Arlen Chase

• Professor (Full) at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Objectives Decades of archaeological and bioarchaeological research have demonstrated that ancient Maya cities underwent dynamic changes over time, including shifts in sociopolitical organization as well as their cultural and economic ties to other areas of Mesoamerica. Such transformations are often associated with the movement of people across an...

In this introductory chapter, the editors begin by pointing out that the materialization of time, the most famous intellectual interest of the ancient Maya, was aspirational through charting of the future through prophecy and divination as well as contemplative of the past in myth and historical chronicle. They then outline important themes of the...

The Maya computed and negotiated with time on an almost daily basis. Their engagement with time may be found throughout their archaeological record. Archaeological data demonstrate how time was embedded within the material remains of Caracol and Santa Rita Corozal, Belize and show basic continuities in ritual practice over 1300 years. For Caracol,...

Urban adaptation to climate change is a global challenge requiring a broad response that can be informed by how urban societies in the past responded to environmental shocks. Yet, interdisciplinary efforts to leverage insights from the urban past have been stymied by disciplinary silos and entrenched misconceptions regarding the nature and diversit...

Archaeological interpretation of ancient civilizations is characterized by periods of stasis and times of rapid change. While archaeologists can easily segment phases of material culture into sequent units, the points of transformation between these units are difficult to define archaeologically. The combined rapidity and lack of uniformity that ca...

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple...

Collapse is a term that has attracted much attention in social science literature in recent years, but there remain substantial areas of disagreement about how it should be understood in historical contexts. More specifically, the use of the term collapse often merely serves to dramatize long-past events, to push human actors into the background, a...

The economies of the ancient Maya did not exist in vacuums; rather they were interconnected to each other. This chapter details the way in which one of these economies functioned during the Late Classic Period (A.D. 550–900). Archaeological research at Caracol, Belize, has been able to reconstruct how ancient Maya production and exchange systems we...

Archaeology and heritage management in the Maya area have developed differently in the various modern-day countries that make up ancient Mesoamerica. In the country of Belize, heritage management has been conjoined with archaeology since at least the late 1970s. Long-term projects, such as the 1985-to-present archaeological investigations at the an...

The description and analysis of materials from on-floor deposits that reflect the final activity before site abandonment are key to making a determination as to what happened during the Maya collapse around a.d. 900. On-floor deposits recovered at Caracol, Belize indicate that factors like warfare, the breakdown of the site's market system, and hei...

Maya archaeology has witnessed a paradigm shift in interpretations of the past with regards to the structure and organization of ancient societies as a result of the introduction of lidar to the field a decade ago. Lidar provided control of spatial parameters in a way that had not been previously possible. But, the introduction of this technology h...

In chapter 16, Arlen Chase and Diane Chase reflect on the topic of monumental landscapes of the ancient Maya. They consider the myriad ways in which the word “monumental” is aptly applied to describe the landscapes of the Maya world. Although the obvious towering temples and palaces of the Classic cities first and foremost come to mind when thinkin...

Diane Chase and colleagues discuss one of the largest Classic-period Maya sites that ever existed, Caracol, Belize, in Chapter 6. Using over 30 years of data from the site, the authors examine four components of Caracol’s monumental landscape: the site’s plazuela groups, its causeway system, its reservoir system, and its agricultural terraces. Exte...

Ten Thousand Years of Inequality: The Archaeology of Wealth Differences. TIMOTHY A. KOHLER and MICHAEL E. SMITH, editors. 2018. Amerind Studies in Anthropology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. ix + 337 pp. $70.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8165-3774-7. - Volume 30 Issue 1 - Arlen F. Chase

History and archaeology have a well-established engagement with issues of premodern societal development and the interaction between physical and cultural environments; together, they offer a holistic view that can generate insights into the nature of cultural resilience and adaptation, as well as responses to catastrophe. Grasping the challenges t...

The Origins of Maya States, edited by Loa P. Traxler & Robert J. Sharer , 2016. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; ISBN 978-1-93453686-5; hardback £58.00 & $69.95; xxi+681 pp., 87 b/w illus., 37 maps, 3 tables - Arlen F. Chase

Archaeological research at Caracol, an ancient Maya site that was rediscovered in 1937, has become a major resource in the interpretation and understanding of the ancient Maya. Caracol, in west-central Belize, is situated in a subtropical region once characterized as being unsuitable for the development or maintenance of complex societies, yet it i...

How the ancient Maya used E Groups needs to be derived from the archaeological record. Research undertaken in the southeast Petén of Guatemala has revealed a concentration of over 150 E Groups in the area defined by Ceibal on the west, Caracol on the east, Esquipulas on the south, and the Central Petén lakes on the north. Excavated E Groups from Ce...

The significance of E Groups to the ancient Maya has been recognized for almost a century. Placed facing each other across a formal plaza, a western pyramid and a long eastern platform that usually supports three structures form the architectural arrangement known as an E Group. The solar alignments within an E Group were recognized first at Uaxact...

Remote sensing technologies have helped to revolutionize archaeology. LiDAR (light detection and ranging), a remote sensing technology in which lasers are used as topographic scanners that can penetrate foliage, has particularly influenced researchers in the field of settlement or landscape archaeology. LiDAR provides detailed landscape data for br...

The study of ancient Mesoamerican landscapes and settlement has been significantly impacted in a positive way through the application of LiDAR (light detection and ranging). LiDAR has permitted the recovery of ground data from huge regional areas that are currently under a tropical canopy: the use of traditional methods of survey and mapping could...

We report a study of central Maya lowland dynastic information networks, i.e., six cities' external elite ceramic influences, and how they reflect the decision-making practices of Maya elites over 3000 years. Forest cover, i.e., Moraceae family pollen, was added to the network analysis to provide ecological boundary conditions, thus ecologically mo...

“Leading archaeologists present the most recent evidence on a complex of architecture, iconography, and artifacts closely linked to the rise of the divine kingships of the ancient Maya. An important volume for anyone interested in the rise of ancient states.” —Arthur Demarest, author of Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization “...

Humans consistently modify their environments—both directly and indirectly. However, the linkage between human activity and anthropogenic landscapes intensifies in urban situations. The artificial landscapes and dense concentrations of human populations encountered in urban environments create a centripetal pull for resources that results in contin...

The use of airborne mapping lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), a.k.a airborne laser scanning (ALS), has had a major impact on archaeological research being carried out in Mesoamerica. Since being introduced in 2009, mapping lidar has revolutionized the spatial parameters of Mesoamerican, and especially Maya, archaeology by permitting the recovery...

There is general agreement today that the ancient Maya used markets within their communities. However, much like everything else in Maya society, there was variability in the form of these markets and in the goods that were available. In some communities, imported foodstuffs may have been necessary for local consumption and traded in markets (Dahli...

During April and May 2013, a total of 1057 km(2) of LiDAR was flown by NCALM for a consortium of archaeologists working in West-central Belize, making this the largest surveyed area within the Mayan lowlands. Encompassing the Belize Valley and the Vaca Plateau, West-central Belize is one of the most actively researched parts of the Maya lowlands; h...

The use of airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) in western Belize, Central America, has revolutionized our understanding of the spatial dynamics of the ancient Maya. This technology has enabled researchers to successfully demonstrate the large-scale human modifications made to the ancient tropical landscape, providing insight on broader reg...

How can the past inform the present? Archaeologists working though IHOPE-Maya seek to address this question by using archaeological data and ecological reconstructions to explore human–nature couplings. Maya archaeologists are revitalizing and contemporizing the field to focus on issues relevant today: the socio-natural boundary and the coupled hum...

Archaeologists have begun to understand that many of the challenges facing our technologically sophisticated, resource dependent, urban systems were also destabilizing factors in ancient complex societies. The focus of IHOPE-Maya is to identify how humans living in the tropical Maya Lowlands in present-day Central America responded to and impacted...

With an anthropomorphic landscape that completely covered over 130 square kilometers with agricultural terraces in antiquity, Caracol, Belize provides an excellent place to review ancient resilience, rigidity, and path dependency. A population center with over 100,000 people in C.E. 700, Caracol subsisted on change and growth for its initial 1000 y...

Modeling Classic period social and economic systems of the ancient Maya has proven difficult for a number of reasons, including sampling, preservation, and interpretational biases. As more archaeological research has been undertaken, views about the Classic period Maya (a.d. 250–900) have become progressively more complex. Because neither Maya art...

With its ability to penetrate dense tropical canopies, LiDAR is ­revolutionizing how ancient Mesoamerican landscapes are recorded. Locating ancient sites in the Maya area of Central America traditionally employed a variety of techniques, ranging from on-the-ground survey to aerial and satellite imagery. Because of dense vegetation covering most anc...

Arlen Chase and Diane Chase’s chapter serves as a counterpoint to Bill’s because they highlight the inadequacies of type-variety. They argue for context-based approaches to Maya pottery with an emphasis on the associations of whole vessels and refitting of sherds because full or reconstructable vessels from good primary deposits are the ideal mater...

Se ha hecho cada vez más evidente que los mayas del periodo Clásico nunca fueron un pueblo utópicamente pacífico y que, de hecho, toda su trayectoria estuvo relacionada con la guerra. Las variaciones en la frecuencia, técnicas y propósitos de sus guerras fueron paralelas, a través del tiempo, e influyeron en su desarrollo cultural. Las investigacio...

The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology provides a current guide to the recent and on-going archaeology of Mesoamerica. Though the emphasis is on prehispanic societies, this text also includes coverage of important new work by archaeologists on the Colonial and Republican periods. Unique among recent works, the text brings together in a sin...

The application of light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a laser-based remote-sensing technology that is capable of penetrating overlying vegetation and forest canopies, is generating a fundamental shift in Mesoamerican archaeology and has the potential to transform research in forested areas world-wide. Much as radiocarbon dating that half a centur...

Tropical rainforest clearing and degradation significantly reduces carbon sequestration and increases the rate of biodiversity loss. There has been a concerted international effort to develop remote sensing techniques to monitor broad-scale patterns of forest canopy disturbance. In addition to loss of natural resources, recent deforestation in Meso...

Locating caves can be difficult, as their entranceways are often obscured below vegetation. Recently, active remote-sensing technologies, in particular laser-based sensor systems (LiDARs), have demonstrated the ability to penetrate dense forest canopies to reveal the underlying ground topography. An airborne LiDAR system was used to generate a 1 m...

Advances in remote sensing and space-based imaging have led to an increased understanding of past settlements and landscape use, but – until now – the images in tropical regions have not been detailed enough to provide datasets that permitted the computation of digital elevation models for heavily forested and hilly terrain. The application of airb...

The archaeological interpretation of status and power is fraught with a variety of issues. While it is sometimes possible to identify those individuals of highest status – and, presumably, power -in the archaeological record, for the most part issues of status and power can become a quagmire for archaeological interpretation. While the verticality...

university of central florida What goes inside a Maya building is just as significant in determining its function as a building’s architectural plan and external appearance. Structures are not alike in their contents. Some hold interments and caches; some contain earlier buildings; others are single or multiple construction efforts with no contents...

A Teotihuacán-style cremation at Caracol, Belize demonstrates that green obsidian functioned symbolically and experientially within this Maya ritual context. Green obsidian was an offering and was used as part of the cremation process. Six green obsidian spear-points recovered show extreme temperatures (>1000ºC) were reached during the cremation. P...

Despite substantial new research on both the Classic (ad 250-900) and the Postclassic (ad 900-1542 [1697]) period Maya, views of the Classic Maya collapse and of the changes that took place in the subsequent Postclassic period are very little changed from paradigms established more than thirty years ago. While the Postclassic Maya are no longer vie...

Ancient Mesoamerican polities are an important source of data for considerations of state development, despite internal debate over their size and complexity. We review complex political units, usually referred to as "states" and "empires," in ancient Mesoamerica and reach the following conclusions: these polities tended to be hegemonic, rather tha...

By focusing on Maya ritual symbolism found in the iconography and archaeology of the pre-contact New World, it is possible to isolate elements that significantly changed following the advent of the Spaniards. Among the aspects of Maya religion to be modified following contact were several key components of Maya worldviews-specifically, the symbolis...

Textiles formed a major part of any ancient Mesoamerican economy. Based on ethnohistory and iconography, the Maya were great producers of cloth for both internal and external use. However, the archaeological identification of textile production is difficult in any tropical area because of issues of preservation. This paper examines the evidence for...

Inferring ancient social and political organization from the archaeological record is a difficult task. Generally, the models used to interpret the Classic-period Maya (A.D. 250-900) have been borrowed from other societies and other times and thus also reflect etic conceptions of the past. Maya social and political organization has been interpreted...

Faunal analysis can give clues to the quality of life for the elite and the general pop- ulation. Many studies have discussed how a general Maya diet was affected by population pres- sure, but few have looked directly at the archaeological dietary remains. This paper looks at the adaptive responses to the increasing requirements for animal resource...

This article presents a non-zooarchaeological viewpoint, as a response to many of the themes presented in this special journal issue and based on discussions that occurred during the 2003 Society for American Archaeology Forum, Zooarchaeology in the Humid American Tropics: Making the Most of the Data. Our experience in the Maya region shows many ar...

This paper presents their story design and details of the system we developed to support interaction in this shared virtual world. We then discuss performance issues, lessons learned and newer features that we did not have available at the time. Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Virtual drama is based on the use of a shareable virtual world as a stage setting, with avatars controlled by actors and audience members. The Caracol Time Travel Project was an experiment in the use of virtual drama for learning about archaeology. Eighteen undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida used a locally developed Java-ba...

Statements concerning the function of intrasite Maya causeways often focus on inferred ritual purposes or on symbolic kinship alliances rather than on the more practical roles that such roads may have served. Data collected on an extensive intrasite causeway system at Caracol, Belize, demonstrate that the primary role of its sacbes lay in faci...

Virtual drama is based on the use of a shareable virtual world as a stage setting, with avatars controlled by actors and audience members. In this experiment, students built a virtual world to teach concepts of Mesoamerican archaeology and the cultural history of the ancient Maya

A group of 18 undergraduate students from a variety of disciplines spent two semesters designing and constructing an interactive drama-based educational role-playing game using VRML and VRMInet, a Java-based system for shared virtual worlds. The game was designed to teach some of the basic concepts of archaeology and some facts about the life of th...

A partir de l'etude des cites mayas, de leur taille et de leur etendue territoriale, de leur economie, de la complexite de leur systeme de communication et de transport, de leur agriculture, et en illustrant son propos par l'examen de ces caracteristiques dans la cite de Caracol, l'auteur montre que l'organisation politique des Mayas etait fonde su...