Glossary - Place Names - People

AGUATECA: CLASSIC-period walled city in PETEXBATUN, Guatemala, investigated by Takeshi Inomata, where evidence of elite CRAFT PRODUCTION was found. The city was abandoned suddenly due to WARFARE.

AHAU: The highest rank in Maya society was that of ahau, lord; this included both the ruler and a larger group of males and females, not all of whom were of equal rank. Ahau was an inherited status.

ALTAR DE SACRIFICIOS: CLASSIC Maya city along the Pasion River, Guatemala, excavated under direction of GORDON R. WILLEY, with major ceramic study by Richard E. W. Adams.

ALTUN HA: MINOR CENTER north of Belize City investigated by David Pendergast and famous for a 4.4-kilogram carved JADE head of the Maya sun god from a TEMPLE tomb. The JADE head is stored in Belize Bank in Belize City.

ARCHAIC: Time period of development of agriculture, hunting of small animals, and gathering wild plants before the introduction of pottery and farming villages in the Maya area. It is best known at COLHA and by Belize surveys by Richard MacNeish, and it predates 1000 b.c. in the MAYA LOWLANDS.

ASTRONOMY: The DRESDEN CODEX provides details of Late POSTCLASSIC astronomical knowledge, but much has also been gleaned from CLASSIC Maya visual images, the layout of buildings, and analogies with the POPOL VUH. The Maya recorded and predicted the daily, seasonal, and yearly trajectories of the sun, moon, planets, and stars in relation to the Earth, as well as solar and lunar solstices and equinoxes, the rising and setting of planets, and the likelihood of comets.

BAKING POT: MINOR CENTER along the Belize River, investigated by Oliver and Mary Ricketson of CARNEGIE INSTITUTION, Gordon Willey’s Belize Valley survey in 1950s, and more recently by Belize archaeologists Jaime Awe and Allan Moore.

BAKTUN: The largest unit of time in the Maya counting system, referring to a period of 400 years.

BALL COURT: Usually at the center of cities, a rectangular playing field with sloped or vertical walls and sometimes circular ball court markers along the centerline. Here, according to depictions on painted pots and stone carvings and recounted in the POPOL VUH, two or more players used a RUBBER BALL in a game that may have been for life or death, sometimes played with war captives.

BALL GAME: A Maya game of chance, skill, and trickery reflecting life. Playing ball engaged one in the maintenance of the cosmic order of the universe and the ritual regeneration of life. War captives were brought to play ball, but also the central location of BALL COURTS at Maya cities places them as central to the political lives of the Maya court in many additional ways.

BARRA PHASE: Earliest pottery in Maya area, on Pacific littoral about 1800 b.c.

BARTON RAMIE: A small community consisting mainly of house mounds, which was the focus of Gordon Willey’s pioneering settlement pattern study along the Belize River during the 1950s.

BECAN: The defensive wall at Becan suggests early WARFARE, involving the central Mexican state of Teotihuacan, since GREEN OBSIDIAN was associated with the defensive wall and Teotihuacan controlled the green obsidian quarry.

BERLIN, HEINRICH: Made critical discovery that EMBLEM GLYPHS are names of Maya cities, which, along with discoveries by PROSKOURIAKOFF and KNOROZOV, were instrumental in the decipherment of Mayan HIEROGLYPHS.

BLOODLETTING: Blood offerings made by the Maya to their GODS. OBSIDIAN blades, stingray spines, and knotted ropes are shown in scenes on carved monuments and painted pictorial pots being used to pierce the tongue, lips, genitals, or other body parts to make blood offerings to the GODS, such as on a stone sculpture from Yaxchilan. The cloth bundles often shown held by royal women during accession ceremonies at Yaxchilan may have contained the BLOODLETTING equipment.

BOATS: Canoes depicted on carved bones from a BURIAL in a TEMPLE at TIKAL, in carved manatee rib bones from ALTUN HA and MOHO CAY, from pottery replicas from ORLANDO’S JEWFISH in southern Belize, and on painted murals from CHICHEN ITZA were powered by canoe paddlers, with no evidence of the use of sails.

BONAMPAK: Painted murals on interior walls of buildings depict scenes of WARFARE, capture, and torture by the Late CLASSIC Maya of this city in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS, as studied by Mary Miller.

BURIALS: Interment of the common Maya was normally under house floors or in the construction fill of a new building, whereas the royal Maya were buried in their TEMPLES. Both types of burials were associated with grave offerings.

CAHAL: After the AHAU, the next lower social level, still considered nobility. Cahals were rulers of small sites, as well as nobles who assisted the AHAU in battle and in various royal ceremonies. Both AHAU and cahal were inherited statuses.

CAHAL PECH: MINOR CENTER in the outskirts of the modern town of San Ignacio, Belize, important for Middle Preclassic development. The site was investigated by Jaime Awe, and the reconstruction of Late CLASSIC architecture was done by Joseph Ball and Jennifer Taschek.

CALAKMUL (KALAKMUL): CALAKMUL was the major seat of power of the KAAN or "Kingdom of the Snake," which first arose further north but built Calakmul into a Late Classic Era superpower ally of CARACOL and rival to TIKAL. A series of 11 painted vessels, dubbed Dynastic Vases, describe the ascensions of the Kaan rulers, including ancestral and legendary figures.

CALENDAR: Using the GMT (Goodman-Martinez-Thompson) correlation to the Christian CALENDAR, the Maya CALENDAR originated in 3114 BCE. and was used to provide dates using a base 20, with numbers written from the top in multiples of 400 years, multiples of 20 years, and multiples of 20 days (months), using a sophisticated MATHEMATICAL SYSTEM and the numbers 1 through 19 indicating the date.

CALENDAR ROUND: The 365-day vague year and the 260-day TZOLKIN CALENDARS combined to form the Maya Calendar Round. It took 52 (vague) years for the same day on each calendar to co-occur (260 × 365 = 18,980 days). A Calendar Round date consists of the Tzolkin date followed by the vague year date, such as 1 Kán 1 Pop.

CANCUEN: Southern Maya lowland city at juncture of highland-lowland trade route, investigated by Arthur Demarest.

CARACOL: Maya city in western Belize, excavated by Diane and Arlen Chase, with sacbes linking a large suburban area to the central city.

CARNEGIE INSTITUTION: Focus of major research at UAXACTUN in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS, CHICHEN ITZA and MAYAPAN in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS, and KAMINALJUYU in the southern Maya highlands until its closure in 1958. Notable archaeologists were Alfred V. Kidder, Oliver and Mary Ricketson, A. LEDYARD SMITH, ROBERT E. SMITH, Harry Pollock, Jesse Jennings, Ed Shook, and TATIANA PROSKOURIAKOFF.

CAVES: Common in the limestone topography of the MAYA LOWLANDS, and commonly used by the ancient Maya for rituals. This was perhaps due to the rich symbolic imagery in Maya mythology of the watery underworld. Caves have been studied in western Belize by Jaime Awe (following earlier studies by David M. Pendergast), in the PETEXBATUN by James Brady, and in Naj Tunich by Andrea Stone. Caves in the Maya area contained painted images, pottery vessels, and sometimes BURIALS.

CEREN: CLASSIC Maya community buried by the Loma Calerda volcanic eruption and later discovered and excavated by Payson Sheets, with outstanding preservation of houses and volcanic casts of plants and furrows in fields. Now a World Heritage site (listed with the United Nations), Ceren is protected by the government of El Salvador and open to the public for tourism.

