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CROCODILES, SHARKS, AND SOME SPECULATIONS ON CENTRAL PETEN PRECLASSIC HISTORY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2019

Prudence M. Rice*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 1809 West Main Street, PMB 298, Carbondale, Illinois62901
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]

Abstract

The first part of this two-part essay discusses the important roles crocodiles and sharks played in Preclassic (and later) political geography and myths of cosmogenesis in Mesoamerica. They are associated with sacrifices resulting in creation of the world and births of some major gods. Crocodiles are also associated with fertility, rebirth, and renewal of seasonal and temporal/calendrical cycles. Recent investigations at Nixtun-Ch'ich’ show that its gridded urban landscape, established in the Middle Preclassic period (ca. 800–400 b.c.), was likely modeled on a crocodile's back. The second part of the essay presents some speculations on the early role of this site and crocodiles in central Peten. At Tikal, archaeology and retrospective texts indicate that crocodiles appeared in early versions of the site's emblem glyph and in the name of an early ruler. Nixtun-Ch'ich’ might be the legendary chi place, important in the dynastic foundations of several lowland Maya centers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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