Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T20:53:34.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Warriors, Nobles, Commoners and Beasts: Figurines from Elite Buildings at Aguateca, Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Daniela Triadan
Daniela Triadan*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (dtriadan@email.arizona.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Figurines and figurine fragments excavated at Aguateca, Petén, Guatemala, have unprecedented contextual information. Because the site's epicenter was rapidly abandoned, we have recovered whole and reconstructible figurines from floor contexts in elite residences. In contrast to most Maya sites, these figurines are part of assemblages that were in use or storage when the structures were abandoned, providing a unique opportunity to investigate their function and use. In addition, numerous figurine fragments were recovered from middens associated with these structures. In conjunction with the figurines found on floors, these fragments point to a domestic use of the figurines. The distributions of the in situ figurines in the elite residences suggest that they were used and possibly made by the women of these households. The study of this data set contributes to our understanding of Late Classic elite household activities and social and gender roles. A preponderance of male figurines, many of them warriors, may be related to this center's frequent engagements in warfare.

Resumen

Resumen

Las figurillas y fragmentos de figurillas excavadas en Aguateca, departamento de Petén, Guatemala, tienen información contextual sin precedente. El epicentro de Aguateca fue repentinamente abandonado lo que permitió recuperar figurillas enteras y reconstruibles en contextos de pisos de residencias de elites. En contraste con la mayoría de los sitios mayas, estas figurillas eran parte de conjuntos que fueron usados o almacenados durante el abandono de las estructuras y proveen una oportunidad excelente para investigar la función y el uso de estos artefactos. También recogimos una gran cantidad de fragmentos de figurillas de basureros, asociados con estas estructuras. Junto con las figurillas encontradas en los pisos, estos fragmentos indican su uso doméstico. Las distribuciones de las figurillas encontradas in situ en las residencias elitistas sugieren que fueron posiblemente usadas y tal vez producidas por las mujeres de estos grupos domésticos. El análisis de estos datos contribuye a nuestro conocimiento de actividades domésticas elitistas y roles sociales y del género en el período Clásico Tardío. Además, la preponderancia de figurillas masculinas, especialmente guerreros, está posiblemente relacionada a episodios frecuentes de guerra en este centro.

Type
Reports
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 269 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bailey, Douglass 1996 The Interpretation of Figurines: The Emergence of Illusion and New Ways of Seeing. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6:291–295.Google Scholar
Berlin, Heinrich 1956 Late Pottery Horizons of Tabasco, Mexico. Contributions to America Anthropology and History, No, 59. Publication 606. Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Bishop, Ronald L. 2003 Five Decades of Maya Fine Orange Ceramic Investigations by INAA. In Patterns and Process: A Festschrift in Honor of Dr. EdwardV. Sayre, edited by Lambertus Van Zelst, pp. 81–81. Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, Suitland.Google Scholar
Boyd, Brian 1997 The Power of Gender Archaeology. In Invisible People and Processes: Writing Gender and Childhood into European Archaeology, edited by Jenny Moore and Eleanor Scott, pp. 25–25. Leicester University Press, London.Google Scholar
Brainerd, George W. 1958 The Archaeological Ceramics of Yucatan. Anthropological Records 19. University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. 1991 Weaving and Cooking: Women’s Production in Aztec Mexico. In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Joan M. Gero and Margaret W. Conkey, pp. 224–224. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. 1996 Figurines and the Aztec State: Testing the Effectiveness of Ideological Domination. In Gender and Archaeology, edited by Rita P. Wright, pp. 143–143. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Butler, Mary 1935 A Study of Maya Mouldmade Figurines. American Anthropologist 37:363–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvin, Inga 1997 Where the Wayob Live: A Further Examination of Classic Maya Supernaturals. In The Maya Vase Book, Vol. 5, edited by Justin Kerr, pp. 868–868. Justin Kerr Associates, New York.Google Scholar
Coe, William R. 1959 Piedras Negras Archaeology: Artifacts, Caches, and Burials. Museum Monographs, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Corson, Christopher 1976 Maya Anthropomorphic Figurines from Jaina Island, Campeche. Studies in Mesoamerican Art, Archaeology and Ethnohistory 1, Ballena Press, Ramona.Google Scholar
Delgado, Hilda S. 1969 Figurines of Backstrap Loom Weavers from the Maya Area. In Verhandlungen des 38. Internationalen Amerikanistenkongresses, Vol. 1, pp. 139–139. Kommissionsverlag Klaus Renner, Munich.Google Scholar
Demarest, Arthur A., O’Mansky, Matt, Wolley, Claudia, Van Tuerenhout, Dirk, Inomata, Takeshi, Palka, Joel, Escobedo, Héctor 1997 Classic Maya Defensive Systems and Warfare in the Petexbatun Region: Archaeological Evidence and Interpretations. Ancient Mesoamerica 8:229–253.Google Scholar
Ekholm, Susanna M. 1979 The Lagartero Figurines. In Maya Archaeology and Ethnohistory, edited by Norman Hammond and Gordon R. Willey, pp. 172–172. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Foias, Antonia E. 1996 Changing Ceramic Production and Exchange Systems and the Classic Maya Collapse in the Petexbatún Region. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University.Google Scholar
Foias, Antonia E., and Bishop, Ronald L. 1997 Changing Ceramic Production and Exchange in the Petexbatún Region, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 8:275–299.Google Scholar
Graham, Ian 1967 Archaeological Explorations in El Petén, Guatemala. Middle American Research Institute, Publication 33. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Graham, Ian 1979 Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Vol. 3, Part 2. Yaxchilan. Peabody Museum of Archaeojogy and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Graham, Ian, and Von Euw, Eric 1977 Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Vol. 3, Part 1. Yaxchilan. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Grube, Nikolai, and Nahm, Werner 1994 A Census of Xibalba: A complete Inventory of Way characters on Maya Ceramics. In The Maya Vase Book, Vol. 4, edited by Justin Kerr, pp. 686–686. Justin Kerr Associates, New York.Google Scholar
Grube, Nikolai, and Scheie, Linda 1994 Kuy the Owl of Omen and War. Mexicon 16(1):10–17.Google Scholar
Haaland, Gunnar, and Haaland, Randi 1996 Levels of Meaning in Symbolic Objects. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6:295–300.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman 1972a Classic Maya Music, Part I: Maya Drums. Archaeology 25(2):124–131.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman 1972b Classic Maya Music, Part II: Rattles, Shakers, Wind and String Instruments. Archaeology 25(3):222–228.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman 1975 Lubaantun: A Classic Maya Realm. Peabody Museum Monographs No. 2. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Healy, Paul F. 1988 Music of the Maya. Archaeology 41(1):24–31.Google Scholar
Hendon, Julia A. 1991 Status and Power in Classic Maya Society: An Archaeological Case Study. American Anthropologist 93:894–918.Google Scholar
Hendon, Julia A. 1992 Hilado y Tejido en la Época Prehispánica: Tecnología y Relaciones Sociales de la Productión Textil. In La Indumentaria y el Tejido Maya a través del Tiempo, edited by Linda Asturias de Barrios and Dina Fernández García, pp. 7–7. Museo Ixchel del Traje Indígena, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Hendon, Julia A. 1999 Multiple Sources of Prestige and the Social Evaluation of Women in Prehispanic America. In Material Symbols: Culture and Economy in Prehistory, edited by John E. Robb, pp. 257–257. Occasional Paper 26, Center for Archaeological Investigations. Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D. 1993 Hieroglyphs and History at Dos Pilas: Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., and Stuart, David 1990 The Way Glyph: Evidence for Co-Essences Among the Classic Maya. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 30. Center for Maya Research, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 1995 Archaeological Investigations at the Fortified Center of Aguateca, El Petén, Guatemala: Implications for the Study of the Classic Maya Collapse. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 1997 The last Day of a Fortified Classic Maya Center: Archaeological Investigations at Aguateca, Guatemala. Ancient Mesoamerica 8:337–351.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2001a Power and Ideology of Artistic Creation: Elite Craft Specialists in Classic Maya Society Current Anthropology 42:321–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2001b Classic Maya Palaces as a Political Theater. In Reconstruyendo la Ciudad Maya: El Urbanismo en las Sociedades Antiguas, edited by Andrés Ciudad Ruiz, María Josefa Iglesias Ponce de León, and María del Carmen Martínez Martínez, pp. 341–341;. Publicaciones de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas 6. Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas, Madrid.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2003 War, Destruction, and Abandonment: The Fall of the Classic Maya Center of Aguateca, Guatemala. In Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in Middle America, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Ronald W. Webb, pp. 43–43. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2006 Plazas, Performance, and Spectators: Political Theaters of the Classic Maya. Current Anthropology 47:805–842.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, Ponciano, Erick, and Triadan, Daniela (editors) 1996 Informe Preliminar del Proyecto Arqueológico Aguateca: La Temporada de 1997. Report submitted to the Institute de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Report on file, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, Ponciano, Erick, Triadan, Daniela, and Wright, Lori E. (editors) 1997 Informe Preliminar del Proyecto Arqueológico Aguateca: La Temporada de 1997. Report submitted to the Institute de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Report on file, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, and Stiver, Laura 1998 Floor Assemblages from Burned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala: A Study of Classic Maya House holds. Journal of Field Archaeology 25:431–452.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, and Triadan, Daniela 2000 Craft Production by Classic Maya Elites in Domestic Settings: Data from Rapidly Abandoned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala. Mayab 13:57–66.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, and Triadan, Daniela 2008 Culture and Practice of War in Maya Society. In Warfare in Cultural Context: Practice, Agency, and the Archaeology of Conflict, edited by Axel E. Nielsen and William H. Walker. University of Arizona Press, in press.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, Triadan, Daniela, and Ponciano, Erick (editors) 1998 Informe del Proyecto Arqueológico Aguateca: La Temporada de 1998. Report submitted to the Institute de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Report on file, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, Triadan, Daniela, Ponciano, Erick, Pinto, Estela, Terry, Richard E., and Eberl, Markus 2002 Domestic and Political Lives of Classic Maya Elites: The Excavation of Rapidly Abandoned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity 13:305–330.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi, Triadan, Daniela, Ponciano, Erick, Terry, Richard, and Beaubien, Harriet F. 2001 In the Palace of the Fallen King: The Excavation of the Royal Residential Complex at the Classic Maya Center of Aguateca, Guatemala. Journal of Field Archaeology 28:287–306.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 1992 Images of Gender and Labor Organization in Classic Maya Society. In Exploring Gender Through Archaeology: Selected Papers from the 1991 Boone Conference, edited by Cheryl Claassen, pp. 63–63. Monographs in World Prehistory 11. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 1993 Women’s Work: Images of Production and Reproduction in Pre-Hispanic Southern Central America. Current Anthropology 34:255–274.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 1996 The Construction of Gender in Classic Maya Monuments. In Gender and Archaeology, edited by Rita P. Wright, pp. 167–167. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 2003 Making Something of Herself: Embodiment in Life and Death at Playa de los Muertos, Honduras. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 13:248–261.Google Scholar
Kamp, Kathryn A. 2001 Where Have All the Children Gone? The Archaeology of Childhood. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 8:1–24.Google Scholar
Kamp, Kathryn A. 2002 Working for a Living: Childhood in the Prehistoric Southwestern Pueblos. In Children in the Prehistoric Puebloan Southwest, edited by Kathryn A. Kamp, pp. 71–71. Univesrity of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Lesure, Richard G. 1997 Figurines and Social Identities in Early Sedentary Societies of Coastal Chiapas, Mexico, 1550–1550 b.c. In Women in Prehistory: North America and Mesoamerica, edited by Cheryl Claassen and Rosemary A. Joyce, pp. 227–227. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Lesure, Richard G. 1999 Figurines as Representations and Products at Paso de la Amada, Mexico. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9:209–220.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1996 The Importance of Context in Interpreting Figurines. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6:285–291.Google Scholar
McCafferty, Sharisse D., and McCafferty, Geoffrey G. 1988 Powerful Women and the Myth of Male Dominance in Aztec Society. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 7:45–59.Google Scholar
Miller Mary, E. 1975 Jaina Figurines: A Study of Maya Iconography. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Miller Mary, E. 1975 1986 The Murals of Bonampak. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Mary, Miller, and Taube, Karl 1993 The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Charts, Munsell Color 2000 Gretag Macbeth. New Windsor, New York.Google Scholar
Piña Chan, Román 1968 Jaina, la Casa en el Agua. Institute Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Ponciano, Erick, Inomata, Takeshi, and Triadan, Daniela (editors) 2000 Informe del Proyecto Arqueológico Aguateca: La Temporada de Campo 1999. Report submitted to the Institute de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Report on file, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Rands, Robert L., and Rands, Barbara C. 1965 Pottery Figurines of the Maya Lowlands. In Archaeology of Southern Mesoamerica, edited by Gordon R. Willey, pp.535–560. Handbook of Middle American Indians Vol. 2, Robert Wauchope (general editor), University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Redfield, Robert 1936 The Coati and the Ceiba. Maya Research 3(34):231–243.Google Scholar
Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo 1961 Anthropomorphic Figurines from Colombia, Their Magic and Art. In Essays in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaelogy, edited by Samual K. Lothrop, pp. 229–229. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Robertson, Merle Green 1983 The Sculpture of Palenque. Vols. 1–1. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Robertson, Merle Green 1985 57 Varieties: The Palenque Beauty Salon. In Fourth Palenque Round Table, 1980, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, pp. 29–29. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Rothschild, Nan A. 2002 Introduction. In Children in the Prehistoric Puebloan Southwest, edited by Kathryn A. Kamp, pp. 1–1. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Ruscheinsky, Lynn M. 2003 The Social Reproduction of Gender Identity through the Production and Reception of Lowland Maya Figurines. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Ruz Lhuiller, Alberto 1969 La Costa de Campeche en los Tiempos Prehispanicos: Prospección Cerámica y Bosquejo Histórico. Institute Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Scheie, Linda 1997 Rostros Ocultos de los Mayas. Impetus Comunicación, México, D.F. Google Scholar
Schiffer, Michael, B. 1987 Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Schlosser, Ann L. 1978 Classic Maya Lowland Figurine Development with Special Reference to Piedras Negras Guatemala. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology Southern Illinois University.Google Scholar
Scott, Eleanor 1997 Introduction: On the Incompleteness of Archaeological Narratives. In Invisible People and Processes: Writing Gender and Childhood into European Archaeology, edited by Jenny Moore and Eleanor Scott, pp. 1–1. Leicester University Press, London.Google Scholar
Shepard, Anna O. 1948 Plumbate, A Mesoamerican Trade Ware. Publication 573. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C. Google Scholar
Shook, Edwin M. 1947 Guatemala Highlands. Year Book No. 46, pp. 179–179. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C. Google Scholar
Smith, Robert E. 1955 Ceramic Sequence at Uaxactun, Guatemala. Vols. 1 and 2. Middle American Research Institute, Publication No.20. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Sofaer Deverenski, Joanna 1997 Engendering Children, Engendering Archaeology. In Invisible People and Processes: Writing Gender and Childhood into European Archaeology, edited by Jenny Moore and Eleanor Scott, pp. 192–192. Leicester University Press, London.Google Scholar
Stöckli, Matthias 2007 Music Making as a Domestic Activity? Interpretations of the Finds of Sound Producing Artifacts at Aguateca, El Petén, Guatemala. The World of Music 49, in press.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl 1989 Ritual Humor in Classic Maya Religion. In Word and Image in Maya Culture: Explorations in Language, Writing and Representation, edited by William F. Hanks and Don S. Rice, pp. 351–351. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Tedlock, Dennis 1985 Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book on the Dawn of Life. Simon and Schuster, New York.Google Scholar
Tozzer, A. M. 1941 Landa’s Relación de las Cosas de Yucatan: A Translation. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 18. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Triadan, Daniela 2000 Elite Household Subsistence at Aguateca, Guatemala. Mayab 13:46–56.Google Scholar
Triadan, Daniela 2006 Five Fine Gray Pottery Bells from Aguateca, Guatemala. Mexicon 28:75–78.Google Scholar
Daniela, Triadan, and Inomata, Takeshi (editors) 2003 Informe Final de la Temporada de Laboratorio del Proyecto Arqueológico Aguateca. Report submitted to the Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Report on file, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson.Google Scholar
Valdés, Juan Antonio, Urquizú, Mónica, Díaz-Samayoa, Carolina y Martínez, Horacio (editors) 1999 Informe Anual del Proyecto de Restauración Aguateca, Enero-Diciembre 1999. Programa de Desarrollo Sostenible de Petén, BID-IDAEH. Report submitted to the Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Valdés, Juan Antonio, Urquizú, Mónica, Díaz-Samayoa, Carolina y Martínez, Horacio (editors) 2000 Informe Final del Proyecto de Restauración Aguateca, Enero-Mayo 2000. Programa de Desarrollo Sostenible de Petén, BID-IDAEH. Report submitted to the Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Valdés, Juan Antonio, Urquizú, Mónica, Martínez, Horacio y Díaz-Samayoa, Carolina 2001 Lo que Expresan las Figurillas de Aguateca acerca del Hombre y los Animales. In XIV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala 2000, edited by Juan Pedro Laporte and Hector Escobedo, pp. 761–761. Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R. 1972 The Artifacts of Altar de Sacrificios. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 64, No. 1. Peabody Museum, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R. 1978 Excavations at Seibal: Department of Peten, Guatemala: Artifacts. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 14, No. 1. Harvard University.Google Scholar