Midnight Madness in Mesoamerica: Dark Doings in the Ancient World

Summary

After the sun went down, the world of ancient Mesoamerica was transformed into a dark landscape. Some sought sleep while others came alive for nocturnal naughtiness. Ancient Mesoamericans simultaneously embraced and respected the dark. Are nightly practices destined to remain obscured from our view, or can we illuminate such dark doings by expanding our focus from daily practices to include those of the night? A fundamental question explored in this paper is the extent to which there is material evidence for what ancient humans did at night using ancient Mesoamerica as a case study. Nighttime has left its mark on the archaeological record and we hope to shed light on this auspicious time of day through the exploration of several different types of evidence and various cultures. Tasks of nightly living differed from those of the day. Ritual activities permeated the darkness and cosmological beliefs constructed ancient conceptions of night and day. The nightly practices of ancient Mesoamericans were rich with meaning and transcended time and space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Archaeology of the Night

Keywords

Spatial Coverage