Portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) was used to obtain source determinations for 2,23... more Portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) was used to obtain source determinations for 2,235 obsidian artifacts. These were supplemented by 48 previously published results made by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to bring the total sample to 2,283. Thirteen geological sources have been identified by instrument to date. Three sources in Highland Guatemala accounted for nearly 98 percent of all attributions, with approximately 2 percent from 10 green and gray obsidian sources in central Mexico. Geological sources can be brought into cultural context by examining their distributions among types of artifacts, recovery contexts, structure group types, distance from the Classic period epicenter of the city, and chronological relationships. Several procurement systems operated to import obsidian cores and other artifacts. Consumers obtained obsidian artifacts primarily through marketplace exchange, but other kinds of distributi...
The authors use a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among t... more The authors use a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among the Maya during the period of Classic to Postclassic transition. The quantity of obsidian received from different sources was calculated for 121 sites and the network analysis showed how the relative abundance of material from different sources shifted over time. A shift from inland to coastal supply routes was found that appears to have contributed to the collapse of inland Maya urban centres. The methods employed clearly have a high potential to reveal changing economic networks in cases of major societal transitions elsewhere in the world.
Second place 2008 in The Image of Research, a competition for students in graduate or professiona... more Second place 2008 in The Image of Research, a competition for students in graduate or professional degree programs at UIC, sponsored by UIC's Graduate College and the University Library. Images of award recipients and honorable mention images on exhibition in the Richard J. Daley Library and the Library of the Health Sciences, May 2-30, 2008. Finalist images on exhibition in Richard J. Daley Library, May 2-30, 2008.
Archaeologies of the British in Latin America, 2019
In the mid-nineteenth century Maya refugees fleeing the violence of the Caste War of Yucatan (185... more In the mid-nineteenth century Maya refugees fleeing the violence of the Caste War of Yucatan (1857-1901) briefly reoccupied the ancient ruins of Tikal. Unlike the numerous Yucatec refugee communities established to the east in British Honduras, those who settled at Tikal combined with Lacandon Maya, and later Ladinos from Lake Petén Itza to form a multiethnic village in the sparsely occupied Petén jungle of northern Guatemala. This chapter discusses the analysis of the mass-produced consumer goods found at the Tikal village. The historic inhabitants of Tikal were well connected to exchange networks of the societies encircling the Petén, reaching the world through the global markets emanating from nearby British Honduras. This small village was poised to renegotiate social and economic relationships with peripheral societies from deep within the frontier zone, and may be demonstrating consumer behavior observed in refugee populations in the modern era.
This photograph is of an American-made, British-owned 19th century sugar mill that was constructe... more This photograph is of an American-made, British-owned 19th century sugar mill that was constructed at the Maya site called Lamanai in Belize, Central America. Lamanai is unique for the fact that it was among a handful of large Maya sites that were not abandoned ...
Portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) was used to obtain source determinations for 2,23... more Portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) was used to obtain source determinations for 2,235 obsidian artifacts. These were supplemented by 48 previously published results made by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to bring the total sample to 2,283. Thirteen geological sources have been identified by instrument to date. Three sources in Highland Guatemala accounted for nearly 98 percent of all attributions, with approximately 2 percent from 10 green and gray obsidian sources in central Mexico. Geological sources can be brought into cultural context by examining their distributions among types of artifacts, recovery contexts, structure group types, distance from the Classic period epicenter of the city, and chronological relationships. Several procurement systems operated to import obsidian cores and other artifacts. Consumers obtained obsidian artifacts primarily through marketplace exchange, but other kinds of distributi...
The authors use a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among t... more The authors use a social network analysis to map the changing patterns of obsidian supply among the Maya during the period of Classic to Postclassic transition. The quantity of obsidian received from different sources was calculated for 121 sites and the network analysis showed how the relative abundance of material from different sources shifted over time. A shift from inland to coastal supply routes was found that appears to have contributed to the collapse of inland Maya urban centres. The methods employed clearly have a high potential to reveal changing economic networks in cases of major societal transitions elsewhere in the world.
Second place 2008 in The Image of Research, a competition for students in graduate or professiona... more Second place 2008 in The Image of Research, a competition for students in graduate or professional degree programs at UIC, sponsored by UIC's Graduate College and the University Library. Images of award recipients and honorable mention images on exhibition in the Richard J. Daley Library and the Library of the Health Sciences, May 2-30, 2008. Finalist images on exhibition in Richard J. Daley Library, May 2-30, 2008.
