Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:08:37.518Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

OBJECT, MEMORY, AND MATERIALITY AT YAXCHILAN: THE RESET LINTELS OF STRUCTURES 12 AND 22

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 December 2011

Megan E. O'Neil
Megan E. O'Neil*
Affiliation:
Art and Art History Department, The College of William and Mary, P.O. Box 8795 Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article focuses on Structures 12 and 22 from Yaxchilan (Chiapas, Mexico), where the ancient Maya reset stone lintels from the sixth century a.d. in eighth-century buildings. The resetting highlights attention to the preservation of the lintels as relics from the past. Valued for their antiquity and the histories they had accrued, particularly from contact with ancestors, they served as loci for communication with the past, with memory inhering in their materiality. This essay also explores the lintels’ physical contexts and how the Maya may have engaged with them. For example, the arrangement of the Structure 12 lintels would have guided circumambulation. Such movement was associated with sacred processions, and evidence suggests the building was reserved for ancestor veneration. Although only restricted groups could have entered the small structure to perform rites, these may have been integrated into extended ceremonial circuits in public spaces.

This article connects with studies of the life histories of things, in which analysis is directed toward objects’ use, reuse, and modification. Examining how people interacted with sculptures over time offers insight into the people and the objects and provides glimpses into Late Classic Maya perception of sculptures and their material qualities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , Fall 2011 , pp. 245 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Appadurai, Arjun 1986 Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by Appadurai, Arjun, pp. 3–63. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayala Falcón, Maricela 1987 La Estela 39 de Tikal, Mundo Perdido. In Memorias del Primer Coloquio Internacional de Mayistas, 5–10 de agosto de 1985, pp. 599–654. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro de Estudios Mayas, Mexico.Google Scholar
Belting, Hans 1994 Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art. Translated by Jephcott, Edmund. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Brokmann, Carlos 2000 Tipología y análisis de la obsidiana de Yaxchilán, Chiapas. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Brown, Cecil 1991 Hieroglyphic Literacy in Ancient Mayaland: Inferences from Linguistic Data. Current Anthropology 32:489–496.Google Scholar
Carlsen, Robert, and Prechtel, Martín 1991 The Flowering of the Dead: An Interpretation of Highland Maya Culture. Man NS 26:23–42.Google Scholar
Chase, Diane Z., and Chase, Arlen F. 1996 Maya Multiples: Individuals, Entries, and Tombs in Structure A34 of Caracol, Belize. Latin American Antiquity 7:61–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, William R. 1990 Excavations in the Great Plaza, North Terrace, and North Acropolis of Tikal: Tikal Report 14. University Museum Monograph No. 61. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Connerton, Paul 1989 How Societies Remember. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuevas García, Martha 2004 The Cult of Patron and Ancestor Gods in Censers at Palenque. In Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, edited by Miller, Mary and Martin, Simon, pp. 253–255. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Thames and Hudson, San Francisco and New York.Google Scholar
Elsner, Jaš 2003 Iconoclasm and the Preservation of Memory. In Monuments and Memory, Made and Unmade, edited by Nelson, Robert S. and Olin, Margaret, pp. 209–231. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Escobedo, Héctor L. 2004 Tales from the Crypt: The Burial Place of Ruler 4, Piedras Negras. In Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, edited by Miller, Mary and Martin, Simon, pp. 277–279. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Thames and Hudson, San Francisco and New York.Google Scholar
Farriss, Nancy M. 1987 Remembering the Future, Anticipating the Past: History, Time, and Cosmology among the Maya of Yucatan. Comparative Studies in Society and History 29:566–593.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fash, William L. 1998 Dynastic Architectural Programs: Intention and Design in Classic Maya Buildings at Copan and Other Sites. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 7th and 8th October 1994, edited by Houston, Stephen D., pp. 223–270. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Fitzsimmons, James L. 1998 Classic Maya Mortuary Anniversaries at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 9:271–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García Moll, Roberto 1996 Yaxchilán, Chiapas. Arqueología Mexicana 4(22):36–45.Google Scholar
García Moll, Roberto 2003 La Arquitectura de Yaxchilán. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
García Moll, Roberto 2004a Yaxchilán: Evolución Interna. In Homenaje a Jaime Litvak, edited by Benavides, Antonio, Manzanilla, Linda, and Mirambell, Lorena, pp. 287–316. Instituto Nacional de Anthropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
García Moll, Roberto 2004b Shield Jaguar and Structure 23 at Yaxchilan. In Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, edited by Miller, Mary and Martin, Simon, pp. 268–270. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Thames and Hudson, San Francisco and New York.Google Scholar
Gell, Alfred 1998 Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, Susan 2002 Body and Soul among the Maya: Keeping the Spirits in Place. In The Space and Place of Death, edited by Silverman, Helaine and Small, David B., pp. 67–78. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No. 11. University of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Gosden, Chris, and Marshall, Yvonne 1999 The Cultural Biography of Objects. World Archaeology 31:169–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gossen, Gary H. 1974 Chamulas in the World of the Sun: Time and Space in a Maya Oral Tradition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Gossen, Gary H. 1986 The Chamula Festival of Games: Native Macroanalysis and Social Commentary in a Maya Carnival. In Symbol and Meaning beyond the Closed Community: Essays in Mesoamerican Ideas, edited by Gossen, Gary H., pp. 227–254. Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 1. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Graham, Ian 1979 Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Vol. 3, Part 2: Yaxchilan. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Graham, Ian 1982 Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Vol. 3, Part 3: Yaxchilan. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Graham, Ian, and von Euw, Eric 1977 Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Vol. 3, Part 1: Yaxchilan. Peabody Museum Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Grube, Nikolai 1999 Observations on the Late Classic Interregnum at Yaxchilán. In The Archaeology of Mesoamerica: Mexican and European Perspectives, edited by Bray, Warwick and Manzanilla, Linda, pp. 116–127. Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press, London.Google Scholar
Halbwachs, Maurice 1980 The Collective Memory. Translated by Ditter, Francis J. Jr., and Ditter, Vida Yazdi. Reprinted. Harper and Row, New York.Google Scholar
Hernández, Patricia, and Márquez, Lourdes 2006 Longevity of Maya Rulers of Yaxchilan: The Reigns of Shield Jaguar and Bird Jaguar. In Janaab’ Pakal of Palenque: Reconstructing the Life and Death of a Maya Ruler, edited by Tiesler, Vera and Cucina, Andrea, pp. 126–145. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D. 1994 Literacy among the Pre-Columbian Maya: A Comparative Perspective. In Writing without Words: Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica and the Andes, edited by Boone, Elizabeth Hill and Mignolo, Walter D., pp. 26–49. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., Escobedo, Héctor, and Webster, David 2008 In the Land of the Turtle Lords: Classic Maya Urbanism at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Manuscript on file, Department of Anthropology, Brown University, Providence, RI.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., and Stuart, David 1996 Of Gods, Glyphs, and Kings: Divinity and Rulership among the Classic Maya. Antiquity 70:289–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., and Stuart, David 1998 The Ancient Maya Self: Personhood and Portraiture in the Classic Period. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 33:73–101.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., Stuart, David, and Taube, Karl 2006 The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., Escobedo, Héctor L., Scherer, Andrew, Child, Mark, and Fitzsimmons, James 2002 Classic Maya Death at Piedras Negras. In Antropología de la eternidad: La muerte en la cultura Maya, edited by Ruíz, Andrés Ciudad, Ruz, Mario Humberto, and de León, M. Josefa Iglesias Ponce, pp. 113–143. Publicaciones de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas 7. Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas, Centro de Estudios Mayas, Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Madrid and Mexico.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., Escobedo, Héctor L., Nelson, Zachary, Meléndez, Juan Carlos, Quiroa, Fabiola, Arroyave, Ana Lucía, and Cambranes, Rafael 2007 A la sombra de un gigante: Epigrafía y asentamiento de El Zotz, Petén. In XX Simposio de Investigaciones en Guatemala, 2006, edited by Laporte, Juan Pedro, Arroyo, Bárbara, and Mejía, Héctor E., pp. 395–418. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala. Electronic document, www.mesoweb.com/zotz/articulos/Houston-Sombra.pdf, accessed March 8, 2010.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2006a Politics and Theatricality in Mayan Society. In Archaeology of Performance: Theaters of Power, Community, and Politics, edited by Inomata, Takeshi and Coben, Lawrence S., pp. 187–221. AltaMira Press, Lanham.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2006b Plazas, Performers, and Spectators: Political Theaters of the Classic Maya. Current Anthropology 47:805–842.Google Scholar
Jones, Christopher 1991 Cycles of Growth at Tikal. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick, pp. 102–127. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Josserand, J. Kathryn 2007 The Missing Heir at Yaxchilán: Literary Analysis of a Maya Historical Puzzle. Latin American Antiquity 18:295–312.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary 2000 Heirlooms and Houses: Materiality and Social Memory. In Beyond Kinship: Social and Material Reproduction in House Societies, edited by Joyce, Rosemary and Gillespie, Susan, pp. 189–212. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary 2003 Concrete Memories: Fragments of the Past in the Classic Maya Present (500–1000 a.d.). In Archaeologies of Memory, edited by Dyke, Ruth Van and Alcock, Susan, pp. 104–125. Blackwell, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaneko, Akira 1998 La pequeña acropolis de Yaxchilán, Chiapas. In Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala (11 session, 1997), edited by Laporte, Juan Pedro and Escobedo, Héctor L., pp. 261–270. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropología e Historia and the Asociación Tikal Guatemala, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Kaneko, Akira 2003 Artefactos líticos de Yaxchilán. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Kopytoff, Igor 1986 The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, edited by Appadurai, Arjun, pp. 64–91. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Laporte, Juan Pedro, and Fialko, Vilma 1995 Un reencuentro con Mundo Perdido, Tikal, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 6:41–94.Google Scholar
Looper, Matthew G. 2001 Dance Performances at Quiriguá. In Landscape and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Koontz, Rex, Reese-Taylor, Kathryn, and Headrick, Annabeth, pp. 113–135. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
López Varela, Sandra L. 1989 Análisis y clasificación de la cerámica de un sitio maya del clásico: Yaxchilán, México. BAR lnternational Series 535, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia Ann 1995 Living with the Ancestors: Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Maya Society. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia Ann 1998 Ancestors and the Classic Maya Built Environment. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 7th and 8th October 1994, edited by Houston, Stephen D., pp. 271–298. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia A., and Plank, Shannon 2001 Perspectives on Actors, Gender Roles, and Architecture at Classic Maya Courts and Households. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya. Volume One: Theory, Comparison, and Synthesis, edited by Inomata, Takeshi and Houston, Stephen D., pp. 84–129. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Maler, Teobert 1901–1903 Researches in the Central Portion of the Usumatsintla Valley: Report of Explorations for the Museum, 1898–1900. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Memoirs Vol. 2, Nos. 1–2. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Martin, Simon 2000 Los Señores de Calakmul. Arqueología Mexicana 7(42):40–45.Google Scholar
Martin, Simon 2004 A Broken Sky: The Ancient Name of Yaxchilan as Pa’ Chan. The PARI Journal 5(1):1–7.Google Scholar
Martin, Simon 2005 Of Snakes and Bats: Shifting Identities at Calakmul. The PARI Journal 6(2):5–15.Google Scholar
Martin, Simon, and Grube, Nikolai 2008 Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. 2nd ed. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Mathews, Peter Lawrence 1988 The Sculpture of Yaxchilan. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Mathews, Peter Lawrence 1997 La Escultura de Yaxchilán. Translated by Saborit, Antonio. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Maudslay, Alfred Percival 1889–1902 Biologia Centrali-Americana: Archaeology. 6 vols. R.H. Porter and Dulau & Co., London.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary Ellen 1993 On the Eve of the Collapse: Maya Art of the Eighth Century. In Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D.: A symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 7th and 8th October 1989, edited by Sabloff, Jeremy A. and Henderson, John S., pp. 355–413. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Morley, Sylvanus G. 1937–1938 The Inscriptions of Petén. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 437, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Nahm, Werner 1997 Hieroglyphic Stairway at Yaxchilan. Mexicon 19(3):65–70.Google Scholar
Nahm, Werner 2006 New Readings on Hieroglyphic Stairway 1 of Yaxchilan. Mexicon 28(2):28–39.Google Scholar
Noble Bardsley, Sandra 1994 Rewriting History at Yaxchilan: Inaugural Art of Bird Jaguar IV. In Seventh Palenque Round Table, 1989, edited by Fields, Virginia M., pp. 87–94. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Nora, Pierre 1989 Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire. Translated by Roudebush, Marc. Representations 26:7–24.Google Scholar
O'Neil, Megan 2005 Making Visible History: Engaging Ancient Maya Sculpture. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of the History of Art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
O'Neil, Megan 2009 Ancient Maya Sculptures of Tikal, Seen and Unseen. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 55/ 56:119–134.Google Scholar
O'Neil, Megan 2012 Engaging Ancient Maya Sculpture at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman (in press).Google Scholar
Pincemin, Sophia, Marcus, Joyce, Folan, Lynda F., Folan, William J., Carrasco, Maria del Rosario Domínguez, and López, Abel Morales 1998 Extending the Calakmul Dynasty Back in Time: A New Stela from a Maya Capital in Campeche, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 9:310–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plank, Shannon E. 2004 Maya Dwellings in Hieroglyphs and Archaeology: An Integrative Approach to Ancient Architecture and Spatial Cognition. BAR International Series 1324, British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1963 Historical Data in the Inscriptions of Yaxchilan, Part I. Estudios de Cultura Maya 3:149–67.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1964 Historical Data in the Inscriptions of Yaxchilan, Part II. Estudios de Cultura Maya 4:177–201.Google Scholar
Reese-Taylor, Kathryn 2002 Ritual Circuits as Key Elements in Maya Civic Center Designs. In Landscape and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Koontz, Rex, Reese-Taylor, Kathryn, and Headrick, Annabeth, pp. 143–165. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Satterthwaite, Linton 2005 Palace Structures J-2 and J-6, with Notes on Structure J-6-2nd and Other Buried Structures in Court 1. In Piedras Negras Archaeology, 1931–1939, edited by Weeks, John M., Hill, Jane, and Golden, Charles, pp. 50–89. Reprinted. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Freidel, David A. 1990 A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William Morrow and Co., New York.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Mathews, Peter 1991 Royal Visits and Other Intersite Relationships among the Classic Maya. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence, edited by Culbert, T. Patrick, pp. 226–252. School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J. 2004 External Interaction at Early Classic Copan. In Understanding Early Classic Copan, edited by Bell, Ellen E., Canuto, Marcello A., and Sharer, Robert J., pp. 299–317. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J., Sedat, David W., Traxler, Loa P., Miller, Julia C., and Bell, Ellen E. 2005 Early Classic Royal Power in Copan: The Origins and Development of the Acropolis (ca. a.d. 250–600). In Copan: The History of an Ancient Maya Kingdom, edited by V, E. Wyllys Andrews and Fash, William L., pp. 139–199. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Smith, A. Ledyard 1950 Uaxactun, Guatemala: Excavations of 1931–1937. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 588, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 1995 A Study of Maya Inscriptions. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville. University Microforms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 1996 Kings of Stone: A Consideration of Stelae in Ancient Maya Ritual and Representation. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 29/ 30:148–171.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 1998 ‘The Fire Enters His House’: Architecture and Ritual in Classic Maya Texts. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture: A Symposium at Dumbarton Oaks 7th and 8th October 1994, edited by Houston, Stephen D., pp. 373–425. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 2004 The Beginnings of the Copan Dynasty: A Review of the Hieroglyphic and Historical Evidence. In Understanding Early Classic Copan, edited by Bell, Ellen E., Canuto, Marcello A., and Sharer, Robert J., pp. 215–247. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 2007a The Captives on Piedras Negras, Panel 12. Maya Decipherment: A Weblog on the Ancient Maya Script. Electronic document, http://decipherment.wordpress.com/2007/08/18/the-captives-on-piedras-negras-panel-12/, accessed August 18, 2007.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 2007b The “Cloud-Bird” Emblem Glyph. Maya Decipherment: A Weblog on the Ancient Maya Script. Electronic document, http://decipherment.wordpress.com/2007/05/06/the-cloud-bird-emblem-glyph/, accessed May 6, 2007.Google Scholar
Tate, Carolyn 1992 Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 2004 Flower Mountain: Concepts of Life, Beauty, and Paradise among the Classic Maya. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 45:69–98.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Barbara 1993 Time and the Highland Maya. Revised ed. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Dennis 2003 Rabinal Achi: A Mayan Drama of War and Sacrifice. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Van Dyke, Ruth M., and Alcock, Susan E. 2003 Introduction. In Archaeologies of Memory, edited by Dyke, Ruth Van and Alcock, Susan, pp. 1–13. Blackwell, Malden, MA.Google Scholar
Velásquez García, Erik 2004 Los Escalones Jeroglíficos de Dzibanché. In Los Cautivos de Dzibanché, edited by Nalda, Enrique, pp. 78–103. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Vogt, Evon Z. 1976 Tortillas for the Gods: A Symbolic Analysis of Zinacanteco Rituals. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar