Households, Ritual, and the Origins of Social Complexity in the Maya Lowlands: A View From the Karinel Group, Ceibal, Guatemala

Summary

Payson Sheets’ work at Ceren has greatly influenced investigations of ancient Maya households at both Aguateca and Ceibal. Here we focus on recent excavations at the Karinel Group, a residential area at Ceibal. Due to its early foundation, Ceibal presents an opportunity to investigate multiple aspects of the origins of ancient Maya society. We discuss the development of the patio group, the typical Maya arrangement of stone house platforms around an open space, often rebuilt and reoccupied for generations. We also trace changes in the relationship between domestic ritual and public ceremony throughout the Preclassic period, and we address the role that ancestor veneration may have played in the emergence of social inequality. Because of Ceibal’s location in southwestern Petén, Guatemala, the earliest occupation of the site differs greatly from other well-known, very early Maya sites, such as Cuello and K’axob in Belize. Results from the Karinel Group suggest that a single model for the origins of social complexity cannot be applied across the Maya region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• After the Volcano Erupted: Papers in Honor of Payson Sheets (Part 2)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage