Sak Tz’i’, a Classic Maya Center: A Locational Model Based on GIS and Epigraphy

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Anaya Hernández ◽  
Stanley P. Guenter ◽  
Marc U. Zender
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Information Systems ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Lowlands

AbstractThe ancient Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions of the upper Usumacinta region record an intensive interaction that took place among its regional capitals. The precise geographic locations of some of these sites are presently unknown. Through the application of the Gravity Model within the framework of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we present the probable locations and possible territorial extents of a few of these: Sak Tz’i’, Hix-Witz, and the “Knot-Site.” On this occasion, however, we concentrate our discussion on the role that the kingdom of Sak Tz’i’ played in the geopolitical scenario of the region. It is our belief that this case study constitutes a good example of how, through a conjunctive approach that integrates the archaeological with the epigraphic data, GIS can represent an excellent analytical tool to approach archaeological issues such as the political organization of the Maya Lowlands during the Late Classic period.

Ancient Maya Queenship

2020 ◽  
pp. 196-217
Author(s):  
Olivia C. Navarro-Farr ◽  
Keith Eppich ◽  
David A. Freidel ◽  
Griselda Pérez Robles
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Political Network ◽  
Monumental Sculpture ◽  
Early Classic Period ◽  
The City

Olivia Navarro-Farr and colleagues explore another example of how the Snake Kings manipulated the political landscape of the Classic period with a fascinating case study in ancient Maya queenship at Waka’ in Chapter 10. Waka’ was first embroiled by the geopolitics of the lowlands during the Teotihuacan entrada of AD 378, after which the kingdom was apparently incorporated into the New Order’s political network based at Tikal. Kaanul subsequently brought Waka’ into its hegemony near the end of the Early Classic period with the marriage of the first of at least three royal Kaanul women to kings of Waka’. Beyond simply telling this story, Chapter 10 explores monumentality in two ways. First, Waka’ is presented as a contested node on the vast political and economic network of the Classic period, its importance evident in its role in the entrada, the deliberate and long-term strategy to integrate it into the Kaanul hegemony through royal marriage, and Tikal’s Late Classic star war conquest of Waka’ in AD 743. Second, Navarro-Farr and colleagues examine how, through reverential manipulation of monumental sculpture and architecture, the occupants of Waka’ continued to honor the great Kaanul queens for over a century following the failure of institutional kingship at the city.

Swamps, canals, and the locations of ancient Maya cities

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (212) ◽  
pp. 206-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. W. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Radar Data ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Rank Ordering ◽  
Topographic Information ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Mapping Discovery

The recent radar mapping discovery of widely distributed patterns of intensive agriculture in the southern Maya lowlands provides new perspectives on classic Maya civilization. Swamps seem to have been drained, modified, and intensively cultivated in a large number of zones. The largest sites of Maya civilization are located on the edges of swamps. By combining radar data with topographic information, it is possible to suggest the reasons for the choice of urban locations. With the addition of patterns elicited from rank-ordering of Maya cities, it is also possible to suggest more accurate means of defining Classic period Maya polities.

NEW EVIDENCE FOR POLITICAL HIERARCHY AND POWER IN THE NORTHERN MAYA LOWLANDS (a.d.600–1000)

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Graña-Behrens
Keyword(s):  
Northern Region ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Political Hierarchy ◽  
And Function ◽  
Meaning And Function ◽  
New Evidence

AbstractThis paper presents new evidence for hierarchy and power among the Classic Maya (a.d.300–1000) from the northern lowlands. It expands the list of identified emblem glyphs, and, more particularly, focuses on emblems with numerals by questioning their meaning and function in terms of political organization. Furthermore, the paper centers on syntax, especially on the practice of structuring personal names and titles in order to isolate titles and emblem glyphs, as well as to rank individuals and further advance our understanding of ancient Maya political organization. Finally, a dynastic sequence of rulers and noblemen from the Chan or Kan kingdom (most probably Jaina) is proposed, as well as divergent monumental traditions within the northern region and a re-evaluation of interpolity relationships.

Understanding Late Classic Maya Mortuary Ritual in Caves

2018 ◽  
pp. 133-158
Author(s):  
Amy R. Michael ◽  
Gabriel D. Wrobel ◽  
Jack Biggs
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Dental Health ◽  
Health Data ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Mortuary Practice ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Bioarchaeology frequently investigates dental health in burial populations to make inferences about mortuary variability within and between ancient groups. In this chapter, micro- and macroscopic dental defects were examined in a series of ancient Maya mortuary cave and rockshelter burials in Central Belize. The nature of mortuary cave ritual use and funerary performance in the Late Classic is widely debated in the literature. This study utilizes two analytical approaches, mortuary practice and paleopathology, to better understand mortuary variability between two site types that may be distinguished by social status in life. Ethnohistoric accounts focused on mortuary activities in the Late Classic period have described sacrificial victims as individuals originating outside of the elite population. To test these accounts, this study compares the dental health data of individuals from non-elite (rockshelter) populations to elite (cave) burial contexts.

