Don S. Rice

Mayan Urbanism: Impact On a Tropical Karst Environment

From the first millennium B.C. through the 9th-century A.D. Classic Maya collapse, nonurban populations grew exponentially, doubling every 408 years, in the twin-lake (Yaxha-Sacnab) basin that contained the Classic urban center of Yaxha. Pollen data show that forests were essentially cleared by Early Classic time. Sharply accelerated slopewash and colluviation, amplified in the Yaxha subbasin by urban construction, transferred nutrients plus calcareous, silty clay to both lakes. Except for the urban silt, colluvium appearing as lake sediments has a mean total phosphorus concentration close to that of basin soils. From this fact, from abundance and distribution of soil phosphorus, and from continuing post-Maya influxes (80 to 86 milligrams of phosphorus per square meter each year), which have no other apparent source, we conclude that riparian soils are anthrosols and that the mechanism of long-term phosphorus loading in lakes is mass transport of soil. Per capita deliveries of phosphorus match physiological outputs, approximately 0.5 kilogram of phosphorus per capita per year. Smaller apparent deliveries reflect the nonphosphatic composition of urban silt; larger societal outputs, expressing excess phosphorus from deforestation and from food waste and mortuary disposal, are probable but cannot be evaluated from our data. Eutrophication is not demonstrable and was probably impeded, even in less-impacted lakes, by suspended Maya silt. Environmental strain, the product of accelerating agroengineering demand and sequestering of nutrients in colluvium, developed too slowly to act as a servomechanism, damping population growth, at least until Late Classic time.

THE LOCATION OF TAYASAL: A RECONSIDERATION IN LIGHT OF PETEN MAYA ETHNOHISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY

An earlier article in this journal suggested that Tayasal, the island capital of the late Postclassic and historic period Itza Maya, was located at Topoxt6 on Lake Yaxh6 in the Department of Peten, Guatemala. Study of ethnohistorical sources for the Pet6n Itza and their neighbors leads us to conclude, however, that Tayasal was in fact in Lake Pet6n Itza, the location long favored by earlier writers. These sources are reviewed here, and Tayasal is positively located on the island of Flores; tentative locations for other contemporary settlements in the central lakes region of Pet6n are offered. The current status of Postclassic period central Peten archaeological research is reviewed in light of the known ethnohistory of the region. The need for continuing interaction between archaeological and ethnohistorical research is stressed. These Itza Indians are of Yucatecan descent, originally from this land of Yucatan; thus, they speak the same Maya language as the Yucatecans. It is said that they departed from the territory and jurisdiction that today is under the seat of Valladolid and from the pueblo of Chichen Itzf, where today there survive some of the large buildings which are seen in this land and which were so admired when these kingdoms were discovered .... They also departed with others from neighboring towns. Padre Fuensalida says that 100 years before the Spaniards came to these kingdoms they fled from Chichen Itza during the period which they call eighth, in their language Uahac Ahau; and they populated those lands where they live today. Their flight to an island and such hidden regions was known from the prophecies which they had ... [stating] that there had come from eastern regions people of a nation which had dominated this land. Today the prophecies (written with their ancient characters) are kept by those called priests in a book like a history which they call analte . . . [L6pez de Cogolludo 1971:II, 256-257, Bk. 9, ch. 14].

The Northeast Peten Revisited

The role of environmental versus sociopolitical factors in establishing the characteristics of Maya settlement in Peten, Guatemala, has been debated, but evaluations have been hampered by a lack of diachronic data. Archaeological surveys and excavation conducted within a larger historical ecology project focused on the twin lake basins of Yaxha and Sacnab, in northeast Peten, have provided a diachronic perspective on the settlement debate. In this area early settlement decisions appear to reflect topographic or environmental concerns, but the evolution of civic-ceremonial authority in the region caused deviations from this pattern.

Muralla de Leon: a Lowland Maya Fortification

AbstractMuralla de Leon is a dry stone wall construction on an elevated plateau NE of Lake Macanche, in the central portion of the Department of Peten, Guatemala. Surrounded by water on three sides, the wall attains a maximum height of 4 m. and has a perimeter of 1.4 km. Twenty-one structures are located inside the wall, their construction spanning the Terminal Preclassic through the Postclassic periods. Most interesting are quantities of Floral Park Protoclassic materials as well as a Postclassic “temple assemblage” inside the wall. Problems associated with dating the fortification are discussed, and processes that may have contributed to the construction and occupation of the Muralla de Leon site are reviewed. The times of apparent construction and occupation of the Muralla de Leon area suggest the possibility of a broader role of conflict in the evolution of Maya civilization during the Protoclassic period than previously recognized, and illuminate the role of warfare in the interrelationships of Postc...