New Work at Tazumal, El Salvador

According to a brief note in El Mundo, Shione Shibata is directing new excavations at the major site of Tazumal in El Salvador. They have evidently found a substructure, possibly Early Classic in date, within one of the Classic period pyramids. Congratulations, Shione!

Job posting

My Department is advertising a tenure-track position for a biological anthropologist. Here is the text of the announcement:

Florida Atlantic University. The Department of Anthropology invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position in biological anthropology at the Assistant Professor level starting August 2011. Research specialization is open. A Ph.D. in anthropology is required at time of appointment. The successful candidate must be committed to undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring as well as demonstrate research potential and a commitment to generating external funding. Five courses per year is the normal teaching load. Applications will be reviewed beginning March 15, 2011 and continue until the position is filled. Applications must be submitted online at jobs.fau.edu (posting no. 981848). Original documents such as application letter, vita, names/addresses of references, and supporting materials should be sent to: Search Committee, Dept. of Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road, SO 171, Boca Raton, FL 33431. Florida Atlantic University serves a culturally and ethnically diverse student body and is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Institution.

Bruce Dahlin

My friend Bruce Dahlin passed away a few days ago. Here's a link to an obituary.

He was a major figure in Maya archaeology, deeply engaged in the theoretical debates of the day. He worked throughout the Maya region, from El Salvador to Guatemala to Yucatan. He directed excavations at key sites, such as El Mirador in the Peten of Guatemala and Chunchucmil, Yucatan.

Bruce was an extraordinarily generous person and had a warm and loving soul. When I moved to Washington, D.C., he went to great lengths to include me in his personal and professional circle, attending lectures I gave and inviting my wife and me to his beautiful home for Thanksgiving dinner. He also included me in grant proposals and field projects, which had a positive effect on my career and professional advancement. He was a role model and mentor.

Mesoamerican droughts: New Dendrochronological study

Sorry for the long absence. I've been unusually busy, even for me.

David Stahle has published (yet another) important article on dendrochronology and archaeology. This one describes a new dendrochronological sequence he and his colleagues have developed for central Mexico. It is derived from the Montezuma baldcypress, and it extends back 1,238 years, back to the Late Classic period. The paleoclimatic reconstruction created from the sequence indicates a series of major droughts corresponding to significant historical changes. The Terminal Classic Maya drought is evident and can now be dated between A.D. 897 and A.D. 922. (That's one major advantage of dendrochronology over other paleoclimate proxy methods: dendrochronology can provide dates precise to the year. Methods such as paleolimnology rarely, if ever, provide such precise dating.) Another major drought occurred between 1149 and 1167, close to the end of the Toltec reign (if that's what the Toltecs did). Another drought, from 1378 to 1404, was the most extreme in the dendrochronological sequence, but its historical correlates are not obvious. Finally, a major drought occurred around the time of the Spanish conquest, from 1514 to 1539. This may have found an echo in the 1535-1536 drought in Yucatan that drove the Xiu to try to cross the province of Sotuta, which led to their massacre by Nachi Cocom, which helped motivate the Xiu alliance with the Spanish.

All in all, an important article. Here's the reference:

Stahle, D. W., J. Villanueva-Diaz, D.J. Burnette, J. C. Paredes, R. R. Heim Jr., F. K. Fye, R. A. Soto, M. D. Therrell, M. K. Cleaveland, and D. K. Stahle (2011). Major Mesoamerican droughts of the past millennium. Geophys. Res. Lett., doi:10.1029/2010GL046472, in press.

Tim and Sheryl Beach's Maya wetland research

Nice article in Nature (with links) on Timothy Beach and Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach's work on ancient Maya wetland agriculture.

I can't say enough about the quality of their research. They are dedicated, adept, thoughtful, and cautious scientists. The best of the best.

Interesting article on Lower Paleolithic Stone Toolmaking

Faisal, Aldo, Dietrich Stout, Jan Apel, and Bruce Bradley (2010). The Manipulative Complexity of Lower Paleolithic Stone Toolmaking. PLoSOne 5(11): e13718. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013718.

Related news release with a nice video.

Teotihuacan at Dawn

I was here a couple of weeks ago. It can easily cost US$100 to get a tour or taxi to Teotihuacan from downtown Mexico City. Taking local transport is very cheap. Take the Metro to the Autobuses del Norte station. The bus station of the same name is directly across the street from the subway exit. Veer left inside the bus station and the narrow ticket counter for the local bus that goes to the ruins is the second- or third-to-last ticket vendor from the left-hand end. The small sign is yellow, and the buses go to San Juan and San Martin. The one you want is the "Piramides" bus. Tickets go on sale a few minutes before 6:00 am. Since the Metro starts running at 5:00 am, you should have time to get to the bus station before the ticket window opens so you can catch the first bus to Teotihuacan if you want. Not knowing how long any of this would take, that's what I did: the first Metro train and the first local bus. I arrived before 7:00 am at the gates of Teotihuacan. There was a night watchman hanging out in the gatehouse, chatting with random employees or friends. A couple of employees went in and out. It was absolutely freezing in the pre-dawn air at about 2300 m (7500 feet) above sea level. I had on an extra shirt, but I was jumping around and shivering anyway. The locals were all wearing jackets. It didn't help that I needed to pee something fierce. I finally asked the guard if I could use the restroom, and he let me in.

Here's Teotihuacan at dawn with no one else around.

Pyramid of the Sun from the west, with the sun rising behind.

Pyramid of the Sun again.



Another image.


Pyramid of the Sun yet again.


More of the same.

And one final image:



Actually, there was a charming group of giggling high school students who had just emerged from the tunnel under the pyramid. They were hidden behind something, so I didn't see them until I got right up to the pyramid. They were having a great time and we had a fun chat.

Here's a nice one of the Pyramid of the Moon taken in the dawn light from atop the Pyramid of the Sun.



Feel free to use my photos for non-profit educational purposes provided you attribute them to me, the photographer.

The bus was a comfy modern contraption. The movie on the way back was great, although I didn't see the whole thing and didn't catch the title.

Fun trip!

More photos to come, if I remember.

Nice archaeology blog

Stumbled upon and enjoyed this archaeology blog http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/ by Colleen Morgan.

Her photostream on Flickr is impressive too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/colleenmorgan/

I particularly enjoyed this little video clip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/colleenmorgan/2944551291/

What do you think?

Benoit Mandelbrot

It has been reported in the press that Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of fractal mathematics, died on October 14th. This is a sad loss not only for math, but for all the sciences and even the arts and humanities. Mandelbrot was a visionary who made substantive contributions to the broadest conceivable array of fields. Even a short list would have to include art, astronomy, computing, cosmology, economics, education, geography, geology, geophysics, hydrology, linguistics, and materials science, as well as mathematics. I found in his work evidence of a courageous and novel mind that was inspiring to me as a novice. I was thrilled when he once called me to ask about my work. He will undoubtedly be missed by innumerable students, friends, and colleagues.

Congratulations to Linda Manzanilla

Yesterday, Dr. Linda Manzanilla, the preeminent Mexican archaeologist, was invested with an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is probably best known for her work at Teotihuacan, but she has worked in the Maya area (at Coba and, I think, elsewhere) and also in South America.

She's a delightful colleague as well as an outstanding scholar, and so it is a particular pleasure to congratulate her.

Before writing this, I consulted her biography on that bastion of accuracy, the Wikipedia, and discovered two interesting facts, 1) she was born in New York, and 2) she is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. As both women and foreigners are rarely elected, her selection is a remarkable achievement. Being born in New York is much easier, provided your mother is there too.