El Achiotal in Context: Settlement and Geopolitics in the Northwest Peten, Guatemala

Summary

This paper presents research carried out by members of the Proyecto Regional Arqueologico La Corona at the site of El Achiotal since 2009, with emphasis on new findings since 2015. Occupation at the site spans the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods (roughly the 1st to 5th Centuries AD, with the possibility of some earlier occupation). An inscribed stela discovered in 2015 provides critical insight into the geopolitics of the Early Classic period and establishes greater time-depth for some known aspects of Classic Maya statecraft. Moreover, an airborne LiDAR survey carried out in 2016 and ground-truthed during the 2017 field season indicates that El Achiotal may have been part of a larger and more complex settlement system than was previously recognized. The survival of this political and demographic system during the transition to the Early Classic period, when monumental construction decreased or stopped altogether at many large centers in the region, will be considered in ecological and political terms.

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): 21546