Epiclassic Mesoamerica

The Grolier Codex is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

The Grolier Codex (Codice Maya de Mexico, CMM) is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

A través del estudio de las características espaciales del sitio, se trata de deducir las funcionalidades principales de los diferentes lugares. Esto lleva a entender la jerarquía espacial, distinguir los lugares de representación de los de la vida privada. El acceso a la parte alta de la plataforma estaba restringido y reservado a reuniones con grupos limitados. Dentro de este conjunto, había también divisiones que hablan de dos zonas principales del lugar.

In this article, see pages 164, 166-168 for Stuart's discussion of the Grolier Codex.  It is highly significant that the Mexican State of Chiapas and the Universidad Autonoma de Chiapas chose to include the Grolier Codex as an authentic ancient Maya book in 1985 and make a fine color facsimile available along with the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid codices for further research. 

This review and essay of "Los Codices Mayas" is being posted as a personal tribute to my friend and colleague, the late George E. Stuart, Ph.D. (1935 - 2014) for his great generosity and many extraordinary contributions promoting world archaeology over several generations.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

More than four decades ago H.B. Nicholson compared the so-called Palace Stone from Xochicalco to a page in a Mesoamerican codex. Showing numerous calendrical dates and toponymic signs connected by a path marked by footprints the monument readily recalls the cartographic tradition that is well-known for the central Mexican highlands at the time of the Spanish conquest. In this paper we explore the Epiclassic evidence of this tradition, discussing not only central features of the Palace Stone, but also additional monuments from Xochicalco and sites in the vicinity, such as the recently discovered Tetlama stela, that belong to the same genre. Thus, we provide a preliminary analysis of the formal features and contents of these fascinating monuments that record an important narrative history and founding myth of Xochicalco and some of its satellite communities. Furthermore, we shall also introduce evidence that suggests that the conventions of this tradition can ultimately be traced back to Teotihuacan in the Early Classic.

En este artículo se revisa la cronología de Xochicalco, desde que fueron construidas las estructuras más tempranas en el corazón del sitio hasta el momento de su destrucción y abandono. Repasamos las propuestas para ubicar a la ciudad de Xochicalco en una secuencia cronológica que inicia con los trabajos de Eduardo Noguera y concluye con la cronología sugerida por Kenneth Hirth. Nosotros enfatizamos que la ciudad de Xochicalco se mantuvo ocupada durante cerca de 400 años (650/700 a 900/ 1000 d.C.), y para ello partimos de la interpretación de diversas fechas de radiocarbono provenientes de complejos arquitectónicos situados en la
parte más alta de la ciudad.

The fourth known pre-Columbian Maya codex—the only one discovered in the 20th century—was found by looters in the mid-1960s. First exhibited in New York in 1971, what has come to be known as the Grolier Codex is half of a hybrid-style 20-page, 104-year Mesoamerican divinatory Venus Almanac. With new radiocarbon dates that place it in the 13th century CE, it is likely to be the oldest surviving book on paper from the Americas as well as the only ancient Maya codex now residing in Mexico. Although most Mayanists have accepted it as authentic, based in part on the author’s 40 years of research,* it remains an unacknowledged Mexican national treasure as it has never been officially recognized except in the State of Chiapas. Mesoamerican Venus Almanacs were widely used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to regulate practices of sacred warfare and ritual sacrifice, the goal of which was to obtain captives whose blood was shed to invoke the personified forces of rain and fertility. The Grolier Codex offers unique images of 10 of the 20 manifestations of Venus (named in the Maya Dresden Codex), greatly enriching our knowledge of these traditions documented in four other pre-Columbian codices as well as numerous archaeological and ethnohistoric sources. This article is a summary of the talk given on November 7, 2014 to the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC and includes a brief history of accounts of the discovery of the Grolier Codex and allegedly associated artifacts; photographic history; outlines the author’s comprehensive program of research, including several new scientific discoveries leading to an interpretation of the Codex—based on the Dresden Codex and other sources; and offers a new Latinized name that recognizes that the “Codex Mayano-Mexicanus” is an authentic ancient book deriving from the Maya culture and now properly residing in Mexico.

          *See <http://umd.academia.edu/JohnBCarlson>.

