The Role of Dead Bodies in Late Classic Maya Politics:

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.

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Replicating Writing: Moulding and Stamping Hieroglyphs on Classic Maya Ceramics

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774317000944 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 299-320 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mallory E. Matsumoto

Keyword(s):

Fourth Century ◽

Classic Maya ◽

Ceramic Production ◽

Late Classic ◽

Mechanical Reproduction ◽

The Social ◽

User Communities ◽

Scribal Tradition ◽

Made In

A fundamental distinction is made in craft production between custom or bespoke creation and mechanical reproduction that generates multiple iterations of the same form. In Mesoamerica, technologies of reproduction are attested by around the sixth century bc in the form of moulding and stamping, and they become increasingly common in ceramic production in the Maya and neighbouring regions in the third or fourth century. Beginning in the Late Classic period (c. 600–830 ad), Maya artisans applied them to the hieroglyphic script as well, generating a corpus of texts that are at once fundamentally distinct from and intimately linked to the broader scribal tradition dominated by hand-written texts. This article examines Classic Maya texts moulded and stamped on ceramics in the context of scribal practice and the social and cultural role of the script. I argue that these artefacts manifest changes not only in hieroglyphic production, but also in writing's role in user communities. Consequentially, they invite reconsideration of scribal practice's relationship to other crafting traditions, as well as the diversity of modes of engaging in Classic Maya scribal tradition.

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Lady Six Sky and the Definition of Ritual Space at Naranjo

Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal ◽

10.15695/vurj.v1i0.2709 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

Author(s):

James Alan Doyle

Keyword(s):

Spatial Analysis ◽

Classic Maya ◽

Late Classic ◽

Considerable Evidence ◽

Ritual Space ◽

New Information ◽

Maya Civilization ◽

Role Of Women ◽

Definition Of

Through a broad discussion on the full monumental program at Naranjo during the reigns of Lady Six Sky and her son K'ak Tiliw Chan Chaak, this article provides new information about the role of women in Late Classic Maya civilization (AD 600-900). A detailed exploration of the distinct trends in the monumental program from 682-741 AD supports the primary argument for Lady Sky Six’s underlying importance in ritual representation. The author finds considerable evidence that suggests the transfer of power from mother to son during the latter years of Lady Sky Six. A concluding discussion of Naranjo focuses on spatial analysis of the monuments spread across the site core in relation to dual-gendered ritual space, as well as contrasting martial and mythological imagery.

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

Latin American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/25478195 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 407-427 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

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).

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

Ancient Mesoamerica ◽

10.1017/s0956536116000031 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 31-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

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

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/2694660 ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 316-325 ◽

Cited By ~ 75

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.

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At the Edge of the World: Caves and Late Classic Maya World View. By Karen Bassie-Sweet. (Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1996. Pp. 245. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Appendix. $38.95.)

The Americas A Quarterly Review of Latin American History ◽

10.2307/1008419 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 54 (3) ◽

pp. 445-447

Author(s):

Samuel Y. Edgerton

Keyword(s):

World View ◽

Classic Maya ◽

Late Classic ◽

The World

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

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/279747 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 49 (4) ◽

pp. 815-820 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

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.

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