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Caracol
Caracol is a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District of Belize. It is situated approximately south of Xunantunich, and the town of San Ignacio, and from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau, at an elevation of above sea-level, in the foothills of the Maya Mountains.Arlen Chase and Diane Chase, 1987 Investigations at the Classic Maya City of Caracol, Belize: 1985–1987. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco. Long thought to be a tertiary center, it is now known that the site was one of the most important regional political centers of the Maya Lowlands during the Classic Period. Caracol covered approximately ,Arlen Chase and Diane Chase 2009 Interpreting the Maya "Collapse": Continued Investigation of Residential Complexes in and near Caracol's Epicenter: 2009 Field Report of the Caracol Archaeological Project. http://caracol.org/reports/2009.php , accessed November 20, 2011 covering an area much larger than ...
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Linton Satterthwaite
Linton Satterthwaite Jr. (1897–1978) was a Maya archaeologist and epigrapher and is primarily associated with the University Museum at the University of Pennsylvania. He is well known for his works at Caracol, Piedras Negras, Cahal Pech and Benque Viejo ( Xunantunich). Early life and training Satterthwaite was born in Trenton, New Jersey and had a public school education in the area. After graduating from Trenton High School, Satterthwaite joined the military and served as a cadet and flying officer for the Royal Navy Air Force during World War I. Afterwards, he decided to attend Yale University for his B.A. and worked as a reporter from 1929 to 1931. He participated as an archaeological assistant in excavations in Texas, West Virginia, and Guatemala. Satterthwaite was awarded his Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1943.Benque Viejo, Cahal Pech British Honduras (Belize) expedition records. Penn Museum Archives.http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/detail.html?id=EAD_upenn_museum_PUMu1151 ...
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Tikal
Tikal (; ''Tik'al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in Petén Department, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tikal was the capital of a state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya. Though monumental architecture at the site dates back as far as the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Mesoamerican chronology, Classic Period, c. 200 to 900. During this time, the Maya city, city dominated much of the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily, while interacting with areas throughout Mesoamerica such as the great metr ...
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Diane Zaino Chase
Diane Zaino Chase (born 1953) is an American anthropologist and archaeologist who specializes in the study of the Ancient Maya. , she serves as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost of the University of Houston and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs for the University of Houston System. Career Chase attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a BA in anthropology in 1975. She completed her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 1982 with a dissertation on ''"Spatial and Temporal Variability in Postclassical Northern Belize"''. Chase taught anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and West Chester University before gaining permanent employment at the University of Central Florida. From 1985 to 1995, Chase served as a guest curator for the Orlando Museum of Art. In 2000, she was appointed the interdisciplinary coordinator of academic affairs at the University of Central Florida. In 2003, she was awarded the honor of Pega ...
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Calakmul
Calakmul (; also Kalakmul and other less frequent variants) is a Maya civilization, Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the greater Petén Basin region. It is from the Guatemalan border. Calakmul was one of the largest and most powerful Maya city, ancient cities ever uncovered in the Mayan Lowlands, Maya lowlands. Calakmul was a major Maya power within the northern Petén Basin region of the Yucatán Peninsula of southern Mexico. Calakmul administered a large domain marked by the extensive distribution of their emblem glyph of the snake head sign, to be read "Kaan". Calakmul was the seat of what has been dubbed the Kingdom of the Snake or Snake Kingdom. This Snake Kingdom reigned during most of the Mesoamerican chronology, Classic period. Calakmul itself is estimated to have had a population of 50,000 people and had governance, at times, over places as far away as 150 kilometers (93 mi). There are 6,750 ancient structures ident ...
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Maya Civilization
The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The civilization is also noted for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the Maya Region, an area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the s ...
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Star War
A star war was a decisive conflict between rival polities of the Maya civilization during the first millennium AD. The term comes from a specific type of glyph used in the Maya script, which depicts a star showering the earth with liquid droplets, or a star over a shell. It represents a verb but its phonemic value and specific meaning have not yet been deciphered. The name "star war" was coined by the epigrapher Linda Schele to refer to the glyph, and by extension to the type of conflict that it indicates. Examples Maya inscriptions assign episodes of Maya warfare to four distinct categories, each represented by its own glyph. Those accorded the greatest significance by the Maya were described with the "star war" glyph, representing a major war resulting in the defeat of one polity by another. This represents the installation of a new dynastic line of rulers, complete dominion of one polity over another, or a successful war of independence by a formerly dominated polity. Lo ...
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Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and northwestern part of Costa Rica. As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. In the pre-Columbian era, many Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous societies flourished in Mesoamerica for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas began on Hispaniola in 1493. In world history, Mesoamerica was the site of two historical transformations: (i) primary urban generation, and (ii) the formation of New World cultures from the mixtures of the indigenous Mesoamerican peoples with the European, African, and Asian peoples who were introduced by the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoameri ...
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Naranjo
Naranjo (Wak Kab'nal in Mayan) is a Pre-Columbian Maya city in the Petén Basin region of Guatemala. It was occupied from about 500 BC to 950 AD, with its height in the Late Classic Period. The site is part of Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park. The city lies along the Mopan and Holmul rivers, and is about 50 km east of the site of Tikal. Naranjo has been the victim of severe looting. The site is known for its polychrome ceramic style. "Naranjo" in Spanish means "orange tree", which is a Spanish translation of the Mayan name Wak Kab'nal. The emblem glyph of the Naranjo is transliterated as Sa'aal “the place where (maize) gruel abounds.” The Naranjo dynastic rulers are said to be the "Holy Lords of Sa'aal." Layout of site The area of Naranjo covers at least 8 km2 with the urban center covering about 2.25 km2. There are currently 389 recorded buildings in the central area and over 900 around the center. The epicenter consists of six triadic complexes, two b ...
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Mesoamerican Chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian, prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BCE – 250 CE), the Classic (250–900 CE), and the Postclassic (); as well as the post European contact Colonial Period (1521–1821), and Postcolonial, or the period after independence from Spain (1821–present). The periodisation of Mesoamerica by researchers is based on archaeological, ethnohistorical, and modern cultural anthropology research dating to the early twentieth century. Archaeologists, ethnohistorians, historians, and cultural anthropologists continue to work to develop cultural histories of the region. Overview Paleo-Indian period 18000–8000 BCE The Paleo-Indian (less frequently, ''Lithic stage, Lithic'') period or era is that which spans from the first signs of human presence in the region, which ...
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Belize
Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. Part of the Caribbean region, Belize is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Commonwealth Caribbean, the historical British West Indies. The Maya civilization spread into the area of Belize between 1500 BCE and 300 CE and flourished until about 1200. European contact began in 1502–04 when Christopher Columbus sailed along the Gulf of Honduras. European exploration was begun by English settlers in 1638. Spanish Empire, Spain and Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain both laid claim to the land until Britain defeated the Spanish in the Battle of St. George's Caye (1798). It became British Honduras, a British colony in 1840, and a Crown colony in 1862. Belize achieved its independence from the United Kingdom on 21 September ...
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Maya Mountains
The Maya Mountains are a mountain range located in Belize and eastern Guatemala, in Central America. Etymology The Maya Mountains were known as the ''Cockscomb'' or ''Coxcomb Mountains'' to Baymen and later Belizeans at least until the mid-20th century. Their current appellation is thought to be in honour of the Mayan civilisation. Geography Physical Peaks The range's highest peaks are Doyle's Delight at and Victoria Peak at . Rivers Nine streams with a Strahler order greater than 1 flow from the Mountains into the Caribbean Sea, namely, five tributaries of the Belize River, two tributaries of the Monkey River, and the Sittee River and Boom Creek. Karst Prominent karstic features within the Mountains include the Chiquibul Spring and Cave System, the Vaca Plateau, the Southern and Northern Boundary Faults, and possibly an aquifer contiguous with that of the Yucatán Peninsula. Plutons The Mountains 'are the only source of igneous and metamorphic materi ...
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Cayo District, Belize
Cayo is a district located in the west part of Belize, and it contains the capital, Belmopan. It is the most extensive, second-most populous and third-most densely populated of the six districts of Belize. The district's capital is the town of San Ignacio. Geography Being the largest district, it borders Guatemala to the west, Orange Walk district to the north, Belize district to the northeast, Stann Creek district to the southeast and Toledo district to the south. The nation's capital, Belmopan, is located within the district. Other important towns and cities in the district include Benque Viejo del Carmen, twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena (District's Capital), Seven Miles (El Progreso), San Antonio, Valley of Peace, St. Margaret, Roaring Creek, Armenia, San Jose Succotz, Arenal, Buena Vista, Bullet Tree Falls, Calla Creek, Esperanza, Cristo Rey, Georgeville, Unitedville, Blackman Eddy, Ontario, Camalote, Los Tambos, More Tomorrow and Spanish Lookout. ...
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