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

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-427 ◽  
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).

MAYA FLASKS: THE “HOME” OF TOBACCO AND GODLY SUBSTANCES

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Cardinal ◽  
Dmitri Zagorevski
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Residue Analysis ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Basic Construction ◽  
Construction Methods ◽  
Social Mediation

AbstractAmong the specialized types of Late Classic Maya vessels (a.d. 550–900) are small bottle-shaped containers known as “flasks.” Current interpretations of their uses, for example as poison bottles or medicine bottles, are speculative. In some cases, such interpretations rely on analogical comparisons with other Native American containers based on their formal similarities of shape or construction. This paper presents research on basic construction methods of flasks, a set of correlations between the various social mediation roles in which such flasks are depicted in Classic-period artwork, their material correlates (the vessels themselves), and a report of their specific contents. We also provide evidence of the first discovery of nicotine in an ancient Maya vessel, which is the first empirically demonstrated proof for the presence of tobacco contained in a clay vessel from this cultural tradition. The codex-style flask yielding this evidence bears a text that appears to read yo-'OTOT-ti 'u-MAY-ya, spelling y-otoot 'u-mahy “the home of his/her tobacco.” This is only the second case in which residue analysis has shown a Maya vessel to hold the same content as is indicated by a hieroglyphic text on the same vessel.

La Corona

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-195
Author(s):  
Marcello A. Canuto ◽  
Tomás Barrientos Q.
Keyword(s):  
Complex Interaction ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Secondary Center ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 9 explores the political landscape of the Late Classic Kaanul kingdom. Marcello A. Canuto and Tomás Barrientos Q. consider the role of secondary centers in the geopolitical landscape of the lowlands during the Late Classic period, using La Corona, Guatemala as a case study. In Chapter 9, Canuto and Barrientos Q. demonstrate that the relationship between the Kaanul hegemony and La Corona was much more complicated than simple political alliance. Kaanul’s complex interaction with its secondary center reveals some of the tools it used to create a monumental political landscape, including, in the case of La Corona, manipulating the local power structure, the community’s social organization, and even its sacred history.

EMBLEM GLYPHS AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN NORTHWESTERN YUCATAN IN THE CLASSIC PERIOD (a.d.300–1000)

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Graña-Behrens
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Traditional Definition ◽  
Cultural Traits ◽  
Definition Of

Since the late 1950s, scholars have analyzed emblem glyphs to better understand the political organization of the Classic Maya (a.d.300–900/1000). These unique glyphs reflect a certain royal self-understanding, for they were used as a title by the rulers to distinguish themselves from other noblemen within a milieu of growing competition for prestige and power. While this has been well documented in the central and southern lowlands, evidence for the existence of emblem glyphs in northwestern Yucatan—a region defined by certain cultural traits also reflected in the inscriptions—has been scarce. This study not only explores whether and how further emblem glyphs can be detected in the inscriptions of northwestern Yucatan by questioning the traditional definition of this title. It also, as a consequence, sheds new light on royal self-representation and political organization in northwestern Yucatan during the Classic period.

The Chronology of Yaxuna

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Suhler ◽  
Traci Ardren ◽  
David Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Urban Center ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Middle Formative

AbstractResearch at the ancient Maya city of Yaxuna, located in the heart of the Yucatan Peninsula, has provided sufficient data to suggest a preliminary chronological framework for the cultural development of this large polity. Primary ceramic and stratigraphie data are presented to support a five-phase scheme of cultural history, encompassing the Middle Formative through Postclassic periods (500 b.c.–a.d. 1250). In addition to chronological significance, the political ramifications of a pan-lowland ceramic trade are addressed. Yaxuna experienced an early florescence in the Late Formative–Early Classic periods, when it was the largest urban center in the central peninsula. A second renaissance in the Terminal Classic period was the result of Yaxuna's role in an alliance between the Puuc and Coba, in opposition to growing Itza militancy. This paper proposes a chronological framework for the cultural development of one northern Maya region in order to facilitate an understanding of this area as part of the overall history of polity interaction and competition in the Maya lowlands.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document