Convergence Zone Politics and Cultural Affiliations at the Archaeological Site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Making and Breaking Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands: Alliance and Conflict across the Guatemala–Belize Border" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Maya archaeological site of Ucanal is located in Peten, Guatemala, close to the contemporary border with Belize. In Pre-Columbian times, the site also sat at the borders of some of the largest political centers, such as Caracol (Belize) and Naranjo (Peten, Guatemala). Entangled between these dominant centers and with ties to peoples in the Upper Belize Valley and the Petexbatun region in Guatemala, Ucanal was arguably a critical convergence zone of political and cultural interaction. This paper synthesizes three years of archaeological research at Ucanal to underscore the ways in which this small polity manoeuvered within and between different cultural affiliations and political networks. In considering monuments, prestige items, and common household items dating to the Late Classic and Terminal Classic periods, we find that the site’s border status was more of a bridge than an edge.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Making and Breaking Boundaries in the Maya Lowlands: Alliance and Conflict across the Guatemala–Belize Border

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24083