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The Incienso Throne and Other Thrones From Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Late Preclassic examples of a Mesoamerican throne tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2010

Jonathan Kaplan
Jonathan Kaplan
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Yale University, P.O. Box 208277, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
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Abstract

A “table altar,” perhaps one described by Cabrera (1822) almost 200 years ago and since unreported, is the only complete example of a class of four-legged sculptures known at present from Kaminaljuyu. Iconographic similarities between the monument and sculptures from southern piedmont and coastal centers and comparisons with other Kaminaljuyu sculptures suggest an early Late Preclassic date (Late Verbena-Early Arenal, approximately 300-200 B.C.). According to depictions on other southern-area monuments many “table altars” were formal, emblematic seats for rulers, or thrones, which had specific ideologies associated with them Review of monuments, including identification as a four-legged throne of the well-known sculpture, Stela 10, numbers the Kaminaljuyu corpus of thrones to date at a minimum of seven. The presence of thrones as a sculptural class at Kaminaljuyu in the Late Preclassic period provides more evidence of a long throne tradition reaching from Olmec times through the Maya Classic and into the Postclassic. Kaminaljuyu's thrones conceivably also add to other evidence of complex sociopolitics at the city during the Late Preclassic.

Resumen

En el sitio de Kaminaljuyú, el único ejemplo completo del tipo de escul-turas de cuatro pies es una “mesa altar” no reportada anteriormente. Parecidos iconográficos entre este monumento y esculturas de sitios de la costa del sur, además de comparaciones con otras esculturas de Kaminaljuyú, sugieren una fecha del período preclásico tardío (fase cerámica Verbena tardía) que data aproximadamente 250 a.C.

Según algunas representaciones existentes en otros monumentos, “mesas altares” fueron las sillas embleméticas de los reyes. Una revisión de las esculturas de Kaminaljuyú, incluyendo la identificatión de la bien conocida escultura de Kaminaljuyú, Estela 10, como trono suma el grupo a siete. La presencia de tronos como una clase distintiva de Kaminaljuyú parece ser muestra de que hubieron gobernantes deificados que eran parte de desarrollos sociopolíticos complejos en las tierras altas mayas durante el período preclásico. Estos tronos proporcionan mayor evidencia de una larga tradicion de tronos para gobernantes que existe entre hablantes de lengua maya y que pudo haberse iniciado en Kaminal-juyú. Los tronos mayas del período preclásico parecen representar la silla o sitio en el que los reyes intercedían con poderes sagrados como parte integral de su administratión de la sociedad.

El desarrollo de una tradición escultural de tronos entre los mayas de las tierras altas en Kaminaljuyú apareció en un momento presumi-blemente crítico muy temprano en el desarrollo de la civilizacilón maya, aunque esa tradición escultural ya tenía precedentes, puesto que los olmecas la habían desarrollado siglos atrás.

El descubrimiento del Trono Incienso puede añadirse a la evidencia arqueológica que probaría que hacia 250 a.C. el pueblo de Kaminaljuyù creó un señorio poderoso para lograr una organizatión sociopolitica en suficiente escala e integratión que permitiera controlar una extensa zona de las tierras altas del sur.

Type
Articles
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 6 , Spring 1995 , pp. 185 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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