I am a professional archaeologist with experience in North America and Central America. My research interests include approaches to understanding architecture, the built environment, and settlement systems. I am also focused on approaches to studying material culture including the chaine operatoire. Address: Columbus, Ohio, United States
2021 Society for American Archaeology video presentation.
The accumulation of radiocarbon date... more 2021 Society for American Archaeology video presentation.
The accumulation of radiocarbon dates for Scioto Valley Woodland Period sites has created a palimpsest, which inhibits chronological understanding of cultural change. This project iteratively integrates temporal hygiene and Bayesian analyses of radiocarbon dates from multiple sites, in an attempt to clean up problematic features of such data sets and provide for more accurate archaeological inference. Temporal hygiene is applied and compared using three levels of stringency, in order to assess and eliminate problematic assays, which result from early low-accuracy radiocarbon dates and non-optimal selection and reporting practices. Kernel density estimation (KDE) smoothing reduces statistical over-dispersion, which result from summing measurement imprecision and issues with the radiocarbon calibration curve. Bayesian analysis is built into the KDE routine, creating a better chronology than would have been possible otherwise.
This current research article involves controlled surface collection and analysis of a cobble che... more This current research article involves controlled surface collection and analysis of a cobble chert quarry/workshop site in Brown County. The Yates site, 33BR154, is one of 29 sites associated with the expansion of the Brown County Landfill, near Georgetown in southwest Ohio. The Yates site is a habitation site and a low intensity prehistoric quarry where Native Americans exploited glacial chert cobbles, which consisted of Bisher or Brassfield cherts. This study undertook a chaine operatoire analysis and spatial statistical analysis designed to understand the lithic tool production strategies at play at this site. It was shown through these analyses that technological choices were enacted that resulted in the production of bifacial tools, but also expediently produced flake tools. The study provides a window on the complexities of prehistoric decision-making and agency within a technical productive system.
Recent studies of post-collapse regeneration of early state societies have explained the renewed ... more Recent studies of post-collapse regeneration of early state societies have explained the renewed growth of social complexity using the concepts of template regeneration and stimulus regeneration. While such terms are useful generalized concepts, the discussion around them in practice inhibits an understanding of the various social processes implicated in the renewed growth of states, particularly due to the primary focus on elite urban populations. Rather than emphasizing types of regeneration, my approach analyzes how agents transformed rural communities during collapse and subsequent restructuring. Utilizing a case study from the Petén Lakes region, Guatemala, the article makes the point that rural commoners must be considered active to adequately characterize regeneration. An examination of the base of society focuses on intentional choices made to change settlement patterns, architecture and stone tool procurement and usage in order to better understand heterogeneity in the Classic-Postclassic transformation of Maya society (AD 750–1200).
Over the past 30 years, research in the anthropology of the body has documented the fact that man... more Over the past 30 years, research in the anthropology of the body has documented the fact that many cultures do not view bodies as inherently individual, like in Western societies. Rather, bodies in many cultures have permeable boundaries, are internally partible with regard to the location of specific souls (animating essences) or other aspects of personhood, and are defined in terms of their relationships to objects and other people’s bodies. Bioarchaeologists have become increasingly aware of the need to engage such non-individualized perspectives of bodies over the past 15 years and considering fragmented bodies is one way to do so. Commingled, secondary contexts are particularly fertile ground for considering aspects of partibility, permeability, and relationally defined bodies. One challenge for considering embodiment in such contexts is identifying when fragmentation was intentional and thus reflects an attempt to manipulate bodies on the basis of partibility or permeability. Here, we use a spatial analysis, Ripley’s K function, to argue that bodies in a Maya mass grave were fragmented and manipulated by virtue of their partible, permeable, and relational nature. The case study highlights the fact that many elusive aspects of embodiment may be engaged in the material record in an empirically rigorous fashion through spatial analysis coupled with contextual data.
