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For a fuller List of conferences in these fields see http://bit.ly/11aKJzE
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October 7-8
Dunmbarton Oaks Annual Symposium
"Sacred Matter: Animism and Authority in the Pre-Columbian Americas"
This symposium, organized by Steve Kosiba (University of Minnesota), John
Janusek (Vanderbilt University), and Thomas Cummins (Harvard University),
examines animism in the Pre-Columbian Americas, focusing on how objects and
places played central social roles in practices that expressed and
sanctified political authority. Throughout the Andes, Amazon and
Mesoamerica, Pre-Columbian people staked claims to their authority when they
animated matter by giving life to grandiose buildings, speaking with deified
boulders, and killing valued objects. Likewise, things and places often
animated people by demanding labor, care, and nourishment. In these
practices of animation, things were cast as active subjects, agents of
political change, and representatives of communities. People were positioned
according to specific social roles and stations: workers, worshippers,
revolutionaries, tribute payers, or authorities. Registration is $35 for the
2-day session. Space for this event is limited, and registration will be
handled on a first-come-first-served basis. To download a registration form,
click here. For more information, visit the website, call 202.339.6440 or
send an email to [log in to unmask]
U.S. Navy Memorial
701 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington DC
U.S. Navy Memorial
701 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington DC
http://www.doaks.org/research/pre-columbian/scholarly-activities/sacred-matter-animism-and-authority-in-the-pre-columbian-americas
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October 7, 6:45 PM
Precolumbian Society of Washington DC October Lecture
"Maya Markets, Merchants, and the Muddle in Our Models"
Eleanor King, PhD
Until recently, most archaeologists doubted that the prehispanic Maya had
markets prior to the Postclassic (CE 900-1500), very late in their history,
just before the Spanish arrived. This scholarly position was shaped in part
by a perception of the Maya lowland environment as a monotonous jungle that
lacked variability. It was also shaped by the longstanding notion that Maya
sites were not true cities and could rely on the provisions provided by
their immediate hinterland. These views changed slowly over time as
discoveries about the size, density, and complexity of Maya settlements and
the diversity of rainforest environments accumulated, but scholars were
still reluctant to contemplate markets in the Maya area, for two reasons.
First, dominant economic theories in anthropology stated markets did not
exist in pre-capitalist societies. Second, markets are often ephemeral
events that leave few traces in the archaeological record. They are
therefore very difficult to document. New theoretical perspectives, coupled
with recent breakthroughs in the identification of markets on the ground,
have radically altered our views and suggest that markets date to the Late
Classic (CE 600-900), and probably before. Using ethnographic,
ethnohistorical, and archaeological evidence, we can now develop new models
of how Maya markets worked, and begin repopulating the prehispanic Maya
world with the actors who interacted within them—the merchants and their
customers.
Eleanor M. King is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology at Howard University. She is the Director of the Maax Na
Archaeology Project in Belize, where she investigates the prehispanic Maya,
and of the Warriors Project Archaeology program in the Southwest U.S., where
she studies the historic interaction between the Apache and the
African-American Buffalo Soldiers. She also works on educational programming
in archaeology and cultural heritage. Her Maya research has focused on
social complexity and economic structure, and she recently published an
edited book on Maya markets. She received her PhD in anthropology from the
University of Pennsylvania in 2000.
Lecture Hall, 1st Floor
Sumner School
17th & M Streets, N.W.
http://www.pcswdc.org/events/
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October 7, 7:30 PM
Maya Society of Minnesota Lecture
"Teotihuacan, an exceptional metropolis of Classic Central Mexico"
Dr. Linda R. Manzanilla, UNAM (Mexico)
Teotihuacan was one of the major urban developments in the ancient world,
but also constituted an exception in Mesoamerica. During the first six
centuries AD, it was a 20 km.2 city, with a strict urban grid, a multiethnic
settlement with a corporate organization at the base and summit of this
society, and a very dynamic entrepreneurial intermediate elite heading the
neighborhoods. This talk will review the major characteristics of this city
through my projects in apartment compounds such as Oztoyahualco 15B,
neighborhood centers such as Teopancazco, and palatial structures such as
Xalla. The talk will stress two main characteristics of this site: craft
production at four levels, and the extensive movement of sumptuary goods
through corridors of ally sites.
