Social Integration and the Classic Maya

1966 ◽  
Vol 31 (5Part1) ◽  
pp. 625-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Haviland
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Effective Force ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Ethnographic Data

AbstractIn recent years, there has been much interest in the use of ethnographic data derived from modern Maya groups for the interpretation of Classic Maya civilization. It has been suggested by some that civil and religious positions in Classic Maya society were filled by a system of rotation such as exists today among some Maya groups. Such a system would have served as a powerful force for the integration of both priest and peasant in Classic Maya society. This proposition is examined here in the light of recent data which show a relation between such existing "cargo" systems and population size. On the basis of settlement data from Tikal, Guatemala, it is concluded that such a system of rotation would not have been an effective force for social integration at large sites of the Classic period, and that other possible factors must be considered in this respect.

Swamps, canals, and the locations of ancient Maya cities

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (212) ◽  
pp. 206-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. W. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Radar Data ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Rank Ordering ◽  
Topographic Information ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Mapping Discovery

The recent radar mapping discovery of widely distributed patterns of intensive agriculture in the southern Maya lowlands provides new perspectives on classic Maya civilization. Swamps seem to have been drained, modified, and intensively cultivated in a large number of zones. The largest sites of Maya civilization are located on the edges of swamps. By combining radar data with topographic information, it is possible to suggest the reasons for the choice of urban locations. With the addition of patterns elicited from rank-ordering of Maya cities, it is also possible to suggest more accurate means of defining Classic period Maya polities.

The Vanderbilt Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project 1989–1994: Overview, History, and Major Results of a Multidisciplinary Study of the Classic Maya collapse

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur A. Demarest
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Multidisciplinary Study ◽  
Design Structure ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
History Of ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
Maya Collapse ◽  
New Evidence

AbstractThe background, research design, structure, personnel, and history of investigations of the Vanderbilt Petexbatun Archaeological Project are summarized and critiqued. The major findings of each of the dozen subprojects of this multidisciplinary investigation of Maya civilization in the southwestern Peten region of Guatemala are reviewed. Subproject results include important new evidence on Classic Maya history, warfare, ecology, nutrition, cave ritual, social organization, and trade. These are summarized with particular emphasis on the implications of the Petexbatun findings for theories of the decline of southern lowland Maya civilization at the end of the Classic period.

Trace Element Analysis of Obsidian Artifacts from a Classic Maya Residential Group at Nohmul, Belize

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 815-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Hammond ◽  
Mary D. Neivens ◽  
Garman Harbottle
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Activation Analysis ◽  
Trace Element Analysis ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Residential Group ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Before And After

Forty-nine obsidian artifacts from a Classic period residential group at Nohmul, northern Belize, have been analyzed by neutron activation analysis. The majority of the samples originated from Ixtepeque, and the remainder from El Chayal. Increasing prominence of the Ixtepeque source from the Late Classic into the Terminal Classic (i.e., before and after ca. A.D. 800) suggests greater use of a coastal distribution route known to have originated in the Formative and to have remained in use through the colonial period.

CONTINGENT ACTS OF REMEMBRANCE: ROYAL ANCESTORS OF CLASSIC MAYA COPAN AND QUIRIGUA

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Ashmore
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Model ◽  
Political History ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Temporal Orientation ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Ancestor Veneration ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

AbstractClassic Maya history is deeply political, and religious and political activities frequently inseparable. This essay advocates directly comparing mortuary practices over time for rulers at politically and economically linked centers. Most specifically it outlines an experimental model of how acts of remembrance in royal ancestor veneration articulate with local and regional politico-economic dynamics, and to do so with respect to acts attested in archaeological, bioarchaeological, textual, and iconographic sources. The particular case here pairs Classic-period Copan and Quirigua, where for centuries, the former was overlord to the latter. The evidence suggests that while treatment of royal ancestors draws on a set of established Maya practices, scale, elaboration and choice among those practices was contingent on the role each of the decedents held at particular points in political history, and the temporal orientation of those who commissioned remembrance acts.

