Browsing by Author "Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V."
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Item Open Access An Archaeology of Resilience in Rural Landscapes of Southern Italy, c. 300-1000(2024-01) Munro, Matthew J.; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Vanderspoel, John; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.; Cassis, Marica; Christie, NeilDeveloping an archaeology of resilience is crucial for understanding the dynamics of past social systems and the paradox that arises between societal collapse and regeneration and the apparent longevity of rural lifeways. The landscape of Southern Italy provides a robust historical case study in which to understand the role that resilience plays in human decision-making in the rural world during the collapse of the western Roman Empire. The panarchy metamodel provides a robust suite of analyses in which to investigate this region focusing on the adaptive cycle heuristic to visualize social change and estimate relative capacities for resilience in human-environmental systems. These systems are further understood through the concepts of complexity science. When more explicit concepts of social change are brought into panarchy through social resilience and ecohistorical co-evolutionary perspectives, the adaptive cycle becomes a robust tool through which to explain social collapse and regeneration. Developing a panarchy requires an investigation of landscape on different spatial and temporal scales through the history and archaeology of Southern Italy over Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. To build the model, adaptive cycles of the political, economic, and urban systems are designed and considered to influence the development of the landscape. Additionally, a robust series of shocks and stressors to these systems must be made explicit. Environmental, climatological, military, and biological impacts are outlined in detail. Once this evidence is compiled and the panarchy is designed, it becomes a tool to aid in landscape analysis. Rather than apply this model to the southern landscape generally, the Basentello Valley provides a case study on which to test the heuristic capability of panarchy. The historical and archaeological evidence for this landscape is well developed for Late Antiquity and more meagre for the early Middle Ages, leaving interpretive potential for panarchy and its complexity perspective to help explain the development of this rural landscape. Panarchic analysis reveals that rural capacities for resilience are tied closely to the capacity for self-organization. Despite this, the collapse of the western Roman Empire deeply affected Southern Italy and collapsing political, economic, and urban systems made rural social change inevitable. A resilience perspective teaches us that trajectories of complex adaptive systems are impossible to predict and we can only understand them in retrospect. If the goal is to lessen the impacts of social collapse, a capacity for resilience through self-organization on local scales provides the best chance for regeneration to result in a sustainable present that learns from the past and prepares better for the future.Item Open Access Archaeological Investigations in the Baalche’ Group at Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico: An Analysis of the Function of a Courtyard Group(2016-01-29) Bednar, Sarah E.; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.; Oetelaar, Gerald Anthony; Miller, Byron AndrewThis thesis details the 2013 and 2014 excavation and analysis of the Baalche’ Group at the Maya site of Yaxnohcah in southeastern Campeche, Mexico. The Baalche’ Group is a courtyard group consisting of four structures (Brisa 4 and Baalche’ 5, 6, and 7) that is located in the site core, directly adjacent to an E-Group complex. This thesis will address the construction history, activities, and status associated with the Baalche’ Group in order to evaluate the group’s function. Based on ceramic analysis and radiocarbon dating, the group was first constructed in Late Preclassic period and was continuously occupied until the Terminal Classic period. The arrangement of the group and the artifact assemblage collected from excavations compares with palatial complexes from the Maya lowlands, indicating that the Baalche’ Group functioned as a palace, or, more specifically, a place where a ruling family resided and/or governed at Yaxnohcah.Item Open Access As Reflected on the Pottery: A Modal Analysis of Terminal Valdivia Ceramics in Northern Manabí, Ecuador(2015-04-29) Rivadeneira, Stephanie Carolina; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.Archaeological investigations in northern Manabí, Ecuador have included regional settlement surveys and excavations that have identified a previously unknown Terminal Valdivia cultural complex named the “Piquigua Phase” (1700-1550 B.C.). Consequently, these archaeological investigations established the Jama River Valley as the northernmost frontier of the Valdivia society. Yet, the excavations at the site of Matapalo, in the Coaque River Valley, have pushed these frontiers further north. Thus, expanding the Valdivia occupations into new lands based on the reported archaeological features, cultural diagnostics and radiocarbon dates obtained at the site. By employing the methodology of modal analysis to the ceramic material from Matapalo, it was possible to recognize the formal and stylistic variability of the vessels, most of which reoccur in other sites with a Terminal Valdivia affiliation. Additionally, the ceramic analysis imparted in this thesis revealed that pottery is a particularly informative record of technology, chronology, but most importantly culture.Item Open Access Economic Strategies of Terminal