Book
Excavations in the Tigre Complex, El Mirador, Peten, Guatemala
New World Archaeological Foundation, Brigham Young University • (62) • Published In 1990 • Pages: xviii, 308
By: Hansen, Richard D..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
El Tigre is the largest Preclassic Mayan structure ever uncovered and one of the largest Maya Lowland structures of any period, requiring 5,000,000 man-days in the total construction effort. This feat has forced scholars to change their ideas about the complexity of Mayan Preclassic 'civilization.' As with other Mayan Preclassic sites, El Tigre was abandoned in the Late Preclassic. Over a four-year period, Hansen and his team dug 32 pits and trenches, and unearthed over 40,000 sherds and 890 stone artifacts. Half of the studied ceramics are Preclassic (mostly Chicanel Late Preclassic) and five percent are Classic (44 percent are unclassifiable.) The most outstanding features of El Tigre are the large stucco jaguar masks bordering the stairway. Hansen interprets the iconography and architecture of the whole structure as a representation of Mayan cosmology and the rising and setting sun. Hansen provides a comprehensive and detailed description of the excavation and artifacts.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Archaeological excavation methods
- Ceramic technology
- Structures
- Visual arts
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Preclassic Maya
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2001
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Middle America and the Caribbean
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Maya Area
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 2000
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1979-1982
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 2400-1800 BP
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- El Mirador, Petén, Guatemala
- NotesAdditional notes
- Richard D. Hansen
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-308)
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Mayas--Antiquities