Papers by Borislava Simova
Across the Maya Lowlands, dedication ritual served a vital role in endowing public and private st... more Across the Maya Lowlands, dedication ritual served a vital role in endowing public and private structures with meaning and function. Through ritual, structures acquired the soul-force, or k’ulel, necessary to sustain activity within their walls. However, we suggest that ritual could also actively reinvent places within the cultural landscape. In fact, many structures live several ritual lives: the first associated with their original intended function, and subsequent ones associated with changes in their occupational history, particularly after they are abandoned. As such, the cultural landscape of a Maya city is constantly cast and recast as the cultural associations of its constituent parts are actively modified through ritual. The resignification of past cultural landscapes may be seen archaeologically in the adoption of new ritual patterns within old structures, aimed at challenging or extending meanings of durable structures within a shared language of ritual. Analyses of struc...
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Across the Maya Lowlands, dedication ritual served a vital role in endowing public and private st... more Across the Maya Lowlands, dedication ritual served a vital role in endowing public and private structures with meaning and function. Through ritual, structures acquired the soul-force, or k'ulel, necessary to sustain activity within their walls. However, we suggest that ritual could also actively reinvent places within the cultural landscape. In fact, many structures live several ritual lives: the first associated with their original intended function, and subsequent ones associated with changes in their occupational history, particularly after they are abandoned. As such, the cultural landscape of a Maya city is constantly cast and recast as the cultural associations of its constituent parts are actively modified through ritual. The resignification of past cultural landscapes may be seen archaeologically in the adoption of new ritual patterns within old structures, aimed at challenging or extending meanings of durable structures within a shared language of ritual. Analyses of structure histories and veneration practices from three areas of the site of Actuncan, including an elite residential structure, a palace compound, and the plaza of the triadic temple group, elucidate how changing veneration practices modify Actuncan's cultural landscape from Classic period rule of divine kings to the post-royal occupation of the Terminal Classic period.
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Across the Maya Lowlands, dedication ritual served a vital role in endowing public and private st... more Across the Maya Lowlands, dedication ritual served a vital role in endowing public and private structures with meaning and function. Through ritual, structures acquired the soul-force, or k’ulel, necessary to sustain activity within their walls. However, we suggest that ritual could also actively reinvent places within the cultural landscape. In fact, many structures live several ritual lives: the first associated with their original intended function, and subsequent ones associated with changes in their occupational history, particularly after they are abandoned. As such, the cultural landscape of a Maya city is constantly cast and recast as the cultural associations of its constituent parts are actively modified through ritual. The resignification of past cultural landscapes may be seen archaeologically in the adoption of new ritual patterns within old structures, aimed at challenging or extending meanings of durable structures within a shared language of ritual. Analyses of structure histories and veneration practices from three areas of the site of Actuncan, including an elite residential structure, a palace compound, and the plaza of the triadic temple group, elucidate how changing veneration practices modify Actuncan’s cultural landscape from Classic period rule of divine kings to the post-royal occupation of the Terminal Classic period.
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Papers by Borislava Simova