Conference Presentations by Paul Graf
XXXIII Simposio de investigaciones arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2019
El estudio de la interacción humana con su entorno tiene una larga tradición y ha dado lugar a la... more El estudio de la interacción humana con su entorno tiene una larga tradición y ha dado lugar a la aparición de diversas disciplinas académicas. Sin embargo, el aspecto temporal-comparativo del acceso a los recursos forestales en condiciones climáticas difíciles sigue siendo un tema crítico y requiere nuevas perspectivas de investigación. En esta ponencia se propone un enfoque transdisciplinario que combina varios métodos de arqueología ambiental, etnobotánica y geoinformática para discutir el tema de la accesibilidad de los recursos perecederos utilizados en la construcción de las casas mayas en el pasado precolombino y hoy en día. Sobre la base de nuevos datos etnobotánicos recogidos en el marque del Proyecto Geobotánico Yaxha (ProGY) entre febrero y marzo de 2018 alrededor del sitio arqueológico Yaxha y en diversas comunidades rurales del Petén, e incorporando datos de otros proyectos de investigación, se diseño un modelo de GIS acerca del acceso a recursos forestales de espacios urbanos en el centro-este de Petén durante el período Clásico Tardío. Se presentarán los resultados de este estudio sobre el ejemplo de Tikal y sus alrededores, examinando algunos conceptos sobre urbanismo y economía.
Papers by Paul Graf
XXXVI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2023, 2024
Intensive archaeological investigation of the ancient community of Tzikin Tzakan has only begun i... more Intensive archaeological investigation of the ancient community of Tzikin Tzakan has only begun in the last three years. Although the site is located on the northern edge of the lower Mopán River basin, where it has access to the Salsipuedes Stream and its watershed, most of the ancient settlement is above a mountain range where water supply is much more difficult. In the work of the Tzikin Tzakan Archaeological Project, special attention has been paid to the western periphery, where settlement remains have been mapped and investigated over a wide area using different remote sensing and excavation methods. Especially the main reconnaissance with geophysical equipment and drones in the 2021 season has generated large amounts of data, which have been analyzed so far using different visualizations and GIS tools. Among others, numerous features were detected that indicate water control, especially for agricultural irrigation and water storage. In addition to presenting the various findings, this paper will highlight possible entanglements and competition for water in the region that are still visible today.
Boletín de Arqueología PUCP, 2024
Asymmetrical dependencies and social relations are generally difficult to demonstrate in the arch... more Asymmetrical dependencies and social relations are generally difficult to demonstrate in the archaeological record, especially in societies with limited or no written evidence, and in geographic zones with high levels of decomposition. The Classic Maya of the southern lowlands in Mesoamerica were subject to both problems. In order to reconstruct a representative image of the settlement landscape during the Late Classic period, an integrated set of field methods was implemented at the archaeological site Tzikin Tzakan in the Peten region of Guatemala between 2021 and 2023. GIS analyses, such as least cost path and viewshed, allowed the study of dependency mechanisms based on essential resources, taking into account physical barriers, environmental risks and moral-ideological constraints. This article presents preliminary results and implications on the spatial relationships and social entanglements between different actors in the ancient community of Tzikin Tzakan.
XXXV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2023
It is a long-debated question among Mayanists how a small segment of society managed to gain cont... more It is a long-debated question among Mayanists how a small segment of society managed to gain control of a community from which it could continually extract taxes and services. In Classic Maya communities, the majority of the inhabitants lived outside the monumental core and were primarily engaged in agriculture and forestry. Several researchers examined in various ways how the people were integrated and persuaded to maintain the elite and their displays of power. Given the diversity of communities in the central lowlands, as well as the multifaceted mechanisms or "sources" of power, religious structures were a particularly important aspect, generating "moral resources". This type of constructed essential resources is especially manifested in sacred and gathering places, and is strongly determined by their geographic location, which makes their access and use easy to control. Consequently, this paper hypothesizes that these resources have played a crucial role as carriers of asymmetrical dependency. A study of this approach will be presented using the example of the Tzikin Tzakan community during the Late Classic period with the help of GIS analysis and data collected during the Tzikin Tzakan Archaeological Project in 2021 and 2022.
Estudios de Cultura Maya, 2022
The Maya vernacular house of the pre-Columbian era has been little studied so far and new methodo... more The Maya vernacular house of the pre-Columbian era has been little studied so far and new methodological approaches are needed to reconstruct its architectural and material characteristics. Particularly for the roof, there is a lack of any studies that would verify the speculative descriptions in the literature. Using a multi-perspective approach that includes ecological, paleoecological, archaeological, ethnohistorical, ethnobotanical and ethnolinguistic perspectives, this article aims to evaluate the palm species of the genus Sabal, known as the guano palm or xa'an, as the most important resource for roof construction in the Maya lowlands. Based on data from my own geoethnobotanical and ethnoarchaeological field work, paleoecological data from drilling cores and research results from other studies, it is demonstrated that a forest species of the genus Sabal was probably the primary thatching material for the Classic population of the central Maya lowlands.
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Conference Presentations by Paul Graf
Papers by Paul Graf