- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > History / World
Full Description
As complex societies emerged in the Maya lowlands during the first millennium BCE, so did stable communities focused around public squares and the worship of a divine ruler tied to a Maize God cult. "E Groups," central to many of these settlements, are architectural complexes: typically, a long platform supporting three structures and facing a western pyramid across a formal plaza. Aligned with the movements of the sun, E Groups have long been interpreted as giant calendrical devices crucial to the rise of Maya civilization. This volume presents new archaeological data to reveal that E Groups were constructed earlier than previously thought. In fact, they are the earliest identifiable architectural plan at many Maya settlements. More than just astronomical observatories or calendars, E Groups were a key element of community organization, urbanism, and identity in the heart of the Maya lowlands. They served as gathering places for emerging communities and centers of ritual; they were the very first civic-religious public architecture in the Maya lowlands. Investigating a wide variety of E Group sites—including some of the most famous like the Mundo Perdido in Tikal and the hitherto little known complex at Chan, as well as others in Ceibal, El Palmar, Cival, Calakmul, Caracol, Xunantunich, Yaxnohcah, Yaxuná, and San Bartolo—this volume pieces together the development of social and political complexity in ancient Maya civilization.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface: On the Path of the Sun
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Part I. E Groups: Historical Perspectives
1. The Distribution and Significance of E Groups: A Historical Background and Introduction —Arlen F. Chase, Anne S. Dowd, and David A. Freidel
2. E Groups and the Rise of Complexity in the Southeastern Maya Lowlands —Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase
Part II. The Astronomy and Cosmology of E Groups
3. E Groups: Astronomy, Alignments, and Maya Cosmology —Anthony F. Aveni and Anne S. Dowd
4. The Legacy of Preclassic Calendars and Solar Observation in Mesoamerica's Magic Latitude — Susan Milbrath
5. The E Group as Timescape: Early E Groups, Figurines, and the Sacred Almanac —Prudence M. Rice
6. E Groups, Cosmology, and the Origins of Maya Rulership —David A. Freidel
Part III. The Archaeology of E Groups
7. The Isthmian Origins of the E Group and Its Adoption in the Maya Lowlands —Takeshi Inomata
8. A Tale of Two E Groups: El Palmar and Tikal, Peten, Guatemala —James A. Doyle
9. The History, Function, and Meaning of Preclassic E Groups in the Cival Region —Francisco Estrada-Belli
10. Time to Rule: Celestial Observation and Appropriation among the Early Maya —William A. Saturno, Boris Beltr.n, and Franco D. Rossi
11. Ordinary People and East-West Symbolism —Cynthia Robin
12. E Groups and Ancestors: The Sunrise of Complexity at Xunantunich, Belize —M. Kathryn Brown
13. Of Apples and Oranges: The Case of E Groups and Eastern Triadic Architectural Assemblages in the Belize River Valley —Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth, and James J. Aimers
14. The Founding of Yaxuna: Place and Trade in Preclassic Yucatan —Travis W. Stanton
15. Founding Landscapes in the Central Karstic Uplands —Kathryn Reese-Taylor
Part IV. Conclusion
16. More Than Smoke and Mirrors: Maya Temple Precincts and the Emergence of Religious Institutions in Mesoamerica —Anne S. Dowd
17. Epilogue: E Groups and Their Significance to the Ancient Maya —Diane Z. Chase, Patricia A. McAnany, and Jeremy A. Sabloff
List of Contributors
