Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:40:31.651Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Recarving and Alteration of Maya Monuments*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert George Baker
Robert George Baker*
Affiliation:
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The common assumption that Maya stelae record contemporaneity of carving, style, erection, and calendar date is challenged by evidence that shows instances in which (1) stylistic inconsistencies have been caused by alterations of a monument during different periods of time; (2) the latest recorded glyphic date is not the date of erection but rather the date of the latest completed alteration of the monument; (3) the practice of recarving and the associated innovations served as determinants of change in stylistic development. Physical evidence of the removal of carved elements and recarving is reviewed for carved wooden lintels at Tikal and stelae at Xultún, Yaxchilán, Uaxactún, Quiriguá Tikal, Naranjo, Piedras Negras, and Copán. Details of substela chambers, the placement of caches, the presence of multiple floors, and the condition of stela bases at Copán, Quiriguá, and Uaxactún indicate that stelae were raised in position as well as recarved. It is suggested that the period of the original erection of a monument is most closely related to the earliest date present, while the latest date present refers only to the latest completed alteration of the monument.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , January 1962 , pp. 281 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, May 6, 1961, Columbus, Ohio.

References

Coe, W. R. 1950 Two Carved Lintels from Tikal. Archaeology, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 75–80. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Coe, W. R. and Shook, E. M. 1961 The Carved Wooden Lintels of Tikal. Tikal Reports, No. 6, Museum Monographs. University Museum, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Holmes, W. H. 1895 Archaeological Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico. Anthropological Series, Vol. 1. Field Museum, Chicago.Google Scholar
Maler, Teobert 1901 Researches in the Central Portion of the Usumatsintla Valley: Report of Explorations for the Museum, 1898–1900. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 2, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Maler, Teobert 1903 Researches in the Central Portion of the Usumatsintla Valley: Report of Explorations for the Museum, Part Second. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 2, No. 2. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Maler, Teobert 1908 Explorations of the Upper Usumatsintla and Adjacent Region: Altar de Sacrificios, Seibal, Itsimté-Sácluk, Cankuen. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 4, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Maler, Teobert 1911 Explorations in the Department of Peten, Guatemala: Tikal. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 5, No. 1. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Morley, S. G. 1920 The Inscriptions at Copan. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 219. Washington.Google Scholar
Morley, S. G. 1935 Guide Book to the Ruins of Quirigua. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Supplementary Publication 16. Washington.Google Scholar
Morley, S. G. 1937–38 The Inscriptions of Peten, five volumes. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 437. Washington.Google Scholar
Morley, S. G. 1946 The Ancient Maya, first edition. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1950 A Study of Classic Maya Sculpture. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 593. Washington.Google Scholar
Ricketson, O. G. Jr., and Ricketson, E. B. 1937 Uaxactun, Guatemala, Group E —1926–1931. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 477. Washington.Google Scholar
Ruppert, Karl, Thompson, J. E. S., and Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1955 Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 602. Washington.Google Scholar
Ruz Lhuillier, Alberto 1954 La piramide-tumba de Palenque. Cuadernos Americanos, Año 13, No. 2, pp. 141–59. Mexico.Google Scholar
Satterthwaite, Linton 1958 The Problem of Abnormal Stela Placements at Tikal and Elsewhere. Tikal Reports, No. 3, Museum Monographs. University Museum, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Satterthwaite, Linton 1961 Inscriptions and Other Dating Controls. Appendix to “The Carved Wooden Lintels of Tikal,” by Coe, W. R. and Shook, E. M.. Tikal Reports, No. 6, Museum Monographs. University Museum, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Satterthwaite, Linton and Ralph, E. K. 1960 New Radiocarbon Dates and the Maya Correlation Problem. American Antiquity, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 165–84. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Shook, E. M. and Coe, W. R. 1961 Tikal: Numeration, Terminology, and Objectives. Tikal Reports, No. 5, Museum Monographs. University Museum, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Smith, A. L. 1950 Uaxactun, Guatemala: Excavations of 1931— 1937. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 588. Washington.Google Scholar
Spinden, H. J. 1913 A Study of Maya Art: Its Subject Matter and Historical Development. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 6. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Spinden, H. J. 1957 Maya Art and Civilization. Falcon's Wing Press, Indian Hills.Google Scholar
Stephens, J. L. 1841 Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, two volumes. Harper and Brothers, New York.Google Scholar
Strömsvik, Gustav 1942 Substela Caches and Stela Foundations at Copan and Quirigua. Contributions to Amercan Anthropology and History, No. 37, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 528, pp. 63–96. Washington.Google Scholar
Tozzer, A. M. 1941 Landa's Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan. Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. 18. Cambridge.Google Scholar