La Cuernavilla, Guatemala: A Fortress and Its Environs

Summary

This is an abstract from the "La Cuernavilla, Guatemala: A Maya Fortress and Its Environs" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

La Cuernavilla is a recently discovered Classic Maya fortress in the central Petén of Guatemala. Situated between the major ancient kingdom of Tikal and the minor city-state capital of El Zotz, the site has a complex history tied into the broader geopolitics of the Buenavista Valley, which it overlooks. This talk introduces the archaeology of La Cuernavilla from its 2017 discovery using lidar, through its intensive excavation during the 2021 and 2022 field seasons. The research at La Cuernavilla takes a landscape approach to understanding the citadel, drawing on broad geographical analyses of regional settlement and environmental data as well as the results from intensive excavations at the site. Introduced here is the complex occupation and construction history of La Cuernavilla’s two fortified hilltops. Originally settled in the Middle Preclassic, the site grew in importance as a refuge during the troubled first centuries CE. Following the 378 CE Teotihuacan entrada, La Cuernavilla was transformed into a major fortress as the Tikal state consolidated local power in the Buenavista Valley. Abandoned toward the end of the Early Classic, there were unfulfilled efforts to rehabilitate the fortress in the Late Classic before the site was abandoned and taken over by the jungle.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• La Cuernavilla, Guatemala: A Maya Fortress and Its Environs   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35815.0