Arlen F Chase
Biographic Data
| ID | 101372 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arlen F Chase |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arlen F |
| FAMILY NAME | Chase |
| SIGNATURE | CHASE A F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Central Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2091-6724 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 62 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 778 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 6 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
Ancient Maya economics
Research in the Maya area has now generated sufficient archeological data to better define past economic systems. Our traditional understanding of the ancient Maya was largely driven by archeological finds related to the elite stratum of society and by general anthropological theory that was not focused on complex societies. These past theoretical lenses have led to misconceptions about not only ancient Maya social complexity, but also economic a…
Ancient Mesoamerican Population History
The Materialization of Time in the Ancient Maya World
Maya Kingship
The Rupture of Classic Maya Divine Kingship from the Perspective of Postclassic Archaeology, Iconography, and Ethnohistory
The Transformation of Maya Rulership at Caracol, Belize
Changes in Maya Rulership at the End of the Classic Period
Leaving the Quiet Jungle Path
In her book Maya Cultural Heritage: How Archaeologists and Indigenous Communities Engage the Past (Roman and Littlefield 2016), Patricia McAnany urges archaeologists who work in the Maya region (i [...]
Demystifying Collapse
Collapse is a term that has attracted much attention in social science literature in recent years, but there remain substantial areas of disagreement about how it should be understood in historical contexts. More specifically, the use of the term collapse often merely serves to dramatize long-past events, to push human actors into the background, and to mystify the past intellectually. At the same time, since human societies are complex systems, …
The Materialization of Classic Period Maya Warfare
Ethics, New Colonialism, and Lidar Data
Maya archaeology has witnessed a paradigm shift in interpretations of the past with regards to the structure and organization of ancient societies as a result of the introduction of lidar to the field a decade ago. Lidar provided control of spatial parameters in a way that had not been previously possible. But, the introduction of this technology has also involved researchers in a series of broader ethical debates. While archaeology has always pr…
Archaeology and Heritage Management in the Maya Area
Archaeology and heritage management in the Maya area have developed differently in the various modern-day countries that make up ancient Mesoamerica. In the country of Belize, heritage management has been conjoined with archaeology since at least the late 1970s. Long-term projects, such as the 1985-to-present archaeological investigations at the ancient ruins that comprise the immense city of Caracol, Belize, demonstrate the evolution of heritage…
Final Moments
The description and analysis of materials from on-floor deposits that reflect the final activity before site abandonment are key to making a determination as to what happened during the Maya collapse arounda.d.900. On-floor deposits recovered at Caracol, Belize indicate that factors like warfare, the breakdown of the site's market system, and heightened social tensions were in play prior to the abandonment of the site. In an attempt to understand…
Growing the Ancient Maya Social-Ecological System from the Bottom Up
Archaeological data can be represented in quantitative models to test theories of societal growth, development, and resilience. This chapter describes the results of simulations employing integrated agent-based, cellular automata, and network models to represent elements of the ancient Maya social-ecological system. The purpose of the model is to better understand the complex dynamics of the Maya civilization and to test quantitative indicators o…
History meets palaeoscience
History and archaeology have a well-established engagement with issues of premodern societal development and the interaction between physical and cultural environments; together, they offer a holistic view that can generate insights into the nature of cultural resilience and adaptation, as well as responses to catastrophe. Grasping the challenges that climate change presents and evolving appropriate policies that promote and support mitigation an…
The Distribution and Significance of E Groups
The significance of E Groups to the ancient Maya has been recognized for almost a century. Placed facing each other across a formal plaza, a western pyramid and a long eastern platform that usually supports three structures form the architectural arrangement known as an E Group. The solar alignments within an E Group were recognized first at Uaxactún, Guatemala, and were interpreted to mean that the entire complex functioned as a giant calendrica…
E Groups and the Rise of Complexity in the Southeastern Maya Lowlands
How the ancient Maya used E Groups needs to be derived from the archaeological record. Research undertaken in the southeast Petén of Guatemala has revealed a concentration of over 150 E Groups in the area defined by Ceibal on the west, Caracol on the east, Esquipulas on the south, and the Central Petén lakes on the north. Excavated E Groups from Cenote, Uaxactún, Caracol, and Ixtonton can be used to help organize and understand these archaeologic…
