Armando Anaya Hernandez | Universidad Autonoma De Campeche (original) (raw)

Papers by Armando Anaya Hernandez

Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2021

American Antiquity, 1997

The published paper by Patterson (1994) gives the impression that Latin American archaeology has ... more The published paper by Patterson (1994) gives the impression that Latin American archaeology has a significant orientation toward social archaeology. We present evidence, however, that indicates the restricted nature of social archaeology in time (1970s and early 1980s) and space (Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela). Social archaeology developed only in a political context where the model pursued by the state was sympathetic to marxist ideology during a specific historical period. Further, at the academic level, social archaeology gradually lost appeal to students in those countries where it developed because of the politicization of the archaeological discourse at universities and the lack of a relationship between practice and theory (epistemological theory). The practical aspects of social archaeology have never passed beyond those of cultural history produced under the schema of a national state archaeology. Consideration of the realities under which archaeology developed in each...

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020

This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmenta... more This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to systematically process and annotate archaeological features and 2) revisit the cultural and ecological context of the samples. The results presented here confirm some of the conclusions presented previously, including the benefit of mining large previously acquired digital data for archaeological information, the diversity of lowland settlement and features in between areas already well-documented, and the contribution to landscape archaeology of such transect samples when coupled to macro-environmental data sets. These data also fill in some details about the prehispanic Mesoamerican landscape, raising new questions about the relationship between past settlements and regional cultural, political, and ecological systems. Finally, these data offer important foundational inventories for discussing how to preserve and conserve archaeological resources across the lowlands, especially when these resources are not tied to monumental architecture.

Americae. European Journal of Americanist Archaeology, 2018

En este trabajo examinamos la visita que Antonio de Caravajal hizo a Michoacán en 1523-1524 aplic... more En este trabajo examinamos la visita que Antonio de Caravajal hizo a Michoacán en 1523-1524 aplicando las herramientas analíticas que ofrecen los Sistemas de Información Geográfica. En particular, calculamos las distancias recorridas por el visitador tomando en cuenta la fricción y por lo tanto el esfuerzo necesario para desplazarse sobre el entorno físico (distancia coste). De este modo encontramos que la medida de las leguas registradas por Caravajal es sumamente variable y que se aleja mucho de los valores normalmente aceptados para la legua, lo que hace pensar que sus estimaciones fueron muy subjetivas. Por otra parte, considerando tres posibles ritmos de marcha, comprobamos que Caravajal se desplazaba con un ritmo de marcha rápida (8.5 km/h), al igual que otros viajeros que anduvieron en la región durante el siglo XVI como el padre Alonso Ponce. Aún así, el cálculo del tiempo necesario para hacer algunos de los recorridos realizados por Caravajal pone en duda su factibilidad y por lo tanto la veracidad de al menos algunos de sus informes.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2017

High-resolution airborne lidar has been employed in the Maya lowlands to examine landscape modifi... more High-resolution airborne lidar has been employed in the Maya lowlands to examine landscape modifications, detect architectural features, and expedite and expand upon traditional settlement surveys. Another potentially beneficial-and to-date underutilized-application of lidar is in the analysis of water management features such as small reservoirs and household storage tanks. The urban center of Yaxnohcah, located within the Central Karstic Uplands of the Yucatan Peninsula, provides an ideal test case for studying how the residents of this important Maya community managed their seasonally scarce water resources at the household scale. We employ an integrative approach combining lidar-based GIS analysis of 24 km 2 of the site area, ground verification, and excavation data from five small depressions to determine their function and the role they may have played in water management activities. Our research shows that some, but not all, small depressions proximate to residential structures functioned as either natural or human-made storage tanks and were likely an adaptive component of expanding Middle Preclassic to Classic period urbanization at the site. Thus, while lidar has revolutionized the identification of topographical features and hydrologic patterns in the landscape, a combination of ground verification and archaeological testing remains necessary to confirm and evaluate these features as potential water reservoirs.