CLASSIC MAYA WARFARE AND WEAPONS: Spear, dart, and arrow points of Aguateca and Copan

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuo Aoyama
Keyword(s):  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Temporal And Spatial Distribution ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
Human Conflict ◽  
Copan Valley

To provide some insights into the nature and role of warfare in the rise, development, and decline of Classic Maya civilization, this article discusses spear, dart, and arrow points used by the Classic Maya elites at the rapidly abandoned fortified city of Aguateca, Guatemala, and their temporal and spatial distribution patterns in and around Copan, Honduras. Both the royal family and elite scribes/artists at Aguateca used spear and dart points for intergroup human conflict as well as for artistic and craft production under enemy threat. An important implication is that the ruler and elite scribes/artists were also warriors. The unusually high concentrations of identifiable weaponry at the Early Classic hilltop center of Cerro de las Mesas as well as the Acropolis and other Late Classic locations in the Copan Valley, along with other lines of evidence, indicate that warfare was critical in the development and downfall of Classic Maya civilization at Copan.

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.

Sak Tz’i’, a Classic Maya Center: A Locational Model Based on GIS and Epigraphy

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Anaya Hernández ◽  
Stanley P. Guenter ◽  
Marc U. Zender
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Information Systems ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Lowlands

AbstractThe ancient Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions of the upper Usumacinta region record an intensive interaction that took place among its regional capitals. The precise geographic locations of some of these sites are presently unknown. Through the application of the Gravity Model within the framework of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we present the probable locations and possible territorial extents of a few of these: Sak Tz’i’, Hix-Witz, and the “Knot-Site.” On this occasion, however, we concentrate our discussion on the role that the kingdom of Sak Tz’i’ played in the geopolitical scenario of the region. It is our belief that this case study constitutes a good example of how, through a conjunctive approach that integrates the archaeological with the epigraphic data, GIS can represent an excellent analytical tool to approach archaeological issues such as the political organization of the Maya Lowlands during the Late Classic period.

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.

Terminal Classic Maya Heterodoxy and Shrine Vernacularism in the Sibun Valley, Belize

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia A. McAnany
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Close Association ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
New Information ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Sibun Valley

A monolithic view of Classic Maya society as dominated by divine rulers who inexplicably ceased to erect monuments with long-count dates during the ninth century is examined by reference to new information from Terminal Classic sites in the Sibun Valley of Belize. In this locale and elsewhere, the construction of circular one-room buildings — with striking associated artefacts — may be interpreted as signalling social tensions between the orthodoxy of Classic Maya divine rulers and the more heterodoxic beliefs and practices associated with circular structures built at the end of the Classic period. The round buildings are contextualized within the diversity of architectural expressions of the Sibun Valley and also within a peninsula-wide network of shrines. The chronological placement and character of the Sibun shrines is discussed by way of radiocarbon assays, obsidian sourced by INAA, and raw materials used for groundstone at sites throughout the valley. The presence of marine shell and speleothems — likely used as architectural adornment — found in close association with Sibun Valley round buildings permits discussion of the manner in which elements of the local effected a translation of heterodoxic tenets into vernacularized shrine architecture.

HUMAN SACRIFICE AND DIVINE NOURISHMENT IN MESOAMERICA: THE ICONOGRAPHY OF CACAO ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF GUATEMALA

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Coast ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Human Sacrifice ◽  
Artistic Representations ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Ethnographic Data

AbstractThis article explores the sacrificial symbolism of cacao (Theobroma sp.) on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, manifest in the iconography of ceramic objects and stone sculptures from the Classic period, in textual references from the colonial period, and in contemporary ethnographic data from the southern highlands. The iconographic and textual metaphors contained in these sources linked cacao pods with dead warriors, captives, and sacrificial victims. As interpreted in this article, the harvest of cacao was equated with the acquisition of sacrificial victims, and both were conceived as precious sources of nourishment for the gods. Changes in artistic representations are discernible from Early Classic Teotihuacan-style censers to Early Postclassic Plumbate ceramic effigies. Cacao and other fruits from the Pacific coastal piedmont are still related to the symbolism of war and sacrifice in contemporary rituals from the Tz'utujil town of Santiago Atitlán. Data from southern Guatemala may be relevant to understand the sacrificial symbolism of cacao throughout Mesoamerica.

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