Late Classic Period Research Articles

Turning Heads: Alexander and the Animals

Abstract This article engages with two intriguing pictorial tropes, two “pathos formulas,” in the art of the late Classical and Hellenistic periods, one well known and one hardly noticed. The latter is a stylized head pose adopted by animals in the popular imagery of the hunt. This pose assigns humanlike consciousness to animals, thus raising bigger interpretive questions. The ancient understanding of Alexander’s personality and/or appearance as leonine presents the reverse relationship, whereby the animal takes priority in conceptualizing the human. The well-known pathos formula explored in this connection concerns Alexander himself, whose turn of head is among the most frequently invoked but imperfectly understood aspects of his portraiture.

Last two millenia Earth's Magnetic Field strength: New archaeointensity determinations from Ichkaantijo, Early to Late Maya Classic period

We report a detailed rock-magnetic and absolute geomagnetic intensity analysis performed on forty eight samples belonging to eight pre-Columbian potteries from the Ichikaantijo area, near Merida city in the Yucatan Peninsula. Twenty six samples out of 48 analyzed, yielded reliable archaeointensity determinations which allowed estimating the geomagnetic field strength fluctuations for the central and northern Maya region during the Early to late Classic periods. The combined analysis of archaeointensity results obtained in this study with existing similar quality determinations indicate the persistence of substantially low geomagnetic field strength during the time interval involved, contrasting with the values predicted by the global geomagnetic field models. It seems that a large period of low geomagnetic field strength prevailed at the Maya area just before the so-called Mayan Collapse.

Replicating Writing: Moulding and Stamping Hieroglyphs on Classic Maya Ceramics

A fundamental distinction is made in craft production between custom or bespoke creation and mechanical reproduction that generates multiple iterations of the same form. In Mesoamerica, technologies of reproduction are attested by around the sixth century bc in the form of moulding and stamping, and they become increasingly common in ceramic production in the Maya and neighbouring regions in the third or fourth century. Beginning in the Late Classic period (c. 600–830 ad), Maya artisans applied them to the hieroglyphic script as well, generating a corpus of texts that are at once fundamentally distinct from and intimately linked to the broader scribal tradition dominated by hand-written texts. This article examines Classic Maya texts moulded and stamped on ceramics in the context of scribal practice and the social and cultural role of the script. I argue that these artefacts manifest changes not only in hieroglyphic production, but also in writing's role in user communities. Consequentially, they invite reconsideration of scribal practice's relationship to other crafting traditions, as well as the diversity of modes of engaging in Classic Maya scribal tradition.

Panhellenism without Imperialism? Athens and the Greeks before and after Chaeronea

This article explores the shifting definition(s) of Panhellenism in fourth century Athenian political discourse, and argues that the flexibility of the concept can help to explain how the Athenians are able to continue to utilise this idea in their political arguments, even in the rapidly changing interstate environment of the late Classical and early Hellenistic period. Close analysis of the deployment of Panhellenic arguments before and after Chaeronea, and in the final decade of the century, throws further light on the ways in which Athens' use of this ideology both responds to and shapes their position in Greek interstate society.

Pertenencia y transmisión de nombres entre los Kanu’l en el Clásico tardío

Los nombres personales son un elemento importante de los textos jeroglíficos mayas del periodo Clásico (250-900 d.C.) y su análisis aporta información sobre la configuración social y política de esta época. De interés primordial es el nombre colectivo conocido como "glifo emblema" que fungía como título real. En esta ocasión discutimos las implicaciones sociales del uso del apelativo k’uhul kanu’l ajaw, tratándose del glifo emblema más mencionado en el área maya durante el Clásico tardío. En particular, determinamos los patrones de transmisión intergeneracional de éste nombre y de otros segmentos nominales de la unidad social Kanu'l, para así problematizar los paradigmas de parentesco y los modelos de organización social que se han propuesto para el periodo en cuestión.

The Dynamics of Human–Environment Interactions in the Collapse of the Classic Maya

In this study we investigate the societal development of the Maya in the Southern Lowlands over a span of approximately 1400years and explore whether societal dynamics linked to the depletion of natural resources can explain the rise and fall of the Classic Maya. We propose a dynamical systems model that accounts for the state of the land, population and workers employed in swidden and intensive agriculture and monument building. Optimisation of model output to fit empirical data fixes biometric parameters to values consistent with the literature and requires that a shift from swidden to more intensive agriculture took place at around 550 CE. The latter prediction is consistent with the dating of the beginning of the Late Classical period. Thus, our model offers an explanation of the collapse of the society of the Maya and suggests that the role of droughts may have been overestimated. Consistent with previous work, the collapse can be modelled by a critical transition (supercritical Hopf bifurcation), where the critical parameter is the harvesting rate per capita of intensive agriculture. Furthermore, an extensive sensitivity analysis indicates that the model and its predictions are robust.

Fortifications and Democracy in the Ancient Greek World

In the modern world, access-limiting fortification walls are not typically regarded as promoting democracy. But in Greek antiquity, increased investment in fortifications was correlated with the prevalence and stability of democracy. This paper sketches the background conditions of the Greek city-state ecology, analyzes a passage in Aristotle’s Politics, and assesses the choices of Hellenistic kings, Greek citizens, and urban elites, as modeled in a simple game. The paper explains how city walls promoted democracy and helps to explain several other puzzles: why Hellenistic kings taxed Greek cities at lower than expected rates; why elites in Greek cities supported democracy; and why elites were not more heavily taxed by democratic majorities. The relationship between walls, democracy, and taxes promoted continued economic growth into the late classical and Hellenistic period (4th-2nd centuries BCE), and ultimately contributed to the survival of Greek culture into the Roman era, and thus modernity. We conclude with a consideration of whether the walls-democracy relationship holds in modernity.

Soil and slaughter: a geoarchaeological record of the ancient Maya from Cancuén, Guatemala

Excavation of a small valley-fill sequence at the East Port of the ancient Maya site of Cancuén, Guatemala has revealed a sedimentary record spanning the last c. 1300years of the Common Era (CE). Our study location within the centre of a pre-Columbian Maya city has allowed tandem records of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental history to be preserved in the sediments, offering the opportunity to reconstruct how the Maya and their environment co-evolved during the Late Classic period (600–c. 800CE). The sedimentary record from Cancuén's East Port has preserved clear evidence of the city's rise and abandonment; we have used these chronostratigraphic markers to estimate rates of aggradation and erosion over the two centuries of human occupation. Evidence of fire and major social upheaval features prominently in the sedimentary archive as thick deposits of charcoal, artefacts, and a human mass-burial that date from the final years of Cancuén. After Cancuén was rapidly abandoned at the start of the 9th century CE, changes in the East Port sequence (mainly variations in sediment provenance and accumulation rate) record the sharp decline in aggradation, and also evidence of substantial hydroclimatic variability. This research provides a new dataset capable of testing and refining archaeological theories from Cancuén, while also offering new insights into the impact of the ancient Maya on their environment in the lowland region of Central America in recent millennia.

