House size provides a comparative measure of household wealth that enables archaeologists to trac... more House size provides a comparative measure of household wealth that enables archaeologists to track global trends in inequality across a range of sedentary societies. Such approaches hold particular promise for Maya archaeology given its long history of settlement pattern research and recent applications of LiDAR to map large areas surrounding ancient Maya cities. Estimating dwelling size, however, is not a trivial exercise. This article addresses potential confounds associated with geometric-based estimates (volume and area) and compares traditional house size-based measures of wealth with other estimates of house size and quality of life indicators. Settlement pattern data from the Upper Usumacinta Confluence Zone, recently collected by the Proyecto Arqueológico Altar de Sacrificios, combined with previously published excavation data provide a robust dataset to evaluate alternative measures of wealth beyond house size. Resumen El tamaño del hogar proporciona una medida de riqueza conveniente y comparativa de su riqueza que permite que los arqueólogos sigan tendencias en desigualdad a través de un rango de sociedades sedentarias. Tales enfoques son particularmente prometedores para la arqueología maya dada su larga historia de investigaciones en los patrones de asentamiento y recientes estudios de LiDAR para mapear grandes áreas alrededor de ciudades antiguas. Estimar el tamaño del hogar, sin embargo, no es trabajo sencillo. Este artículo discute sobre posibles variables de confusión asociadas a estimaciones de riqueza, basándonos en medidas geométricas (volumen y área) y compara medidas tradicionales de riqueza (con base en la geometría) con otras estimaciones del tamaño de casa e indicadores de la cualidad de la vida. Datos del patrón de asentamientos de la Zona de Confluencias del Usumacinta Superior recientemente recolectadas por el Proyecto Arqueológico Altar de Sacrificios, combinados con datos previamente excavados, proporcionan un conjunto robusto de datos para evaluar medidas alternas de riqueza más allá que el tamaño del hogar.
Ritual plays an important integrative function in the creation, maintenance, and transformation o... more Ritual plays an important integrative function in the creation, maintenance, and transformation of human society. The shared experience of ritual establishes strong bonds between individuals that defines their membership in certain social groups. However, rituals are not timeless traditions, nor do they simply restore social equilibrium. Rather, rituals are active and ongoing social processes that unite and divide across multiple social categories. This paper applies archaeological network methods to analyze the multiscalar structure of ritual traditions across Classic Maya (ca. 300-900 CE) society using hieroglyphic inscriptions from dated and provenienced monuments cataloged in the Maya Hieroglyphic Database (Looper and Macri 1991-2024). For the Classic Maya, public ritual and performance were highly charged political events where meaning and power could be negotiated, creating opportunities for identity formation and community integration. Such contexts helped establish strong moral bonds in Classic Maya society. However, we know relatively little about the specific forms and content of these ritual practices. In this study we construct ritual similarity networks from hieroglyphic inscriptions to analyze the structure and organization of these moral communities as well as the ritual relations that bound them together.
It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-l... more It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-lasting impacts on the environment. This study assesses a large collection of faunal remains (>35,000 specimens) recovered over a span of several kilometers in and around the archaeological site of Ceibal, Guatemala, in order to determine whether the composition of animal resources was continuous throughout the site's history between 1000 BC and AD 1200, or whether there were any changes that could be attributed to sociopolitical or environmental causes. Results show a steep uniform decline in the number of freshwater mollusks across the site that occurred during the Preclassic to Classic transition, when large region-wide political changes, including the development of more complex and centralized political organization, took place throughout the Maya region. Evidence of species introductions (e.g., turkeys from central Mexico and possibly the Dermatemys river turtle from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and variations in resource exchange (e.g. marine shells) over time indicate that Ceibal was one of likely many communities involved in long-distance animal exchange networks. The results of the faunal analysis at Ceibal show how the ancient Maya had a complex and ever-changing relationship with the local wildlife, with outcomes that can still be observed in the environment today.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015
Significance The results of our research at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal add to the growing ar... more Significance The results of our research at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal add to the growing archaeological understanding that the transition to sedentism did not necessarily occur simultaneously across different social groups within a region and that monumental constructions did not always postdate fully established sedentism. Whereas sedentary and mobile populations are, in many cases, interpreted to have maintained separate communities, our study suggests that groups with different levels of mobility gathered and collaborated for constructions and public ceremonies. These data indicate that the development of sedentism was a complex process involving interactions among diverse groups, and that collaborative construction projects and communal gatherings played a critical role in this social transformation by facilitating social integration among different groups.
Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions ... more Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions of civic-ceremonial architecture as well as the relationship between these buildings and broader social and political transformations during the Preclassic period. The remains of pre-Hispanic Maya architecture represent a series of actions, decisions, and repeated practices, which contribute to long sequences of construction observed in the archaeological record. In particular, these data shed light on two major building campaigns that took place within Caobal's central precinct from about 850b.c.–a.d.250. By examining the materiality and temporality of minor temple architecture beyond primary centers of power, we examine how these buildings were constructed and, in turn, how these structures may have transformed the daily practices, identity politics, and religious values of pre-Hispanic Maya communities. Repeated construction of buildings in the temple precinct of Caobal provides a...
Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities includ... more Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) analyses of household groups—to identify potential neighborhoods based on clusters of households at 23 ancient centers across the Maya Lowlands. While a one-size-fits all model does not work for neighborhood identification everywhere, the ANN/KD method provides quant...
This study investlgateS diachronic changes in the procure一 ment orraw materials fわr the productio... more This study investlgateS diachronic changes in the procure一 ment orraw materials fわr the production of chipped stone artifacts collected from the site ofCaobal located in the Pasi6n reglOn Of Guatemala. Caobal is a previously undocumented minor center of Ceibal, located approximately 3 km to the west or Group A of Ceibal. The site was丘rst discovered in 2006 while relocatlng minor ceremonial centers orlglnally documented by the Ceibal Project of Harvard Universlty. Tourtellot 'S (1988) survey originally identified 13 minor ceremonial sites in a 3 km radius around Group A, including the small ceremonial-administrative center ofAnonal which is located about 1.5 km south ofCaobal. Caobal was located while attemptlng tO relocate the site of Anonal, which was not included on Tourtellot'S (1988) settlement map ofCeibal. Based on similarities in the site descrlptlOn, Settlement layout, and ceramic data, Munson identified this site as Anonal in her initial field reports (Munson 2006(Munson , 2009;;. Subsequent findings, however, indicate that this site is not Anonal (Inomata, personal communication 201 1), but rather a previously unidentified minor ceremonial center now called Caobal. HaⅣard archaeologlStS SupeⅣised small excavations at several of these minor ceremonial sites which yielded ceramic data suggestlng Substantial Preclassic occupation in these local ceremonial centers, but results of the lithic analysis were never reported. Based on recent investlgations at Caobal, this paper presents the results of lithic analysュs and discusses pattems of Preclassic and Classic obsidian exchange and chipped stone production in the Pasi6n reg10n. Settlement history Recent investlgations conducted by the Ceiba1-Petexbatun Archaeological Project have documented the full construCtion sequence ofpublic architecture at Caobal (Munson 2009). The architectural component of the site is defined by a central temple group, three residential groups, and a lone Lshaped platfbm (Figure 1). Excavations in 2008 and 2009 investi一 gated the earliest public architecture at Caobal, Specifically the development of pyramidal temple construction and the organization of public space, in fわur operations (Figure 2). Caobal's public ceremonial core is centered on a pyramidal temple (Structure 1) standing nearly 9 m tall and seven additional structures which forma compact plaza measurlng approximately 50 m x 30 m. The group IS Oriented along an ■ east-west axis, which is reflected in the layout of Structure 1. OperationAN IA consisted of two 2 Ⅹ 2 m units in the temple platformalong the central east-west axis of Structure l. The pyramidal superstructure was seriously damaged by looters, but the tunnel provided ilnpOrtant Stratlgraphic infbmation 34 1inking the temple andplatformconstruction sequence (Mun-son, et al. 2008), which was built up primarily during the Preclassic period. Struchre 2 is the tallest of the plaza-encloslng mounds at 2.5 m and was the locus ofOperationAN IB. Similar to Stmchre 1, this small temple was renovated numerous times during the Preclassic period and represents the longest-used locale identifled at Caobal based on radioI carbon dates and associated ceramic material. Excavations in the plaza (Operation AN IC) focused on changes in the use of open space. Structure 8 is a large terraced platformlocated in the center of the main plaza and was investlgated during Operation AN ID to identifychanges in the use and layout of plaza space. This central building divides the plaza into two sectors -an eastem sector identified as a public space for communal gathering and ceremony based on the location ofstelae, and the westem sector, which may represent a more private counyard. A11 contexts identified in Figtlre 3 correspond to construction fill, except for Structure 8 Sub12b which is a cache deposit containlng numerous broken ceramic vessels dated to the Early Classic period. These levels are asslgned a chronological order based on associated ceramic artifacts, radiocarbon dates, and stratlgraPhy. ArchaeologlCal data from Caobal indicates a substantial Preclassic (ca. 900 BC -AD 250) occupation characterized by significant construction and renovation projects in the public sphere, followed by a reconfiguration of the central plaza (Str. 8 Sub12) during a brief moment of occupation in the Early Classic period, durlng Which the site was little used. There is a resurgence of temple constmction and rihal practice at Caobal, however, in the Late and Terminal Classic periods corresponding with renewal and consolidation or power at the capltal center of Ceibal. 1. Settlement map ofCaobal. mexicon • Ⅵ)1.XXXIV • Apri12012
It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-l... more It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-lasting impacts on the environment. This study assesses a large collection of faunal remains (>35,000 specimens) recovered over a span of several kilometers in and around the archaeological site of Ceibal, Guatemala, in order to determine whether the composition of animal resources was continuous throughout the site's history between 1000 BC and AD 1200, or whether there were any changes that could be attributed to sociopolitical or environmental causes. Results show a steep uniform decline in the number of freshwater mol-lusks across the site that occurred during the Preclassic to Classic transition, when large region-wide political changes, including the development of more complex and centralized political organization, took place throughout the Maya region. Evidence of species introductions (e.g., turkeys from central Mexico and possibly the Dermatemys river turtle from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and variations in resource exchange (e.g. marine shells) over time indicate that Ceibal was one of likely many communities involved in long-distance animal exchange networks. The results of the faunal analysis at Ceibal show how the ancient Maya had a complex and ever-changing relationship with the local wildlife, with outcomes that can still be observed in the environment today.
