Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T20:47:59.292Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Classic Maya Temples, Politics, and the Voice of the People

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lisa J. Lucero*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, MC-148, 607 S. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801 ([email protected])

Abstract

Temples provide sanctuary, a home for the gods, a place to worship, a stage for ceremonies, a depository for offerings, and a place to redistribute goods. Finally, temples provide an arena for political competition. The role of Maya temples, however, is not so clear. Inscriptions, when present, detail who built some temples, but not if nonroyals built them, if they were built for specific gods, and why the Maya built so many. The presence of several temples in any given center might indicate that various groups built them and that they served as arenas to compete for status, prestige, and power. If this were the case, then people may have had a choice at which temple to worship and support. To explore the politics of temple construction, I compare temple size, location, construction patterns, and ritual deposits at temples at the secondary center of Yalbac, Central Belize. Preliminary results from temple looters' trenches have exciting implications regarding temple histories in the southern Maya Lowlands during the Late Classic period (ca. A.D. 550-850).

Resumen

Resumen

Los templos proveen un santuario, un hogar a los dioses, un lugar de adoración, un escenario para las ceremonias, un sitio para las ofrendas y la redistribución de bienes, siendo, además, una arena para la competencia política. Sin embargo, el papel de los templos mayas no es tan claro. Las inscripciones, si están presentes, detallan quiénes construyeron algunos de ellos, pero no si lo hiceron dioses específicos y/o personas no pertenecientes a la realeza, y mucho menos porqué construyeron tantos. La presencia de varios templos en cualquier centro quizás indique que varios grupos intervinieron en su construcción y que sirvieran como arenas para competir por status, prestigio, y poder. Si este fuera el caso, entonces la gente habría tenido que escoger cuál templo adorar y apoyar. Al explorar las políticas de construcción de templos, comparo tamaño, localización, patrones de construcción, y depósitos rituales de los templos del centro secundario de Yalbac, Belice central. Los resultados preliminares del estudio de los sectores de vandalismos ofrecen implicaciones interesantes respecto de las historias de los templos en las Tierras Bajas Mayas del sur durante el período Clásico Tardío (ca. d.C. 550-850).