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2016

This study proposes a sampling method for ground-truthing LiDAR-derived data that will allow rese... more This study proposes a sampling method for ground-truthing LiDAR-derived data that will allow researchers to verify or predict the accuracy of results over a large area. Our case study is focused on a 24 km2area centered on the site of Yaxnohcah in the Yucatan Peninsula. This area is characterized by a variety of dense tropical rainforest and wetland vegetation zones with limited road and trail access. Twenty-one 100 x 100 m blocks were selected for study, which included examples of several different vegetation zones. A pedestrian survey of transects through the blocks was conducted, recording two types of errors. Type 1 errors consist of cultural features that are identified in the field, but are not seen in the digital elevation model (DEM) or digital surface model (DSM). Type 2 errors consist of features that appear to be cultural when viewed on the DEM or DSM, but are caused by different vegetative features. Concurrently, we conducted an extensive vegetation survey of each block,...

Internet Archaeology, 2006

Ancient Mesoamerica, 2009

Coba represents a major Classic period Maya urban center. Archaeological investigations have sugg... more Coba represents a major Classic period Maya urban center. Archaeological investigations have suggested a complex socioeconomic integration apparent in the heterogeneity of the size, shape, and quality of architecture while demonstrating a clear demarcation between commoner and elite compounds in addition to a complex system of raised roads (sacbeob). Results of the 1974–1976 mapping efforts at Coba revealed a generalized concentric settlement pattern with elite compounds concentrated at the core. In their analysis of the settlement patterns at Tikal, Guatemala, Arnold and Ford challenged this concentric model. Their analysis of labor investment in structures within the 9 km2 core area of Tikal suggested, in contrast to Coba, a scattered rather than a concentric pattern of high-status architecture. Using a geographic information system (GIS), we tested our concentric model hypothesis for Coba by applying Arnold and Ford's work investment parameters. Our results confirmed the pres...

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020

Abstract This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by env... more Abstract This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to systematically process and annotate archaeological features and 2) revisit the cultural and ecological context of the samples. The results presented here confirm some of the conclusions presented previously, including the benefit of mining large previously acquired digital data for archaeological information, the diversity of lowland settlement and features in between areas already well-documented, and the contribution to landscape archaeology of such transect samples when coupled to macro-environmental data sets. These data also fill in some details about the prehispanic Mesoamerican landscape, raising new questions about the relationship between past settlements and regional cultural, political, and ecological systems. Finally, these data offer important foundational inventories for discussing how to preserve and conserve archaeological resources across the lowlands, especially when these resources are not tied to monumental architecture.

The study consisted of determining the effect of E. crassipes compost on the quality of T. cacao ... more The study consisted of determining the effect of E. crassipes compost on the quality of T. cacao nursery plants, knowing the appropriate compost percentages for its addition as sustrate and determining levels of lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) in E. crassipes plants, compost and T. cacao plants. A completely randomized design was used, with 5 treatments, 5 repetitions with 48 plants each, in an experimentation period of 4.5 months. Compost of E. crassipes was used in percentages of 10%, 20% and 40% mixed with soil in 90%, 80% and 60%. The treatments were identified as: T1 (T10: 90), T2 (T20: 80), T3 (T40: 60), a relative treatment T4 (TR, 100% soil and chemical fertilization) and a control treatment T5 (TT, 100 % land). The results of the ANOVA show that there is a statistically significant difference of the treatments in the quality of T. cacao plants for the diameter, Dickson's Quality Index (ICD) and total dry weight. The T1, T2, T3 and T4 were statistically superior...

The northwestern Yucatan Peninsula area offers a unique staging ground to assess diverse kinds of... more The northwestern Yucatan Peninsula area offers a unique staging ground to assess diverse kinds of preColumbian religious and political practices through time. Those geopolitical units briefly reviewed in the Ah Canul Province coincide with Roy’s cuchcabal-batabil-cuchteel classification scheme. Another variant, based upon cosmology and cyclical time, possibly provides a distinct charter for religious, political, and community organization and spatial morphology in Campeche’s Canpech and Chakanputun Provinces. Archaeological, architectural, environmental, epigraphic, and ethnohistoric evidences suggest that may seats of power systematically rotated through time between pre-Columbian regional capitals Edzna, Acanmul, and Porfia – Pa’ilbox strategically located on two rivers connected by a vast hydraulic system within a 4800km2. combined evidence in this discretely defined geopolitical unit suggests a unified regional environmental and cultural entity for the study area. Architecture, ...

