Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T23:41:31.816Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The weight of ritual: Classic Maya jade head pendants in the round

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2018

Christina T. Halperin ,
Zachary X. Hruby  and
Ryan Mongelluzzo
Christina T. Halperin*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Université de Montréal, 3150 Jean-Brillant, Montréal, QC H3T 1N8, Canada
Zachary X. Hruby
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Philosophy, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY 41099, USA
Ryan Mongelluzzo
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, San Diego Mesa College, 7250 Mesa College Drive, San Diego, CA 92111-4998, USA
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A newly discovered jade head pendant from the Guatemalan site of Ucanal illuminates a rarely considered element of Classic Maya royal ceremonies: weight. The largest and probably the heaviest of its kind, this pendant is a rare example of Classic Maya belt ornaments. Finely carved jade ornaments symbolised the prestige and wealth of elite officials, but were also metaphors for the weighty burdens of office. This paper considers the phenomenological role of jade jewellery, which would have encumbered Maya royalty greatly during public ceremonies. While such a perspective underscores the ritual work of elites, an analytical focus on weight also highlights the anonymous people who carried burdens.

Keywords

GuatemalaUcanalClassic Mayaweightjadephenomenology
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 363 , June 2018 , pp. 758 - 771
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

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.)

References

Abrams, E.M. 1994. How the Maya built their world: energetics and ancient architecture. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Andrieu, C., Rodas, E. & Luin, L.. 2014. The values of Classic Maya jade: a reanalysis of Cancuen's jade workshop. Ancient Mesoamerica 25: 141–64. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536114000108Google Scholar
Becker, M.J. 2009. Tikal: evidence for ethnic diversity in a Prehispanic lowland Maya state capital, in Manzanilla, L. & Chapdelaine, C. (ed.) Domestic life in Prehispanic capitals: a study of specialization, hierarchy, and ethnicity (Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology 46): 89–104. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Cancian, F. 1965. Economics and prestige in a Maya community: the religious cargo system in Zinacantan. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chase, A. & Chase, D.. 2001 The royal court of Caracol, Belize: its palace and people, in Inomata, T. & Houston, S. (ed.) Royal courts of the ancient Maya, volume 2: data and case studies: 102–37. Boulder (CO): Westview.Google Scholar
Clendinnen, I. 2003. Ambivalent conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan 1517–1570 (2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coe, W.R., Shook, E.M. & Satterthwaite, L.. 1961. The carved wooden lintels of Tikal, in Tikal reports, numbers 5–10: 15–112. Philadelphia: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Diehl, R.A. 1983. Tula: the Toltec capital of ancient Mexico. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Digby, A. 1972. Maya jades. London: British Museum.Google Scholar
Freidel, D. & Guenter, S.. 2003. Bearers of war and creation. Archaeology, 23 January 2003. Available at: www.archaeology.org/online/features/siteq2/ (accessed 28 March 2018).Google Scholar
Freidel, D.A., Reese-Taylor, K. & Mora-Marin, D.. 2002. The origins of Maya civilization: the old shell game, commodity, treasure, and kingship, in Masson, M.A. & Freidel, D.A. (ed.) Ancient Maya political economies: 41–86. Walnut Creek (CA): AltaMira.Google Scholar
Graham, I. 1980. Corpus of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions, volume 2, part 3: Ixkun, Ucanal, Ixtutz, Naranjo. Cambridge (MA): Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Grube, N. 1992. Classic Maya dance: evidence from hieroglyphs and iconography. Ancient Mesoamerica 3: 201–18. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095653610000064XGoogle Scholar
Halperin, C.T. 2014. Maya figurines: intersections between state and household. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Halperin, C.T., Garrido, J.L., Mongelluzzo, R.W., Pérez, G., Wolf, M. & Bracken, J.. 2015. El crecimiento de las organizaciones políticas del Clásico Terminal en las tierras bajas Mayas del sur: nuevas perspectivas desde el sitio de Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala. Paper presented at the XXIX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, Instituto de Antropología e Historia (IDAEH), Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Hruby, Z.X. 2015. Appendix: lithics, in Houston, S.D., Newman, S., Román, E. & Garrison, T. (ed.) Temple of the Night Sun: a royal Maya tomb at El Diablo, Guatemala. San Francisco (CA): Precolumbia Mesoweb.Google Scholar
Hutcheson, M. 2009. Memory, mimesis, and narrative in the K'iche’ Mayan Serpent Dance of Joyabaj, Guatemala. Comparative Studies in Society & History 51: 865–95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417509990168Google Scholar
Hutson, S. 2009. Dwelling, identity, and the Maya: relational archaeology at Chunchucmil. Walnut Creek (CA): AltaMira.Google Scholar
Joyce, R.A. 2003. Concrete memories: fragments of the past in the Classic Maya present (500–100 AD), in Dyke, R.M.V. & Alcock, S.E. (ed.) Archaeologies of memory: 104–27. Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470774304.ch6Google Scholar