Opis kozarjeve skodele v Teokritovi Prvi idili: realizem ali iluzija

Opis skodele v Teokritovi Prvi idili je vrivek, ki pa ni zgolj dekorativen, ampak je integralni del pesnitve. Notranja meja, ki opis loči od pripovedi, je nedoločljiva. Skodela je izdelana iz lesa in ima na zunanji strani izrezljane tri slike v linearnem zaporedju. Na prvi sliki sta upodobljena moška, ki tekmujeta za žensko naklonjenost, na drugi je stari ribič, ki lovi ribe, na tretji pa deček v vinogradu, ki plete mrežo za kobilico. Motivno in slogovno se opis navezuje na starejšo tradicijo; prizora tekmecev in vinograda najdemo tudi na Ahilovem ščitu. Pri analizi besedila sem izhajala iz retorične tehnike ekphrasis: »Ekfraza je opisni govor, ki živo privede pred oči to, kar se opisuje« (Spengel, Theon, Prog. 11, 239). V ospredje stopa ideal žive nazornosti (enargeia), ki opis spremeni v ekfrazo oziroma pri bralcu ali poslušalcu doseže iluzijo slike. Pomembno vlogo imajo barve in material, iz katerega so narejeni izdelki (rumeni cvetovi, sivi lasje, temno grozdje, lesena skodela). Ločiti moramo »enargejo« kot predstavljivost same slike in »enargejo«, ki jo v opisu dosežemo z besednimi učinki. »Enargejo« je mogoče stopnjevati z opisom gibanja, dejanj, misli in nagibov v pripovednih delih, npr. z aliteracijo in asonanco. Ali gre za opis realne ali fiktivne umetnine? Opis se navezuje na konkretne ikonografske tipe in posnema nekatere estetske težnje likovnih predlog, vendar gre obenem za ustvarjalen literarni konstrukt, ki se navezuje na retorično-filozofsko teorijo o domišljijski upodobitvi, phantasia. »Slikovni realizem« tega opisa sledi težnjam pozne klasične dobe. Pesnik se pri opisu osredotoči na bistvene elemente zgodbe, ker predvideva, da poslušalci/bralci poznajo vsebino. Poleg tega se Teokritov opis ne omejuje na vprašanje »vizualnega« v besedni umetnini, temveč pripoved komentira. V tem kontekstu je mogoče opis razumeti kot metaforo za življenjsko vztrajnost – nasproti smrti, ki jo v tej pesmi izbere Dafnis.

5 Defining Community in the Upper Belize River Valley during the Late Classic Period: A Micro‐regional Bioarchaeological Approach

ABSTRACTFor the ancient Maya, mortuary practices offer crucial insight into how communities created and reproduced themselves. For example, most individuals local to the Belize River Valley are interred in a prone position, with head to the south. My research questions whether other rituals involving the deceased body, including body positioning and interaction with human remains through tomb re‐entry (i.e., skull removal, interment of multiple individuals in one grave), could indicate affiliation to local or imagined communities. Comparing two Belize River Valley sites, Chan and Zubin, I found similar types of interaction that may indicate participation in a regional imagined community.

La vida cotidiana vista a partir de las ofrendas-depósito de dos sitios del valle de Toluca: Santa Cruz Atizapán y San Mateo Atenco

Daily life is an interesting and complex subject due to the fact that there is no general consensus concerning its definition nor its repercussion on understanding the theme. “Daily life” should not merely be considered synonymous with “domestic”; rather, it constitutes repetitive activities whose time scales may vary depending on who carries them out. We propose that such routine behaviour be interpreted in archaeological contexts through evidence left, whether intentionally or otherwise, by past populations.Based on the above presumption, this paper studies the rituals associated with the placement of offerings/deposits in certain architectural spaces of Santa Cruz Atizapán and San Mateo Atenco during the Late Classic and Epiclassic periods (ca. AD 500-900). The analysis of these archaeological materials is supported by the philosophical definition of routine proposed by Giannini, and is complemented with wear trace analysis and macrobotanical identification carried our on the ceramic vessels conforming the offerings.

¡Tamales para todos! El consumo del venado y perro doméstico en los banquetes de Chinikihá

This paper presents a traditional zooarchaeological study combined with an analysis of stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen), of faunal remains mainly from the archaeological site of Chinikihá. Our objective was to determine the diversity of the natural resources to which the inhabitants of the archaeological site had access during the Late Classic period and to compare the different ways in which wild and domestic animals were obtained and used as part of ritual feasting events. Although we address Mayan food practices in the Late Classic period, we will focus on discussing those pertinent to Chinikihá and its surroundings.

