As complex societies emerged in the Maya lowlands during the first millen¬nium BCE, so did stable communities focused around public squares and the worship of a divine ruler tied to a Maize God cult. “E Groups,” central to many of these settle¬ments, are architectural complexes: typically, a long platform supporting three struc¬tures and facing a western pyramid across a formal plaza. Aligned with the movements of the sun, E Groups have long been interpreted as giant calendrical devices crucial to the rise of Maya civilization. This volume presents new archaeological data to reveal that E Groups were constructed earlier than previously thought. In fact, they are the earliest identifiable architectural plan at many Maya settlements.
More than just astronomical observatories or calendars, E Groups were a key ele¬ment of community organization, urbanism, and identity in the heart of the Maya lowlands. They served as gathering places for emerging communities and centers of ritual; they were the very first civic-religious public architecture in the Maya lowlands. Investigating a wide variety of E Group sites—including some of the most famous like the Mundo Perdido in Tikal and the hitherto little known complex at Chan, as well as others in Ceibal, El Palmar, Cival, Calakmul, Caracol, Xunantunich, Yaxnohcah, Yaxuná, and San Bartolo—this volume pieces together the development of social and political complexity in ancient Maya civilization.
Contributors: James Aimers | Anthony F. Aveni | Jamie J. Awe | Boris Beltran | M. Kathryn Brown | Arlen F. Chase | Diane Z. Chase | Anne S. Dowd | James Doyle | Francisco Estrada-Belli | David A. Freidel | Julie A. Hoggarth | Takeshi Inomata | Patricia A. Mcanany | Susan Milbrath | Jerry Murdock | Kathryn Reese-Taylor | Prudence M. Rice | Cynthia Robin | Franco D. Rossi | Jeremy A. Sabloff | William A. Saturno | Travis W. Stanton
A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xv
Preface: On the Path of the Sun xvii
Acknowledgments xxiii
Abbreviations xxv
Part I. E Groups: Historical Perspectives
1. The Distribution and Significance of E Groups: A Historical Background and Introduction 3
Arlen F. Chase, Anne S. Dowd, and David A. Freidel
2. E Groups and the Rise of Complexity in the Southeastern Maya Lowlands 31
Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase
Part II. The Astronomy and Cosmology of E Groups
3. E Groups: Astronomy, Alignments, and Maya Cosmology 75
Anthony F. Aveni and Anne S. Dowd
4. The Legacy of Preclassic Calendars and Solar Observation in Mesoamerica’s Magic Latitude 95
Susan Milbrath
5. The E Group as Timescape: Early E Groups, Figurines, and the Sacred Almanac 135
Prudence M. Rice
6. E Groups, Cosmology, and the Origins of Maya Rulership 177
David A. Freidel
Part III. The Archaeology of E Groups
7. The Isthmian Origins of the E Group and Its Adoption in the Maya Lowlands 215
Takeshi Inomata
8. A Tale of Two E Groups: El Palmar and Tikal, Peten, Guatemala 253
James A. Doyle
9. The History, Function, and Meaning of Preclassic E Groups in the Cival Region 293
Francisco Estrada-Belli
10. Time to Rule: Celestial Observation and Appropriation among the Early Maya 328
William A. Saturno, Boris Beltr.n, and Franco D. Rossi
11. Ordinary People and East–West Symbolism 361
Cynthia Robin
12. E Groups and Ancestors: The Sunrise of Complexity at Xunantunich, Belize 386
M. Kathryn Brown
13. Of Apples and Oranges: The Case of E Groups and Eastern Triadic Architectural Assemblages in the Belize River Valley 412
Jaime J. Awe, Julie A. Hoggarth, and James J. Aimers
14. The Founding of Yaxuna: Place and Trade in Preclassic Yucatan 450
Travis W. Stanton
15. Founding Landscapes in the Central Karstic Uplands 480
Kathryn Reese-Taylor
Part IV. Conclusion
16. More Than Smoke and Mirrors: Maya Temple Precincts and the
Emergence of Religious Institutions in Mesoamerica 517
Anne S. Dowd
17. Epilogue: E Groups and Their Significance to the Ancient Maya 578
Diane Z. Chase, Patricia A. McAnany, and Jeremy A. Sabloff
List of Contributors 583
Freidel
