7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
1/94
RevealingAncestralCentralAmerica
Edited by
Rosemary A. Joyce
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
2/94
RevealingAncestralCentralAmerica
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
3/94
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
4/94
3 CHAPTER TITLE GOES HERE
RevealingAncestralCentralAmerica
Edited by
Rosemary A. Joyce
The Smithsonian Latino Center
and the
National Msem o the American Indian
Smithsonian Instittion
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
5/94
4 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
2013 Smithsonian Instittion. All rights reserved.
No part o this book may be reprodced in any man-
ner whatsoever withot written permission o the
Smithsonian Instittion except in the case o brie
qotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
The Smithsonian Latino Center ensres that Latino
contribtions to the arts, sciences, and hmanities
are highlighted, nderstood, and advanced throgh
the development and spport o pblic programs,
research, msem collections, and edcational
opportnities at the Smithsonian Instittion.
For more inormation abot the Smithsonian Latino
Center, visit the SLC website at www.latino.si.ed.
The National Msem o the American Indian
(NMAI) is committed to advancing knowledge andnderstanding o the Native cltres o the Western
Hemispherepast, present, and trethrogh
partnership with Native people and others. The
msem works to spport the continance o cltre,
traditional vales, and transitions in contemporary
Native lie.
For more inormation abot the Smithsonians
National Msem o the American Indian, visit the
NMAI website at www.AmericanIndian.si.ed.
FIRST EDITION
The name o the Smithsonian, Smithsonian
Instittion, and the snbrst logo are registered
trademarks o the Smithsonian Instittion.
SMITHSONIAN LATINO CENTER andNATIONAL MuSEuM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
Director, Smithsonian Latino Center: Edardo Daz
Director, National Msem o the American Indian:
Kevin Gover (Pawnee)
Associate Director or Scholarship, NMAI:
David Penney
Associate Director or Msem Programs, NMAI:
Tim Johnson (Mohawk)
Associate Director or Msem Assets and
Operations, NMAI: Jane Sledge
Exhibitions and Pblic Programs Director, SLC:
Ranald Woodaman
Lead Crator: Ann McMllen, NMAI
Gest Crator: Alexander Bentez
General Editor: Rosemary A. Joyce
Copy Editor: Joan MentzerEditorial Assistance: Ann McMllen and
the NMAI Pblications Oce
Design: Stdio A
Alexandria, Virginia
Typeset in Seria and Locator
Printed in the uSA by For Color Print Grop
This pblication received ederal spport rom
the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the
Smithsonian Latino Center, and additional spport
rom the National Concil o the National Msem o
the American Indian.
Cover: Fig. 86. Greater Nicoya emale gre on a
eline-egy bench. See page 61. Photo by Ernest
Amoroso.Back cover: Fig. 56. Classic period Maya male gre.
See page 41.
Title page: Fig. 10. Greater Cocl animal gre.
See page 16.
Page 10: Fig. 60. Classic period Maya vessel depict-
ing a nobleman carried on a palanqin (detail).
See page 44.
Page 68: Fig. 112. Greater Cocl (Cont style) ooted
plate with crocodile design. See page 75.
Printed in conjnction with the exhibition
Cermca de ls Acesrs: Ceral Amercas Pas Revealed,
on view at the National Msem o the American Indian
in Washington, DC, March 29, 2013Febrary 1, 2015.
Smithsonian
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
6/94
6 Foreword
Kev Gver ad Edard Daz
8 Acknowledgments
Ancestral Central America
13 Srronded by Beaty:
Central America beore 1500
Rsemary A. Jyce
23 Dwelling in the Ancestral
Joya de Cern Village
Pays Shees
33 Artisanry in Motion
Chrsa Lke ad Rsemary A. Jyce
45 Athority in Ancestral Central America
Jh W. Hpes
59 Between Belies and Ritals:
Material Cltre o Ancestral Costa Rica
Parca Ferdez
Collectors and Collecting
70 A New Dream Msem
A McMlle
72 Minor Keith and the united Frit Company
Alexader Beez
74 Adventrers, Dilettantes, and Looters
A McMlle
76 Accidental Interests
A McMlle
78 Promoting Heritage
Alexader Beez
80 List o Figres
88 Reerences Cited
Contents
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
7/94
6 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
Ceramercasthey are thebackbone o the Latino commni-
ties srronding Washington, D.C.,
the Smithsonians own backyard. They hail
rom El Salvador, Gatemala, Hondras,
Nicaraga, Belize, Panama, and Costa Rica.
They have a growing presence throghot
the united States, yet representation o
their cltral and social legacies in Latin
American scholarship has remained largely
marginalized by earlier ocs on the politi-
cal dominance, riches, and the epic drama o
Mesoamerican and Andean empires. Throgha partnership between the Smithsonian Latino
Center (SLC) and the National Msem o the
American Indian (NMAI), we have seized this
opportnity to connect with or local Latino
commnities, many o which remain rooted
in their indigenos heritage and history.
Herein we honor the endring, economically
and politically stable cltral traditions o
pre-Hispanic Central America throgh their
exceptional material cltre. Sharing this cl-
tral patrimony and acknowledging its vale
is both or challenge and or responsibility,and we gladly take p the charge.
The generation o this project occrred
by accident, with a discovery at the NMAI o a
vast collection o Central American archaeo-
logical objects by visiting sta researchers
rom the Smithsonian Latino Center. They
realized that the NMAI was qietly caring orone o the largest and most signicant col-
lections o Central American archaeology in
existence, with approximately 17,000 objects
rom the region. Astondingly, this incldes
more than 10,000 intact vessels, embodying
contless ntold stories.
The Central American Ceramics Research
Project, or CACRP, is the Latino Centers
initiative to learn more abot these works.
Lanched in 2009, the CACRP spported
the two-year stdy, docmentation, and
identication o items in the NMAIs CentralAmerican ceramics collections. This initiative
has been the catalyst or other research and
projects, sch as an exhibition, based on a
nmber o the objects that examine cltral
diversity, complexity, and change across
space and time; a series o pblic programs
exploring cltral and scientic dimensions
o the project; training opportnities or
Central American msem sta; an interac-
tive website; and this pblication.
All o this work springs rom nprec-
edented new scholarship related to these
objects, ew o which had been previosly
stdied or pblicly exhibited. The objects
highlighted in this book, largely drawn rom
the NMAIs Central American archaeologi-
cal collection, have mch to say to s today.
They testiy to the complexity o long-lived
Foreword
Kevin Gover (Pawnee)Director, National Msem o the American Indian
Edardo DazExective Director, Smithsonian Latino Center
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
8/94
7 FOREWORD
governments and social systems, and to theimportance and sophistication o the art and
science in the commnities where they were
made. They speak o the patience, sensitivity,
and innovation o their makers.
The essays that ollow reveal the lives o
the ancestors o the indigenos, mestizo, and
aromestizo peoples o Central America. Their
histories have oten been lost or obscred,
bt throgh archaeology, the available
records, and nderstandings rom contem-
porary indigenos peoples, we can partially
reconstrct and begin to glimpse the organi-zation o their daily lives and their ideas abot
natre, power, and the spernatral. From the
grines depicting powerl women in the
Greater Nicoya region to the nely decorated
vessels o the wealthy arming hamlets o
the ula Valley and the antastical designs
on Cocl pottery, we can see that the peoples
o pre-Hispanic Central America developed
niqely local identities and cltral tradi-
tions while also engaging in vital exchanges
o ideas, goods, and technologies with their
neighbors in all directions. By emphasizingnotions o heritage and connection to or
pre-Hispanic collections, this project has
the potential to engage srronding Central
American commnities and introdce them to
the Smithsonians broader panoply o cltral
resorces. For the newly initiated or the most
devoted acionado amiliar with the historyand cltres o the region, the experience o
seeing or exhibition or reading this book is
meant to engender new paradigms or nder-
standing the pre-Hispanic past.
The eort to ncover this ancestral inheri-
tance has been a mlti-year labor o love. We
wold like to thank the brilliant and dedicated
team o scholars, crators, editors, project
managers, conservators, exhibition designers,
web designers, edcators, ndraisers, pb-
licists, and other msem proessionals who
made all o this possible. We are particlarlyindebted to general editor Rosemary Joyce,
whose exemplary eorts, copled with the
leading-edge scholarship o the contribting
athors, shaped this pblication. Joyce not
only contribted her expertise and dedication
to this project, bt was an advocate or creat-
ing access to this new knowledge. We hope
that yo are moved by these grondbreaking
explorations o the Central American past.
Ula River emale gure,
AD 250900. Ro Ulavalley, Honduras. Pottery.
Formerly in the collection
o Marco Aurelio Soto;
MAI purchase rom an
unknown source, 1917.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
9/94
8 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
This pblication accompanies the exhi-bition, Cermca de ls Acesrs: Ceral
Amercas Pas Revealed. The exhibitions
cratorial team and network o scholars
in the united States and Central America
played an essential role in its develop-
ment. I am especially gratel to lead
crator Ann McMllen (NMAI) and gest
crator Alexander Bentez (George Mason
university), who have been involved in
Acknowledgments
Ranald WoodamanExhibitions and Pblic Programs Director, Smithsonian Latino Center
Revealg Acesral Ceral Amercais a collaboration between the
Smithsonian Latino Center and the
National Msem o the American Indian.
