List of Illustrations and Tables

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Cacaxtla in Context

The Acropolis and Its Paintings
Greater Cacaxtla-Xochitécatl
Diego Muñoz Camargo's Description of Cacaxtla
Problems of Evidence
Between Powerful Neighbors
Cacaxtla among the Epiclassic City-States
Art and Identity
Chaos Again

2. The Murals

Materials and Techniques
Artists
Chronology

3. The Feathered Serpent and the Captive Stair: Polemics of Style

The Serpent Corridor

Feathered Serpents
Aquatic Borders
Feathered Serpents and Aquatic Borders
The Afterlife of the Feathered Serpent

The Captive Stair

Text and Image
A Foreign Style?
Reconsidering Captive Art

Polemics of Style

4. The Temple of Venus: Astral Bodies

Style
Venus/Star Symbolism
Bilingualism and Polyvalence

5. The Battle Mural: Violence in the Plaza

Time and Inevitability
Doubling
Patterns of Naming
The Dangers of Difference
The Battle Mural in Mesoamerican Context
Burial

6. The Red Temple: Maize in the Underworld

A Merchant God and His Wares

Painting Luxury

Of Maize, Cacao, and Men
Supernatural Landscape

7. Structure A: The Mountain of Sustenance

The Portico and Jamb Murals: A Portrait of the Altepetl

Guardians and Antecedents
Names and Dates
Duality and Difrasismo
Sustenance Mountain

Continuity and Change

Painted Earth: The Inner Mural
Later Interventions: Blood and Clay

Buried Paintings

Conclusion

Appendix: Radiocarbon Dates for the Cacaxtla Murals

A Review of Radiocarbon Dating and Reporting
Early Classic Radiocarbon Dates at Cacaxtla
Radiocarbon Dates Associated with Mural Painting
Chronology of the Cacaxtla Paintings

Notes

Bibliography