CERROS: Late Preclassic community on the shores of Corozal Bay in northern Belize (opened as a tourist site by Belize government), famous for painted masks on TEMPLES and other monumental buildings and for iconography that archaeologist David Freidel demonstrated to show precocious development leading to CLASSIC civilization.

CHAAC (CHAC): Maya rain god and name of northern Maya lowland site near SAYIL, investigated by Michael Smyth, with TEOTIHUACAN-style architecture indicating some form of trade or contact with central Mexico. Chac, the god of rain and lightning, is often shown with axes and snakes, which he used to affect the weather.

CHAU HIIX: MINOR CENTER between ALTUN HA and LAMANAI in northern Belize, investigated by K. Anne Pyburn.

CHERT: A hard stone naturally occurring in the limestone platform of the MAYA LOWLANDS and used widely for chipping stone tools.

CHICHEN ITZA: A city in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS that grew to prominence after the collapse of the Late CLASSIC cities in the southern lowlands. Research here by the CARNEGIE INSTITUTION of Washington focused on restoration; the age of the city and the explanation for the Toltec-style architecture remain under discussion.

CHILAM BALAM: Books written by native Maya in several Yucatecan communities during early colonial days, variously informative on religion and ideology. Chilam Balam was a native priest who evidently foretold the arrival of the Spaniards. The Chilam Balam of Chumayel, Tizimin, and Mani are the most famous, having been translated into English.

CHOLAN: The spoken and written language of the CLASSIC Maya of the southern lowlands. Cholan includes two groups: the Chol and Chontal group and the Cholti and Chorti group. Chorti may have dominated the southern MAYA LOWLANDS before a.d. 1000. The coastal plain from southern Belize to the area of Quirigua on the MOTAGUA RIVER of Guatemala, the north coast of Honduras, and inland to COPAN was populated by Chol speakers.

CHUNCHUCMIL: Northern Maya lowland city investigated by Bruce Dahlin, without monumental architecture. It arguably was a trading depot controlling coastal SALT from nearby SALT flats.

CITY-STATES: By the Late CLASSIC, the lowlands were divided into city-states, each with a capital city and smaller towns, villages, and agricultural lands. The degree to which they were independent or centralized under one or more larger polities is controversial, but it likely changed over time and space with WARFARE and alliances.

CLASSIC MAYA COLLAPSE: Many explanations have been proposed to explain the abandonment of Late CLASSIC cities in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS, depopulation of much of the area, and the collapse of the CLASSIC royal dynasties. Proposed explanations include WARFARE, ecological disaster, climatic change (drought), disease, overpopulation, and popular revolt.

CLASSIC PERIOD: The time roughly between a.d. 300 and 900, when Maya royalty erected STELAE at lowland cities with dates in the MAYA LONG COUNT corresponding to the time of royal dynasties.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Sediment cores in lagoons provide pollen and soil evidence for a changing landscape, including drier weather. These changes coincided with major political upheavals in the MAYA LOWLANDS, including the CLASSIC MAYA COLLAPSE, HIATUS, and abandonment of CHICHEN ITZA, all of which have been proposed as either explanatory or coincidental.

COBA: City in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS, investigated by William Folan. It did not collapse but continued into POSTCLASSIC, perhaps due to the proximity of water.

CODEX (PLURAL = CODICES): Maya book made using bark from fig trees that was prepared with a gesso and then painted with HIEROGLYPHS and images. Only four codices are known to have survived—Madrid, Dresden, Paris, and Grolier—and they focus on astronomical matters and date to after the CLASSIC period.

CODICES: See CODEX.

COLHA: A site located beside an outcrop of high-quality CHERT in northern Belize, where vast quantities of CHERT stone tools were produced by household WORKSHOPS and distributed within northern Belize and beyond from the Late Preclassic to Early POSTCLASSIC, according to the site’s excavators, Tom Hester and Harry Shafer.

COPAN: A city in modern Honduras that grew to prominence in the CLASSIC period and is known in particular for its hieroglyphic staircase and artistic style of sculpting STELAE in the round. From the time of John Stephens’s nineteenth-century accounts, the site has received intensive investigation by archaeologists from Harvard, Tulane, Penn State, the University of Pennsylvania, and the country of Honduras.

COPPER: Bells, rings, and other items made from copper alloy traded from Honduras or west Mexico were found at a variety of lowland Maya sites dating from the POSTCLASSIC period, notably from the Cenote of Sacrifice at CHICHEN ITZA.

COSMOLOGY: The Maya cosmos was a sky-Earth with the actions of humans intertwined with celestial movement of the stars as recorded in the CALENDAR. The balance and continuity of daily life among the Maya required ritual interactions with the GODS. The world consisted of the heavens, containing GODS; the Earth, containing humans; and the underworld, containing underworld GODS. The living world was quadripartite, with directions associated with different colors. There were thirteen layers of heaven and nine layers of the underworld.

COUNTING SYSTEM: Numbers were written using a dot to represent the value 1, a horizontal bar for 5, and a stylized shell for 0. The counting system was based on multiples of 20 and the Maya had the concept of 0, which was quite sophisticated and was rarely used in other ancient civilizations.

COZUMEL: A POSTCLASSIC island trading locale off the eastern coast of the Yucatan, also the location of a pilgrimage shrine, investigated by Jeremy Sabloff and William Rathje.

CRAFT PRODUCTION: CHERT tools manufactured in household WORKSHOPS at COLHA; SALT produced in independent WORKSHOPS at STINGRAY LAGOON, DAVID WESTBY, ORLANDO’S JEWFISH, and other underwater sites in Paynes Creek National Park; and elite pots and books at AGUATECA indicate variability in production from household to specialized, with elite control of production also variable.

CREATION STORY: As told in the POPOL VUH and depicted in scenes on CLASSIC painted pots, the Maya world was created from a meeting of the GODS from the primordial sea (Plumed Serpent) and the primordial sky (Heart of Sky) to discuss the emergence of the Earth from the sea and the creation of plants, the sun, the moon, and stars, and people. The first people were created from corn, with an earlier attempt from wood having ended up creating monkeys.

CUELLO: Northern Belize site where the earliest Maya pottery, farming, and architecture were first identified by Norman Hammond, dating to 1000 BCE.

CURL NOSE: A ruler whose accession to the throne at TIKAL marks the beginning of TEOTIHUACAN influence at the city. Two BURIALS thought to be those of Curl Nose and his successor, Stormy Sky, include imported vessels, made at either TEOTIHUACAN or KAMINALJUYU. They include vessels with distinctive TEOTIHUACAN painted decoration on stucco. A TIKAL STELA bears portraits of either Curl Nose or Stormy Sky wearing TEOTIHUACAN military regalia, including the TEOTIHUACAN god Tlaloc on shields, and spear throwers typical of TEOTIHUACAN.

DAVID WESTBY SITE: A Late CLASSIC SALT works in Punta Ycacos Lagoon, Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, excavated by Heather McKillop.

DEFENSIVE WALLS: Defensive walls have been found at a number of southern lowland sites, notably TIKAL, EL MIRADOR, SEIBAL, and BECAN, and at a number of sites in the northern Yucatan. They are nowhere so common and pervasive as in the PETEXBATUN region, where even small communities, agricultural fields, and water sources were fortified during the Late CLASSIC period.

DE LANDA, BISHOP: Franciscan priest who was appointed the first Bishop of the Yucatan but was recalled to Spain for overzealous conversion of the Maya, including an auto-da-fé at Mani in the northern Yucatan in which Maya CODICES were gathered and burned. In his defense while in jail in Spain, de Landa wrote Relación de las Cosas de Yucatan, which, ironically, is regarded as a major documentary source of the contact period Maya.

DEMOGRAPHY: Ancient population estimates are usually based on counting the number of house mounds and multiplying by a factor representing an estimate of an average family, often 5.6 people. Although this method neglects to include houses for which there are no mounded remains, the lack of cemeteries or written death records makes any other method of population estimating difficult.

DISTANCE DATES: Often used to record dates of CLASSIC Maya events on STELAE. A Distance Date refers to the time since the initial LONG COUNT date on the STELA.

DOS PILAS: City in the PETEXBATUN region of the southern MAYA LOWLANDS, investigated by Arthur Demarest, where endemic WARFARE and alliances with other CITY-STATES were a feature of Late CLASSIC.

DRESDEN CODEX: One of four surviving Maya books, or codices, with hieroglyphic text and images painted on prepared bark paper and fan-folded. The Dresden Codex was found in the Dresden Library in Germany by Ernst Förstemann, who translated it and brought it to the attention of scholars.

DZIBILCHALTUN: City in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS that enjoyed prominence from the Late Preclassic through the CLASSIC period.

ECOTOURISM: A form of tourism that brings together a concern for local involvement in tourism with preserving an area’s natural and cultural heritage. Ecotourism may hold part of the key to reducing the looting of Maya sites by increasing local interest in preserving sites for tourism and increasing tourists’ interest in preserving sites.

E GROUP: Groups of buildings found at many lowland sites, notably UAXACTUN, TIKAL, DZIBILCHALTUN, and CHICHEN ITZA that have clear astronomical importance as observatories. A Late Preclassic building at UAXACTUN, for example, faces a platform with a line of three TEMPLES. From the building, the summer solstice sun rises behind the northern TEMPLE, the equinox sun rises behind the central TEMPLE, and the winter solstice sun rises behind the southern TEMPLE.

EK BALAM: Northern MAYA LOWLAND city with occupation from the Preclassic period onward, investigated by George Bey and Bill Ringle.

EL CHAYAL: Outcrop of high-quality OBSIDIAN near modern Guatemala City, widely used by the CLASSIC Maya for making blades and other objects.

EL MIRADOR: Large southern LOWLAND MAYA city that grew to prominence in the Late Preclassic and was then abandoned, investigated by Ray Matheny and Bruce Dahlin and, subsequently, by Richard Hansen.

EL PILAR: City that straddles the border between western Belize and Guatemala, reconstructed as an archaeological and ecological binational park by Anabel Ford and open to the public.

EMBLEM GLYPH: The hieroglyphic name of a CLASSIC city; more than eighty such glyphs have been identified. Written on STELAE, they often recorded the defeat of a city and are now used by archaeologists to reconstruct the political history of the CLASSIC period.

E-VII-SUB: A TEMPLE at UAXACTUN with four staircases and monumental masks, regarded as a prototype of Late Preclassic architecture. Excavated by Oliver Ricketson of the CARNEGIE INSTITUTION of Washington project.

FRENCHMAN’S CAY: Late CLASSIC Maya trading port with the remains of three coral rock building platforms, in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve, investigated by Heather McKillop.

GOD A: The skeletal god of death, God A also was the god of violent sacrifice such as decapitation and was usually denoted by a black band across his eyes. He appears in Early CLASSIC Maya art and in the CODICES.

GOD K: God of royal descent (K’awiil), fire, and lightning. He was shown as a scepter held by rulers and also as a figure with an upturned snout; a celt, smoking tube, or torch on his forehead; and a serpent foot. Kulkulkan succeeded him in the POSTCLASSIC.

GOD L: CLASSIC period MERCHANT GOD.

GOD M: The CLASSIC period MERCHANT GOD was eclipsed during the POSTCLASSIC by this MERCHANT GOD, who is identified by his pendulous lower lip, black face, and long, pointed nose.

GODS: A host of gods, goddesses, and other supernatural beings mediated the world of the ancient Maya. Some of these gods are known historically from their appearance in the POPOL VUH, the codices, or the books of CHILAM BALAM and were prehistorically depicted on painted pots, carved monuments, clay figurines, and other artwork.

GREEN OBSIDIAN: Stone used by the Maya for blades and other objects. The only known source of green obsidian is Pachuca, north of modern Mexico City, which was controlled by TEOTIHUACAN during the CLASSIC period and was part of the POLITICAL ECONOMY of the CLASSIC Maya. This indicates some level of communication, direct or indirect, between TEOTIHUACAN and the Maya. Green obsidian found at POSTCLASSIC Maya sites indicates trade with later highland people.

HAAB CALENDAR: A 365-day CALENDAR that closely approximates the true solar year of 356.2422 days. It is often referred to as the “vague” year CALENDAR, because it includes five days called “wayeb” at the end of each cycle of eighteen named months, each with twenty numbered days.

HALLUCINOGENS: Used by dynastic leaders in pursuit of VISION QUESTS. Nobles sought altered mental states by using hallucinogenic enemas, by smoking tobacco, by fasting, and by BLOODLETTING. Figures painted on CAVE walls at Naj Tunich are depicted as if they were in an altered state of consciousness. Hallucinogens included extract from the Bufo marinus frog, mushrooms, and perhaps poison from stingray spines and other marine fauna used by the CLASSIC Maya.

HERO TWINS: A pair of twins discussed in the historic text the POPOL VUH and depicted graphically on CLASSIC Maya painted pots and scenes on carved stone. The adventures of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, establish the relationships between humans and the celestial and underworld GODS and the place of the CALENDAR and the BALL GAME in facilitating human existence. In one adventure, they assign a star to each of the four corners of the world, establishing the quadripartite “worldview,” or COSMOLOGY, of the Maya. The Hero Twins battle VUCUB CAQUIX and play the original BALL GAME with the lords of the underworld (XIBALBA), thus establishing the relations between the underworld and the living world.

HIATUS: A time between a.d. 534 and 593, when the power of TIKAL and the northeast PETEN in the Early CLASSIC halted temporarily. TIKAL stopped erecting carved STELAE during this period, coinciding with the dominance of other lowland Maya cities.

HIEROGLYPHS: Maya writing. Maya glyphs are phonetic in that they are based on spoken language, Chol being the language at the time of the CLASSIC period in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS. The basic component of a glyph is a sound consisting of a consonant-vowel-consonant combination. Some Maya glyphs represent words, but others are sounds that are used together to form words. The hieroglyphs were used to record historical information about the lives of the dynastic Maya during the CLASSIC period and continued to be used in writing in the POSTCLASSIC, with some focus on ASTRONOMY, the CALENDAR, and rituals.

HOLMUL: Prototype site in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS where George Vaillant and Robert Merwin reported distinctive PROTOCLASSIC pottery vessels, sparking debate about their local or intrusive origin, subsequently investigated by Francisco Estrada-Belli.

HUN HUNAHPU: Father of the HERO TWINS, also known as the MAIZE GOD.

