THE ORIGINS AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE EARLY MAYA FROM COLHA AND NORTHERN BELIZE

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 502-518
Author(s):  
Fred Valdez ◽  
Lauren A. Sullivan ◽  
Palma J. Buttles ◽  
Luisa Aebersold
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
The Common ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Cultural Developments

AbstractInvestigations concerning the earliest Maya have been of archaeological interest for many decades. Northern Belize serves as a valuable region for researching and understanding early Maya developments. In particular, the ancient Maya site of Colha in northern Belize is a focal point of some early developments beginning in the Archaic period. Select resources in the region, especially in the chert-bearing zone, clearly had been of great interest and attraction to populations extending back into Paleoindian and Archaic times, as well as the Maya period for Colha and other sites near the resource zone. With the appearance of pottery-producing settled villages is the common assertion that Maya societies are in place around 1000 b.c. Recent studies have identified much earlier occupants in the region with significant cultural developments, including semi-permanent occupation and horticulture occurring in the Late Archaic at approximately 3400 b.c. It seems plausible, perhaps likely by our assessment, that these Late Archaic people (or aceramic populations) may have been the earliest Maya communities. Factors of defining communities, aspects of horticulture, and the transition from the Archaic into the Preclassic are reviewed in consideration of—just who were the earliest Maya?

Survey, Settlement, and Population History at the Ancient Maya Site of Pacbitun, Belize

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F. Healy ◽  
Christophe G. B. Helmke ◽  
Jaime J. Awe ◽  
Kay S. Sunahara
Keyword(s):  
Population History ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Site

Stature at Tikal, Guatemala: Implications for Ancient Maya Demography and Social Organization

1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Haviland
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Class Division ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
Simple Class ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Maya Site

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of stature of the prehistoric population from the Maya site of Tikal, Guatemala. From this analysis, based on 55 skeletons from the Tikal burial series, three important conclusions emerge with respect to ancient Maya demography and social organization. (1) Tikal was settled by people of moderate stature, and this remained relatively stable over several centuries. A marked reduction in male stature in Late Classic times may be indicative of a situation of nutritional stress, which may have had something to do with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. (2) Stature differences between those buried in tombs and others at Tikal suggest that, in the last century B.C., a distinct ruling class developed at Tikal. This simple class division of rulers and commoners may have become more complex in Late Classic times. (3) There was a marked sexual dimorphism in stature between males and females at Tikal. This is probably partially genetic and partially a reflection of relatively lower status for women as opposed to men in Maya society.

A Multi-proxy assessment of the impact of climate change on Late Holocene (ca 4500-3800 BP) Native American villages of the Georgia coast

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carey James Garland ◽  
Victor D Thompson ◽  
Matthew C Sanger ◽  
Karen Y Smith ◽  
Fred T Andrus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Shell Ring ◽  
Shell Rings ◽  
Georgia Coast ◽  
The Impact

Circular shell rings along the Atlantic Coast of southeastern North America are the remnants of some of the earliest villages that emerged during the Late Archaic Period (5000 – 3000 BP). Many of these villages, however, were abandoned during the Terminal Late Archaic Period (ca 3800 – 3000 BP). Here, we combine Bayesian chronological modeling with multiple environmental proxies to understand the nature and timing of environmental change associated with the emergence and abandonment of shell ring villages on Sapleo Island, Georgia. Our Bayesian models indicate that Native Americans occupied the three Sapelo shell rings at varying times with some generational overlap. By the end of the complex’s occupation, only Ring III was occupied before abandonment ca. 3845 BP. Ring III also consists of statistically smaller oysters ( Crassostrea virginica ) that people harvested from less saline estuaries compared to earlier occupations. These data, when integrated with recent tree ring analyses, show a clear pattern of environmental instability throughout the period in which the rings were occupied. We argue that as the climate became unstable around 4300 BP, aggregation at shell ring villages provided a way to effectively manage fisheries that are highly sensitive to environmental change. However, with the eventual collapse of oyster fisheries and subsequent rebound in environmental conditions ca. 3800 BP, people dispersed from shell rings, and shifted to non-marine subsistence economies and other types of settlements. This study provides the most comprehensive evidence correlations between large-scale environmental change and societal transformations on the Georgia coast during the Late Archaic period.

Ritual among the Masses: Deconstructing Identity and Class in an Ancient Maya Neighborhood

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Blackmore
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Class System ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Tacit Assumptions ◽  
Group Part

AbstractEquating a single cultural group to a classificatory scheme has implications for not only how archaeologists develop the concept of cultural identity but how we investigate and theorize about internal social dynamics within that same society. For the ancient Maya, social organization remains largely understood as a two-class system—that of commoner and elite. While these categories reflect the extreme ends of known social strata, they inadequately characterize the reality of day-to-day interactions. This has led to tacit assumptions that commoners did not participate in or comprehend the political and social complexity of the world around them. This paper examines how occupants of a Late Classic Maya neighborhood employed ritual and public practices as a means of social differentiation. Excavations at the Northeast Group, part of the ancient Maya site of Chan, Belize, identified considerable diversity between households, suggesting that occupants shaped status and identity through the control and centralization of ritual. Understanding how people distinguished themselves within the context of a neighborhood provides direct evidence of class complexity, challenging traditional models of commoner behavior and more importantly the role they played in ancient Maya society as a whole.

scholarly journals Otkrivanje homerovskog koda / Discovering the Homeric code

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-82
Author(s):  
Salmedin Mesihović
Keyword(s):  
Archaic Period ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Trojan War ◽  
Alter Ego ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Made In

From the late Archaic period of Hellenic history to modern times, a large number of papers, studies, and books dealing with the Iliad and the Odyssey have been published. One reason for this is that Homer’s epics offer so many opportunities for exploration. This was also the motivation for writing this paper which deals with the question of the appearance of Thersites in the Iliad. Thersites appears in only one episode, with unusual speech and behavior in relation to what other characters in the epic say and do. This conspicuous and unique appearance of his must have been the result of a certain hidden desire of the author of the Iliad himself. It is possible that in fact Thersites in this case served as a kind of alter ego of the author who sought to conceal, within the aristocratic and elitist milieu for which the epic itself was made, in a very skillful way his real opinion of the Trojan War and the aristocracy. Thersites and his rage could also represent a kind of hidden Homeric code, of which there may be several more in the Iliad.

scholarly journals The Birth of the Soviet School of European Integration Studies. Part 2

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-53
Author(s):  
Yuri Borko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Custom Union ◽  
Soviet Leadership ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Common ◽  
Integration Problems

The first part of the article shows that in the mid-1960s some Soviet researchers of the European integration problems concluded that integration did not correspond to the Leninist-Stalinist theory of the general crisis of capitalism. On the contrary, it corresponded to some Western concepts of the custom union, the common market, and economic integration. A new approach to the European integration studies was offered by the Institute of World Economy and International Relation (IMEMO), established in 1956. For many decades IMEMO was serving as the focal point for the European integration studies, and was providing the Soviet leadership with analytical information. The number of inquiries from authorities increased significantly. Firstly, it can be explained by the achievements of integration. Secondly, it was due to the growth of economic cooperation between the USSR and the EEC. Thirdly, Moscow defined new foreign policy priorities towards Western countries including Europe. There were two turning-points of bilateral relations: with France – in 1966, and with Germany – in 1969. The Organization for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was established during final session of the top-level Conference of European States in Helsinki in August 1975. Fourthly, experience of the EEC was relevant for the COMECON

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