Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T15:54:05.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Late Postclassic (ca. AD 1350–1521) Border Shrine at the Site of Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2019

Christina T. Halperin  and
Zachary X. Hruby
Christina T. Halperin*
Affiliation:
Département d'anthropologie, Université de Montréal, Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, 3150 Jean-Brillant, Montréal, QC H3T 1N8, Canada
Zachary X. Hruby
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Northern Kentucky University, Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, KY 41099, USA ([email protected])
*
([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Shrines were a regular component of ceremonial architecture in the public plazas of Postclassic Maya centers. Small shrines and natural landmarks such as caves and outcrops at the borders of settlements or in wilderness locations also served, and in some cases continue to serve, as important ritual loci for Maya peoples. These more peripheral locales were not only critical access points to the supernatural, but also served to delineate places. Because these border features, which represent only a given moment in a constantly shifting social and political landscape, are sometimes unmodified or are inconspicuous, they are relatively ephemeral and difficult to identify in the archaeological record. This paper documents a Late Postclassic shrine paired with a natural feature, a small hill, from the site of Tayasal in Petén, Guatemala. We argue that it served as a border shrine. Paired with the small hill, the two embodied a liminal frontier, not only between earthly and spiritual realms but also between settled and unsettled space.

Los santuarios eran un componente regular de la arquitectura ceremonial en las plazas públicas de los centros mayas del Posclásico. Sin embargo, los santuarios pequeños y ciertos rasgos naturales del paisaje, como cuevas y afloramientos en las orillas de los asentamientos o en lugares alejados de los mismos, también sirvieron y, en algunos casos, siguen sirviendo como importantes sitios rituales para los Mayas. Estos espacios periféricos no solo eran puntos de acceso a lo sobrenatural, sino que también servían para demarcar lugares. Debido a que estos rasgos fronterizos representan solo un momento en un paisaje social y político en cambio constante, a veces no están modificados, o son discretos, efímeros y, en consecuencia, difíciles de identificar arqueológicamente. Este artículo documenta un santuario del Posclásico tardío asociado a un rasgo natural, un pequeño cerro, del sitio de Tayasal en Petén, Guatemala. Argumentamos que funcionó como un santuario fronterizo y que, junto con el pequeño cerro, revelaba una frontera liminal no solo entre los espacios terrenales y espirituales, sino también entre espacios poblados y no poblados.

Keywords

frontiers and settlement boundariesshrinesPostclassic Mayaritual circulationsfirefronteras de los asentamientossantuariosPosclásico Mayaprocesiones ritualesfuego
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 55 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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

