The San Pablo Pantheon Mound: A Middle Preclassic Site in Morelos, Mexico

1970 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Grove
Keyword(s):  
Central Mexico ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Later Phase

AbstractIn 1967, a mound at San Pablo, Morelos, was partially excavated for salvage reasons. The mound had at one time contained an estimated 150-250 burials, all associated with ceramics identical to certain vessels found at Tlatilco. In addition to being one of the earliest known mounds in central Mexico, the site is believed to be a burial mound, rare at any time period in Mesoamerica. Analysis of the burial ceramics in comparison to assemblages from other Middle Preclassic sites suggests that Tlatilco and other sites of its type are not one-period sites, but exhibit at least two phases, the earlier phase related to highland Olmec, the later to a localization of styles. The San Pablo Pantheon mound appears to represent only the later phase.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kathryn Brown ◽  
George J. Bey
Keyword(s):  
Social Complexity ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Time Period ◽  
New Information ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
First Time

This introduction to the edited volume by Brown and Bey summarizes past research on the Preclassic Maya and discusses an explosion of new information from the last fifteen years pushing back the origins of social complexity into the Middle Preclassic. This chapter highlights the fact that this volume brings together important archaeology and research considering the Middle and Late Preclassic periods from both the southern and northern Maya lowlands for the first time. The Late Preclassic was long thought to be the time period by which archaeologists could explain the rise and nature of Classic Maya culture. However, as the fifteen chapters in this volume argue, any discussion of the development of social complexity must be focused on the Middle Preclassic (1000-300 B.C.).

Praying to the Predator

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-46
Author(s):  
Geoffrey McCafferty ◽  
Sharisse McCafferty
Keyword(s):  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Praying Mantis ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
Culture Area ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Los Grupos

Pacific Nicaragua has long been recognized as a cultural crossroads, with groups of historically documented migrants from central Mexico integrating with Chibchan groups affiliated with Central and South America. This multicultural setting has inspired decades of archaeological investigation, particularly in search of the southeastern frontier of the Mesoamerican culture area. Following ethnohistorical accounts, Nahuat-speaking groups migrated into and colonized the Rivas area in the late Postclassic / Ometepe period (c. 1300–1525 CE). The most prominent ceramic type used to identify this time period was Luna Polychrome, often found in mortuary contexts and therefore currently the best artifact class for inferring Nahua culture and ideology. This paper presents a detailed analysis of sixty Luna vessels. We suggest that the overarching theme of the painted designs relates to the praying mantis. This interpretation coincides with oral traditions identifying the mantis as the “Madre Culebra,” a powerful and revered predator of the insect world and closely affiliated with female symbolic authority. Iconography on some of the more elaborate pots parallels polychrome ceramic female figurines that have been interpreted as ritual practitioners, or shamans, and we suggest a possible correlation between painted designs with visions experienced during trances. Through this analysis we explore the role of ceramic iconography as an expression of ritual practice. Desde hace mucho tiempo, se reconoce el Pacífico nicaragüense como un cruce de caminos cultural, donde hay registros históricos de grupos de migrantes del centro de México que se unió a grupos Chibchan originarios de América Central y del Sur. Este entorno multicultural ha inspirado décadas de investigación arqueológica, que se ha interesado particularmente en definir la frontera sureste de la zona cultural mesoamericana. De acuerdo con relatos etnohistóricos, los grupos de habla nahua emigraron y colonizaron el área de Rivas en el período Posclásico Tardío, también llamado Ometepe (c. 1300–1525 CE). La principal cerámica que se ha usado para identificar esta era fue la del Polícromo Luna, que, ya que se encuentra a menudo en contextos mortuorios, constituye hoy día la mejor clase de artefacto para reconocer la cultura e ideología nahua. Este artículo presenta un análisis detallado de sesenta vasos Luna. Mantenemos que el tema general de los diseños pintados se relaciona con la mantis religiosa. Esta interpretación coincide con las tradiciones orales que identifican a la mantis como la “Madre Culebra”, un depredador poderoso y venerado del mundo de los insectos y estrechamente relacionado con la autoridad simbólica femenina. La iconografía en algunas de las macetas más elaboradas se asemeja a la de las estatuillas femeninas de cerámica policromada, en las que algunos han querido ver a practicantes de rituales o chamanes. Por nuestra parte, proponemos una posible correlación entre los diseños pintados y las visiones típicas de los trances. A través de este análisis, exploramos el papel de la iconografía cerámica como expresión de la práctica ritual. A Nicarágua do Pacífico é reconhecida há muito tempo como uma encruzilhada cultural, com um importante grupo sendo documentado historicamente como migrantes do centro do México, integrando-se a grupos de Chibchan afiliados à América Central e do Sul. Esse cenário multicultural inspirou décadas de investigação arqueológica, particularmente em busca da fronteira sudeste da área cultural mesoamericana. Segundo relatos etno-históricos, grupos falantes de Nahuat migraram para e colonizaram a região de Rivas no período pós-clássico tardio/Ometepe (c. 1300–1525 dC). A cerâmica mais proeminentemente utilizada para diagnosticar esse período de tempo foi o policromo Luna, frequentemente encontrado em contextos mortuários e, portanto, atualmente a melhor classe de artefato para inferir a cultura e a ideologia de Nahua. Este artigo apresenta uma análise detalhada de sessenta recipientes Luna. Sugerimos que o tema dominante dos desenhos pintados esteja relacionado ao louva-a-deus. Essa interpretação coincide com tradições orais que identificam o louva-a-deus como a “Madre Culebra”, uma predadora poderosa e reverenciada do mundo dos insetos e intimamente afiliada à autoridade simbólica feminina. A iconografia de alguns dos vasos mais elaborados é paralela às figuras femininas de cerâmica policromada que foram interpretadas como praticantes de rituais, ou xamãs, e sugerimos uma possível correlação entre desenhos pintados e visões experimentadas durante os transes. Através desta análise, exploramos o papel da iconografia cerâmica como expressão da prática ritual.

