Papers by Gavin R Davies
Routes, Interaction and Exchange in the Southern Maya Area (Routledge Archaeology of the Ancient Americas) 1st Edition, 2023
UKnowledge, 2019
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/anthro_etds/39/
El Periodico, 2018
El colapso maya, como se conoce el periodo de decadencia de tan esplendoroso imperio, comenzó alr... more El colapso maya, como se conoce el periodo de decadencia de tan esplendoroso imperio, comenzó alrededor del 850 d.C., según los expertos. Las poderosas ciudades construidas en la selva petenera y en otras áreas del norte del país quedaron abandonadas por motivos que hoy todavía resultan un enigma a los arqueólogos. Pero, en la parte occidental y centro de Guatemala otros reinos conseguían prosperar y expandirse. Así ocurrió con el reino Tz’utujil establecido en los poblados de la cuenca del lago Atitlán durante el periodo Postclásico (1100 a 1524 d.C.), de acuerdo con la evidencia arqueológica descubierta entre los cafetales y montañas de poblados como San Pedro y San Juan La Laguna.
ln 2015, the Lake Atitlan Archaeological Project (PALA) conducted systematic and general surface ... more ln 2015, the Lake Atitlan Archaeological Project (PALA) conducted systematic and general surface survey within the southwestern Lake Atitlan Basin, Sololá, Guatemala with the goal of illuminating the nature of the Classic to Postclassic transition, widely regarded as the poorest understood period in the southern highlands. The initial goal was to conduct small numbers of test pits at a high frequency of locations in order to examine how different sectors of the population coped with what was presumed to have been a heightened period of risk. Limited information on Late Classic ceramics for the area, however encouraged us to target high density areas in order to first clarify the local ceramic sequence. This paper presents our initial findings based on the field observations and ongoing ceramic analysis. En 2015, el Proyecto Arqueológico Lago de Atitlán (PALA) llevo a cabo la recolección de superficie sistemática y general en el sudoeste de la Cuenca del Lago de Atitlán, Sololá, Guatemala, con el objetivo de iluminar la naturaleza de la transición de los periodos Clásico a Posclásico, cual es considerado como el más pobre periodo comprendido en la parte sur de las Tierras Altas. El objetivo inicial era llevar a cabo un pequeño número de pozos de sondeo, en una alta frecuencia de lugares, con el motivo de examinar la manera en que, sectores distintos de la población, se adaptaron a lo que se presume fue un período de riesgo elevado. Sin embargo, la información limitada sobre la cerámica del Clásico Tardío de la zona, animó a centrarse en áreas de alta densidad con el fin de aclarar como prioridad, la secuencia cerámica local. Este artículo presenta los hallazgos iniciales relacionados a las observaciones de campo y análisis de la cerámica en curso.
Entre marzo y julio de 2015, el Proyecto Arqueológico Lago de Atitlán realizó recolecciones super... more Entre marzo y julio de 2015, el Proyecto Arqueológico Lago de Atitlán realizó recolecciones superficiales sistemáticas en más de 50 propiedades dentro de los municipios de San Pedro y San Juan La Laguna al sudoeste de la Cuenca del Lago de Atitlán. Estas investigaciones identificaron un total de 31 sitios arqueológicos, incluyendo tres centros de población con arquitectura monumental, un gran número de pequeños sitios rituales y domésticos, y varios lugares de arte rupestre. Las excavaciones de prueba se llevaron a cabo posteriormente en cuatro sitios con el objetivo de definir la secuencia cerámica para la transición Clásico a Postclásico. Hasta el momento no se ha iniciado el análisis de los materiales de San Juan, entonces el presente trabajo se centra principalmente en los datos de San Pedro, que indican que esta parte de la Cuenca del Lago de Atitlán albergó poblaciones considerables en el Preclásico Tardío, Clásico Temprano y Postclásico Tardío. Como se predijo, la ocupaciones del Clásico Terminal y Posclásico Temprano han resultando más difíciles de identificar, pero con el análisis detallado de la cerámica utilitaria recuperada de excavaciones estratigráficas, se espera arrojar luz sobre este periodo poco conocido en las tierras altas. Between March and July 2015, the Proyecto Arqueológico Lago de Atitlán conducted systematic surface collections for over 50 properties within the municipios of San Pedro and San Juan La Laguna in the southwestern Lake Atitlan Basin. These investigations identified a total of 31 archaeological sites including three large population centers with monumental architecture, a large number of smaller ritual and domestic sites, and several individual rock art locations. Test excavations were conducted at four sites with the goal of defining the ceramic sequence for the Classic to Postclassic transition. Although ceramic analysis is only in its early stages, the initial results, presented here, indicate that the southwest Lake Atitlan Basin supported sizeable populations in the Late Preclassic, Early Classic and Postclassic periods. Late Classic and Early Postclassic occupations are, as expected, proving more difficult to identify, but detailed attribute analysis of common brown and black wares recovered from stratigraphic excavations, is expected to shed light on this poorly understood period in highland Maya prehistory.
This paper looks at how materiality in a specific sense (e.g., aspects of raw materials) contribu... more This paper looks at how materiality in a specific sense (e.g., aspects of raw materials) contributes to materiality
in a broader sense (e.g., the mutually constitutive relations between people and things). We embark from the point
that common materials, such as stone and perishable containers (baskets, gourds), shape people’s social interactions
and their physical sensibilities. The use of very large stones for buildings in and around Uc´ı, a local political center
in the northern Maya Lowlands of Yucatan, Mexico, required people to draw on a large web of social relations in
order to get access to the right stone and the right labor. Furthermore, hauling such stones and placing them in walls
required a very literal form of physical dialogue between laborers that is otherwise quite rare, akin to carrying a
couch.We believe that the closely coordinated and intimately shared physical maneuvers required to haul and place
a 150 kg stone intensified the bonds between co-actors, who were likely part of the same household. This suggests
that the stability of households depends not just on what people do, but how they do these things together. Many
households at two sites near Uc´ı—Kancab and 21 de Abril—depended heavily on baskets and gourds since pottery
was scarce. Aspects of the making of these tools, such as the procurement of materials for baskets, sent people
beyond their homes and into contact with many others. Thus, we argue that discussions of materials in craftwork
should expand to consider the social entanglements entailed in the procurement of materials. Furthermore, we argue
that the specific tactile characteristics of perishable goods such as baskets and gourds help create different kinds of
people. In households with less pottery, day to day use of baskets and gourds would have inculcated non-discursive
senses of touch that rose to discursive consciousness at community wide occasions at households that served meals on
pottery. Such events would have been diacritical, making participants aware of the differences between themselves.
In sum, raw materials such as stone and gourds play a large role in making actors who they were and creating social
networks.
Book Reviews by Gavin R Davies
Anthropology Book Forum, 2018
Review of:
Water, Cacao, and the Early Maya of Chocolá
By Jonathan Kaplan and Federico Paredes... more Review of:
Water, Cacao, and the Early Maya of Chocolá
By Jonathan Kaplan and Federico Paredes Umana
University Press of Florida, 2018
Conference Presentations by Gavin R Davies
Books by Gavin R Davies
This book explores routes of interaction and exchange in the Southern Maya Area, a zone that had ... more This book explores routes of interaction and exchange in the Southern Maya Area, a zone that had both short- and long-distance trade and whose natural resources were exploited by merchants and rulers, colonists and entrepreneurs during Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Aztec, colonial and modern times.
The book presents the research of both archaeologists and art historians to identify routes of interconnection, to demonstrate the strategic importance of settlements and ritual locations, and to assess the significance of modes and mediums of exchange. The contributors employ innovative approaches, making use of state-of-the art technologies to reproduce and analyze the archaeological landscape (e.g. LiDAR, GIS, and least-cost path analysis) and to source and characterize archaeological materials (e.g. neutron activation analysis (NAA), X-ray fluorescence analysis [XRF] and strontium analysis). The book combines these innovative approaches with earlier data sources and past analyses to develop a new, synthetic analysis of interaction.
Routes, Interaction and Exchange in the Southern Maya Area will appeal to professional academics, students, and interested lay readers from a broad range of social science fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, economics, history, and art history and is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses in Mesoamerican archaeology.
This volume explores the analytical productivity of the convergence of two bodies of theory: mate... more This volume explores the analytical productivity of the convergence of two bodies of theory: materiality, defined here as the mutually constitutive relationships between people and the material world, and everyday life, conceived of as the ordinary practices that comprise most of human existence. An engagement with materiality and everyday life reveals three interventions critical to archaeological research. First, archaeological studies of the somewhat ethereal concept of materiality benefit from a grounding in the context of material engagements in everyday life. Second, the seemingly mundane and ordinary material practices of everyday life are of crucial significance for society in such varied arenas as politics, commerce, and cosmology. Third, the study of the materiality of everyday life necessarily implicates fruitful attention to multiple social and temporal scales.
