STONES, BONES, AND CROWDED PLAZAS: Evidence for Terminal Classic Maya warfare at Colha, Belize

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason W. Barrett ◽  
Andrew K. Scherer
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Secondary Site ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Using Data

This study provides a synthetic review of the Terminal Classic collapse of the Maya site of Colha, Belize, based on new data drawn from recent lithic and osteological studies and previously reported information. The well-known Colha skull pit has figured prominently in previous hypotheses of the site's collapse, which focus on either warfare or ritual termination. In this review, these two hypotheses are reexamined using data from: (1) shifts in settlement patterns; (2) transitions in lithic production; and (3) the death en masse of at least 55 individuals coincident with the site's abandonment. Based on the evidence presented here, we argue that warfare precipitated Colha's collapse. In light of Colha's role as a secondary site that functioned primarily as a lithic-production locality, the Terminal Classic destruction of the site illustrates the significance of material motivations in Maya warfare and accents the diversity of collapse processes in the Maya Lowlands.

The Ballcourt Markers of Tenam Rosario, Chiapas, Mexico

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gerard Fox
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Blood Sacrifice ◽  
Late Postclassic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Coast Site

AbstractThis study is an iconographic analysis of ballcourt markers from the Late/Terminal Classic Maya site of Tenam Rosario, Chiapas, Mexico. The squatting posture of the two figures depicted on these markers, while rare in Lowland Maya art, is compared to Late Postclassic images of the earth deities Tlaltecuhtli and Tlaloc from Central Mexico. Contemporaneous examples of this posture are presented from the Gulf Coast site of El Tajin where squatting figures are associated with the rain god specifically and with the themes of ballgame sacrifice and regeneration in general. Tlaloc imagery in Classic Maya art is related to blood sacrifice as a complex, which includes both ritual warfare and autosacrifice. These forms of sacrifice are discussed as engendered categories in both Classic Maya and Aztec society. The Tenam Rosario markers are found to express themes that are consistent with ballgame symbolism throughout Mesoamerica, while conflating male and female aspects of blood sacrifice as regenerative ritual.

MAYA HETERARCHY AS INFERRED FROM CLASSIC-PERIOD PLAZA PLANS

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marshall Joseph Becker
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Lowland Maya

Recognition of architectural patterning among groups of structures at lowland Maya sites dating from the Classic period provides insights into the ways that residences and ritual complexes were organized. Each structured group arrangement, or Plaza Plan (PP), reveals an architectural grammar that provides the database enabling us to predict urban as well as rural settlement patterns. Wide variations in sizes among examples of residential PPs suggests that heterarchy was an important aspect of Classic Maya society. Examination of PP2 at Tikal indicates that a heterarchic pattern of organization existed. Heterarchy may relate to the fragility of the structure of lowland Maya kingship, and this may explain the gradual demise of states during the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods and their replacement by re-emergent Maya chiefdoms.

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.

Land Tenure Systems at the Ancient Maya Site of Actuncan, Belize

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa J. LeCount ◽  
Chester P. Walker ◽  
John H. Blitz ◽  
Ted C. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Agricultural Field ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Residential Units ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Land Tenure Systems

A common property regime was established at the founding of the Maya site of Actuncan, Belize, in the Terminal Preclassic period (175 BC–AD 300), which governed access to land until the Terminal Classic period (AD 780–1000). This interpretation is based on urban settlement patterns documented through household excavation and remote-sensing programs. Excavations of all visible patio-focused groups in the urban core provided data to reconstruct residential histories, and a 60,621 m2 gradiometer survey resulted in a magnetic gradient map that was used to document buried constructions. Twenty ground-truth testpits correlated types of magnetic signatures to buried patio-focused groups and smaller constructions, including walled plots in agricultural field systems that were later exposed more fully through large-scale excavations. Combined, these methods provided data to reconstruct four correlates of land tenure systems: (1) the spatial proximity of residential units to land and resources, (2) diachronic changes in community settlement patterns, (3) land subdivision and improvements, and (4) public goods. Spatial analyses documented that houselots did not cluster through time, but instead became gradually improved, lending evidence to suggest the transgenerational inheritance of property rights in the Late and Terminal Classic periods.

SHIFTING SOCIAL RELATIONS DURING THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000): CERAMICS FROM THE LOWLAND MAYA SITE OF UCANAL

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste LeMoine ◽  
Christina T. Halperin
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Economic Networks ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Political Economic

Abstract The end of the Classic period was a tumultuous moment in Maya history, not only because the power of many dominant political centers waned, but because the ways in which elites and non-elites related to each other were increasingly called into question. To understand the nature of changing social relations in the southern Maya lowlands during this time, this study examines the distribution and provenance of decorated ceramics during the Late Classic (ca. a.d. 600–810) and Terminal Classic (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000) periods from the archaeological site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala. Comparisons of ceramics from different households across the site reveal that differences in access to decorated and imported ceramics decreased between these periods, suggesting that socioeconomic distinctions leveled out over time. In turn, chemical analysis of ceramics using a portable X-ray fluorescence instrument reveals that the site shifted its political-economic networks, with greater ties to the Petexbatun and Usumacinta regions and continued ties with the Upper Belize Valley.