It was made possible throgh ederal sp-
port rom the Latino Initiatives Pool, adminis-
tered by the Smithsonian Latino Center,
with additional spport rom the National
Concil o the National Msem o the
American Indian.
Classic period Maya
metate in the orm o
an animal and mano,
AD 250900. Chiltiupn,
La Libertad Department,
El Salvador. Stone.
Collected or excavated
by Samuel K. Lothrop,
1926.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
10/94
this project since it began in 2009 as theCentral American Ceramics Research
Project. Special thanks are de to general
editor Rosemary A. Joyce and contribt-
ing athors Payson Sheets, Christina Lke,
John Hoopes, and Patricia Fernndez,
as well as the NMAIs associate director
or msem scholarship, David Penney.
Revealg Acesral Ceral Amerca cold
not have been possible withot the spport
o the NMAI Pblications Oce, as well as
the NMAIs team o talented photographers,
conservators, and collections managers.The National Msem o Natral History
also deserves thanks or generosly sharing
images rom its anthropological collections.
My sincerest thanks to all those inside and
otside the Smithsonian Instittion who
have shared their time and vision with s in
order to tell the story o Central Americas
ancestral peoples.
9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
11/94
10 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
12/94
11 ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
AncestralCentralAmerica
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
13/94
12 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
GreaterChiriqu
GreaterCocl
CentralCaribbean
GreaterNicoya
UlaRiver
Gulf of Mexico
Caribbean Sea
M e s o a m e r i c a Maya
Teotihuacan
Atlantic Ocean
Pacific Ocean
Fig. 1
N
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
14/94
13 SURROUNDED BY BEAUTY
to more than 250 kilometers. While mosto the painted and mold-made pottery was
locally crated (Figre 5), some dishes came
rom Belize or Gatemala, some jars rom the
Slaco river valley to the east. And all o this
rom a rral village, whose modest hoses
were made o poles, covered with clay, topped
with thatched roos. The materials were indi-
cated by brned clay with pole impressions
collected dring excavations I co-directed in
the early 1990s at the same site, now called
Campo Dos (Hendon, Joyce, and Lopiparo,
in press).At scales ranging rom larger-than-lie
stone sclptres depicting hmans and
spernatral beings to the intimacy o
jewelry made to be worn in pierced ears,
sspended rom the neck, clasping the
head, arms, or legs, or stitched to cloth-
ing, it is evident that people o pre-16th-
centry Central American societies lived in
a visally rich, materially lxrios world.
Nor was this visal and material richness
limited to a small, privileged grop. Even
in the most stratied and neqal societiesin the region, sch as those o the Classic
Maya (ca. AD 250850), research in rral
locations like the well-preserved village
o Joya del Cern, El Salvador, shows that
armers owned dozens o pottery vessels,
many o them brightly painted or modeled
The rst impression or anyone condct-ing archaeological research in Central
America (Figre 1), or seeing msem
collections rom previos work there, is o an
astonishing and pervasive richness in even
the everyday objects crated by the regions
ancestral peoples. Take as an example an
assemblage recovered rom a site in the
ula river valley in Hondras, called Farm
Two by Gregory Mason, who collected the
materials or the Heye Fondation. Among
some 400 objects, the groping incldes
jade and shell beads and an obsidian mirror,parts o distinctive costmes; spindle whorls
or making thread and grondstone tools or
making bark cloth; other stone tools or work-
ing wood and grinding plants, and obsidian
blades and tools o the kind sed to process
plants and animals to prepare meals; locally
made bowls with mlticolored images o h-
man gres in ceremonial costme wielding
rital implements (Figre 2), and jars with
red geometric designs; ceramic vessels or
brning resins dring ritals; and a plethora
o molded, red-clay images o hmans andanimals, and many msical instrments,
some small enogh to hold in a hand (Figre
3), others large egies hal-lie size (Figre
4), also sed in ceremonies.
Obsidian, jade, and marine shell were
imported rom distances ranging rom thirty
Surrounded by Beauty:
Central America before 1500Rosemary A. Joyce
Fig. 1. Map o Central
America showing its
principal archeological
regions.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
15/94
Fig. 2 Fig. 3
Fig. 4 Fig. 5
Fig. 6 Fig. 7
Fig. 2. Ula River tripod
vessel with design o
masked gures, AD
850950. Ro Ula valley,
Corts Department,
Honduras. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. MAI purchase
rom N. Hasbun, 1969.
Fig. 3. Ula River whistle
representing a man andwoman, AD 750850
Campo Dos (United Fruit
Company Farm 2), Corts
Department, Honduras
Pottery. Collected or exca-
vated by Gregory Mason,
acquired by MAI, 1932.
Fig. 4. Ula River gure
rom an incensario lid
representing a man hold-
ing an axe, AD 650850.
Naranjo Chino, Yoro
Department, Honduras.
Pottery. Collected or exca-vated by Gregory Mason,
acquired by MAI, 1932.
Fig. 5. Ula River Vessel
depicting dancers, AD
750850. Yuscarn, El
Paraso Department,
Honduras. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. Formerly in the
collection o Marco Aurelio
Soto; MAI purchase rom
an unknown source, 1917.
Fig. 6. Ula River Vessel
with handles in the ormo monkeys heads, AD
650750. Ro Ula valley,
Honduras. Marble
Formerly in the collection
o Marco Aurelio Soto;
MAI purchase rom an
unknown source, 1917.
Fig. 7. Selin Tradition ves-
sel, AD 8001000
Isla de Guanaja (Bonacca),
Islas de la Baha
Department, Honduras.
Pottery. Collected or
excavated by FrederickA. Mitchell-Hedges,
19301931.
14 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
16/94
talking abot the area embody an assmp-
tion that centralized, highly neqal state
societies are normal or inevitable develop-
ments in hman history. When we se these
ways o talking, we pt Central America in a
ramework that Payson Sheets (1992) called
the pervasive pejorative. We ask why towns
in Panama and Costa Rica were organized
only as what we call chiedomstownsin which wealthy amilies claimed the right
to pass down athority throgh lines o
kinshipas i they shld have bee more
highly stratied states, with greater economic
ineqality. We talk abot societies in which
stability in the maximm size o towns was
maintained or hndreds o years as i they
ailed becase they did not grow to the size
o nsstainable cities.
The narrative o political hierarchy classi-
es all Central American societies except the
Maya as chiedoms or tribes, seen as stepson a never-completed trajectory to becoming
states. This implies that political organiza-
tion is always the main coordinating principle
in hman society. In Central America we need
to examine how towns and villages were
bond together by ties o kinship, shiting
alliances, material exchanges, and participa-
tion in common practices mediating relations
with the sacred and the spernatral throgh
divination, rital, and ceremony (Figre 8).
To avoid narratives that privilege the
development o political stratication andeconomic ineqality as normal and inevitable,
we shold think o pre-Hispanic Central
Americainclding Gatemalaas a chain
o societies connected throgh intentional
hman action leading to travel, exchange,
and participation by visitors in social events
into the shapes o antastic animals (Sheets,
this volme).
In societies characterized by less ineqal-
ity, the prodcts o skilled artisans were widely
distribted. In the ula Valley o Hondras,
the wealthy amilies at Travesa who patron-
ized mltigenerational workshops o crats-
men prodcing marble vases (Figre 6),
prized rom Gatemala to Costa Rica, did notassert the kind o absolte athority claimed
by Classic Maya rlers in their historical
monments (Lke, this volme). The wealthi-
est amily at Travesa oriented its hose
compond to the sacred montains and
passes that established a rital landscape,
shared with the residents o all the villages
in the valley. Here, we can speak o a society
composed o wealthy armers (Joyce, 2011),
who cltivated cacao groves, hosted visitors
at seasonal easts (likely inclding some rom
distant lands who broght with them exoticobjects; Figre 7), and spported the work o
artisansin shell, jade, textiles, red clay, and
marblewho rnished the objects o every-
day lie in the pole, clay, and thatch hoses
o even the hmblest hamlets in the sr-
ronding area. While the residents o Travesa
may have had infence, prestige, and orms
o athority in that area, we need to explore
how that infence and athority was created
rom the grond p, withot being blinded by
preconceptions abot what a society withot
a visible rling class and marked ineqities inwealth is like.
The challenge is to avoid raming history
comparatively, with the societies o Hondras,
El Salvador, Nicaraga, Costa Rica, and
Panama seen as alling short o a standard
set by the Maya o Gatemala. Many ways o
Fig. 8. Central Caribbean/
Costa Rican Atlantic
Watershed incense burnewith crocodile-egy
handle, AD 800AD 1500.
Eastern highlands, Costa
Rica. Pottery, clay slip.
Purchased or George
Heye by Theodoor de Boo
in Kingston, Jamaica,
1913.
Fig. 8
15 SURROUNDED BY BEAUTY
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
17/94
16 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
those practices throgh which the living tookcare o the dead. These practices are respon-
sible or a large part o the materiality o the
past in Central America. understanding dwell-
ing depends on teasing ot rom artiacts the
stories they can tell abot how people got on
day to day: how they prodced the tools they
sed to work the land, to hnt and sh, and
to create the objects sed in ceremonies as
well as in daily existence. In Central America,
prodcts and tools o dwelling oten orm a
spectrm rom skilled bt plain (Figre 11) to
the extraordinary intricacies o high capabil-ity. Dwelling allows s to see these things
not throgh the art/artiact dichotomy, bt
beyond that: to nderstand that the lives o
many people in Central America took place
srronded by objects o beaty.
Cecg is a way o thinking o net-
works as actively created by hman action.
Everywhere in the region there are things that
originated elsewhere. We can talk o trade or
exchange, as well as other scales o con-
necting, sch as amilial alliances, traveling
artisans, religios pilgrims, and the like, whereexotic objects are signs o the ways people
moved across a very wide space, and gath-
ered knowledge that was valed when they
retrned home. Connecting makes Central
America active in its relations to societies
in Mexico and northern Soth America, so
(Figre 9). When Maya nobles living atuaxactn and San Jos sed ula marble
vessels in their hoseholds, they treated
them as prized lxries, prodcts o exclsive
and competitive networks o relations with
amilies in the towns in the ula Valley where
they were prodced. They did not observe
either a bondary that wold have led them
to reject sch oreign goods, or an absolte
distinction in stats that wold have made
these prodcts o less-centralized societies
less prized. Indeed, there is evidence that in
Central America, prodcts o skilled artisanslocated at a distance metaphorically stood or
claims o knowledge rom the most distant
realmsthose o the ancestors and sper-
natral beings (Helms, 1998).
How can we talk abot sch a diverse
network in a nied way, in terms that might
be maniest in material remains? This
book explores or crossctting themes to
nderstand Central America as a network o
villages, towns, and cities: dwelling, connect-
ing, athority, and spiritality.
Dwellg reers to the practices o every-
day lie, inclding the way people related to
plants, animals, and landscape in their locality
(Figre 10). Hoses and towns, where archae-
ologists have recognized and explored the
grain o everyday lie, are the natral places
or exploring dwelling. Dwelling also incldes
Fig. 9 Fig. 10
Fig. 9. Ula River jar
with design o men
seated on benches, AD
850950. Copn, Copn
Department, Honduras.
Pottery, clay slip, paint.
MAI purchase rom an
unknown source, 1971.
Fig. 10. Greater Cocl ani-
mal gure, AD 3001000.Ro de Jess, Veraguas
Province, Panama. Pottery,
paint. Excavated by
Neville A. Harte and Eva
M. Harte; git o Dr. and
Mrs. Arthur M. Sackler,
1967.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
18/94
17 SURROUNDED BY BEAUTY
based on kinship, not jst athority based oncoercive or persasive power. It is a way to ask
the qestion whether, where, and when we
see violence as a basis or claims o athority.
It makes it possible to talk abot the athority
o women and men (Figres 14, 15), and the
relative athority o elders and jniors. An
ula marble vase is an object o athority; so
are the carved stone benches o Nicaraga
and Costa Rica; so also are the polychrome
cylinders o Maya noble hoses. In each case,
the natre o athority and the degree to
which it is concentrated in a ew hands needsto be established.
Spralycaptres the domain we
normally talk abot as rital. Spiritality
allows s to talk abot the broader principles
that in many parts o Central America prob-
ably organized dwelling, connecting, and
athority: the role o landscape, distance, and
certain materials as charged with n-ordinary
power, the place in existence o ancestors
and spernatral beings (Figre 16). It makes
sense o the abndance o prodcts o skilled
crat prodction, sch as ceramic grinesand msical instrments, that were primarily
o se in ceremonies, inclding ceremonies
o dwelling.
that when we look at plmbate pots romEl Salvador and Hondras (Figre 12), we
emphasize the niqe orms and designs
that show that makers (believed to be located
in Soconsco) were catering to the taste o
Central Americans, who were not passive
consmers orced to take whatever came
down the road (Joyce, 1986). Connecting also
means we attend to the presence in distant
places o items rom Central America, like a
cache o Hondran Las Vegas polychrome
(Figre 13) pots (originally identied as
Nicoya polychrome) ond in a hose at Tla,Hidalgo (Diehl, Lomas, and Wynn, 1974), or
Panamanian gold objects recovered rom
the cenote at Chichn Itz (Coggins, 1984).
Connecting takes small Central American
towns and makes them part o a large and
extensive chain.
Ahrygives s a way o talking abot
Central American social lie that introdces
dierences recognizable in material ways
withot sbsming them nder political hier-
archies. It allows s to notice that in most o
the region, some people have greater wealth,
and may have objects o distinctive materi-
als, qality, and even orm. Bt it makes s
ask what kds o athority people had, which
opens the door to inclding people whose
athority was based on connections with the
sacred, as well as those whose athority was
Fig. 11 Fig. 12
Fig. 11. Central Caribbean
Costa Rican Atlantic
Watershed bowl, AD 800
AD 1500. Las Mercedes,
Limn Province, Costa
Rica. Pottery. Collected or
excavated by Alanson B.
Skinner, 19161917.
Fig. 12. Plumbate jaguar-
egy tripod vessel, AD9001200. Suchitoto,
Cuscatln Department, El
Salvador. Pottery, clay slip
Collected or excavated by
Samuel K. Lothrop, 1924.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
19/94
Fig. 13 Fig. 14
Fig. 15 Fig. 16
Fig. 17 Fig. 18
Fig. 13. Post-Classic
period Maya tripod bowl,
AD 9001200. Hospicio
excavation near church o
San Jacinto, San Salvador,
San Salvador Department,
El Salvador. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. MAI purchase
by Marshall H. Saville,
1920.
Fig. 14. Classic period
Maya whistle representing
a seated woman, AD 600
900. Quich Department,
Guatemala. Pottery, paint.
MAI purchase rom Julia
M. Rodezno, 1923.
Fig. 15. Ula River emale
gure, AD 250900. Ro
Ula valley, Honduras.
Pottery. Formerly in the
collection o Marco Aurelio
Soto; MAI purchase rom
an unknown source, 1917.
Fig. 16. Greater Cocl
(Macaracas style) ooted
plate with crocodile
design, AD 9501100.
Ro de Jess, Veraguas
Province, Panama. Pottery,
clay slip, paint. MAI pur-
chase rom Eva M. Harte,
1966.
Fig. 17. Chiriqu vessel,
1000500 BC. Guacamayo,
Chiriqu Province,
Panama. Pottery, clay slip.Git o Neville A. Harte and
Eva M. Harte, 1963.
Fig. 18. Greater Chiriqu
tripod bowl, AD
8001500. Valle del Diqus,
Puntarenas Province,
Costa Rica. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. MAI purchase
rom William R. Hawker,
1961.
18 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
20/94
19 SURROUNDED BY BEAUTY
rst villages we can detect. Beore 1500 BC,rom Gatemala to Panama, at least some
villages invested time, energy, and skill in
making red-clay containers, greatly increas-
ing the visibility o sites or archaeologists.
Nonetheless, sch early sites remain nder-
represented. Some are deeply bried by
active tropical rivers. Others lie beneath later
settlements, evidence o the ability o Central
American peoples to maintain themselves
in place over long periods o time. Many
have probably been lost to alterations o the
landscape, as rivers changed their corses, assettlements located on ridges and terraces
erode downslope, and as modern occpants
plow, blldoze, and pave over the evidence o
the lives o earlier residents.
The greater visibility o more recent
periods also owes itsel, at least in part, to
the aesthetic preerences o Eropeans who
began collecting antiqities rom Central
America at least as early as the 18th centry.
Mlticolored painted pottery, stone sclptre
recognizably representing hman and animal
sbjects, and hman egies in molded andpainted clay attracted the attention o col-
lectors and eled site destrction in many
Central American contries.
While the ancestral peoples o Central
America prized many dierent materi-
als, inclding jade, marble, and a variety o
When and Where Do We See Dwelling,Connecting, Authority, and Spirituality?
Space precldes providing an in-depth
discssion o the historical development o
pre-Hispanic Central America. The articles
that ollow instead look at specic locales
where we are especially well-sitated to see
evidence o Central American social net-
works in the vivid and engaging objects let
behind. Most o the examples date to what in
Gatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Hondras
are called the Classic (AD 250850/950) andPost-Classic (AD 850/9501521) periods, and
in Nicaraga, Costa Rica, and Panama either
Periods V (AD 5001000) and VI (AD 1000
1500), or the Early (AD 500800), Middle
(AD 8001350), and Late (AD 1350ca. 1530)
Polychrome periods (Figre 17).
The actal evidence or hman occpa-
tion o the landscape in Central America is
mch earlier (Ne et al., 2006). There are
traces o some early mobile peoples in dier-
ent sites dating by 9000 BC, and throghot
the region, mobile oragers let their mark
between 9000 and 2000 BC, altering the
landscape by selectively encoraging plants
they preerred, and altering the plants by
their selection o variants or cltivation.