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2007

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 Cited

Abrams, Elliot M. 1998 Sites as Structures: The Construction Process and Maya Architecture. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 123140. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Adas, Michael 1981 From Avoidance to Confrontation: Peasant Protest in Precolonial and Colonial Southeast Asia. Comparative Studies in Society and History 23:217247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aimers, James J., and Rice, Prudence M. 2006 Astronomy, Ritual, and the Interpretation of Maya “E-Group” Architectural Assemblages. Ancient Mesoamerica 17:7996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrade, Sandra 2005 Temple 3A Looters’ Trenches: Construction History. In Results of the 2004 Valley of Peace Archaeology Project: The Temples and Ballcourt of Yalbac, edited by Lisa J. Lucero, pp. 4349. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History, Belize.Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy 2002 “Decisions and Dispositions”: Socializing Spatial Archaeology. American Anthropologist 104:11721183.Google Scholar
Baron, Joanne P. 2005 The Ballcourt at Yalbac: 2004 Season. In Results of the 2004 Valley of Peace Archaeology Project: The Temples and Ballcourt of Yalbac, edited by Lisa J. Lucero, pp. 2842. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History, Belize.Google Scholar
Baron, Joanne P. 2006a Chalk Talk at Yalbac: 2005 Season at the Ballcourt. In Results of the 2005 Valley of Peace Archaeology Project: Yalbac Architecture and Settlement, edited by Lisa J. Lucero, pp. 2838. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History, Belize.Google Scholar
Baron, Joanne P. 2006b The Origins and Placement of the Ballcourt at Yalbac. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 3:235246.Google Scholar
Berdan, Frances F. 1982 The Aztecs of Central Mexico: An Imperial Society. Holt, Rinehard and Winston, New York.Google Scholar
Boone, Elizabeth H. (editor) 1985 Painted Architecture and Polychrome Monumental Sculpture in Mesoamerica. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Brady, James, E., and Ashmore, Wendy 1999 Mountains, Caves, Water: Ideational Landscapes of the Ancient Maya. In Archaeologies of Landscape: Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Wendy Ashmore and A. Bernard Knapp, pp. 124145. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Brady, James E., Scott, Ann, Cobb, Allan, Rodas, Irma, Fogarty, John, and Sánchez, Mónica Urquizú 1997 Glimpses of the Dark Side of the Petexbatún Project: The Petexbatún Regional Cave Survey. Ancient Mesoamerica 8:353364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braswell, Geoffrey E. 2001 Post-Classic Maya Courts of the Guatemalan Highlands: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Approaches. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya Volume II: Data and Case Studies, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Stephen D. Houston, pp. 308334. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, Elizabeth 1994 Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World: An Introduction. In Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, edited by Elizabeth Brumfiel and John W. Fox, pp. 313. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byland, Bruce E., and Pohl, John M. D. 1994 In the Realm of 8 Deer: The Archaeology of the Mixtec Codices. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Carmack, Robert M. 1981 The Quiché Mayas of Utatlán: The Evolution of a Highland Guatemala Kingdom. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman.Google Scholar
Chang, K. C. 1983 Art, Myth, and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient China. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Chase, Arlen E, and Chase, Diane Z. 1995 External Impetus, Internal Synthesis, and Standardization: E Group Assemblages and the Crystallization of Classic Maya Society in the Southern Lowlands. In The Emergence of Classic Maya Civilization, edited by Nikolai Grube, pp. 87101. Acta Mesoamericana 8. Verlag von Flemming, Möckmiihl Google Scholar
Chase, Arlen E, and Chase, Diane Z. 2001 The Royal Court of Caracol, Belize: Its Palaces and People. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya Volume II: Data and Case Studies, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Stephen D. Houston, pp. 102137. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Clark, John E., and Hansen, Richard D. 2001 The Architecture of Early Kingship: Comparative Perspectives on the Origins of the Maya Royal Court. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya, Volume II: Data and Case Studies, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Stephen D. Houston, pp. 145. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Coe, William R. 1990 Excavations in the Great Plaza, North Terrace and North Acropolis of Tikal. Tikal Report No. 14. The University Museum. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Culbert, T. Patrick 1991 Maya Political History and Elite Interaction: A Summary View. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence, edited by T. Patrick Culbert, pp. 311346. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Davis-Salazar, Karla L. 2003 Late Classic Water Management and Community Organization at Copan, Honduras. Latin American Antiquity 14:275299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demarest, Arthur A. 1997 The Vanderbilt Petexbatun Regional Archeological Project 1989–1994: Overview, History, and Major Results of a Multidisciplinary Study of the Classic Maya Collapse. Ancient Mesoamerica 8:209227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eliade, Mircea 1974[1958] Patterns in Comparative Religion. Translated by Rosemary Sheed. New American Library, New York.Google Scholar
