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Can We Read Cosmology in Ancient Maya City Plans? Comment on Ashmore and Sabloff 0~rlprr CAN WE READ COSMOLOGY IN ANCIENT MAYA CITY PLANS? COMMENT ON ASHMORE AND SABLOFF Michael E. Smith Argumentsfor the cosmological significance of ancient Maya city layouts are plausible, but empirical applications are sub- jective and lack rigor. I illustrate this contention through brief comments on a recent article by Ashmore and Sabloff. I first discuss some of the complexities and pitfalls in studying cosmology from ancient city plans, and then focus on one compo- nent of the authors' cosmological model-the hypothesized north-south axis at Classic Maya cities. My goal is not to down- play or rule out the role of cosmology in Maya city planning, but rather to encourage the use of explicit assumptions and rigorous methods that will provide the study of Maya city planning with a more secure empirical foundation. Los argumentos para el significado cosmologico de las trazas de las ciudades antiguas mayas son plausibles, pero las apli- caciones empiricas son subjetivas y carecen de rigor Ilustro este idea con unos comentarios sobre un articulo reciente de Ash- more y Sabloff. Primero discuto algunas de las complejidades y problemas en el estudio de la cosmologia basado en los planos de las ciudades antiguas. Segundo, examino una parte del modelo cosmologico de los autores-el propuesto eje norte-sur en las ciudades mayas. Mi objetivo no es disminuir ni negar el papel de la cosmologia en la planeaci6n urbana Maya; mds bien es fomentar el uso de asunciones explicitas y metodos rigurosos para dar al estudio de la planeacion urbana una fundacion empirica mds segura. n a recent paper,Ashmore and Sabloff argue who agree with them. In this comment I first that the "positionand arrangementof ancient explore some of the complexitiesof studyingcos- Maya buildings and arenas emphatically mology from ancientcity plans. I then addressone express statementsabout cosmology and political componentof Ashmoreand Sabloff's cosmologi- order"(Ashmore and Sabloff 2002:201); see also cal model-the hypothesizednorth-south axis of the Spanishversion (Ashmoreand Sabloff 2000). Classic Maya cities. Given currentunderstandings of Mesoamerican And Ancient Urban cultures-and of ancient urban societies in gen- Cosmology Planning eral-it is certainlyplausible to suggest a role for The planning and layouts of ancient cities have thesetwo forcesin theplanning and layout of Maya long fascinatedarchaeologists, architects, and other cities.Personally, I agreewith Ashmore and Sabloff scholars.Site maps often suggest thatsome sortof thatcosmology must have played a role in gener- spatialorder existed in ancientcities, but scholars ating the layouts of cities among the Maya and have yet to develop systematicapproaches to the other Mesoamericansocieties. Nevertheless, the study of the natureand origin of that order.The argumentsthey present for the influence of cos- influenceof cosmology,symbolism, and metaphor mology are vague, weak, andunconvincing. What on ancient urban plans is an especially difficult kind of a role did cosmology play? How large a topic for archaeologists.Some scholarsare of the role? Can we reconstructthat role? Insteadof pre- opinion that such researchreveals more aboutthe senting rigorous methods for investigating this minds of modem scholarsthan about the minds of issue, the authorsrely upon assertionsand subjec- the ancients (e.g., Flannery and Marcus 1993; tive judgmentsbacked not by empiricalevidence Kemp2000; Prem2000). Forthis reason,research but by uncriticalcitations of the works of others in this arearequires rigorous and explicit methods Michael E. Smith * Departmentof Anthropology,University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY 12222 (mesmith@ c sc.albany.edu) Latin AmericanAntiquity, 14(2), 2003, pp. 221-228 CopyrightO2003 by the Society for AmericanArchaeology 221 This content downloaded from 129.219.247.33 on Sat, 7 Sep 2013 16:11:51 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 222 LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 14, No. 2, 2003] if it is to have credibilitywithin the archaeological furnisheswhat may be the only directevidence for community. the explicit use of astronomicalor cosmological Threeurban traditions of the ancientworld are factors in the planningand layout of Mesoameri- particularlynotable in comparativeperspective for can urban architecture. A statement in the the large role played by cosmology in city plan- "MotoliniaInsert no. 1,"a documentpublished in ning-China, India, and Cambodia.These urban FriarMotolinia's (1971:51) Memoriales,suggests traditionsshare several characteristics: the layouts that Motecuhzomahad partof the TemploMayor of numerouscities andpublic buildings within each torn down and rebuiltso that the sun would rise traditionexhibit close similarities,there are ancient directlyover the temple of Huitzilopochtlion the textualdescriptions and images of the layoutof the equinox.' cosmos, thereare plans and descriptions of the lay- Assumingfor the sake of argumentthat the cos- out of the ideal city, and there are ancienttextual movision scholars have correctly interpretedthe sources stating that rulers deliberatelyfollowed cosmological significance of the Templo Mayor, cosmological models in laying out their capital can their results be extended to the whole city of cities (for Chinasee Chang 1976;Steinhardt 1990; Tenochtitlan?For some authorsthis is a straight- Wheatley 1971; for India see Allchin 1995; Con- forward interpretation.The passage of the sun ingham 2000; Spodek and Srinivasan 1993; for across the sky was one of the most importantele- Cambodia see Dumarcay and Royere 2001; ments of Aztec cosmology (e.g., Graulich1997), Higham2000, 2002; Mannikka1996). and it seems natural to interpret the east-west In an earlierpaper Ashmore (1992:173) classi- avenuesand alignments of Tenochtitlanin termsof fies the Maya with these Asian urbantraditions as the passage of the sun. As Tenochtitlanis one of a culturein which cosmology played a significant the few Mesoamericancities withorthogonal plan- role in urbanplanning. To me, this does not appear ning,the rolesof cosmology andastronomy would to be a close fit. Apartfrom the existence of a few seem particularlyprominent in its layout (e.g., descriptionsof the spatial layout of the cosmos Brodaet al. 1987; Carrasco1999). But thereis an (mostlyfrom Postclassic codices andcolonial texts, alternativeinterpretation of the grid layout of the not Classic-periodsources), the traitslisted above Aztec capitalfocusing insteadon politicaland his- are lackingfor the Maya and otherMesoamerican toricalfactors. It is clearfrom numerous studies that urbancultures. The similaritiesamong Maya cities the Mexica rulersdrew on images andconcepts of aremuch less strikingthan the resemblances among the ancientClassic-period metropolis of Teotihua- Chinese, Cambodian,and perhaps Indian cities. can to reinforcetheir imperial legitimacy (Carrasco Moreimportantly, there are no survivingtexts from et al. 2000; Lopez Lujan1989; Smithand Montiel anywherein Mesoamericathat describe ideal cities 2001; Umberger1987, 1996). Teotihuacanwas an or the effortsof kings to follow cosmologicalmod- earlierlarge city not far from Tenochtitlanwhose els in laying out theircapitals. orthogonalplanning would have been obvious to The Aztec capitalTenochtitlan illustrates some the Mexica. Given our knowledgeof Mexica atti- of the difficultiesinvolved in identifyingthe role tudestoward Teotihuacan, it would makesense for of cosmology in urbanplanning. Although there is the Mexicarulers to imitateTeotihuacan's grid lay- a largecorpus of documentarysources on Aztec his- out in planningtheir own capitalTenochtitlan, irre- tory and society (Smith2003), thereare only a few spectiveof any cosmological notionsof theirown. scrapsof informationdescribing the nature of urban Or perhapsthe grid layout of the Aztec capital planning.There is a large body of scholarshipon hadnothing to do withthe passage of the sunor with the role of cosmology (usually termed"cosmovi- Teotihuacan,but insteadoriginated for reasonsof sion") in the design and meaning of the Templo energeticefficiency. A gridis the mostefficient lay- Mayorof Tenochtitlan(e.g., Brodaet al. 1987;Car- out for dividing up new land (Carter 1981:151; rasco 1991, 1999; L6pez Lujan 1998; Matos Stanislawski1946). Much of thesurface of theisland Moctezuma 1995), but this researchrelies almost city of Tenochtitlanwas formedby fill broughtfrom exclusively on subjectiveinterpretations of Aztec themainland. The edges of thecity werefarmed with myths and rituals.The Templo Mayor, however, chinampas,agricultural fields with a rectilinearlay- This content downloaded from 129.219.247.33 on Sat, 7 Sep 2013 16:11:51 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions COMMENTS 223 out (Calnek1974, 1976).It seemslogical to assume It is also instructiveto considerthe inverse sit- thatas chinampaswere filled in to accommodatethe uation,in which apparentlymeaningful spatial pat- growingpopulation and prosperity of the city, their terns may have arisen from random factors orthogonallayout would influence or determinethe unrelatedto anycosmological ideas of the builders. arrangementof lots, buildings,and streets. How can Kemp(2000), for example,illustrates a simulation we decidebetween the cosmological,political, and model that generatesurban spatial layouts whose energeticinterpretations of Tenochtitlan'sgrid? I implicationis thatthe apparentlyordered layout of haveno answerto this questionand must admit that residential districts at the Egyptian city of I have resortedto a hybridexplanation
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