Identifying Lakam-Tun: A Sixteenth-Century Maya Fortified Site in Lake Miramar, Chiapas, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Research on the Postclassic period at Lake Miramar in the southern Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas permits identifying the fortified island of Lakam-Tun. The site was destroyed in 1586 by Juan de Morales Villavicencio in his attempt to conquer the Cholti'-Lacandon, who then sheltered deeper in the jungle until 1695. Earlier research failed to locate important Postclassic evidence and local conflict halted further reseach. New investigations in Frans Blom's, Frederick Peterson's, and INAH's archives gave new insight in the matter and pointed to the Island of Carrizal as candidate to be Lakam-Tun. It is not accessible today, due to social problems, but information in Blom's and Peterson notes, on site research and historic documents permit locating the late Lacandon village. This site is key to understand conquest period relations between the Highlands and the Lowlands. Ethnohistoric data shows constant interaction between the Cholti'-Lacandon and Highland Maya in Chiapas and Guatemala, and a well-known rivalry with the Itza-Maya in Tayasal. Research in Lakam-Tun is key to identifying the latter site of Sac-Bahlam which has escaped archaeologists for decades. This important contact period settlement that was destroyed and never reoccupied is crucial to define the material culture of the Cholti'-Lacandon.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32582