Fash, Barbara W. 2005 Iconographic Evidence for Water Management and Social Organization at Copán. In Copán: The History of an Ancient Maya Kingdom, edited by E. Wyllys Andrews and William L. Fash, pp. 103138. School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Fash, Barbara W., and Davis-Salazar, Karla L. 2006 Copán Water Ritual and Management: Imagery and Sacred Place. In Precolumbian Water Management: Ideology, Ritual, and Politics, edited by Lisa J. Lucero and Barbara W. Fash, pp. 129143. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Fash, William L. 1998 Dynastic Architectural Programs: Invention and Design in Classic Maya Buildings at Copan and other Sites. In function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 223270. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V. 1998 The Ground Plans of Archaic States. In Archaic States, edited by Gary M. Feinman and Joyce Marcus, pp. 1557. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Ford, Anabel 1996 Critical Resource Control and the Rise of the Classic Period Maya. In The Managed Mosaic: Ancient Maya Agriculture and Resource Use, edited by Scott L. Fedick, pp. 297303. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Freidel, David, and Schele, Linda 1989 Dead Kings and Living Temples: Dedication and Termination Rituals among the Ancient Maya. In Word and Image in Maya Culture: Explorations in Language, Writing, and Representation, edited by William F. Hanks and Don S. Rice, pp. 233243. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Freidel, David, Schele, Linda, and Parker, Joy 1993 Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. William Marrow, New York.Google Scholar
Garber, James F., David Driver, W, Sullivan, Lauren A., and Glassman, David M. 1998 Bloody Bowls and Broken Pots: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Maya House. In The Sowing and the Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological and Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by Shirley B. Mock, pp. 125133. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Graebner, Sean M. 2002a Monumental Architecture and the Ancient Maya: The Royal Acropolis at Yalbac, Central Belize. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.Google Scholar
Graebner, Sean M. 2002b Ancient Maya Royal Courts: Yalbac, Central Belize. In Results of the 2001 Valley of Peace Archaeology Project: Saturday Creek and Yalbac, edited by Lisa J. Lucero, pp. 7383. Report submitted to the Department of Archaeology, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Belize.Google Scholar
Guderjan, Thomas H. 2004 Recreating the Cosmos: Early Classic Dedicatory Caches at Blue Creek. In Continuity and Change: Maya Religious Practices in Temporal Perspective, edited by Daniel Graña Behrens, Nikolai Grube, Christian M. Prager, Frauke Sachse, Stefanie Teufel, and Elisabeth Wagner, pp. 3339. Acta Mesoamericana 14. Anton Saurwein, Markt Schwaben.Google Scholar
Guenter, Stanley 2005a The Inscriptions of Dos Pilas Associated with B’a-jlaj Chan K’awiil. Electronic document, http://www.mesoweb.com/features.Guenter/DosPilas.html, accessed January 20, 2006.Google Scholar
Guenter, Stanley 2005b La Corona Find Sheds Light on Site Q Mystery. Electronic document, http://www.mesoweb.com/reports/SiteQ.html, accessed January 20, 2006.Google Scholar
Hall, Edward T. 1969 The Hidden Dimension. Anchor Books, New York.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman 1991 Inside the Black Box: Defining Maya Polity. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence, edited by T. Patrick Culbert, pp. 253284. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hansen, Richard D. 1998 Continuity and Disjunction: The Pre-Classic Antecedents of Classic Architecture. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 49122. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Hassig, Ross 1988 Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Helms, Mary 1979 Ancient Panama: Chiefs in Search of Power. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Helms, Mary 1993 Craft and the Kingly Ideal: Art, Trade, andPower. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Hooper, John M. D. 2004a Energetic Investment in the Acropolis at Yalbac, Belize: A Comparative Approach. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.Google Scholar
Hooper, John M. D. 2004b Yalbac’s Royal Acropolis: Looter’s Trench Operations. In Results of the 2003 Valley of Peace Archaeology Project: Yalbac, edited by Lisa J. Lucero, pp. 1335. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History, Belize.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D. 1996 Symbolic Sweatbaths of the Maya: Architectural Meaning in the Cross Group at Palenque, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 7:132151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen D. 1998 Finding Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 519538. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen, and Stuart, David 1996 Of Gods, Glyphs and Kings: Divinity and Rulership Among the Classic Maya. Antiquity 70:289312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen, and Taube, Karl 2000 An Archaeology of the Senses: Perception and Cultural Expression in Ancient Mesoamerica. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10:261294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2005 The Spatial Mobility of Non-Elite Populations in Classic Maya Society and Its Political Implications. In Ancient Maya Commoners, edited by Jon C. Lohse and Fred Valdez, Jr., pp. 175196. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, and Coben, Lawrence S. 2006 Overture: An Invitation to the Archaeological Theater. In Archaeology of Performance: Theater of Power, Community, and Politics, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Lawrence S. Coben, pp. 1146. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, Ponciano, Erick, Chinchilla, Oswaldo, Román, Otto, Breuil-Martínez, Véronique, and Santos, Oscar 2004 An Unfinished Temple at the Classic Maya Centre of Aguateca, Guatemala. Antiquity 78:798811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ishihara, Reiko, Taube, Karl A., and Awe, Jaime J. 2006 The Water Lily Serpent Stucco Masks at Caracol, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 3:213223.Google Scholar
