BURIAL PRACTICES AT TEOTIHUACAN IN THE EARLY POSTCLASSIC PERIOD: The Vaillant and Linné Excavations (1931–1932)

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina M. Elson ◽  
Kenneth Mowbray
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Local People ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Early Postclassic

In 1931 and 1932, George Vaillant and Sigvald Linné excavated 34 burials and 17 offerings dating to the Early Postclassic period (a.d.900–1150). The features were located on the ruins of the Classic-period site of Teotihuacan and within the boundaries of a roughly 25–50 ha zone identified by the Teotihuacan Mapping Project as having a dense Early Postclassic-period occupation. The results of Vaillant's excavations have not been published. An examination of the Vaillant–Linné data sheds new light on Early Postclassic-period mortuary ritual and social organization. The identification of several types of burials shows that local people conducted primary and secondary mortuary rituals and indicates the presence of at least two social strata at the site. The content of the burials and offerings supports a division of the Early Postclassic period into two local phases, Mazapan (ca.a.d.900–1000) and Atlatongo (ca.a.d.1000–1100/1150), with these features dating to the earlier phase.

Linguistic Divergence and the Collapse of Preclassic Civilization in Southern Mesoamerica

1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce H. Dahlin ◽  
Robin Quizar ◽  
Andrea Dahlin
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Proximate Cause ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
Early Classic Period

Based on published lexicostatistical dates, two intervals in the prehistory of southern Mesoamerica stand out as fertile periods in terms of the generation of new languages: the Terminal Preclassic/early Early Classic Periods, and the Early Postclassic Period. After comparing archaeological evidence with language distributions within the subregions of southern Mesoamerica during the first of these periods, we conclude that the cultural processes during both periods had the same potential for producing rapid rates of linguistic divergences. Just as rapid proliferation of linguistic divisions was symptomatic of the well-known collapse of Late Classic Maya civilization, so it can be taken as a sign of a collapse of Terminal Preclassic civilization. Both collapses were characterized by severe population reductions, site abandonments, an increasing balkanization in material culture, and disruption of interregional communication networks, conditions that were contributory to the kind of linguistic isolation that allows language divergences. Unlike in the Terminal Classic collapse episode, small refuge zones persisted in the Early Classic Period that served as sources of an evolving classicism; these refuge zones were exceptions, however, not the rule. Although the collapse of each site had its own proximate cause, we suggest that the enormous geographical range covered by these Early Classic Period site failures points to a single ultimate cause affecting the area as a whole, such as the onset of a prolonged and devastating climatic change.

Paleoecological Evidence of an Early Postclassic Occupation in the Southwestern Maya Lowlands: Laguna Las Pozas, Guatemala

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Johnston ◽  
Andrew J. Breckenridge ◽  
Barbara C. Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Refugee Population ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Maya Collapse ◽  
Terminal Classic Period

Magnetic, palynological, and paleoecological data indicate that in the Río de la Pasión drainage, one of the most thoroughly investigated areas of the southern Maya lowlands, a refugee population remained in the Laguna Las Pozas basin long after the Classic Maya collapse and the Terminal Classic period, previously identified by archaeologists as eras of near-total regional abandonment. During the Early Postclassic period, ca. A. D. 900 to 1200, agriculturalists colonized and deforested the Laguna Las Pozas basin for agriculture while adjacent, abandoned terrain was undergoing reforestation. After discussing the archaeological utility of magnetic analyses, we conclude that following the Maya collapse, some refugee populations migrated to geographically marginal non-degraded landscapes within the southern lowlands not previously occupied by the Classic Maya.

THE NORTHERN MAYA COLLAPSE AND ITS AFTERMATH

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony P. Andrews ◽  
E. Wyllys Andrews ◽  
Fernando Robles Castellanos
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
The South ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Societal Structure ◽  
Maya Collapse ◽  
Chichen Itza

Recent adjustments to the chronology of the northern Maya Lowlands have brought about a closer alignment of the decline of Terminal Classic/Early Postclassic Yucatecan polities with the collapse of the southern Maya states. The collapse of the entire Classic-period societal structure throughout the lowlands can now be compressed into a 200- or 250-year period and seen as a progressive chain of events that began in the south and culminated with the fall of Chichen Itza in the eleventh century. This new reconstruction has led us to propose eliminating the Early Postclassic period, the existence of which was based largely on a purportedly late occupation of Chichen Itza. We assign this final occupation of the Itza capital to the Terminal Classic period, which ended sometime in the eleventh century in the northern Maya Lowlands.

