Seeding the Clouds: A Model of Late Classic Puuc Political Process

Summary

This paper synthesizes the growing body of chronological, settlement, economic, epigraphic, and iconographic data generated from recent research to critically examine traditional models of a short Terminal Classic occupation for the Puuc. The Late Classic period (600-800 AD) was the period in which the political and economic systems of Puuc states crystallized. Settlement patterns suggest that land was a widely available resource during the seventh century, but that the rapid infilling of the region over this century resulted in increased economic and political competition. Importantly, responses to this tension were regionalized, with western Puuc settlements choosing to minimize tensions through the formation of inter-elite confederacies, while eastern Puuc elites escalated inter-polity competition through increasing deployment of individualizing iconographic programs. In this way, the Puuc becomes a microcosm for broader political processes sweeping the Maya Lowlands in the decades leading to the Terminal Classic ‘collapse.’

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Bolonchén Regional Archaeological Project: Sixteen Years of Investigating Maya Society in the Eastern Puuc Region from the Preclassic through the Historical Period

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