Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-5qg8f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-17T03:53:08.245Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HEADS, SKULLS, AND SACRED SCAFFOLDS. NEW STUDIES ON RITUAL BODY PROCESSING AND DISPLAY IN CHICHEN ITZA AND BEYOND

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2023

Vera Tiesler Open the ORCID record for Vera Tiesler [Opens in a new window]  and
Virginia E. Miller
Vera Tiesler*
Affiliation:
Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, km 1 Carretera Mérida Tizimín Cholul, Mérida, C.P. 97305, Mexico
Virginia E. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago, 106 Jefferson Hall, 929 West Harrison, MC201, Chicago, Illinois 60607, United States
*
E-mail correspondence to: vtiesler@yahoo.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Chichen Itza stands as a monumental landmark of late Pre-Columbian Maya and Mesoamerican religious complexes. Among the enigmatic aspects of Chichen Itza's ceremonial innovations count skull racks (known as tzompantli in Nahuatl), where the heads of sacrificed victims would be exhibited. Here we combine the scrutiny of death imagery and human skeletal remains, including skulls with marks of bilateral or basal impalement and mandibles with perimortem decapitation from “New” Chichen, the Osario complex, and from Chichen's astronomical Caracol complex. Our combined skeletal and iconographic data confirm the increased practice of corpse processing and head exhibition at Chichen Itza when compared to Classic-period Maya centers. Most of these body treatments were not foreign introductions, as generally believed, but followed local practices, long carried out at the Yucatecan urban centers of Nohpat, Kabah, Uxmal, and Dzibilchaltun. Although on a minor scale compared to Chichen, these demonstrate the display of human body segments, not only skulls, which renders the term tzompantli problematic. In the context of the totalitarian rhetoric of Chichen's central spaces, the massified violence and corpse display herald late religious cults at the cadences of battles won, astronomical cycles, and the perpetual movement of the Feathered Serpent.

Information

Type
Special Section: Archaeology in Chichen Itza
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , Summer 2023 , pp. 563 - 585
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Acosta, Jorge R. 1954 Exploraciones arqueológicas efectuadas en Chichen Itza, Yuc.:1951. Anales del Museo Nacional de Antropología 6:27–40.Google Scholar
Andrews, E.W. IV, and E.W. Andrews, V 1980 Excavations at Dzibilchaltun, Yucatán, Mexico. Middle American Research Institute, No. 48. Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Baudez, Claude, and Mathews, Peter 1979 Capture and Sacrifice at Palenque. In Tercera Mesa Redonda de Palenque, edited by Robertson, Merle Greene and Jeffers, Donnan Call, pp. 31–40. Pre-Columbian Art Research Center, Monterey.Google Scholar
Beck, Lane A., and Sievert, April K. 2005 Mortuary Pathways Leading to the Cenote at Chichen Itza. In Interacting with the Dead. Perspectives on Mortuary Archaeology for the New Millennium, edited by Rakita, Gordon F.M., Buikstra, Jane E., Beck, Lane A., and Williams, Sloan R., pp. 290–304. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Bíró, Péter, and de Heredia, Eduardo Pérez 2016 El disco de El Caracol de Chichen Itza (929–932 d.n.e.). Algunas consideraciones de epigrafía e iconografía. Estudios de Cultura Maya 48:129–162.10.19130/iifl.ecm.2016.48.760CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bíró, Péter, and de Heredia, Eduardo Pérez 2018 La organización política y el paisaje de Chichen Itza, Yucatán, México, en el período Clásico Terminal (830–930 d.C.). Latin American Antiquity 29:207–221.10.1017/laq.2017.85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolles, John 1977 Las Monjas: A Major Pre-Mexican Architectural Complex at Chichen Itza. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Braswell, Geoffrey, and May, Nancy Peniche 2012 In the Shadow of the Pyramid: Excavations of the Great Platform of Chichen Itza. In The Ancient Maya of Mexico. Reinterpreting the Past of the Northern Maya Lowlands, edited by Geoffrey E. Braswell, pp. 229–263. Routledge, Abingdon.Google Scholar
