A Subjugated Land: Regional Settlement Growth and Consolidation

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.

The Buena Vista Valley (BVV), encompassing the ancient Maya communities of La Cuernavilla and El Zotz, has been the subject of years of extensive archaeological survey carried out by the Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz (PAEZ). In 2017 and 2019, the Pacunam Lidar Initiative (PLI) acquired aerial lidar data over the entirety of the El Zotz Biotope in the Petén Department of Guatemala. The density of structures, differing architectural styles, and variety of land-use practices visible on the lidar data suggest a cumulative landscape, shaped by shifting interactions through time. To assess the palimpsest of occupation, PAEZ project members systematically ground-truthed the lidar data, documenting archaeological features and recovering datable material. We analyzed ceramics from looter’s trenches and surface finds, assigning dates to 153 settlement groups. Our analyses indicate that during the Preclassic–Classic transition occupation in the BVV shifted from the valley floor to the elevated margins of the valley, which were often fortified. Against a backdrop of increasing interpolity warfare in Classic Maya society, fear of attack, and increasing competition for control of the BVV corridor motivated the transition from low-lying to elevated areas. Our results provide insights into human behaviors and shifts in settlement patterns in times of conflict.

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): 37011.0