Household Inequality, Community Formation, and Land Tenure in Classic Period Lowland Maya Society

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy E. Thompson ◽  
Keith M. Prufer
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Community Formation ◽  
Household Inequality ◽  
Lowland Maya

MAYA HETERARCHY AS INFERRED FROM CLASSIC-PERIOD PLAZA PLANS

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marshall Joseph Becker
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Lowland Maya

Recognition of architectural patterning among groups of structures at lowland Maya sites dating from the Classic period provides insights into the ways that residences and ritual complexes were organized. Each structured group arrangement, or Plaza Plan (PP), reveals an architectural grammar that provides the database enabling us to predict urban as well as rural settlement patterns. Wide variations in sizes among examples of residential PPs suggests that heterarchy was an important aspect of Classic Maya society. Examination of PP2 at Tikal indicates that a heterarchic pattern of organization existed. Heterarchy may relate to the fragility of the structure of lowland Maya kingship, and this may explain the gradual demise of states during the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods and their replacement by re-emergent Maya chiefdoms.

RETHINKING CLASSIC LOWLAND MAYA POTTERY CENSERS

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prudence M. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Divine Kingship ◽  
Terminal Classic Period ◽  
Lowland Maya

Classic lowland Maya censers can be described in terms of two general categories, image (or effigy) and non-image. The function and meaning of these incensarios is approached through consideration of their embellishment, symbolism, and contexts of use and recovery. It is suggested that in Peten and some adjacent areas, Classic image censers were part of the paraphernalia of divine kingship, associated with termination rituals and a royal funerary cult. Non-image and particularly spiked censers were more associated with birth/renewal, earth, rain, and calendrical rituals involving fire drilling. Their use became widespread in the lowlands during the Terminal Classic period, with the “collapse” of divine kingship and elite power.

THE HIATUS AT TIKAL, GUATEMALA

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hattula Moholy-Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Preliminary Conclusion ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Stone Monuments ◽  
Lowland Maya

Research on the Lowland Maya Hiatus that focuses solely on the inscriptions on monuments is too limited to provide information about its causes, nature, and consequences. I consider the hiatus at Tikal using additional evidence from architecture, settlement patterns, caches and burials, domestic artifacts, and inscriptions on portable objects. A preliminary conclusion is that Tikal's long hiatus can be regarded as part of a sequence of internal political development rather than due to conquest from outside. The displacement and destruction of inscribed and plain stone monuments was an ongoing phenomenon at Tikal. It was present from Terminal Preclassic times and occurred with increasing frequency until the beginning of the late Late Classic period. Monument destruction may have come to a halt then under a series of powerful rulers. The setting of inscribed stone monuments and wooden lintels continued for another two centuries until the disappearance of dynastic rule itself.

Obsidian Procurement and Distribution in the Tikal-Yaxha Intersite Area of the Central Maya Lowlands

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anabel Ford ◽  
Fred Stross ◽  
Frank Asaro ◽  
Helen V. Michel
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Characterization ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Residential Units ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Characterization Studies ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractObsidian from known outcrops in the Mesoamerican highlands has been recovered from lowland Maya sites, providing significant evidence for long-distance procurement and local redistribution of obsidian by the ancient Maya. Prior chemical-characterization studies of obsidian from the lowland Maya area provide a foundation for the study of Tikal-Yaxha obsidian presented here. The samples used in this analysis came from middens associated with 12 residential units located between Tikal and Yaxha and dating from the Preclassic through Terminal Classic periods. The results of chemical sourcing of the Tikal-Yaxha samples generally lend support to current interpretations of changes in obsidian distribution and procurement in the central Maya lowlands. During the Preclassic period, most obsidian was imported from the San Martín Jilotepeque-Río Pixcaya source area. Obsidian from the El Chayal source predominated throughout the Classic period, although some Mexican Pachuca obsidian appeared in Early Classic contexts, and Ixtepepque obsidian was apparently restricted to the Terminal Classic period.

SET IN STONE: HIATUSES AND DYNASTIC POLITICS AT TIKAL, GUATEMALA

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hattula Moholy-Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Historical Explanation ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Stone Monuments ◽  
General Decline ◽  
Dynastic Politics ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractStone stelae and altars inscribed with dates and bearing a portrait of the ruler they commemorate define the Classic period in the Maya lowlands. They attest to the ruling elite's awareness of history and its uses to assert their authority and legitimacy. The power of Maya history remains evident when text decipherments override archaeological evidence. Privileging of texts is especially problematic in interpretations of gaps or hiatuses in the sequence of dates on carved monuments as indicators of site-wide decline. Archaeological evidence from the Lowland Maya city of Tikal contradicts the assumption of general decline during its longest hiatus, as well as a widely accepted historical explanation of its cause. Placing stone monuments and their texts in past cultural context indicates gaps were more likely due to a venerable Mesoamerican tradition of monument desecration carried out by rival elite factions than to specific historical events.

