Defining Ancient Maya Communities: The Social, Spatial, and Ritual Organization of Outlying Temple Groups at Ceibal, Guatemala

What was the spatial and social organization of ancient Maya cities, and how were diverse populations socially and politically integrated? This dissertation explores these questions by investigating the formation of local communities around minor temples in outlying areas of Ceibal, Guatemala. Many researchers have suggested that minor temples were important integrative hubs in lowland Maya settlements. I further propose that they were the physical and ideological centers of different local communities, akin to neighborhoods, throughout Ceibal. I define a local community as a supra-household social group comprised of members who share common histories and ties to particular places. Communities may be constituted through co-residence, similar modes of living, and common beliefs and practices, which foster shared identities and differentiate one group from others. At the same time, many communities can arise within—and in turn reinforce—a greater vision of cohesion across a larger society. To assess the relationships between minor temples and the socio-spatial formation of local communities, I investigate: 1) whether different segments of the population settled around each temple, creating discrete residential zones around the city; 2) whether there was a communal source of water within each zone, which would have been an important location for daily interactions and a crucial source of potable water; and 3) if there were variations in material culture across different residential zones, which could relate to social differences. A diachronic evaluation of multiple lines of evidence enables me to explore how these groups formed and changed through time. Data for this study was collected through systematic excavations of five minor temples, nearby residents, and potential aguadas (manmade reservoirs) associated with temples across Ceibal. The results of my analysis suggest that different groups of people constructed their own temple as they moved into outlying areas of the site throughout the Late and Terminal Preclassic periods (ca. 350 BC-AD 175). I found evidence that people routinely gathered at the temples for ceremonies, which may have helped foster group identities. The geospatial analyses of settlement data I performed in ArcGIS and my comparisons of pottery assemblages from different temple groups strongly suggest that local communities formed as discrete socio-spatial units around specific temples. Analysis of pollen in soils collected from the aguadas revealed that these features held water seasonally, and that maize was cultivated nearby. Together, my research suggests that local communities were established through ritual practices carried out at the temples, co-residence, management of communal sources of water, and potentially collective participation in agricultural production. Community patterns may have changed in later times, however, after many of the temples were ritually terminated around sometime between AD 175 and AD 300. In summary, local communities at Ceibal were somewhat autonomous: they controlled their own local resources, carried out their own building programs, and performed many of their own religious ceremonies. Nevertheless, the social relations undertaken at this intermediate level of society were integral to shaping, maintaining and changing the larger sociopolitical order through time.Release after 05/02/202

Community Engagement around the Maya Archaeological Site of Ceibal, Guatemala

The Ceibal-Petexbatún Archaeological Project has built long-standing relationships in the area around Ceibal, Guatemala, particularly in the Q’eqchi’ Maya village of Las Pozas. Both Q’eqchi’ and ladino (non-indigenous) people in the region face serious, systemic problems, including a loss of access to land and an absence of economic opportunities. The ancient Maya sites in the area have been damaged by deforestation and looting. Project archaeologists seek to improve economic conditions in local communities while encouraging the preservation of cultural heritage. Here, we describe past microfinance and classroom outreach projects conducted in Las Pozas and discuss future initiatives that could make archaeological heritage more beneficial to multiple communities

The Maya Preclassic to Classic transition observed through faunal trends from Ceibal, Guatemala

It is well known that the development of the ancient Maya civilization had significant and long-lasting impacts on the environment. This study assesses a large collection of faunal remains (>35,000 specimens) recovered over a span of several kilometers in and around the archaeological site of Ceibal, Guatemala, in order to determine whether the composition of animal resources was continuous throughout the site's history between 1000 BC and AD 1200, or whether there were any changes that could be attributed to sociopolitical or environmental causes. Results show a steep uniform decline in the number of freshwater mollusks across the site that occurred during the Preclassic to Classic transition, when large region-wide political changes, including the development of more complex and centralized political organization, took place throughout the Maya region. Evidence of species introductions (e.g., turkeys from central Mexico and possibly the Dermatemys river turtle from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and variations in resource exchange (e.g. marine shells) over time indicate that Ceibal was one of likely many communities involved in long-distance animal exchange networks. The results of the faunal analysis at Ceibal show how the ancient Maya had a complex and ever-changing relationship with the local wildlife, with outcomes that can still be observed in the environment today.Open access journalThis item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Archaeological application of airborne LiDAR to examine social changes in the Ceibal region of the Maya lowlands.

Although the application of LiDAR has made significant contributions to archaeology, LiDAR only provides a synchronic view of the current topography. An important challenge for researchers is to extract diachronic information over typically extensive LiDAR-surveyed areas in an efficient manner. By applying an architectural chronology obtained from intensive excavations at the site center and by complementing it with surface collection and test excavations in peripheral zones, we analyze LiDAR data over an area of 470 km2 to trace social changes through time in the Ceibal region, Guatemala, of the Maya lowlands. We refine estimates of structure counts and populations by applying commission and omission error rates calculated from the results of ground-truthing. Although the results of our study need to be tested and refined with additional research in the future, they provide an initial understanding of social processes over a wide area. Ceibal appears to have served as the only ceremonial complex in the region during the transition to sedentism at the beginning of the Middle Preclassic period (c. 1000 BC). As a more sedentary way of life was accepted during the late part of the Middle Preclassic period and the initial Late Preclassic period (600-300 BC), more ceremonial assemblages were constructed outside the Ceibal center, possibly symbolizing the local groups' claim to surrounding agricultural lands. From the middle Late Preclassic to the initial Early Classic period (300 BC-AD 300), a significant number of pyramidal complexes were probably built. Their high concentration in the Ceibal center probably reflects increasing political centralization. After a demographic decline during the rest of the Early Classic period, the population in the Ceibal region reached the highest level during the Late and Terminal Classic periods, when dynastic rule was well established (AD 600-950)

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

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

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

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.Alphawood Foundation; National Geographic Society; National Science Foundation [BCS-0750808, BCS-1518794]; National Endowment for the Humanities [RZ-51209-10]; Agnese Nelms Haury Program of the University of Arizona; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan [21101003, 21101002]; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI [21402008, 26101002, 26101003]No embargo; published online before print on January 23, 2017This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Chronology of Ceibal and other Maya sites.

<p>Chronology of Ceibal and other Maya sites.</p

Chronology of E-Group assemblages.

<p>Whereas the beginning of each E-Group type can be determined based on archaeological evidence, its end point is represented rather arbitrarily. This is because some complexes continued to be used in their original E-Group configurations while their meaning and use pattern likely changed gradually, and new complexes were built in different formats.</p