Central Monument Research Articles

Measuring biodiversity and the loss of indigenous landscapes in coastal Louisiana using airborne imagery and satellite data

ABSTRACT The Adams Bay site is a Native American monumental centre located in the Mississippi River Delta (MRD), a dynamic, geomorphic environment comprised of marshes, bayous, and rivers. The site itself was constructed approximately 600 to 800 years ago by Indigenous communities who are the ancestors of modern-day coastal communities. Earthen mounds at Adams Bay have disappeared over the past 70 years, and the last remaining mound at the site has almost completely eroded away over the past 10 years. This is an environment that is rapidly subsiding, eroding, and becoming inundated due to sea-level rise, and within this environment are hundreds of earthen and shell mounds. This study uses Sentinel-2 and National Agriculture Imagery Program data to document decadal changes to the landscape at Adams Bay and posits that mound-building had net positive impacts on biodiversity and vegetation in this marshy, deltaic environment. Sites like Adams Bay provide remarkable ecosystem services, enhancing the resilience of coastal ecosystems, and they must be studied and/or preserved before being lost to climatic and environmental forces. Finally, these sites are still incredibly significant to modern Indigenous communities who live in the coastal zone today, and additional resources need to be dedicated towards their conservation.

ANCIENT MAYA ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE MOUNTAIN PINE RIDGE FOREST RESERVE

The Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve is renowned for its natural beauty, but few ancient Maya archaeological sites have ever been recorded there. The paucity of known monumental centers has resulted in it receiving little archaeological attention and an overall view that it is largely devoid of cultural heritage. Yet, the region has long been regarded as the primary source of vital raw materials for the ancient Maya, such as granitic rock for grinding stones. Contrary to the commonly held view that the reserve is a vacant archaeological landscape, recent research by the Rio Frio Regional Archaeological Project is revealing the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve is a region is rich with a variety of types of archaeological sites, many unique to it. Here we report on the newly documented monumental center of Nohoch Batsó, and the Buffalo Hill Quarries, an industrial-scale multicomponent granitic rock quarry and ground stone implement workshop, the first of its kind ever recorded in the Maya Lowlands

The walled city and the dogs: the ritual and domestic role of canis lupus familiaris in Mayapán, Yucatán

This paper documents the role of domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) in the domestic and ritual contexts of Mayapán. Mayapán was the last capital of the Postclassic Maya to be located on the Yucatán Peninsula. Dog remains have been recovered from ceremonial, elite, and lower-class contexts in the city. I analyze the distribution of skeletal elements and contexts of deposition in temples, halls, and houses, both in Iztmal Ch’en's monumental center and outlying ceremonial center.This paper presents the results of the identification of dog remains per structure, osteometric analysis, and estimations of weight and age. Counts of the number of identified specimens and the minimum number of individuals are performed, along with Chi-square, Fisher's exact test and principal coordinate analysis, to compare the presence of skeletal elements and the abundance of dog remains in each of the structures. Osteometric data from documented dog breeds, including the Mesoamerican common dog, the hairless dog, the Mayan short-faced dog, the tlalchichi, and the dog-wolf hybrid, are compared with measurements of maximum long bone length and the length and breadth of upper and lower first molars. An allometric formula used mandible height measurements at the middle of the first lower molar to predict body weight in grams. Observations of ossification in each skeletal element and dental eruption were compared to age charts to identify the ages of dogs recovered in Mayapán. This study shows that dogs were an important component of ritual life in Mayapán and were offered at ceremonies or feasts in the Templo Redondo group. It also demonstrates that the use of dogs in burial rituals and their consumption in domestic contexts was not restricted to elites.

Outstanding Project of Russian Vietnamese Studies. Review of the book “The Complete Annals of Daiviet”, Vol. 7

The review focuses on the seventh volume of the Complete Annals of Daiviet (Đại Việt sử k ton thư), published in 2020. This central monument of Vietnamese traditional historical thought has not been translated into European languages. Volume seven presents a translation of chapters XVIXVII, covering the period of Vietnamese history from 1533 to 1599. The book consists of several parts: a study on Vietnam China relations and political history of North Vietnam in the 16th century, the translation itself, and a detailed commentary. The Appendices section contains translations of Chinese and Vietnamese works. The translation from hanviet was done by the leading Russian expert on Vietnamese history A.L. Fedorin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, who also wrote the research part and comments. The publication of the seventh volume of the Complete Annals of Daiviet can be attributed to the outstanding achievements of the Russian scholar.

