Geopolitics and Style in the Eastern Highlands of Chiapas during the Late Classic

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The scarce glyphic corpus recorded in the Eastern Highlands of Chiapas makes it difficult to reconstruct dynastic lineages in this western frontier region of the Maya world; Chinkultic is the only case of study in which we find important epigraphic evidence. As a result, material culture and style are key elements to understand political dynamics and trade networks between the Comitan Valley, the Montebello region, the Upper Grijalva, the Chaculá-Quen Santo region, and even the Sierra Madre of Chiapas. In this paper, we examine iconographic and stylistic innovation in the Eastern Highlands as attested on different media, including sculpture (Chinkultic, Tenam Puente, Tenam Rosario, Sachchaná, Piedra Labrada, etc.) and mold-made pottery (Tenam Rosario, Loma Zorrillo, Guajilar, Ojo de Agua, Los Cimientos, etc.). Combined, these objects enable the construction of a panoramic view of a frontier political landscape during the Late Classic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Dynamic Frontiers in the Archaeology of Chiapas   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36881.0