Dietary Stress and Animal Resource Use at the Postclassic Maya city, Mayapán (Mexico)

ABSTRACTEnvironmental changes resulting in drought and reductions in the availability of animal resources during the Late Classic Maya have been linked with the Maya ‘collapse’. Decreases in availability of dietary staples such as artiodactyls, and particularly white-tailed deer, during the Late Classic period would have placed food stress on populations during later periods. To test this hypothesis, here bone breakage patterns are examined at the Postclassic Maya city, Mayapán, to assess whether artiodactyl bones were being intensively processed for bone fats (marrow and grease). Fragmentation morphology, size and surface markings, along with skeletal part representation and distribution of large mammal bones were recorded for bone assemblages from several houselots. Evidence suggests the Maya were likely utilising bone marrow from artiodactyls but not intensively and they were not extracting bone grease. These results indicate that decreased accessibility to artiodactyls during the Postclassic was not causing high levels of dietary stress for the Maya at Mayapán, which is consistent with recent evidence demonstrating dietary consistency during the Postclassic in northern Yucatan.

Multiple Waves of Political Disintegration in the Classic Maya Collapse: New Insights from the Excavation of Group D, Ceibal, Guatemala

ABSTRACTIn the study of the Classic Maya collapse around the 9th century a.d., scholars tend to emphasize its gradual nature. New data, however, point to multiple episodes of rapid social change that affected wide areas. We investigated these critical moments at Ceibal (Seibal), Guatemala, through intensive excavations in its Group D. This naturally defensible location was used as a primary elite complex, possibly including a royal palace, during the Late Classic period (a.d. 600–810). By refining the chronology, we have identified four episodes of political disruption, including the impact of a military defeat by the Dos Pilas dynasty in a.d. 735, the takeover of Ceibal by an illegitimate ruler in a.d. 771, the ritual destruction of various buildings at the Ceibal dynastic collapse around a.d. 810, and the final abandonment of Ceibal around a.d. 900. These finds provide significant insights into the process of political disintegration in the Maya lowlands.

IDENTIFYING DOMESTIC CERAMIC PRODUCTION IN THE MAYA LOWLANDS: A CASE STUDY FROM UXBENKA, BELIZE

Utilitarian ceramic vessels form the bulk of artifact assemblages in the Maya Lowlands, but little is known about their production beyond the likelihood that they were made in a domestic context without elite involvement. Characterizing the production and distribution of these vessels is vital to understanding ancient Maya economic systems; nevertheless, this is a difficult task in the absence of primary production locales. We use spatial data, use-wear analyses on stone and ceramic tools, and analyses of finished products to identify households involved in ceramic production at three settlement groups at Uxbenka, Belize, during the Late Classic Period (A.D. 600–800). Our analyses indicate that Uxbenka potters were likely involved in some level of residential specialization focused on specific vessel forms. These data, in conjunction with ceramic data from nearby Lubaantun and Nim Li Punit, suggest that all three polities were self-sufficient in terms of utilitarian pottery production and primarily engaged in intrapolity distribution. We argue that this self-sufficiency is due to widely available resources, smaller population sizes, and the availability of high quality agricultural lands.

Collective Remembering in Archaeology: a Relational Approach to Ancient Maya Memory

Drawing on a case study from the Maya site of Actuncan, Belize, this article presents collective remembering as a way to conceptualize the relational construction of memory by ancient societies. Emphasizing the process of remembering allows archaeologists to investigate how memory divides as well as unites. Over time, the interactions between humans and between humans and their landscape that take place as part of everyday life produce memories of the past that are inaccurate and inconsistent between individuals. In particular, people who interact frequently, either due to geographic proximity or similarity in socioeconomic status, tend to form mnemonic communities—communities based on a similar understanding of the past—that may serve as identity markers differentiating them from other groups. At Actuncan, the community’s past was collectively remembered across times of prosperity and subjugation. First, the site was a Late and Terminal Preclassic seat of an early divine king who built a monumental ceremonial center. Second, when the site was subjugated during the Early and Late Classic periods, the ceremonial center fell out of use, but the site’s commoner households remained continuously occupied. Finally, in the Terminal Classic period, the site’s residents reestablished Actuncan as a local seat of authority following the Classic Maya collapse. The community’s use of the Preclassic monumental core during the Terminal Classic period indicates that the memory of the site’s Preclassic apogee served to legitimize their Terminal Classic authority. However, the Preclassic past was remembered in a manner consistent with contemporaneous cultural forms and the site’s recent past of subjugation.

