Abstract
Since its inception in the 1950s, 14C dating has had a profound role in our understanding of the ancient Maya of southern Mexico and Central America, both in terms of culture history and developmental processes. In the case of the Classic Maya period, from AD 300–900, 14C dating has primarily served to augment two other forms of interrelated dating: ceramic chronology and the Long Count system of calendric notation. In this sense, the advent of 14C dating has been less of a revolution than a gradual resolution of several competing chronologic constructs for the Classic Maya.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adams, REW 1971 The ceramics of Altar de Sacrificios. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 63 (1).
Andrews, A, Gallareta Negron, T, Robles Castellanos, F, Cobos Palma, R and Cervera Rivero, P 1988 Isla Cerritos: an Itza trading port on the north coast of Yucatan, Mexico. National Geographic Research 4 (2): 196–207.
Andrews, EW, V and Hammond, N 1990 Redefinition of the Swasey phase at Cuello, Belize. American Antiquity 55(3): 570–584.
Andrews, EW, V and Sabloff, JA 1986 Classic to Postclassic: A summary discussion. In Sabloff, JA and Andrews, EW, V, eds, Late Lowland Maya Civilization Classic to Postclassic. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press: 433–456.
Ball, J 1978 Archaeological pottery of the Yucatan-Campeche coast. In Studies in the archaeology of coastal Yucatan and Campeche, Mexico. Middle American Research Institute Publication 46: 69–140.
Berger, R, De Atley, S, Protsch, R and Willey, GR 1974 Radiocarbon chronology for Seibal, Guatemala. Nature 252 (5483): 472–473.
Berger, R, Graham, JA and Heizer, RF 1967 A reconsideration of the age of the La Venta Site. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 3: 1–24.
Bloom, PR, Pohl, M and Stein, J 1985 Analysis of sedimentation and agriculture along the Rio Hondo, northern Belize. In Pohl, M, ed, Prehistoric lowland Maya environment and subsistence economy. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 77: 21–33.
Broecker, WS, Olson, EA and Bird, J 1959 Radiocarbon measurements on samples of known age. Nature 183 (4675): 1582–1584.
Caso, A 1942 Definicion y extension del complejo `Olmeca.’ In Mayas y Olmecas, segundo reunion de mesa redonda sobre problemas antropologicos de Mexico y Centro America. Tuxtla Gutierrez, Socie-dad Mexicana de Antropologia: 43–46
Chase, AF 1986 Time depth or vacuum: the 11.3.0.0.0 correlation and the lowland Maya Postclassic. In Sabloff, JA and Andrews, EW, V, eds, Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press: 99–140.
Clancy, FS, Coggins, CC, Culbert, TP, Gallenkamp, C and Johnson, RE 1985 Maya: Treasures of an Ancient Civilization. New York, Harry N Abrams: 240 p.
Cliff, MB and Crane, CJ 1989 Changing subsistence economy at a Late Preclassic Maya community. In McAnany, PA and Isaac, BL, eds, Prehistoric Maya economies of Belize. Research in Economic Anthropology, Supplement 4. Greenwich, Connecticut, JAI Press: 295–324.
Coe, MD 1973 The Maya Scribe and His World New York, The Grolier Club:160 p.
Coe, MD 1974 A carved wooden box from the Classic Maya civilization. In Greene Robertson, M, ed, Primera Mesa Redonda de Palenque, Part II. Pebble Beach, The Robert Louis Stevenson School: 143 p.
Coe, MD 1987 The Maya, 4th edition. New York, Thames and Hudson: 200 p.
Coe, MD and Diehl, RA 1980 In the Land of the Olmec: The Archaeology of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan,2 vols. Austin and London, University of Texas Press.
Coe, WR 1967 Tikal: A Handbook of the Ancient Maya Ruins. Philadelphia, The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania: 123 p.
Covarrubias, M 1943 Tlatilco, archaic Mexi- can art and culture. Dyn 4–5: 40–46.
Cowgill, UM, Hutchinson, GE, Racek, AA, Goulden, CE, Patrick, R and Tsukada, M 1966 The history of Laguna de Petenxil: A small lake in northern Guatemala. Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 17: 1–126.
Crane, CJ 1986 Late Preclassic Maya agriculture, wild plant utilization, and land-use practices. In Robertson, RA and Freidel, DA, eds, Archaeology at Cerros, Belize, Central America. An Interim Report, vol 1. Dallas, Texas, Southern Methodist University Press: 147–165.
