Landscapes of the Itza

Abstract

Designated a World Heritage site in 1998 by UNESCO, Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico, has fascinated explorers, scholars, and visitors for nearly 500 years. Yet, despite Chichen Itza’s extensive written corpus, fundamental questions remain regarding the occupants, rulers, ritual and religious nature, political economy, and even chronology of this late Maya capital. This volume presents new archaeological, epigraphic, ceramic, and art historical data and contemporary interpretations regarding Chichen Itza both in terms of its internal dynamics and in terms of its relationships with smaller sites in the surrounding area. Utilizing concepts of landscape as both geographic and ideological milieus, some chapters explore the ways that the presence of Chichen Itza was felt in regional sites, including Popola, Ichmul de Morley, and Ek Balam, and how boundaries operated between such sites. Other chapters analyze visual culture through the lenses of iconography, political geography, ritual, and gender to examine the hieroglyphic texts, sculpture, painting and buildings at Chichen Itza, including the Castillo, the Osario, and the Mercado. The volume presents new avenues to understand Chichen Itza and its environs.