Understanding Early Classic Copan / Edition 1

by Ellen E. Bell, Marcello A. Canuto, Robert J. Sharer

Overview

The first volume to focus on the Early Classic context (A.D. 400-650) of the Maya city of Copán combines and synthesizes many different research methods and disciplines, interpreting data that contradict, enhance, and supplement previous work. Its methods are conjunctive, including and integrating research in archaeological surveys and excavations with studies in art, hieroglyphics, history, forensic/biological anthropology, and chemical analyses of teeth, bones, and other materials. The book is not just multidisciplinary but interdisciplinary, linking, for example, the architecture of monuments with epigraphy, language concepts, and human events.

Until recently, scholars speculated as to whether K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' was an alleged or fictitious founding father of the Copán dynasty. This work presents new information on him and his accomplishments, showing how we almost certainly now have his skeleton with its parry fractures from the battlefield or the ball court, along with abundant descriptions of this and other burials.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781931707510
Publisher:	University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date:	04/29/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Ellen E. Bell received her Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania. Marcello A. Canuto is Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Yale University. Robert J. Sharer is Professor of Anthropology and Curator of the American Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	x
	Preface	xv
	Chronology	xvi
	Abbreviations	xvii
	Understanding Early Classic Copan: A Classic Maya Center and Its Investigation	1
I	Settlement and Landscape
1	The Early Classic Copan Landscape: A View from the Preclassic	17
2	The Rural Settlement of Copan: Changes Through the Early Classic	29
II	Architecture at Early Classic Copan
3	Redesigning Copan: Early Architecture of the Polity Center	53
4	Setting the Stage: Origins of the Hieroglyphic Stairway Plaza on the Great Period Ending	65
5	Initial Stages in the Formation of the Copan Acropolis	85
6	Rosalila, Temple of the Sun-King	101
7	Measures of Power: The Energetics of Royal Construction at Early Classic Copan	113
III	Early Classic Tombs at Copan and Their Investigation
8	Tombs and Burials in the Early Classic Acropolis at Copan	131
9	Early Classic Ceramic Offerings at Copan: A Comparison of the Hunal, Margarita, and Sub-Jaguar Tombs	159
10	Tombs from the Copan Acropolis: A Life History Approach	191
IV	The Epigraphy and Iconography of Early Classic Copan
11	The Beginnings of the Copan Dynasty: A Review of the Hieroglyphic and Historical Evidence	215
12	Early Classic Sculptural Development at Copan	249
13	Structure 10L-16 and Its Early Classic Antecedents: Fire and the Evocation and Resurrection of K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'	265
V	Early Classic Copan from a Regional Perspective
14	External Interaction at Early Classic Copan	297
15	Marching Out of Step: Early Classic Copan and Its Honduran Neighbors	319
16	The Early Classic and Its Antecedents at Kaminaljuyu: A Complex Society with Complex Problems	337
17	Primary and Secondary State Formation in Southern Mesoamerica	357
	Bibliography	375
	Contributors	431
	Index	433