maya archaeology exam 3

settlement studies

the study of the spatial distribution of sites used to reconstruct social and political organization

gordon willey

established settlement studies

core periphery model

in the 1950s, willey argued that to fully understand ancient maya society, we need to consider settlement beyond the site core and what types of overall patterns were seen on the landscape

information on social organization as well as population levels and territorial extent could be considered

ceren, el salvador

pompeii of the new world, volcanic eruption in AD 200 and AD 590

see the layout of the buildings from being well preserved

kitchen, garden, supply room, bed

proximity between households, likely related family members

visible structures

built above ground level, evidence of a raised platform

stump in center marks the location of a stone foundation

corners are evidence of a raised platform

hidden or invisible structures

built at ground level, no platform

their presence indicates that population was likely higher than previously thought by maya archaeologists

bulldozing activities affects settlement studies and population numbers

lamanai, belize

farming techniques can alter evidence of settlement

wendy asmore’s plans of maya settlement units

her research provided information that the maya built their structures in predicted patterns, in six plazuela (plaza) arrangements

based on spanish accounts and ethnographic data, the average population size of a single maya house is 5.5 house

no two maya site shares the same size or layout

social stratification

combined evidence from archaeology, iconography, epigraphy, and ethnohistory shows that late classic society was stratified

defined by differential access to basic resources, often determined by factors of inheritance, marriage, and rank

differences in graves, architecture, grave goods

theories of maya social organization

two class model and multi class model

two class model

eric thompson; 1970s

maya society was divided into two classes: priestly and commoner

centers were largely ceremonial (for priests only)

commoners occupied structures scattered across the landscape

no longer an accepted model

multi class model

arlen and diane chase; 1980s

recognition of a middle class through archaeological work at caracol

identified five social classes: elite, priests, administrators/military/artisans, commoner-farmers, and slaves

generally accepted model today

population estimations

no two maya sites share the same size or layout, therefore population numbers differ as well

mayanists have spent decades figuring out how many people lived at any one site

maya political organization

state level society, centralized control, city states run by rulers not priests (no theocracy), social stratification is evident, hereditary succession, ruling dynasties, leaders rule by coercive force, evidence of standing/professional armies

emblem glyphs

defined by joyce marcus in the 1980s

they are the hieroglyphic place name of a late classic period state. more than 80 such glyphs have been identified

written on stelae, they proclaim the king/queen as the holy lord of given domain (city state)

city specific

pacbitun emblem glyph: place of gophers

city state

an independent city that govern a specific territory, serving as center of political, cultural, and economic life

richard adam’s regional states model

no longer valid

8 different city states, each one has a capital, but there are other cities within the area

the more plazas at a site, the more important it is

ex: tikal with 85 plazas

peter mathew’s city states model

what is agreed upon today

around 65 city states

counting the number of times an emblem glyph is recorded in a particular area

there are also other cities/sites within the city state

endemic warfare

expansionistic, empire building (territorial for economic and political prestige)

the maya also fought bitter ritual wars that culminated in bloody sacrifices

warring planned around crop cycles: never took place during harvest times, always after

warfare could resolve rivalries, expand control over farming and trade, exact tribute, and augment power

battles also seen as clashes between supernatural forces; victory meant the winners had the gods on their side (requiring blood sacrifice)

rulers led warriors into battle

average territory of about 2500 square km, each capital was about 25 km from each boundary, so polity capitals were about 50 km apart

bonampak murals

warfare, capture, and sacrifice are commonly depicted in late classic maya art

maya hieroglyphs recount the history of dynasties, highlighting the battles won, captives taken and sacrificed, and cities conquered and subjugated

elite power was based on their ability to control important components of the economy (water, salt, obsidian), the military, and religion

religion provided the foundation for the moral authority exercised by kings and queens. this authority was based on a view shared by both king and commoner that royal power was derived from supernatural forces that governed the universe

trophy skulls

skulls of rulers that were defeated, placed on belts

glyphs carved onto mandible

skeletal evidence and artistic evidence

pakal na, belize and pacbitun, belize

weaponry

weapons (spears, darts, knives, clubs, blowguns, slings), bow and arrow not part of weaponry until after AD 900, shields made of woven mats/wood, quilted cotton vests for armor made with saltwater to make it harder and lighter

attacks by foot via causeway and canoe

hand to hand combat to capture prisoners

macuahuitl: club with obsidian

atlatl

becan, yucatan

moats 15 m wide and up to 6 m deep, stone walls into which vertical posts (11 m tall) were set

gateways lured attackers into killing alleys

defensive measures

dos pillas, guatemala

built walls inside the city to protect the elites’ temples and palaces

late classic skull pit at colha, belize

males (7) and females (10), children (10) and adults (20(, cranial and dental modification (elite); 30 total

