Maya Zooarchaeology: New Directions in Method and Theory


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Series: Monographs 51
ISBN: 978-1-931745-13-0
Publication Date: Jul 2004
Price: OUT OF PRINT
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Kitty F. Emery

A comprehensive work, combining traditional zooarchaeological reports and various state-of-the-art summaries of methods and theoretical perspectives. This combination of detailed discussions of basic zooarchaeological data with reviews of important themes in Maya zooarchaeology emphasizes the central issues that guide our research from basic data collection through final comparative interpretation. The chapters emphasize the newest developments in technical methods, the most recent trends in the analysis of “social zooarchaeology,” and the broadening perspectives provided by a new geographic range of investigations. The main focus of the volume remains on fostering cooperation among Mesoamerican zooarchaeologists at the levels of both preliminary analysis and final theoretical reconstruction. 

Table of Contents
  • Ch. 01: Maya Zooarchaeology: Historical Perspectives on Current Research Directions by F. Emery

PART 1. METHODS IN MAYA ZOOARCHAEOLOGY

  • Ch. 02: In Search of Assemblage Comparability: Methods in Maya Zooarchaeology by F. Emery
  • Ch. 03: Picks and Stones May Break My Bones: Taphonomy and Maya Zooarchaeology by N. Stanchly
  • Ch. 04: Excavation and Recovery of a Funerary Offering of Marine Materials from Copán by H. F. Beaubien

PART 2.  ANIMAL REMAINS AND ENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTIONS

  • Ch. 05: Ancient Maya Environment, Settlement, and Diet: Quantitative and GIS Spatial Analysis of Shell from Frenchman’s Cay, Belize by H. McKillop and T. Winemiller
  • Ch. 06: Environments of the Maya Collapse: A Zooarchaeological
  • Perspective from the Petexbatún by K. F. Emery
  • Ch. 07: Fauna Exploitation from the Preclassic to the Postclassic Periods at Four Maya Settlements in Northern Belize by M. A. Masson

PART 3. NEW INTERPRETATIONS OF ANCIENT SPECIES SIGNIFICANCE

  • Ch. 08: Ancient Lowland Maya Utilization of Freshwater Pearly Mussels (Nephronaias spp.) by T. G. Powis
  • Ch. 09: Feast, Field, and Forest: Deer and Dog Diets at Lagartero, Tikal, and Copán by C. D. White, M. Pohl, H. P. Schwarcz, and F. J. Longstaffe 
  • Ch. 10: Empirical Data for Archaeological Fish Weight Analyses by K. L. Seymour

PART 4. MAYA ANIMALS IN RITUAL, POLITICS, AND ECONOMICS

  • Ch. 11: Animal Utilization in a Growing City: Vertebrate Exploitationat Caracol, Belize by W. G. Teeter
  • Ch. 12: Vertebrates in Tikal Burials and Caches by H. Moholy-Nagy

PART 5. ZOOARCHAEOLOGY FROM THE BORDERS OF THE MAYA WORLD

  • Ch. 13: A Vertebrate Archaeofauna from the Early Formative Period Site of Paso de la Amada, Chiapas, Mexico: Preliminary Results by T. A. Wake 
  • Ch. 14: Human Use of Animals in Prehispanic Honduras: A Preliminary Report from the Lower Ulúa Valley by J. S. Henderson and R. A. Joyce 

PART 6. DISCUSSING NEW PERSPECTIVES ON MAYA ZOOARCHAEOLOGY

  • Ch. 15: Where’s the Meat? Maya Zooarchaeology from an Archaeological Perspective by M. Pendergast
  • Ch. 16: Maya Zooarchaeology from a Zooarchaeological Perspective by S. Wing