termination ritual (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Markus Eberl. Sven Gronemeyer. Claudia Marie Vela González.

In Classic Maya society, termination rituals were conducted to ‘kill’ buildings and artifacts, predominantly in elite contexts. The resulting deposits were rapidly deposited in intentionally damaged buildings. They contain dense artifact assemblages with exotic objects and refittable ceramic sherds. After burning them, the artifacts were covered with white marl. Here, we report the extensive excavation of non-elite Structure 5PS-12 at the outskirts of the Classic Maya capital of Tamarindito. Its...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kaitlin Ahern.

In the pursuit to understand ancient Maya ritual, researchers have commonly relied upon the analysis of termination rituals and caches. In the early 2000’s, Jonathan B. Pagliaro, James F. Garber, and Travis W. Stanton introduced a clarification of the terminology, differentiating between reverential and desecratory termination rituals. Following this publication, a surge of studies conceptualizing desecratory termination rituals emerged, while the literature on reverential termination rituals...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Sload.

Reverential termination is hypothesized for the human-made cave beneath the Sun Pyramid. While the idea of a mid-third century A.D. termination is not new and is based on radiocarbon dating and construction of blockages in the rear section of the cave and use of concrete, qualifying the termination as reverential is a refinement. The most direct information comes from examination of blockage construction, which is supported by two other lines of evidence. One also lays within the cave and...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Sload.

The predominant view is that the paucity of material remains from the cave under the Sun Pyramid is attributable to looting, often described as exhaustive. This paper disputes that speculation, based on lack of evidence and, more convincingly, on a paucity of material remains from contexts that could not possibly have been looted any time after Teotihuacanos applied concrete to the cave in the mid-third century CE. I present evidence for timing, termination ritual, sealing of termination...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lydie Dussol.

Termination rituals have been a well-documented practice among ancient Maya societies. Generally including the spread of broken artifacts on floors, the manipulation of ancestor bones, and the intentional destruction of architectural structures, termination deposits are believed to have served to symbolically "kill" a building at the time of its abandonment. Regardless of the nature or function of these different deposits, their frequent association with ashes, charcoal and burn marks clearly...