Houston
Biographic Data
| ID | 40078 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Houston |
| FAMILY NAME | Houston |
| SIGNATURE | HOUSTON |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brigham Young University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9911-7484 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 82 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1068 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 82 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 18 |
A Teotihuacan altar at Tikal, Guatemala: Central Mexican ritual and elite interaction in the Maya Lowlands
The nature and extent of interactions between the distant regions and cultures of Mesoamerica remain open to much debate. Close economic and political ties developed between Teotihuacan and the lowland Maya during the Early Classic period (AD 250-550), yet the relationship between these cultures continues to perplex scholars. This article presents an elaborately painted altar from an elite residential group at the lowland Maya centre of Tikal, Gu…
Sculptural Traditionalism and Innovation in the Classic Maya Kingdom of Sak Tz'i', Mexico
In this article we analyze the content and form of 58 stone monuments at the archaeological site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas, Mexico, which recent research confirms was a capital of the Classic Maya polity Sak Tz'i' (“White Dog”). Sak Tz'i' kings carried the titleajaw(“lord”) rather than the epithetk'uhul ajaw(“holy lord”) claimed by regional powers, implying that Sak Tz'i' was a lesser kingdom in terms of political authority. Lacanjá Tzeltal's c…
Un trono dividido: El origen y los movimientos de la Banca Jeroglífica 1 de Ixtutz, Guatemala
Aquí presentamos el descubrimiento de una banca jeroglífica esculpida del sitio maya de Ixtutz, Petén, Guatemala. Analizamos la inscripción jeroglífica en la banca y discutimos la historia del objecto en el contexto de su producción, su desmantelamiento y reutilización subsecuente, y la remoción de unas piezas del sitio. Mostramos que dos bloques inscritos de caliza, uno de ellos en una colección privada en Bruselas y el otro en el Los Angeles Co…
Sourcing novelty: On the “secondary invention” of writing
Chronology and the evidence for war in the ancient Maya kingdom of Piedras Negras
Michael D. Coe (1929–2019): A Life in the Past
of the True History of the Conquest of Mexico (Garca 1908(Garca -1916)). Therein, Mike protested the wretched conditions of plantation-grown cacao, for he would want to be remembered as someone standing up to corporate greed. Mike also "taught" by serving, in later years, as an authoritative guide for luxurious trips organized by Far Horizons, a tour company
A Teotihuacan complex at the Classic Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala
Lidar reveals the presence of a precinct at the Classic Maya city of Tikal that probably reproduces the Ciudadela and Temple of the Feathered Serpent at the imperial capital of Teotihuacan
Literacy among the Pre-Columbian Maya: A Comparative Perspective
Centering the Classic Maya Kingdom of Sak Tz’i’
In this article, we provide the results of preliminary archaeological and epigraphic research undertaken at the site of Lacanjá Tzeltal, Chiapas. Field research conducted in 2018, in collaboration with local community members, has allowed us to identify this archaeological site as the capital of a kingdom known from Classic period Maya inscriptions as "Sak Tz'i'" (White Dog). Because all previously known references to the kingdom came from looted…
What Is a Hieroglyph
We consider two unrelated traditions of hieroglyphic writing, Maya and Egyptian, to discuss distinctive features of such mixed, logo-phonetic writing systems. Hieroglyphic scripts are characterized by their sustained pictoriality and by sign forms that are not reducible to stroke, line patterns or fonts. Moreover, the systems are tightly integrated with a broader aesthetic culture, and represent an encyclopedically dense mode of visual communicat…
The Gifted Passage: Young Men in Classic Maya Art and Text
In this thought-provoking book, preeminent scholar Stephen Houston turns his attention to the crucial role of young males in Classic Maya society, drawing on evidence from art, writing, and material culture. The Gifted Passage establishes that adolescent men in Maya art were the subjects and makers of hieroglyphics, painted ceramics, and murals, in works that helped to shape and reflect masculinity in Maya civilization. The political volatility o…
An Inconstant Landscape
Ingenuity and Ambivalence in Maya Writing
