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VISUALIZING TAYZA, CAPITAL OF THE PETÉN ITZAS: TEASING MEANINGS FROM POSTCLASSIC POTTERY STYLES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2017

Prudence M. Rice
Prudence M. Rice*
Affiliation:
Distinguished Professor Emerita, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; 1809 West Main Street PMB 298, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA ([email protected])
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Abstract

A decade of public-works excavations on Flores Island—once Tayza, capital of the powerful Itza Maya confederacy in Postclassic- and contact-period Petén, Guatemala—has recovered large quantities of artifacts but without proper provenience controls. This important center is poorly understood in archaeological terms because of the dense modern construction that precludes systematic investigation. Thus, these excavated materials become critical despite their limitations for insights into the Itza settlement. Convenience samples of the slipped and decorated pottery from the salvage (and other) excavations were analyzed to interpret style and meaning through the combined perspectives of design structure analysis, information exchange, visual rhetoric, literary studies, and semiotechnology. Features examined include forms, types, colors, layouts, and motifs. The spatial distributions of these features over the island were assessed in terms of a quadripartite organization mentioned in Spanish accounts. It is proposed that the southeastern quadrant was the residential area of Itza royal elites, due to the presence of elaborate and innovative polychromes conveying messages of elite power. Pottery in the northern quadrants has more traditional decoration resembling that at mainland sites in the Lake Petén basin, and signals ordinary Itza identity. These differences, and the overall theoretical approach, might be testable on larger, better-excavated samples.

En la última década se han llevado a cabo excavaciones por medio de maquinarias pesadas como parte de obras públicas en la isla de Flores (antes Tayza), capital de los poderosos mayas itzas del Petén Posclásico y del período del contacto español. Si bien esta ciudad es muy importante, no es bien conocida arqueológicamente debido a que su denso asentamiento moderno ha impedido las excavaciones sistemáticas. Por este motivo, estudiar los artefactos recuperados durante las obras públicas es de vital importancia, aunque estos carezcan de controles adecuados de proveniencia. Se realizó un muestreo por conveniencia de los fragmentos de cerámica con engobe y decorados con pintura roja o negra, o incisos, obtenidos a partir de excavaciones de rescate (y otras) en Flores, con el objetivo de interpretar los estilos y sus significados por medio de las perspectivas teóricas combinadas de estructura del diseño, intercambio de información, retórica visual, estudios literarios y semiotecnología. Las características examinadas incluyen las formas, tipos, colores, diseños y motivos. Además, se evaluaron estos rasgos por su distribución espacial en la isla en términos de una organización cuadripartita. Los cuatro cuadrantes y el sector central de la isla pueden caracterizarse por diferentes formas, tipos y motivos de cerámica decorada. El centro, corazón cívico-ceremonial, proporcionó la mayoría de los incensarios efigie (los incensarios compuestos tienen una distribución mucho mayor). En el sector sureste se recuperaron fragmentos de vasijas polícromas con decoración exquisita y vajilla no local. Se propone que probablemente esta zona fue la residencia de las élites reales. La cerámica decorada en el norte de la isla está dominada por diseños tradicionales con motivos pintados en negro, lo que también constituye la decoración más común en los sitios en tierra firme alrededor del lago Petén Itzá. Se considera que este estilo señala la identidad general itza, mientras que los polícromos complejos comunican mensajes relacionados con el poder de los gobernantes itzas. Estas diferencias y el enfoque teórico general podrán ser corroborados con muestras más grandes.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 177 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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