Jaime Awe | Northern Arizona University (original) (raw)
Papers by Jaime Awe
Construction of Maya Space
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2017
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Dec 1, 2019
Archaeologists are often confronted with broken objects, and the recovery of only part of an obje... more Archaeologists are often confronted with broken objects, and the recovery of only part of an object therefore rarely causes us to question why we have not recovered more. But what if this is a mistake? What if, in ignoring this question, we are failing to consider the socio-cultural role that the fragments themselves may have played? In this paper we address these questions, outlining a particular pattern of intentional breakage and the subsequent distribution of the resulting fragments across multiple distinct locales/individuals. We align our discussion with the related concepts of fragmentation and enchainment and apply these to a dataset derived from study of the ancient Maya of Belize. Contexts discussed in this paper are of a decidedly ritual nature, including deep caves, tombs and burials, caches, and other deposits. We suggest that we have been remiss in treating such contexts in isolation, and that the scale of ritual studies within the Maya area needs to be expanded from those focused on individual deposits to broad analyses on the landscape or regional scale. Such studies must explicitly seek out variability within this corpus as it is clear that even small sites may have served as important nodes within larger networks.
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, May 1, 2018
Following their 1990s research at Xunantunich, archaeologists with the Xunantunich Archaeological... more Following their 1990s research at Xunantunich, archaeologists with the Xunantunich Archaeological Project (XAP) hypothesized that this Upper Belize Valley site rose rapidly from a minor political center to a powerful regional polity during the Late Classic period (AD 600-900). The XAP researchers further suggested that this rapid rise was influenced by Xunantunich's relationship with the more powerful polity of Naranjo in the nearby Petén Department of Guatemala. Their argument was based in part on a Late Classic period building program at Xunantunich, which, they claimed, resulted in a site layout that resembles that of Naranjo. In this thesis, I investigate Structure A9, a Late Classic temple-pyramid in Xunantunich's civic-ceremonial center. Through the excavation of Structure A9 and the analysis of architectural and cultural remains recovered from this and other structures previously excavated at Xunantunich, I examine whether A9 provides evidence to support the late and rapid development of the center, the structure's regional and local sociopolitical significance, and the hypothesized influence of Naranjo on Xunantunich's dramatic Late Classic period growth. I conclude that architectural evidence from A9 and other structures in the site core support the argument for the site's unprecedented, late development, and two hieroglyphic panels placed in front of the structure provide strong evidence for Xunantunich having close political ties with Naranjo in the latter 7 th century. Furthermore, the hieroglyphic panels and a contemporaneous
Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 21, 2012
Located on the southeastern corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize is the second smallest countr... more Located on the southeastern corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize is the second smallest country in Central America. In spite of its size, however, the country has an incredibly rich and diverse cultural heritage that includes the remains of pioneering preceramic cultures, numerous prehistoric cities that reflect the grandeur of Maya civilization, the ruins of several “Visita” churches that represent the failed efforts of sixteenth-century Spanish entradas, and various historic sites of the British colonial period. This article provides a brief history of the management of archaeological resources in Belize, a summary of archaeological investigations during the last two hundred years, and the present direction of archaeological research in the country.
Arqueología Mexicana, 2020
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016
University Press of Florida eBooks, Aug 8, 2017
The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2019
The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2019
Construction of Maya Space
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2017
The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2015
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Dec 1, 2019
Archaeologists are often confronted with broken objects, and the recovery of only part of an obje... more Archaeologists are often confronted with broken objects, and the recovery of only part of an object therefore rarely causes us to question why we have not recovered more. But what if this is a mistake? What if, in ignoring this question, we are failing to consider the socio-cultural role that the fragments themselves may have played? In this paper we address these questions, outlining a particular pattern of intentional breakage and the subsequent distribution of the resulting fragments across multiple distinct locales/individuals. We align our discussion with the related concepts of fragmentation and enchainment and apply these to a dataset derived from study of the ancient Maya of Belize. Contexts discussed in this paper are of a decidedly ritual nature, including deep caves, tombs and burials, caches, and other deposits. We suggest that we have been remiss in treating such contexts in isolation, and that the scale of ritual studies within the Maya area needs to be expanded from those focused on individual deposits to broad analyses on the landscape or regional scale. Such studies must explicitly seek out variability within this corpus as it is clear that even small sites may have served as important nodes within larger networks.
