C8946 - Monuments, Matter, and Memory in Ancient Mesoamerica (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

During the course, students will develop an understanding of the cultural meanings and practices surrounding the transformation of matter in ancient Mesoamerica, ranging from monument-making to the craft production of portable objects. Current debates on non-human beings, distributed personhood, and material agency will be reviewed and illustrated using meaningful case studies from Mesoamerica. The conservation, study, and display of Mesoamerican material culture in museums will also be discussed. By the end of the course, students will be able to critically analyze debates on materiality and memory in ancient Mesoamerica and will be familiar with recent anthropological approaches to material culture. They will also be able to apply their skills in the context of museums and other exhibition spaces.

Course contents

Please note that classes will begin on Monday, September 14, 2026.

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the pre-Hispanic history of Mesoamerica, grounded primarily in archaeological evidence and complemented, where appropriate, by epigraphic, iconographic, and ethnohistorical sources. Structured in a broadly chronological framework, the course examines cultural developments across the Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Toltec, and Aztec spheres, situating each tradition within its regional and interregional context.

Particular attention is devoted to the emergence and transformation of monumentality from Middle Formative times onward, addressing architectural complexes, stelae, and other categories of stone sculpture as material expressions of political authority and cosmological notions. Building on this analysis, the course explores how these monuments were experienced and interpreted by Mesoamerican peoples, opening onto broader indigenous conceptions of time, history, and social memory.

A further thread of inquiry concerns the materials employed in the fabrication of monuments and ritual objects – earth, limestone, basalt, jade, shell, and a range of other minerals and organic substances – examined not merely as raw resources but as culturally meaningful media. This material focus leads into a discussion of indigenous notions of objecthood, whereby artifacts and monuments were conceived as animated, non-human persons whose agency and vitality were activated and made manifest through specific technical and ritual treatments of their constituent materials.

Readings/Bibliography

To prepare the final oral exam, both attending and non-attending students must read the following articles, here listed according to the suggested reading sequence. All the articles and book chapters of the following list will be provided at the beginning of the course in the ‘teaching materials’ sections of the website, only accessible to Unibo students with institutional credentials.

1. Pool, Christopher A, and Michael L. Loughlin, “Creating Memory and Negotiating Power in the Olmec Heartland”, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 24, 2017: 229–260

2. Triadan, Daniela, “Early Maya Monumentalism”, Annual Review of Anthropology, 54, 2025: 63–79.

3. Gillespie, Susan D., “Maya Memory Work”, Ancient Mesoamerica, 21(2), 2010: 401–414.

4. Stuart, David, “Kings of Stone. A Consideration of Stelae in Ancient Maya Ritual and Representation”, RES. Anthropology and Aesthetics, 29-30, 1996: 149–171.

5. Houston, Stephen, and David Stuart, “The Ancient Maya Self: Personhood and Portraiture in the Classic Period”, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 33, 1998: 73–101.

6. O’Neil, Megan, “Object, Memory, and Materiality at Yaxchilán: The Reset Lintels of Structures 12 and 22”, Ancient Mesoamerica, 22(2), 2011: 245–269.

7. Martin, Simon, “Telling Time: Historical Thinking and the Ancient Maya”, in John Baines et al. (eds.), Historical consciousness and the use of the past in the ancient world, Equinox, Bristol 2019.

8. Navarrete, Federico Linares, “Aztec Monoliths as Time-Shaping Devices”, Revista de Antropologia, 62(3), 2019: 744–768.

9. Joyce, Arthur, Roberto Rosado-Ramírez, “The Vibrancy of Ruins in Ancient Mesoamerica”, Latin American Antiquity, Online, 2025: 1–15.

10. Jansen, Maarten, “Primordial Times in Mesoamerican Memory: Monuments, Tombs, and Codices”, in Ute Schüren, Daniel Marc Segesser, and Thomas Späth (eds.), Globalized Antiquity. Uses and Perceptions of the Past in South Asia, Mesoamerica, and Europe, Reimer, Berlin 2015, pp. 157-

11. Domenici, Davide, “The Flowery Matter of Chant. The Use of Organic Colors in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Codex Painting”, in Michael Mathiowetz and Andrew D. Turner (eds.), Flower Worlds. Religion, aesthetics, and ideology in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson 2021, pp. 266-282.

12. Domenici, Davide, “Mosaics: The Aesthetics of Anymacy”, in Diana Magaloni, Davide Domenici, and Alyce de Carteret (eds.), We Live in Painting. The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 2024, pp. 139–150.

 

In addition, non-attending students must read one of the following two books:

· Coe, Michael, Javier Urcid, and Rex Koontz. Mexico. From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson, 2019 (eigth edition).

· Coe, Michael, and Stephen Houston. The Maya. London: Thames & Hudson, 2022 (tenth edition).

 

The following list contains books which are not mandatory for the exam but that could be useful for further information:

· Berdan, Frances F., Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014.

· Brittenham, Claudia, Unseen Art: Making, Vision, and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica, University of Texas Press, Austin 2023.

· Christopher A. Pool, Carl J. Wendt (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Olmecs, Oxford University Press, New York 2026.

· Cowgill, George, Ancient Teotihuacan. Early Urbanism in Central Mexico, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015.

· Hirth, Kenneth H., and David Carballo, Teotihuacan. The World Beyond the City, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection, Washington D.C. 2020.

· Houston, Stephen, The Life Within. Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence, Yale University Press, New Haven 2014.

· Joyce, Arthur A., Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos. Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico, Wyley-Balckwell, New York 2009.

· Martin, Simon, Ancient Maya Politics: A Political Anthropology of the Classic Period 150–900 CE. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020.

· Nichols, Deborah L. and Christopher A. Pool (eds.), The Oxford handbook of Mesoamerican archaeology, Oxford University Press, New York 2012.

· Nichols, Deborah L., and Enrique Rodríguez-Alegría (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Aztecs, Oxford University Press, New York 2017.

· O'Neil, Megan E., Memory in fragments. The lives of ancient Maya sculptures, University of Texas Press, Austin 2024

· Smith, Michael E., The Aztecs, Wiley-Blackwell, New York 2011.

· Stuart, David, The Four Heavens. A New History of the Ancient Maya, Princeton University Press, Princeton-Oxford 2026.

Teaching methods

Teaching method will be based on frontal lessons, during which the teacher will introduce general topics and connected scholary debates, then discussing in detail some specific example based on visual sources in order to introduce the students to actual source-reading activity. Students will be encouraged to comment and ask questions.

Assessment methods

During the oral exam, students will be asked questions aimed to verify their knowledge of the themes treated in the syllabus’ texts. The questions will be aimed at testing the student's ability in exposing with an appropriate language some of the topics tackled by the texts, as well as his/her skills in making connections between different texts in order to build an argument.

Proper language and the ability to critically speak about the texts' content will lead to a good/excellent final grade

Acceptable language and the ability to resume the texts' content will lead to a sufficient/fair grade.

Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge of the texts' content will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

Exam sessions are scheduled monthly throughout the year, except in August. Students can only take the exam once they have finished their lessons.

Teaching tools

During frontal lessons the teacher will do ample use of power point presentations containing maps, as well as a good deal of visual sources commented upon during the lesson.

After class, the powerpoint files will be uploaded in the teaching material section of the website, so that students will be able to download them.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Davide Domenici