E-groups as an architectural design with a particular function were first identified by the Carnegie Institute of Washington's Uaxactun Project. This specialized Maya architecture has been investigated with varying rigor over many decades, yielding interesting interpretations and implications for Maya civilization. This volume brings together recent thoughts/ideas associated with E-groups and provides theoretical, methodological, historical, and interpretive syntheses concerning their origins and development as an architectural form and implications for their impact on ancient Maya cultural institutions. This edited volume consists of 17 chapters divided into 4 parts. The first part covers historical perspectives providing a context for E-groups; the second part has chapters on astronomy, cosmology, and related concepts; the third section is primarily archaeological and is the longest section of the book; and the final part provides a general synthesis from broader perspectives.
Chapter 1, by Arlen Chase, Anne Dowd, and David Freidel, stands out in its contribution to this volume as a thoughtful and insightful overview of E-groups. The introductory part of this chapter provides a nice background to the history of E-groups. Their historiography is a great read, with three significant periods defined for E-group investigations: 1924–1954, 1955–1984, and 1985–2016. Chapter 1 also discusses the distribution and significance of E-group complexes, addressing issues of chronology, conceptual elements, and even kingship. This chapter is in many respects a stand-alone contribution providing both broad and detailed data, analysis, and interpretation.
Arlen Chase and Diane Chase, in Chapter 2, provide additional history and background for E-groups, in particular those in the southeast Maya lowlands. They also present details on the naming, dating, and patterns for this architectural assemblage. Of particular interest is their discovery and definition of the Cenote-style E-group. The authors delve into the Uaxactun excavations and reports on E-groups of southeast Peten. They also provide an informative discussion of early publications and interpretations of E-groups, noting how they have changed for both types of E-group forms and their dating. In the chapter's conclusion, the Chases argue that E-groups “represent the first recognized public architecture of lowland Maya civilization” (p. 64).
The third chapter, by Anthony Aveni and Anne Dowd, posits agricultural necessity as a motivation for E-group alignments and seasonal calendars. The authors acknowledge previous research that argues that sacred geography, ritual performance, and relations to seasonality may be linked. Aveni and Dowd provide a nice review of uses of astronomical knowledge, as well as other likely uses of the E-group space and conclude that, regardless of E-group origins and process, one of its functions would have related to astronomical considerations (p. 91).
The fourth chapter of the volume is a significant undertaking by Susan Milbrath: it provides a detailed review of E-groups and related calendar developments. Milbrath's approach is first broad, addressing Mesoamerica as a whole, and then zooms in on the Maya to present the changing calendar over time, specifically for the Haab and the Tzolk'in. Beginning with the earliest long count dates in bordering Maya areas and then discussing specific examples through the Early Classic, Terminal Classic, and Postclassic, Milbrath walks us through the significant markers, dates, and event types of each period. A bonus in this chapter may be found in the footnotes, where she expands the discussion of possible E-group manifestations to northwest Belize, referencing recent observations by the late Stephen Hopkins, which may cause us all to reconsider regional variations of E-groups and E-group functions.
The focus of Chapter 5, by Prudence Rice, is on figurines and their use and possible meanings over time. She speculates that they first appeared in the Archaic, a claim that carries several implications beyond the current volume. The chapter provides a very good review of figurines, figurine fragmentation, and concerns of context. Of particular significance is Rice's “Early Ritual Areas” (p. 137), which she sees as effective settings for rituals and gatherings. She states, “The identities of the figurines were socially mediated … in the recursive process of creating and re-creating meanings to these contexts” (p. 157). Thus, Rice notes the importance of place-making and the metaphorical use of figurines where meaning may be contextually derived.
Chapter 6 by David Freidel moves in a different direction from the E-group discussions thus far in the volume. He provides, instead, some fascinating insights regarding the variety of ways in which the ancient Maya addressed cycles, both longer natural cycles and those of biological concern. Cerros, the site of Freidel's earlier fieldwork, does not have an E-group, but does contain an eastern Triadic structure, named Structure 29. The iconographic complex of Structure 29 may indicate that it served solar commemoration rituals and thus may serve the function of an E-Group in another way. This interpretation, as Freidel acknowledges, follows notions posited by Jaime Awe, Julie Hoggarth, and James Aimers (Chapter 13).
The third part of the edited volume is focused on archaeological interests. Chapter 7, by Takeshi Inomata, presents an intriguing analysis of early E-groups and their possible Isthmian origin. The earliest known E-group assemblages (as at Ceibal) may have originated from an Isthmian interaction sphere. Inomata comments “that the symbolic values and social roles of these architectural complexes most likely changed through time, as diverse E groups adopted them and reworked them” (p. 232). The original orientation of the architectural arrangements known as Middle Formative Chiapas patterns differed from that of E-groups; the differing orientations of architectural arrangements over time suggest that their associated meaning could have changed as well. These changes may indicate that E-groups were undergoing constant invention and re-creation as traditions developed and changed. We should not, therefore, uncritically accept more recent uses as compared to past placements of early architecture.
In Chapter 8, James Doyle explores the premise that two communities developed similar Middle and Late Preclassic architectural programs. El Palmar developments after the Preclassic moved away from the E-group structure, and no two E-groups are identical, which becomes quite evident as one reads the archaeological chapters in the volume's third part. Francisco Estrada-Belli in Chapter 9 confirms the presence of many E-Groups, including the Cenote-style E-group, in the Cival area and claims that this architectural form, along with other early architecture, helped connect inhabitants to the land. Estrada-Belli additionally states that “the earliest E-groups, as others note (Chapters 7, 11, 12, and 15 in this volume) were not built at all, but were carved out of soft limestone bedrock that had been previously stripped of topsoil” (p. 319). E-groups may have served as a magnet for social interaction, and as Doyle observed, they are not a standardized phenomenon.
William Saturno, Boris Beltran, and Franco Rossi in Chapter 10 submit an interesting interpretation of an early E-group as it transitioned to a Triadic group, attributing these changes to “emergent forms of political authority” (p. 329). The following chapter by Cynthia Robin addresses the associated symbolism of E-groups. Her concluding comments include the notion that many of the “focal ideas” in Maya religion originally developed among the community population and were “later appropriated” by the elites (p. 380). This insightful point likely applies to many other ancient Maya activities and rituals. Chapter 12 by Kathryn Brown argues that one of the earliest E-groups, from the Middle Preclassic, may have been present at “early” Xunantunich. It is considered one of the most sacred spots at the site, at which was found the burial of an “ancestor” with a Middle Preclassic ceramic vessel.
Jaime Awe, Julie Hoggarth, and James Aimers, in Chapter 13, shift focus, defining a particular variant of an E-group: the Eastern Triadic Assemblage (ETA). ETAs across the Belize River Valley are found in association with dynastic internment and ancestor veneration. In contrast to the Uaxactun model of E-groups, ETAs of the Belize Valley area focus on (or function as) ancestor shrines. These ETAs had their origins in the Middle Preclassic, as discussed by Brown in Chapter 12. Travis Stanton's contribution (Chapter 14) claims that the E-group form in the northern lowlands indicates the existence of two inland trade routes and marks Preclassic trade routes between north and south. In Chapter 15, Kathryn Reese-Taylor argues that E-groups in the central karstic uplands region, as at Yaxnohcah, are mostly of the Cenote style and date back to the Middle Preclassic. She also discusses triadic groups, ballcourts, and reservoirs in relationship to E-groups.
The concluding part of the volume has two chapters. Anne Dowd's contribution is an extensive review (and observations of) religious institutions across Mesoamerica and beyond. Dowd provides comparative data regarding sacred space with a focus on temple precincts (as a model) and their resulting religious institutionalization (see p. 548). In the epilogue, Diane Chase, Patricia McAnany, and Jeremy Sabloff refer to E-groups as the “earliest replicated public architecture” (p. 578). Although retaining a generalized architectural form, the functions of E-groups—“architectural chameleons” (p. 582)—over time are likely tied to issues of context, as is always the case in archaeology.
The breadth, detail, and perspectives provided in this volume make it a must for students of complex society and especially Maya scholars.