These early people laid the grondwork
or their descendants to congregate in the
Fig. 19
Fig. 19. Central Caribbean
Costa Rican Atlantic
Watershed emale gure,
300 BCAD 300. Bolsn,
Guanacaste Province,
Costa Rica. Pottery, clay
slip. MAI purchase rom
Wanda B. Scheiele, 1964
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
21/94
points seasonally marked by snrise and sn-set. While written texts are known only rom
sites in the Maya zone, the visal arts o other
areas employ rich symbolic langages that
link together hmans, non-hman animals,
landscape eatres, and spernatral orces,
inclding ancestors (Figre 19).
As research contines in each contry,
what becomes increasingly clear is how
extensive Central American networks act-
ally were. Otstanding works o art orce s
to acknowledge that links existed rom the
Nicoya peninsla o Costa Rica to the ulaValley in Hondras, and rom there to Belize
and Gatemala (Figre 20). The dazzling
objects in collections established by archaeol-
ogists and msems are making visible what
we shold have known all along: between the
apparently small, apparently isolated villages
o Central America there existed endring
ties composed o social relations, respect
or belies abot the place o hmans in the
cosmos, and shared appreciation or items
o beaty and the materials rom which they
cold be made (Figre 21).
metal alloys, or their rarest drable goods,recovery o gold-alloy objects, primarily rom
graves in Panama and Costa Rica, inspired
particlar enthsiasm among collectors. In
early archaeological acconts, many sites
are described simply as cemeteries, becase
graves were the contexts recognized by the
collectors as sorces or complete objects
(Figre 18).
Except in the Maya zone extending rom
Gatemala to western Hondras and El
Salvador, residential bildings were sally
mch less visible and more slowly recognizedby early antiqarians and later archaeolo-
gists. When archaeologists trned to the new
approach o settlement srvey in the 1950s,
they realized that the discarded trash o
Central America settlements was oten very
visible, both arond traditional sites o collect-
ing rom brials, and in other places on the
landscape. Oten the architectre o Central
American villages employed clay and poles as
the main constrction materials. When stone
was sed, it might be carelly selected river
cobbles with little or no modication.
The eatres created in the Central
American architectral tradition cold be
impressive: massive pavements, roads and
paths that extend or miles, and high plat-
orms with ramps or stairs, at times clearly
oriented to eatres on the landscape or
20 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
Fig. 20. Greater Chiriqu
vessel and cover, AD 800
1500. Chiriqu Province,
Panama. Pottery, clay slip,
paint. MAI purchase rom
Philip L. Dade, 1961.
Fig. 21. Selin Tradition
emale gure, AD 600
800. Isla Santa Elena
(Helene), Islas de la BahaDepartment, Honduras.
Pottery. Collected or
excavated by Frederick
A. Mitchell-Hedges,
19301931.
Fig. 20
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
22/94
21 SURROUNDED BY BEAUTY
Fig. 21
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
23/94
22 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
Fig. 22
PLAZA
HOUSEHOLD 1
HOUSEHOLD 2
HOUSEHOLD 3
HOUSEHOLD 4
Joya de Cern, El Salvador
Str. 1
Str. 5
Str. 6Str. 10
Str. 12
Str. 11
Str. 17
Str. 2
Str. 13
Str. 14
Cacao
Guayaba
Maguey
Basurero
Milpa
Milpa
Probable
Milpa
Basurero
Fallow
Milpa
Milpa
Milpa
Milpa
Stone Seats
Temascal
Kitchen Garden
Str. 15
Str. 16
Str. 3
Str. 4
Str. 8
Str. 9
Str. 18
Str. 7
1976BuLLDozERCut
SLo
PE
DoW
nto
Rio
SuCio
N
0 5 10
METERS
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
24/94
23 ANCESTRAL JOYA DE CEREN VILLAGE
steam explosion. There was some warning, asa horrible shrieking noise was cased by the
magma rst contacting the water. Evidently
the villagers headed soth, away rom that
danger. A clod o hot steam, ne-grained
volcanic ash, and gases blasted into the
village and coated the bildings, trees, and
plants growing in their elds. That deposit
was ollowed by many other layers ntil the
village was entombed by or to seven meters
o volcanic ash.
Althogh we regret the villagers crisis,
the remarkable preservation the volcanicash prodced allows s to nderstand the
srprisingly high qality o lie that they expe-
rienced beore the erption. Archaeologists
knew that ancient nobles lived well in their
palaces, bt we did not know that common-
ers also lived as well as they did at Joya de
Cern. There, each hosehold constrcted
and maintained three strctres: a domicile
or sleeping and living, a storehose, and a
kitchen. They had ample space inside the
wattle-and-dab walls o these bildings,
and abndant space otside the walls yet stillnder the roo, or comortable work areas.
These walls and thatch roos were one o the
most earthqake-resistant orms o architec-
tre ever invented, as they were fexible, and
i they ailed in a sper-earthqake only small
pieces o dab wold all, casing minimal
Abot 1,400 years ago a village o some200 commoners lived along the
banks o a large river in what is now
El Salvador (Sheets, 2002). They were mch
like hndreds o other small villages dotting
the landscape in El Salvador, Gatemala, and
Hondras. When a village ndergoes the s-
al orm o abandonment, people remove all
their sable artiacts and take them to their
new location. Then the elements o rain, sn,
vegetation growth, and other distrbances
redce the abandoned village to a aint echo
o its ormer sel. Archaeologists normallytry to reconstrct ancient behavior and belie
based on very ragmentary remains.
Only rarely do archaeologists discover a
settlement that is nsally well-preserved,
providing abndant evidence o dwelling that
was not degraded by the passage o time.
The Roman city o Pompeii is the best-known
example. It was bried by volcanic ash rom
Vesvis, ths preserving bildings and arti-
acts extraordinarily well. The Joya de Cern
village (Figre 22) was also bried by volcanic
ash, and that is where or story begins.unknown to the villagers living there
arond AD 630, rom deep ndergrond a hot
magma was gradally orcing its way pward
only 600 meters north o the village (Sheets,
2002). When that magma nally broke loose
right nder the large river, it cased a violent
Dwelling in the Ancestral Joya de Cern Village
Payson Sheets
Fig. 22. Plan o Joya de
Cern. Courtesy o Payso
Sheets.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
25/94
Fig. 23 Fig. 24
Fig. 25 Fig. 26
Fig. 27 Fig. 28
Fig. 23. Classic period
Maya metate in the orm
o an animal and mano,
AD 250900. Chiltiupn,
La Libertad Department,
El Salvador. Stone.
Collected or excavated by
Samuel K. Lothrop, 1926.
Fig. 24. Maya digging
stick weight, 900 BCAD1500. El Salvador. Basalt.
MAI purchase by Marshall
H. Saville, 1920.
Fig. 25. Maya spindle
whorls, 900 BCAD 1500.
Estanzuelas, El Salvador.
Pottery. Collected or
excavated by Samuel K.
Lothrop, 1924.
Fig. 26. Sala bowl
with human design, AD
700900. Hospicio exca-
vation near church o SanJacinto, San Salvador, San
Salvador Department, El
Salvador. Pottery, clay slip,
paint. MAI purchase by
Marshall H. Saville, 1920.
Fig. 27. Sala bowl, AD
6001000. Hospicio exca-
vation near church o San
Jacinto, San Salvador, San
Salvador Department, El
Salvador. Pottery, clay slip,
paint. MAI purchase by
Marshall H. Saville, 1920.
Fig. 28. Sala vessel with
bird design, AD 400900.
Izalco, Sonsonate
Department, El Salvador.
Pottery, clay slip, paint.
Collected or excavated by
Samuel K. Lothrop, 1924.
24 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
26/94
25 ANCESTRAL JOYA DE CEREN VILLAGE
and mercric oxide), and seashells (Figres30, 31). Jade and obsidian also came rom
the north, and likely were transported by the
same traders who broght the ancy pottery.
Becase villagers cold choose which market
to visit among many in the valley, nobles did
not control everything and to some degree
wold have to compete or the labor or pro-
dction o commoners.
Clear evidence o a well-developed
religios lie was ond in the village. First we
look at religios activity within each hose-
hold. Then we explore the activities andbelies that involved mltiple hoseholds and
those that involved the entire village. Not only
each hosehold, bt each hosehold bilding
problems. Each hosehold prodced moreo some commodity than it needed or its
own consmption and sed the srpls to
exchange or other hoseholds prodction.
For instance, Hosehold 1 overprodced
grondstone items sch as metates (Figre
23) and doghnt stones, which may have
been sed as digging stick weights (Figre
24), as well as cotton thread, evidenced by
abndant spindle whorls (Figre 25).
