Marilyn Masson

Marilyn Masson (born 1961) is a Maya archaeologist whose research has focused on social transformation and political economy of ancient Mesoamerican cultures in Mexico and Belize. She is the Associate Professor of Mesoamerican Archaeology at Albany and the Director of the Institute for Mesoamerican Studies at Albany.[1] She is a co-director of the PEMY (Proyecto los Fundamentos Ecónomico de Mayapán/Economic Foundations of Mayapán Project ) project at the site of Mayapan in the Northern Yucutan Peninsula of Mexico.[2]

Education and academic career

According to her cirriculum vitae Marilyn Masson earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Texas A&M University in 1982, her Master of Science in Anthropology from Florida State University in 1987, and her Ph.D in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993. Her Ph.D dissertation work is titled Changes in Maya Community Organization from the Classic to Postclassic Periods: A View from Laguna de On, Belize. Her Master's thesis focused on lithic production changes in Late Classic Maya workshops at the site of Colha in Belize. She has a wide array of archaeological interests including household archaeology, political structure, the archaeology of complex societies, zooarchaeology, lithic and ceramic analysis, and the archaeology of religion.[3]

Most of her academic career has been spent teaching as an Assistant Professor (1996-2002) and an Associate Professor (2002–Present) at the University of Albany SUNY. She has taught and teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate level classes and field schools ranging from Introduction to Archaeology to Quantitative Methods in Anthropology to more specific classes regarding social complexity, urbanism, political organization, and archaeology of the ancient Maya.[3]

She also has spent time working in American Archaeology as a field and lab technician in Florida and Texas.

Mesoamerican research

Masson has worked extensively throughout the Southern Mexico/Maya region. She has directed and co-directed projects at sites in Belize such as Colha, Kichpanha, K'axob Laguna zope in Oaxaca, and most notably at the Postclassic (1100-1500AD) site of Mayapan in Yucutan, Mexico.[3]

The newest phase of her research at Mayapan focuses on the urban administration and social complexity of the city's landscape. Specifically, she and her colleagues are examining the degree of interdependence of domestic and ritual dimensions of the city's economy. This project is a comprehensive study of wealth across all social classes as well as administrative features (temples, halls, elite houses, and markets) and facets of individual non-elite households. Past projects such as the Belize Postclassic Project focused on long term analysis of the growth, stability, and economic organization of the Maya populations that occupied Northeastern Belize in the Postclassic.[3]

Mayapan

Current work by Marilyn Masson at Mayapan is conducted within the scope of the Economic Foundations of Mayapán Project (PEMY) that has been in existence since 2001 with the help of colleagues Carlos Peraza Lope and Timothy Hare. A new research phase began in 2008 at Mayapán investigates he urban administration and social complexity of the city's landscape Comprehensive archaeological work on this scale has not been conducted since the 1950's under direction of the Carnegie Institution. Masson and colleague's work can be seen at the project website,[2]

Her radiocarbon dating of ceramics found at Mayapan has revealed a founding of the city by at least the 12th century, possibly the 11th century, as well as revealing construction sequences of later architecture to the 13th and 14th centuries that also provide data on violence/conflict, abandonment, and the role Mayapan played in becoming a regional center as Chichen Itza waned in power and influence (Peraza et al. 2006). Zooarchaeological research of nearly 98,000 animal (faunal) bones at Mayapan elucidates the role that animal consumption and exploitation patterns played in the larger scale coastal-inland economic systems with other Maya centers; white-tailed deer were key fauna at the site (Masson and Lope 2008). Analysis of burial structures and iconography at Mayapan undertaken by Masson and Lope revealed ritual ties to Central Mexican mythology and widely shared cosmological/ideological foundations for understanding their universe (Masson and Lope 2007). Masson, Lope, and Hare have published about the resurgence of Maya society seen at Mayapan in the Postclassic, which created a late Maya society that drew from institutions from Chichen Itza and the Classic Maya but retained a level of uniqueness in the forms of architecture and religious ideas (Masson, Lope, Hare 2006). She has also studied shifting ceramic styles, specifically the standardization of Postclassic Maya pottery in the Yucutan region during the in the wider context of polity interaction and economic/market exchange systems (Masson 2001). Further expanding upon the analysis of market economy at Mayapan, Masson has examined archaeological evidence from the site to compare to Classic period Tikal to highlight the importance of market exchange in Postclassic Maya societies, show the long time scale of markets in Maya society, and demonstrate a more complex market system in place than previously believed (Masson and Freidel 2012).

Awards, honors and grants

Books and journal publications

Books

Journals

1995, pp. 6–10.

Referenced articles

References

  1. ↑ "Maya Exploration Center - Dr. Marilyn Masson". www.mayaexploration.com. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
  2. 1 2 "Mayapan Archaeology". www.albany.edu. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Marilyn A. Masson - University at Albany-SUNY". www.albany.edu. Retrieved 2015-12-08.
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