Pub Date : 2023-04-19DOI: 10.1017/s0956536121000651
G. Pereira, Antoine Dorison, Osiris Quezada Ramírez, C. Gillot, D. Michelet
El período de aproximadamente tres siglos (600–900 d.C.), que corresponde al epiclásico, fue el escenario de una notable expansión de los asentamientos en la cuenca de Zacapu y sus alrededores. Si bien la zona parecía carecer de núcleos monumentales mayores equivalentes a los que se conocían en las regiones vecinas del Bajío o del sur de las tierras altas michoacanas, los trabajos recientes en la parte noroeste del Malpaís de Zacapu cambian esta concepción. Los datos proporcionados por medio del LiDAR y nuevos trabajos de campo revelaron complejos monumentales de dimensiones inéditas para la zona que estructuran una red de asentamientos menores distribuidos en un amplio territorio. Estos descubrimientos ofrecen nuevos datos sobre la arquitectura pública y doméstica de la época. La distribución de estos asentamientos y su relación con áreas dedicadas a la explotación de recursos agrícolas y mineros permiten vislumbrar un sistema más complejo e integrado, el cual pudo tener elementos comunes al de un altepetl. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar esta nueva información y reevaluar, a partir de ella, la organización territorial del período considerado.
{"title":"Nueva perspectiva sobre el sistema de organización territorial epiclásico en la región de Zacapu, Michoacán","authors":"G. Pereira, Antoine Dorison, Osiris Quezada Ramírez, C. Gillot, D. Michelet","doi":"10.1017/s0956536121000651","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536121000651","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 El período de aproximadamente tres siglos (600–900 d.C.), que corresponde al epiclásico, fue el escenario de una notable expansión de los asentamientos en la cuenca de Zacapu y sus alrededores. Si bien la zona parecía carecer de núcleos monumentales mayores equivalentes a los que se conocían en las regiones vecinas del Bajío o del sur de las tierras altas michoacanas, los trabajos recientes en la parte noroeste del Malpaís de Zacapu cambian esta concepción. Los datos proporcionados por medio del LiDAR y nuevos trabajos de campo revelaron complejos monumentales de dimensiones inéditas para la zona que estructuran una red de asentamientos menores distribuidos en un amplio territorio. Estos descubrimientos ofrecen nuevos datos sobre la arquitectura pública y doméstica de la época. La distribución de estos asentamientos y su relación con áreas dedicadas a la explotación de recursos agrícolas y mineros permiten vislumbrar un sistema más complejo e integrado, el cual pudo tener elementos comunes al de un altepetl. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar esta nueva información y reevaluar, a partir de ella, la organización territorial del período considerado.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48604141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-18DOI: 10.1017/s0956536122000323
John H. Linden, V. Bricker
Arguably the most enigmatic of the Maya calendar cycles, the 819-day count has challenged modern scholars for decades. Even today it is not completely explained and there are several areas for further research, including its relationship with the synodic periods of the planets visible to the naked eye. Earlier research has demonstrated a four-part, color-directional scheme for the 819-day count such that each of the calendar stations progress in increments of 819 days in cycles of 4 × 819 days. Although prior research has sought to show planetary connections for the 819-day count, its four-part, color-directional scheme is too short to fit well with the synodic periods of the visible planets. By increasing the calendar length to 20 periods of 819-days a pattern emerges in which the synodic periods of all the visible planets commensurate with station points in the larger 819-day calendar.
{"title":"The Maya 819-Day Count and Planetary Astronomy","authors":"John H. Linden, V. Bricker","doi":"10.1017/s0956536122000323","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536122000323","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Arguably the most enigmatic of the Maya calendar cycles, the 819-day count has challenged modern scholars for decades. Even today it is not completely explained and there are several areas for further research, including its relationship with the synodic periods of the planets visible to the naked eye. Earlier research has demonstrated a four-part, color-directional scheme for the 819-day count such that each of the calendar stations progress in increments of 819 days in cycles of 4 × 819 days. Although prior research has sought to show planetary connections for the 819-day count, its four-part, color-directional scheme is too short to fit well with the synodic periods of the visible planets. By increasing the calendar length to 20 periods of 819-days a pattern emerges in which the synodic periods of all the visible planets commensurate with station points in the larger 819-day calendar.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49215836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-12DOI: 10.1017/s0956536123000020
P. Rice
I propose a “Milky Way / creation hypothesis” for the elongated eastern structures in early Maya E Groups: they were modeled on the Milky Way galaxy. These architectural arrangements, beginning in the Preclassic period (c. 900 B.C.–A.D. 200) in the southern Maya Lowlands, were adopted from predecessors in the Early Preclassic neighboring Gulf Coast region. The widespread overall similarity of E Groups suggests a shared belief system centered on myths about creation, and many of the characters (e.g., Maize God) and events of creation in Maya myths are set in the Milky Way. The general north–south axial orientation of the eastern platform, frequently pivoted northeast–southwest, is proposed to be related to the rainy season position of the Milky Way overhead. E Groups were probably multifunctional ritual theaters, the eastern platforms serving as stages for nighttime performances of creation stories. Late modifications into a tripart edifice, with structures or superstructures in the center and at both ends, replicated the major asterisms of the visible galaxy and/or the creator gods.
{"title":"Early Maya E Groups, the Milky Way, and creation","authors":"P. Rice","doi":"10.1017/s0956536123000020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536123000020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 I propose a “Milky Way / creation hypothesis” for the elongated eastern structures in early Maya E Groups: they were modeled on the Milky Way galaxy. These architectural arrangements, beginning in the Preclassic period (c. 900 B.C.–A.D. 200) in the southern Maya Lowlands, were adopted from predecessors in the Early Preclassic neighboring Gulf Coast region. The widespread overall similarity of E Groups suggests a shared belief system centered on myths about creation, and many of the characters (e.g., Maize God) and events of creation in Maya myths are set in the Milky Way. The general north–south axial orientation of the eastern platform, frequently pivoted northeast–southwest, is proposed to be related to the rainy season position of the Milky Way overhead. E Groups were probably multifunctional ritual theaters, the eastern platforms serving as stages for nighttime performances of creation stories. Late modifications into a tripart edifice, with structures or superstructures in the center and at both ends, replicated the major asterisms of the visible galaxy and/or the creator gods.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42837460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-31DOI: 10.1017/s0956536122000402
J. Palka
Ancestral Maya engineered wetland fields and canals in floodplains for plant cultivation and water management. Canals and reservoirs, however, also provide aquatic resources to supplement agriculture. Maya created multi-trophic ecological aquaculture by modifying the waterscape to increase the amounts of foods and useful materials, such as fish, turtles, waterfowl, and reeds. While archaeological and ethnographic investigations across the Maya area explore aquatic constructions, technology, and foodstuffs, they have not focused on aquaculture. In the western Maya lowlands, including the site of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico, ancestral Maya modified floodplains around lakes and rivers for farming fish and aquatic resources near their settlements and fields. These extensive modifications for ecological aquaculture enhanced the productivity and resiliency of natural ecosystems. The domesticated waterscapes near the ritually important Mirador Mountain at Mensabak also followed pan-Mesoamerican beliefs in origin mountains that generated water, plants, and fish for humans. Importantly, Maya integrated subsistence is illuminated by research on domesticated landscapes and ecological aquaculture that examines a range of resources rather than just plants. Certainly across Mesoamerica, ecological aquaculture allowed people to intensify production of “farms” of aquatic species, particularly fish.
{"title":"Ancestral Maya domesticated waterscapes, ecological aquaculture, and integrated subsistence","authors":"J. Palka","doi":"10.1017/s0956536122000402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536122000402","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Ancestral Maya engineered wetland fields and canals in floodplains for plant cultivation and water management. Canals and reservoirs, however, also provide aquatic resources to supplement agriculture. Maya created multi-trophic ecological aquaculture by modifying the waterscape to increase the amounts of foods and useful materials, such as fish, turtles, waterfowl, and reeds. While archaeological and ethnographic investigations across the Maya area explore aquatic constructions, technology, and foodstuffs, they have not focused on aquaculture. In the western Maya lowlands, including the site of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico, ancestral Maya modified floodplains around lakes and rivers for farming fish and aquatic resources near their settlements and fields. These extensive modifications for ecological aquaculture enhanced the productivity and resiliency of natural ecosystems. The domesticated waterscapes near the ritually important Mirador Mountain at Mensabak also followed pan-Mesoamerican beliefs in origin mountains that generated water, plants, and fish for humans. Importantly, Maya integrated subsistence is illuminated by research on domesticated landscapes and ecological aquaculture that examines a range of resources rather than just plants. Certainly across Mesoamerica, ecological aquaculture allowed people to intensify production of “farms” of aquatic species, particularly fish.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44958038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-31DOI: 10.1017/s0956536123000019
Pre-hispanic ballgames have an extensive temporal depth and geographical breadth across Mesoamerica, with over 1,500 ball courts recorded on 1,200 archaeological sites in Mexico alone. It is likely that ballgames played critical but variable roles in how communities related to each other. Most interpretations emphasize ballgames as cosmological rituals and legitimation practices exclusive to elites, perhaps often overlooking the more mundane sociopolitical processes and reasons why they carried such critical meaning for people of all classes and statuses. Ethnographic research on modern ballgames played by Indigenous and mestizo communities today can helpfully provide some insights or maybe deeper understandings into ancient ballgame practices and their relation to Mesoamerican communities. While modern games are not isomorphic with the ancient games, the duration of these traditions underscores their continuing importance and their relativity to current research. In this article I present the results of an ethnographic study of the modern ballgame pelota mixteca de hule (Mixtec rubber ballgame) in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Considering the results from the ethnographic data, I then discuss an archaeological case study in the Nejapa Valley of southeastern Oaxaca where numerous ballcourts were recently documented over the past decade.
