Looting Enigmas and Contextual Narratives at La Corona

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over two dozen hieroglyphic panels looted in the 1960s from the site of La Corona, formerly known as “Site Q,” ended up in private collections around the globe. Some of these panels are featured in the Grolier Catalog. While the monuments have provided extensive information on the role of La Corona in the Lowland Maya sociopolitical landscape, we discuss how archaeological context entirely changes our understanding of Classic Maya political history. Extensive excavations in La Corona’s looted Structure 13R-10 have demonstrated what looted monuments could not: that most if not all these hieroglyphic monuments were repositioned by the ancient inhabitants. This information has allowed us to reconstruct a much more complete narrative from contextual evidence. Through this case study we discuss how epigraphic and material data complement each other for a holistic understanding of the excavated building and the sociopolitical history of La Corona more broadly.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Celebration and Critical Assessment of "The Maya Scribe and His World" on its Fiftieth Anniversary   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36302.0