Multiscale Diversity in Classic Decorated Pottery in the Hiix Witz kingdom of the Western Maya Lowlands

Summary

A political entity defined mainly on epigraphic evidence, the Hiix Witz kingdom includes at least three head centers, Zapote Bobal, El Pajaral and La Joyanca, all located south of the San Pedro Mártir river. The architecture, sculpture and ceramics of the three sites were subjected to extensive studies from 1999 to 2006, also in 2012, suggesting that this entity consisted of relatively heterogeneous components that must have entertained distinct relations with neighborring regions of the West-Central Petén Zone. The goal of this study is to assess the subregional (Hiix Witz) and intersite (the three centers) diversity in service polychrome types and decorative modes of domestic ceramics. Correlating this diversity with possible population movements, trade routes, market networks, and fluctuating political relationships with surrounding polities may open new ways for the identification of major Classic players in West-Central Petén politics.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Ceramics and Society among the Classic Maya Cities of the Western Petén

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17658