skulls exhibit cut marks, some burned vertebrae still attached to some skulls

cut marks indicate throat slashing/flaying

evidence of warfare

youngest at the bottom and oldest at the top

aguateca, guatemala

has a chasm running through the site, 60 m deep

had 60 to 133 individuals inside

used logs/wood to travel across

maya writing

the late classic language that was hieroglyphically written is called classic southern maya

one of the most important sources of writing, and thus information of the maya, comes from codices

maya writing system

maya hieroglyphic writing is arguably one of the most visually striking writing systems of the world

their script is a mixed phonetic and logographic script

phonetic signs represents syllables consisting of a consonant and vowel that are combined to spell out words

the script was usually written in paired vertical columns reading from left to right and top to bottom in a zigzag pattern

connected to the royalty, the priests, and scribes:

• maya scribes depicted as a rabbit in drawings

logographs

called word signs, represent entire words

they can be pictographic in that they resemble the words they represent

a maya scribe could decide to write the glyph for jaguar or balam in two different ways:

• they might use a logogram, draw a picture of a jaguar, or choose to spell out the word using phonetic signs ba-la-ma for the word balam

bark beater

used to make paper for codices by smashing bark of fig tree pulp

once flattened, the paper was coated in a white lime solution

codex

pre columbian books that included hieroglyphic texts describing Maya astronomy, rituals, and ceremonies

these were books that bishop diego de landa had destroyed during an inquisition in the yucatan in the 1560s

a folding screen book painted on bark paper which has been coated with lime or stucco and pages was held together with natural gums

it focused primarily on astronomical cycles that provided instruction for the timing of various rituals as well as information on political histories, prophecies, and genealogies

four codices

found in various museums around europe where they were kept for centuries. initially brought back by the spanish in the 16th century or later

dresden, madrid, paris, and grolier

the first three contain astronomical, political information and are sacred texts

dresden codex

found in 1739, 3.5 m long, 78 pages

AD 1200 to 1345

madrid codex

found in 1866, 6.7 m long, 112 pages

AD 1250 to 1450

paris codex

found in 1832, 1.45 m long, 22 pages

AD 1250 to 1450

grolier codex

found in 1971, 2.5 m long, 20 pages

found in chiapas, mexico

AD 1230

fragments of pages

sources of writing

lintels, carved stone monuments, painted on tomb/temple walls, material culture (pottery vessels, bone, shell, jade items), codices

structure 10L-26

copan, honduras

hieroglyphic stairway, 62 steps, 21 meters high, and 2200 glyphs

longest text in maya area

discusses dynastic rule throughout the late classic period; it is still being reconstructed by archaeologists from harvard university

gok: god only knows what is in the pile of steps with glyphs on them

had to put them back into sequence

late classic maya mathematics

developed by merchants for commercial dealings

was a vigesimal system, not a decimal system

positional system moved from the bottom to the top

numbers are counted from bottom to top

cacao beans were used for counting

vigesimal math system

base of 20

bar and dot system

using a dot to indicate 1, a bar to indicate 5, and a stylized shell for 0

the maya could write any number, and they used their system to record historical and astronomical events

concept of zero

developed concept of zero

because maya used zero, they were able to calculate large numbers

maya calendars

maya saw time as cyclical, not linear: points in time and the events assigned to them are not unique, they could be duplicated/repeated

commoners were familiar with them, but the more complex calendars, such as those based on planetary cycles, involved knowledge that must have been guarded by the ruling elite as a source of great power

having knowledge of the sky deities and being able to predict their movements demonstrated to the commoners that the kings and priests were in close communication with the supernatural forces that governed the universe

used in combination with one another for both practical and esoteric purposes

told people when to plant or harvest as well as when to sacrifice and let blood

time was based on days and months, not hours, minutes, and seconds

four calendars

tzolk’in, ha’b, long count, and calendar round

tzolk’in calendar

a 260 day sacred/ritual calendar

used to predict a person’s destiny from their birthdate

everyone, even commoners, would use this calendar

numbers 1 to 13, 20 day names, each had its own glyph which represent a patron deity

for the maya, 1 imix would be like us saying monday (the first day of the week)

the maya had 20 day names

ha’b calendar

a 365 day calendar that closely approximates the true solar year of 365.2422 days

day to day seasonal calendar to predict proper time to plant/harvest corn

18 months, 20 days

wayeb: a period of 5 unlucky days at the end of the year

signs for months in the 365 day count

commoners, especially farmers, used this calendar

calendar round

combined the tzolk’in and the ha’b

it took 52 years, or 18,980 days for the same day on each calendar to co-occur. the ha’b would have to cycle around 52 times and the tzolk’in 73 times before the exact same date reoccured.