Culbert, TP 1973 The Maya downfall at Tikal. In Culbert, TP, ed, The Classic Maya Collapse. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press: 63–92.
Dahlin, BH 1979 Cropping cash in the Protoclassic: A cultural impact statement. In Hammond, N and Willey, G, eds, Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory. Austin, University of Texas Press: 21–37.
Dahlin, BH 1983 Climate and prehistory on the Yucatan peninsula. Climate Change 5 (3): 245–263.
Denton, G and Karlen, W 1973 Holocene climatic variations: their pattern and possible cause. Quaternary Research 3 (2): 155–205.
Drucker, P, 1947 Some implications of the ceramic complex of La Venta. Smithsonian Institution, Miscellaneous Collections 107 (8).
Drucker, P, Heizer, RF and Squier, RJ 1957 Radiocarbon dates from La Venta, Tabasco. Science 126 (3263): 72–73.
Drucker, P, Heizer, RF and Squier, RJ 1959 Excavations at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 170: 320 p.
Fedick, SL and Ford, A 1990 The prehistoric agricultural landscape of the central Maya lowlands: An examination of local variability in a regional context. World Archaeology 22 (1): 18–33.
Fergusson, GJ and Libby, WF 1963 UCLA radiocarbon dates II. Radiocarbon 5: 1–22.
Folan, WJ, Gunn, J, Eaton, JD and Patch, RW 1983 Paleoclimatological patterning in southern Mesoamerica. Journal of Field Archaeology 10 (4): 453–468.
Folan, WJ and Hyde, BH 1985 Climatic forecasting and recording among the ancient and historic Maya: An ethnohistoric approach to epistemological and paleoclimatological patterning. InFolan
WJ, ed, Contributions to the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Greater Mesoamerica Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press: 15–48.
Gabasio, Evin, J, Arnal, GB and Andrieux, P 1986 Origins of carbon in potsherds. In Stuiver, M and Kra, RS, eds, Proceedings of the 12th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 28(2A): 711–718.
Grove, JM 1979 The glacial history of the Holocene. Progress in Physical Geography 3: 1–54.
Gruhn, R and Bryan, AL 1977 Los Tapiales: A Paleo-Indian campsite in the Guatemalan highlands. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 121 (3): 235–273.
Gunn, J and Adams, REW 1981 Climatic change, culture, and civilization in North America. World Archaeology 13 (1): 87100.
Hammond, N 1977 The earliest Maya. Scientific American 236 (3): 116–133.
Hammond, N 1982 Ancient Maya Civilization. New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press: 337 p.
Hammond, N 1989 Obsidian hydration dating of Tecep phase occupation at Nohmul, Belize. American Antiquity 54 (3): 513–521.
Hammond, N, Pring, D, Berger, R, Switsur, VR and Ward, AP 1976 Radiocarbon chronology for early Maya occupation at Cuello, Belize. Nature 260 (5552): 579–581.
Hammond, N, Pring, D, Wilk, R, Donaghey, S, Saul, FP, Wing, ES, Miller, AV and Feldman, LH 1979 The earliest Maya? Definition of the Swasey phase. American Antiquity 44 (1): 92–110.
Harrison, PD 1972 The lintels of Tzibanche, Quintana Roo. Proceedings, 40th International Congress of Americanists. Rome and Genoa: 495–501.
Henderson, JS 1981 The World of the Ancient Maya. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press: 271 p.
Hester, TR, Kelly, TC and Ligabue, G, 1981 A fluted Paleo-Indian projectile point from Belize, Central America. Working Papers 1, Colha Project. San Antonio, Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas.
Jones, C and Satterthwaite, L 1982 The Monuments and Inscriptions of Tikal: The Carved Monuments. University Museum Monograph 44, Tikal Report 33. Philadelphia, The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
Kulp, JL, Feely, 11W and Tryon, LE 1951 Lamont natural radiocarbon measurements, I. Science 114 (2970): 565–568.
Libby, WF 1955 Radiocarbon Dating, 2nd edition. Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 175 p.
Lincoln, CE 1986 The chronology of Chichen Itza: A review of the literature. Li Sabloff, JA and Andrews, EW, V, eds, Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press: 141–196.
Lounsbury, F 1982 Astronomical knowledge and its uses at Bonampak, Mexico. In Aveni, AF, ed, Archaeoastronomy in the New World. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 143–186.
Lowe, GW 1978 Eastern Mesoamerica. In Taylor, RE and Meighan, CW, eds, Chronologies in New World Archaeology. New York, Academic Press: 331–393.