Connecting households: Ceremonial and domestic settlement patterns at the Preclassic site of Noh K’uh in Chiapas, Mexico

Recent survey, excavation, and LiDAR data provide a broad and extensive view of domestic contexts in the Late Preclassic (400 BCE–AD 250) site of Noh K’uh in Chiapas, Mexico. These data demonstrate that the settlement was laid out to promote communication and accessibility among the various domestic groups that constituted Noh K’uh. Households were large, well organized, and encompassed broad open-air spaces. Hilltops were modified to create large-scale gathering spaces, and subsidiary earthen works further increased access between large collectives of mounds. During a period marked by the increased centralization of political authority, Noh K’uh reveals the presence of multiple prominent households alongside an open-air monumental center. Modifications to the physical environment at Noh K’uh indicate that communication and social gatherings were a central component of daily life at all levels of society.

REVISED CHRONOLOGY AND SETTLEMENT HISTORY OF TULA AND THE TULA REGION

AbstractThis article offers a revision of the chronology and settlement history of Tula, Hidalgo, synthesizing information obtained from numerous investigations and 68 radiocarbon and seven archaeomagnetic dates. Tula Chico's earliest settlement appeared while the region was under the control of Teotihuacan as one of many hilltop Coyotlatelco settlements in the region. The monumental center at Tula Grande did not appear until after Tula grew to power, presumably with the consolidation of the other Coyotlatelco polities. Extensive exposure of residential structures in numerous localities have revealed a widespread pattern of barrios containing households exhibiting a wide range of social status that enjoyed access to a wide variety of luxury items including the first reported objects of gold. Tula Grande and the Tollan phase city appear to have already been abandoned and in ruins prior to the arrival of Aztec II peoples. The Late Aztec period occupation shows a preoccupation with Tula's ruins that parallels similar evidence from the Templo Mayor excavations suggesting it was indeed the place the Aztecs called Tollan.

EDIFICIO 4, TULA GRANDE: ARCHITECTURE, OCCUPATION, AND ABANDONMENT

AbstractThis article summarizes recent excavations of Edificio 4 in the Early Postclassic city of Tula, Hidalgo, which, despite prior evidence of its considerable importance, was largely unexcavated. Despite changes in strategy that resulted in discontinuous rather than complete exposure, excavation successfully delineated the entire structure and exposed portions of all or virtually all of its interior rooms, revealing a layout and architectural features notably different from those of the other buildings in Tula's monumental center, and suggest that Edificio 4 had functioned as a palace whose occupants were closely tied to Pyramid B, one of Tula's two largest pyramids. These excavations provide additional perspectives on previously noted similarities between Edificio 4 and the Casa de las Águilas of Aztec Tenochtitlan, revealing striking similarities in layout which, together with equally striking artistic similarities noted previously, make it almost certain that a major portion of the Casa de las Águilas was constructed in the image of the corresponding portion of Tula's Edificio 4.

RECENT INVESTIGATIONS AT TULA CHICO, TULA, HIDALGO

AbstractRecent excavations at Tula Chico, the monumental center for Tula's earliest settlement, revealed a long and complex history of occupation, beginning with its initial settlement in the Middle Classic period by Coyotlatelco peoples, when much of the region was under Teotihuacan's direct control. During the Epiclassic period, a program of monumental construction began that developed the monumental complex seen today over a period of about 200 years. Although Tula Chico was superseded by Tula Grande, the monumental center for the Early Postclassic city, it continued to be occupied and maintained until its destruction by fire. Tula Chico and Tula Grande show evidence of clear cultural continuity in ceramics, architecture, and sculpture, including “Toltec style” sculpture characteristic of Tula Grande that is present in temporally early contexts at Tula Chico.

