Holley Moyes | University of California, Merced (original) (raw)
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Papers by Holley Moyes
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2023
During the Late Classic period (A.D. 550-900), ancient Maya settlement spread throughout western ... more During the Late Classic period (A.D. 550-900), ancient Maya settlement spread throughout western Belize, including the Vaca Plateau, a rugged karstic region with high densities of ritually utilized cave systems. Within the past decade, archaeologists have increasingly drawn on LiDAR technology to document the extent of such settlement at local and regional scales. Combined with traditional pedestrian survey, we have begun to amass substantial data on variation within household groups, disparities which may indicate inequality within these communities. Here, we use settlement data generated from the Las Cuevas region to quantify residential variation through Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves. Special attention is given to areal and volumetric deviation of identified households within three samples: (1) the complete 95.25 km 2 study area; (2) a 12.25 km 2 zone of higher population between the primary centers of Las Cuevas and Monkey Tail; and (3) households situated within 500 m of ritually utilized caves within the study area. Results indicate some degree of variation within household area and volume for all samples, suggestive of unequal access to labor within the region. This research adds to the growing database of Gini-based analyses to improve our understanding of wealth differentials within pre-modern populations throughout the Lowlands.
University of Arizona Press eBooks, Nov 6, 2023
From as early as 1000 B.C., the Maya considered caves to be sacred features of the landscape and ... more From as early as 1000 B.C., the Maya considered caves to be sacred features of the landscape and used them as ritual performance spaces. These performances became increasingly important during the 8-10th centuries Late Classic Maya ‘collapse’ when a series of events caused the localities in the Southern Lowlands to grow increasingly dissatisfied with their rulers. Las Cuevas, Belize is the most salient example of the strong tie that existed between monumental centers and ritual cave sites of the ancient Maya during this period. Using a combination of perceptual approaches grounded in cognitive methods, traditional excavation techniques, and a Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze artifact densities, the sinkhole outside the cave at Las Cuevas is shown to be a physically and socially restricted space which reveals political control over ritual resources and the appropriation of sacred space by the elite in reaffirming their right to rule in a time of crisis. It is also shown to contain a Late Classic ritual procession route connecting the main plaza and underlying cave, which further suggests the need to refine existing models of ritual circuits in order to include these vital yet previously neglected features of the sacred landscape.
Ancient Maya Ritual Pathways: Performing Power Outside The Cave At Las Cuevas, Belize. Submitted. In Breaking Barriers: Proceedings of the 47th Annual Chacmool Conference. Calgary: Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary.
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2017
The 86th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2021
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2014
Anime has become a global phenomenon, and on U.S. college campuses, popular courses on Japan tend... more Anime has become a global phenomenon, and on U.S. college campuses, popular courses on Japan tend to focus on it. The study of anime is also a rapidly growing scholarly field, with many significant academic books having been published in the last ten years. Ian Condry's The Soul of Anime is an excellent addition to this field and is particularly notable for being one of the few works on anime that does not have as its focus anime as text. Rather, Condry's work involves extensive anthropological fieldwork on multiple sites of anime production "to explore ethnographically the social side of media" (pp. 1-2). As he did in his previous book, Hip Hop Japan (2006), Condry focuses on the production sites of popular culture, venturing beyond national borders. As the title of the book indicates, Condry investigates the phenomenon behind "Japan's Media Success Story." Condry argues that a key to anime's popularity and success is the "collaborative creativity" across media industries that connects various participants, from producers to fans. This collective energy is the "soul" of anime. Condry emphasizes that to understand anime, it must not be isolated from this milieu; rather, study of anime must include the manga or novel sources, the toy and figurine franchises, and fans' activities such as translation and distribution of the anime, cosplay, and conventions, plus other levels of fan interactivity with the anime, such as even "marrying" anime characters. Condry's approach, utilizing various methodologies and multiple sites, such as anime studios, a toy company, online communication among fans, and careful reading of related academic and nonacademic works in English and Japanese, works brilliantly to examine the complex "transmedia" phenomenon. Each chapter investigates various production sites at which "collaborative creativity" occurs in relation to anime. Chapters 1 and 2 are based on the ethnographic analyses of the process of anime production-particularly at anime studios. He questions the dominant focus on stories and argues that "characters and worlds" are creative platforms for anime. In chapters 3 and 4, Condry traces the history of anime in post-WWII Japan. It is particularly interesting REFERENCE CITED
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
Creating cave maps is an essential part of cave research. Traditional cartographic efforts are ex... more Creating cave maps is an essential part of cave research. Traditional cartographic efforts are extremely time consuming and subjective, motivating the development of new techniques using terrestrial lidar scanners and mobile lidar systems. However, processing the large point clouds from these scanners to produce detailed, yet manageable "maps" remains a challenge. In this work, we present a methodology for synthesizing a basemap representing the cave floor from large scale point clouds, based on a case study of a SLAMbased lidar data acquisition from a cave system in the archaeological site of Las Cuevas, Belize. In 4 days of fieldwork, the 335 m length of the cave system was scanned, resulting in a point cloud of 4.1 billion points, with 1.6 billion points classified as part of the cave floor. This point cloud was processed to produce a basemap that can be used in GIS, where natural and anthropogenic features are clearly visible and can be traced to create accurate 2D maps similar to traditional cartography.