The high qality o lie is clear inside the
bildings. Each hosehold had abot seventy
complete pottery vessels. Some were sedor ood storage, processing, and cooking,
while bowls and cylinder vases were sed or
serving oods and drinks (Figres 2628).
utilitarian vessels were made in the village or
nearby. Food and drink serving vessels that
made p almost a qarter o their collection,
beatilly painted in many colors, evidently
were made in the Copn Valley, 120 km to
the north (Figre 29). Villagers wold take
srpls oods or other items to the market-
places in centers near the village to obtain
these ancy vessels. Their abndance in
the hoseholds is a clear indication that the
people o Joya de Cern were wealthy villag-
ers. Other items obtained in the marketplace
inclded knives and scrapers made o obsid-
ian (a volcanic glass), jade axes and beads,
mineral pigments (reds made rom iron ore Fig. 31Fig. 30
Fig. 29. Classic periodMaya bowl with design
o a shaman in fight, AD
700800. Chalchuapa,
Santa Ana Department, E
Salvador. Pottery, clay slip
paint. Git o Dr. Benjami
Levine, 1974.
Fig. 30. Maya blade core,
900 BCAD. 1500. El
Salvador. Obsidian. Git o
Dr. Joseph S. Somer and
Judith Somer, 1965.
Fig. 31. Maya celts, 900BCAD 1500. Estanzuela
El Salvador. Stone.
Collected or excavated by
Samuel K. Lothrop, 1924.
Fig. 29
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
27/94
26 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
The sana had solid earthen walls and adome o wattle and dab. Books on the
history o architectre that claim domed
architectre was introdced into the Americas
by Eropeans in the 16th centry need to
acknowledge that Maya commoners bilt
domes centries beore.
A consistent Maya tradition, rom the
greatest cities to the smallest settlements
sch as Joya de Cern, has been to locate
the most spiritally powerl bildings at the
highest elevation. The principal pyramids with
temples on the top were in the highest loca-tion in cities, to better commnicate with the
spernatral domain. At Joya de Cern two
special religios bildings were at the highest
point, the eastern end o the village, overlook-
ing the river. Both shared the Maya character-
istic o many dierent levels o foors, rom
the seclar otside throgh sccessively
higher foors to the innermost, highest room.
Both had walls painted white with pigment
made rom ne-grained, white ash rom the
immense Ilopango volcanic erption that
occrred a ew decades beore the village wasonded, with some red decorations.
One o these bildings, Strctre 12, is a
complex and delicate edice where a rital
diviner practiced, bt did not live (Figre
35). The evidence or divination is in three
collections o items that cold be cast onto
had an incense brner (Figre 32). These evi-dently were made within the hosehold, and
were sed to brn copal incense, the qintes-
sential method the ancient Maya sed (and
contemporary Maya se today) to connect
with the spernatral world o spirits, deities,
and ancestors. Figrines also probably played
a role in hosehold religios lie (Figre 33).
Hosehold 2 maintained a sana (emas-
cal) or mltiple-hosehold se (Figre
34). The contemporary Maya se sanas or
physical as well as spirital and occasionally
medicinal cleansing, and it is probable thatthe ancient one in Joya de Cern was sed
or those nctions as well. The ample bench
inside the walls, arond the rebox, wold
seat ten to twelve people. It is likely that the
composition o the sana sers changed as
the principal objective changed rom physical
to spirital cleansing, or medicinal se, help-
ing resolve respiratory problems as the Maya
do today. The Maya rinse o ater leaving
the sana, and we ond an nsal nmber
o large llas (ceramic pots) or water in the
nearby storehose that probably were sed
or that prpose. We also ond evidence
that water was pored over the dome-shaped
rebox in the center o the space, so it was
a steam rather than a dry sana. Hosehold
2 stored considerable rewood, inclding
pine, presmably or the re in the rebox.
Fig. 32 Fig. 33
Fig. 32. Classic period
Maya incense burner
with ceiba-tree spikes,
AD 250900. Quelepa,
San Miguel Department,
El Salvador. Pottery.
Collected or excavated by
Samuel K. Lothrop, 1926.
Fig. 33. Classic period
Maya emale gure,AD 6001000. Nekepia,
Usulutn Department, El
Salvador. Pottery. Git o
Francis E. Ross, 1962.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
28/94
27 ANCESTRAL JOYA DE CEREN VILLAGE
Fig. 34
Fig. 35
Fig. 34. Sauna maintaine
by Household 2 at Joya d
Cern. Photo by Payson
Sheets.
Fig. 35. Structure 12, a
special religious building
where a emale diviner/
shaman practiced (touris
in the oreground). Photo
by Payson Sheets.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
29/94
28 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
kept clear o artiacts, trash, and vegetation,
and was very hard-packed by se.The Maya have a deep belie in cyclic-
ity, linking the rising and setting o the sn,
planets, and stars with the cycle o maize.
Maize or planting is stored dormant/dry
dring the hal-year dry season, and then
springs to lie as it is planted and grows dring
the rainy season. It is a powerl metaphor
or hman reprodction. Matre maize dry-
ing in the eld, matre gayaba rits, and
other seasonal indicators excavated at Joya
de Cern point toward Agst as the time o
the volcanic erption. Today the Maya villageceremony or ertility and harvest, called cch,
is celebrated in Agst.
The two ppermost and innermost rooms
stored special artiacts, inclding a large pot-
tery vessel, decorated with a caiman head and
legs and loaded with achiote seeds. These
seeds provided a bright red pigment that
probably symbolized hman blood, as it still
does today. A typical obsidian knie (Figre
36) stored on the shel above the seeds had
hman hemoglobin on it, and was srely sed
in bloodletting. The Maya still believe thathman blood is the most religiosly charged
sbstance in the body, and when it is shed
in ceremony it is the most eective way to
commnicate with the spernatral domain.
Beside the knie was a deer skll headdress
that retained white, red, and ble paint, and
the foor in the innermost (highest) back
room and read, then interpreted, or aperson standing otside listening throgh
a lattice window. Another lattice window is
in the ront o the bilding, where a villager
cold approach and discss with the diviner
what he or she needed. I an agreement was
reached, the client wold oten leave an arti-
act or payment. While many o the artiacts
let cold be sed by both genders, there
were no predominantly male-se artiacts,
and there were reqent emale-se artiacts
sch as spindle whorls or making cotton
thread or weaving, and grinding stones orood processing. Thereore it appears the
diviner was a woman.
Strctre 10, adjacent to the diviners
bilding, was also clearly religios, with sc-
cessively higher rooms, white-painted walls,
and red decorations, bt it nctioned in a very
dierent ashion. It hosted ceremonies or the
village, with a ocs on deer as symbolic o
the ertility o natre and a sccessl harvest.
The ront and lowermost room is large and
held more ood than any other bilding in the
site excavated so ar. That room also pro-
cessed ood, with grinding stones and hand
stones called metates and manos, like those
ond at other sites in El Salvador. A hearth
here was sed or cooking. The oods were
dispensed to participants over a hal-height
wall. Otside the bilding the grond was
Fig. 36
Fig. 36. Classic period
Maya blades, AD
250900. San Miguel de
Mercedes, Chalatenango
Department, El Salvador.
Obsidian. Collected or
excavated by Samuel K.
Lothrop, 1926.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
30/94
29 ANCESTRAL JOYA DE CEREN VILLAGE
Fig. 37
Fig. 37. Sala bowl with
monkey design, AD
400900. La Asuncin
(Hacienda Asuncin),
Cuscatln Department,
El Salvador. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. Collected or
excavated by Samuel K.
Lothrop, 1924.
even some string that was sed to tie it onto
the head o a perormer or religios specialist.Traditional Maya still se sch headdresses
in ritals as symbols o the ertility o natre
when giving thanks or a sccessl harvest.
Athority within the village was dispensed
rom Strctre 3, the largest and most
imposing bilding o the settlement, acing
the town plaza. It had two large benches in
its ront room, in contrast with the hose-
hold domiciles, which had a bench in the
innermost private room, or sleeping. When
the Maya bild a bench in a ront room it is
a symbol o athority. Town elders cold siton the bench and listen to disptes between
amilies or individals. In place on one bench
was the largest pottery vessel ever ond in
the village. It likely contained a beverage,
perhaps a beer now called chcha made rom
ermented maize or manioc (Sheets et al.,
2012). Above the bench, on top o the wall,
was a polychrome vessel that wold serve
very well to scoop a serving o drink to seal
the deal and end the controversy. Betting a
pblic bilding, artiacts were scarce beyond
the two ceramic vessels.Hosehold 1 spported the harvest ritals
o Strctre 10 by loaning special implements
sch as maize hskers made o deer antlers.
Beyond the maize-grinding stone (metate) on
the kitchen foor that the hosehold sed reg-
larly, it maintained another or metates or
grinding dring the harvest ceremony. Tracy
Sweeley (1999) arges that dierent levelso athority within the hosehold and village
among the women sing these metates can
be detected based on the implements place-
ment and visibility.
Some people reer to Joya de Cern as
niqe, bt that can isolate it rom being
sel or comparison with other archaeologi-
cal sites that are not as well preserved. When
a village like Joya de Cern is abandoned,
the people sally leave carrying all their
valables, even making mltiple trips. Once
abandoned, others may take away artiacts,constrction materials, or other items they
nd sel. Thatch roos need to be replaced
at least every two decades in the tropics, and
once the thatch starts to ail, the rains melt
the clay dabed onto the poles and vines that
provide the walls internal reinorcements.