Scribal reception and status among the Classic Maya drew on subtle skills and playful games. But it also rested on an evident understanding that scribes (or sculptors) and their provincial patrons needed to obey their superiors. Certain clues indicate that the producers of script existed within established obligations of tribute, for written memorials as well. Elsewhere, myths provide enduring templates for humanity, and that was no less true for…
About the Covers
Previous articleNext article FreeAbout the CoversPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreFlorentino Jimeno assembled a vast collection of figurines from the Maya island of Jaina in the nineteenth century, which are now part of the Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Jimeno’s collection includes examples of every major ty…
Molded meaning
Recentering the rural: Lidar and articulated landscapes among the Maya
Ancient lowland Maya complexity as revealed by airborne laser scanning of northern Guatemala
Classic Maya civilization in detail Lidar (a type of airborne laser scanning) provides a powerful technique for three-dimensional mapping of topographic features. It is proving to be a valuable tool in archaeology, particularly where the remains of structures may be hidden beneath forest canopies. Canuto et al. present lidar data covering more than 2000 square kilometers of lowland Guatemala, which encompasses ancient settlements of the Classic M…
True People, Foreigners, and the Framing of Maya Morality
Peopling the Classic Maya Court
This chapter discusses Justin and Barbara Kerr graciously allowed us to do the renderings of royal weaving bones. Maya royalty and nobility must first be viewed according to the problem of power and power relations. Power can be conventionally defined as an absolute term that helps to isolate and refine comparative patterns of coercion and obedience. For all the negative or positive tactical consequences, such contacts with major centers, either …
Writing that Isn't: Pseudo-Scripts in Comparative View
BY COMMON UNDERSTANDING, writing is a graphic means of recording sound and meaning. It is not language per se, but a selective expression of that basic human attribute, as leavened and mediated by writing itself. Other messages come through as well. Think of emoticons, which encapsulate facial features and emotional states, or, in Christian contexts, a cross that is affixed to the names of the dead. To most scholars, systems of writing do not jus…
Paleoecology and Geoarchaeology at El Palmar and the El Zotz Region, Guatemala
A new paleoecology record from the El Palmar Cival adds to the emerging geoarchaeological record of El Zotz, Guatemala. El Palmar's 3 m stratigraphic record began in the Archaic period before 1500 B.C. at or just before initial Maya impacts. From the lowest level, Late Archaic organic deposition, with evidence for diverse tropical forest and a steady water table, transitioned to Early Preclassic clay deposition, decreased forest taxa, three known…
A royal Maya country house: Archaeology at Bejucal, Guatemala
This article presents three years of archaeological investigations at the minor Maya center of Bejucal, Guatemala. A complete site history is presented relying on data from artifact analysis, architectural study, epigraphy, and bioarchaeology, with a goal towards identifying the site's function within the broader El Zotz polity. The authors argue that Bejucal underwent significant transformation following its establishment as a sacred hilltop sit…
Through seeing stones: Maya epigraphy as a mature discipline
Special Section: New Dialogues About Ancient Maya
Most people think of Maya civilisation, if they do at all, while on vacation. A daytrip from a beach takes them to ruins nearby, crowded with tourists in correct holiday gear. In the recent past, others might have grown anxious about the portentous significance of the year 2012. Maya glyphs, so the hucksters affirmed, predicted a cascade of dire events, not one of which (predictably) has come to pass. Then there are those living in Mayaland itsel…
A Neighborly View: Water and Environmental History of the El Zotz Region
Of gods, glyphs and kings: Divinity and rulership among the Classic Maya
The ANTIQUITY prize-winning article in the last volume addressed writing, its varying nature and role in early states. Now that the decipherment of Maya writing is well advanced, we can know more of the records of kingship. From them we may discern the concepts and beliefs that defined the authority of these holy lords, as we seek the source of the power of rulers like 'Sun-faced Snake Jaguar
An Archaeology of the Senses: Perception and Cultural Expression in Ancient Mesoamerica
