A study of Classic Maya sculpture by Tatiana Proskouriakoff (original) (raw)

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This study analyzes Classic Maya sculpture, focusing on stylistic changes and their relation to epigraphic data. Building on previous foundational studies by Herbert J. Spinden and Sylvanus G. Morley, the work aims to establish definitive style characteristics to support further discussions in Maya art. The analysis includes unpublished sources and highlights contributions from various archaeology experts, emphasizing the importance of detailed epigraphic records in understanding the evolution of Maya sculptural styles.

Archaeological Investigations in the Northern Maya New Data on the Maya Preclassic

2003

The origin of settled life in the southern Maya lowlands, a region that saw the later spectacular culmination of Classic Maya civilization, has been a problem of longstanding as well as contemporary interest. The earliest extant cultural remains in the southern lowlands are the Xe-Real ceramic complexes (Altar de Sacrificios and Seibal) confined to riverine settings of the southern portion of the area. As Willey, Culbert, and Adams have already noted, these early complexes are "diverse, apparently highly regional, and of uncertain time depth" (1967:293); although Xe-Real ceramics, on the basis of modal similarities, show possible ties to the Chiapas Grijalva Valley (Dili-Escalera phases), the Guatemalan Pacific Coast (Conchas phase), and the Gulf Coast Olmec region of Veracruz (La Venta and Tres Zapotes complexes) (Willey 1970:355). R. E. W. Adams feels that the most likely source for Xe-Real peoples is the adjacent lowlands of Tabasco and Veracruz (1969:21, 1971:154). On ...

Maya Paleodemographics: What Do We Know

Objectives: We present a review of what is known about the population dynamics from Classic and Post-Classic Maya settlements in coastal areas of the Yucatan Peninsula such as Jaina, Chac Mool, El Meco and Xcamb o and two other urban centres, Palenque and Copan. Methods: This contribution discusses the available data on mortality, survival, life expectancy, fertility and migration , obtained by paleodemographic methodology. Data for Xcamb o and El Meco were obtained from Tiesler Bloss et al. (2005) and Ortega (2007); information from other sites was obtained from previous work conducted by the authors. Results: This review proposes that the demographic dynamics of the Classical period are typical of densely populated and developing areas with overall average rates of six children per woman; life expectancy at birth between 20 and 42.2 years, which is equivalent to birth rates above 40 per thousand births. Post-Classic shows evidence of great population mobility with unfavourable changes in living conditions that lead us to think in a fertility decrease and low expectancies at birth. Conclusions: There are indications of a demographic change between the Late-Terminal Classic and Post-Classic periods. Life expectancies are lower than 30 years, a high infant mortality and low adult survival after 50 years is shown. The Post-Classic period is characterized by population rearrangements and mobility. Results obtained for both Chac Mool series showed deterioration in health and reduced life expectancy and fertility levels from one period to another. El Meco and Xcamb o series showed differences with Chac Mool's due to higher growth rates. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 00:000–000, 2015. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Maya groups that lived during the Classic and Post-Classic periods have been studied from different perspectives. Archaeology and Bioarchaeology have produced a wealth of literature on Pre-Hispanic Mayans from which we know details of their refined artistic and cultural

The Material Evidence of Ancient Maya Sculpture

Journal of Visual Culture, 2010

This essay discusses ancient Maya monumental stone sculptures and the images and texts carved on them c. 600—900 CE, focusing not on the moment of their creation but over time, examining particularly how the ancient Maya used sculptures to interact with their past and its personae, stories, and material remains. Following ancient Maya sculptures and their treatment over time reveals the importance of the materiality of these images and objects, which the Maya seem to have valued not simply as bearers of information but also as relics that allowed contact with sacred ancestors, with the material and experiential aspects of image and object intertwined with any pictorial or textual content. The author concludes that a consideration of the realm of the material along with the pictorial, narrational, or informational is instructive, if not essential, in investigating the use of images as evidence in any culture and time.

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Filloy Nadal, L.“The Importance of Visage, Facial Treatment, and Idiosyncratic Traits in Maya Royal Portraiture during the Reign of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal of Palenque, 615–683 CE”, en Vera Tiesler y María Cecilia Lozada, Social Skins of the Head, University of New Mexico Press, 2018, pp. 109-128.

“The Importance of Visage, Facial Treatment, and Idiosyncratic Traits in Maya Royal Portraiture during the Reign of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal of Palenque, 615–683 CE”, 2018