The elements, along with decay o organics,
redce the bildings to sad remnants o their
ormer condition. Trees recolonize the envi-
ronment, and their roots distrb sbsrace
remains, especially when wind blows them
over and the root-ball rotates and scrambles
large amonts o artiacts and ragmentary
bilding materials. People and animals can
dig below the srace or a variety o reasons.
The net reslt is a greatly impoverished
record o what people did when the comm-
nity was thriving.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
31/94
Fig. 41Fig. 40
Fig. 42 Fig. 43
Fig. 38 Fig. 39
Fig. 38. Classic period
Maya bowl with glyph
design, AD 700800.
Tazumal, Santa Ana
Department, El Salvador.
Pottery, clay slip, paint.
Git o Francis E. Ross,
1962.
Fig. 39. Sala bowl, AD
450850. Hospicio exca-vation near church o San
Jacinto, San Salvador, San
Salvador Department, El
Salvador. Pottery, clay slip,
paint. MAI purchase by
Marshall H. Saville, 1920.
Fig. 40. Sala tripod ves-
sel, AD 450850. Hospicio
excavation near church o
San Jacinto, San Salvador,
San Salvador Department,
El Salvador. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. MAI purchase
by Marshall H. Saville,1920.
Fig. 41. Sala bowl with
Huehuetotl (Old God/
God o Fire) design, AD
450850. Atiquizaya,
Ahuachapn Department,
El Salvador. Pottery,
clay slip, paint. Git o
Theodore T. Foley, 1971.
Fig. 42. Sala jar, AD
450850. Hospicio exca-
vation near church o San
Jacinto, San Salvador, SanSalvador Department, El
Salvador. Pottery, clay slip,
paint. MAI purchase by
Marshall H. Saville, 1920.
Fig. 43. Sala tripod bowl,
AD 450850. Hospicio
excavation near church o
San Jacinto, San Salvador,
San Salvador Department,
El Salvador. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. MAI purchase
by Marshall H. Saville,
1920.
30 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
32/94
31 ANCESTRAL JOYA DE CEREN VILLAGE
monds o eroded architectre at the sal
site can be reconstrcted sing the known
and well-preserved architectre at Joya de
Cern as the model.
Ths a dierent pictre o lie is emerging.
Commoners shold not be assmed to be
passive recipients o orders rom the nobility,
living in a hardscrabble world and barely get-
ting by. The abndance and variety o oodsond was impressive and the architectre
sophisticated. Like other small villages across
Central America, the spirital lie within the
hosehold and the commnity were highly
developed, refected in the images seen on
serving vessels recovered at other places in
El Salvador (Figres 3943). Commoners
exercised athority in the hosehold, the
village, and even in choosing the nobles or
whom they wold work and with whom they
wold trade. Looking throgh the rst clear
windowprovided by Joya de CernintoMaya commoner lie edcates s to the act
that the qality o lie was strikingly high.
unortnately, that impoverished record
has nwittingly maniested itsel in the minds
o scholars as indicating that commoners lived
impoverished lives. Joya de Cern provides a
compelling corrective to this mistaken vision
o village lie. Hoseholds had mltiple bild-
ings or particlar ses, ample spaces inside
the walls and nder the eaves or a wide range
o activities, and their architectre was highlyearthqake-resistant. Each hosehold had a
wide range o vessels, inclding many gords
(most plain, some highly decorated) and abot
seventy pottery vessels typical o western El
Salvador (Figre 37). O those, almost a qar-
ter were manactred at a distance, imported
into the area (Figre 38), and obtained by
Cerenians at marketplaces by means o nego-
tiated exchanges or goods they prodced.
Hoseholds also owned baskets. Every
hosehold had nmeros ctting and scraping
tools made o obsidian, and at least one jadeax. Those likewise were obtained by market
exchanges, and commoners had choices in
which market they wold visit.
So how can Joya de Cern be sed to
better nderstand the more commonly ond
ancient dwelling site? At the sal site the
remnants o individal hoses can be discov-
ered and mapped as hosemonds and
some broken artiacts collected. The ratio o
complete metates to whole vessels at Joya de
Cern cold be sed as a rogh way to esti-
mate the original nmber o vessels at less-well-preserved sites, since broken metates
are not normally removed when villages are
abandoned. The ratio o broken and discarded
metates to pieces o broken pottery is known
at Joya de Cern, as well as the ratio o whole
metates and complete ceramic vessels, and
those ratios can be sed as rogh indicators
at sites where only broken artiacts are ond.
The ragments o wattle-and-dab walls and
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
33/94
32 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
Fig. 44
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
34/94
33 ARTISANRY IN MOTION
grop o things in a particlar place, at a par-ticlar time. Assemblages in place show s
people connecting with other places as part o
condcting their lives. Throgh sing things
in everyday lie, people impart qalities to the
places where they become entangled with
things. These qalities trail along with things
as they circlate rom one place to another, or
as they are kept and sed over time. They may
be seen as lodged in the material rom which
items were madeclay, stone, or boneor
in specic attribtes, sch as color, textre,
or even the sonds things make. People ptthings in place, things link places and people,
and places assemble people, things, and their
associations.
Beore 1100 BC, residents o the earliest
villages known in the ula Valley sed obsid-
ian that came rom regions ar soth, near
the present-day town o La Esperanza, or
most everyday tools, preerring it even when
other local stone wold work. We do not know
all the reasons or their preerence. A orm
o glass, obsidian makes very sharp tools. It
can be banded in white, gray, or brown, or begreen in color, bt most obsidian in Hondras
is black. Its shiny black color and textre, and
its ability to refect a shadowy image, made
obsidian a valed material or mirrors, sed
or divination in later Central American societ-
ies. Its black color was important: people in
The people o ancestral Central Americawere connected to each other throgh
travel, trade, and indirect knowledge
o distant peoples and lands. Hondras pro-
vides examples o a long history o material
connections reaching as ar north as central
Mexico and soth to Panama and Costa Rica.
The ula river valley on the Caribbean coast
was a particlar center o connections with
distant places (Figre 1). Between AD 600
and 1000, people living here prodced a
grop o objects that traveled long distances
north, west, and soth: ula marble vases(Figre 6). Becase these were entangled
with other fows o objects and ideas, n-
derstanding the movement o ula marble
vases helps s gain a better sense o the
many ways pre-Hispanic Central Americans
were connected across the bondaries o
the independent cities, towns, and villages in
which they lived.
Things Assembled in Place
Becase what srvives rom past societies are
things, it is easy to ocs on them in isola-
tion: What are they made o? How were they
made? How were they sed, and by whom?
What meanings did they carry? Yet each thing,
each item, ormed part o an assemblage, a
Artisanry in Motion
Christina Lke and Rosemary A. Joyce
Fig. 44. Pre-Classic
period Maya jar in the
orm o an animal, 300
BCAD 600. Ciudad Vieja
Sacatepquez Departmen
Guatemala. Pottery, clay
slip. MAI purchase rom
Julia M. Rodezno, 1923.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
35/94
Gulf of Mexico
Caribbean Sea
cacao
cacaocacao
Obsidian sourceArchaeological site
Pacific Ocean
San Lorenzo
Paso de la Amada
Cahal Pech
Puerto Escondido
Copan
movement north of
jade and obsidian
Fig. 45
34 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
N
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
36/94
35 ARTISANRY IN MOTION
Fig. 45. Map, circulation o
materials and knowledge
to and rom Honduras,
1100400 BC. Courtesy o
Rosemary A. Joyce.
Fig. 46. Ula River emale
gure, 900200 BC.
Campo Dos (United Fruit
Company Farm 2), Corts
Department, Honduras.
Pottery. Collected or exca
vated by Gregory Mason,
acquired by MAI, 1932.
early villages o the ula Valley paired it withwhite marine shell in bried oerings below
hose foors, deposited in ritals to give lie to
the bildings (Joyce, 2011).
Ater 1100 BC, at ula Valley villages like
Perto Escondido and Playa de los Mertos,
obsidian rom highland Gatemala replaced
some material rom closer sorces (Joyce and
Henderson, 2010). Along the same rotes,
by 900 BC, people in these villages obtained
jade, the hard green stone prized or millen-
nia thereater throghot Central America.
Emerging rom the montains bordering theMotaga River in eastern Gatemala (Bishop,
Sayre, and Mishara, 1993), jade oered a color
that refected the green o vegetation, the
ble o water. Valed or its color, sheen, and
hardness throghot Central America into
the 16th centry AD, jade did not dominate
Hondran material cltre as mch as it did
elsewhere.
At Perto Escondido, beore the rst
trace o jade was seen, villagers were already
carving white stone: marble, rom the nearby
montains (Lke et al., 2003). They workedstone into vessels sharing the shape o pot-
tery bowls sed to serve ood both everyday
and when easts were held to mark particlar
events in the lives o people, bildings, and
commnities. At easts they served drinks
made rom cacao pods, beverages whose
distinctive red-brown color and oamy sraceappear, mch later, in manscripts painted
in Mexico ater AD 1000 showing men and
women marking marital alliances (Figre 44).
