The Potential Role of Small Depressions as Water Storage Features in the Central Maya Lowlands

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estella Weiss-Krejci ◽  
Thomas Sabbas
Keyword(s):  
Potential Role ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Household Activities ◽  
Landscape Feature

Small depressions are a frequent landscape feature in the northeast Petén and northwestern Belize. Although generally considered the remains of seasonal ancient Maya water cisterns, they have not been subject to systematic study. Excavation of 16 depressions in northwestern Belize showed that these features are either natural sinkholes (dolines) or quarried cavities. In three depressions, quarrying for construction materials and mining for clay was evident and two depressions are the remains of collapsed chultuns. Depressions probably also served as areas where household activities were carried out, they may have played a role as gardens, and were used as trash dumps. For one quarter of the sample, a water storage function was established. Water input-output calculations showed that these features could have held water year round and thus theoretically could have played a much more important role in supplying water than commonly assumed. The study indicates that Classic Maya population could have relied on decentralized water sources and suggests that hypotheses of centralized water management in the central Maya lowlands should be critically reviewed.

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.

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.

NEW EVIDENCE FOR POLITICAL HIERARCHY AND POWER IN THE NORTHERN MAYA LOWLANDS (a.d.600–1000)

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Graña-Behrens
Keyword(s):  
Northern Region ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Political Hierarchy ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function ◽  
New Evidence

AbstractThis paper presents new evidence for hierarchy and power among the Classic Maya (a.d.300–1000) from the northern lowlands. It expands the list of identified emblem glyphs, and, more particularly, focuses on emblems with numerals by questioning their meaning and function in terms of political organization. Furthermore, the paper centers on syntax, especially on the practice of structuring personal names and titles in order to isolate titles and emblem glyphs, as well as to rank individuals and further advance our understanding of ancient Maya political organization. Finally, a dynastic sequence of rulers and noblemen from the Chan or Kan kingdom (most probably Jaina) is proposed, as well as divergent monumental traditions within the northern region and a re-evaluation of interpolity relationships.

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.

Can We Read Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans? Comment on Ashmore and Sabloff

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Cosmological Model ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
South Axis ◽  
Empirical Foundation ◽  
Rule Out

AbstractArguments for the cosmological significance of ancient Maya city layouts are plausible, but empirical applications are subjective and lack rigor. I illustrate this contention through brief comments on a recent article by Ashmore and Sabloff. I first discuss some of the complexities and pitfalls in studying cosmology from ancient city plans, and then focus on one component of the authors’ cosmological model—the hypothesized north-south axis at Classic Maya cities. My goal is not to down-play or rule out the role of cosmology in Maya city planning, but rather to encourage the use of explicit assumptions and rigorous methods that will provide the study of Maya city planning with a more secure empirical foundation.

Classic Maya Temples, Politics, and the Voice of the People

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa J. Lucero
Keyword(s):  
Political Competition ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
The People ◽  
Secondary Center ◽  
The Voice

Temples provide sanctuary, a home for the gods, a place to worship, a stage for ceremonies, a depository for offerings, and a place to redistribute goods. Finally, temples provide an arena for political competition. The role of Maya temples, however, is not so clear. Inscriptions, when present, detail who built some temples, but not if nonroyals built them, if they were built for specific gods, and why the Maya built so many. The presence of several temples in any given center might indicate that various groups built them and that they served as arenas to compete for status, prestige, and power. If this were the case, then people may have had a choice at which temple to worship and support. To explore the politics of temple construction, I compare temple size, location, construction patterns, and ritual deposits at temples at the secondary center of Yalbac, Central Belize. Preliminary results from temple looters' trenches have exciting implications regarding temple histories in the southern Maya Lowlands during the Late Classic period (ca. A.D. 550-850).

HELD CAPTIVE BY SCRIPT: INTERPRETING “TAGGED” PRISONERS IN LATE CLASSIC MAYA SCULPTURE

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Burdick
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Secondary Meaning ◽  
Scholarly Inquiry

AbstractAlthough captive images have been examined for the Classic Maya, we lack a thorough understanding of depicted captives as a pictorial motif. Furthermore, the convention of “tagging” Late Classic Maya captive sculptures with identifying texts was understood a century ago, yet the ways in which these scripts functioned beyond the role of label are not well known. This layering of identifying texts onto captive figures presents interesting avenues of scholarly inquiry for understanding relationships among ancient Maya texts, figural images, and actual bodies. In this article I explore captive iconography and then suggest that the captive tagging convention is related to the tagging of possessed objects. The artistic tendency toward tagging the thigh with more frequency than other bodily regions suggests a secondary meaning for such markings, and I propose that these tags alluded to the post-sacrifice practice of removing the femur as a war trophy.

THE VALUES OF CLASSIC MAYA JADE: A REANALYSIS OF CANCUEN'S JADE WORKSHOP

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Andrieu ◽  
Edna Rodas ◽  
Luis Luin
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Production Area ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractMost ancient Maya jade workshops have been discovered in the Motagua Valley, the region where the majority of known Mesoamerican jade sources are located; whereas in the Maya lowlands, evidence of jade production has primarily been in the form of finished objects or, in a few cases, of jade debitage in construction fill and cache contexts. At Cancuen, however, a large jade preform production area was discovered in the heart of a major lowland Maya site. In this paper we present the technological reanalysis of this material and show that the quality and color of the raw material corresponds to very different production processes, values, and distribution within the site. We suggest that most of Cancuen's jade production was exported to recipient sites as preforms and discuss the importance of this organization for understanding the nature of wealth goods production and exchange in the ancient Maya world.

Household Quarry-Reservoirs at the Ancient Maya Site of Yaxnohcah, Mexico

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L Brewer ◽  
Christopher Carr
Keyword(s):  
Water Storage ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Water Source ◽  
Dual Function ◽  
Gis Analysis ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Community Water ◽  
Maya Site

In this study, we present new data from the ancient Maya site of Yaxnohcah in southern Mexico. These data, which are drawn from lidar-based GIS analysis, field inspection, and the excavation of two small, closed depressions, suggest that many of this site's features served a dual function. Quarrying to extract construction materials left behind closed depressions that were then sealed to create household reservoirs. We classify these water-storage features as quarry-reservoirs. The ubiquity of these small quarry-reservoirs represented an important community water source outside the sphere of direct elite control.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document