book chapter
Uaxactun, Guatemala: Group E -- 1926-1931
Carnegie Institution of Washington • (477) • Published In 1937 • Pages: xiii, 314
By: Ricketson, Oliver Garrison, Ricketson, Edith Hill Bayles, Mrs..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Uaxactun was one of the first Mayan sites excavated so few absolute dates are given other than Mayan Long Count dates. The time period for this site is given as Uaxactun Periods I-III. Therefore, the reader is also advised to exercise caution as artifacts, etc. from Period I may have been mistakenly included in the analysis. (Period I is mostly outside the time period of 2100 B.P. to 1100 B.P. for the Classic Maya.) This may be especially true of the burials found under the plaza floor in Group E and some of the earliest buildings in Group E that were destroyed by later construction. This report is mostly about the investigations of Group E. The buildings of other groups investigated in the same field seasons are also described but in much less detail. Also described are the artifacts, burials, and miscellaneous structures or features (such as CHUTUNS, cists, and caches) found. One of the most interesting finds of Group E is that several buildings and stelae form a solstice site. The buildings were aligned so that the solstices and equinoxes can be noted when an observer standing on the stairway of one pyramid looks across the plaza at a group of temples ontop another pyramid. The sunrise will be behind a central temple for the the equinoxes and along a corner of one of the two outer temples for the solstices. Ricketson also conducted a house mound survey which estimated a population density far higher than slash and burn agriculture would have supported. So Ricketson was one of the first to realize the Maya must have practiced intensive agriculture.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Archaeological excavation methods
- Public structures
- Religious and educational structures
- Building interiors and arrangement
- Settlement patterns
- Miscellaneous facilities
- Sacred objects and places
- Prayers and sacrifices
- Cultural stratigraphy
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Classic Maya
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- 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 chapter
- 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.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Sarah Berry; 1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1926-1931
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- Uaxactun Periods II-III
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Uaxactun; El Peten, Guatemala
- NotesAdditional notes
- Part I: The excavations, by Oliver G. Ricketson, Jr. Part II: The artifacts, by Edith Bayles Ricketson. Appendices by Munroe Amsden, A. Ledyard Smith [and] H.E.D. Pollock
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-306)
- Large, folded maps not included (figures 1, 2, 71-74, 197, and 198)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 37022243
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Mayas--Antiquities