cuda-natury: Chichen Itza

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Chichen Itza was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal Classic period. The archeological site is located in Tinúm Municipality, Yucatán, Mexico, between the cities of Valladolid and Mérida. Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands from the Late Classic (c. 600–900 AD) through the Terminal Classic (c. 800–900 AD) and into the early portion of the Postclassic period (c. 900–1200 AD). The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico and of the Puuc and Chenes styles of the Northern Maya lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 80

Twin Tollans: Chichen Itza, Tula, and the epiclassic to early postclassic Mesoamerican world

Evidence: 45 • authority: 88

The Castillo-sub at Chichen Itza. Despite its prominent position at the center of Chichen Itza’s Great Terrace, the Castillo remains poorly documented and poorly understood. Reviewing the earliest descriptions and explorations of the structure, as well as more recent discoveries, this chapter addresses the function, meaning, and dating of this building and its substructure. Its placement (possibly over a cenote) and orientation in relation to topographical features and astronomical phenomena are also addressed. The inner Castillo and its varied offerings, found intact in the 1930s, is examined in some detail. The author argues that the temple chamber, with its chacmool, jaguar throne, and f…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 88

The Least Earth. This chapter concerns landscapes at Chichen Itza, including actual terrain and two- and three-dimensional representations of landscape. The focus is the Mercado, a gallery-patio building, the largest structure in the Group of the Thousand Columns, an elite walled compound in the site center. The Mercado is a performative space for elite lineage rituals, and its carved and painted dais functioned as a throne. The throne’s embellishment—which includes a sky-earth profile, skybands, and processions of bound figures—suggests a primordial place of origin, fertility, and political authority. The chapter also discusses more broadly the power of landscape in establishing identity,…

Evidence: 38 • authority: 72

The Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period. Known by its ancient temples and glyphs (script), the civilization is also noted for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya civilization developed in the Maya Region, an area that today comprises southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving…

Evidence: — • authority: 88

Introduction. The introduction discusses the importance of Chichen Itza as a Maya capital, hub of a trading network, and home to a unique art tradition. Landscape is a unifying theme, and its geographical, philosophical, and theoretical associations are explored. Some chapters focus on recent archaeology of Chichen Itza and related sites in Yucatan while others offer new interpretations of the Castillo-sub, Osario, Mercado, and Upper Temple of the Jaguars. Each chapter is summarized, with specific attention paid to points of interconnection between chapters, historiography, chronology, visual culture, social interaction, ritual, rulership, and the disciplines of archaeology and art history.

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Chichen Itza and Tula have numerous architectural similarities in a number of their constructions. This Toltec-Maya connection is widely considered powerful, unprecedented, and unique in Mesoamerica. Unlike most Maya sites, some of Chichen Itza's buildings have the traits of the Toltecs, a historically powerful indigenous group from modern-day Mexico. The explanation of these similarities is a point of controversy among the scholars of the Toltec and Maya fields. Certain historical records caused many early scholars of the region to assume that a Toltec invasion from Tula, Hidalgo, usually placed in the ninth or tenth centuries, was responsible for a new wave of Mexican-style Maya buildings…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Toltec culture () was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican culture that ruled a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, during the Epiclassic and the early Post-Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology, reaching prominence from 950 to 1150 AD. The later Aztec culture considered the Toltec to be their intellectual and cultural predecessors and described Toltec culture emanating from Tōllān [ˈtoːlːãːn̥] (Nahuatl for Tula) as the epitome of civilization. In the Nahuatl language the word Tōltēkatl [toːɬˈteːkat͡ɬ] (singular) or Tōltēkah [toːɬˈteːkaḁ] (plural) came to take on the meaning "artisan". The Aztec oral and pictographic tradition also described the history of the Toltec Empire, giving lis…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Maya ballgame, which is a part of the Mesoamerican ballgame, is a sporting event that was played throughout the Mesoamerican era by the Maya civilization, which was distributed throughout much of Central America. One of the common links of the Mayan culture of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize is the game played with a rubber ball, known from several sources. The Maya ballgame was played on big stone courts. The ball court itself was a focal point of Maya cities and symbolized the city's wealth and power.