The Vanderbilt Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project 1989–1994: Overview, History, and Major Results of a Multidisciplinary Study of the Classic Maya collapse

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur A. Demarest
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Multidisciplinary Study ◽  
Design Structure ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
History Of ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
Maya Collapse ◽  
New Evidence

AbstractThe background, research design, structure, personnel, and history of investigations of the Vanderbilt Petexbatun Archaeological Project are summarized and critiqued. The major findings of each of the dozen subprojects of this multidisciplinary investigation of Maya civilization in the southwestern Peten region of Guatemala are reviewed. Subproject results include important new evidence on Classic Maya history, warfare, ecology, nutrition, cave ritual, social organization, and trade. These are summarized with particular emphasis on the implications of the Petexbatun findings for theories of the decline of southern lowland Maya civilization at the end of the Classic period.

The Last Day of a Fortified Classic Maya Center: Archaeological Investigations at Aguateca, Guatemala

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Inomata
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Rapid Population Growth ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
Early Classic Period ◽  
Maya Collapse

AbstractArchaeological investigations at Aguateca, Guatemala, by the Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project have provided clues to the intriguing sequence of the downfall of this Maya center. The earliest substantial occupation at Aguateca dates to the Late Preclassic period. After very little presence during the Early Classic period, Aguateca rapidly grew into a densely occupied center, probably at the beginning of the eighth century a.d. Migration from other areas may have contributed to this rapid population growth. In the late eighth century, extensive defensive walls were constructed, most likely as a response to intensified warfare. Despite this defensive effort, Aguateca was finally attacked and brought down by enemies probably at the beginning of the ninth century. The center appears to have been almost completely abandoned soon after this event. This reconstructed sequence confirms other evidence of the Petexbatun Project that intensified warfare played an important role in the Classic Maya collapse.

THE WAY THINGS FALL APART: Social organization and the Classic Maya collapse of Copan

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Kam Manahan
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Recent Application ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Foreign Occupation ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
Maya Collapse ◽  
Social Units

While the recent application of the house model to archaeology (Joyce and Gillespie 2000Beyond Kinship: Social and Material Reproduction in House Societies. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia) has renewed interest in the nature of Classic Maya social organization, the relationships between Classic Maya social units and Classic Maya polities remain poorly understood. This article examines the effects of the Classic Maya collapse of Copan, Honduras on its constituent social units in an effort to ascertain the flexibility and resilience of these groups within larger political structures. Previous researchers suggested that Copan's collapse was limited largely to the ruling elite. However, the Copan Postclassic Archaeological Project has documented a distinct, possibly foreign occupation in the site center froma.d.950 to 1100. These data suggest that the longevity of all Classic Copaneco social groups in the wake of dynastic collapse was significantly shorter than some have postulated. These data demonstrate that Classic Maya social units were not semiautonomous groups but, instead, were integrated within polities. Thus, they must be understood within larger political frameworks.

Swamps, canals, and the locations of ancient Maya cities

Antiquity ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 54 (212) ◽  
pp. 206-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. W. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Radar Data ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Intensive Agriculture ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Rank Ordering ◽  
Topographic Information ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Mapping Discovery

The recent radar mapping discovery of widely distributed patterns of intensive agriculture in the southern Maya lowlands provides new perspectives on classic Maya civilization. Swamps seem to have been drained, modified, and intensively cultivated in a large number of zones. The largest sites of Maya civilization are located on the edges of swamps. By combining radar data with topographic information, it is possible to suggest the reasons for the choice of urban locations. With the addition of patterns elicited from rank-ordering of Maya cities, it is also possible to suggest more accurate means of defining Classic period Maya polities.

Paleoecological Evidence of an Early Postclassic Occupation in the Southwestern Maya Lowlands: Laguna Las Pozas, Guatemala

2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Johnston ◽  
Andrew J. Breckenridge ◽  
Barbara C. Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Postclassic Period ◽  
Refugee Population ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Early Postclassic ◽  
Maya Collapse ◽  
Terminal Classic Period

Magnetic, palynological, and paleoecological data indicate that in the Río de la Pasión drainage, one of the most thoroughly investigated areas of the southern Maya lowlands, a refugee population remained in the Laguna Las Pozas basin long after the Classic Maya collapse and the Terminal Classic period, previously identified by archaeologists as eras of near-total regional abandonment. During the Early Postclassic period, ca. A. D. 900 to 1200, agriculturalists colonized and deforested the Laguna Las Pozas basin for agriculture while adjacent, abandoned terrain was undergoing reforestation. After discussing the archaeological utility of magnetic analyses, we conclude that following the Maya collapse, some refugee populations migrated to geographically marginal non-degraded landscapes within the southern lowlands not previously occupied by the Classic Maya.

