Jason Yaeger
Biographic Data
| ID | 164770 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jason Yaeger |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jason |
| FAMILY NAME | Yaeger |
| SIGNATURE | YAEGER J |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at San Antonio |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4290-0440 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 185 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Personified Ailments and Regional Identities in the Eastern Maya Lowlands
In this article, Classic Maya (ca. AD 250–900) conceptions of the supernatural are examined, not through the shared pantheon of deities but by focusing on wahy, an alternate category of demonic entities attested in hieroglyphic texts. The changing interpretations of wahy entities in Mayanist studies are reviewed, originally understood as personal animal spirit companions and now viewed as entities that personify illnesses. These were consistently…
Animate Stone: Maya Chert ‘Debitage’ and Ontological Perspectives
Focal Nodes and Ritual Economy in Ancient Maya Hinterland Communities: A Case Study From San Lorenzo, Belize
Public structures in the Maya region materialize ideologies and define centers of power as they create politically charged sacred landscapes. These locations are focal nodes for community and polity making processes, embedding social hierarchies, ideologies, and social memories into the physical landscape. Archaeologists, however, have historically focused little attention on small-scale focal nodes within rural communities. To explore the ways h…
Re-Centering the Narrative: British Colonial Memory and the San Pedro Maya
Raw Material Selection and Stone Tool Production: Limestone Bifaces in the Mopan Valley, Belize
Stone tool producers in the Maya Lowlands had several types of raw materials from which to choose. Limestone, chert, and obsidian are the most naturally abundant, whereas chert and obsidian outnumber limestone in archaeological contexts. The presence of flaked-stone tools made of limestone is typically attributed to the scarcity of more suitable raw materials. Nevertheless, in chert-rich areas, such as the upper Belize River valley, limestone bif…
Four Preceramic Points Newly Discovered in Belize: A Comment on Stemp Et Al. (2016:279–299)
Stemp et al. (2016) published data on 81 preceramic (Archaic) points from Belize, Central America. In this comment, we report four more chipped chert bifaces recently recovered in Belize (Figure 1). Based on metrics (Table 1), technology, and style, three are classified as Lowe and one as a Sawmill point (Kelly 1993; Lohse et al. 2006; Stemp et al. 2016)
Introduction: Commodity Branding in Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives
Conventional views of commodities in economics define them fairly narrowly in terms of their equivalence of use value. The Mopan Valley of western Belize presents a broad and fertile alluvial floodplain framed by gentle, karst-derived limestone hills. The hills are carpeted with agricultural terraces built by farming families over generations as they transformed the valley's landscape for intensive agricultural production. In the floodplain and h…
Locating and Dating Sites Using Lidar Survey in a Mosaic Landscape in Western Belize
We use the results of a high-resolution lidar survey to assess the advantages and limitations of archaeological applications of lidar data and address some of its methodological challenges. Our data come from the Mopan and Macal River valleys in western Belize, a region that includes several ancient Maya political centers and their hinterlands. Visual inspection of the lidar data has revealed many new sites and new features at previously mapped s…
Ancient Maya Regional Settlement and Inter-Site Analysis: The 2013 West-Central Belize LiDAR Survey
During April and May 2013, a total of 1057 km2 of LiDAR was flown by NCALM for a consortium of archaeologists working in West-central Belize, making this the largest surveyed area within the Mayan lowlands. Encompassing the Belize Valley and the Vaca Plateau, West-central Belize is one of the most actively researched parts of the Maya lowlands; however, until this effort, no comprehensive survey connecting all settlement had been conducted. Archa…
The Use of LiDAR in Understanding the Ancient Maya Landscape: Caracol and Western Belize
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…
Communities in Ancient Mesoamerica
This article reviews research showing the importance of an archaeology of communities for Mesoamerica. Methodologically, the community is situated between the scales of household and polity, which permits researchers to have new insights into the broader social and political dynamics through which these other social institutions were constituted and changed over time. As a paradigm, this approach treats communities as emergent social institutions…
Archaeology of Communities: A New World Perspective
The Archaeology of Communities develops a critical evaluation of community and shows that it represents more than a mere aggregation of households. This collection bridges the gap between studies of ancient societies and ancient households. The community is taken to represent more than a mere aggregation of households, it exists in part through shared identities, as well as frequent interaction and inter-household integration. Drawing on case stu…
Provisioning Inka feasts at Tiwanaku, Bolivia: The geographic origins of camelids in the Pumapunku complex
