Shanti Morell‐hart
Biographic Data
| ID | 229306 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shanti Morell‐hart |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shanti |
| FAMILY NAME | Morell‐hart |
| SIGNATURE | HART S M |
| AFFILIATIONS | McMaster University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1866-8714 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 80 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Traditional dishes and culinary improvisations
Over the past few decades, understandings of cuisine in the Maya area have been radically amplified with the use of new techniques. Some methods offer the opportunity to directly connect artifacts and features with plant foods. The recovery of microscopic food residues from sediments, artifacts, and human teeth has revealed not only a broad list of ingredients but a wide array of practices and recipes. Here, we draw on our previous paleoethnobota…
Whose "Problem" Is the Climate? Deep Time Perspectives and the Contemporary Lens
Suitability Models of Ancient Maya Agriculture in the Upper Usumacinta River Basin of Mexico and Guatemala
Recent archaeological and remote sensing research in the Maya Lowlands has demonstrated evidence for extensive modification of the landscape in the forms of channeled fields and upland terraces. Scholars often assume these measures were taken primarily to intensify maize production; however, paleoethnobotany highlights a greater diversity of crops grown by the precolonial Maya. This study combines the growth requirements of 18 crops cultivated by…
Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 2)
Pre-Columbian food production in the Maya Lowlands was long characterized as reliant on extensive, slash-and-burn agriculture as the sole cultivation system possible in the region, given environmental limitations, with maize as the dominant crop. While aspects of this “swidden thesis” of Maya agriculture have been chipped away in recent years, there has been an underappreciation of the many forms of long-term capital investments in agriculture ma…
Regional household variation and inequality across the Maya landscape
Health Care in the Marketplace
Botanical residues recovered from excavations in the Southeast Marketplace of Piedras Negras provide information about the healing and medical activities of the site's Classic period (a.d. 350–900) inhabitants, and point towards the intersection between commerce and medicine for the ancient Maya. The plants were likely exchanged at the market then used on-site for the purposes of healing. The botanical remains are complemented by both architectur…
Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 1)
We focus on pre-Columbian agricultural regimes in the Maya Lowlands, using new datasets of archaeological wood charcoal, seeds, phytoliths, and starch grains; biological properties of plants; and contemporary Indigenous practices. We address inherited models of agriculture in the lowlands: the limitations of the environment (finding more affordances than anticipated by earlier models); the homogeneity of agricultural strategies (finding more hete…
Everyday Knowledge and Apothecary Craft
Medicinal practices were critical in ancient societies, yet we have limited insight into these practices outside references found in ancient texts. Meanwhile, historic and ethnographic resources have documented how a number of plants, from across the landscape, are assembled into pharmacopoeias and transformed intomateria medica. These documentary resources attest to diverse healthcare practices that incorporate botanical elements, while residues…
Cuisine at the Crossroads
Investigations at sites across northwestern Honduras-inside and outside the Maya area-have revealed diverse food activities and ingredients. Paralleling the evidence from durable artifact assemblages, we see transformation over time in materials and practices, as well as the movement of elements across the landscape. Botanical evidence points toward a dynamic overlap between northern and southern societies, with northwestern Honduras serving as a…
The lowland Maya settlement landscape
This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to…
Centering the Classic Maya Kingdom of Sak Tz’i’
In this article, we provide the results of preliminary archaeological and epigraphic research undertaken at the site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas. Field research conducted in 2018, in collaboration with local community members, has allowed us to identify this archaeological site as the capital of a kingdom known from Classic period Maya inscriptions as "Sak Tz'i'" (White Dog). Because all previously known references to the kingdom came from looted…
Paleoethnobotanical evidence of Early Formative period diet in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico
Techniques for Integrating Macrobotanical and Microbotanical Datasets
What are useful quantitative approaches in situations with highly variable data quantities, contexts, and sampling strategies? How can paleoethnobotanical findings be interpreted without over-representing data or selling results short? Described here are several major issues and potential solutions. The four sites of the study are located northwestern Honduras, a region with fairly hostile environments for paleoethnobotanical preservation. For th…
Ethnoecology in Pre-Hispanic Central America
In recent years, researchers in pre-Hispanic Central America have used new approaches that greatly amplify and enhance evidence of plants and their uses. This paper presents a case study from Puerto Escondido, located in the lower Ulúa River valley of Caribbean coastal Honduras. We demonstrate the effectiveness of using multiple methods in concert to interpret ethnobotanical practice in the past. By examining chipped-stone tools, ceramics, sedime…
Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton and mtDNA Link Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans
American Beauty Modern Native American ancestry traces back to an East Asian migration across Beringia. However, some Native American skeletons from the late Pleistocene show phenotypic characteristics more similar to other, more geographically distant, human populations. Chatters et al. (p. 750 ) describe a skeleton with a Paleoamerican phenotype from the eastern Yucatan, dating to approximately 12 to 13 thousand years ago, with a relatively com…
Multi-Proxy Analysis of Plant use at Formative Period Los Naranjos, Honduras
