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

Chapter 1. Maya Zooarchaeology: Historical Perspectives on Current Research Directions by F. Emery

PART 1: METHODS IN MAYA ZOOARCHAEOLOGY

Chapter 2. In Search of Assemblage Comparability: Methods in Maya Zooarchaeology by F. Emery
Chapter 3. Picks and Stones May Break My Bones: Taphonomy and Maya Zooarchaeology by N. Stanchly
Chapter 4. Excavation and Recovery of a Funerary Offering of Marine Materials from Copán by H. F. Beaubien

PART 2: ANIMAL REMAINS AND ENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTIONS

Chapter 5. Ancient Maya Environment, Settlement, and Diet: Quantitative and GIS Spatial Analysis of Shell from Frenchman’s Cay, Belize by H. McKillop and T. Winemiller
Chapter 6. Environments of the Maya Collapse: A Zooarchaeological
Perspective from the Petexbatún by K. F. Emery
Chapter 7. 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

Chapter 8. Ancient Lowland Maya Utilization of Freshwater Pearly Mussels (Nephronaias spp.) by T. G. Powis
Chapter 9. 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 
Chapter 10. Empirical Data for Archaeological Fish Weight Analyses by K. L. Seymour

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

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

PART 5: ZOOARCHAEOLOGY FROM THE BORDERS OF THE MAYA WORLD

Chapter 13. A Vertebrate Archaeofauna from the Early Formative Period Site of Paso de la Amada, Chiapas, Mexico: Preliminary Results by T. A. Wake 
Chapter 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

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