scholarly journals Writing amidst the Scribbles: The Role and Place of Writing in Ancient Maya Graffiti

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Helmke ◽  
Jarosław Źrałka
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Ancient Maya

The significantcorpus of ancient Maya graffiti (c. 200 BC-AD 950) attests to the widespreadpractice of secondarily altering architectural surfaces during the course oftheir use.  For the most part this corpusis highly figurative and includes a series of schematic elements that attest totheir production by the hands of a variety of agents. As one of the largestcorpora of graffiti from any early civilization, the figural representationsinclude a wide array of themes.  Somegraffiti feature complex, narrative scenes that document important moments ofritual life of the ancient Maya. Almost paradoxically, amid the intricate andhighly figurative scenes are hieroglyphic graffiti. What do these writtengraffiti record, and what is the degree of literacy that these attest to? Thisraises a series of interesting questions including whether written and figuralgraffiti were etched onto walls by the same individuals, or whether theserepresent different social segments each leaving their mark. From theseobservations follow a series of important ramifications as to authorship, theuse of the built environment as well as the motivations behind the graffitiitself.

scholarly journals INTRODUCTION

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-259
Author(s):  
William R. Fowler
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
The Status ◽  
Road Systems

This issue's special section presents a series of papers focusing on recent research on ancient Maya causeways, or sacbeob (“white roads”—a reference to their gleaming, plastered surfaces). Often relegated to the status of “minor architectural features,” even a casual perusal of the literature quickly convinces one that sacbeob were a major feature of the ancient Maya landscape. Throughout the Maya lowlands from at least the Late Preclassic onward, these elevated roads facilitated internal and external transportation within and between Maya centers for a combination of economic, political, social, and ritual purposes. Constructed as an organic element of the built environment, road systems grew in size and expanded in complexity as the Maya centers themselves did (Andrews 1975:89, 323, 428).

Monumental Landscapes of the Maya

2020 ◽  
pp. 335-348
Author(s):  
Arlen F. Chase ◽  
Diane Z. Chase
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Deep Time ◽  
Remarkable Degree ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
Transition Points ◽  
The Individual

In chapter 16, Arlen Chase and Diane Chase reflect on the topic of monumental landscapes of the ancient Maya. They consider the myriad ways in which the word “monumental” is aptly applied to describe the landscapes of the Maya world. Although the obvious towering temples and palaces of the Classic cities first and foremost come to mind when thinking of monumentality among the ancient Maya, Chase and Chase remind us that much of the monumental character of ancient Maya landscapes is represented by the horizontal transformation of the built environment. Beyond that, other landscape features represent visible reminders that the Maya heavily altered the natural environment to a remarkable degree. Importantly, the authors also remind us that through their worldview, the ancient Maya considered their landscape to be monumental and complex, involving layered worlds with earthly transition points between realms represented by caves and lakes and manmade, symbolic access points represented by temple doorways, the opening into an allegorical mountain or witz. The concluding chapter provides a big-picture, deep-time view of the Maya world, which reaffirms the approaches and conclusions of the individual case studies in this volume—monumentality pervades ancient Maya landscapes, physically, conceptually, and symbolically.

Influence of Built Environment on Urban Rail Transit Connection Mode

CICTP 2020 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao Gao ◽  
Min Yang ◽  
Guoqiang Li ◽  
Jinghua Tai
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Rail Transit ◽  
Rail Transit ◽  
Urban Rail

Illustrated Media, the Built Environment and Identity Politics in Fin-de-siècle Catalonia: Printing Images, Making the Nation

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-135
Author(s):  
Lucila Mallart
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This article explores the role of visuality in the identity politics of fin-de-siècle Catalonia. It engages with the recent reevaluation of the visual, both as a source for the history of modern nation-building, and as a constitutive element in the emergence of civic identities in the liberal urban environment. In doing so, it offers a reading of the mutually constitutive relationship of the built environment and the print media in late-nineteenth century Catalonia, and explores the role of this relation as the mechanism by which the so-called ‘imagined communities’ come to exist. Engaging with debates on urban planning and educational policies, it challenges established views on the interplay between tradition and modernity in modern nation-building, and reveals long-term connections between late-nineteenth-century imaginaries and early-twentieth-century beliefs and practices.

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