Contributions to Phenomenology
In order to explore the question of whether artists are phenomenologists, I consider the negative... more In order to explore the question of whether artists are phenomenologists, I consider the negative and affirmative answers defended by Edith Landmann-Kalischer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, respectively. Through this comparison, I bring to light reasons why phenomenologists take themselves to share a subject-matter with artists, viz., lived experience. However, with this comparison I also highlight the ways in which the answer to this question turns on how we conceive of what phenomenologists do. If one endorses a more scientific conception of phenomenology, as Landmann-Kalischer does, then it seems that the phenomenologist does something fundamentally different from the artist. But if one endorses a more aesthetic conception of phenomenology, as Merleau-Ponty does, then the phenomenologist’s efforts appear to be of a piece with those of the artist. In the end, I will not defend one position over the other; rather, my aim is to show that in order to answer the question, are artists phen...
Gyles Iannone, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, Jaime Awe, Holley Moyes, George Brook, Jason Polk,... more Gyles Iannone, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, Jaime Awe, Holley Moyes, George Brook, Jason Polk, James Webster, and James Conolly In recent years, a number of eminent scholars have urged archaeologists to focus more attention on the examination of long-term socioecological dynamics, particularly because they believe that such research will generate insights that will be crucial as contemporary society attempts to deal with issues such as declining resources, environmental degradation, and climate change (e.g., Costanza, Graumlich, and Steffen 2007b; Costanza et al. 2007; Dearing 2007; Diamond 2005; Hughes 2001; McAnany and Yoffee 2010b:8; McIntosh, Tainter, and McIntosh 2000b; Redman 1999; Rosen 2007; Sabloff 1998; Scheffer 2009:250; van der Leeuw and Redman 2002:597; Wright 2004; Young et al. 2007:449–50). According to John Dearing (2007:23), the ultimate goal of this research program is not to “predict the future, but [rather to] be able to identify, justify, and rank alternative...
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2022
This article focuses on a novel three-dimensional reconstruction system that maps large archeolog... more This article focuses on a novel three-dimensional reconstruction system that maps large archeological caves using data collected by a small unmanned aircraft system with red, green, and blue-depth cameras. Cave sites often contain the best-preserved material in the archeological record. Yet few sites are fully mapped. Large caves environment usually contains complex geometric structures and objects, which must be scanned with long overlapped camera trajectories for better coverage. Due to the error in camera tracking of such scanning, reconstruction results often contain flaws and mismatches. To solve this problem, we propose a framework for surface loop closure, where loops are detected with a compute unified device architecture accelerated point cloud registration algorithm. After a loop is detected, a novel surface loop filtering method is proposed for robust loop optimization. This loop filtering method is robust to different scan patterns and can cope with tracking failure reco...
The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology, 2021
Light has a fundamental role to play in our perception of the world. It meditates the relationshi... more Light has a fundamental role to play in our perception of the world. It meditates the relationship between people and things within space, and is crucial to our understanding of the material culture of past societies. This chapter introduces light as the core focus of the volume; its qualities and affordances in different contexts and (im)material environments; its design and manipulation; and its elusive properties. The introduction also outlines how the contributions are structured. Chapters serve as case studies to show how diverse spatial and temporal contexts can advance archaeologies of light and with light. The volume is divided into seven thematic parts, each of which explores how light enables or hinders interactions, materializes and is being materialized, animates and illuminates, accentuates and shadows, generates symbols, meanings, and systems, creates beliefs and phenomena, transforms rituals and traditions, structures spaces, and shapes atmospheres. The volume then cl...
