Plan de las Mesas, Copan, Honduras: Teotihuacan Is in the House

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Mountains, Rain, and Techniques of Governance in Mesoamerica" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Plan de las Mesas archaeological site rests high above the Copan Valley, 2.5 km northwest of the Acropolis. Inhabited by at least the Preclassic, evidence suggests that it functioned as a defensive fortress, or citadel, by the Early Classic period. This paper focuses on Group 1, Plaza B, and Group 12.

Group 12 rests on a long platform with a direct view of the Copan Acropolis. Its structures were likely both domestic and defensive, housing warriors and their families. Nearly 8% of the obsidian found at this site is Pachuca from the Sierra las Navajas source, including Pachuca projectile points. Plaza B, created by filling in a space between two hills, rests up a steep incline from Group 12. It functioned as an important ritual space, a gateway to other parts of the site, and a repository for large volumes of ritual debris that cascaded down onto it from Plaza A. Structure 7, excavated in the 2023 field season, combines Maya practices found in Copan along with ritual behavior hailing from Teotihuacan. This archaeological site represents an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the processes of political interaction between Teotihuacan-backed Maya and the local population.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Mountains, Rain, and Techniques of Governance in Mesoamerica   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41675.0