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Ancient Mesoamerica RETURN to MOXVIQUIL Ancient Mesoamerica http://journals.cambridge.org/ATM Additional services for Ancient Mesoamerica: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here RETURN TO MOXVIQUIL: FORM AND FUNCTION IN A SMALL MAYA CITY Elizabeth H. Paris, Eric Taladoire and Thomas A. Lee Whiting Ancient Mesoamerica / Volume 26 / Issue 01 / March 2015, pp 81 - 112 DOI: 10.1017/S0956536115000048, Published online: 20 August 2015 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0956536115000048 How to cite this article: Elizabeth H. Paris, Eric Taladoire and Thomas A. Lee Whiting (2015). RETURN TO MOXVIQUIL: FORM AND FUNCTION IN A SMALL MAYA CITY. Ancient Mesoamerica, 26, pp 81-112 doi:10.1017/S0956536115000048 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ATM, IP address: 68.102.113.57 on 21 Aug 2015 Ancient Mesoamerica, 26 (2015), 81–112 Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2015 doi:10.1017/S0956536115000048 RETURN TO MOXVIQUIL: FORM AND FUNCTION IN A SMALL MAYA CITY Elizabeth H. Paris,a Eric Taladoire,b and Thomas A. Lee Whitingc† aDepartment of Anthropology, St. Lawrence University, Piskor 114, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, New York, 13617 bUMR 8096 Archéologie des Amériques, Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France cUniversidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas, Departamento de Arqueología, Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, México Abstract The excavations of Frans Blom and Clarence Weiant at the small hilltop site of Moxviquil in the early 1950s represent one of the pioneering archaeological projects in highland Chiapas. The results of their excavations, which were minimally published, provide important data on one of the largest Late Classic-Early Postclassic communities in the region. In this paper, we reconsider Moxviquil in light of recent scholarship on Maya urbanism, and present new interpretations of the site as a small city that fulfilled a diversified set of urban functions for residents both within the monumental zone itself, and in the surrounding hinterland areas. Consistent with its likely role as the administrative center of a small, independent highland polity, the monumental center of Moxviquil likely served political, economic, and ritual functions; was an important nucleus of residential settlement; and supported a wide range of household-based craft production and food preparation activities. We dedicate this manuscript to the memory of our co-author and studies of urbanism in modern and archaic state societies. colleague, Thomas A. Lee Whiting, who did not live long Although many scholars have traditionally defined ancient cities enough to see his ilusión turned into a reality. through criteria of large size and high population density (Childe Ever since the early days of Mesoamerican archaeology, monumen- 1974; Marcus 1983; Sanders and Webster 1988; Sjoberg 1960; tal centers have held a particular fascination for scholars. The Webster and Sanders 2001), they may also be defined by their reasons for their scholarly allure have been mixed and variable spatial and social heterogeneity (Marcus 1983; Wirth 1938), the over time: their imposing public architecture, their elaborate variety of functions, including economic functions, that they tombs filled with luxury goods, their role as dynastic seats of fulfill for both urban and hinterland residents (Childe 1974;Fox power, or as economic central places. Recent debates have centered 1977; Smith 1989, 2002; Weber 1958), and the diversity of activi- on the role of these monumental centers as preindustrial urban ties performed at them by both residents and visitors. This complex- spaces. Particularly in the Maya cultural area, however, questions ity and diversity are reflected in the ways that ancient cities of spatial and social organization have centered on the superlatively functioned as economic core centers, serving as commercial / large and complex examples of Maya cities. The more numerous centers with marketplaces, shops, and or peddlers, as well as “ ” smaller monumental centers of the Maya region are rarely consid- nodes in city systems of long-distance trade networks with ered as urban places; yet, while smaller and less complex than other cities (Kowalewski 1990; Smith 2005); serving as administra- their larger counterparts, they, too, often fulfilled important politi- tive centers for the collection and redistribution of taxes or tribute cal, economic, and religious functions for their surrounding payments (Childe 1974); enabling specialized artisan and merchant populations. In this paper, we appraise the site of Moxviquil, a professions (Childe 1974); exerting direct and indirect influence small hilltop monumental center in the highlands