Maya E Groups
Maya e Groups
Maya E Groups
This volume assembles a coherent set of chapters that discuss new field research results on E Groups and establish an emerging paradigmatic framework for the origins of lowland Maya civilization focused on the E Group phenomenon as a key feature of community organization and urbanism in its geographic heartland
A distribution analysis of the central Maya lowlands ecoinformation network
Gunn, J. D., V. L. Scarborough, W. J. Folan, C. Isendahl, A. F. Chase, J. A. Sabloff, and B. Volta. 2016. A distribution analysis of the central Maya lowlands ecoinformation network: its rises, falls, and changes. Ecology and Society 22(1):20. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-08931-220120
Progression and Issues in the Mesoamerican Geospatial Revolution
The use of airborne mapping lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), a.k.a airborne laser scanning (ALS), has had a major impact on archaeological research being carried out in Mesoamerica. Since being introduced in 2009, mapping lidar has revolutionized the spatial parameters of Mesoamerican, and especially Maya, archaeology by permitting the recovery of a complete landscape and settlement pattern for further analysis. However, like any new technolo…
Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society
Archaeological research at Caracol, an ancient Maya site that was rediscovered in 1937, has become a major resource in the interpretation and understanding of the ancient Maya. Caracol, in west-central Belize, is situated in a subtropical region once characterized as being unsuitable for the development or maintenance of complex societies, yet it is one of the largest, if not the largest Classic period Maya site in the southern Maya Lowlands, hom…
Urbanism and Anthropogenic Landscapes
Humans consistently modify their environments-both directly and indirectly. However, the linkage between human activity and anthropogenic landscapes intensifies in urban situations. The artificial landscapes and dense concentrations of human populations encountered in urban environments create a centripetal pull for resources that results in continual and distant landscape changes, thus inextricably linking urbanism and anthropogenic landscapes. …
Elites and the Changing Organization of Classic Maya Society
Airborne LiDAR, archaeology, and the ancient Maya landscape at Caracol, Belize
More Than Kin and King
Questions of Political and Economic Integration
Itza Maya Tropical Agro-Forestry [and Comments and Replies]
The Classic Maya City
Maya Multiples
It is commonly assumed in both the public and professional perceptions of Maya archaeology that tombs serve as time capsules, each representing a single event, and that burials of single individuals were the normal interment type, at least during the Late Classic period (A.D. 550-800). The investigation of Caracol Structure A34 provides excellent examples of tomb re-entry as well as of multiple-individual interment in sealed contexts, both of whi…
The Lowland Maya Postclassic
Maya E Groups
This volume assembles a coherent set of chapters that discuss new field research results on E Groups and establish an emerging paradigmatic framework for the origins of lowland Maya civilization focused on the E Group phenomenon as a key feature of community organization and urbanism in its geographic heartland
The Use of LiDAR in Understanding the Ancient Maya Landscape
The use of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in western Belize, Central America, has revolutionized our understanding of the spatial dynamics of the ancient Maya. This technology has enabled researchers to successfully demonstrate the large-scale human modifications made to the ancient tropical landscape, providing insight on broader regional settlement. Before the advent of this laser-based technology, heavily forested cover prevented…
Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society
Archaeological research at Caracol, an ancient Maya site that was rediscovered in 1937, has become a major resource in the interpretation and understanding of the ancient Maya. Caracol, in west-central Belize, is situated in a subtropical region once characterized as being unsuitable for the development or maintenance of complex societies, yet it is one of the largest, if not the largest Classic period Maya site in the southern Maya Lowlands, hom…
Ancient Maya Causeways and Site Organization at Caracol, Belize
Statements concerning the function of intrasite Maya causeways often focus on inferred ritual purposes or on symbolic kinship alliances rather than on the more practical roles that such roads may have served. Data collected on an extensive intrasite causeway system at Caracol, Belize, demonstrate that the primary role of its sacbes lay in facilitating the administrative control of people, goods, and services. An estimated 75 km of roads not only …
Yucatec Influence in Terminal Classic Northern Belize
Excavations undertaken during 1978 and 1979 at Nohmul, Belize are believed to cast new light on the demise of the Maya. Investigations revealed Terminal Classic-San Jose V material intermixed with Late Classic to Early Postclassic Yucatec material in a single-unit refuse deposit. More importantly, striking architectural similarities exist between structures at Nohmul and Chichen-Itza; Structure 20 at Nohmul proved to be of the 'patio-quad' type k…