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2023
During the Late Classic period (A.D. 550-900), ancient Maya settlement spread throughout western ... more During the Late Classic period (A.D. 550-900), ancient Maya settlement spread throughout western Belize, including the Vaca Plateau, a rugged karstic region with high densities of ritually utilized cave systems. Within the past decade, archaeologists have increasingly drawn on LiDAR technology to document the extent of such settlement at local and regional scales. Combined with traditional pedestrian survey, we have begun to amass substantial data on variation within household groups, disparities which may indicate inequality within these communities. Here, we use settlement data generated from the Las Cuevas region to quantify residential variation through Gini coefficients and Lorenz curves. Special attention is given to areal and volumetric deviation of identified households within three samples: (1) the complete 95.25 km 2 study area; (2) a 12.25 km 2 zone of higher population between the primary centers of Las Cuevas and Monkey Tail; and (3) households situated within 500 m of ritually utilized caves within the study area. Results indicate some degree of variation within household area and volume for all samples, suggestive of unequal access to labor within the region. This research adds to the growing database of Gini-based analyses to improve our understanding of wealth differentials within pre-modern populations throughout the Lowlands.
University of Arizona Press eBooks, Nov 6, 2023
From as early as 1000 B.C., the Maya considered caves to be sacred features of the landscape and ... more From as early as 1000 B.C., the Maya considered caves to be sacred features of the landscape and used them as ritual performance spaces. These performances became increasingly important during the 8-10th centuries Late Classic Maya ‘collapse’ when a series of events caused the localities in the Southern Lowlands to grow increasingly dissatisfied with their rulers. Las Cuevas, Belize is the most salient example of the strong tie that existed between monumental centers and ritual cave sites of the ancient Maya during this period. Using a combination of perceptual approaches grounded in cognitive methods, traditional excavation techniques, and a Geographic Information System (GIS) to analyze artifact densities, the sinkhole outside the cave at Las Cuevas is shown to be a physically and socially restricted space which reveals political control over ritual resources and the appropriation of sacred space by the elite in reaffirming their right to rule in a time of crisis. It is also shown to contain a Late Classic ritual procession route connecting the main plaza and underlying cave, which further suggests the need to refine existing models of ritual circuits in order to include these vital yet previously neglected features of the sacred landscape.
Ancient Maya Ritual Pathways: Performing Power Outside The Cave At Las Cuevas, Belize. Submitted. In Breaking Barriers: Proceedings of the 47th Annual Chacmool Conference. Calgary: Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary.
The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2017
The 86th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2021
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2014
Anime has become a global phenomenon, and on U.S. college campuses, popular courses on Japan tend... more Anime has become a global phenomenon, and on U.S. college campuses, popular courses on Japan tend to focus on it. The study of anime is also a rapidly growing scholarly field, with many significant academic books having been published in the last ten years. Ian Condry's The Soul of Anime is an excellent addition to this field and is particularly notable for being one of the few works on anime that does not have as its focus anime as text. Rather, Condry's work involves extensive anthropological fieldwork on multiple sites of anime production "to explore ethnographically the social side of media" (pp. 1-2). As he did in his previous book, Hip Hop Japan (2006), Condry focuses on the production sites of popular culture, venturing beyond national borders. As the title of the book indicates, Condry investigates the phenomenon behind "Japan's Media Success Story." Condry argues that a key to anime's popularity and success is the "collaborative creativity" across media industries that connects various participants, from producers to fans. This collective energy is the "soul" of anime. Condry emphasizes that to understand anime, it must not be isolated from this milieu; rather, study of anime must include the manga or novel sources, the toy and figurine franchises, and fans' activities such as translation and distribution of the anime, cosplay, and conventions, plus other levels of fan interactivity with the anime, such as even "marrying" anime characters. Condry's approach, utilizing various methodologies and multiple sites, such as anime studios, a toy company, online communication among fans, and careful reading of related academic and nonacademic works in English and Japanese, works brilliantly to examine the complex "transmedia" phenomenon. Each chapter investigates various production sites at which "collaborative creativity" occurs in relation to anime. Chapters 1 and 2 are based on the ethnographic analyses of the process of anime production-particularly at anime studios. He questions the dominant focus on stories and argues that "characters and worlds" are creative platforms for anime. In chapters 3 and 4, Condry traces the history of anime in post-WWII Japan. It is particularly interesting REFERENCE CITED
ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
Creating cave maps is an essential part of cave research. Traditional cartographic efforts are ex... more Creating cave maps is an essential part of cave research. Traditional cartographic efforts are extremely time consuming and subjective, motivating the development of new techniques using terrestrial lidar scanners and mobile lidar systems. However, processing the large point clouds from these scanners to produce detailed, yet manageable "maps" remains a challenge. In this work, we present a methodology for synthesizing a basemap representing the cave floor from large scale point clouds, based on a case study of a SLAMbased lidar data acquisition from a cave system in the archaeological site of Las Cuevas, Belize. In 4 days of fieldwork, the 335 m length of the cave system was scanned, resulting in a point cloud of 4.1 billion points, with 1.6 billion points classified as part of the cave floor. This point cloud was processed to produce a basemap that can be used in GIS, where natural and anthropogenic features are clearly visible and can be traced to create accurate 2D maps similar to traditional cartography.
