More sophisticated use of analogies drawn from both ethnographic and historic sources (such as the 16th century A.D. In the realm of analysis we have seen a number of significant and important advances in the interpretation of data and the formulation and testing of hypotheses about the archaeological record. ![]() These and similar studies are illuminating scholarly understanding of the eco comics and community organization of craft production. ![]() Another is the study of the distribution and re-usc of chart biface tools that were used to prepare the soil for cultivation at nearby sites such as Puiltrouser Swamp. A good example is the research on chart quarrying and production of chart tools at the site of Colha in northern Belize. Concerns for a wide variety of non-elite activities also have emerged. In addition, there are much better methodologies for recovery of data, including more sophisticated sampling strategies, than there were in the 1950s. Satellite imagery and side-looking radar have also proved quite helpful. Improved aerial photography has helped archaeologists at the wonderfully named Puiltrouser Swamp in Belize better appreciate how the Maya practiced a variety of agricultural intensification techniques, such as raised-field swamp reclamation (Fig. One can now move from field measuring directly to maps and a variety of statistical manipulations of the spatial data. These stations allow much more accurate and much faster mapping, as well as the possibility of directly downloading the results into computer plotters (Fig. EDM total stations, electronic measuring devices which do all the surveying trigonometry, have replaced the archaeologist’s laborious and potentially mistake-ridden calculations. For example, there have been innovations in the technology and instrumentation of this work. Since the 1950s and early 1960s there have been many advances in settlement pattern research. This new settlement work, along with path-breaking research in hieroglyphic decipherment, helped overturn a variety of assumptions about the ancient Maya world. The urban nature of Tikal soon became undeniable. For example, as the Tikal archaeologists began to map the central 16- square-kilometer zone of the site and, subsequently, the surrounding suburban and rural zones, they recognized the remains of a large number of apparently non-elite house groups (Fig. The picture of vacant, non-urban centers, a complete reliance on extensive shifting agriculture, and a number of other tenets of the traditional or elite-oriented model was changing. Under the leadership of Gordon Willey of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, Maya studies began to turn, if not away from elite concerns, at least towards the study of overall settlements, including the remains of relatively inconspicuous, perishable peasant houses.īy the late 1950s to early 1960s, new settlement research, in particular that initiated by the University of Pennsylvania Museum and the Guatemalan government at Tidal, began to challenge the accepted wisdom. It was not until the early 1950s that Maya studies began to undergo a major shift in emphasis. With some notable exceptions, significant aspects of the ancient Maya world were generally ignored. In retrospect, it can be argued that Maya studies suffered from a sampling bias. This was the model popularized in books such as Sylvanus Morley’s pathbreaking The Ancient Maya (first published in 1946) and Eric Thompson’s widely read The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization (which first appeared in 1954). The hulk of the population, it was assumed, lived well outside the centers and only came in to them for great ceremonies or to perform labor for the elite. For much of this century, for example, it was generally believed that the great Classic centers were non-urban, vacant ceremonial centers in which a few rulers, priests, and their retainers resided (Fig. 1).īecause of this emphasis, students of the ancient Maya developed an understanding of Maya civilization that was focused almost entirely on the trappings of elite activities, particularly those of the southern Maya lowlands during the Classic Maya Period (circa A.D. ![]() The elaborate tombs, the stelae depicting rulers in full regalia, the polychrome pottery, hieroglyphic inscriptions, temples, and palaces of the ancient Maya became the foci of both scholarly and popular interest (Fig. This fact is certainly not surprising given the visually spectacular nature of the art and architecture associated with the rulers of the lowland Maya realm. Since the last century the principal emphasis of Maya studies has been on the ancient Maya elite.
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