Jamison, Thomas R., and Wolff, Gregory A. 1994 Excavations in and around Plaza A-I and Plaza A-II. In Xunantunich Archaeological Project: 1994 Season, edited by Richard M. Leventhal, pp. 2547. Report submitted to the Department of Archaeology, Ministry of Tourism, Belize.Google Scholar
Jones, Christopher 1991 Cycles of Growth at Tikal. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archeological Evidence, edited by T. Patrick Culbert, pp. 102127. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jones, Lindsay 2000 The Hermeneutics of Sacred Architecture: Experience, Interpretation, Comparison. Volume 1. Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 2003 Concrete Memories: Fragments of the Past in the Classic Maya Present (500–1000 AD). In Archaeologies of Memory, edited by Ruth M. Van Dyke and Susan E. Alcock, pp. 104125. Blackwell, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kertzer, David I. 1988 Ritual, Politics, and Power. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Loten, H. Stanley 2003 The North Acropolis: Monumentality, Function, and Architectural Development. In Tikal: Dynasties, Foreigners, and Affairs of State, edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff, pp. 227252. School of American Research, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 1999 Water Control and Maya Politics in the Southern Maya Lowlands. In Complex Polities in the Ancient Tropical World, edited by Elisabeth A. Bacus and Lisa J. Lucero, pp. 3449. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association Number 9. American Anthropological Association, Arlington.Google Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 2001 Social Integration in the Ancient Maya Hinterlands: Ceramic Variability in the Belize River Area. Anthropological Research Paper No. 53. Arizona State University, Tempe.Google Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 2003 The Politics of Ritual: The Emergence of Classic Maya Rulers. Current Anthropology 44:523558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 2005 The 2004 Season at Yalbac: Plazas, Temples, and the Ballcourt. In Results of the 2004 Valley of Peace Archaeology Project: The Temples and Ballcourt of Yalbac, edited by Lisa J. Lucero, pp. 127. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History, Belize.Google Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 2006a Agricultural Intensification, Water, and Political Power in the Southern Maya Lowlands. In Agricultural Strategies, edited by Joyce Marcus and Charles Stanish, pp. 281305. The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. University of California, Los Angeles.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 2006b The Power of Water in Ancient Maya Politics. In Precolumbian Water Management: Ideology, Ritual, and Politics, edited by Lisa J. Lucero and Barbara W. Fash, pp. 116128. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 2006c Water and Ritual: The Rise and Fall of Classic Maya Rulers. University of Texas Press, Austin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J. 2006d The 2005 Season at Yalbac: Public Places. In Results of the 2005 Valley of Peace Archaeology Project: Yalbac Architecture and Settlement, edited by Lisa J. Lucero, pp. 127. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History, Belize.Google Scholar
Lucero, Lisa J., Fedick, Scott L., Kinkella, Andrew, and Graebner, Sean M. 2004 Ancient Maya Settlement in the Valley of Peace Area, Belize. In Archaeology of the Upper Belize River Valley: Halfa Century of Maya Research, edited by James F. Garber, pp. 86102. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 2003 Recent Advances in Maya Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 11:71148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Simon, and Grube, Nikolai 2000 Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Mathews, Peter 1985 Maya Early Classic Monuments and Inscriptions. In A Consideration of the Early Classic Period in the Maya Lowlands, edited by Gordon R. Willey and Peter Mathews, pp. 554. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies No. 10. State University of New York at Albany, Albany.Google Scholar
Mathews, Peter, and Willey, Gordon R. 1991 Prehistoric Polities of the Pasion Region: Hieroglyphic Texts and Their Archaeological Settings. In Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence, edited by T. Patrick Culbert, pp. 3071. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo 1995 Life and Death in the Templo Mayor. Trans. by Bernard R. Ortiz de Montellano and Thelma Ortiz de Montellano. University Press of Colorado, Niwot.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia A. 1995 Living with the Ancestors: Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Maya Society. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Meskell, Lynn 2005 Objects in the Mirror Appear Closer Than They Are. In Materiality, edited by Daniel Miller, pp. 5171. Duke University Press, Durham.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Daniel 2005 Materiality: An Introduction. In Materiality, edited by Daniel Miller, pp. 150. Duke University Press, Durham.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary Ellen 1999 Maya Art and Architecture. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary Ellen 2001 Life at,Court: A View from Bonampak. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya, Volume II: Data and Case Studies, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Stephen D. Houston, pp. 201222. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary, and Martin, Simon 2004 Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary, and Taube, Karl 1993 An Illustrated Dictionary of The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Millon, René 1981 Teotihuacan: City, State, and Civilization. Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 1, edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff, pp. 198243. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Moholy-Nagy, Hattula 1997 Middens, Construction Fill, and Offerings: Evidence for the Organization of Classic Period Craft Production at Tikal, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 24:293313.Google Scholar
