Antonia E. Foias
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813044224
- eISBN:
- 9780813046488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813044224.003.0004
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter presents the different sources of data used by Maya archaeologists to reconstruct ancient politics at the macroscale or polity and inter-polity level: settlement patterns, epigraphy, and ...
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This chapter presents the different sources of data used by Maya archaeologists to reconstruct ancient politics at the macroscale or polity and inter-polity level: settlement patterns, epigraphy, and ethnohistory. These bodies of knowledge show that Maya polities were highly variable; therefore, general concepts of centralization versus decentralization are not very useful in understanding the sources of this variability. Case studies from projects in the Upper Grijalva Basin; Chiapas, Mexico; at Xunantunich, Belize; and Motul de San José, Guatemala highlight the similarities and differences between these bodies of knowledge, and the sources of some of the variability in Classic Maya politics.Less
This chapter presents the different sources of data used by Maya archaeologists to reconstruct ancient politics at the macroscale or polity and inter-polity level: settlement patterns, epigraphy, and ethnohistory. These bodies of knowledge show that Maya polities were highly variable; therefore, general concepts of centralization versus decentralization are not very useful in understanding the sources of this variability. Case studies from projects in the Upper Grijalva Basin; Chiapas, Mexico; at Xunantunich, Belize; and Motul de San José, Guatemala highlight the similarities and differences between these bodies of knowledge, and the sources of some of the variability in Classic Maya politics.
