Kathryn Reese-Taylor | University of Calgary (original) (raw)

Uploads

Books by Kathryn Reese-Taylor

Maya E-Groups: Calendars, Astronomy, and Urbanism in the Maya Lowlands, 2017

The authors of this volume investigate the meaning of Ancient Mesoamerican space, specifically, h... more The authors of this volume investigate the meaning of Ancient Mesoamerican space, specifically, how the elements of urban landscape were related to each other, and to other fundamental aspects of Ancient Mesoamericans. Essays in this volume highlight the importance of performance, poetics, and politics in the construction of meaningful space and its deployment in performance.

Papers by Kathryn Reese-Taylor

Remote Sensing

This study aims to provide a technique applied to archaeology to estimate lidar-based aboveground... more This study aims to provide a technique applied to archaeology to estimate lidar-based aboveground biomass (AGB) in contemporary tropical forests surrounding archaeological sites. Accurate AGB estimations are important to serve as a baseline to evaluate the wood resources that the ancient Maya could have used for the development of their cities. A lidar processing model is proposed to study the contemporary forest surrounding the Yaxnohcah archaeological site. As tropical forests are highly diverse environments where species are not uniformly distributed, it was necessary to consider the variation within the forest to obtain accurate AGB. Four vegetation communities were defined from a supervised classification of a Sentinel-2 satellite image. A stratified sample was then selected for the field survey that comprised 73 transects of 500 m2 each. To estimate the transect AGB, we used an allometric equation that requires diameter, height, and wood density measurements for identified spe...

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Yaxnohcah was a major city of the ancient Maya world, especially during the Preclassic period (10... more Yaxnohcah was a major city of the ancient Maya world, especially during the Preclassic period (1000 BCE–200 CE). Data from excavations provide important insights into the interactions between the ancient inhabitants and its surrounding Neotropical forests, a topic that, as a whole, remains largely enigmatic. This study aspired to fill that void in understanding by using traditional paleoethnobotanical approaches and a powerful new technology, the analysis of environmental DNA. Our results enabled us to characterize the vegetation growing in association with the principal structures and the artificial reservoirs that provided the city’s water supply. Because the area is without access to permanent water sources, such as rivers or lakes, these reservoirs were key to the development and survival of the city. Our results indicate that although there were large areas cleared for agricultural purposes, a mosaic of mature upland and bajo forest remained throughout the Maya occupation. In a...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2022

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022

This year, the first season of the Naachtun project was completed. This paper will present the Na... more This year, the first season of the Naachtun project was completed. This paper will present the Naachtun monuments, the results of the epigraphical investigation conducted during the 2004 season, and the goals for next season. Naachtun is located in the northern end of Petén, and occupies a central position among the Classic “superpowers ” of Tikal and Calakmul. The readable dates in the monuments of Naachtun, between 504 AD and 761 AD, cover almost the entire Classic period. One of the goals of the Naachtun Project is to investigate how the site managed to survive among those two powerful neighbours and their constant political presence. An additional goal of the project consists in exploring the transition between the Preclassic and the Classic in Naachtun. The site is located in the northwest end of the El Mirador basin, and contrary to the fate of many –if not all-other neighbours in the basin, it survived the social upheavals that unfolded around the end of the Preclassic period.

From the early cities in the second millennium BC to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan on the eve... more From the early cities in the second millennium BC to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan on the eve of the Spanish conquest, Ancient Mesoamericans created landscapes full of meaning and power in the center of their urban spaces. The sixteenth century description of Tenochtitlan by Bernal Diaz del Castillo and the archaeological remnants of Teotihuacan attest to the power and centrality of these urban configurations in Ancient Mesoamerican history. In Landscape and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica, Rex Koontz, Kathryn Reese-Taylor, and Annabeth Headrick explore the cultural logic that structured and generated these centers.Through case studies of specific urban spaces and their meanings, the authors examine the general principles by which the Ancient Mesoamericans created meaningful urban space. In a profoundly interdisciplinary exchange involving both archaeologists and art historians, this volume connects the symbolism of those landscapes, the performances that activated this symbolism, and the cultural poetics of these ensembles.

