The Starry Deer Caiman and Structure 44 at Yaxchilan, Chiapas, Mexico

Authors

  • Stanislaw Iwaniszewski Instituto Nacional de Antropologia a Historia
  • Jesús Galindo Trejo Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.v2i1.26914

Keywords:

animate entity, Maya astronomy, Milky Way, Starry Deer Caiman

Abstract

This paper analyses the meaning of astronomical alignments of Structure 44 from Yaxchilan, Mexico. The lack of direct solar referents calls for a more integrative approach in which archaeoastronomy is supplemented by the research fields of archaeology, epigraphy and iconography. The designation of Structure 44 as an otoot (dwelling, house) building allows us to conceptualize it as a type of animate entity which is linked with the representation of the figure of the Starry Deer Caiman, one of the Maya Milky Way constellations.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Stanislaw Iwaniszewski, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia a Historia

    Stanislaw Iwaniszewski is Professor of Archaeology at the Postgraduate Studies Division of the National School of Anthropology and History, Mexico (ENAH-INAH). He has been specializing in the Archaeology of Identity, Landscape Archaeology and Archaeoastronomy. In October 2014 he organized the annual meeting of the Sociedad Interamericana para la Astronomía en la Cultura (SIAC), now he his preparing the Round Table event on archaeoastronomy in El Tajín, Veracruz.

  • Jesús Galindo Trejo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

    Jesús Galindo is Professor-Researcher at the Institute of Esthetic Investigations of the National and Autonomous University of Mexico. As a professional astronomer he spent half of his life doing solar astrophysics, but now he makes research in archaeoastronomy. His recent publications include papers on the numerological structure of the calendar dates derived from the study of astronomical horizons at various Mesoamerican sites.

References

Aldana, G. V., 2006. “Lunar Alliances: Shedding Light on Conflicting Classic Maya Theories of Hegemony”. In Viewing the Sky Through Past and Present Cultures, edited by T. W. Bostwick and B. Bates, 237–258. Pueblo Grande Museum Anthropological Papers 15. Phoenix, AZ: City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department.

Aldana, G. V., 2007. The Apotheosis of Janaab’ Pakal: Science, History, and Religion at Classic Maya Palenque. Boulder: University of Colorado Press.

Aveni, A. F., 1991. Observadores del cielo en el México Antiguo. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica. Translation of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, published in 1980.

Aveni, A. F., 2005. Observadores del cielo en el México Antiguo. Revised ed. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica. Translation of Skywatchers: A Revised and Updated Version of Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, published in 2001.

Aveni, A. F., 2009. The End of Time: The Maya Mystery of 2012. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

Aveni, A. F., A. S. Dowd and B. Vining, 2003. “Maya Calendar Reform? Evidence from Orientations of Specialized Architectural Assemblages”. Latin American Antiquity 14 (2): 159–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3557592

Aveni, A. F. and H. Hartung, 1982. “Precision in the Layout of Maya Architecture”. In Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the American Tropics, edited by A. F. Aveni and G. Urton, 63–80. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 385. New York: New York Academy of Sciences. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb34259.x

Aveni, A. F. and H. Hartung, 1986. “Maya City Planning and the Calendar”. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 76 (7): 1–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1006457

Biró, P., 2012. “Politics in the Western Maya Region (II): Emblem Glyphs”. Estudios de Cultura Maya 39: 31–66.

Boot, E., 2004. “T299 ‘SPLIT’ as the Logographic Sign for PA’”. Wayeb Notes 13 [online]. Accessed 28th February, 2015, http://www.wayeb.org/notes/wayeb_notes0013.pdf

Bricker, H. M. and V. R. Bricker, 1992. “Zodiacal References in the Maya Literature”. In The Sky in Maya Literature, edited by A. F. Aveni, 148–183. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bricker, H. M. and V. R. Bricker, 1999. “Astronomical Orientation of the Skyband Bench at Copán”. Journal of Field Archaeology 26 (4): 435–442.

Canter, R. L., 2007. “Rivers among the Ruins: The Usumacinta”. The PARI Journal: A Quarterly Publication of the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute 7 (3): 1–24.

Carlson, J. B., 2015. “The Maya Deluge Myth and Dresden Codex Page 74: Not the End but the Eternal Regeneration of the World”. In Cosmology, Calendars, and Horizon-based Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by A. S. Dowd and S. Milbrath, 197–226. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. http://dx.doi.org/10.5876/9781607323792.c008

Carlson, J. B. and L. C. Landis, 1985. “Bands, Bicephalic Dragons, and Other Beasts: The Skyband in Maya Art and Iconography”. In Fourth Palenque Round Table, 1980, edited by M. G. Robertson and E. P. Benson, 115–140. San Francisco: The Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute.

Chinchilla Mazariegos, O., 2005. “Cosmos and Warfare on a Classic Maya Base”. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 47: 107–134.

Chinchilla Mazariegos, O., 2006. “The Stars of the Palenque Sarcophagus”. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 49/50: 40–58.

Chinchilla Mazariegos, O., 2011. Imágenes de la Mitología Maya. Guatemala: Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquín.

Clancy, F. S., 2009. The Monuments of Piedras Negras, an Ancient Maya City. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Freidel, D., L. Schele and J. Parker, 1993. Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. New York: William Morrow.

Galindo, J., 1994. Arqueoastronomía en la América Antigua. Madrid: Equipo Sirius.

García Barrios, A., 2015. “El mito del diluvio en las ceremonias de entronización de los gobernantes mayas. Agentes responsables de la decapitación del saurio y nuevas fundaciones”. Estudios de Cultura Maya 45: 9–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0185-2574(15)30001-0

García Moll, R., 2003. La arquitectura de Yaxchilán. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia and Plaza y Valdés.

Gell, A., 1998. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gillespie, S., 2002. “Body and Soul among the Maya: Keeping the Spirits in Place”. In The Space and Place of Death, edited by H. Silverman and D. B. Small, 67–78. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 11. Gainesville: University of Florida. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/ap3a.2002.11.1.67

Graham, I., 1982. Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, vol. 3 (3): Yaxchilan. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Graham, I. and E. von Euw, 1977. Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, vol. 3 (1): Yaxchilan. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Grofe, M. J., 2011. “The Sidereal Year and the Celestial Caiman: Measuring Deep Time in Maya Inscription”. Archaeoastronomy: The Journal of Astronomy in Culture 24: 56–102.

Houston, S., 1984. “An Example of Homophony in Maya Script”. American Antiquity 49 (4): 790–805. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/279744

Houston, S., E. Román, T. Garrison, J. L. Garrido, N. Carter, J. Doyle, E. D. Menéndez, S. Newman and M. Kingsley, 2012. “En la vista de Pa'chan: procesos dinámicos en el Zotz, Petén y sus cercanías”. In XXV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2011, edited by B. Arroyo, L. Paiz and H. Mejía, 173–184. Guatemala: Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropología e Historia y Asociación Tikal.

Iwaniszewski, S., 2014. “Communicating with the Ancestors in the Spiritual Landscape at Yaxchilan, Chiapas, Mexico”. Paper presented at the conference The Marriage of Heaven and Earth: Images and Representations of the Sky in Sacred Space, Bath, 28th to 29th June, 2014. Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales.

Kettunen, H. and C. Helmke, 2011. Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs: XVI European Maya Conference. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, the National Museum of Denmark and Wayeb.

Lacadena, A., 2008. “Animate versus Inanimate: The Conflict between Mayan and European Astronomical Traditions in Mayan Colonial Documents”. Paper presented at the 73rd Annual SAA Meeting, 26th–30th March, 2008, Session on “Celestial References in Mesoamerican Creation Stories”, Vancouver.

Liendo Stuardo, R., 2002. The Organization of Agricultural Production at a Classic Maya Center: Settlement Patterns in the Palenque Region, Chiapas, Mexico. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, University of Pittsburgh.

Maler, T., 1903. Researches in the Central Portion of the Usumatsintla Valley. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum 2 (2). Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Martin, S., 2004. “A Broken Sky: The Ancient Name of Yaxchilan as Pa’ Chan”. The PARI Journal: A Quarterly Publication of the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute 5 (1): 1–7.

Martin, S. and N. Grube, 2000. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. London: Thames and Hudson.

Mathews, P. L., 1997. La escultura de Yaxchilán. Colección científica 318. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Mikulska-Dąbrowska, K., 2008. “El concepto de ilhuicatl en la cosmovisión nahua y sus representaciones gráficas en códices”. Revista Española de Antropología Americana 38 (2): 151–171.

Milbrath, S., 1999. Star Gods of the Maya. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Miller, M. and K. A. Taube, 1993. An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames and Hudson.

Nahm, W., 2006. “New Readings on Hieroglyphic Stairway 1 of Yaxchilan”. Mexicon 28 (6): 28–39.

O’Neil, M. E. 2011. “Object, Memory, and Materiality at Yaxchilan: The Reset Lintels of Structures 12 and 22”. Ancient Mesoamerica 22 (2): 245–269.

Plank, S. E., 2004: Maya Dwellings in Hieroglyphs and Archaeology. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1324. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0956536111000290

Proskouriakoff, T., 1963. “Historical Data in the Inscriptions of Yaxchilan, Part I”. Estudios de Cultura Maya 3: 149–167.

Robertson, M. G., 1985. The Sculpture of Palenque, vol. 2: The Early Buildings of the Palace. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Schele, L. and D. Freidel, 1999. “Una Selva de Reyes. La asombrosa historia de los antiguos mayas”. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Schele, L. and N. Grube, 1997. Notebook for the XXI Maya Hieroglyphic Forum: The Dresden Codex. Austin: University of Texas.

Sosa, J. R., 1986. “Maya Concepts of Astronomical Order”. In Symbol and Meaning beyond the Closed Community: Essays in Mesoamerican Ideas, edited by G. H. Gossen, 185–196. Studies on Culture and Society 1. Albany: State University of New York.

Šprajc, I., 2010. “Astronomy in Ancient Mesoamerica: An Overview”. Journal of Cosmology 9: 2041–2051.

Šprajc, I., 2011. “Astronomy and its Role in Ancient Mesoamerica”. In The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture, edited by D. Valls-Gabaud and A. Boksenberg, 87–95. Proceedings of IAU Symposium 260. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Stross, B., 1998. “Seven Ingredients in Mesoamerican Ensoulment: Dedication and Termination in Tenejapa”. In The Sowing and the Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological Record of Mesoamerica, edited by S. B. Mock, 31–40. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Stuart, D., 1998. “The Fire Enters His House”: Architecture and Ritual in Classic Maya Texts”. In Function and Meaning in Classic Maya Architecture, edited by S. D. Houston, 373–425. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Stuart, D., 2003. “A Cosmological Throne at Palenque”. Mesoweb [online]. Accessed 12th April, 2012, http://www.mesoweb.com/stuart/notes/throne.pdf

Stuart, D., 2005. The Inscriptions from Temple XIX at Palenque: A Commentary. San Francisco: The Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute.

Stuart, D., 2011. The Order of Days: The Maya World and the Truth About 2012. New York: Harmony Books.

Stuart, D. and G. Stuart, 2007. Palenque: Eternal City of the Maya. London: Thames and Hudson.

Tate, C., 1989. “The Use of Astronomy in Political Statements at Yaxchilan, Mexico”. In World Archaeoastronomy, edited by A. F. Aveni, 416–429. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tate, C., 1992. Yaxchilan: The Design of a Maya Ceremonial City. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Tate, C., 2008. “Landscape and a Visual Narrative of Creation and Origin at the Olmec Ceremonial Center of La Venta”. In Pre-Columbian Landscapes of Creation and Origin, edited by J. E. Staller, 31–65. New York: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76910-3_2

Taube, K. 2009. “The Womb of the World: The Cuauhxicalli and Other Offering Bowls in Ancient and Contemporary Mesoamerica”. In Maya Archaeology, vol. 1, edited by C. Golden, S. Houston and J. Skidmore, 86–106. San Francisco: Precolumbia Mesoweb Press.

Tokovine, A., 2013. Place and Identity in Classic Maya Narratives. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology 37. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.

Velásquez García, E., 2006. “The Maya Flood Myth and the Decapitation of the Cosmic Caiman”. The PARI Journal: A Quarterly Publication of the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute 8 (1): 1–7.

Wagner, E., 2001. “Mitos de la creación y cosmografía de los mayas”. In Los mayas: una civilización milenaria, edited by N. Grube, 281–293. Köln: Könemann.

Published

2016-07-01

Issue

Section

Research Articles

How to Cite

Iwaniszewski, S., & Galindo Trejo, J. (2016). The Starry Deer Caiman and Structure 44 at Yaxchilan, Chiapas, Mexico. Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, 2(1), 5-24. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsa.v2i1.26914