News from the Field 2023 The Americas
Belize This summer graduate student Brett Meyer conducted the second season of excavations at the Maya site of Ek Tzul in west-central Belize with the help of Michigan undergraduate Allison Densel. Units were opened in one of the site’s largest structures and in each of the three plazas to gather charcoal for chronology building and to examine the site’s development over time. In addition to excavating, Brett participated in an outreach event with today’s Maya from the village of San Antonio, where he gave a presentation on how animal remains are useful to archaeologists. There he was lucky enough to try traditional jute soup. Chile Following a successful pilot season in Aysén, Chile, Ian Beggen spent the last year preparing for regional subsurface survey once again in Patagonia. He intends to use shovel testing to find new open-air sites that he will excavate for his dissertation. While not conducting any of his own fieldwork this summer, he was able to help out at the Belson Clovis site in Michigan. page 18 • Fall 2023 • www.lsa.umich.edu/ummaa
Clockwise from left: Brett Meyer excavating an in situ ceramic vessel at Ek Tzul; Ian Beggen excavating a clay feature at the Belson site in Michigan; UMMAA curator Tiffany Fryer co-edited a book on the Maya Lowlands and helped produce a fourth volume of oral histories and historic photos from her research region on the Yucatan peninsula.
Mexico Curator Tiffany Fryer spent time in Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula helping to further research at an hacienda (plantation estate) called xCafe (located on the Ejido de Tihosuco, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo). Alongside University of Pennsylvania colleagues Samantha Seyler and Richard Leventhal, she worked with longtime local collaborators to create an accurate architectural and land use survey of the historic property, as well as to collect and curate oral histories about the property. She also worked with colleagues Marcelina Chan Canche and Kasey Diserens Morgan (U Pennsylvania) to produce the fourth volume of oral histories and historic photos from
