A Late Formative Period Stela in the Maya Lowlands

1982 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Hammond
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Secondary Use ◽  
Piedmont Zone ◽  
Initial Series ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Late Formative

A plain stela has been identified at the site of Cuello, Belize. On the basis of stratigraphy and the accompanying cache vessels it has been dated to the latter part of the Late Formative, ca. A.D. 100. This date is approximately 200 years older than the earliest Initial Series dated stela so far known in the Maya lowlands, and comparable with some early dated monuments in the Pacific piedmont zone. Stela erection in the lowlands may antedate the secondary use of such monuments as vehicles for dynastic propaganda.

Shifting Strategies of Political Authority in the Middle through Terminal Formative Polity of Chiapa De Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy D. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Political Hierarchy ◽  
Status Differentiation ◽  
Forced Resettlement ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
New Space ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Status Differences

This study investigates changes in strategies ofrulership at the early Zoque polity ofChiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico, from its inception in the Middle Formative period through its peak of political power during the Terminal Formative period. Incorporating data from my survey ofChiapa de Corzo and its hinterland with excavation data from the center, I contrast changes in the organization of ceremonial activity and in the establishment of status differences at the site with strategies employed in the governance of the polity at large. The initial rulers ofChiapa de Corzo adopted civic-ceremonial conventions shared with the Olmec site of La Venta, including the E-Group architectural pattern repeated at a number of sites in Chiapas. In the Late Formative, rulers integrated the E-Group into an architectural template adopted from contemporary capitals in the Maya Lowlands. This new space was less accessible than the earlier Middle Formative ceremonial zone. The adoption of these new traditions was accompanied by increased status differentiation between rulers and subjects. At the same time, there was a reduction in the elaboration of the regional political hierarchy and a decrease in the practice of forced resettlement. The results of this study indicate that the novel ceremonial practices and changes in status differentiation at the capital were accompanied unevenly by interference of rulers in the daily life of the hinterland.

LATE FORMATIVE FLOODING OF IZAPA AFTER AN ERUPTION OF TACANÁ VOLCANO

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Luis Macías ◽  
José Luis Arce ◽  
Lucia Capra ◽  
Ricardo Saucedo ◽  
Juan Manuel Sánchez-Núñez
Keyword(s):  
Explosive Eruption ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Pyroclastic Flows ◽  
Volcanic Complex ◽  
Volcanic Origin ◽  
Piedmont Zone ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Complex Computer ◽  
Heavy Rains

AbstractBetween the years of 30b.c.toa.d.80, during the Late Formative period, the site of Izapa was flooded by lahars associated with an explosive eruption of the San Antonio volcano (part of the Tacaná Volcanic Complex). Computer simulations suggest that hot pyroclastic flows did not impact Izapa directly, but did impact the region considerably, filling and clogging the Cahuacan and Mixcun rivers with hot debris. The material was quickly saturated by heavy rains and, as the water from the rivers overtopped the obstruction, remobilized in the form of a hot mixture of mud and water known as a lahar (or flood of volcanic origin), which flowed down through the piedmont zone along the Cahuacan, Mixcun-Suchiate, and Izapa rivers. At Izapa, the flood took the form of a 6-m catastrophic wave of mud and water that likely destroyed crops and caused many causalities, surrounding the architectural mounds at Izapa with a muddy landscape. The floods also dramatically affected the rivers downstream, undoubtedly wreaking serious damage to the transport and trade of goods along the coast.

SELECTIVE MEMORY: MONUMENTAL POLITICS OF THE YAXUNÁ E GROUP IN THE FIRST MILLENNIUM B.C.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Ryan H. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Vital Role ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Economic Interaction ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Significant Patterns ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Critical Case Study

Abstract In seeking continuities and disjuncture from the precedents of past authorities, the Mesoamerican emergent ruling class during the Formative period were active agents in directing changes to monumental space, suggesting that memory played a vital role in developing an early shared character of Maya lifeways (1000 b.c. to a.d. 250). The trend is most visible in the civic ceremonial complexes known as E Groups, which tend to show significant patterns of continuity (remembering) and disjuncture (forgetting). This article uses the northern lowland site of Yaxuná in Yucatan, Mexico, to demonstrate the use of early selective strategies to direct collective memory. While there are E Groups in the northern Maya lowlands, few Formative period examples are known, making Yaxuná a critical case study for comparative assessment with the southern lowlands. One implication of the Yaxuná data is that the broader pattern of Middle Formative E Groups resulted from sustained social, religious, political, and economic interaction between diverse peer groups across eastern Mesoamerica. With the emergence of institutionalized rulership in the Maya lowlands during the Late Formative, local authorities played a significant role in directing transformations of E Groups, selectively influencing their meanings and increasingly independent trajectories through continuity and disjuncture.