Recent Phase II assessments for the U.S. 24 relocation project have provided a window on the arch... more Recent Phase II assessments for the U.S. 24 relocation project have provided a window on the archaeology of one of Ohio’s unique ecological zones. Site 33LU759 is located in uplands near the Oak Openings region of Lucas County in northwest Ohio. Relict sand dunes formed by the glacial Lake Warren were colonized by widely dispersed oak trees and grassy and herbaceous ground cover. I hypothesize that hunting of deer attracted to the Oak Openings and acorn exploitation are among the reasons that prehistoric human settlements occurred there. Archaeological and spatial statistical analyses reveal what appear to be small Late Archaic camps on sandy dune-like terraces among a larger scatter of artifacts. These camps are placed within Stothers and Abel’s (1993) model of Late Archaic settlement patterning in the Maumee Valley.
The Great Hopewell Road is a prehistoric parallel-walled roadway that archaeologists hypothesize ... more The Great Hopewell Road is a prehistoric parallel-walled roadway that archaeologists hypothesize to have passed from the Newark Earthworks in Licking County, Ohio, to the vicinity of Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, a distance of about 60 miles. Its existence was proposed during the nineteenth century and it received renewed interest when Bradley Lepper of the Ohio Historical Society investigated it in the 1990s. This article reviews recent attempts to identify the Great Hopewell Road south of the Newark Earthworks, based on efforts by the Ohio Historical Society, a cultural resource management project by ASC Group, Inc., and other investigations. While evidence of the prehistoric road is convincing in some cases, in other cases the search for the signature and deposits associated with it has proved elusive. An evaluation of the strength of evidence is applied to elicit identification trends. The study concludes by commenting on the unique potential of the site to inform archaeologis...
This study uses architectural and activity area analyses to examine the Classic-Postclassic trans... more This study uses architectural and activity area analyses to examine the Classic-Postclassic transition and the resulting Postclassic-Early Historic (A. D. 1000–1697) Maya society in the Petén Lakes region of Guatemala. The research combines a detailed temporal comparison of architectural styles and an analysis of changing architecture as the restructuring of everyday social action. The methods have significance beyond Maya studies in addressing questions of cultural continuity or in-migration. Archaeological data from recent excavations, including new radiocarbon dates, document the intensive settlement of the Quexil Islands in the Terminal Classic period (A. D. 800–1000) and its occupation thereafter. Architectural evidence from the Quexil Islands and other Petén Lakes sites indicates a mosaic pattern of change, reflecting to varying extents Classic-Postclassic continuity and external contacts, with differences among sites rather than the complete replacement of populations. Eviden...
Abstract In 1992, Mark Seeman proposed the existence of a Jack's Reef horizon in Ohio. Little... more Abstract In 1992, Mark Seeman proposed the existence of a Jack's Reef horizon in Ohio. Little professional research has been undertaken on domestic sites since then though. The Jack's Reef horizon subsumes the Intrusive Mound complex. Archaeological excavations for the Rockies Express-East gas pipeline project identified three sites in the central Scioto valley that provide evidence of Jack's Reef horizon occupations in floodplain and upland settings flanking the river valley. Radiocarbon dates confirm habitation associated with this late Late Woodland culture from cal A.D. 630–1000. Excavation and geophysical data reviewed in this article indicate intensive habitation of large base camps and small-scale residential bases, with secondary refuse disposal, distinctive ceramics, a curated bifacial lithic technology, and an expedient flake-tool technology.
This article addresses the problem of structural determinism in archaeological explanations of ma... more This article addresses the problem of structural determinism in archaeological explanations of material culture change, specifically architecture. A discussion of Giddens' structuration theory emphasizes the duality of structure. The concept is updated by drawing on Gell's theory of agency in art and recent ideas on play, innovation, freedom and consensus prevalent in anthropology and archaeology. This approach shows that material culture is changed through structurally shaped innovation, such that agency is distributed across time, among groups regionally and among elites and commoners. The theoretical exposition develops a case study including discussion of an architectural grammar, ethnohistoric analogy and activity-area studies involving ceramic incense burners. The case study is the Classic–Postclassic transition (ad 750–1200) among the Maya of Petén, Guatemala. While earlier explanations of architectural change in this region focused on an in-migration event, the curre...
