On November 18, the community of Emiliano Zapata (Carrizal), Veracruz, hosted an unprecedented cultural event for Veracruz archaeology, an academic conference organized by and for the inhabitants of the local communities. Its main goal was to divulge the diverse information recovered by archaeological projects throughout the region. The idea was conceived inside the outreach program […]
Read full post »Field Reports in ‘English’
Archaeology and History at El Carrizal
Thursday, October 20, 2011
On Friday, October 7, our crew had a celebration. The reason? The project’s first grantee graduation! Cesar Viveros Miranda is a local student from Carrizal who enrolled in the History program at Universidad Veracruzana. His thesis is titled “Land Ownership: El Carrizal’s Ejido Formation: 1918-1921.” The Ejidos were social organizations based on communal land property. […]
Read full post »Rescuing El Carrizal’s Heritage: Please Support Us
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
El Carrizal’s history is deeply intertwined with the railways’ history. During Porfirio Diaz’ rulership (1876-1911), the area was known as Llano grande (wide plains) and was part of Hacienda Plan del RÃo, a latifundium owned by Mr. Angel Trigos. Back then, only a few houses existed and the rest of the land was used for […]
Read full post »Experimenting and Archaeology
Monday, August 22, 2011
Archaeology has developed its classification methods and techniques since its beginnings. At first, finished and pretty artifacts were diagnostic of styles and cultures. In the 60s, technological issues started to come to question; so we started paying attention to unfinished, recycled, re-used and discarded objects. The operational sequence approach on artifacts proposes to reconstruct their […]
Read full post »Hurricane Karl: Natural Disasters and Human Occupations
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
On September 16, hurricane Karl hit the Mexican Gulf Coast. It entered through Villa Rica, the same spot through which Cortes the conquistador first arrived in Mexico. As we were so deeply focused in our research, we didn’t know anything about the danger, so our crew decided to spend September 15 (Mexico’s Independence Day) at […]
Read full post »2010 Season Begins!
Monday, August 2, 2010
After a long absence, we are proud to announce that 2010 Season has already started. Permits obtained, funding received and team all set up, we’ve decided to go on with our surface survey, completing an area of 60 square kilometers (2009 plus 2010 seasons), which will allow us to generate a regional settlement patterns perspective. […]
Read full post »Archaeology beyond boundaries: connecting Mexico with South America
Friday, March 5, 2010
After a long absence, we are back to tell you everything that has been going on at El Carrizal for the past few months. Reports written, grant applications submitted and analysis almost done; we started thinking about multidisciplinary approaches for 2010’s season. Thanks to the Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Posgrado (AUIP) and its internship program, […]
Read full post »The million dollar question: what is a machacador?
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
During our 2009 survey season, a student approached us asking if it was ok to collect a strange object lying on a mound by his feet. Immediately, Natalia got closer to him and identified the artifact as a “machacador”, reported by Bertha Cuevas in her thesis on El Carrizal. Instantly, the artifact was collected, labeled […]
Read full post »Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) at El Carrizal
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
This past week was very important for all Mexicans, especially for those in communities away from big cities who still preserve traditions and habits inherited from their pre-Hispanic ancestors. The DÃa de Muertos celebration is really relevant for El Carrizal and neighboring communities, since it combines elements from indigenous as well as European customs. This […]
Read full post »Archaeological Research Processes
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Generally, our work is viewed only as digging holes in archaeological sites. However, behind and through any serious research there must exist a theoretical and methodological coherence, which is usually unnoticed by students and the general public. For that reason, we’ve decided to use this update to share our views about this topic and its […]
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