西班牙之前的球赛在中美洲有着广泛的时间深度和地理广度，仅墨西哥的1200个考古遗址就记录了1500多个球场。球赛很可能在社区之间的关系中扮演着关键但多变的角色。大多数解释都强调球赛是精英独有的宇宙学仪式和合法化实践，也许往往忽视了更世俗的社会政治过程，以及它们对所有阶级和地位的人都具有如此重要意义的原因。对今天土著和混血儿社区进行的现代球赛的民族志研究可以帮助我们对古代球赛的做法及其与中美洲社区的关系提供一些见解或更深入的理解。虽然现代游戏与古代游戏并不同构，但这些传统的持续时间突显了它们的持续重要性及其与当前研究的相关性。在这篇文章中，我介绍了对墨西哥南部瓦哈卡州现代球赛pelota mixteca de hule（Mixtec橡胶球赛）的民族志研究结果。考虑到民族志数据的结果，我随后讨论了瓦哈卡州东南部内贾帕山谷的一项考古案例研究，在过去十年中，那里最近记录了许多球场。
{"title":"Es nuestra tradición: the archaeological implications of an ethnography on a modern ballgame in Oaxaca, Mexico","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s0956536123000019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0956536123000019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Pre-hispanic ballgames have an extensive temporal depth and geographical breadth across Mesoamerica, with over 1,500 ball courts recorded on 1,200 archaeological sites in Mexico alone. It is likely that ballgames played critical but variable roles in how communities related to each other. Most interpretations emphasize ballgames as cosmological rituals and legitimation practices exclusive to elites, perhaps often overlooking the more mundane sociopolitical processes and reasons why they carried such critical meaning for people of all classes and statuses. Ethnographic research on modern ballgames played by Indigenous and mestizo communities today can helpfully provide some insights or maybe deeper understandings into ancient ballgame practices and their relation to Mesoamerican communities. While modern games are not isomorphic with the ancient games, the duration of these traditions underscores their continuing importance and their relativity to current research. In this article I present the results of an ethnographic study of the modern ballgame pelota mixteca de hule (Mixtec rubber ballgame) in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Considering the results from the ethnographic data, I then discuss an archaeological case study in the Nejapa Valley of southeastern Oaxaca where numerous ballcourts were recently documented over the past decade.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48096316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1017/S0956536121000572
Rafael Cobos
Abstract Studies of the ancient economy associated with the Classic and Postclassic periods of Maya civilization show that, in order to explain it, the market economy model has been widely used, where economic transactions were carried out in marketplaces. In this type of economy, goods are exchanged based on an agreed value that takes into account supply and demand. However, other types of exchange, such as tribute and centralized redistribution, could have been used in those transactions instead of a market economy. This article analyzes the role that tribute and centralized redistribution may have played during the heyday of Chichen Itza between the tenth and eleventh centuries. This site seems to have used its powerful military supremacy to extract tribute from sites and regions it conquered militarily and politically as they experienced their collapse. In addition, the archaeological evidence suggests that Chichen Itza made political as well as economic alliances in different regions of the Maya Lowlands in order to obtain sumptuous goods. These commodities were used by members of the elite to reinforce the power structure and consolidate social relations among the different individuals who inhabited that community located in northern Yucatan.
