CHAPTER 2 LATE POSTCLASSIC MESOAMERICA 117ements within them (e.g., pottery forms, specific deities, reptile mouth portals, cal-
endrical glyphs) are local to the Mayan area.
An important founding deity for Mayapan and other Postclassic cities was
Kukulkan. This god is analogous to the Quetzalcoatl Feathered Serpent hero of Cen-
tral Mexican mythology. The close ties to the two areas are illustrated by the presence
of (Central Mexican style) bird-beaked human effigy sculptures at Mayapan. One as-
pect of Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan was the bird-beaked anthropomorph known as
Ehecatl,associated with the wind. Architecture linked to both the Feathered Serpent
and Ehecatlincludes round temples, quadripartite staircase temples with serpent
balustrades, and serpent column temples, all of which are present at Mayapan.
According to Mayan mythology, Kukulkan came to the Mayan area on multiple
occasions to establish new dynasties and shrine centers, including at Mayapan. He was
a hero priest who taught important aspects of ritual knowledge to local nobles. In-
deed, one temple mural program at this site depicts four serpent mouths framing
miniature stucco temples. This theme likely celebrates founding myths proclaiming
that the “four divisions” were united at this polity. Quadripartite serpent balustrade
temples dedicated to Kukulkan also attest to cosmological foundations of political au-
thority at centers such as Chichén Itza and Mayapan.
Rituals associated with religious celebrations often included bloodletting (of
ears or tongue), human or animal sacrifice, hunting or warfare, incense burning,
gift-giving and offerings of precious items, and the manufacture of specific deity ef-
figies who were patrons of festival events. The sacrifice of slaves, war captives, or other
persons who possessed little social capital was commonplace in the Spanish Colo-
nial period. At Mayapan, mass graves next to major monumental buildings and in spe-
cial burial shaft temples also attest to sacrifice and conflict in pre-Hispanic times.
Mass graves at this city show that bodies were usually disarticulated, probably chopped
apart, and effigy censers likely portraying the patron gods of the deceased were also
smashed and deposited with them.
Various assumptions made by scholars since the 1950s about changes in Mayan
religion from the Classic to Postclassic periods have persisted, despite archaeologi-
cal evidence to the contrary. The Carnegie Institution’s investigations at Mayapan
recovered a large number of effigy censers in ritual, administrative, and elite do-
mestic contexts. These investigators inferred that Mayan religion had “degenerated”
to the level of household worship, in contrast to the Classic period kingdoms where
art and effigies were concentrated heavily in noble contexts. Subsequent research has
revealed that, in fact, effigies are also concentrated in elite features at Mayapan; the
bulk of the effigies there come from structures of the Main Plaza and a few nearby
noble palaces or outlying administrative complexes. At the site of Tulum, effigies are
also concentrated in elite buildings. At the northeastern Belize settlements of La-
guna de On and Caye Coco, effigies were discarded at special shrines away from do-
mestic contexts. We now know that Postclassic Mayan priests and lords controlled
ritual knowledge and material paraphernalia, as they did in earlier times. Com-
moners, however, embraced many basic religious concepts, and they commemorated
key events at the household level with less elaborate material representations as their
ancestors had done since the Formative period.