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Rastrojón
Rastrojón is a Maya archaeological site in western Honduras. It appears to be associated with the major Classical period city of Copán―the capital of a Maya kingdom that existed from 5th to 9th centuries CE―situated just two kilometres away. Rastrojón was abandoned following the collapse of the Copán kingdom in 822; the site was constructed on top of a geological fault that made building difficult, so it may be that the inhabitants judged the location not worth the effort after the fall of the nearby royal centre. Rastrojón was discovered in 1979, during a survey of the area around Copán. From 2007 to 2013, the Rastrojón Archaeological Project (, PARACOPAN), sponsored by Harvard University and the Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History undertook a programme of rescue archaeology and conservation at the site. The project was led by archaeologists William Fash William L. Fash, Jr. (born 1954) is one of the founders of The Copan Association, which he describes as "c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Fash
William L. Fash, Jr. (born 1954) is one of the founders of The Copan Association, which he describes as "charged with research on and preservation of the Copan Archaeological Site, and other archaeological, cultural and natural resources of Honduras." The other founder is Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle.Fash 2009, p. 23. Fash currently holds the position of Bowditch Professor of Central American and Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard and was previously Chair of the Anthropology Department and the Director of the Peabody Museum. He has been awarded the highest civilian honor of the Government of Honduras, The Order of Jose Cecilio del Valle.Fash 2009, p. 3. Also, in 2008, he was given the Hoja de Laurel de Oro by the Government of Honduras for 30-plus years of "preserving and documenting Honduras' cultural heritage." He describes his research interests as "the rise and fall of complex society and civilizations; ideology and political symbolism; settlement pattern studies; arch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copán
Copán is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization in the Copán Department of western Honduras, not far from the border with Guatemala. This ancient Maya city mirrors the beauty of the physical landscape in which it flourished—a fertile, well-watered mountain valley in western Honduras at an elevation of 600 meters (1,970 feet) above mean sea level. It was the capital city of a major Classic period kingdom from the 5th to 9th centuries AD. The city was in the extreme southeast of the Mesoamerican cultural region, on the frontier with the Isthmo-Colombian cultural region, and was almost surrounded by non-Maya peoples.. Copán was occupied for more than two thousand years, from the Early Preclassic period to the Postclassic. The city developed a distinctive sculptural style within the tradition of the lowland Maya, perhaps to emphasize the Maya ethnicity of the city's rulers. The city has a historical record that spans the greater part of the Classic period and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya Civilization
The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in the Maya Region, an area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors. The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agricul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archaeological Site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record. Sites may range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use. Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a "site" can vary widely, depending on the period studied and the theoretical approach of the archaeologist. Geographical extent It is almost invariably difficult to delimit a site. It is sometimes taken to indicate a settlement of some sort although the archaeologist must also define the limits of human activity around the settlement. Any episode of deposition such as a hoard or burial can form a site as well. Development-led archaeology undertaken as cultural resources management has the disadvantage (or the ben ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea. Its capital and largest city is Tegucigalpa. Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, before the Spanish Colonization in the sixteenth century. The Spanish introduced Catholicism and the now predominant Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras became independent in 1821 and has since been a republic, although it has consistently endured much social strife and political instability, and remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. In 1960, the northern part of what was the Mosquito Coast was transferred from Nicara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesoamerican Chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian, prehispanic Mesoamerica into several periods: the Paleo-Indian (first human habitation until 3500 BCE); the Archaic (before 2600 BCE), the Preclassic or Formative (2500 BCE – 250 CE), the Classic (250–900 CE), and the Postclassic (); as well as the post European contact Colonial Period (1521–1821), and Postcolonial, or the period after independence from Spain (1821–present). The periodisation of Mesoamerica by researchers is based on archaeological, ethnohistorical, and modern cultural anthropology research dating to the early twentieth century. Archaeologists, ethnohistorians, historians, and cultural anthropologists continue to work to develop cultural histories of the region. Overview Paleo-Indian period 10,000–3500 BCE The Paleo-Indian (less frequently, ''Lithic stage, Lithic'') period or era is that which spans from the first signs of human presence in the region, to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fault (geology)
