Back to the future for predicting the past : Cuchcabal-Batabil-Cuchteel and May ritual political structures across archaeological landscapes, in ethnohistoric texts, and through cosmological time (original) (raw)
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PLOS ONE, 2022
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PLOS ONE, 2022
Until recently, an extensive area in the central lowlands of the Yucatán peninsula was completely unexplored archaeologically. In 2013 and 2014, during initial surveys in the northern part of the uninhabited Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in eastern Campeche, Mexico, we located Chactún, Tamchén and Lagunita, three major Maya centers with some unexpected characteristics. Lidar data, acquired in 2016 for a larger area of 240 km2, revealed a thoroughly modified and undisturbed archaeological landscape with a remarkably large number of residential clusters and widespread modifications related to water management and agriculture. Substantial additional information was obtained through field surveys and test excavations in 2017 and 2018. While hydraulic and agricultural features and their potential for solving various archaeologically relevant questions were discussed in a previous publication, here we examine the characteristics of settlement patterns, architectural remains, sculpted monumen...
Native Yucatán and Spanish influence: The archaeology and history of chikinchel
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Researchers interested in developing long-term social histories are faced with myriad difficulties rising from the biased and fragmentary nature of various available sources of information on the distant past. Understanding the crucial centuries surrounding the Spanish invasion of the northern Maya lowlands is hindered by uncritical mixing of the written and material records. This case study from the Chikinchel region in northeast Yucatán is focused on economic issues. Relevant data from each register first are considered separately in order to preserve the integrity of each source. The resulting synthesis offers a new, well-informed interpretation of late prehispanic economic organization and its alteration under Spanish authority.
Bridging the Gaps: Integrating Archaeology and History in Oaxaca, Mexico; A Volume in Memory of Bruce E. Byland, 2015
A major problem has been to bridge the gap between the peoples who are identified by Spanish and Indian documentary records and those who are known to us only through the ruins of their buildings and the broken elements of their material culture which have survived.-Vaillant 1937:324 The would-be correlator faces the problem of a genuine "gap" between the emphasis in the native traditions on political and dynastic history and the sequent modifications in artifact form which are the chief concern of the excavator. .. The problem is to bridge this gap, to tie the two kinds of history together at key points, to integrate the two sets of data in a meaningful synthesis.-Nicholson 1955:596 Los avances que se han hecho y los que están por hacerse, descansan en la confluencia conciente y coordinadora de dos disciplinas. .. esta recreación del acercamiento antropológico unificado, que llena la brecha entre disciplinas, es la ola del futuro. En la medida en que nuestras tareas estén coordinadas, en esa medida podremos aprender.-Byland and Pohl 1990:385-386 sCoPe and definitions
THE INFLECTION POINTS IN FORMATIVE MAYA HISTORY: THE VIEW FROM CHAMPOTÓN, CAMPECHE, MEXICO
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2022
This study evaluates the degree of correspondence between chronological frameworks implemented in Maya studies and current archaeological evidence, focusing on dynamics in the Preclassic period in the Champotón River drainage, Campeche, Mexico. The earliest ceramics documented in Champotón, dating to the early facet of the Middle Preclassic, were part of a regional tradition that shared decorative modes with contemporary complexes across Mesoamerica. The transition between the early and late facets of the Middle Preclassic was an era of abrupt change, with communities in Champotón participating in the first widespread autochthonous material culture horizon of the Maya Lowlands. The ensuing centuries would be characterized by conservatism and growth, with spatial continuity in settlement locations and homogeneity in material culture through the Late Preclassic. These historical dynamics are not unique to coastal Campeche, but were embedded within broader historical developments during the Middle Preclassic period in the Maya Lowlands. Instead of forcing new evidence into an incongruent chronological framework, this article proposes a revision to the traditional periodization used in the Maya Lowlands.
In the northern Maya lowlands the transition from the Late Preclassic to the Early Classic is poorly understood. Despite the knowledge that ceramic traditions underwent drastic changes, the timing of these changes is difficult to place in absolute terms. Many of the chronological problems stem from an overreliance on the dates ascribed to this transition by earlier scholars. We evaluate the cultural historical frameworks of the Preclassic and Early Classic periods in the northern lowlands, which have remained surprisingly static since their creation over 50 years ago. Using data from excavations and regional settlement surveys, we explore the possibility of how changes in settlement patterns, monumental architecture, and ceramics contribute to debates about concepts such as the Terminal Preclassic and Protoclassic and our broader understanding of the social and political transformations that occurred at this transition. We propose that five ceramic spheres emerged in the northern lowlands during the Terminal Preclassic (75 B.C.-A.D. 400). The increased ceramic heterogeneity correlates with the emergence of more hierarchical political structures. We use two research areas, Yaxuná and the Yalahau region, to explore the implications of a Preclassic Maya collapse, as well as architectural data combined with ceramic data to shed light on the variability of sociopolitical organization at the end of the Preclassic. 58 ß Trustees of Boston University 2010
Calakmul: New Data from an Ancient Maya Capital in Campeche, Mexico
Latin American Antiquity, 1995
In this paper we summarize more than a decade of interdisciplinary work at Calakmul, including (1) the mapping project, which has covered more than 30 km2; (2) the excavation project, which has uncovered major structures and tombs in the center of the city; (3) the epigraphic project, whose goal is to study the hieroglyphic texts and relate them to the archaeological evidence; (4) the analysis of the architecture, ceramics, and chipped stone to define sacred and secular activity areas and chronological stages; and (5) a focus on the ecology, hydrology, and paleoclimatology of Calakmul and its environs with the aim of understanding more fully its periods of development and decline.
POLITICAL STRATEGIES AND THE URBAN SPACES THAT REFLECT THEM IN FORMATIVE-PERIOD CERRO JAZMÍN, OAXACA
Ancient Mesoamerica, 2019
Based on stratigraphic excavation data and associated radiocarbon dates we argue that the pre-Hispanic city of Cerro Jazmín, in the Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca, underwent a period of political change between the Late Formative (300 b.c.-a.d. 50) and the Terminal Formative periods (a.d. 50-300). This shift is reflected in the city's layout and in the timing of construction and use of two different monumental sectors. During the city's Late Formative occupation, we found evidence of more exclusionary feasting activity taking place in a secluded monumental sector called the Sunken Courtyards near the hilltop. In the Terminal Formative, however, monumental construction expanded in the more accessible Tres Cerritos sector where larger and accessible public areas were the focus of activity. We argue that changes in the city's layout, along with the differing patterns of feasting, suggest that the city's leaders went from a more exclusionary form of government to a more collective political strategy during the Terminal Formative period. Despite of these efforts monumental construction largely stopped and the city's population declined by the start of the Classic period (a.d. 300).