Terminal Classic residential histories, migration, and foreigners at the Maya site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 101337
Author(s):  
Christina T. Halperin ◽  
Yasmine Flynn-Arajdal ◽  
Katherine A. Miller Wolf ◽  
Carolyn Freiwald
Keyword(s):  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Maya Site

The Ballcourt Markers of Tenam Rosario, Chiapas, Mexico

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gerard Fox
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Blood Sacrifice ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Coast Site

AbstractThis study is an iconographic analysis of ballcourt markers from the Late/Terminal Classic Maya site of Tenam Rosario, Chiapas, Mexico. The squatting posture of the two figures depicted on these markers, while rare in Lowland Maya art, is compared to Late Postclassic images of the earth deities Tlaltecuhtli and Tlaloc from Central Mexico. Contemporaneous examples of this posture are presented from the Gulf Coast site of El Tajin where squatting figures are associated with the rain god specifically and with the themes of ballgame sacrifice and regeneration in general. Tlaloc imagery in Classic Maya art is related to blood sacrifice as a complex, which includes both ritual warfare and autosacrifice. These forms of sacrifice are discussed as engendered categories in both Classic Maya and Aztec society. The Tenam Rosario markers are found to express themes that are consistent with ballgame symbolism throughout Mesoamerica, while conflating male and female aspects of blood sacrifice as regenerative ritual.

MORTUARY RITUALS AND CRANIAL MODIFICATIONS AT CEIBAL: FROM THE EARLY MIDDLE PRECLASSIC TO THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 305-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Palomo ◽  
Takeshi Inomata ◽  
Daniela Triadan
Keyword(s):  
Public Spaces ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Terminal Classic Period

AbstractSkeletal remains excavated from the lowland Maya site of Ceibal, representing approximately 117 individuals, provide significant data for the study of changes in bodily treatments and mortuary practices from 1000b.c.toa.d.900. The early Middle Preclassic residents of Ceibal apparently did not bury their dead inside residential structures, which represents a burial practice different from those found at contemporaneous Belizean sites. During this time, tabular erect cranial deformations were found among possible local residents. Sacrificial burials were present by the end of this period, but skeletal remains of violent rituals deposited in public spaces increased from the Middle Preclassic to the Late Preclassic. During the Late Preclassic, tabular erect cranial deformations coexisted with tabular oblique shapes. The Classic period witnessed a prevalence of tabular oblique forms, which were probably tied to local residents. The common placement of the dead under house floors and the preference of ceramic vessels as burial goods also indicate Ceibal's strong affinities with other parts of the Maya lowlands during the Late Classic period. During the Terminal Classic period, there was a resurgence in the placement of sacrificial burials in public spaces and tabular erect cranial deformations were found in possible non-local individuals.

Land Tenure Systems at the Ancient Maya Site of Actuncan, Belize

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa J. LeCount ◽  
Chester P. Walker ◽  
John H. Blitz ◽  
Ted C. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Agricultural Field ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Residential Units ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Land Tenure Systems

A common property regime was established at the founding of the Maya site of Actuncan, Belize, in the Terminal Preclassic period (175 BC–AD 300), which governed access to land until the Terminal Classic period (AD 780–1000). This interpretation is based on urban settlement patterns documented through household excavation and remote-sensing programs. Excavations of all visible patio-focused groups in the urban core provided data to reconstruct residential histories, and a 60,621 m2 gradiometer survey resulted in a magnetic gradient map that was used to document buried constructions. Twenty ground-truth testpits correlated types of magnetic signatures to buried patio-focused groups and smaller constructions, including walled plots in agricultural field systems that were later exposed more fully through large-scale excavations. Combined, these methods provided data to reconstruct four correlates of land tenure systems: (1) the spatial proximity of residential units to land and resources, (2) diachronic changes in community settlement patterns, (3) land subdivision and improvements, and (4) public goods. Spatial analyses documented that houselots did not cluster through time, but instead became gradually improved, lending evidence to suggest the transgenerational inheritance of property rights in the Late and Terminal Classic periods.

Social Complexity and Food Systems at Altun Ha, Belize: The Isotopic Evidence

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine D. White ◽  
David M. Pendergast ◽  
Fred J. Longstaffe ◽  
Kimberley R. Law
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Temporal Trends ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotope ◽  
Nitrogen Isotope ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
High Status ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Early Classic Period

This study reports stable carbon-isotope ratios for both bone collagen and apatite, and nitrogen-isotope ratios for bone collagen for 72 Maya skeletons from 9 zones representing contrasting status groups at Altun Ha, Belize. The sample spans the Preclassic to Postclassic periods, approximately 800 B. C. to after A. D. 950. Although Altun Ha has a maize-based (C-4) diet, it has a much stronger marine/reef component than any other Maya site studied so far. Two possible dedicatory burial groups are dietarily distinct. The source of protein appears to have been fairly stable throughout the site sequence, but a marked shift to reduced consumption of C4 foods seems to have occurred after the Early Classic period. A second similar decline probably occurred between the Late/Terminal Classic and the Postclassic periods. These apparent temporal trends may, however, be confounded by differences between zones. High status is marked by consumption of large quantities of C4 foods, possibly including C4-fed terrestrial animals. Males consumed more meat and C4 foods than did females. All δ-values and collagen-apatite spacings indicate that children were breastfed until at least the age of three or four.