2021 Society for American Archaeology video presentation.
The accumulation of radiocarbon date... more 2021 Society for American Archaeology video presentation.
The accumulation of radiocarbon dates for Scioto Valley Woodland Period sites has created a palimpsest, which inhibits chronological understanding of cultural change. This project iteratively integrates temporal hygiene and Bayesian analyses of radiocarbon dates from multiple sites, in an attempt to clean up problematic features of such data sets and provide for more accurate archaeological inference. Temporal hygiene is applied and compared using three levels of stringency, in order to assess and eliminate problematic assays, which result from early low-accuracy radiocarbon dates and non-optimal selection and reporting practices. Kernel density estimation (KDE) smoothing reduces statistical over-dispersion, which result from summing measurement imprecision and issues with the radiocarbon calibration curve. Bayesian analysis is built into the KDE routine, creating a better chronology than would have been possible otherwise.
This current research article involves controlled surface collection and analysis of a cobble che... more This current research article involves controlled surface collection and analysis of a cobble chert quarry/workshop site in Brown County. The Yates site, 33BR154, is one of 29 sites associated with the expansion of the Brown County Landfill, near Georgetown in southwest Ohio. The Yates site is a habitation site and a low intensity prehistoric quarry where Native Americans exploited glacial chert cobbles, which consisted of Bisher or Brassfield cherts. This study undertook a chaine operatoire analysis and spatial statistical analysis designed to understand the lithic tool production strategies at play at this site. It was shown through these analyses that technological choices were enacted that resulted in the production of bifacial tools, but also expediently produced flake tools. The study provides a window on the complexities of prehistoric decision-making and agency within a technical productive system.
Recent studies of post-collapse regeneration of early state societies have explained the renewed ... more Recent studies of post-collapse regeneration of early state societies have explained the renewed growth of social complexity using the concepts of template regeneration and stimulus regeneration. While such terms are useful generalized concepts, the discussion around them in practice inhibits an understanding of the various social processes implicated in the renewed growth of states, particularly due to the primary focus on elite urban populations. Rather than emphasizing types of regeneration, my approach analyzes how agents transformed rural communities during collapse and subsequent restructuring. Utilizing a case study from the Petén Lakes region, Guatemala, the article makes the point that rural commoners must be considered active to adequately characterize regeneration. An examination of the base of society focuses on intentional choices made to change settlement patterns, architecture and stone tool procurement and usage in order to better understand heterogeneity in the Classic-Postclassic transformation of Maya society (AD 750–1200).
Over the past 30 years, research in the anthropology of the body has documented the fact that man... more Over the past 30 years, research in the anthropology of the body has documented the fact that many cultures do not view bodies as inherently individual, like in Western societies. Rather, bodies in many cultures have permeable boundaries, are internally partible with regard to the location of specific souls (animating essences) or other aspects of personhood, and are defined in terms of their relationships to objects and other people’s bodies. Bioarchaeologists have become increasingly aware of the need to engage such non-individualized perspectives of bodies over the past 15 years and considering fragmented bodies is one way to do so. Commingled, secondary contexts are particularly fertile ground for considering aspects of partibility, permeability, and relationally defined bodies. One challenge for considering embodiment in such contexts is identifying when fragmentation was intentional and thus reflects an attempt to manipulate bodies on the basis of partibility or permeability. Here, we use a spatial analysis, Ripley’s K function, to argue that bodies in a Maya mass grave were fragmented and manipulated by virtue of their partible, permeable, and relational nature. The case study highlights the fact that many elusive aspects of embodiment may be engaged in the material record in an empirically rigorous fashion through spatial analysis coupled with contextual data.
Recent Phase II assessments for the U.S. 24 relocation project have provided a window on the arch... more Recent Phase II assessments for the U.S. 24 relocation project have provided a window on the archaeology of one of Ohio’s unique ecological zones. Site 33LU759 is located in uplands near the Oak Openings region of Lucas County in northwest Ohio. Relict sand dunes formed by the glacial Lake Warren were colonized by widely dispersed oak trees and grassy and herbaceous ground cover. I hypothesize that hunting of deer attracted to the Oak Openings and acorn exploitation are among the reasons that prehistoric human settlements occurred there. Archaeological and spatial statistical analyses reveal what appear to be small Late Archaic camps on sandy dune-like terraces among a larger scatter of artifacts. These camps are placed within Stothers and Abel’s (1993) model of Late Archaic settlement patterning in the Maumee Valley.
The Great Hopewell Road is a prehistoric parallel-walled roadway that archaeologists hypothesize ... more The Great Hopewell Road is a prehistoric parallel-walled roadway that archaeologists hypothesize to have passed from the Newark Earthworks in Licking County, Ohio, to the vicinity of Chillicothe, Ross County, Ohio, a distance of about 60 miles. Its existence was proposed during the nineteenth century and it received renewed interest when Bradley Lepper of the Ohio Historical Society investigated it in the 1990s. This article reviews recent attempts to identify the Great Hopewell Road south of the Newark Earthworks, based on efforts by the Ohio Historical Society, a cultural resource management project by ASC Group, Inc., and other investigations. While evidence of the prehistoric road is convincing in some cases, in other cases the search for the signature and deposits associated with it has proved elusive. An evaluation of the strength of evidence is applied to elicit identification trends. The study concludes by commenting on the unique potential of the site to inform archaeologis...
This study uses architectural and activity area analyses to examine the Classic-Postclassic trans... more This study uses architectural and activity area analyses to examine the Classic-Postclassic transition and the resulting Postclassic-Early Historic (A. D. 1000–1697) Maya society in the Petén Lakes region of Guatemala. The research combines a detailed temporal comparison of architectural styles and an analysis of changing architecture as the restructuring of everyday social action. The methods have significance beyond Maya studies in addressing questions of cultural continuity or in-migration. Archaeological data from recent excavations, including new radiocarbon dates, document the intensive settlement of the Quexil Islands in the Terminal Classic period (A. D. 800–1000) and its occupation thereafter. Architectural evidence from the Quexil Islands and other Petén Lakes sites indicates a mosaic pattern of change, reflecting to varying extents Classic-Postclassic continuity and external contacts, with differences among sites rather than the complete replacement of populations. Eviden...
Abstract In 1992, Mark Seeman proposed the existence of a Jack's Reef horizon in Ohio. Little... more Abstract In 1992, Mark Seeman proposed the existence of a Jack's Reef horizon in Ohio. Little professional research has been undertaken on domestic sites since then though. The Jack's Reef horizon subsumes the Intrusive Mound complex. Archaeological excavations for the Rockies Express-East gas pipeline project identified three sites in the central Scioto valley that provide evidence of Jack's Reef horizon occupations in floodplain and upland settings flanking the river valley. Radiocarbon dates confirm habitation associated with this late Late Woodland culture from cal A.D. 630–1000. Excavation and geophysical data reviewed in this article indicate intensive habitation of large base camps and small-scale residential bases, with secondary refuse disposal, distinctive ceramics, a curated bifacial lithic technology, and an expedient flake-tool technology.
This article addresses the problem of structural determinism in archaeological explanations of ma... more This article addresses the problem of structural determinism in archaeological explanations of material culture change, specifically architecture. A discussion of Giddens' structuration theory emphasizes the duality of structure. The concept is updated by drawing on Gell's theory of agency in art and recent ideas on play, innovation, freedom and consensus prevalent in anthropology and archaeology. This approach shows that material culture is changed through structurally shaped innovation, such that agency is distributed across time, among groups regionally and among elites and commoners. The theoretical exposition develops a case study including discussion of an architectural grammar, ethnohistoric analogy and activity-area studies involving ceramic incense burners. The case study is the Classic–Postclassic transition (ad 750–1200) among the Maya of Petén, Guatemala. While earlier explanations of architectural change in this region focused on an in-migration event, the curre...
Recent studies of post-collapse regeneration of early state societies have explained the renewed ... more Recent studies of post-collapse regeneration of early state societies have explained the renewed growth of social complexity using the concepts of template regeneration and stimulus regeneration. While such terms are useful generalized concepts the discussion around them in practice inhibits an understanding of the various social processes implicated in the renewed growth of states, particularly due to the primary focus on elite urban populations. Rather than emphasizing types of regeneration my approach analyzes how agents transformed rural communities during collapse and subsequent restructuring. Utilizing a case study from the Petén Lakes region, Guatemala, the article makes the point that rural commoners must be considered active to adequately characterize regeneration. An examination of the base of society focuses on intentional choices made to change settlement patterns, architecture and stone tool procurement and usage in order to better understand heterogeneity in the Classic-Postclassic transformation of Maya society (AD 750-1200).
Remote sensing techniques are commonly used in archaeology prior to road construction and other t... more Remote sensing techniques are commonly used in archaeology prior to road construction and other transportation projects. These techniques include magnetic survey and ground penetrating radar. We propose using a complimentary, unconventional remote sensing technique to locate human remains on archaeological sites: human remains detection (HRD) dogs. Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) have been used with increased frequency to locate human remains in forensic settings, particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Only recently have they been used to locate ancient human remains. Specialized HRD dogs have been tested on Iron Age sites in Croatia. Now we have successfully utilized this modality at a Fort Ancient village site in the Ohio Valley, which dates from AD 1050-AD 1275. The specialized HRD dog found two burials that were not detected by other modalities. In order for the method to work, we recommend that a professional scent-detection K9 handler be employed with nationally certified HRD dogs trained to detect historical and ancient human remains. Our results suggest that using these specialized HRD dogs in archaeological prospection when human remains may be present is uniquely beneficial, increases search success rates, and provides substantial cost savings. A set of guidelines will be discussed for proper site preparation for use of this search modality. We hope that this audience will take advantage of this new modality and help provide opportunities to deploy these specialized HRD dogs at a variety of archaeological sites.
Recently, ASC Group, Inc. completed a multi-season Phase III investigation of the Yates site, an ... more Recently, ASC Group, Inc. completed a multi-season Phase III investigation of the Yates site, an 11-ac multi-component prehistoric site next to White Oak Creek in Brown County, Ohio. The site combines elements of Late Archaic and Late Woodland camp sites with a small-scale low-intensity quarry/workshop for cobble chert. It appears that the quarry and workshop component was utilized most intensively in the Early Archaic period (10,000 BC-ca. 5800 BC) and Late Archaic period (3500 BC-800 BC) and, most likely, usage tailed off during the Woodland period (800 BC-AD 900). Attempts to disentangle the habitation and quarry/workshop components of the site led to use of two analytical techniques: 1) the development of chaine operatoire diagrams for a divergent lithic reduction sequences; and, 2) mapping and spatial statistical analysis of debitage and tools. First, I focus on a composite chaine operatoire (operator chain), which is a flow chart, that identifies the bifacial reduction continuum and how expedient tools are often created as co-products incident to the bifacial tradition. The bifacial reduction continuum is better studied and expedient tool making techniques are poorly known. The spatial distribution of cobbles, intermediate products like cores, hammerstones, chert tools, and debitage then were mapped in relation to the swales from which raw materials were gathered. The Local Indicator of Spatial Association (LISA), a spatial statistical technique, was applied to cortical and non-cortical debitage. The results demonstrate where decortication of chert cobbles was occurring and consequently how the sequencing of lithic reduction operations played out across the site. This research improves our knowledge of expedient and low-intensity lithic processing technology.
