Ceramics and Society among the Classic Maya Cities of the Western Petén

DOCUMENT Citation Only Keith Eppich.

In the course of 13 field seasons, archaeologists have carried out 23 operations across the ruined city of El Perú-Waka’. During these investigations, excavators recovered upwards of a million ceramic sherds from a wide variety of contexts; palaces, pyramids, residences, sheet middens, construction fill, ritual deposits, spoil piles, termination deposits, votive deposits, surface collections, burials, caches, and tombs. The excavation contexts are good enough, the quality of preservation...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Matt O'Mansky. Arthur Demarest.

Recent popular interpretations have proposed that the "Terminal Classic" in the southern lowlands was a gradual transition or slow multi-stage process or that many ninth and tenth century centers continued to prosper; or even have proposed a "What collapse?" scenario. Yet systematic site by site review of ceramic chronologies and evidence reveals that these characterizations and, indeed, the whole debate are poorly informed due to errors in ceramic typologies and limited understandings of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jessica Munson. Lorena Paiz Aragón.

Located at the headwaters of the Usumacinta and the confluence of the Salinas and Pasión Rivers, Altar de Sacrificios is uniquely positioned with strategic access to points far beyond its sandy shores. Despite the geopolitical importance of this site, Altar has not featured prominently in recent narratives about the political history of Classic Maya society. After more than fifty years, a new phase of archaeological investigations seeks to bring Altar out of the shadows and reevaluate this...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Antonia Foias. Jeanette Castellanos. Kitty Emery.

Motul de San Jose entered its Golden Age during the Late Classic. It was located at a critical crossroads in the Central Peten Lakes region, sitting between the east-west San Pedro Martir River that connected it to the Western Peten kingdoms all the way to Yaxchilan, and a north-south route that tied it with Tikal in the north and Dos Pilas and the other Petexbatun centers in the south. The political alliances between Motul and these kingdoms were materialized through the gifting of Ik’ Style...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ellen Moriarty. Ron Bishop. Matthew Moriarty. Antonia Foias.

Over the past 15 years, Late Classic ceramics from Motul de San José and surrounding sites in the Central Petén Lakes area have been subjected to a variety of technical analyses. Modal and petrographic analyses of ceramics from sites throughout the Motul area have been used to explore intra-polity patterns of production and exchange for both elite and mundane vessels. At the same time, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) has been conducted on sherds from Motul to define production...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joanne Baron. Liliana Padilla. Christopher Martinez. Arielle Pierson.

The Guatemalan archaeological site of La Florida, located on the San Pedro River near the Mexican border, was home to the Classic Maya polity known as Namaan. Hieroglyphic inscriptions from La Florida and elsewhere reveal the polity’s widespread political contacts with sites in western Peten, Tabasco, and beyond, as well as a dynastic history spanning three centuries. While known to archaeologists since 1943, the site has only recently been the subject of a multi-year research project. In this...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julien Sion. Alejandro Patiño-Contreras. Divina Perla Barrera.

Aun cuando Naachtun, una capital regional clásica, compartió una tradición cerámica con otros sitios del norte del Petén, en particular con la Cuenca Mirador, y recibió en ciertas épocas de su ocupación una fuerte influencia proveniente de ciudades del centro (Tikal-Uaxactun), además aparecen en su colección cerámica recipientes que reflejan intercambios con otras regiones de las Tierras Bajas. Dentro de esta cerámica importada, una cantidad significativa proviene del oeste de las Tierras Bajas...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Charlotte Arnauld. Mélanie Forné.

A political entity defined mainly on epigraphic evidence, the Hiix Witz kingdom includes at least three head centers, Zapote Bobal, El Pajaral and La Joyanca, all located south of the San Pedro Mártir river. The architecture, sculpture and ceramics of the three sites were subjected to extensive studies from 1999 to 2006, also in 2012, suggesting that this entity consisted of relatively heterogeneous components that must have entertained distinct relations with neighborring regions of the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only James Fitzsimmons.

The cities of the western Peten shared a common history and several ceramic traditions. In the northwest along the San Pedro Martir River, archaeological sites like El Peru (Waka’), Zapote Bobal (Hiix Witz), La Joyanca, and La Florida (Namaan) flourished with seemingly few—if any—clashes between them for the entirety of the Classic Period. That being said, we know that this region was greatly affected by the Tikal-Calakmul wars. There was even a ‘road’ or route between the sites allied to the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alyce De Carteret. Sarah Newman.

The Classic Maya city of El Zotz, relatively small compared to its neighbors, is situated geographically, and at times politically, between El Perú-Waka’ to the west and Tikal to the east. The archaeological site occupies an elevated position within the Buenavista Valley, a southwest to northeast corridor running for some 32 km to the north of the Lake Petén Itza region. The valley connects the northeast and northwest Petén, from Chetumal Bay to the Bay of Campeche, placing the site in a...