Takeshi Inomata

Floor assemblages from burned structures at Aguateca, Guatemala : A study of Classic Maya households

Abstract Investigations at the fortified Maya center of Aguateca, Guatemala, have revealed an unusual case of large-scale rapid abandonment. Structures in its epicenter were burned and abruptly abandoned during an attack by enemies at the end of the Late Classic period (A.C. 600–830). The excavation of burned structures has recovered rich floor assemblages, providing excellent data sets with which to examine household organization and activities. The residents engaged in a wide variety of activities, including food storage, preparation, and consumption, as well as the work of scribes/artists. The excavated structures were probably occupied by single nuclear families or smaller groups. These co-residential groups appear to have constituted important social and economic units, which may be called households.

Early Ceremonial Constructions at Ceibal, Guatemala, and the Origins of Lowland Maya Civilization

Early Mayan Architects Lowland Mayan civilizations began to construct dramatic pyramids beginning about 900 BCE. The cultural origins of these civilizations have been uncertain, particularly the connection to earlier Olmec cultures along the Gulf of Mexico. Inomata et al. (p. 467; see the cover; see the News story by Pringle) describe excavations and extensive radiocarbon dating at the early Mayan city of Ceibal in Guatamala. The site shows incipient plaza and pyramid construction beginning before those seen in the lowlands or Olmec areas, suggesting a broader cultural exchange through to the Pacific Coast as Mayan cultures evolved. Excavations at the Mayan city of Ceibal, Guatemala, reveal early examples of plazas and pyramids. The spread of plaza-pyramid complexes across southern Mesoamerica during the early Middle Preclassic period (1000 to 700 BCE) provides critical information regarding the origins of lowland Maya civilization and the role of the Gulf Coast Olmec. Recent excavations at the Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, documented the growth of a formal ceremonial space into a plaza-pyramid complex that predated comparable buildings at other lowland Maya sites and major occupations at the Olmec center of La Venta. The development of lowland Maya civilization did not result from one-directional influence from La Venta, but from interregional interactions, involving groups in the southwestern Maya lowlands, Chiapas, the Pacific Coast, and the southern Gulf Coast.

Plazas, Performers, and Spectators Political Theaters of the Classic Maya

Theatrical performances not only communicate preexisting ideas but also define political reality as it is experienced by participants. Theatrical events thus constitute a critical process of integration and conflict in a wide range of societies and have particularly significant effects on the maintenance and transformation of premodern centralized polities. The study of performances allows archaeologists to explore the interrelations between political, social, and cultural factors and provides an approach to action and meaning different from the one that views the material record as text. The analysis of plazas in Classic Maya society (AD 250900) suggests that the performances of rulers depicted on stone monuments involved a large audience and that securing theatrical spaces for mass spectacles was a primary concern in the design of Maya cities. Such events gave physical reality to a Maya community and counteracted the centrifugal tendency of nonelite populations.Theatrical performances not only communicate preexisting ideas but also define political reality as it is experienced by participants. Theatrical events thus constitute a critical process of integration and conflict in a wide range of societies and have particularly significant effects on the maintenance and transformation of premodern centralized polities. The study of performances allows archaeologists to explore the interrelations between political, social, and cultural factors and provides an approach to action and meaning different from the one that views the material record as text. The analysis of plazas in Classic Maya society (AD 250900) suggests that the performances of rulers depicted on stone monuments involved a large audience and that securing theatrical spaces for mass spectacles was a primary concern in the design of Maya cities. Such events gave physical reality to a Maya community and counteracted the centrifugal tendency of nonelite populations.

Domestic and Political Lives of Classic Maya Elites: The Excavation of Rapidly Abandoned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala

The Aguateca Archaeological Project conducted extensive excavations of elite residences at the Maya center of Aguateca, which was attacked by enemies and abandoned rapidly at the end of the Classic period. Burned buildings contained rich floor assemblages, providing extraordinary information on the domestic and political lives of Classic Maya elites. Each elite residence served for a wide range of domestic work, including the storage, preparation, and consumption of food, with a relatively clear division of male and female spaces. These patterns suggest that each of the excavated elite residences was occupied by a relatively small group, which constituted an important economic and social unit. In addition, elite residences were arenas where crucial processes of the operation of the polity and court unfolded through political gatherings, artistic production, and displays of power.

Development of sedentary communities in the Maya lowlands: coexisting mobile groups and public ceremonies at Ceibal, Guatemala.

Significance The results of our research at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal add to the growing archaeological understanding that the transition to sedentism did not necessarily occur simultaneously across different social groups within a region and that monumental constructions did not always postdate fully established sedentism. Whereas sedentary and mobile populations are, in many cases, interpreted to have maintained separate communities, our study suggests that groups with different levels of mobility gathered and collaborated for constructions and public ceremonies. These data indicate that the development of sedentism was a complex process involving interactions among diverse groups, and that collaborative construction projects and communal gatherings played a critical role in this social transformation by facilitating social integration among different groups. Our archaeological investigations at Ceibal, a lowland Maya site located in the Pasión region, documented that a formal ceremonial complex was built around 950 B.C. at the onset of the Middle Preclassic period, when ceramics began to be used in the Maya lowlands. Our refined chronology allowed us to trace the subsequent social changes in a resolution that had not been possible before. Many residents of Ceibal appear to have remained relatively mobile during the following centuries, living in ephemeral post-in-ground structures and frequently changing their residential localities. In other parts of the Pasión region, there may have existed more mobile populations who maintained the traditional lifestyle of the preceramic period. Although the emerging elite of Ceibal began to live in a substantial residential complex by 700 B.C., advanced sedentism with durable residences rebuilt in the same locations and burials placed under house floors was not adopted in most residential areas until 500 B.C., and did not become common until 300 B.C. or the Late Preclassic period. During the Middle Preclassic period, substantial formal ceremonial complexes appear to have been built only at a small number of important communities in the Maya lowlands, and groups with different levels of sedentism probably gathered for their constructions and for public rituals held in them. These collaborative activities likely played a central role in socially integrating diverse groups with different lifestyles and, eventually, in developing fully established sedentary communities.

