Next Meeting of the Pre-Columbian Society
Saturday, March 13, 2010, 1:30 PM, Room 345
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology:
Dr. Wendy Bacon, "Xultun: A Cyclical Pattern of Stelae Erection
Over 250 Years"
Although
Xultun’s 450 years of elaborately inscribed monuments have been known
since the 1920s, the site remains a mystery, thanks mainly to looting
during the 1970s. Positioned strategically, midway from Calakmul
to its ally Caracol yet close to rival Tikal, Xultun must have been
pulled into the conflict between these lowland superpowers. The effects
on Xultun can be seen in the history of monument erection there.
In one plaza, the kings of ancient Xultun placed 7 stelae in a pattern,
cyclical in both time and in space, over 250 years. Temporally, the
stelae commemorated the endings of time periods one and one-half
k’atuns, or about 30 years apart. Spatially, the stelae were
erected in a counterclockwise circuit around the plaza, causing
confusion in dating them only recently resolved. The temporal and
spatial cyclicity of Xultun’s monuments has implications for how the
ancient Maya conceptualized time itself. New interest in the site
of San Bartolo, only 8 km away, might prompt a more thorough
investigation of Xultun.
Wendy Bacon is a native of New Hope,
Pennsylvania, and has worked in cultural resource management as well as
various departments of the University Museum, including the Archives
and the American Section. She has excavated at historic and prehistoric
sites in Saint Joseph, Missouri, Essington, Pennsylvania and Nauvoo,
Illinois. Dr. Bacon also excavated at the Maya sites of Nohmul,
Pusilha, ChacBen Kax and Santa Rita Corozal in Belize.
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