Interaction in the Late Classic Kaqchikel Area and Adjacent Pacific Coast: Least Cost Routes

Summary

Least cost analysis of prehistoric nodes of interaction in the Kaqchikel Guatemalan highlands and Pacific Coast indicates the locations of viable travel routes. Several classes of data, such as sculpture, obsidian and ceramics, indicate that there was communication and economic exchange in the Kaqchikel Maya area in the central highlands and Cotzumalguapan Piedmont during the Late Classic Period (600-830 A.D.). Today people walk between neighboring towns on foot paths and roads designed for cars that span ravines and flat land. This practice indicates that walking these routes is a viable means of communication for an agricultural people today and have been documented for other areas, such as Chinautla. Using the distribution of San Martin Jilotepeque obsidian and Cotzumalguapan style sculptures as a guide to areas of interaction, trade and communication, this paper will explore efficient means of foot travel determined by least cost routes throughout the highlands and piedmont in the Late Classic period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Maya Highland and Pacific Coast Archaeology: New Data, Debates, and Directions, Part 2

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14453