Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-25T16:00:38.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

METALLURGY, MAYAPAN, AND THE POSTCLASSIC MESOAMERICAN WORLD SYSTEM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2008

Elizabeth H. Paris
Elizabeth H. Paris*
Affiliation:
University at Albany, State University of New York, Arts and Sciences 237, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA
*
E-mail correspondence to:alpinebuff@yahoo.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Residents of Mayapan produced and consumed metal artifacts through long-distance commercial exchange networks in the Postclassic Mesoamerican world system. In this paper, I perform a stylistic and typological analysis of metal artifacts and debris from lost-wax casting from recent excavations at Mayapan, with reference to previously excavated collections by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC. The distribution of metal artifacts suggests that metal objects were not sumptuary goods restricted to elites, but luxury goods availble to those who could afford them. I then compare Mayapan with other sites in the Postclassic Mesoamerican world system that were involved in the interregional distribution of metal artifacts. Although Mayapan did not have local sources of native metal or a longstanding traditions of metalworking, it was able to use its economic influence in the world system to obtain and create metal objects specific to its needs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , Spring 2008 , pp. 43 - 66
Copyright
Copyright ©Cambridge University Press 2008

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Andrews, Anthony P., Andrews, E. Wyllis, and Castellanos, Fernando Robles 2003 The Northern Maya Collapse and Its Aftermath. Ancient Mesoamerica 14(1):151–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, Hugh G., and Brockington, Donald L. 1978 Trade and Travel in Prehispanic Oaxaca. In Mesoamerican Communication Routes and Cultural Contacts, edited by Lee, Thomas A Jr. and Navarette, Carlos, pp. 107–114. New World Archaeological Foundation Papers, No. 40. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.Google Scholar
Berdan, Frances F., Masson, Marilyn A., Gasco, Janine, and Smith, Michael E. 2003 An International Economy. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F. pp. 96–108. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Blackiston, A. Hooton 1910 Recent Discoveries in Honduras. American Anthropologist 12(4):536–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanton, Richard E., and Feinman, Gary M. 1984 The Mesoamerican World System. American Anthropologist 86:673–682.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bray, Warwick 1977 Maya Metalwork and Its External Connections. In Social Process in Maya Prehistory: Studies in Honour of Sir Eric Thompson, edited by Hammond, Norman, pp. 365–404. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Brown, Clifford T. 1999 Mayapan Society and Ancient Maya Social Organization. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. 1991 Weaving and Cooking: Women's Production in Aztec Mexico. In Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Gero, Joan M. and Conkey, Margaret W. pp. 224–251. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Bullard, William R. 1952 Residential Property Walls at Mayapan. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Archaeology, Current Reports 1(3):36–44.Google Scholar
Bullard, William R. 1954 Boundary Walls and House Lots at Mayapan. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Archaeology, Current Reports 1(13):234–253.Google Scholar
Chase, Diane Z., and Chase, Arlen F. 1988 A Postclassic Perspective: Excavations at the Maya Site of Santa Rita Corozal, Belize. Monograph 4. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco, California.Google Scholar
Chase-Dunn, Christopher, and Hall, Thomas D. 1997 Rise and Demise: Comparing World-Systems. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Coggins, Clemency Chase, and Shane, Orrin C. III 1984 Cenote of Sacrifice: Maya Treasures from the Sacred Well at Chichen Itza. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Columbus, Ferdinand 1959 The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his Son Ferdinand. Translated by Benjamin Keen. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.Google Scholar
Costin, Cathy L. 1991 Craft Specialization: Issues in Defining, Documenting, and Explaining the Organization of Production. Archaeological Method and Theory 3:1–56.Google Scholar
Craine, Eugene R., and Reindorp, Reginald C. (editors) 1979 The Codex Perex and The Book of Chilam Balam of Maní. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Curtin, Philip D. 1984 Cross-Cultural Trade in World History. Cambridge University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durán, Fray Diego 1967 Historia de las indias de Nueva Espana e islas de la tierra firme, vol. 2. Editorial Porrua, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Escamilla, Barbara Ojeda 1999 Los artefactos de obsidiana de Mayapan, Yucatan. Paper presented at the Third Palenque Round Table, Palenque, Chiapas.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M., and Nicholas, Linda M. 1991 New perspectives on prehispanic highland Mesoamerica: a macroregional approach. Comp. Civiliz. Rev.: 24:13–33.Google Scholar
