Papers by Elizabeth Paris
Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association
FIG. 2. — Map of Moxviquil, including the locations of the monumental zone, Operation 4, an outly... more FIG. 2. — Map of Moxviquil, including the locations of the monumental zone, Operation 4, an outlying residential zone, and Operation 7, a funerary cave located on the hillslope below Operation 4. Drafted by Roberto López Bravo & Stephanie Reyes Ibelles, from topographic base map by INEGI (Mexico) and Moxviquil monumental zone map by Frans Blom digitally redrafted by Elizabeth Paris from the unpublished original on file at the Museo Na Bolom. Abbreviations: Op., operation; Str., structure.
En centros cívico-ceremoniales menores de Los Altos de Chiapas como Moxviquil, se encuentran form... more En centros cívico-ceremoniales menores de Los Altos de Chiapas como Moxviquil, se encuentran formas y significados que incluyen la codificación de principios cosmológicos, el refuerzo de los niveles sociales y de las relaciones de poder, y la utilización del entorno construido para condicionar el movimiento de los individuos por medio de la vista panorámica, por lo cual frecuentemente servían tanto para propósitos defensivos como para el control social
Lithic Technology, 2012
This article discusses a Formative period lithic assemblage from the site of San Estevan, in orde... more This article discusses a Formative period lithic assemblage from the site of San Estevan, in order to highlight the complex regional interaction between Middle Formative period sites in Northern Belize. These relationships have been discussed in the literature through debate over the "Producer-Consumer Model. " The San Estevan assemblage reflects activities associated with the local production and consumption of lithic tools, including the testing of raw nodules of chert and chalcedony, tool manufacture, use, resharpening, recycling and discard of exhausted tools. Many of the lithic tools at San Estevan exhibit similar forms and production techniques to tools found in contemporaneous deposits at Colha, Cuello, Cerros, Kichpanha, K'axob and Pulltrouser Swamp. This suggests the existence of fluid, dynamic intercommunity relationships and exchange networks between sites in Northern Belize during the Middle Formative period, in which regional tool types and manufacturing techniques were adapted by local producers to suit the demands of local households. This article is copyright protected and may not be used for commerical purposes without the written permission of the publisher. No forwarding, web posting, or further distribution of this PDF is allowed. formative period maya lithic tools and techniques 113 113
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2014
Over the last half-century, anthropologists have employed the concept of ''communities'' as an in... more Over the last half-century, anthropologists have employed the concept of ''communities'' as an interpretive framework. While many scholars have conceptualized the community as a territorial unit, it may be more usefully viewed as a type of social network. As social networks, communities create patterned relationships and interactions between their members, which can be reflected in various aspects of material culture from landscape markers to similarities in the stylistic attributes of domestic artifact assemblages. This article examines the nature and degree of interaction between the Early Postclassic period archaeological sites of Moxviquil, Huitepec, and Yerba Buena in highland Chiapas, and the degree to which the relationships between them constitute communities as social networks. Statistical measures of homogeneity and boundedness are used to compare ceramic vessel attributes at these three sites, and to identify patterns of exchange, emulation and distinction in ceramic assemblages. The results of the analysis suggest high degrees of homogeneity in ceramic attributes between Jovel Valley sites, in contrast with low degrees of homogeneity between the Jovel Valley sites and Yerba Buena. However, the results also indicate a low degree of boundedness between these three sites, suggest low-intensity inter-valley interaction between separate communities.
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2015
The excavations of Frans Blom and Clarence Weiant at the small hilltop site of Moxviquil in the e... more The excavations of Frans Blom and Clarence Weiant at the small hilltop site of Moxviquil in the early 1950s represent one of the pioneering archaeological projects in highland Chiapas. The results of their excavations, which were minimally published, provide important data on one of the largest Late Classic-Early Postclassic communities in the region. In this paper, we reconsider Moxviquil in light of recent scholarship on Maya urbanism, and present new interpretations of the site as a small city that fulfilled a diversified set of urban functions for residents both within the monumental zone itself, and in the surrounding hinterland areas. Consistent with its likely role as the administrative center of a small, independent highland polity, the monumental center of Moxviquil likely served political, economic, and ritual functions; was an important nucleus of residential settlement; and supported a wide range of household-based craft production and food preparation activities.
Journal of Ethnobiology, 2020
Beekeeping among the modern Maya of Yucatan, Mexico, reflects an intricate network of symbiotic r... more Beekeeping among the modern Maya of Yucatan, Mexico, reflects an intricate network of symbiotic relationships between bees, flowering plants, humans, and the managed landscape, which includes both settlements ( kaaj, [kah]) and the cultivated and fallow farmlands surrounding them ( k'ax). Native stingless bees are valued today both for the honey and wax they produce and the crops they pollinate. This study utilizes the ethnobiology of modern Maya stingless beekeeping to interpret the material correlates of ancient Maya beekeeping through archaeological exploration at Late Formative (200 BC–AD 200) Cerro Maya, Belize. Our contemporary data focus on the species of bees kept, the characteristics of wood species preferred for hive structures ( hobon[ob]), the functional parameters of limestone disk hobon covers ( mak tuun[ob]), and the plant species identified in symbiotic cultivation with them. The ecological and cultural factors that mediate stingless beekeeping in the present day...
Nature Communications
The influence of climate change on civil conflict and societal instability in the premodern world... more The influence of climate change on civil conflict and societal instability in the premodern world is a subject of much debate, in part because of the limited temporal or disciplinary scope of case studies. We present a transdisciplinary case study that combines archeological, historical, and paleoclimate datasets to explore the dynamic, shifting relationships among climate change, civil conflict, and political collapse at Mayapan, the largest Postclassic Maya capital of the Yucatán Peninsula in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE. Multiple data sources indicate that civil conflict increased significantly and generalized linear modeling correlates strife in the city with drought conditions between 1400 and 1450 cal. CE. We argue that prolonged drought escalated rival factional tensions, but subsequent adaptations reveal regional-scale resiliency, ensuring that Maya political and economic structures endured until European contact in the early sixteenth century CE.
Here we report the discovery of an Archaic period stemmed and barbed point from the site of Tenam... more Here we report the discovery of an Archaic period stemmed and barbed point from the site of Tenam Puente, Chiapas, Mexico. The point was discovered in the rubble fill used to modify a large Late Classic to Early Postclassic period plaza. The point bears a strong resemblance to Lowe points (12000–9300 CalBP) recovered from Belize, and Pedernales-style points discovered elsewhere in Mesoamerica (8700 CalBP). It is the second point of this style identified from highland Chiapas to date. Resumen: El artículo reporta el hallazgo de una punta de proyectil del periodo Arcaico, con pedúnculo y aletas, del sitio arqueológico Tenam Puente, Chiapas, México. La punta se ubicó en el relleno de cantos de piedra caliza utilizados para modificar una gran plaza del periodo de transición entre el Clásico Tardío y el Posclásico Temprano. La forma de la punta de proyectil es muy parecida a las puntas Lowe (12000–9300 CalBP) halladas en Belice y a las puntas de estilo Pedernales localizadas en otras par...
Minerals, 2021
The final stage in the life history of prehistoric pottery prior to archaeological recovery is us... more The final stage in the life history of prehistoric pottery prior to archaeological recovery is usually the longest, and frequently the most dynamic. The remains of archaeological ceramics spend hundreds to thousands of years deposited within the upper layers of the earth’s crust where they encounter the same diagenetic environmental processes as the surrounding natural materials. Harsh conditions of subterranean environments induce physical stresses and chemical reactions, causing alterations of ceramic structure and composition. This is especially true of carbonate-rich ceramics, as carbonate phases are soluble when deposited within acidic environments. This paper examines common carbonate depletion and accretion effects of post-depositional environments on ancient ceramics from two rather different geological and archaeological contexts: Mesoamerica and the Mediterranean. Potters in both regions produce vessels with carbonate-rich materials—clays, calcite, limestone—that alter due...
Anthropozoologica, 2020
This study investigates the animal use of the ancient inhabitants of Moxviquil, a small urban cen... more This study investigates the animal use of the ancient inhabitants of Moxviquil, a small urban center in the Jovel Valley of highland Chiapas, Mexico, that was occupied during the Late Classic (AD 600-900) and Early Postclassic periods (AD 900-1250). Zooarchaeological remains were recovered from the monumental zone, from a neighboring hilltop residential group, and from the funerary cave located immediately below the residential group. Rather than a hard boundary between house and wilderness, sacred and profane, the distribution of different species and elements reflect the ways in which animals and animal products were interwoven through the fabric of cultural practice. Domestic spaces reflect the selective husbandry and hunting of animals for everyday living, compared to the high-status crafts and dedicatory contexts of royal residences, and the carefully constructed microcosm of ritual activities represented in the funerary cave. Following Rapoport (1982) and Barthes (2012), we use a framework of low-level, mid-level and high-level meanings to understand everyday hunting and domestication practice, status and exchange relationships, and medicinal and ceremonial uses. Considering the meanings of particular animal species can provide a holistic perspective on the cultural practices that shaped royal, residential and ritual spaces at Moxviquil, and provide a perspective on broader issues of agro-urbanism and resiliency in highland Maya polities.
Journal of Field Archaeology, 2019
This article presents the excavation results of a funerary cave at the site of Moxviquil, located... more This article presents the excavation results of a funerary cave at the site of Moxviquil, located in the Jovel Valley of central highland Chiapas, Mexico. Diagnostic ceramics from funerary offerings suggest that the use of the cave spanned the principal occupation at the site, including Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) and Early Postclassic (A.D. 900-1250) periods. The offerings situate the Moxviquil cave within an extensive tradition of Mesoamerican sacred caves as funerary loci and situate the site itself within an extensive network of eastward-and westward-facing trade networks and political connections.
Archaeometallurgy in Mesoamerica: Current Approaches and New Perspectives, 2013
In recent decades there has been much discussion among archaeologists about the transformative ro... more In recent decades there has been much discussion among archaeologists about the transformative roles material objects play in human societies. Various scholars have focused attention on the ways that material culture is an integral part of social and economic systems through time, with considerable discourse centered on the role of specialized crafting in ancient societies (Apel
Estudios de Cultura Maya, 2016
El presente estudio investiga las formas multifacéticas en que los límites políticos y las barrer... more El presente estudio investiga las formas multifacéticas en que los límites políticos y las barreras sociales fueron definidas y mantenidas en la frontera occidental de la región lingüística y cultural maya. Las comparaciones del intercambio de diferentes bienes y medios pueden resaltar el grado en el que las barreras culturales fueron permeables o impenetrables en la zona fronteriza entre los mayahablantes de tzotzil de los Altos de Chiapas y sus vecinos hablantes de zoque de la Depresión Central. Las relaciones de intercambio entre ellos parecen haber sido suspendidas al final del período Postclásico Temprano, sugiriendo que la permeabilidad de la frontera occidental decreció a lo largo del tiempo, posiblemente como resultado de la llegada y expansión de los chiapanecas a la Depresión Central. Sin embargo, algunos tipos de artefactos de alto valor, como los ornamentos de metal, continuaron siendo intercambiados en esta frontera cultural.
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2008
Residents of Mayapan produced and consumed metal artifacts through long-distance commercial excha... more Residents of Mayapan produced and consumed metal artifacts through long-distance commercial exchange networks in the Postclassic Mesoamerican world system. In this paper, I perform a stylistic and typological analysis of metal artifacts and debris from lost-wax casting from recent excavations at Mayapan, with reference to previously excavated collections by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC. The distribution of metal artifacts suggests that metal objects were not sumptuary goods restricted to elites, but luxury goods availble to those who could afford them. I then compare Mayapan with other sites in the Postclassic Mesoamerican world system that were involved in the interregional distribution of metal artifacts. Although Mayapan did not have local sources of native metal or a longstanding traditions of metalworking, it was able to use its economic influence in the world system to obtain and create metal objects specific to its needs.
Ancient Mesoamerica
This article presents a compositional analysis of metal artifacts from the Postclassic period (a.... more This article presents a compositional analysis of metal artifacts from the Postclassic period (a.d. 1100–1450) city of Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico. We document metallurgical production at R-183, an elite residential group and one of the most significant archaeological contexts associated with metalworking at Mayapan. Salvage excavations in 1998 recovered a small cache containing 282 copper bells, two miniature ceramic vessels filled with metal, and production debris including loose casting sprues and miscast bells. Metallographic analysis of a small copper bell and wire fragments from the cache reveals lost-wax casting production techniques. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) of metal artifacts provides insight into the range of metals used by the R-183 metalworkers, which included copper-lead, copper-tin, and copper-arsenic alloys, and how these alloys compare to assemblages recovered from other contexts at the city. Our findings strongly suggest the use of remelting and casting te...
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Papers by Elizabeth Paris