Ancient Recycling: Considerations of the Wasteful, Meaningful, and Practical from the Maya Site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala

Halperin, Christina T.

doi:10.1007/s10816-020-09490-7

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…The use of enormous quantities of recycled facing stones as construction fill was a common early Terminal Classic practice at the site. For example, the fill for the construction of the large 40m-long ballcourt (Ballcourt 1) and for one foundational phase of an elite residential platform (Group J) are also composed almost entirely of cut facing stones and, occasionally, vault stones that were likely dismantled from an earlier building or buildings (Halperin 2021). Radiocarbon and ceramic analyses indicate that these massive construction episodes also date to the very beginning of the Terminal Classic period.…”

Section: New Leadership In the K'anwitznal Kingdommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…810–950) (Laporte & Mejía 2002; Laporte 2004; Halperin et al . 2019, 2021; Halperin 2021). Several large phases of civic-ceremonial construction can also be attributed to the early Winik phase, c .…”

Section: New Leadership In the K'anwitznal Kingdommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the site of Ucanal, Papmalil appears to have ushered in an era of prosperity. Excavations first by the Proyecto Atlas Arqueológico de Guatemala, directed by Juan Pedro Laporte, and more recently by the Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal (PAU), directed by Christina Halperin, Jose Luis Garrido (2014-2022 and Carmen Ramos (2023-present) reveal that substantial construction occurred in both the civic-ceremonial core and outer residential zones of the city with a slight increase in residential population between the Late Classic B'aaluum phase (c. AD 700-810) and the Terminal Classic Winik phase (c. 810-950) (Laporte & Mejía 2002;Laporte 2004;Halperin et al , 2021Halperin 2021). Several large phases of civic-ceremonial construction can also be attributed to the early Winik phase, c. 810-850/ 870.…”

Section: New Leadership In the K'anwitznal Kingdommentioning

confidence: 99%

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A pivot point in Maya history: fire-burning event at K'anwitznal (Ucanal) and the making of a new era of political rule

Halperin,

Perea Carrera,

Miller Wolf

et al. 2024

Antiquity

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Key tipping points of history are rarely found directly in the archaeological record, not least because an event's significance often lies in the perception of the participants. This article documents an early-ninth-century ritual fire-burning event at the Maya site of Ucanal in Guatemala and argues that it marked a public dismantling of an old regime. Rather than examine this event as part of a Classic period Maya collapse, the authors propose that it was a revolutionary pivot point around which the K'anwitznal polity reinvented itself, ushering in wider political transitions in the southern Maya Lowlands.

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Section: New Leadership In the K'anwitznal Kingdommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: New Leadership In the K'anwitznal Kingdommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: New Leadership In the K'anwitznal Kingdommentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A pivot point in Maya history: fire-burning event at K'anwitznal (Ucanal) and the making of a new era of political rule

Halperin,

Perea Carrera,

Miller Wolf

et al. 2024

Antiquity

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SHIFTING SOCIAL RELATIONS DURING THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000): CERAMICS FROM THE LOWLAND MAYA SITE OF UCANAL

LeMoine¹,

Halperin

2021

Ancient Mesoam

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The end of the Classic period was a tumultuous moment in Maya history, not only because the power of many dominant political centers waned, but because the ways in which elites and non-elites related to each other were increasingly called into question. To understand the nature of changing social relations in the southern Maya lowlands during this time, this study examines the distribution and provenance of decorated ceramics during the Late Classic (ca. a.d. 600–810) and Terminal Classic (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000) periods from the archaeological site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala. Comparisons of ceramics from different households across the site reveal that differences in access to decorated and imported ceramics decreased between these periods, suggesting that socioeconomic distinctions leveled out over time. In turn, chemical analysis of ceramics using a portable X-ray fluorescence instrument reveals that the site shifted its political-economic networks, with greater ties to the Petexbatun and Usumacinta regions and continued ties with the Upper Belize Valley.

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Circular Economy in the Roman Period and the Early Middle Ages – Methods of Analysis for a Future Agenda

et al. 2023

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In recent years, studies on reuse practices in premodern societies have multiplied. Nonetheless, a linear model (production – usage – discard) is still widely employed for describing past economic systems. Integrating it with a circular model, instead of assuming that products were discarded after their usage, would greatly benefit our knowledge of ancient and medieval economies. In this work, we present a model of circular economy and define the terms used in this context. Thereafter, a possible agenda on how to study circularity both through archaeological material and written sources is traced. This covers archaeological fieldwork methods, as well as the process of interpretation and the re-evaluation of old data. It also proposes new strategies to use and read written sources to explore reuse practices. If different theoretical and methodological approaches are combined, a more holistic and vivid picture of premodern economies can be gained and help our understanding of how past societies used the resources available to them.

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Ancient Recycling: Considerations of the Wasteful, Meaningful, and Practical from the Maya Site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala

Cited by 3 publications

References 59 publications

A pivot point in Maya history: fire-burning event at K'anwitznal (Ucanal) and the making of a new era of political rule

A pivot point in Maya history: fire-burning event at K'anwitznal (Ucanal) and the making of a new era of political rule

SHIFTING SOCIAL RELATIONS DURING THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000): CERAMICS FROM THE LOWLAND MAYA SITE OF UCANAL

Circular Economy in the Roman Period and the Early Middle Ages – Methods of Analysis for a Future Agenda

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