Assessing the Role of Preclassic Traditions in the Formation of Early Classic Yucatec Cultures, México

Glover, Jeffrey; Stanton, Travis W.

doi:10.1179/009346910x12707320296711

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The ancient Maya often built apron moldings with these megaliths. Megalithic buildings with these particular details cluster around Ucí, Izamal, Aké, and Dzilam but also appear further to the east at large sites such as Naranjal, Victoria, and Tres Lagunas in northern Quintana Roo, Mexico (Glover and Stanton ). In contrast to the Ucí area, megalithic buildings in northern Quintana Roo are not found at smaller sites.…”

Section: The Sociality Of Stonementioning

confidence: 99%

2 How Material Culture Acted on the Ancient Maya of Yucatan, Mexico

Hutson

Davies

2015

Archaeological Papers of the American

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This paper looks at how materiality in a specific sense (e.g., aspects of raw materials) contributes to materiality in a broader sense (e.g., the mutually constitutive relations between people and things). We embark from the point that common materials, such as stone and perishable containers (baskets, gourds), shape people's social interactions and their physical sensibilities. The use of very large stones for buildings in and around Ucí, a local political center in the northern Maya Lowlands of Yucatan, Mexico, required people to draw on a large web of social relations in order to get access to the right stone and the right labor. Furthermore, hauling such stones and placing them in walls required a very literal form of physical dialogue between laborers that is otherwise quite rare, akin to carrying a couch. We believe that the closely coordinated and intimately shared physical maneuvers required to haul and place a 150 kg stone intensified the bonds between co‐actors, who were likely part of the same household. This suggests that the stability of households depends not just on what people do, but how they do these things together. Many households at two sites near Ucí—Kancab and 21 de Abril—depended heavily on baskets and gourds since pottery was scarce. Aspects of the making of these tools, such as the procurement of materials for baskets, sent people beyond their homes and into contact with many others. Thus, we argue that discussions of materials in craftwork should expand to consider the social entanglements entailed in the procurement of materials. Furthermore, we argue that the specific tactile characteristics of perishable goods such as baskets and gourds help create different kinds of people. In households with less pottery, day to day use of baskets and gourds would have inculcated non‐discursive senses of touch that rose to discursive consciousness at community wide occasions at households that served meals on pottery. Such events would have been diacritical, making participants aware of the differences between themselves. In sum, raw materials such as stone and gourds play a large role in making actors who they were and creating social networks.

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Section: The Sociality Of Stonementioning

confidence: 99%

2 How Material Culture Acted on the Ancient Maya of Yucatan, Mexico

Hutson

Davies

2015

Archaeological Papers of the American

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“…Although there was certainly a pattern of widespread site abandonment, the region as a whole remained largely populated. Like other parts of the Maya Lowlands, dramatic shifts in material culture and settlement patterns indicate significant social upheaval and reorganization (73).…”

Section: Cultural and Environmental Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Kax and kol: Collapse and resilience in lowland Maya civilization

Dunning

Beach

Luzzadder–Beach

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

164

127

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Episodes of population loss and cultural change, including the famous Classic Collapse, punctuated the long course of Maya civilization. In many cases, these downturns in the fortunes of individual sites and entire regions included significant environmental components such as droughts or anthropogenic environmental degradation. Some afflicted areas remained depopulated for long periods, whereas others recovered more quickly. We examine the dynamics of growth and decline in several areas in the Maya Lowlands in terms of both environmental and cultural resilience and with a focus on downturns that occurred in the Terminal Preclassic (second century Common Era) and Terminal Classic (9th and 10th centuries CE) periods. This examination of available data indicates that the elevated interior areas of the Yucatán Peninsula were more susceptible to system collapse and less suitable for resilient recovery than adjacent lower-lying areas.

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“…Settlement was widespread across the northern Lowlands during the Late Preclassic, with numerous settlements dispersed to take advantage of natural water sources, chiefly cenotes, tracts of higher quality soil, and coastal resources such as salt (Glover and Stanton ). While many Preclassic sites were abandoned for unknown reasons by the onset of the Early Classic, including many Puuc centers (Smyth et al in press), the region as a whole was not completely depopulated.…”

Section: Transitions In Maya Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

3 Water and Landscape: Ancient Maya Settlement Decisions

Lucero

Fedick

Dunning

et al. 2014

Archaeological Papers of the American

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In this chapter we present the major transitions in Maya history from the Late Preclassic through Terminal Classic periods in the Maya Lowlands, focusing first on major settlement and subsistence systems, followed by major social and environmental costs. We particularly focus on how the Maya built and relied on increasingly complex water and agricultural systems to adapt in the humid tropics where everything in life was rainfall dependent. The seasonality of rainfall required innovative strategies to contain water throughout the long dry season in the face of growing population and socio-political complexity. Drastic changes occurred when several prolonged droughts struck the Maya area, resulting in them exploring new areas and subsistence practices. The chapter concludes with a few thoughts on how understanding ancient Maya water and land use is relevant for today's issues regarding sustainable land and water use. [settlement patterns, water management, seasonal issues, agricultural strategies, climate change]

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Assessing the Role of Preclassic Traditions in the Formation of Early Classic Yucatec Cultures, México

Cited by 18 publications

References 23 publications

2 How Material Culture Acted on the Ancient Maya of Yucatan, Mexico

2 How Material Culture Acted on the Ancient Maya of Yucatan, Mexico

Kax and kol: Collapse and resilience in lowland Maya civilization

3 Water and Landscape: Ancient Maya Settlement Decisions

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