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SET IN STONE: HIATUSES AND DYNASTIC POLITICS AT TIKAL, GUATEMALA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2016

Hattula Moholy-Nagy
Hattula Moholy-Nagy*
Affiliation:
American Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]
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Abstract

Stone stelae and altars inscribed with dates and bearing a portrait of the ruler they commemorate define the Classic period in the Maya lowlands. They attest to the ruling elite's awareness of history and its uses to assert their authority and legitimacy. The power of Maya history remains evident when text decipherments override archaeological evidence. Privileging of texts is especially problematic in interpretations of gaps or hiatuses in the sequence of dates on carved monuments as indicators of site-wide decline. Archaeological evidence from the Lowland Maya city of Tikal contradicts the assumption of general decline during its longest hiatus, as well as a widely accepted historical explanation of its cause. Placing stone monuments and their texts in past cultural context indicates gaps were more likely due to a venerable Mesoamerican tradition of monument desecration carried out by rival elite factions than to specific historical events.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , Fall 2016 , pp. 255 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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