It is not often in cultural resource management that we have the chance to do long term research,... more It is not often in cultural resource management that we have the chance to do long term research, but field investigations of the Yates site in Brown County have allowed ASC Group archaeologists a wonderful window on the past. Research spanning four years and really more than a decade at a large facility along White Oak Creek have allowed us to peer back in time and gain knowledge about how ancient Native Americans identified and processed lithic resources and how their resource-acquisition strategies changed over time. Utilizing the perspective of landscape learning, this presentation addresses how people found sources of stone for tools and organized their searches of the landscape. Utilizing concepts of streaming colonization and settling in, we discuss how people gravitated toward certain lithic resources, bypassing others, until later it was realized, in a more crowded setting, that they needed to exploit a new suite of resources to survive. In this case, archaeological detective work reveals that Early Archaic peoples dug in swales along the creek banks to find Bisher/Brassfield cherts to exploit and that only later did they actually inhabit these landforms for long periods of time. In the terminal Late Archaic, foragers erected a windbreak or brush shelter and lived for short time and may have even had snacks while camping. Finally more diverse, Late Woodland and Late Archaic activities reveal how Native American adapted to changing conditions by changing lifeways.
Costly signaling theory indicates that highly visible acts of public generosity and display, whic... more Costly signaling theory indicates that highly visible acts of public generosity and display, which exact costs not easily recouped, however, can provide social benefits to those engaged in such acts. Such signaling is associated with the strength or fitness of the provider. Analyzing slipped and fineware ceramics in display contexts, and obsidian use and architecture, this presentation explores how Maya elites and rural sub-elites engaged in costly signaling and modified their actions by cost shifting and cost masking, which significantly transformed their signaling behavior. The presentation focuses on the Petén Lakes region of Guatemala from the Late Classic to Postclassic transition (AD 600-AD 1250). Costly signaling has been implicated by archaeologists in the rise of complex societies. However, costly signaling theory, with these modifications, might equally apply to theorizing political collapse and the regeneration of complex societies thereafter.
Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, 2016
The Precolumbian Maya of southern Mexico and Central America had one of the most developed archi... more The Precolumbian Maya of southern Mexico and Central America had one of the most developed architectural traditions among indigenous cultures of the Americas. The Maya building tradition originated in the Preclassic period (2000 B.C.-A.D. 100) and reached an apogee of development in the Classic period (A.D. 200-A.D. 850). The Classic Maya Collapse (A.D. 800-1000), Spanish Conquest (A.D. 1521-A.D.1697) and subsequent Colonial period (until A.D. 1821), however, affected Maya civilization in various ways, including their architecture. The Maya abandoned many of their urban civic-ceremonial centers in certain regions. Buildings crumbled and were covered by forests. The construction of large temples and carved stone stelae decreased and then ceased. Some Maya remained and built smaller scale civic-ceremonial centers, however. Architectural traditions continued in the Postclassic period (A.D. 1000-A.D. 1525) albeit that the Maya transformed certain aspects of their architecture (Schwarz, 2013). Smaller temples and shrines emerged and new building types such as open halls became common. After the Spanish Conquest, the Maya continued only some of their Precolumbian building traditions. They adapted to the new cultural setting as they found themselves becoming peasants in the developing colonies and Central American states and Mexico.
Archaeologists spent much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century rediscovering and reconstructing Precolumbian Maya centers and buildings. The overall emphasis was on determining architectural function and on restoring the buildings themselves. These tasks continue. However, archaeologists increasingly have studied the cultural processes by which the Maya created architecture, such as their architectural technology (Abrams, 1994) and their process of design (Schwarz, 2013). They also have researched how the Maya conceptualized the built environment (Houston, 1998) and dwelt within it (Hutson, 2010). Another topic of interest is identifying how building programs corresponded to political and dynastic histories. Also, increasingly sophisticated analyses of architectural plans (Ashmore & Sabloff, 2002), coupled with better iconographic analyses and decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs mean that now an appreciation is developing of the symbolic and semiotic aspects of Maya architecture and use of space.
With these themes in mind, this article focuses on Maya architectural design, architectural technology, and architectural symbolism and semiotics. What archaeologists had presented as a static view of a stone age culture of builders is now resolved to such a degree that we can see the innovation, consensus, freedom and play inherent in the creation and modification of these buildings (Schwarz, 2013). Through the study of architecture, archaeologists can reconstruct, to some extent, the kinds of constraints and opportunities Maya architects and builders faced. And they can posit realistic reconstructions of how the Maya actively changed their buildings over time, from the royal precincts of the largest Classic civic-ceremonial centers to the huts of the modern Lacandon people. The Maya changed their architecture and innovated as their needs changed and as they responded to the social and environmental challenges they faced.
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Videos by Kevin Schwarz
The accumulation of radiocarbon dates for Scioto Valley Woodland Period sites has created a palimpsest, which inhibits chronological understanding of cultural change. This project iteratively integrates temporal hygiene and Bayesian analyses of radiocarbon dates from multiple sites, in an attempt to clean up problematic features of such data sets and provide for more accurate archaeological inference. Temporal hygiene is applied and compared using three levels of stringency, in order to assess and eliminate problematic assays, which result from early low-accuracy radiocarbon dates and non-optimal selection and reporting practices. Kernel density estimation (KDE) smoothing reduces statistical over-dispersion, which result from summing measurement imprecision and issues with the radiocarbon calibration curve. Bayesian analysis is built into the KDE routine, creating a better chronology than would have been possible otherwise.
Papers by Kevin Schwarz
The accumulation of radiocarbon dates for Scioto Valley Woodland Period sites has created a palimpsest, which inhibits chronological understanding of cultural change. This project iteratively integrates temporal hygiene and Bayesian analyses of radiocarbon dates from multiple sites, in an attempt to clean up problematic features of such data sets and provide for more accurate archaeological inference. Temporal hygiene is applied and compared using three levels of stringency, in order to assess and eliminate problematic assays, which result from early low-accuracy radiocarbon dates and non-optimal selection and reporting practices. Kernel density estimation (KDE) smoothing reduces statistical over-dispersion, which result from summing measurement imprecision and issues with the radiocarbon calibration curve. Bayesian analysis is built into the KDE routine, creating a better chronology than would have been possible otherwise.
Archaeologists spent much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century rediscovering and reconstructing Precolumbian Maya centers and buildings. The overall emphasis was on determining architectural function and on restoring the buildings themselves. These tasks continue. However, archaeologists increasingly have studied the cultural processes by which the Maya created architecture, such as their architectural technology (Abrams, 1994) and their process of design (Schwarz, 2013). They also have researched how the Maya conceptualized the built environment (Houston, 1998) and dwelt within it (Hutson, 2010). Another topic of interest is identifying how building programs corresponded to political and dynastic histories. Also, increasingly sophisticated analyses of architectural plans (Ashmore & Sabloff, 2002), coupled with better iconographic analyses and decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs mean that now an appreciation is developing of the symbolic and semiotic aspects of Maya architecture and use of space.
With these themes in mind, this article focuses on Maya architectural design, architectural technology, and architectural symbolism and semiotics. What archaeologists had presented as a static view of a stone age culture of builders is now resolved to such a degree that we can see the innovation, consensus, freedom and play inherent in the creation and modification of these buildings (Schwarz, 2013). Through the study of architecture, archaeologists can reconstruct, to some extent, the kinds of constraints and opportunities Maya architects and builders faced. And they can posit realistic reconstructions of how the Maya actively changed their buildings over time, from the royal precincts of the largest Classic civic-ceremonial centers to the huts of the modern Lacandon people. The Maya changed their architecture and innovated as their needs changed and as they responded to the social and environmental challenges they faced.