A royal Maya country house: Archaeology at Bejucal,Guatemala

This article presents three years of archaeological investigations at the minor Maya center of Bejucal, Guatemala. A complete site history is presented relying on data from artifact analysis, architectural study, epigraphy, and bioarchaeology, with a goal towards identifying the site's function within the broader El Zotz polity. The authors argue that Bejucal underwent significant transformation following its establishment as a sacred hilltop site during the Late Preclassic period (400 b.c.–a.d. 250). The El Zotz royal family gradually appropriated the space, converting it into a royal country house and elite burial place. Bejucal's proximity to a large permanent water source suggests that the country house was situated within favorable hunting grounds. The research contributes to a broader discussion about the role of minor centers in regional settlement patterns, highlighting the benefit of textual data in making interpretations. The article also highlights the important role of salvage work in lowland Maya archaeology.     

Nahua Patterns of Colonization in Maya Towns of Guatemala, 1524 to 1582: The Indigenous Records

This article seeks to further contribute to our understanding of the outcomes of earlier Nahua-Spanish alliances after Guatemala was pacified. The richly documented struggles of the Maya-Pok'omam communities around Lake Amatitlan in Guatemala between 1524 and 1580 reveal - in microcosm - the larger processes some of them stretching back into the pre-contact period that Mesoamerican scholars call ‘conquest-after-conquest.’ As this essay highlights, fifteen years after the initial phase of the Spanish conquest of Guatemala had ended, Nahua conquistadors from Central Mexico initiated their own colonization of Maya-Pok'omam towns, mobilizing both Nahua and Kaqchikel migrant groups to settle there. Within these Maya towns, the Nahua conquistadors impinged upon Maya economic assets, sharing them with their Dominican allies while maintaining political and social control over their local Maya subjects. Nahua economic and political encroachment of Maya assets finally brought about distinct and recognizable currents of Maya dissent against their foreign overlords, in parallel to the revival of local historical legacies of self-rule.     

Classic Lowland Maya Political Organization: A Review

This paper reviews recent archaeological research concerning Classic Maya lowland political systems (ca. A.D. 250–1000). It focuses specifically on (1) subsistence practices revealed through the analysis of prehistoric climate, available resources, agricultural technologies, and diet; (2) population distribution, density, and size revealed through the analysis of settlement practices and architectural function; (3) social differentiation and interaction revealed through the analysis of burial practices, diet and health, architecture, and production, consumption, and exchange patterns; and (4) ancient Maya political economy (how it was funded) revealed through the analysis of community organization, ritual activities, the Classic Maya collapse, and warfare. It finally ends with a brief discussion of the future of Maya archaeology. A key factor that recurs throughout this review is the noticeable amount of variability that existed—varied resources, subsistence strategies, settlement practices, and social and political systems. An understanding of this variability is the key to appreciate fully the Classic Maya.     

New Directions in Classic Maya Household Archaeology

Over the past two decades, household studies have coalesced into a recognized subfield within archaeology. Despite this relatively short history, household archaeologists are now taking a leading role in epistemological shifts that are placing people and their practices and differences at the center of archaeological interpretations of the past, rather than subsuming these into the noise of passive and depersonalized depictions of ancient social systems. As Maya archaeologists have played a critical role in the development of household archaeology, examining recent trends in Maya household research provides a perspective on the directions of both Maya studies and household archaeology more generally. This article explores three interrelated trends: (1) understanding ordinary people; (2) understanding social diversity among households; (3) understanding households in articulation with the broder social universe. Through a discussion of these three trends, this review uses Classic Maya household archaeology as a case study to illustrate how household research has led to the development of theoretically rich and empirically substantive understandings of an ancient society, which repeople the past and foreground the active roles of and structural constraints on ancient people.     

The Maya “Protoclassic” from the Perspective of Recent Research at Nakum,Peten, Guatemala

Recently, the Maya site of Nakum has been the subject of intensive research by the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. This work has significantly enriched our knowledge of the ancient Maya of northeastern Guatemala, especially during the so-called Terminal Preclassic or Protoclassic period (ca. 100 b.c.–a.d. 300), when many Maya centers suffered decline. The Protoclassic covers the transitional moment between two important periods of Maya chronology, the Preclassic and Classic, but so far, the typical ceramic components of this phase have been found in only a handful of Maya sites. Our research indicates that Nakum underwent important building programs and stable cultural growth during the discussed period. Here we discuss evidence of architectural and cultural activity at Nakum during the Terminal Preclassic within a wider geographic context. Our research highlights the role that Nakum played within Maya geopolitics in northeastern Guatemala and also contributes to the understanding of socio-cultural processes that the Maya civilization was undergoing during the as-yet poorly understood Protoclassic period.     