Dr. Manzanilla is one of the lead investigators at Teotihuacan. She teaches
at UNAM, Mexico’s National University. In addition to being an
internationally recognized scholar, she is an excellent lecturer.
Place for lecture later;
https://sites.google.com/a/hamline.edu/maya-society/
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October 8, 9:00 AM-12:00 PM
Maya Society of Minnesota Workshop
"An interdisciplinary methodology to unveil Teotihuacan"
An interdisciplinary methodology to unveil Teotihuacan: the articulation of
archaeologists with osteologists, geophysicists, geologists, biologists,
chemists and geneticists. Without an interdisciplinary perspective, it is
impossible to find out how people lived in the city of Teotihuacan, from
what regions did the migrants come from, what were their activities when
living, where did foreign crafts and raw materials come from, what were the
changes in this societies through time, what were the major factors involved
in the collapse. We will view domestic life before and during the Classic
period of Teotihuacan. We will discuss the palace of Xalla: and the ruling
elite of Teotihuacan. And finally we will discuss activities of
post-Teotihuacan groups in the tunnels around the Pyramid of the Sun.
Place for workshop later;
https://sites.google.com/a/hamline.edu/maya-society/
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October 8, 1:15 PM
British Museum Gallery talk
"Body and Ideology in Ancient Mexico"
Room 27
British Museum
London, England
http://bit.ly/2dvRJ3N
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October 11, 6:30 PM
Verde Valley Archaological Center Lecture
"Ancient Woodworking, Animal Use, and Hunting Practices in Southeastern
Utah"
During the 1890s, more than 4000 textiles, baskets, wooden implements, hide
and feather artifacts, and other organic materials were excavated by local
“cowboy” archaeologists from Basketmaker and Pueblo-period archaeological
sites in southeastern Utah. Most of these artifacts were shipped to museums
outside of the Southwest, where they remain largely unknown to
archaeologists and the public. In 2010, the Cedar Mesa Perishables Project
was born to “re-excavate” and document these collections. Our work with
these 700 to 2000-year-old collections has uncovered a wide range of
well-preserved and often-complete wood, horn, bone, and feather implements
related to woodworking, hideworking, animal and bird procurement, farming,
personal adornment, and other socioeconomic practices. In this presentation,
we will discuss some of what we have learned about the use and manufacture
of these perishable technologies and how our work with these collections has
broadened our understanding of Basketmaker and ancestral Puebloan societies
in ways that the study of more durable artifacts cannot.
Dr. Laurie Webster is an anthropologist who specializes in the perishable
material culture of the American Southwest. She is a visiting scholar in the
Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona and a Research
Associate at the American Museum of Natural History and the Crow Canyon
Archaeological Center. Six years ago, she founded the Cedar Mesa Perishables
Project to document the thousands of perishable artifacts recovered from
alcoves in southeastern Utah during the 1890s.
Chuck LaRue is a wildlife biologist and naturalist who has worked
extensively with birds on the Colorado Plateau and other areas of the
Southwest for 35 years. He has conducted bird inventories and surveys for
Glen Canyon , Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Hubbell Trading Post, and
Black Mesa. He has developed an interest in Ancestral Puebloan technologies
and lifeways and has replicated many prehistoric artifacts. He will share
examples of these during the presentation.
Cliff Castle Casino Hotel,
Camp Verde, Arizona
http://www.verdevalleyarchaeology.org/Calendar
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October 11, 7:00 PM
Phoenix Chapter, Arizona Archaeological Society Lecture
"Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh Bow and Arrow Technology: Modern Experimental
Testing of Ancient Designs"
Chris Loendorff, Ph. D., a Project Manager for the Gila River Indian
Community Cultural Resource Management Program in Sacaton.
The Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh used different types of bows for different
purposes. Self-bows were used for small game hunting, while recurve bows
were employed in warfare. Self-bows are the simplest design and consist of a
piece of wood with a string attached. The bow stave for recurve bows, on the
other hand, were intentionally bent to form a double-arch shape. Previous
researchers have suggested that Athapaskans introduced recurve bows into the
Southwest, and have also suggested that this design out-performed self-bows.
Since there is very little experimental information available regarding
performance differences between these bow types, carefully controlled
experiments were conducted using different bow designs, and this
presentation summarizes the results of this research. The painting at the
left, by Amil Pedro, shows an O'odham Archer Using a Recurve Bow.
Community Room at the Pueblo Grande Museum,
4619 E. Washington St.,
Phoenix, Arizona
http://www.azarchsoc.org/Phoenix/
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October 12, 7:00 PM
Desert Foothills Chapter, Arizona Archaeological Society Lecture
"From Rock Art Ranch to Homol’ovi: 13,000 Years of Migration in the Middle
Little Colorado River Valley".
PhD Charles Adams
Six years of research on Rock Art Ranch near Winslow, AZ, by Arizona State
Museum archaeologists have documented human use going back to Clovis times.
The ranch was also a focus of intensive hunting, gathering, and small-scale
agriculture during the Basketmaker II (early agriculture) period from 1000
BCE to 500 CE. During the 1200s Mogollon groups from the south built
numerous small pueblos throughout the region and later joined Pueblo groups
from the north to build and occupy the large Homol’ovi pueblos along the
Little Colorado River. Evidence of this lengthy use is etched in the walls
of Chevelon Canyon. This talk traces this fascinating history of population
movement that truly made the area a cultural crossroads.
Since 1985, E. Charles (Chuck) Adams has been Curator of Archaeology,
Arizona State Museum (ASM) and Professor, School of Anthropology, University
of Arizona (UA) in Tucson. Since arriving at the UA, he has directed the
Homol’ovi Research Program (HRP) for ASM, which involved extensive survey
and excavation of numerous Homol’ovi pueblos in Homolovi State Park. Since
2011, HRP has conducted survey and excavations on and near Rock Art Ranch 25
miles southeast of Winslow with work wrapping up there this past summer.
Adams received a PhD from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1975 and
previously held positions as Senior Archaeologist at the Museum of Northern
Arizona and Director of Research at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. He
has published more than 75 articles and book chapters and single authored or
edited ten books/monographs.
Community Building (Maitland Hall) at The Good Shepherd of the Hills
Episcopal Church,
6502 East Cave Creek Road,
Cave Creek, Arizona
http://www.azarchsoc.org/event-2155697
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October 13, 6:00 PM
Pre-Columbian Society of New York October Lecture
"The Fate of the Sacred Book of the Ancient Americas"
Barbara E. Mundy, Department of Art History, Fordham University
After the conquest of Mexico of 1519-21, evangelizing Catholic priests
targeted native books for destruction, setting their crosshairs on the
ritual calendar-books that indigenous priests used for divination. Since the
Judeo-Christian tradition held that the Word of God was to be found in a
sacred book, native books were considered idolatrous. The evangelizers were
largely successful in exterminating the pre-Columbian book, and today, of
the thousands extant before the Conquest, only 13 pre-Columbian books
survive. Today, Catholic enmity to the native book is often rued, but rarely
scrutinized. At the same time, native communities refused to let go of their
books, and sacred books were clandestinely created through the 19th century.
