Overview

Archaeology at El Per u-Waka is the first book to summarize long-term research at this major Maya site. The results of fieldwork and subsequent analyses conducted by members of the El Peru-Waka Regional Archaeological Project are coupled with theoretical approaches treating the topics of ritual, memory, and power as deciphered through material remains discovered at Waka . The book is site-centered, yet the fifteen wide-ranging contributions offer readers greater insight to the richness and complexity of Classic-period Maya culture, as well as to the ways in which archaeologists believe ancient peoples negotiated their ritual lives and comprehended their own pasts. El Peru-Waka is an ancient Maya city located in present-day northwestern Peten, Guatemala. Rediscovered by petroleum exploration workers in the mid-1960s, it is the largest known archaeological site in the Laguna del Tigre National Park in Guatemala s Maya Biosphere Reserve. The El Peru-Waka Regional Archaeological Project initiated scientific investigations in 2003, and through excavation and survey, researchers established that Waka was a key political and economic center well integrated into Classic-period lowland Maya civilization, and reconstructed many aspects of Maya life and ritual activity in this ancient community. The research detailed in this volume provides a wealth of new, substantive, and scientifically excavated data, which contributors approach with fresh theoretical insights. In the process, they lay out sound strategies for understanding the ritual manipulation of monuments, landscapes, buildings, objects, and memories, as well as related topics encompassing the performance and negotiation of power throughout the city s extensive sociopolitical history.

Full Product Details

9780816532414

Table of Contents

Reviews

There is really no other work that attempts to summarize such a variety of field data from a single Maya site and yet maintain theoretical conceptual cohesion. --Matthew G. Looper, author of To Be Like Gods: Dance in Ancient Maya Civilization

Author Information

Olivia C. Navarro-Farr is an assistant professor of anthropology and archaeology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Program in Archaeology at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. Michelle Rich is a senior archaeologist with Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., in Davis, California.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available