Archeology and Volcanism in Central America

Archeology and Volcanism in Central America
Author: Payson D. Sheets
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2014-07-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1477300333

Scientists have long speculated on the impact of extreme natural catastrophes on human societies. Archeology and Volcanism in Central America provides dramatic evidence of the effects of several volcanic disasters on a major civilization of the Western Hemisphere, that of the Maya. During the past 2,000 years, four volcanic eruptions have taken place in the Zapotitán Valley of southern El Salvador. One, the devastating eruption of Ilopango around A.D. 300, forced a major migration, pushing the Mayan people north to the Yucatán Peninsula. Although later eruptions did not have long-range implications for cultural change, one of the subsequent eruptions preserved the Cerén site—a Mesoamerican Pompeii where the bodies of the villagers, the palm-thatched roofs of their houses, the pots of food in their pantries, even the corn plants in their fields were preserved with remarkable fidelity. Throughout 1978, a multidisciplinary team of anthropologists, archeologists, geologists, biologists, and others sponsored by the University of Colorado's Protoclassic Project researched and excavated the results of volcanism in the Zapotitan Valley—a key Mesoamerican site that contemporary political strife has since rendered inaccessible. The result is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the impact of volcanic eruptions on early Mayan civilization. These investigations clearly demonstrate that the Maya inhabited this volcanically hazardous valley in order to reap the short-term benefits that the volcanic ash produced—fertile soil, fine clays, and obsidian deposits.

The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology
Author: Deborah L. Nichols
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 996
Release: 2012-10-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0195390938

The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology provides a current and comprehensive guide to the recent and on-going archaeology of Mesoamerica. Though the emphasis is on prehispanic societies, this Handbook also includes coverage of important new work by archaeologists on the Colonial and Republican periods. Unique among recent works, the text brings together in a single volume article-length regional syntheses and topical overviews written by active scholars in the field of Mesoamerican archaeology. The first section of the Handbook provides an overview of recent history and trends of Mesoamerica and articles on national archaeology programs and practice in Central America and Mexico written by archaeologists from these countries. These are followed regional syntheses organized by time period, beginning with early hunter-gatherer societies and the first farmers of Mesoamerica and concluding with a discussion of the Spanish Conquest and frontiers and peripheries of Mesoamerica. Topical and comparative articles comprise the remainder of Handbook. They cover important dimensions of prehispanic societies—from ecology, economy, and environment to social and political relations—and discuss significant methodological contributions, such as geo-chemical source studies, as well as new theories and diverse theoretical perspectives. The Handbook concludes with a section on the archaeology of the Spanish conquest and the Colonial and Republican periods to connect the prehispanic, proto-historic, and historic periods. This volume will be a must-read for students and professional archaeologists, as well as other scholars including historians, art historians, geographers, and ethnographers with an interest in Mesoamerica.

Archaeology of the Rivas Region, Nicaragua

Archaeology of the Rivas Region, Nicaragua
Author: Paul Healy
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0889207844

Central America before the Spanish Conquest has often been considered by North American archaeologists as a “backwater” of peripheral importance located between the advanced ancient civilizations of South America and Mesoamerica (Mexican–Maya country). Recent archaeological research has revealed that this area played a much more significant role in New World cultural history than was previously thought. Healy’s study examines the archaeological record of one subarea of Southern Central America, the Rivas region of Pacific Nicaragua. The work gives a detailed analysis of excavations and of artifacts recovered at seven significant prehistoric sites. A critical pioneering effort, the monograph documents cultural changes occurring over a 2,000–year time period—changes in technology, material culture, settlement, subsistence, and socio–political organization.

Archaeological Investigations of the Northern Maya Highlands, Guatemala

Archaeological Investigations of the Northern Maya Highlands, Guatemala
Author: Robert James Sharer
Publisher: UPenn Museum of Archaeology
Total Pages: 518
Release: 1987-01-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780934718592

Final report of the 1970-1974 research conducted in the Salama Valley, Baja Verapaz, and adjacent areas of the highlands of Guatemala. The volume presents the results of the first comprehensive study of northern highland preclassic occupation and cultural development in light of the question of highland-lowland interaction and its role in the growth of Maya civilization.