Koontz, R. 2009. Lightning gods and feathered serpents: the public sculpture of El Tajín. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Kovacevich, B. 2013. The inalienability of jades in Mesoamerica. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 23: 95–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/apaa.12018Google Scholar
Laporte, J.P. & Mejía, H.E.. 2002. Ucanal: una ciudad del Río Mopan en Petén, Guatemala (volume 1). Ciudad de Guatemala: Asociación Tikal.Google Scholar
Looper, M.G. 2009. To be like gods: dance in ancient Maya civilization. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Manzanilla, L. 2004. Social identity and daily life at Classic Teotihuacan, in Hendon, J.A. & Joyce, R.A. (ed.) Mesoamerican archaeology: theory and practice: 124–47. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Mejía, H.E. 2002. Ucanal: aproximación a su Espacio político territorial. XV Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2001: 285–303. Ciudad de Guatemala: Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Ethnología.Google Scholar
Miller, M.E. & Brittenham, C.. 2013. The spectacle of the Late Maya court: reflections on the murals of Bonampak. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Miller, M.E. & Martin, S.. 2004. Courtly art of the ancient Maya. New York: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Mongelluzzo, R.W. 2016. Las excavaciones en el grupo E: operación 3, in Halperin, C.T. & Garrido, J.L. (ed.) Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal, 2da temporada de campo, 2016 (Report submitted to the Instituto de Antropología e Historia (IDAEH)): 61–80. Guatemala City: Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Dirección General del Patrimonio Cultural y Natural.Google Scholar
Morehart, C.T. & Helmke, C.G.B.. 2008. Situating power and locating knowledge: a paleoethnobotanical perspective on Late Classic Maya gender and social relations. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 18: 60–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-8248.2008.00005.xGoogle Scholar
Prager, C.M. & Braswell, G.E.. 2016. Maya politics and ritual: an important new hieroglyphic text on a carved jade from Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 27: 267–78. https://doi.org/10.1017/S095653611600033XGoogle Scholar
Proskouriakoff, T. 1974. Jades from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University.Google Scholar
Reina, R.E. & Hill, R.M.. 1978. The traditional pottery of Guatemala. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Rochette, E.T. 2009. Jade in full: Prehispanic domestic production of wealth goods in the Middle Motagua Valley, Guatemala, in Hirth, K.G. (ed.) Housework: craft production and domestic economy in ancient Mesoamerica: 205–24. Arlington (VA): American Anthropological Association. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-8248.2009.01021.xGoogle Scholar
Sabloff, J.A. & Rathje, W.L. (ed.). 1975. Changing PreColumbian commercial systems, the 1972–73 seasons at Cozumel, Mexico (Monographs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 3). Cambridge (MA): Harvard University.Google Scholar
Schele, L. & Miller, M.E.. 1986. The blood of kings: dynastic ritual in Maya art. Fort Worth (TX): Kimbell Art Museum: New York: George Braziller.Google Scholar
Seitz, R., Harlow, G.E., Sisson, V.B. & Taube, K.A.. 2001 ‘Olmec blue’ and Formative jade sources: new discoveries in Guatemala. Antiquity 75: 687–88. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00089171Google Scholar
Shook, E.M. & Marquis, E.. 1996. Secrets in stone: yokes, hachas, and palmas from southern Mesoamerica. Philadelphia (PA): American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Stross, B. 1988. The burden of office: a reading. Mexicon X (6): 118–20.Google Scholar
Stuart, D. 2006. Jade and chocolate: bundles of wealth in Classic Maya economics and ritual, in Guernsey, J. & Reilly, F.K. (ed.) Sacred bundles: ritual acts of wrapping and binding in Mesoamerica: 127–44. Barnardsville (NC): Boundary End Archaeology Research Center.Google Scholar
Taube, K.A. 1989. The maize tamale in Classic Maya diet, epigraphy, and art. American Antiquity 54: 31–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/281330Google Scholar
Taube, K.A. 2005. The symbolism of jade in Classic Maya religion. Ancient Mesoamerica 16: 23–50. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956536105050017Google Scholar
Taube, K.A. & Ishihara-Brito, R.. 2012. From stone to jewel: jade in ancient Maya religion and rulership, in Pillsbury, J., Doutriaux, M., Ishihara-Brito, R. & Tokovinine, A. (ed.) Ancient Maya art at Dumbarton Oaks (Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks 4): 136–53. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection.Google Scholar
Taube, K.A., Hruby, Z.X. & Romero, L.A.. 2011. Ancient jade workshops: archaeological reconnaissance in the Upper Río El Tambor, Guatemala, in Hruby, Z.X., Braswell, G.E. & Mazariegos, O. Chinchilla (ed.) The technology of Maya civilization: political economy and beyond in lithic studies: 143–50. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tedlock, D. 2003. Rabinal Achi: a Mayan drama of war and sacrifice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trik, H. & Kampen, M.E.. 1983. The graffiti of Tikal (Tikal Reports 31; University Museum Monographs 57). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Vogt, E.Z. 1969. Zinacantan. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674436886Google Scholar
Wegars, P. 1977. A typological study of some Mayan figurines from Lubaantun, Belize. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Bradford.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Halperin et al. supplementary material 1

Appendix

Download Halperin et al. supplementary material 1(File)
File 15.7 KB