REVISITING MONKEYS ON POTS: A CONTEXTUAL CONSIDERATION OF PRIMATE IMAGERY ON CLASSIC LOWLAND MAYA POTTERY

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prudence M. Rice ◽  
Katherine E. South
Keyword(s):  
Physical Characteristics ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Spider Monkey ◽  
Howler Monkey ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Monkey Species ◽  
Creation Myth ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractFour species of monkeys may have lived in the Maya region in pre-Columbian times: two howler monkey species, the spider monkey, and possibly the capuchin. Simians also played an important role in Maya creation myth and cosmology, and are frequently represented on Maya pottery and in glyphic texts. Scholars disagree, however, on which monkeys are depicted. Here we provide an analysis of 142 monkey images on 97 pots, focusing especially on Classic-period lowland polychromes. Multiple physical characteristics of the primates are considered, along with cultural traits, to provide appropriate biological and cultural contexts and artistic conventions necessary to their interpretation. Besides the well-known scribal roles (attributed to howlers and “Monkey-Men”), we conclude that monkeys commonly take on pictorial and non-pictorial roles that involve carrying or bringing goods such as tribute or cacao. In contexts of liminality, these creatures are often charged with transcending natural and social realms.

The Composite or “Assemble-it-Yourself” Censer: A New Lowland Maya Variety of the Three-Pronged Incense Burner

1959 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan F. Borhegyi
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
British Honduras ◽  
Lowland Area ◽  
Highland Maya ◽  
Incense Burner ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractA slit-sided, tubular “incense burner” with three holes in the top, three solid, curved and tapering cylinders called “chili-mashers,” and a flat, striated dish called a “griddle” or “comal” from sealed Cache B3 at San Jose, British Honduras are presented as separate units of a composite Lowland Maya variety of the three-pronged incense burner known from Highland Maya sites. Only the “comal” shows signs of burning. The cylinders are removable prongs which fit the holes in the top of the tubular “censer,” and the “comal” rests on the prongs as the cover on which the incense was burned. Thus, many so-called censers are probably stands or supports rather than receptacles for burning incense. A classification is offered for the several forms of the composite three-pronged censer which is distributed throughout the Maya Lowlands primarily during the Classic period. Since the San Jose “griddles” shown here to be censer covers are the only “comales” claimed for the Maya Lowlands, this identification establishes the pre-16th century absence of the comal and the tortilla in the lowland area. Doubt is also expressed that the comal forms of Highland Guatemala were used for making tortillas.

The Ancient Maya Ballcourt at Pacbitun, Belize

1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul F. Healy
Keyword(s):  
Special Class ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Construction Techniques ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractExcavations of a ceremonial ballcourt, undertaken at the Lowland Maya center of Pacbitun in western Belize, have provided details about ancient construction techniques and major diachronic structural changes to this special class of Precolumbian architecture. Some of the identified building alterations may have necessitated changes in the manner of playing the sacred Maya game at Pacbitun. A brief description of the excavations and construction history is provided. Analysis of artifactual remains from the ballcourt indicate it was built during the Late Preclassic period (100 b.c.-a.d. 300), but substantially altered in form during the Late Classic period (a.d. 550–900). The importance of the ballgame in the southern Lowlands is noted, and the particular significance of the Pacbitun court is discussed.

Sealing with Stone: Assessing an Assemblage of Lithic Debitage from a Funerary Context at the Lowland Maya City of Caracol, Belize

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Johnson ◽  
Lucas R. Martindale Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Protective Layer ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Stone Material ◽  
The City ◽  
Technological Analysis ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Lowland Maya

Excavators working in a ceremonial plaza group in the Classic period Lowland Maya city of Caracol, Belize, encountered thousands of pieces of chert and obsidian scattered above a royal tomb. A recent analysis of the chert from this context confirms that the assemblage included pieces from each stage of reduction in the production of blades. Taken together, the quantity of both chert and obsidian makes it the largest reported collection of lithic debitage found at the site and provides insight into the techniques of lithic crafters at Caracol. In this article, we consider the sequence of actions involved in the burial of a high-ranking individual and suggest that the layering of flaked stone above the tomb is reminiscent of other reported above-tomb contexts in the Maya Lowlands. Further, a technological analysis of this collection produced results similar to analyses of assemblages typically found in crafting-intensive residential groups. This finding suggests that lithic crafters throughout the city of Caracol donated flaked stone material for funerary events, providing a protective layer and sealing the grave below.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document