Myth and History Reconsidered: Archaeological Implications of Tzotzil-Maya Mythology

1988 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Levi
Keyword(s):  
Data Sets ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Tzotzil Maya

This paper traces changing perspectives in archaeology and ethnology regarding the historical content of myth and demonstrates a method whereby mythological data are used to generate hypotheses amenable to falsification when integrated with other data sets. Based on a myth collected among the Tzotzil of San Pablo Chalchihuitan, Chiapas, Mexico, the presentation offers predictions regarding the location, contents, interpretation, and age of an unreported prehistoric burial site. It also sheds light on some currently unexplained aspects of an associated site in a neighboring community, and amplifies other ethnohistorical discussions relating archaeology to contemporary Indian mythology elsewhere in Mesoamerica. By showing how a modern Maya myth reveals significant information about an ancient Maya site, the study illustrates the complementarity of archaeology and ethnography through a suggested relation between myth and history.

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.

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 Flexible approach for quantifying average long-term changes and seasonal cycles of tropospheric trace species

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Parrish ◽  
Richard G. Derwent ◽  
Simon O'Doherty ◽  
Peter G. Simmonds
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Seasonal Cycle ◽  
Linear Trend ◽  
Power Series Expansion ◽  
Mathematical Representation ◽  
Seasonal Cycles ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Long Term Changes

Abstract. We present an approach to derive a systematic mathematical representation of the statistically significant features of the average long-term changes and seasonal cycle of concentrations of trace tropospheric species. The results for two illustrative data sets (time series of baseline concentrations of ozone and N2O at Mace Head, Ireland) indicate that a limited set of seven or eight parameter values provides this mathematical representation for both example species. This method utilizes a power series expansion to extract more information regarding the long-term changes than can be provided by oft-employed linear trend analyses. In contrast, the quantification of average seasonal cycles utilizes a Fourier series analysis that provides less detailed seasonal cycles than are sometimes represented as twelve monthly means; including that many parameters in the seasonal cycle representation is not usually statistically justified, and thereby adds unnecessary noise to the representation and prevents a clear analysis of the statistical uncertainty of the results. The approach presented here is intended to maximize the statistically significant information extracted from analyses of time series of concentrations of tropospheric species regarding their mean long-term changes and seasonal cycles, including non-linear aspects of the long-term trends. Additional implications, advantages and limitations of this approach are discussed.

scholarly journals Digital rights persons carrying out a preliminary investigation

2021 ◽  
pp. 108-115
Author(s):  
A. N. Pershin
Keyword(s):  
Private Information ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Criminal Procedure ◽  
Criminal Case ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Digital Rights ◽  
Criminal Procedure Law

The emergence of the Internet and intangible digital objects of value to humans led to the proclamation of the concept of “digital human rights” in civil substantive law. In criminal procedure law this term is not absent. In this case, the investigator collects information about the circumstances to be proved in a criminal case under the conditions of digitalization of all human life processes. The Internet network has combined a large number of data sets of government agencies, commercial organizations, and individuals. The investigator’s access to these data sets and their study would allow optimizing the investigator’s activities by quickly collecting the necessary information for the criminal case and using it as evidence. To this end, the article gives the concept of” digital rights “ of an investigator, suggests an approach to creating such rights in criminal procedure legislation, and defines the problems of organizing the collection of criminally significant information from public and private information systems on the Internet. 

scholarly journals The magnetic survey of the early Scythian burial site and settlements in the Turan-Uyuk valley in Tuva

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 343-368
Author(s):  
Łukasz Oleszczak ◽  
Marcin M. Przybyła ◽  
Igor Pieńkos ◽  
Konstantin V. Chugunov ◽  
Nina A. Zhogova
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
The Other ◽  
Magnetic Survey ◽  
Archaeological Excavation ◽  
Burial Site ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Rule Out

In 2019, Polish archaeologists took part in an expedition of the Hermitage Museum, led by K.V. Chugunov, in Chinge-Tey cemetery, Tuva (Russian Federation). This paper presents the results of magnetic surveys carried out within the so-called western chain of barrows and around the princely barrow of Chinge-Tey I. This method of non-invasive research is very well suited to the landscape and has produced a significant body of information. Among others, the survey of the western chain identified a stone mantle in barrow 8, which makes it different from other barrows from this group, whose mounds were built of earth. Another important result is the identification of a stone circle surrounding a cult feature (certainly associated with eschatological rituals) known as the northern complex. The presence of the circle came as a surprise for the investigators of the site, as it does not manifest itself at all on the surface of the site. On the other hand, worth noting is one negative result, which nevertheless allows for some conclusions, namely the lack of detectable anomalies connected with one of the tombs in the vicinity of Chinge-Tey I (barrow 15). Despite being clearly discernible in the landscape, and even more evident in LIDAR images, the barrow is invisible on images produced with a magnetometer. This means that one cannot rule out a possibility that other structures undetectable by magnetic surveys may be present within the investigated part of the cemetery. Nevertheless, one cannot but arrive at the conclusion that the results generated by the magnetic research provide significant information concerning the spatial arrangement of the cemetery and are helpful in planning of archaeological excavation.

Convolution filtering at ends of data sets

1971 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.D. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Convolution Operator ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Filter Length ◽  
Loss Of Information ◽  
Alternative Method ◽  
Convolution Filters

Convolution filters are normally applied to data sets in one of two modes. The first is to terminate the operation, at a distance equal to half the filter length from the ends of the data. This results in loss of information. The second is to run the filter off the end of the data set, by adding sufficient zeros to the ends of the data. The effects of this second method are shown to be serious, in cases where there is significant information in the ends of the data set. An alternative method is proposed in which the convolution operator is modified when operating on the end portion of the data.

RITUAL EMULATION OF ANCIENT MAYA ELITE MORTUARY TRADITIONS DURING THE CLASSIC PERIOD (AD 250–900) AT CAHAL PECH, BELIZE

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna C. Novotny ◽  
Jaime J. Awe ◽  
Catharina E. Santasilia ◽  
Kelly J. Knudson
Keyword(s):  
River Valley ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
Belize River Valley ◽  
Radiocarbon Data ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Valley Area

In this study, we employ multiple lines of evidence to elucidate the use of mortuary ritual by the ruling elite at the ancient Maya site of Cahal Pech, Belize, during the Early Classic and early Late Classic periods (AD 250–630). The interments of multiple individuals in Burial 7 of Structure B1, the central structure of an Eastern Triadic Assemblage or “E-group” style architectural complex, were in a manner not consistent with the greater Belize River Valley, the only multiple individual human burial yet encountered at Cahal Pech. The sequential interments contained a suggestive quantity of high-quality artifacts, further setting them apart from their contemporaries. Among these artifacts were a set of bone rings and a hairpin inscribed with hieroglyphs, some of the few inscriptions ever found at Cahal Pech. We analyzed regional mortuary patterns, radiogenic strontium values, and radiocarbon data to test hypotheses about who these individuals were in life, why they were treated differently in death, and to reconstruct the sequence of events of this complex mortuary deposit. We contend that the mortuary practices in Burial 7 indicate an attempt by the Cahal Pech elite to identify with cities or regions outside the Belize River Valley area.

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