Mississippian Culture and Cahokian Identities as Considered Through Household Archaeology at Carson, a Monumental Center in North Mississippi

The Carson site in northwest Mississippi is a monumental Mississippian center with evidence of large and small earthen mounds, an extensive palisaded village, and a bundle-burial mortuary complex. Over 70 houses have been uncovered from over a decade of salvage excavations at the site; these households bear evidence of local populations in the form of ceramics and stone tools, often belonging to the Parchman phase. In addition, numerous household structures that bear resemblance to Mississippian buildings from Cahokia and the American Bottom and that date to the Lohmann, Stirling, and Moorehead phases have also been discovered. The presence of these non-local structures and their material culture has provoked continued discussion on the nature of interactions between these two important centers. Herein, we offer a discussion on the nature of trade, diaspora, and Mississippian culture at Carson based on the analysis of material culture and architecture bearing Cahokian influences.

Ligning med ubekendte

Inaugurated in 1740, the majestic building of the new royal palace in Copenhagen would play a key role in the introduction of new stylistic waves over the next 50 years, until the palace sadly was destroyed by a devastating fire in 1794. As the title suggests, the disappearance of these interiors has left a serious lacuna in the understanding of the period’s art and architecture. All the famous architects and artists of the time worked in the palace and from this, the central monument of eighteenth-century Denmark, new ideas spread throughout the realm. A few drawings have survived, and together with the abundance of written sources, we can get a rather good impression of the character of these interiors, even to the point where it is possible to reconstruct quite a few of them in drawings. An example of this is the bedroom of the Crown Princess Marie Sophie Frederikke from 1790, from which there furthermore exist pieces of furniture and richly embroidered textiles (fig. 12-19). At the outset, the interiors of the palace were decorated in the early rococo style (figs. 4–7) by the young architects L. de Thurah and N. Eigtved, who both had recently been on long journeys in Europe, where they had studied the newest architecture. The French sculptor L.-A. Le Clerc was responsible for the design of all the ornamental work on the building, and since the ornaments played such a vital part in the concept of the whole style, Le Clerc came to play a key role in the interior design (fig. 9). Furthermore, the well-documented use of up-to-date literature about the latest developments in French architecture as well as direct artistic contact with the Court of Versailles, ensured that the interiors lived up to the standards of the time. The early variant of the classical revival, the Louis Seize, was introduced by the French architect N.-H. Jardin and later on developed further by his pupil, C.F. Harsdorff (fig. 8), aided by the talented architect and decorator C.F. Lillie. In this article, a part of the palace’s north wing is used as an example of the development of not only style and fashion, but also the different ways in which the rooms were used over the years.
 Inaugurated in 1740, the majestic building of the new royal palace in Copenhagen would play a key role in the introduction of new stylistic waves over the next 50 years, until the palace sadly was destroyed by a devastating fire in 1794. As the title suggests, the disappearance of these interiors has left a serious lacuna in the understanding of the period’s art and architecture. All the famous architects and artists of the time worked in the palace and from this, the central monument of eighteenth-century Denmark, new ideas spread throughout the realm. A few drawings have survived, and together with the abundance of written sources, we can get a rather good impression of the character of these interiors, even to the point where it is possible to reconstruct quite a few of them in drawings. An example of this is the bedroom of the Crown Princess Marie Sophie Frederikke from 1790, from which there furthermore exist pieces of furniture and richly embroidered textiles (fig. 12-19). At the outset, the interiors of the palace were decorated in the early rococo style (figs. 4–7) by the young architects L. de Thurah and N. Eigtved, who both had recently been on long journeys in Europe, where they had studied the newest architecture. The French sculptor L.-A. Le Clerc was responsible for the design of all the ornamental work on the building, and since the ornaments played such a vital part in the concept of the whole style, Le Clerc came to play a key role in the interior design (fig. 9). Furthermore, the well-documented use of up-to-date literature about the latest developments in French architecture as well as direct artistic contact with the Court of Versailles, ensured that the interiors lived up to the standards of the time. The early variant of the classical revival, the Louis Seize, was introduced by the French architect N.-H. Jardin and later on developed further by his pupil, C.F. Harsdorff (fig. 8), aided by the talented architect and decorator C.F. Lillie. In this article, a part of the palace’s north wing is used as an example of the development of not only style and fashion, but also the different ways in which the rooms were used over the years.