Just what was it that made native books so dangerous, so appealing? Today,
we can find in the iconography of the native book narratives of creation and
pantheons of deities that offer a radically different understanding of the
sacred world than one offered by orthodox Christianity. But this is not only
what the sixteenth-century destroyers of these books saw. Rather, embedded
in both the format (a screenfold) and in the materials (native amate, or
fig-bark paper) were ways of understanding the surrounding world that
offered another set of counter-narratives to Christian orthodoxy. This talk
aims to expose these additional meanings of the native book, those embedded
in format and material, that made indigenous books both so necessary for
Catholics to destroy and native peoples to preserve.
Lecture Hall
The Institute of Fine Arts
1 East 78th Street
New York City
[log in to unmask]
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October 13, 7:00 PM
Indian Peaks Chapter, Colorado Archaeological Society Lecture
"The Archaeology of Archaeology: Reconstructing Trinchera Cave"
Dr. Chris Zier, Centennial Archaeology
In 2014 Centennial Archaeology, Inc. took a fresh look at an old site with a
long, and in some ways tortured, history of research. Trinchera Cave, 28
miles east of Trinidad, was professionally excavated on four separate
occasions between 1949 and 2001. No publications or reports resulted from
the earlier excavations, by Haldon Chase and Herbert W. Dick, and only scant
field records remain. Centennial produced the first instrument map of
Trinchera Cave, and then used existing data to plot the locations of old
excavation blocks. An attempt was then made to reconstruct the stratigraphy
of the site with an emphasis on the main area of habitation (“Area C”),
where excavation in some grid units reached depths of 9 – 12 feet. Finally,
radiocarbon dates were obtained on 12 samples selected from the Trinidad
State Junior College collections, which consisted of both artifacts and
non-artifactual materials. These assays, combined with dates obtained
previously by Colorado College and the University of Denver, demonstrate
that significant human occupation occurred during Late Prehistoric times.
Dates on bulk soils from mid-range and deep sediments are suggestive of
Paleoindian and Early Archaic habitation as well.
Christian J. Zier received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of
Colorado-Boulder and operated Centennial Archaeology, Inc. from 1984-2014.
He has worked throughout the Rocky Mountain West, High Plains and Southwest,
with a particular interest in the upper Arkansas Basin of southeastern
Colorado, where he has directed projects at Fort Carson, Pinon Canyon, and
elsewhere. He was the lead author of Colorado Prehistory: A Context for the
Arkansas River Basin. He has also conducted fieldwork in Central America,
Africa, and Asia.
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
Boulder, Colorado
http://www.indianpeaksarchaeology.org/archaeology-events-boulder/lectures-boulder-colorado
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October 14, 4:00 PM
The Mesoamerica Center in the Department of Art and Art History and The
Department of Geography and the Environment - The University of Texas at
Austin Lecture
"Drought and its Demographic Effects in the Maya Lowlands”
Increasing evidence supports the role of severe drought in the
disintegration of regional polities in the Maya Lowlands at the end of the
Classic Period (750 to 1000 C.E.). Despite the large corpus of
archaeological literature on the topic, the demographic effects of climate
change remain largely unknown in the absence of Classic Period textual
evidence indicating declines in agricultural productivity and population
over this broad geographic area. To understand relationships between
climatic and demographic change, I present historic records from the
Colonial Period (1519 to 1821 C.E.) in northern Yucatan to compare with the
sub-annually resolved Yok Balum climate proxy record. These data offer
evidence that multi-year droughts resulted in crop failure and severe
famines that correlate with intervals of high mortality and migration within
two extended dry intervals during the eighteenth century. While historic
records offer important information about drought and its demographic
effects during the Colonial Period, we cannot directly apply this analogy
haphazardly to Pre-Columbian times. Archaeologists must endeavor to develop
precisely-dated archaeological datasets to begin to explore the complex
relationships between drought, demographic change, and the breakdown of
political systems at the end of the Classic period. I present the
preliminary results of my recent project focused on building high-precision
AMS 14C chronologies from sites across the Maya Lowlands to begin to explore
the impacts of distinct drought episodes in relation to demographic and
political change.