Social Integration and the Classic Maya

1966 ◽  
Vol 31 (5Part1) ◽  
pp. 625-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Haviland
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Population Size ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Effective Force ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Ethnographic Data

AbstractIn recent years, there has been much interest in the use of ethnographic data derived from modern Maya groups for the interpretation of Classic Maya civilization. It has been suggested by some that civil and religious positions in Classic Maya society were filled by a system of rotation such as exists today among some Maya groups. Such a system would have served as a powerful force for the integration of both priest and peasant in Classic Maya society. This proposition is examined here in the light of recent data which show a relation between such existing "cargo" systems and population size. On the basis of settlement data from Tikal, Guatemala, it is concluded that such a system of rotation would not have been an effective force for social integration at large sites of the Classic period, and that other possible factors must be considered in this respect.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CLASSIC MAYA SOCIAL ORGANIZATION FROM CARACOL, BELIZE

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Z. Chase ◽  
Arlen F. Chase
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
The Past ◽  
Segmentation Models

Inferring ancient social and political organization from the archaeological record is a difficult task. Generally, the models used to interpret the Classic-period Maya (a.d.250–900) have been borrowed from other societies and other times and thus also reflect etic conceptions of the past. Maya social and political organization has been interpreted as varying in complexity. Those who would model a less complex Classic Maya social structure have tended to employ lineage models and segmentation. Models of a more complex Classic Maya civilization focus on different social levels and on a breakdown of some kinship systems. Other models, such as that of the “noble house,” represent attempts to find a middle ground. Yet archaeological and epigraphic data that have been gathered for the Classic Maya place parameters on any interpretation that is generated. Data collected from Caracol, Belize, over the past 19 years can be used to illustrate the problems that arise in the strict application of “ideal” social models to the Classic Maya situation. These same data also provide parameters for the reconstruction of ancient sociopolitical organization.

Classic Maya Defensive Systems and Warfare in the Petexbatun Region: Archaeological Evidence and Interpretations

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur A. Demarest ◽  
Matt O'Mansky ◽  
Claudia Wolley ◽  
Dirk Van Tuerenhout ◽  
Takeshi Inomata ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ninth Century ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
Scattered Population

AbstractFrom 1989 to 1996, excavation and surveys were carried out at dozens of sites and intersite areas in the southwestern Peten by the Defensive Systems Subproject of the Vanderbilt Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project and by subsequent related Vanderbilt investigations. The excavations and analyses explored fortification systems, related settlement, and artifactual evidence. Beginning at about a.d. 760, the major centers of the Classic Maya civilization in the Petexbatun region were fortified by a massive expenditure of labor on defensive walls of masonry, usually surmounted by wooden palisades. As warfare accelerated, major centers and later even small hilltop villages were located in highly defensible positions and were fortified by walls, palisades, moats, and baffled gateways. Despite these efforts, all major centers were virtually abandoned by the early ninth century. By a.d. 830, only the island fortress of Punta de Chimino and a very reduced and scattered population remained in the Petexbatun region.

Domestic and Political Lives of Classic Maya Elites: The Excavation of Rapidly Abandoned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Inomata ◽  
Daniela Triadan ◽  
Erick Ponciano ◽  
Estela Pinto ◽  
Richard E. Terry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Domestic Work ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Social Unit ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Archaeological Project

The Aguateca Archaeological Project conducted extensive excavations of elite residences at the Maya center of Aguateca, which was attacked by enemies and abandoned rapidly at the end of the Classic period. Burned buildings contained rich floor assemblages, providing extraordinary information on the domestic and political lives of Classic Maya elites. Each elite residence served for a wide range of domestic work, including the storage, preparation, and consumption of food, with a relatively clear division of male and female spaces. These patterns suggest that each of the excavated elite residences was occupied by a relatively small group, which constituted an important economic and social unit. In addition, elite residences were arenas where crucial processes of the operation of the polity and court unfolded through political gatherings, artistic production, and displays of power.

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