Claire E Ebert
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 215115 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Claire E Ebert |
| PRENOMES | Claire E |
| SOBRENOME | Ebert |
| ASSINATURA | EBERT C E |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Pittsburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8554-2727 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 36 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 156 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 36 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2012 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
Applying demographic and epidemiological models in challenging situations
OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate the utility of applying demographic and epidemiological models to assess the potential effects of sociopolitical status and childhood stress on survivorship, mortality, and morbidity to shed new light on life during the Maya Classic period. MATERIALS: Elite and commoner burials (n = 63) from the Lower Dover polity, Belize dating to the Early (CE 250/300-600) and Late/Terminal Classic (CE 600-900/1000) periods were analyz…
The many lives of companion species
Combining zooarchaeology and multi-isotopic analyses reveals diverse life histories of ancient dogs. • The companion species concept should be broadened to include animals living with and off humans. • Castillo de Huarmey’s dogs were involved in both mundane and ceremonial activities. • At the Castillo de Huarmey, Peruvian Hairless Dog puppies received distinct treatment compared to other dogs. The widespread belief that dogs are humans’ closest …
Early Maya chert caching documented through archaeological geophysics at Cahal Pech, Belize
A geophysical survey at Cahal Pech, Belize, identified one of the earliest securely dated lithic caches from the Maya lowlands. Linked to Middle Preclassic (800–400 cal BC) monumental architecture and communal ceremonial events, this find demonstrates the effectiveness of gradiometry for detecting ritual deposits
Making comparative archaeological and historical urbanism rigorous and open access through the URBank data platform
Adapting to a global urban future requires diverse, long-term perspectives on urbanism. URBank supports this by bringing together global deep-time urban datasets in a modern open-science computing platform. Its design eschews checklist definitions of cities, representing the variability of past urbanism and enabling systematic comparative spatiotemporal research
Isotopic Evidence Reveals Marine Foodways and Captive Life Histories of Pre-Columbian Andean Condors
Modelling Resilience
A pXRF analysis of utilitarian pottery from the Late Classic Maya polity of Lower Dover, Belize
Biocultural Taphonomies and Analysis of an Emerging Terminal Classic (750–900 CE) Maya Deathway
In bioarchaeology, funerary taphonomy and preservation become part of the biocultural narrative of the dead. We evaluate the role of these factors in reconstructing the identities of those buried in an emerging deathway, the ventrally placed legs flexed (VPLF) burial position, during the Terminal Classic (750–900/1000 CE) period at the Maya polity of Lower Dover in western Belize. The term “VPLF” describes a divergent burial practice which may ha…
Wetlands and grasslands
Early herders prioritized areas with productive winter vegetation over wetland resources. • Land use change was accompanied by constrained residential mobility and population consolidation. • Intensified local interaction fostered adaptations that came to define Eurasian pastoralism. This paper presents the results of a study that investigates the settlement history of Mongolia’s desert-steppe to understand the role of foragers in the evolution o…
Shell Games
Recent excavations at the ancient Maya minor center of Tutu Uitz Na in the Belize River Valley revealed an especially large—about 20 million shells—Middle Preclassic (900–300 BC) shell deposit underlying the plaza. Although marine shell species make up a small percentage of the assemblage, most shells are Pachychilus spp., a common freshwater snail known in the southern Maya Lowlands as jute . This report describes the architectural context and a…
Patterns of residential differentiation and labor control at Baking Pot and Lower Dover in the Belize River Valley
The Classic Maya polities of Baking Pot and Lower Dover developed along two dramatically different trajectories. At Baking Pot, the capital and associated apical elite regime grew concomitantly with surrounding populations over a thousand-year period. The smaller polity of Lower Dover, in contrast, formed when a Late Classic political center was established by an emergent apical elite regime amidst several long-established intermediate elite-head…
Sustainability and Water Management in the Maya World and Beyond
Volcanic Ash Tempered Pottery Production in the Late to Terminal Classic Belize Valley, Belize
Production and consumption of pottery tempered with fresh volcanic ash peaked in the Late to Terminal Classic periods in the Maya lowlands. Differences in the type of volcanic inclusion and vessel form indicate that the pottery was produced in multiple locations by different groups of potters. In this article, we characterize pottery from household contexts at Baking Pot, Belize, using thin-section petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA…
