Timothy W. Pugh

The Exemplary Center of the Late Postclassic Kowoj Maya

The ceremonial architecture of Late Postclassic Mayapdn (A.D. 1268-1441) in Yucatdn, Mexico, included repetitive arrangements of buildings known as temple assemblages. Archaeological investigations conducted by the Proyecto Maya Colonial in Peten, Guatemala, revealed a pocket of temple assemblages in a zone occupied by the seventeenth century Kowoj Maya. The Kowoj claimed to have migrated from Mayapdn sometime after the citys collapse in A.D. 1441. Indigenous documents also describe Kowoj in Mayapan and linguistic data indicate migrations between Yucatan and Peten as well. A specific variant of temple assemblage defines the location of the Kowoj in both Mayapdn and Peten. I argue that these assemblages were the exemplary centers or microcosms of the Kowoj social and physical universe and they were transplanted as the Kowoj re-centered themselves in new or, perhaps, reclaimed lands. The temple assemblages also communicated a prestigious connection with Mayapdn and differentiated the Kowoj from their neighbors in Peten.

Contact and Missionization at Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala

Abstract Until their conquest by the Spanish in 1697, many Itza Maya occupied a large village at Tayasal, Petén, Guatemala. After the conquest, two missions were built there. The village and missions are located within 2 km of modern Flores, which was once Nojpetén, the Itza capital, and later the Spanish presidio (fortified administrative center). Our excavations uncovered the San Bernabé mission on the Tayasal peninsula and defined the Late Postclassic-period (a.d. 1400–1525) occupation of the site. San Bernabé was established in the early 18th century as part of Spanish efforts to control indigenous populations in Petén. Our research demonstrates that the Late Postclassic settlement was larger than indicated by previous research and supported a relatively large ceremonial architectural group. Evidence of indigenous practices was recovered from deposits within the mission, though many elements of Itza religion found in the Late Postclassic group were absent from the mission settlement. These data provide additional evidence of religious syncretism in colonial situations.

A cluster and spatial analysis of ceremonial architecture at Late Postclassic Mayapan

Abstract Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico is the largest and best-known Late Postclassic archaeological site in the Maya lowlands. Ethnohistoric sources describe Mayapan as a cosmopolitan city with an extremely diverse population. This paper uses cluster and spatial analyses of ceremonial buildings called ‘oratorios’ to discern architectural analogues to the social complexity of Mayapan. Researchers supported by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1938 and from 1949 until 1955 collected the data evaluated in the present study. The cluster analysis revealed four major types of oratorio, two within the sites central ceremonial group and two outside the group. Each type within the ceremonial core is associated with a specific configuration of ritual buildings suggesting that the analysis has revealed ‘real’ sets of building types. Most of the oratorios in the two types of outside the core stood in residential groups. Variation between these two types appears to have been the result of varying investments of labor and materials in the construction of oratorios.

Activity areas, form, and social inequality in residences at Late Postclassic Zacpetén, Petén, Guatemala

Abstract Zacpetén, Petén, Guatemala was densely settled front the Late Postclassic to Contact periods. During initial contact with the Spaniards and after the conquest of Petén in A.D. 1697, a group called the Kowoj occupied the area where the site is located. Excavations in domestic contexts at Zacpetén revealed that occupants of larger residences had greater access to resources. Many common trade artifacts such as greenstone, serpentine, and obsidian strongly correlate with residence size, indicating that inequality in spatial resources was associated with access to trade. The scarcest non-local items, including copper alloy artifacts, were limited to public ceremonial areas and the residences of the highest Kowoj elite. Instead of corresponding with access to trade, the possession of these items was related to high-level participation in the religious hierarchy. There are a variety of activity areas that were structured by a dualistic division in domestic space that was not overtly related to gender.

Early Urban Planning, Spatial Strategies, and the Maya Gridded City of Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala

Street grids commonly reflect the administration of urban populations and attempts to enhance city life. Planned grids are not typical of ancient Mesoamerican and especially Maya settlements, yet recent research at Nixtun-Ch’ich’, Petén, Guatemala, has revealed a modular grid layout that is also diagrammatic. Excavations determined that the grid was constructed before 500 BC, making it the earliest currently known in Mesoamerica. Its construction accompanied the emergence of complex society in the Maya lowlands, and leaders would have used the grid to organize and control the newly urbanized population—as seen in other parts of the world. The planned city was also likely a form of governmental conceit and a proclamation of social order. At the same time, the grid and the settlement’s dense population enhanced social interaction, promoting communication, exchange, and interconnectivity. Nevertheless, urban grids do not appear to have spread to other parts of the Maya world.

The Origins of Early Colonial Cows at San Bernabé, Guatemala: Strontium Isotope Values at an Early Spanish Mission in the Petén Lakes Region of Northern Guatemala

ABSTRACT The earliest Spanish explorers in the 15th century brought ships stocked with European domesticated animals to the Americas. Yet for nearly two centuries, the Maya living in Guatemala’s Petén Lakes region continued to rely on traditional wild animal species. A small number of cow, equid, and pig bones have been identified in Kowoj and Itza Maya Contact period contexts at Ixlú, Nixtun Ch’ich’, Tayasal, and Zacpetén; however, significant changes in regional animal use are only visible after the Spanish began to build missions in the region during the early 1700s. We explore the introduction of European domesticates to the region at the San Bernabé mission near Tayasal using faunal, isotopic, and historic data. There were marked differences in mammal use, but a continued reliance on aquatic species such as turtles and snails. Animal acquisition strategies changed as well, with potentially significant impacts on local and regional land use and the daily lives of the Mayas.

TECHNOLOGIES OF DOMINATION AT MISSION SAN BERNABÉ, PETÉN, GUATEMALA

Abstract The Spaniards established several congregaciones or missions in central Petén, Guatemala, shortly after the 1697 conquest of the region to help control local indigenous populations. Recent investigations at the church and community of Mission San Bernabé revealed details about the entangled relations of Mayas and Spaniards. Foucaults four technologies of domination help explicate these power relations as they were played out in the small settlement and the church at its center. Material culture differed in many ways from that of the pre-conquest Itzas, but was clearly predominantly “Maya.” Spanish-style goods and burial patterns were found as were hybrid ceramic wares, the Spanish-style artifacts most common in an elite residence, reflecting that Maya elite acted as brokers with the Spaniards. The occupants also incorporated Spanish domesticates into their diets. Some changes likely resulted from various ethnic groups residing in the same settlement, but others were the product of indigenous adaptations to the situation of contact. Nevertheless, it is clear that the mission anchored a number of strategies of domination that subdued the occupants of San Bernabé.