Classic Households in the Northern Maya Lowlands: Multicrafting and Economic Diversification of a Mid- Elite Residential Compound at Xuenkal, Yucatan(2013-01-30) Alonso Olvera, Alejandra; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.; Raymond, ScottThe rise of Chichen Itza is associated with a period of changes and economic growth in the northern Lowlands during the Terminal Classic (A.D. 800-1000) and Early Postclassic (A.D. 1000-1200) periods (Andrews et al. 2003:151). Although some sites continued to grow, many sites were abandoned or had drastic declines. However, communities that continued to be occupied show visible shifts in ceramic and architectural styles, and settlement patterns that most likely reflect modifications in their political and economic organizations. Based on their ability to support Chichen Itza political and economic frameworks, elite life and activity in surrounding communities did not come to an end during the Terminal Classic. Examining elite life in areas that managed to carry on during difficult times allows a closer evaluation of specific strategies employed by elite groups to cope with a fluctuating economy and an innovative, yet short lasting, complex level organization. Xuenkal was one of Chichen Itza’s secondary centers that managed to operate under Terminal Classic conditions; therefore it presents a perfect case to examine economic structures that hypothetically originated from Chichen Itza’s integrative policy. Regional secondary centers have been overlooked when evaluating the impact Chichen had on local economies and how they were incorporated into the regional economy. Xuenkal offers several advantages for investigating such questions. An examination of Xuenkal elite contexts provides a means for examining elements that best represent levels of integration, affiliation, or submission endorsed by Chichen Itza. The archaeological exploration of one of Xuenkal’s Terminal Classic Platforms offers an opportunity to investigate domestic economic strategies implemented during times of economic change. The assessment of one mid-elite household provides evidence to evaluate the premise that control over production was necessary to guarantee economic interaction and economic intensification. New configurations of domestic and productive spaces are predicted to reflect particular activities related to multricrafting and intermittent crafting as particular strategies that were not previously employed by prominent elites in the Classic period. Mid-elite material culture would reflect redundancy in craft production necessary to be included in the political economy structure and within market and redistribution systems sponsored and controlled by Chichen Itza.Item Open Access Eye of the chief on top: archaeological investigations of the DGB sites of Northern Cameroon(2004) Richardson, Andrea Dawn; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.; Lyons, DianeItem Open Access Investigating Social Identity from Harappan Terracotta Artifacts in sites of Ghaggar Basin in Northwestern India(2023-02-16) Lahiri, Sutapa; Lyons, Diane E.; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.; Paris, Elizabeth Hudson; Yessenova, Saulesh B.; Smith, Monica L.; Shinde, Vasant S.This dissertation examines the Indus terracotta industry based on an analysis of a sample of terracotta from Rakhigarhi and Farmana, two Indus settlements in the Ghaggar Basin in Northwestern India dating to the Mature Harappan phase (2600-1900 BCE). Archaeologists suggest that during the Mature phase of the Indus civilization, there was a greater diversity of material culture and standardization in the appearance of Indus material culture. Material culture diversity is particularly visible in ceramics from this period and demonstrates regional and local differences in manufacturing styles potentially representing different social identities of the producers. However, diversity in other forms of material culture is less explored including within the Indus terracottas. This dissertation uses the chaîne opératoire approach to compare technical choices in the technological styles evident in a small collection of Indus terracottas from Rakhigarhi and Farmana. Technological styles are the material identities of terracotta-making groups. Analyses include an examination of morphological variability and a preliminary but exploratory compositional analysis of personal adornments, game objects, figurines, and terracotta cakes. These analyses are based on very small numbers of specimens, but the major contribution of the study is that it demonstrates the potential that Indus terracottas hold in determining variation in the social identities of terracotta-making groups, and a greater understanding of craft production across the Indus region. The study further suggests possible differences in the uses of certain terracottas in the daily lives of the Indus people of Rakhigarhi and Farmana.Item Open Access Late classic Maya warrior queens: profiling a new gender role(2005) Fritzler, Marlene J.; Simmons, Geoffrey; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.In the Late Classic period of Mesoamerica, nine royal women emerged as warriors in their own right. Monumental stelae at Coba, Calakmul, Naranjo, and Naachtun depict these prominent women as victorious captors of the hapless foe situated at their feet, and stand as testaments to a new gender role. Although they lived in a patriarchal society, these women commanded positions of substance and power, and some even achieved the status of ruler.Item Open Access Maya water management: excavations in the reservoir at Naachtun, El Peten, Guatemala(2007) Parry, Roberta G.; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.Item Open Access Pahn-Ti-Pan: The Rise and Fall of Complex Socio-Political and Economic Systems as Attested in Subterranean Site Contexts of Central Belize, C.A.