Technologies of urbanism in Mesoamerica: the pre-Columbian bridges of Cotzumalhuapa, Guatemala

Mazariegos, Oswaldo Chinchilla

doi:10.15184/aqy.2017.228

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Excavations revealed characteristics similar to previous known roads, including shared adaptations to those reported in Chiapas and Tabasco (Lee 1992; Navarrete 1991; Ortiz Ortiz 1988; Waibel 1946), the northern Maya Lowlands of the Yucatan (Shaw 2008; Villa Rojas 1934), Guatemala (Chinchilla Mazariegos 2018; Demarest et al 2014), the neighboring regions (Golden et al 2004, 2016), and western Mesoamerica (Gorenstein and Polland 1991; Solinis-Casparius 2022). There were also some very clear differences stemming from the topographic nature and adaptability of the local communities.…”

Section: Defining Roadssupporting

confidence: 65%

The Cultural Landscapes of Maya Roads: The Material Evidence and a GIS Study from the Maya Lowlands of Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico

Mora

2023

Latin Am. antiq.

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This article reports the material evidence of roads in the northwestern Maya Lowlands that were in use from the Middle Preclassic (800–300 BC) through the Late Classic (AD 700–900) period in Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico. The study includes archaeological evidence recovered from field research in an area covering approximately 670 km2 and 618 recorded archaeological sites. It presents the physical characteristics of a series of piedmont paths that connected the region from the Usumacinta River to the Tulijá River, including large population centers such as Palenque and Chinikihá. The study uses a geographic information system (GIS) least cost path (LCP) analysis to identify the location of roads and how they relate to regional settlement patterns. It also tests the use of modern computational models to advance regional studies in the Maya area. Study results show how the Classic Maya adapted and appropriated the region's topography to facilitate movement, long-term settlement, and the building of landesque capital.

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Section: Defining Roadssupporting

confidence: 65%

The Cultural Landscapes of Maya Roads: The Material Evidence and a GIS Study from the Maya Lowlands of Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico

Mora

2023

Latin Am. antiq.

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“…prompted by tales that had reached him concerning the gigantic suspension bridge that may have once stood at Yaxchilan or the bridges, admittedly on a smaller scale but still impressive, that were still standing at Cotzumalhuapa. 90 Even so, Columbus appears -by the time he composed his postils -to have identified a core group of preoccupations as being of enduring importance: the optimisation of the conditions of navigation; the search for precious gems and gold; the exploitation of indigenous populations' lack of horses and iron weapons. 91 In his letter to Isabella and Ferdinand, written in Jamaica on 7th July 1503, Columbus summarised information he had gathered orally in the 'land of Cariay' (i.e.…”

Section: The Gradual Materialisation Of the New Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Materiality and Marginalia across the World: The Role of Things in Christopher Columbus’s Annotations on Marco Polo

Shawcross

2023

The Medieval History Journal

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The recension of Marco Polo’s Devisament dou monde—an incunable of Francesco Pipino’s Latin translation titled De consuetudinibus et conditionibus orientalium regionum—used by Christopher Columbus is one of five annotated books known to have survived from the explorer’s library. The exemplar contains in its margins copious notes and drawings attributable to Columbus himself and other members of his immediate circle. These marginalia reveal that Columbus was a highly distinctive reader of content transmitted in the Poline textual tradition. He rarely dwelt on topographic, ethnographic or historical information. Rather, he was almost exclusively concerned with material things. His notes consist of brief references either to single objects or to lists of multiple objects associated with specific places. Cross-referencing allowed him to highlight similarities and differences between the regions of the known world, as well as to organise these regions hierarchically depending on the potential value of their manufactured and natural resources to himself and his fellow Europeans. He placed particular emphasis on mineral deposits and other substances such as gold, pearls and spices that he apparently considered to have an especially elevated intrinsic value. This article examines the revision, dissemination and especially interpretation of Polo’s late thirteenth-century work at a particular historical moment in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. In so doing, it draws attention to Columbus’s contribution to a shift in the relationship between materiality and cosmography that would prove to be of key importance to modern colonialism.

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The Southern Cities: Urban Archaeology in Pacific Guatemala and Eastern Soconusco, Mexico

Mazariegos

2020

J Archaeol Res

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Technologies of urbanism in Mesoamerica: the pre-Columbian bridges of Cotzumalhuapa, Guatemala

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 3 publications

References 9 publications

The Cultural Landscapes of Maya Roads: The Material Evidence and a GIS Study from the Maya Lowlands of Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico

The Cultural Landscapes of Maya Roads: The Material Evidence and a GIS Study from the Maya Lowlands of Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico

Materiality and Marginalia across the World: The Role of Things in Christopher Columbus’s Annotations on Marco Polo

The Southern Cities: Urban Archaeology in Pacific Guatemala and Eastern Soconusco, Mexico

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