Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-j7khd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T19:55:27.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An unfinished temple at the Classic Maya centre of Aguateca, Guatemala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Takeshi Inomata ,
Erick Ponciano ,
Oswaldo Chinchilla ,
Otto Román ,
Véronique Breuil-Martínez  and
Oscar Santos
Takeshi Inomata
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. (Email: inomata@u.arizona.edu)
Erick Ponciano
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
Oswaldo Chinchilla
Affiliation:
Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, 6a Calle final, Zona 10, Guatemala
Otto Román
Affiliation:
Escuela de Historia, Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala
Véronique Breuil-Martínez
Affiliation:
CEMCA-Guatemala, 16 Calle 4–53, Zona 10, Guatemala
Oscar Santos
Affiliation:
Corporación Antigua, 5a Ave. Sur 15, Antigua, Guatemala
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The authors demonstrate that a temple examined at the Classic Maya site of Aguateca, Guatemala, was still in the process of construction when it was attacked and abandoned at the beginning of the ninth century AD. Study of the ruin has provided valuable information on Maya building methods and processes, as well as guidance on how unfinished buildings may be identified.

Keywords

MayaAguatecaunfinished templeconstruction methodscollapse

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 302 , December 2004 , pp. 798 - 811
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abrams, E.M. 1994. How the Maya built their world: Energetics and ancient architecture. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Andrews, E.W., IV & Rovner, I.. 1973. Archaeological evidence on social stratification and commerce in the Maya lowlands: Two mason’s tool kits from Muna and Dzibilchaltun, Yucatan. Middle American Research Institute Publication 31. New Orleans: Tulane University.Google Scholar
Andrews, G.F. 1975. Maya cities: Placemaking and urbanization. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Aoyama, K. 2003. Análisis de la lítica de la Estructura L8–8, el escondite 2 de la Estructura L8–5 y un deposito del clásico terminal de la plaza principal de Aguateca. Santos, O., Ponciano, E., & Román, O. (eds.), Informe de del Proyecto de Restauración Aguateca Segunda Fase. Report presented to CATIE/UEC-PDS, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Buechler, J. 2003. Análisis preliminar de artefactos de las Operaciones 112A, B, y Eberl, C. M. (ed.), Informe de la temporada de 2003 del Programa Complementario, Proyecto de Restauración Aguateca Segunda Fase: 35–40. Report presented to the Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala.Google Scholar
Chase, A.F. & Chase, D.Z.. 2003a. Continued investigation into epicentral palaces: Report of the 2001 field season at Caracol, Belize. http://www.caracol.org/.Google Scholar
Chase, A.F. & Chase, D.Z.. 2003b. Epicentral ring settlement: Report of the spring 2000 field season at Caracol, Belize. http://www.caracol.org/.Google Scholar
Chase, D.Z. & Chase, A.F.. 2000. Inferences about abandonment: Maya household archaeology and Caracol, Belize, Mayab 13: 67–77.Google Scholar
Coe, W.R. 1988. Tikal: A handbook of the ancient Maya ruins. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Coe, W.R. 1990. Tikal report No. 14: Excavations in the Great Plaza, North Terrace and North Acropolis of Tikal. University Museum Monograph 61. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Demarest, A.A. 1997. The Vanderbilt Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project 1989–1994: Overview, history, and major results of a multidisciplinary study of the Classic Maya collapse, Ancient Mesoamerica 8: 209–28.Google Scholar
Demarest, A.A., O’Mansky, M., Wolley, C., Van Tuerenhout, D., Inomata, T., Palka, J. & Escobedo, H.. 1997. Classic Maya defensive systems and warfare in the Petexbatun region: Archaeological evidence and interpretation, Ancient Mesoamerica 8: 229–54.Google Scholar
Erasmus, C.J. 1965. Monument building: Some field experiments, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21: 277–301.Google Scholar
Fash, W.L. 2001. Scribes, warriors, and kings: The city of Copán and the ancient Maya. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Fitzsimmons, J.L. 1999. PN 51: Excavaciones en la Estrctura O-17, in Escobedo, H.L. & Houston, S.D. (eds.), Proyecto Arqueológico Piedras Negras, informe preliminar No. 3: Tercera temporada, 1999: 285–97. Report presented to Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala.Google Scholar
Graham, E. n.d. Lamanai Reloaded: Alive and well in the Early Postclassic!, in Thompson, G. & Woodye, B. (eds.), Papers of the Belize Archaeology Symposium 2003. Belmopan, Belize: Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History. In Press.Google Scholar
Graham, I. 1967. Archaeological explorations in El Peten, Guatemala. Middle American Research Institute Publication 33. New Orleans: Tulane University.Google Scholar
Hammond, N. 1999. A pillar of state, majestic though in ruin: The royal acropolis of La Milpa, Context 14: 11–5.Google Scholar
Hammond, N. & Tourtellot, G.. 2003. Out with a whimper: La Milpa in the Terminal Classic, in Demarest, A.A., Rice, P.M. & Rice, D.S. (eds.), Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, transition, and transformation. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Harrison, P.D. 1999. The lords of Tikal: Rulers of an ancient Maya City. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Hodell, D.A., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H. & Guilderson, T.. 2001. Solar forcing of drought frequency in the Maya lowlands, Science 292: 1367–70.Google Scholar
Houston, S.D. 1993. Hieroglyphs and history at Dos Pilas: Dynastic politics of the Classic Maya. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Inomata, T. 1995. Archaeological investigations at the fortified center of Aguateca, El Petén, Guatemala: Implications for the study of the Classic Maya collapse. Ph.D. dissertation. Vanderbilt University.Google Scholar
Inomata, T. 1997. The last day of a fortified Classic Maya center: Archaeological investigations at Aguateca, Guatemala, Ancient Mesoamerica 8: 337–51.Google Scholar
Inomata, T. 2003. War, destruction, and abandonment: The fall of the Classic Maya center of Aguateca, Guatemala, in Inomata, T. & Webb, R. (eds.), The archaeology of settlement abandonment in Middle America: 43–60. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Inomata, T., Triadan, D., Ponciano, E., Terry, R. & Beaubien, H.F.. 2001. In the palace of the fallen king: The royal residential complex at the Classic Maya center of Aguateca, Guatemala, Journal of Field Archaeology. 28: 287–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inomata, T. & Stiver, L.R.. 1998. Floor assemblages from burned structures at Aguateca, Guatemala: A study of Classic Maya households, Journal of Field Archaeology 25: 431–52.Google Scholar
Inomata, T., Triadan, D., Ponciano, E., Pinto, E., Terry, R.E. & Eberl, M.. 2002. Domestic and political lives of Classic Maya elites: The excavation of rapidly abandoned structures at Aguateca, Guatemala, Latin American Antiquity 13: 305–30.Google Scholar
Jones, C. 1996. Tikal report No. 16: Excavations in the East Plaza of Tikal. University Museum Monograph 92. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Loten, H.S. & Pendergast, D.M.. 1984. A lexicon for Maya architecture. Archaeology Monograph Vol. 8. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum.Google Scholar
Mendelssohn, K. 1974. The riddle of the pyramids. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Pendergast, D.M. 1988. Lamanai Stela 9: The archaeological context. Research reports on ancient Maya writing 20. Washington, DC: Center for Maya Research.Google Scholar
Pollock, H.E.D. 1965. Architecture of the Maya lowlands, in Willey, G.R. (ed.), Archaeology of southern Mesoamerica, part one: 378–440. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol. 2. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Trigger, B.G. 1990. Monumental architecture: A thermodynamic explanation of symbolic behavior, World Archaeology 22: 119–32.Google Scholar
Wright, L. 2003. Informe sobre los esqueletos de Aguateca, 2003, in Santos, O., Ponciano, E., & Román, O. (eds.), Informe de del Proyecto de Restauración Aguateca Segunda Fase. Report presented to CATIE/UEC-PDS, Guatemala.Google Scholar