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the boundaries between the plates, such as the megathrust faults of subduction zones or transform faults. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. Faults may also displace slowly, by aseismic creep. A ''fault plane'' is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A ''fault trace'' or ''fault line'' is a place where the fault can be seen or mapped on the surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on geologic maps to represent a fault. A ''fault zone'' is a cluster of parallel faults. However, the term is also used for the zone of crushed rock along a single fault. Prolonged motion along closely spaced faults can blur the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Survey (archaeology)
In archaeology, survey or field survey is a type of field research by which archaeologists (often landscape archaeologists) search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human cultures across a large area (e.g. typically in excess of one hectare, and often in excess of many km2). Archaeologists conduct surveys to search for particular archaeological sites or kinds of sites, to detect patterns in the distribution of material culture over regions, to make generalizations or test hypotheses about past cultures, and to assess the risks that development projects will have adverse impacts on archaeological heritage. The surveys may be: (a) ''intrusive'' or ''non-intrusive'', depending on the needs of the survey team (and the risk of destroying archaeological evidence if intrusive methods are used) and; (b) ''extensive'' or ''intensive'', depending on the types of research questions being asked of the landscape in questi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and one of the most prestigious and highly ranked universities in the world. The university is composed of ten academic faculties plus Harvard Radcliffe Institute. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences offers study in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate academic disciplines, and other faculties offer only graduate degrees, including professional degrees. Harvard has three main campuses: the Cambridge campus centered on Harvard Yard; an adjoining campus immediately across Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston; and the medical campus in Boston's Longwood Medical Area. Harvard's endowment is valued at $50.9 billion, making it the wealthiest academic institution in the world. Endowment inco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Instituto Hondureño De Antropología E Historia
The Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia (IHAH, ''Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History'') is a government institution in the republic of Honduras. It formed on July 22, 1952, by Decree No. 24 originally under the name of National Institute of Anthropology and History under the government of Dr. Juan Manuel Gálvez. In 1968, Decree No. 118, changed its name to the ''Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia '', which changed its administrative autonomy, legal personality and own patrimony. The IHAH has a website, where their publications are available daily. The Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History has the following departments: *Department of Anthropological Research (DIA) *Department of Historical Research *Department of Museums *Restoration Department *Department of Protection of Cultural Heritage References *''This article was initially translated from the Spanish Wikipedia.'' External linksOfficial site Institutions of Hondur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rescue Archaeology
Rescue archaeology, sometimes called commercial archaeology, preventive archaeology, salvage archaeology, contract archaeology, developer-funded archaeology or compliance archaeology, is state-sanctioned, archaeological survey and excavation carried out in advance of construction or other land development. Other causes for salvage digs can be looting and illegal construction. One effect of rescue archaeology is that it diverts resources and impacts pre-planned archaeological work. Conditions leading to rescue archaeology could include, but are not limited to, highway projects, major construction, the flood plain of a proposed dam, or even before the onset of war. Unlike traditional survey and excavation, rescue archaeology must be undertaken at speed. Rescue archaeology is included in the broader categories that are cultural resource management (CRM) and cultural heritage management (CHM). Background Rescue archaeology occurs on sites about to be destroyed but, on occasion, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation-restoration Of Cultural Heritage
The conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property (tangible cultural heritage), including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include preventive conservation, examination, documentation, research, treatment, and education. This field is closely allied with conservation science, curators and registrars. Definition Conservation of cultural property involves protection and restoration using "any methods that prove effective in keeping that property in as close to its original condition as possible for as long as possible." Conservation of cultural heritage is often associated with art collections and museums and involves collection care and management through tracking, examination, documentation, exhibition, storage, preventive conservation, and restoration. The scope has widened from art conservation, involving protection and care of artwork and architecture, to conservatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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