To set before the king: residential mural painting at Xultun, Guatemala

Saturno, William; Hurst, Heather; Rossi, Franco; Stuart, David

doi:10.15184/aqy.2014.11

Cited by 4 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…Finally, the northeast niche jamb and the east wall have multiple texts that were repeatedly painted and incised with calendric and astronomical calculations ( Figure 4c; see Aveni et al 2013;Saturno et al 2012a). While the mural figures and associated captions were painted at the same time, the superimposition of many calendrical texts over the narrative scene demonstrates that this room was an active place for writing and notation for the resident Taaj until its eventual architectural incorporation into a mausoleum (Rossi 2015;Rossi et al 2015b).…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, the linguistic affinity to the word for obsidian, tcai, (the material with which these tcax would bloodlet) is intriguing. Not only are the titles of these two orders similarly structured in two parts, one a changeable ranking and the other marking membership in a cohort, but the second component in each title seems to have its roots in the same substance, obsidian (see Rossi 2015:124-128 for full discussion).…”

Section: Religion In Mesoamerican Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…At Copan, this relationship between the heir apparent and the Sakun Taaj emerges again within a Late Classic elite residential compound located to the north of the city's central zone. Group 8L-10, known as the "North Group" (see Ashmore 1991;Rossi 2015:143-145 for further comparison with Los Sabios). At that group, the title Sakun Taaj is mentioned on one of several sculpted stone medallions (26-31 cm in diameter each) that had fallen from the west façade of one of the group's structures (Figure 13b).…”

Section: Junior Taaj Senior Taajmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A MAYACURIA REGIS: EVIDENCE FOR A HIERARCHICAL SPECIALIST ORDER AT XULTUN, GUATEMALA

et al. 2017

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This article presents an in-depth analysis of an important mural painting discovered within Structure 10K2 of the Los Sabios Group at the Classic Maya site of Xultun, Guatemala. We first discuss the composition of the mural scene and its central protagonist, a Late Classic period (a.d. 550–900) ruler of Xultun named Yax We'nel Chan K'inich, suggesting that it presents a ritual performance associated with an ancient New Year ceremony. Several attendant figures in the mural are labeled as members of a specialist order or category called Taaj, “obsidian,” and are marked by an unusual shared appearance. This “obsidian order” exhibits internal hierarchical ranking and is attested at other Classic Maya centers. In addition to discussing the overall content of the Xultun mural scene, we conduct a focused inquiry into these various Taaj individuals by presenting associated archaeological evidence and considering related epigraphic data. Through this analysis of the Taaj, we shed light on a previously unknown aspect of Maya courtly life and organization that is relevant to models of sovereignty, governance, and ritual performance in the Classic Maya world.

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Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Religion In Mesoamerican Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Junior Taaj Senior Taajmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A MAYACURIA REGIS: EVIDENCE FOR A HIERARCHICAL SPECIALIST ORDER AT XULTUN, GUATEMALA

et al. 2017

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“…Again, various handwritings and refinements make it clear that multiple people of varying skill levels were working side-by-side within the room ( Fig. 6; see also Saturno et al 2015). These sciences included certain kinds of predictive astronomy and their accompanying mathematics, systematic reconciliations between human calendars and celestial cycles, as well as almanacs and divination tools that were built upon 'indigenous concepts that deal with quantitative knowledge of the natural world' (Aveni 2011, 187).…”

Section: Los Sabios Xultun As a Place Of Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pedagogy and State: An Archaeological Inquiry into Classic Maya Educational Practice

Rossi

2017

CAJ

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Education is notoriously difficult to identify archaeologically, but crucial for understanding the inner workings of any society. Strikingly, in Mesoamerican archaeology, more seems to be known about the transmission of crafting skills than about practices of statecraft. Elsewhere in the ancient world, much evidence speaks to various social and institutional contexts in which specialized knowledge of histories, literacies, civics, and sciences was generated and taught as vital to state-making projects. Yet these same contexts among the Classic Period Maya (ad 200–900) remain poorly understood and under-theorized. Pulling from comparative research alongside recent work at the site of Xultun, Guatemala, this article explores how educational systems may have worked in Classic-era Maya polities—assessing evidence for educational loci, the different forms that education might assume, and the varied curricula that likely existed across different cities and particular demographics. Through this discussion, I seek to shed some light on the actors, gendered exclusions and diverse arrangements of pedagogy in Maya society, and grant further insight into how specialized bodies of knowledge (transmitted within formal educational institutions) were built into the very fabric of the Classic Maya states of which they were part.

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“…A limited number of fan-fold books written in Maya hieroglyphs survive from the Late Postclassic and Early Colonial periods (ca. A.D. 1200-1600), although this scribal tradition was also likely widespread during the Classic period (Reents- Budet 1994;Rossi et al 2015;Saturno et al 2015). Demonstrating the esoteric knowledge held by Maya scribes, inscriptions from the codices primarily document astronomical cycles and religious content (Bricker and Bricker 2011;Vail 2000).…”

Section: The Content and Contexts Of Classic Maya Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ritual Diversity and Divergence of Classic Maya Dynastic Traditions: A Lexical Perspective on Within-Group Cultural Variation

et al. 2016

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To study the Classic Maya is to at once recognize the shared material representations and practices that give coherence to this cultural category as a unit of analysis, as well as to critically examine the diversity and idiosyncrasy of specific cultural traits within prehispanic Maya society. Maya hieroglyphic writing, in particular the tradition of inscribing texts and images on carved stone monuments, offers evidence for widespread and mutually intelligible cultural practices that were, at the same time, neither unchanging nor uniform in their semantic content. As conduits of linguistic and cultural information, Maya hieroglyphic monuments offer detailed records of Classic Maya dynastic history that include the names, dates, and specific rituals performed by élite individuals. In this article, we analyze the distribution and diversity of these inscriptions to examine ritual variation and the divergence of dynastic traditions in Classic Maya society. Diversity indices and methods adapted from population genetics and ecology are applied to quantify the degree of ritual differentiation and evaluate how these measures vary over time and are partitioned within and between elite populations. Results of this research refine our understanding about the variation of Clássic Maya ritual traditions and make substantive contributions to examining the population structure of cultural diversity within past complex societies.

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To set before the king: residential mural painting at Xultun, Guatemala

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 4 publications

References 12 publications

A MAYACURIA REGIS: EVIDENCE FOR A HIERARCHICAL SPECIALIST ORDER AT XULTUN, GUATEMALA

A MAYACURIA REGIS: EVIDENCE FOR A HIERARCHICAL SPECIALIST ORDER AT XULTUN, GUATEMALA

Pedagogy and State: An Archaeological Inquiry into Classic Maya Educational Practice

Ritual Diversity and Divergence of Classic Maya Dynastic Traditions: A Lexical Perspective on Within-Group Cultural Variation

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