Territorial Boundaries and the Northwestern Peten: the View from Jaguar Hill

Summary

What actually constitutes Classic Maya political units? One way to address this question would be to examine ancient Maya conceptions of territory. Certainly, many major Maya sites had emblem glyphs, and these did provide—for those who could read—the sense of a geographic place controlled by a ‘holy lord.’ The real issue for understanding territory, however, is not an emblem glyph but what a Maya kingdom was to the people within it: how territorial boundaries were perceived by different socioeconomic strata, or whether or not clear boundaries were even in effect, are things that an emblem glyph simply cannot tell us. In exploring the situation at the archaeological site of Zapote Bobal, Guatemala (ancient Hiix Witz, or ‘Jaguar Hill’), this paper argues that territorial boundaries are largely dependent upon authority. That is to say, if and where boundaries exist, they exist only because people believe in them. It need not be everyone: boundaries are ultimately enforced by those who have respect for them. Ultimately, then, it is the authority of the belief in the territorial boundary that sustains it and, arguably, the polity.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Lowland Maya Territories: Local Dynamics in Regional Landscapes

Keywords

Spatial Coverage