{"title":"CHICHEN ITZA AND ITS ECONOMY AT THE END OF THE CLASSIC PERIOD: TRIBUTE, CENTRALIZED REDISTRIBUTION, AND MARITIME STATIONS","authors":"Rafael Cobos","doi":"10.1017/S0956536121000572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536121000572","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Studies of the ancient economy associated with the Classic and Postclassic periods of Maya civilization show that, in order to explain it, the market economy model has been widely used, where economic transactions were carried out in marketplaces. In this type of economy, goods are exchanged based on an agreed value that takes into account supply and demand. However, other types of exchange, such as tribute and centralized redistribution, could have been used in those transactions instead of a market economy. This article analyzes the role that tribute and centralized redistribution may have played during the heyday of Chichen Itza between the tenth and eleventh centuries. This site seems to have used its powerful military supremacy to extract tribute from sites and regions it conquered militarily and politically as they experienced their collapse. In addition, the archaeological evidence suggests that Chichen Itza made political as well as economic alliances in different regions of the Maya Lowlands in order to obtain sumptuous goods. These commodities were used by members of the elite to reinforce the power structure and consolidate social relations among the different individuals who inhabited that community located in northern Yucatan.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43843423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1017/S0956536120000401
Lilia Fernández Souza, Héctor Hernández Álvarez, M. Zimmermann
Abstract The structure of power underlying the hegemonic control Chichen Itza held over the Northern Maya Lowlands has been debated for decades. In this article, we present the idea of a dominant discourse on masculinities, which played a fundamental role in both practice and on a symbolic level among the strategies designed to support this emblematic pre-Columbian capital. Our discussion of archaeological evidence will focus on spaces where men are represented, where they would meet and carry out rituals. We contend that gallery-patios such as Structure 2D6 served as instruction and socialization locales for groups of warriors. The architectural configuration of this building is very similar to a series of venues at Chichen Itza and other Mesoamerican cities. In these spaces, associated iconography depicts male individuals in processions and ritual practice, including sacrifice and self-sacrifice. We argue that the gallery of Structure 2D6 was a semi-public, performative space, whose theatricality combined the central alignment of a sacrificial stone and a throne or altar with the presence of several patolli boards carved into the building's plaster floor. Chemical analyses of plastered surfaces testify to intense activities taking place around all three of these features.
{"title":"THE CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITIES AT CHICHEN ITZA: A FUNCTIONAL INTERPRETATION OF STRUCTURE 2D6","authors":"Lilia Fernández Souza, Héctor Hernández Álvarez, M. Zimmermann","doi":"10.1017/S0956536120000401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536120000401","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The structure of power underlying the hegemonic control Chichen Itza held over the Northern Maya Lowlands has been debated for decades. In this article, we present the idea of a dominant discourse on masculinities, which played a fundamental role in both practice and on a symbolic level among the strategies designed to support this emblematic pre-Columbian capital. Our discussion of archaeological evidence will focus on spaces where men are represented, where they would meet and carry out rituals. We contend that gallery-patios such as Structure 2D6 served as instruction and socialization locales for groups of warriors. The architectural configuration of this building is very similar to a series of venues at Chichen Itza and other Mesoamerican cities. In these spaces, associated iconography depicts male individuals in processions and ritual practice, including sacrifice and self-sacrifice. We argue that the gallery of Structure 2D6 was a semi-public, performative space, whose theatricality combined the central alignment of a sacrificial stone and a throne or altar with the presence of several patolli boards carved into the building's plaster floor. Chemical analyses of plastered surfaces testify to intense activities taking place around all three of these features.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49351859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1017/S0956536120000450
V. Tiesler, Virginia E. Miller
Abstract Chichen Itza stands as a monumental landmark of late Pre-Columbian Maya and Mesoamerican religious complexes. Among the enigmatic aspects of Chichen Itza's ceremonial innovations count skull racks (known as tzompantli in Nahuatl), where the heads of sacrificed victims would be exhibited. Here we combine the scrutiny of death imagery and human skeletal remains, including skulls with marks of bilateral or basal impalement and mandibles with perimortem decapitation from “New” Chichen, the Osario complex, and from Chichen's astronomical Caracol complex. Our combined skeletal and iconographic data confirm the increased practice of corpse processing and head exhibition at Chichen Itza when compared to Classic-period Maya centers. Most of these body treatments were not foreign introductions, as generally believed, but followed local practices, long carried out at the Yucatecan urban centers of Nohpat, Kabah, Uxmal, and Dzibilchaltun. Although on a minor scale compared to Chichen, these demonstrate the display of human body segments, not only skulls, which renders the term tzompantli problematic. In the context of the totalitarian rhetoric of Chichen's central spaces, the massified violence and corpse display herald late religious cults at the cadences of battles won, astronomical cycles, and the perpetual movement of the Feathered Serpent.