The locally made bottles and bowls
employed in easts in early ula villages
incorporated signs o knowledge o distant
places (Joyce and Henderson, 2010). Incised
or deeply carved, and highlighted with red
pigment to glow against the black, gray, or
tan sraces o vessels, were prole heads o
sharks, crocodilians, or beings with hman
eatres, mixed with others showing theywere more than everyday people and animals.
Carved stamps were sed to paint related
signs on the body or clothing. The imagery
recalls pottery made in distant places at the
same time, rom Tlatilco in central Mexico to
San Lorenzo on the Mexican Gl Coast, Paso
de la Amada on the Pacic Coast, and Cahal
Pech in the Belize river valley (Figre 45).
Across a wide region, encompassing peoples
with many dierent histories and cltres, the
se o this imagery sggests common con-
ceptions o the spirital world and the place
o hmans in it. Locally made, vessels with
sch images testiy to knowledge gained by
participating in exchanges o materials (obsid-
ian, jade, cacao, and shell) and social relations
(marriages, trading partnerships, and religios
practices).
Fig. 46
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
37/94
36 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
jade and or practices like the se o stamps.Some materials, sch as obsidian, were
widely sed in everyday lie. In other cases,
rare materials, great artisanry, and meaning-
l imagery broght together in exemplary
objects mark some places and social grops
as dierent rom others locally, and con-
nected to distant peers.
Geographies of Color
Jade objects provide one example o con-nections. Between 900 and 400 BC, a ew
jade objects rom Mexican workshops already
moved throgh networks that broght them
to Hondras and Costa Rica. Ater AD 250,
jade plaqes intended to hang rom belts
and carved with images and texts typical o
the early Classic Maya cltre, ended p in
Costa Rica, oten re-ct into new orms. In
both cases, the jades were objects sed by
an exclsive social grop. The trac in these
rare lxries may have occrred when they no
longer held their original importance or thesorce grops.
In contrast, the prodction and circla-
tion o ula marble vases is an example o a
lxry crat prodct exchanged with comm-
nities rom Gatemala to Costa Rica (Figre
48) while the workshops in the ula river
From this shared legacy, residents o ulaValley villages developed new orms o locally
rooted visal cltre ater 900 BC. Hand-
modeled grines highlighting stages in the
lie corse, rom birth to old age (Figre 46),
nderline the importance o amily connec-
tions in arming villages like these (Joyce,
2003). Stamps and cylindrical seals empha-
size novel imagery, like monkeys (Figre 47),
while contining the practice o stamping
clothing or the body.
The most striking indication o contined
connections linking the ula Valley to villagesand towns to the west comes in the orm
o monmental stone sclptre and jade
objects made ater 900 BC, likely available
to ewer members o these societies (Joyce
and Henderson, 2010). At Los Naranjos at the
sothern end o the ula Valley, the villag-
ers constrcted a twenty-meter-tall earthen
platorm fanked by stone sclptres showing
the shark, the caiman, and a hman being in a
rital transormation pose. One person wear-
ing a jade belt and headdress with wide jade
disk ornaments, a costme shared by a ew
people in villages rom Chiapas to the Gl
Coast o Mexico, received a privileged brial
in this platorm.
Connections orged across Central
America throgh social ties are visible in pre-
erences these ties promoted or materials like
Fig. 47. Maya stamp
with monkey design, 900
BCAD 400. Ro Ula
valley, Honduras. Pottery.MAI purchase rom an
unknown source, 1926.
Fig. 48. Map, circulation
o materials and objects
to and rom Honduras,
5001500 AD. Courtesy o
Rosemary A. Joyce.
Fig. 47
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
38/94
37 ARTISANRY IN MOTION
Gulf of Mexico
Caribbean Sea
Ula style marble vase
found outside Ulua Valley
Archaeological site
Travesia
gold work
Pacific Ocean
jade source
Fig. 48
N
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
39/94
Fig. 49. Ula River bowlwith animal-egy handles,
AD 600900. Ro Ula val-
ley, Honduras. Marble. Git
o the Viking Fund, Inc.
(Wenner-Gren Foundation
or Anthropological
Research), 1949.
Fig. 50. Ula River vessel,
AD 600900. Banks o
the Ula River, Honduras.
Marble. Formerly in the
collection o the Governor
o the Honduran Province
o Cortes, purchased orGeorge Heye by Marshall
H. Saville, 1915.
Fig. 51. Ula River ves-
sel with eline-egy
handles, AD 600900. Ro
Ula, Honduras. Marble.
Purchased or George
Heye by Marshall H.
Saville rom an unknown
source, 1915.
Fig. 52. Ula River tripod
bowl with jaguar-paw
design, AD 850950.Ro Ula valley, Corts
Department, Honduras.
Pottery, clay slip, paint.
MAI purchase rom N.
Hasbun, 1969.
38 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
Fig. 50
Fig. 51 Fig. 52
Fig. 49
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
40/94
39 ARTISANRY IN MOTION
the sacred montain, making it portable andsbject to maniplation (Lke, 2012).
Stepped designs incised or carved on the
base o ula marble vases (Figre 50) evoke
a montainos place that spports a sper-
natral realm, portrayed on the body o the
vase, covered in nely sclpted and incised
voltes. Symbols o mist rising rom water-
alls, rapids rshing, or the cool winds blowing
rom sbterranean chambers, voltes evoke
these places and the spirital spheres to
which they provide access. A ll rontal ace
emerging rom the voltes on many vases(Figre 6) may be a hman being participat-
ing in rital, an ancestor, or a spirit o place.
ula marble vases eatre lg handles
in the orm o monkeys, birds, igana-like or
crocodilian creatres, and large cats (Figre
51). These creatres also orm part o the
imagery o contemporary ula polychrome
pottery, where they may reerence stories o
spernatral beings, some specic to one
amily, others shared by commnities, and
still others widely known across the region
(Figre 52).Some ula polychrome vases made
starting arond AD 600650, early in the
history o ula marble vases, also have ring
bases with carved or painted motis that
recall montains and caves (Figre 53). Dal
lg handles in the orm o bird and monkey
valley were still in prodction (Lke, 2010).Classic ula marble vases convey connec-
tions to a geographic eatre o symbolic
importance throghot Central America: the
animate montain (Lke, 2012). ula marble
vases were made in a small nmber o orms,
most oten tall or short cylinders, with highly
consistent carved motis, inclding elds o
scrolls or voltes rom which rontal aces
emerge, and were sally provided with
pairs o modeled lg handles in the orm
o antastic animals (Figre 49). The volte
or scroll invokes breath and water in variosorms: mist, rain, rivers, lakes, symbolized by
the color white.
The standardization and limited nmber
o marble vases known (ewer than 200)
sggest prodction in a mltigenerational
workshop, each generation training a handl
o master artisans (Lke and Tykot, 2007).
Marble workshops existed at Travesa, in the
ula Valley, a place that was deliberately
related to sacred montains. The main bild-
ings at Travesaplastered all over in thick
white stccowere oriented on axes pointing
soth to the great montain o Santa Barbara,
and intersecting the points on the eastern
and western horizon where the sn rose and
set on the winter solstice (Lopiparo, 2006;
Joyce et al., 2009). The marble vases made
in workshops at Travesa literally embodied
Fig. 54
Fig. 53. Ula River vessel
with vulture-egy han-
dles, AD 550650. Ro Ul
valley, Honduras. Pottery,
clay slip, paint. Git o Joh
S. Williams, 1955.
Fig. 54. Ula River mon-
key-egy tripod vessel,
AD 650750. Comayagua
Comayagua Department,Honduras. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. Git o Edgar O
Smith, 1972.
Fig. 53
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
41/94
Fig. 55. Greater Nicoyajar, AD 500800. Ro Ula
valley, Corts Department,
Honduras. Pottery, clay
slip, paint. MAI purchase
rom Enrique Vargas
Alaro, 1969.
40 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
Fig. 55
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
42/94
Hondran jades associated with ula marble
vases were ond in Costa Rica (Stone, 1977),
and at Maya sites inclding Altn Ha and
Chichn Itz (Joyce, 1993; Hirth and Grant
Hirth, 1993).
By cltivating a taste or objects rom
exotic places, and signaling dierence
throgh distinctions in color, a network oinfential amilies propagated interest in yet
another color and the material that embod-
ied it: gold. A marble vase bried in the ula
Valley contained a Maya jade piece and a
Costa Rican or Panamanian gold gre. Gold-
alloy objects rom these areas were conveyed
as ar as the Maya cities o Copn, Altn Ha,
and Chichn Itz, oten in company with
prodcts o the Hondran white stonecrat in
marble and albitic jade. Among participants in
this 8th-to-9th-centry network, a cosmopoli-
tan set o aesthetic preerences was shapedthat can only be appreciated rom a regional
perspective. Once ormed, that cosmopolitan
regional network endred, even i its later
traces have been less recognized.
heads strengthen the parallel to marble vases
(Figre 54). Hman gres on pottery vases
are normally shown in prole. Drawn inside
rectanglar or rond panels, they may also
reer to crossing between the everyday and
spernatral realms.
