Maya Crocodilians: Intersections of Myth and the Natural World at Early Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala

Rice, Prudence M.

doi:10.1007/s10816-017-9352-0

Cited by 17 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The largest members of the Mesoamerican reptilian world—crocodiles, alligators, and caimans—have often been misidentified by archaeologists and others (Harrison 2008:110–111; Rice 2018). In modern biological taxonomy, they are members of the class Reptilia and order Crocodilia, with two families in Mesoamerica: Crocodylidae and Alligatoridae.…”

Section: Crocodiles and Sharks In Ancient Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The links to water are more complex and relate to more than just the crocodile's habitat. In the northern lowlands today, largely lacking surface waters, crocodiles are placed in ponds in the belief that they will prevent the water from drying up or prevent closure by siltation, or both, by digging in the bottom to locate sources of water (Rice 2018:n3; Vargas Pacheco and Arias Ortiz 2005:17). In both associations, what is important is not simply fecundity but the broader concept of renewal.…”

Section: Crocodiles and Sharks In Ancient Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Apart from imagery, physical remains of crocodiles have been relatively little discussed in lowland Maya faunal studies (Rice 2018:Table 2; Thurston 2011:58–96). Crocodiles would have been an important source of protein in lowland areas, and Stocker and colleagues (1980:746–747) even suggested the Olmecs might have farmed them in their ponds.…”

Section: Crocodiles and Sharks In Ancient Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), an urban grid was put into place over the city (Pugh 2019; Pugh and Rice 2017). I proposed (Rice 2018) that the gridded landscape copied the array of raised scutes on the back of a crocodile, specifically a mythical crocodilian involved in world creation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crocodiles, Sharks, and Some Speculations on Central Peten Preclassic History

Rice

2019

Ancient Mesoam

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The first part of this two-part essay discusses the important roles crocodiles and sharks played in Preclassic (and later) political geography and myths of cosmogenesis in Mesoamerica. They are associated with sacrifices resulting in creation of the world and births of some major gods. Crocodiles are also associated with fertility, rebirth, and renewal of seasonal and temporal/calendrical cycles. Recent investigations at Nixtun-Ch'ich’ show that its gridded urban landscape, established in the Middle Preclassic period (ca. 800–400 b.c.), was likely modeled on a crocodile's back. The second part of the essay presents some speculations on the early role of this site and crocodiles in central Peten. At Tikal, archaeology and retrospective texts indicate that crocodiles appeared in early versions of the site's emblem glyph and in the name of an early ruler. Nixtun-Ch'ich’ might be the legendary chi place, important in the dynastic foundations of several lowland Maya centers.

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Section: Crocodiles and Sharks In Ancient Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Crocodiles and Sharks In Ancient Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Crocodiles and Sharks In Ancient Timesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Crocodiles, Sharks, and Some Speculations on Central Peten Preclassic History

Rice

2019

Ancient Mesoam

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“…), burials (Baires ; Paris et al. ), sites (Cobb and Butler ; Pugh and Rice ; Rice ), and landscapes (Fitzhugh ; Ling and Cornell ). The ways that archaeologists today are investigating ritual and meaning are increasingly diverse, both conceptually and methodologically.…”

Section: Individuals and Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Finding Archaeology in 2017: What Is Archaeology and Why Are We Doing It? Why Should We Be Doing It?

Lewis

2018

American Anthropologist

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These annual review essays focus on what we as archaeologists are doing year by year. Many themes continue on from review to review, waxing and waning, not unlike the bell curves of a traditional pottery seriation.Each year, themes are highlighted and presented in varied ways according to the orientation and aims of the reviewer. All do a masterful job of curating the vast range of what archaeologists were, in each annual period, currently producing. My review follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, summarizing an array of new and exciting research, and describing how agendas presented in 2017 cluster around sets of related questions and aims. It will also look at the growing literature that asks, in one way or another, fundamental questions about what archaeology really is and why we pursue it. In this time when the value of academic pursuits and scientific perspectives are being highly scrutinized in politics and popular culture, archaeologists are faced with the uncomfortable question of "What is it, really, that we should be doing?" [archaeology, current issues, public archaeology, digital archaeology] RESUMEN Estos ensayos de revisión anual se enfocan en lo que como arqueólogos estamos haciendo año tras año. Muchos temas continúan de revisión en revisión, creciendo o menguando, no muy diferente de las curvas en forma de campana de la seriación de la cerámica tradicional. Cada año, temas son enfatizados y presentados de varias maneras de acuerdo a la orientación y metas del crítico. Todos hacen un trabajo magistral de organizar un rango vasto de lo que los arqueólogos estaban, en cada período anual, realmente produciendo. Mi revisión sigue los pasos de sus predecesores, resumiendo una colección de nueva y emocionante investigación, y describiendo cómo las agendas presentadas en el 2017 se agrupan alrededor de juegos de cuestiones y metas relacionadas.También examina la creciente literatura que pregunta, de una manera u otra, cuestiones fundamentales acerca de lo que la arqueología realmente es y por qué nos dedicamos a ella. En este tiempo cuando el valor de los empeños académicos y las perspectivas científicas están siendo altamente escrutados en política y cultura popular, los arqueólogos se enfrentan a la pregunta incomoda de "¿Qué es lo que realmente deberíamos estar haciendo?"[arqueología, cuestiones actuales, arqueología pública, arqueología digital] ARCHAEOLOGICAL FRAGMENTATION?While the theme of what such a diverse discipline should be subtly undergirds much of the literature, a number of 2017 articles, each in a very different way, directly address the very nature of what archaeology is and why we practice it. In the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Assaf Nativ (2017, 55) asks us to reconsider our notions of the

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In Search of Middle Preclassic Lowland Maya Ideologies

Rice

2020

J Archaeol Res

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Maya Crocodilians: Intersections of Myth and the Natural World at Early Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala

Cited by 17 publications

References 46 publications

Crocodiles, Sharks, and Some Speculations on Central Peten Preclassic History

Crocodiles, Sharks, and Some Speculations on Central Peten Preclassic History

Finding Archaeology in 2017: What Is Archaeology and Why Are We Doing It? Why Should We Be Doing It?

In Search of Middle Preclassic Lowland Maya Ideologies

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