Entombment, Authority, and Descent at Altar de Sacrificios, Guatemala

1971 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Haviland
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Kinship Theory ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Political Units ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractAt the lowland Maya site of Altar de Sacrificios, two burials have been interpreted in such a way as to suggest: (1) that matrilineal principles of social organization may have been operative in some segments of Classic Maya society; and (2) that Maya political units may have been tied together by marriage alliances. These two hypotheses are examined here in the light of anthropological kinship theory. It is concluded that such marriage alliances are in the realm of possibility, but that matrilineality is unlikely.

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

1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-325 ◽  
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.

Mapping La Milpa: a Maya city in northwestern Belize

Antiquity ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (254) ◽  
pp. 96-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gair Tourtellot ◽  
Amanda Clarke ◽  
Norman Hammond
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Core Area ◽  
La Milpa ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Eastern Edge ◽  
Lowland Maya

The first major season of field operations at this major Lowland Maya site, located on the eastern edge of the Classic Maya core area, has revealed a great deal of information about the layout of the site and also demonstrated that its history was a long one.

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.

scholarly journals The Anomalous Ixil-Bypassed by the Postclassic?

1976 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin N. Colby
Keyword(s):  
Belief System ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Ancestor Worship ◽  
Animal Companion ◽  
Political Units ◽  
New Religion

The Ixil differ from other Mesoamerican societies in their extensive ancestor worship and their absence of a belief in animal companion spirits. The historical and archaeological evidence shows Ixil continuity with the lowland Classic Maya with comparatively little change during the Postclassic. The conclusion is tentatively drawn that the lowland Classic Maya were ancestor worshipers, and that the predominant characteristic of those Postclassic changes outside IxU country which led to the demise of Classic ceremonial centers in some areas and the later fragmentation of political units in others, derived from a basic religious change which was reflected in a change in the use of the 260-day ritual calendar. The new religion opposed ancestor worship and introduced a depersonalized soul belief system.

KA'KAW POTS AND COMMON CONTAINERS: CREATING HISTORIES AND COLLECTIVE MEMORIES AMONG THE CLASSIC MAYA OF XUNANTUNICH, BELIZE

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 341-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa J. LeCount
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Community Identity ◽  
Domestic Consumption ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
Public Offerings ◽  
Natural Cycles ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractReconstruction of foodways at the Lowland Maya center of Xunantunich, Belize, illustrates how commensality is fundamental to the construction of multilayered identities. Collective memory and linear histories form the foundation of identities because they are the mental frameworks people use to construct shared pasts. At Xunantunich, community identity was expressed though pottery and practices associated with the preparation of foods for domestic consumption and public offerings. In a world of natural cycles centered on family reproduction, horticultural activities, and yearly ceremonies, these symbols and rituals structured the lives of all people and embodied within them a collective memory of community. Linear histories were recorded in images and texts on drinking paraphernalia that were likely used for toasting honored individuals, ancestors, or gods during commemorative rites. These inscriptions and bodily practices marked individuals and their houses as people and places of prominence with separate identities.

Phaseolus from Cerén—A Late Classic Maya Site

2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Kaplan ◽  
David L. Lentz ◽  
Venicia Slotten ◽  
Payson Sheets ◽  
Angela N. Hood
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Site

scholarly journals Lowland Maya radiocarbon dates and the classic Maya collapse

Nature ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 281 (5730) ◽  
pp. 407-407
Author(s):  
I. STERNS ◽  
C. LORIA ◽  
R. GARBER
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Maya Collapse ◽  
Lowland Maya

The Ballcourt Markers of Tenam Rosario, Chiapas, Mexico

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gerard Fox
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Blood Sacrifice ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Coast Site

AbstractThis study is an iconographic analysis of ballcourt markers from the Late/Terminal Classic Maya site of Tenam Rosario, Chiapas, Mexico. The squatting posture of the two figures depicted on these markers, while rare in Lowland Maya art, is compared to Late Postclassic images of the earth deities Tlaltecuhtli and Tlaloc from Central Mexico. Contemporaneous examples of this posture are presented from the Gulf Coast site of El Tajin where squatting figures are associated with the rain god specifically and with the themes of ballgame sacrifice and regeneration in general. Tlaloc imagery in Classic Maya art is related to blood sacrifice as a complex, which includes both ritual warfare and autosacrifice. These forms of sacrifice are discussed as engendered categories in both Classic Maya and Aztec society. The Tenam Rosario markers are found to express themes that are consistent with ballgame symbolism throughout Mesoamerica, while conflating male and female aspects of blood sacrifice as regenerative ritual.

MAYA HETERARCHY AS INFERRED FROM CLASSIC-PERIOD PLAZA PLANS

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marshall Joseph Becker
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Lowland Maya

Recognition of architectural patterning among groups of structures at lowland Maya sites dating from the Classic period provides insights into the ways that residences and ritual complexes were organized. Each structured group arrangement, or Plaza Plan (PP), reveals an architectural grammar that provides the database enabling us to predict urban as well as rural settlement patterns. Wide variations in sizes among examples of residential PPs suggests that heterarchy was an important aspect of Classic Maya society. Examination of PP2 at Tikal indicates that a heterarchic pattern of organization existed. Heterarchy may relate to the fragility of the structure of lowland Maya kingship, and this may explain the gradual demise of states during the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods and their replacement by re-emergent Maya chiefdoms.

A Technological Typology of Prismatic Blades and Debitage From Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Clark ◽  
Douglas Donne Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Maya Site

AbstractA technological typology for the description and analysis of Mesoamerican obsidian industries is proposed, and its relative merits vis-à-vis Sheets's (1975a) “behavioral” typology are briefly explored. The typology is used to classify and describe a pristine deposit of obsidian-blade refuse recovered from the Early Classic Maya site of Ojo de Agua, Chiapas, Mexico. Analysis of this deposit revealed that the obsidian artifacts were manufacturing refuse resulting from the production of fine prismatic blades from polyhedral cores imported from highland Guatemala. The obsidian refuse was recovered from a workshop dump rather than from an actual workshop.

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