In the Palace of the Fallen king: The Royal Residential Complex at Aguateca, Guatemala

Abstract The Aguateca Archaeological Project extensively excavated two structures (M7-22 andM7-32) in the Palace Group of the Late Classic Maya (A.C. 600–830) center of Aguateca, Guatemala. Multiple lines of evidence, including site layout, architectural features, soil chemistry, objects stored in a sealed room, and abandonment processes, suggest that these were the buildings where the ruler and his family lived and worked. The use of space in these structures shows some similarities to those of the rapidly abandoned elite residences at Aguateca and of palace-type buildings at other Maya centers. The occupants of this royal complex retained a certain level of visibility, indicating the importance of the ruler’s body as the focus of theatrical display. After the royal family evacuated the center, an invading enemy ritually destroyed these buildings, attesting the symbolic importance of the royal residences. The center was almost completely abandoned after this incursion.

Chronological Revision of Preclassic Kaminaljuyú, Guatemala: Implications for Social Processes in the Southern Maya Area

Kaminaljuyu has been an important focus of archaeological research since the 1930s, and the chronologies of various sites of the Southern Maya Area are linked directly to that of Kaminaljuyu. The implications of the currently prevalent chronology of Kaminaljuyu are that various social and political institutions developed significantly earlier in the Southern Maya Area than in the Maya Lowlands during the Preclassic period. Our evaluations of new and existing radiocarbon dates through the application ofBayesian statistics, as well as ceramic cross-dating, indicate that the Middle and Late Preclassic portions of the Kaminaljuyu sequence need to be shifted forward in time by roughly 300 years. Our chronological revisions have the following important implications: (1) many centers in the Southern Maya Area suffered political disruptions around 400 B.C., roughly at the same time as La Venta and the centers in the Grijalva region of Chiapas; and (2) highly centralized polities with divine rulers and their depictions on stelae developed roughly contemporaneously in the Southern Maya Area and in the Maya Lowlands after 100 B.C.

High-precision radiocarbon dating of political collapse and dynastic origins at the Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala

Significance Tracing political change through refined chronologies is a critical step for the study of social dynamics. Whereas coarse chronologies can give an impression of gradual change, better temporal control may reveal multiple episodes of rapid disruption comprised in that span. Precise dating through radiocarbon determinations and ceramic studies is particularly important for the study of the Preclassic collapse, which lacks calendrical dates recorded in texts. The high-precision chronology of Ceibal revealed waves of decline over the course of the Preclassic and Classic collapses in a temporal resolution that was not possible before. The emerging understanding of similarities and differences in the two cases of collapse provides an important basis for evaluating the vulnerability and resilience of Maya political systems. The lowland Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, had a long history of occupation, spanning from the Middle Preclassic Period through the Terminal Classic (1000 BC to AD 950). The Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project has been conducting archaeological investigations at this site since 2005 and has obtained 154 radiocarbon dates, which represent the largest collection of radiocarbon assays from a single Maya site. The Bayesian analysis of these dates, combined with a detailed study of ceramics, allowed us to develop a high-precision chronology for Ceibal. Through this chronology, we traced the trajectories of the Preclassic collapse around AD 150–300 and the Classic collapse around AD 800–950, revealing similar patterns in the two cases. Social instability started with the intensification of warfare around 75 BC and AD 735, respectively, followed by the fall of multiple centers across the Maya lowlands around AD 150 and 810. The population of Ceibal persisted for some time in both cases, but the center eventually experienced major decline around AD 300 and 900. Despite these similarities in their diachronic trajectories, the outcomes of these collapses were different, with the former associated with the development of dynasties centered on divine rulership and the latter leading to their downfalls. The Ceibal dynasty emerged during the period of low population after the Preclassic collapse, suggesting that this dynasty was placed under the influence from, or by the direct intervention of, an external power.

Archaeological Application of Airborne LiDAR with Object-Based Vegetation Classification and Visualization Techniques at the Lowland Maya Site of Ceibal, Guatemala

JSPS KAKENHI [26101002, 26101003]; Alphawood Foundation; Dumbarton Oaks fellowship; University of Arizona Agnese Nelms Haury program

AFTER 40 YEARS: REVISITING CEIBAL to INVESTIGATE the ORIGINS of LOWLAND MAYA CIVILIZATION

Abstract The Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project has been conducting field investigations at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal since 2005. Previous research at this site by Harvard University allowed us to develop detailed research designs geared toward specific research questions. A particularly important focus was the question of how lowland Maya civilization emerged and developed. Comparison with contemporaneous sites in central Chiapas led us to hypothesize that the residents of Ceibal established a formal spatial pattern similar to those of the Chiapas centers during the Middle Preclassic period (1000–350 b.c.). Through excavations of important elements of this spatial pattern, including a probable E-Group assemblage and large platforms, we examined how the Ceibal residents participated in interregional interactions with Chiapas, the Gulf Coast, and other areas, and how construction activities and architecture shaped the course of social change.