Landscape And Power In Ancient Mesoamerica

Author : Rex Koontz
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2018-02-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780429979040

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Landscape And Power In Ancient Mesoamerica by Rex Koontz Pdf

From the early cities in the second millennium BC to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan on the eve of the Spanish conquest, Ancient Mesoamericans created landscapes full of meaning and power in the center of their urban spaces. The sixteenth century description of Tenochtitlan by Bernal Diaz del Castillo and the archaeological remnants of Teotihuacan attest to the power and centrality of these urban configurations in Ancient Mesoamerican history. In Landscape and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica, Rex Koontz, Kathryn Reese-Taylor, and Annabeth Headrick explore the cultural logic that structured and generated these centers.Through case studies of specific urban spaces and their meanings, the authors examine the general principles by which the Ancient Mesoamericans created meaningful urban space. In a profoundly interdisciplinary exchange involving both archaeologists and art historians, this volume connects the symbolism of those landscapes, the performances that activated this symbolism, and the cultural poetics of these ensembles.

Author : REX. KOONTZ
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2019-06-14
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0367096447

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LANDSCAPE & POWER IN ANCIENT MESOAMERICA by REX. KOONTZ Pdf

Author : Anne S. Dowd,Susan Milbrath
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 523 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2015-05-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781457193750

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Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon-Based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica by Anne S. Dowd,Susan Milbrath Pdf

Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon-Based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica is an interdisciplinary tour de force that establishes the critical role astronomy played in the religious and civic lives of the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica. Providing extraordinary examples of how Precolumbian peoples merged ideas about the cosmos with those concerning calendar and astronomy, the volume showcases the value of detailed examinations of astronomical data for understanding ancient cultures. The volume is divided into three sections: investigations into Mesoamerican horizon-based astronomy, the cosmological principles expressed in Mesoamerican religious imagery and rituals related to astronomy, and the aspects of Mesoamerican calendars related to archaeoastronomy. It also provides cutting-edge research on diverse topics such as records of calendar and horizon-based astronomical observation (like the Dresden and Borgia codices), iconography of burial assemblages, architectural alignment studies, urban planning, and counting or measuring devices. Contributors—who are among the most respected in their fields— explore new dimensions in Mesoamerican timekeeping and skywatching in the Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacano, Zapotec, and Aztec cultures. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of anthropology, archaeology, art history, and astronomy.

Author : Susan Milbrath,Elizabeth Baquedano
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 441 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2023-12-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781646424610

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Birds and Beasts of Ancient Mesoamerica by Susan Milbrath,Elizabeth Baquedano Pdf

Birds and Beasts of Ancient Mesoamerica links Precolumbian animal imagery with scientific data related to animal morphology and behavior, providing in-depth studies of the symbolic importance of animals and birds in Postclassic period Mesoamerica. Representations of animal deities in Mesoamerica can be traced back at least to Middle Preclassic Olmec murals, stone carvings, and portable art such as lapidary work and ceramics. Throughout the history of Mesoamerica real animals were merged with fantastical creatures, creating zoological oddities not unlike medieval European bestiaries. According to Spanish chroniclers, the Aztec emperor was known to keep exotic animals in royal aviaries and zoos. The Postclassic period was characterized by an iconography that was shared from central Mexico to the Yucatan peninsula and south to Belize. In addition to highlighting the symbolic importance of nonhuman creatures in general, the volume focuses on the importance of the calendrical and astronomical symbolism associated with animals and birds. Inspired by and dedicated to the work of Mesoamerican scholar Cecelia Klein and featuring imagery from painted books, monumental sculpture, portable arts, and archaeological evidence from the field of zooarchaeology, Birds and Beasts of Ancient Mesoamerica highlights the significance of the animal world in Postclassic and early colonial Mesoamerica. It will be important to students and scholars studying Mesoamerican art history, archaeology, ethnohistory, and zoology.