Gulf Coast Influence at Moxviquil, Chiapas, Mexico

This article presents evidence for the shifting economic networks and cultural relationships between the Jovel Valley of highland Chiapas, and the Gulf Coast lowlands. In particular, we examine material culture of Gulf Coast origin or influence at the hilltop monumental centre of Moxviquil during the Late Classic (ad600–900) and Early Postclassic (ad900–1250) periods. These artifacts include a fine orange cylindrical pedestal vase, two examples of ‘portable sculpture’, two anthropomorphic incense burner lids and a whistle (ocarina) in the shape of a kneeling woman. The patterns of curation and disposal of these objects at Moxviquil suggests differences in the way that Gulf Coast-referencing objects were incorporated into social memory and ritual behaviour.

A Monument for our Times? Commemorating Victims of Repression in Putin’s Russia

Three decades ago, a civic movement arose in the USSR around commemorating Stalin’s victims. Yet only in 2017, following President Vladimir Putin’s approbation, was a central monument to victims of repression constructed. Analysis of the genesis and results of the design process for the new monument shows that memory discourses in Russia have been harnessed to a form that allows civic activists and state officials to express a limited consensus. The truncated nature of the competition and the jury’s safe choice, however, produced a monument unlikely to become a locus for popular or official remembrance.

Utica’s urban centre from Augustus to the Antonines

Since 2010, a team from the Tunisian Institut National du Patrimoine and the University of Oxford1 has been investigating Utica’s monumental centre, located at the tip of the promontory on which the city is built (fig. 1). The range and scale of architectural elements littering this area were remarked upon by most antiquarian investigators of the site. Nathan Davis, working at the site in 1858, noted that, despite the fact that it “had been ransacked for building materials”, this part of the city was covered with “marble and granite shafts, capitals, and cornices, of every order, size, and dimension”.2 Alfred Daux even observed that local residents referred to the largest building of the zone as the “Dar Es Sultan” (Palace of the Sultan), such was its magnificence.3 Aerial photographs commissioned by A. Lézine in the 1950s (fig. 2) show the area at the head of the promontory almost completely robbed out during and immediately after the Second World War, giving it a rather desolate aspect.

The Bouleuterion and its environs in Early Imperial Aphrodisias

Research on the remains of the monumental city center of Aphrodisias has been ongoing for over a century. After an Italian mission began here in 1937,1 work was intensified from 1961 under the direction of K. T. Erim of New York University and has continued since 1990 under R. R. R. Smith.2 While many of the projects have yielded results for the High Imperial, late-antique and Byzantine periods, our knowledge of the Late Hellenistic and Early Imperial monuments outside the temple area remains scant. The layout of urban spaces such as the Agora or the “South Pool Complex” is owed to the Early Imperial period and mostly saw only minor changes.3 But while the general urban plan persisted, the Late Hellenistic and Early Imperial buildings were often replaced or remodelled as the urban space was transformed. This is particularly true for the area north of the Agora and south of the Temple of Aphrodite (fig. 1). This paper intends to re-assess our evidence for the function of this space in the Early Imperial period.

The organization of stingless beekeeping (Meliponiculture) at Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico

This article presents evidence for the importance of traditional stingless beekeeping (meliponiculture) at the Postclassic period (CE 1150–1450) Maya political capital of Mayapán, Yucatan, Mexico, with a particular focus on the domestic and public contexts of this practice and its association with metallurgy and balché production. The spatial and social distribution of beekeeping activities throughout the city refines scholarly understanding of an integrated and functionally complex Maya agro-urban cityscape. Beekeeping activities are identified through the distribution of small limestone disks, interpreted as the covers for traditional hollow log hives, which were widely distributed throughout the Mayapán’s urban landscape. High concentrations of limestone disks at the outlying ceremonial/administrative center of Itzmal Ch’en and also at an elite palace group, may indicate concentrated honey production for crafting fermented honey wine, balché. Limestone disks are also widely distributed at other contexts such as temples and halls of the site’s monumental center as well as secondary elite and commoner house groups. Limestone disks are regularly recovered (although not exclusively) in association with metallurgical ceramics, suggesting that meliponiculture and lost-wax metallurgy were often practiced by the same households. Honey and wax production was a complex undertaking, involving by-products essential for other industries that were not solely produced for commercial exchange. Instead, these activities were frequently embedded into symbolically charged consumption spheres and specialized artisanal practices.

A Study on the Monumental Center of Ancient Alexandria: The Identification of the Ptolemaic Mouseion and the Urban Transformation in Late Antiquity

Summary Among the whole burden of the written sources dealing with the urban appearance of Ptolemaic and Roman Alexandria, five or six ancient authors give us precious information which could finally offer a lead to the reconstruction of the monumental center of Alexandria: 1) Strabo, 2) Diodorus, 3) Zenobius, 4) Achilles Tatius, 5) Pseudo-Libanius and 6) Pseudo-Callisthenes. Nowadays, the written testimonia concerning the historical topography of Alexandria are severely withstanding to a hypercritical treatment, to a disapproval instead of a reappraisal. Tkazcow 2013, 687: The reconstruction of the topography of the city in the Ptolemaic and Early Roman Periods was, for a long time, based exclusively on Strabo's description (sometimes supplemented with information provided by Diodorus, Polybius and Caesar); the critic is moved against Adriani 1966 and Fraser 1972, 13–34; McKenzie 2007. Yet, there is no other way to solve the puzzle of the monumental center of Ptolemaic Alexandria, but to explain the thinking behind what the ancient authors, principally Strabo, may have seen in Alexandria as eyewitnesses.

The recovery of the former University pediatric clinics in Cagliari: a project for the reuse, environmental redevelopment and structural and anti-seismic retrofitting of a modern building in a monumental centre

This paper discusses some of the issues related to the redevelopment of the modern building, with a rethink about the spaces consequent to the need to change its planned use that is structurally more burdensome and the related anti-seismic retrofitting. The case study concerns the project for the restoration and reuse of the former pediatric clinics of the University of Cagliari, according to an integrated method of intervention which, in the absence of historical documents, made it possible to reconstruct the material and structural characterisation of the building and its technical and constructional features.

RETURN TO MOXVIQUIL: FORM AND FUNCTION IN A SMALL MAYA CITY

AbstractThe excavations of Frans Blom and Clarence Weiant at the small hilltop site of Moxviquil in the early 1950s represent one of the pioneering archaeological projects in highland Chiapas. The results of their excavations, which were minimally published, provide important data on one of the largest Late Classic-Early Postclassic communities in the region. In this paper, we reconsider Moxviquil in light of recent scholarship on Maya urbanism, and present new interpretations of the site as a small city that fulfilled a diversified set of urban functions for residents both within the monumental zone itself, and in the surrounding hinterland areas. Consistent with its likely role as the administrative center of a small, independent highland polity, the monumental center of Moxviquil likely served political, economic, and ritual functions; was an important nucleus of residential settlement; and supported a wide range of household-based craft production and food preparation activities.

New Data from Fortified Coastal Settlement of Cap de Forma, Mahon, Menorca (Balearic Islands)

This article presents new radiometric data from archaeological layers of the inhabited structures adjacent to the cyclopean monument of Cap de Forma (Mahon, Menorca). The archaeological site is located on a narrow isthmus that links a 30-m-high coastal promontory to the mainland. It is next to an excellent natural harbor on the south coast of the island. The protohistorical complex consists of a cyclopean monument surrounded by a necropolis of rock-cut tombs (cuevas) that are dug into the cliff. The monument is an atypical example of Talayotic architecture. The excavations carried out since 1997 have discovered three living spaces. These lean against the southern wall of the cyclopean structure. The artifacts are almost all pan of a chronological horizon that corresponds to the beginning of the Talayotic period. This study uses radiometric data to help interpret the recent findings from the three living spaces that flank the wall of the central monument.

New Data from Fortified Coastal Settlement of Cap de Forma, Mahon, Menorca (Balearic Islands)

This article presents new radiometric data from archaeological layers of the inhabited structures adjacent to the cyclopean monument of Cap de Forma (Mahon, Menorca). The archaeological site is located on a narrow isthmus that links a 30-m-high coastal promontory to the mainland. It is next to an excellent natural harbor on the south coast of the island. The protohistorical complex consists of a cyclopean monument surrounded by a necropolis of rock-cut tombs (cuevas) that are dug into the cliff. The monument is an atypical example of Talayotic architecture. The excavations carried out since 1997 have discovered three living spaces. These lean against the southern wall of the cyclopean structure. The artifacts are almost all pan of a chronological horizon that corresponds to the beginning of the Talayotic period. This study uses radiometric data to help interpret the recent findings from the three living spaces that flank the wall of the central monument.