Paleoethnobotanical analyses of samples excavated at Los Naranjos, Honduras, provide an unprecedented record of the diversity of plants used at an early center with monumental architecture and sculpture dating between 1000 and 500 B.C. and contribute to understandings of early village life in Mesoamerica. Los Naranjos is the major site adjacent to Lake Yojoa, where analysis of an important pollen core suggests very early clearing of the landscape…
Beyond the Ecofact
Foodways and Resilience under Apocalyptic Conditions
Food is an active component of social and political process in times of daily plenty and in times of extreme scarcity. Routinized modes of foodways are hard to dislodge, even when resources and broad lifeways are violently disrupted. Ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological examples attest to the improvisational ability of individuals and communities when faced with food shortage. Using illustrations from around the world, I explore how ap…
Beyond the Ecofact
Foodways and Resilience under Apocalyptic Conditions
Food is an active component of social and political process in times of daily plenty and in times of extreme scarcity. Routinized modes of foodways are hard to dislodge, even when resources and broad lifeways are violently disrupted. Ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological examples attest to the improvisational ability of individuals and communities when faced with food shortage. Using illustrations from around the world, I explore how ap…
Multi-Proxy Analysis of Plant use at Formative Period Los Naranjos, Honduras
Paleoethnobotanical analyses of samples excavated at Los Naranjos, Honduras, provide an unprecedented record of the diversity of plants used at an early center with monumental architecture and sculpture dating between 1000 and 500 B.C. and contribute to understandings of early village life in Mesoamerica. Los Naranjos is the major site adjacent to Lake Yojoa, where analysis of an important pollen core suggests very early clearing of the landscape…
Centering the Classic Maya Kingdom of Sak Tz’i’
In this article, we provide the results of preliminary archaeological and epigraphic research undertaken at the site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas. Field research conducted in 2018, in collaboration with local community members, has allowed us to identify this archaeological site as the capital of a kingdom known from Classic period Maya inscriptions as "Sak Tz'i'" (White Dog). Because all previously known references to the kingdom came from looted…
Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 2)
Pre-Columbian food production in the Maya Lowlands was long characterized as reliant on extensive, slash-and-burn agriculture as the sole cultivation system possible in the region, given environmental limitations, with maize as the dominant crop. While aspects of this “swidden thesis” of Maya agriculture have been chipped away in recent years, there has been an underappreciation of the many forms of long-term capital investments in agriculture ma…
Ethnoecology in Pre-Hispanic Central America
In recent years, researchers in pre-Hispanic Central America have used new approaches that greatly amplify and enhance evidence of plants and their uses. This paper presents a case study from Puerto Escondido, located in the lower Ulúa River valley of Caribbean coastal Honduras. We demonstrate the effectiveness of using multiple methods in concert to interpret ethnobotanical practice in the past. By examining chipped-stone tools, ceramics, sedime…
Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 1)
We focus on pre-Columbian agricultural regimes in the Maya Lowlands, using new datasets of archaeological wood charcoal, seeds, phytoliths, and starch grains; biological properties of plants; and contemporary Indigenous practices. We address inherited models of agriculture in the lowlands: the limitations of the environment (finding more affordances than anticipated by earlier models); the homogeneity of agricultural strategies (finding more hete…
The lowland Maya settlement landscape
This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to…
Paleoethnobotanical evidence of Early Formative period diet in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico
Techniques for Integrating Macrobotanical and Microbotanical Datasets
What are useful quantitative approaches in situations with highly variable data quantities, contexts, and sampling strategies? How can paleoethnobotanical findings be interpreted without over-representing data or selling results short? Described here are several major issues and potential solutions. The four sites of the study are located northwestern Honduras, a region with fairly hostile environments for paleoethnobotanical preservation. For th…
Whose "Problem" Is the Climate? Deep Time Perspectives and the Contemporary Lens
Suitability Models of Ancient Maya Agriculture in the Upper Usumacinta River Basin of Mexico and Guatemala
Recent archaeological and remote sensing research in the Maya Lowlands has demonstrated evidence for extensive modification of the landscape in the forms of channeled fields and upland terraces. Scholars often assume these measures were taken primarily to intensify maize production; however, paleoethnobotany highlights a greater diversity of crops grown by the precolonial Maya. This study combines the growth requirements of 18 crops cultivated by…
Health Care in the Marketplace
Botanical residues recovered from excavations in the Southeast Marketplace of Piedras Negras provide information about the healing and medical activities of the site's Classic period (a.d. 350–900) inhabitants, and point towards the intersection between commerce and medicine for the ancient Maya. The plants were likely exchanged at the market then used on-site for the purposes of healing. The botanical remains are complemented by both architectur…
Foodways and Resilience under Apocalyptic Conditions
Food is an active component of social and political process in times of daily plenty and in times of extreme scarcity. Routinized modes of foodways are hard to dislodge, even when resources and broad lifeways are violently disrupted. Ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological examples attest to the improvisational ability of individuals and communities when faced with food shortage. Using illustrations from around the world, I explore how ap…
Beyond the Ecofact
Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton and mtDNA Link Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans
American Beauty Modern Native American ancestry traces back to an East Asian migration across Beringia. However, some Native American skeletons from the late Pleistocene show phenotypic characteristics more similar to other, more geographically distant, human populations. Chatters et al. (p. 750 ) describe a skeleton with a Paleoamerican phenotype from the eastern Yucatan, dating to approximately 12 to 13 thousand years ago, with a relatively com…
Multi-Proxy Analysis of Plant use at Formative Period Los Naranjos, Honduras
Paleoethnobotanical analyses of samples excavated at Los Naranjos, Honduras, provide an unprecedented record of the diversity of plants used at an early center with monumental architecture and sculpture dating between 1000 and 500 B.C. and contribute to understandings of early village life in Mesoamerica. Los Naranjos is the major site adjacent to Lake Yojoa, where analysis of an important pollen core suggests very early clearing of the landscape…
Paleoethnobotanical evidence of Early Formative period diet in coastal Oaxaca, Mexico
Techniques for Integrating Macrobotanical and Microbotanical Datasets
What are useful quantitative approaches in situations with highly variable data quantities, contexts, and sampling strategies? How can paleoethnobotanical findings be interpreted without over-representing data or selling results short? Described here are several major issues and potential solutions. The four sites of the study are located northwestern Honduras, a region with fairly hostile environments for paleoethnobotanical preservation. For th…
Ethnoecology in Pre-Hispanic Central America
In recent years, researchers in pre-Hispanic Central America have used new approaches that greatly amplify and enhance evidence of plants and their uses. This paper presents a case study from Puerto Escondido, located in the lower Ulúa River valley of Caribbean coastal Honduras. We demonstrate the effectiveness of using multiple methods in concert to interpret ethnobotanical practice in the past. By examining chipped-stone tools, ceramics, sedime…
The lowland Maya settlement landscape
This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to…
Centering the Classic Maya Kingdom of Sak Tz’i’
In this article, we provide the results of preliminary archaeological and epigraphic research undertaken at the site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas. Field research conducted in 2018, in collaboration with local community members, has allowed us to identify this archaeological site as the capital of a kingdom known from Classic period Maya inscriptions as "Sak Tz'i'" (White Dog). Because all previously known references to the kingdom came from looted…
Cuisine at the Crossroads
Investigations at sites across northwestern Honduras-inside and outside the Maya area-have revealed diverse food activities and ingredients. Paralleling the evidence from durable artifact assemblages, we see transformation over time in materials and practices, as well as the movement of elements across the landscape. Botanical evidence points toward a dynamic overlap between northern and southern societies, with northwestern Honduras serving as a…
Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 1)
We focus on pre-Columbian agricultural regimes in the Maya Lowlands, using new datasets of archaeological wood charcoal, seeds, phytoliths, and starch grains; biological properties of plants; and contemporary Indigenous practices. We address inherited models of agriculture in the lowlands: the limitations of the environment (finding more affordances than anticipated by earlier models); the homogeneity of agricultural strategies (finding more hete…
Everyday Knowledge and Apothecary Craft
Medicinal practices were critical in ancient societies, yet we have limited insight into these practices outside references found in ancient texts. Meanwhile, historic and ethnographic resources have documented how a number of plants, from across the landscape, are assembled into pharmacopoeias and transformed intomateria medica. These documentary resources attest to diverse healthcare practices that incorporate botanical elements, while residues…
Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 2)
Pre-Columbian food production in the Maya Lowlands was long characterized as reliant on extensive, slash-and-burn agriculture as the sole cultivation system possible in the region, given environmental limitations, with maize as the dominant crop. While aspects of this “swidden thesis” of Maya agriculture have been chipped away in recent years, there has been an underappreciation of the many forms of long-term capital investments in agriculture ma…
Regional household variation and inequality across the Maya landscape
Health Care in the Marketplace
Botanical residues recovered from excavations in the Southeast Marketplace of Piedras Negras provide information about the healing and medical activities of the site's Classic period (a.d. 350–900) inhabitants, and point towards the intersection between commerce and medicine for the ancient Maya. The plants were likely exchanged at the market then used on-site for the purposes of healing. The botanical remains are complemented by both architectur…
Suitability Models of Ancient Maya Agriculture in the Upper Usumacinta River Basin of Mexico and Guatemala
Recent archaeological and remote sensing research in the Maya Lowlands has demonstrated evidence for extensive modification of the landscape in the forms of channeled fields and upland terraces. Scholars often assume these measures were taken primarily to intensify maize production; however, paleoethnobotany highlights a greater diversity of crops grown by the precolonial Maya. This study combines the growth requirements of 18 crops cultivated by…
Traditional dishes and culinary improvisations
Over the past few decades, understandings of cuisine in the Maya area have been radically amplified with the use of new techniques. Some methods offer the opportunity to directly connect artifacts and features with plant foods. The recovery of microscopic food residues from sediments, artifacts, and human teeth has revealed not only a broad list of ingredients but a wide array of practices and recipes. Here, we draw on our previous paleoethnobota…
Whose "Problem" Is the Climate? Deep Time Perspectives and the Contemporary Lens
Archaeology (12 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (12 works) · Geography (12 works) · Biology (9 works) · Ecology (8 works) · Maya (8 works) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (8 works) · History (6 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works)