Flakes to Blades? Middle Formative Development of Obsidian Artifacts in the Upper Belize River Valley

1994 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Awe ◽  
Paul F. Healy
Keyword(s):  
Formative Period ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Developmental Sequence ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Documented Case ◽  
Belize River Valley ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Artifact Type

The recovery of obsidian artifacts in radiometrically dated cultural stratigraphic levels at the Maya site of Cahal Pech (Belize) suggests that there was a flake-to-bladelet sequence of development of obsidian technology in the Belize Valley region of the Maya lowlands. Obsidian artifacts within levels dating to the first half of the early Middle Formative period (1000-850 B.C.) at Cahal Pech consist exclusively of flakes. Prismatic blades first occur in late Middle Formative (650-450 B.C.) levels, and remain the predominant artifact type throughout the subsequent Late Formative and Classic periods. This Middle Formative transition in obsidian artifacts has been recorded elsewhere in Mesoamerica, but the Cahal Pech data represent the first explicitly documented case of the developmental sequence in the central Maya lowlands.

scholarly journals The Life and Death of a Child: Mortuary and Bodily Manifestations of Coast–Interior Interactions during the Late Formative Period (AD 100–400), Northern Chile

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Christina Torres-Rouff ◽  
Gonzalo Pimentel ◽  
William J. Pestle ◽  
Mariana Ugarte ◽  
Kelly J. Knudson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Interregional Interaction ◽  
Intercultural Identity ◽  
Late Formative

Camelid pastoralism, agriculture, sedentism, surplus production, increasing cultural complexity, and interregional interaction during northern Chile's Late Formative period (AD 100–400) are seen in the flow of goods and people over expanses of desert. Consolidating evidence of material culture from these interactions with a bioarchaeological dimension allows us to provide details about individual lives and patterns in the Late Formative more generally. Here, we integrate a variety of skeletal, chemical, and archaeological data to explore the life and death of a small child (Calate-3N.7). By taking a multiscalar approach, we present a narrative that considers not only the varied materiality that accompanies this child but also what the child's life experience was and how this reflects and shapes our understanding of the Late Formative period in northern Chile. This evidence hints at the profound mobility of their youth. The complex mortuary context reflects numerous interactions and long-distance relationships. Ultimately, the evidence speaks to deep social relations between two coastal groups, the Atacameños and Tarapaqueños. Considering this suite of data, we can see a child whose life was spent moving through desert routes and perhaps also glimpse the construction of intercultural identity in the Formative period.

The Chronology of Yaxuna

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Suhler ◽  
Traci Ardren ◽  
David Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Urban Center ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Middle Formative

AbstractResearch at the ancient Maya city of Yaxuna, located in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula, has provided sufficient data to suggest a preliminary chronological framework for the cultural development of this large polity. Primary ceramic and stratigraphie data are presented to support a five-phase scheme of cultural history, encompassing the Middle Formative through Postclassic periods (500 b.c.–a.d. 1250). In addition to chronological significance, the political ramifications of a pan-lowland ceramic trade are addressed. Yaxuna experienced an early florescence in the Late Formative–Early Classic periods, when it was the largest urban center in the central peninsula. A second renaissance in the Terminal Classic period was the result of Yaxuna's role in an alliance between the Puuc and Coba, in opposition to growing Itza militancy. This paper proposes a chronological framework for the cultural development of one northern Maya region in order to facilitate an understanding of this area as part of the overall history of polity interaction and competition in the Maya lowlands.