Also utilized as part of the November 7, 2014 talk are TWO 1983 historical STUDY GUIDE documents which can be viewed at the following academia.edu links:

• GROLIER CODEX Page Study Guide: Pages 1-9 and Reconstructed Page 10/11 (1983): 

https://www.academia.edu/7911420/GROLIER_CODEX_Page_Study_Guide_Pages_1-9_and_Reconstructed_Page_10_11

• GROLIER CODEX Comparative Study Guide (1983): Grolier pages 1-9 and reconstructed page 10/11 with Maya Dresden Codex Venus Almanac page numbers 48/1 – 50/2 with Venus Station and Directional Associations; Names (on Dresden Rows 17 & 22) of the associated Venus Impersonators; and Initial (1983) interpretations of the Grolier Codex scenes & iconographic interpretations. Over the three decades since 1983, some of the glyphic and iconographic interpretations have changed, as discussed in the presentation. The details are in press:

https://www.academia.edu/9208071/GROLIER_CODEX_Comparative_Study_Guide_1983_

*****

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

This study explores the multifaceted Maya Deluge Myth, from its pre-Columbian origins to current fantasies about a great world-destroying flood at the 13 Baktun period ending of the Maya Long Count on 21 (or 23) December 2012. No such flood is prophesied in any Maya records for this date, and the famous scene on Dresden Codex page 74 is discussed in its context as a symbolic depiction of the annual world-renewing downpours at the onset of the rainy season in springtime in the Maya world. The presiding gods of warfare and blood sacrifice were the agents of fertility and the regeneration of nature, and not the agents for the destruction of the Maya in a world-ending deluge. The misinterpretation of Dresden page 74 has propagated, unchallenged, for over a century of Maya scholarship and found its way into “new age,” fringe, and popular culture. This research helps to set the record straight along with providing a history of the meme.

As world-systems theory came to the fore in archaeology during the 1980s and 1990s, it became evident that the analysis of pre-capitalist core/periphery relations required modifications of this theory for its further use in the discipline. As a result, the comparative approach for world-systems analysis (Chase Dunn and Hall 1997) discerned four interaction networks that defined pre-capitalist world-systems. The appearance of the comparative approach coincided with archaeology’s detour into the diverse inquiries of postmodernism, for which conceptual advances in world-systems analysis went largely unnoticed by the discipline. The present study applies the nested network interaction framework of the comparative approach to examine material evidence for core/periphery relations between on the one hand two state level societies of central Mexico: Teotihuacan and Tula; and, on the other, West Mexico, one of the largest subareas of Mesoamerica. The operationalization of the nested networks as a material culture model for the Early Classic and Early Postclassic periods indicates that West Mexico was integrated into macroregional developments and change between 200-1200 CE. The present study represents one of the first comprehensive applications of the comparative approach in areal research undertaken in Mesoamerica.
 

In this paper presented at the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC, November 2013, the author proposes answers to questions which have puzzled scholars since the 19th century concerning the enigmatic recumbent Mesoamerican figure known as the "chacmool", so named by French adventurer and photographer Augustus Le Plongeon.  While most scholars are convinced that chacmools were a genuine innovation for a specific type of sacrificial altar for the placement of an offering bowl, several key questions have remained: (1) What was the culture and place of origin of this remarkable sculptural innovation? (2) Who were these male figures?  (3) What is the origin and meaning of the challenging recumbent pose for these human figures with the unblinking, enigmatic gaze? (4) What were they, and what were they called, or described with a phrase, in any Mesoamerican language? Based on recent archaeological discoveries, the author presents a new interpretation of the "chacmool" as the elite "hip ulama" ball game ballplayer stylistically rendered in a serene and formalized ritual “por abajo” stance, well after the game is over, to play the final role as the recipient of the sacrifices. With this new interpretation the author hopes to open the door to finding the indigenous name or description of the "chacmool".

The sudden appearance of Maya-style characteristics in the art of Epiclassic sites in Central Mexico has sparked debate regarding the relationship between the polity of Cacaxtla and the distant Maya Lowlands. Early studies linked these developments to migrations of the Olmeca-Xicalanca of the southern Gulf Coast, described in ethnohistoric sources. Recent studies assert that Cacaxtla’s artists adopted an “eclectic” assortment of foreign stylistic elements in order to proclaim ties to distant sources of wealth and power that were not necessarily rooted in historic reality. This study argues that Cacaxtla’s artists deployed stylistic, technical, and iconographic conventions in a manner that reflects deep and sustained engagement with specific Maya cities, rather than superficial claims of aggrandizement. Evaluation through current anthropological understandings of how and why people migrate and how group identity is expressed in the midst of population movements suggests that Cacaxtla’s monumental art programs constitute an additional line of evidence in support of Epiclassic migration from the southern Gulf Coast or western Maya Lowlands to Central Mexico.

