The Southeast Maya Periphery

Published by University of Texas Press 1986

The Southeast Maya Periphery

Edited by: Patricia A. Urban and Edward M. Schortman

https://doi.org/10.7560/775893

Overview
Contents

About this book

Archaeologists are continually faced with a pervasive problem: How can cultures, and the interactions among cultures, be differentiated in the archaeological record? This issue is especially difficult in peripheral areas, such as El Salvador, Honduras, and southern Guatemala in the New World. Encompassing zones that are clearly Mayan in language and culture, especially during the Classic period, this area also includes zones that seem to be non-Mayan. The Southeast Maya Periphery examines both aspects of this territory. For the Maya, emphasis is on two sites: Quirigua, Guatemala, and Copan, Honduras. For the non-Maya zone, information is presented on a variety of sites and subregions—the Lower Motagua Valley in Guatemala; the Naco, Sula, and Comayagua valleys and the site of Playa de los Muertos in Honduras; and the Zapotitan Valley and the sites of Cihuatan and Santa Leticia in El Salvador.

Spanning over two thousand years of prehistory, from the Middle Preclassic through the Classic and the poorly understood Postclassic, the essays in this volume address such topics as epigraphy and iconography, architecture, site planning, settlement patterns, and ceramics and include basic information on chronology. Copan and Quirigua are treated both individually and in comparative perspective.

This significant study was the first to attempt to deal with the Periphery as a coherent unit. Unique in its comparative presentation of Copan and Quirigua and in the breadth of information on non-Maya sites in the area, The Southeast Maya Periphery consists largely of previously unpublished data. Offering a variety of approaches to both old and new problems, this volume attempts, among other things, to reassess the relationships between Copan and Quirigua and between Highland and Lowland ceramic traditions, to analyze ceramics by neutron activation, and to define the nature of the apparently non-Mayan cultures in the region. This book will be of major interest not only to Mayanists and Mesoamerican archaeologists but also to others interested in the processes of ethnic group boundary formation and maintenance.

Author / Editor information

Patricia A. Urban and Edward M. Schortman are both faculty members in the Department of Anthropology at Kenyon College and are the authors of numerous papers and reports on Mesoamerican sites and cultures.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I. COPAN AND QUIRIGUA
2. Iconography and History at Copan Claude F. Baudez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3. Archaeological Investigations in the Site Core of Quirigua, Guatemala Christopher Jones and Robert J. Sharer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
4. Peten Cosmology in the Maya Southeast: An Analysis of Architecture and Settlement Patterns at Classic Quirigua Wendy Ashmore Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
5. Construction Activity as a Measurement of Change at Copan, Honduras Charles Cheek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
6. History and Characteristics of Settlement in the Copan Valley, and Some Comparisons with Quirigua William L. Fash Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
7. Late Classic Relationship between Copan and Quirigua: Some Epigraphic Evidence Berthold Riese Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
8. Survey in the Outlying Areas of the Copan Region, and the Copan-Quirigua "Connection" David T. Vlcek and William L. Fash Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
9. Interaction between the Maya and Non-Maya along the Late Classic Southeast Maya Periphery: The View from the Lower Motagua Valley, Guatemala Edward M. Schortman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	114
10. A Reexamination of Stela Caches at Copan: New Dates for Copador Richard M. Leventhal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
11. Compositional Analysis of Copador and Related Pottery in the Southeast Maya Area Ronald L. Bishop, Marilyn P. Beaudry, Richard M. Leventhal and Robert J. Sharer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
12. Copan, Quirigua, and the Southeast Maya Zone: A Summary View Gordon R. Willey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
PART II. THE GREATER SOUTHEAST
13. The Periphery Problem and Playa de los Muertos: A Test Case Nedenia C. Kennedy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
14. Late Preclassic Ceramic Spheres, Culture Areas, and Cultural Evolution in the Southeastern Highlands of Mesoamerica Arthur A. Demarest and Robert J. Sharer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	194
15. Natural Hazards, Natural Disasters, and Research in the Zapotitan Valley of El Salvador Payson D. Sheets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
16. A Typological Study of Prehistoric Settlement of the Eastern Alluvial Fans, Sula Valley, Honduras: Comparison to Maya Settlement Forms Eugenia J. Robinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
17. Late Classic Settlements in the Comayagua Valley Ricardo Agurcia Fasquelle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262
18. Precolumbian Settlement in the Naco Valley, Northwestern Honduras Patricia A. Urban Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
19. The Role of Commercial Agriculture in Early Post classic Developments in Central El Salvador: The Rise and Fall of Cihuatan Karen Olsen Bruhns Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	296
20. Naco, Honduras—Some Aspects of a Late Precolumbian Community on the Eastern Maya Frontier Anthony Wonderley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
21. Southeast Mesoamerican Periphery Summary Comments Claude F. Baudez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333
22. Summary of Southeastern Periphery Papers Robert J. Sharer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	338
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	347
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	387

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 408

eBook

Published: April 21, 2014
ISBN: 9780292762862