Historical Archaeology of Indigenous Culture Change in Mesoamerica

This essay outlines recent archaeological research on post-Columbian (c. A.D. 1500–1925) indigenous sites in Mexico and Central America. Historical archaeology is a growing field in Mesoamerica, and over the last 20 years investigations of native culture change have increased, especially in rural areas. Contemporary research contributes new insights on indigenous responses to Spanish colonization over a long period. This work also is reassessing chronologies and examining the diversity of indigenous behavior from late preconquest to historic times. Indigenous adaptations to culture contact and social change are characterized by three general stages: conquest, colonization, and independence. Although I do draw on other regions, the focus of the article is the Maya area and Central America, where more investigations have taken place.     

The fractal geometry of ancient Maya settlement

Ancient Maya settlement patterns exhibit fractal geometry both within communities and across regions. Fractals are self-similar sets of fractional dimension. In this paper, we show how Maya settlement patterns are logically and statistically self-similar. We demonstrate how to measure the fractal dimensions (or Hausdorff–Besicovitch dimensions) of several data sets. We describe nonlinear dynamical processes, such as chaotic and self-organized critical systems, that generate fractal patterns. As an illustration, we show that the fractal dimensions calculated for some Maya settlement patterns are similar to those produced by warfare, supporting recent claims that warfare is a significant factor in Maya settlement patterning.     

Building a high-resolution chronology at the Maya archaeological site of El Palmar,Mexico

This paper discusses how detailed analyses of archaeological contexts and macrobotanical remains are critical for building a high-resolution chronology in archaeological research. While the application of Bayesian modelling has improved chronology-building significantly, archaeologists have sometimes neglected different dates recovered from the same depositional layer without further scrutiny. Based on 78 radiocarbon samples, this problem is challenged by building a high-resolution chronology of the Guzmán Group, a small plaza compound of the ancient Maya city of El Palmar, Mexico. The results permit a deeper understanding of relationships between dynastic interactions and the emergence of non-royal elites in Classic Maya society.     

ROBERT PARSONS' CLIMATE OF RESISTANCE AND THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

Abstract

This synoptic essay explores trends in historical research and literary criticism on the theme of toleration. It surveys the current state of this lively field of enquiry and demonstrates how far the subject remains coloured by assumptions and narratives of change forged in the early modern era itself. It explores how tolerance and intolerance have been approached by intellectual and social historians and the implications of the recent growth of interest in religious tolerance and intolerance in the post-Reformation period among scholars of early modern literature. It highlights the conceptual problems and interpretative challenges that surround the subject and points towards the need for heightened sensitivity to the role and agency of language and texts, rhetorics and representations, in our analysis of the cultures of coexistence that emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.     

The Second Conquest: Religious Conversion and the Erosion of the Cultural Ecological Core among the Mopan Maya

This paper discusses how Protestant missionaries have affected the core cultural ecological activities among the Mopan Maya, specifically focusing on the maintenance of maize diversity and stingless beekeeping. Although seemingly unrelated to activities such as maize farming and beekeeping, foreign Protestant missionaries disrupt the traditional relationship with and perception of the natural world held by the Mopan Maya. Core cultural ecological activities have declined in importance and frequency as the spiritual landscape changes. This paper will demonstrate that in the traditional Mopan Maya world, religion, environment, and land use activities are often interwoven. When change occurs in one area, the ramifications of this change are often seen in other areas of the Mopan Maya cultural ecological landscape. The Mopan interweave objects in the natural world with those in the spiritual world.     

The Archaeological Study of Spanish Colonialism in the Americas

Spanish colonial archaeology has undergone a fundamental shift since the Columbian Quincentenary due to the adoption of a bottom-up understanding of colonialism that emphasizes the analysis of local phenomena in a global context and the active ways in which people negotiated the processes set in motion by the conquest. This review examines five key research foci: culture change and identity, missionization, bioarchaeology, economics, and investigations of the colonial core. It ends with a consideration of ongoing challenges posed by the archaeology of colonialism, particularly the relationship of the individual to broader social processes and the emerging role of comparison.     

Site and Community at Chunchucmil and Ancient Maya Urban Centers

Abstract

Classic Period lowland Maya urban centers often lack sharp boundaries due to progressive dispersal of residential settlement. This dispersal gives rise to questions about the concept of site and the notion of community affiliation. Research on settlement patterns at Chunchucmil, an urban center in NW Yucatan, Mexico, dating to the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., explores the issue of site boundaries and the social and economic implications of such boundaries. Detailed mapping, test pitting, and reconnaissance reveal that Chunchucmil had three densely occupied, concentric, contemporaneous zones of settlement covering between 20 and 25 sq km and inhabited by a population of up to 42,500. Data from both within and beyond the density thresholds marking the edge of the city imply the existence of communities whose boundaries do not always follow those of the site. A portion of the hinterland settlement close to the edge of the city shows stronger economic and social connections with the city, for example. These connections enable the delineation of Greater Chunchucmil, extending 5 km from Chunchucmil's center. The work at Chunchucmil also allows comparison with other large Maya cities that have been systematically documented. This comparison highlights considerable variability in Maya urban forms and in how these cities relate to their peripheries.     