During the tumultuous Epiclassic period (AD 600-900), several smaller polities in Central Mexico and the Gulf Coast rose to prominence in the wake of the collapsed metropolis of Teotihuacan. Although this period is often characterized by rampant militarism, wide-ranging economic activities, and eclectic monumental art programs that incorporate foreign styles, few studies have considered the role that religious ideology played in these phenomena. Flower World imagery is prevalent in the monumental and portable artwork of Cacaxtla, Xochicalco, Teotenango, and other Epiclassic polities. While beliefs pertaining to a solar paradise inhabited by the souls of deceased warriors were inherited from Teotihuacan, Epiclassic elites adapted and modified aspects of the Flower World complex to suit new political and economic strategies. The Epiclassic Flower World complex valorized warfare and linked elites through shared ritual practice, identity, and exchange of exotic prestige goods.

La presente investigación sigue la línea de los estudios tecnológicos de la fabricación cerámica. No se pretende desarrollar un análisis de cadenas operatorias, pero se parte de la idea que una secuencia específica de acciones y gestos deja una huella en los materiales arqueológicos y que esa huella puede ser identificada y caracterizada. El proceso de producción de la cerámica es complejo y abarca un número considerable de etapas, desde la selección de la materia prima hasta la decoración posterior a la cocción. En este proceso se anidan varias cadenas operatorias que van a dejar rastro en la pasta cerámica, que es el objeto de esta investigación.  No es la intención identificar los gestos o acciones específicas que dieron como resultado una pasta particular. El objetivo es más modesto. Se trata simplemente de identificar sistemáticamente las distintas pastas presentes en una colección de tiestos arqueológicos.  En esta investigación se propone un método para hacer una caracterización sistemática de la pasta de la cerámica arqueológica que no se base primordialmente en aspectos naturales de la materia prima, sino que se desprenda de las huellas que dejaron los procesos de manufactura. El método que se propone es el análisis fractal del patrón de la pasta.

Después de más de diez años intensivos de trabajos arqueológicos de campo y de laboratorio en los sitios ubicados en las faldas norte del Cerro Barajas (Municipio de Pénjamo, suroeste de Guanajuato), propondremos primero un bosquejo de las diferentes actividades productivas realizadas por los habitantes de dichos sitios ocupados en el Epiclásico y de las diferentes producciones atestiguadas por los datos arqueológicos de superficie o los puestos a la luz por las excavaciones.

En segundo lugar, estudiaremos la naturaleza, el origen, la función y el simbolismo de los productos encontrados durante las excavaciones, artefactos ajenos a la zona colindante al cerro, a la región suroeste del estado de Guanajuato o al Bajío, para tratar de entender las relaciones que tejieron los pueblos del Cerro Barajas con otros grupos humanos de Mesoamérica.

Concluiremos exponiendo unas hipótesis sobre el ocaso de este conjunto de pueblos antiguos  a partir del siglo IX.

Año 4 N°10 Enero-Abril 2015

Sistemas de perspectiva prehispánica
Jorge Angulo Villaseñor P. 9

Con la muerte en la mirada
América Malbrán Porto P. 36           

El carácter venusino en el Tonalpohualli
de los códices Borgia, Vaticano B
y Cospi
Ofelia Márquez Huitzil P. 62

The collapse of ancient states is often examined from the perspective of regional capitals. However, factors contributing to the decay of central power may be better measured in the fates of surrounding communities, which may closely shadow or depart markedly from the trajectories of declining capitals. Here I examine the breakdown of the first millennium state of Teotihuacan, Mexico, from the vantage of Chicoloapan, a settlement outside of the capital that prospered in the years surrounding the state's dissolution. As a settlement that expanded while others were abandoned, Chicoloapan presents an opportunity to consider the conditions and strategies that promote resilience in the midst of decentralization and to examine collapse as a simultaneously regional and local process. Recent data pertaining to demographic growth, changing household practices and material culture, and internal social diversity at Chicoloapan are discussed. Particular attention is given to the possible impact of migration, an issue at the heart of enduring debates surrounding Teotihuacan's demise. Chronometric data from Chicoloapan suggest that Teotihuacan's influence in this area had diminished by C.E. 600s, lending support to recent arguments, based on evidence from within the capital, that the power of the state's governing institutions deteriorated during the sixth century. [Teotihuacan, collapse, Basin of Mexico]

The original 1982 manuscript presented both at the 44th International Congress of Americanists, Manchester, England in 1982 and the American Astronomical Society in Boston, January 1983.  This research article is the only scholarly study that provides an independent proof that the Codice Maya de Mexico, (CMM) formerly known as the Grolier Codex, must be a genuine pre-Columbian codex – because it contains key iconographic and other data that could not have been known to a potential fabricator in the mid-1960s when the Codex was found.  One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. The author also demonstrates his discovery that the previously labeled pages 10 and 11 of the Codex are actually two parts of the same page "10".

