Minor Temple Groups, Water Management and Community Formation at Ceibal, Guatemala

Summary

Recent investigations of reservoirs associated with minor temple groups at Ceibal, Guatemala shed light on the role of water management in intermediate-level sociopolitical organization in ancient Maya society. Over the course of the Late and Terminal Preclassic periods (ca. 350BC-AD200), as Ceibal grew into an urban center, minor temples were built at regular intervals around the site core. These temples were the centers of local communities that were integrated primarily through ritual practices. Many temple groups are associated with reservoirs or other sources of water. As many scholars have noted, reservoirs would have been important locations for day-to-day interactions, and crucial to supporting local populations. In this way, water management was also central to local community formation and organization. This study examines water management at the community level by focusing on 1) excavation data and field observations of five reservoirs; 2) geospatial analyses that explore the distribution of reservoirs in relation to residential zoning patterns around minor temples; and 3) analysis of pollen in soils collected from the reservoirs. Overall, this research suggests that water catchments were managed at the household and local community level, and supports decentralized models of social and political organization in ancient Maya society.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21571