Heads of State: Icons, Power, and Politics in the Ancient and Modern Andes by Denise Y. Arnold and Christine A. Hastorf
Classic Maya provincial politics: Xunantunich and its hinterlands
Most treatments of large Classic Maya sites such as Caracol and Tikal regard Maya political organization as highly centralized. Because investigations have focused on civic buildings and elite palaces, however, a critical part of the picture of Classic Maya political organization has been missing. The contributors to this volume chart the rise and fall of the Classic Maya center of Xunantunich, paying special attention to its changing relationshi…
Janaab' Pakal of Palenque: Reconstructing the Birth and Death of a Maya Ruler. Vera Tiesler , Andrea Cucina
On the Logic of Archaeological Inference: Early Formative Pottery and the Evolution of Mesoamerican Societies
The 2005 articles by Stoltman et al. and Flannery et al. to which Neff et al. (this issue) have responded are not an indictment of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) but, rather, of the way Blomster et al. (2005) misuse it and of the hyperbolic culture-historical claims they have made from their INAA results. It has long been acknowledged that INAA leads not to sources but to chemical composition groups. Based on composition groups d…
Pine, prestige and politics of the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize
Comparing the source of a commodity with the social levels of the people amongst whom it is found can reveal important aspects of social structure. This case study of a Maya community, using archaeological and ethnographic data, shows that pine and pine charcoal was procured at a distance and distributed unevenly in settlements. The researchers deduce that this commodity was not freely available in the market place, but was subject to political c…
Reconfiguración De Un Espacio Sagrado: Los Inkas Y La Pirámide Pumapunku en Tiwanaku, Bolivia
Las crónicas dan cuenta que Tiwanaku fue una sede de gran importancia política para el imperio Inka, pues en ésta residía un gobernador imperial, suyoyoc apu; de igual forma hacen mención a la existencia de un palacio real, en el cual presumiblemente nació Manco Capac, hijo de Huayna Capac. Los Inkas consideraron a Tiwanaku un sitio sagrado de gran relevancia, a la par con la Isla del Sol y Pachacamac. Según uno de los relatos Inkas referidos a l…
Dating the Rise and Fall of Xunantunich, Belize: A Late and Terminal Classic Lowland Maya Regional Center
This article presents the chronological framework used to reconstruct the political history of the ancient Lowland Maya site of Xunantunich in the upper Belize River valley. Extensive excavations from 1991 to 1997 by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project produced the ceramic, architectural, and epigraphic data needed to place the site within a temporal context. Refinement of the Barton Ramie ceramic chronology was the first step toward clarifyin…
The Heart of the Matter
Journal Article The Heart of the Matter Get access John W. Yaeger John W. Yaeger Chicago Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 43, Issue 6, November 1998, Pages 586–587, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/43.6.586a Published: 01 November 1998
The Use of LiDAR in Understanding the Ancient Maya Landscape: Caracol and Western Belize
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…
Provisioning Inka feasts at Tiwanaku, Bolivia: The geographic origins of camelids in the Pumapunku complex
Dating the Rise and Fall of Xunantunich, Belize: A Late and Terminal Classic Lowland Maya Regional Center
This article presents the chronological framework used to reconstruct the political history of the ancient Lowland Maya site of Xunantunich in the upper Belize River valley. Extensive excavations from 1991 to 1997 by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project produced the ceramic, architectural, and epigraphic data needed to place the site within a temporal context. Refinement of the Barton Ramie ceramic chronology was the first step toward clarifyin…
On the Logic of Archaeological Inference: Early Formative Pottery and the Evolution of Mesoamerican Societies
The 2005 articles by Stoltman et al. and Flannery et al. to which Neff et al. (this issue) have responded are not an indictment of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) but, rather, of the way Blomster et al. (2005) misuse it and of the hyperbolic culture-historical claims they have made from their INAA results. It has long been acknowledged that INAA leads not to sources but to chemical composition groups. Based on composition groups d…
Archaeology of Communities: A New World Perspective
The Archaeology of Communities develops a critical evaluation of community and shows that it represents more than a mere aggregation of households. This collection bridges the gap between studies of ancient societies and ancient households. The community is taken to represent more than a mere aggregation of households, it exists in part through shared identities, as well as frequent interaction and inter-household integration. Drawing on case stu…
Pine, prestige and politics of the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize
Comparing the source of a commodity with the social levels of the people amongst whom it is found can reveal important aspects of social structure. This case study of a Maya community, using archaeological and ethnographic data, shows that pine and pine charcoal was procured at a distance and distributed unevenly in settlements. The researchers deduce that this commodity was not freely available in the market place, but was subject to political c…
Locating and Dating Sites Using Lidar Survey in a Mosaic Landscape in Western Belize
We use the results of a high-resolution lidar survey to assess the advantages and limitations of archaeological applications of lidar data and address some of its methodological challenges. Our data come from the Mopan and Macal River valleys in western Belize, a region that includes several ancient Maya political centers and their hinterlands. Visual inspection of the lidar data has revealed many new sites and new features at previously mapped s…
Raw Material Selection and Stone Tool Production: Limestone Bifaces in the Mopan Valley, Belize
Stone tool producers in the Maya Lowlands had several types of raw materials from which to choose. Limestone, chert, and obsidian are the most naturally abundant, whereas chert and obsidian outnumber limestone in archaeological contexts. The presence of flaked-stone tools made of limestone is typically attributed to the scarcity of more suitable raw materials. Nevertheless, in chert-rich areas, such as the upper Belize River valley, limestone bif…
Animate Stone: Maya Chert ‘Debitage’ and Ontological Perspectives
Focal Nodes and Ritual Economy in Ancient Maya Hinterland Communities: A Case Study From San Lorenzo, Belize
Public structures in the Maya region materialize ideologies and define centers of power as they create politically charged sacred landscapes. These locations are focal nodes for community and polity making processes, embedding social hierarchies, ideologies, and social memories into the physical landscape. Archaeologists, however, have historically focused little attention on small-scale focal nodes within rural communities. To explore the ways h…
Four Preceramic Points Newly Discovered in Belize: A Comment on Stemp Et Al. (2016:279–299)
Stemp et al. (2016) published data on 81 preceramic (Archaic) points from Belize, Central America. In this comment, we report four more chipped chert bifaces recently recovered in Belize (Figure 1). Based on metrics (Table 1), technology, and style, three are classified as Lowe and one as a Sawmill point (Kelly 1993; Lohse et al. 2006; Stemp et al. 2016)
The Heart of the Matter
Journal Article The Heart of the Matter Get access John W. Yaeger John W. Yaeger Chicago Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Work, Volume 43, Issue 6, November 1998, Pages 586–587, https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/43.6.586a Published: 01 November 1998
Dating the Rise and Fall of Xunantunich, Belize: A Late and Terminal Classic Lowland Maya Regional Center
This article presents the chronological framework used to reconstruct the political history of the ancient Lowland Maya site of Xunantunich in the upper Belize River valley. Extensive excavations from 1991 to 1997 by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project produced the ceramic, architectural, and epigraphic data needed to place the site within a temporal context. Refinement of the Barton Ramie ceramic chronology was the first step toward clarifyin…
Reconfiguración De Un Espacio Sagrado: Los Inkas Y La Pirámide Pumapunku en Tiwanaku, Bolivia
Las crónicas dan cuenta que Tiwanaku fue una sede de gran importancia política para el imperio Inka, pues en ésta residía un gobernador imperial, suyoyoc apu; de igual forma hacen mención a la existencia de un palacio real, en el cual presumiblemente nació Manco Capac, hijo de Huayna Capac. Los Inkas consideraron a Tiwanaku un sitio sagrado de gran relevancia, a la par con la Isla del Sol y Pachacamac. Según uno de los relatos Inkas referidos a l…
Pine, prestige and politics of the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize
Comparing the source of a commodity with the social levels of the people amongst whom it is found can reveal important aspects of social structure. This case study of a Maya community, using archaeological and ethnographic data, shows that pine and pine charcoal was procured at a distance and distributed unevenly in settlements. The researchers deduce that this commodity was not freely available in the market place, but was subject to political c…
On the Logic of Archaeological Inference: Early Formative Pottery and the Evolution of Mesoamerican Societies
The 2005 articles by Stoltman et al. and Flannery et al. to which Neff et al. (this issue) have responded are not an indictment of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) but, rather, of the way Blomster et al. (2005) misuse it and of the hyperbolic culture-historical claims they have made from their INAA results. It has long been acknowledged that INAA leads not to sources but to chemical composition groups. Based on composition groups d…
Janaab' Pakal of Palenque: Reconstructing the Birth and Death of a Maya Ruler. Vera Tiesler , Andrea Cucina
Classic Maya provincial politics: Xunantunich and its hinterlands
Most treatments of large Classic Maya sites such as Caracol and Tikal regard Maya political organization as highly centralized. Because investigations have focused on civic buildings and elite palaces, however, a critical part of the picture of Classic Maya political organization has been missing. The contributors to this volume chart the rise and fall of the Classic Maya center of Xunantunich, paying special attention to its changing relationshi…