Liberal Arts Building (CLA Room 0.130)
305 E 23rd St
Austin, Texas
https://www.archaeological.org/events/22838
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October 14, 4;00 PM
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Seminar
"Fabrics of Power among the Classic Maya: The Politics of Commodities
Networks”
Dr. Dorie Reents-Budet, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
CONTACT INFORMATION; [log in to unmask]
Fowler A222
Cotsen Institute
University of California
Los Angeles
http://www.ioa.ucla.edu/content/friday-seminar-fabrics-power-among-classic-maya-politics-commodities-networks
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October 15-16
35th annual Northeast Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and
Ethnohistory
The deadline for poster and presentation proposals is September 9th;
The deadline for registration for the meeting is October 7th.
Geological Lecture Hall,
24 Oxford Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/nemaaae
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October 17-22,
21st European Maya Conference
Moscow, Russia
"Hierarchy and Power in the Maya World"
The 21st European Maya Conference will be held in Moscow, Russia, from 17 to
22 October 2016. The meeting is organized by the Knorozov Center for
Mesoamerican Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities and the
Department of Ancient History, Lomonosov Moscow State University in
cooperation with Wayeb (European Association of Mayanists). The conference
is supported financially by the Russian Scientific Foundation. It will
combine three-and-a-half day workshops (October 17 – 20) and a symposium
(October 21 – 22).
• origins and development of complex societies in the Maya area
• hierarchies and heterarchies in Maya societies
• political, economic, and ritual dimensions of power among the Maya
• Maya settlement patterns and political organization
• Maya and Western culture – oppression and resistance
Invited speakers will cover the conference theme from the different fields
of Maya studies, including archaeology, epigraphy, and ethnohistory. These
include:
• Tomás Barrientos (Universidad del Valle, Guatemala)
• Nikolai Grube (Bonn University)
• Stephen Houston (Brown University)
• Maria Josefa Iglesias and Andrés Ciudad (Universidad Complutense de
Madrid)
• Takeshi Inomata (University of Arizona)
• Simon Martin (University of Pennsylvania Museum)
• Philippe Nondédéo (CNRS-Université de Paris Panthéon) and Alfonso Lacadena
(Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
• Tsubasa Okoshi Harada (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
• David Stuart (The University of Texas at Austin)
• Erik Velásquez (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
• Dmitri Bondarenko, Dmitri Beliaev, Philipp Galeev (Russian State
University for the Humanities) and Alexander Safronov (Lomonosov Moscow
State University)
http://www.wayeb.org/conferencesevents/emc_now.php
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October 18, 6:00 PM
Peabody Museum Lecture
"Climate, Water, and the Evolution of Early Societies: From the Tropical
Maya Lowlands to the Arid Puebloan Southwest”
Vernon L. Scarborough, Distinguished University Research Professor and
Charles P. Taft Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of
Cincinnati
The earliest complex societies found in the Western Hemisphere developed
under very different environmental conditions. The Maya, for instance,
emerged in the tropical lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula, a region with
high seasonal rainfall and rich biodiversity. The Puebloans, in contrast,
developed in the semiarid region of what is today Arizona and New Mexico, an
area with limited rainfall and biodiversity. Vernon Scarborough will discuss
two important archaeological sites from these different ecological and
cultural zones—Tikal in Guatemala and the Chaco Canyon in New Mexico—to
illustrate how the availability of water and climate influence the evolution
of societies and what we can learn from these historical precedents.
Geological Lecture Hall,
24 Oxford Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
https://www.peabody.harvard.edu/climate-water-evolution
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October 19, 6:00 PM
Institute of Maya Studies Feature Presentation
"What's New at Homul”
with Dr. Francisco Estrada-Belli of Tulane University
A diverse group of students, Maya assistants, archaeologists and researchers
explored Holmul and its minor centers (Cival, La Sufricaya, K'o, T'ot,
Hamontun, Hahakab) during this year’s field season. On a grand scale, the
project investigates the rise and fall of political institutions in the Maya
Lowlands. At Cival and Holmul, we are focusing on the earliest ritual
practices and iconography that mark the beginning of the political
institution of the ajaw in the Preclassic and how it transitioned into the
Classic period.
Very recently, two tombs, a monument and another giant Maya stucco mask were
found in four sites in the Peten. These findings were made at the
archaeological sites of The Achiotal, La Corona, Holmul, and Witzna. I
reported the discovery of the two graves that “miraculously escaped decades
of looting” in the site of Holmul, at a recent press conference in Guatemala
City. Another subject of investigation is what political changes occurred at
the end of the Preclassic period and what role Teotihuacan played in the
Maya Lowlands in the Early Classic period. In this respect, the evidence
from La Sufricaya and Holmul is providing new clues. Finally, we are
investigating the relationship of the Late Classic Holmul elite with that of
peripheral centers such as K'o and Hamontun and what was the political
milieu in N.E. Peten as Holmul ended its path as a Classic Maya city.
The IMS is a Community Partner with Miami Dade College – Kendall Campus,
Miami, FL.
This program will take place in K-413 (in Building K-4, Room 13). Go to the
college website at: www.mdc.edu for directions and campus map.
IMS Maya Hotline: 305-279-8110.
Subscribe to the full-color e-mailed version of our monthly IMS Explorer
newsletter on the IMS website at
www.instituteofmayastudies.org
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October 25-29
Society for Cultural Astronomy in the American Southwest (SCAAS) conference
on cultural astronomy in the Greater Southwest
“Before Borders: Revealing the Greater Southwest's Ancestral Cultural
Landscape” is the theme of the Society for Cultural Astronomy in the
American Southwest (SCAAS) conference on cultural astronomy in the Greater
Southwest
This year's SCAAS conference features invited speakers and papers focusing
on the regional interchange of ideas and culture, increasing American Indian
and other indigenous people's participation in cultural anthropology and
astronomy studies and research, and examining landscape archaeology along
with public architecture. Saturday is reserved for field trips.
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center,
23390 County Road K,
Cortez, Colorado
http://www.scaas.org
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October 26, 12:00 PM
University of California at Berkeley Lecture
"East Meets West: Considering the Materiality of Ritual at the Western
Lowland Maya Site of Palenque" 101 2251 College (Archaeological Research
Facility)
Lisa Johnson, University of California, Berkeley Department of Anthropology
Sponsor: Archaeological Research Facility
Excavations throughout the eastern lowlands of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize
have revealed widespread patterns in ritual practice, including patterns in
the types of materials used in ritualized offerings and human burials placed
within the floors and plazas of public temples and private homes. Yet, the
material traces of past ritualized events appear to be markedly different in
the western lowland cities, even though they shared in a larger Pan-Maya
cosmology. This talk considers the materiality of ritual across the eastern
and western lowlands through previous work at the site of Caracol, Belize in
the eastern lowlands and preliminary results of recent excavations carried
out at the site of Palenque in the western lowlands of Chiapas, Mexico. To
consider just how practice was distinct in this region, a more comprehensive
approach to an archaeology of ritual is proposed, one that includes a
consideration for the micro-scale residues of ritualized actions.
101 2251 College
University of California, Berkeley
Event Contact: 510-643-2212
http://bit.ly/2dIHD3g
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October 29, 10:00 AM
de Young Museum Lecture
"The Odyssey of Quetzalcoatl: Art and Transnationalism in West Mexico's Late
Antiquity”
John M. D. Pohl
The ceramic arts of ancient West Mexico are renowned for their refined
execution and inventive design. The abstract treatment of such subjects as
fierce warriors and playful dogs appealed to collectors in the 1960s and
remain highly sought after today. At the same time, a significant but lesser
known tradition of highly decorative and colorful works also appeared on the
art market.
http://deyoung.famsf.org/calendar/lecture-odyssey-quetzalcoatl-art-and-transnationalism-west-mexicos-late-antiquity-john-m-d
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