edited by Jeff Karl Kowalski and Cynthia Kristan-Graham
contributions by Dan Healan, Susan Kepecs, Ruth Krochock, Geoffrey McCafferty, Mary Miller, William Ringle, Peter Schmidt, Michael E. Smith, George J. Bey III, Victor H. Bolaños, Rafael Cobos, Patricia Fournier, David A. Freidel, Susan Gillespie and Nikolai Grube
Harvard University Press, 2011
Paper: 978-0-88402-372-2
Library of Congress Classification F1435.1.C5T95 2011
Dewey Decimal Classification 972.01

ABOUT THIS BOOK
ABOUT THIS BOOK

Chichén Itzá and Tula have long been conceived as “twin cities”—paired political capitals that share so many aspects of architectural plan, sculptural repertory, and iconographical motifs that they represent a unique case of cultural contact and artistic convergence in ancient Mesoamerica. This volume (originally published in 2007) revisits long-standing questions regarding the relationship between Chichén Itzá and Tula. Hailed as a “must read,” it quickly became a fundamental source for all Mesoamericanists.

Rather than approaching these cities through earlier notions of migrations and conquests, the volume considers their roles in the social, political, and economic relationships that emerged during the transition from the Epiclassic to the Early Postclassic period. The seventeen contributors utilize archaeological, art historical, anthropological, epigraphical, and ethnohistorical methods to demonstrate that the rise and florescence of the “twin cities” was the result of their success in adapting to complex processes of cultural change. These adaptations, along with the development of new types of political systems and the use of innovative visual and symbolic systems, permitted Chichén Itzá and Tula to emerge as dominant powers in Mesoamerica between the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic periods.