Provisioning Inka feasts at Tiwanaku, Bolivia: The geographic origins of camelids in the Pumapunku complex
Heads of State: Icons, Power, and Politics in the Ancient and Modern Andes by Denise Y. Arnold and Christine A. Hastorf
Communities in Ancient Mesoamerica
This article reviews research showing the importance of an archaeology of communities for Mesoamerica. Methodologically, the community is situated between the scales of household and polity, which permits researchers to have new insights into the broader social and political dynamics through which these other social institutions were constituted and changed over time. As a paradigm, this approach treats communities as emergent social institutions…
Archaeology of Communities: A New World Perspective
The Archaeology of Communities develops a critical evaluation of community and shows that it represents more than a mere aggregation of households. This collection bridges the gap between studies of ancient societies and ancient households. The community is taken to represent more than a mere aggregation of households, it exists in part through shared identities, as well as frequent interaction and inter-household integration. Drawing on case stu…
Ancient Maya Regional Settlement and Inter-Site Analysis: The 2013 West-Central Belize LiDAR Survey
During April and May 2013, a total of 1057 km2 of LiDAR was flown by NCALM for a consortium of archaeologists working in West-central Belize, making this the largest surveyed area within the Mayan lowlands. Encompassing the Belize Valley and the Vaca Plateau, West-central Belize is one of the most actively researched parts of the Maya lowlands; however, until this effort, no comprehensive survey connecting all settlement had been conducted. Archa…
The Use of LiDAR in Understanding the Ancient Maya Landscape: Caracol and Western Belize
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…
Introduction: Commodity Branding in Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives
Conventional views of commodities in economics define them fairly narrowly in terms of their equivalence of use value. The Mopan Valley of western Belize presents a broad and fertile alluvial floodplain framed by gentle, karst-derived limestone hills. The hills are carpeted with agricultural terraces built by farming families over generations as they transformed the valley's landscape for intensive agricultural production. In the floodplain and h…
Locating and Dating Sites Using Lidar Survey in a Mosaic Landscape in Western Belize
We use the results of a high-resolution lidar survey to assess the advantages and limitations of archaeological applications of lidar data and address some of its methodological challenges. Our data come from the Mopan and Macal River valleys in western Belize, a region that includes several ancient Maya political centers and their hinterlands. Visual inspection of the lidar data has revealed many new sites and new features at previously mapped s…
Four Preceramic Points Newly Discovered in Belize: A Comment on Stemp Et Al. (2016:279–299)
Stemp et al. (2016) published data on 81 preceramic (Archaic) points from Belize, Central America. In this comment, we report four more chipped chert bifaces recently recovered in Belize (Figure 1). Based on metrics (Table 1), technology, and style, three are classified as Lowe and one as a Sawmill point (Kelly 1993; Lohse et al. 2006; Stemp et al. 2016)
Re-Centering the Narrative: British Colonial Memory and the San Pedro Maya
Raw Material Selection and Stone Tool Production: Limestone Bifaces in the Mopan Valley, Belize
Stone tool producers in the Maya Lowlands had several types of raw materials from which to choose. Limestone, chert, and obsidian are the most naturally abundant, whereas chert and obsidian outnumber limestone in archaeological contexts. The presence of flaked-stone tools made of limestone is typically attributed to the scarcity of more suitable raw materials. Nevertheless, in chert-rich areas, such as the upper Belize River valley, limestone bif…
Focal Nodes and Ritual Economy in Ancient Maya Hinterland Communities: A Case Study From San Lorenzo, Belize
Public structures in the Maya region materialize ideologies and define centers of power as they create politically charged sacred landscapes. These locations are focal nodes for community and polity making processes, embedding social hierarchies, ideologies, and social memories into the physical landscape. Archaeologists, however, have historically focused little attention on small-scale focal nodes within rural communities. To explore the ways h…
Animate Stone: Maya Chert ‘Debitage’ and Ontological Perspectives
Personified Ailments and Regional Identities in the Eastern Maya Lowlands
In this article, Classic Maya (ca. AD 250–900) conceptions of the supernatural are examined, not through the shared pantheon of deities but by focusing on wahy, an alternate category of demonic entities attested in hieroglyphic texts. The changing interpretations of wahy entities in Mayanist studies are reviewed, originally understood as personal animal spirit companions and now viewed as entities that personify illnesses. These were consistently…
Archaeology (17 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (13 works) · Geography (13 works) · History (11 works) · Maya (11 works) · Art (7 works) · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies (7 works) · History (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works)