{"title":"HEADS, SKULLS, AND SACRED SCAFFOLDS. NEW STUDIES ON RITUAL BODY PROCESSING AND DISPLAY IN CHICHEN ITZA AND BEYOND","authors":"V. Tiesler, Virginia E. Miller","doi":"10.1017/S0956536120000450","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536120000450","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Chichen Itza stands as a monumental landmark of late Pre-Columbian Maya and Mesoamerican religious complexes. Among the enigmatic aspects of Chichen Itza's ceremonial innovations count skull racks (known as tzompantli in Nahuatl), where the heads of sacrificed victims would be exhibited. Here we combine the scrutiny of death imagery and human skeletal remains, including skulls with marks of bilateral or basal impalement and mandibles with perimortem decapitation from “New” Chichen, the Osario complex, and from Chichen's astronomical Caracol complex. Our combined skeletal and iconographic data confirm the increased practice of corpse processing and head exhibition at Chichen Itza when compared to Classic-period Maya centers. Most of these body treatments were not foreign introductions, as generally believed, but followed local practices, long carried out at the Yucatecan urban centers of Nohpat, Kabah, Uxmal, and Dzibilchaltun. Although on a minor scale compared to Chichen, these demonstrate the display of human body segments, not only skulls, which renders the term tzompantli problematic. In the context of the totalitarian rhetoric of Chichen's central spaces, the massified violence and corpse display herald late religious cults at the cadences of battles won, astronomical cycles, and the perpetual movement of the Feathered Serpent.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45093776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1017/S0956536122000268
Rafael Cobos
Chichen Itza was considered for many years an isolated and solitary settlement that flourished during the Postclassic period (a.d. 1000–1200) after the collapse of Classic Maya communities. The chronological position, as well as the social and cultural events that occurred in Chichen Itza during its apogee, derived mainly from two sources: first, the unquestionable interpretation of facts recorded in historical documents where the Maya always pre-dated the appearance or emergence of that site; second, the presence of non-Maya groups (first Toltecs, later the Itzas) who arrived, conquered, and settled in Chichen Itza to develop it, as attested by the architecture and sculptural features of supposedly “Toltec” origin. The contribution of archaeology to the explanation of the social and cultural events that occurred at Chichen Itza during its apogee was practically non-existent. Moreover, in the case of Chichen Itza’s chronology, the interpretations always adjusted or accommodated the dates reported in the historical sources to those events and this correlation was taken as a solid explanatory discourse. However, with the advance of archaeological research, not only in Chichen Itza, but in numerous Terminal Classic period (a.d. 800–1100) sites in the Yucatan, this discourse began to show enormous gaps and limited explanations; in other words, the paradigm established for decades began to crumble and the interpretation of archaeological data gradually helped in the creation of another paradigm that replaced the first. The five articles that make up this special section further contribute to explaining Chichen Itza as a Maya site that had its apogee at the end of the Classic period. This special section focuses on four specific topics: gender, Chichen Itza and its relationship with the maritime littoral, human sacrifice, and economy. Each of the five articles provides new interpretations derived from rigorous analyses of archaeological data and helps to underpin the new explanatory proposal on the society and culture that occupied Chichen Itza during the Terminal Classic period. The section begins with an article titled “The Construction of Masculinities at Chichen Itza: A Functional Interpretation of Structure 2D6,” presented by Lilia Fernández Souza, Héctor Hernández Álvarez, and Mario Zimmermann, focusing on male collectivity in Chichen Itza, seen from Structure 2D6. This building is a gallery-patio structure in whose frontal gallery excavations unearthed archaeological, architectural, and chemical evidence that shows specific areas where male activities were carried out as part of the construction of masculinity in Chichen Itza. It should be noted that this study follows an archaeological perspective, and its results are added to sculpture and painting studies of the site that contribute to explaining the construction of a male ideology utilized to support the dominant structure of power when Chichen Itza flourished between the tenth and eleventh
