The History, Function, and Meaning of Preclassic E Groups in the Cival Region

This chapter summarizes archaeological data and interpretations regarding 13 E Groups from the Cival region mapped and excavated by the Holmul Archaeological Project between 2000 and 2015. In the Middle (1000-350 BCE) and Late Preclassic (350 BCE-0 CE) periods Cival was the main political and ritual center in this region of northeastern Petén. Over the course of the Late Preclassic Period, four additional E Groups were built at Cival and nine more have been found so far at surrounding minor centers. These data from E Group complexes provide a coherent sample of architectural chronology, dimension, orientation and evidence of ritual behavior. Excavations in the Cival Main Plaza provide the most complete example of a Middle Preclassic E Group available to date. The ritual function of Cival’s earliest E Group focused on solar hierophanies that uniquely connected, calendrical, metereological and geomantic observations within a single locality. Subsequent Late Preclassic complexes in the region were built following the same principles according to each site’s peculiar topographic setting. In accordance with their initial function as place-making devices for emerging communities, E Groups in the Late Preclassic Period were associated with the emergence of regional political systems as centers of religious and political interactions.

E Groups, Cosmology, and the Origins of Maya Rulership

The material symbol-systems of the Preclassic (1000 BCE–250 CE) Maya reflect a focus on the daily and annual cycles of the sun and the relationship between these and the cycles of the agrarian year, particularly as represented in the anthropomorphic Maize God. The Maya sun gods, the Maize God, and the solar avatar of the Creator God Itzamnaaj or the Principal Bird Deity are depicted in architectural decoration, murals and carvings in Preclassic contexts. They are also depicted in later Classic Period (250-950 CE) contexts. I explore these images and ideas to show that the E Group phenomenon was one part of the development of a pan-peninsular religion, worldview and ideology establishing the basis for Preclassic Maya rulership. Finally, I explore the prospect that the site of Cerros has an Eastern Triadic Structure, Structure 29, rather than an E Group. I propose on iconographic grounds that this building is a solar commemorative structure and possibly a bundle house.

Founding Landscapes in the Central Karstic Uplands

In order to fully understand E Groups, they must be considered within the broader landscapes of the Preclassic (1000 BCE-CE 250). At Yaxnohcah, the E Group lies in the center of a vast dispersed settlement comprised of voluminous platforms. Recent excavations have revealed that the earliest manifestations of three of these platforms were likely built at the same time as the earliest E Group platform, during the early Middle Preclassic (1000–350 BCE). Moreover, the three platforms are arranged in an evocative triadic formation. During the later Middle Preclassic and again during the Late Preclassic (300 BCE–250 CE), the site was enlarged and the architecture amplified and elaborated, with a focus on triadic arrangements and ballcourts. Significantly, however, the E Group complex maintained its centrality in the overall site plan throughout the development of the civic core. Therefore, this chapter considers the corpus of architectural forms at Yaxnohcah. These architectural constructs, the E Group, the Triadic Group, the ballcourt, and sacbes are essential elements of the founding landscape and work in concert to embody the evolving cosmological and social worldview of the lowlands Maya during the Preclassic.

The Founding of Yaxuná

This chapter reviews the evidence for E Groups in the northern Maya lowlands with an emphasis on the site of Yaxuná, Yucatán. Data indicate that E Groups in Yucatán and northern Campeche are distributed along Middle (1000–350 BCE) and Late Preclassic (350 BCE–0 CE) period trade routes between the northern salt flats and the southern lowland kingdoms. Excavations at the E Group at Yaxuná reveal similar patterns of deposition compared to southern lowland E Groups as well as a high frequency of ceramics from Petén. These data suggest that Yaxuná was founded and/or allied with southern lowland kingdoms to control an interior trade route to the northern coast.

E Groups and Ancestors

Over time, E Groups come to have a funerary function housing burials of important ancestors. Using the data recovered from the Preclassic Period (1000 BCE-250 CE) E Group at the site of Xunantunich (Benque Viejo), Belize, I trace the development and elaboration of ritual and mortuary practices from the early Middle Preclassic (1000-350 BCE) to the Terminal Preclassic or Protoclassic Period (0-250 CE). I explore the transformation of Xunantunich’s Preclassic E Group from a venue for communal solar and maize rituals, to a sacred space also associated with commemoration of ancestors and elite individuals. I examine the ephemeral traces that ritual activities often leave behind such as fire features and perishable altars. Additionally, from the layout of architectural features found within the E Group plaza itself, such as paved ramps, I address the role of processions in early ritual practices. Although the built environment can encode important messages, it is through activities like commemorative events that those messages are embodied and transformed into collective and social memories. Ritual activities like feasts, processions, and burial rituals performed at sacred locations made these places powerful, so that they became part of both the physical and ideological landscape of an ancient community.