MesoRAD
The Mesoamerican Radiocarbon Database (MesoRAD) compiles radiocarbon dates from the archaeological literature of Mesoamerica. The inaugural data set, ‘Lowland Maya Dates’, includes 1846 radiocarbon dates from 132 sites in 21 distinct environmental zones in the Maya lowlands. These data span the Paleoindian to Colonial Periods (11,670 to 190 uncal BP, 13,740 cal BP to modern) across southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. He…
Life and Death Among the Earliest Maya
This article presents a review of the earliest Maya skeletal remains thus far found, including a list of 398 burials dating to the Early (1800–900 b.c. ) and Middle Preclassic periods (900–300 b.c. ) and adjacent regions. These sites are spread throughout the Maya region and the data allow basic descriptive syntheses about early mortuary behavior and aspects of health and diet. Poor preservation and differences in scoring and reporting severely l…
Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Women and Early Career Archaeologists
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts in all segments of life worldwide. While a variety of surveys have assessed the impacts of the pandemic in other fields, few studies have focused on understanding the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic for archaeology. To assess these trends, we asked survey respondents (n = 570) if they experienced job loss and to rate the percentage of change in their economic situation, workload, tea…
End-to-end Bayesian analysis for summarizing sets of radiocarbon dates
Archaeologists and demographers increasingly employ aggregations of published radiocarbon (14C) dates as demographic proxies summarizing changes in human activity in past societies. Presently, summed probability densities (SPDs) of calibrated radiocarbon dates are the dominant method of using 14C dates to reconstruct demographic trends. Unfortunately, SPDs are incapable of converging on the distribution that generated a set of radiocarbon measure…
Comparing Preclassic Sequences at Cahal Pech, Belize
We thank our colleague for his comment, address concerns raised, and encourage future collaborative research to answer important questions about the Middle Preclassic at Cahal Pech
Lowland Maya Genesis
The transition from the Late Archaic to the Late Early Formative period witnessed profound changes in the Maya lowlands. In addition to the establishment of the first settlements and agrarian communities, this critical phase of cultural development heralded the introduction of ceramics, saw changes in lithic technology, gave rise to inter-regional trade and exchange, and witnessed the introduction of a complex symbolic system expressed on portabl…
Early Monumentality in the Belize River Valley
Recent investigations at Cahal Pech, Belize, documented a previously unrecognized Middle Preclassic (700-500 cal BC) E-Group complex. Located in an open public plaza, the monumental complex likely functioned as a forum for communal public events. In the Late Preclassic, the E-Group was replaced by an ancestor shrine where several royal tombs are located, as well as buildings separating public civic space from private elite space. These shifts in …
The Low-Density Urban Systems of the Classic Period Maya and Izapa
The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhibit a distinct type of spatial organization relative to contemporary urban systems. Here, we use the settlement scaling framework and properties of settlements recorded in systematic, full-coverage surveys to examine ways in which southern Mesoamerican settlement systems were both similar to and different from contemporary systems. We find that the po…
Thirty-Two Years of Integrating Archaeology and Heritage Management in Belize
Since its inception in 1988, the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project has had two major foci, that of cultural heritage management and archaeological research. While research has concentrated on excavation and survey, the heritage management focus of the project has included the preservation of ancient monuments, the integration of archaeology and tourism development, and cultural heritage education. In this paper, we provid…
Fade to Black
Applying Regional, Contextual, Ethnohistoric, and Ethnographic Approaches for Understanding the Significance of Peri-Abandonment Deposits in Western Belize
The discovery of cultural remains on or above the floors of rooms and courtyards at several Maya sites has been interpreted by some archaeologists as problematic deposits, squatter's refuse, as evidence for feasting, termination rituals,de factorefuse, or rapid abandonment as a result of warfare. Investigations by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project have recorded similar deposits at several surface and subterranean sites in We…
The Last Hurrah
Archaeological investigations by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project at Cahal Pech uncovered several Terminal Classic (a.d.750–900) peri-abandonment deposits and activity areas at this Belize River Valley center. The deposits contained a diverse assemblage of cultural remains located above and between collapsed architecture, associated with evidence for burning activities. In the past, archaeologists have generally interpreted…
