In this article, we provide the results of preliminary archaeological and epigraphic research undertaken at the site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas. Field research conducted in 2018, in collaboration with local community members, has allowed us to identify this archaeological site as the capital of a kingdom known from Classic period Maya inscriptions as "Sak Tz'i'" (White Dog). Because all previously known references to the kingdom came from looted monuments or texts found at other Maya centers, the location of the Sak Tz'i' kingdom's capital has been the subject of ongoing modeling and debate among scholars. Here we synthesize prior epigraphic and archaeological research concerning Sak Tz'i', highlighting past efforts to locate the kingdom's capital. We then discuss the results of preliminary survey, mapping, and excavations of Lacanjá Tzeltal, and present the first drawing and decipherment of Lacanjá Tzeltal Panel 1, the sculpture crucial for centering this "lost" Maya kingdom.

No abstract

In archaeological research about feeding modes of past societies, different interests and methodologies have been developed. In their search for knowledge about Mayan foods and cooking methods, scholars such as Herrera Flores and Götz [2014. "La alimentación de los

We present results from the archaeological analysis of 331 km2 of high-resolution airborne lidar data collected in the Upper Usumacinta River basin of Mexico and Guatemala. Multiple visualizations of the DEM and multi-spectral data from four lidar transects crossing the Classic period (AD 350–900) Maya kingdoms centered on the sites of Piedras Negras, La Mar, and Lacanja Tzeltal permitted the identification of ancient settlement and associated features of agricultural infrastructure. HDBSCAN (hierarchical density-based clustering of applications with noise) cluster analysis was applied to the distribution of ancient structures to define urban, peri-urban, sub-urban, and rural settlement zones. Interpretations of these remotely sensed data are informed by decades of ground-based archaeological survey and excavations, as well as a rich historical record drawn from inscribed stone monuments. Our results demonstrate that these neighboring kingdoms in three adjacent valleys exhibit divergent patterns of structure clustering and low-density urbanism, distributions of agricultural infrastructure, and economic practices during the Classic period. Beyond meeting basic subsistence needs, agricultural production in multiple areas permitted surpluses likely for the purposes of tribute, taxation, and marketing. More broadly, this research highlights the strengths of HDBSCAN to the archaeological study of settlement distributions when compared to more commonly applied methods of density-based cluster analysis.

ABSTRACT:The ware Celestún Red (of the Nimun and Baca ceramic typologies) is one of the most diagnostic ceramics of the northwestern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and a subject of ongoing debate regarding its distribution and origin. Although ceramics from coastal Campeche and Yucatan have been the focus of years of investigation, scholars still do not know if Celestún Red was manufactured locally during the Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) or was made and exchanged by the regional elite. In this presentation, the authors provide the first petrographic descriptions of Celestún Red, and use them to contribute to a formal definition of the Cambalan Ceramic Sphere defined by Jiménez (2002), Jiménez, Ceballos & Sierra (2006). These petrographic observations show that the detrital components were rhyolite fragments, vitroclastic tuffs, pumice, shards of glass, quartzes, plagioclase, calcite, hematite, magnetite and other minor contributors. The clay matrix is phyllomorphic, with a parallel, rectilinear fabric of fine grains. Granulometrically, the detrital components have been characterized as fine to medium sands. The pastes present evidence of diagenetic processes, most notably porosity in the primary ceramic matrix. These spaces are in some cases filled by secondary calcite deposits. Evidence of manufacturing was also observed, such as the fractures and bending of the paste that took place to produce the rims of these ceramic objects.