The ancient Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples showed an intense interest in invoking the senses, especially hearing, sight, and smell. The senses were flagged by graphic devices of synaesthetic or cross-sensory intent; writing and speech scrolls triggered sound, sightlines the acts and consequences of seeing, and flowery ornament indicated both scent and soul essence. As conceived anciently, the senses were projective and procreative, involving…
Chemical Analyses of Ancient Anthrosols in Residential Areas at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
The Ancient Maya Self: Personhood and Portraiture in the Classic Period
The Language of Classic Maya Inscriptions
Recent decipherments of Classic Maya hieroglyphs (ca. a.d. 250 to 850) reveal phonological and morphological patterns that, through epigraphic and historical analyses, isolate a single, coherent prestige language with unique and widespread features in script. We term this language "Classic Ch'olti'an" and present the evidence for its explicable historical configuration and ancestral affiliation with Eastern Ch'olan languages (Ch'olti' and its sti…
The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya
All of human experience flows from bodies that feel, express emotion, and think about what such experiences mean. But is it possible for us, embodied as we are in a particular time and place, to know how people of long ago thought about the body and its experiences? In this groundbreaking book, three leading experts on the Classic Maya (ca. AD 250 to 850) marshal a vast array of evidence from Maya iconography and hieroglyphic writing, as well as …
Recentering the rural: Lidar and articulated landscapes among the Maya
Methodological Issues in the Provenance Investigation of Early Formative Mesoamerican Ceramics
A recent study of Early Formative Mesoamerican pottery by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) yielded surprising results that prompted two critiques in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The INAA study indicated that the Olmec center of San Lorenzo was a major exporter of carved-incised and white pottery and that little if any pottery made elsewhere was consumed at San Lorenzo. The critiques purport to "overturn" the…
Into the Minds of Ancients: Advances in Maya Glyph Studies
Playing with Power: Ballcourts and Political Ritual in Southern Mesoamerica [and Comments and Reply]
Folk Classification of Classic Maya Pottery
Smokescreens in the Provenance Investigation of Early Formative Mesoamerican Ceramics
We are glad that Sharer et al. (this issue) have dropped their original claim that the INAA data demonstrate multidirectional movement of Early Formative pottery. Beyond this, however, they offer nothing that might enhance understanding of Early Formative ceramic circulation or inspire new insights into Early Formative cultural evolution in Mesoamerica. Instead, their response contains fresh distortions, replications of mistakes made in their PNA…
Evaluating the use of Ikonos satellite imagery in lowland Maya settlement archaeology
Symbolic Sweatbaths of the Maya: Architectural Meaning in the Cross Group at Palenque, Mexico
The function of elite Maya architecture should not always be interpreted literally, for it may also reflect metaphorical and semantic extensions best studied through iconography, hieroglyphic texts, ethnohistory, and ethnography. This holistic approach is employed to help resolve puzzling features of the Cross Group sanctuaries at Palenque, Mexico. The Cross Group likely served as the setting for symbolic sweatbaths, probably involving effigies o…
The decipherment of ancient Maya writing
This anthology of classic articles documents the cognitive history of decipherment of ancient Maya writing. The editors present 48 milestone studies, introducing each with a biographical sketch of the author and brief but substantive commentary on the treatise's place in decipherment history. Together the essays comprise a fascinating historical reflection on the intellectual process of hieroglyphic decipherment that may prove to be its dominant …
The Archaeology of Communication Technologies
Accessing ancient meaning and sound from graphic notations is an immense challenge to archaeologists, whether with respect to marked objects, petrographs, or phonic writing. Two paths clear the way: the detection or reasoned reconstruction of "situation," how graphic notations were used in the past and in what social and cultural setting, and the process of "extraction," the hermeneutic scholarship that decodes such messages and establishes the r…
Decorous bodies and disordered passions: Representations of emotion among the Classic Maya
The Classic Maya (AD 250-850) represented emotion via the human body in stylized ways that reflected their categories of 'affect', the subjective states attributed by one person to another through empathy. Such displays, although rare, served as negative contrasts to a more ordered, restrained and controlled state that operated as an ideal for élite comportment. Control equated to morally appropriate behavior, the lack of it to non-human, superna…
Split Ergativity in the History of the Ch'olan Branch of the Mayan Language Family
An unchallenged assumption regarding the linguistic history of the Ch’olan branch of the Mayan language family is that this common language was “split ergative”—demonstrating an ergative/absolutive pattern of pronominal inflection in the completive aspect and a nominative/accusative pattern in the incompletive. Such a hypothesis is untenable in light of the data, which show that the Ch’olti’an branch of Ch’olan did not share in the split ergative…
A Splendid Predicament: Young Men in Classic Maya Society
The Classic Maya, like many peoples in the ancient world, paid keen attention to male youths as a key age/gender grade, and, in the Maya example, to those who would inherit a courtly world of privilege and domination. Detection of glyphic texts and images relevant to male youth reveals them to be a major interest of elite Classic society, participating in tribute, dances and battle. This transient status, marked by infancy and juvenility on one e…
On Maya Hieroglyphic Literacy
Archaeology and Maya writing
The Good Prince: Transition, Texting and Moral Narrative in the Murals of Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico
Nearly seventy years ago, a group of competitive explorers, few on good terms, reconnoitred the Maya ruins of Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico. There, in what is now known as Structure 1, they found the most densely figured and compositionally ambitious paintings from Precolumbian America – the Bonampak murals, in a building dated by their final, painted notation to c. AD 791. The themes, events, dramatis personae, dynastic setting and execution of the …
Guardian of the Acropolis: The Sacred Space of a Royal Burial at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
Excavation of a small Maya ceremonial structure at the site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, has revealed a Late Classic period (ca. A.D. 600-900) vaulted tomb containing the remains of a young member of the royal family whom we identify as "Night-time Turtle." The artifact assemblage from the burial included a modest quantity of carved jade jewelry (38 pieces), an incised vessel dating to the early Yaxché (ca. A.D. 630-680) ceramic phase, and a cer…
Craft Specialization, Gender, and Personhood among the Postconquest Maya of Yucatan, Mexico
The early ethnohistoric sources from Yucatan contain a wealth of information concerning Maya artisans, their craft activities, and the special goods they produced. We examine the principal sources for information on the sexual division of labor, engendered craft activities, and the influence of crafts and related domestic arts on Maya perceptions of self. Lexical data from the dictionary sources demonstrate a clear gender complementarity in the o…
The Classic Maya Ballgame and Its Architectural Setting: A Study of Relations between Text and Image
A quetzal feather dance at Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico
Stephen D. HOUSTON. A quetzal feather dance at Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico. The author offers an interpretation of some of the figures of the paintings of Bonampak as representing a dance in which quetzal feathers were used. This interpretation is based on a reading of certain glyphs and it supports Mathews' hypothesis concerning the verb glyphs in the inscriptions of Yaxchilan, Chiapas
Another Example of a 'Truncated' Initial Series
Michael Closs's decipherment of an Initial Series from the Xcalumkin area is corroborated by an inscription from Oxkintok, Yucatán, Mexico
An Example of Homophony in Maya Script
This report demonstrates recourse to homophony in ancient Maya script, illustrating the generalization of signs on the basis of their phonetic values, apart from their primary semantic values. It focuses on substitutions, in eight glyphic contexts, of signs for 'sky,' the number 'four,' and 'snake,' the words for which are homophonous or nearly homophonous in most Mayan languages. A final, unique glyphic context exhibits the use of homophony in a…
The Classic Maya Ballgame and Its Architectural Setting: A Study of Relations between Text and Image
The phonetic decipherment of Mayan glyphs
The complete decipherment of Mayan glyphs is an event that neither we, nor perhaps our children, shall ever see: the script is tortuously complicated, as many hieroglyphic writing systems are, and hardly susceptible to rapid and unequivocal 'codebreaking'. Nevertheless, good progress has been made towards reading the glyphs, with many solid achievements in reconstructing the genealogies and political interaction of royal dynasties of the Classic …
Archaeology and Maya writing
Folk Classification of Classic Maya Pottery
Recollections of a Carnegie Archaeologist
I came in the back door, in 1993. It was the bottom of the Depression, and I happened to be in Washington, D.C., studying engineering in a technical school. One evening a man walked into our course, “Stresses and Strains in Structural Steel,” and asked for the drafting class. My professor told him it was down the hall, so our visitor backed out and apologized–he'd been looking for a draftsperson. In the of 1933 any job opening looked good, so I f…
Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala: The Work of William R. Coe:Excavations in the Great Plaza, North Terrace and North Acropolis of Tikal
Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center and Its Sculptures
Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center and Its Sculptures. Robert J. Sharer. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1990.124 pp. $39.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–89089–260–1
Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center and Its Sculptures:Quirigua: A Classic Maya Center and Its Sculptures
On Maya Hieroglyphic Literacy
Archeology: Understanding Maya Inscriptions: A Hieroglyph Handbook . John F. Harris and Stephen K. Stearns
Literacy among the Pre-Columbian Maya: A Comparative Perspective
Writing in New World Civilizations
Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations. Joyce Marcus
Gene Strickland Stuart 1930-1993
hen Gene Strickland Stuart passed away in Silver Spring, Maryland, after a brave and difficult struggle with cancer on August 8, 1993, she left behind a legacy of good will, good works, and an extraordinary life that brought a large audience to studies of ancient America. With her husband, George Stuart, she was as responsible as any other for showing how vitally interesting Precolumbian cultures could be in attractive prose illustrated with evoc…
Classic Maya Place Names
The Writing System of La Mojarra and Associated Monuments . Lloyd B. Anderson
Playing with Power: Ballcourts and Political Ritual in Southern Mesoamerica [and Comments and Reply]
Symbolic Sweatbaths of the Maya: Architectural Meaning in the Cross Group at Palenque, Mexico
The function of elite Maya architecture should not always be interpreted literally, for it may also reflect metaphorical and semantic extensions best studied through iconography, hieroglyphic texts, ethnohistory, and ethnography. This holistic approach is employed to help resolve puzzling features of the Cross Group sanctuaries at Palenque, Mexico. The Cross Group likely served as the setting for symbolic sweatbaths, probably involving effigies o…
Of gods, glyphs and kings: Divinity and rulership among the Classic Maya
The ANTIQUITY prize-winning article in the last volume addressed writing, its varying nature and role in early states. Now that the decipherment of Maya writing is well advanced, we can know more of the records of kingship. From them we may discern the concepts and beliefs that defined the authority of these holy lords, as we seek the source of the power of rulers like 'Sun-faced Snake Jaguar
How ‘Natives’ Think, About the Soul, For Example (with apologies to Sahlins)
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The Paris Codex: Handbook for a Maya Priest
The Paris Codex: Handbook for. Maya Priest. Bruce Love. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.124 pp
The Shifting Now: Aspect, Deixis, and Narrative in Classic Maya Texts
Abundant and complex, Maya hieroglyphic texts serve as a crucial resource for understanding pre-Columbian narrative. This essay documents and discusses the discursive structure of Maya texts. New evidence on glyphic aspect and deixis show the presence of a "shifting now" or "alternating historical incompletive" in Classic narratives. There were two possible motivations for this pattern: to sequence events and establish textual boundaries between …
Function and meaning in classic Maya architecture: A symposium at Dumbarton Oaks, 7th and 8th October 1994
History (59 works) · Archaeology (56 works) · Maya (45 works) · Art (44 works) · Latin American history and culture (43 works) · History (38 works) · Geography (28 works) · Philosophy (24 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (22 works) · Sociology (22 works)