The Return of Quetzalcoatl

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
William M. Ringle ◽  
Tomás Gallareta Negrón ◽  
George J. Bey
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Specific Complex ◽  
Political Boundaries ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Chichen Itza ◽  
Important Activity

AbstractContinuing analysis of the site of Chichen Itza suggests that its construction dates primarily to the Late Classic period, ca. a.d. 700–1000, rather than the Early Postclassic. This paper examines the implications of this redating for the well-known “Toltec” problem. Since Chichen largely antedated Tollan-phase Tula, we conclude that what is usually identified as Toltec imagery in fact dates to an earlier Epiclassic horizon extending from Morelos and Puebla to the Gulf Coast and Yucatan. Chichen Itza, we suggest, was the eastern node in a network of shrine centers dedicated primarily to Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan. This network transcended political boundaries and included such sites as Cholula, Cacaxtla, El TajIn, Xochicalco, and ultimately Tula. The Quetzalcoatl cult is manifested by a specific complex of traits and seems to have expanded militarily with messianic vigor. Pilgrimage was also an important activity at these centers. This cult axis apparently continued into the Postclassic period, and was responsible for the distribution of the Mixteca-Puebla art style. In Yucatan, Mayapan would seem to have assumed Chichen's position as the major Yucatecan node, although accompanied by several new shrines along the Caribbean coast.

scholarly journals ASH, DIRT, AND ROCK: BURIAL PRACTICES AT RÍO BEC

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grégory Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Domestic Space ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Socioeconomic Differences ◽  
Public Display ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Ancestor Veneration ◽  
Residential Architecture ◽  
Residential Structures

AbstractRecent research at Río Bec has revealed that interments in residential structures were limited to a very small portion of the population. Although these burials are relatively modest compared to those found in many other Classic period Maya sites, the funerary procedure suggests that they were important individuals in the household. Grave wealth and the size/elaboration of the burial structure do not correlate with the striking socioeconomic differences expressed in residential architecture. In fact, it seems that Río Bec funerary ritual was a private affair focused within the domestic unit, rather than a public display. A study of the variation found among these residential burials reveals two important patterns of mortuary ritual that seem more reflective of ancestor veneration than of social hierarchy: (1) “transition burials” (stressing centrality,verticality,the link to earth, and the transformations of the dwelling) and (2) “occupation burials” (stressing laterality,horizontality,a link to fire and the domestic hearth, and the permanence of the domestic space).

RECENT INVESTIGATIONS AT TULA CHICO, TULA, HIDALGO

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Robert H. Cobean ◽  
Dan M. Healan ◽  
María Elena Suárez
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
Direct Control ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Initial Settlement ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
History Of

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.

Mesolithic mortuary ritual at Franchthi Cave, Greece

Antiquity ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (263) ◽  
pp. 270-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Human Remains ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Southern Greece ◽  
Mesolithic Burials

Mesolithic sites are rare in the Aegean, and Mesolithic burials are uncommon throughout Europe. The Mesolithic human remains from Franchthi Cave, that remarkable, deeply stratified site in southern Greece, offer a rare glimpse into the burial practices of early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Mediterranean.

The Business of Narrative at Tula: An Analysis of the Vestibule Frieze, Trade, and Ritual

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Kristan-Graham
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Important Center ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
As If

The so-called frieze of the Caciques at Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, is an 8-m-long bench with most of its original polychromed face intact. It formed part of a larger composition that once ran around the perimeter of the Vestibule, a colonnaded hall that served as a foyer for Pyramid B. The composition of profile males is adapted to look as if they are actually marching around the room toward the pyramid. Although Hugo Moedano Koer (1947) identified the figures as caciques or local chiefs, an analysis of architectural setting, subject matter, and ethnohistory suggests instead that the figures represent merchants engaged in rituals related to trade. This new reading demonstrates that Tula had decorative programs paralleling its development as an important center of long-distance exchange during the Early Postclassic period, and that merchants from Tula may have been a plausible prototype for Aztec pochteca.

The Early Postclassic Aztatlán Colonization of the Pacific Coast of Jalisco

2020 ◽  
pp. 131-156
Author(s):  
Joseph B. Mountjoy ◽  
Fabio Germán Cupul-Magaña ◽  
Rafael García de Quevedo-Machain ◽  
Martha Lorenza López Mestas Camberos
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Coast ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Specialized Production ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
West Mexico ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Northern Pacific

The focus of this chapter is a recently discovered archaeological site, Arroyo Piedras Azules, located on the northern Pacific coast of Jalisco, Mexico. Excavated materials provide considerable information about the colonization of this area by Aztatlán groups in the Early Postclassic period, as well as the nature of the expansion of the Aztatlán phenomenon in West Mexico. Based on the data thus far obtained from the site, the authors offer five significant conclusions regarding the development and the spread of the Aztatlán archaeological culture in West Mexico, concerning the timing of development, subsistence strategies of Pacific coastal groups, the nature of Aztatlán expansion, specialized production, and links between the Arroyo Piedras Azules site to the Mixteca-Puebla area.

Ancient Maya Chert Workshops in Northern Belize, Central America

1983 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry J. Shafer ◽  
Thomas R. Hester
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
The North ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Main Center

Recent archaeological work at Colha and at other localities in the geographically restricted chert-bearing zone of northern Belize has revealed large-scale exploitation of chert for stone tool production. Workshops dated during the Late Preclassic period signal the beginning of craft specialization in chert working that continued in the Late Classic and into the Early Postclassic periods. Secular items such as large oval bifaces, tranchet bit tools and prismatic blades, as well as nonsecular eccentrics and stemmed macroblade artifacts are distinctive of the Late Preclassic and Late Classic workshops. The distribution sphere of Preclassic and Classic period chert tools has been traced to several contemporaneous sites that lie beyond the chert-bearing zone to the north. Colha has been identified as the primary production and distribution center during the Late Preclassic period; although it remained a production center in the Late Classic period, the main center for distribution may have shifted to Altun Ha.

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