Tradition Brought to the Surface: Continuity, Innovation and Change in the Late Formative Period, Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Roddick ◽  
Christine A. Hastorf
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Ancestor Veneration ◽  
Gravitational Forces ◽  
Titicaca Basin ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Diachronic Study ◽  
Construction Of Place ◽  
Innovation And Change

Based on more than a decade of research on the Taraco Peninsula, Titicaca Basin, Bolivia, we discuss the role of memory, tradition and ancestral participation from the earliest settled communities to the founding and influence of the Tiwanaku order. We examine the shifting role of social memory vis-à-vis public ceremonies, pottery and food production. While the earlier phases give a sense of familial community and the construction of place through ancestor veneration, the later phases suggest stronger lineage commemoration, with families acting as gravitational forces in the burgeoning political developments. Our diachronic study on the Taraco Peninsula tracks these practices illustrating the movement along a discursive–non-discursive continuum, with some practices brought to the surface and politicized.

POWER MATERIALIZED: THE DART-THROWER AS A PAN-MESOAMERICAN STATUS MARKER

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 371-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Slater
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Ample Evidence ◽  
Graphic Communication ◽  
Highly Effective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
High Social Status

AbstractThroughout the deep history of Mesoamerica, the dart-thrower (a.k.a. atlatl) played a vital utilitarian and symbolic role. Although it was a highly effective tool exploited for practical purposes such as hunting and warfare, ample evidence exists which reveals its association with themes of authority, power, and prestige. The survival of ornamented dart-throwers, as well as the context in which the implement appears in Mesoamerican material culture and forms of graphic communication, reveal its role in the production and assertion of high social status. This argument will be supported by archaeological and ethnographic evidence which demonstrates that the dart-thrower served as a pan-Mesoamerican symbol of power beginning no later than the Middle to Late Formative period and continuing through the Conquest.

scholarly journals Lidar survey of ancient Maya settlement in the Puuc region of Yucatan, Mexico

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0249314
Author(s):  
William M. Ringle ◽  
Tomás Gallareta Negrón ◽  
Rossana May Ciau ◽  
Kenneth E. Seligson ◽  
Juan C. Fernandez-Diaz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Landscape Archaeology ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Civic Architecture ◽  
Sensing Technology ◽  
Cultivable Land ◽  
Middle Formative ◽  
Storage Technologies

The application of lidar remote-sensing technology has revolutionized the practice of settlement and landscape archaeology, perhaps nowhere more so than in the Maya lowlands. This contribution presents a substantial lidar dataset from the Puuc region of Yucatan, Mexico, a cultural subregion of the ancient Maya and a distinct physiographic zone within the Yucatan peninsula. Despite the high density of known sites, no large site has been fully surveyed, and little is known about intersite demography. Lidar technology allows determination of settlement distribution for the first time, showing that population was elevated but nucleated, although without any evidence of defensive features. Population estimates suggest a region among the most densely settled within the Maya lowlands, though hinterland levels are modest. Lacking natural bodies of surface water, the ancient Puuc inhabitants relied upon various storage technologies, primarily chultuns (cisterns) and aguadas (natural or modified reservoirs for potable water). Both are visible in the lidar imagery, allowing calculation of aguada capacities by means of GIS software. The imagery also demonstrates an intensive and widespread stone working industry. Ovens visible in the imagery were probably used for the production of lime, used for construction purposes and perhaps also as a softening agent for maize. Quarries can also be discerned, including in some cases substantial portions of entire hills. With respect to agriculture, terrain classification permits identification of patches of prime cultivable land and calculation of their extents. Lidar imagery also provides the first unequivocal evidence for terracing in the Puuc, indeed in all northern Yucatan. Finally, several types of civic architecture and architectural complexes are visible, including four large acropolises probably dating to the Middle Formative period (700–450 B.C.). Later instances of civic architecture include numerous Early Puuc Civic Complexes, suggesting a common form of civic organization at the beginning of the Late Classic demographic surge, (A.D. 600–750).

A Trial Survey of the Southern Maya Area

1943 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Eric S. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Central Area ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Quintana Roo ◽  
Northern Area ◽  
Initial Series ◽  
Southern Area ◽  
British Honduras ◽  
Maya Area

Maya history can be divided into four great periods; the formative, the initial series, the Mexican, and the Mexican absorption. The formative period (prior to A.D. 300) comprises the Mamom and Chicanel phases at Uaxactun and coeval phases found elsewhere in the central area (Petén, British Honduras, Chiapas, Tabasco, lower Motagua, drainage), the northern area (Yucatan, northern Campeche, Quintana Roo) and, as we shall see, the southern area.

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