Preclassic Fortified Spaces: Within and Beyond the Ramparts at Muralla de León

Author(s): Justin Bracken

Year: 2018

Summary

A third season of fieldwork at the fortified site of Muralla de León has expanded the scope of coverage for the project by mapping and excavating nearby hilltop occupations on the shores of Lake Macanché. The work serves to contextualize the space contained by the site’s enceinte, a physical barrier that serves also as a boundary feature. Earlier investigations into the site interior and the ramparts of the enceinte itself begged for a comparative data set, as the significance of a barrier apparently built to keep people out relies in part on an understanding of what existed outside of it. The hilltop excavations uncovered a sequence of occupation containing multiple periods apparently corresponding to the chronology of Muralla de León. Further, evidence in support of dating the defensive architecture at the site to the early phase of occupation there emerged from one of these centers, where a possible rampart wall was uncovered beneath later construction volume and set atop bedrock. Regardless of the implications for their role in conflict, these walls represent concern with controlling the movements of individuals at a monumental scale, and with physically restricting movement into a space.

Cite this Record

Preclassic Fortified Spaces: Within and Beyond the Ramparts at Muralla de León. Justin Bracken. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 444917)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Spatial Coverage

min long: -94.197; min lat: 16.004 ; max long: -86.682; max lat: 21.984 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21489