Browsing by Subject "Mayas--Antiquities"

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    The Maya ballcourt and the Mountain of Creation : myth, game, and ritual
    (1996-05) Gutierrez, Mary Ellen; Schele, Linda
    The topic of my dissertation is the architectural symbolism of the Maya ballcourt. The typical Mesoamerican ballcourt is a sunken playing surface that is situated between two parallel mounds that form a cleft in the earth, resembling the cleft Mountain of Creation. In fact, the ballcourt was an architectural analog of the Mountain of Creation and they shared a number of associations. In Chapter 1 I discuss previous research on the ballgame pertinent to my arguments. Chapter 2 is an analysis of a particular ballgame between a bird and a deer that I interpret as metaphorical of the hunt, sacrifice, and the vision quest. Chapter 3 is a summary of the concept of the sacred mountain in various locations around the world with an emphasis on Central America. In Chapter 4 the discussion focuses on the pattern as it appears in its most complete form at Y axchilan. The connection between dance and the cleft in the Mountain of Creation is analyzed in Chapter 5. First Father and his importance regarding creation, the ballgame, and the ballcourt is the emphasis of Chapter 6. Elements of the pattern as they appear at Copan and Piedras Negras is the topic of Chapter 7. Within Chapter 8 I discuss elements of the pattern as they appear outside the Maya area at Teotihuacan, El Tajin, Tenochtitlan, and in various central Mexican codices. I conclude that the association between the ballcourt and the cleft Mountain of Creation, which began at the Olmec site of La Venta, permeated the cosmology of later civilizations, with the Maya serving as the prime example. Elements of this cosmo-political pattern were so widespread as to make it abundantly clear that this overall pattern served as the ideological foundation of Mesoamerican civilization from the time of the Olmec until the coming of the Spaniards.
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    A science of networks approach to ancient Maya sociopolitical organization
    (2005) Aylesworth, Grant Russell; Valdez, Fred, Jr., 1953-
    Was ancient Maya sociopolitical organization, overall, centralized or decentralized? Does the application of a new technique of analysis, borrowed from the science of networks (network theory), aid in understanding Classic period sociopolitical organization? This dissertation seeks to explore Classic Maya sociopolitical organization through the application of small world and scale free models derived from the science of networks. The research presented combines archaeological fieldwork in northwestern Belize, Central America with evidence from ancient Maya inscriptions to evaluate the potential of applying network theory methods to studies of ancient Maya sociopolitical organization. This dissertation is divided into five chapters which provide an overview of the climate, physiography, flora, and fauna of the research area, an outline of previous archaeological research in the region, the general culture history of the area from the Paleoindian to the Postclassic periods, results of excavations and mapping at two sites very close to, or arguably part of the site of Dos Hombres, Belize. The final chapter is a review of select aspects of ancient Maya sociopolitical organization focusing on issues related to centralized and decentralized models, which have dominated research for the last 30 years. Through the analysis of network graphs I show that the science of networks can be used to gain insight into ancient Maya sociopolitical interaction. Taken as a whole, I find that Classic period sociopolitical interaction was decentralized and can be characterized as a scale free small world network. Further, network analysis provides insight into the roles of ancient Maya sites as hubs of the Classic period sociopolitical landscape. These findings, in general, tend to agree with previous attempts to rank sites based on volume of architecture and courtyard counts. Since the political system was dominated by few hubs with many links, it was vulnerable to dissolution if one or two of those hubs were destroyed. The presentation and analysis of network graphs yields insights into the nature of ancient Maya sociopolitical organization. Ceramic associations are briefly examined from a science of networks perspective. Results affirm that it is useful to apply network theory to the study of ancient Maya sociopolitical organization.