Although according to the editors, “the written corpus about Chichen Itza... would fill a small library,” this is actually the first English-language monograph in decades dedicated solely to the art and archaeology of the site and its hinterlands. Recent Mexican studies include volumes by Garcia Moll and Cobos Palma. In contrast to the influential Twin Tollans collection (Kristan-Graham and Kowalski, eds.), the current volume largely sidesteps questions of external relations in favor of a more regional emphasis. “Landscape,” defined as the experience of place filtered through memory and ideology, is argued to be the leitmotif of the volume.

Chapter 2, by Beniamino Volta, Nancy Peniche May, and Geoffrey Braswell, provides a historical catalog of work at Chichen Itza, organized by sections on excavations, settlement pattern studies, ethnohistory, and epigraphy. It is especially useful for its references to unpublished or under-published research at the site. A concluding “points of contention” section concentrates on chronology, in which they deny an overlap between “Old Chichen”/Cehpech ceramics/Pure Florescent architecture, on the one hand, and “New Chichen”/Sotuta ceramics/Modified Florescent architecture on the other. They conclude with a defense of the Early Classic as a valid division of northern Maya culture history, in contrast to those who see greater affiliations with Terminal Classic/Epiclassic sites.

Chapter 3, by Eduardo Pérez de Heredia and Péter Bíró, is an unusual collaboration between a ceramicist and an epigrapher, and concerns Chichen Itza prior to the building of “New Chichen.” Pérez details the architectural contexts of the Yabnal ceramic complex, demonstrating the size of Chichen during the Late Classic period. Biró discusses the historical personages of the texts and the many titles present. He argues, like many before, that K'ak' Upakal represented the intrusion of a foreign dynasty, though why writing should cease only after his rule goes unexplained.

Chapters 4 and 5 examine the Itza phenomenon from the perspective of nearby secondary centers, countering the notion of pervasive Itza domination of the peninsula. Scott Johnson first provides a useful taxonomy of boundary types and corresponding archaeological correlates, concluding that Yucatan evidences “a hegemonic, not-landscape focused, type of power,” a model also advanced by ethnohistorians Sergio Quezada and Tsubasa Okoshi for the Late Postclassic period. The author makes the point that borders were not monolithic, even within a site, concluding that they were strongest between elites but far more porous at the commoner level.

Chapter 5, by J. Gregory Smith and Tara Bond-Freeman, focuses on the archaeology of several secondary sites, mostly located between Chichen Itza and Ek Balam, but extending northeast as far as Kuluba. They assess a model of Itza hegemony using a variety of criteria, including architecture, ceramics, and obsidian. The test cases vary significantly, but none reflect strong Itza presence across all categories. Instead, the authors argue that some of these sites functioned as way stations, satisfying the nutritional and perhaps carnal needs of traders and pilgrims moving between Chichen Itza and the coast.

Chapters 6 and 7 each treat a single pyramid at the site. Virginia Miller first provides an important and exhaustive history of the reconstruction of the Castillo-sub, known chiefly from the poorly reported excavations of Erosa Peniche. The chapter gathers together disparate reports on the decoration, offerings, and temple furniture of the structure, cautiously concluding that it may contain a royal burial, while its temple functioned as a place of elite congregation and human sacrifice. A recent remote sensing project claims an even earlier subpyramid, but this must be balanced against Erosa Peniche's final tunnel that reached the center of the Castillo without encountering another large structure.

Annabeth Headrick reiterates an interpretation of the Osario, or “High Priest's Grave,” as a monument to war and warriors and a depository for their ashes. The discussion would benefit from a fuller treatment of the evidence (only 1 of 16 warrior panels is discussed) and better contextualization of the building within the site as a whole. For instance, the claim that the intertwined cloud and feathered serpents reference trade in exotics ignores the centrality of this pairing in the iconography of the Lower Temple of the Jaguars and the North Ballcourt Temple, not to mention at Tula and Tenochtitlan, where the context is clearly political and military.

Chapter 8, by Cynthia Kristan-Graham, applies notions of landscape to the gallery-patio structure known as the Mercado. She suggests it may have functioned as a residence, a temple, or a lineage council house, the last being the strongest case. Parallels with the southern lowlands seem forced, since the closest correspondences, architecturally and iconographically are with Tula's Palacio Quemado and Tenochtitlan's House of the Eagles, mentioned only in passing. The chapter concludes with a phenomenological perspective on the “structuring” role of the Mercado in fostering social memory and shaping bodily experience through performance. No doubt, but can such generalities be employed with sufficient precision to help us decide amongst competing interpretations?

The final chapter, by Linnea Wren, Kaylee Spencer, and Travis Nygard, concerns representations of women at Chichen Itza, both as warriors and victims of war. The one example of a woman warrior at Chichen Itza is problematic, however, because every detail of costume marks this figure as the equivalent of the (male) cihuacoatl among the Aztecs (noted elsewhere by Wren). The “breasts” may simply be the flaccid chest of an elderly officer. The remainder is a discussion of the women in the Upper Temple of the Jaguars battle murals, concluding that these narratives reflect in part the violent appropriation of female labor and the construction of female victimhood for male warriors.

Despite the excellence of several chapters, a strong concluding chapter would have provided greater focus and unity to the volume. Furthermore, there are a number of misstatements regarding the archaeology of Yucatan, minor in themselves but of the sort that become entrenched with repetition. For instance, the assertion (p. 38) that rectangular commoner houses distinguish Chichen Itza is incorrect, because rectangular houses are ubiquitous in Yucatan. Likewise, Coba and Uxmal or Oxkintok were not the only regional centers of the Late Classic (p. 115), Dzibilchaltun, Izamal, Chunchumil, and Ek Balam being only the most obvious additions. Ball's claim, made in the 1970s and cited on p. 6, that Cehpech slatewares first appeared as an elite subcomplex is certainly untrue, because antecedent early slates have been identified at several Yucatecan sites, for example at Yaxuna, as Pérez notes (p. 73). Likewise, assertions that we “know” when the Puuc and Chichen Itza were abandoned are optimistic, given that we have only a single firm hieroglyphic date and one possible radiocarbon date during the tenth century and nothing later. Nevertheless, this volume is a step forward in addressing the many issues yet to be understood at Chichen Itza and hopefully marks a return to the concerted study of one of the most intriguing sites of Mesoamerica.