DOI: 10.1111/apaa.12057
Teaching Documents by Gavin R Davies
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Papers by Gavin R Davies
in a broader sense (e.g., the mutually constitutive relations between people and things). We embark from the point
that common materials, such as stone and perishable containers (baskets, gourds), shape people’s social interactions
and their physical sensibilities. The use of very large stones for buildings in and around Uc´ı, a local political center
in the northern Maya Lowlands of Yucatan, Mexico, required people to draw on a large web of social relations in
order to get access to the right stone and the right labor. Furthermore, hauling such stones and placing them in walls
required a very literal form of physical dialogue between laborers that is otherwise quite rare, akin to carrying a
couch.We believe that the closely coordinated and intimately shared physical maneuvers required to haul and place
a 150 kg stone intensified the bonds between co-actors, who were likely part of the same household. This suggests
that the stability of households depends not just on what people do, but how they do these things together. Many
households at two sites near Uc´ı—Kancab and 21 de Abril—depended heavily on baskets and gourds since pottery
was scarce. Aspects of the making of these tools, such as the procurement of materials for baskets, sent people
beyond their homes and into contact with many others. Thus, we argue that discussions of materials in craftwork
should expand to consider the social entanglements entailed in the procurement of materials. Furthermore, we argue
that the specific tactile characteristics of perishable goods such as baskets and gourds help create different kinds of
people. In households with less pottery, day to day use of baskets and gourds would have inculcated non-discursive
senses of touch that rose to discursive consciousness at community wide occasions at households that served meals on
pottery. Such events would have been diacritical, making participants aware of the differences between themselves.
In sum, raw materials such as stone and gourds play a large role in making actors who they were and creating social
networks.
Book Reviews by Gavin R Davies
Water, Cacao, and the Early Maya of Chocolá
By Jonathan Kaplan and Federico Paredes Umana
University Press of Florida, 2018
Conference Presentations by Gavin R Davies
Books by Gavin R Davies
The book presents the research of both archaeologists and art historians to identify routes of interconnection, to demonstrate the strategic importance of settlements and ritual locations, and to assess the significance of modes and mediums of exchange. The contributors employ innovative approaches, making use of state-of-the art technologies to reproduce and analyze the archaeological landscape (e.g. LiDAR, GIS, and least-cost path analysis) and to source and characterize archaeological materials (e.g. neutron activation analysis (NAA), X-ray fluorescence analysis [XRF] and strontium analysis). The book combines these innovative approaches with earlier data sources and past analyses to develop a new, synthetic analysis of interaction.
Routes, Interaction and Exchange in the Southern Maya Area will appeal to professional academics, students, and interested lay readers from a broad range of social science fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, economics, history, and art history and is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses in Mesoamerican archaeology.
DOI: 10.1111/apaa.12057
Teaching Documents by Gavin R Davies
in a broader sense (e.g., the mutually constitutive relations between people and things). We embark from the point
that common materials, such as stone and perishable containers (baskets, gourds), shape people’s social interactions
and their physical sensibilities. The use of very large stones for buildings in and around Uc´ı, a local political center
in the northern Maya Lowlands of Yucatan, Mexico, required people to draw on a large web of social relations in
order to get access to the right stone and the right labor. Furthermore, hauling such stones and placing them in walls
required a very literal form of physical dialogue between laborers that is otherwise quite rare, akin to carrying a
couch.We believe that the closely coordinated and intimately shared physical maneuvers required to haul and place
a 150 kg stone intensified the bonds between co-actors, who were likely part of the same household. This suggests
that the stability of households depends not just on what people do, but how they do these things together. Many
households at two sites near Uc´ı—Kancab and 21 de Abril—depended heavily on baskets and gourds since pottery
was scarce. Aspects of the making of these tools, such as the procurement of materials for baskets, sent people
beyond their homes and into contact with many others. Thus, we argue that discussions of materials in craftwork
should expand to consider the social entanglements entailed in the procurement of materials. Furthermore, we argue
that the specific tactile characteristics of perishable goods such as baskets and gourds help create different kinds of
people. In households with less pottery, day to day use of baskets and gourds would have inculcated non-discursive
senses of touch that rose to discursive consciousness at community wide occasions at households that served meals on
pottery. Such events would have been diacritical, making participants aware of the differences between themselves.
In sum, raw materials such as stone and gourds play a large role in making actors who they were and creating social
networks.
Water, Cacao, and the Early Maya of Chocolá
By Jonathan Kaplan and Federico Paredes Umana
University Press of Florida, 2018
The book presents the research of both archaeologists and art historians to identify routes of interconnection, to demonstrate the strategic importance of settlements and ritual locations, and to assess the significance of modes and mediums of exchange. The contributors employ innovative approaches, making use of state-of-the art technologies to reproduce and analyze the archaeological landscape (e.g. LiDAR, GIS, and least-cost path analysis) and to source and characterize archaeological materials (e.g. neutron activation analysis (NAA), X-ray fluorescence analysis [XRF] and strontium analysis). The book combines these innovative approaches with earlier data sources and past analyses to develop a new, synthetic analysis of interaction.
Routes, Interaction and Exchange in the Southern Maya Area will appeal to professional academics, students, and interested lay readers from a broad range of social science fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, economics, history, and art history and is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses in Mesoamerican archaeology.
DOI: 10.1111/apaa.12057