ILOPANGO: Volcanic eruption in the fifth century that caused regional devastation in the Zapotitan Valley in El Salvador, making the area uninhabitable for about 200 years. Ceren, itself later destroyed by the Loma Caldera volcanic eruption radiocarbon dated to between a.d. 610 and 671, was one of the first communities to occupy the valley after the Ilopango eruption.

INGENTA: An electronic journal retrieval service available at university libraries and by subscription for downloading articles from the Internet.

INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE: Modification of the landscape by terracing or by draining wetlands in order to increase production, often related to increased population of the Late CLASSIC MAYA LOWLANDS, as at PULLTROUSER SWAMP, Belize, or the MAYA MOUNTAINS of western Belize.

“INVISIBLE ARCHITECTURE”: Refers to houses built directly on the ground without stone platforms or any other type of foundation. Many such houses leave no mounded remains and are invisible to modern archaeologists, which may cause researchers to dramatically underestimate population estimates that are based on house mound counts.

ISLA CERRITOS: An Early POSTCLASSIC trading port located off the north coast of Yucatan for the inland city of CHICHEN ITZA. Excavated by Anthony P. Andrews, the site has a harbor and abundant central Mexican OBSIDIAN.

ISOTOPE ANALYSIS: A chemical test done on human bone and teeth that provides dietary and other information about individual Maya. Carbon isotopes (C13/C12) distinguish between corn and other plant foods consumed, as the foods have different photosynthetic pathways (different ways that plants absorb sunlight). Nitrogen isotopes (N18/N16) distinguish between marine and terrestrial or riverine animals eaten. Oxygen isotope analysis (O18/O16) identifies the source location of water consumed, thereby identifying an individual’s area of origin.

ITXTEPEQUE: A source of high-quality OBSIDIAN in the Maya highlands east of modern Guatemala City. It was a common source of OBSIDIAN in the Late CLASSIC, and it dominated POSTCLASSIC OBSIDIAN production in the MAYA LOWLANDS for blade making.

ITZAMNA: The paramount male god, also known as “Lizard House.” He is the aged creator god, God D, and is commonly depicted in CLASSIC and POSTCLASSIC art. He is identifiable as an aged god with a Roman nose. Itzamna and his consort, IX CHE, are the progenitors of all other GODS and also are the old couple in the POPOL VUH. Itzamna is credited with inventing writing. He is shown as a Maya scribe on pottery vessels and also is shown engaged in divination and other scribal and priestly activities.

IX CHEL: Also known as Lady Rainbow. She is clearly the most important goddess and is consort of the sun. However, as goddess of the moon and ruler of the night sky, she opposes the sun in her efforts to defeat the sun each day and make it descend into darkness. At the time of European contact, Ix Chel was the goddess of childbirth, pregnancy, and fertility. Ix Chel also was associated with weaving, fertility, and midwifery. There were shrines dedicated to her on COZUMEL and Isla Mujeres off the eastern coast of the Yucatan to which people made pilgrimages.

IZAPA: A Preclassic site on the Pacific coastal plain of Chiapas that has art styles and iconography midway between OLMEC and later Maya, and has depictions of VUCUB CAQUIX and the long-lipped god.

JADE: Greenstones, including jade, serpentine, and albite, have been identified from outcrops along the MOTAGUA RIVER drainage in Guatemala and were elaborately carved at lowland Maya sites into elite pendants, later recovered from burials and caches.

JAGUAR: A very common animal in ancient Maya iconography and mythology, perhaps because both the Maya and jaguars shared the rainforest. The jaguar was especially identified with the sun in both its daytime and nighttime form, the latter associated with XIBALBA, where he sometimes rode a caiman across the nighttime sky. Other jaguar gods included the Water Lily Jaguar, a zoomorphic creature with a WATER LILY on his forehead and often a collar of bulging eyeballs around his neck. Among his many roles, the Water Lily Jaguar acted as a throne and walked in underworld processions. As a powerful rainforest animal, the jaguar is common in shamanistic or ritual transformations in Mesoamerica.

JESTER GOD: A god common in CLASSIC Maya iconography but having its origins in earlier OLMEC times at La Venta. The Jester God had a head ornament dangling over his head and was often, but not exclusively, associated with Maya royalty, as with King Pacal’s grave at Palenque.

JSTOR: An electronic journal retrieval service (“journal storage”) at http://www.jstor.org for downloading the text of articles from the Internet, available at many libraries or by subscription.

KAMINALJUYU: A site located on the outskirts of modern Guatemala City, investigated by Alfred V. Kidder, Jesse Jennings, and Ed Shook in the 1940s and by William T. Sanders and Joseph Michels of Penn State in the 1970s. Kaminaljuyu was an important Late Preclassic and CLASSIC city, with TEOTIHUACAN-style architecture and pottery vessels, suggesting military takeover, trade, or alliances with central Mexico between a.d. 400 and 700.

KATUN: A unit of time in counting and the CALENDAR, representing a period of twenty years.

KILLER BEE: A Late CLASSIC SALT works excavated by Heather McKillop in Paynes Creek National Park.

KIN: A Maya day.

KINGSHIP: During the CLASSIC period, power and authority were focused on the king, articulated and publicly reinforced and reinterpreted by the public display of carved STELAE bearing his image and accounts of his (or occasionally a queen’s) exploits. Rulers combined supreme political authority with a quasi-divine status. They were mediators between the supernatural and the real worlds. Through regular public and private ceremonies involving dance, blood sacrifice, trances, and enemas, the king engaged divine power.

KINICH AHAU: The Maya sun god, also known as God G. He transformed himself into a JAGUAR each night as he traveled through XIBALBA (the underworld). He was otherwise closely associated with the JAGUAR. Kinich Ahau may actually have been a variant of ITZAMNA. Perhaps the most famous CLASSIC Maya depiction of Kinich Ahau is the large (4.4 kilogram) carved JADE head taken from a tomb in a TEMPLE at ALTUN HA, Belize. The head of Kinich Ahau also was featured on stone or stucco masks on TEMPLE façades. In addition, the head of Kinich Ahau was a glyphic substitute for the number 4.

KINSHIP: The ancient Maya identified their place in society from their kinship, identified by the ancestral home with ancestors buried under earlier houses at the same location. This tracing of kinship laid the foundations for the CLASSIC period concept of KINGSHIP, in which a ruler governed by divine power and authority through dynastic ties.

KNOROZOV, YURI: Correctly determined that Mayan HIEROGLYPHS were phonetic rather than pictographs, which was critical in decipherment of the glyphs.

LA AMELIA: A Maya city near ITZAN, in the lower Pasión River region of the Petén Department of Guatemala. It formed a polity in the Late CLASSIC (600 to 830 CE), and was involved in the war between TIKAL and CALAKMUL followed, in 650, by the take over of DOS PILAS, leading to centuries of war until this region collapsed around 830, being the first of the Classic sites in this area to be abandoned.

LADYVILLE: A location near Belize City’s International Airport, site of surface recovery of the first PALEOINDIAN fluted point by Thomas Kelley of the COLHA Project.

LA ESPERANZA: An OBSIDIAN outcrop near the modern community by that name in western Honduras. La Esperanza was a minor source of OBSIDIAN used at Quirigua and WILD CANE CAY, but its OBSIDIAN was more commonly used by people in lower Central America, outside the Maya area.

LAMANAI: City on Northern Lagoon dating from the Middle Preclassic through the POSTCLASSIC, without suffering the CLASSIC period collapse. This city had a Franciscan mission and nineteenth-century sugar mill and was excavated by David Pendergast and Elizabeth Graham.

LA MILPA: CLASSIC Maya city in northwestern Belize, investigated by SIR J. ERIC S. THOMPSON and subsequently by Norman Hammond, with a site layout reflecting the quadripartite cosmogram of the Maya universe, according to project surveyor Gair Tourtellot.

LONG COUNT: A CALENDAR system that defined a period of about 5,200 years based on 13 BAKTUN cycles (multiples of 400 years), reflecting the CREATION of the world as described in CLASSIC images and the POPOL VUH.

LUBAANTUN: City in southern Belize investigated in the 1920s by the British Museum and subsequently in 1970 by Norman Hammond, known for its sandstone buildings and lack of STELAE, dating to the Late CLASSIC. Famous for the alleged discovery by Anna Mitchell-Hedges of a human-shaped crystal skull, now in Kitchener, Canada, which was more likely obtained from a European antique store and planted at the site.

MACEHUALOB: The lowest social status among the Maya. Below the AHAU and CAHAL, these were the commoners in Maya society.

MAIZE GOD: Also known as God E. He is HUN HUNAHPU from the POPOL VUH or Hun Nah Yeh. He was depicted in the CLASSIC period as the tonsured Maize God, representing HUN HUNAHPU, the father of the HERO TWINS from the POPOL VUH. He sometimes was shown with his head flattened like a mature maize ear. Alternatively, he was shown as the foliated Maize God, with a maize ear emerging from a human head. The resurrection of HUN HUNAHPU symbolized the planting and growth of a new maize crop. His death by decapitation was a metaphor for the harvesting of corn and for death. In the Late POSTCLASSIC, the Maize God was sometimes represented as the diving god, shown on murals at Tulum and also depicted at MAYAPAN and MOHO CAY.

MAJOR CENTERS: The capitals of lowland polities, showing the hieroglyphic records on carved stone monuments (STELAE) of the ruling Maya dynasty of the particular CITY-STATE.

MAMON POTTERY: Middle Preclassic pottery (700–300 b.c.) found at many sites in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS.

MANO: A cylindrical stone held in two hands and used to grind corn on the surface of a METATE, or stone grinding implement.

MARCO GONZALEZ: Trading site in the southern part of Ambergris Cay, Belize, that played an important role in SEA TRADE and coastal-inland trade, as investigated by Elizabeth Graham and David Pendergast.

MARRIAGE ALLIANCES: Royal Maya engaged in marriage alliances to cement interpolity relations. In the wider sphere of regional geopolitics, intermarriages sometimes occurred with politics at some distance, whereas WARFARE was usually initiated with polities closer geographically, usually neighbors. The greatest distance for interpolity marriage was between Palenque and COPAN, which are 109 kilometers apart. For the other seven known instances of interpolity marriage, the average distance is 64 kilometers.

MATHEMATICS: Using a dot to indicate 1, a bar for 5, and a stylized shell for 0, the Maya could write any number, and they used their mathematics to record historical and astronomical events.

MAYA LONG COUNT: A CALENDAR system used in the CLASSIC PERIOD, based on bars and dots, that provides dates for events with the year zero corresponding to 3114 BCE.

MAYA LOWLANDS: A flat, tropical rainforest area on the limestone platform of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. The lowlands are environmentally diverse and include the MAYA MOUNTAINS and Puuc Hills. The CLASSIC Maya civilization developed in the southern Maya lowlands of Belize and the PETEN district of Guatemala, whereas the northern Maya lowlands of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula were the focus of POSTCLASSIC florescence.

MAYA MOUNTAINS: Three granite batholiths that rise to over 1,000 meters in southern Belize, providing GRANITE, quartz, and other minerals, as well as the origins of many rivers, notably the Belize River, Deep River, and Rio Grande.

MAYAPAN: A walled city in the northern lowlands that dominated the Late POSTCLASSIC in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS, investigated by the CARNEGIE INSTITUTION of Washington in the 1930s and 1940s and later by Marilyn Masson.

MERCHANT GOD: The god of XIBALBA, known as God L. As lord of the underworld, God L transformed himself into a JAGUAR each night as he traveled through XIBALBA. He was shown as an old man or as a black JAGUAR, often wearing a cape and a large wide-brimmed hat with owl feathers and sometimes an actual head of an owl. His bundle or backpack identified him in his merchant role.

MERCURY: A cache of mercury was recovered from under a BALL COURT marker at LAMANAI. The mineral was available in Honduras during ancient Maya times.

METATE: A rectangular stone grinding surface, often with three supports, used by the ancient Maya to grind corn and ubiquitous at ancient Maya sites. Metates were made of GRANITE, limestone, or imported volcanic basalt, with a hand-held cylindrical MANO used to grind on the surface.

MIDDEN: Garbage heaps, commonly associated with households and containing broken pottery and other broken artifacts disposed of along with food remains. Middens were often moved and used as fill in construction; they are now also used by archaeologists to reconstruct the changes in pottery styles that form the backbone of the system for dating sites.

MILITARY STRATEGIES: Reasons for WARFARE varied from raids to obtain captives, to sacking and destroying the capital of a polity (as at AGUATECA in the PETEXBATUN), to conquering and subjugating a polity (as Calakmul did with TIKAL and Naranjo. Military tactics included attacking the central acropolis of capitals to capture the AHAU and his entourage. Some cities took defensive measures to counter such attacks, such as building DEFENSIVE WALLS.

MILPA/SLASH AND BURN/SWIDDEN AGRICULTURE: A form of agriculture in which a section of the forest is burned and then the land is planted by dropping seeds into holes made with a stick as the farmer walks. The fields are used for two to eight years and then abandoned to regenerate, as nutrients are eventually lost and weeds take over. This extensive form of farming, used by the modern Maya, uses more land than intensive farming methods such as raised or drained fields and terracing, which the ancient Maya also used.

MINOR CENTER: Small cities, not the political capitals of a CLASSIC Maya CITY-STATE, often having significant monumental architecture and carved monuments with hieroglyphic records of ties with a royal dynasty.

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA: DNA extracted from ancient bones and modern Maya people, and used to reconstruct population movement and settlement in the Maya area.

MOHO CAY: A CLASSIC Maya trading port located in the mouth of the Belize River. The city tied coastal canoe trade with riverine trade, providing the Maya at inland cities with resources from the sea and from farther away along coastal Caribbean transportation routes.

MOTAGUA RIVER: An important avenue of trade and transportation between the southern Maya highlands around KAMINALJUYU, the EL CHAYAL OBSIDIAN outcrop, and the Caribbean coast of modern Guatemala for canoe trade to the MAYA LOWLANDS. Also the location of major known sources of JADE and other greenstones desired by the Maya for highly crafted status objects.

MOTUL DE SAN JOSE: A southern Maya lowland city investigated by Antonia Foias.

MUTAL: The kingdom of MUTAL (TIKAL) battled with the Kingdom of KAAN (Calakmul) for control of the Mata heartland. Mutal eventually won, but neither Kaan nor Mutal ever recovered. The end of the war marked the beginning of the Maya collapse. The Maya 100 Years War lasted from 526 CE to 682 CE. The name Tikal means "place of voices" in the language of the local Itza Maya. Its original name is lost in time, but may have been Yax Mutal—capital of the mighty Mutal kingdom. Anciently, Tikal was a commercial and military superpower and an important ritual center. See Map.

NAKBE: A prominent Middle Preclassic city investigated in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS by Richard Hansen.

NIM LI PUNIT: A site discovered by oil workers and subsequently investigated by Jaime Awe, Norman Hammond, and Richard Leventhal. This MINOR CENTER in the foothills of southern Belize has some twenty-five carved monuments, in contrast to their absence at nearby LUBAANTUN.

NOHMUL: A MINOR CENTER in northern Belize investigated by Norman Hammond. The site has two areas of monumental architecture connected by a SACBE.

OBSIDIAN: Volcanic glass occurring in the volcanic areas of highland Mesoamerica and widely traded throughout Maya prehistory to make sharp-edged blades, used for ritual BLOODLETTING (as seen depicted on Maya painted pottery and stone carvings) and other more mundane uses. Chemical identification of trace elements of OBSIDIAN can link artifacts to their outcrops, making OBSIDIAN the basis for many studies of ancient Maya trade.

OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALIZATION: The CLASSIC Maya had skilled workers for constructing buildings, quarrying stone for buildings and monuments, producing the most finely made painted pots and stone tools, and for writing records on paper, STELAE, architecture, and pottery and other objects.

OLMEC: The earliest civilization in Mesoamerica, with capitals at San Lorenzo (1200–900 b.c.) and La Venta (900–400 b.c.) on the Gulf of Mexico coast, predating the Maya and influencing its development (number system, CALENDAR, and precious development) throughout the Pacific coast and particularly around IZAPA.

ORLANDO’S JEWFISH: Underwater site in Punta Ycacos Lagoon, Paynes Creek National Park, in southern Belize, submerged by sea level rise, where brine was boiled in pots to produce SALT in specialized WORKSHOPS, excavated by Heather McKillop.

PACBITUN: A city in western Belize investigated by Paul F. Healy, known for musical instruments from elite graves and for a long prehistoric record.

PADDLER GODS: Gods that transported people in canoes to the underworld. Their most famous depiction is on incised bones accompanying the king in a TEMPLE BURIAL in TIKAL. The Maize Paddler God and the JAGUAR Paddler God guided the canoe through XIBALBA, with the JAGUAR usually in the front and the Stingray Paddler God in the center.

PALEOINDIANS: The earliest post-PLEISTOCENE occupants of the Maya area, not identifiable ethnically as Maya, known by isolated recoveries of distinctive OBSIDIAN or CHERT fluted projectile points, as at LADYVILLE, Belize.

PAUAHTUN: The old quadripartite god, also known as God N, who supported the four corners of the sky. He was shown wearing a turtle carapace or conch shell on his back during the CLASSIC period and in the CODICES. He also is identified by his cutout shell nose and crocodile jaw headdress. By the contact period, Pauahtun was known as the four bacabs, who each held up a corner of the sky.

PETEN: Modern political district in Guatemala located in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS, dominated by tropical rainforest and the central area where the CLASSIC civilization developed, including TIKAL.

PETEXBATUN: A region between the Pasion and Usumacinta Rivers in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS investigated by Arthur Demarest and colleagues Takeshi Inomata, Juan Valdes, Hector Escobedo, Joel Palka, Antonia Foias, Nicholas Dunning, Lori Wright, and James Brady. Endemic WARFARE, CRAFT PRODUCTION, and political and military alliances were forged here during the Late CLASSIC, including such cities as DOS PILAS, Tamarindito, Punta de Chimino, and AGUATECA.

PIEDRAS NEGRAS: A city on the Usumacinta River in Guatemala, investigated by University of Pennsylvania researchers and subsequently by Stephen Houston. The city had drains for water management.

PLAZUELA GROUP: The basic unit of Maya settlement, in which several buildings are arranged around a square plaza. The system was used both for Maya households and for TEMPLES and palaces in city centers.

PLEISTOCENE: The most recent ice age, ending about 9500 b.c., after which there is artifactual evidence in the form of isolated OBSIDIAN and CHERT projectile points of the first human use of the Maya area by people termed PALEOINDIANS.

POLITICAL ECONOMY: Control of the production and distribution of some goods, particularly high-status pottery vessels and exotic goods of high value, by Maya royalty at urban cities. Contrast with SUBSISTENCE ECONOMY.

POLYCHROME POTTERY: A feature of the CLASSIC period in which vessels were painted using multiple colors, usually red and black on an orange or cream base, with brown and blue less common. This style was in contrast to the predominantly red pots of the Preclassic and the incised decoration of the POSTCLASSIC.

POPOL VUH: A historic text from highland Guatemala that recounts the Maya story of CREATION, in particular the exploits of the HERO TWINS. It is depicted pictorially in scenes on CLASSIC painted pottery vessels and carved stone monuments, and so has great antiquity and use for interpreting the ancient Maya worldview.

POSTCLASSIC PERIOD: The time after the collapse of the southern MAYA LOWLAND CITY-STATES (a.d. 900–1500) until the arrival of the Spaniards, when cities in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS such as CHICHEN ITZA and, later, MAYAPAN rose to prominence.

PRESTIGE ECONOMY: Often referred to as the POLITICAL ECONOMY or ritual economy, this included the production, distribution, and use of goods and resources for the royal Maya and other elites.

PRIMARY STANDARD SEQUENCE (PSS): A band of HIEROGLYPHS below the vessel rim of Late CLASSIC vases with HIEROGLYPHS indicating the date and other essential information about the activity depicted.

PROSKOURIAKOFF, TATIANA: Trained as an architect, she worked for the CARNEGIE INSTITUTION of Washington and then the Peabody Museum at Harvard, making a major breakthrough in the decipherment of Mayan HIEROGLYPHS by discovering that they recorded historical information about Maya royalty.

PROTOCLASSIC: A period of distinctive POLYCHROME POTTERY including dishes with four mammiform supports. The style is regarded variously as intrusive from El Salvador following a volcanic eruption or as a local development, either part of the Late Preclassic or Early CLASSIC.

PULLTROUSER SWAMP: Drained or RAISED FIELDS and associated settlements in northern Belize investigated by Peter D. Harrison and Billie Lee Turner, who suggested that they were built to intensify agricultural production resulting from a Late CLASSIC population increase.

PUSILHA: Major Late CLASSIC site investigated by the British Museum in the 1920s, with carved monuments removed to Britain, and subsequently investigated by Geoff Braswell. The site also has a bridge over the Moho River and has distinctive Late CLASSIC “unit-stamped” pottery.

RAISED (OR DRAINED) FIELDS: Swamps that are drained by digging canals and piling the muck on top of the resulting raised beds, which are continuously cultivated. Such fields produce multiple crops per year and make more-intensive use of the land than SLASH AND BURN agriculture, thereby supporting more people. This draining of swamps may have been done as a response to Late CLASSIC population increases at PULLTROUSER SWAMP, Albion Island, or along the Candelaria River, or as a Late Preclassic tactic of aggrandizing elites, as at Albion Island. Some swamps may also be naturally canalized. Regular rectilinear patterns called gilgae develop in swamps during the dry season when the swamps become dessicated and the ground cracks.

RELACIÓN DE LAS COSAS DE YUCATAN: A treatise that BISHOP DE LANDA wrote while in prison in Spain, written in defense of his treatment of the Maya of the Yucatan. The book was later to become the most detailed account of the sixteenth-century Yucatecan Maya. Tragically, DE LANDA had burnt most of the existing Maya books, which was part of the reason he was recalled to Spain and imprisoned.

RUBBER BALL: A solid rubber ball used in the ritual BALL GAMES of the Maya. It was made from the sap of the Sapodilla tree.

SACBE: A raised roadway, also called a causeway, made of limestone rubble and surfaced with plaster. It connected parts of a single community, as at TIKAL, CHICHEN ITZA, and CARACOL, or ran between communities, as the road departing COBA.

SALT: A very important commodity among the Maya. WORKSHOPS excavated in Punta Ycacos Lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park by Heather McKillop supplied salt for the Late CLASSIC inland Maya in nearby cities, but the temporal and geographical importance of salt produced by this method of boiling brine in pots over fires is unknown. This method also contrasts with the extraction and use of salt gathered from the salt flats along the north coast of the Yucatan, proposed by Anthony Andrews as supplying the CLASSIC Maya of the southern MAYA LOWLANDS.

SAN BARTOLO: Site of a discovery of rare painted wall murals in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS by William Saturno, dating to Late PRECLASSIC period.

SAN MARTIN JILOTEPEQUE: A source of high-quality OBSIDIAN west of modern Guatemala City that was commonly used by the Preclassic lowland Maya, but used less in other times. Also known as Rio Pixcaya.

SANTA RITA: Coastal community, now mainly buried under the modern Belize city of Corozal, well known for now-destroyed Late POSTCLASSIC painted murals. One building here is maintained by the Belize government as a tourist site.

SAYIL: A TERMINAL CLASSIC city in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS investigated by Jeremy Sabloff and Gair Tourtellot. The site has little ground cover, allowing surface collection of artifacts to interpret ancient activities.

SEA TRADE: Trade and travel of varying distances along the Yucatan coast that facilitated trade and settlement of the coast and offshore islands (cays).

SEGMENTARY MODEL: A model in which power is seen as having been decentralized within a CITY-STATE and in which the MAYA LOWLANDS are seen as having consisted of some eighty rather independent CITY-STATES during the CLASSIC period. The segmentary model contrasts with the centralist model, in which the lowlands are viewed as having been more centrally organized.

SEIBAL: A lowland Maya city along the Pasion River, which was the focus of major excavations under GORDON R. WILLEY. Jeremy Sabloff’s ceramic study here set standards for recording using the TYPE-VARIETY SYSTEM of ceramic classification.

SETTLEMENT PATTERNS: Pioneered by Maya archaeologist GORDON R. WILLEY. Settlement pattern studies include examination of the way in which ancient Maya settlements were distributed across the landscape, the organization of buildings and spaces within communities, and the spatial organization within structures; this information reflects the social, economic, and ideological aspects of Maya society.

SHORT COUNT DATES: TERMINAL CLASSIC and POSTCLASSIC dates that were written without the BAKTUN number, so that, without other information, the date cannot be traced to the beginning of the Maya CALENDAR.

SKY BAND: A representation of the Milky Way, depicted by a rectangular band divided into sections with images of animals interpreted as representing ancient Maya constellations. Depicted in the Dresden and Paris CODICES and on the face of buildings at CHICHEN ITZA and Acanceh. The Milky Way is also sometimes shown with a Cosmic Monster and sometimes as a double-headed snake.

SLAVES: May or may not have been used by the Maya. Whether or not slaves were a regular part of CLASSIC Maya society, it is known that war captives were temporarily enslaved before eventual sacrifice, torture, and/or being forced to participate in a terminal BALL GAME.

SMITH, A. LEDYARD: A CARNEGIE INSTITUTION of Washington archaeologist who directed major architectural excavations at UAXACTUN and later for Harvard University at SEIBAL and ALTAR DE SACRIFICIOS. He set the standards for excavation of Maya architecture.

SMITH, ROBERT E.: A CARNEGIE INSTITUTION of Washington archaeologist best known for his seminal ceramic study of UAXACTUN, which formed the foundation for all subsequent Maya pottery studies. The UAXACTUN ceramic complex terms are now standard terminology, including Late Preclassic “Chicanel,” Early CLASSIC “Tzakol,” and Late CLASSIC “Tepeu.”

STELA (PLURAL = STELAE): Stone slabs placed vertically in the ground in front of TEMPLES in the central plazas of cities and carved with images of Maya royalty, HIEROGLYPHS, and—during the CLASSIC period—dates in the Maya LONG COUNT.

STINGRAY LAGOON: A Late CLASSIC SALT works excavated by Heather McKillop in Punta Ycacos Lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park. The site is also used to demonstrate sea level rise, as it is now 110 centimeters below sea level.

SUBSISTENCE ECONOMY: The production of food and resources basic to daily life by individual households and within Maya communities. This model is in contrast to the POLITICAL ECONOMY controlled by the urban royalty.

SWASEY: The earliest pottery known from the MAYA LOWLANDS, first identified by Norman Hammond at CUELLO and subsequently found at other northern Belize sites and beyond, consisting of well-made vessels and dating to about 1000 b.c.

TALUD-TABLERO: A distinctive style of façades on buildings, consisting of alternating inward-sloping “talud” panels with vertical “tablero” panels. This style was characteristic of TEOTIHUACAN architecture and was a marker of the influence of that highland state, as at KAMINALJUYU, TIKAL, and CHAC.

TEMPLE: A stone rubble-filled platform supporting a small upper room of stone or of pole and thatch, used for ceremonies. The platform was reconstructed over time and contained BURIALS of important personages, with Maya royalty buried in the largest temples in lowland cities.

TEOTIHUACAN: A competing and coeval state in central Mexico, with a city of the same name north of modern Mexico City. Teotihuacan dominated highland Mexico between a.d. 100 and 700, making military and MARRIAGE ALLIANCES with the CLASSIC Maya, possibly including the cities of KAMINALJUYU, COPAN, and TIKAL. The relationship between Teotihuacan and the Maya is hotly debated among Maya archaeologists and epigraphers, however.

TERMINAL CLASSIC: Time of endemic WARFARE, political unrest, and economic unrest in the southern MAYA LOWLANDS (a.d. 800–900), when CITY-STATES fell and were abandoned. This period, however, witnessed the rise to prominence of cities such as CHICHEN ITZA in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS and coastal communities, especially trading ports.

TERMINATION RITUALS: Rituals performed when a building was no longer to be used or before it was rebuilt. Caches of broken pots or other offerings found in ancient TEMPLES are interpreted as termination rituals.

TERRACED HILLSLOPES: A series of horizontal ridges made in a hillslope. In the MAYA MOUNTAINS of Belize, the Rio Bec region in Mexico had slopes that were terraced to prevent soil erosion, make farming possible, and arguably to allow fertilization and more-intensive use of the land than MILPA farming, perhaps as a response to Late CLASSIC population increases.

THOMPSON, SIR J. ERIC S : A leading Maya archaeologist from Britain who excavated at LUBAANTUN, San Jose, MAYAPAN, and elsewhere, coined the term “PLAZUELA GROUP,” and made many important strides in hieroglyphic research.

TIKAL: A Maya city that became one of the major powers during the CLASSIC period in the southern lowlands. It was the focus of a major research project by the University of Pennsylvania and then the Guatemalan government, in which several of the major TEMPLES as well as outlying structures have been investigated. The name Tikal means "place of voices" in the language of the local Itza Maya. Its original name is lost in time, but may have been Yax Mutal—capital of the mighty MUTAL kingdom. Ancient, Tikal was a commercial and military superpower and an important ritual center.

TIPU: A Maya community in western Belize where Fransiscan missionaries established a mission. Excavations have been made there of a church with more than 500 Maya buried in Christian fashion and with a Spanish-style community layout.

TREE CROPPING (ORCHARDS): Remains of fruits of trees with edible fruits such as chocolate, native palms, mammee apple, and nance indicate deliberate planting and tending of trees around ancient houses to supplement the Maya diet, especially on small Caribbean islands with limited arable land.

TRIBUTE: May have been demanded of those conquered by the Maya. Tribute payment fits well within the view of CLASSIC Maya politics involving military imperialism, with conquered polities owing tribute to their new overlords. Although HIEROGLYPHS record historical and political rather than economic events, scenes on painted pots show offerings, including tribute payments.

TUN: A unit of time in Maya counting and the CALENDAR, corresponding to one year.

TURQUOISE: A trade good for the Maya. Late POSTCLASSIC trade tied the Maya area into a broader Mesoamerican interaction sphere, with turquoise being among the trade goods recovered from SANTA RITA Corozal, Belize, and elsewhere.

TYPE-VARIETY SYSTEM: A system of classifying pottery sherds widely used by Mayanists to establish a site’s chronology based on changes in decoration and surface finish.

TZOLKIN CALENDAR: A 260-day Maya ritual CALENDAR, as documented by Diego de Landa and the POSTCLASSIC Maya CODICES, as well as in earlier times. The Tzolkin CALENDAR was used to predict a person’s destiny from his or her birth date and also to predict proper times to plant corn—an ancient “farmer’s almanac.”

UAXACTUN (WAXAKTUN): A site near TIKAL that was extensively excavated in the 1920s and 1930s by Oliver Ricketson, A. LEDYARD SMITH, and others of the now-defunct CARNEGIE INSTITUTION of Washington. This site is most famous for E-VII-SUB, a Late Preclassic TEMPLE decorated with masks. ROBERT E. SMITH’S ceramic report on this site is the foundation for all subsequent studies of Maya pottery.

UINAL: A period of twenty days comprising a Maya month.

UNESCO CONVENTION OF 1970: An international agreement by most world countries to respect each other’s cultural patrimony. Ensuing federal legislation in each country made it illegal to import or export antiquities, including Maya artifacts.

UXMAL: UXMAL (Yucatec Maya: Óoxmáal) is a large Maya site 47 miles (78 km) south of Mérida, Yucatán (Yucatan).The place name is Pre-Columbian and it is usually assumed to be an archaic Maya language phrase meaning "Built Three Times," although some scholars of the Maya language dispute this derivation. Uxmal holds some of the most complex and beautiful examples of the regional Puuc-style architecture, and its magnificent pyramids and structures make it a popular tourist destination.

VENUS: A very important celestial body to the Maya. The Maya made extensive calculations on Venus, perhaps because they associated it with WARFARE. The appearance of Venus in the morning or evening sky was often associated with war imagery in CLASSIC-period art, and there are tables about Venus in the DRESDEN and Grolier CODICES.

VISION QUEST: A mental trance state sought by Maya rulers and other elite. Dynastic leaders are depicted in scenes such as those in carved stone at Yaxchilan, engaged in vision quests: Blood offerings dripped onto bark paper are ignited, and the leader is transformed in the ensuing smoke to communicate with the GODS and seek their power and insights to lead the people. Vision quests were aided by smoking tobacco, fasting, using HALLUCINOGENS from mushrooms or the Bufo marinus frog, and from blood loss through ritual BLOODLETTING.

VUCUB CAQUIX: A anthropomorphic vulture found in the POPOL VUH, first depicted at IZAPA and common in CLASSIC Maya iconography.

WARFARE: Practiced extensively among the Maya. Historical records of defeat on Maya STELAE, DEFENSIVE WALLS, and pictorial depictions of battles such as the murals of BONAMPAK indicate that warfare was endemic by the Late CLASSIC and may have precipitated the Maya collapse. Warfare continued in the POSTCLASSIC, as evidenced by fortifications at many cities in the northern MAYA LOWLANDS.

WATER LILY: A common motif in Maya imagery. The Water Lily Serpent symbolized still water and was a substitute for the number 13; it was shown with a snake body and a downturned bird head wearing a lily pad and flower headdress, often accompanied by a fish nibbling at the flower. Water lily imagery is common at DZIBILCHALTUN, ALTUN HA, and LAMANAI. The Water Lily Serpent was a common headdress for CLASSIC Maya royalty.

WEAPONS: Scenes on CLASSIC Maya painted pots and stone carvings show royal Maya with spears and war captives, but little attention has been directed to research on the weapons used in WARFARE. The CLASSIC Maya had CHERT stone points suitable for hafting onto spears. Small dart points were introduced during the POSTCLASSIC, evidently from central Mexico. Caches of stone spear points were found along the DEFENSIVE WALL systems at DOS PILAS along with a cache of adult male skulls, decapitated while still fleshed, in a pit outside the exterior wall.

WILD CANE CAY: A coastal Maya trading port in the Port Honduras Marine Reserve of southern Belize, excavated by Heather McKillop, that was important in the Late CLASSIC and grew to prominence during the POSTCLASSIC canoe trade.

WILLEY, GORDON R.: Bowditch Professor of Archaeology at Harvard University, who directed major projects at BARTON RAMIE, the Belize River, SEIBAL, ALTAR DE SACRIFICIOS, and COPAN. He was a leading and influential figure in Maya archaeology in the latter part of the twentieth century.

WORKSHOP: A location where goods were produced for use elsewhere, for purposes beyond the needs of regular household production. Some examples were CHERT tools produced in household workshops at COLHA, SALT produced in independent workshops in Punta Ycacos Lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park, and elite paraphernalia produced in royal households at AGUATECA.

WORLD TREE: Symbolized by the Ceiba tree, or axis mundi. The quadripartite worldview of the Maya universe with the world tree at its center is pervasive in Maya art and architecture.

XIBALBA: The Maya underworld, equated with the primordial sea. It was the locus of a battle in form of the BALL GAME, fought by the HERO TWINS, as told in the POPOL VUH.

XUNANTUNICH: A MINOR CENTER in western Belize occupied late in the Late CLASSIC and abandoned at the end of the CLASSIC period, investigated and restored by Wendy Ashmore and Richard Leventhal and currently open to the public.

YAXUNA: A northern lowland Maya city investigated by David Freidel.

ZODIAC: The Maya version, including VENUS, the Pleiades, and Gemini, among others, may have consisted of thirteen groups of stars that cycled every twenty-eight days. Both the Paris and DRESDEN CODICES refer to the zodiac, and it is represented on sculptures at CHICHEN ITZA and Acanceh, as well as in CLASSIC Maya iconography.

Note: Much of this glossary is from Dr. Heather McKillop's book: The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives (2004).