New Light on Dzibanché and on the Rise of the Snake Kingdom’s Hegemony in the Maya Lowlands

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "New Light on Dzibanché and on the Rise of the Snake Kingdom’s Hegemony in the Maya Lowlands" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Since 1995, the Kaanul (Snake) kingdom has been known as one of the most influential states in Classic Maya history. According to epigraphic evidence, its kings acted as overlords over most of the southern and central Maya Lowlands’ kingdoms. The notion that a vast hegemony encompassing much of the lowlands has since subverted prior assumptions on the complexity and scale of Classic Maya states. However, many questions remain regarding the place of origin of the Kaanul kingdom and the processes that led to its rise as a hegemonic state, as well as a nuanced understanding of the nature of the hegemony. The location of its capital had long been a subject of debate, first erroneously identified with La Corona, Guatemala, then, correctly, with Calakmul, Campeche. Later finds leave little doubt that before Calakmul, the site of Dzibanché, Quintana Roo, was an earlier capital of the Kaanul kingdom. Here we present currently available archaeological, lidar, and epigraphic data recovered from Dzibanché and affiliated lowland sites with updated interpretations on the early history of the Kaanul kingdom and on the urbanistic features of the center of a hegemonic Classic Maya state.