{"title":"SPECIAL SECTION INTRODUCTION: ARCHAEOLOGY IN CHICHEN ITZA","authors":"Rafael Cobos","doi":"10.1017/S0956536122000268","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536122000268","url":null,"abstract":"Chichen Itza was considered for many years an isolated and solitary settlement that flourished during the Postclassic period (a.d. 1000–1200) after the collapse of Classic Maya communities. The chronological position, as well as the social and cultural events that occurred in Chichen Itza during its apogee, derived mainly from two sources: first, the unquestionable interpretation of facts recorded in historical documents where the Maya always pre-dated the appearance or emergence of that site; second, the presence of non-Maya groups (first Toltecs, later the Itzas) who arrived, conquered, and settled in Chichen Itza to develop it, as attested by the architecture and sculptural features of supposedly “Toltec” origin. The contribution of archaeology to the explanation of the social and cultural events that occurred at Chichen Itza during its apogee was practically non-existent. Moreover, in the case of Chichen Itza’s chronology, the interpretations always adjusted or accommodated the dates reported in the historical sources to those events and this correlation was taken as a solid explanatory discourse. However, with the advance of archaeological research, not only in Chichen Itza, but in numerous Terminal Classic period (a.d. 800–1100) sites in the Yucatan, this discourse began to show enormous gaps and limited explanations; in other words, the paradigm established for decades began to crumble and the interpretation of archaeological data gradually helped in the creation of another paradigm that replaced the first. The five articles that make up this special section further contribute to explaining Chichen Itza as a Maya site that had its apogee at the end of the Classic period. This special section focuses on four specific topics: gender, Chichen Itza and its relationship with the maritime littoral, human sacrifice, and economy. Each of the five articles provides new interpretations derived from rigorous analyses of archaeological data and helps to underpin the new explanatory proposal on the society and culture that occupied Chichen Itza during the Terminal Classic period. The section begins with an article titled “The Construction of Masculinities at Chichen Itza: A Functional Interpretation of Structure 2D6,” presented by Lilia Fernández Souza, Héctor Hernández Álvarez, and Mario Zimmermann, focusing on male collectivity in Chichen Itza, seen from Structure 2D6. This building is a gallery-patio structure in whose frontal gallery excavations unearthed archaeological, architectural, and chemical evidence that shows specific areas where male activities were carried out as part of the construction of masculinity in Chichen Itza. It should be noted that this study follows an archaeological perspective, and its results are added to sculpture and painting studies of the site that contribute to explaining the construction of a male ideology utilized to support the dominant structure of power when Chichen Itza flourished between the tenth and eleventh ","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43472783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1017/S0956536121000407
Nayeli G. Jiménez Cano
Abstract Zooarchaeological data are presented to examine aspects of animal resources utilization at Chichen Itza and Isla Cerritos during the Terminal Classic. Through the review of zooarchaeological records, a differential pattern emerges based on contextual and environmental origins of the identified taxa, highlighting the ritual importance of coastal species at Chichen Itza. In addition, the transportation network of animals and animal parts from the peninsular interior to Isla Cerritos and coastal areas towards Chichen Itza is outlined. The reviewed zooarchaeological evidence of both settlements represents the first effort to rethink and heighten understanding of the relationship between the northern Maya capital and its coastal outpost during the Terminal Classic, profiling the diverse environments being exploited and differential utilization in the coast and the interior of the Northern Lowlands.
{"title":"ANIMAL PROVISIONING AT CHICHEN ITZA AND ISLA CERRITOS: A ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL REVIEW OF FAUNAL UTILIZATION","authors":"Nayeli G. Jiménez Cano","doi":"10.1017/S0956536121000407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536121000407","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Zooarchaeological data are presented to examine aspects of animal resources utilization at Chichen Itza and Isla Cerritos during the Terminal Classic. Through the review of zooarchaeological records, a differential pattern emerges based on contextual and environmental origins of the identified taxa, highlighting the ritual importance of coastal species at Chichen Itza. In addition, the transportation network of animals and animal parts from the peninsular interior to Isla Cerritos and coastal areas towards Chichen Itza is outlined. The reviewed zooarchaeological evidence of both settlements represents the first effort to rethink and heighten understanding of the relationship between the northern Maya capital and its coastal outpost during the Terminal Classic, profiling the diverse environments being exploited and differential utilization in the coast and the interior of the Northern Lowlands.","PeriodicalId":46480,"journal":{"name":"Ancient Mesoamerica","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42471612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：