Scales of Settlement Study for Complex Societies: Analytical Issues from the Classic Maya Area

1988 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 151
Author(s):  
Olivier de Montmollin
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Maya Area

The Site of Noh K'uh, Chiapas, Mexico: A Late Preclassic Settlement in the Mensäbäk Basin

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Juarez ◽  
Sebastián Salgado-Flores ◽  
Christopher Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Complex Societies ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
River Region ◽  
Western Frontier ◽  
Maya Area

In this report we introduce the site of Noh K'uh, a Late Preclassic (400 BC–AD 250) community in the western frontier of the Maya Lowlands. This new body of data contributes to the study of how complex societies emerged both within the Usumacinta River region and the Maya area overall.

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.

Artistic Connections Between the Chichen Itza Toltec and the Classic Maya

1954 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Rands
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Present Writer ◽  
The South ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Water Lily ◽  
Maya Archaeology ◽  
Single Motif ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
Chichen Itza

A recent development of some interest in Maya archaeology has been the appearance of several studies showing rather unexpected connections between the art of the Toltec period at Chichen Itza and that of the late Great period in the Classic centers to the south. Inferentially, this may indicate the approximate contemporaneity of the Chichen Itza Toltec and the late Classic Maya. Such a reconstruction is not only a far cry from the outmoded concept of “Old” and “New Empires” but, as Lothrop (1952, p. 112) points out, challenges the generally favored 11.16 (Goodman-Martinez- Thompson) correlation of the Maya and Christian calendars. Three studies may be cited as of particular importance in emphasizing the affinity of Chichen Toltec and Classic Maya art. Monographs by Proskouriakoff (1950) and Lothrop (1952) deal, respectively, with sculptured monuments from the Maya area as a whole and with metal objects from the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza. A paper by the present writer (Rands, 1953) is concerned with portrayals of a single motif, the water lily, in the Maya area.

Hydraulics, Cacao, and Complex Developments at Preclassic Chocolá, Guatemala: Evidence and Implications

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 399-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Water Demand ◽  
Hydraulic System ◽  
High Water ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Temporal Priority ◽  
Plausible Hypothesis ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Maya Area

Investigations begun in 2003 and continued through 2005 at Chocolá, in Southwestern Guatemala, have determined the existence of an extensive Preclassic network of well-engineered subterranean canals. The hydraulics discovered at the site, as well as other findings, add to long-standing evidence of Preclassic developments in the site's immediate region. While I consider an impressive Preclassic hydraulic system proven for Chocolá, a similarly early industry of cacao—a high-water demand plant of pan-Mesoamerican importance and native to the region—is discussed here admittedly only as a plausible hypothesis, based on copious ethnohistoric attestation but also on the long-known but disparate evidence of a temporal priority to many developments considered key to later Classic Maya civilization that are found in the Southern Maya area.

A Regional Study of Classic Maya Ballcourts From the Upper Grijalva Basin, Chiapas, Mexico

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier de Montmollin
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Regional Study ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Political Roles ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
Wealth Building ◽  
Regional Settlement ◽  
High Degree

AbstractLate/Terminal Classic Maya ballcourts from the upper Grijalva Basin (Chiapas, Mexico) are described and analyzed in a regional settlement and political context. The upper Grijalva Basin is found to have large numbers of ballcourts compared with other parts of the Maya area. The spatial distribution of ballcourts in the basin matches the distribution of civic-ceremonial centers, reflecting the key ritual and political roles of the ballcourt. Absence of a clear hierarchy in size or elaboration among the ballcourts reflects political decentralization. Ballcourt sizes, forms, alignments, and placements indicate their use for either Maya or Mexican hip ball games or more likely some combination of the two game types. Finally, three models that focus on elite factions, elite wealth building, and ritualized conflict are used to explore why the upper Grijalva Basin has so many more ballcourts compared with neighboring parts of the Maya area. An elite-factions model, incorporating a high degree of decentralization across the political landscape, is selected as most plausible for understanding the basin's proliferation of ballcourts.

Radial Pyramids and Radial-Associated Assemblages of the Central Maya Area

1980 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marvin Cohodas
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Astronomical Observation ◽  
Sympathetic Magic ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Nature ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Axis Mundi

Although little known, the radial pyramid is one of the most important and widespread architectural forms of the Classic Maya culture. The radial pyramid is found in many sites of the Central Maya area, often incorporated into standardized assemblages. Both the association between radial pyramids and astronomical observation, and the open character of radial-associated assemblages, suggest that these structures were designed for public participation in rituals regulated by the solar or agricultural calendar. The ritual motions performed on or around radial pyramids were probably understood as acts of sympathetic magic. A comparison with Aztec ritual indicates that among other uses, the Maya would have employed the radial pyramid for the ritual establishment of the axis mundi in equinoctial ceremonies. The public nature of radial-associated assemblages, as well as the rigidity of form, orientation, and arrangement of the component structures, are shown to contrast with the qualities of Maya dynastic architectural assemblages such as the temple and palace acropolises.

The Khmer Settlement Pattern: A Possible Analogy with that of the Maya

1957 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Coe
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Organization ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Maya Area

There has recently been increased attention paid to the nature of the settlement pattern of Classic Maya civilization. It now seems likely that Classic Maya “cities“ were not secular, urban communities in which large numbers of people were grouped together in close proximity. On the other hand, if these were merely ceremonial centers in which the populace gathered for certain rituals, then the political and religious organization of these centers, and the actual socio-political structure of the entire Maya area, are as yet undetermined.

Ritual Diversity and Divergence of Classic Maya Dynastic Traditions: A Lexical Perspective on Within-Group Cultural Variation

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Munson ◽  
Jonathan Scholnick ◽  
Matthew Looper ◽  
Yuriy Polyukhovych ◽  
Martha J. Macri
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Diversity Indices ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
Stone Monuments ◽  
Hieroglyphic Writing ◽  
Cultural Traits

To study the Classic Maya is to at once recognize the shared material representations and practices that give coherence to this cultural category as a unit of analysis, as well as to critically examine the diversity and idiosyncrasy of specific cultural traits within prehispanic Maya society. Maya hieroglyphic writing, in particular the tradition of inscribing texts and images on carved stone monuments, offers evidence for widespread and mutually intelligible cultural practices that were, at the same time, neither unchanging nor uniform in their semantic content. As conduits of linguistic and cultural information, Maya hieroglyphic monuments offer detailed records of Classic Maya dynastic history that include the names, dates, and specific rituals performed by élite individuals. In this article, we analyze the distribution and diversity of these inscriptions to examine ritual variation and the divergence of dynastic traditions in Classic Maya society. Diversity indices and methods adapted from population genetics and ecology are applied to quantify the degree of ritual differentiation and evaluate how these measures vary over time and are partitioned within and between elite populations. Results of this research refine our understanding about the variation of Clássic Maya ritual traditions and make substantive contributions to examining the population structure of cultural diversity within past complex societies.

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