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2018
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016
The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, May 1, 2018
Following their 1990s research at Xunantunich, archaeologists with the Xunantunich Archaeological... more Following their 1990s research at Xunantunich, archaeologists with the Xunantunich Archaeological Project (XAP) hypothesized that this Upper Belize Valley site rose rapidly from a minor political center to a powerful regional polity during the Late Classic period (AD 600-900). The XAP researchers further suggested that this rapid rise was influenced by Xunantunich's relationship with the more powerful polity of Naranjo in the nearby Petén Department of Guatemala. Their argument was based in part on a Late Classic period building program at Xunantunich, which, they claimed, resulted in a site layout that resembles that of Naranjo. In this thesis, I investigate Structure A9, a Late Classic temple-pyramid in Xunantunich's civic-ceremonial center. Through the excavation of Structure A9 and the analysis of architectural and cultural remains recovered from this and other structures previously excavated at Xunantunich, I examine whether A9 provides evidence to support the late and rapid development of the center, the structure's regional and local sociopolitical significance, and the hypothesized influence of Naranjo on Xunantunich's dramatic Late Classic period growth. I conclude that architectural evidence from A9 and other structures in the site core support the argument for the site's unprecedented, late development, and two hieroglyphic panels placed in front of the structure provide strong evidence for Xunantunich having close political ties with Naranjo in the latter 7 th century. Furthermore, the hieroglyphic panels and a contemporaneous
Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 21, 2012
Located on the southeastern corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize is the second smallest countr... more Located on the southeastern corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize is the second smallest country in Central America. In spite of its size, however, the country has an incredibly rich and diverse cultural heritage that includes the remains of pioneering preceramic cultures, numerous prehistoric cities that reflect the grandeur of Maya civilization, the ruins of several “Visita” churches that represent the failed efforts of sixteenth-century Spanish entradas, and various historic sites of the British colonial period. This article provides a brief history of the management of archaeological resources in Belize, a summary of archaeological investigations during the last two hundred years, and the present direction of archaeological research in the country.
Arqueología Mexicana, 2020
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2016
University Press of Florida eBooks, Aug 8, 2017
The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2019
The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2019
Archaeologists are placing an increasing emphasis on the role of climate change in the developmen... more Archaeologists are placing an increasing emphasis on the role of climate change in the development and demise of ancient Maya civilization. While research has focused primarily on the "collapse " of lowland Maya polities during the Terminal Classic period (~AD 750-900/1000), which has been correlated with evidence for severe drought, the establishment and growth of earlier Maya communities was also significantly impacted by climatic variability. In this paper we review regional paleoclimate proxy data and archaeological evidence from western Belize to provide a framework for understanding the complex human-environment dynamics that influenced localized adaptations to climate change. These data suggest that communities living in the Belize Valley and surrounding areas experienced episodic growth and decline in response to climatic variability as early as the Preclassic period (1200 BC-AD 300). A multi-century dry period at the beginning of the Preclassic coincides with archaeological evidence for the initial appearance of permanently settled agricultural villages across the region between ~1200-900 BC. Wetter climatic conditions likely fostered the centralization of growing populations and the formation of large regional polities, which continued to expand despite an extended drought at the end of the Preclassic from AD 150-300. During the Classic period (AD 300-900/1000), intensified reliance on maize agriculture, demographic increase, and anthropogenic landscape degradation created less flexible human-environment systems that ultimately contributed to the disintegration of political systems in response to drought conditions, resulting in the large-scale depopulation of the Belize Valley and elsewhere in western Belize by the beginning of the eleventh century.
The reconstruction of subsistence strategies using stable isotope analyses is integral to underst... more The reconstruction of subsistence strategies using stable isotope analyses is integral to understanding the role of maize agriculture in the development and decline of ancient Maya society. Here we present stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur isotope data from over 230 radiocarbon dated human skeletal remains from western Belize dating from the Preclassic through Colonial periods (~1000 BC-AD 1700). Stable isotope data are also compared to paleoclimate proxy records to interpret the climatic contexts for changing agricultural practices. Results indicate that the Preclassic (1000 BC-AD 300) Maya of western Belize had diverse diets incorporating both maize and wild foods, which may have promoted resilience in the face of social reorganization and changing ecological systems at the end of the Preclassic period. During the Classic period (AD 300-900/1000), inter-individual isotopic variations indicate that high-status individuals had a narrow and highly specialized maize-based diet, which may have created a more vulnerable socioeconomic system that disintegrated due in part to drought conditions during the Terminal Classic period. While maize continued to be a dietary staple through the Postclassic and Colonial periods, agricultural systems were impacted by severe multi-year droughts that resulted in high levels of mortality and migration across the Yucatán Peninsula.