An Archaeological Guide to Northern Central America

An Archaeological Guide to Northern Central America
Author: Joyce Kelly
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 1996
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 9780806128610

Tikal, Copán, Uaxactún - ancient Maya cities whose names conjure up romance, mystery, and science all at once. Joyce Kelly’s clear descriptions and captivating photographs of these and many other sites will make you want to pack your bags and head for Central America. And when you arrive, this guidebook will not let you down. It covers 38 sites and 25 museums - more than any other guidebook - in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Kelly’s information is accurate and up to date: she has visited every site personally. The descriptions include all the major, well-known sites and many not appearing other guidebooks. Kelly describes each site and museum, from its pyramids and temples to its hieroglyphic stairways and "eccentric flints." She includes many site plans, and her description of each site includes its ancient history as well as its recent archaeological activity. Equally important, Kelly describes exactly how to get there. Clear maps and precise written directions include the distance (in miles and kilometers) and the driving time required for each segment of the trip. If you need a four-wheel-drive vehicle to negotiate rutted dirt roads, Kelly tells you. If you need a guide, she tells you where to find one.

Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica

Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica
Author: Walter Robert Thurmond Witschey
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 081087167X

Mesoamerica is one of six major areas of the world where humans independently changed their culture from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle into settled communities, cities, and civilization. In addition to China (twice), the Indus Valley, the Fertile Crescent of southwest Asia, Egypt, and Peru, Mesoamerica was home to exciting and irreversible changes in human culture called the "Neolithic Revolution." The changes included domestication of plants and animals, leading to agriculture, husbandry, and eventually sedentary village life. These developments set the stage for the growth of cities, social stratification, craft specialization, warfare, writing, mathematics, and astronomy, or what we call the rise of civilization. These changes forever transformed humankind. The Historical Dictionary of Mesoamerica covers the history of Mesoamerica through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 900 cross-referenced dictionary entries covering the major peoples, places, ideas, and events related to Mesoamerica. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Mesoamerica.

Post-Conflict Archaeology and Cultural Heritage

Post-Conflict Archaeology and Cultural Heritage
Author: Paul Newson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1315472716

The human cost in any conflict is of course the first care in terms of the reduction, if not the elimination of damage. However, the destruction of archaeology and heritage as a consequence of civil and international wars is also of major concern, and the irreversible loss of monuments and sites through conflict has been increasingly discussed and documented in recent years. Post-Conflict Archaeology and Cultural Heritage draws together a series of papers from archaeological and heritage professionals seeking positive, pragmatic and practical ways to deal with conflict-damaged sites. For instance, by showing that conflict-damaged cultural heritage and archaeological sites are a valuable resource rather than an inevitable casualty of war, and suggesting that archaeologists use their skills and knowledge to bring communities together, giving them ownership of, and identification with, their cultural heritage. The book is a mixture of the discussion of problems, suggested planning solutions and case studies for both archaeologists and heritage managers. It will be of interest to heritage professionals, archaeologists and anyone working with post-conflict communities, as well as anthropology, archaeology, and heritage academics and their students at a range of levels.

El Salvador

El Salvador
Author: Salvador Nunez
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2021-05-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1664105344

Why El Salvador - Hidden Truths? In writing this book, I propose to explore these Salvadoran histories, pages hidden in dust which we have been denied by the economic power and its Governments since the time of the Spanish Invasion. We have systematically been denied the truth of this history, which is part of our being as the original peoples, which belongs to us, to our identity. We have been robbed and badly treated for more than 528 years; which has caused trauma and suffering across our lives. And so I undertook to look beneath the debris of the past with its enigmas to find the truth in our past history from our ancestors, colonization, independence, the first peoples uprisings, genocide and ethnocide against our ancestors. As well as crimes against humanity. The role of the Catholic Church, in the colonisation and imposition of Christianity and its Holy Inquisition. I also want you to be prepared, because in this book you will encounter many surprises and facts which are going to collide with your beliefs and notions of being human. I am not talking about to be Christians, because that is much deeper. But of the cruelty of the Spanish conquerors, with the lies and falsehoods with which the Salvadorans have been educated. Honour and Glory brothers and sisters: Nahuas, Maya, Lencas Chortis, Pocomames, Xincas, Kakawiras, Chorotegas and Izalcos who offered their blood for us and future generations. This Lent without resurrection to which our ancestors were subjected to, began with the Spanish Invasion and has continued till this day in 2020. What you will find in the following pages, are not sweet nor cheap announcements from the Salvadoran power base, in its communication mediums: Newspaper, Television, digital media and many other lying media. For the first time, there are voices of our ancestors in the presence of our current generations- the grandfathers and grandmothers, the young and their actual leaders.