A Tale of Two E Groups

E Groups represent the first monumental gathering spaces in the Maya lowlands, and their distribution represents a social map of the landscape shared by distinct, autonomous communities. This chapter examines the biographies of the E Groups in two such neighboring communities, El Palmar and Tikal, Guatemala. Residents of both communities experimented with scale and aesthetics in analogous ways as they cooperated to build the monumental cores of each center. The patterns of social engagement in the E Groups at El Palmar and Tikal; however, radically diverged. Environmental change and shifts in the political landscape contributed to the abandonment of El Palmar’s E Group, while the inhabitants of Tikal continued to invest in construction in the Mundo Perdido E Group complex. The focused case study of these two communities suggests possibilities for why some people migrated away from certain E Group centers in the Early Classic (250-600 CE) while their neighbors did not.

E Groups and the Rise of Complexity in the Southeastern Maya Lowlands

How the ancient Maya used E Groups needs to be derived from the archaeological record. Research undertaken in the southeast Petén of Guatemala has revealed a concentration of over 150 E Groups in the area defined by Ceibal on the west, Caracol on the east, Esquipulas on the south, and the Central Petén lakes on the north. Excavated E Groups from Cenote, Uaxactún, Caracol, and Ixtonton can be used to help organize and understand these archaeological data and to show that the E Group structural assemblage is generally early within this region, dating primarily to the Late Preclassic Period (350 BCE-0 CE) and constituting the founding architecture for an unusual number of small communities in the southeast Petén. The size and structure of the eastern platform in these E Groups also appears to serve as a proxy for broader socio-political organization. Data from Caracol also suggests the importance of these architectural assemblages for temporal ritual associated with the 8th and 9th baktun cycles. Tenth cycle ritual use of these assemblages can also be seen at sites such as Ucanal, Seibal, and possibly Yaxha. Thus, E Groups can be linked to both the rise and denouement of Maya civilization.

Epilogue

As architectural complexes, E Groups served to anchor in place the earliest peoples who lived in the Maya lowlands around 1000 BCE. In retrospect, this architectural complex provided a temporal and cosmological charter for fixed places of emerging significance on an otherwise fluid landscape. The demonstrated duration and ritual importance of E Groups suggests that they were key elements in the formation of a Maya identity. We consider both the durability of E Groups and the tremendous change that occurred in their political and social situatedness.

More Than Smoke and Mirrors

The relationship of social organization to architectural standardization in Maya cities sheds light on urban planning and political structure–specifically changes in cultural complexity. What does variability in standardized E Group architecture tell us about diversity in Maya society, especially insofar as it concerns religion? Temporal variability in archaeoastronomical alignment patterning shows shifts from earlier Preclassic (1000 BCE-250 CE) horizon-based solar solstice/equinox calendar dates to Classic Period (250-950 CE) examples emphasizing zenith passage, possibly based on interaction with people from Teotihuacán. Data from temples and specialized architecture associated with E Groups have the potential to show how sites differed from one another regionally in the way religious institutions formed around calendar keeping and solar celebration. Trends in the construction of E Group complexes though time and across space are related to the tempo and mode of internal cultural developments, such as emerging bureaucracies, hallmarks of complexity related to occupational specialization. Building elaboration in religious precincts, such as increasing temple room size, number, and relative proportion relates to the expansion or contraction of priesthoods responsible for the seasonal festivals and other public (investiture) or private (prophecy) ceremonies in Maya centers.

The Isthmian Origins of the E Group and Its Adoption in the Maya Lowlands

Recent investigations at Ceibal (Seibal) and other Preclassic Period (1000 BCE–250 CE) sites indicate that the E Group assemblage was originally developed around 1000-900 BCE as an element of a standardized site plan called the Middle Formative Chiapas pattern (MFC) through interactions among diverse groups inhabiting the Isthmian region, including the southern Gulf Coast, Chiapas, the southern Pacific Coast, and the southwestern end of the Maya lowlands. The Maya in the central and eastern lowlands began to adopt the E Group after 800 BCE and to create their own cultural tradition by applying their construction methods, by developing new symbolism and ritual, and by discarding most other elements of the MFC pattern. After many of the Isthmian centers collapsed at the end of the Middle Preclassic Period (ca. 350 BCE), the lowland Maya became the most avid builders of E Groups in Mesoamerica.