Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T20:58:14.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

More on Mesoamerican Cosmology and City Plans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Ivan Šprajc
Ivan Šprajc*
Affiliation:
Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Novi trg 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In a recent comment Michael Smith argues that the cosmological interpretations of Maya urban layouts proposed in an article by Ashmore and Sabloff are vague and unconvincing. He also summarizes some other comparable studies in order to show that arguments for the cosmological significance of archaeologically recovered urban patterns are, in general, subjective and lack methodological rigor. I argue that his view is an unwarranted generalization and that his references to some archaeoastronomical interpretations do not adequately reflect the advances in this field of research and its relevance for the understanding of ancient city plans. I summarize the results of several studies in Mesoamerica, focusing on Teotihuacan and the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan discussed by Smith, to show that rigorous methods not only have been applied in archaeoastronomical research but also have resulted in explicit conclusions about specific aspects of worldview and political ideology underlying Mesoamerican architecture and urbanism.

En un comentario reciente Michael Smith argumenta que las interpretaciones cosmológicas de las trazas urbanas mayas, propuestas en un artículo publicado anteriormente por Ashmore y Sabloff, son vagas y poco convincentes. También resume otros estudios comparables, para mostrar que los argumentos respecto al significado cosmológico de los patrones urbanos arqueológicamente recuperados son, en general, subjetivos y carecen de rigor metodológico. Trato de demostrar que la opinión de Smith es una generalización infundada y que sus referencias a algunas interpretaciones arqueoastronómicas no reflejan de manera adecuada los avances en este campo de investigación y su relevancia para la comprensión de las trazas urbanas antiguas. Al resumir los resultados de varios estudios en Mesoamérica, y enfocándome en Teotihuacan y el Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan discutidos por Smith, hago patente que los métodos rigurosos no sólo han sido aplicados en la investigación arqueoastronómica sino que han resultado en conclusiones explícitas acerca de aspectos específicos de cosmovisión e ideología política involucrados en la arquitectura y el urbanismo mesoamericanos.

Type
Comments
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 2005 , pp. 209 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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

Ashmore, Wendy, and Sabloff, Jeremy A. 2002 Spatial Orders in Maya Civic Plans. Latin American Antiquity 13:201–215.Google Scholar
Ashmore, Wendy, and Sabloff, Jeremy A. 2003 Interpreting Ancient Maya Civic Plans: Reply to Smith. Latin American Antiquity 14:229–236.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F. 1975 Possible Astronomical Orientations in Ancient Mesoamerican Architecture. In Archaeoastronomy in Pre-Columbian America, edited by Anthony F. Aveni, pp. 163–190. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F. 1991 Mapping the Ritual Landscape: Debt Payment to Tlaloc during the Month of Atlcahualo. In To Change Place: Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes, edited by Davíd Carrasco, pp. 58–73. University Press of Colorado, Niwot.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F. 2001 Skywatchers: A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F. 2003 Archaeoastronomy in the Ancient Americas. Journal of Archaeological Research 11:149–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., Calnek, E. E., and Hartung, H. 1988 Myth, Environment, and the Orientation of the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan. American Antiquity 53:287–309.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., Dowd, Anne S., and Vining, Benjamin 2003 Maya Calendar Reform? Evidence from Orientations of Specialized Architectural Assemblages. Latin American Antiquity 14:159–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., and Gibbs, Sharon L. 1976 On the Orientation of Precolumbian Buildings in Central Mexico. American Antiquity 41:510–517.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., and Hartung, H. 1986 Maya City Planning and the Calendar. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 76, Pt. 7. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Aveni, Anthony F., and Hartung, H. 1989 Uaxactun, Guatemala, Group E and Similar Assemblages: An Archaeoastronomical Reconsideration. In World Archaeoastronomy, edited by A. F. Aveni, pp. 441–461. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Broda, Johanna 1982 Astronomy, Cosmovisión, and Ideology in Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. In Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics, edited by Anthony E Aveni and Gary Urton, pp. 81–110. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 385. New York.Google Scholar
Broda, Johanna 1991 Cosmovisión y observación de la naturaleza: El ejemplo del culto de los cerros en Mesoamérica. In Arqtieoastronomía y etnoastronomía en Mesoamérica, edited by Johanna Broda, Stanislaw Iwaniszewski, and Lucrecia Maupomé, pp. 461–500. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Caso, Alfonso 1967 Los calendarios prehispánicos. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Iwaniszewski, Stanisław 1989 Exploring Some Anthropological Theoretical Foundations for Archaeoastronomy. In World Archaeoastronamy, edited by A. F. Aveni, pp. 27–37. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kintigh, Keith W. 1992 I Wasn’t Going to Say Anything, but Since You Asked: Archaeoastronomy and Archaeology. Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy News 5:1–4.Google Scholar
Knapp, A. Bernard, and Ashmore, Wendy 1999 Archaeological Landscapes: Constructed, Conceptualized, Ideational. In Archaeologies of Landscape: Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Wendy Ashmore and A. Bernard Knapp, pp. 1–30. Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
López Austin, Alfredo 1973 Hombre-dios: Religión y político en el mundo náhuatl. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Marquina, Ignacio 1960 El Templo Mayor de México. Institute Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Mazari, Marcos, Marsal, Raúl J., and Alberro, Jesús 1989 Los asentamientos del Templo Mayor analizados por la mecánica de suelos. Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 19:145–182.Google Scholar
McCluskey, Stephen C. 1993 Astronomies and Rituals at the Dawn of the Middle Ages. In Astronomies and Cultures, edited by Clive L. N. Ruggles and Nicholas J. Saunders, pp. 100–123. University Press of Colorado, Niwot.Google Scholar
Motolinía, Fray Toribio de Benavente 1971 Memoriales o libro de las cosas de la Nueva España y de los naturales de ella. Edited by Edmundo O’Gorman. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Newton, Robert R. 1972 Medieval Chronicles and the Rotation of the Earth. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Prem, Hanns J. 1991 Los calendarios prehispánicos y sus correlaciones: Problemas históricos y técnicos. In Arqueoastronomía y etnoastronomía en Mesoamérica, edited by Johanna Broda, Stanislaw Iwaniszewski, and Lucrecia Maupomé, pp. 389–411. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Ruggles, Clive 1999 Astronomy in Prehistoric Britain and Ireland. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 2003 Can We Read Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans? Comment on Ashmore and Sabloff. Latin American Antiquity 14:221–228.Google Scholar
Šprajc, Ivan 1996a La estrella de Quetzalcoatl: El planeta Venus en Mesoamérica. Editorial Diana, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Šprajc, Ivan 1996b Venus, lluvia y maíz: Simbolismo y astronomía en la cosmovisión mesoamericana. Colección Científica 318. Institute Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Šprajc, Ivan 2000a Astronomical Alignments at Teotihuacan, Mexico, Latin American Antiquity 11:403–415.Google Scholar
Šprajc, Ivan 2000b Astronomical Alignments at the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Archaeoastronomy 25 (Journal for the History of Astronomy 31 [supplement]): S11–S40.Google Scholar
Šprajc, Ivan 2000c [2001] Problema de ajustes del año calendárico mesoamericano al año trópico. Anales de Antropología 34:133–160.Google Scholar
Šprajc, Ivan 2001 Orientaciones astronómicas en la arquitectura prehispánica del centro de Máxico. Colección Científica 427. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Tichy, Franz 1991 Die geordnete Welt indianischer Völker: Ein Bespiel von Raumordnung und Zeitordnung im vorkolumbischa Mexiko. Das Mexiko-Projekt der Deutschen Forschungs-gemeinschaft 21. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart.Google Scholar