Brent K S Woodfill
Biographic Data
| ID | 223624 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brent K S Woodfill |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brent K S |
| FAMILY NAME | Woodfill |
| SIGNATURE | WOODFILL B K S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Winthrop University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5445-7602 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 51 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Thinking through the Practical Implications of the Ontological Turn in Archaeology: Ethical Chauvinism and Community Collaboration in the Southern Maya Lowlands
While any particular school of thought’s impact on the field of anthropology tends to be limited to scholarly interpretation, this paper argues that it can also reveal complex ethical entanglements with places and people affected by our research. Taking as a starting point the impact of the ontological turn on archaeological fieldwork in rural Guatemala, I interrogate my earlier assumptions about the ubiquity and importance of positivism in the s…
An Uphill View of the Northern Guatemalan Highlands from the Southern Maya Lowlands
This chapter focuses on the long and complex history of interaction between the highland residents of the Coban Plateau and their contemporaries in the Northern Transversal Strip in the extreme southern lowlands. Late Postclassic and Colonial interactions are well documented in Spanish accounts—the highlands were the primary source of quetzal feathers for most of Mesoamerica at that time, and they depended on the residents of the Transversal to p…
A Story of Awe and Clay: Mold-Made Hieroglyphs From Alta Verapaz, Guatemala
The recent discovery of an ancient Late Classic ceramic production facility in a valley floor, east of the current capital of Cobán in Guatemala, reveals a new ceramic form and provides data concerning regional chronology. Among the remains are thin, mold-made fragments identified as ceramic plaques that have epigraphic information providing a Long Count date for the first time in the Alta Verapaz region. These data correlate with the preliminary…
Contextualizing Caves within an Animate Maya Landscape: Caves as Living Agents in the Past and Present
After groundbreaking work by multiple archaeologists in the latter half of the 20th century, caves in the Maya world are currently acknowledged as fundamentally ritual rather than domestic spaces. However, a more nuanced read of the anthropological literature and conversations with Indigenous collaborators in the past and present pushes us to move still farther and see caves not as passive contexts to contain ceremonies directed elsewhere but ani…
Addressing Problems beyond Heritage, Patrimony, and Representation: Reflections on Twenty Years of Community Archaeology in the Southwestern Maya Lowlands
Collaborative or community archaeology as a methodological approach has a long history and is becoming increasingly common in the Maya world. This article draws from the authors’ experiences on three distinct archaeological projects to discuss the benefits and obstacles we confronted while conducting collaborative research with contemporary Maya communities as well as lessons we learned that can increase the odds of a mutually beneficial partners…
Chemical signatures of salt sources in the Maya world: Implications for isotopic signals in ancient consumers
How to Add a Successful Development Component to Multidisciplinary Scientific Investigations: Proyecto de los Nueve Cerros as a Case Study in Rural Guatemala
The Classic-period pictographs at Juliq’ Cave, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala: An interdisciplinary approach to cave art as organizing principle
The Cave of Juliq’ in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala contains an impressive corpus of ancient Maya rock art. Unlike other examples of rock art in this area, the Juliq’ pictographs are simply rendered, generally consisting of lines, handprints, and other basic shapes. We thus focus on context rather than on iconographic content in order to access the meaning of these ancient pictographs. We argue that they were used to record human presence in and moveme…
Salinas De Los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala: A Major Economic Center in the Southern Maya Lowlands
Salinas de los Nueve Cerros is a precolumbian Maya city located at the base of the highlands in the lowlands of west-central Guatemala. It is the only Classic-period center in the southern Maya Lowlands that based its economy on the production of an important raw material for export: salt. Because of its economic role and its location along a major trade route, Salinas de los Nueve Cerros had a particularly long history of occupation. The site ha…
Interpreting an Early Classic Pecked Cross in the Candelaria Caves, Guatemala: Archaeological and Indigenous Perspectives
Pecked crosses, a variant of a common Prehispanic American symbol often referred to as a “quartered” or “quadripartite” circle, are commonly found in central and northern Mexico during the florescence of Teotihuacan (ca. A.D. 100–650) and often interpreted as astronomical devices. The subject of this article is a pecked cross found in the Candelaria Caves, Guatemala, one of four examples that have been found to date in the Maya world. The author …
Community Development and Collaboration at Salinas de Los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala: Accomplishments, Failures, and Lessons Learned Conducting Publically-Engaged Archaeology
Since its founding in 2009 at the behest of local leaders, Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros has had the dual goals of scientific research and community development. Due to the regional political landscape, the initial goal of community-run ecotourism had to be abandoned. In its stead, the project has been seeking high-impact, low-cost development initiatives in collaboration with local villagers. The initiatives have had mixed levels of succe…
Sympathetic Ethnocentrism, Repression, and Auto-repression of Q’eqchi’ Maya Blood Sacrifice
Tikal's Early Classic Domination of the Great Western Trade Route: Ceramic, Lithic, and Iconographic Evidence
This article reviews new evidence suggesting that Tikal and its allies controlled trade along the Pasión River during the latter half of the Early Classic period (ca.a.d.460–550) and the possible impacts this had on geopolitical interaction. Recent data in the Candelaria Caves and other Pasión River sites showed the strong influence of Tikal during this time period that could indicate that they were active agents in interregional trade between th…
Changing Patterns of Ritual Activity in an Unlooted Cave in Central Guatemala
The Cave of Hun Nal Ye, located in central Guatemala, was discovered unlooted by a local landowner in 2005 and was immediately subject to investigation by the authors. The cave contained ritual remains dating to between the Terminal Pre-classic and Terminal Classic. In addition to allowing a detailed reconstruction of ritual activity in the northern highlands, its presence along the Great Western Trade Route allows archaeologists to examine hypot…
The Central Role of Cave Archaeology in the Reconstruction of Classic Maya Culture History and Highland-Lowland Interaction
The unexpected discovery of an elaborate stone coffer with lowland-style carved images and early Maya inscriptions in a cave in the northern Guatemalan highlands has great implications for our understanding of highland-lowland interaction. However, this discovery proved to be only the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of the importance of subterranean evidence in this region. Investigations in caves in central Guatemala over the past decade have been…
Salinas De Los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala: A Major Economic Center in the Southern Maya Lowlands
Salinas de los Nueve Cerros is a precolumbian Maya city located at the base of the highlands in the lowlands of west-central Guatemala. It is the only Classic-period center in the southern Maya Lowlands that based its economy on the production of an important raw material for export: salt. Because of its economic role and its location along a major trade route, Salinas de los Nueve Cerros had a particularly long history of occupation. The site ha…
Tikal's Early Classic Domination of the Great Western Trade Route: Ceramic, Lithic, and Iconographic Evidence
This article reviews new evidence suggesting that Tikal and its allies controlled trade along the Pasión River during the latter half of the Early Classic period (ca.a.d.460–550) and the possible impacts this had on geopolitical interaction. Recent data in the Candelaria Caves and other Pasión River sites showed the strong influence of Tikal during this time period that could indicate that they were active agents in interregional trade between th…
Changing Patterns of Ritual Activity in an Unlooted Cave in Central Guatemala
The Cave of Hun Nal Ye, located in central Guatemala, was discovered unlooted by a local landowner in 2005 and was immediately subject to investigation by the authors. The cave contained ritual remains dating to between the Terminal Pre-classic and Terminal Classic. In addition to allowing a detailed reconstruction of ritual activity in the northern highlands, its presence along the Great Western Trade Route allows archaeologists to examine hypot…
Community Development and Collaboration at Salinas de Los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala: Accomplishments, Failures, and Lessons Learned Conducting Publically-Engaged Archaeology
Since its founding in 2009 at the behest of local leaders, Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros has had the dual goals of scientific research and community development. Due to the regional political landscape, the initial goal of community-run ecotourism had to be abandoned. In its stead, the project has been seeking high-impact, low-cost development initiatives in collaboration with local villagers. The initiatives have had mixed levels of succe…
