Overview

Mesoamerica is one of the cradles of early civilizations in the ancient world, featuring a wide diversity of cultures exhibiting a high degree of social inequality and stratification. At the pinnacle of the society was the ruler, the court and the high elite. This social segment was responsible for the creation and consumption of the hallmarks of civilizations, including monumental architecture, great monolithic monuments and a wide array of highly decorated, exotic and exceptional material culture. As such royal courts defined the very tastes and styles that characterise entire civilizations. This volume collects eight recent and innovative studies on the subject rulership, palatial compounds and courtly culture by staff and students of the American Indian Languages and Culture studies programme at Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Together these studies span the breadth of Mesoamerica, from the Early Classic metropolis of Teotihuacan (ad 200-550), to Tenochtitlan, the Late Postclassic capital of the Aztec (ad 1300-1521), and from the arid central Mexican highlands in the west to the humid Maya lowlands in the east.

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9781784910501

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Author Information

Christophe Helmke is Associate Professor of American Indian Languages and Cultures at the Institute of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Since 1996, he has participated on and led excavations, archaeological reconnaissance and epigraphic documentation at a variety of sites in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico. Since 2019 he has served as co-Principal Investigator of The Central Mexican Writing Systems and Calendars project, funded by the Velux Foundations.

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