We present a synthesis of treatment of the dead from before 700 b.c. to the fifteenth century a.d. in the lower Ulúa River Valley of northern Honduras. Building on evidence of burial alignments to a prominent mountain first identified for the Classic period, we argue that mortuary rituals served to integrate politically independent communities within a shared cosmological landscape. We identify alignment of burials toward the same mountain beginning in the Middle Formative period. At this time, a cycle of mortuary treatment resulted in bodies of some of the dead being commingled in shared secondary burial sites in caves, significant locations in the cosmological landscape. During the Classic period, secondary mortuary treatment continued, now performed within settlements again united by orientation to a shared cosmological landscape. The addition of solar alignments may be evidence of adoption by some families of Lowland Maya cosmological beliefs. This impression is solidified in Postclassic burial practices that align closely with those of specific Lowland Maya societies. We argue that the afterlife cycles through which the living interacted with the dead, in a tension between individualization and communal belonging, included strategies through which social relations, community histories, and ties among communities were created.

I present a proposal for the identification of the deities that appear in Glyph C of the Maya Lunar Series as the patrons of the Moon’s phases, based in two arguments. First, there are two cosmological narratives associated with the phases of the Moon. In the first, the Moon dies and is reborn at each new Moon. The waxing phase would be ruled by the Lunar Maize God whom is born just before the first visible crescent, and the Lunar Death God would rule over the waning Moon dying during the last crescent, remaining dead during the Moon’s invisibility period. Second the Moon transforms into a night Sun during the full Moon, which would be represented by the Lunar Jaguar God of the Underworld. This deity would govern over the days around the full Moon, as the nocturnal Sun. The second argument is that, as the calendar controlled by Glyph C was used, at least loosely, to predict eclipses, that occur during the new and the full Moon, and because these syzygies are governed by the proposed deities, the control realm of these gods was extended over the Glyph C semesters, to differentiate them, and reinforce their relationship to eclipses.

This article attempts to clarify the nature and structure of the Nahua otherworlds. It follows in the footsteps of scholars who have demonstrated the inaccuracy of the Sahaguntine view of the Nahua destinations of the dead. The article begins by analyzing multiple Mesoamerican alphabetic and graphic accounts of journeys to the world beyond, and concludes that the Nahua divided their supernatural dimension into two parts, classified by the numbers eight and nine. “Eight” described a realm of communication with the gods, while “nine”—a realm of destruction and subsequent transformation into new life. Next, the article proposes that concepts such as Mictlan, Tlalocan, or Tonatiuh Ichan, traditionally understood as supernatural “regions,” were conceptual domains, each related to a particular space, time, gods, attributes, and potential actions. The article analyzes four of such domains, all related to the metamorphoses of Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl: Tlillan Tlapallan, Tlahuizcalli, Itzmictlan, and Chiucnauhnepaniuhcan. This analysis not only leads to a new way of understanding the Nahua otherworlds as a whole. It also sheds light on the life cycle of the key Nahua god and his mysterious “destination,” Tlillan Tlapallan.

While conducting archaeological survey to document the large prehistoric canal systems in the central portion of the Tehuacán Valley, investigators recorded a mound and plaza complex that includes what appears to be an effigy mound in the shape of a scorpion. Large quantities of ceramics, including surface-decorated and polychromes, indicate a Late Classic and Postclassic occupation. The site is interpreted as being part of an intensive agricultural system as it appears centrally located in the context of highly developed agricultural and irrigation infrastructure. For the reasons described, we interpret this ca. 60 meter scorpion effigy mound as an intentional feature with possible astronomical alignments. It is hypothesized as being part of a local civic/ceremonial complex with the possible use/function of observing the summer and winter solstices. If so, it provides an insight into the integration of calendrical ritual with the surrounding complex system of fields and irrigation canals. Admittedly, these observations and explanations are relatively subjective. However, we consider them to be persuasive when the evidence is considered in its entirety.