Buikstra, Jane E., and Ubelaker, Douglas (editors) 1994 Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series, No. 44. Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Burdick, Catherine 2016 Held Captive by Script: Interpreting ‘Tagged’ Prisoners in Late Classic Maya Sculpture. Ancient Mesoamerica 27:31–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canto, Rodolfo 2016 Estructura 2D1: Gran Juego de Pelota de Chichén Itzá. In Arqueología en Chichén Itzá. Nuevas explicaciones, edited by Cobos, Rafael pp. 227–240. Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida.Google Scholar
Carreón, Emilie 2006 Tzompantli, horca y picota. Sacrificio o pena capital. Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 88:5–52.Google Scholar
Carreón, Emilie 2013 Le tzompantli et le jeu de balle. Relation entre deux espaces rituels. British Archaeological Reports International Series 2545, Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 32. Archeopress, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ceballos, Belem 2014 Restos óseos no funerarios de Xcambó, Yucatán. Un análisis contextual, Morfológico y Cultural. Unpublished licenciatura thesis, Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida.Google Scholar
Chávez, Ximena 2017 Sacrificio humano y tratamientos postsacrificiales en el Templo Mayor de Tenochtitlan. Secretaría de Cultura, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Chávez, Ximena 2019 The Offering of Life: Human and Animal Sacrifice at the West Plaza of the Sacred Precinct of Tenochtitlan. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Chávez, Ximena, Castro, Jacqueline, and López, Karina 2021 La consagración del coaxalpan tenochca y la reutilización de fragmentos oseos humanos. In Tratamientos mortuorios del cuerpo humano. Perspectivas tafonómicas y arqueotanatológicas, edited by Tiesler, Vera, Suzuki, Shintaro, and Pereira, Grégory, pp. 401–420. Centro de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos, Okayama University, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Chinchilla, Oswaldo 2014 Flaying, Dismemberment, and Ritual Human Sacrifice on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. The PARI Journal 14:1–12.Google Scholar
Cobos, Rafael, and Fernández, Lilia 2015 Procesiones en Chichén Itzá. Arqueología Mexicana 22:66–71.Google Scholar
Cobos, Rafael, German, Mauricio, and Canto, Rodolfo 2016 La Gran Nivelación: historia constructiva. In Arqueología en Chichen Itza. Nuevas Explicaciones, edited by Cobos, Rafael, pp. 159–192. Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida.Google Scholar
Coggins, Clemency Chase (editor) 1992 Artifacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatán. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 10, No. 3. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Coltman, Jeremy 2018 Where Night Reigns Eternal: Darkness and Deep Time Among the Ancient Maya. In Archaeology of the Night: Life after Dark in the Ancient World, edited by Gonlin, Nancy and Nowell, April, pp. 201–222. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
de Anda, Guillermo 2006 El complejo ritual de sacrificio en el Cenote Sagrado de Chichen Itza: Una revisión de la colección esquelética. Unpublished Master's thesis, Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas de la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida.Google Scholar
de Anda, Guillermo, García, Dante, and Cobos, Rafael 2016 Arqueología subacuática en un contexto del Clásico Terminal: El Cenote Holtún de Chichen Itza. In Arqueología en Chichén Itzá. Nuevas explicaciones, edited by Cobos, Rafael, pp. 255–269. Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida.Google Scholar
de la Garza, Mercedes (curator) 2015 Mayas: Revelation of an Endless Time. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
de las Casas, Fray Bartolomé 1967 Apologética Historia Sumaria II. Universidad Nacional de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Declercq, Stanley 2018 In mecitin inic tlacanacaquani. “Los mecitin (mexicas): comedores de carne humana.” Canibalismo y guerra ritual en el México Antiguo. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Dunning, Nicholas 2011 An Inscribed Altar from Nohpat, Yucatán. Mexicon XXXIII:5–7.Google Scholar