Ancient America Special Publication Number One Julia Guernsey and Kent Reilly, editors Boundary E... more Ancient America Special Publication Number One Julia Guernsey and Kent Reilly, editors Boundary End Archaeology Research Center 2006

The extensive analysis of remote-sensed data (among which ALS-derived images) and fieldwork carri... more The extensive analysis of remote-sensed data (among which ALS-derived images) and fieldwork carried out in the Trieste Karst (N-E Italy) have shed light on archaeological landscapes largely unknown until recent years. The chronological definition of this complex palimpsest was based on the collection of findings associated to the archeological evidence, shape and orientation of detected structures and stratigraphic relations among features. This allowed to evaluate the interplay between landforms through time and to reconstruct some long-term economic strategies pursued by past communities. As a result, we present a 1:5000 map of the easternmost sector of the Trieste area, next to the border between Italy and Slovenia, approximately corresponding to the area of the map Carta Tecnica Regionale 'Grozzana'. The map aims at providing a tool for the protection of the cultural and environmental heritage, land use planning and touristic valorization of the area.

Maya E-Groups: Calendars, Astronomy, and Urbanism in the Maya Lowlands, 2017

Remote Sensing

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2022

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022

On August 15, 2004, Naachtun site guardian Oracio Trujillo was patrolling the eastern perimeter o... more On August 15, 2004, Naachtun site guardian Oracio Trujillo was patrolling the eastern perimeter of the site concession when he encountered a deserted camp consisting of a tarp set up in the middle of a group of over a dozen mounds. In the camp he discovered flour sacks filled with ceramic pots. The camp had been abandoned only about five days before his arrival. He brought the vessels back to camp over the course of a few visits as he could not carry them all at once. The vessels collected from this region of the NAP concession were referred to as Operation 9 for recording purposes (Table A1, Table A2). They were brought in sequentially; Op 9A was in camp when we arrived for the 2005 season. Op 9B refers to pots from the same location that were collected at the end of April during the 2005 season. It is unclear if they are part of the same looting incident or a subsequent foray.

Maya E Groups, 2017

<p>In order to fully understand E Groups, they must be considered within the broader landsc... more <p>In order to fully understand E Groups, they must be considered within the broader landscapes of the Preclassic (1000 BCE-CE 250). At Yaxnohcah, the E Group lies in the center of a vast dispersed settlement comprised of voluminous platforms. Recent excavations have revealed that the earliest manifestations of three of these platforms were likely built at the same time as the earliest E Group platform, during the early Middle Preclassic (1000–350 BCE). Moreover, the three platforms are arranged in an evocative triadic formation. During the later Middle Preclassic and again during the Late Preclassic (300 BCE–250 CE), the site was enlarged and the architecture amplified and elaborated, with a focus on triadic arrangements and ballcourts. Significantly, however, the E Group complex maintained its centrality in the overall site plan throughout the development of the civic core. Therefore, this chapter considers the corpus of architectural forms at Yaxnohcah. These architectural constructs, the E Group, the Triadic Group, the ballcourt, and <italic>sacbes</italic> are essential elements of the founding landscape and work in concert to embody the evolving cosmological and social worldview of the lowlands Maya during the Preclassic.</p>

Geomorphology, 2019

Many early Maya cities developed along the edges of large structural or karst depressions (bajos)... more Many early Maya cities developed along the edges of large structural or karst depressions (bajos). This topographic position aided growing populations to more effectively capture and store rainwater, a necessity for year-round occupation of interior portions of the Maya Lowlands of Mexico and Central America. Ancient Maya forest clearance on sloping terrain led to accelerated soil loss and the aggradation of the bajo margins. These newly created margins of colluvial lands became a focus of subsequent intensive agriculture and helped underwrite further urban expansion. We document this long-term landscape transformation with data derived principally from field investigations at Tikal, Guatemala, and Yaxnohcah, Mexico, but with reference to other Maya centers in the Elevated Interior Region (EIR). Data are derived from field investigations, interpretation of lidar imagery, and laboratory analyses. We present a model of three variants of bajo margin landscape change with differences attributable to topography, lithology, hydrology, and cultural processes. We present preliminary data on crops that were cultivated on bajo-margin soils. We further describe how agriculture was adapted to evolving bajo margins as evidenced by systems of field walls, terraces, and ditches.

University Press of Florida, 2017

Chapter 2 reviews recent data on the original settlement of the Chetumal Bay region. There is evi... more Chapter 2 reviews recent data on the original settlement of the Chetumal Bay region. There is evidence for habitation in northern Belize during the Archaic and Preceramic periods on Progresso Lagoon and other parts of the interior, but the first evidence for settled life on the bay itself stems from the early Middle Preclassic period, specifically around Santa Rita Corozal in Belize and Oxtankah in Mexico. By the late Middle Preclassic a trading port was established on Tamalcab Island, indicative of organized community interaction and trade in highland imports such as jade and obsidian, probably exchanged for salt and other marine products. By the end of the Late Preclassic, the bay area population had increased dramatically, and both ports and inland centers exhibited monumental architecture.