Preclassic Maya Households and Ritual at the Karinel Group, Ceibal, Guatemala

Summary

Founded around 1000 B.C., the Maya site of Ceibal has yielded important insights into the development of public rituals and spaces in Preclassic Mesoamerica. Recent excavations at the Karinel Group, located just outside the ceremonial core of Ceibal, have complemented this knowledge with data from domestic contexts. By making detailed comparisons of public and household ritual practices, we seek to understand the social processes through which the community of Ceibal changed over time. Some foci of the investigations include: 1) at what point Ceibal’s residents first began living in permanent, formalized groups of residential platforms; 2) whether ancestor veneration played a major role in the development of social complexity at Ceibal; and 3) how an open, circular platform functioned within the Middle Preclassic Karinel Group. Work at the Karinel Group should enhance our understanding of the dynamic, reflexive relationships between public and domestic practices and spaces in Preclassic Mesoamerica.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Household Rituals in the Ancient Americas – from Patio Groups to Pueblos

Keywords

Spatial Coverage