Cultural Legacies of the Classic Maya: The Postclassic Northern Maya Lowlands and Beyond

Summary

Analysis of the iconography, hieroglyphic captions, and calendrical component of the Postclassic Maya codices, believed to derive from the Northern Maya Lowlands, provides important information about their possible antecedents. Portions of the Dresden Codex, for example, suggest clear links to the mural program painted on the interior of the Los Sabios structure from the site of Xultun, Guatemala, which includes a section with detailed calculations of a lunar cycle and another that may depict a yearbearer ceremony. Similarly, the Paris Codex includes calendrical tables that can be dated to the Classic period on the basis of astronomical referents, with hieroglyphic captions that likewise reflect this earlier time period. On the other hand, the Madrid Codex, likely produced in the eastern portion of the Northern Maya Lowlands, evidences broader networks of interchange, spanning the highlands of Puebla, Tlaxcala, and the central Mexican plateau. Commonalities include the structure of almanacs (including the in extenso and Formée Cross formats) and an emphasis on the 52-year Calendar Round with its quadripartite division of time and space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20559