XXXII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, Tomo II, 2019
Equipo de Colaboración Editorial Para acceder a los contenidos de ediciones anteriores del Simpos... more Equipo de Colaboración Editorial Para acceder a los contenidos de ediciones anteriores del Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, visite www.asociaciontikal.com.
The simple dyadic structure of a network is the basis for studying a wide variety of entities and... more The simple dyadic structure of a network is the basis for studying a wide variety of entities and their relationships , as well as the outcomes of processes such as the diffusion of innovations. Here, we apply models from event history analysis and cultural evolutionary theory to investigate whether and by what means network ties facilitated the transmission of certain cultural traits in past complex societies. To illustrate the application of these models to archaeological data, we examine the spread of dynastic rituals by analyzing data collected from Classic Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. In addition to providing a cautionary tale for the construction of archaeological networks, the results of this study highlight the compatibility of cultural evolutionary and social network approaches to investigate the spread of novel traits.
Social Network Analysis in Economic Archaeology - Perspectives from the New World, 2019
Understanding connectivity is a key to understanding decision making.
Social network analysis off... more Understanding connectivity is a key to understanding decision making. Social network analysis offers formalized ways of describing and thus comparing attributes of actors related to each other in networks. Using quantitative spatial data, social network analysis promises deeper insights into how social positions are achieved and developed, as mirrored in the ancient flows of materials. The volume collects contributions of an international conference on network analysis in archaeology, held in 2015 at the University of Cologne as part of the DFG Research Training Group 1878 ‘Archaeology of Pre-Modern Economies’.
The simple dyadic structure of a network is the basis for studying a wide variety of entities and... more The simple dyadic structure of a network is the basis for studying a wide variety of entities and their relationships, as well as the outcomes of processes such as the diffusion of innovations. Here, we apply models from event history analysis and cultural evolutionary theory to investigate whether and by what means network ties facilitated the transmission of certain cultural traits in past complex societies. To illustrate the application of these models to archaeological data, we examine the spread of dynastic rituals by analyzing data collected from Classic Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. In addition to providing a cautionary tale for the construction of archaeological networks, the results of this study highlight the compatibility of cultural evolutionary and social network approaches to investigate the spread of novel traits.
Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions ... more Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions of civic-ceremonial architecture as well as the relationship between these buildings and broader social and political transformations during the Preclassic period. The remains of pre-Hispanic Maya architecture represent a series of actions, decisions, and repeated practices, which contribute to long sequences of construction observed in the archaeological record. In particular, these data shed light on two major building campaigns that took place within Caobal's central precinct from about 850 b.c.–a.d. 250. By examining the materiality and temporality of minor temple architecture beyond primary centers of power, we examine how these buildings were constructed and, in turn, how these structures may have transformed the daily practices, identity politics, and religious values of pre-Hispanic Maya communities. Repeated construction of buildings in the temple precinct of Caobal provides a long and detailed archaeological record that allows us to reconstruct the history of material and social practices that shaped this local community beyond the Ceibal center.
Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, do... more Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, documented that a formal ceremonial complex was built around 950 B.C. at the onset of the Middle Preclassic period, when ceramics began to be used in the Maya lowlands. Our refined chronology allowed us to trace the subsequent social changes in a resolution that had not been possible before. Many residents of Ceibal appear to have remained relatively mobile during the following centuries, living in ephemeral post-in-ground structures and frequently changing their residential localities. In other parts of the Pasión region, there may have existed more mobile populations who maintained the traditional lifestyle of the preceramic period. Although the emerging elite of Ceibal began to live in a substantial residential complex by 700 B.C., advanced sedentism with durable residences rebuilt in the same locations and burials placed under house floors was not adopted in most residential areas until 500 B.C., and did not become common until 300 B.C. or the Late Preclassic period. During the Middle Preclassic period, substantial formal ceremonial complexes appear to have been built only at a small number of important communities in the Maya lowlands, and groups with different levels of sedentism probably gathered for their constructions and for public rituals held in them. These collaborative activities likely played a central role in socially integrating diverse groups with different lifestyles and, eventually, in developing fully established sedentary communities.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015
Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, do... more Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, documented that a formal ceremonial complex was built around 950 B.C. at the onset of the Middle Preclassic period, when ceramics began to be used in the Maya lowlands. Our refined chronology allowed us to trace the subsequent social changes in a resolution that had not been possible before. Many residents of Ceibal appear to have remained relatively mobile during the following centuries, living in ephemeral post-in-ground structures and frequently changing their residential localities. In other parts of the Pasión region, there may have existed more mobile populations who maintained the traditional lifestyle of the preceramic period. Although the emerging elite of Ceibal began to live in a substantial residential complex by 700 B.C., advanced sedentism with durable residences rebuilt in the same locations and burials placed under house floors was not adopted in most residential areas until 500 B.C., and did not become common until 300 B.C. or the Late Preclassic period. During the Middle Preclassic period, substantial formal ceremonial complexes appear to have been built only at a small number of important communities in the Maya lowlands, and groups with different levels of sedentism probably gathered for their constructions and for public rituals held in them. These collaborative activities likely played a central role in socially integrating diverse groups with different lifestyles and, eventually, in developing fully established sedentary communities.