Contextualizing Caves within an Animate Maya Landscape: Caves as Living Agents in the Past and Present
After groundbreaking work by multiple archaeologists in the latter half of the 20th century, caves in the Maya world are currently acknowledged as fundamentally ritual rather than domestic spaces. However, a more nuanced read of the anthropological literature and conversations with Indigenous collaborators in the past and present pushes us to move still farther and see caves not as passive contexts to contain ceremonies directed elsewhere but ani…
The Central Role of Cave Archaeology in the Reconstruction of Classic Maya Culture History and Highland-Lowland Interaction
The unexpected discovery of an elaborate stone coffer with lowland-style carved images and early Maya inscriptions in a cave in the northern Guatemalan highlands has great implications for our understanding of highland-lowland interaction. However, this discovery proved to be only the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of the importance of subterranean evidence in this region. Investigations in caves in central Guatemala over the past decade have been…
Addressing Problems beyond Heritage, Patrimony, and Representation: Reflections on Twenty Years of Community Archaeology in the Southwestern Maya Lowlands
Collaborative or community archaeology as a methodological approach has a long history and is becoming increasingly common in the Maya world. This article draws from the authors’ experiences on three distinct archaeological projects to discuss the benefits and obstacles we confronted while conducting collaborative research with contemporary Maya communities as well as lessons we learned that can increase the odds of a mutually beneficial partners…
Chemical signatures of salt sources in the Maya world: Implications for isotopic signals in ancient consumers
The Classic-period pictographs at Juliq’ Cave, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala: An interdisciplinary approach to cave art as organizing principle
The Cave of Juliq’ in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala contains an impressive corpus of ancient Maya rock art. Unlike other examples of rock art in this area, the Juliq’ pictographs are simply rendered, generally consisting of lines, handprints, and other basic shapes. We thus focus on context rather than on iconographic content in order to access the meaning of these ancient pictographs. We argue that they were used to record human presence in and moveme…
The Central Role of Cave Archaeology in the Reconstruction of Classic Maya Culture History and Highland-Lowland Interaction
The unexpected discovery of an elaborate stone coffer with lowland-style carved images and early Maya inscriptions in a cave in the northern Guatemalan highlands has great implications for our understanding of highland-lowland interaction. However, this discovery proved to be only the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of the importance of subterranean evidence in this region. Investigations in caves in central Guatemala over the past decade have been…
Sympathetic Ethnocentrism, Repression, and Auto-repression of Q’eqchi’ Maya Blood Sacrifice
Tikal's Early Classic Domination of the Great Western Trade Route: Ceramic, Lithic, and Iconographic Evidence
This article reviews new evidence suggesting that Tikal and its allies controlled trade along the Pasión River during the latter half of the Early Classic period (ca.a.d.460–550) and the possible impacts this had on geopolitical interaction. Recent data in the Candelaria Caves and other Pasión River sites showed the strong influence of Tikal during this time period that could indicate that they were active agents in interregional trade between th…
Changing Patterns of Ritual Activity in an Unlooted Cave in Central Guatemala
The Cave of Hun Nal Ye, located in central Guatemala, was discovered unlooted by a local landowner in 2005 and was immediately subject to investigation by the authors. The cave contained ritual remains dating to between the Terminal Pre-classic and Terminal Classic. In addition to allowing a detailed reconstruction of ritual activity in the northern highlands, its presence along the Great Western Trade Route allows archaeologists to examine hypot…
Community Development and Collaboration at Salinas de Los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala: Accomplishments, Failures, and Lessons Learned Conducting Publically-Engaged Archaeology
Since its founding in 2009 at the behest of local leaders, Proyecto Salinas de los Nueve Cerros has had the dual goals of scientific research and community development. Due to the regional political landscape, the initial goal of community-run ecotourism had to be abandoned. In its stead, the project has been seeking high-impact, low-cost development initiatives in collaboration with local villagers. The initiatives have had mixed levels of succe…
Interpreting an Early Classic Pecked Cross in the Candelaria Caves, Guatemala: Archaeological and Indigenous Perspectives
