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Monument 3 from La Blanca, Guatemala: a Middle Preclassic earthen sculpture and its ritual associations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Michael Love  and
Julia Guernsey
Michael Love
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University, Northridge, CA 91330, USA (Email: Michael.love@csun.edu)
Julia Guernsey
Affiliation:
Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA (Email: Juliaguernsey@mail.utexas.edu)
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Extract

Beside one of the earliest Preclassic pyramids in Guatemala the authors discovered a large basin fashioned in clay and shaped like a quatrefoil. The use of the quatrefoil theme on other carvings reveals its association with water and its symbolic role as the mouth of an underworld. Excavations in an adjacent mound exposed an affluent community, rich in figurines. This juxtaposition of monuments and residence at La Blanca shows a society of 900-600 BC in which ritual and the secular power were well integrated.

Keywords

GuatemalaMesoamericaMayaMiddle Preclassicsculpture
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 314 , 1 December 2007 , pp. 920 - 932
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

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