Fash, William L., and Fash, Barbara W. 2015 Apuesta, guerra ritual e identidad en el juego de pelota en Mesoamérica. In El juego de pelota mesoamericano: Temas eternos, nuevas aproximaciones, edited by Uriarte, María Teresa, pp. 37–66. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Faulseit, Sonny 2006 Periodicity in the Dresden Codex Venus Table. Human Mosaic 36:109–124.Google Scholar
Fitzsimmons, James L. 2009 Death and the Classic Maya Kings. University of Texas Press, Austin.10.7560/718906CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzsimmons, James L. 2011 Perspectives on Death and Transformation in Ancient Maya Society. In Living with the Dead: Mortuary Ritual in Mesoamerica, edited by Fitzsimmons, James L. and Shimada, Izumi, pp. 51–77. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Folan, William J. 1968 El Cenote Sagrado de Chichen Itza. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Folan, William J. 1980 Chichen Itza, el Cenote Sagrado y Xibalbá: Una nueva visión. Boletín de la Escuela de Ciencias Antropológicas de la Universidad de Yucatán 8:70–76.Google Scholar
García Moll, Roberto, and Cobos, Rafael 2009 Chichén Itzá. Patrimonio de la humanidad. Grupo Azabache, Mexico City.Google Scholar
García Solís, Claudia 2017 Archaeology and Tourism: The Performance of Conservation at the World Heritage Site of Chichén Itzá. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Bundoora.Google Scholar
Graham, Ian 1992 Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions. Volume 4, Part 2: Uxmal. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Graña-Behrens, Daniel 2009 Die Maya-Inschriften aus Nordwestyukatan, Mexiko. Kalenderangaben, Chronologie und kulturgeschichtliche Interpretation. Südwestdeutscher Verlag für Hochschulschriften, Saarbrücken.Google Scholar
Graulich, Michel 1997 Myths of Ancient Mexico. University of Oklahoma, Norman.Google Scholar
Grube, Nikolai 2003 Hieroglyphic Inscriptions from Northwest Yucatán: An Update of Recent Research. In Escondido en la selva:arqueología en el norte de Yucatán, edited by Prem, Hanns J., pp. 339–370. Segundo Simposio Teoberto Maler, Bonn 2000. University of Bonn and Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Headrick, Annabeth 2018 The Osario of Chichen Itza: Where Warriors Danced in Paradise. In Landscapes of the Itza: Archaeology and Art History at Chichen Itza and Neighboring Sites, edited by Wren, Linnea, Kristan-Graham, Cynthia, Nygard, Travis, and Spencer, Kaylee, pp. 198–225. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Hellmuth, Nicholas 1975 The Escuintla Hoards: Teotihuacan Art in Guatemala. F.L.A.A.R. Progress Reports, Vol. 1, No. 2. Foundation for Latin American Anthropological Research, Cocoa.Google Scholar
Hers, Marie-Areti 2017 Origen norteño del tzompantli. Arqueología Mexicana 148:72–74.Google Scholar
Hooton, Earnest A. 1940 Skeletons from the Cenote of Sacrifice at Chichen Itza. In The Maya and Their Neighbors: Essays on Middle American Anthropology and Archaeology, edited by Hay, Clarence L., Linton, Ralph L., Lothrop, Samuel K., Shapiro, Henry, and Vaillant, George C., pp. 272–280. Appleton-Century, New York.Google Scholar
Koontz, Rex 2009 Lightning Gods and Feathered Serpents: The Public Sculpture of El Tajín. University of Texas Press, Austin.10.7560/718999CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristan-Graham, Cynthia 2001 A Sense of Place in Chichén Itzá. In Landscape and Power in Mesoamerica, edited by Koontz, Rex, Reese-Taylor, Kathryn, and Headrick, Annabeth, pp. 317–369. Westview Press, Boulder.Google Scholar
Kristan-Graham, Cynthia, and Kowalski, Jeff Karl 2007 Chichén Itzá, Tula, and Tollan: Changing Perspectives on a Recurring Problem in Mesoamerican Archaeology and Art History. In Twin Tollans. Chichén Itzá, Tula, and the Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican World, edited by Kowalski, Jeff Karl and Kristan-Graham, Cynthia, pp. 13–83. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Lincoln, Charles E. 1990 Ethnicity and Social Organization at Chichen Itza, Yucatán, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Marengo, Nelda 2023 To Live and Die in the City of the Sun: A Study of Skeletal Remains at Chichen Itza and Its Periphery. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside.Google Scholar
