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Artistic Connections Between the Chichen Itza Toltec and the Classic Maya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2021

Robert L. Rands*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of MississippiUniversity, Mississippi

Extract

A recent development of some interest in Maya archaeology has been the appearance of several studies showing rather unexpected connections between the art of the Toltec period at Chichen Itza and that of the late Great period in the Classic centers to the south. Inferentially, this may indicate the approximate contemporaneity of the Chichen Itza Toltec and the late Classic Maya. Such a reconstruction is not only a far cry from the outmoded concept of “Old” and “New Empires” but, as Lothrop (1952, p. 112) points out, challenges the generally favored 11.16 (Goodman-Martinez- Thompson) correlation of the Maya and Christian calendars. Three studies may be cited as of particular importance in emphasizing the affinity of Chichen Toltec and Classic Maya art. Monographs by Proskouriakoff (1950) and Lothrop (1952) deal, respectively, with sculptured monuments from the Maya area as a whole and with metal objects from the sacred cenote at Chichen Itza. A paper by the present writer (Rands, 1953) is concerned with portrayals of a single motif, the water lily, in the Maya area.

Type
Facts and Comments
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1954

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References

Lothrop, Samuel K. 1952. Metals from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 10, No. 2. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1950. A Study of Classic Maya Sculpture. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 593. Washington.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1951. Some Non-Classic Traits in the Sculpture of Yucatan. The Civilizations of Ancient America. Selected Papers of the XXIXth International Congress of Americanists, pp. 10818. Chicago.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, and Eric, J., Thompson, S. 1947. Maya Calendar Round Dates such as 9 Ahau 17 Mol. Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology, Division of Historical Research, Carnegie Institution of Washington, No. 79. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Rands, Robert L. 1953. The Water Lily in Maya Art: A Complex of Alleged Asiatic Origin. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 151 Anthropological Papers, No. 34. Washington.Google Scholar