Mesoamerian Archaeology Final

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1. Pre-classic to classic and formative periods how does this change?

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Increase: sedintism , great urban states, social inequality, height of culture and city states. Craft production, population, agriculture (vs. horticulture) . Teotihuacan represents all of this

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Monte Alban( valley Oaxaca)

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main center

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Teotihuacan (highlands)

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“place of gods” 150-750 AD VALLEY OF MEXICO

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Palenque

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Maya

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tikal

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maya

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Copan

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Maya

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Cult of Quetzalcoatl

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Theory of how Toltec ideas got into the Maya. Quetzalcoatl is the feather serpent god.

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Patio Groups

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Maya Cultural trait. Houses surrounding around a patio. Principle of first occupancy, is elite people directly around the patios; first come first serve.

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Roof-Combs

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A wall built on the top of elite buildings put there for sculptures, This is believed to let people know what is going on in this building. Its just like a Maya Build-board. Maya cultural trait, Maya central lowlands. Also used to support buildings going on top of it.

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Stela/Altar Complex

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Stela are monumental pillars carved with inscriptions. Altars are elevated platforms where religious rights were performed. Maya Cultural trait. They were found together and appeared to be part of a ritual. Found with large amounts of offerings and evidence of burning on top of the alters--related to sacrifice and small offerings.

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Cylinder Vases

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: Had a Flat Bottom. Associated with Maya. Ash Tempered. The real vases were associated with the elites. They were carved and painted with Iconography and Hieroglyphs. Had glyphs at the top telling who it belonged to and what it was used for. Painting in the Middle described what was going on in the scene.

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Maya Long Count

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A way to reference time greater or less then the calendar round. itÕs a 5 place system. Count from the Mythical creation August 11, 3014 BC. Add the long count on to the original creation date. The Long count cycle is apx. 5125 years, it ends on Dec. 21, 2012. It uses the same bar and dot system.

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Popul Vuh

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General Origin Myth, Post classic or historic period book written by the Highland region Maya and it is a collection of origin

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Cylindrical vases

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[Polychrome] Associated with Teotihuacan. Three feet, Flower vase shapes.

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Talud-tablero

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: Architectural style associated with Teotihuacan. Only associated with Ritual structures. Talud = Slope / Tablero = flat.

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Eastern Mesoamerica: The Maya

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Lowlands- Central Yucatan, Central Peten, Central Belize, Central

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Honduras

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Highlands- Central Mexico, Central Guatemala

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Corbled/Vaulted Arch

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Elite Cultural Maya trait. Was a private Ritual space and it could have been used for sleep. They were really hot and small. It is believed they could have been used for sweat houses.

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Karst topography

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: Limestone Bedrock, soft or porourase bedrock. Water from rain, Lakes, Rivers eat up limestone and create Sinkholes and Cenotes. The Mayans took advantage of this with Chultuns.

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Cenotes

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Created by karst topography. Sink Holes with ground water, used to procure water. Associated with ritual and sacrifices.

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Chultuns

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Man made, Bottle shaped formation dug into the ground. They were used for storage (Water/food/Trash/Burials). Easily accessible by patio groups. Lined with plaster. And Capped on top with a rock.

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Aguadas

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Water Reservoirs. Shallow; Open and wide, covered in plaster; found behind Terraces and Agricultural fields.

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Southern Classic Maya

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Highlands - South Guatemala, Chiapas, pacific coast. It was More arid than the central area but still fertile; source for jade and obsidian. Least understood of regions. Mountains.

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Glottochronology

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: Is a technique of comparing modern Languages with the ancient ones and what they share. Looking at the change of languages over time. Determines when different languages evolved from a common source.
1. Change is relatively constant over time
2. Language change histories of the Maya.

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Twins Story

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Two Male twins challenge the underworld god to the ball game, the first set of twins fails then they get there heads chopped off. One Male spits on a princess of the underworld and she gets pregnant with the hero twins. The two new twins who where the hero ones come back to challenge the underworld god and win. They get father (Spit) back who becomes Maize god.

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Atlantes

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: Plural for Atlas, they were supports for the roofs carved as humans. They were once painted. They were depicted as high ranking warriors. Possible rulers or historic figures. Found at Tula which is the capital of the Toltec. Top of Pyramid B.

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Skull racks

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Found at Chichen Itza and Tula and also used by Aztecs. Wooden rack or altar consisting of series of vertical posts connected by horizontal crossbeams. Skulls were pierced or threaded laterally along horizontal stakes

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Chacmools

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Statues of reclining personages with receptacles for human hearts; possibly representation of rain god. Reclining human figure with head up and turned to the side holding tray or bowl on stomach. There are 7 of these found at Tula.

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Bas-relief

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Carve out the negative space. So the figure is raised. Carved out the Negative space instead of the figure.

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Public/Private

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Public is sometimes portrayed as Male by archaeologist but this isnÕt necessarily true; Public is political and ritual. Private is Home, and reproductive and usually associated with females.

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Active/Passive

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Active is public and viewed as male and passive is private and viewed as female. For example: When cooking tools are found with women they think that the women where using the tools to cook and when they were found with males it was thought that the males produced and made the cooking tools.

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How does the Classic period differ from the PreClassic/Formative periods? How does Teotihuacan reflect this change?

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PreClassic/Formative Period(Ad 1-300): Horticulture: Non-intensified agriculture, sedentism, rise in population, monumental architectures. Teotihuacan had 100,000 residences.

The Classic Period(Ad 400-550): Population increase is larger; Urbanization, State religion, Writing, agriculture is founded, centralized ritual, inequality institutionalized, social stratification. Population of Teotihuacan had 200,000.

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What are some defining characteristics or cultural traits associated with Teotihuacan and then later the Toltec?

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Toltec (Nahuatl word for artist): fine orange wares, Tohil Plumbate Ceramics (Really tough because they were fired at a high temp and were a really dense material),
1) Mixteca puebla Iconography: highly stylized representation of human figures and geometric shapes. In comparison to Maya art -> realism -> music tones, people stood in realist ways, not stylized; uniform age, young and beautiful. International Style- commonly traded, used, produced. Mixteca very stylized.

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How did Sugiyama and Manzanilla each deal with aspects of rulership/authority at Teotihuacan? How were landscape, space and civic planning used in their arguments?

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How was Teotihuacan a cosmopolitan city? What evidence do we have (Oaxaca and merchant barrios)?

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When did Teotihuacan decline? What evidence do we have of this and does that evidence suggest internal unrest or conquest? Why? What happened after Teo declined? Who stepped in to take over the power vacuum they left behind?

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How did Teotihuac‡n impact other cultures in Mesoamerica, like the Maya? What evidence do we have of Teotihuacano influence in ancient Maya society?

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= The trade routes collapsing which allowed elites to gain there elite goods from far away.

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Where are the Maya geographically located? How is this region divided up? Be specific.

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8. The Maya were the people of eastern Mesoamerica; their region was divided up in to three areas. The southern highland, northern lowlands and central lowlands. The southern highlands consisted of Guatemala, Chiapas, and the gulf coast, more arid than other areas but still fertile, good source of jade and obsidian. The northern and central lowlands consist of Guatemala, western Honduras, Belize, central Petén, and northern Yucatan. This is the largest portion of Maya, most of the area is jungle and forest.

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Be able to talk about overlap of cosmology and landscape among the ancient Maya. Be able to give specific examples of the ways in which the heavens, earth, and underworld were depicted and the symbols and meanings associated with them.

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Maya were able to connect their cosmology with their landscape. Their cosmology consisted of the celestial world, earth, and the underworld. Iconography directly relates the celestial world to the sky. The Maya often connected the underworld to caves and mountains, this is evident to various stone relief’s where figures are seen in or coming out of caves, these caves will sometime take on the form of a monster head. The earth is represented as a disk like monster that takes on the form of a reptile.

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Be able to detail the differences between the five Maya gods we talked about in class- Chac, Itzamna, Moon Goddess, IxChel, Maize God.

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It Zama or God D is the elderly god who is attributed to creating the sun. Associated with writing, divination, and curing he the god of scribes, priests, curing, and medicine. He is seen in Maya cosmology as the creator people from maize . Chak or God B is the god of rain and thunder. He is depicted with fangs, curled snout, and shell earrings. The oldest god in the Maya pantheon, he is found in other Mesoamerican societies. Maize God or God E is the God of Maize depicted with a flattened forehead with tufts, and a corn cob headdress, the personification of maize is representation of fertility. He generated allot of tribute. The Moon God or God I is associated wit the moon and rabbit, presides over marriage, human fertility, and physical love. Ix Chel Goddess O depicted as an elderly women wearing a snake headdress. Associated with divination, midwives, and curing. She in the classic period is depicted as fierce as a way to create control over women as men would be afraid of women becoming to powerful.

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What makes Maya language distinct from other languages? Be able to describe the general history of decipherment-Eric Thompson, Tatiana Proskurikoff, Yuriy Knorozov, & David Stuart.

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What makes Maya language so distinct from other languages is its logo syllabic use of 800 signs, and the variations from the same meaning. Maya language also gives specific accounts of history involving kings and rulers. Eric Thompson the leading researcher of the Maya language believed that the Maya represented not their history but myths of gods and ancestors. Tatiana Proskurikoff later would see that these were in fact not myths but written histories. In Russia Yuriy Knorozov recognized that the Maya wrote syllabic, glyphs including syllables, he recognized the 800 signs but, was dismissed by Eric Thompson until years later . It was not until David Thompson who was able to unlock the syllabic meaning as one sound may have from 12-15 variations that make up the same meaning.

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According to Cynthia Robin in your textbook, what were the three critical turning points in Maya archaeology and why? How have Mayanists used household analyses, feminist and queer theories to expand their interpretations of social diversity within the ancient Maya?

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What is household archaeology? How is it related to a feminist archaeology? What is a feminist archaeology? What does it do and what does it critique?

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Androcentric perspective
Archaeology of identity
Household
Archaeology is the study of ancient households; microcosm for the whole
society; a focus on people and everyday life; focuses on household groups and
patio spaces; Feminist approaches look at social diversity- social
organizations and social interactions of day-day life.--Feminist archaeology:
more focus on commoners; came out of feminist movement of the 70s. Concerned
with women’s roles & how androcentrism has affected archaeology of the past
and present. Critiques essentialism/homogenization-- idea that women are the
sum of their reproductive systems*Public/Private
dichotomy: male=public/active; women=private/passive. -Production
of knowledge-women ignored or represented only in private sphere
(essentialized).

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Using my discussion of Chan for evidence, does a feminist archaeology require an analysis of gender? Why/ why not? What is my problem with the terms elite and commoner?

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Feminist archaeology does
not require an analysis of gender because of the issue of a “feminist agenda”
when archaeologists go into the field; they go into the site already looking
for certain things. --elite is defined by:
prestige items- jade, long distance trade obsidian, shells. Glyphs,
stela, iconography,
monumental architecture, vaulted ceilings.--commoners did not have as
much access to resources. Less quantity of prestige items; fragments of
polychrome vases. Elite life was center of civilization--idea of
gender dichotomy
(masculine and feminine) was applied here. Masculinizing the elite and
feminizing commoners (active and passive). •
Top-down
models place emphasis on elites; they are ancient Maya culture.

•
Commoners
as passive participants in construction of society

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What defines the collapse? What happens that makes people believe that the society collapse or disappeared?

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Demise
of southern lowland states, 800 - 900 A.D., known as the Terminal Classic
period.

•
Public
architecture & art virtually ceased after 810 A. D.

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Be able to discuss, in detail, the various theories associated with the ancient Maya collapse.
-how do Pyburn and Hendon each describe it?

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Hendon focuses on the misconception that the public and
Western scholars have of a Maya “collapse”. She states that rather than a
collapse there were other forces at play that cause the reorganization of both
settlement and political power. Hendon attributes the Maya collapse to three
important factors, human settlement, militarism, and pan-regional elite
identity.
* Hendon defines the collapse as a sudden event that occurred
during the Terminal Classic period Maya. She also refers to the collapse as
more than a disappearance of a society but as a time where the Maya society was
going through changes. This stances is similar to what Pyburn was arguing for;
different perspectives to analyze data that suggests a huge alteration in the
ancient Maya society. Hendon goes into more detail about the changing Maya
society through the Classic settlement patterns where cities ceased the
creation of stelae hieroglyphs. The constructions of new settlements were also
considered to be a factor of people moving on from

Front 47

Based on the movie ÒWho Killed the MayaÓ describe how feminist critique and household archaeology tie into this movie?

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Who were the Toltec and how were they related to the Maya and to the Aztec? What are Toltec specific cultural traits?

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What themes are common at Tula in terms of the art and iconography? Be able to describe specific architectural features like Pyramid B and associated art work.

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How do Brumfiel and Smith characterize PostClassic society in terms of politics, cosmology and social structure? How do their lines of evidence differ or compare? Do you think that either inappropriately apply western constructs (like those brought up in the Vento article) to their interpretations?

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What is the relationship between the Toltecs and Chichen Itza? Why do we think they were connected?

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How did the Aztec describe the Toltecs? Who were they to the Aztec and how did they use them to legitimate elite status?

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Know everything about the Aztec that I cover in the final ay of class!!!

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