Importation of Obsidian at Cerro Palenque, Honduras: Results of an Analysis by EDXRF

The results of source analysis by EDXRF of obsidian artifacts from the Mesoamerican site of Cerro Palenque in Honduras are reported and changes over time discussed. Sources of obsidian include Ixtepeque, El Chayal, Jalapa, San Martin Jilotepeque, and San Barolome in Guatemala. Some Pachuca obsidian from Mexico was also found. Honduran sources include La Esperanza and La Union. The implications of the obsidian sources are discussed in the context of changes at Cerro Palenque over time as it becomes the largest settlement in the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley) in the ninth century AD

Houses in a Landscape: Memory and Everyday Life in Mesoamerica

In Houses in a Landscape, Julia A. Hendon examines the connections between social identity and social memory using archaeological research on indigenous societies that existed more than one thousand years ago in what is now Honduras. While these societies left behind monumental buildings, the remains of their dead, remnants of their daily life, intricate works of art, and fine examples of craftsmanship such as pottery and stone tools, they left only a small body of written records. Despite this paucity of written information, Hendon contends that an archaeological study of memory in such societies is possible and worthwhile. It is possible because memory is not just a faculty of the individual mind operating in isolation, but a social process embedded in the materiality of human existence. Intimately bound up in the relations people develop with one another and with the world around them through what they do, where and how they do it, and with whom or what, memory leaves material traces. Hendon conducted research on three contemporaneous Native American civilizations that flourished from the seventh century through the eleventh CE: the Maya kingdom of Copan, the hilltop center of Cerro Palenque, and the dispersed settlement of the Cuyumapa valley. She analyzes domestic life in these societies, from cooking to crafting, as well as public and private ritual events including the ballgame. Combining her findings with a rich body of theory from anthropology, history, and geography, she explores how objects—the things people build, make, use, exchange, and discard—help people remember. In so doing, she demonstrates how everyday life becomes part of the social processes of remembering and forgetting, and how “memory communities” assert connections between the past and the present.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/books/1050/thumbnail.jp

Social Memory and Ritualized Practice in Prehispanic Honduras

This paper discusses ritualized practices in domestic spaces as signs of an ongoing and dynamic engagement between the people living there and non-human material and incorporeal social actors, using archaeological evidence from the ancient town of Cerro Palenque and related sites in northwestern Honduras occupied from the 7th to 11th centuries. The paper considers the ways that figurines, pottery, and other kinds of material culture were given meaning through their involvement in these ritualized practices, the materiality of the objects themselves, and their association with human bones. These practices are situated in particular spaces and occur at particular points in the life cycle of individuals and the social groups. They leave behind traces that reflect the desire of the participants in these practices to create social memory and to connect to the larger spatiotemporal order structuring their relations with the world around them

Producing Goods, Shaping People: The Materiality of Crafting

The study of craft production has a long and venerable history in archaeological research on ancient societies. In this chapter, I consider the crafting of useful and desired things from a materiality perspective by looking at the interactions between the craftpersons, the materials with which they work, and the ways that their end products are valued in society. I use two examples: working with fibers by the Maya of Mesoamerica and with metals by the Moche of Andean South America. These are two very different kinds of materials whose characteristics affect how one interacts with them. Crafting was a part of everyday life for the Maya and Moche. Through these two case studies I illustrate the role crafting plays in the development of identities and personhood, in the process contributing to the meaning of everyday life to people in these societies

Household Archaeology and Reconstructing Social Organization in Ancient Complex Societies: A Consideration of Models and Concepts Based on Study of the Prehispanic Maya

Studies of the settlement pattern in the Copan Valley, Honduras, indicate that a House society model provides the best way to understand the social organization of the Late Classic period Maya. The House society model, based on Levi-Strauss\u27s original work but since modified by anthropologists and archaeologists, does not replace household archaeology. Instead, the model allows archaeologists to discuss the continuation of social identity over time

Local Interaction and Long Distance Connections in the Ulua Valley: The View from Cerro Palenque

The site of Cerro Palenque, the largest settlement in the lower Ulua Valley (Sula Valley) in Honduras during the ninth and tenth centuries AD, was a locus of craft production of figurines and pottery, feasting, the ballgame, and other events associated with its ballcourt. Based on the analysis of imported obsidian, the evidence for ritual and craft production, and the layout of the settlement, Cerro Palenque maintained long distance trade connections with Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. It also took part in local rituals and events with its smaller neighbors in the valley

Julie Hendon, Interim Associate Provost for Academic Technology Initiatives & Faculty Development and Dean of Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Programs, Director of the Johnson Center for Creative Teaching and Learning, and Professor of Anthropology

In this new Next Page column, Julie Hendon shares how listening to audiobooks has made her more aware of writing quality, her top picks for archaeology-related fiction (hint: two series to add to your must-read list!), and which authors she returns to again and again

Behind the scenes at the Silver Studio: Rex Silver and the hidden mechanisms of interwar textile design

The Silver Studio produced designs for mass-market wallpapers and textiles between 1880 and around 1960. This paper draws on evidence from the Silver Studio Collection (now at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, Middlesex University), to propose that Silver Studio designs in the interwar period were never the work of one individual but were rather the product of complex negotiations between clients and designers, mediated by Rex Silver. The Studio’s diaries and other records provide an insight into these negotiations and raise questions about the nature of ‘authorship’ in design

Archives, collections and curatorship: Virtual Special Issue for the Journal of Design History, 2019

Design historians frequently find their interest in a particular subject prompted by archival materials, or begin their research with collections of designed objects supported by online databases. While these are the raw materials, the primary sources of the design historian’s work, they are also deserving of attention in their own right. This Virtual Special Issue is comprised of twelve articles drawn from past issues of the Journal of Design History’s Archives, Collections and Curatorship section, drawing out key themes and highlighting ongoing dialogues between academic design historians, curators, librarians and archivists. This Introduction seeks to contextualise these within the wider discipline of design history, and to draw connections to scholarship beyond the Journal of Design History itself. Articles under the first heading look at archives, while articles under the second consider collections of objects. The third section turns to the related challenges of presenting design historical research to public audiences. This Virtual Special issue also offers a reminder that as both the processes and products of design move into the digital sphere, it is pertinent to ask what this means for the ways in which design historians, students, and the general public will engage with design history in future