State University) and Jaime J. Awe (Northern Arizona University) Maya archaeologists have traditi... more State University) and Jaime J. Awe (Northern Arizona University) Maya archaeologists have traditionally attributed the emergence of socioeconomic inequality to the development of elite control of local production and regional redistribution during the Preclassic Period (1200 BC–AD 300). In this study, we focus on characterizing household-level economic systems using geochemical sourcing of obsidian and ceramics from the ancient Maya community of Cahal Pech, in the Belize Valley. Technological and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) geochemical analyses of obsidian (n=1189) indicate a decentralized domestic obsidian exchange system based on the differential consumption of source material between households throughout the Preclassic. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of ceramics (n=192) identified four primary compositional groups from high-status households in the civic-ceremonial site center and two peripheral house groups. The Early Preclassic (1200-900 BC) Cunil assemblage is compositionally unique in the Maya lowlands, providing evidence for local production of these early ceramics. In the Middle Preclassic (900-300 BC), INAA data provide evidence for the specialized production and importation of Mars Orange vessels from the Belize Valley into the central Petén by high-status households living in the Cahal Pech site core. Ceramic exchange may have been one strategy for linking neighboring high-status individuals into networks of interdependency within a developing institutional economy, contributing to the wealth and power of some Cahal Pech households.
Archaeological research on prehistoric water management systems the Maya Lowlands has identified ... more Archaeological research on prehistoric water management systems the Maya Lowlands has identified the diversity and complexity of ancient human adaptations to changing environments and socioeconomic landscapes. Settlement survey and excavation the Belize River Valley at the site of Baling Pot have explored a multi-component water management system including a drainage system within the palace complex and multiple aguadas around the monumental site core. A lattice system of ditches has also been documented through settlement survey at the site. We present the results of recent airborne lidar survey conducted in the Belize Valley that has revealed the nature and spatial extent of the ditch system at Baking Pot. A combination of visual and spatial analyses of lidar data were conducted using GIS to map the approximately 27 km of ditches in the southwestern peripheral settlement at the site. Spatial analyses also recorded the presence several small mounds interspersed between ditched areas, perhaps delineating spatially distinct households. Preliminary field reconnaissance is focused on ground-truthing and test excavations to understand the form and function of ditches, as well as building an absolute chronology for the system using high-resolution radiocarbon dating. Baking Pot possesses some of the more productive agricultural soils in the Belize Valley, and the ditch system may have been used to support cacao production. Water management systems at Baking Pot may have become increasingly important during the Late Classic Period in the face of population increase, anthropogenic degradation of the landscape, and climate change.
Accurate and high-resolution Lidar data are becoming increasingly important for detecting archaeo... more Accurate and high-resolution Lidar data are becoming increasingly important for detecting archaeological settlements in the Maya lowlands. We present the results of systematic analysis of Lidar data and ground verification for the ancient Maya site of Cahal Pech, Belize. Lidar data was analyzed within a GIS using the Topographic Position Index to identify the location of mounded features. During the summer of 2014, over 50 house groups and single mounds identified from Lidar data were ground-truthed. Lidar also recorded the location of mounds that were destroyed during modern construction, demonstrating the utility of the technology for archaeological conservation efforts.
Sedentary agricultural villages, ceramic technology, and evidence for institutionalized socioecon... more Sedentary agricultural villages, ceramic technology, and evidence for institutionalized socioeconomic inequality first appeared in the Maya lowlands during the Preclassic Period (1200 cal BC – cal AD 300). The chronological details of these significant cultural developments between different regions of the lowlands remain unclear in many cases because of an emphasis on local ceramic typologies that are often difficult to correlate. We use a Bayesian framework to model high-resolution AMS 14C dates from the Belize Valley site of Cahal Pech, one of the earliest known permanently settled communities in the Maya lowlands, to understand the site's spatial, demographic, and socio-political expansion during the Preclassic Period. We also developed radiocarbon chronologies and summed probability distributions of over 1000 published radiocarbon dates from Preclassic sites in other core regions of the Maya lowlands. Comparisons of regional temporal trends to paleoclimate proxy records indicate that stable climatic conditions through the Middle Preclassic promoted the hierarchical development of large regional polities across the lowlands. A severe multi-century drought at the end of the Late Preclassic (~cal AD 100-300) likely contributed to the decline of some major polities in the Petén, though evidence for continuity of populations and site growth exists in other regions.
Archaeological evidence in the Belize Valley indicates that some polities in the region, includin... more Archaeological evidence in the Belize Valley indicates that some polities in the region, including the major center of Cahal Pech, experienced an earlier end to monumental construction and political activity prior to the ninth to tenth century " collapse ". These data contrast with other sites in the area, including at Baking Pot, where Terminal Classic ceramics are found in primary burials and in monumental fill. Here we present the our research program that targets burials and terminal deposits to date the final occupation at Cahal Pech, in comparison with Baking Pot and other Belize Valley polities.
Hieroglyphic inscriptions provide one of the most important sources of information on Classic pe... more Hieroglyphic inscriptions provide one of the most important sources of information on Classic period Maya rulers, and on the sociopolitical relations between lowland Maya polities. The discovery of new inscribed monuments and artifacts, particularly in Maya sub-regions where inscriptions are rare, can therefore provide critical new information on the political significance of these sites. In this paper, we describe the recent discovery at Cahal Pech of three bone rings, a bone pin, and fragments of turtle shell that were decorated with low-relief inscriptions. The hieroglyphic texts from Cahal Pech, along with the rich contents of the tomb where the artifacts were discovered, provide compelling evidence that Classic period Belize Valley elite employed symbols of rulership akin to those used by the powerful rulers of larger centers in the Maya lowlands.
Over the past twenty years our understanding of the Middle Preclassic (900–300 BCE) period has be... more Over the past twenty years our understanding of the Middle Preclassic (900–300 BCE) period has become much clearer through archaeological investigations at a number of sites located in the Upper Belize River Valley region of the eastern Maya Lowlands. While the picture of Middle Preclassic Maya life, including their material culture, has sharpened, there are aspects that remain uninvestigated. One artifact type, identified as greenstone triangulates, has been found at several Belize Valley sites and in a variety of contexts. Although a number of these multifaceted,
polished groundstone items have been recovered, little research has focused on their distribution and function in the archaeological record. An evaluation of these items from primary contexts provides data for determining how they were used in daily social and/or ritual activities throughout the lowlands. Comparative data from other regions of Mesoamerica are also discussed. A detailed geological and petrographic pilot study of a sample of greenstone triangulates is provided, pointing conclusively to early, long-distance and complex exchange networks in exotic raw materials.
Follow the linked URL for free access before November 11th, 2016. After that date, I will be happy to provide copies for personal use upon request. - SH
The skeletal remains of 18 individuals interred at the ancient Maya site of Caledonia (100 to 100... more The skeletal remains of 18 individuals interred at the ancient Maya site of Caledonia (100 to 1000 C.E.), located in the Cayo District of Belize, were sampled for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis in order to reconstruct their diet. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in 18 bone collagen samples and stable carbon isotope ratios in bioapatite from 15 bone and 6 tooth enamel samples were assessed. Small sample sizes precluded the assessment of dietary variation with respect to age, sex, social status or time period among the Caledonia Maya. However, the sampled individuals consumed a varied diet consisting of maize, supplemented with some C3 plants, terrestrial herbivores and/or lower order freshwater resources such as snails and molluscs and possibly maize-fed animals. This dietary variability with an emphasis on maize is unsurprising given the biological diversity surrounding the site and the known importance of this crop to the ancient Maya. As expected, the isotopic values from Caledonia are similar to those from nearby sites from similar time periods. However, four individuals exhibit a marine dietary signature, possibly indicating inland trade of marine resources from coastal sites, or the migration of coastal people to Caledonia. This study demonstrates the validity of sampling small, fragmented collections from minor Maya centres in order to gain valuable insight into ancient Maya dietary practices.
The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2016 Field Season, 2017
The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2016 Field Season, 2017
The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2016 Field Season, 2017
The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2015 Field Season, 2016
International Symposium on Archaeometry Proceedings 2018 (Merida, Mexico), 2018
The presence of volcanic ash in ancient lowland Maya ceramics has been a topic of debate for over... more The presence of volcanic ash in ancient lowland Maya ceramics has been a topic of debate for over fifty years.
Researchers have yet to agree on the reasons for its appearance and widespread distribution in a region that is
over 150 km away from known volcanic activity. To examine the issue of ash tempering, the authors
implemented petrographic thin section analysis on ceramic samples from centres that have been the focus of
Trent University investigations in Belize. We present the preliminary results describing petrological
characteristics and contextual evidence, to understand the production and distribution of these Maya ash wares.
The samples originate from Cunil ceramic complex (1100-900 BCE) and Spanish Lookout phase (CE 700-900)
contexts from the sites of Caracol (Healy et al. 1983), Caledonia (Healy et al. 1998), Mountain Cow (Morris
2004), Pacbitun (Healy 1990; Sunahara 1995), Moho Cay (Healy et al. 1984), and Cahal Pech (Awe 1992).
There were two main objectives to this investigation. First was to expand the spatial extent of petrographically
analysed ceramic samples from Late Classic centres, integrating new samples into a body of previous research
(Chartrand 2005; Sunahara 2003) and adding to an understanding of terminal Late Classic production and
distribution of volcanic ash tempered ceramics. The second goal was to expand the diachronic breadth of
cumulative research initiatives by including Cunil complex Preclassic material (Sullivan and Awe 2013). The
aim was to gain an understanding of spatial and diachronic similarities and variations in production and
distribution.
Recent years have seen the evidence from Western Belizean sites—especially Buenavista, Cahal Pech... more Recent years have seen the evidence from Western Belizean sites—especially Buenavista, Cahal Pech, Caracol, Cuychen, and Xunantunich—beginning to contribute substantially to scholarly understandings of the hegemonic networks underlying Classic Maya politics. Particularly illuminating are a series of seventh-century monuments commissioned by Caracol's king K'an II, which chronicle his polity's shifting fortunes as a client kingdom. While his own father was placed on the throne of Caracol by Wak Chan K'awiil of Tikal in 553 C.E., K'an II reports the dissolution of that relationship in the wake of the Snake kingdom's military defeat of Tikal in 562, as well as his own accession under the supervision of the Snake king Yuhknoom Ti' Chan in 619. At least two kings of nearby Naranjo were also placed on their thrones by Snake kings, in 546 and again in 693. Recent archaeological and epigraphic discoveries at Buenavista reveal it to have been the victim of warfare in 696 at the hands of the second of these Snake kingdom clients: K'ahk' Tiliw Chan Chahk. These discoveries join earlier evidence suggesting an invasively hegemonic Snake kingdom presence in Western Belize and the Eastern Petén during much of the sixth through eighth centuries.
2017 SAA Abstract The ancient Maya expressed complex ideological and cosmological systems throu... more 2017 SAA Abstract
The ancient Maya expressed complex ideological and cosmological systems through diverse material practices. The ritual caching of objects, particularly offerings of chert and obsidian eccentrics, was a common manifestation of this integrated worldview throughout the Maya Lowlands. The study of these caches allows archaeologists to explore elements of ancient Maya ideology, which were shared across broad temporal and spatial landscapes. With over 100 years of previous archaeological research, the Belize Valley is an ideal locale for understanding regional caching practices. At the major civic-ceremonial center of Xunantunich, recent work by Dr. Jaime Awe and the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project revealed the presence of several dedicatory caches from the Late Classic Period, adding to the corpus of known caches in the valley. An examination of eccentric morphology and cache context from the Belize Valley elucidates the manifestation of strong regional traditions and pan-Maya ideology, as well as provides insight into access and consumption of local and long distance trade commodities.
The plaza held special significance to the ancient Maya, and across ancient Mesoamerica. In a ref... more The plaza held special significance to the ancient Maya, and across ancient Mesoamerica. In a reflection of Maya cosmological beliefs, the plaza was seen as a representation of, and a portal to the primordial sea, the watery underworld from which all things originate. This connection is evident in various ways throughout the region, from special dedicatory deposits to decorative architecture and iconography. This presentation explores that cosmological salience through the recent excavations at Tutu Uitz Na, a large intermediate elite residential and ceremonial group situated in the Belize Valley, in the hinterland of the Late-Terminal Classic (AD 700-900) polity of Lower Dover. Tutu Uitz Na rose earlier, during the Middle Preclassic (1000-400 BC). The initial founding of the group saw the placement of a consecratory ritual deposit of artifacts associated with the watery underworld: figurines, marine shell, and an estimated 26 million river snails, all laid beneath the plaza. Excavations at a nearby commoner patio group have revealed a similar Middle Preclassic deposit beneath the patio. This paper explores the importance of this deposit and seeks to situate it within other case studies from Mesoamerica, to establish a distinct pattern of intent on the part of the ancient Maya.