Classic Period Migration in the Maya Area

2019 ◽  
pp. 173-204
Author(s):  
B. Scott Aubry
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Dental Variation ◽  
Differential Interaction ◽  
Interregional Interaction ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Study Support ◽  
Maya Area

This study addresses long-standing issues regarding the nature of interregional interaction between central Mexico and the Maya area through the analysis of dental variation. In total, 23 sites were included in this study, 20 Maya sites, and the Teotihuacán, Tula, and Cholula sites. The large number of sites allows for a more comprehensive picture of population structure within the Maya area and between these two regions. This study estimates biological distances between sites, and it identifies individual Maya sites that are more genetically variable than expected. This would indicate that they might have been recipients of differential interaction from external populations. The results of this study support hypotheses about widespread interaction between the Maya and Central Mexico.

A MAYA CARVED SHELL PLAQUE FROM TULA, HIDALGO, MEXICO

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald McVicker ◽  
Joel W. Palka
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Field Museum ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Chichen Itza ◽  
Terminal Classic Period

In the early 1880s, a finely carved Maya shell picture plaque was found at the Toltec capital of Tula, central Mexico, and was subsequently acquired by The Field Museum in Chicago. The shell was probably re-carved in the Terminal Classic period and depicts a seated lord with associated Maya hieroglyphs on the front and back. Here the iconography and glyphic text of this unique artifact are examined, the species and habitat of the shell are described, and its archaeological and social context are interpreted. The Tula plaque is then compared with Maya carved jade picture plaques of similar size and design that were widely distributed throughout Mesoamerica, but were later concentrated in the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza. It is concluded that during the Late Classic period, these plaques played an important role in establishing contact between Maya lords and their counterparts representing peripheral and non-Maya domains. The picture plaques may have been elite Maya gifts establishing royal alliances with non-local polities and may have become prestige objects used in caches and termination rituals.

7. Minor Arts of the Classic Period in Central Mexico

1971 ◽  
pp. 206-227
Author(s):  
Carmen Cook de Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Central Mexico

3. The divine king

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Matthew Restall ◽  
Amara Solari
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Regional Variations ◽  
Short Biography ◽  
Maya Area

“The divine king” begins with a short biography of the Maya k’uhul ajaw (supreme lord or king) known as 18-Rabbit. During the Classic period, rulers were viewed as divine kings or queens, like 18-Rabbit and Lady K’abel (“Waterlily-Hand”). The ancient Maya used a combination of a cyclical calendar and a linear calendar called the “Long Count.” The Maya area experienced regular intrusions from imperial Teotihuacan, often leading to economic and diplomatic partnerships. Most Mayas experienced war in their lifetimes. The “Collapse” at the end of the Classic period could more accurately be called a transition, with major regional variations. Some well-known Maya sites flourished after the Collapse.

WHAT AND WHERE IS OLMEC STYLE? Regional perspectives on hollow figurines in Early Formative Mesoamerica

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey P. Blomster
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Contextual Data ◽  
Limited Access ◽  
Interregional Interaction ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Early Formative ◽  
Group 1

To understand better the significance of the Olmec style and its implications for Early Formative interregional interaction within Mesoamerica, one particular type of artifact—the hollow figurine—is examined. A definition of the Olmec style is provided based on Gulf Coast monumental art. One of several contemporaneous hollow-figurine types—“hollow babies” (Group 1)—is consistent with a Gulf Coast–based definition of the Olmec style. Fragments of Group 1 hollow figurines from across Mesoamerica are examined, revealing concentrations at a Gulf Coast center and, to a lesser extent, sites in southern Mexico. Rather than the primarily funerary function previously suggested for these objects, contextual data suggest multivalent meanings and functions. Group 2 figurines are related but different; variation appears in both the distribution of Group 2 fragments across Mesoamerica and their use. Available evidence suggests limited access to hollow figurines of both groups compared with contemporaneous solid figurines. A previous assertion that “hollow babies” were primarily produced and consumed in Central Mexico is rejected, and the significance of the differences among these hollow-figurine types is considered.