(2015-04-30) Morton, Shawn Gregory; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.The question that drives this dissertation is “As integrated and varied ritual contexts, how do changing patterns of pre-Columbian cave use inform on the complex of historical, social, political, economic and related ideological processes in action during the inception, florescence, and collapse of Tipan Chen Uitz and other nucleated centres in the region [Central Belize]?” It is intended to highlight, and within the specific regional context of this dissertation address, a tendency within the speleoarchaeology of the Maya area to isolate itself from broader topics of discourse. Following a brief introduction to the study area and the research project that supports work there—the Central Belize Archaeological Survey project—the remainder of this manuscript is divided into two broad sections. The first is structured along a chain of related concepts and datasets extending from the broad body of literature on ritual and religion, through discussion of the conceptual cave context drawn from epigraphic and iconographic sources, its invocation as recorded in contemporary (or at least, relatively recent) ethnographic contexts and earlier post-Columbian indigenous historic sources, and finally along the well-travelled paths of the archaeological study of caves. This forward section constitutes the web of theories, concepts, methods, and histories within which the rest of my study is caught. The second section deals explicitly with my own primary research in a number of caves located in Central Belize. While the identification of specific ritual motivations—through reference to material and environmental contexts—fell short of initial expectations, I am able to parse patterns from this body of work that serve to distinguish variability in behaviour within these contexts and define a regional pattern of ritual cave use. Thus defined, this manuscript finishes by turning from the dark passages of the Maya cave context to discuss the implications of these patterns on discussions of broader trends/developments in socio-political and economic systems in this region, and particular, in reference to the recently discovered civic-ceremonial centre of Tipan Chen Uitz.Item Open Access Pottery, Differentiation, Integration, and Politics: Ceramic Consumption and Manufacture in Naachtun during the Preclassic and Early Classic Periods(2013-04-29) Patiño-Contreras, Alejandro; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.My research evaluates to what extent transformations in regional networks of socio-economic interaction in the Maya lowlands triggered innovation in ceramic manufacture and consumption in Naachtun between the Late Preclassic and the Early Classic. Comparisons between the ceramic assemblages of the Kuts’ ceramic complex (Late Preclassic) and the Balam ceramic complex (Early Classic) of Naachtun and those documented in other sites in the Maya lowlands indicates that innovation peaked during times when individual socio-economic networks in the lowlands were poorly interconnected, as attested by sharp differences between the assemblages of Naachtun and those reported for other sites. In contrast, more steady and widespread forms of ceramic manufacture and consumption are attested when local and systems of social and economic interaction in the lowlands were tightly associated under the aegis of paramount centers such as El Mirador and TikalItem Open Access Procession ritual at Naachtun, Guatemala during the late classic period(2007) Morton, Shawn Gregory; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.Item Open Access The Integration and Disintegration of Ancient Maya Urban Centres: Charting Households and Community at Buenavista del Cayo, Belize(2012-12-06) Peuramaki-Brown, Meaghan Marissa; Reese-Taylor, Kathryn V.This study examines processes of urbanization, including elements of integration and disintegration, at the low-density/dispersed Classic Period (ca. 300-900 C.E.) Maya centre of Buenavista del Cayo in the Lower Mopan River Valley of west-central Belize. Through an examination of the “biographies” of specific non-elite group constituencies (households and communities -people), represented by their material remains (places and things), I examine their impact on the visibility and characterization of urbanization processes at Buenavista through a multi-temporal, materialistic, and nuanced lens known as “life history”. Survey, testing, excavation, and analysis methods promoted by a life-history approach include those research designs that consider settlement sites from a diachronic perspective. This involves an investigation of settlement from a point of initial occupation, built environment construction, activity/use characterization, and abandonment, incorporated within a multi-temporal perspective. In the application of criteria developed in New Urban Theory that serve to emphasize the role of “places” in community assemblages, and from High Modernist State Schemes and associated theories surrounding knowledge bases that highlight the “people and things” of community assemblages, I chart and evaluate the integrative potential of the Buenavista del Cayo civic centre as it developed over time and eventually disintegrated. The insights into Maya civic and community organization that are generated by this research not only allow us to reach a better understanding of Classic Maya civilization and its rich diversity, but also contribute to the larger dialogue in anthropological archaeology concerning households and communities and their diachronic relationships to political authority and the institutions of archaic urban centres and states.