Leadership at Sayil

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelli Carmean
Keyword(s):  
Community Leadership ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Stone Monuments ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Maya Site

AbstractThis paper explores the nature of community leadership within the Late–Terminal Classic Maya site of Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico. The distribution of political and religious activities—as represented archaeologically by cylindrical stone monuments (“altars”) and Oxkutzcab Applique censers—is examined. It is argued that such activities are dispersed into the upper ranks of Sayil society, rather than concentrated in the royal, ruling sector. It is further argued that the residential areas in which political and religious activities were concentrated may have been the loci of lineage heads of Sayil, who maintained important leadership roles despite attempts at centralization by the rulers.

scholarly journals High-precision radiocarbon dating of political collapse and dynastic origins at the Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (6) ◽  
pp. 1293-1298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Inomata ◽  
Daniela Triadan ◽  
Jessica MacLellan ◽  
Melissa Burham ◽  
Kazuo Aoyama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Precision ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
External Power ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Maya Site

The lowland Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, had a long history of occupation, spanning from the Middle Preclassic Period through the Terminal Classic (1000 BC to AD 950). The Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project has been conducting archaeological investigations at this site since 2005 and has obtained 154 radiocarbon dates, which represent the largest collection of radiocarbon assays from a single Maya site. The Bayesian analysis of these dates, combined with a detailed study of ceramics, allowed us to develop a high-precision chronology for Ceibal. Through this chronology, we traced the trajectories of the Preclassic collapse around AD 150–300 and the Classic collapse around AD 800–950, revealing similar patterns in the two cases. Social instability started with the intensification of warfare around 75 BC and AD 735, respectively, followed by the fall of multiple centers across the Maya lowlands around AD 150 and 810. The population of Ceibal persisted for some time in both cases, but the center eventually experienced major decline around AD 300 and 900. Despite these similarities in their diachronic trajectories, the outcomes of these collapses were different, with the former associated with the development of dynasties centered on divine rulership and the latter leading to their downfalls. The Ceibal dynasty emerged during the period of low population after the Preclassic collapse, suggesting that this dynasty was placed under the influence from, or by the direct intervention of, an external power.

THE VALUES OF CLASSIC MAYA JADE: A REANALYSIS OF CANCUEN'S JADE WORKSHOP

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chloé Andrieu ◽  
Edna Rodas ◽  
Luis Luin
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Production Area ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Lowland Maya

AbstractMost ancient Maya jade workshops have been discovered in the Motagua Valley, the region where the majority of known Mesoamerican jade sources are located; whereas in the Maya lowlands, evidence of jade production has primarily been in the form of finished objects or, in a few cases, of jade debitage in construction fill and cache contexts. At Cancuen, however, a large jade preform production area was discovered in the heart of a major lowland Maya site. In this paper we present the technological reanalysis of this material and show that the quality and color of the raw material corresponds to very different production processes, values, and distribution within the site. We suggest that most of Cancuen's jade production was exported to recipient sites as preforms and discuss the importance of this organization for understanding the nature of wealth goods production and exchange in the ancient Maya world.

Pottery and Politics: Contextualizing the Classic to Postclassic Transition in Champotón, Campeche

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerald D. Ek
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
The Political ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regional Settlement ◽  
Economic Ties

The past decades have witnessed major advancements in our understanding of Classic Maya political history, particularly geopolitical dynamics centered on hegemonic states. Yet there has been only halting progress toward historically based archaeological research focusing on the political, social, and economic impacts of political domination and subordination. To address this deficiency, I examine changes in settlement patterns and ceramic sphere affiliation in the Río Champotón drainage within broader historical and geopolitical developments. In this region, the end of the Classic period is characterized by dramatic changes in ceramic links, with a shift from inland-focused traditions to the incorporation within a coastal ceramic sphere—the Canbalam sphere—that linked maritime trade centers between northwest Yucatán and coastal Tabasco. These transitions were embedded within major reorientations in regional settlement patterns and broader geopolitical dynamics centering on the expansion and dissolution of the Kanu’l state, or Snake Dynasty. Following the decline of the Snake Dynasty of Calakmul, communities in central Campeche forged new political and economic ties with emergent centers along the Gulf Coast and the northern Maya Lowlands. The results of this study demonstrate the transformative nature of hegemonic interpolity relationships and highlight the potential for new avenues of conjunctive research combining historical and archaeological data sources.

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