1.
Mesoamerica
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It is one of six areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently, and the second in the Americas along with Norte Chico in present-day northern coastal Peru. As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures, while Mesoamerican civilization did know of the wheel and basic metallurgy, neither of these technologies became culturally important. Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf coast of Mexico and extended inland, frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas, Guatemala and Oaxaca laid the basis for the Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica and this Formative period saw the spread of distinct religious and symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and architectural complexes. In the subsequent Preclassic period, complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya, with the rise of such as El Mirador, Calakmul and Tikal. Mesoamerica is one of three regions of the world where writing is known to have independently developed. Upon the collapse of Teotihuacán around AD600, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico, such as Xochicalco and Cholula, ensued. During the early period, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, Oaxaca by the Mixtec. Towards the end of the period, the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica. The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, over the next centuries, Mesoamerican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule. The exact geographic extent of Mesoamerica has varied through time, as the civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Mexico, Mesoamerica is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area, and the term is now fully integrated in the standard terminology of pre-Columbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica, which refer to northern Mexico, 10° and 22° northern latitude, Mesoamerica possesses a complex combination of ecological systems, topographic zones, and environmental contexts. A main distinction groups these different niches into two categories, the lowlands and the altiplanos, or highlands. In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The highlands show much more diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates. The rainfall varies from the dry Oaxaca and north Yucatan to the humid southern Pacific, several distinct sub-regions within Mesoamerica are defined by a convergence of geographic and cultural attributes. These sub-regions are more conceptual than culturally meaningful, and the demarcation of their limits is not rigid, the Maya area, for example, can be divided into two general groups, the lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are further divided into the southern and northern Maya lowlands, the southern Maya lowlands are generally regarded as encompassing northern Guatemala, southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico, and Belize
2.
Maya script
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The earliest inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BCE in San Bartolo, Guatemala. Maya writing was in use throughout Mesoamerica until the Spanish conquest of the Maya in the 16th and 17th centuries. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, modern Mayan languages are written using the Latin alphabet rather than Maya script. It is now thought that the codices and other Classic texts were written by scribes, usually members of the Maya priesthood, there is also some evidence that the script may have been occasionally used to write Mayan languages of the Guatemalan Highlands. However, if languages were written, they may have been written by Ch’olti’ scribes. Mayan writing consisted of an elaborate set of glyphs, which were laboriously painted on ceramics, walls or bark-paper codices, carved in wood or stone. Carved and molded glyphs were painted, but the paint has rarely survived, about 90% of Mayan writing can now be read with varying degrees of certainty, enough to give a comprehensive idea of its structure. The Mayan script was a logosyllabic system, individual glyphs could represent either a word or a syllable, indeed, the same glyph could often be used for both. For example, the calendaric glyph MANIK’ was also used to represent the syllable chi, there was polyvalence in the other direction as well, different glyphs could be read the same way. For example, half a dozen apparently unrelated glyphs were used to write the common third person pronoun u-. However, in the case of Mayan, each tended to correspond to a noun or verb phrase such as his green headband. Also, glyphs were sometimes conflated, where an element of one glyph would replace part of a second, conflation occurs in other scripts, For example, in medieval Spanish manuscripts the word de of was sometimes written Ð. Another example is the ampersand which is a conflation of the Latin et, in place of the standard block configuration, Mayan was also sometimes written in a single row or column, L, or T shapes. These variations most often appeared when they would fit the surface being inscribed. For example, the logogram for fish fin, came to represent the syllable ka, for example, balam jaguar could be written as a single logogram, BALAM, complemented phonetically as ba-BALAM, or BALAM-ma, or ba-BALAM-ma, or written completely phonetically as ba-la-ma. Phonetic glyphs stood for simple consonant-vowel or bare-vowel syllables, when these final consonants were sonorants or gutturals they were sometimes ignored, but more often final consonants were written, which meant that an extra vowel was written as well. This was typically an echo vowel that repeated the vowel of the previous syllable and that is, the word fish fin would be underspelled ka or written in full as ka-ha. A more complex spelling is ha-o-bo ko-ko-no-ma for they are the guardians, a minimal set is, ba-ka ba-ki ba-ku = ba-ke ba-ke-le Despite depending on consonants which were frequently not written, the Mayan voice system was reliably indicated
3.