Commodity or Gift: Teotihuacan Obsidian in the Maya Region

1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Spence
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Major Effect ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Social Affiliation ◽  
The City

Archaeologists have long noted the presence of green obsidian artifacts in a number of Maya sites and have recognized that they were manufactured from the obsidian of the Pachuca source in central Mexico. Viewed as evidence of Teotihuacán influence, these finds were initially explained in economic terms as commodities in an exchange of goods that had a substantial impact on the economies of the Maya and on the development of the obsidian industry in Teotihuacán. However, when the contexts of the finds are examined it becomes clear that the significance of the artifacts was more symbolic than economic. The forms include prismatic blades, bifacially worked points and knives, needles, sequins, and some eccentrics. These are often recovered from ritual contexts, in association with other evidence of Teotihuacán influence. They apparently served to express a variety of relationships with Teotihuacán, ranging from actual Teotihuacanos proclaiming their identity to the attempts of Maya elite to forge some social affiliation with the city. Although most of the finds of green obsidian consist of only one or a few pieces, some contexts, such as the tombs of mounds A and B at Kaminaljuyú, produced more substantial amounts. Nevertheless, despite these occasional impressive finds, green obsidian does not seem to have been a major import, and it is clear that the Teotihuacán obsidian industry had largely attained its Classic-period structure before the Maya demand developed. Although the flow of central Mexican obsidian to the Maya region was not negligible, it could not in itself have had a major effect on either economic system.

Procedures in Human Heart Extraction and Ritual Meaning: A Taphonomic Assessment of Anthropogenic Marks in Classic Maya Skeletons

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vera Tiesler ◽  
Andrea Cucina
Keyword(s):  
Human Heart ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Rib Cage ◽  
Current Discussion ◽  
Experimental Replication ◽  
Maya Area

The present study reports on the cultural marks encountered in three (possibly four) skeletons retrieved from primary deposits of the Maya Classic period at Palenque, Calakmul, and Becán, Mexico. We propose that the patterns of cut and stab lesions encountered in the trunks of these individuals stem from perimortem violence that accompanied heart removal from below the rib cage rather than from postmortem evisceration. We confirm the feasibility of this procedure by experimental replication in modern corpses. The interpretation of those procedures synthesizes information obtained from osteological, archaeological, and iconographic sources and leads to a broader discussion concerning the techniques, impact, and meanings of human heart sacrifice and associated body manipulations in Classic period Maya society. Methodologically, we conclude that direct skeletal evidence of heart sacrifice can be rare, imposing a cautionary caveat on the current discussion of mortuary remains in the Maya area.

6. Ceramics of the Classic Period in Central Mexico

1971 ◽  
pp. 179-205
Author(s):  
Carmen Cook de Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Central Mexico

Modeling Maya Markets

2020 ◽  
pp. 14-27
Author(s):  
Eleanor M. King
Keyword(s):  
Economic Importance ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Future ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
Over Time

An abundance of data now supports the existence—long doubted—of markets in the Maya area in the Classic period (C.E. 250–900) and their economic importance. Why, however, did it take so long for Maya markets to be recognized? And how are they best conceptualized? After briefly reviewing the assumptions that hindered archaeological research on markets, especially among the Maya, this article uses ethnohistorical and ethnographic information to suggest an agent-centered model for how Maya markets worked. The intent is not to create a single, overarching template, because Maya economy varied over time and space, but rather to infuse more of a Maya perspective into current views and inspire others to continue doing so in the future.

CONVERGENCE ZONE POLITICS AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF UCANAL, PETEN, GUATEMALA

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-493
Author(s):  
Christina T. Halperin ◽  
Jose Luis Garrido Lopez ◽  
Miriam Salas ◽  
Jean-Baptiste LeMoine
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Convergence Zone ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Political Networks ◽  
Interaction Spheres ◽  
Maya Area

AbstractThe Maya archaeological site of Ucanal is located in Peten, Guatemala, close to the contemporary border with Belize. In pre-Columbian times, the site also sat at the frontiers of some of the largest political centers, Naranjo in Peten, Guatemala, and Caracol, in Belize. Entangled between these dominant centers and with ties to peoples in the Upper Belize Valley, the Petexbatun region in Guatemala, northern Yucatan, and elsewhere, Ucanal was a critical convergence zone of political and cultural interaction. This paper synthesizes archaeological research by the Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal to underscore the ways in which this provincial polity, identified epigraphically as K'anwitznal, maneuvered within and between different cultural affiliations and political networks. We find that the site's role as a political frontier during the Late Classic period was more of a bridge than an edge. During the later Terminal Classic period, the K'anwitznal kingdom gained independence, but continued to serve as a critical convergence of influences and interaction spheres from throughout the Maya area and beyond.

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