Browsing by Subject "La Milpa"
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Item Defining the development and meaning of a commemoration complex : the Los Pisos Courtyard, La Milpa, Belize(2013-08) Martinez, Maria Magdalena; Valdez, Fred, Jr., 1953-The current research takes place at La Milpa, the third largest Maya center in Belize, Central America. The primary aim of this research was to investigate the development and function of "palace" courtyard complexes within Maya centers. More specifically, this research chronicles transformations in the built environment and activities taking place, particularly rituals, in the Los Pisos Courtyard from the Late Preclassic to the Late/Terminal Classic periods (400 B.C.-A.D. 900). Consequently, an attempt to correlate shifts in the built environment with changing sociopolitical fields and ritual practice was engaged. The role of agents in the construction and use of the built environment is of particular importance to the study of Maya monumental architecture. Therefore, the incorporation of social theories of structure and agency were employed in order to create a dialogue between the built environment and the people of La Milpa. This research project explored how the Los Pisos Courtyard developed in concert with the central precinct and its role within the La Milpa community. Excavations conducted by the author coupled with LaMAP (directed by Drs. Norman Hammond and Gair Tourtellot) excavations revealed that during the Late Preclassic period the Los Pisos Courtyard and Plaza A were cleared and leveled as the central precinct began to take form. During this time it is argued that the 3 m natural hillock on which the Los Pisos Courtyard rests was an open space used for ritual activity and community engagement. By the Early Classic period, a massive construction program occurred and the courtyard began to take its present configuration. The most significant change occurred during the Late/Terminal Classic period, when colossal construction efforts took hold of the entire site. Through monumentality and verticality, the Los Pisos Courtyard became an exclusive and segregated space designated for the most important inhabitants of La Milpa. Although the Los Pisos Courtyard became an exclusive locale, it may have remained an important symbol that served as a mnemonic device used to invoke memories that legitimated the power and authority of the elite.Item Late to terminal classic household strategies : an exploration of the art of feasting, storage, and gifting at La Milpa, Belize(2014-12) Riddick, Deanna Marie; Valdez, Fred, Jr., 1953-This dissertation explores the social and political strategies performed by an intermediate elite household, Sak Ch'en, in an effort to maintain their social status and power in the evolving landscape of La Milpa during the Late to Terminal Classic Transition (A.D. 800-850/900). Explicitly, this research investigates how Sak Ch'en preserved the continuity of social order by exercising their funds of power and by feasting, gifting, and storing socially charged goods. Excavations were conducted at one residential complex during the 2009-2012 field seasons at the site of La Milpa, Belize, to delineate the political, social, and economic dimensions of intermediate elite household life during large-scale structural changes of the polity. Analyses of recovered ceramic assemblages and additional artifacts demonstrate the presence of feasting, the storage of socially valuable goods, and the production of cloth items during the Late to Terminal Classic period. Feasting in Maya society was enacted as a social, political, and economic strategy, which enabled the ruling elite to attract political support and create exclusive alliances. It is my deduction that at Sak Ch'en, feasting operated as a forum to display household rank, validate status, and maintain power through food acquisition, production, consumption, and distribution. By hosting a feast, Sak Ch'en inhabitants solidified existing political and socioeconomic relationships and encouraged the development of new household associations. Analyses of spindle whorls at Sak Ch'en revealed the production of cloth goods for local consumption and possibly gift exchange. Gift-giving may have been employed at Sak Ch'en as a strategy that binded individuals or groups into reciprocal debt relationships. Further, the gifting of food during this unstable period publicly displayed access to, or possession of, surplus at Sak Ch'en, which strongly reiterated asymmetrical economic power relations between households. Lastly, the storage of goods reassured the replication of activities and rituals tied to ideological concepts of social order. These strategies were implemented at Sak Ch'en as reiterative mechanisms operating to guarantee the reproduction of household power and status.Item The long goodbye: New data from courtyard 100 on the occupational history of La Milpa, Belize(2012-05) Moats, Lindsey; Houk, Brett A.; Zaro, Greg; Walter, Tamra L.This thesis provides a detailed documentation and analysis of work conducted by the La Milpa Core Project (LMCP) in Courtyard 100, La Milpa, Belize during the 2009-2011 field seasons. Courtyard 100 is a small, private courtyard on the eastern periphery of the La Milpa site core. Research in this area has revealed several artifact deposits that attest to the variety of activities taking place in this area. This is a unique case at La Milpa. Excavations elsewhere in the site core often find clean rooms with little to no associated artifactual materials. Also, several radiocarbon samples have yielded dates in the Terminal and Postclassic periods. Traditional models state that La Milpa was abandoned by circa AD 850. The information revealed at Courtyard 100 stands in contrast to this conclusion and instead suggests a longer occupation, into the fourteenth century AD. This thesis will provide evidence for a complex and intricate history of activities in Courtyard 100, detailing the occupational periods and construction episodes documented on the structures surrounding the courtyard. It will also, through an analysis of excavations and artifactual materials, demonstrate how the information from investigations in the area can provide important clues about an underrepresented and poorly understood period of time at the site of La Milpa.