Martínez, Alejandro, and Carreón, Emilie 2012 Santa Rosa, Chiapas: Human Sacrifice and the Mesoamerican Ballgame. In Fanning the Sacred Flame: Mesoamerican Studies in Honor of H. B. Nicholson, edited by Boxt, Matthew A., and Dillon, Brian D., pp. 211–230. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Mathiowetz, Michael Dean, Schaafsma, Polly, Coltman, Jeremy, and Taube, Karl 2015 The Darts of Dawn: The Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli Venus Complex in the Iconography of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. Journal of the Southwest 57:1–102.10.1353/jsw.2015.0000CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matos, Eduardo 1972 El Tzompantli en Mesoamerica. In Religion en Mesoamerica. XII Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, edited by Jaime Litvak King and Noemi Castillo Tejero, pp. 109–116. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Maudslay, Anne C., and Maudslay, Alfred P. 1899 A Glimpse at Guatemala, and Some Notes on the Ancient Monuments of Central America. John Murray, London.Google Scholar
Mayer, Karl Herbert 2010 Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions from Nohpat, Yucatán, Mexico. Mexicon XXXII:9–13.Google Scholar
Mendoza, Rubén 2007 The Divine Gourd Tree: Tzompantli Skull Racks, Decapitation Rituals, and Human Trophies in Ancient Mesoamerica. In The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians, edited by Chacon, Richard J. and Dye, David H., pp. 400–443. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 2014 The Many Faces of Venus in Mesoamerica. In Archaeoastronomy and the Maya, edited by Aldana, Gerardo, Villalobos, Gerardo, and Barnhart, Edwin L., pp. 111–134. Oxbow Books, Oxford and Philadelphia.10.2307/j.ctvh1dp92.12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milbrath, Susan 2019 Take My Heart, Take My Head: Death among Gods in the Codex Borgia. Paper presented at New Perspectives on Ritualized Violence and Related Body Processing in Eastern Mesoamerica, XI International Congress of Mayanists, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Chetumal.Google Scholar
Miller, Virginia E. 1989 Star Warriors at Chichen Itza. In Word and Image in Maya Culture: Explorations in Language, Writing, and Representation, edited by Hanks, William F. and Rice, Don S., pp. 287–305. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Miller, Virginia E. 1999 The Skull Rack in Mesoamerica. In Mesoamerican Architecture as a Cultural Symbol, edited by Kowalski, Jeff Karl, pp. 340–360. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford.Google Scholar
Miller, Virginia E. 2007 Skeletons, Skulls, and Bones in the Art of Chichen Itza. In New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society, edited by Tiesler, Vera and Cucina, Andrea, pp. 165–189. Springer, New York.10.1007/978-0-387-48871-4_7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Virginia E. 2017 Tzompantlis. Un espejo en el arte maya. Arqueología Mexicana 148:40–45.Google Scholar
Miller, Mary E., and Houston, Stephen D. 1987 The Classic Maya Ballgame and its Architectural Setting. RES 14:46–65.Google Scholar
Montgomery, John 2002 How to Read Maya Hieroglyphs. Hippocrene Books, New York.Google Scholar
Morris, Earl H., Charlot, Jean, and Morris, Ann Axtell 1931 The Temple of the Warriors at Chichen Itzá, Yucatan. 2 vols. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 406. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Pereira, Grégory, Sugiyama, Saburo, and Spence, Michael 2006 Regroupement des morts, monumentalité et sacrifice: l'exemple de Teotihuacan (Mexique). In Aux origines du regroupement des morts: du fait singulier à la coutume, edited by Castex, Dominique, Coutaud, Patrice, Duday, Henri, Mort, Françoise Le, and Tillier, Anne-Marie, pp. 249–280. Maison des Sciences de l'Homme d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux.Google Scholar