Alcock, Susan E. 1993 Graecia Capta: The Landscapes of Roman Greece. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Andres, Christopher R., and Pyburn, K. Ann 2004 Out of Sight: The Postclassic and Early Colonial Periods at Chau Hiix, Belize. In The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation, edited by Demarest, Arthur A., Rice, Prudence M., and Rice, Don S., pp. 402–423. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Andrieu, Chloé 2009 Des déchets en offrande: les dépôts d’éclats dans les Basses Terres mayas. In XXIXe rencontres internationales d'archéologie et d'histoire d'Antibes, edited by Bonnardin, S., Hamon, C., Lauwers, M., and Quilliec, B., pp. 105–115. Éditions APDCA, Antibes.Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy 1991 Site-planning Principles and Concepts of Directionality among the Ancient Maya. Latin American Antiquity 2:199–226.Google Scholar
Bassie-Sweet, Karen 1991 From the Mouth of the Dark Cave: Commemorative Sculpture of the Late Classic Maya. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Bassie-Sweet, Karen, Laughlin, Robert M., Hopkins, Nicholas A., and Casimir, Andrés Brizuela (editors) 2015 The Ch'ol Maya of Chiapas. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S. 2016 The Cusco Ceque System as Shown in the Exsul immeritus Blas Valera popula suo. Ñawpa Pacha 36:23–34.Google Scholar
Borgstede, Greg 2010 Social Memory and Sacred Sites in the Western Maya Highlands: Examples from Jacaltenango, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 21:385–392.Google Scholar
Brady, James E. 1997 Settlement Configuration and Cosmology: The Role of Caves at Dos Pilas. American Anthropologist 99:602–618.Google Scholar
Brady, James E., and Prufer, Keith M. (editors) 2005 In the Maw of the Earth Monster: Mesoamerican Ritual Cave Use. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Brown, Linda A., and Emery, Kitty F. 2008 Negotiations with the Animate Forest: Hunting Shrines in the Guatemalan Highlands. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 15:300–337.Google Scholar
Brown, M. Kathryn 2011 Postclassic Veneration at Xunantunich, Belize. Mexicon 33:126–132.Google Scholar
Bullard, William R. 1963 A Unique Maya Shrine Site on the Mountain Pine Ridge of British Honduras. American Antiquity 29:98–99.Google Scholar
Cecil, Leslie 2001 Technological Styles of Late Postclassic Slipped Pottery from the Central Petén Lakes Region, el Petén, Guatemala. PhD dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale. ProQuest (3019249).Google Scholar
Chase, Arlen F. 1983 A Contextual Consideration of the Tayasal-Paxcaman Zone, El Peten, Guatemala. PhD dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. ProQuest (8406652).Google Scholar
Chase, Arlen F. 1985 Postclassic Peten Interaction Spheres: The View from Tayasal. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by Chase, A.F. and Rice, P.M., pp. 184–205. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Díaz del Castillo, B. 1963 The Conquest of New Spain. Penguin Books, London.Google Scholar
Duncan, William N. 2011 Bioarchaeological Analysis of Sacrificial Victims from a Postclassic Maya Temple from Ixlu, El Peten, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity 22:549–572.Google Scholar
Garcia-Zambrano, Angel J. 1994 Early Colonial Evidence of Pre-Columbian Rituals of Foundation. In Seventh Palenque Round Table 1989, edited by Robertson, Merle Green and Fields, Virginia M., pp. 217–228. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, Monterey, California.Google Scholar
Golden, Charles., Scherer, Andrew K., Muñoz, A. René, and Vasquez, Rosaura 2008 Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan: Divergent Political Trajectories in Adjacent Maya Polities. Latin American Antiquity 19:249–274.Google Scholar
Golden, Charles, and Scherer, Andrew K. 2013 Territory, Trust, Growth, and Collapse in Classic Period Maya Kingdoms. Current Anthropology 54:397–435.Google Scholar
Graham, Elizabeth 2011 Maya Christians and their Churches in Sixteenth-Century Belize. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Halperin, Christina T. 2005 Social Power and Sacred Space at Actun Nak Beh, Belize. In Stone Houses and Earth Lords: Maya Religion in the Cave Context, edited by Prufer, Keith M. and Brady, James E., pp. 71–90. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Halperin, Christina T. 2011 Excavaciones en el sector Centro-Norte de Tayasal. In Proyecto Arqueologico Tayasal, Informe Preliminar de las Temporadas de Investigaciones Año 2010–2011, edited by Pugh, Timothy W. and Sánchez Polo, José Rómulo, pp. 59–76. Report submitted to the Instituto de Antropología e Historia (IDAEH), Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Halperin, Christina T. 2012 Investigaciones Arqueológicas en el Sector Centro-Norte de Tayasal. In Proyecto Arqueologico Tayasal, Informe Preliminar de la Temporada de Investigacion Año 2012, edited by Pugh, Timothy W. and Sánchez, Carlos H., pp. 31–49. Report submitted to the Instituto de Antropología e Historia (IDAEH), Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala City.Google Scholar
Halperin, Christina T. 2014 Ruins in Pre-Columbian Maya Urban Landscapes. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 23(4):1–24.Google Scholar
Halperin, Christina T. 2017 Temporalities of Late Classic to Postclassic (ca. AD 600–1521) Maya Figurines from Central Petén, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity 28:515–540.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman 1991 Inside the Black Box: Defining Maya Polity. In Classic Maya Political History, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick, pp. 313–334. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Hill, Robert M. 1996 Eastern Chajoma (Cakchiquel) Political Geography: Ethnohistorical and Archaeological Contributions to the Study of a Late Postclassic Highland Maya Polity. Ancient Mesoamerica 7:63–87.Google Scholar
Hruby, Zachary X. 2007 Ritualized Lithic Production at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. In Rethinking Specialization in Complex Societies: Archaeological Analysis of the Social Meaning of Production, edited by Hruby, Zachary X. and Flad, Roland K., pp. 68–87. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No. 17. Arlington, Virginia.Google Scholar
Hruby, Zachary X. 2018 Lithic Technologies and Economies at El Zotz. In An Inconstant Landscape: The Maya Kingdom of El Zotz, Guatemala, edited by Garrison, Thomas and Houston, Stephen D.. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Hruby, Zachary X., and Rich, Michelle 2014 Flint for the Dead: Ritual Deposition of Production Debitage from El Perú-Waka’, Burial 39. In Archaeology at El-Peru-Waka’: Ancient Maya Performances of Ritual, Memory, and Power, edited by Navarro Farr, Olivia C. and Rich, Michelle, pp. 167–183. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Hutson, Scott, and Welch, Jacob 2014 Sacred Landscapes and Building Practices at Uci, Kancab, and Ucanha, Yucatan, Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 25:421–439.Google Scholar
Jones, Grant D. 1998 The Conquest of the Last Maya Kingdom. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Lorenzen, Karl James 1999 New Discoveries at Tumben-Naranjál: Late Postclassic Reuse and the Ritual Recycling of Cultural Geography. Mexicon 21:98–107.Google Scholar
Lorenzen, Karl James 2003 Miniature Masonry Shrines of the Yucatan Peninsula: Ancestor Deification in Late Postclassic Maya Ritual and Religion. PhD dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside. ProQuest (3109656).Google Scholar
Lorenzen, Karl James 2005 Ancestor Deification in Ancient Maya Ritual and Religion: Late Postclassic Community Shrines and Family Oratories. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 91(4):25–51.Google Scholar
Maca, Alan 2006 Body, Boundaries, and “Lived” Urban Space: A Research Model for the Eighth-Century City at Copan, Honduras. In Space and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology, edited by Robertson, Elizabeth C., Seibert, Jeffery D., and Fernandez, Deepika C., pp. 143–156. University of Calgary, Archaeological Association, Calgary, Alberta.Google Scholar
Masson, Marilyn A., Hare, Timothy S., and Lope, Carlos Perez 2006 Postclassic Maya Society at Mayapán. In After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies, edited by Schartz, Glenn M. and Nichols, John J., pp. 188–207. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia A. 1995 Living with the Ancestors: Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Maya Society. University of Austin Press, Austin.Google Scholar
McEwan, Colin 2015 Ordering the Sacred and Recreating Cuzco. In The Archaeology of Wak'as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian Andes, edited by Bray, Tamara L., pp. 265–292. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Pohl, John M.D., Monaghan, John, and Stiver, Laura R. 1997 Religion, Economy, and Factionalism in Mixtec Boundary Zones. In Códices y Documentos sobre México, Vol. I, edited by Smithers, Salvador R., Sosa, Constanza V., and Baracs, Rodrigo M., pp. 205–232. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia y Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes Dirección General de Publicaciones, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Polignac, François de 1995 Cults, Territory, and the Origins of the Greek City-State. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatianna 1962 Civic and Religious Structures of Mayapan. In Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, edited by Pollock, Harry E. E., Roys, Ralph L., Proskouriakoff, Tatianna, and Smith, A. Ledyard, pp. 87–320. Garamond Press, Baltimore, Maryland.Google Scholar
Pugh, Timothy W. 2003 The Exemplary Center of the Late Postclassic Kowoj Maya. Latin American Antiquity 14:408–430.Google Scholar