It has often been considered that the representations of the gods in Ancient Central Mexico were purely symbolic and that we should not look for the presence of glottograms, i.e. signs that encode linguistic units pronounced in the Nahuatl language. This article intends to demonstrate that we should reject the image/writing dichotomy in this context. In order to understand the identity of the Nahua gods, it is necessary to combine symbolic deciphering with a reading of the names embedded in their bodies and ornaments. This article takes the example of several representations of gods in codices of the Aztec tradition. It shows that this embedded script used the main scriptural techniques known in Nahuatl writing: logograms, phonograms, and indicators. In this way, the identity of the god, and therefore its ritual effectiveness, was expressed simultaneously visually and phonically.

En este texto realizamos una revisión del espacio ritual de dos celebraciones que tienen una historia profunda entre los pueblos indígenas de Mesoamérica, la ceremonia ritual de los Voladores y el Juego de Pelota. A partir de la indagación en evidencias arqueológicas, históricas y de la experiencia de la ritualidad, exponemos los principios comunes en la diversidad de estas celebraciones rituales. Consideramos la perspectiva de los practicantes contemporáneos para incluir su conocimiento sensitivo a la discusión, esto es, un punto de vista emic que complementa el abordaje etic de los principales aspectos documentados de estos rituales. Proponemos que, como opuestos complementarios, ambos rituales constituyeron un medio para que sus practicantes lograran transitar entre los niveles del cosmos. El ritual de los Voladores es metáfora y experiencia de acceder a los niveles superiores, mientras que el Juego de Pelota lo es de acceder a los niveles inferiores. Estas celebraciones requieren del sacrificio y de un estado latente de muerte que demanda de sus practicantes una rigurosa preparación y conocimiento de las normas rituales. Concluimos observando que, a pesar de las profundas trasformaciones históricas, la pervivencia de estas celebraciones expresa los esquemas organizativos de las cosmovisiones mesoamericanas, manifiestas en la experiencia de los complejos y elaborados programas rituales indígenas.

This paper analyzes a specific genre of colonial Maya literature: the prophecies found in the so-called Books of Chilam Balam, written in the Maya language during the colonial period. These texts predict events related to 20-year periods known as k’atun. A comparative examination of these prophecies reveals that while some are of clear Maya origin, others gradually incorporate Christian concepts and even direct references to Catholic texts. I propose a typology of three distinct kinds of prophecies: traditional, transitional Christianized, and overtly Christianized. This classification is supported by linguistic and structural analysis, including the presence of loanwords, shifts in grammatical constructions, changes in prophetic structure, and the semantic transformation of key terms. Traditional Maya prophecies primarily express concerns with good governance by local rulers; in contrast, Christianized prophecies reinterpret similar passages to foretell the authority of a universal Christian God. Rather than approaching these texts from a purely historical or philological perspective, this study adopts an anthropological–linguistic lens. It considers the prophecies as literary and ideological efforts by Maya authors and scribes to reframe their pre-Hispanic past and make sense of their transformed world under colonial rule.

Drawing upon iconological theory, this article argues that mirrors and blood were regarded as a conceptually linked pair within the imperial ideology of Teotihuacan, Mexico from the second century onward. The relationship between blood and mirrors is shown to have codified with the construction of the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, Teotihuacan's third largest edifice. This monument's facade was adorned with hundreds of monumental sculptures of oracular mirrors, some number of which incorporated actual mirrors formed of obsidian. I demonstrate that the Teotihuacan mirror sign took obsidian, a form of black volcanic glass that was intensively worked in the city, as a key referent. This monument was also the site of a historically large human sacrifice of more than 200 individuals, an event argued here to have involved bloodletting with obsidian knives and blades. I note that Teotihuacan interest in the mirror icon increased in concert with the city's residents’ application of the reflective material of obsidian to warring and other blood-spilling behaviors. The mirror icon evoked both obsidian as a radiant material, as well as obsidian's potential for application to forceful martial actions. The article concludes that this icon in part signified imperial force, which was made real through the weaponization of the smoking glass.