Teotihuacan
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Additionally, Teotihuacan exported fine obsidian tools that garnered high prestige and widespread usage throughout Mesoamerica. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC, the city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 AD. Teotihuacan began as a new center in the Mexican Highlands around the first century AD. This city came to be the largest and most populated center in the pre-Columbian Americas, Teotihuacan was even home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate this large population. The term Teotihuacan is also used for the civilization and cultural complex associated with the site. The later Aztecs saw these magnificent ruins and claimed a common ancestry with the Teotihuacanos, the ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is also a subject of debate. Possible candidates are the Nahua, Otomi, or Totonac ethnic groups, scholars have also suggested that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic state. The city and the site are located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México. The site covers a surface area of 83 square kilometres and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It is the most visited site in Mexico. The name Teōtīhuacān was given by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs centuries after the fall of the city around 550 A. D, the term has been glossed as birthplace of the gods, or place where gods were born, reflecting Nahua creation myths that were said to occur in Teotihuacan. Nahuatl scholar Thelma D. Sullivan interprets the name as place of those who have the road of the gods and this is because the Aztecs believed that the gods created the universe at that site. The name is pronounced in Nahuatl, with the accent on the syllable wa, by normal Nahuatl orthographic conventions, a written accent would not appear in that position. Both this pronunciation and Spanish pronunciation, are used, and both appear in this article. The original name of the city is unknown, but it appears in texts from the Maya region as puh. This naming convention led to confusion in the early 20th century. It now seems clear that Tollan may be understood as a generic Nahua term applied to any large settlement, the early history of Teotihuacan is quite mysterious, and the origin of its founders is uncertain. Around 300 BC, people of the central and southeastern area of Mesoamerica began to gather into larger settlements, Teotihuacan was the largest urban center of Mesoamerica before the Aztecs, almost 1000 years prior to their epoch
4.
Tikal
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Tikal is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. Ambrosio Tut, a gum-sapper, reported the ruins to La Gaceta, a Guatemalan newspaper, after the Berlin Academy of Sciences magazine republished the report in 1853, archeologists and treasure hunters began visiting the forest. Today, tourism to the site may protect the rainforest. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization and it is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemalas Tikal National Park, Tikal was the capital of a conquest state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya. Though monumental architecture at the dates back as far as the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period. There is evidence that Tikal was conquered by Teotihuacan in the 4th century AD, following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a population decline, culminating with the site’s abandonment by the end of the 10th century. The name Tikal may be derived from ti akal in the Yucatec Maya language, the name was apparently applied to one of the sites ancient reservoirs by hunters and travelers in the region. It has alternatively been interpreted as meaning the place of the voices in the Itza Maya language, Tikal, however, is not the ancient name for the site but rather the name adopted shortly after its discovery in the 1840s. Hieroglyphic inscriptions at the ruins refer to the ancient city as Yax Mutal or Yax Mutul, the kingdom as a whole was simply called Mutul, which is the reading of the hair bundle emblem glyph seen in the accompanying photo. The closest large modern settlements are Flores and Santa Elena, approximately 64 kilometres by road to the southwest, Tikal is approximately 303 kilometres north of Guatemala City. It is 19 kilometres south of the contemporary Maya city of Uaxactun and 30 kilometres northwest of Yaxha, the city was located 100 kilometres southeast of its great Classic Period rival, Calakmul, and 85 kilometres northwest of Calakmuls ally Caracol, now in Belize. The city has been mapped and covered an area greater than 16 square kilometres that included about 3,000 structures. The topography of the consists of a series of parallel limestone ridges rising above swampy lowlands. The major architecture of the site is clustered upon areas of higher ground, the area around Tikal has been declared as the Tikal National Park and the preserved area covers 570 square kilometres. The ruins lie among the tropical rainforests of northern Guatemala that formed the cradle of lowland Maya civilization, the city itself was located among abundant fertile upland soils, and may have dominated a natural east–west trade route across the Yucatan Peninsula. Conspicuous trees at the Tikal park include gigantic kapok the sacred tree of the Maya, tropical cedar, jaguars, jaguarundis, and cougars are also said to roam in the park
5.
Spear-thrower
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A spear-thrower or atlatl is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to store energy during the throw. It may consist of a shaft with a cup or a spur at the end that supports, the spear-thrower is held in one hand, gripped near the end farthest from the cup. The dart is thrown by the action of the upper arm, the throwing arm together with the atlatl acts as a lever. The spear-thrower is a low-mass, fast-moving extension of the throwing arm and this extra length allows the thrower to impart force to the dart over a longer distance, thus imparting more energy and ultimately higher speeds. Common modern ball throwers use the same principle, a spear-thrower is a long-range weapon and can readily impart to a projectile speeds of over 150 km/h. In the United States the Nahuatl word atlatl is often used for revived uses of spear-throwers, the ancient Greeks and Romans used a leather thong or loop, known as an ankule or amentum, as a spear-throwing device. Spear-thrower designs may include such as thong loops to fit the fingers, the use of flexible shafts, stone balance weights. Darts resemble large arrows or thin spears and are typically from 1.2 to 2.7 m in length and 9 to 16 mm in diameter, another important improvement to the spear-throwers design was the introduction of a small weight strapped to its midsection. Some atlatlists maintain that stone weights add mass to the shaft of the device, causing resistance to acceleration when swung and resulting in a more forceful, others claim that spear-thrower weights add only stability to a cast, resulting in greater accuracy. Based on previous work done by William S. Webb, William R, the use of the device would reduce the telltale zip of a swung atlatl to a more subtle woof sound that did not travel as far and was less likely to alert prey. The woomera design is different from most other spear-throwers, in that it has a curved, hollow shape. Several Stone Age spear-throwers are decorated with carvings of animals, the British Museum has a mammoth, many pieces of decorated bone may have belonged to Bâtons de commandement. The Aztec atlatl was often decorated with designs and feathers. Wooden darts were known at least since the Middle Paleolithic, while the spear-thrower is capable of casting a dart well over one hundred meters, it is most accurately used at distances of twenty meters or less. The spearthrower is believed to have been in use by Homo sapiens since the Upper Paleolithic, most stratified European finds come from the Magdalenian. In this period, elaborate pieces, often in the form of animals, are common, the earliest secure data concerning atlatls have come from several caves in France dating to the Upper Paleolithic, about 21,000 to 17,000 years ago. The earliest known example is a 17, 500-year-old Solutrean atlatl made of antler, found at Combe Saunière. In Europe, the spear-thrower was supplemented by the bow and arrow in the Epi-Paleolithic and this allowed for more forgiving flint knapping, dart heads designed for a particular spear thrower tend to differ in mass by only a few percent
6.
Maya civilization
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The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC, in the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop a number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city in 1697. Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the divine king, kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways. The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, the Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, there are also a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice, the Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide, the Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems
7.
Uaxactun
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Uaxactun is an ancient sacred place of the Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region of the Maya lowlands, in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. The site lies some 12 miles north of the center of Tikal. The name is spelled as Waxaktun. The name Uaxactun was given to the site by its rediscoverer, United States archeologist Sylvanus Morley and he coined the name from Maya words Waxac and Tun, to mean Eight Stones. The name has two meanings, Morleys stated reason for the name was to commemorate it as the first site where an inscription dating from the 8th Baktún of the Maya calendar was discovered. The other meaning is a pun, since Uaxactun sounds like Washington, the Carnegie Institution conducted archeological excavations there from 1926 through 1937, led by Oliver Ricketson. The excavations added greatly to knowledge of the early Classic and pre-Classic Maya, the remains of several badly ruined late Classic era temple-pyramids were removed, revealing well-preserved earlier temples underneath them. For most of the Carnegie teams time at Uaxactun, communication with the world was via a four-day mule convoy to El Cayo. Towards the end of the time an airstrip was opened, flights to Uaxactun continued and a small village grew there, as it became a center for gathering of chicle sap from the Peten jungle. In 1940 A. L. Smith and Ed Shook of the Carnegie project returned to some additional excavations. In the late 1970s a rough road was opened, connecting Uaxactun to Tikal and thence to Flores, in 1984 the road was much improved. Shook returned again in 1974 to oversee consolidation and restoration of some architecture excavated earlier, in 1982 Guatemalas Tikal National Park was expanded to include the ruins of Uaxactun within its protected area. In 1990 de Maya Biosphere Reserve was created, including Uaxactun as a part of the reserves Multiple Use Zone, in 2009 an excavation project of Slovak Archaeological and Historical Institute was started by professor Milan Kováč. Linda Schele, in A Forest of Kings, devotes a chapter to a war between Tikal and Uaxactun, in which Uaxactun was defeated by forces led by Fire is Born of Tikal. In this chapter, she gives a brief overview of the known history of Uaxactun up to the final year of the war. The combined political entity of Tikal-Uaxactun dominated the Guatemalan Petén for the following 180 years, Siyaj Kak might have come from Teotihuacán, been the general of the Teotihuacano ruler Spearthrower Owl, and conquered Tikal earlier the same year. This was a moment of the Classic Maya. After the conquest by Siyaj Kak in 378 AD, Uaxuactun was still able to keep elite prerogatives of monument carving, temple erection, there was no erection of dedicatory monuments between 554 AD and 711 AD
8.
Yaxchilan
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Yaxchilan is an ancient Maya city located on the bank of the Usumacinta River in what is now the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In the Late Classic Period Yaxchilan was one of the most powerful Maya states along the course of the Usumacinta, architectural styles in subordinate sites in the Usumacinta region demonstrate clear differences that mark a clear boundary between the two kingdoms. Yaxchilan was a center, important throughout the Classic era. It dominated such smaller sites as Bonampak, and had a rivalry with Piedras Negras and at least for a time with Tikal, it was a rival of Palenque. The site is known for its well-preserved sculptured stone lintels set above the doorways of the main structures. These lintels, together with the stelae erected before the major buildings, epigraphers think that the ancient name for the city was probably the same as that of its realm, Pa Chan. Pronounced, meaning Cleft Sky. pronounced, Teoberto Maler gave it its modern name, for some time, the Emblem Gylph was read as Siyaj Chan, or Sky Born. Yaxchilan is located on the bank of the Usumacinta River. This loop defends the site on all sides except for a land approach from the south. The site is 40 kilometres upriver from the ruins of Piedras Negras, Yaxchilan is 21 kilometres from the ruins of Bonampak. The site lies in Ocosingo Municipality in the state of Chiapas, on the Mexican side of the border with Guatemala. It is 80 kilometres downriver from the Maya site Altar de Sacrificios, Yaxchilan has its origins in the Preclassic Period. Some retrospective inscriptions appear to have used to rewrite Yaxchilans dynastic history to suit king Bird Jaguar IV. Before the rule of king Itzamnaaj Balam II, who reigned from 681 to 742, the city-state then grew to a regional capital and the dynasty lasted into the early 9th century. The known history of Yaxchilan starts with the enthronement of Yopaat Balam I and he was the founder of a long dynasty, and took the throne when Yaxchilan was still a minor site. Hieroglyphic inscriptions dating to the Late Classic describe a series of wars in the Early Classic between the city and its neighbours, the long running rivalry with Piedras Negras had already begun by the fifth century AD, with both cities struggling to dominate the Usumacinta trade route. King Moon Skull was credited with gaining a victory over Piedras Negras in 460 and with capturing the enemy king, by the middle of the 5th century Yaxchilan had formal contacts with the great city of Tikal. Bird Jaguar II, the king of Yaxchilan, captured a vassal of the king of Piedras Negras around 478
9.
Peru
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Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures spanning from the Norte Chico civilization in Caral, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty with its capital in Lima, ideas of political autonomy later spread throughout Spanish America and Peru gained its independence, which was formally proclaimed in 1821. After the battle of Ayacucho, three years after proclamation, Peru ensured its independence, subsequently, the country has undergone changes in government from oligarchic to democratic systems. Peru has gone through periods of political unrest and internal conflict as well as periods of stability, Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is a country with a high Human Development Index score. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing, agriculture and fishing, the Peruvian population, estimated at 31.2 million in 2015, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages and this mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music. The name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama. When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans, thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilasco de la Vega, son of an Inca princess, the Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru. Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, the earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to approximately 9,000 BC. Andean societies were based on agriculture, using such as irrigation and terracing, camelid husbandry. Organization relied on reciprocity and redistribution because these societies had no notion of market or money, the oldest known complex society in Peru, the Norte Chico civilization, flourished along the coast of the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,800 BC. These early developments were followed by archaeological cultures that developed mostly around the coastal, the Cupisnique culture which flourished from around 1000 to 200 BC along what is now Perus Pacific Coast was an example of early pre-Incan culture. The Chavín culture that developed from 1500 to 300 BC was probably more of a religious than a political phenomenon, on the coast, these included the civilizations of the Paracas, Nazca, Wari, and the more outstanding Chimu and Mochica. Their capital was at Chan Chan outside of modern-day Trujillo, in the 15th century, the Incas emerged as a powerful state which, in the span of a century, formed the largest empire in pre-Columbian America with their capital in Cusco
10.
Chak Tok Ich'aak I
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Chak Tok Ichaak I also known as Great Paw, Great Jaguar Paw, and Toh Chak Ichak was an ajaw of the Maya city of Tikal. He took the throne on August 7,360. and reigning until his death and he is one of Tikals best known kings, with his name recorded on a number of ceramic pieces and stelae. Stela 39 was produced to commemorate the Katun ending in 376 and it depicts the king standing upon a bound captive. His palace in the Central Acropolis, unusually, was never built over by later rulers, stela 31 from Tikal records that he died on the same day that Sihyaj Kahk captured Tikal, probably killed by the Teotihuacano conquerors
11.
Jasaw Chan K'awiil I
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Jasaw Chan Kawiil I also known as Ruler A, Ah Cacao and Sky Rain, was an ajaw of the Maya city of Tikal. He took the throne on May 3,682 and reigned until his death. Before advances in the decipherment of the Maya script revealed this reading of his name, two structures at Tikal in particular are associated with Jasaw Chan K’awiil. Tikal Temple I is a classically Petén-styled stepped pyramid structure which served as this rulers tomb, Tikal Temple II served as the tomb for his wife, Lady Lahan Unen Mo. His successor was his son Yikin Chan Kawiil
12.
Kaminaljuyu
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Kaminaljuyu is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization that was primarily occupied from 1500 BC to AD1200. When first mapped scientifically, it comprised some 200 platforms and pyramidal mounds, debate continues about the size, scale, and degree by which, as an economic and political entity, it integrated both the immediate Valley of Guatemala and the Southern Maya area. The known parts of Kaminaljuyu lie on a broad plain beneath roughly the third of modern Guatemala City. The Valley of Guatemala is surrounded by hills which culminate in a string of lofty volcanoes to the south, at an altitude of about 2000 m above sea level, the climate is temperate. The Kaminaljuyu site was largely swallowed up by real estate developments in the late 20th century, because of these factors, the true size and scale of Kaminaljuyu is likely to be never known. The state of destruction and the almost daily erasure of archaeological context underscore the many mysteries, in addition to size and scale, that likely will remain unanswered about Kaminaljuyu. Principally these questions are posed about the role of the city as the greatest of the Southern Maya area in Preclassic times, particularly during the Miraflores period, c. 400–100 BC, the SMA is long believed from much and diverse evidence to have been seminal in the development of Maya civilization, over the past 100 years, more than fifty archaeological projects, large and small, have been mounted at Kaminaljuyu. In addition to excavations, scholars such as Alfred Maudslay and Samuel K. Lothrop have recorded sculpture, in 1925 Manuel Gamio undertook limited excavations, finding deep cultural deposits yielding potsherds and clay figurines from what later was called the Middle Cultures of Mesoamerica. J. Antonio Villacorta C. the Minister of Public Education in Guatemala City, requested archaeologists Alfred Kidder, Jesse Jennings, Villacorta gave the site its name from a Kiche word meaning mounds of the ancestors. Two extraordinarily rich royal tombs were found within the edifices, probably representing consecutive rulers during the Miraflores Preclassic apogee of Kaminaljuyu, in the early 1950s Heinrich Berlin excavated a large mound in the ancient Preclassic core of the city. In the 1960s Pennsylvania State University undertook extensive excavations at Kaminaljuyu, under the direction of William Sanders, more recently, the debate was rejoined with discoveries along the southern Pacific coast of Mexico and in Guatemala that greatly antedate developments in the Lowlands. This reflected their conclusion about the antiquity of developments at Kaminaljuyu. Cultures of this phase had an agricultural community organized probably as a simple chiefdom. With Inomata, et als revision in mind, the first significant settlement dates to the Arévalo phase, 900-800 BC, with indications of dense populations no later than c.400 BC. By the end of the Las Charcas culture, Kaminaljuyu was developing religious, the architecture of Middle Preclassic structures consisted of hardened adobe bricks that served, later, as foundations for raised platforms and pyramidal temples. Excavations indicate that early in the Middle Preclassic the community was large enough to produce heavy refuse deposits. Cotton was grown as well as maize, palaeobotanical research also has identified annonas, avocados, cacao, black beans, palm nuts, plums, arboriculture developed - with groves of crop trees grown in terraces down to the edges of great ravines
13.
Linda Schele
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Linda Schele was an expert in the field of Maya epigraphy and iconography. She played a role in the decipherment of much of the Maya hieroglyphs. She produced a volume of drawings of stelae and inscriptions. In 1978, she founded the annual Maya Meetings at The University of Texas at Austin, born in Nashville, Tennessee, Linda Schele began taking commercial art courses at the University of Cincinnati in 1960 and graduated in Education and Art in 1964. With an increasing interest in literature, she spent another four years in Cincinnati’s graduate program and she married the architect David Schele in 1968, and started teaching Studio Art at the University of South Alabama, remaining there till 1980, by which time she was Professor. In 1970 she traveled with her husband, David Schele, to photograph Mesoamerican monuments in Yucatán on behalf of the University, an obligatory visit to Palenque the next summer turned into a 12-day stay spent drawing and studying Maya architecture after she was fascinated by the art. She decided to investigate the culture and history of the ancient people who had created the city, a strong supporter of collaborative scholarship, Schele became a Fellow in pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D. C. in 1975. She focused on the study of word ordering in Maya inscriptions for the two years there. Twenty years later, the workshop expanded into what is known as the Maya Meetings at Texas, and includes a symposium of research papers by major scholars and she was awarded a Doctorate in Latin American studies by the University of Texas in 1980. She continued her career there, in the department of Art/Art History. At the time of her death, she was the John D. Murchison Regents Professor of Art in the department, Schele joined the Copán Mosaics Project in the mid 1980s, working with David Stuart, Barbara Fash, and Nikolai Grube on the texts of that site. In 1986, Schele and Stuart identified Copan’s dynastic founder, K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’, shortly after, she began a related series called the Copán Notes, reports on epigraphy and iconography, which were aimed at rapid dissemination of information amongst Maya scholars. According to Michael D. Coe, the catalog presented by Schele and she also began taking an interest in the culture of the contemporary Maya. For a decade beginning 1988, she organized 13 workshops, along with Nikolai Grube and Frederico Fahsen, on writing for them in Guatemala. On April 18,1998, she died of pancreatic cancer, upon being diagnosed with this disease, Schele planned ahead knowing she would not have long to live and resumed her lectures until a few days before her passing. Just before her death, she established the Linda Schele Precolumbian Endowment, the Blood of Kings was awarded the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award of the College Art Association for the best exhibition catalogue of 1986. She was awarded diplomas of recognition of the Museo Popol Vuh, the Texas Notes were informal reports produced by Linda Schele and others between 1990 and 1997 to allow for the quick dissemination of results in the rapidly evolving field of Maya epigraphy. Available online at The University of Texas Digital Repository, the notes authored by Schele are listed here, looper and Linda Schele Some New Ideas about the T713/757 Accession Phrases by Linda Schele and Khristaan D
14.
David Stuart (Mayanist)
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David Stuart is an archaeologist and epigrapher specializing in the study of ancient Mesoamerica, especially Maya civilization. He is widely recognized for his work in deciphering Maya hieroglyphs and interpreting Maya art and iconography and he is the youngest person ever to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, at age 18. He is currently the Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the son of the archaeologist George E. Stuart and he spent much of his childhood accompanying his parents on archaeological digs and expeditions in Mexico and Guatemala. He developed a deep interest in Maya hieroglyphs and decipherment in the mid 1970s, shortly thereafter he made original contributions to the field and began working closely with the noted Mayanist Linda Schele. He gave his first scholarly paper at the age of 12 at the 1978 Mesa Redonda de Palenque, stuarts work on the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs led to a MacArthur Fellowship in 1984. He is the recipient of that award. Stuart has continued to major contributions in the field of epigraphy. See for example Coe, p.231 et seq and his insights into the structure and content of Maya hieroglyphic writing was highlighted in the award-winning documentary film Breaking the Maya Code. Stuart received his Ph. D in Anthropology from Vanderbilt University in 1995 and his work often focuses on the documentation of Maya sculpture and inscriptions. He remains actively engaged as a member of several projects at ancient Maya sites in Guatemala, Honduras. His many publications include Ten Phonetic Syllables, which much of the groundwork for the now-accepted methodology of Maya hieroglyphic decipherment. In 2003 he published a volume in the ongoing Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions series, devoted to drawings and photographs of sculpture from Piedras Negras and he co-authored Palenque, Eternal City of the Maya with his father, George Stuart. At present he is completing a new book which will offer an analysis of the three temples of the Cross Group complex at Palenque. Stuart is currently the Director of The Mesoamerica Center at The University of Texas at Austin and he also oversees the activities of the Casa Herrera, UTs academic research center in Antigua, Guatemala, devoted to studies in the art, archaeology and culture of Mesoamerica. Ten Phonetic Syllables Piedras Negras, Vol, Stuart Maya Decipherment weblog Maya Field Workshops, Field Classes with David Stuart
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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OCLC
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The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services, the group first met on July 5,1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The goal of network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the worlds information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26,1971 and this was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data, between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States. As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside of Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with networks, organizations that provided training, support, by 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on OCLC Members Council, in early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. org, in October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988, a browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013, it was replaced by the Classify Service. S. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users and this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. OCLC has produced cards for members since 1971 with its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, e. g. CONTENTdm for managing digital collections, OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications and these publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organizations website. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding
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Harper (publisher)
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Harper is an American publishing house, currently the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins. James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishing business J. & J. Harper in 1817 and their two brothers, Joseph Wesley Harper and Fletcher Harper, joined them in the mid-1820s. The company changed its name to Harper & Brothers in 1833, the headquarters of the publishing house were located at 331 Pearl Street, facing Franklin Square in Lower Manhattan. Harper & Brothers began publishing Harpers New Monthly Magazine in 1850, the brothers also published Harpers Weekly, Harpers Bazar, and Harpers Young People. George B. M. Harvey became president of Harpers on Nov.16,1899, Harpers New Monthly Magazine ultimately became Harpers Magazine, which is now published by the Harpers Magazine Foundation. Harpers Weekly was absorbed by The Independent in 1916, which in turn merged with The Outlook in 1928, Harpers Bazar was sold to William Randolph Hearst in 1913 and is now Bazaar, published by the Hearst Corporation. In 1924, Cass Canfield joined Harper & Brothers and held a variety of positions until his death in 1986. In 1925, Eugene F. Saxton joined the company as an editor, in 1935, Edward Aswell moved to Harper & Brothers as an assistant editor of general books and eventually became editor-in-chief. Aswell persuaded Thomas Wolfe to leave Scribners, and, after Wolfes death, edited the posthumous novels The Web and the Rock, You Cant Go Home Again, in 1962 Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson & Company to become Harper & Row. Marshall Pickering was bought by Harper and Row in 1988, marshall Pickering itself was formed in 1981 from two long established Christian publishers. Marshall Morgan and Scott, a London-based predominantly Baptist publishing house, Pickering and Inglis was a long established Glasgow based publisher, publishing largely for the non conformist church in Scotland with many Brethren publications. Rupert Murdochs News Corporation acquired Harper & Row in 1987, the names of these two national publishing houses were combined to create HarperCollins, which has since expanded its international reach with further acquisitions of formerly independent publishers. The Harper imprint began being used in place of HarperCollins in 2007, after the purchase of Harper & Row by News Corporation, HarperCollins launched a new mass market paperback line to complement its existing trade paperback Perennial imprint. It was known as Harper Paperbacks from 1990 to 2000, HarperTorch from 2000 to 2006, the Harper Establishment, or, How a New York Publishing Giant Was Made. The brothers Harper, a publishing partnership and its impact upon the cultural life of America from 1817 to 1853 Eugene Exman, The House of Harper, NY, Harper & Row