The Low-Density Urban Systems of the Classic Period Maya and Izapa
The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhibit a distinct type of spatial organization relative to contemporary urban systems. Here, we use the settlement scaling framework and properties of settlements recorded in systematic, full-coverage surveys to examine ways in which southern Mesoamerican settlement systems were both similar to and different from contemporary systems. We find that the po…
The Role of Diet in Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change among Early Agricultural Communities in the Maya Lowlands
The Terminal Classic Period (AD 750-1000) collapse of lowland Maya social, economic, and political systems has been temporally correlated with severe and extended drought in regional paleoclimate records. Ancient Maya society also experienced a protracted multicentury drought earlier during the end of the Late Preclassic Period (AD 100-300). While some large Preclassic polities declined, many more flourished through the Early Classic. Why were th…
Terminal Long Count Dates and the Disintegration of Classic Period Maya Polities
Analyses of terminal long count dates from stone monuments in the Maya lowlands have played a central role in characterizing the rise and “collapse” of polities during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (a.d.730–910). Previous studies propose a directional abandonment of large political centers from west-to-east. We retest the west-to-east hypothesis, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistics to analyze an updated datas…
Integrating Quantitative Lidar Analysis and Settlement Survey in the Belize River Valley
Accurate and high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) data have become increasingly important for the discovery and visualization of complete archaeological settlement systems in the Maya Lowlands. We present the results of systematic quantitative analysis of lidar data and ground verification for the major centers of Cahal Pech, Baking Pot, and Lower Dover in the Belize Valley. The Belize Valley is characterized by high densi…
AMS 14 C Dating of Preclassic to Classic Period Household Construction in the Ancient Maya Community of Cahal Pech, Belize
Archaeologists have traditionally relied upon relative ceramic chronologies to understand the occupational histories of large and socially complex polities in the Maya lowlands. High-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating can provide independent chronological control for more discrete events that reflect cultural change through time. This article reports results of AMS 14 C dating of stratified sequences at the resident…
Formative Period Obsidian Exchange along the Pacific Coast of M esoamerica
Long‐distance networks for the transport of exotic goods and the beginnings of specialized craft production first appear in M esoamerica during the Formative Period. The results of portable X ‐ray fluorescence ( pXRF ) analysis of 456 obsidian artefacts imported to the Pacific coast site of L a Z anja ( G uerrero, M exico) indicate that long‐distance exchange of finished obsidian blades along the coast began during the Early Formative ( c .1400–1…
Modeling variability in Classic Maya intermediate elite political strategies through multivariate analysis of settlement patterns
End-to-end Bayesian analysis for summarizing sets of radiocarbon dates
Archaeologists and demographers increasingly employ aggregations of published radiocarbon (14C) dates as demographic proxies summarizing changes in human activity in past societies. Presently, summed probability densities (SPDs) of calibrated radiocarbon dates are the dominant method of using 14C dates to reconstruct demographic trends. Unfortunately, SPDs are incapable of converging on the distribution that generated a set of radiocarbon measure…
Lowland Maya Genesis
The transition from the Late Archaic to the Late Early Formative period witnessed profound changes in the Maya lowlands. In addition to the establishment of the first settlements and agrarian communities, this critical phase of cultural development heralded the introduction of ceramics, saw changes in lithic technology, gave rise to inter-regional trade and exchange, and witnessed the introduction of a complex symbolic system expressed on portabl…
Early Monumentality in the Belize River Valley
Recent investigations at Cahal Pech, Belize, documented a previously unrecognized Middle Preclassic (700-500 cal BC) E-Group complex. Located in an open public plaza, the monumental complex likely functioned as a forum for communal public events. In the Late Preclassic, the E-Group was replaced by an ancestor shrine where several royal tombs are located, as well as buildings separating public civic space from private elite space. These shifts in …
Applying Regional, Contextual, Ethnohistoric, and Ethnographic Approaches for Understanding the Significance of Peri-Abandonment Deposits in Western Belize
The discovery of cultural remains on or above the floors of rooms and courtyards at several Maya sites has been interpreted by some archaeologists as problematic deposits, squatter's refuse, as evidence for feasting, termination rituals,de factorefuse, or rapid abandonment as a result of warfare. Investigations by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project have recorded similar deposits at several surface and subterranean sites in We…