To study the Classic Maya is to at once recognize the shared material representations and practic... more To study the Classic Maya is to at once recognize the shared material representations and practices that give coherence to this cultural category as a unit of analysis, as well as to critically examine the diversity and idiosyncrasy of specific cultural traits within pre-Hispanic Maya society. Maya hieroglyphic writing, in particular the tradition of inscribing texts and images on carved stone monuments, offers evidence for widespread and mutually intelligible cultural practices that were, at the same time, neither unchanging nor uniform in their semantic content. As conduits of linguistic and cultural information, Maya hieroglyphic monuments offer detailed records of Classic Maya dynastic history that included the names, dates, and specific rituals performed by elite individuals. In this paper we analyze the distribution and diversity of these inscriptions to examine ritual variation and the divergence of dynastic traditions in Classic Maya society. Diversity indices and methods adapted from population genetics and ecology are applied to quantify the degree of ritual differentiation and evaluate how these measures vary over time and are partitioned within and between elite populations. Results of this research refine our understanding about the variation of Classic Maya ritual traditions and make substantive contributions to examining the population structure of cultural diversity within past complex societies.
This article presents an extensive evaluation, in several contiguous or near-contiguous areas, of... more This article presents an extensive evaluation, in several contiguous or near-contiguous areas, of the viability of IKONOS satellite imagery in detecting sub-canopy Maya settlement in Peten, Guatemala. Initial research in and around San Bartolo, Guatemala, led to the ...
Practice theoretic approaches to archaeological interpretation aim to solve scalar puzzles of str... more Practice theoretic approaches to archaeological interpretation aim to solve scalar puzzles of structure and agency by employing a set of metaphors that invoke networked relations between people and things in the past. One recent example of this approach, termed "social stratigraphy," offers an alternative to analyzing deeply buried and stratified architectural contexts by emphasizing the recursive social and physical actions of construction, which generate webs of human interaction (McAnany and Hodder, Archaeological Dialogues 16(1):1-22, 2009). In order to ensure that such descriptive metaphors align with our empirical observations, archaeologists need to account for the varied ways that social action and architectural practice intersect along multiple axes of variation (i.e., material, spatial, and temporal). By analyzing the interconnected spatial and temporal dimensions of past built environments, this paper suggests that relational concepts can offer more than heuristic functions for archaeological discourse. I offer a set of formal methods related to quantitative social network analyses as one way to operationalize, and thereby strengthen, such metaphors as applied to archaeological interpretation. These techniques are demonstrated using recent excavation data from multiple stratified architectural contexts at a minor temple center located in the Pasión region of the southern Maya lowlands to infer synchronous episodes of construction over a period of 1,600 years (850BCE-850CE). Results of this study demonstrate that issues of spatiotemporal variability can be resolved at a microscale by formally applying network concepts to archaeological analysis.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(14):4268-4273, 2015
Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, do... more Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, documented that a formal ceremonial complex was built around 950 B.C. at the onset of the Middle Preclassic period, when ceramics began to be used in the Maya lowlands. Our refined chronology allowed us to trace the subsequent social changes in a resolution that had not been possible before. Many residents of Ceibal appear to have remained relatively mobile during the following centuries, living in ephemeral post-in-ground structures and frequently changing their residential localities. In other parts of the Pasión region, there may have existed more mobile populations who maintained the traditional lifestyle of the preceramic period. Although the emerging elite of Ceibal began to live in a substantial residential complex by 700 B.C., advanced sedentism with durable residences rebuilt in the same locations and burials placed under house floors was not adopted in most residential areas until 500 B.C., and did not become common until 300 B.C. or the Late Preclassic period. During the Middle Preclassic period, substantial formal ceremonial complexes appear to have been built only at a small number of important communities in the Maya lowlands, and groups with different levels of sedentism probably gathered for their constructions and for public rituals held in them. These collaborative activities likely played a central role in socially integrating diverse groups with different lifestyles and, eventually, in developing fully established sedentary communities.