this calendar was more guarded

long count

a day to day calendar which runs like a great clock from a point in the mystical past

it was used to anchor events in time, like the gregorian calendar we use

units of time

baktun: 144,000 days (400 years)

katun: 7200 days (20 years)

tun: 360 days (year)

winal: 20 days (month)

kin: 1 day (day)

the correlation problem

the beginning or fixed point in time was determined to be 13.0.0.0.0 or 13 baktuns (1,827,000 days ago)

this has been correlated with european (gregorian) calendar to be 3114 BC

all inscribed dates can be understood as time passed since this particular date

conversion of dates

based on three things:

• 16th century spanish chroniclers

• maya histories from the colonial period

• remnants of the ancient calendars still in use in guatemalan highlands

religion

concerned with supernatural beings, powers, and forces

the supernatural is the extraordinary realm outside the observable world

function of religion in maya society

maya religion explained natural forces that were not well understood and organized the cosmos into an ordered place

served to unify society, provide comfort and security in times of uncertainty and crisis, and justify wars and the authority of the ruling elites

rituals, including blood sacrifice to the gods, were important to maintain the world of living, to obtain the advice of gods, and to ensure the movement of sun, moon, and stars

pantheon of gods

complex pantheon of gods whom they worshipped and offered human sacrifices

worshiped about 166 gods

each day, month, and occupation had its own special god or goddess

gods were fluid beings that manifested sacred qualities in shifting ways:

• they could overlap their identities, functions, and roles

• ex: a god could manifest itself in binary form, benevolent vs malevolent, young vs old, male vs female, and animal vs human

itzamna

creator god

lord of the heavens and lord of the night and day

inventor of writing and books

married to ix chel

ix chel

moon and rainbow goddess

she is also the goddess of weaving and childbirth

married to itzama

kinich ajaw

sun god

represents the solar cycle and the god of the rulers

yun kaax

god of maize and agriculture

ah puch

god of death

shown as a skull and skeleton

ek chaub

god of trade

maya artists painted his face black

buluc chabtan

god of war and human sacrifice

he is shown with a weapon in his hand

chahk

rain god

shown as a reptile with a large nose pointing down and curling fangs

cosmology

the study of the nature of the universe; not scientific, but supernatural

popol vuh

a 16th century historic text (council book) from highland guatemala that recounts the story of creation or dawn of life

the book is divided into three major sections:

concerns the primordial origins of the world (series of creation)

concerns the mythical doings of the hero twins and the origins of modern humans and maize

concerns the legendary history of the quiche maya, ending with a list of kings to AD 1550

the creation myth

in the popol vuh, the gods, from the primordial sky and sea, engage in a dialogue and conceive emergence of the earth from the water and the growth of plants and people on its surface

for the gods, they fail in their first three attempts to form humans and after each failure, there is to be destruction (by great floods)

the gods fail because the beings they created were not able to walk, work, talk, and worship them

worlds

1st world: people of animals

2nd world: people of mud

3rd world: people of wood

4th world: people of maize

1st world

people of animals

only squawk, chatter, and howl

no arms for work or to show their love and appreciation by returning nourishment to the gods

2nd world

people of mud

they talk, but words make no sense, and body is weak and poorly made, began to crumble and dissolve

3rd world

people of wood

look, speak, and multiply like people, but they are dry, bloodless beings with expressionless faces

4th world

people of maize

modern humans where flesh was made from dough found in a mountain full of corn and blood from the gods

result of the hero twins and their battle over evil in the underworld

hero twins

tricked by the hero twins, the gods of the underworld eagerly line up to be sacrificed and revived, instead are cut into pieces and left to rot

in keeping with maya customs, strips of paper threaded through the ear marked them for execution

at the climax of this tale, the two champions emerge from the underworld as the sun and moon. it is their triumph that makes way for human habitation. It is this triumph of good and evil that leads the gods to successfully create humans from corn and blood

maya universe

is made up of three realms

saw their world as layered both horizontally and vertically

the earth was flat, and the cardinal directions were used both horizontally in a corner form, and vertically due to the ceiba tree

three realms

upperworld, middleworld, underworld

upperworld

the heavens

invisible realm of the celestial deities (sun, moon, planets)

celestial realm had 13 layers, each presided over by a god

kings and queens, as well as warriors who died in battle, and women who died in childbirth, entered the upperworld, and thus paradise which was a land of plenty shaded by the sacred ceiba tree

middleworld

earth

visible realm, the domain of people

considered as the back of a crocodile that swam in the primordial sea

mountains were seen as ridges on its back

underworld

xibalba

the invisible realm of the underworld deities

considered a place of death (of decay and disease)

it had 9 layers, each presided over by a lord of the underworld

maya had view of afterlife in xibalba, either go to place of rest (peaceful deaths) or place of suffering (suicides and murderers)

universal afterlife

the dead must pass through 9 levels

kings and queens are resurrected as gods

commoners take arduous journey through xibalba to reach paradise

twin pyramid complexes

buildings were considered living beings

a symmetrical architectural assemblage constructed to commemorate time marking events

considered of buildings arranged in a particular north-south and west-east pattern

they represent a mini representation of the cosmos:

