CHAPTER 2 LATE POSTCLASSIC MESOAMERICA 85Figure 2.7 Scenes from the Codex Madrid indicate that hunting and sacrifice of
deer were important in Postclassic rituals (after Villacorta and Villacorta
1971:XLIX).The Highland Mayas
The Postclassic period in the highlands of Guatemala and Chiapas was a volatile time
of warfare, migration, and social upheaval. Major settlements were located in defen-
sible positions on ridgetops or plateaus and were surrounded with walls. Late Post-
classic polities were influenced directly or indirectly by Central Mexican cultures, in
some cases borrowing Nahua terms for kin groups, adopting elements of Central Mex-
ican art styles (for example, in murals at Iximché and Q’umarkaaj, Figure 2.8), or
adding Central Mexican deities to their pantheon. The ruling dynasties of many of
these Postclassic Mayan states in the Highlands claimed descent from the Toltecs.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the K’iche’ capital of Q’umarkaaj
(or Utatlan) was a large, nucleated city situated on an inaccessible plateau reach-
able only by a causeway and bridge from the east and a steep stairway from the west.
The site consists of several plaza groups made up of an open courtyard bounded by
a temple, a council house or an administrative hall, and a palace or residential build-
ing (Figure 2.9). The various plaza groups were occupied by the major K’iche’ lin-
eages as identified in ethnohistoric sources. Several adjacent plateaus—in equally
defensible positions—featured hilltop centers that were settled by lineage groups in-
tegrated with Q’umarkaaj. Although individual highland Postclassic sites are small in
size, they had the capacity politically to centralize under the authority of centers like
Q’umarkaaj for military purposes. A system of rotating calendrical ceremonies helped
to integrate political territories.