Feinman, Gary M., and Nicholas, Linda M. 1992 Pre-Hispanic Interregional Interaction in Southern Mexico: The Valley of Oaxaca and the Ejutla Valley. In Resources, Power and Interregional Interaction, edited by Schortman, Edward M. and Urban, Patricia A. pp. 75–116. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, F.G. 1953 The Manufacture of Copper Bells Found in Southwestern Sites. Southwestern Journal of Archaeology 9:99–111.Google Scholar
Hendon, Julia A. 1997 Women's Work, Women's Space, and Women's Status among the Classic-Period Maya Elite of the Copan Valley, Honduras. In Women in Prehistory: North America and Mesoamerica, edited by Claasen, Cheryl P. and Joyce, Rosemary A., pp. 33–46. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Hirth, Kenneth G. 1998 The Distributional Approach: A New Way to Identify Marketplace Exchange in the Archaeological Record. Current Anthropology 39:451–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, Terence K. 1979 The Study of the Capitalist World-Economy: Some Introductory Considerations. In The World-System of Capitalism: Past and Present, vol. 2, edited by Goldfrank, Walter L., pp. 21–52. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA.Google Scholar
Hosler, Dorothy 1988a Ancient West Mexican Metallurgy: A Technical Chronology. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:191–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosler, Dorothy 1988b The Metallurgy of Ancient West Mexico. In The Beginning of the Use of Metals and Alloys, edited by Maddin, Robert, pp. 328–43. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Hosler, Dorothy 1994 The Sounds and Colors of Power: The Sacred Metallurgical Technology of Ancient West Mexico. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Hosler, Dorothy 2003 Excavations at the Copper Smelting Site of El Manchon, Guerrero, Mexico. Report Submitted to the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. www.famsi.org/reports/01058/index.html.Google Scholar
Hosler, Dorothy, and Macfarlane, Andrew 1996 Copper Sources, Metal Production, and Metals Trade in late Postclassic Mesoamerica. Science 273(5283):1819(6).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosler, Dorothy, and Stresser-Pean, Guy 1992 The Huastec Region: A Second Locus for the Production of Bronze Alloys in Ancient Mesoamerica. Science 257(5074):1215–1220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hosler, Dorothy, Lechtman, Heather, and Holm, Olaf 1990 Axe-Monies and Their Relatives. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2001 The Power and Ideology of Creation. Current Anthropology 42(3):321–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Morris 1962 Map of Mayapán. In Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, edited by Pollock, Harry E.D., Roys, Ralph L.Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, and Smith, A. Ledyard. Publication No. 619. Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Joyce, Arthur A. 1993 Interregional Interaction and Social Development on the Oaxaca Coast. Ancient Mesoamerica 4:67–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kepecs, Susan, and Kohl, Philip 2003 Conceptualizing Macroregional Interaction: World-Systems Theory and the Archaeological Record. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F. pp. 14–19. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Kepecs, Susan, Feinman, Gary, and Boucher, Sylvianne 1994 Chichen Itza and Its Hinterland: A World Systems Perspective. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:141–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohl, Philip L. 1987 The Use and Abuse of World Systems Theory: The Case of the Pristine West Asian State. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 11, edited by Schiffer, Michael B., pp. 1–35. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.Google Scholar
Landa, Fray Diego de 1978 Yucatan before and after the Conquest. Translated by William Gates. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Levy, Janet E. 1979 Evidence of Social Stratfication in Bronze Age Denmark. Journal of Field Archaeology 6:49–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, Stanley 1964 Cire Perdue Copper Casting in Pre-Columbian Mexico: An Experimental Approach. American Antiquity 30(2):189–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cogolludo, Lopéz de, Diego, Fray 1957 Historia de Yucatán, edited by Rubio Mañé, J. Ignacio. Academia Literaria, México.Google Scholar
Lothrop, Samuel K. 1952 Metals from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Ethnology and Archaeology, Vol. 10, No. 2. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Masson, Marilyn A., Lope, Carlos Peraza, Hare, Timothy S., and Russell, Bradley W. 2006 The Economic Foundations of Mayapan Project. Final report submitted to the National Science Foundation. Available online at http://www.albany.edu/ims/mayapan.html.Google Scholar
McCafferty, Sharisse D., and McCafferty, Geoffrey G. 1994 Engendering Tomb 7 at Monte Albán: Respinning an Old Yarn. Current Anthropology 35:143–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milbrath, Susan, and Lope, Carlos Peraza 2003 Revisiting Mayapan: Mexico's Last Maya Capital. Ancient Mesoamerica 14:1–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Rosemary A. 1993 Women's Work: Images of Production and Reproduction in Pre-Hispanic Southern Central America. Current Anthropology 35(3):255–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1962 Metal Artifacts in Prehispanic Mesoamerica. American Antiquity 27(4):520–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1981 Lamanai, Belize: Summary of Excavation Results, 1974–1980. Journal of Field Archaeology 8:19–53.Google Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1993 Worlds in Collision: The Maya/Spanish Encounter in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Belize. Proceedings of the British Academy 81:105–143.Google Scholar
Peraza Lope, Carlos 1998 Salvamento arqueológio en la modernizacion de la carretera Mérida-Mayapán-Oxkutzcab (Tramo Mayapán-Teabo). Segunda Temporada 1998. Unpublished report submitted to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mérida, Yucatan.Google Scholar
Peraza Lope, Carlos, and Masson, Marilyn A. 2006 The Chronology of Mayapan: New Radiocarbon Evidence. Ancient Mesoamerica 17(2):153–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peraza Lope, Carlos, Kú, Pedro Delgado, Ojeda, Bárbara Escamilla, and Euán, Mario Garrido 1999 Trabajos de mantenimiento y conservacion arquetectonica en Mayapán, Yucatán: Informe de la Temporada 1997. Informe de Actividades al Consejo de Arqueología del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mérida, Yucatán, México.Google Scholar
Peraza Lope, Carlos, Kú, Pedro Delgado, Ojeda, Bárbara Escamilla, and Kú, Miguel Degado 2003 Trabajos de Mantenimiento y Conservación Arquetectónica en Mayapán, Yucatán. Informe de Actividades al Consejo de Arqueología del Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia. 1. 2 vols, Mérida, Yucatán, México.Google Scholar
Peraza Lope, Carlos, Euán, Mario Garrido, Kú, Pedro Delgado, Ojeda, Bárbara Escamilla, Chim, Mirza Lira, Ayala, César García 1997 Trabajos de mantenimiento y conservacion arquetectonica en Mayapán, Yucatán: Informe de la Temporada 1996. Informe de Actividades al Consejo de Arqueología del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mérida, Yucatán, México.Google Scholar
Peregrine, Peter N. 1996 Introduction: World-Systems Theory and Archaeology. In Pre-Columbian World Systems, edited by Peregrine, Peter N. and Feinman, Gary M. pp. 1–10. Monographs in World Archaeology, Vol. 26. Prehistory Press, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Peregrine, Peter N., and Feinman, Gary M. 1996 Pre-Columbian World Systems. Prehistory Press, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Piña Chan, Román 1978 Commerce in the Yucatan Peninsula: The Conquest and Colonial Period. In Mesoamerican Commercial Routes and Cultural Contacts, edited by Lee, Thomas A. and Navarette, CarlosPapers of the New World Archaeological Foundation No. 40, Provo, UT.Google Scholar
Bojorquéz, Pinto, Patricia, Landy 1997 Clasificación de los ornamentos prehispánicos del sitio San Gervasio, Isla de Cozumel. Licenciado en Ciencias Antropológicas, Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, Mérida, Yucatán, México.Google Scholar
Pollock, Harry E.D., Roys, Ralph L., Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, and Smith, A. Ledyard (editors) 1962 Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico. Publication No. 619, Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1962a The Artifacts of Mayapan. In Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, edited by Pollock, Harry E.D., Roys, Ralph L., Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, and Smith, A. Ledyard, pp. 321–531. Publication No. 619. Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1962b Notes on the Material from the Sacrificial Cenote of Chichen Itza. In Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, edited by Pollock, Harry E.D., Roys, Ralph L., Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, and Smith, A. Ledyard, pp. 321–531. Publication No. 619. Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, and Temple, Charles R. 1955 A Residential Quadrangle—Structures R-85 to R-90. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Archaeology, Current Reports 29:271–273.Google Scholar
Rathje, William L. 1972 Praise the Gods and Pass the Metates: A Hypothesis of the Development of Lowland Rainforest Civilizations in Mesoamerica. In Contemporary Archaeology: A Guide to Theory and Contributions, edited by Leone, Mark P., pp. 365–392. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.Google Scholar
Rathje, William L. 1975 The Last Tango in Mayapan: A Tentative Trajectory of Production–Distribution Systems. In Ancient Civilization and Trade, edited by Sabloff, Jeremy A. and Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C., pp. 409–448. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Richardson, Laura 2005 Paper presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Robles Castellanos, Fernando (editor) 1980 Informe anual del Proyecto Arqueologico Cozumel: temporada 1980. Instituto National de Antropologia e Historia, Merida, Yucatan.Google Scholar
Root, William C. 1962 Report on the Metal Objects from Mayapan. In Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, edited by Pollock, H. E. D., Roys, Ralph L., Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, and Smith, A. Ledyard, pp. 391–399. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication No. 619, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. 1967 The Chilam Balam of Chumayel. With an introduction by Eric, J.Thompson, S.. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Fray Bernadino de 1950–1975 Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain., Vol. 14. Monographs of the New School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J.A. and Rathje, W.L. 1975 The Rise of a Maya Merchant Class. Scientific American 233:72–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, William T. 1960 Prehistoric Ceramics and Settlement Patterns in Quintana Roo, Mexico. In Contributions to American Anthropology and History, No. 60.Google Scholar
Schneider, Jane 1977 Was There a Precapitalist World-System? Peasant Studies 6(1):20–27.Google Scholar
Scholes, France V., and Roys, Ralph L. 1957 The Maya Chontal Indians of Acalan-Tixchel. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Schortman, Edward M., and Urban, Patricia A. 1992 The place of interaction studies in archaeological thought. In Resources, Power, and Interregional Interaction, pp. 1–23. Plenum Press, New York and London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schortman, Edward M., and Urban, Patricia A. (editors) 1992 Resources, Power, and Interregional Interaction. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, Thomas R. 1989 An Introduction to the World-System Perspective. Westview Press, Boulder, CO.Google Scholar
Simmons, Scott E. 2005a Investigations in the Church Zone: Maya Archaeometallurgy at Spanish Colonial Lamanai, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 2:231–239.Google Scholar
Simmons, Scott E. 2005b Preliminary Report of the 2005 Field Season at Lamanai, Belize: The Maya Archaeometallurgy Project. UNCW Anthropological Papers 5, University of North Carolina Wilmington.Google Scholar
Simmons, Scott E., Pendergast, David M., and Graham, Elizabeth 2008 Maya Metals: The Context and Significance of Copper Artifacts in Postclassic and Early Historic Lamanai, Belize.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1987 Household Possessions and Wealth in Agrarian States: Implications for Archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 6:297–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1999 Comment on Hirth's “Distribution Approach”. Current Anthropology 40:528–530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 2004a The Archaeological Study of Ancient Commercial Exchange. Poster presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal, 2004.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 2004b The Archaeology of Ancient State Economies. Annual Review of Anthropology 33:73–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Michael E., and Berdan, Frances F. 2000 The Postclassic Mesoamerican World System. Current Anthropology 41:283–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, Michael E. 2003 Spatial Structure of the Mesoamerican World System. In The Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Smith, Michael E. and Berdan, Frances F., pp. 21–31. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Smith, Robert Eliot 1971 The Pottery of Mayapan. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Thompson, Edward H. 1968 The high priests grave, Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. Anthropological Series, The Field Museum of Natural History, New York. Kraus Reprint. Prepared for publication, with notes and introduction by J. Eric S. Thompson.Google Scholar
Tozzer, Alfred M. (editor) 1941 Landa's Relación De Las Cosas De Yucatán: A Translation. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 18. Reprinted with permission of the original publishers by Kraus Reprint Corporation, New York, 1966.Google Scholar
Tudela, José (transcriber) 1977 Relación de las ceremonias y ritos y población y gobierno de los indios de la provincia de Michoacán (1541). Balsal Editores, Morelia.Google Scholar
Voorhies, Barbara, and Gasco, Janine 2004 Postclassic Soconusco Society. Monograph 14. Institute of Mesoamerican Studies, Albany.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel Maurice 1974 The Modern World-System. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Whitecotton, Joseph W. 1992 Culture and Exchange in Postclassic Oaxaca: A World-System Perspective. In Resources, Power and Interregional Interaction, edited by Schortman, Edward M. and Urban, Patricia A., pp. 51–74. Plenum Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Workinger, Andrew 2002 Coastal/Highland Interaction in Prehispanic Oaxaca, Mexico: The Perspective from San Francisco de Arriba. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.Google Scholar