Place-Making at the Los Arboles Complex of Xultun, Guatemala

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2010, archaeologists of the San Bartolo-Xultun Project began investigations of an acropolis complex located at the northern limit of the urban center of Xultun, designated "Los Arboles." The penultimate phase of the complex, dating to the Early Classic period (likely fifth century AD), included extensive preserved plaster friezes adorning building facades and platforms. Since then, systematic excavations have studied the multiple phases of Los Arboles’ construction sequence and documented the incredibly complex iconographic program marking the acropolis as a sacred location associated with ancestral deities and dynastic history. This paper presents the distinct architectural facades of the penultimate phase of Los Arboles as a unified artistic program that includes iconographies of world trees, rain, maize, fire, and sacrifice, and reflects on Maya place-making through the archaeological context of this urban boundary and its imagery.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Place-Making in Indigenous Mesoamerican Communities Past and Present

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33170