Author : Linnea Wren,Cynthia Kristan-Graham,Travis Nygard,Kaylee Spencer
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 319 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2017-12-12
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813052038

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Landscapes of the Itza by Linnea Wren,Cynthia Kristan-Graham,Travis Nygard,Kaylee Spencer Pdf

"An insightful collection, rich in new data and insights; at once the harvest of a generation of fieldwork and the foundation for work to come."--Mary E. Miller, coauthor of The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak "Reminds us that there are always new things to learn about iconic places like Chichen Itza and that we can fall in love with them all over again."--Jennifer P. Mathews, coeditor of Lifeways in the Northern Maya Lowlands: New Approaches to Archaeology in the Yucatan Peninsula "Long overdue. Brings together new data and interpretations about Chichen Itza through a refreshing mix of art history and archaeology, particularistic interpretation, and cross-cultural modeling."--Scott R. Hutson, author of The Ancient Urban Maya: Neighborhoods, Inequality, and Built Form Chichen Itza, the legendary capital and trading hub of the late Maya civilization, continues to fascinate visitors and researchers with unanswered questions about its people, rulers, rituals, economics, religion, politics, and even chronology. Addressing many of these current debates, contributors to Landscapes of the Itza question when the city's construction was completed, what the purposes of its famous pyramid and other buildings were, whether the city maintained strict territorial borders, and how the city's influence was felt in smaller neighboring settlements such as Popola, Ichmul de Morley, and Ek Balam. Special attention is given to the site's visual culture, including its architecture, epigraphy, ceramics, sculptures, and murals. This volume is a much-needed update on recent archaeological and art historical work being done at Chichen Itza, offering new ways of understanding the site and its role in the Yucatan landscape.

Author : Charles Golden,Greg Borgstede
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2004-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781135946074

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Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology by Charles Golden,Greg Borgstede Pdf

This book presents the current state of Maya archaeology by focusing on the history of the field for the last 100 years, present day research, and forward looking prescription for the direction of the field.

Author : Matthew T. Rutz,Morag Kersel
Publisher : Oxbow Books
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2014-12-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781782977674

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Archaeologies of Text by Matthew T. Rutz,Morag Kersel Pdf

Scholars working in a number of disciplines _ archaeologists, classicists, epigraphers, papyrologists, Assyriologists, Egyptologists, Mayanists, philologists, and ancient historians of all stripes _ routinely engage with ancient textual sources that are either material remains from the archaeological record or historical products of other connections between the ancient world and our own. Examining the archaeology-text nexus from multiple perspectives, contributors to this volume discuss current theoretical and practical problems that have grown out of their work at the boundary of the division between archaeology and the study of early inscriptions. In 12 representative case-studies drawn from research in Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and Mesoamerica, scholars use various lenses to critically examine the interface between archaeology and the study of ancient texts, rethink the fragmentation of their various specialized disciplines, and illustrate the best in current approaches to contextual analysis. The collection of essays also highlights recent trends in the development of documentation and dissemination technologies, engages with the ethical and intellectual quandaries presented by ancient inscriptions that lack archaeological context, and sets out to find profitable future directions for interdisciplinary research.

Author : University of Calgary. Archaeological Association. Conference,Elizabeth C. Robertson
Publisher : UNM Press
Page : 434 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 0826340229

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Space and Spatial Analysis in Archaeology by University of Calgary. Archaeological Association. Conference,Elizabeth C. Robertson Pdf

The archaeology of space and place is examined in this selection of papers from the 34th annual Chacmool Archaeological Conference.

Author : Floco Tausin
Publisher : Leuchtstruktur Verlag
Page : 119 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2022-05-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9783907400838

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Eye Floaters in the Art and Religions of Ancient Civilizations by Floco Tausin Pdf

We all have them, most of us see them, but only a few people pay attention to them: the scattered, transparent and mobile dots and strands in our field of vision. In ophthalmology, they are called "eye floaters" and explained as vitreous opacities. But is this explanation correct? In this book, the author Floco Tausin follows the seers experience that eye floaters are not a cloudiness of the vitreous humour, but a shining structure and an expression of our state of consciousness. In this collection of previously published and revised texts, the author explores the shining structure of consciousness in ancient civilizations. Topics include works of art, myths and worldviews of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient China and Pre-Columbian Central America.

Author : Daniel Graña Behrens
Publisher : Gebruder Mann Verlag
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Collective memory
ISBN : 3786127662

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Places of Power and Memory in Mesoamerica's Past and Present by Daniel Graña Behrens Pdf

La quatrième de couverture indique : "This book provides a fresh look at the principles of power and the memory of places in Mesoamerica. Toponyms, boundaries and landscapes play an important role in shaping local politics and peoples life's throughout past and present. Beyond structural and conceptual similarities in calendar, rituals and religion, Mesoamerica shares a devote preference for places, sites or urban centers as distinguishable feature for collectiveness, constantly reshaped and transformed according to the historical circumstances either political, economical or religious. Thus, more than a coincidence, the importance of places over recognizable or by natives documented cultural regions in Mesoamerica seems to be a cultural pattern with deep roots lasting until today."