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Grolier Codex.

Reconsidering the "Epic" in the Epiclassic Period of Mesoamerica
Cynthia Kristan-Graham & Andrew Turner, organizers

The Epiclassic period (AD 600-900) embodies “epic” in both its noun and adjective forms, referring to heroic narratives and something that is impressive and grand in scale. The volumes "Mesoamerica After the Decline of Teotihuacan" and "Twin Tollans" (both Dumbarton Oaks) illuminated this period, yet given a recent resurgence of scholarship devoted to the Epiclassic, further assessment is timely. The declines of Teotihuacan and the Classic Maya cites were nuanced processes, as were the growth and development of the cities that arose in response to new economic and political opportunities. Papers will address specific aspects of the Epiclassic period, including the evolution of new population centers, exchange patterns, language, and other symbol systems; the value of visual culture in helping to discern social change; archaeological evidence that affirms or suggests new chronologies; and archaeological evidence that expands the original idea parameters of the Epiclassic. Finally, some papers will offer theoretical models for approaching this crucial era in Mesoamerica and ponder the validity of the Epiclassic period as it is currently understood.

La reunión de una muestra de estudio que abarca una serie de esculturas
elaboradas en piedra faltantes de contexto, descritas desde mediados del Siglo XX
y con probables referencias a ellas desde el contacto europeo, ha llamado la
atención de diversos investigadores. Pero la ausencia de información y de contexto
arqueológico fidedigno, también ha dificultado su estudio.

En el entendido de que los sistemas de circulación y comunicación son elementos urbanos que formaron parte de la ciudad de Xochicalco, Morelos, este escrito tiene como objetivo central explicar cómo su diseño y organización siguieron las pautas establecidas por los intereses propios de la clase hegemónica, misma que mantuvo su preeminencia a lo largo de casi 500 años. Para ello, se hace uso de algunas de las herramientas analíticas derivadas de la sintaxis espacial, pocas veces utilizada en el análisis de asentamientos mesoamericanos, misma que estudia las formas en las que se vinculan y organizan los entornos a través de su registro como elementos derivados de las relaciones sociales. Con el análisis de la localización, la conformación y el ordenamiento de los entornos construidos se busca aportar al avance en el entendimiento del espacio social xochicalca. Los resultados permiten identificar las soluciones urbanas que se utilizaron en una ciudad con las características de Xochicalco, corroborando que la sectorización del asentamiento corresponde al tipo de organización social.

During the tumultuous Epiclassic period (AD 600-900), several smaller polities in Central Mexico and the Gulf Coast rose to prominence in the wake of the collapsed metropolis of Teotihuacan. Although this period is often characterized by rampant militarism, wide-ranging economic activities, and eclectic monumental art programs that incorporate foreign styles, few studies have considered the role that religious ideology played in these phenomena. Flower World imagery is prevalent in the monumental and portable artwork of Cacaxtla, Xochicalco, Teotenango, and other Epiclassic polities. While beliefs pertaining to a solar paradise inhabited by the souls of deceased warriors were inherited from Teotihuacan, Epiclassic elites adapted and modified aspects of the Flower World complex to suit new political and economic strategies. The Epiclassic Flower World complex valorized warfare and linked elites through shared ritual practice, identity, and exchange of exotic prestige goods.

En referencia a lo que se sabe de los mexica y demás grupos nahuas, se menciona que el concepto que se tenía sobre los dioses que regían en el Cosmos, en el Inframundo y en el plano terrestre, donde se desenvuelve el ser humano; o el arriba, el abajo y la biósfera como actualmente es conceptuada, eran la residencia de todas las energías manifiestas en deidades duales con funciones polarizadas y complementarias que, a la vez, se podían dividir en otras dualidades para ejercer sus diversas funciones.
Parece que ese mismo concepto de dualidad genética fue compartido, desde etapas muy tempranas, por todas las deidades mesoamericanas y tal vez panamericanas, puesto que en el caso de los dioses del agua, existen representaciones masculinas y femeninas de este primordial elemento de la naturaleza, conocidas como Tlaloc y Chachiuhitlicue.

In this article was invited by the National Endowment for the Humanities for its "Humanities" magazine special issue on "Technology", John B. Carlson defines the development of the field of archaeoastronomy as the study of astronomy in culture through such fields as history, art, architecture, religion, and writing.  Focusing on the Maya of ancient Mesoamerica, the author outlines the interdisciplinary approach used to understand the Venus cycle's impacted on ancient Maya society.  Of particular note is the study of the Grolier Codex, one of four known ancient Maya books, which depicts different manifestations of Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.