Las personificaciones de dioses y seres sobrenaturales de Yaxchilán

This article analyses impersonations of supernatural beings by characters of the political elite in Yaxchilan, Chiapas, Mexico, which occurred during the Late Classic Maya period and continued to be exhibited by rulers and other noble men and women during the successive governments of «God D» B’ahlam II, Yaxuun B’ahlam IV and Chelew Chan K’inich.

Reworked volcaniclastic deposits from the Usumacinta river, Mexico: A serendipitous source of volcanic glass in Maya ceramics

AbstractThe origin and distribution of volcanic glass temper in Maya ceramics has attracted the attention of Mesoamerican archaeologists for the last 80 years. Several Quaternary volcanoes, particularly those in the Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA), are proposed as the source of tephra in the Maya region, however, a continuous stratigraphic record of this tephra deposit is still lacking. A reworked volcaniclastic deposit (9 ± 2 ka) was located in the Usumacinta River fluvial sequence from Tabasco State, Mexico. This material has been found in ceramics from the Tierra Blanca archaeological site, which developed from the Formative to Late Classic Maya period. Cross‐bedding sedimentary structures and amygdaloidal texture in pumice indicate the influence of the fluvial environment and the weathering exposition of the volcanic deposit. The comparative geochemical and petrographic features provide the first evidence that this volcanic ash “outcrop” was used for local ceramic manufacture. The volcanic event that produced the tephra is difficult to identify due to the dynamic sedimentary environment that obliterated and mixed the original mineralogy and geochemistry. Eruptions with rhyolitic magma are the most probable candidates. This assumption contradicts the widespread hypothesis that the tephra of El Chichón volcano is the source of volcanic glass in Classic Maya ceramics.

A HOUSEFUL OF POTS: APPLYING ETHNOARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA TO ESTIMATE ANNUAL CERAMIC VESSEL CONSUMPTION RATES OF CLASSIC MAYA HOUSEHOLDS

AbstractThis article reviews data from the modern highland Maya area in order to develop a model of vessel discard frequencies applicable to Classic Maya contexts. Estimating the number of pots consumed by ancient households is crucial to reconstructing the organization of ceramic production and exchange in antiquity. The recent publication ofin situhousehold assemblages from the Classic Maya center of Aguateca facilitates an analysis of household pottery use during the Late Classic period. Vessel class use-lives derived from ethnoarchaeological studies are applied to the Aguateca assemblages to estimate annual consumption rates. The simulated Aguateca discard assemblages are then compared to archaeologically recovered vessel class discard frequencies from the Classic Maya center of Tikal. The article concludes with a discussion of how and why pottery requirements for Classic Maya households differed from those of twentieth century Maya and the implications these distinctions have for interpreting consumption pattern for the Classic Maya.

A MAYACURIA REGIS: EVIDENCE FOR A HIERARCHICAL SPECIALIST ORDER AT XULTUN, GUATEMALA

AbstractThis article presents an in-depth analysis of an important mural painting discovered within Structure 10K2 of the Los Sabios Group at the Classic Maya site of Xultun, Guatemala. We first discuss the composition of the mural scene and its central protagonist, a Late Classic period (a.d.550–900) ruler of Xultun named Yax We'nel Chan K'inich, suggesting that it presents a ritual performance associated with an ancient New Year ceremony. Several attendant figures in the mural are labeled as members of a specialist order or category calledTaaj, “obsidian,” and are marked by an unusual shared appearance. This “obsidian order” exhibits internal hierarchical ranking and is attested at other Classic Maya centers. In addition to discussing the overall content of the Xultun mural scene, we conduct a focused inquiry into these variousTaajindividuals by presenting associated archaeological evidence and considering related epigraphic data. Through this analysis of theTaaj, we shed light on a previously unknown aspect of Maya courtly life and organization that is relevant to models of sovereignty, governance, and ritual performance in the Classic Maya world.