ABSTRACT
The polity self-consciously proclaimed its importance not only by the enormity of its constructions but also by an imaginative expansion of its visual vocabulary. This expanded vocabulary provided a persuasive form of political rhetoric that asserted the influence of the Itza across wide geographic regions of Mesoamerica and that identified the Itza capital as the geographic site of cosmic creation. During the Terminal Classic period, Chichen Itza emerged as one of the important polities within a network of politically independent cosmopolitan capitals. Moreover, the Itza apparently converted their economic and cultural preeminence into claims of military and political hegemony over much of Mesoamerica. Political rhetoric at Chichen Itza was highly effective because it provided a divine charter not only for justifying military conflicts against other polities but also for promoting social cohesiveness among its own elite.