Chronology and Culture Change in the San Juan Islands, Washington

1960 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy L. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Culture Change ◽  
San Juan ◽  
Old World ◽  
Chipped Stone ◽  
San Juan Islands ◽  
Time Period ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Marpole Phase ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Stone Industry

AbstractThe archaeological sequence in the San Juan Islands is known best from two phases: the Marpole phase which occurs within the first millennium B.C., and the San Juan phase which lasts from at least A.D. 1300 to historic times. More difficult to place culturally and chronologically are: (1) the previously excavated bluff areas of Cattle Point which contain components similar to Whalen I and II and would thus occupy the time period between about 500 B.C. and A.D. 400; and (2) the Argyle Lagoon site which, though early, cannot be related definitely to other components because of insufficient excavation. Culture change is shown by increasing maritime adaptation through time and by the gradual replacement of the chipped stone industry by one using abrading and polishing techniques as the result of influence from the Old World.

The Ceramics of Cuello, Belize

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Kosakowsky ◽  
Duncan C. Pring
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Middle Preclassic

AbstractThe site of Cuello in northern Belize provides a long ceramic sequence from the early Middle Preclassic, ca. 1200 b.c., to the Late Preclassic, sometime in the fourth century a.d. Excavations begun at Cuello in 1975 were completed in 1993. The initial controversy concerning the chronological placement of the earliest pottery of the Swasey and Bladen complexes is challenged by examining the 1992 and 1993 excavated material in a “blind analysis,” without benefit of stratigraphic information. The results demonstrate conclusively the stratigraphie priority of Swasey ceramics below Bladen, which in turn lie below pottery of the Middle Preclassic Lopez-Mamom complex. Cuello operated within the homogeneous Mamom ceramic sphere during the Middle Preclassic and within the Chicanel ceramic sphere during the Late Preclassic. The ultimate breakup of the Chicanel sphere resulted in Cuello's adherence to the older ceramic traditions, while other Maya sites had begun the production of polychrome pottery. Cuello represents one of the best-known Middle Preclassic Maya sites yet investigated, and it provides an important perspective on this poorly understood time period in the Maya lowlands.

Iron Age Rock-Art: A View from Järrestad in South-East Sweden

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 685-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Skoglund
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Western European ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Different Characteristics ◽  
Later Phase

This paper discusses the chronology of the Järrestad rock-art site in south-east Sweden. Drawing on recent developments in ship chronology, it argues that images were produced from the very beginning of the Scandinavian Bronze Age, c. 1700 BC, to the earliest Iron Age, c. 200 BC. The images are not randomly spread, however, but cluster in two phases: c. 1700–1100 BC and c. 900–200 BC, each with its different characteristics. It is argued that the later phase should be viewed against the background of central and western European Hallstatt cultures which affected not only the iconography of the Järrestad panel but also the organization of the surrounding cultural landscape.

scholarly journals Sarmatian Burials of the Kovalevka Burial Mound: Strangers Among Friends?

2019 ◽  
pp. 35-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeriy Klepikov
Keyword(s):  
Final Stage ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
The North ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Cross Dating ◽  
New Tradition

Introduction. The Nomads of early Sarmatian time is a complex conglomerate of constantly growing groups of new population in the Volga-Don interfluve area. Determining their location is becoming a relevant problem in the current research. The early Sarmatian burials of the Kovalevka burial mound are significantly different from the synchronous array of similar monuments. It makes possible to clarify the historical situation in the final stage of the early Sarmatian culture in the studied region. Methods. The method of cross-dating and comparative-typological analysis of 12 burials of 8 barrows of the Kovalevka burial mound, located in the southern part of the Volga-Don interfluve area, allow clarifying the chronology of materials and identify the specifics of the funeral rite. Analysis. The ceramic complex as a part of the North Caucasian antiquities of the 3rd - 1st centuries BC, can be identified through the presence of iron stemmed arrowheads, common for the period 2nd - 1st centuries BC. The tradition of the ancestral mounds-cemeteries with multiple burials under one mound dominated during this time period. However, the analyzed complexes represented a new tradition of individual burial places, more common in the latter period. Besides, the horse bones, iron bits and a few iron spearheads were found in the burial mound. This is a rarity in the funeral rite of the early Sarmatian culture. All of these innovations are known in the controversial Sarmatian complexes of the turn of eras when the change from early Sarmatian culture to middle Sarmatian culture took place. Another common feature of all the burials under study is a ritual robbery of buried people. The burials were destroyed, mostly for the purpose of their desecration. The bones of the buried were found at the bottom of the grave, and the remaining parts of the skeleton were thrown out of the pit. Results. It can be assumed that at the end of the 1st century BC a group of well-armed nomads entered the territory uder study and was not accepted by the local population. The attempt to settle in the place led migrants to founding their own cemetery in the floodplain of the Esaulovsky Aksai river (local Sarmatians chose watersheds for this). However, this action caused discontent of natives, which led to the desecration of strangers’ graves by the local population.

An 18th-century road in Glen Arklet

2012 ◽  
Vol 34-35 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-97
Author(s):  
Jürgen Van Wessel
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Road Building ◽  
The Road ◽  
Forestry Commission ◽  
Topographic Survey ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
The Military ◽  
Later Phase

This paper reports on a recent programme of archaeological works on an 18th century road in Glen Arklet, Buchanan Parish, Stirling. The work was undertaken by Headland Archaeology in 2010–11 on behalf of Forestry Commission Scotland. A detailed topographic survey and four test trenches revealed at least two phases of construction, and signs of ongoing maintenance. In combination with the results of earlier fieldwork and a fresh review of literary evidence, it is argued that at least the later phase was likely to have been built by the military in the first half of the 18th century to improve communications to the Garrison of Inversnaid. However, the road was neither designed nor constructed as part of the Wade/Caulfield network, and demonstrates that smaller scale road building was undertaken by the military during the first half of the 18th century.

