Nothing Lasts Forever: Environmental Discourses on the Collapse of Past Societies

The study of the collapse of past societies raises many questions for the theory and practice of archaeology. Interest in collapse extends as well into the natural sciences and environmental and sustainability policy. Despite a range of approaches to collapse, the predominant paradigm is environmental collapse, which I argue obscures recognition of the dynamic role of social processes that lie at the heart of human communities. These environmental discourses, together with confusion over terminology and the concepts of collapse, have created widespread aporia about collapse and resulted in the creation of mixed messages about complex historical and social processes

Una de cal por las que van de arena: un estudio diacrónico de los estucos de Calakmul y Palenque

This paper presents the results of petrographic and X-ray fluorescence analyses carried out in lime plaster samples from Calakmul and Palenque. Technological differences observed in the samples are though to represent different building traditions and these changes are discussed in terms of the environmental contexts, the availability of raw materials, and the socio-political contexts of each of the chronological periods. A clear tendency of replacing lime for clays in order to produce mud plasters was clearly documented in Terminal Classic materials. We think this is a consequence of the breakdown in building traditions caused by the collapse of the sociopolitical structure of the sites, exacerbated perhaps by shortages of firewood. The selection of raw materials and the problems in the chronology of Palenque's buildings is also discussed.Este artículo presenta los resultados de los análisis de petrografía y fluorescencia de rayos X de materiales constructivos de Calakmul y Palenque. Las diferencias observadas en las muestras reflejan distintas tradiciones constructivas y los cambios tecnológicos se discuten en función de las particularidades ambientales, las materias primas disponibles en cada uno de los casos de estudio, y los contextos sociopolíticos de cada uno de los periodos. Los resultados demuestran una clara tendencia a sustituir la cal por arcillas en las argamasas del Clásico Terminal, lo cual lo atribuimos a la decadencia de técnicas constructivas causada por el deterioro sociopolítico de los sitios y posiblemente la deforestación extensiva. Se discute también el aprovisionamiento de materias primas para la fabricación de materiales constructivos y los problemas de la cronología establecida para los edificios de Palenque

ASTRONOMY, RITUAL, AND THE INTERPRETATION OF MAYA “E-GROUP” ARCHITECTURAL ASSEMBLAGES

E-group architectural assemblages, constructed and used for more than a millennium in the Maya Lowlands, are among the most distinctive and enduring forms in Mesoamerican monumental architecture. Since the 1920s, E-groups have been thought to mark the solstices and equinoxes, but more recent investigations have shown that these alignments were rarely accurate. We argue that accurate solar alignment was probably only a minor element, and primarily an early one, of a larger set of metaphorically linked design considerations that included concepts of sacred geography, ritual performance in reference to yearly solar and agricultural cycles, and longer cycles of time, especially katuns, that played a role in Lowland Maya geopolitical structuring