Fourteen leading archaeologists and art historians contribute nine essays in this timely volume about the late Maya city-state of Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatán, Mexico. Chichén Itzá is a site of superlatives: it’s one of the largest of the Maya cities, it has perhaps the most dramatic architecture, and it is the most visited. In 1998 UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site, and in 2009 a global Internet vote declared Chichén Itzá one of the “new seven wonders of the world.” Yet it remains an enigma. Despite extensive explorations over more than the last hundred years, scholars are unable to agree on its basic chronology or even the people who built and lived in the city. While public art is abundant on its many monumental buildings, Maya hieroglyphic writing is sparse.
The authors have assembled new data encompassing research at Chichén Itzá over the past generation. This new data leads inevitably to new insights about the people, rulers, rituals, economics, religion, and politics. A major focus of this volume is the Great Platform at the center of the city that contains the largest pyramid, the Castillo, and the great ball court. Of particular interest are the new insights concerning the smaller pyramid that is contained intact within the Castillo. Despite its excellent condition, it has been little studied. Both the smaller pyramid and the greater structure that encloses it are oriented due north to the sacred cenote of human sacrifice. They seem to be associated with worship of the sun, and on the equinoxes shadows depicting a snake descend a balustrade.
Other chapters examine the latest thinking on the Osario, Chichén Itzá’s second largest pyramid, and one that is more elaborately decorated than the Castillo. Three nearby satellite towns are examined, as are the ceramic sequences at Chichén Itzá. New analysis of the abundant public art is also a major topic that furthers our understanding of the nature of the city. Copious discussions of the history of archaeology at the city put it all in context.
Landscapes of the Itzá is a long overdue update on the last couple of decades of work by archaeologists, art historians, and other at this great site. It sets the stage for the next generation of research that we can hope will answer many of Chichén Itzá’s perplexing questions.
—Mark Michel
