The Architectural Context of Caches, Burials, and Other Ritual Activities for the Classic Period Maya (as Reflected at Caracol, Belize (original) (raw)
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Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture
Washington, DC, 1998
M aya archaeology has always been fascinated with the elaborate temple pyramids, palaces, and stelae plazas that formed the centers of the ancient communities from its inception to the present day. Despite the intense interest in large-scale architecture, we still have a rather limited excavated sample of Maya dynastic building programs. The scale of construction of these monuments poses immense logistical problems and other challenges for conscientious investigation, stabilization, and publication. More often than not, the version of a large-scale construction visible on the surface has one or more previous structures buried inside of it. This makes the problem of complete sampling of architectural monuments even more daunting from both a practical and an interpretive point of view. Despite these rather long odds, some remarkable progress has been made. Increased understanding of the writing system and pictorial symbol systems used to adorn the buildings and the principles of organization of Maya architecture on the level of commoners and the nobility help inform our judgments about the function and meaning of the building complexes that formed the heart of the Classic Maya towns and cities. This paper represents an attempt to understand how the ruling families organized their sacred and secular spaces and what kinds of buildings and messages they erected in those environs. It also explores the degree to which one may reliably infer the political strategies, idiosyncratic concerns, and even the personality of royal Maya patrons from the architecture they left behind.
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2006
The objectives of this study are to describe the methods and present the results of an investigation into the utilisation of sculpture by the Classic Maya as “signposting,” as a means of signaling the function and the hierarchical division of ritual and administrative “spaces” in a city centre. Due to limitations in the breadth of literacy among the greater Maya (A.D. 250–900) population, imagery (as displayed on monuments and architecture) was used by the Maya elite as a supplementary communicative tool. Monumental art was used to signal, among other things, the “identities of sacred places and [their] function through sculptural composition. . . to people using them or coming into the spaces they addressed” (Schele and Mathews 1998: 27). Most often, attempts to understand the function and exclusivity of space within Classic Maya city centres have focused on the interpretation of architectural variation (i.e., points of restricted access implying public and private domains; see Harrison 1970; Andrews 1975; Pendergast 1992). Additional methods of inquiry have included epigraphic decipherment, ethnohistoric investigation, ethnographic analogy, and analysis of artefact residues and their distribution (e.g., Fash 1983; Schele and Mathews 1998; McAnany and Plank 2001). A primary objective of the present inquiry was to determine whether an analysis of the spatial distribution of sculpture within a Maya site would influence current proposals concerning elite-civic demarcation and area function maintained by ethnographic, ethnohistoric, artefactual, and epigraphic assessment. My intention was to apply a social dimension to the inquiry of “space” through the analysis of behaviour and symbolism represented on monumental art and architecture. It is argued that among the Maya “a full range of activities took place in residential compounds, including lineage festivals, administrative overseeing, manufacture, gathering of tribute, adjudications, child rearing, food preparation, and a hundred other enterprises” (Schele and Mathews 1998: 29). As noted by Tilley (1994: 10–11), the “spatial experience [should not be viewed as] innocent and neutral, but invested with power relating to age, gender, social position and relationships with others. Different societies, groups and individuals act out their lives in different spaces.” I saw value in establishing whether imagery, as displayed on monumental art and architecture, could further contribute to our understanding of social order and control within important Maya sites. Cross-culturally, the utilisation of visual media to communicate to the broader masses has long been acknowledged. For the “Greeks, mythologic, heroic, or historic sculpture represented something which had a very vivid interest for everyone. Similarly. . . mediaeval monuments [and] statuary had a meaning perfectly understood by all; it was a means of instruction. The iconography of our great northern cathedrals is a veritable encyclopedia instructing the multitude through the eyes” (Viollet-le-Duc 1987: 214). “Access analysis” of archetypal building groups, combined with the thematic–analytical investigation of fixed sculptural media (positioned within specific spatial contexts), has proven to be an effective method of assessing the role that imagery played in signaling the function and hierarchical division of bounded space. General questions that I sought to address in my inquiry were: (1) What was it that motivated the Maya elite to position sculpture where they did? (2) Is there specific imagery marking specific spaces? (3) Acknowledging the multidimensionality of meaning communicated by Maya sculpture, are there embedded within compositions clues as to how certain space was used and socially demarcated?
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2016
Archaeologists agree that ancestors figured prominently in the lives of the Classic (CE 250-900), particularly in the Late Classic (600-900), the period for which we have a wealth of epigraphic, iconographic, and archaeological evidence. Most data are from monumental site centers where royalty were lavishly interred in large pyramids. Much less is known, however, of the roles ancestors buried in small, often rural, shrines played in the lives of commoners--the remaining 90-98% of the Classic era population. Still less is known regarding the origins and development of ancestral practices int he Lowland Maya area. In this chapter I review archaeological evidence for ancient Maya ancestors rather than the deceased in general. I approach this from a chronological perspective, beginning with the earliest evidence of ancestor during the Preclassic (1000 BCE- CE 250). In so doing I emphasize changes in burial practices, including body position, architecture, and symbolic elements of grave goods. I also evaluate practices of kings and commoners in the Classic era, with a focus on the ongoing use of various Preclassic symbols and practices in the continued creation of ancestors. My emphasis is on the material manifestation of these ancestors, the practices associated with them, and the resulting implications for our understanding of ancient Lowland Maya society.
THE QUESTION OF FUNCTION AND MEANING OF MAYA ARCHITECTURE
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Dedicatory Burial/Offering Complexes at the Moon Pyramid, Teotihuacan
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2007
A series of highly elaborated burial/offering complexes have been discovered recently in association with seven superimposed monumental constructions at the Moon Pyramid. The archaeological contexts excavated during the past seven years indicate that these dedicatory complexes were symbols of a state religious ideology and communicated sociopolitical information on behalf of ruling elites. Rich artifacts made of obsidian, greenstone, shell, pyrite, ceramics, wood, and textile, as well as abundant skeletal remains of sacrificed animals and human beings, stand out in these unusual ritual deposits. Many of the offerings possess strong connotations of warfare and ritual sacrifice. After describing the five burial/offering complexes and discussing their possible function and religious significance, we conclude that, when the expanding Teotihuacan state orchestrated these monumental constructions, the most important ritual paraphernalia was buried in the new enlargement programs to express the ideology of sacred rulership.
2015
Some 48 different caves and rock shelters were surveyed in a karstic region of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. A brief discussion of the morphological variation encountered and methods of underground archaeological survey is presented. The cave of Las Ruinas has been chosen for detailed examination in this paper. This cave best illustrates a typology for the considerable number and variety of funerary and other structures documented in the cave; and, different aspects of the relationship between human soci-ety and the subterranean environment. The pottery found in the archaeological survey has allowed rel-ative chronological dating of all 48 studied sites. All belong to the Postclassic Period (900-1521 A.D.). The pottery also facilitated an evaluation of external contacts and influences on this region. In 1971, the discovery of a cave beneath the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan, Mexico (Heyden, 1975), shed new light on the role of the subterranean world in Mesoamerican civilizations. Subseq...
Maya Royal Ritual: Architectonics as a Key to Political Organization
Arizona Anthropologist, 1994
This study considers the spaces occupied by Maya royal rituals as a means of testing the application of models of political organization. Investigation of the architectonics of several temple pyramids at the sites of Copan, Tikal, and Seibal indicates that Maya political organization does not resemble that required by either the galactic polity or segmentary state models. Comparison with large Mesopotamian temples from Early Dynastic levels at Khafaje and al-'Ubaid suggests that the royal rituals of the Classic Maya are indicative of a city-state political organization. Two models of state level political organization have recently been forwarded as appropriate characterizations of Classic Maya polities: the segmentary state (Houston 1992) and the galactic polity (Demarest, n.d.). Both of these models derive from a growing awareness within anthropology and sociology that the rituals of rulers are not epiphenomenal to the governance of society but rather are central to the structure of power. This brief study looks to the spaces that royal rituals occupied as a means of testing the application of models of political organization. Investigation of the architectonics of the spaces they occupied demonstrates that Maya royal ritual praxis does not resemble that required by either the galactic polity or segmentary state models. Comparison with large Mesopotamian temples from Early Dynastic levels at Khafaje and al-'Ubaid suggests that the royal rituals of the Classic Maya are indicative of a city-state political organization. This investigation considers monumental religious architecture from the sites of Copan, Tikal, and Seibal-three Maya cities of different sizes-and attempts to define the major aspects of ritual praxis preserved in the architectonics of their large temple pyramids. The sample of temple pyramids examined from each site is limited by the detail of published information and by a concern to limit the inquiry to those temples used in ritual involving the monarch. Therefore, most of the temples selected for this study are adjacent to large plazas and central to the site plan, but it is also
2020
This dissertation investigates the role of civic-ceremonial plazas in the formation and maintenance of the Preclassic period Maya centers of Cival, Holmul, and Witzna located in the Cival region in northern Guatemala. Ancient Maya public plazas are largely understudied by archaeologists, despite filling a critical role in the understanding of community formation and interaction through the practices associated with the commemorative and ceremonial rituals held in these locations. These public plazas were places of interaction that ranged from public, open places to restricted spaces. The theories of practice, structuration, place, social memory, and communities of practice are utilized here to critically examine the types of interactions and activities experienced in these plazas. This examination of civic-ceremonial plazas in the Cival region draws upon excavations, GIS data, proxemics, estimated plaza capacity, and archaeological evidence of ritual activities to understand practices, which resulted in the emergence and continued occupation of public plazas. Lime plaster samples acquired from plaza floors are used to provide insight into the interaction and exchange of practices between the sites of Cival, Holmul, and Witzna. Thin section petrography, SEM-EDS, and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) are used to analyze the mineralogical and elemental composition of lime plaster, which is subsequently used to determine the quality of the plaster and in the identification of communities of practice. Findings from this study confirm the strong connection between Cival and Holmul during the Late Preclassic period by demonstrating the existence of multiple communities of practice involving the addition of barite to lime plaster production and the semi-standardization of E-Groups in the region. Additionally, it was discovered that the centers of Cival, Holmul, and Witzna each experienced a distinct trajectory regarding the construction and spatial positioning of public and private plazas. Despite these differences, public plazas remained essential focal points of community activity and as locations for commemorative and ceremonial rituals for each of these three sites throughout the Preclassic and Classic periods. Private plazas were also essential locations for ceremonial and ritual events conducted among a more restricted community, such as seen at the Watchtower plaza in East Witzna. The practices associated with the ritual events in these plazas were preserved in the material remains of lime plaster surfaces, caches, and stelae. These physical remains are used to provide insight into the types of rituals conducted in these plazas.