Strategies of legitimization in Mesoamerica

Abstract

Despite the abundant quantity of greenstone artifacts found in Teotihuacan, to the best of our knowledge, only one example of a figurative plaque has ever been recovered from the site. This plaque (British Museum, Am1938,1021.25) was recovered from an unknown and probably intrusive context within the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, deposited long after its construction (Digby 1972, 30; Nagao 2006, 420; Sugiyama and López Luján 2006, 145). By contrast, in CacaxtlaXochitécatl (Tlaxcala) and Xochicalco (Morelos), several Epiclassic figurative plaques have been found in archaeological contexts (fig. 1). How can we explain their appearance in the central Mexican highlands? What were their uses and functions? What can be said about them in terms of sociopolitical processes? The present study converges with Solar Valverde’s (2002) and Nagao’s (2006, 2014) previous works on greenstone figurative plaques but seeks to add examples and deepen considerations regarding seventeen figurative plaques from the Cacaxtla-Xochitécatl and Xochicalco archaeological sites: seven from CacaxtlaXochitécatl (A to G) and ten from Xochicalco (H to Q) (fig. 2). I will evaluate their contexts, uses, and