Climate Change and Threatened Communities, 2012

This chapter examines how archaeological research into past Mayan land use practices in Campeche,... more This chapter examines how archaeological research into past Mayan land use practices in Campeche, Mexico may contribute to increase farm productivity and food security for the region’s smallholders. The area’s rural communities are threatened by climate change, with the area’s rainfall decreasing and less reliable in recent years. Harvests are diminished in both the traditional Maya practice of shifting cultivation (swidden) and the tractor cultivation introduced in the 1980s. Policies introduced as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement also place increasing economic pressures on local maize growers. Recent archaeological research in this area suggests that Pre-Hispanic, Maya canal systems with raised fields once drained floodwaters for later irrigation and household uses during dry periods. The authors call for collaborative efforts with local farmers to reconstruct this irrigation system on an experimental basis to determine if it can increase food production and complementary cash-cropping that forms part of family livelihoods today.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X20303345 This paper presents the archa... more https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X20303345 This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to systematically process and annotate archaeological features and 2) revisit the cultural and ecological context of the samples. The results presented here confirm some of the conclusions presented previously, including the benefit of mining large previously acquired digital data for archaeological information, the diversity of lowland settlement and features in between areas already well-documented, and the contribution to landscape archaeology of such transect samples when ...

BAR INTERNATIONAL SERIES No. 994, 2000

... Title: Site interaction and political geography in the upper Usumacinta region during the lat... more ... Title: Site interaction and political geography in the upper Usumacinta region during the late classic: A GIS approach. Authors: Hernandez, Armando Anaya. Advisor: Matthews, Peter L. Issue Date: 1999. Department: Archaeology. Publisher: University of Calgary. ...

Introducción La importancia de Calakmul ha sido reconocida desde hace ya mucho tiempo, por lo que... more Introducción La importancia de Calakmul ha sido reconocida desde hace ya mucho tiempo, por lo que la necesidad de establecer los límites del mismo y su esfera de influencia ha sido la principal preocupación de muchos estudiosos. Desde que el Dr. Cyrus L. Lundell guiado por dos chicleros de la Central Chiclera Buenfíl lo descubrió en 1931, arqueólogos y aficionados han levantando planos de Calakmul y su región. En 1933 John Bolles de la Carnegie Institution de Washington, levantó un plano más detallado del núcleo del sitio y un equipo de agrimensores de la misma institución realizaron un recorrido arqueológico en ambos lados de la raya con Guatemala hasta cerca de Xcanha en el noroeste del estado de Campeche produciendo un plano que abarcaba unos 8,000 km². El descubrimiento de la naturaleza heráldica de los glifos emblema por Enrique Berlín (1958), y la identificación del glifo emblema de Calakmul en regiones tan alejadas como Piedras Negras en Guatemala, Caracol en Belice, y Copán en Honduras hicieron evidente su importancia política y su identidad como capital regional (Barthel 1968; Marcus 1973, 1976). Esto promovió que los esfuerzos de los estudiosos se volcaron en la definición del Estado Regional de Calakmul y su esfera de influencia. Entendemos como Estado Regional de Calakmul una forma de organización sociopolítica que no simplemente incluyó a Calakmul sino también a una buena parte del Petén campechano y que se mostró independiente de las áreas aledañas. El plano de la Carnegie es retomado por Flannery (1972), quien elabora un modelo hexagonal del Estado Regional de Campeche que comprendía un área de aproximadamente 2700 kilómetros cuadrados, incluyendo como sitios tributarios de éste a Oxpemul, La Muñeca, Altamira, Naachtun, Uxul y Sasilha. Posteriormente Marcus (1973, 1976) retoma a su vez el plano de Flannery donde además de incluir los mismos sitios tributarios incluye también los sitios dependientes de estos últimos y así sucesivamente, presentando un modelo de cuatro niveles jerárquicos.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X20303345 This paper presents the ar... more https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X20303345

This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to systematically process and annotate archaeological features and 2) revisit the cultural and ecological context of the samples. The results presented here confirm some of the conclusions presented previously, including the benefit of mining large previously acquired digital data for archaeological information, the diversity of lowland settlement and features in between areas already well-documented, and the contribution to landscape archaeology of such transect samples when coupled to macro-environmental data sets. These data also fill in some details about the prehispanic Mesoamerican landscape, raising new questions about the relationship between past settlements and regional cultural, political, and ecological systems. Finally, these data offer important foundational inventories for discussing how to preserve and conserve archaeological resources across the lowlands, especially when these resources are not tied to monumental architecture.

Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 2021

American Antiquity, 1997

The published paper by Patterson (1994) gives the impression that Latin American archaeology has ... more The published paper by Patterson (1994) gives the impression that Latin American archaeology has a significant orientation toward social archaeology. We present evidence, however, that indicates the restricted nature of social archaeology in time (1970s and early 1980s) and space (Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela). Social archaeology developed only in a political context where the model pursued by the state was sympathetic to marxist ideology during a specific historical period. Further, at the academic level, social archaeology gradually lost appeal to students in those countries where it developed because of the politicization of the archaeological discourse at universities and the lack of a relationship between practice and theory (epistemological theory). The practical aspects of social archaeology have never passed beyond those of cultural history produced under the schema of a national state archaeology. Consideration of the realities under which archaeology developed in each...

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020

This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmenta... more This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to systematically process and annotate archaeological features and 2) revisit the cultural and ecological context of the samples. The results presented here confirm some of the conclusions presented previously, including the benefit of mining large previously acquired digital data for archaeological information, the diversity of lowland settlement and features in between areas already well-documented, and the contribution to landscape archaeology of such transect samples when coupled to macro-environmental data sets. These data also fill in some details about the prehispanic Mesoamerican landscape, raising new questions about the relationship between past settlements and regional cultural, political, and ecological systems. Finally, these data offer important foundational inventories for discussing how to preserve and conserve archaeological resources across the lowlands, especially when these resources are not tied to monumental architecture.

Americae. European Journal of Americanist Archaeology, 2018

En este trabajo examinamos la visita que Antonio de Caravajal hizo a Michoacán en 1523-1524 aplic... more En este trabajo examinamos la visita que Antonio de Caravajal hizo a Michoacán en 1523-1524 aplicando las herramientas analíticas que ofrecen los Sistemas de Información Geográfica. En particular, calculamos las distancias recorridas por el visitador tomando en cuenta la fricción y por lo tanto el esfuerzo necesario para desplazarse sobre el entorno físico (distancia coste). De este modo encontramos que la medida de las leguas registradas por Caravajal es sumamente variable y que se aleja mucho de los valores normalmente aceptados para la legua, lo que hace pensar que sus estimaciones fueron muy subjetivas. Por otra parte, considerando tres posibles ritmos de marcha, comprobamos que Caravajal se desplazaba con un ritmo de marcha rápida (8.5 km/h), al igual que otros viajeros que anduvieron en la región durante el siglo XVI como el padre Alonso Ponce. Aún así, el cálculo del tiempo necesario para hacer algunos de los recorridos realizados por Caravajal pone en duda su factibilidad y por lo tanto la veracidad de al menos algunos de sus informes.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2017

High-resolution airborne lidar has been employed in the Maya lowlands to examine landscape modifi... more High-resolution airborne lidar has been employed in the Maya lowlands to examine landscape modifications, detect architectural features, and expedite and expand upon traditional settlement surveys. Another potentially beneficial-and to-date underutilized-application of lidar is in the analysis of water management features such as small reservoirs and household storage tanks. The urban center of Yaxnohcah, located within the Central Karstic Uplands of the Yucatan Peninsula, provides an ideal test case for studying how the residents of this important Maya community managed their seasonally scarce water resources at the household scale. We employ an integrative approach combining lidar-based GIS analysis of 24 km 2 of the site area, ground verification, and excavation data from five small depressions to determine their function and the role they may have played in water management activities. Our research shows that some, but not all, small depressions proximate to residential structures functioned as either natural or human-made storage tanks and were likely an adaptive component of expanding Middle Preclassic to Classic period urbanization at the site. Thus, while lidar has revolutionized the identification of topographical features and hydrologic patterns in the landscape, a combination of ground verification and archaeological testing remains necessary to confirm and evaluate these features as potential water reservoirs.