of Chiapas, over hinterland areas (Nichols and Charlton 1997; Yoffee 1995); Mexico, and suggest that it fulfilled a diverse range of urban func- and representing a spatially concentrated population of urban tions for its surrounding hinterland. Considering the range of Maya consumers. urban forms and functions, including small cities and towns such as Significant shifts in scholarly views over the past 30 years have Moxviquil, gives us a far more robust picture of lifeways in the resulted in the recognition of Maya urban centers that performed ancient Mesoamerican world. complex economic, social, and political functions (Andrews 1975; Aoyama 1999; Chase and Chase 2007; Chase, Chase and Smith MONUMENTAL CENTERS, CITIES, AND TOWNS IN 1990; Chase et al. 2009, 2011; Dahlin and Ardren 2002; Folan ANCIENT MESOAMERICA 1992; Folan et al. 1983; Guillemin 1977; Hare and Masson 2012; Haviland 1970; Marcus 1983; Masson and Peraza Lope 2004, Many scholars define Mesoamerican cities using measures of com- 2014; Masson and Freidel 2012, 2013 [and compare against plexity and diversity, criteria that are derived from cross-cultural Sanders and Webster 1988; Webster and Sanders 2001]). Functional definitions of urbanism recognize the diversity of cere- E-mail correspondence to: [email protected] monial, civic, and residential structures in Maya cities and the use 81 82 Paris et al. of a dispersed, rather than orthogonal, city plan (Andrews 1975; only a few specialized craft activities (Smith 2008:182). Hirth Marcus 1983; Smith 2011). Such models also recognize a diverse (2000:279) argues the Early Postclassic city of Xochicalco was pre- range of urban features in Maya cities such as neighborhoods or dominantly an administrative and commercial center, and that its barrios (Chase 1992; Masson and Peraza Lope 2014; Smith residents were primarily consumers, rather than producers of 2011; Smith et al. 2012), internal streets and roads (Bullard 1954; goods; craft production activities at the site consisted mainly of ob- Chase and Chase 2001; Keller 2011; Masson and Peraza Lope sidian tool production and the creation of sumptuary goods from 2014; Russell 2008), marketplaces (Dahlin et al. 2007, 2010; marble, slate, and other semiprecious materials. Similar patterns Masson and Freidel 2012; Ruppert 1970), and urban water manage- have been noted for the Maya cultural area, particularly for sites ment systems (Barnhart 2001). Recent research has abandoned in Belize, where scholars have recently focused on these theoretical overly typological schemes (Fox 1977) that characterize Maya concerns. The Classic-period component of Colha (Hester and cities as “regal-ritual centers” with few bureaucratic or economic Shafer 1984; Shafer and Hester 1983, 1986, 1991) in central functions, instead favoring approaches that recognize the spatial Belize represents an example of a specialized chert tool production complexity and functional diversity of Maya cities. center, while the Classic-period site of X-ual-canil in the Belize Employing a functional definition of urbanism enables a consid- Valley represents a specialized administrative center for water man- eration of variation in the type, number, and various combinations agement (Iannone 2003:25). Conversely, other cities and towns, in- of functions found in Maya cities (Smith 2008). A functional defi- cluding larger cities such as Xunantunich, Cahal Pech, Caracol, and nition of urbanism permits greater comparisons between the forms smaller towns such as Zubin, represent centers where a more diver- and functions of different sizes of urban settlements, from large to sified range of administrative, residential, ritual, and economic small cities and towns. Small cities and towns are at the “middle activities took place. level of settlement” (Iannone and Connell 2003:3) between the ex- Rather than two discrete categories of minor centers, the degree tremes of large cities and dispersed rural residences. It is also worth to which centers had a specialized versus diversified function recognizing that cities and towns may grow and change over time, should be considered as the endpoints on a continuum of variation. and that in some cases, “minor centers” may be absorbed into the Multiple lines of data can be used to evaluate the degree of special- settlement of these larger urban centers as they expanded in size, ized site functions, including architecture, artifacts, mortuary depos- often performing administrative functions for outlying neighbor- its, and settlement patterns (Iannone 2003:14). For example, lines of hoods or barrios (Laporte 2003; Marcus 1973). evidence used by the investigators to suggest that X-ual-canil had a A more recent focus on smaller cities and towns in ancient specialized water management and administrative
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