The interplay o white marble and ml-
ticolored painted pottery prodced a visal
cltre in places like Travesa and CerroPalenqe that was distinctively rooted in the
ula landscape, emphasizing the mon-
tains and rivers, and selectively presenting
mythologically important animals: monkeys,
elines, and specic birds. Preerring colors
not typically sed by neighboring peoples,
ula artisans created works that cold be val-
ed in other areas or their dierence, even as
they served within the ula to commnicate
locally resonant symbolic vales sggested
by their white color (Lke, 2010). Green jade
was de-emphasized in Hondras in avor owhitish-colored albitic jade (Hirth and Grant
Hirth, 1993).
ula marble vases, the ltimate realiza-
tion o the Hondran emphasis on white
stone, moved rom the ula Valley to the
Nicoya region o Costa Rica as early as the 8th
centry AD (Lke, 2010). At the same time,
artisans in Costa Rica created local poly-
chrome vases emlating specic examples o
ula polychrome vases (Joyce, 1993), incld-
ing a cylinder with monkey-head lgs closely
related to ula marble vases and othersdepicting elines and cats (Figre 55). ula
marble vases appear in Belize and Gatemala
somewhat later, in the 9th centry AD. At
uaxactn, Altn Ha, and San Jos, Belize,
they were sed by residents o palaces, some-
times along with Classic Maya white stone
vases carved with Maya inscriptions.
These were exchanges almost certainly
taking place between specic amilies: nobles
in Belize and Gatemala and the wealthy in
the ula and Nicoya regions. The exchanges
that we see hint at others, o perishable
goods: cacao, eathers, cotton, and bark
paper. Objects o artisanry moved in all direc-
tions. ula marble vases bried in sites near
Travesa contained jades originating in Costa
Rica and the Maya area (Figre 56), as well
as others o Hondran style (Lke, 2010).
Fig. 56
41 ARTISANRY IN MOTION
Fig. 56. Classic period
Maya male gure,
AD 250900. Honduras.
Jadeite. Purchased by
George Heye rom an
unknown source, 1907.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
43/94
42 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
amilies rom societies with dierent levels oineqality, among people o distinct cltral
traditions and histories and speaking mltiple
langages. The sonds o the bells these
people wore dring ceremonies echoed with
the long histories o conversations among
their ancestors, who created a network o
social ties that endred, while changing, over
thosands o years.
While not everyone cold physically travel
rom place to place, oreign places cold be
nderstood throgh the exchange o physical
objects, the transer o ideas, and adapta-tion in local traditions (Figre 59). Sharing o
imagery refects knowledge nderstood to
varying degrees throghot Central America.
The transer o objects traces more concrete
historical linkages o economic exchange,
kinship, and rital participation. Tight con-
nections were ormed by the circlation o
marbles, jades, gold and copper objects, the
prodcts o skilled artisans working at their
crat in societies both highly stratied, like the
Classic Maya, and others, as in Hondras and
Costa Rica, where dierences in wealth andstats may not have been as sharp.
Geographies of Sound
Metal objects introdced a rther sensory
dimension, one o sond (Hosler, 1994). As
with color, metalworking shows local preer-
ences amid patterns o regional exchange.
The people o Caribbean-coast Hondras did
not exploit locally abndant gold, bt sed
copper metallrgy ater AD 1000 to prodce a
wide range o bells (Figre 57), engaging crat
skill to prodce objects that traveled ar rom
their origin in the priver canyons o the ula
and Chamelecn rivers.Individal copper bells made o Hondran
ore (Figre 58) were broght to Chichn Itz
in Ycatn, where they were thrown into the
sacred well rom which the site gained its
name (Coggins, 1984). Traces o Hondran
ore have been detected in metal objects cast
rom melted pieces at Mayapn, Ycatn
(Paris, 2008). The coastal Caribbean trade in
Hondran bells broght to the Chamelecn
river valley an extraordinary trqoise mosaic
mask, the only example o this Mexican
crat known rom so ar soth. While ewer
sites rom this period have been identied
by archaeologists, we know that in the 16th
centry northern Hondras contined to
maintain coastal connections with the Maya
o Ycatn, throgh which metal objects,
cotton, eathers, and cacao fowed between
Fig. 57 Fig. 58
Fig. 57. Pipil bell,
AD 12001500. Quemistlan
Bell Cave, Ro Chamelecn
valley, Honduras. Copper.
Collected in 1910 by
Andrew H. Blackiston;
purchased by George
Heye, 1914.
Fig. 58. Pipil bell,
AD 12001500. QuemistlanBell Cave, Ro Chamelecn
valley, Honduras. Copper.
Collected in 1910 by
Andrew H. Blackiston;
purchased by George
Heye, 1914.
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
44/94
43 ARTISANRY IN MOTION
Fig. 59. Greater Nicoyabowl, AD 8001350.
Filadela, Guanacaste
Province, Costa Rica.
Pottery, clay slip, paint.
MAI purchase rom Jorge
Castillo, 1965.
Fig. 59
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
45/94
44 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
Fig. 60
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
46/94
45 AUTHORITY
carved grinding platorms (Figre 62). Wecan intit the natre o athority rom reports
made at the time o Spanish contact and rom
the stdy o living descendant grops (e.g.,
Skinner, 1920).
Throghot the region, we see evidence
that social and religios or spirital athor-
ity were intimately related. The prodcts
o skilled artisans, with imagery refecting
religios and spirital concepts, were sed by
people who established and exercised their
Athority in ancestral Central Americaranged rom the absolte politi-
cal power o Maya ajawb (kings) to
the athority exercised by respected elder
women or men in clans and other kinship
grops. Althogh political, religios, and
socioeconomic athority is the most appar-
ent, athority also resided in the heads o indi-
vidal hoseholds, local traditional keepers
and healers, and even in armers, shers, and
hnters who preserved specic lieways and
cstoms.
In highly stratied societies sch as theClassic Maya, each major settlement (sch
as Tikal, Copn, Palenqe) had a powerl,
centralized rler (Figre 60). However, they
were never sbject to a single emperor or ni-
ying ideology, so each rler had the ability to
articlate athority in niqe ways. Dominant
lineages competed with each other or access
to resorces, trade rotes, agricltral lands,
and hman labor, reslting in signicant lev-
els o warare and achievements recorded in
glyphs (Martin and Grbe, 2008; Figre 61).
Given the absence o written records, wehave mch less inormation abot indi-
vidal rlers and their lineages in non-Maya
parts o Central America. However, in the
archaeological record we can see evidence
o athority in residences, elaborate tombs,
and special objects, sch as the elaborately
Authority
John W. Hoopes
Fig. 60. Classic period
Maya vessel depict-
ing a nobleman carried
on a palanquin, AD
600900. Nebaj, Quich
Department, Guatemala.
Pottery, paint. MAI
exchange with Robert L.
Stolper, 1969.
Fig. 61. Classic period
Maya vessel with glyph
design, AD 600900. Pet
Department, Guatemala.
Pottery, paint. MAI
exchange with James
Economos, 1973.
Fig. 61
7/27/2019 Revealing Ancestral Central America, By Rosemary a. Joyce
47/94
46 REVEALING ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
knowledge and skills at healing. As Tassigwrites: The wonder o mimesis is in the copy
drawing on the character and power o the
original, to the point whereby the represen-
tation may even assme that character and
power (Figre 64).
Symbols o athority can oten be
interpreted as imitations o respected
ancestors or orebears. The coronation o
Napolon Bonaparte, or example, eatred
the emperor wearing elements o ancient
Greek dress, inclding a golden crown o
larel leaves. In so doing, he was imitatinghis hero, Alexander the Great. In a similar
ashion, athorities in ancient Central America
imitated their orebears, oten dressing in
archaic costmes or perorming ritals that
we can recognize as having been perormed
in mch earlier times. In so doing, athori-
ties become and behave like their ancestors,
establishing continities that jstiy and legiti-
mize their power. Mimesis can be maniest
in objects that are sed to imitate and, in so
doing, express and commnicate athority. In
Nicaraga, or example, a representation instone o a hated ax, which is not sable as a
tool, mimics the orm o an ax, and was prob-
ably made to be sed as a symbol o athority
(Figre 65).
Alterity is recognition o the other in
contrast to the sel. A person who ses objects
athority throgh the things they did withthese objects (Figre 63). Today, we can se
these things to help s nderstand the many
orms o athority that existed in pre-Hispanic
Central America.
Mimesis and Alterity in the
Representation of Authority
Althogh athority oten derived rom
kinship and reerences to ltimate ori-
gins, these reqired constant expression,explanation, and jstication. Athority was
thereore accompanied by the manipla-
tion o symbols sed to obtain, represent,
and exercise power. Michael Tassig (1993)
has sed the terms mmess and aleryto
highlight the isses involved. Althogh his
analysis ocsed on wooden sclptres sed
in contemporary religios ritals by the Kna
o northern Panama, and on decorations
applied to their textile mlas, the principles
he articlated are also helpl or interpreting
ancestral material cltre.
Mimesis is imitation: to become and
behave like something else (Benjamin, 1933).
A person who is not a doctor bt who dons
a white coat and a stethoscope is miming a
physician and might even be sccessl at
persading others that she or he actally has
Fig. 62. Greater Chiriqu