• 3 windows, 3 worlds

• 4 buildings, 4 cardinal directions

maya beliefs permeated every aspect of their lives from the ruler to the ruled; they took their beliefs about the universe and reconstructed them in their earthly world (temples = sacred mountains and doorways = portals to the underworld)

quadripartite division

their world was divided horizontally into four cardinal directions

east: red; direction of the rising sun, symbol of rebirth

north: white; fullness of life when the sun reaches its zenith and direction of ancestors

south: yellow; dead sun at midnight when it battles the lords of xibalba to be reborn

west: black; direction of dying sun and the direction of the underworld

ceiba tree

axis mundi

connected all three worlds

aka the silk cotton tree, grows up to 75 m tall

el castillo, chichen itza, yucatan

temples were often constructed of 9 stepped platforms symbolizing the 9 layers of the underworld

tombs were placed on the north side of the main plaza, north being direction of the sky

skeletal remains were rubbed with cinnabar, red was the color associated with the east, direction of the rising sun, and symbol of rebirth

replications of the universe

was also small scale with houses and milpas

four corners of a house reflected quadripartite division

hearth represented cosmic center of universe: 3 stones

triangular arrangement of stones under hearth represented sun, moon, and venus

in milpas, pole in each corner represented quadripartite division with green center as ripening corn

sacred environments

like the upperworld and underworld, the maya believed that the natural landscape of the middleworld was imbued with sacredness, particularly mountains and caves

mountains

witz

were the houses of the gods, and it is the origin place of maize (where dough from which the gods had created human flesh)

caves

entrances to the underworld (xibalba)

known as the place of fright

many rituals took place in them and the dead were often buried inside

carried water out of the underworld into the sky, creating clouds of rain

dark staining, or sooting, on the stalactite from repeated fire ceremonies, using pine torches, in the late classic

actun tunichil muknal, belize

largest cave

a young female was found deep in the back of the cave, ritually killed

skeletal analysis showed her throat had been slashed

naj tunich cave, guatemala

culturally significant

rich in artwork, artifacts, burials, and architecture that it revolutionizes our picture of caves as an element of elite Maya social and religious life

has glyphs on the walls

franz harder cave, belize

yielded some 30 individuals that had been ritually sacrificed and all placed in one chamber

actun pech, belize

looting for jade artifacts has disturbed multiple burials

we do not know if these people were sacrificed or not

we have little to no information about them

elite vs non elite access to caves

were the domain of elite individuals, where they would go to appease the gods either through ceremonies that involved bloodletting or sacrificing people

ch’een

identified as many hole in the ground where the sun does not shine

the maya would place offerings inside these dark places

ex: windover rockshelter, belize and lean-to rockshelter, belize

roles of priests

priests weer closely connected to the calendar and astronomy

they controlled learning (keepers of knowledge) and ritual, and were in charge of calculating time, festivals, ceremonies, fateful days and seasons, divination, and cures for diseases

they were seen as spiritual leaders alongside kings and queens

what priests did

specialists in the state of ecstasy, a state of vision that allowed them to move freely beyond the ordinary world, beyond death, beyond the real world to deal directly with gods, ancestors, or anything in the spiritual world

they were able to bridge the other world and bring forth the magic power of that world

they acted as an intermediary between humans and the supernatural

sacrifice

blood was the most precious substance

the gods demanded blood sacrifice because during creation, they had willingly spilled their own blood atop maize in order to form human flesh

sacrifice was one of the main rituals performed to honor the gods and communicate with them

caana temple, caracol, belize

kings and queens would perform blood sacrifice either in full view of the public (closer to steps) or retreat back towards the central temple to perform self sacrifice

obsession with human blood

bound captive depicted on a carved bone from tikal

graffiti from tikal showing sacrifice of a bound captive

scenes of human sacrifice and preferred methods

decapitation

removal of heart

throw living person into cenote

throw living person down temple stairs

self sacrifice

kings perforated their penis to draw blood whereas queens would perforate their tongues or ears

a regular occurance

bloodletters

jade spoon, obsidian blade, stingray spine

obsession with animal blood

jaguars were rarely ritually sacrificed but when performed, kings and queens (and presumably priests) were able to absorb the cat’s qualities (power, strength, agility, quickness) for their own