Pecked crosses, a variant of a common Prehispanic American symbol often referred to as a “quartered” or “quadripartite” circle, are commonly found in central and northern Mexico during the florescence of Teotihuacan (ca. A.D. 100–650) and often interpreted as astronomical devices. The subject of this article is a pecked cross found in the Candelaria Caves, Guatemala, one of four examples that have been found to date in the Maya world. The author …
Salinas De Los Nueve Cerros, Guatemala: A Major Economic Center in the Southern Maya Lowlands
Salinas de los Nueve Cerros is a precolumbian Maya city located at the base of the highlands in the lowlands of west-central Guatemala. It is the only Classic-period center in the southern Maya Lowlands that based its economy on the production of an important raw material for export: salt. Because of its economic role and its location along a major trade route, Salinas de los Nueve Cerros had a particularly long history of occupation. The site ha…
The Classic-period pictographs at Juliq’ Cave, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala: An interdisciplinary approach to cave art as organizing principle
The Cave of Juliq’ in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala contains an impressive corpus of ancient Maya rock art. Unlike other examples of rock art in this area, the Juliq’ pictographs are simply rendered, generally consisting of lines, handprints, and other basic shapes. We thus focus on context rather than on iconographic content in order to access the meaning of these ancient pictographs. We argue that they were used to record human presence in and moveme…
How to Add a Successful Development Component to Multidisciplinary Scientific Investigations: Proyecto de los Nueve Cerros as a Case Study in Rural Guatemala
Chemical signatures of salt sources in the Maya world: Implications for isotopic signals in ancient consumers
Addressing Problems beyond Heritage, Patrimony, and Representation: Reflections on Twenty Years of Community Archaeology in the Southwestern Maya Lowlands
Collaborative or community archaeology as a methodological approach has a long history and is becoming increasingly common in the Maya world. This article draws from the authors’ experiences on three distinct archaeological projects to discuss the benefits and obstacles we confronted while conducting collaborative research with contemporary Maya communities as well as lessons we learned that can increase the odds of a mutually beneficial partners…
Contextualizing Caves within an Animate Maya Landscape: Caves as Living Agents in the Past and Present
After groundbreaking work by multiple archaeologists in the latter half of the 20th century, caves in the Maya world are currently acknowledged as fundamentally ritual rather than domestic spaces. However, a more nuanced read of the anthropological literature and conversations with Indigenous collaborators in the past and present pushes us to move still farther and see caves not as passive contexts to contain ceremonies directed elsewhere but ani…
A Story of Awe and Clay: Mold-Made Hieroglyphs From Alta Verapaz, Guatemala
The recent discovery of an ancient Late Classic ceramic production facility in a valley floor, east of the current capital of Cobán in Guatemala, reveals a new ceramic form and provides data concerning regional chronology. Among the remains are thin, mold-made fragments identified as ceramic plaques that have epigraphic information providing a Long Count date for the first time in the Alta Verapaz region. These data correlate with the preliminary…
An Uphill View of the Northern Guatemalan Highlands from the Southern Maya Lowlands
This chapter focuses on the long and complex history of interaction between the highland residents of the Coban Plateau and their contemporaries in the Northern Transversal Strip in the extreme southern lowlands. Late Postclassic and Colonial interactions are well documented in Spanish accounts—the highlands were the primary source of quetzal feathers for most of Mesoamerica at that time, and they depended on the residents of the Transversal to p…
Thinking through the Practical Implications of the Ontological Turn in Archaeology: Ethical Chauvinism and Community Collaboration in the Southern Maya Lowlands
While any particular school of thought’s impact on the field of anthropology tends to be limited to scholarly interpretation, this paper argues that it can also reveal complex ethical entanglements with places and people affected by our research. Taking as a starting point the impact of the ontological turn on archaeological fieldwork in rural Guatemala, I interrogate my earlier assumptions about the ubiquity and importance of positivism in the s…
Archaeology (11 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Maya (9 works) · Latin American history and culture (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Cave (5 works) · History (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works)