Moholy-Nagy, Hattula 2003 The Hiatus at Tikal, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 14:7783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Jerry D. 1996 Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes: The Archaeology of Public Architecture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pohl, Mary E. D., and Pohl, John M. D. 1994 Cycles of Conflict: Political Factionalism in the Maya Lowlands. In Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World, edited by Elizabeth M. Brumfiel and John W. Fox, pp. 138157. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postgate, J. Nicholas 1992 Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History. Routledge, London and New York.Google Scholar
Pyburn, K. Anne 1997 The Archaeological Signature of Complexity in the Maya Lowlands. In The Archaeology of City-States: Cross Cultural Approaches, edited by Deborah L. Nichols and Thomas H. Charlton, pp. 155168. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London.Google Scholar
Ringle, William M. 1999 Pre-Classic Cityscapes: Ritual Politics among the Early Lowland Maya. In Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica, edited by David C. Grove, pp. 183223. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Scarborough, Vernon L. 1998 Ecology and Ritual: Water Management and the Maya. Latin American Antiquity 9:135159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scarborough, Vernon L. 2003 The Flow of Power: Ancient Water Systems and Landscapes. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Scheie, Linda 1998 The Iconography of Maya Architectural Facades During the Late Classic Period. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 479517. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Freidel, David 1990 A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Mathews, Peter 1998 The Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs. Touchstone Books, New York.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Miller, Mary Ellen 1986 The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. George Braziller, New York.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J. 1994 The Ancient Maya, 5th ed. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Sharer, Robert J., with Traxler, Loa 2005 The Ancient Maya. Sixth Edition. Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Smith, A. Ledyard 1972 Excavations at Altar de Sacrificios: Architecture, Settlement, Burials, and Caches. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 62, No. 2. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1998 The Aztecs. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Stein, Burton 1977 Temples in Tamil Country, 1300–1750 A.D. Indian Economic and Social History Review (Dehli) 14:1145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, Andrea 1992 From Ritual in the Landscape to Capture in the Urban Center: The Recreation of Ritual Environments in Mesoamerica. Journal of Ritual Studies 6:109132.Google Scholar
Stone, Elizabeth 1997 City-States and their Centers: The Mesopotamian Example. In The Archaeology of City-States: Cross Cultural Approaches, edited by Deborah L. Nichols and Thomas H. Charlton, pp. 1526. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 1987 Ten Phonetic Syllables. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 14. Center for Maya Research, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 1995 A Study of Maya Inscriptions. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.Google Scholar
Stuart, David, and Houston, Stephen 1994 Classic Maya Place Names. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Sudjic, Deyan 2005 The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Shape the World. Penguin Press, New York.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, Saburo 1993 Worldview Materialized in Teotihuacán, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 4:103129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taube, Karl 1992 Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology No. 32. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 1998 The Jade Hearth: Centrality, Rulership, and the Classic Maya Temple. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, pp. 427478. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Dennis 1985 Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. Simon and Schuster, New York.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric 1939 Excavations at San Jose, British Honduras. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 506. Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Tozzer, Alfred M. 1941 Landa’s Relación de Los Cosas de Yucatán. Papers of the Peabody Museum American Archaeology and Ethnology, No. 28. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Valdé, Juan Antonio 2001 Palaces and Thrones Tied to the Destiny of the Royal Courts in the Maya Lowlands. In Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya, Volume II: Data and Case Studies, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Stephen D. Houston, pp. 138164. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Wauchope, Robert 1938 Modern Maya Houses: A Study of Their Archaeological Significance. Publication No. 502. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Richard H. 2000 The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson, New York.Google Scholar