Advances in Archaeological Practice, 2016

This study proposes a sampling method for ground-truthing LiDAR-derived data that will allow rese... more This study proposes a sampling method for ground-truthing LiDAR-derived data that will allow researchers to verify or predict the accuracy of results over a large area. Our case study is focused on a 24 km2area centered on the site of Yaxnohcah in the Yucatan Peninsula. This area is characterized by a variety of dense tropical rainforest and wetland vegetation zones with limited road and trail access. Twenty-one 100 x 100 m blocks were selected for study, which included examples of several different vegetation zones. A pedestrian survey of transects through the blocks was conducted, recording two types of errors. Type 1 errors consist of cultural features that are identified in the field, but are not seen in the digital elevation model (DEM) or digital surface model (DSM). Type 2 errors consist of features that appear to be cultural when viewed on the DEM or DSM, but are caused by different vegetative features. Concurrently, we conducted an extensive vegetation survey of each block,...

Internet Archaeology, 2006

Ancient Mesoamerica, 2009

Coba represents a major Classic period Maya urban center. Archaeological investigations have sugg... more Coba represents a major Classic period Maya urban center. Archaeological investigations have suggested a complex socioeconomic integration apparent in the heterogeneity of the size, shape, and quality of architecture while demonstrating a clear demarcation between commoner and elite compounds in addition to a complex system of raised roads (sacbeob). Results of the 1974–1976 mapping efforts at Coba revealed a generalized concentric settlement pattern with elite compounds concentrated at the core. In their analysis of the settlement patterns at Tikal, Guatemala, Arnold and Ford challenged this concentric model. Their analysis of labor investment in structures within the 9 km2 core area of Tikal suggested, in contrast to Coba, a scattered rather than a concentric pattern of high-status architecture. Using a geographic information system (GIS), we tested our concentric model hypothesis for Coba by applying Arnold and Ford's work investment parameters. Our results confirmed the pres...

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020

Abstract This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by env... more Abstract This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to systematically process and annotate archaeological features and 2) revisit the cultural and ecological context of the samples. The results presented here confirm some of the conclusions presented previously, including the benefit of mining large previously acquired digital data for archaeological information, the diversity of lowland settlement and features in between areas already well-documented, and the contribution to landscape archaeology of such transect samples when coupled to macro-environmental data sets. These data also fill in some details about the prehispanic Mesoamerican landscape, raising new questions about the relationship between past settlements and regional cultural, political, and ecological systems. Finally, these data offer important foundational inventories for discussing how to preserve and conserve archaeological resources across the lowlands, especially when these resources are not tied to monumental architecture.

The study consisted of determining the effect of E. crassipes compost on the quality of T. cacao ... more The study consisted of determining the effect of E. crassipes compost on the quality of T. cacao nursery plants, knowing the appropriate compost percentages for its addition as sustrate and determining levels of lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) in E. crassipes plants, compost and T. cacao plants. A completely randomized design was used, with 5 treatments, 5 repetitions with 48 plants each, in an experimentation period of 4.5 months. Compost of E. crassipes was used in percentages of 10%, 20% and 40% mixed with soil in 90%, 80% and 60%. The treatments were identified as: T1 (T10: 90), T2 (T20: 80), T3 (T40: 60), a relative treatment T4 (TR, 100% soil and chemical fertilization) and a control treatment T5 (TT, 100 % land). The results of the ANOVA show that there is a statistically significant difference of the treatments in the quality of T. cacao plants for the diameter, Dickson's Quality Index (ICD) and total dry weight. The T1, T2, T3 and T4 were statistically superior...

The northwestern Yucatan Peninsula area offers a unique staging ground to assess diverse kinds of... more The northwestern Yucatan Peninsula area offers a unique staging ground to assess diverse kinds of preColumbian religious and political practices through time. Those geopolitical units briefly reviewed in the Ah Canul Province coincide with Roy’s cuchcabal-batabil-cuchteel classification scheme. Another variant, based upon cosmology and cyclical time, possibly provides a distinct charter for religious, political, and community organization and spatial morphology in Campeche’s Canpech and Chakanputun Provinces. Archaeological, architectural, environmental, epigraphic, and ethnohistoric evidences suggest that may seats of power systematically rotated through time between pre-Columbian regional capitals Edzna, Acanmul, and Porfia – Pa’ilbox strategically located on two rivers connected by a vast hydraulic system within a 4800km2. combined evidence in this discretely defined geopolitical unit suggests a unified regional environmental and cultural entity for the study area. Architecture, ...

Climate Change and Threatened Communities, 2012

This chapter examines how archaeological research into past Mayan land use practices in Campeche,... more This chapter examines how archaeological research into past Mayan land use practices in Campeche, Mexico may contribute to increase farm productivity and food security for the region’s smallholders. The area’s rural communities are threatened by climate change, with the area’s rainfall decreasing and less reliable in recent years. Harvests are diminished in both the traditional Maya practice of shifting cultivation (swidden) and the tractor cultivation introduced in the 1980s. Policies introduced as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement also place increasing economic pressures on local maize growers. Recent archaeological research in this area suggests that Pre-Hispanic, Maya canal systems with raised fields once drained floodwaters for later irrigation and household uses during dry periods. The authors call for collaborative efforts with local farmers to reconstruct this irrigation system on an experimental basis to determine if it can increase food production and complementary cash-cropping that forms part of family livelihoods today.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X20303345 This paper presents the archa... more https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X20303345 This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to systematically process and annotate archaeological features and 2) revisit the cultural and ecological context of the samples. The results presented here confirm some of the conclusions presented previously, including the benefit of mining large previously acquired digital data for archaeological information, the diversity of lowland settlement and features in between areas already well-documented, and the contribution to landscape archaeology of such transect samples when ...

BAR INTERNATIONAL SERIES No. 994, 2000

... Title: Site interaction and political geography in the upper Usumacinta region during the lat... more ... Title: Site interaction and political geography in the upper Usumacinta region during the late classic: A GIS approach. Authors: Hernandez, Armando Anaya. Advisor: Matthews, Peter L. Issue Date: 1999. Department: Archaeology. Publisher: University of Calgary. ...

Introducción La importancia de Calakmul ha sido reconocida desde hace ya mucho tiempo, por lo que... more Introducción La importancia de Calakmul ha sido reconocida desde hace ya mucho tiempo, por lo que la necesidad de establecer los límites del mismo y su esfera de influencia ha sido la principal preocupación de muchos estudiosos. Desde que el Dr. Cyrus L. Lundell guiado por dos chicleros de la Central Chiclera Buenfíl lo descubrió en 1931, arqueólogos y aficionados han levantando planos de Calakmul y su región. En 1933 John Bolles de la Carnegie Institution de Washington, levantó un plano más detallado del núcleo del sitio y un equipo de agrimensores de la misma institución realizaron un recorrido arqueológico en ambos lados de la raya con Guatemala hasta cerca de Xcanha en el noroeste del estado de Campeche produciendo un plano que abarcaba unos 8,000 km². El descubrimiento de la naturaleza heráldica de los glifos emblema por Enrique Berlín (1958), y la identificación del glifo emblema de Calakmul en regiones tan alejadas como Piedras Negras en Guatemala, Caracol en Belice, y Copán en Honduras hicieron evidente su importancia política y su identidad como capital regional (Barthel 1968; Marcus 1973, 1976). Esto promovió que los esfuerzos de los estudiosos se volcaron en la definición del Estado Regional de Calakmul y su esfera de influencia. Entendemos como Estado Regional de Calakmul una forma de organización sociopolítica que no simplemente incluyó a Calakmul sino también a una buena parte del Petén campechano y que se mostró independiente de las áreas aledañas. El plano de la Carnegie es retomado por Flannery (1972), quien elabora un modelo hexagonal del Estado Regional de Campeche que comprendía un área de aproximadamente 2700 kilómetros cuadrados, incluyendo como sitios tributarios de éste a Oxpemul, La Muñeca, Altamira, Naachtun, Uxul y Sasilha. Posteriormente Marcus (1973, 1976) retoma a su vez el plano de Flannery donde además de incluir los mismos sitios tributarios incluye también los sitios dependientes de estos últimos y así sucesivamente, presentando un modelo de cuatro niveles jerárquicos.

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X20303345 This paper presents the ar... more https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X20303345

This paper presents the archaeological evaluation of 458 tiles of LiDAR collected by environmental scientists over southern Mexico using the G-LiHT system of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Specifically, this article describes the results of a full processing, inspection, and annotation of these data for the identification and baseline analysis of archaeological features. In this paper, we: 1) introduce the dataset and describe our efforts to systematically process and annotate archaeological features and 2) revisit the cultural and ecological context of the samples. The results presented here confirm some of the conclusions presented previously, including the benefit of mining large previously acquired digital data for archaeological information, the diversity of lowland settlement and features in between areas already well-documented, and the contribution to landscape archaeology of such transect samples when coupled to macro-environmental data sets. These data also fill in some details about the prehispanic Mesoamerican landscape, raising new questions about the relationship between past settlements and regional cultural, political, and ecological systems. Finally, these data offer important foundational inventories for discussing how to preserve and conserve archaeological resources across the lowlands, especially when these resources are not tied to monumental architecture.

Airbone lidar presents a valuable tool to investigate water management in a water-scarce region o... more Airbone lidar presents a valuable tool to investigate water management in a water-scarce region of the Maya lowlands. We analyze 25 km 2 of lidar elevation data for the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah in Campeche, Mexico. Using the hydrologic tools in the GIS software ArcMap we identified hundreds of closed depressions (many extremely small). These features may have a natural origin (e.g., a sinkhole) or may be anthropogenic (e.g., from quarrying), or may be data artifacts. We used a series of filters to narrow the list of closed depressions to those which have the potential to be used for water storage. We examined many of these features on the ground and excavated several, with the archaeological data indicating their origins during the Middle Preclassic period (900 – 400 BC). As the lidar also shows residential and monumental structures, we examine the spatial relationships between structures and water storage features (including watershed area, drainage lines, and water storage capacity).

La danza es considerada una actividad universal de la humanidad, aunque no es posible precisar cu... more La danza es considerada una actividad universal de la humanidad, aunque no es posible precisar cuándo ésta formó parte del bagaje cultural humano. Sin embargo, la investigación arqueológica nos indica que ésta constituyó una parte fundamental del ceremonial, ritual, celebración y hasta entretenimiento de los grupos humanos desde tiempos inmemoriales. La investigación etnográfica nos sugiere que una de las funciones pudo haber estado asociada al relato de historias míticas, así como un medio de alcanzar estados alterados de conciencia que permitieran establecer contacto con los ancestros, o para fines terapéuticos en rituales chamanísticos, por ejemplo, entre los grupos bosquimanos del desierto de Kalahari, en la Amazonía, o en las praderas de Norteamérica (Katz, 1982; Reichel-Dolmatof, 1974; Brown, 1996) Pero cuando pensamos en la danza se nos dificulta abstraernos de nuestras propias concepciones de la misma. Por ejemplo, en la cultura occidental la danza es considerada como una expresión artística que involucra movimientos corporales, a menudo al compás de la música. Looper (2009) ha argumentado que se han ofrecido varias definiciones, la mayoría de las cuales se centran exclusivamente en sus características formales. Más allá de las características formales que pudieran distraer la atención del investigador, la danza debe de abordarse como una ejecución corporal que utiliza movimientos rítmicos en un espacio determinado, es efímera y tienen una forma y estilo reconocidos tanto por el intérprete como por los espectadores (Looper 2009). En este sentido la danza es considerada por muchas culturas como una forma de expresión emocional e interacción social, por lo que es a su vez una forma de comunicación no verbal que trasmite de manera efectiva la tradición oral. Looper (2009) enfatiza sin embargo, que aunque se han realizado varios intentos por presentar definiciones de la danza que sean aplicables a diferentes contextos interculturales, estos siguen centrándose exclusivamente en las características formales sin considerar ejemplos de sistemas de movimiento. En este sentido la definición de la danza debería incluir el contexto cultural, lo que daría cuenta de los distintos géneros. De acuerdo a este autor, una consideración sistemática de género al interior de una tradición dancística debería de incluir las siguientes cuatro variables: