The Production of Space and Identity at Classic-Period Chunchucmil, Yucatán, Mexico

2014 ◽  
pp. 145-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Magnoni ◽  
Traci Ardren ◽  
Scott R. Hutson ◽  
Bruce Dahlin
Author(s):  
Jared Hudson

This chapter examines the construction of vehicular space in Latin literary texts, identifying two significant aspects of Roman transport’s representation. First is the set-piece depiction of roadway encounters, articulated as a physical run-in of wayfarers with clashing modes of transport. Although the moralizing thrust of such portraits is to inveigh against lavish transportation while extolling simple travel, their more powerful function is to assert the ability of (particular) mobile parties to transcend transit’s physicality. Second is such scenes’ frequent problematization of physical agency, drivers and passengers being caught between demeaning hands-on participation in travel’s means and excessively passive forms of conveyance. The aim throughout is to move beyond a view of such articulations as merely diatribes against luxurious travel, and to excavate how the underlying instrumentality of transportation—its emphatic ‘by-way-of-ness’—is rhetorically constituted, and indeed a vital part of the Roman production of space.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Robert H. Cobean ◽  
Dan M. Healan ◽  
María Elena Suárez

AbstractRecent excavations at Tula Chico, the monumental center for Tula's earliest settlement, revealed a long and complex history of occupation, beginning with its initial settlement in the Middle Classic period by Coyotlatelco peoples, when much of the region was under Teotihuacan's direct control. During the Epiclassic period, a program of monumental construction began that developed the monumental complex seen today over a period of about 200 years. Although Tula Chico was superseded by Tula Grande, the monumental center for the Early Postclassic city, it continued to be occupied and maintained until its destruction by fire. Tula Chico and Tula Grande show evidence of clear cultural continuity in ceramics, architecture, and sculpture, including “Toltec style” sculpture characteristic of Tula Grande that is present in temporally early contexts at Tula Chico.


2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (18) ◽  
pp. 5607-5612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. J. Douglas ◽  
Mark Pagani ◽  
Marcello A. Canuto ◽  
Mark Brenner ◽  
David A. Hodell ◽  
...  

Paleoclimate records indicate a series of severe droughts was associated with societal collapse of the Classic Maya during the Terminal Classic period (∼800–950 C.E.). Evidence for drought largely derives from the drier, less populated northern Maya Lowlands but does not explain more pronounced and earlier societal disruption in the relatively humid southern Maya Lowlands. Here we apply hydrogen and carbon isotope compositions of plant wax lipids in two lake sediment cores to assess changes in water availability and land use in both the northern and southern Maya lowlands. We show that relatively more intense drying occurred in the southern lowlands than in the northern lowlands during the Terminal Classic period, consistent with earlier and more persistent societal decline in the south. Our results also indicate a period of substantial drying in the southern Maya Lowlands from ∼200 C.E. to 500 C.E., during the Terminal Preclassic and Early Classic periods. Plant wax carbon isotope records indicate a decline in C4 plants in both lake catchments during the Early Classic period, interpreted to reflect a shift from extensive agriculture to intensive, water-conservative maize cultivation that was motivated by a drying climate. Our results imply that agricultural adaptations developed in response to earlier droughts were initially successful, but failed under the more severe droughts of the Terminal Classic period.


2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent K.S. Woodfill ◽  
Stanley Guenter ◽  
Mirza Monterroso

AbstractThe Cave of Hun Nal Ye, located in central Guatemala, was discovered unlooted by a local landowner in 2005 and was immediately subject to investigation by the authors. The cave contained ritual remains dating to between the Terminal Pre-classic and Terminal Classic. In addition to allowing a detailed reconstruction of ritual activity in the northern highlands, its presence along the Great Western Trade Route allows archaeologists to examine hypotheses about interregional trade during the Classic period. In particular, changes in the ritual assemblage between the Early and Late Classic indicate that the cave was an important trade shrine for merchants and travelers passing between the highlands and lowlands until ca. A.D. 550, at which point it became a local shrine used to reinforce elite power. These changes are then linked to larger patterns occurring in other parts of the trade route, especially to Tikal and the kingdoms along the Pasión and Usumacinta rivers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-310
Author(s):  
Borut Klabjan

This article is part of the special section titled From the Iron Curtain to the Schengen Area, guest edited by Wolfgang Mueller and Libora Oates-Indruchová. This article discusses local cultures of remembrance of Yugoslav partisans fallen during World War II in Trieste, now part of Italy, and investigates the role of memory activists in managing vernacular memory over time. The author analyses the interplay between memory and the production of space, something which has been neglected in other studies of memory formation. On the basis of local newspaper articles, archival material, and oral interviews, the essay examines the ideological imprint on the local cultural landscape, contributing to a more complex understanding of memory engagement. The focus is on grassroots initiatives rather than state-sponsored heritage projects. This article argues that memory initiatives are not solely the outcome of national narratives and top–down ideological impositions. It shows that official narratives have to negotiate with vernacular forms of memory engagement in the production of a local mnemonic landscape.


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