Monuments as Artifacts: The Significance of the Hiatus at Tikal, Guatemala

Summary

The long hiatus of AD 557-692 in the sequence of dates on Tikal's carved stone monuments is widely assumed to indicate a period of decline and troubled times for the city. This assumption, however, is clearly contradicted by archaeological evidence, which demonstrates a high level of material prosperity and cultural innovation during this period. An archaeological approach to the study of stone monuments as items of portable material culture can provide cultural context for recent exciting advances of epigraphy that have permitted the construction of dynastic sequences of named rulers. Archaeology and epigraphy together can provide a better understanding of the causes and significance of hiatuses in dates on monuments at Tikal, and elsewhere in the Classic Maya Lowlands.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From the Fields to the Palaces of the Prehistoric Maya: Hono(u)ring the Contributions of the late Peter D. Harrison   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

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