Ancient Maya Markets and the Economic Integration of Caracol, Belize
Modeling Classic period social and economic systems of the ancient Maya has proven difficult for a number of reasons, including sampling, preservation, and interpretational biases. As more archaeological research has been undertaken, views about the Classic period Maya (a.d.250–900) have become progressively more complex. Because neither Maya art nor hieroglyphic texts contain substantial information on ancient economic systems, some archaeologis…
Archaeological Perspectives on Classic Maya Social Organization From Caracol, Belize
Inferring ancient social and political organization from the archaeological record is a difficult task. Generally, the models used to interpret the Classic-period Maya (a.d.250–900) have been borrowed from other societies and other times and thus also reflect etic conceptions of the past. Maya social and political organization has been interpreted as varying in complexity. Those who would model a less complex Classic Maya social structure have te…
States and Empires in Ancient Mesoamerica
Ancient Mesoamerican polities are an important source of data for considerations of state development, despite internal debate over their size and complexity. We review complex political units, usually referred to as “states” and “empires,” in ancient Mesoamerica and reach the following conclusions: these polities tended to be hegemonic, rather than territorial, in composition; they melded ritual and political action; and they utilized the ruler …
Urbanism and Anthropogenic Landscapes
Humans consistently modify their environments-both directly and indirectly. However, the linkage between human activity and anthropogenic landscapes intensifies in urban situations. The artificial landscapes and dense concentrations of human populations encountered in urban environments create a centripetal pull for resources that results in continual and distant landscape changes, thus inextricably linking urbanism and anthropogenic landscapes. …
Textiles and the Maya Archaeological Record
Textiles formed a major part of any ancient Mesoamerican economy. Based on ethnohistory and iconography, the Maya were great producers of cloth for both internal and external use. However, the archaeological identification of textile production is difficult in any tropical area because of issues of preservation. This paper examines the evidence for the production and distribution of cloth that is found in the pre-Columbian Maya area and then focu…
Diversity, Resiliency, and Ihope-Maya
How can the past inform the present? Archaeologists working though IHOPE-Maya seek to address this question by using archaeological data and ecological reconstructions to explore human-nature couplings. Maya archaeologists are revitalizing and contemporizing the field to focus on issues relevant today: the socio-natural boundary and the coupled human-nature dynamic. The ancient Maya occupied a diverse range of tropical environments that permits a…
Progression and Issues in the Mesoamerican Geospatial Revolution
The use of airborne mapping lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), a.k.a airborne laser scanning (ALS), has had a major impact on archaeological research being carried out in Mesoamerica. Since being introduced in 2009, mapping lidar has revolutionized the spatial parameters of Mesoamerican, and especially Maya, archaeology by permitting the recovery of a complete landscape and settlement pattern for further analysis. However, like any new technolo…
The Lowland Maya Postclassic
Final Moments
The description and analysis of materials from on-floor deposits that reflect the final activity before site abandonment are key to making a determination as to what happened during the Maya collapse arounda.d.900. On-floor deposits recovered at Caracol, Belize indicate that factors like warfare, the breakdown of the site's market system, and heightened social tensions were in play prior to the abandonment of the site. In an attempt to understand…
Tropical Landscapes and the Ancient Maya
Archaeologists have begun to understand that many of the challenges facing our technologically sophisticated, resource dependent, urban systems were also destabilizing factors in ancient complex societies. The focus of IHOPE-Maya is to identify how humans living in the tropical Maya Lowlands in present-day Central America responded to and impacted their environments over the past three millennia, and to relate knowledge of those processes to mode…
Path Dependency in the Rise and Denouement of a Classic Maya City
With an anthropomorphic landscape that completely covered over 130 square kilometers with agricultural terraces in antiquity, Caracol, Belize provides an excellent place to review ancient resilience, rigidity, and path dependency. A population center with over 100,000 people in C.E. 700, Caracol subsisted on change and growth for its initial 1000 years of existence. However, Caracol also developed a relatively unique form of adaptation, one focus…
One Person's Impact on Archaeology
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Topoxte and Tayasal
Some questions concerning the Postclassic Peten can be answered by systematic use of ethnohistoric sources with archaeological data. A review and re-analysis of these data for the Itza capital Tayasal are presented. A plausible argument is formulated for a relocation of the ethnohistoric Tayasal as the archaeologically recognized Postclassic site of Topoxte in Lake Yaxha, Guatemala. It is further argued that a closer correlation of the ethnohisto…