Contributions to Phenomenology
In order to explore the question of whether artists are phenomenologists, I consider the negative... more In order to explore the question of whether artists are phenomenologists, I consider the negative and affirmative answers defended by Edith Landmann-Kalischer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, respectively. Through this comparison, I bring to light reasons why phenomenologists take themselves to share a subject-matter with artists, viz., lived experience. However, with this comparison I also highlight the ways in which the answer to this question turns on how we conceive of what phenomenologists do. If one endorses a more scientific conception of phenomenology, as Landmann-Kalischer does, then it seems that the phenomenologist does something fundamentally different from the artist. But if one endorses a more aesthetic conception of phenomenology, as Merleau-Ponty does, then the phenomenologist’s efforts appear to be of a piece with those of the artist. In the end, I will not defend one position over the other; rather, my aim is to show that in order to answer the question, are artists phen...
Gyles Iannone, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, Jaime Awe, Holley Moyes, George Brook, Jason Polk,... more Gyles Iannone, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, Jaime Awe, Holley Moyes, George Brook, Jason Polk, James Webster, and James Conolly In recent years, a number of eminent scholars have urged archaeologists to focus more attention on the examination of long-term socioecological dynamics, particularly because they believe that such research will generate insights that will be crucial as contemporary society attempts to deal with issues such as declining resources, environmental degradation, and climate change (e.g., Costanza, Graumlich, and Steffen 2007b; Costanza et al. 2007; Dearing 2007; Diamond 2005; Hughes 2001; McAnany and Yoffee 2010b:8; McIntosh, Tainter, and McIntosh 2000b; Redman 1999; Rosen 2007; Sabloff 1998; Scheffer 2009:250; van der Leeuw and Redman 2002:597; Wright 2004; Young et al. 2007:449–50). According to John Dearing (2007:23), the ultimate goal of this research program is not to “predict the future, but [rather to] be able to identify, justify, and rank alternative...
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2022
This article focuses on a novel three-dimensional reconstruction system that maps large archeolog... more This article focuses on a novel three-dimensional reconstruction system that maps large archeological caves using data collected by a small unmanned aircraft system with red, green, and blue-depth cameras. Cave sites often contain the best-preserved material in the archeological record. Yet few sites are fully mapped. Large caves environment usually contains complex geometric structures and objects, which must be scanned with long overlapped camera trajectories for better coverage. Due to the error in camera tracking of such scanning, reconstruction results often contain flaws and mismatches. To solve this problem, we propose a framework for surface loop closure, where loops are detected with a compute unified device architecture accelerated point cloud registration algorithm. After a loop is detected, a novel surface loop filtering method is proposed for robust loop optimization. This loop filtering method is robust to different scan patterns and can cope with tracking failure reco...
