Classification and Interpretation of Marine Shell Artifacts from Western Mexico

Classification and Interpretation of Marine Shell Artifacts from Western Mexico PDF Author: Robert Novella
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN:
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
An investigation into the functional and symbolic uses of shells during the pre-conquest era in the Occidente region of Mexico. The author first provides a classification list of known examples, then proceeds to interpret those examples, giving information on provenance, find context, date and function. He concludes that the presence of shell artefacts in the region is the result of a deliberate selection of that material - since the species represented were of relatively little food value - for functional/symbolic purposes.

Stone, Bone, Antler & Shell

Stone, Bone, Antler & Shell PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This book is for anyone who has looked at artifacts from the Northwest Coast in a museum and wondered: "How were these made?" "What was their function?" "How were they used?" Hilary Stewart lifts artifacts out of their isolation in a glass case and puts them into the context of the life of early native people on the coast. Archaeological excavations, or "digs, " have unearthed an array of ancient artifacts. While items made of perishable materials such as wood, bark and hide usually decayed over time, many objects of stone, bone, antler and shell have been found. In clear, easy to read text and over 1000 illustrations and 50 photos, Hilary Stewart depicts a wide range of artifacts. These tools, weapons, hunting and fishing gear, household and ceremonial items and ornaments reveal much about a people's way of life: how they fed, clothed, adorned and housed themselves; their technologies, skills and art; their trading and travelling patterns.

Cenote of Sacrifice

Cenote of Sacrifice PDF Author: Clemency Chase Coggins
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477302735
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Chichén Itzá ("mouth of the well of the Itza") was one of the great centers of civilization in prehistoric America, serving between the eighth and twelfth centuries A.D. as a religious, economic, social, and political capital on the Yucatán Peninsula. Within the ancient city there were many natural wells or cenotes. One, within the ceremonial heart of the city, is an impressive natural feature with vertical limestone walls enclosing a deep pool of jade green water some eighty feet below ground level. This cenote, which gave the city its name, became a sacred shrine of Maya pilgrimage, described by one post-Conquest observer as similar to Jerusalem and Rome. Here, during the city's ascendancy and for centuries after its decline, the peoples of Yucatán consulted their gods and made ritual offerings of precious objects and living victims who were thought to receive prophecies. Although the well was described by Bishop Diego de Landa in the late sixteenth century, its contents were not known until the early 1900s when revealed by the work of Edward H. Thompson. Conducting excavations for the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, Thompson recovered almost thirty thousand artifacts, most ceremonially broken and many beautifully preserved by burial in the deep silt at the bottom of the well. The materials were sent to the Peabody Museum, where they remained, unexhibited, for over seventy years. In 1984, for the first time, nearly three hundred objects of gold, jade, copper, pottery, wood, copal, textile, and other materials from the collection were gathered into a traveling interpretive exhibition. No other archaeological exhibition had previously given this glimpse into Maya ritual life because no other collection had objects such as those found in the Sacred Cenote. Moreover, the objects from the Cenote come from throughout Mesoamerica and lower Central America, representing many artistic traditions. The exhibit and this, its accompanying catalog, marked the first time all of the different kinds of offerings have ever been displayed together, and the first time many have been published. Essays by Gordon R. Willey and Linnea H. Wren place the Cenote of Sacrifice and the great Maya city of Chichén Itzá within the larger context of Maya archaeology and history. The catalog entries, written by Clemency Chase Coggins, describe the objects displayed in the traveling exhibition. Some entries are brief descriptive statements; others develop short scholarly themes bearing on the function and interpretation of specific objects. Coggins' introductory essay describes how the objects were collected by Thompson and how the exhibition collection has been studied to reveal the periods of Cenote ritual and the changing practices of offering to the Sacred Cenote.

Calvert Site

Calvert Site PDF Author: Peter Andrew Timmins
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
ISBN: 1772821500
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Located in the Thames River valley of southwestern Ontario, the Calvert site encompasses a variety of structures including houses, palisade walls, pits, hearths, and artifacts. This inquiry reveals an orderly evolution in its occupation history and sheds new light on the earliest period of ancient Iroquoian history.

Ceramics, Lithics, And Ornaments Of Chaco Canyon, Analyses Of Artifacts From The Chaco Project, 1971-1978, Vol., 3, Lithics And Ornaments, 1997

Ceramics, Lithics, And Ornaments Of Chaco Canyon, Analyses Of Artifacts From The Chaco Project, 1971-1978, Vol., 3, Lithics And Ornaments, 1997 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description


The Wupatki Archeological Inventory Survey Project

The Wupatki Archeological Inventory Survey Project PDF Author: Bruce A. Anderson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Archaeological surveying
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description


Déliberations Et Mémoires de la Société Royale Du Canada

Déliberations Et Mémoires de la Société Royale Du Canada PDF Author: Royal Society of Canada
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Humanities
Languages : en
Pages : 1286

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Book Description


The Maya World

The Maya World PDF Author: Scott R. Hutson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351029568
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 995

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Book Description
The Maya World brings together over 60 authors, representing the fields of archaeology, art history, epigraphy, geography, and ethnography, who explore cutting-edge research on every major facet of the ancient Maya and all sub-regions within the Maya world. The Maya world, which covers Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, contains over a hundred ancient sites that are open to tourism, eight of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and many thousands more that have been dug or await investigation. In addition to captivating the lay public, the ancient Maya have attracted scores of major interdisciplinary research expeditions and hundreds of smaller projects going back to the 19th century, making them one of the best-known ancient cultures. The Maya World explores their renowned writing system, towering stone pyramids, exquisitely painted murals, and elaborate funerary tombs as well as their creative agricultural strategies, complex social, economic, and political relationships, widespread interactions with other societies, and remarkable cultural resilience in the face of historical ruptures. This is an invaluable reference volume for scholars of the ancient Maya, including archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists.

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada PDF Author: Royal Society of Canada
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1768

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Book Description


The Spiro Ceremonial Center

The Spiro Ceremonial Center PDF Author: James A. Brown
Publisher: U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY
ISBN: 0915703394
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 784

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Book Description
In Volume I of this two-volume set, James A. Brown reports on and interprets decades of archaeological investigation at the Spiro Ceremonial Center, a major site along the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma. In Volume 2, he describes the archaeological collections in detail, covering burials, ceramics, stone tools, pipes, beads, textiles, ornaments, and animal bone. Foreword by James B. Griffin. Contributions by Alice M. Brues, Lyle W. Konigsberg, Paul W. Parmalee, and David H. Stansbery.

Excavation of Two Anasazi Sites in Southern Utah

Excavation of Two Anasazi Sites in Southern Utah PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Excavations (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
"The two reports published here contain elements which contribute substantially to this broader spectrum of Southwestern cultural change. While primarily descriptive in nature, these two site reports, one from the western Kayenta area and one from the margin of the Mesa Verde area and the eastern Kayenta, suggest that the changes which occurred in the more centralized portions of these regions were directly related to what happened on the margins. That, while the site densities and population aggregates may not have been as high, the same factors affected these marginal areas. That conclusion could be expected, but what may not be expected is the differential response which appears to have occurred. After reading these two reports, it appears that it may be possible to discern elements of change in these fringe areas that, once defined, will provide new insight into what happened and why and in what are presently the better known areas of the Southwest. These two papers are important, in sum, not only because they are reports of work in poorly known areas, but because they do provide analyses of fringe areas, they help us to understand the Southwest generally"--From preliminary introduction.