MacNeish, RS and Peterson, FA 1962 The Santa Marta rock shelter, Ocozocoautla, Chiapas, Mexico. Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation 14.
Marcus, J 1983 Lowland Maya archaeology at the crossroads. American Antiquity 48 (3): 454–488.
Meggers, BJ 1954 Environmental limitations on the development of culture. American Anthropologist 56 (5): 801–824.
Meltzer, DJ 1989 Why don’t we know when the first people came to North America? American Antiquity 54 (3): 471–490.
Merwin, RE and Vaillant, GC 1932 The ruins of Holmul, Guatemala. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 3 (2).
Michaels, GH and Voorhies, B (ms) 1989 Settlement systems and resource use by Preceramic estuarine dwellers in southern Mexico. Paper presented at Circum-Pacific Prehistory Conference, Seattle, Washington, August 4.
Miksicek, CH 1983 Macrofloral remains of the Pulltrouser area: settlements and fields. In Turner, BL, II, and Harrison, PD, eds, Pulltrouser Swamp: Ancient Maya Habitat, Agriculture, and Settlement in Northern Belize. Austin, University of Texas Press: 94–104.
Miksicek, CH, Bird, RM, Pickersgill, B, Donaghey, S, Cartwright, J and Hammond, N 1981 Preclassic lowland maize from Cuello, Belize. Nature 289 (5793): 56–59.
Millon, R 1981 Teotihuacan: city, state, civilization. In Sabloff, JA, ed, Archaeology: Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians 1. Austin, University of Texas Press: 198–243.
Morley, SG 1920 The inscriptions at Copan. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 219: 643 p.
Morley, SG 1946 The Ancient Maya. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press: 520 p.
Morley, SG and Brainerd, GW; revised by Sharer, RJ 1983 The Ancient Maya, 4th edition. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press: 708 p.
Ogden, JG, III and Hart, WC 1977 Dalhousie University natural radiocarbon measurements II. Radiocarbon 19 (3): 392–399.
Parsons, LA 1967 Bilbao: Guatemala. Publications in Anthropology 11. Milwaukee Public Museum: 197 p.
Pring, DC 1979 The Swasey ceramic complex of northern Belize: A definition and discussion. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 41: 215–229.
Puleston, DE 1977 The art and archaeology of hydraulic agriculture in the Maya lowlands. hi Hammond, N, ed, Social Process in Maya Prehistory. London, Academic Press: 449–467.
Rice, DS, Rice, PM and Deevey, ES, Jr 1985 Paradise lost: Classic Maya impact on a lacustrine environment. hi Pohl, M, ed, Prehistoric lowland Maya environment and subsistence economy. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 77: 91–05.
Ricketson, OG, Jr 1928 A stratification of remains at an early Maya site. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 14 (7): 505–508.
Ricketson, OG, Jr and Ricketson, EB 1937 Uaxactun, Guatemala: Group E, 19261931. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 477: 314 p.
Sanchez, WA and Kutzbach, JE 1974 Climate of the American tropics and subtropics in the 1960s and possible comparisons with climatic variations of the last millennium. Quaternary Research 4 (2): 128–135.
Satterthwaite, L 1956 Radiocarbon dates and the correlation problem. American Antiquity 21 (4): 416–419.
Satterthwaite, L 1967 Radiocarbon and Maya Long Count dating of `Structure 10’ (Str 5D-52, first story), Tikal. Revista Mexicana de Estudios Antropologicos 21: 225–249.
Satterthwaite, L and Ralph, EK 1960 New radiocarbon dates and the Maya correlation problem. American Antiquity 26 (2): 165–184.
Sharer, RJ 1974 The prehistory of the southeastern Maya periphery. Current Anthropology 15 (2): 165–187.
Sharer, RJ 1984 Lower Central America as seen from Mesoamerica. In Lange, FW and Stone, DZ, eds, The Archaeology of Lower Central America. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press: 63–84.
Sheets, PD 1971 An ancient natural disaster. Expedition 14 (1): 24–31.
Sheets, PD 1979 Environmental and cultural effects of the Ilopango eruption in Central America. In Sheets, P and Grayson, D, eds, Volcanic Activity and Human Ecology. New York, Academic Press: 525–564.
Sheets, PD 1983 Summary and conclusions. In Sheets, P, ed, Archaeology and Vulcanism in Central America: The Zapotitan Valley of El Salvador. Austin, University of Texas Press: 275–293.
