Reconsidering the "Epic" in the Mesoamerican Epiclassic Period Part 2: Interregional Interactions

DOCUMENT Citation Only Brigitte Faugere.

In the North-Center region of Mexico, the Bajio knew its peak of populating during Epiclassic period. From the Preclassic background of the Chupicuaro Culture, emerges a rich ceramic and architectural tradition. Following the fall of Teotihucan, the Bajio covers itself with extensive networks of sites organized around ceremonial centers where appear frequently sunken patios and I shape ballcourts. The ceramic is nevertheless far from being uniform, denoting a will of cultural assertion for each...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jesper Nielsen. Christophe Helmke.

Whereas the Epiclassic (AD 600-900) has long been recognized as a period characterized by increased conflict and warfare between the dominant city-states of central Mexico, concrete evidence for actual military actions has been rather limited. Here we discuss epigraphic and iconographic evidence that suggest that two of the major Epiclassic powers, namely Cacaxtla and Xochicalco, were involved in a violent conflict, and that Cacaxtla succeeded in capturing several prominent individuals from...

DOCUMENT Citation Only J. Heath Anderson.

In recent years, scholars interested in the processes and events involved in the formation of the Toltec state have turned their interest toward links that might have existed between the area immediately surrounding Tula Grande, the civic-ceremonial center of the Toltec state, and sites in the Bajío region to the northwest. Although several material culture affinities have been proposed to demonstrate possible ethnic and economic ties between these areas, investigators have not arrived at a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christina Halperin.

Previous theoretical considerations of the Mesoamerican Epiclassic period have situated social change as part of social evolutionary processes of state collapse, the networking of a few religious and political-elites (e.g., cult of Quetzalcoatl), the proliferation of market economies, and the beginning of an "International Style". This paper considers notions of cosmopolitanism as a new theoretical framework for thinking about Epiclassic processes. It has long been suggested that Epiclassic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Angel González López.

The ways in which human societies create a sense of history and incorporate it into daily life varies through time. In the Late Postclassic Basin of Mexico for example, cultural groups perpetuated, but also abandoned aspects of the stories of their ancestors. The uses, causes and reasons for this practice depends on a combination of several factors. The use of the past and how it was conceived and incorporated into the perspective of the Mexica is of particular interest. Previous studies have...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Cynthia Kristan-Graham.

The council house (popol nah or nim ja in Maya languages) is found from North Mexico to southern Mesoamerica. With roots in Classic-period architecture and enduring until after the Conquest in some regions, the council house typically was located in central areas of civic-ceremonial centers and featured a rectangular colonnade and built-in benches. In situ glyphs and ethnohistory indicate that lineages used these buildings for ritual-administrative purposes, and perhaps also as dwellings. This...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Bryan Just.

During the Epiclassic period, several discrete iconographic motifs and technical qualities were adopted by peoples of South-Central Veracruz that have close affinities to art of the greater Maya area. For example, some Rio Blanco modelled-carved bowls mimic the iconography of Tiquisate wares of Escuintla, Guatemala. Nopiloa figurines bare well-known ties to figurines from Campeche, Mexico. Apparently indicating an alternate direction of artistic influence, decorative motifs common on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Turner.

Studies of the visual systems of the major sites of Epiclassic Highland Mexico have tended to focus on their common writing system and similarity in art styles. There is much to be gained from these lines of inquiry, but relatively few works have investigated the shared religious content conveyed in Epiclassic artwork. This paper evaluates preexisting theories concerning Epiclassic pan-Mesoamerican cults and argues that religious and ideological beliefs concerning Flower World, a solar paradise...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Christophe Helmke. Jesper Nielsen. Ángel Iván Rivera Guzmán.

More than four decades ago H.B. Nicholson compared the so-called Palace Stone from Xochicalco to a page in a Late Postclassic or Early Colonial manuscript. Showing numerous calendrical dates and toponymic signs connected by a path marked by footprints the monument readily recalls the mapa tradition that is so well documented in the central Mexican highlands at the time of the Spanish conquest. In this paper we explore the Epiclassic evidence of this tradition, discussing not only central...