The Incienso Throne and Other Thrones From Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Late Preclassic examples of a Mesoamerican throne tradition

Abstract

A “table altar,” perhaps one described by Cabrera (1822) almost 200 years ago and since unreported, is the only complete example of a class of four-legged sculptures known at present from Kaminaljuyu. Iconographic similarities between the monument and sculptures from southern piedmont and coastal centers and comparisons with other Kaminaljuyu sculptures suggest an early Late Preclassic date (Late Verbena-Early Arenal, approximately 300-200 B.C.). According to depictions on other southern-area monuments many “table altars” were formal, emblematic seats for rulers, or thrones, which had specific ideologies associated with them Review of monuments, including identification as a four-legged throne of the well-known sculpture, Stela 10, numbers the Kaminaljuyu corpus of thrones to date at a minimum of seven. The presence of thrones as a sculptural class at Kaminaljuyu in the Late Preclassic period provides more evidence of a long throne tradition reaching from Olmec times through the Maya Classic and into the Postclassic. Kaminaljuyu's thrones conceivably also add to other evidence of complex sociopolitics at the city during the Late Preclassic.

Constituting Animacy and Community in a Terminal Formative Bundled Offering from the Coast of Oaxaca, Mexico

“…The miniature stone thrones from Cerro de la Virgen closely resemble four-footed thrones found at Kaminaljuyú, Izapa and Takalik Abaj in the Soconusco coast and Guatemalan highlands that are Late Formative in date (Kaplan 1995;. Kaplan's (1995) analysis of an assemblage of life-sized thrones from these sites indicates they are similar in proportion to D-F24-Ob3 and D-F24-Ob4, but dwarf them in overall size and show rulers seated on them. For example, the surfaces of the Cerro de la Virgen thrones have areas of 48 sq.…”

“…During the later Formative, table altar-style thrones continued to be used as formal, emblematic seats for rulers in southeastern Mesoamerica, a region that may have been connected with polities on the coast of Oaxaca via coastal trade routes (White & Barber 2012). The miniature stone thrones from Cerro de la Virgen closely resemble four-footed thrones found at Kaminaljuyú, Izapa and Takalik Abaj in the Soconusco coast and Guatemalan highlands that are Late Formative in date (Kaplan 1995;. Kaplan's (1995) analysis of an assemblage of life-sized thrones from these sites indicates they are similar in proportion to D-F24-Ob3 and D-F24-Ob4, but dwarf them in overall size and show rulers seated on them.…”

“…We interpret the miniature table altars to represent scaled-down versions of 'thrones' of rulership, which pervade Mesoamerican iconography from the Formative period to the Conquest (Guernsey Kappelman 2000;Kaplan 1995;Parsons 1986). Lifesized table altars became prevalent in central Mexico during the Middle Formative, with the earliest evidence for their use coming from the Early Formative Olmec sites of San Lorenzo and Portrero Nuevo, located on the Gulf Coast (Coe & Diehl 1980).…”

Time tested: re-thinking chronology and sculptural traditions in Preclassic southern Mesoamerica

“…Three associated formats—pedestal sculptures (Figure 7a), ‘bench figures’ (Figure 7b) and four-legged thrones (Figure 7c)—all gained sudden popularity during this time (Parsons 1986; Kaplan 1995; Clark et al . 2010; Henderson 2013).…”

New World States and Empires: Politics, Religion, and Urbanism

“…Clearly, scholars have not achieved consensus on the political role of shamanism in ancient Mesoamerica. Research on other Mesoamerican cultures also emphasizes the sacred nature of kingship (e.g., Graulich, 1998;Jansen, 1997;Kaplan, 1995;Martin and Grube, 2000;McAnany, 1995;Pohl, 1994;Urcid and Joyce, 2001). Some scholars confuse supernatural power (an imagined attribute of persons, places, or imaginary entities) and political power (a social relationship between individuals or institutions based on unequal resources), suggesting that ancient kings derived their political power from the supernatural power they claimed in public monuments and performances (Reese- Taylor and Koontz, 2001, pp.…”