In the last four decades, a number of archaeologists and art historians have posited that “Toltec” Chichén Itzá (Yucatán, Mexico) flourished during the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. They argued that because the “Toltec” style in Yucatán predated the Tollan phase at Tula (Hidalgo, Mexico), most of the style features shared between the cities originated with the Maya. Here, I examine the relevance of the Epiclassic relief sculpture of Tula Chico for the timing and nature of contact between Tula and Chichén Itzá. The presence of reliefs of reclining figures in clear “Toltec” style at Tula Chico in contexts predating their occurrence at Chichén Itzá suggests that claims for a predominantly Maya origin for that style stand in need of revision. Such a rethinking is supported by other fragmentary images from Tula Chico (eagles and Venus symbols), as well as by new studies of ceramic materials and chronology at Chichén Itzá. It is clear that Tula was an active participant in whatever interactions led to similar visual arts at Chichén Itzá, and at least some of the shared iconography has temporal priority at Tula.
Since Acosta's work in the 1940s, relief carvings of serpents entwined with partially skeletonized personages on the coatepantli at Tula have frequently been identified as images of the Nahua Venus deity, Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli. Comparing these Toltec sculptures with this deity's iconography in Late Postclassic to Colonial period manuscripts, however, provides no support for this identification. Based on the northern Mesoamerican cultural connections of the Toltecs, the author suggests parallels between the coatepantli reliefs and the public display of ancestral and sacrificial human remains at Chalchihuites sites. Identification of the coatepantli figures as venerated ancestors from an ancestral cult is also supported by iconographic and archaeological evidence from Tula. Parallels to the coatepantli images in depictions of both living elites and ancestors juxtaposed with serpents from other Mesoamerican art traditions bolster this interpretation. On the basis of the evidence, the author hypothesizes that the skeletonized figures at Tula symbolize deceased kings and honored warriors rather than conquered foes.
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