Archaeologies of the British in Latin America, 2019
In the mid-nineteenth century Maya refugees fleeing the violence of the Caste War of Yucatan (185... more In the mid-nineteenth century Maya refugees fleeing the violence of the Caste War of Yucatan (1857-1901) briefly reoccupied the ancient ruins of Tikal. Unlike the numerous Yucatec refugee communities established to the east in British Honduras, those who settled at Tikal combined with Lacandon Maya, and later Ladinos from Lake Petén Itza to form a multiethnic village in the sparsely occupied Petén jungle of northern Guatemala. This chapter discusses the analysis of the mass-produced consumer goods found at the Tikal village. The historic inhabitants of Tikal were well connected to exchange networks of the societies encircling the Petén, reaching the world through the global markets emanating from nearby British Honduras. This small village was poised to renegotiate social and economic relationships with peripheral societies from deep within the frontier zone, and may be demonstrating consumer behavior observed in refugee populations in the modern era.
This photograph is of an American-made, British-owned 19th century sugar mill that was constructe... more This photograph is of an American-made, British-owned 19th century sugar mill that was constructed at the Maya site called Lamanai in Belize, Central America. Lamanai is unique for the fact that it was among a handful of large Maya sites that were not abandoned ...
This presentation will discuss the recent attempt to locate “Old Kellogg’s Place”; a pioneer sett... more This presentation will discuss the recent attempt to locate “Old Kellogg’s Place”; a pioneer settlement and frontier tavern located on the edge of America’s old Northwest frontier. Functioning as an early frontier institution for decades, this stop over on the Peoria-Galena trail would host two separate engagements between Illinois militia and native forces during the Black Hawk War of 1832. This presentation will discuss the conflicting images of the Black Hawk War, past and present, and its importance to the establishment of Midwest Statehood and further national territorial expansion. Contextualized at the Kellogg’s Grove settlement, the investigation for this frontier settlement elucidates the nature of Native-Anglo relations in 1830’s Illinois. Despite documentary evidence, as well as local knowledge and lore (including the graves of American combatants and a stone monument commemorating the battles), the true location of Kellogg’s tavern and the accompanying battlefield may still be unidentified.
As Europe was being destroyed for the second time in 40 years, American cities and their hinterla... more As Europe was being destroyed for the second time in 40 years, American cities and their hinterlands during World War II lay unscathed. However, the war would come home to America in the form of hundreds of thousands enemy prisoners of war. Imprisoned in almost every State in the Union, interactions with these prisoners were often the only link between the war raging in Europe and the American home front. The story of these men, and the United States’ methods of housing and caring for them, is largely forgotten amid the larger and more dramatic events that occurred 1941-1946. This paper explores three World War II German Prisoner of War camps located in the Chicago suburbs; Des Plaines, Glen View, and Thornton. These camps, which held over 200 prisoners each, were established to utilize captive labor in civilian agricultural industries while millions of American men fought in the European and Pacific theaters of war. The initial archaeological pedestrian survey has confirmed that despite the apparent destruction and subsequent abandonment of these camps, the POW occupation surface still lay intact. These camps were branch camps of larger Fort Sheridan, and comprised largely of veterans of the African Campaign who were put to work in suburban truck farms.
In turn-of-the-century Belize (then British Honduras), attempts to increase the extraction of the... more In turn-of-the-century Belize (then British Honduras), attempts to increase the extraction of the natural resources that first attracted British settlers to the Caribbean mainland included the construction of several independent railroads that were operated between 1890-1956. While only marginally successful due to Belize’s rough geophysical terrain, tropical weather, produce diseases, and lack of integration into a greater, country wide system, the short line railroads penetrated areas of wilderness that otherwise saw little infrastructure and employed wage laborers that brought together multiple groups from the local and non-local society. Abandoned less than 60 years ago, the equipment and knowledge of the railroad industry however are rapidly disappearing. This paper presents a brief overview of the Belizean railroads and their contributions and influences to the past and present Belizean society, and reports the results of a preliminary reconnaissance project that investigated the current condition and whereabouts of Belize’s lost railroads.
Uploads