Precolumbian Maya graffiti is challenging to document because it is complex, multilayered, and difficult to see with the naked eye. In the Maya Lowlands, precolumbian graffiti occurs as etched palimpsests on parts of substructures such as stucco walls of residences, palaces, and temples that are frequently only accessible through dark and narrow tunnel excavations. Experienced iconographers or epigraphers with advanced drawing skills are the most qualified researchers to accurately record, analyze, and interpret precolumbian Maya graffiti. Because these scholars have a vast knowledge of conventions and styles from multiple time periods and sites, they are less likely to document the complex and seemingly chaotic incisions incorrectly. But as with many specialists in Maya archaeology, iconographers and epigraphers are not always available to collaborate in the field. This raises the question, how might an archaeologist without advanced training in iconography accurately record graffiti in subterranean excavations? Advances in digital applications of archaeological field recording have opened new avenues for documenting graffiti. One of these is Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), a method that uses a moving light source and photography in order to visualize, interact with, and analyze a three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional image. With practice, RTI images can easily be produced in the field and later shared with specialists for the purposes of analysis and interpretation. Performed on a series of 20 unique graffiti from the Maya archaeological site of Holtun (two examples are presented here), RTI shows promise as a viable technique for documenting and preserving graffiti as cultural heritage.

Jade and greenstone objects have been held in high regard by many cultures stemming from their limited geological availability and their unique optical and mechanical properties. Jade and greenstone objects symbolized life, fertility, and eternity to early Mesoamerican people. In recent years, scientific studies on jade and greenstone objects have been performed to establish provenance and usage, identify composition, and verify the presence of a particular material. These studies of jade and greenstone objects are generally divided geographically, with considerable interest in China and Central America. Most studies are focused on objects from one particular archaeological site; however, a few studies have focused on collections from a range of sites. The use of multiple complimentary analytical techniques has been shown to be the most effective method for characterizing and understanding the technical information obtained from cultural heritage objects. In our study, we examine a set of Mesoamerican jade and greenstone objects from the collection at the Dallas Museum of Art using multiple non-destructive techniques, including scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and handheld X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. We briefly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. Lastly, we present the results from our study and discuss them in their archaeological and historical context.

AbstractPrecolumbian Maya graffiti is challenging to document because it is complex, multilayered, and difficult to see with the naked eye. In the Maya Lowlands, precolumbian graffiti occurs as etched palimpsests on parts of substructures such as stucco walls of residences, palaces, and temples that are frequently only accessible through dark and narrow tunnel excavations. Experienced iconographers or epigraphers with advanced drawing skills are the most qualified researchers to accurately record, analyze, and interpret precolumbian Maya graffiti. Because these scholars have a vast knowledge of conventions and styles from multiple time periods and sites, they are less likely to document the complex and seemingly chaotic incisions incorrectly. But as with many specialists in Maya archaeology, iconographers and epigraphers are not always available to collaborate in the field. This raises the question, how might an archaeologist without advanced training in iconography accurately record graffiti in subterranean excavations? Advances in digital applications of archaeological field recording have opened new avenues for documenting graffiti. One of these is Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), a method that uses a moving light source and photography in order to visualize, interact with, and analyze a three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional image. With practice, RTI images can easily be produced in the field and later shared with specialists for the purposes of analysis and interpretation. Performed on a series of 20 unique graffiti from the Maya archaeological site of Holtun (two examples are presented here), RTI shows promise as a viable technique for documenting and preserving graffiti as cultural heritage.

How we currently define value is certainly different than understandings and meanings of value in the past. Nevertheless, coming to a more common understanding of how we define value in academic writing can make it easier to communicate between researchers and then progressively understand indigenous conceptions. We argue that using a three-part definition of value, or ideological/moral/ethical value(s), esteemed value, and measured value can more effectively allow us to see how objects in the past may have traversed these different realms. We explore how jade among the Classic-period Maya may have been viewed in the past in terms of an ideological value system that gave it an inherent value and animate agency that could be modified and embellished by human agency to add more prestige and esteemed value. Many of these objects were acted upon by human actors, but also acted back to constitute the social identity of human actors. David Graeber argues that what is ultimately being valued are actions and not things. During the Maya Classic period jade objects may have been on the precipice of the transition from esteemed value to measured value because the ideological conceptions of the capacity for action of these objects (and therefore their owners) were shifting. Value is the way actions become meaningful to the actors by being placed in some larger social realm, real or imaginary. In this way, if we can understand how the object is situated in its social realm, it can give us clues as to not only its value, but the larger values of the society and how those realms of value were mutually constituted.

We conducted a meta-content analysis of FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-red) spectroscopy methods and application throughout five journals, and evaluated variation present in FTIR-ATR spectra across original data sets from bone samples from distinct archaeological contexts. The meta-analysis revealed a lack of standardization and consistency in methodology and reporting for FTIR practices. Results suggest wavenumbers used for calculating IRSF and C/P in addition to baseline correction impact interpretations of bioapatite preservation. We recommend that FTIR spectra should always be baseline corrected and analyzed in absorbance (A). We also recommend consistent reporting of methods to demonstrate data fidelity prior to interpretation.

This research elucidates the changing function of some of the earliest types of monumental architecture in the Maya world, the E-Group, using ICP-MS soil chemistry analysis of associated floor surfaces at the site of Holtun, Guatemala. E-groups are architectural assemblages first appearing during the Middle Preclassic period that are associated with public, ritual activities, such as marking important celestial and agricultural events. Our methodology targeted sequential, stratigraphic plaza floors in the E-Group compound at Holtun to examine changing activities through time. Residential patio surfaces were also sampled as a comparison to public, ritual activity. Our results suggest that activities related to food production and consumption are visible in sequential plaza floors of the E-Group, and the locations of some of these activities changed over time. Moreover, activities and locations revealed through soil chemical analysis also differed somewhat from those in residential patios, suggesting different patterns of use in public versus private spaces.