Author : Kathryn M. Brown,Travis W. Stanton
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2003-10-07
Category : History
ISBN : 9780759116061

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Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare by Kathryn M. Brown,Travis W. Stanton Pdf

The understanding of warfare in ancient Mesoamerica has blossomed in recent years. In this volume, the authors use recent empirical studies to help us understand the patterns and nature of Mesoamerican warfare. Using evidence from ceramics, settlement pattern, epigraphy, ethnohistory, and ethnography, these projects define the martial nature of Mesoamerican societies and link it to ritual, political economy, and other cultural systems. The studies range from preclassic to post-contact and from Belize to Central Mexico. A comparison between this corpus and warfare studies in the American Southwest is also included. This volume will be of interest to Mesoamericanists and other archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians of ancient warfare.

Author : Kenichiro Tsukamoto,Takeshi Inomata
Publisher : University of Arizona Press
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2014-04-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780816530588

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Mesoamerican Plazas by Kenichiro Tsukamoto,Takeshi Inomata Pdf

"This is the first book to examine the roles of plazas in ancient Mesoamerica. It argues persuasively that physical interactions among people in communal events were not the outcomes of political machinations held behind the scenes, but were the actual political processes through which people created, negotiated, and subverted social realities"--

Author : Claudia Brittenham
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2023-01-17
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781477325964

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Unseen Art by Claudia Brittenham Pdf

An examination of how ancient Mesoamerican sculpture was experienced by its original audiences.

Author : Rex Koontz
Publisher : University of Texas Press
Page : 152 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2009-04-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780292718999

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Lightning Gods and Feathered Serpents by Rex Koontz Pdf

El Tajín, an ancient Mesoamerican capital in Veracruz, Mexico, has long been admired for its stunning pyramids and ballcourts decorated with extensive sculptural programs. Yet the city's singularity as the only center in the region with such a wealth of sculpture and fine architecture has hindered attempts to place it more firmly in the context of Mesoamerican history. In Lightning Gods and Feathered Serpents, Rex Koontz undertakes the first extensive treatment of El Tajín's iconography in over thirty years, allowing us to view its imagery in the broader Mesoamerican context of rising capitals and new elites during a period of fundamental historical transformations. Koontz focuses on three major architectural features—the Pyramid of the Niches/Central Plaza ensemble, the South Ballcourt, and the Mound of the Building Columns complex—and investigates the meanings of their sculpture and how these meanings would have been experienced by specific audiences. Koontz finds that the iconography of El Tajín reveals much about how motifs and elite rites growing out of the Classic period were transmitted to later Mesoamerican peoples as the cultures centered on Teotihuacan and the Maya became the myriad city-states of the Early Postclassic period. By reexamining the iconography of sculptures long in the record, as well as introducing important new monuments and contexts, Lightning Gods and Feathered Serpents clearly demonstrates El Tajín's numerous iconographic connections with other areas of Mesoamerica, while also exploring its roots in an indigenous Gulf lowlands culture whose outlines are only now emerging. At the same time, it begins to uncover a largely ignored regional artistic culture of which Tajín is the crowning achievement.

Author : Cynthia Kristan-Graham,Laura M. Amrhein
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2015-10-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781607323778

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Memory Traces by Cynthia Kristan-Graham,Laura M. Amrhein Pdf

In Memory Traces, art historians and archaeologists come together to examine the nature of sacred space in Mesoamerica. Through five well-known and important centers of political power and artistic invention in Mesoamerica—Tetitla at Teotihuacan, Tula Grande, the Mound of the Building Columns at El Tajín, the House of the Phalli at Chichén Itzá, and Tonina—contributors explore the process of recognizing and defining sacred space, how sacred spaces were viewed and used both physically and symbolically, and what theoretical approaches are most useful for art historians and archaeologists seeking to understand these places. Memory Traces acknowledges that the creation, use, abandonment, and reuse of sacred space have a strongly recursive relation to collective memory and meanings linked to the places in question and reconciles issues of continuity and discontinuity of memory in ancient Mesoamerican sacred spaces. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Mesoamerican studies and material culture, art historians, architectural historians, and cultural anthropologists. Contributors: Laura M. Amrhein, Nicholas P. Dunning, Rex Koontz, Cynthia Kristan-Graham, Matthew G. Looper, Travis Nygard, Keith M. Prufer, Matthew H. Robb, Patricia J. Sarro, Kaylee Spencer, Eric Weaver, Linnea Wren