Dr. Cherra Wyllie
OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! Kings and Queens in Classic Veracruz Ballgame Ritual
In south-central Veracruz, Mexico, representations of ballplayers, captives, kings, and queens defy clear categorizations. These images are made more complex by costume and gender designations, hierarchical proportion, natural sexual dimorphism, and symbolic roles versus historic portraiture—distinctions that their makers may have intentionally blurred. On stone stelae, mural paintings, and narrative ceramics, rulers wear ballgame regalia; captive ballplayers can sometimes be seen towering above their captors; and elite women take part in the “dressing,” binding, and ritual beheading of ballplayers or subjugated rulers.
Archaeologists have found ritually-interred figurines and skeletal remains with abundance in Classic Veracruz architecture (ca CE 250-1000). These caches contain tableaus of small, medium, and large-scale ceramic sculpture in conjunction with primary and secondary burials, along with deposits of dismembered human skeletal remains. Ceramic figures were designed to enact scenes depicting captives, tribute, the Mesoamerican ballgame, and an underworld inhabited by deities and supporting players. Decapitated human burials interred with stone ballgame sculptures and other high-status offerings beg the question: were these defeated ballplayers, or kings in ballplayer costume? Or, is the mutability of varied roles and outcomes inherent to Classic Veracruz narrative representation?
About the speaker
Cherra Wyllie is an archaeologist and illustrator specializing in the iconography and epigraphy of Classic Veracruz, Mexico. She earned a BA in art and archaeology from Goddard College, Vermont. She continued her education at Yale Graduate School working under the mentorship of the late Michael D. Coe, completing her MA in Archaeological Studies and MPhil and PhD in Anthropology.
Dr. Wyllie was an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Hartford, and recent past president and board chair of the Pre-Columbian Society of New York, an educational non-profit that she co-founded a decade ago. She has written extensively in both English and Spanish on Classic Veracruz sculpture, mural paintings, musical instruments, and hieroglyphic inscriptions. She serves as a consultant to major museums, and on the figurine collection of Proyecto Arqueológico La Mixtequilla (PALM) in Xalapa, Veracruz, a 40-year project under the direction of Barbara L. Stark.