Recent Progress in Bioarchaeology: Approaches to the Osteological Paradox

The publication of The Osteological Paradox (Wood et al., 1992, Current Anthropology, 33:343–370) a decade ago sparked debate about the methods and conclusions drawn from bioarchaeological research. Wood et al. (1992, Current Anthropology, 33:343–370) highlighted the problematic issues of selective mortality and hidden heterogeneity in frailty (susceptibility to illness), and argued that the interpretation of population health status from skeletal remains is not straightforward. Progress in bioarchaeology over the last few years has led to the development of tools that will help us grapple with the issues of this osteological paradox. This paper provides a review of recent literature on age and sex estimation, paleodemography, biodistance, growth disruption, paleopathology, and paleodiet. We consider how these advances may help us address the implications of hidden heterogeneity in frailty and selective mortality for studies of health and adaptation in past societies.     

Recent trends in the archaeology of the southeastern United States

The archaeological literature pertaining to the southeastern United States is examined for the 5-year period between 1988 and 1992 inclusive. Research traditions identified in an earlier article by Patty Jo Watson (Southeastern Archaeology 9: 43–54, 1990) as characteristic of the Southeast in the previous half-century are considered in light of recent contributions. Topics examined include Mesoamerican connections, trade, pottery typology, historical archaeology, subsistence studies, bioarchaeology, and lithic artifact research.     

Culture and Politics,Behavior and Biology: Seeking Synthesis among Fragmentary Anthropological Perspectives on Hunter-Gatherers

Hunter-gatherers define humanity's Pleistocene evolutionary past. Yet, hunter-gatherer societies in the 20th–21st centuries are examples par excellence of cultural marginalization, domination, and resilience. This review of six recent works on hunter-gatherers—spanning Paleolithic archaeology, bioarchaeology, behavioral ecology, and cultural anthropology—underscores that human forager diversity can be explained neither by culturally embedded political processes nor by ecologically situated evolutionary factors alone. Yet, theoretical bridging frameworks remain elusive, with a narrowing but persistent culture-biology divide. Recent developments in evolutionary life-history theory provide a robust biocultural foundation for understanding human sociality and the symbolic constitution of embodied cultural practice.     

The Elusive Maya Marketplace: An Archaeological Consideration of the Evidence

The modeling of ancient Maya economies has been a dynamic area of archaeological research in the past few decades, but in most cases there has been little attention on how goods actually changed hands. Through an overview of the literature, this paper considers marketplace exchange as one mechanism of distribution. Researchers have proposed a number of physical features and artifact characteristics that may be expected in association with marketplace activity, and new methods of data collection have been offered that can be used to build a case for marketplace exchange. What remains is the challenge of developing strategies to identify ancient Maya marketplaces convincingly through archaeological excavation.     

Caracol,Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Archaeological research at Caracol, an ancient Maya site that was rediscovered in 1937, has become a major resource in the interpretation and understanding of the ancient Maya. Caracol, in west-central Belize, is situated in a subtropical region once characterized as being unsuitable for the development or maintenance of complex societies, yet it is one of the largest, if not the largest Classic period Maya site in the southern Maya Lowlands, home to over 100,000 people at its height between AD 600 and 700. The investigations at Caracol underscore the utility of long-term archaeological projects incorporating large-scale settlement study that combine excavation with varied research designs and the use of a contextual approach. By employing Maya epigraphic history, traditional archaeology, and modern technology like LiDAR, research at Caracol details the rise, maintenance, and fall of an ancient Maya city, affording a large window into ancient Maya lifeways. Archaeological work provides evidence of sustainable agriculture, a market economy, city planning that included a road system, the impact of warfare on the site’s inhabitants, the sociopolitical status of women, the role that archaeology can play in refining written history, and the significance of commemorating the cyclical passage of time to the ancient Maya. This article summarizes archaeological research efforts at the site by the Caracol Archaeological Project over the last three decades.     

New Directions in Bioarchaeology: Recent Contributions to the Study of Human Social Identities

As a discipline that bridges the biological and social sciences, bioarchaeology has much to contribute to a contextualized and theoretically sophisticated understanding of social identities. Here, we discuss the growing methodological sophistication of bioarchaeology and highlight new developments in osteological age and sex estimation, paleodemography, biodistance analysis, biogeochemistry, and taphonomy, particularly anthropologie de terrain. We then discuss how these methodological developments, when united with social theory, can elucidate social identities. More specifically, we highlight past and future bioarchaeological work on disability and impairment, gender identity, identities of age and the life course, social identity and body modification, embodiment, and ethnic and community identities.     

Bioarchaeology and Kinship: Integrating Theory,Social Relatedness,and Biology in Ancient Family Research

Theoretical developments in sociocultural anthropology have transformed the study of kinship. Here, we review these theoretical developments, consider their influence on bioarchaeological kinship research, and propose an alternative framework for studying relatedness in antiquity. We find that broader, more flexible conceptions of relatedness have grown increasingly prevalent in 21st-century bioarchaeology, but kinship research largely continues to emphasize methodological improvement and identification of biological kin in archaeological contexts. By approaching kinship as a multiscalar dimension of social identity, bioarchaeologists can leverage complex conceptions of relatedness with diverse types of data to gain nuanced perspectives on family-based social organization in the past.