Biological Affinities and Mortuary Archaeology in Coastal Northern Populations of Yucatán at the End of the Postclassic Period:

2018 ◽  
pp. 99-130
Author(s):  
ANDREA CUCINA ◽  
ALLAN ORTEGA MUÑOZ ◽  
SANDRA VERÓNICA ELIZALDE RODARTE
Keyword(s):  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Mortuary Archaeology ◽  
Biological Affinities

Biological Affinities and Mortuary Archaeology in Coastal Northern Populations of Yucatán at the End of the Postclassic Period

2018 ◽  
pp. 99-130
Author(s):  
Andrea Cucina ◽  
Allan Ortega Muñoz ◽  
Sandra Verónica ◽  
Elizalde Rodarte
Keyword(s):  
East Coast ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Joint Analysis ◽  
Population Movement ◽  
Dental Morphology ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Mortuary Archaeology ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Trade Routes

The authors of this chapter focus their attention on the distribution of mortuary practices and their relationship to population affinities among several Postclassic (AD 1000–1520) Maya sites located long the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. The archaeological evidence suggests a lack of clear and culturally well-established patterns of mortuary practices in the region. Coastal sites represented important commercial and ceremonial centers along maritime trade routes around the peninsula, and were therefore potentially subject to population movement. The joint analysis of mortuary patterns and site biological distances, based on the evidence of dental morphology, indicates that biological relationships between sites does not correspond to similarities in mortuary practices, suggesting a series of diverse relationships between sites long the peninsula’s east coast.

CERAMIC SEQUENCE, CHRONOLOGY, AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS OF THE UCAREO-ZINAPÉCUARO, MICHOACÁN OBSIDIAN SOURCE AREA

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Dan M. Healan ◽  
Christine Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Source Area ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Pottery Analysis ◽  
Ceramic Chronology ◽  
Cross Dating ◽  
Obsidian Source

Abstract This article presents the ceramic sequence and chronology resulting from a multi-year program of survey, excavation, and analysis of pre-Hispanic settlement and exploitation within the Zinapécuaro-Ucareo (“U-Z”), Michoacan obsidian source area. Pottery analysis and classification aided by seriation analysis identified nine ceramic complexes and seven ceramic phases and sub-phases that both expand and refine the ceramic sequence previously established for the region by Gorenstein's (1985) investigations at nearby Acámbaro, Guanajuato. Initially established by ceramic cross-dating, the U-Z ceramic chronology has been largely confirmed by 30 radiocarbon dates and spans over 2,000 years of pre-Hispanic settlement, which included at least two notable episodes of trait-unit and site-unit intrusion from the eastern El Bajío and central Mexico. One of these episodes involved the appearance of two enclaves settled by individuals from the Acambay valley c. 90 km to the East, most likely from the site of Huamango, which our data indicate would have been occupied during the Middle Postclassic period.

scholarly journals Aztec and Tlaxcalan Economic Interaction: Blockade or Interregional Exchange?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Bianca L. Gentil ◽  
A. Gabriel Vicencio Castellanos ◽  
Kenneth G. Hirth
Keyword(s):  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Regional Trade ◽  
Trade Patterns ◽  
Lithic Tools ◽  
Economic Interaction ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Large Center ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impact of the Aztec Triple Alliance on trade and economic activity in the region of Puebla-Tlaxcala during the Late Postclassic period (AD 1200–1519). Ethnohistorical sources describe the Aztec Triple Alliance as constantly at war with settlements in the Tlaxcala region. To weaken their Tlaxcalteca rivals, the Aztecs imposed a trade blockade to reduce the flow of resources into Puebla-Tlaxcala. This article uses archaeological evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of this blockade. It compares the types of obsidian used to manufacture lithic tools from Aztec-controlled sources with those used within Puebla-Tlaxcala. Information from the large center of Tepeticpac and the small obsidian workshop site of Cinco Santos II, both in the Tlaxcala domain, are compared to other sites in Central Mexico prior to and during the height of Aztec influence. The results show little difference in regional trade patterns: obsidian from Sierra de las Navajas and Otumba was used in proportions in the Tlaxcala region in the Late Postclassic similar to those used during earlier periods. If an embargo was attempted, it was largely unsuccessful in isolating Tlaxcala from broader regional distribution networks.

Domestic Practice in Postclassic Santa Isabel, Nicaragua

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey G. McCafferty
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Community Organization ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Four Seasons ◽  
Site Variation ◽  
Domestic Practice ◽  
Botanical Remains

Four seasons of excavation at the Santa Isabel site on the shore of Lake Nicaragua have recovered an extensive assemblage of material remains relating to Early Postclassic period (A.D. 800–1250) domestic practice. This paper reports initial project results, specifically relating to themes of architecture, foodways, specialized production, and belief systems. Exceptional preservation of organic materials such as faunal and botanical remains, as well as bone tools, permits an expansive description of the material culture relating to household level consumption. Through the intensive coverage of 5 ha of the site center, including 10 house mounds, we see that intra-site variation also reflects community organization. Finally, Santa Isabel presents potential for inferring cultural relationships between central Mexico (based on ethnohistorical accounts) and Greater Nicoya.

The Business of Narrative at Tula: An Analysis of the Vestibule Frieze, Trade, and Ritual

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Kristan-Graham
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Important Center ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
As If

The so-called frieze of the Caciques at Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, is an 8-m-long bench with most of its original polychromed face intact. It formed part of a larger composition that once ran around the perimeter of the Vestibule, a colonnaded hall that served as a foyer for Pyramid B. The composition of profile males is adapted to look as if they are actually marching around the room toward the pyramid. Although Hugo Moedano Koer (1947) identified the figures as caciques or local chiefs, an analysis of architectural setting, subject matter, and ethnohistory suggests instead that the figures represent merchants engaged in rituals related to trade. This new reading demonstrates that Tula had decorative programs paralleling its development as an important center of long-distance exchange during the Early Postclassic period, and that merchants from Tula may have been a plausible prototype for Aztec pochteca.

FILTH AND HEALING IN YUCATAN: INTERPRETING IX HUN AHAU, A MAYA GODDESS

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Knowlton
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Interethnic Interaction

AbstractThis paper analyzes the roles and attributes of the Maya goddess Ix Hun Ahau, the female manifestation of Hun Ahau that appears in the Ritual of the Bacabs. This Colonial Yucatec text is our earliest surviving source for how Maya cosmology provided a framework for healing practices. Although the extant manuscript dates to the late eighteenth century, it is the culmination of centuries of interethnic interaction, including innovations emerging from the intellectual exchange that characterized Mesoamerica during the Late Postclassic period (ca. A.D. 1200–1500). The accoutrements and activities ascribed to this goddess in the incantations identify her as a Maya parallel to Tlazolteotl-Ixcuina, the Nahua goddess of weaving, sexuality, pollution, and its purification. Pollution concepts and purification practices that are otherwise peripheral in the Ritual of the Bacabs are specifically related to Ix Hun Ahau, suggesting that early intellectual exchange between Mesoamerican peoples extended to medical cosmologies as well.

scholarly journals Virtually Dead: Digital Public Mortuary Archaeology

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Williams ◽  
◽  
Alison Atkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mortuary Archaeology
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