DATING THE RISE AND FALL OF XUNANTUNICH, BELIZE

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa J. LeCount ◽  
Jason Yaeger ◽  
Richard M. Leventhal ◽  
Wendy Ashmore
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Political Autonomy ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
Belize River Valley ◽  
Ceramic Chronology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Maya Site

This article presents the chronological framework used to reconstruct the political history of the ancient Lowland Maya site of Xunantunich in the upper Belize River valley. Extensive excavations from 1991 to 1997 by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project produced the ceramic, architectural, and epigraphic data needed to place the site within a temporal context. Refinement of the Barton Ramie ceramic chronology was the first step toward clarifying the Xunantunich chronology. Seriation of well-known Spanish Lookout types and modes from stratified deposits established a framework for understanding Late and Terminal Classic assemblages. Twenty-two radiocarbon samples place these ceramic complexes in absolute time. Obsidian hydration and masonry techniques were found to be less reliable chronological markers. The results indicate that Xunantunich emerged as a regional center during the Samal (A.D. 600–670) and Hats' Chaak (A.D. 670–780) phases of the Late Classic period. Arguably, this rapid growth and florescence was initiated under the auspices of nearby Naranjo. Although the polity achieved political autonomy in the following Tsak' phase (A.D. 780–890) of the Terminal Classic period, civic construction diminished and rural populations declined until the site collapsed sometime during the late ninth or early tenth century.

ANCIENT MAYA SETTLEMENT, INTERACTION SPHERES, AND GEOPOLITICS IN SOUTH-CENTRAL QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-461
Author(s):  
Laura P. Villamil ◽  
R. Jason Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Quintana Roo ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
South Central ◽  
Interaction Spheres ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Maya Site

AbstractThis paper presents the results of investigations at the ancient Maya site of Margarita in south-central Quintana Roo, Mexico, and relates them to documented patterns at neighboring centers. Following initial settlement of the region in the Middle Preclassic, settlement hierarchies topped by large centers with monumental architecture, carved monuments, and associations with sites to the south emerged in the Late Preclassic to Early Classic periods. In the Late Classic, several primary centers declined and there was a proliferation of affluent urban populations—evidenced by construction of elaborate residential groups—at smaller centers like Margarita. Long-distance cultural affiliations shifted as well, with ceramic and architectural links to western and northern Yucatán becoming pronounced. Many settlements were abandoned in the Terminal Classic, but there is also evidence of the formation of “post-collapse” communities at Margarita and other neighboring sites during the same period.

SHIFTING SOCIAL RELATIONS DURING THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000): CERAMICS FROM THE LOWLAND MAYA SITE OF UCANAL

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste LeMoine ◽  
Christina T. Halperin
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Economic Networks ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Political Economic

Abstract The end of the Classic period was a tumultuous moment in Maya history, not only because the power of many dominant political centers waned, but because the ways in which elites and non-elites related to each other were increasingly called into question. To understand the nature of changing social relations in the southern Maya lowlands during this time, this study examines the distribution and provenance of decorated ceramics during the Late Classic (ca. a.d. 600–810) and Terminal Classic (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000) periods from the archaeological site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala. Comparisons of ceramics from different households across the site reveal that differences in access to decorated and imported ceramics decreased between these periods, suggesting that socioeconomic distinctions leveled out over time. In turn, chemical analysis of ceramics using a portable X-ray fluorescence instrument reveals that the site shifted its political-economic networks, with greater ties to the Petexbatun and Usumacinta regions and continued ties with the Upper Belize Valley.

Leadership at Sayil

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelli Carmean
Keyword(s):  
Community Leadership ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Stone Monuments ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Maya Site

AbstractThis paper explores the nature of community leadership within the Late–Terminal Classic Maya site of Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico. The distribution of political and religious activities—as represented archaeologically by cylindrical stone monuments (“altars”) and Oxkutzcab Applique censers—is examined. It is argued that such activities are dispersed into the upper ranks of Sayil society, rather than concentrated in the royal, ruling sector. It is further argued that the residential areas in which political and religious activities were concentrated may have been the loci of lineage heads of Sayil, who maintained important leadership roles despite attempts at centralization by the rulers.

Gardens of the Maya

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-209
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Wyatt
Keyword(s):  
Ornamental Plants ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Food Items ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Political Economies ◽  
Lacandon Maya ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Vegetables And Fruits

Houselot gardens are cultivated spaces located adjacent to households and are commonly used to grow flowers, herbs, vegetables, and fruits. They function as a primary source of a diverse array of food items, including staples, condiments, medicines, and spices; they provide non-food items as well, such as dyes, construction materials, or ornamental plants; and they provide a supply of food that is sold in local and extra-local markets. The diversity of plants and uses make gardens a fundamental element of household subsistence production. This chapter investigates the articulation of Maya gardening practices with economic systems, focusing specifically on how changes in the political economy affects household production. We utilize diachronic data from the Pre-Columbian Maya site of Chan, exploring how household gardening practices were affected in a dynamic political landscape from the Middle Preclassic to the Terminal Classic. These data are contrasted with synchronic data from the contemporary village of Lake Mensabak, a Lacandon Maya community going through rapid social and political disruptions. This chapter demonstrates that although houselot gardens are small-scale and household oriented, they reflect changes and upheavals in local, national, and international political economies.

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