Pugh, Timothy W. 2004 Activity Areas, Forms, and Social Inequality in Residences at Late Postclassic Zacpetéen, Petén, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 29:351–367.Google Scholar
Pugh, Timothy W. 2005 Caves and Artificial Caves in Late Postclassic Maya Ceremonial Groups. In Stone Houses and Earth Lords: Maya Religion in the Cave Context, edited by Prufer, Keith M. and Brady, James E., pp. 47–69. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Pugh, Timothy W., Sánchez, José Rómulo, and Shiratori, Yuko 2012 Contact and Missionization at Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 37:3–19.Google Scholar
Puleston, Dennis E., and Callender, Donald W. 1967 Defensive Earthworks at Tikal. Expedition Magazine 9:40–48.Google Scholar
Ramírez Baldizón, Fredy 2004 Investigación del Grupo 23, en el Grupo Principal del Sitio Arqueológico Tayasal. Technical thesis in Archaeology, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Centro Universitario de Peten, Santa Elena, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M. 2009 Incense Burners and Other Ritual Ceramics. In The Kowoj: Identity, Migration, and Geopolitics in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala, edited by Rice, P.M. and Rice, D.S., pp. 276–312. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M., and Rice, Don S. 1985 Topoxte, Macanche, and the Central Peten Postclassic. In The Lowland Maya Postclassic, edited by Chase, Arlan F. and Rice, Prudence M., pp. 166–183. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Rice, Prudence M., and Rice, Don S. 2018 Classic-to-Contact-Period Continuities in Maya Governance in Central Petén, Guatemala. Ethnohistory 65:25–50. DOI:10.1215/00141801-4260647.Google Scholar
Reese-Taylor, Kathryn 2002 Ritual Circuits as Key Elements in Maya Civic Center Designs. In Heart of Creation: Mesoamerican World and the Legacy of Linda Schele, edited by Stone, Andrea, pp. 143–165. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Robin, Cynthia, Meierhoff, Caleb Kestle, Blackmore, Chelsea, Kosakowsky, Laura J., and Novotny, Anna C. 2012 Ritual in a Farming Community. In Chan: An Ancient Maya Farming Community, edited by Robin, Cynthia, pp. 113–132. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. 1972 The Indian Background of Colonial Yucatan. The Civilization of the American Indian Vol. 118. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Russell, Bradley W. 2008 Postclassic Maya Settlement on the Rural-Urban Fringe of Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico. PhD dissertation. Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Albany. ProQuest (3311701).Google Scholar
Schwartz, Kevin R. 2009 Exkixil: Understanding the Classic to Postclassic Survival and Transformation of a Peten Maya Village. Latin American Antiquity 20:413–441.Google Scholar
Sorensen, Kathryn Ann 2010 Ancient Maya Site Planning Principles: A Case Study for the Preclassic/Classic Transition. PhD dissertation. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside. (3433912).Google Scholar
Stone, Andrea J. 1995 Images from the Underworld: Naj Tunich and the Tradition of Maya Cave Painting. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 2003 Ancient and Contemporary Maya Conceptions About Field and Forest. In The Lowland Maya Area: Three Millennia at the Human-Wildland Interface, edited by Gómez-Pompa, Arturo, Allen, Michael, Fedick, Scott, and Jimenez-Osornio, Juan, pp. 461–492. Haworth Press, New York.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Barbara 1992 Time and the Highland Maya, Revised Edition. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1959 The Role of Caves in Maya Culture. Mitteilungen aus dem Museum fur Völkerkunde im Hamburg Vol. 25, pp. 122–139.Google Scholar
Tozzer, Alfred M. 1941 Landa's Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán: A Translation. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Villa Rojas, Alfonso 1945 The Maya of East Central Quintana Roo. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1969 Zinacantan. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z., and Stuart, David S. 2005 Some Notes on Ritual Caves among the Ancient and Modern Maya. In In the Maw of the Earth Monster: Mesoamerican Ritual Cave Use, edited by Brady, James E. and Prufer, Keith M., pp. 155–185. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Webster, David, Murtha, Timothy, Straight, Kirk D., Silverstein, Jay, Martinez, Horacio, Terry, Richard E., and Burnett, Richard 2007 The Great Tikal Earthwork Revisited. Journal of Field Archaeology 32:41–64.Google Scholar
Woodfill, Brent 2011 The Central Role of Cave Archaeology in the Reconstruction of Classic Maya Culture History and Highland-Lowland Interaction. Ancient Mesoamerica 22:213–227.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Halperin and Hruby supplementary material

Tables S1-S2

Download Halperin and Hruby supplementary material(File)
File 17.2 KB