Evidence for widespread oil migration in the 1.88 Ga Gunflint Formation, Ontario, Canada

Geology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 899-903
Author(s):  
Birger Rasmussen ◽  
Janet R. Muhling
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Iron Formation ◽  
Precambrian Rock ◽  
Oil Migration ◽  
The Core ◽  
Fold And Thrust Belt ◽  
Rock Record ◽  
Petroleum Generation ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Later Phase

Abstract The abundance of Precambrian organic-rich shales, heated beyond the oil and gas window, requires that enormous volumes of hydrocarbons were generated and transported through the ancient crust. However, the former passage of fluid hydrocarbons rarely leaves a trace, so evidence for this process in the early Precambrian rock record is sparse. Here, we report the widespread presence of solidified oil (pyrobitumen) in the iron formation of the 1.88 Ga Gunflint Formation, Ontario, Canada. Petrographic textures indicate at least two phases of oil migration, an early phase marked by pyrobitumen in granules and intergranular pores, synchronous with synsedimentary silica cementation, and a later phase restricted to crosscutting fractures. The paragenetic relationships between the pyrobitumen and iron oxides indicate that oil migration commenced before hematite and some magnetite growth. Our evidence for early oil migration can be explained by petroleum generation during the 1.86–1.80 Ga Penokean orogeny, expelling hydrocarbons generated in the core of the fold-and-thrust belt outwards and updip through the sediments of the Gunflint Formation.

Lineations, schistosite et phases de plissement durant l'orogenese hercynienne dans les terrains anciens des Pyrenees orientales, leurs relations avec le metamorphisme et la granitisation [with discussion]

1960 ◽  
Vol S7-II (7) ◽  
pp. 862-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Guitard
Keyword(s):  
Late Paleozoic ◽  
Eastern Pyrenees ◽  
Structural Details ◽  
Hercynian Orogeny ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Augen Gneiss ◽  
Later Phase

Abstract Study of structural details in the metamorphic formations of the eastern Pyrenees shows that there were two phases of movement in the Hercynian orogeny (late Paleozoic). Movements of the earlier phase produced folds and lineations trending northeast-southwest, occasionally north-south, and coincided for the most part with general metamorphism and formation of the extensive augen gneiss or leptynitic massifs of the range. Recrystallization antedated the movements to some extent, however. The later phase caused microfolding of the schistosity in certain zones of movement and, in the Canigou massif, initiated migmatization and granitization that continued after movement ceased. In the Agly massif the structures were developed mainly in the last stage.

The Legacy of Preclassic Calendars and Solar Observation in Mesoamerica’s Magic Latitude

Maya E Groups ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Milbrath
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cycle ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Solar Observation ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
Middle Preclassic

This chapter explores the changing nature of calendar records in Mesoamerica, with a focus on the solar cycle. Maya E Groups exhibit solstice alignments during the Middle (1000-350 BCE) and Late Preclassic (350 BCE-0-CE), when calendar records were first being developed. Solar alignments also measured a 260/105-day subdivision of the year coordinating with the agrarian year and yearbearer calendar records show similar subdivision in texts from Middle Preclassic Oaxaca and some Late Preclassic long count texts from Veracruz. Although yearbearers also appear during the Late Preclassic in the Maya area, they are not incorporated in Maya long count records. By the time E Groups were fully evolved in Guatemala, Late Preclassic long count calendar inscriptions incorporate the 360-day tun and Tzolkin. In the Early Classic (250-600 CE), solstice orientations became less common and the calendar was increasingly complex with a fully developed baktun cycle and the lunar series. By the Late Classic (600-900 CE), texts increasingly emphasized period endings and katun rituals. In the Terminal Classic (900-950 CE), Tun-Ahau dating began to replace the long count, and the increasing importance of solstice orientations in the Postclassic (950-1200 CE) coincides with additional changes in the Maya calendar, most probably resulting from direct contact with Central Mexico.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document