A reinterpretation of Stela 6, Pacbitun, Belize (original) (raw)

8 CAHAL PECH STELA 9: A PRECLASSIC MONUMENT FROM THE BELIZE VALLEY

Investigations at Cahal Pech, in the upper Belize River Valley region, uncovered 10 monuments: nine stelae and one altar. Of the nine stelae recorded at the site, only one was carved. It is argued that the "wrap around" style of carving, the iconography, size, and general design all indicate that this monument dates to the Late Formative period. It is further hypothesized that carved Preclassic stelae in the Maya lowlands may have developed from an earlier, local, stucco mask tradition executed on monumental architecture. The ritual deposition of the stela in an a relatively elaborate Classic period tomb also indicates that the monument may have been kept as an heirloom, and that the human figure depicted on the stela probably represents an important member of the ruling, Late Preclassic, Cahal Pech lineage.

Chalcatzingo Monument 34: A Formative Period “Southern Style” Stela in the Central Mexican Highlands

This paper describes a recently discovered Chalcatzingo stela, Monument 34, carved with motifs strikingly reminiscent of later (Late Formative) artworks in southern Mesoamerica, including those in the lowland Maya region. This stela manifests yet another historical tie between Chalcatzingo and other areas of Mesoamerica, and it may possibly signal the site’s status as an innovator of important motifs.

Cave Stelae and Megalithic Monuments in Western Belize

In the Maw of the Earth Monster, 2005

Investigations by the Western Belize Regional Cave Project (WBRCP) have documented three caves in western Belize that contain vertically standing megalithic monuments. Because these monuments resemble stelae found in Maya sites, we are applying the term "stelae," although we recognize that the cave examples in western Belize are shorter than most surface-site monuments and bear no inscriptions. It is equally important to note that, unlike speleothems, which were sometimes placed in an upright position and rarely modified, the stelae in these caves were produced from either slate or limestone and generally display evidence of modification. The monuments were also erected within recessed cave chambers and are accompanied by cultural materials that are associated predominantly with ritual activity. Because stelae are chiefly discovered within the central plazas of major surface sites, and because they are traditionally associated with ancient Maya rulership, the occurrence of these monuments in subterranean contexts offers intriguing new data on Pre-Hispanic Maya cave activity and has important implications for our understanding of Maya cave ritual.

Some Observations and New Discoveries Related to Altar 3, Pacbitun, Belize

2017

On-going work by the Pacbitun Regional Archaeological Project has brought to light considerable new information on early architecture in Plaza A, associated artefacts, and carved monuments. Discovered during the 20 16 field season, in Structure 25, within the palatial group, a new fragment of Altar 3 prompts us to reconsider the dating, stylistic attributes, iconographic program and epigraphy of this important monument. Here, we present a new drawing of the monument and comment on the temporal incidence of the iconography 's stylisti c attributes and touch on paleographic features of the epigraphy. Together these data provide us with important information concerning Early Classic kingship at Pacbitun, against which the secondary contexts wherein the fragments of this monument were found can be gauged, thereby beginning to sketch out some of the historical benchmarks of this monument's life-history. Resumen: Trabajos en curso por el Proyecto Arqueo16gico Regional de Pacbitun ...

(2005) Issues in Copan Archaeology

E. Wyllys Andrews V and William L. Fash. In Copán: The History of an Ancient Maya Kingdom, pp. 395–425, edited by E. W. Andrews and William L. Fash, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico., 2005

A 'Miniature Stela' from Trinidad de Nosotros, El Petén, Guatemala

Mexicon 30(3):59–60, 2008

A small limestone object, carved in the form of a stela, was recovered during recent investigations at the ancient Maya site of Trinidad de Nosotros. Incised graffiti on the front of the object depict a standing male individual in a posture similar to that found on full-scale monuments. Elements of the individual’s dress and adornment suggest that the object, recovered in middens associated with the site’s ballcourt, may date to the very end of the Late Classic period or the first decades of the Terminal Classic. Although the object’s function is enigmatic, the crude quality of carving seems to controvert use as an artist’s scale model, and suggests a more likely ritual function.

A preliminary report on the monuments and inscriptions of La Milpa, Orange Walk, Belize

