Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-26T11:51:49.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CARVED MONUMENTS AND CALENDRICAL NAMES

The rulers of Río Viejo, Oaxaca

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2002

Javier Urcid  and
Arthur A. Joyce
Javier Urcid
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02254-9110, USA
Arthur A. Joyce
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper describes 15 stone monuments documented until the 1995 field season at Río Viejo, the largest settlement in the alluvial plains of the Río Verde drainage in Coastal Oaxaca from 100 B.C. to A.D. 1100. The monuments, all seemingly dating to the Classic period (A.D. 600–900), include mainly carved stelae that most often depict elaborately dressed human figures accompanied by their calendrical names. The large size of these monuments and the political primacy of Río Viejo strongly suggest that the named individuals were local rulers. We posit that additional flattened sculptures and slabs riddled with small circular depressions were foci of sacred activities aimed at petitioning favors from supernatural forces. The analysis of the inscriptions is framed in terms of graphic similarities with highland scribal traditions in the central valleys of Oaxaca, the Mixteca Baja, and the Mexican Highlands.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , July 2001 , pp. 199 - 216
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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.)