The Country and the City: Explorations of the Relationship between Río Amarillo and Copan, in the Copan Valley, Honduras

Summary

Cities and the communities in their hinterlands are inextricably linked, and yet the objectives of their inhabitants can be starkly different. The archaeological sites of Río Amarillo and Quebrada Piedras Negras shared a fertile plain along the Río Amarillo and Río Blanco Rivers. Several scholars have suggested that the arable fields here may have acted as a bread basket for the urban center to their west. Research at Rio Amarillo has yielded evidence of strong ties to Copan including architectural forms, and iconography on altars, a structure, and a censer that broadcast the power of the city, and in particular, evince respect and veneration for the Copan dynasty founder, K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’. Patterns of construction, destruction, and collapse in the center of Rio Amarillo suggest however, that the city to its west did not maintain its hold on this community throughout the entirety of the Late Classic period, but that this control faltered when the rulers of the city faltered. This paper will explore the various identities expressed in groups excavated in "the country" and the agency of the inhabitants who buffered their success by maintaining strong ties to both the west and the east.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21952