analyses of middens are concerned with an analysis of content: describing, classifying, and comparing midden contents to tell us about the people who left such remains. Yet much can be learned about households from studying the actual practices of getting rid of trash. This paper documents midden patterns from the Classic period Maya site of Motul …
Vernacular Architecture in the Pre-Columbian Americas
Temporalities of Late Classic to Postclassic (Ca. Ad 600-1521) Maya Figurines From Central Petén, Guatemala
Maya figurine styles from the Late Classic to Postclassic periods (ca. AD 600-1521) from central Petén, Guatemala undergo an abrupt change at the Terminal Classic-Postclassic transition (ca. AD 830-1000). Despite the intimate association of figurines with households, such shifts parallel those on stone monuments and decorated vessels, underscoring the role of figurines in processes of political upheaval. Documenting figurine chronologies over bro…
Ancient cosmopolitanism
The consideration of cosmopolitanism in archaeology provides a useful lens for thinking about and expanding how to conceive of inter-regional interactions and experiences of belonging in the ancient world. Previous models in Mesoamerican archaeology often implicitly follow a cosmopolitanism of elite male citizens of the world. In incorporating a feminist perspective to the analysis of inter-regional relations, this paper examines Maya women's rol…
Anthropological Archaeology in 2016
Ideas of collaboration and cooperation are often implicit, taken-for-granted elements in archaeological models and theorizing. Overshadowed by a growing archaeological preoccupation with warfare, violence, conflict, and crisis, cooperative acts and collaborative dispositions appear to lack the same emotional resonance and change-stimulating properties that attract archaeological attention. Nonetheless, many archaeological publications in 2016 dir…
The weight of ritual
Social Identities in the Classic Maya Northern Lowlands
Traci Ardren begins her book by recalling the words of a previous esteemed professor who suggested that students of ancient cultures see either the differences between their cultures and those of others or see their similarities. While she does not explicitly state where she stands on the matter, it is clear throughout the interweavings of the book that she stands with the latter group. This book explores social identities in ancient Maya society…
A Late Postclassic (ca. AD 1350-1521) Border Shrine at the Site of Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala
Shrines were a regular component of ceremonial architecture in the public plazas of Postclassic Maya centers. Small shrines and natural landmarks such as caves and outcrops at the borders of settlements or in wilderness locations also served, and in some cases continue to serve, as important ritual loci for Maya peoples. These more peripheral locales were not only critical access points to the supernatural, but also served to delineate places. Be…
Profane illuminations
Infrastructures of moving water at the Maya site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala
Architectural Aesthetics, Orientations, and Reuse at the Terminal Classic Maya Site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala
The Terminal Classic period (ca. a.d. 830–950/1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands is known as a time in which investments in public architecture and vaulted masonry buildings began to wane. Masonry constructions have often been noted to be of poorer quality in comparison with previous phases. Moving beyond models of scarcity, this paper examines the aesthetics, meanings, and reorientations of architectural projects at the site of Ucanal, Petén, G…
Convergence Zone Politics at the Archaeological Site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala
The Maya archaeological site of Ucanal is located in Peten, Guatemala, close to the contemporary border with Belize. In pre-Columbian times, the site also sat at the frontiers of some of the largest political centers, Naranjo in Peten, Guatemala, and Caracol, in Belize. Entangled between these dominant centers and with ties to peoples in the Upper Belize Valley, the Petexbatun region in Guatemala, northern Yucatan, and elsewhere, Ucanal was a cri…
Introduction to the Special Section
The Maya area has long been characterized as a mosaic of polities large and small, with cultural connections, linguistic dialects, ethnicities, and economic networks that shifted, expanded, and contracted over time. In this paper, we examine different ways of constructing boundaries. From physical demarcations in the landscape to habitual practices of interaction and affiliation, the lines that tied and divided were both unstable and multiple. We…
Ucanal Stela 29 and the Cosmopolitanism of Terminal Classic Maya Stone Monuments
The Terminal Classic period (ca. AD 800-1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands witnessed a precipitous decline in the erection of carved stone monuments, a decline that corresponds to shifts in political ideologies and the disappearance of many prominent royal dynasties. Although Southern Lowland sites are often considered peripheral to the events and innovations occurring elsewhere in Mesoamerica during this time, a recently discovered stela, Stela…
Shifting Social Relations During the Terminal Classic Period (Ca. A.d. 810–950/1000)
The end of the Classic period was a tumultuous moment in Maya history, not only because the power of many dominant political centers waned, but because the ways in which elites and non-elites related to each other were increasingly called into question. To understand the nature of changing social relations in the southern Maya lowlands during this time, this study examines the distribution and provenance of decorated ceramics during the Late Clas…
Comparing Inaa and pXRF analytical methods for ceramics
Maya (29 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (28 works) · Archaeology (27 works) · Latin American history and culture (25 works) · History (23 works) · Geography (17 works) · Art (16 works) · Politics (15 works) · History (14 works) · Law (12 works)