Shell Games
Recent excavations at the ancient Maya minor center of Tutu Uitz Na in the Belize River Valley revealed an especially large—about 20 million shells—Middle Preclassic (900–300 BC) shell deposit underlying the plaza. Although marine shell species make up a small percentage of the assemblage, most shells are Pachychilus spp., a common freshwater snail known in the southern Maya Lowlands as jute . This report describes the architectural context and a…
Human Ecology of Shellfish Exploitation at a Prehistoric Fishing-Farming Village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico
Shellfish remains excavated from an early agricultural village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico (Guerrero) indicate a dietary shift from locally obtained estuarine shellfish (1400–1100 BC) to a greater diversity of mollusks collected from more distant marine environments (900–500 BC). The timing of this shift suggests that it occurred as human populations increased and impacted the availability of local estuarine resources. We argue that this promp…
Volcanic Ash Tempered Pottery Production in the Late to Terminal Classic Belize Valley, Belize
Production and consumption of pottery tempered with fresh volcanic ash peaked in the Late to Terminal Classic periods in the Maya lowlands. Differences in the type of volcanic inclusion and vessel form indicate that the pottery was produced in multiple locations by different groups of potters. In this article, we characterize pottery from household contexts at Baking Pot, Belize, using thin-section petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA…
Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Women and Early Career Archaeologists
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts in all segments of life worldwide. While a variety of surveys have assessed the impacts of the pandemic in other fields, few studies have focused on understanding the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic for archaeology. To assess these trends, we asked survey respondents (n = 570) if they experienced job loss and to rate the percentage of change in their economic situation, workload, tea…
The Last Hurrah
Archaeological investigations by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project at Cahal Pech uncovered several Terminal Classic (a.d.750–900) peri-abandonment deposits and activity areas at this Belize River Valley center. The deposits contained a diverse assemblage of cultural remains located above and between collapsed architecture, associated with evidence for burning activities. In the past, archaeologists have generally interpreted…
Preclassic ceramic economy in Belize
Biocultural Taphonomies and Analysis of an Emerging Terminal Classic (750–900 CE) Maya Deathway
In bioarchaeology, funerary taphonomy and preservation become part of the biocultural narrative of the dead. We evaluate the role of these factors in reconstructing the identities of those buried in an emerging deathway, the ventrally placed legs flexed (VPLF) burial position, during the Terminal Classic (750–900/1000 CE) period at the Maya polity of Lower Dover in western Belize. The term “VPLF” describes a divergent burial practice which may ha…
Thirty-Two Years of Integrating Archaeology and Heritage Management in Belize
Since its inception in 1988, the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project has had two major foci, that of cultural heritage management and archaeological research. While research has concentrated on excavation and survey, the heritage management focus of the project has included the preservation of ancient monuments, the integration of archaeology and tourism development, and cultural heritage education. In this paper, we provid…
Integrating U-Th, 14 C, and 210 Pb methods to produce a chronologically reliable isotope record for the Belize River Valley Maya from a low-uranium stalagmite
Social and environmental changes had great spatiotemporal variability in the Maya Lowlands during the Classic and Postclassic Periods, and stalagmites promise high-resolution paleoclimate data that can refine our understanding of this complex time. Unfortunately, stalagmites in this region are often difficult to date by U-Th methods because of low initial uranium concentrations. Other dating techniques can be used on such stalagmites, and we pres…
A pXRF analysis of utilitarian pottery from the Late Classic Maya polity of Lower Dover, Belize
Development and Disintegration of Maya Political Systems in Response to Climate Change
Maya and Climate Climate has affected the vitality of many different societies in the past, as shown by numerous records across the globe and throughout human history. One of the most obvious and spectacular examples of this is from the Classic Maya civilization, whose advanced culture left highly detailed records of all aspects of their existence between 300 and 1000 C.E. Kennett et al. (p. 788 ; see the cover) present a detailed climate record …
Human Ecology of Shellfish Exploitation at a Prehistoric Fishing-Farming Village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico
Shellfish remains excavated from an early agricultural village on the Pacific Coast of Mexico (Guerrero) indicate a dietary shift from locally obtained estuarine shellfish (1400–1100 BC) to a greater diversity of mollusks collected from more distant marine environments (900–500 BC). The timing of this shift suggests that it occurred as human populations increased and impacted the availability of local estuarine resources. We argue that this promp…
Terminal Long Count Dates and the Disintegration of Classic Period Maya Polities
Analyses of terminal long count dates from stone monuments in the Maya lowlands have played a central role in characterizing the rise and “collapse” of polities during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (a.d.730–910). Previous studies propose a directional abandonment of large political centers from west-to-east. We retest the west-to-east hypothesis, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistics to analyze an updated datas…
Formative Period Obsidian Exchange along the Pacific Coast of M esoamerica
Long‐distance networks for the transport of exotic goods and the beginnings of specialized craft production first appear in M esoamerica during the Formative Period. The results of portable X ‐ray fluorescence ( pXRF ) analysis of 456 obsidian artefacts imported to the Pacific coast site of L a Z anja ( G uerrero, M exico) indicate that long‐distance exchange of finished obsidian blades along the coast began during the Early Formative ( c .1400–1…
Integrating Quantitative Lidar Analysis and Settlement Survey in the Belize River Valley
Accurate and high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) data have become increasingly important for the discovery and visualization of complete archaeological settlement systems in the Maya Lowlands. We present the results of systematic quantitative analysis of lidar data and ground verification for the major centers of Cahal Pech, Baking Pot, and Lower Dover in the Belize Valley. The Belize Valley is characterized by high densi…
AMS 14 C Dating of Preclassic to Classic Period Household Construction in the Ancient Maya Community of Cahal Pech, Belize
Archaeologists have traditionally relied upon relative ceramic chronologies to understand the occupational histories of large and socially complex polities in the Maya lowlands. High-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating can provide independent chronological control for more discrete events that reflect cultural change through time. This article reports results of AMS 14 C dating of stratified sequences at the resident…
The Classic Period Maya transition from an ideal free to an ideal despotic settlement system at the polity of Uxbenká
Integrating U-Th, 14 C, and 210 Pb methods to produce a chronologically reliable isotope record for the Belize River Valley Maya from a low-uranium stalagmite
Social and environmental changes had great spatiotemporal variability in the Maya Lowlands during the Classic and Postclassic Periods, and stalagmites promise high-resolution paleoclimate data that can refine our understanding of this complex time. Unfortunately, stalagmites in this region are often difficult to date by U-Th methods because of low initial uranium concentrations. Other dating techniques can be used on such stalagmites, and we pres…
Modeling variability in Classic Maya intermediate elite political strategies through multivariate analysis of settlement patterns
Preclassic ceramic economy in Belize
The Role of Diet in Resilience and Vulnerability to Climate Change among Early Agricultural Communities in the Maya Lowlands
The Terminal Classic Period (AD 750-1000) collapse of lowland Maya social, economic, and political systems has been temporally correlated with severe and extended drought in regional paleoclimate records. Ancient Maya society also experienced a protracted multicentury drought earlier during the end of the Late Preclassic Period (AD 100-300). While some large Preclassic polities declined, many more flourished through the Early Classic. Why were th…
Thirty-Two Years of Integrating Archaeology and Heritage Management in Belize
Since its inception in 1988, the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project has had two major foci, that of cultural heritage management and archaeological research. While research has concentrated on excavation and survey, the heritage management focus of the project has included the preservation of ancient monuments, the integration of archaeology and tourism development, and cultural heritage education. In this paper, we provid…
Fade to Black
Applying Regional, Contextual, Ethnohistoric, and Ethnographic Approaches for Understanding the Significance of Peri-Abandonment Deposits in Western Belize
The discovery of cultural remains on or above the floors of rooms and courtyards at several Maya sites has been interpreted by some archaeologists as problematic deposits, squatter's refuse, as evidence for feasting, termination rituals,de factorefuse, or rapid abandonment as a result of warfare. Investigations by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project have recorded similar deposits at several surface and subterranean sites in We…
The Last Hurrah
