Archaeology at El Perú Waka'
Subtitle: ancient Maya performances of ritual, memory, and power
By: edited by Olivia C. Navarro-Farr and Michelle Rich
Series: Native peoples of the Americas
Publisher: The University of Arizona Press
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Tucson
Language: eng
Number of pages: 278
ISBN-13: 9780816530960
Subjects: Mayas; Antiquities; Excavations (Archaeology); Rites and ceremonies; History; Memory; Power (Social sciences); Social archaeology; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology
Description: "Archaeology at El Perú Waka' is the first book to summarize long-term research at this major Maya site. The results of fieldwork and subsequent analyses conducted by members of the El Perú Waka' Regional Archaeological Project are coupled with theoretical approaches treating the topics of ritual, memory, and power as deciphered through material remains discovered at Waka'.  The book is site-centered, yet the fifteen wide-ranging contributions offer readers greater insight to the richness and complexity of Classic-period Maya culture, as well as to the ways in which archaeologists believe ancient peoples negotiated their ritual lives and comprehended their own pasts. El Perú Waka' is an ancient Maya city located in present-day northwestern Peten, Guatemala. Rediscovered by petroleum exploration workers in the mid-1960s, it is the largest known archaeological site in the Laguna del Tigre National Park in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve. The El Perú Waka' Regional Archaeological Project initiated scientific investigations in 2003, and through excavation and survey, researchers established that Waka' was a key political and economic center well integrated into Classic-period lowland Maya civilization, and reconstructed many aspects of Maya life and ritual activity in this ancient community. The research detailed in this volume provides a wealth of new, substantive, and scientifically excavated data, which contributors approach with fresh theoretical insights. In the process, they lay out sound strategies for understanding the ritual manipulation of monuments, landscapes, buildings, objects, and memories, as well as related topics encompassing the performance and negotiation of power throughout the city's extensive sociopolitical history"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-262) and index.
Table of contents: title: Chapter 1. Ritual, Memory, and Power among the Maya and at Classic Period El Perú-Waka' / Michelle Rich and Olivia Navarro-Farr; title: Chapter 2. Stelae, Buildings, and People : Reflections on Ritual in the Archaeological Record at El Perú-Waka' / David A. Freidel and Héctor L. Escobedo; title: Chapter 3. A Palimpsest Effect : The Multi-Layered Meanings of Late-to-Terminal Classic Era Above-Floor Deposits at Structure M13-1 / Olivia C. Navarro-Farr and Ana Lucía Arroyave Prera; title: Chapter 4. Royal Alliances, Ritual Behavior, and the Abandonment of the Royal Couple Building at El Perú-Waka' / Mary Jane Acuña; title: Chapter 5. The Power of the Past : Crafting Meaning at a Royal Funerary Pyramid / Michelle Rich and Varinia Matute Rodríguez; title: Chapter 6. Ritual and Remembrance at the Northwest Palace Complex, El Perú-Waka' / David F. Lee and Jennifer C. Piehl; title: Chapter 7. The Ballcourt Complex at El Perú / Juan Carlos Meléndeez Mollinedo; title: Chapter 8. Ritual Narratives from El Perú-Waka' : Ceremonial Deposits in Non-Royal, Elite Contexts / Keith Eppich; title: Chapter 9. Sansamal Performance : Variability in Ritual Contexts at El Perú-Waka' / Damien B. Marken; title: Chapter 10. The Epigraphy of El Perú-Waka' / Stanley Paul Guenter; title: Chapter 11. Flint for the Dead : Ritual Deposition of Production Debitage from El Perú-Waka', Burial 39 / Zachary Hruby and Michelle Rich; title: Chapter 12. The Noblewomen of Waka' : Mortuary and Osteological Insights into the Construction of Gender, Identity, and Power / Jennifer Piehl, David Lee, and Michelle Rich; title: Chapter 13. Surveying Landscapes of Power and Ritual at Waka' / Evangelina Tsesmeli; title: Chapter 14. Action, Thought, and Negotiation in Ritual : A Commentary / Takeshi Inomata; title: Epilogue / David A. Freidel and Héctor L. Escobedo.