The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology, 2021
Light has a fundamental role to play in our perception of the world. It meditates the relationshi... more Light has a fundamental role to play in our perception of the world. It meditates the relationship between people and things within space, and is crucial to our understanding of the material culture of past societies. This chapter introduces light as the core focus of the volume; its qualities and affordances in different contexts and (im)material environments; its design and manipulation; and its elusive properties. The introduction also outlines how the contributions are structured. Chapters serve as case studies to show how diverse spatial and temporal contexts can advance archaeologies of light and with light. The volume is divided into seven thematic parts, each of which explores how light enables or hinders interactions, materializes and is being materialized, animates and illuminates, accentuates and shadows, generates symbols, meanings, and systems, creates beliefs and phenomena, transforms rituals and traditions, structures spaces, and shapes atmospheres. The volume then cl...
As often highly structured events that are dynamically created, negotiated, and contested through... more As often highly structured events that are dynamically created, negotiated, and contested through time, performances have the unique ability to convey crucial information about social processes. Through the differential engagement of multivocal performers and audience members, performances can operate as highly distilled social metaphors that are engaged with through bodily participation. Over the last few decades, scholars have engaged with performance in the archaeological record, particularly through the lens of architectural spaces such as theaters, plazas, and stages. While caves have been recognized as incredibly important venues for ritual activity, with few exceptions the actions employed in these spaces have not been consistently interpreted through the lens of performance and have not been adequately incorporated into the growing corpus of performance theory. However, the study of performance in caves affords the investigation of the intersection between natural and modified space, the spatial and social implications for how performance is conducted and structured, and the social and political implications of cave ritual. Through case studies that are broad in geographical and temporal scope, this session seeks to explore the mechanisms of performance by expanding and refining existing frameworks for interpreting performance as they operate in caves. We seek contributions that address theoretical and/or methodological approaches that consider ways of bridging the gap between the dynamic and evocative process of performance with its material signature. We invite participants to engage with this exiting topic through explorations of various elements of performance as they relate to caves. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: 1. How do caves facilitate and structure the types of performance conducted? (i.e. qualities of spatial configuration including architectural modifications, sensorial qualities, or transformative qualities) 2. How do performance objectives shape and structure the use and/or modification of caves? 3. At what scale(s) does cave performance operate? Who is the audience (human vs. non-human)? Who are the performers? What is considered an appropriate venue? What is being communicated? To whom and by whom? Degree of performer/audience participation? 4. How can cave performances be understood through the lens of political negotiation and action?
This volume offers an integrated and comparative approach to the Popol Vuh, analyzing its myths t... more This volume offers an integrated and comparative approach to the Popol Vuh, analyzing its myths to elucidate the ancient Maya past while using multiple lines of evidence to shed light on the text. Combining interpretations of the myths with analyses of archaeological, iconographic, epigraphic, ethnohistoric, ethnographic, and literary resources, this work demonstrates how Popol Vuh mythologies contribute to the analysis and interpretation of the ancient Maya past.
The chapters are grouped into four sections. The first section interprets the Highland Maya worldview through examination of the text, analyzing interdependence between deities and human beings as well as the textual and cosmological coherence of the Popol Vuh as a source. The second section analyzes the Precolumbian Maya archaeological record as it relates to the myths of the Popol Vuh, providing new interpretations of the use of space, architecture, burials, artifacts, and human remains found in Classic Maya caves. The third explores ancient Maya iconographic motifs, including those found in Classic Maya ceramic art; the nature of predatory birds; and the Hero Twins’ deeds in the Popol Vuh. The final chapters address mythological continuities and change, reexamining past methodological approaches using the Popol Vuh as a resource for the interpretation of Classic Maya iconography and ancient Maya religion and mythology, connecting the myths of the Popol Vuh to iconography from Preclassic Izapa, and demonstrating how narratives from the Popol Vuh can illuminate mythologies from other parts of Mesoamerica.
The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art, and Ritual is the first volume to bring together multiple perspectives and original interpretations of the Popol Vuh myths. It will be of interest not only to Mesoamericanists but also to art historians, archaeologists, ethnohistorians, iconographers, linguists, anthropologists, and scholars working in ritual studies, the history of religion, historic and Precolumbian literature and historic linguistics.
Contributors: Jaime J. Awe, Karen Bassie-Sweet, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Michael D. Coe, Iyaxel Cojtí Ren, Héctor Escobedo, Thomas H. Guderjan, Julia Guernsey, Christophe Helmke, Nicholas A. Hopkins, Barbara MacLeod, Jesper Nielsen, Colin Snider, Karl A. Taube