Pérez de Heredia, Eduardo J., and Bíró, Péter 2018 K'ak’ Upakal K'inich K'awil and the Lords of the Fire: Chichen Itza during the Ninth century. In Landscapes of the Itza. Archaeology and Art History at Chichen Itza and Neighboring Sites, edited by Wren, Linnea, Kristan-Graham, Cynthia, Nygard, Travis, and Spencer, Kaylee, pp. 65–108. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Pérez Romero, Alberto 2007 Peregrinaciones a Chichén Itzá durante el Siglo XVI. Unpublished Master's thesis, Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida.Google Scholar
Piña Chan, Román 1970 Informe preliminar de la reciente exploración del Cenote Sagrado de Chichen Itzá. Serie Investigaciones No. 24. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Price, Douglas, Tiesler, Vera, and Freiwald, Carolyn 2019 Place of Origin of the Sacrificial Victims in the Sacred Cenote, Chichen Itza, Mexico. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 170:98–115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Redmond, Elsa, and Spencer, Charles 2017 El tzompantli de Loma de La Coyotera, Cañada de Cuitlán, Oaxaca. Arqueología Mexicana 148:70–71.Google Scholar
Ringle, William M. 2017 Debating Chichen Itza. Ancient Mesoamerica 28:119–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubenstein, Meghan 2015 Animate Architecture at Kabah: Terminal Classic Art and Politics in the Puuc Region of Yucatán, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Art History, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Ruiz, Judith 2021 Sacrificio humano y posible culto a Xipe Totec en el umbral del posclásico en Toniná, Chiapas. In Tratamientos mortuorios del cuerpo humano: Perspectivas tafonómicas y arqueotanatológicas, edited by Tiesler, Vera, Suzuki, Shintaro, and Pereira, Grégory, pp. 347–377. Centro de Estudios Mesoamericanos y Centroamericanos/Okayama University, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Ruppert, Karl 1935 The Caracol at Chichen Itza, Yucatan. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 454. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Ruppert, Karl 1952 Chichen Itza Architectural Notes and Plans. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 595. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Salazar O., Ponciano 1952 El tzompantli de Chichén Itzá, Yucatán. Tlatoani 1:36–41.Google Scholar
Sánchez Bonilla, Juan 1992 Similitudes entre las pinturas de Las Higueras y las obras plásticas del Tajín. In Tajín, edited by Brüggemann, Jürgen, de Guevara, Sara Ladrón, and Bonilla, Juan Sánchez, pp. 133–160. El Equilibrista and Turner Libros, Mexico City and Madrid.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Mathews, Peter 1998 The Code of Kings. Scribner, New York.Google Scholar
Scherer, Andrew K. 2015 Mortuary Landscapes of the Ancient Maya. University of Texas Press, Austin.10.7560/300510CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Peter, de la Garza, Mercedes, and Nalda, Enrique (editors) 1998 Maya. Rizzoli, New York.Google Scholar
Seler, Eduard 1980 Comentarios al Códice Borgia. 2 vols. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Smith, James Gregory 2001 Preliminary Report of the Chichen Itza—Ek Balam Transect Project. Mexicon XXIII:30–35.Google Scholar
Stephens, John Lloyd 1963 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. 2 vols. Dover, New York.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 1985 The “Count of Captives” Epithet in Classic Maya Writing. In Fifth Palenque Round Table, 1983, edited by Fields, Virginia M., pp. 97–101. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, Monterey.Google Scholar
Stuart, David, and Rubenstein, Meghan 2014 The Reading of Two Dates from the Codz Pop at Kabah, Yucatán. Maya Decipherment. Electronic document, https://mayadecipherment.com/?s=Kabah, accessed November, 2021.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 1988 A Study of Classic Maya Scaffold Sacrifice. In Maya Iconography, edited by Benson, Elizabeth P. and Griffin, Gillet G., pp. 330–351. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 1993 The Bilimek Pulque Vessel: Starlore, Calendrics, and Cosmology of Late Postclassic Central Mexico. Ancient Mesoamerica 4:1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 1994 The Iconography of Toltec Period Chichen Itza. In Hidden Among the Hills: Maya Archaeology of the Northwest Yucatan Peninsula, edited by Prem, Hanns J., pp. 212–246. First Maler Symposium, Bonn 1989, Verlag Von Flemming, Möckmül.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A. 2017 Los “andamios de cráneos” entre los antiguos mayas. Arqueología Mexicana 148:28–33.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A., Stanton, Travis W., Osorio León, José Francisco, Ruiz, Francisco Pérez, González de la Mata, María Rocío, and Coltman, Jeremy D. 2020 The Initial Series Group at Chichen Itza, Yucatan. Archaeological Investigations and Iconographic Interpretations. Precolumbian Mesoweb Press, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Thompson, Edward H. 1992 The Sacred Well of the Itzaes. In Artifacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatán, edited by Coggins, Clemency, pp. 1–8. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Vol. 10, No. 3. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Thompson, Edward H. 1938 The High Priest's Grave, Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. Anthropological Series, Vol. 27, No. 1. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiesler, Vera 2005 What Can the Bones Really Tell Us? The Study of Human Skeletal Remains from Cenotes. In Stone Houses and Earth Lords. Maya Religion in the Cave Context, edited by Prufer, Keith M. and Brady, James E., pp. 341–363. University of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Tiesler, Vera 2007 New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Postsacrificial Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society: An Introduction. In New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society, edited by Tiesler, Vera and Cucina, Andrea, pp. 1–13. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiesler, Vera 2014 The Bioarchaeology of Artificial Cranial Modifications. New Approaches to Head Shaping and its Meanings in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and Beyond. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiesler, Vera 2017 Cráneos perforados y tzompantlis en Chichen Itza. Arqueología Mexicana 148:46–51.Google Scholar
Tiesler, Vera, and Cucina, Andrea 2012 Where are the Warriors? Cranial Trauma Patterns and Conflict Among the Ancient Maya. In The Bioarchaeology of Violence, edited by Martin, Debra L., Harrod, Ryan P., and Pérez, Ventura R., pp. 160–179. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiesler, Vera, and Cucina, Andrea (editors) 2007 New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiesler, Vera, and Folan, William J. 2020 Human Skeletal Marionettes in Late Maya Ritual Practice. New Insights on Postsacrificial Body Processing from Champotón, Mexico, and Beyond. Mexicon 42:128–136.Google Scholar
Tiesler, Vera, Suzuki, Shintaro, and Pereira, Grégory (editors) 2021 Tratamientos mortuorios del cuerpo humano: Perspectivas tafonómicas y arqueotanatológicas. Centro de Estudios Mesoamericanos y Centroamericanos and Okayama University, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Volta, Beniamino, and Braswell, Geoffrey E. 2014 Alternative Narratives and Missing Data: Refining the Chronology of Chichen Itza. In The Maya and Their Central American Neighbors: Settlement Patterns, Architecture, Hieroglyphic Texts, and Ceramics, edited by Braswell, Geoffrey E., pp. 356–402. Routledge, Abingdon.Google Scholar
Willard, T.A. 1933 The Lost Empires of the Itzaes and Mayas : An American Civilization, Contemporary with Christ, Which Rivaled the Culture of Egypt. Arthur R. Clark, Glendale.Google Scholar
Wren, Linnea 1991 The Great Ball Court Stone from Chichen Itza. In Sixth Palenque Round Table, 1986, edited by Robertson, Merle Greene and Fields, Virginia M., pp. 51–58. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Wren, Linnea 1994 Ceremonialism in the Reliefs of the North Temple, Chichén Itzá. In Seventh Palenque Round Table, 1989, edited by Robertson, Merle Greene and Fields, Virginia M., pp. 25–31. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Xochipiltecatl, Sandra 2004 El tzompantli: Arqueología, iconografía, mitos y simbolismo de un monumento mexica. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar