Abstract: The Classic Maya Collapse: The View from the Cave

Abstract: The Classic Maya Collapse: The View from the Cave 

Lecturer: Holley Moyes

The Classic Maya Collapse of the ninth century has been intensely studied for over 150 years and has traditionally been considered one of archaeology's great mysteries.  In recent years our understanding of the "collapse" has become more nuanced and archaeologists now generally refer to the collapse as a change in the political structure limited to the southern and eastern Maya lowlands.  As archaeological studies have provided more fine-grained site chronologies, regional paleoclimate studies have provided a new data source from which to evaluate proximal causes for these structural changes. Many of the newer causation models suggest that loss of faith in the Maya rulership by the populace was at least partially responsible for the collapse of the political structure, but to date no one has offered evidence from the archaeological record.  Data collected from the ancient Maya ritual cave site of Chechem Ha in western Belize suggests that there was a ritual response to climatic drying during the later part of the 9th century in the form of a Late Classic drought cult. Although the phenomenon was identified in this case study, the pattern is prevalent throughout the eastern lowlands. This research provides the first evidence of a failed ritual response to environmental stress, implying that a loss of faith in Maya rulership contributed to the downfall of political systems.

Sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America

AIA Society Event: Central PA (University Park)

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 8:00pm

 

Location:
Pennsylvania State University, Room TBA, University Park
State College , PA
United States

Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:
Moyes, Holley, Jaime J. Awe, George Brook, and James Webster, 2009, The Ancient Maya Drought Cult: Late Classic Cave Use in Belize, Latin American Antiquity 20(1): 175-206.
Moyes, Holley, 2008, Charcoal as a Proxy for Use-Intensity in Ancient Maya Cave Ritual. In Religion, Archaeology, and the Material World, edited by Lars Fogelin, pp. 139-158, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Carbondale, Illinois.
Moyes, Holley, 2004,Changes and Continuities in Ritual Practice at Chechem Ha Cave, Belize: Report on Excavations Conducted in the 2003 Field Season. Report submitted to the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc

Presentation: “Otzmal” at Miami Science Museum

* click on image to see more details

“Otzmal” 

with Dr. Clifford T. Brown, Florida Atlantic University

Over the past few years, Clifford Brown has been a part of the Central Yucatan Project, and has mapped and surveyed numerous Maya sites in the region. One site he helped to investigate stood out among others. It had pyramids, a palace, residential buildings and a cenote of sacrifice.  What made it different? What is so special about Otzmal?


Otzmal is significant because it is a small, yet complete site, described as a single-component Mayapan-style site, which are extremely rare. It dates from a key, but poorly known, period between the fall of Mayapan and the beginning of the Colonial period. It may represent an “unusual type” of site; was it political? or was it religious?

Over the past few years, Clifford Brown has been a part of the Central Yucatan Project, and has mapped and surveyed numerous Maya sites in the region. One site he helped to investigate stood out among others. It had pyramids, a palace, residential buildings and a cenote of sacrifice.  What made it different? What is so special about Otzmal?


Otzmal is significant because it is a small, yet complete site, described as a single-component Mayapan-style site, which are extremely rare. It dates from a key, but poorly known, period between the fall of Mayapan and the beginning of the Colonial period. It may represent an “unusual type” of site; was it political? or was it religious?

Feb 20 2013

8-9:30 PM

Miami Science Museum

The Institute of Maya Studies meets at the Miami Science Museum,

 3280 South Miami Avenue, across from Vizcaya

Image: Vessel with Snake-Lady Scene, Mexico or Guatemala, Southern Campehe or Northern Peten region, Maya, 
AD 600-800, Slip-painted ceramic, anoymous gift

Observatories and Green Stones: Exploring the Origins of the Maya Calendar

Much of the current popular interest in ancient Maya civilization centers on the calendar. But most of the calendric records we have are from centuries after the calendar’s invention. This presentation by Gerardo Aldana, Professor of Chicana/o studies and Anthropology at The University of California, Santa Barbara, explores the origins of the Maya Long Count, avoiding interpretations that rely on mystery or surprisingly advanced technologies. Instead, we will see the calendar as an astronomically inspired tool that was useful politically and culturally for the establishment and stability of early Preclassic communities.

Brown Auditorium | Free, tickets required | Tickets available at Ticket Office one hour before the start of the event

Saturday, February 16, 2013 | 1 pm

Conferencia magistral Recientes Descubrimientos de “El Mirador”

Recientes Descubrimientos de “El Mirador”

El Dr. Richard Hansen dará conferencias magistrales en Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, México

con el objetivo de recaudar fondos para continuar con las investigaciones.

En las conferencias, se expondrán los más recientes hallazgos del especialista en la Reserva de la Biosfera Maya, al norte de Tikal, Petén, Guatemala, en un área estudiada de 2,169 kilómetros. 

El Dr. Richard Hansen confirmó que en la reserva natural de Calakmul, Campeche, donde se localiza una de las zonas arqueológicas más importantes del Mundo Maya, es víctima de la depredación, ya que es constante su saqueo, tanto del lado de Guatemala como de México, esto sucede porque no hay vigilancia y existe mucha pobreza en la zona, por lo que campesinos toman vestigios y ofrecen a buen precio las piezas de la cultura milenaria a gente que las colocará en el “mercado negro”. 

El arqueólogo Richard D. Hansen muestra en un mapa el peligro que corre la reserva de Calakmul.
 (Alida Martínez/SIPSE)


“Buscamos una alianza binacional para proteger la zona”, espetó esto tras mostrar un mapa de esa reserva donde también surge otro problema, la deforestación. Informó que los labriegos están destruyendo esa reserva para contar con más espacio para sus parcelas y potreros, en un estudio hecho por la NASA se exhibe que desde hace cinco años se está perdiendo macizo forestal donde se localizan vestigios arqueológicos.

Insistió que hay que preservar esa área que abarca de “El Petén”, Guatemala, hasta  la Cuenca de “El Mirador”, en Campeche. La importancia de la zona se debe a que se localiza la concentración más grande y antigua de vestigios arqueológicos; también ahí se localizan las pirámides más grandes que los ancestros mayas edificaron.

 Playa del Carmen, México.

15 de febrero  

Auditorio del Colegio Mayaland

Av. Juárez Parcela 186. Col. Ejido. Nte.
Playa del Carmen, Q. Roo
Tel: (984) 206 38 60

      (984) 116 89 62
info@colegiomayaland.edu.mx 

17 de febrero

Centro cultural de Puerto Aventuras

Lecture: The Cool Dark Face of Intrigue: Mayan Use of Caves and Rock Art at Nueve Cerros

 Foto: Skeleton Death God, from the Metropolitan Vase source: hamline.edu

The Cool Dark Face of Intrigue:  Mayan Use of Caves and Rock Art at Nueve Cerros

Greg Schwab, MS, Archaeology, St. Cloud State U; 2008 recipient of the Dennis Puleston Award for Excellence in Mesoamerican Studies

Gregory Schwab will discuss the Mayan use of caves for the creation of rock art. Past research has demonstrated that the Maya revered caves and used them exclusively for the practice of ritual. Decipherments of Mayan hieroglyphs have added to a body of evidence that has come to understand caves as the original temples, built naturally from the landscape and mimicked by the monumental temple architecture of Mayan civic centers. Schwab’s research addresses Mayan rock art discovered within several caves of the karst ridge system adjacent to Salinas de los Nueve Cerros (Saltplain of the Nine Hills).  In addition to some possible symbolic meanings of the art, he will discuss the most likely practical purpose of Mayan rock art, asking, “What human behavior can be drawn from the analysis of this painted and carved tradition?”. 

Friday, February 15, 2013, 

 7:30 pm, 100E Giddens Learning Center, Hamline. Members, students free; visitors $5.

 

Feeding the Masses at Miami Science Museum

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Feeding the Masses

In a land of volcanoes, jungles and forests, rocky soils and swampy flats, without beasts of burden or metal tools, the Maya achieved a sophisticated agricultural system that allowed at their peak the establishment of cities as large or larger than those in Europe.

After the hunter-gatherer period, the first organized agriculture developed along the coastal waterways and marches. Later maize agriculture was the foundation of civilization. Populations in densely forested regions, such as El Petén, “The cradle of the Maya civilization”, in Guatemala, developed “slash-and-burn” agriculture. They learned that the approach to feeding the masses was effective water management. They created forest gardens, raised field and terrace land-use techniques, and they farmed the “bajos”, the low-lying seasonally wet regions. They succeeded in a harsh environment.

Feb 13 2013

8-9:30 PM

Miami Science Museum

The Institute of Maya Studies meets at the Miami Science Museum,
 3280 South Miami Avenue, across from Vizcaya

Lecture: Maya Migration in Modern Mexico: The Case of the Yucatán Peninsula

Foto: Cancun yamil luum source: hamline.edu

Maya Migration in Modern Mexico: The Case of the Yucatán Peninsula

by Dr. Bianet Castellanos, Associate Professor, American Studies, University of Minnesota 

Through an ethnography of Maya migration within Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, M. Bianet Castellanos analyzes the foundational role indigenous peoples play in the development of the modern nation-state and tourist centers. As a free trade zone and Latin America’s most popular destination, Cancún, Mexico, is more than just a tourist town. It is not only actively involved in the production of transnational capital but also forms an integral part of the state’s modernization plan for rural, indigenous communities. Indeed, Maya migrants make up more than a third of the city’s population. Castellanos examines how the tourist center of Cancún came to be equated with modernity, how this city has shaped the political economy of the peninsula, and how indigenous communities engage with this vision of contemporary life. Tourism and the social stratification that results from migration have created conflict among the Maya. At the same time, this work asserts, it is through engagement with modernity and its resources that the Maya are able to maintain their sense of indigeneity and community.

Friday, January 25, 2013

 (7:30 pm, Giddens Learning Center 100E, Hamline University, Saint Paul, MN 55104. Members and students free, visitors $5.00).