The debate technique has the potential to encourage students to critically think and engage in anthropology courses in higher education. But debates can be challenging, especially when taking place in an online environment. This article presents the implementation of a debate in a high-enrollment, online archaeology course. Mainly, we seek to answer these questions: (1) How did students perceive their critical thinking, engagement, and interaction while participating in the online debate? (2) What was the instructor’s experience related to the quality of student responses as well as the grading time and effort? At the conclusion, we offer recommendations for educators interested in incorporating debates into their own practice.

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method-combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) analyses of household groups-to identify potential neighborhoods based on clusters of households at 23 ancient centers across the Maya Lowlands. While a one-size-fits all model does not work for neighborhood identification everywhere, the ANN/KD method provides quantifiable data on the clustering of ancient households, which can be linked to environmental zones and urban scale. We found that centers in river valleys exhibited greater household clustering compared to centers in upland and escarpment environments. Settlement patterns on flat plains were more dispersed, with little discrete spatial clustering of households. Furthermore, we categorized the ancient Maya centers into discrete urban scales, finding that larger centers had greater variation in household spacing compared to medium-sized and smaller centers. Many larger political centers possess heterogeneity in household clustering between their civic-ceremonial cores, immediate hinterlands, and far peripheries. Smaller centers exhibit greater household clustering compared to larger ones. This paper quantitatively assesses household clustering among nearly two dozen centers across the Maya Lowlands, linking environment and urban scale to settlement patterns. The findings are applicable to ancient societies and modern cities alike; understanding how humans form multi-scalar social groupings, such as neighborhoods, is fundamental to human experience and social organization.

I outline a relational economy model that is broadly applicable to a range of economies both past and present. A relational economy begins from the basic premise that all economic transactions are social and interpersonal relations. I apply this model to reciprocal gift economies, specifically the Classic Maya of Mesoamerica (ca. AD 250–850). For my case study, I present evidence from archaeological contexts including the Bonampak murals and hieroglyphic texts to show how marriage and war were in many instances paired acts, simultaneously dissolving former alliances and cementing new social relations. Prestige goods including cacao (chocolate), jade, feathers, and cotton mantles were exchanged in both marriages and warfare. I show how marriage partners, captives, and prestige goods were not objectified in these reciprocal exchanges but were gendered and personified (human and nonhuman) beings. I present a posthumanist approach to a relational economy and suggest that prestige goods are perhaps best understood as relational beings or persons that were mutually constituted and generative. From a relational perspective, these transactions did not embed the social into the economic but were inherently emotional and interpersonal transactions and, therefore, simultaneously social and economic relations in ancient Maya society.

In the Maya area, craft production was a significant part of domestic economies that included the specialized manufacture of a variety of goods and took place in both elite and commoner contexts. Crafting played a central role in a number of processes, including the creation of inalienable goods, the emergence of market economies, the maintenance and transformation of identity, risk reduction, and the establishment of patron-client relations. In this chapter we synthesize data on production from Lowland Maya sites and argue that degree of specialization and organization of production varied greatly among and within production industries. The diversity of production patterns and specialization lead us to conclude that in order to effectively study craft production among the ancient Maya we must analyze each local artifact industry on its own terms before applying a-priori assumptions or adapting conventional models.

Abstract This work addresses varying interpretations of the production, circulation, and consumption of jades in the Maya area from the Preclassic through the Postclassic periods (600 b.c.–a.d. 1697). Traditionally, exchange of jades has been seen as a dyadic relationship between elites (gifting and tribute). Some have argued for gradations of value in the circulation of jades, which probably circulated in both elite and commoner spheres. More recent research argues that jade blanks were commoditized because they could be standardized. In this article, we evaluate this last claim, concluding there is no evidence for standardization and commodification of jade blanks, and a dearth of jade blanks in archaeological deposits. We critique the expectation that commodities in some nonindustrial economies should be standardized, and make suggestions about what kinds of jade objects, if any, have greatest potential to become commodities in the Maya area.

This data article contains an atlas of paste fabrics and supplemental paste compositional data generated from Late Middle Preclassic-period ceramics at the Maya site of Holtun, Guatemala. The data include maps showing locations of archeological contexts, excavation profiles, photographs and photomicrographs of sherds and paste fabrics, and compositional data produced by Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) at the Research Reactor, University of Missouri (MURR). The NAA data include a biplot and table of canonical discriminant analyses, Mahalonobis distance calculations, and Euclidian distance searches between the samples.

This study uses type: variety-mode classification, digital stereomicroscopy, and Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) to characterize the paste composition of Late Middle Preclassic-period pottery at the site of Holtun, Guatemala. The sample consists of 98 sherds including unslipped utilitarian ware, slipped serving ware, and Mars Orange fine paste serving ware. NAA reveals four paste composition groups that approximate types produced through type: variety-mode classification and paste groups recognized by digital stereomicroscopy. The analysis suggests a pattern of production in which unslipped utilitarian vessels, slipped serving vessels, and Mars Orange fine paste serving vessels were produced using different paste recipes. While unslipped utilitarian vessels and slipped serving vessels may have been produced and consumed locally, Mars Orange fine paste serving vessels were likely produced in or around Holtun but consumed more widely. Results of this research suggest the Late Middle Preclassic-period ceramic economy at Holtun was characterized by incipient specialized production, and exchange of at least one ceramic ware. These results advance our understanding of Late Middle Preclassic-period ceramic production and exchange at Holtun, and inform the study of the development of socio-political complexity in the Maya lowlands.