Cultural Transmission between the Southeastern Petén and Puuc Regions: The Frieze from La Blanca and the Origin of the Mosaic Technique

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the Late Preclassic, certain buildings in the Petén region began to incorporate complex iconographic programs on their façades. The friezes with central masks, carved in limestone and covered with layers of stucco, are particularly striking examples of this development. Centuries later, in the northern Maya Lowlands, architectural styles appear that were characterized by the use of the mosaic technique in sculptural relief, which reached their greatest splendor during the Terminal Classic in the Puuc region. The discovery of a frieze in a substructure of the Acropolis of La Blanca in 2013 represented a major breakthrough in the understanding of Petén architecture. The frieze was made up of small pieces that are fitted together. These pieces show advances or recesses and even premeditated turns, possibly to enhance the artistic effect. These compositions represent a notable technical advance in the architecture of southeastern Petén and may constitute a precedent for the achievements of the mosaic that would later flourish in the Northern Yucatán. The aim of this paper is to identify and explore the possible pathways of cultural transmission between the two regions, and to see how these contacts may have influenced the major architectural styles that flourished after AD 800.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36478.0