Archaeological investigations by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project at Cahal Pech uncovered several Terminal Classic (a.d.750–900) peri-abandonment deposits and activity areas at this Belize River Valley center. The deposits contained a diverse assemblage of cultural remains located above and between collapsed architecture, associated with evidence for burning activities. In the past, archaeologists have generally interpreted…
MesoRAD
The Mesoamerican Radiocarbon Database (MesoRAD) compiles radiocarbon dates from the archaeological literature of Mesoamerica. The inaugural data set, ‘Lowland Maya Dates’, includes 1846 radiocarbon dates from 132 sites in 21 distinct environmental zones in the Maya lowlands. These data span the Paleoindian to Colonial Periods (11,670 to 190 uncal BP, 13,740 cal BP to modern) across southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. He…
Life and Death Among the Earliest Maya
This article presents a review of the earliest Maya skeletal remains thus far found, including a list of 398 burials dating to the Early (1800–900 b.c. ) and Middle Preclassic periods (900–300 b.c. ) and adjacent regions. These sites are spread throughout the Maya region and the data allow basic descriptive syntheses about early mortuary behavior and aspects of health and diet. Poor preservation and differences in scoring and reporting severely l…
Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Women and Early Career Archaeologists
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts in all segments of life worldwide. While a variety of surveys have assessed the impacts of the pandemic in other fields, few studies have focused on understanding the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic for archaeology. To assess these trends, we asked survey respondents (n = 570) if they experienced job loss and to rate the percentage of change in their economic situation, workload, tea…
End-to-end Bayesian analysis for summarizing sets of radiocarbon dates
Archaeologists and demographers increasingly employ aggregations of published radiocarbon (14C) dates as demographic proxies summarizing changes in human activity in past societies. Presently, summed probability densities (SPDs) of calibrated radiocarbon dates are the dominant method of using 14C dates to reconstruct demographic trends. Unfortunately, SPDs are incapable of converging on the distribution that generated a set of radiocarbon measure…
Comparing Preclassic Sequences at Cahal Pech, Belize
We thank our colleague for his comment, address concerns raised, and encourage future collaborative research to answer important questions about the Middle Preclassic at Cahal Pech
Lowland Maya Genesis
The transition from the Late Archaic to the Late Early Formative period witnessed profound changes in the Maya lowlands. In addition to the establishment of the first settlements and agrarian communities, this critical phase of cultural development heralded the introduction of ceramics, saw changes in lithic technology, gave rise to inter-regional trade and exchange, and witnessed the introduction of a complex symbolic system expressed on portabl…
Early Monumentality in the Belize River Valley
Recent investigations at Cahal Pech, Belize, documented a previously unrecognized Middle Preclassic (700-500 cal BC) E-Group complex. Located in an open public plaza, the monumental complex likely functioned as a forum for communal public events. In the Late Preclassic, the E-Group was replaced by an ancestor shrine where several royal tombs are located, as well as buildings separating public civic space from private elite space. These shifts in …
The Low-Density Urban Systems of the Classic Period Maya and Izapa
The peoples of southern Mesoamerica, including the Classic period Maya, are often claimed to exhibit a distinct type of spatial organization relative to contemporary urban systems. Here, we use the settlement scaling framework and properties of settlements recorded in systematic, full-coverage surveys to examine ways in which southern Mesoamerican settlement systems were both similar to and different from contemporary systems. We find that the po…
Volcanic Ash Tempered Pottery Production in the Late to Terminal Classic Belize Valley, Belize
Production and consumption of pottery tempered with fresh volcanic ash peaked in the Late to Terminal Classic periods in the Maya lowlands. Differences in the type of volcanic inclusion and vessel form indicate that the pottery was produced in multiple locations by different groups of potters. In this article, we characterize pottery from household contexts at Baking Pot, Belize, using thin-section petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA…
Shell Games
Recent excavations at the ancient Maya minor center of Tutu Uitz Na in the Belize River Valley revealed an especially large—about 20 million shells—Middle Preclassic (900–300 BC) shell deposit underlying the plaza. Although marine shell species make up a small percentage of the assemblage, most shells are Pachychilus spp., a common freshwater snail known in the southern Maya Lowlands as jute . This report describes the architectural context and a…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (31 obras) · Archaeology (30 obras) · Geography (26 obras) · Maya (18 obras) · History (12 obras) · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies (10 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (10 obras) · Political science (10 obras) · Geology (8 obras) · Sociology (8 obras)