A New Twist for Ancient Maya Yarns

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ethnographic, iconographic, and archaeological records attest to the sophisticated and sumptuous textiles produced by Maya peoples in ancient and contemporary times. However, historical neglect of cordage industries in archaeology, combined with poor organic preservation and gaps in the ethnographic record, complicate attempts at a fuller reconstruction of the significance of spun and twisted yarns in ancient Maya society beyond their recognized role in cloth production. In this paper, we offer a new perspective on the cultural significance of Maya yarn production informed by iconographic analysis and a broader cross-cultural anthropological context. Our observations contribute to a heretofore unacknowledged cultural understanding of the significance of yarn production among Maya peoples with pronounced ritual, cosmological, and elite symbolic implications.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Ties That Bind: Cordage, Its Sources, and the Artifacts of Its Creation and Use   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38162.0