House size provides a comparative measure of household wealth that enables archaeologists to trac... more House size provides a comparative measure of household wealth that enables archaeologists to track global trends in inequality across a range of sedentary societies. Such approaches hold particular promise for Maya archaeology given its long history of settlement pattern research and recent applications of LiDAR to map large areas surrounding ancient Maya cities. Estimating dwelling size, however, is not a trivial exercise. This article addresses potential confounds associated with geometric-based estimates (volume and area) and compares traditional house size-based measures of wealth with other estimates of house size and quality of life indicators. Settlement pattern data from the Upper Usumacinta Confluence Zone, recently collected by the Proyecto Arqueológico Altar de Sacrificios, combined with previously published excavation data provide a robust dataset to evaluate alternative measures of wealth beyond house size. Resumen El tamaño del hogar proporciona una medida de riqueza conveniente y comparativa de su riqueza que permite que los arqueólogos sigan tendencias en desigualdad a través de un rango de sociedades sedentarias. Tales enfoques son particularmente prometedores para la arqueología maya dada su larga historia de investigaciones en los patrones de asentamiento y recientes estudios de LiDAR para mapear grandes áreas alrededor de ciudades antiguas. Estimar el tamaño del hogar, sin embargo, no es trabajo sencillo. Este artículo discute sobre posibles variables de confusión asociadas a estimaciones de riqueza, basándonos en medidas geométricas (volumen y área) y compara medidas tradicionales de riqueza (con base en la geometría) con otras estimaciones del tamaño de casa e indicadores de la cualidad de la vida. Datos del patrón de asentamientos de la Zona de Confluencias del Usumacinta Superior recientemente recolectadas por el Proyecto Arqueológico Altar de Sacrificios, combinados con datos previamente excavados, proporcionan un conjunto robusto de datos para evaluar medidas alternas de riqueza más allá que el tamaño del hogar.
Ritual plays an important integrative function in the creation, maintenance, and transformation o... more Ritual plays an important integrative function in the creation, maintenance, and transformation of human society. The shared experience of ritual establishes strong bonds between individuals that defines their membership in certain social groups. However, rituals are not timeless traditions, nor do they simply restore social equilibrium. Rather, rituals are active and ongoing social processes that unite and divide across multiple social categories. This paper applies archaeological network methods to analyze the multiscalar structure of ritual traditions across Classic Maya (ca. 300-900 CE) society using hieroglyphic inscriptions from dated and provenienced monuments cataloged in the Maya Hieroglyphic Database (Looper and Macri 1991-2024). For the Classic Maya, public ritual and performance were highly charged political events where meaning and power could be negotiated, creating opportunities for identity formation and community integration. Such contexts helped establish strong moral bonds in Classic Maya society. However, we know relatively little about the specific forms and content of these ritual practices. In this study we construct ritual similarity networks from hieroglyphic inscriptions to analyze the structure and organization of these moral communities as well as the ritual relations that bound them together.
It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-l... more It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-lasting impacts on the environment. This study assesses a large collection of faunal remains (>35,000 specimens) recovered over a span of several kilometers in and around the archaeological site of Ceibal, Guatemala, in order to determine whether the composition of animal resources was continuous throughout the site's history between 1000 BC and AD 1200, or whether there were any changes that could be attributed to sociopolitical or environmental causes. Results show a steep uniform decline in the number of freshwater mollusks across the site that occurred during the Preclassic to Classic transition, when large region-wide political changes, including the development of more complex and centralized political organization, took place throughout the Maya region. Evidence of species introductions (e.g., turkeys from central Mexico and possibly the Dermatemys river turtle from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and variations in resource exchange (e.g. marine shells) over time indicate that Ceibal was one of likely many communities involved in long-distance animal exchange networks. The results of the faunal analysis at Ceibal show how the ancient Maya had a complex and ever-changing relationship with the local wildlife, with outcomes that can still be observed in the environment today.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015
Significance The results of our research at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal add to the growing ar... more Significance The results of our research at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal add to the growing archaeological understanding that the transition to sedentism did not necessarily occur simultaneously across different social groups within a region and that monumental constructions did not always postdate fully established sedentism. Whereas sedentary and mobile populations are, in many cases, interpreted to have maintained separate communities, our study suggests that groups with different levels of mobility gathered and collaborated for constructions and public ceremonies. These data indicate that the development of sedentism was a complex process involving interactions among diverse groups, and that collaborative construction projects and communal gatherings played a critical role in this social transformation by facilitating social integration among different groups.
Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions ... more Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions of civic-ceremonial architecture as well as the relationship between these buildings and broader social and political transformations during the Preclassic period. The remains of pre-Hispanic Maya architecture represent a series of actions, decisions, and repeated practices, which contribute to long sequences of construction observed in the archaeological record. In particular, these data shed light on two major building campaigns that took place within Caobal's central precinct from about 850b.c.–a.d.250. By examining the materiality and temporality of minor temple architecture beyond primary centers of power, we examine how these buildings were constructed and, in turn, how these structures may have transformed the daily practices, identity politics, and religious values of pre-Hispanic Maya communities. Repeated construction of buildings in the temple precinct of Caobal provides a...
Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities includ... more Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) analyses of household groups—to identify potential neighborhoods based on clusters of households at 23 ancient centers across the Maya Lowlands. While a one-size-fits all model does not work for neighborhood identification everywhere, the ANN/KD method provides quant...
