Classic Maya Wells at Quiriguá, Guatemala: Household Facilities in a Water-Rich Setting

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Ashmore
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Water Supplies

Studies of ancient Maya water management tend to emphasize consideration of features related either to agriculture or to the provision of communal water supplies in water-poor settings. Ceramic-lined wells in eighth-century Quiriguá, however, constituted household facilities of standardized form, distributed widely in a community where water supplies were always readily available. These wells both expand our knowledge of specialized Maya hydraulic technology and remind us that such inventions are not always the result of threats to survival.

Monumental Landscapes as Instruments of Radical Economic Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 242-267
Author(s):  
Arthur A. Demarest ◽  
Bart I. Victor ◽  
Chloé Andrieu ◽  
Paola Torres
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Network Failure ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Failure Evaluation

In Chapter 13, Demarest and collaborators present evidence from the southwestern frontier Classic Maya port city of Cancuen that can help explain the nature of the southern lowlands’ economic decline by contrasting it with Cancuen’s late eighth century economic transformations and meteoric florescence; while other western Petén dynasties disintegrated, Cancuen flourished. One element of this apogee was the creation of new forms of monumental and ritual settings to recruit and maintain non-Maya economic exchange partners. This “innovation network” came to control critical routes and resources leading to changes in management, production, and economic power. However, as with many high-risk “innovation partnership networks,” success was truncated by abrupt network failure. Evaluation of this phenomenon by economists provides insights into ancient Maya economy and the role of monumentality in both its legitimation and transformation.

scholarly journals BUILDING HIGH-PRECISION AMS 14C BAYESIAN MODELS FOR THE FORMATION OF PERI-ABANDONMENT DEPOSITS AT BAKING POT, BELIZE

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Julie A Hoggarth ◽  
Brendan J Culleton ◽  
Jaime J Awe ◽  
Christophe Helmke ◽  
Sydney Lonaker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Models ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Late Ninth Century ◽  
Baking Pot ◽  
Group B

ABSTRACT Deposits linked to abandonment have been widely recorded across the Maya lowlands, associated with the final activities occurring in ceremonial areas of Classic Maya centers. Various models have been applied to explain the activities that lie behind the formation of these contexts, including those linked to rapid abandonment (e.g., warfare) and others focused on more protracted events (termination rituals, and/or pilgrimages). Here, we assess Bayesian models for three chronological scenarios of varying tempo to explain the formation of peri-abandonment deposits at Baking Pot, Belize. Using stratigraphic information from these deposits, hieroglyphic dates recovered on artifacts, and direct dates on human skeletal remains and faunal remains from distinct layers in three deposits in Group B at Baking Pot, we identify multiple depositional events that spanned the eighth to ninth centuries AD. These results suggest that the processes associated with the breakdown of institutionalized rulership and its command of labor to construct and maintain ceremonial spaces were protracted at Baking Pot, with evidence for the final depositional activity dated to the mid-to-late ninth century. This interval of deposition was temporally distinct from the earlier deposition(s) in the eighth century. Together, these data offer a detailed view of the end of the Classic period at Baking Pot, in which the ceremonial spaces of the site slowly fell into disuse over a period of more than a century.

Ancient Maya water management, agriculture, and society in the area of Chactún, Campeche, Mexico

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 101261
Author(s):  
Ivan Šprajc ◽  
Nicholas P. Dunning ◽  
Jasmina Štajdohar ◽  
Quintin Hernández Gómez ◽  
Israel Chato López ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Ancient Maya

Stature at Tikal, Guatemala: Implications for Ancient Maya Demography and Social Organization

1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Haviland
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Class Division ◽  
Lower Status ◽  
Simple Class ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Maya Site

AbstractThis paper presents an analysis of stature of the prehistoric population from the Maya site of Tikal, Guatemala. From this analysis, based on 55 skeletons from the Tikal burial series, three important conclusions emerge with respect to ancient Maya demography and social organization. (1) Tikal was settled by people of moderate stature, and this remained relatively stable over several centuries. A marked reduction in male stature in Late Classic times may be indicative of a situation of nutritional stress, which may have had something to do with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. (2) Stature differences between those buried in tombs and others at Tikal suggest that, in the last century B.C., a distinct ruling class developed at Tikal. This simple class division of rulers and commoners may have become more complex in Late Classic times. (3) There was a marked sexual dimorphism in stature between males and females at Tikal. This is probably partially genetic and partially a reflection of relatively lower status for women as opposed to men in Maya society.

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.

Chert Resource Availability, Production, and Economic Logic

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-131
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Horowitz ◽  
Marcello Canuto ◽  
Chloé Andrieu
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Local Market ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Different Levels

At a basic level, the lowland Classic Maya economy was a complex web of prestige exchange, centralized distribution, and local market economies. While it is important not to consider the lowland Classic Maya economic system as monolithic, it is also as critical to understand how it articulated with the different levels of social hierarchy. In this chapter, we address the distribution of utilitarian goods in the ancient Maya economy through comparisons of lithic resources, particularly chert, in northwestern Petén and western Belize. We find that access to locally available raw materials affects the involvement of actors of differing sociopolitical status in lithic production and distribution.

scholarly journals FACING OBJECTS: AN INVESTIGATION OF NON-HUMAN PERSONHOOD IN CLASSIC MAYA CONTEXTS

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Impact

AbstractResearch on Classic Maya personhood confirms that personhood was extended to non-human entities; however, questions about its operation and impact remain. What is the nature of the linkage between human beings and object persons, and how does personhood pass between them? What is the impact on an object of becoming personed? I approach these questions through depictions in Classic Maya iconography of faces shown on non-human objects, indicating potential to act in person-like ways. Close examination of “faced” objects reveals that Classic Maya personhood represents a substance that does not require humans as a source, and acts, instead, as an untethered resource accessed by entities able to act in social, relational ways. Furthermore, object personhood represents a state of identity in which essences of persons and objects co-exist, opening possibilities for complicating categories of being in the ancient Maya world.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document