Small anthropomorphic figures, most often referred to as “Charlie Chaplins,” appear in ritual deposits throughout the ancient Maya sites of Belize during the late Preclassic and Early Classic Periods and later, throughout the Petén region of Guatemala. Often these figures appear within similar cache assemblages and are carved from “exotic” materials such as shell or jade. This thesis examines the contexts in which these figures appear and considers the wider implications for commonly held ritual practices throughout the Maya lowlands during the Classic Period and the similarities between “Charlie Chaplin” figures and anthropomorphic figures found in ritual contexts outside of the Maya area.

The currently popular approach to conceptualizing feasting practices in the archaeological record leaves little room for diversity in motivation or identity. At the moment, the only social actor given attention in the literature concerning feasting events is hypothesized to be a self-aggrandizing, elite-aspiring male. The narrow conception of who was responsible for feasts, and the reasons for holding them, shuts out the multitude of other standpoints and motivations which have the potential to broaden our understanding of these important social events. Through the intersection of the ancient Maya ritual ballgame, associated feasting, and gendered participation, I demonstrate the necessity of accounting for, and incorporating, a variety of perspectives and motivations when considering the feast as an important form of social interaction. / text

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Identifying connections between land use, population change, and natural and human-induced environmental change in ancient societies provides insights into the challenges we face today. This dissertation presents data from archaeological research at the ancient Maya center of Uxbenká, Belize, integrating chronological, geomorphological, and settlement data within an ecological framework to develop methodological and theoretical tools to explore connections between social and environmental change or stability during the Preclassic and Classic Period (~1000 BC to AD 900). High-precision AMS 14C dates from Uxbenká were integrated with stratigraphic information within a Bayesian framework to generate a high-resolution chronology of sociopolitical development and expansion in southern Belize. This chronology revises the previous understanding of settlement and development of Classic Maya society at Uxbenká and indicates specific areas of investigation to elucidate the Late and Terminal Classic periods (AD 600-900) when the polity appears to disintegrate. A geoarchaeological record of land use was developed and interpreted with respect to regional climatic and cultural histories to track landscape transformations associated with human-environment interactions at Uxbenká. The first documented episode of landscape instability (i.e., erosion) was associated with farmers colonizing the area. Later, landscape stability in the site core parallels Classic Period urbanization (AD 300-900) when swidden agriculture was likely restricted in the core. Another erosional event followed political disintegration as farmers resumed cultivation in and around the abandoned city. Maize yields derived from contemporary Maya farms in the area were used to estimate the maximum population size of Uxbenká during its Classic Period peak. The maximum sustainable population is estimated between 7500 and 13,000, including a potential population of ~525 elites in the core, assuming low levels of agricultural intensification. This accords well with the lack of archaeological evidence for intensive land management during the Classic Period (e.g., terraces). An ecological model developed using maize productivity and other environmental/social datasets largely predicts the settlement pattern surrounding Uxbenká. Settlements in marginal areas may be evidence of elite intra-polity competition during the Late Preclassic Period (ca. AD 1-300), though it is possible that marginal areas were settled early as garrisons to mediate travel into the site core.

The study of ancient Maya causeways is crucial for understanding Maya social and spatial organization. Archaeologists have been interested in Maya causeways for decades, specifically documenting their locations. More recently, the use of Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, has been used for understanding the spatial organization of archaeological sites. GIS analyses on ancient Maya causeways however have been very limited. This thesis aims to evaluate ancient Maya causeways through GIS analysis. Specifically, five intersite causeway systems are looked at: the Mirador Basin, Yaxuna-Coba-Ixil, Uxmal-Nohpat-Kabah, Ake-Izamal-Kantunil, and Uci-Kancab-Ukana- Cansahcab. These causeway systems were evaluated using least-cost paths based on the terrain. In this thesis, I argue that the intersite causeways do not follow a least-cost path based on terrain and that the purpose of these roads varies between sites and regions.

The study of ancient Maya intensive, intra-site agricultural systems, such as kitchen gardens, has gained new interest in recent years as a valuable way of interpreting numerous aspects of the ancient Maya's daily life (e.g. subsistence and settlement patterns, population growth, diet and nutrition, gender roles). However, while contemporary Maya kitchen gardens can often be easily identified and studied by cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, ancient kitchen gardens are usually much harder to identify by traditional archaeological techniques because of their lack of architectural structures and other identifying features. To compensate for this limitation, various forms of chemical testing (primarily phosphate analysis) are being used to positively identify kitchen gardens and other specific anthropogenically modified spaces that are invisible to standard archaeological techniques. The archaeological community trusts these methods to be a reliable way of testing soils in archaeological sites for specific agricultural features, even though there has been little research conducted to conclusively prove this assertion. In response to this lack of research, this thesis investigates the viability of phosphate analysis and other chemical tests through a comprehensive literary review of previous and current research and an analysis of the data presented within it. While soil phosphate analysis has been used in past and current research to identify general agricultural features with great success, the chemical signatures produced from this method only give vague information about the soil and what was done to it, making soil Phosphate analysis unreliable to definitively discern specific agricultural areas, such as kitchen gardens, from general agricultural areas.

The ancient Maya adorned themselves with ornamental objects. This study investigates a type of polishing tool used by the ancient Maya to manufacture certain types of ornaments. Five stone polishing tools used by the ancient Maya are presented and analyzed. Relevant artifact forms are examined to establish which types of artifacts were being polished with these tools. An extensive discussion of the archaeological record and artistic representations of miniature earflares and buttons, which were polished with many of these stone polishing tools, is also included because the terminology used to refer to these objects has varied throughout the academic literature and is in need of clarification.

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Variation in domestic architecture results from the agency households exercise in their daily lives. This study defines the domestic expression of the megalithic architectural style, based on data collected in and around the ancient Maya site of Ucí, Yucatan, Mexico, by comparing it to its expression in monumental structures. It also shows how the analysis and documentation of architectural variability away from the monumental core can locate more than just commoners and elites within the social organization of the Ancient Maya. This analyzes provides evidence for higher social status for households that possess megalithic architecture since they also possess larger platform volumes and more structures in a compound than non-megalithic groups. Concentration of megalithic platforms also indicate potential communities that often share similar orientation ranges. The diversity in style, size, and quality of stones in domestic settings provide archaeologists with clues to how these households differentially utilized their social, economic, and political resources reflecting the degree of power possessed by each household in relation to each other, the larger community, and beyond. The methodology used here can be replicated for other stone architectures, providing a means by which to differentiate households of similar construction on attributes other than size.