This study investlgateS diachronic changes in the procure一 ment orraw materials fわr the productio... more This study investlgateS diachronic changes in the procure一 ment orraw materials fわr the production of chipped stone artifacts collected from the site ofCaobal located in the Pasi6n reglOn Of Guatemala. Caobal is a previously undocumented minor center of Ceibal, located approximately 3 km to the west or Group A of Ceibal. The site was丘rst discovered in 2006 while relocatlng minor ceremonial centers orlglnally documented by the Ceibal Project of Harvard Universlty. Tourtellot 'S (1988) survey originally identified 13 minor ceremonial sites in a 3 km radius around Group A, including the small ceremonial-administrative center ofAnonal which is located about 1.5 km south ofCaobal. Caobal was located while attemptlng tO relocate the site of Anonal, which was not included on Tourtellot'S (1988) settlement map ofCeibal. Based on similarities in the site descrlptlOn, Settlement layout, and ceramic data, Munson identified this site as Anonal in her initial field reports (Munson 2006(Munson , 2009;;. Subsequent findings, however, indicate that this site is not Anonal (Inomata, personal communication 201 1), but rather a previously unidentified minor ceremonial center now called Caobal. HaⅣard archaeologlStS SupeⅣised small excavations at several of these minor ceremonial sites which yielded ceramic data suggestlng Substantial Preclassic occupation in these local ceremonial centers, but results of the lithic analysis were never reported. Based on recent investlgations at Caobal, this paper presents the results of lithic analysュs and discusses pattems of Preclassic and Classic obsidian exchange and chipped stone production in the Pasi6n reg10n. Settlement history Recent investlgations conducted by the Ceiba1-Petexbatun Archaeological Project have documented the full construCtion sequence ofpublic architecture at Caobal (Munson 2009). The architectural component of the site is defined by a central temple group, three residential groups, and a lone Lshaped platfbm (Figure 1). Excavations in 2008 and 2009 investi一 gated the earliest public architecture at Caobal, Specifically the development of pyramidal temple construction and the organization of public space, in fわur operations (Figure 2). Caobal's public ceremonial core is centered on a pyramidal temple (Structure 1) standing nearly 9 m tall and seven additional structures which forma compact plaza measurlng approximately 50 m x 30 m. The group IS Oriented along an ■ east-west axis, which is reflected in the layout of Structure 1. OperationAN IA consisted of two 2 Ⅹ 2 m units in the temple platformalong the central east-west axis of Structure l. The pyramidal superstructure was seriously damaged by looters, but the tunnel provided ilnpOrtant Stratlgraphic infbmation 34 1inking the temple andplatformconstruction sequence (Mun-son, et al. 2008), which was built up primarily during the Preclassic period. Struchre 2 is the tallest of the plaza-encloslng mounds at 2.5 m and was the locus ofOperationAN IB. Similar to Stmchre 1, this small temple was renovated numerous times during the Preclassic period and represents the longest-used locale identifled at Caobal based on radioI carbon dates and associated ceramic material. Excavations in the plaza (Operation AN IC) focused on changes in the use of open space. Structure 8 is a large terraced platformlocated in the center of the main plaza and was investlgated during Operation AN ID to identifychanges in the use and layout of plaza space. This central building divides the plaza into two sectors -an eastem sector identified as a public space for communal gathering and ceremony based on the location ofstelae, and the westem sector, which may represent a more private counyard. A11 contexts identified in Figtlre 3 correspond to construction fill, except for Structure 8 Sub12b which is a cache deposit containlng numerous broken ceramic vessels dated to the Early Classic period. These levels are asslgned a chronological order based on associated ceramic artifacts, radiocarbon dates, and stratlgraPhy. ArchaeologlCal data from Caobal indicates a substantial Preclassic (ca. 900 BC -AD 250) occupation characterized by significant construction and renovation projects in the public sphere, followed by a reconfiguration of the central plaza (Str. 8 Sub12) during a brief moment of occupation in the Early Classic period, durlng Which the site was little used. There is a resurgence of temple constmction and rihal practice at Caobal, however, in the Late and Terminal Classic periods corresponding with renewal and consolidation or power at the capltal center of Ceibal. 1. Settlement map ofCaobal. mexicon • Ⅵ)1.XXXIV • Apri12012
It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-l... more It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-lasting impacts on the environment. This study assesses a large collection of faunal remains (>35,000 specimens) recovered over a span of several kilometers in and around the archaeological site of Ceibal, Guatemala, in order to determine whether the composition of animal resources was continuous throughout the site's history between 1000 BC and AD 1200, or whether there were any changes that could be attributed to sociopolitical or environmental causes. Results show a steep uniform decline in the number of freshwater mol-lusks across the site that occurred during the Preclassic to Classic transition, when large region-wide political changes, including the development of more complex and centralized political organization, took place throughout the Maya region. Evidence of species introductions (e.g., turkeys from central Mexico and possibly the Dermatemys river turtle from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and variations in resource exchange (e.g. marine shells) over time indicate that Ceibal was one of likely many communities involved in long-distance animal exchange networks. The results of the faunal analysis at Ceibal show how the ancient Maya had a complex and ever-changing relationship with the local wildlife, with outcomes that can still be observed in the environment today.
XXXII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, Tomo II, 2019
Equipo de Colaboración Editorial Para acceder a los contenidos de ediciones anteriores del Simpos... more Equipo de Colaboración Editorial Para acceder a los contenidos de ediciones anteriores del Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, visite www.asociaciontikal.com.