Düring his initial investigations in 1938, J. Eric S. Thompson discovered 12 of the 16 stelae that are now known in the archaeological zone of La Milpa in the Orange Walk District of Belize (Thompson 1938(Thompson , 1939. Even though La Milpa by then was the site with the largest number of monuments in Belize, it has not received further attention for about four decades. Later visits in 1978 by the then Archaeological Commissioner, Elizabeth Graham, and by Da-vid Pendergast and Logan McNatt in 1985 did not add further stelae to the corpus of known monuments from the site. Extensive mapping operations in the site by Thomas Guderjan in 1988 and 1990 resulted in the discovery of two further monuments at La Milpa, increasing the total of stelae to 14 (Guderjan 1989, 1991 a, 199 lb). As part of Guderjan's project, Jason Yaeger undertook a preliminary study of the stelae of La Milpa (Yaeger 1991), confined to the few monuments that have escaped heavy erosion. Guderjan and Yaeger also introduced new stela numbers, different from those used by Thompson (1938) and others since then. The La Milpa Project uses Thompson's designations for Stelae 1-12, with those discovered in 1990 being Stelae 13-16 and Stela 17 being added in 1993. Thompson's photographs of Stelae 7 and 8 were published by Hammond (1991) and Stelae 1,12 and 15 were illustrated in Tourtellot et al 1993, but the published illustrations do not show enough detail for a systematic analysis of the hieroglyphic texts and iconography. Thus the author was invited to photograph and redraw all of the La Milpa monuments, applying the Standards of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions (Graham 1975). The following discussion is based on the new photographs and drawings made by Grube in March, 1993 as part of the La Milpa project directed by Norman Hammond and Gair Tourtellot III. This article will deal with all known monuments and hieroglyphic inscriptions from La Milpa, but only the better preserved monuments will be illustrated. Acomplete publication of the entire corpus of monuments from La Milpa is in preparation as one of the future volumes of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions.

Shedding New Light on the Maya Stela from Hix Witz in Stuttgart

Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan Research Notes, 2020

A Maya stela with a hieroglyphic text and a portrayal of a Maya ruler that is now in the collections of the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany (inventory no. M 30751), has received scant attention from scholars to date 1. This stela is the focus of current research by the authors as members of the project "Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan", who have been collaborating with Doris Kurella of the Linden Museum since 2018. Using the project's 3D white light scanner, the authors created a high-resolution digital version and three-dimensional visualization of the stela in the storage facilities of the Linden Museum (Figures 1-2). Digital image processing was employed to render legible text passages that can now barely be read with the naked eye and to clarify aspects of the ruler's representation. These developments have led to new understanding of the contents and origin of the stela, which we are presenting here in English for the first time. Our analysis concludes that the monument illustrates a previously unknown Maya king of the small polity of Hix Witz (English "Ocelot/Margay Hill") from the early ninth century CE and most likely originates from Zapote Bobal in Petén, Guatemala, or a neighboring site. Together with the nearby site of El Pajaral (see Figure 11), these two settlements constitute the core of a small, Late Classic polity whose rulers referred to themselves as the kings of Hix Witz and competed with other small polities for regional dominance and control of resources between 600 and 850. According to the inscription, the front of the stela shows a ruler of Hix Witz/Zapote Bobal, whose name is only partially interpretable as Ahiin Ahk ? Witz and who presumably ascended to the throne in the late eighth or early ninth century as the last king of this polity. Our investigations thus add to the list of historical persons whose names appear in the Maya hieroglyphic corpus between 465 and ca. 800 CE in connection with the toponymic title of Hix Witz.

Ucanal Stela 29 and the Cosmopolitanism of Terminal Classic Maya Stone Monuments

Latin American Antiquity, 2020

The Terminal Classic period (ca. AD 800-1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands witnessed a precipitous decline in the erection of carved stone monuments, a decline that corresponds to shifts in political ideologies and the disappearance of many prominent royal dynasties. Although Southern Lowland sites are often considered peripheral to the events and innovations occurring elsewhere in Mesoamerica during this time, a recently discovered stela, Stela 29, at the site of Ucanal in Peten, Guatemala, underscores the active role of the site in broader political movements in the ninth century. Our icono-graphic, textual, and stylistic analysis of this stela, in concert with other Terminal Classic monuments from the site, reveals a vernacular cosmopolitan aesthetic whereby local Classic Maya styles were infused with images and elements that referenced connections with peoples from northern Yucatan, the Gulf Coast, and Central Mexico. El período Clásico Terminal (ca. 800-1000 dC) en las tierras bajas mayas del sur experimento un descenso precipitado en la construcción de monumentos de piedra tallada, un descenso que corresponde a cambios en las ideologías políticas y el cese de muchas dinastías reales prominentes. Aunque los sitios de las tierras bajas del sur a menudo se consideran periféricos a los eventos e innovaciones que ocurren en otras partes de Mesoamérica durante este tiempo, una estela recientemente descu-bierta, la Estela 29, del sitio de Ucanal en Petén, Guatemala, subraya el papel activo del sitio en los movimientos políticos más amplios en el siglo noveno. Nuestro análisis iconográfico, textual y estilístico de esta estela, en concierto con otros mon-umentos del Clásico Terminal del sitio, revela una estética cosmopolita vernácula en la que los estilos Mayas Clásicos locales se infunden con imágenes y elementos que hacen referencia a conexiones con gente del norte de Yucatán, de la costa del Golfo y del Centro de México.