Late Maya Mural Paintings from Quintana Roo, Mexico
Late Maya Mural Paintings from Quintana Roo, Mexico
Six murals of exceptional interest were encountered during a recent survey of Maya sites in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Evidence presented here suggests that the murals are the latest to depict pre-Columbian subject matter in the Yucatan Peninsula
Topoxte and Tayasal
Some questions concerning the Postclassic Peten can be answered by systematic use of ethnohistoric sources with archaeological data. A review and re-analysis of these data for the Itza capital Tayasal are presented. A plausible argument is formulated for a relocation of the ethnohistoric Tayasal as the archaeologically recognized Postclassic site of Topoxte in Lake Yaxha, Guatemala. It is further argued that a closer correlation of the ethnohisto…
Yucatec Influence in Terminal Classic Northern Belize
Excavations undertaken during 1978 and 1979 at Nohmul, Belize are believed to cast new light on the demise of the Maya. Investigations revealed Terminal Classic-San Jose V material intermixed with Late Classic to Early Postclassic Yucatec material in a single-unit refuse deposit. More importantly, striking architectural similarities exist between structures at Nohmul and Chichen-Itza; Structure 20 at Nohmul proved to be of the 'patio-quad' type k…
Con Manos Arriba
Controversy exists over the geographic placement of the ethnohistoric Itza capital called 'Tayasal.' At the heart of this dispute are the differences and limitations inherent in the use of either archaeological or ethnohistoric data to solve the problem. As presently understood, archaeological data do not support the traditional placement of Tayasal in Lake Peten-Itza
The Lowland Maya Postclassic
He aquí uno de esos raros libros que salen a la luz en el momento oportuno, cuando existe el sentimiento generalizado de su necesidad.Poco a poco, a lo largo de los últimos veinte años -quizás desde la publica7 ción en 1965 de Prehistoric Maya Settlements in Belize Valley, al hacerse evidente que un 95,4 por ciento de los 65 montículos excavados presentaban ocupación postclásica de la fase New Town-los datos sobre el periodo tardío de la evolució…
The Lowland Maya Postclassic
The Lowland Maya Postclassic
Archeology
The Classic Maya City
Itza Maya Tropical Agro-Forestry [and Comments and Replies]
Mesoamerican Elites
Mesoamerican Elites
One Person's Impact on Archaeology
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Maya Multiples
It is commonly assumed in both the public and professional perceptions of Maya archaeology that tombs serve as time capsules, each representing a single event, and that burials of single individuals were the normal interment type, at least during the Late Classic period (A.D. 550-800). The investigation of Caracol Structure A34 provides excellent examples of tomb re-entry as well as of multiple-individual interment in sealed contexts, both of whi…
More Than Kin and King
Questions of Political and Economic Integration
Scale and Intensity in Classic Period Maya Agriculture
Ancient Maya Causeways and Site Organization at Caracol, Belize
Statements concerning the function of intrasite Maya causeways often focus on inferred ritual purposes or on symbolic kinship alliances rather than on the more practical roles that such roads may have served. Data collected on an extensive intrasite causeway system at Caracol, Belize, demonstrate that the primary role of its sacbes lay in facilitating the administrative control of people, goods, and services. An estimated 75 km of roads not only …
Caracol
Tayasal
Minor Centers, Complexity, and Scale in Lowland Maya Settlement Archaeology
Archaeological Perspectives on Classic Maya Social Organization From Caracol, Belize
Inferring ancient social and political organization from the archaeological record is a difficult task. Generally, the models used to interpret the Classic-period Maya (a.d.250–900) have been borrowed from other societies and other times and thus also reflect etic conceptions of the past. Maya social and political organization has been interpreted as varying in complexity. Those who would model a less complex Classic Maya social structure have te…
Textiles and the Maya Archaeological Record
Textiles formed a major part of any ancient Mesoamerican economy. Based on ethnohistory and iconography, the Maya were great producers of cloth for both internal and external use. However, the archaeological identification of textile production is difficult in any tropical area because of issues of preservation. This paper examines the evidence for the production and distribution of cloth that is found in the pre-Columbian Maya area and then focu…
States and Empires in Ancient Mesoamerica
Ancient Mesoamerican polities are an important source of data for considerations of state development, despite internal debate over their size and complexity. We review complex political units, usually referred to as “states” and “empires,” in ancient Mesoamerica and reach the following conclusions: these polities tended to be hegemonic, rather than territorial, in composition; they melded ritual and political action; and they utilized the ruler …
Archaeology (58 works) · Maya (48 works) · Geography (46 works) · History (35 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (31 works) · Latin American history and culture (31 works) · History (18 works) · Political science (17 works) · Art (16 works) · Ancient history (13 works)