The simple dyadic structure of a network is the basis for studying a wide variety of entities and... more The simple dyadic structure of a network is the basis for studying a wide variety of entities and their relationships , as well as the outcomes of processes such as the diffusion of innovations. Here, we apply models from event history analysis and cultural evolutionary theory to investigate whether and by what means network ties facilitated the transmission of certain cultural traits in past complex societies. To illustrate the application of these models to archaeological data, we examine the spread of dynastic rituals by analyzing data collected from Classic Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. In addition to providing a cautionary tale for the construction of archaeological networks, the results of this study highlight the compatibility of cultural evolutionary and social network approaches to investigate the spread of novel traits.
Social Network Analysis in Economic Archaeology - Perspectives from the New World, 2019
Understanding connectivity is a key to understanding decision making.
Social network analysis off... more Understanding connectivity is a key to understanding decision making. Social network analysis offers formalized ways of describing and thus comparing attributes of actors related to each other in networks. Using quantitative spatial data, social network analysis promises deeper insights into how social positions are achieved and developed, as mirrored in the ancient flows of materials. The volume collects contributions of an international conference on network analysis in archaeology, held in 2015 at the University of Cologne as part of the DFG Research Training Group 1878 ‘Archaeology of Pre-Modern Economies’.
The simple dyadic structure of a network is the basis for studying a wide variety of entities and... more The simple dyadic structure of a network is the basis for studying a wide variety of entities and their relationships, as well as the outcomes of processes such as the diffusion of innovations. Here, we apply models from event history analysis and cultural evolutionary theory to investigate whether and by what means network ties facilitated the transmission of certain cultural traits in past complex societies. To illustrate the application of these models to archaeological data, we examine the spread of dynastic rituals by analyzing data collected from Classic Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. In addition to providing a cautionary tale for the construction of archaeological networks, the results of this study highlight the compatibility of cultural evolutionary and social network approaches to investigate the spread of novel traits.
Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions ... more Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions of civic-ceremonial architecture as well as the relationship between these buildings and broader social and political transformations during the Preclassic period. The remains of pre-Hispanic Maya architecture represent a series of actions, decisions, and repeated practices, which contribute to long sequences of construction observed in the archaeological record. In particular, these data shed light on two major building campaigns that took place within Caobal's central precinct from about 850 b.c.–a.d. 250. By examining the materiality and temporality of minor temple architecture beyond primary centers of power, we examine how these buildings were constructed and, in turn, how these structures may have transformed the daily practices, identity politics, and religious values of pre-Hispanic Maya communities. Repeated construction of buildings in the temple precinct of Caobal provides a long and detailed archaeological record that allows us to reconstruct the history of material and social practices that shaped this local community beyond the Ceibal center.
Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, do... more Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, documented that a formal ceremonial complex was built around 950 B.C. at the onset of the Middle Preclassic period, when ceramics began to be used in the Maya lowlands. Our refined chronology allowed us to trace the subsequent social changes in a resolution that had not been possible before. Many residents of Ceibal appear to have remained relatively mobile during the following centuries, living in ephemeral post-in-ground structures and frequently changing their residential localities. In other parts of the Pasión region, there may have existed more mobile populations who maintained the traditional lifestyle of the preceramic period. Although the emerging elite of Ceibal began to live in a substantial residential complex by 700 B.C., advanced sedentism with durable residences rebuilt in the same locations and burials placed under house floors was not adopted in most residential areas until 500 B.C., and did not become common until 300 B.C. or the Late Preclassic period. During the Middle Preclassic period, substantial formal ceremonial complexes appear to have been built only at a small number of important communities in the Maya lowlands, and groups with different levels of sedentism probably gathered for their constructions and for public rituals held in them. These collaborative activities likely played a central role in socially integrating diverse groups with different lifestyles and, eventually, in developing fully established sedentary communities.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015
Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, do... more Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, documented that a formal ceremonial complex was built around 950 B.C. at the onset of the Middle Preclassic period, when ceramics began to be used in the Maya lowlands. Our refined chronology allowed us to trace the subsequent social changes in a resolution that had not been possible before. Many residents of Ceibal appear to have remained relatively mobile during the following centuries, living in ephemeral post-in-ground structures and frequently changing their residential localities. In other parts of the Pasión region, there may have existed more mobile populations who maintained the traditional lifestyle of the preceramic period. Although the emerging elite of Ceibal began to live in a substantial residential complex by 700 B.C., advanced sedentism with durable residences rebuilt in the same locations and burials placed under house floors was not adopted in most residential areas until 500 B.C., and did not become common until 300 B.C. or the Late Preclassic period. During the Middle Preclassic period, substantial formal ceremonial complexes appear to have been built only at a small number of important communities in the Maya lowlands, and groups with different levels of sedentism probably gathered for their constructions and for public rituals held in them. These collaborative activities likely played a central role in socially integrating diverse groups with different lifestyles and, eventually, in developing fully established sedentary communities.
To study the Classic Maya is to at once recognize the shared material representations and practic... more To study the Classic Maya is to at once recognize the shared material representations and practices that give coherence to this cultural category as a unit of analysis, as well as to critically examine the diversity and idiosyncrasy of specific cultural traits within pre-Hispanic Maya society. Maya hieroglyphic writing, in particular the tradition of inscribing texts and images on carved stone monuments, offers evidence for widespread and mutually intelligible cultural practices that were, at the same time, neither unchanging nor uniform in their semantic content. As conduits of linguistic and cultural information, Maya hieroglyphic monuments offer detailed records of Classic Maya dynastic history that included the names, dates, and specific rituals performed by elite individuals. In this paper we analyze the distribution and diversity of these inscriptions to examine ritual variation and the divergence of dynastic traditions in Classic Maya society. Diversity indices and methods adapted from population genetics and ecology are applied to quantify the degree of ritual differentiation and evaluate how these measures vary over time and are partitioned within and between elite populations. Results of this research refine our understanding about the variation of Classic Maya ritual traditions and make substantive contributions to examining the population structure of cultural diversity within past complex societies.
This article presents an extensive evaluation, in several contiguous or near-contiguous areas, of... more This article presents an extensive evaluation, in several contiguous or near-contiguous areas, of the viability of IKONOS satellite imagery in detecting sub-canopy Maya settlement in Peten, Guatemala. Initial research in and around San Bartolo, Guatemala, led to the ...
Practice theoretic approaches to archaeological interpretation aim to solve scalar puzzles of str... more Practice theoretic approaches to archaeological interpretation aim to solve scalar puzzles of structure and agency by employing a set of metaphors that invoke networked relations between people and things in the past. One recent example of this approach, termed "social stratigraphy," offers an alternative to analyzing deeply buried and stratified architectural contexts by emphasizing the recursive social and physical actions of construction, which generate webs of human interaction (McAnany and Hodder, Archaeological Dialogues 16(1):1-22, 2009). In order to ensure that such descriptive metaphors align with our empirical observations, archaeologists need to account for the varied ways that social action and architectural practice intersect along multiple axes of variation (i.e., material, spatial, and temporal). By analyzing the interconnected spatial and temporal dimensions of past built environments, this paper suggests that relational concepts can offer more than heuristic functions for archaeological discourse. I offer a set of formal methods related to quantitative social network analyses as one way to operationalize, and thereby strengthen, such metaphors as applied to archaeological interpretation. These techniques are demonstrated using recent excavation data from multiple stratified architectural contexts at a minor temple center located in the Pasión region of the southern Maya lowlands to infer synchronous episodes of construction over a period of 1,600 years (850BCE-850CE). Results of this study demonstrate that issues of spatiotemporal variability can be resolved at a microscale by formally applying network concepts to archaeological analysis.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(14):4268-4273, 2015
Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, do... more Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, documented that a formal ceremonial complex was built around 950 B.C. at the onset of the Middle Preclassic period, when ceramics began to be used in the Maya lowlands. Our refined chronology allowed us to trace the subsequent social changes in a resolution that had not been possible before. Many residents of Ceibal appear to have remained relatively mobile during the following centuries, living in ephemeral post-in-ground structures and frequently changing their residential localities. In other parts of the Pasión region, there may have existed more mobile populations who maintained the traditional lifestyle of the preceramic period. Although the emerging elite of Ceibal began to live in a substantial residential complex by 700 B.C., advanced sedentism with durable residences rebuilt in the same locations and burials placed under house floors was not adopted in most residential areas until 500 B.C., and did not become common until 300 B.C. or the Late Preclassic period. During the Middle Preclassic period, substantial formal ceremonial complexes appear to have been built only at a small number of important communities in the Maya lowlands, and groups with different levels of sedentism probably gathered for their constructions and for public rituals held in them. These collaborative activities likely played a central role in socially integrating diverse groups with different lifestyles and, eventually, in developing fully established sedentary communities.
Understanding connectivity is a key to understanding decision making. Social network analysis off... more Understanding connectivity is a key to understanding decision making. Social network analysis offers formalized ways of describing and thus comparing attributes of actors related to each other in networks. Using quantitative spatial data, social network analysis promises deeper insights into how social positions are achieved and developed, as mirrored in the ancient fl ows of materials. The volume collects contributions of an international conference on network analysis in archaeology, held in 2015 at the University of Cologne as part of the DFG Research Training Group 1878 'Archaeology of Pre-Modern Economies'.
Uploads
Papers by Jessica Munson
Social network analysis offers formalized ways of describing and thus
comparing attributes of actors related to each other in networks. Using
quantitative spatial data, social network analysis promises deeper insights
into how social positions are achieved and developed, as mirrored in the
ancient flows of materials.
The volume collects contributions of an international conference on network
analysis in archaeology, held in 2015 at the University of Cologne as
part of the DFG Research Training Group 1878 ‘Archaeology of Pre-Modern
Economies’.
Social network analysis offers formalized ways of describing and thus
comparing attributes of actors related to each other in networks. Using
quantitative spatial data, social network analysis promises deeper insights
into how social positions are achieved and developed, as mirrored in the
ancient flows of materials.
The volume collects contributions of an international conference on network
analysis in archaeology, held in 2015 at the University of Cologne as
part of the DFG Research Training Group 1878 ‘Archaeology of Pre-Modern
Economies’.