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This dissertation examines the Temple of the Inscriptions, Temple I, and Temple 26 and explores what could have motivated the Maya to construct these large monuments and how they might have been meaningful. Traditional art historical methods of comparative and formal analyses are employed as tools for discussing patterns of meaning among these temples. The structural and decorative programs shared by all three temples signal that they are part of a separate genre of architecture that is specifically mortuary and interactive. Furthermore, these features are also a mode of communication. Messages depicted in the offerings, sculpture, and spaces of the royal interment resonated throughout the entire monument thus creating parallel environments. Architecture and imagery thereby become the agents for experience and meaning: these structures were active places that engaged the viewer, set up a series of experiences, and elicited a particular set of responses. These three monuments symbolized a continuum and depicted in their forms, spaces, and imagery was the cyclical progression of life and rebirth. In the years between 683 to 734 C.E., the ancient Maya cities of Palenque, Tikal, and Copan experienced great change caused by the death and burial of powerful kings and the accession of new kings. As demonstrated in evidence from the mortuary rituals and interments of Kinich Janaab Pakal, Jasaw Chan K'awiil, and K'ahk Uti' Wiz' K'awiil and in their respective mortuary monuments, the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, Temple I at Tikal, and Temple 26 at Copan, these funerary events initiated new forms of art and architecture that changed the ceremonial cores of their respective cities. Memorializing a dead king was not the function of these temples. Instead, they were statements of continuity that were articulated in themes of renewal, transformation, and intergenerational convergence. Evidence suggests that the ancient Maya understood these monuments in their entirety

The discovery of hieroglyphic artists' signatures on monuments of the Classic Maya represents a turning point for the study of Precolum­bian art. As key elements in the retrieval of artists from long-standing conditions of anonymity, artists' signatures theoretically afford the scholar an opportunity to follow the careers and sculptural repertoire of individual artists, allowing recognition of the artist's style over time and on unsigned monuments. However. while various studies have tried to identify individual sculptors solely on the basis of style, to date no pro­ject working in the medium of stone monuments has explored the rela­tionship between signatures and style, despite the discovery of artists' signatures more than a decade ago. The present thesis tracks the stylistic relationship between sig­natures and style on monuments carved at the Classic Maya regional capital of Piedras Negras, Guatemala. As such, it focuses on the production of monuments during the reign of the last known dynast at the site, Ruler 7 (AD 785 to c. 795), when sculptors regularly signed more than one monument apiece and signatures reached the greatest level of frequency in the history of Maya public art. The thesis tests the validity of the original identification of artists' signatures by exploring both the style of individual monuments from the Piedras Negras polity and the "handwriting" of individual signatures. With this as its principal goal, the thesis examines the correlation be­tween the sculptural style of the signatures and the monuments on which these occur. On a broader scale, the thesis goes on to explore within the context of special stylistic circumstances at Piedras Negras the larger issues of artists' social position in Maya civilization in general and at Piedras Negras in particular. In addition. through epigraphic anal­ysis of the hieroglyphic components of artists' signatures--in particular hieroglyphic nominal and titular elements--the thesis exam

Correctly identified imagery in the art and iconography of Teotihuacan shows graphemic functions. From a comparative study of Teotihuacan imagery with coeval Maya imagery and writing, an empirically verifiable basis for the interpretation of Teotihuacan art and iconography is established. The method of analysis used in this study reveals that the Teotihuacan culture had a writing system very similar to that of the coeval Maya culture of southern Mesoamerica. And, finally, the analysis of graphemic functions in the art and iconography of the Teotihuacan culture leads to the conclusion that the people of Teotihuacan spoke a language closely related to modern Tzeltalan and Yucatecan Maya tongues. From the analysis of art, iconography, language, and writing, this study concludes that Teotihuacan was both linguistically and ethnically Maya.

In this study of Pre-Columbian sculptures from Panama and Costa Rica, style and iconography were investigated with the purposes of determining relationships among the different archaeological regions of this area of Lower Central America, establishing geographic and time distributions of traits, and creating a relative chronology for both style and motif. Over 1400 volcanic stone sculptures were organized into the two primary categories of Ceremonial Objects and Figural Images. These were further divided on the basis of formal similarities.. The major emphasis of this study has been an analysis and seriation of effigy grinding stones and standing human images. Two major analytical methodologies were employed in the seriation. The first involved a visual analysis and grouping based primarily on formal qualities or visible traits. Over 60 traits were identified for each category. The second method of analysis was the coding of each sculpture for the presence or absence of these traits. Various combinations of these traits were then submitted to Guttman Scale Analysis with the aid of an IBM computer. The results of the Guttman analysis confirm that the groupings of sculptures developed by visual analysis is accurate. They also confirm that there is a developmental sequence from one group to another. Archaeological evidence suggests that the developmental sequence for both the effigy grinding stones and the standing human figures is from naturalistic to stylized, from crude carvings of varied imagery and size to technically advanced sculptures of more uniform size and motif. These sculptural groups also argue for the existence of a single archaeological zone in the Atlantic Watershed/Central Highlands Region of Costa Rica which reached its greatest productive level during the late Stone Cist Period. The appearance of similar sculptures in other archaeological regions suggests relationships among these various areas of both Costa Rica and Panama. It appears evident th