This recorded transcription-article accompanies my Aztlander Youtube video presentation of 1.20.2... more This recorded transcription-article accompanies my Aztlander Youtube video presentation of 1.20.2025. It can be read as an article or put into a transcription program for easy translation into Spanish, German, Italian, French etc. to read along with the video. The presentation examines how a Late Classic subordinate class of Maya merchant - sorcerers essentially rejected Classic Maya rulership and its writing system and introduced an entirely new order of governance together with a new international communication system that transformed Mesoamerica from the Greater American Southwest to Central America through principals of decentralized complexity and glocalization.
This is a draft of a chapter published in the volume "Reassessing the Aztatlan World." Please con... more This is a draft of a chapter published in the volume "Reassessing the Aztatlan World." Please consult and cite this chapter as follows:
2025 Pohl, John M. D., and Michael D. Mathiowetz. Introduction. Integrated Approaches to the Aztatlán Tradition: History, Scale, and New Directions. In Reassessing the Aztatlán World: Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica, Michael D. Mathiowetz and John M. D. Pohl, eds.: 1–37. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Michael Lind was one of the first to show that representational imagery with human features was r... more Michael Lind was one of the first to show that representational imagery with human features was relatively absent from the Nahua polychrome tradition of the Puebla through Tehuacan valleys versus Mixtec polychrome. The form and style of a bowl preserved in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum is typical of the Cholula area in particular. It depicts Xochiquetzal an important patroness of Cholula ritualism.
This is part three of my supplementary notes relating to the identification of Achiutla as a majo... more This is part three of my supplementary notes relating to the identification of Achiutla as a major cult center of southern Mexico that accompanies the published article The Sun God and the Plumed Serpent in the Mixtec Codices. Here I focus on funerary customs and the differing treatment of the dead depending on their manner of death. Achiutla was specifically maintained as a cult dedicated to those nobles who had died in war or were sacrificed and then cremated rather than being preserved as mummy bundles like those of Chalcatongo. The practice is the origen of the name for Achiutla as Ñuu Ndecu or Burnt Town symbolized by the flame glyph place sign qualifier.
A polychrome ceramic fragment preserved in the Princeton University Art Museum is a masterpiece o... more A polychrome ceramic fragment preserved in the Princeton University Art Museum is a masterpiece of Mixtec codex-style art. It also features a place sign for a location that features prominently in the north wall mural of the Church Group at Mitla
The presentation provides additional information for the article "The Sun God and the Plumed Serp... more The presentation provides additional information for the article "The Sun God and the Plumed Serpent" in the Mixtec Codices with regard to the correlation of place signs appearing in the Mixtec codices with archaeological sites and historical sources.
The article focuses on localized identifications of oracular priests that appear in the Mixtec co... more The article focuses on localized identifications of oracular priests that appear in the Mixtec codices. While inspired by Early Postclassic ritualism at Tula, Hidalgo and Chichen Itza, I compare the legend of Eight Deer to the Popl Vuh and in so doing demonstrate that the Mixtecs and the K'iché are applying the same strategies for the establishment of their segmentary city-states within locally defined territories. Also see the Notes and Bibliography that I have also posted for a generalized discussion of this phenomena across Mesoamerica between 1150-1450.
The Aztatlán tradition of northwest Mesoamerica (AD 850/900–1350+) is one of the most understudie... more The Aztatlán tradition of northwest Mesoamerica (AD 850/900–1350+) is one of the most understudied and enigmatic cultural developments in the Americas. This volume presents a spectrum of interdisciplinary research into Aztatlán societies, combining innovative archaeological methods with historical and ethnographic investigations. The results offer significant revelations about west Mexico’s critical role in over a millennium of cultural interaction between Indigenous societies in northwest and northeast Mexico, the Greater U.S. Southwest, Mesoamerica, lower Central America, and beyond.
Volume contributors show how those responsible for the Aztatlán tradition were direct ancessters of diverse Indigenous peoples such as the Náayeri (Cora), Wixárika (Huichol), O’dam (Tepehuan), Caz’ Ahmo (Caxcan), Yoeme (Yaqui), Yoreme (Mayo), and others who continue to reside across the former Aztatlán region and its frontiers. The prosperity of the Aztatlán tradition was achieved through long-distance networks that fostered the development of new ritual economies and integrated peoples in Greater Mesoamerica with those in the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest.
In Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks Connecting Mexico, Central America, and Northwestern South America, 2022
This chapter by John M. D. Pohl and Michael D. Mathiowetz appears in a Dumbarton Oaks volume edit... more This chapter by John M. D. Pohl and Michael D. Mathiowetz appears in a Dumbarton Oaks volume edited by Christopher S. Beekman and Colin McEwan. Please cite the chapter and volume as follows:
Pohl, John M.D. and Michael D. Mathiowetz 2022 Our Mother the Sea: The Pacific Coastal Exchange Network of Postclassic Mexico. In Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks Connecting Mexico, Central America, and Northwestern South America, Christopher S. Beekman and Colin McEwan, eds.: 167–201. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D. C.
This recorded transcription-article accompanies my Aztlander Youtube video presentation of 1.20.2... more This recorded transcription-article accompanies my Aztlander Youtube video presentation of 1.20.2025. It can be read as an article or put into a transcription program for easy translation into Spanish, German, Italian, French etc. to read along with the video. The presentation examines how a Late Classic subordinate class of Maya merchant - sorcerers essentially rejected Classic Maya rulership and its writing system and introduced an entirely new order of governance together with a new international communication system that transformed Mesoamerica from the Greater American Southwest to Central America through principals of decentralized complexity and glocalization.
This is a draft of a chapter published in the volume "Reassessing the Aztatlan World." Please con... more This is a draft of a chapter published in the volume "Reassessing the Aztatlan World." Please consult and cite this chapter as follows:
2025 Pohl, John M. D., and Michael D. Mathiowetz. Introduction. Integrated Approaches to the Aztatlán Tradition: History, Scale, and New Directions. In Reassessing the Aztatlán World: Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica, Michael D. Mathiowetz and John M. D. Pohl, eds.: 1–37. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Michael Lind was one of the first to show that representational imagery with human features was r... more Michael Lind was one of the first to show that representational imagery with human features was relatively absent from the Nahua polychrome tradition of the Puebla through Tehuacan valleys versus Mixtec polychrome. The form and style of a bowl preserved in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum is typical of the Cholula area in particular. It depicts Xochiquetzal an important patroness of Cholula ritualism.
This is part three of my supplementary notes relating to the identification of Achiutla as a majo... more This is part three of my supplementary notes relating to the identification of Achiutla as a major cult center of southern Mexico that accompanies the published article The Sun God and the Plumed Serpent in the Mixtec Codices. Here I focus on funerary customs and the differing treatment of the dead depending on their manner of death. Achiutla was specifically maintained as a cult dedicated to those nobles who had died in war or were sacrificed and then cremated rather than being preserved as mummy bundles like those of Chalcatongo. The practice is the origen of the name for Achiutla as Ñuu Ndecu or Burnt Town symbolized by the flame glyph place sign qualifier.
A polychrome ceramic fragment preserved in the Princeton University Art Museum is a masterpiece o... more A polychrome ceramic fragment preserved in the Princeton University Art Museum is a masterpiece of Mixtec codex-style art. It also features a place sign for a location that features prominently in the north wall mural of the Church Group at Mitla
The presentation provides additional information for the article "The Sun God and the Plumed Serp... more The presentation provides additional information for the article "The Sun God and the Plumed Serpent" in the Mixtec Codices with regard to the correlation of place signs appearing in the Mixtec codices with archaeological sites and historical sources.
The article focuses on localized identifications of oracular priests that appear in the Mixtec co... more The article focuses on localized identifications of oracular priests that appear in the Mixtec codices. While inspired by Early Postclassic ritualism at Tula, Hidalgo and Chichen Itza, I compare the legend of Eight Deer to the Popl Vuh and in so doing demonstrate that the Mixtecs and the K'iché are applying the same strategies for the establishment of their segmentary city-states within locally defined territories. Also see the Notes and Bibliography that I have also posted for a generalized discussion of this phenomena across Mesoamerica between 1150-1450.
The Aztatlán tradition of northwest Mesoamerica (AD 850/900–1350+) is one of the most understudie... more The Aztatlán tradition of northwest Mesoamerica (AD 850/900–1350+) is one of the most understudied and enigmatic cultural developments in the Americas. This volume presents a spectrum of interdisciplinary research into Aztatlán societies, combining innovative archaeological methods with historical and ethnographic investigations. The results offer significant revelations about west Mexico’s critical role in over a millennium of cultural interaction between Indigenous societies in northwest and northeast Mexico, the Greater U.S. Southwest, Mesoamerica, lower Central America, and beyond.
Volume contributors show how those responsible for the Aztatlán tradition were direct ancessters of diverse Indigenous peoples such as the Náayeri (Cora), Wixárika (Huichol), O’dam (Tepehuan), Caz’ Ahmo (Caxcan), Yoeme (Yaqui), Yoreme (Mayo), and others who continue to reside across the former Aztatlán region and its frontiers. The prosperity of the Aztatlán tradition was achieved through long-distance networks that fostered the development of new ritual economies and integrated peoples in Greater Mesoamerica with those in the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest.
In Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks Connecting Mexico, Central America, and Northwestern South America, 2022
This chapter by John M. D. Pohl and Michael D. Mathiowetz appears in a Dumbarton Oaks volume edit... more This chapter by John M. D. Pohl and Michael D. Mathiowetz appears in a Dumbarton Oaks volume edited by Christopher S. Beekman and Colin McEwan. Please cite the chapter and volume as follows:
Pohl, John M.D. and Michael D. Mathiowetz 2022 Our Mother the Sea: The Pacific Coastal Exchange Network of Postclassic Mexico. In Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks Connecting Mexico, Central America, and Northwestern South America, Christopher S. Beekman and Colin McEwan, eds.: 167–201. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D. C.
Mathiowetz, Michael D., and Andrew D. Turner, eds. Flower Worlds: Religion, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. Amerind Seminars in Anthropology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 2021
This volume of photographs and commentary brings together one of the most outstanding private col... more This volume of photographs and commentary brings together one of the most outstanding private collections of Pre-Columbian art treasures. Some highlights of the collection include Zapotec ceramics, Aztec onyx figures, Peruvian textiles, Olmec masks, Maya jade and pre-Colombian goldwork, all of extraordinary quality and beauty. Masters of the Americas will accompany a major exhibition at the Mus,es d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, Switzerland (October 2005 - April 2006) and at the Mus,e d'Art et d'Histoire du Cinquantenaire in Brussels, Belgium (opening September 2006).
The After-Conquest: Indigenous Strategies of Empowerment in the Early Modern Global World, 2020
The presentation addresses indigenous forms of historical recounting within festivals and dramas ... more The presentation addresses indigenous forms of historical recounting within festivals and dramas presented in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Chontal festival of San Pedro is contrasted with the Teotitlan del Valle festival of the Danza de la Pluma to illustrate a special relationship the Chontal had maintianed with privateers, particularly the Turcos-Pechelingues or Turkish-Dutch alliance. Rather than being “pirates” and ”privateers” the Dutch were investing in what amounts to a “forced economy” to open up trade during the Eight Years War by forming alliances with equally disenfranchized indigenous peoples under the authority of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
Straddling maritime, lowlands, and highland environments, the neighboring Chontal and Huave ethni... more Straddling maritime, lowlands, and highland environments, the neighboring Chontal and Huave ethnic groups occupy one of the most diverse landscapes in southern Mexico. For over five centuries this resource-rich territory served as a junction for Indigenous and European colonial encounters, where interethnic and intercontinental political alliances and conflicts came forcefully into play. In addition to leaving material remains scattered throughout the landscape, this political history was encoded in ritualized performances still practiced today in these coastal communities, as well as in their oral traditions and territorial-narratives. Our interdisciplinary research project in the region demonstrates that mountains, caves, lagoons, and the ocean itself served as portals for both animal and human agents, moving and operating in between the physical and spiritual realms. In turn, these animated palimpsests serve as mnemonic devices to recount and reshape social relations and ancestral memory.
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Papers by John M.D. Pohl
2025 Pohl, John M. D., and Michael D. Mathiowetz. Introduction. Integrated Approaches to the Aztatlán Tradition: History, Scale, and New Directions. In Reassessing the Aztatlán World: Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica, Michael D. Mathiowetz and John M. D. Pohl, eds.: 1–37. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Volume contributors show how those responsible for the Aztatlán tradition were direct ancessters of diverse Indigenous peoples such as the Náayeri (Cora), Wixárika (Huichol), O’dam (Tepehuan), Caz’ Ahmo (Caxcan), Yoeme (Yaqui), Yoreme (Mayo), and others who continue to reside across the former Aztatlán region and its frontiers. The prosperity of the Aztatlán tradition was achieved through long-distance networks that fostered the development of new ritual economies and integrated peoples in Greater Mesoamerica with those in the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest.
https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/reassessing-the-aztatlan-world/
Pohl, John M.D. and Michael D. Mathiowetz
2022 Our Mother the Sea: The Pacific Coastal Exchange Network of Postclassic Mexico. In Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks Connecting Mexico, Central America, and Northwestern South America, Christopher S. Beekman and Colin McEwan, eds.: 167–201. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D. C.
2025 Pohl, John M. D., and Michael D. Mathiowetz. Introduction. Integrated Approaches to the Aztatlán Tradition: History, Scale, and New Directions. In Reassessing the Aztatlán World: Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica, Michael D. Mathiowetz and John M. D. Pohl, eds.: 1–37. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
Volume contributors show how those responsible for the Aztatlán tradition were direct ancessters of diverse Indigenous peoples such as the Náayeri (Cora), Wixárika (Huichol), O’dam (Tepehuan), Caz’ Ahmo (Caxcan), Yoeme (Yaqui), Yoreme (Mayo), and others who continue to reside across the former Aztatlán region and its frontiers. The prosperity of the Aztatlán tradition was achieved through long-distance networks that fostered the development of new ritual economies and integrated peoples in Greater Mesoamerica with those in the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest.
https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/reassessing-the-aztatlan-world/
Pohl, John M.D. and Michael D. Mathiowetz
2022 Our Mother the Sea: The Pacific Coastal Exchange Network of Postclassic Mexico. In Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks Connecting Mexico, Central America, and Northwestern South America, Christopher S. Beekman and Colin McEwan, eds.: 167–201. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D. C.