Sheets, PD 1986 Natural hazards, natural disasters, and research in the Zapotitan Valley of El Salvador. In Urban, PA and Schortman, EM, eds, The Southeast Maya Periphery. Austin, University of Texas Press: 224–238.
Siemens, AH 1983 Wetland agriculture in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. The Geographical Review 73 (2): 166–181.
Siemens, AH and Puleston, DE 1972 Ridged fields and associated features in southern Campeche: New perspectives on the lowland Maya. American Antiquity 37 (2): 228–239.
Smith, RE 1955 Ceramic sequence at Uaxactun, Guatemala. Middle American Research Institute Publication 20, 2 vols: 214 p.
Smith, RE 1971 The pottery of Mayapan including studies of ceramic material from Uxmal, Kabah, and Chichen Itza, 2 vols. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 66.
Spinden, HJ 1924 The reduction of Maya dates. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Ethnology and Archaeology, Harvard University 6 (4): 286 p.
Stephens, JL 1962 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, 2 vols. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.
Stirling, M 1940 An initial series from Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. National Geographic Society Contributed Technical Papers, Mexican Archaeology Series 1 (1).
Stuiver, M and Becker, B 1986 High-precision decadal calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, AD 1950–2500 BC. In Stuiver, M and Kra, RS, eds, Proceedings of the 12th International 14C Conference. Radiocarbon 28(2B): 863–910.
Thompson, JES 1935 Maya chronology: The correlation question. Contributions to American Archaeology 3 (14): 51–104.
Thompson, JES 1941 Dating of certain inscriptions of non-Maya origin. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Theoretical Approaches to Problems 1: 85 p.
Thompson, JES 1948 An archaeological reconnaissance in the Cotzumalhuapa region, Escuintla, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Contributions to American Anthropology and History 9 (44): 56 p.
Thompson, JES 1954 The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press: 334 p.
Thompson, JES 1960 Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press: 347 p.
Tsukada, M 1966 The pollen sequence. In Cowgill, UM, Hutchinson, GE, Racek, AA, Goulden, CE, Patrick, R and Tsukada, M, eds, The history of Laguna de Petenxil: A small lake in northern Guatemala. Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 17: 63–66.
Turner, BL, II 1978 The development and demise of the swidden thesis. In Harrison, PD and Turner, BL, II, eds, Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press: 13–22.
Vaillant, GC 1927 The chronological significance of Maya ceramics. PhD dissertation, Harvard University.
Vaillant, GC 1935 Chronology and stratigraphy in the Maya area. Maya Research 2: 119–143.
Vaughn, HH, Deevey, ES, Jr and Garrett-Jones, SE 1985 Pollen stratigraphy of two cores from the Peten lake district, with an appendix on two deep-water cores. In Pohl, M, ed, Prehistoric lowland Maya environment and subsistence economy. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 77: 73–89.
Voorhies, B 1976 The Chantuto people: An Archaic period society of the Chiapas littoral, Mexico. Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation 41: 147 p.
Voorhies, B and Michaels, Gil (ms) 1990 The Chantuto people revisited: New research on the Late Archaic period of coastal Chiapas, Mexico. Paper presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Las Vegas, Nevada, April 18–22.
Weaver, MP 1981 The Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors: Archaeology of Mesoamerica, 2nd edition. New York, Academic Press: 597 p.
Wendland, WM and Bryson, RA 1974 Dating climatic episodes of the Holocene. Quaternary Research 4 (1): 9–24.
Wilkerson, SJK 1975 Pre-agricultural village life: The Late Preceramic period in Veracruz. In Graham, JA, ed, Studies in Ancient Mesoamerica, II. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 27: 111–122.
Willey, GR, Culbert, TP and Adams, REW, eds, 1967 Maya lowland ceramics: A report from the 1965 Guatemala City conference. American Antiquity 32 (3): 289–316.
Willey, GR, Smith, AL, Tourtellot, G, III and Graham, I 1975 Excavations at Seibal, Department of Peten, Guatemala. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 13 (1): 56 p.
Zeitlin, RN 1984 A summary on three seasons of field investigations into the Archaic period prehistory of lowland Belize. American Anthropologist 86 (2): 358–369.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this paper
Cite this paper
Fedick, S.L., Taube, K.A. (1992). The Role of Radiocarbon Dating in Maya Archaeology: Four Decades of Research. In: Taylor, R.E., Long, A., Kra, R.S. (eds) Radiocarbon After Four Decades. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4249-7_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4249-7_26
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-4251-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-4249-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive