Postclassic (Other Keyword)
1-21 (21 Records)
Among the artifacts found at the site of Calixtlahuaca, excavations recovered an unusually large quantity of sherd disks. Calixtlahuaca is an Aztec Postclassic (AD 1130-1530) site located in the Toluca Valley of Central Mexico. These sherd disks, or tejos, were created from bowls and pots broken during antiquity. The potsherds were worked until they were circular in shape. Other researchers have suggested potential uses for these worked sherds, including gaming tokens (for the game patolli), net...
By Themselves They Celebrated His Feast Day: Regional Variation in Postclassic Central Mexican Domestic Ritual (2016)
This poster examines the variation in domestic ritual practices in Postclassic Central Mexico, using data from the Basin of Mexico, the Toluca Valley, and Morelos. I use cluster analysis to identify patterning in censer and figurine use, based on the functional attributes of these artifact classes (use mechanics for censers, subject matter for figurines). These clusters are then compared spatially and temporally to identify patterns based on ethnicity and the expansion of the Aztec Empire. The...
The Central Maya Highlands during the Postclassic: a marginal region on the eve of the Spanish conquest? (2017)
Compared to its Guatemala counterpart, the region of the Chiapas highlands is known to have a marginal history in the Postclassic period. This misrepresentation is due to limited investigations since the 1960´s and to inexistent ethnohistoric sources, which could provide clues for the interpretation of ethnic and settlement patterns on the eve of the Conquest. However, Spanish documents described "cacicazgos" as Chamula and Zinacantan near Jobel Valley, which is the focal point of our study....
Ceramic Molds for Mixtec Gold: New Insights into Lost Wax-Casting traditions of Late Postclassic Oaxaca (2015)
Lost-wax casting in prehispanic Mesoamerica reached its apogee in Late Postclassic Oaxaca, Mexico. Nowhere is this artistry more evident than in the spectacular gold and silver offerings from Tomb 7 at Monte Albán. Researchers have long understood the general process of lost-wax casting, but have incompletely examined variability in techniques utilized through space and time. This poster presents new evidence of ceramic molds from Late Postclassic Tututepec that are believed to have been used to...
CHANGES IN OBSIDIAN SUPPLY DURING THE CLASSIC TO POSTCLASSIC TRANSITION IN PREHISPANIC PUEBLA-TLAXCALA (2016)
The Puebla-Tlaxcala region witnessed several shifts in political and economic power during the Classic to Postclassic transition. This area played a pivotal role in the development of cultural complexity following the demographic rearrangements that followed the fall of Teotihuacan as a pan-regional state power. However, little research has been carried on understanding shifts in exchange networks, especially on the trade of obsidian materials. Using XRF-p analysis, this paper seeks to provide...
Closing the Portal at Itzmal Ch’en: Termination Rituals at Mayapan (2015)
The ceremonious destruction and abandonment of the Itzmal Ch’en group at Mayapán is symptomatic of ritual violence that marked this city’s near collapse at least 50 years before its final abandonment around 1448 A.D. This new evidence revises Contact Period accounts about the demise of this city, the last regional capital of the Maya realm prior to European arrival, and it also reveals the city’s resilient (if brief) recovery. In the tradition of the interdisciplinary approach of the Forest of...
Collapse from the Outside In: A View from the Western Maya Periphery (2015)
Despite the sociopolitical instability and depopulation observed at numerous sites in the Southern Maya Lowlands during the 9th century A.D., often referred to as the "Maya Collapse," numerous politically and geographically peripheral sites do not show evidence of these characteristics. Many of the small cities and towns of the Central Highlands of Chiapas maintained their roles as political centers throughout the Late Classic-Early Postclassic period transition, and also experienced demographic...
Crafting, Identity, and Power: A Comparative Analysis of Late Postclassic Facial Adornment Use in Central Mexico (2017)
In pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, individuals from diverse regions and social classes deployed facial adornments, such as ear spools and lip plugs, to materialize concepts of identity. Specifically, recent archaeological research at the Late Postclassic (AD 1250 to 1521) city of Tlaxcallan provides new insights into the role of facial adornments in a highly collective society. Tracing material sources reveals the inter-workings of regional and local economic interactions and local sociopolitical...
Exemplary Centers as Quintessential Places: Migrants and Architectural Quotations in Late Postclassic Petén, Guatemala (2017)
Exemplary centers are physically schematized archetypes which represent and communicate social realities and political orders. Such exemplary centers are quintessential places, as they represent identity and memory. Migrating populations frequently reconstruct exemplary centers that replicate homelands through materials and images demonstrating their identity. Such "architectural quotations" help the migrants to legitimate social and political positions in the new locations. Members of groups...
The Highland Maya Conquests of the Northern Transversal Strip from the Early Postclassic through the 21st Century (2017)
Salinas de los Nueve Cerros was a massive city in west-central Guatemala that was built around the only non-coastal salt source in the Maya lowlands. In spite of this lowland location, highlanders were drawn to it for its agricultural potential and the rich concentration of salt. In this paper, we will look at the three major colonization attempts of the saltworks and the surrounding region by Maya highlanders—the Early Postclassic, the conquest period, and the late 20th century. After the city...
Interregional Connections of Northeast Honduras during the Postclassic Period (2017)
In 2016, archaeological investigations were carried out in Guadalupe, an extended prehispanic settlement near Trujillo, on the Northeast Coast of Honduras. The site was inhabited during the Postclassic period (Cocal) and might have functioned as a coastal trading center. This is indicated by its strategic location near the coast and next to an ancient river bed connecting the coast to the hinterland, especially to the Valle de Aguán, a culturally and economically important, but hitherto poorly...
Mixtec Goldworking: New Evidence for Lost-Wax Casting from Late Postclassic Tututepec, Oaxaca. (2017)
Gold jewelry and ornaments produced in Late Postclassic Oaxaca were among the finest ever made in Mesoamerica. Yet the paucity of archaeological evidence for metallurgical production in Oaxaca has frustrated efforts to better understand these spectacular objects and their role in Postclassic society. This paper presents the results of an analysis of 42 ceramic molds from the Late Postclassic (1100-1522 CE) Mixtec Capital of Tututepec. I argue that the molds were utilized to cast internal cores,...
New Investigations on the Northeast Coast of Honduras (2017)
As part of the Central American Isthmus, Honduras adopted a special role in prehispanic America. Together with Nicaragua, the territory of modern Honduras functioned as a bridge between the culture areas of Mesoamerica and the Intermediate Area. In spite of that unique situation, archaeological investigations in Honduras have been focusing on the western, Mesoamerican part, especially on the Maya city of Copan. In contrast, cultural developments in the east remain largely unknown. With the goal...
Paradox no More? Postclassic Mazapa and its Regional Context (2017)
During the 2014 through 2016 field and laboratory seasons of the RRATZ Project, the archaeological site of Mazapa was recorded, mapped, and its pottery and obsidian artifacts analyzed. These efforts reveal that Mazapa, located near Chonegal, Veracruz, is one of the largest Late Postclassic sites known for the southern Gulf lowlands; it contains approximately 170 structures that range from low housemounds to platforms measuring 7 meters high. Although sizeable Postclassic settlements have been...
Plaza, Trade, and Politics in Postclassic Tlaxcallan (2016)
Excavated lithic material from plazas at the Postclassic site of Tepeticpac, in the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala, suggests that obsidian production took place in these open spaces that may have served as marketplaces in the Late Postclassic polity of Tlaxcallan. Moreover, although green obsidian is present in Late Postclassic contexts, a decline in its presence is evident from earlier periods. In spite of ethnohistoric sources’ claims that Tlaxcallan was cut off from trade by Tenochtitlan,...
Postclassic Murals of Mayapan as a Mirror of Cultural Transformation (2015)
The changing pictorial imagery in the murals of Mayapan offers a rich picture of cultural transformation in Postclassic Yucatan. The archaeological chronology of Mayapan and comparisons with murals elsewhere in Mesoamerica provide an anchor for the mural chronology. Between 1350 and 1400, Mayapan’s murals represent imagery that apparently was inspired by different sources. One mural program can be compared with the hybrid Maya painting style of the Madrid Codex, which also uses the same pigments...
A Reappraisal of Postclassic Maya Effigy Censers in the Cave Context: Evidence from the Central Coastal Region of Quintana Roo, Mexico (2016)
Like the subterranean construction and use of ancient Maya shrines and altars, the presence of incense burners in caves provides unequivocal evidence of ritual practice. Effigy censers, particularly those of the Chen Mul Modeled ceramic type, were locally produced and widely used across the northern lowlands and have been reported in contexts within architectural precincts at a number of Postclassic Maya centers. The use of such censers in ceremonies involving deity veneration was most likely,...
Shifting Domestic Economies at Postclassic Period Moxviquil: Insights from Ceramic Petrography (2017)
The Early to Late Postclassic Period transition brought substantial changes to the political and economic organization of many regions of Mesoamerica. For the networked polities of highland Chiapas, these changes included substantial decreases in population at existing monumental centers; the establishment of new political centers in several principal highland valleys, and the establishment of an expansionary Chiapanec state in the Central Depression, centered on the city of Chiapa de Corzo....
A Spatial Analysis of Proposed Egalitarian Site Organization in Postclassic Tlaxcallan (2015)
The Tlaxcaltecas are known as one of the few groups to maintain autonomy from the Late Postclassic expansion of the Aztec Triple Alliance in Central Mexico. This is particularly interesting given their location, surrounded by Aztec allies and tributaries. In their 2010 paper, Fargher et al. proposed that the success of the Tlaxcallan state was attributed to a political ideology that emphasized egalitarianism rather than imperialism. In a 2011 paper, Fargher et al. expanded upon this hypothesis...
Starfish in the offerings of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (2017)
Recent excavations carried out by the Templo Mayor Project in Tenochtitlan’s sacred precinct uncovered a significant number of calcium carbonate plates, which, in spite of their advanced degree of deterioration, can be identified as consisting of the endoskeletons of sea stars. These organisms belong to the Asteroidea (from the Greek aster: "star" and eidos: "in the shape of") class, most of which exhibit radial symmetry and have thin, discernibly pentagonal bodies. Sea stars inhabit marine...
Toward a Comparative Approach: Postclassic (AD 900-1521) Ceramics from the Pátzcuaro and Zacapu Basins, Michoacán, Mexico (2015)
Research on the Purépecha Empire (AD 1350-1521) in western Mexico has traditionally focused on elite activities after imperial formation. Consequently, there is limited information about the mechanisms for imperial development and changes in internal social, political, and economic structures that must have occurred in pre-imperial contexts. Study of artifact production is particularly important for understanding political reorganization strategies because producers and consumers may have been...