Preclassic Maya Archaeology

This study explores the multifaceted Maya Deluge Myth, from its pre-Columbian origins to current fantasies about a great world-destroying flood at the 13 Baktun period ending of the Maya Long Count on 21 (or 23) December 2012. No such flood is prophesied in any Maya records for this date, and the famous scene on Dresden Codex page 74 is discussed in its context as a symbolic depiction of the annual world-renewing downpours at the onset of the rainy season in springtime in the Maya world. The presiding gods of warfare and blood sacrifice were the agents of fertility and the regeneration of nature, and not the agents for the destruction of the Maya in a world-ending deluge. The misinterpretation of Dresden page 74 has propagated, unchallenged, for over a century of Maya scholarship and found its way into “new age,” fringe, and popular culture. This research helps to set the record straight along with providing a history of the meme.

A lo largo de este trabajo se hace énfasis en la importancia que los santuarios en
las cuevas y montañas tenían para los antiguos mayas y cuya tradición en Mesoamérica
fue tan arraigada que forma parte de una amplia práctica social compartida por varios
pueblos indígenas actualmente, algunos de los cuales siguen realizando ceremonias y
peregrinaciones a estos lugares sagrados.
De esta manera, se intentará analizar qué características específicas en el paisaje
natural buscaron los antiguos habitantes de la laguna Metzabok (Mensabak en maya
lacandón) para establecer sus asentamientos y cómo modificaron su medio ambiente para
lograr conformar un paisaje simbólico en torno a ellos durante el periodo Preclásico Tardío (200 a.C- 200 d.C).

Archaeologists agree that ancestors figured prominently in the lives of the Classic (CE 250-900), particularly in the Late Classic (600-900), the period for which we have a wealth of epigraphic, iconographic, and archaeological evidence.  Most data are from monumental site centers where royalty were lavishly interred in large pyramids.  Much less is known, however, of the roles ancestors buried in small, often rural, shrines played in the lives of commoners--the remaining 90-98% of the Classic era population.  Still less is known regarding the origins and development of ancestral practices int he Lowland Maya area.  In this chapter I review archaeological evidence for ancient Maya ancestors rather than the deceased in general.  I approach this from a chronological perspective, beginning with the earliest evidence of ancestor during the Preclassic (1000 BCE- CE 250).  In so doing I emphasize changes in burial practices, including body position, architecture, and symbolic elements of grave goods.  I also evaluate practices of kings and commoners in the Classic era, with a focus on the ongoing use of various Preclassic symbols and practices in the continued creation of ancestors.  My emphasis is on the material manifestation of these ancestors, the practices associated with them, and the resulting implications for our understanding of ancient Lowland Maya society.

INTRODUCCIÓN - Ivan Šprajc;
1. EL SURESTE DE CAMPECHE: NATURALEZA E HISTORIA - Ivan Šprajc;
2. TRABAJO DE CAMPO - Ivan Šprajc;
3. DEFINICIÓN Y JERARQUIZACIÓN DE LOS SITIOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS - Ivan Šprajc;
4. DESCRIPCIÓN DE LOS SITIOS - Ivan Šprajc y Atasta Flores Esquivel;
5. RESCATE DE LAS ESTELAS DE LOS ALACRANES - Ivan Šprajc;
6. INTERVENCIONES EN MUCAANCAH Y ALTAR DE LOS REYES: UN ACERCAMIENTO A TRAVÉS DE SUS MATERIALES ARQUEOLÓGICOS - Daniel Juárez Cossío y Adrián Baker Pedroza;
7. ANÁLISIS DEL MATERIAL DE SUPERFICIE - María Isabel García López;
8. MONUMENTOS ESCULPIDOS: EPIGRAFÍA E ICONOGRAFÍA - Nikolai Grube;
9. ALINEAMIENTOS ASTRONÓMICOS EN LA ARQUITECTURA - Ivan Šprajc;
10. GIS AND REMOTE SENSING ANALYSIS - Tomaž Podobnikar and Krištof Oštir;
11. ARQUEOLOGÍA DEL SURESTE DE CAMPECHE: UNA SÍNTESIS - Ivan Šprajc y Nikolai Grube;
BIBLIOGRAFÍA;
ANEXO 1: MAPAS;
ANEXO 2: TABLA DE COORDENADAS DE LOS SITIOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS;
ANEXO 3: PLANOS DE LOS SITIOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS

This thesis presents archaeological data collected in 2008, 2010 and 2011 from El Mirador to assess Maya warfare during the Late Preclassic (400 B.C. – A.D. 250). One school of thought argues that warfare prior to the Late Classic (A.D. 600) was largely ritualistic. If true, it would preclude the need for large scale defensive features prior to this time. The other school believes warfare played a major role in the rise of complexity as early as the Middle Preclassic (600 B.C.).

I document a feature called, “The Wall” one of the features that enhanced the defensive posture of El Mirador. A survey of the Maya lowlands shows that defensive features were a regular component of Preclassic architecture. No evidence was found to support the claim that Preclassic warfare was ritualistic. Instead, considerable evidence shows that massive expenditures were directed at making site cores defensible. This suggests that warfare was a serious concern during the Preclassic.

Recent reassessment of the sequence at the highland Maya centre of Kaminaljuyu has led to a substantial chronological revision for Preclassic southern Mesoamerica. The new chronology suggests that various centres on the Gulf Coast, in Chiapas and in the Southern Maya Region experienced political disruption or reorganisation at the end of the Middle Preclassic period around 350 BC. It also shifts the initial rise and height of Kaminaljuyu forward 300 years. These shifts dramatically alter our understanding of sculptural developments in the Southern Maya Region, and emphasise the role of inter- regional interaction in the development of Maya civilisation.

Speculation about what ancient Maya texts have to say about 2012 is becoming a global phenomenon in popular culture. This speculation, largely apocalyptic, is more often based on acquaintance with historical Western interpretations than on familiarity with the texts themselves and their cultural contexts. This paper approaches the 2012 phenomenon through close readings of Maya texts and images considered within the contexts of historical and contemporary Maya culture and Western scholarship. It focuses on images of mythological events depicted on two Late Classic Maya vessels: the 'Vase of the Seven Gods' (Kerr no. 2796) and the 'Vase of the Eleven Gods' (Kerr no. 7750). These images are interpreted as representing deities, gathered in 'cosmogonic conclave', preparing to re-create the world with their sacrifices at the last completion of a great cycle and the beginning of a new 5,125-year 13-Bak tun Maya 'Long Count'. The rites of passage are presided over by an enigmatic Venus-warrior/sacrificer deity previously known only as God L. God L's principal name and nature had remained undeciphered and his identity obscure until the author's researches resulted in the decipherment and 'reading' presented here. This study offers an explication of why God L, whom the author has demonstrated is the Maya god of tobacco among his many aspects, takes the senior role in presiding over these 13-Bak tun completion rituals and why it is reasonable to hypothesize that the same entities would be back for the fulfillment of the present cycle in 2012.

This study uses a multiisotope (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and
strontium) approach to examine early animal management in the
Maya region. An analysis of faunal specimens across almost 2,000 years (1000 BC to AD 950) at the site of Ceibal, Guatemala, reveals the
earliest evidence for live-traded dogs and possible captive-reared
taxa in the Americas. These animals may have been procured for
ceremonial functions based on their location in the monumental site
core, suggesting that animal management and trade began in the
Maya area to promote special events, activities that were critical in
the development of state society. Isotopic evidence for animal
captivity at Ceibal reveals that animalmanagement played a greater
role in Maya communities than previously believed.

El objetivo general de esta investigación se basa en la integración de datos e información, para lograr una mejor interpretación del objeto de estudio, en este caso ubicando en un contexto socio-político e ideológico el origen, función-modificación y abandono de la Estructura 4D3-4. Se tomó como punto de partida el concepto de patrón triádico y el funcionamiento de un conjunto de este tipo. Tratando el aspecto intangible que posee cualquier ‘bien cultural’ respecto al proceso de desarrollo, derivado de una
serie de actitudes y reglas cambiantes, conforme la dinámica de las relaciones sociales de un determinado grupo de personas.
El término ‘cambiante’ se relaciona con las diferentes etapas constructivas y uso de la Estructura 4D3-4. Este proceso está reflejado no solamente en la arquitectura, sino que también en las actividades representadas por los artefactos, depósitos rituales y la asociación de estos rasgos a la edificación. En conjunto éstos refieren la funcionalidad, significado y simbolismo de la misma.

Investigations at Cahal Pech, in the upper Belize River Valley region, uncovered 10 monuments: nine stelae and one altar. Of the nine stelae recorded at the site, only one was carved. It is argued that the "wrap around" style of carving, the iconography, size, and general design all indicate that this monument dates to the Late Formative period. It is further hypothesized that carved Preclassic stelae in the Maya lowlands may have developed from an earlier, local, stucco mask tradition executed on monumental architecture. The ritual deposition of the stela in an a relatively elaborate Classic period tomb also indicates that the monument may have been kept as an heirloom, and that the human figure depicted on the stela probably represents an important member of the ruling, Late Preclassic, Cahal Pech lineage.

This thesis reports on the 2010 excavations of the North Group and Eastern Court at the ancient Lowland Maya site of Pacbitun. It provides a construction history of the architecture and an analysis of associated artifacts, burials, and caches. The archaeological investigations demonstrate that the seven structures (Strs. 34-40) of this restricted access plazuela group were built in the Early Classic period, and renewed in the Late Classic period. Based on analyses of artifacts (ceramics and lithics), skeletal and faunal remains, and intra- and inter-site comparisons, the North Group functioned as a secondary elite domestic residential group. Reconstruction suggests that the inhabitants here were not commoners; instead, the occupants probably were related to the ruling elite of Pacbitun. Some of the evidence includes the central location and elevation of the North Group, the presence of red painted plaster surfacing, a burial with multiple ceramic musical instruments, and multiple dedicatory caches with exotic goods (e.g., marine shell, jadeite, "Charlie Chaplin" figures).

"This brief essay introduces eight papers in
a thematic volume of Archaeoastronomy devoted
to research into the Maya calendar,
creation mythology, prophecy, and the 2012
phenomenon. It includes six new and expanded
discussions of research presented at the special
session “The 2012 Phenomenon: Maya Calendar,
Astronomy, and Apocalypticism in the
Worlds of Scholarship and Popular Culture,”
which was part of the Ninth “Oxford” International
Symposium on Archaeoastronomy
(IAU S278) held in Lima, Peru, January 5–9,
2011. These eight papers, including a brief introduction
(immediately following) by Mark
Van Stone to the Maya calendar and the Long
Count in particular, address research interests
within six categories of investigation, including
several caveats outlined here."

"RESUMEN
Los mayas plasmaron sus concepciones ideológicas en diversos medios físicos, destacando los complejos arquitectónicos a gran escala, siendo los más representativos los Conjuntos de Tipo Grupo E, las acrópolis de Patrón Triádico y los patios para el juego de pelota, entre otros. En conjunto, éstos constituyen un patrón arquitectónico específico, dentro de la planificación urbana en varios asentamientos de las Tierras Bajas Mayas, principalmente en aquellos del periodo Preclásico. La conexión entre ellos nos ha proporcionado un modelo de representaciones cosmogónicas, que se han identificado en el sitio de El Mirador a un nivel sin precedentes, debido a su frecuencia, monumentalidad y antigüedad, exaltando así el carácter “sagrado” y primigenio de esta ciudad.

ABSTRACT
Several physical settings such as large scale architectural complexes were used by the Maya to shape their ideological notions, emphasizing the “E Group” assemblages, triadic style arrangements and the ballcourts as those that define a city. As a whole, all these groups form a specific architectural pattern concerning the urban planning found in numerous settlements around the Maya Lowlands, especially those dating to the Preclassic period. The relationship between them has demonstrated to be a model for cosmogonic depictions that has never been identified before at least in the same level as in the site of El Mirador, considering aspects as their frequency, the monumentality they show and the antiquity they evidence, enhancing the “sacred” and “former” nature of this city.""""

In this report we introduce the site of Noh K’uh, a Late Preclassic (400 BC–AD 250) community in the western frontier of the Maya Lowlands. This new body of data contributes to the study of how complex societies emerged both within the Usumacinta River region and the Maya area overall

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For the Maya lowlands, the study of the rise of ancient complexity must explain the alchemy that transmutated a particular blend of social practices, developed in sedentary subsistence farming communities, into ideologies of hereditary inequality and divine rulership. Specifically, this chapter addresses the potential drivers of social complexity in the lowland Maya area of the Preclassic period by focusing on the social relations that shaped the everyday lives of this area's inhabitants. In other words, how did social forms of identity, interaction, and organization of the Preclassic Maya condition the development of socio-political complexity?

Multidisciplinary studies over nearly three decades in the Mirador Basin have revealed data on its settlement, interaction and trade, politics, economy, and ecology, which help to understand some of the cultural and natural processes in this complex zone during the Preclassic and Classic periods. A synthesis of archaeological, geological, epigraphic, botanical, biological, ceramic, and topographic studies in the area demonstrates the cultural splendor associated with the origins, development, and cultural process of the first Maya state and cultural and environmental consequences of its precocious flowering in the Preclassic. The result of this development and abandonment in the zone had a strong impact on much of the Maya world. Preservation measures have been implemented at the cultural and natural level, and the intense collaboration arising between local communities and national and international institutions gives new optimism for the preservation integral to the cultural and natural system of the zone.

Over the past two decades, excavations at Copán's Principal Group and its outlying settlements have led to a greater understanding of ancient Maya social, economic, and political activities. Still, we know very little about the area of the modern village of Copán Ruinas, where many Copán Maya had settled in antiquity. This report improves our knowledge of this area by discussing the results of recent archaeological investigations in the village's Barrio Buenavista that revealed an informal cluster of four structures, six human burials, and thousands of ceramic and stone artifacts. In addition, the analysis of these remains has led to the following conclusions: 1) these structures were domestic in use, based on the presence of many ground stone food processing implements, a high frequency of utilitarian ceramics, and interment of the dead in a manner consistent with Late Classic Maya household burials; and 2) initial occupation of the village settlement can be pushed back to the Protoclassic period (A.D. 100-250) (Viel et al. 1992). This new information refines current models of Copán Valley culture history by documenting the existence of Protoclassic period settlement for the first time. It also indicates that settlement prior to the Early Classic period may be elusive due to sampling problems. Supporting this interpretation is evidence for elite political activity at the Principal Group, consisting of a small number of sculpted monuments that probably belong to the Late Preclassic or Protoclassic periods. These monuments are the best available evidence that claims to political authority were being made just before the beginning of the Classic period at Copán.

RESUMEN
Las ciudades mayas están formadas por diferentes arreglos arquitectónicos, entre los cuales destacan los Conjuntos de Tipo Acrópolis de Patrón Triádico, usualmente asociados a un concepto cosmogónico determinado. El sitio de El Mirador es un buen ejemplo para explicar su definición desde una perspectiva espacial más que simbólica, por la cantidad, monumentalidad y antigüedad, además de que presentan ciertos modos que no han sido registrados en ningún otro sitio. Así el objetivo de esta investigación es determinar las características comunes entre estos conjuntos, sus diferencias y la frecuencia de éstas, para poder establecer tipologías, con lo cual se pretende visualizar este modelo arquitectónico como una unidad morfológica, funcional e ideológica relevante en el patrón de asentamiento de esta ciudad.

ABSTRACT
Maya cities are formed by many different architectural compounds; the triadic style is among |them, which is associated to a certain cosmogonic conception. The archaeological site of El Mirador is until now a good example to explain its definition from a spatial perspective rather than symbolic because of the quantity, monumentality and antiquity of all these groups registered at El Mirador. Moreover, there are some types present exclusively here and no other sites. Therefore, the objective of this investigation is to determine common characteristics and differences between these groups, as well as the frequency with which they appear. Thus, it will allow establishing typologies or variants making possible to visualize this architectural assemblage as a relevant morphological, functional and ideological unit within the settlement pattern of this city."

En el ano 2003, nuestro proyecto se centro en la recuperacion de los datos de una «excavacion perdida», una serie de profundas exploraciones -no publicadas-hechas por Gustavo Espinozaen la Acropolisde Kaminaljuyu.Su trabajo, que tuvo lugar aproximadamente entre 1958y 1962,descubrio una compleja sucesion de suelos y estructuras talud-tablero. Con objeto de comprender esta investigacion, volvimos a cartografiar la Acropolis y el Parque que la contiene, analizando suelos, y definiendo una paradoja: una construccion continuada que sin embargo muestra la introduccion de una tecnologia de edificacion radicalmente extranjera, que cambia mas tarde, durante el periodo ClasicoTardio (fase Amatle), hacia una construccion de tierra con matriz de guijarros. Las opiniones extremas sobre Teotihuacan -ninguna influencia desde Mexico0 una influenciamasiva desde el mismo origen-han de considerarse erroneas. Algunas partes de la Acropolissolo pueden entenderse en terminos de una relacion con Teotihuacan historicamente fuerte, aunque tal vez no economicamente amplia.

The first cities of the Mirador Basin were created by means of a complex sociopolitical and ideological system. This aspect is expressed in the organization of its buildings and spatial configuration. Certain patterns of architectural groups that were defined for the Classic period Maya have their antecedents in the Preclassic. Nakbe and El Mirador were some of the most important sites during the Maya Preclassic period, in which numerous distribution and association patterns shaping large architectural groups have been discovered. Within this architectural variation, notable and precise locations of the monumental groups were found; in addition, the urban design of Nakbe and El Mirador shows a definite orientation and distribution along an east-west axis. These patterns are verifiably common in the Mirador Basin. Both sites present a new panorama for understanding settlement patterns of the ancient Maya in the Preclassic period.

Definitive proof of an ancient calendric science is emerging with astro-calendric designs embedded in Palenque's Temple XIX inscriptions, revealing a computationally derived reconstituted mythological cosmological framework, and shows how Eurocentric Greenwich current time perspectives distort original intent in these astro-calendric alignments, when a JDN correlation platform should admit an elapsed time perspective and day's-ending interval alignments, in addition to a Eurocentric current time perspective and day's-start alignments. It is not possible to combine the two perspectives without introducing a correlation paradox thus necessitating a dual JDN correlation platform, and this is only achieved by deferring to a 90°W longitude correlation authority rather than a Greenwich correlation standard alone. Modulo arithmetic integer period residuals in any base-period are fully fledged proper fractions despite absence of an explicit fraction notation, with modulo base period as an implied denominator, which forms leap days of a different kind across all calendric base periods, and computational precision emerges with a hitherto unrecognized rich source of calendric proper fractions using integer period residuals as fractions. A recent paper by the author entitled " Who are the Palenque Gods " analyzing all Palenque Temple XIX Platform South and West Panel inscription passages, is reduced to analyzing only the South Panel S-1 & S-2 inscription passages as translated by David Stuart (2005), in a bid to focus on evidence of the great cycle's alignment that resolves the GMT correlation debate; as well as evidence of precession calculations presented in terms of ecliptic noble sacrifices, with a new correlation constant and a refined dual JDN correlation platform. The methodology adopted reconstitutes mythological astronomy representative of the given dates, and compares this against the astronomical references in the inscriptions themselves, thus verifying an underlying Mayan computational practice using modulo period residual arithmetic supportive of a rich source of calendric proper fractions. This shows the true Mayan calendar is explicitly embedded within the cycle's astronomical alignment, while the Calendar Round attachment is merely an embellishment to provide a more exotic fixed dating-format, that makes no attempt to directly track the astronomy using adjustments. Companion astro-calendric computations are responsible for deriving date adjustments independently, derived on an as needed basis without distorting the Calendar Round dates, and these astronomical computations are rarely recorded as they are always easily derived if needed.

El origen de los conjuntos de tipo acrópolis de patrón triádico se remonta al periodo Preclásico Tardío, extendiéndose más de mil años en la tradición arquitectónica de las Tierras Bajas mayas. Su contenido simbólico dio pauta para la formación de complejos espacios urbanos junto a los conjuntos de tipo Grupo E y los patios para el juego de pelota, integrando el núcleo cívico-ceremonial de las ciudades. Asimismo, su persistencia cronológica es evidencia de abruptos cambios estructurales y funcionales a finales del periodo Clásico. En base a esto se pretende analizar su papel como un elemento arquitectónico especializado respecto al ordenamiento urbano de los antiguos asentamientos mayas, dentro del marco de la “arquitectura del poder”.

More than a thousand years after its origins during the Late Preclassic period, triadic arrangements have persisted in the Maya Lowlands architectural tradition, consolidating a wide and complex urban space composed of E-Group assemblages as well as ballgame patios. This singular combination in such a unit, demonstrates that a deep symbolic content was developed through the function and meaning of each one of them, integrating the heart of the Maya city. Furthermore, chronological continuity of the triadic concept resulted in a constructive evolution as evidence of abrupt functional and structural changes at the end of the Classic period. On this basis I analyze the role of triadic arrangements as a specialized architectural element in relation to the urban planning and into the “architecture of power” framework.

This investigation explores the emergence of ancient astronomical systems of knowledge at the site of Cerros, Belize. We argue that the ancient Maya of Cerros early on observed features in the coastal landscape that marked zenith events, and over time they constructed buildings to memorialize this observation point on a unique promontory at the site. As the site grew, the system of observation at Cerros developed into a form of architecture that only elites could access, thus creating a separate privileged form of knowledge. Later construction marked other important horizon events, most notably the spring equinox. The architecture itself became a form of landscape that helped mould their ceremonial activities. Using three-dimensional reconstructions of the site based on recorded archaeological data, we focus on how the Maya at Cerros developed an astronomically influenced cosmological system.

Investigations of Middle Preclassic communities in Belize rely heavily on architectural analysis, as the remains of ancient structures represent one of the largest and most durable categories of material culture from this period. Architecture can reflect patterns in social organization and interaction, and comparisons of architectural investment have frequently been used to identify differences in status among social groups. Excavations at Cahal Pech by the Belize Valley Archaeological Project revealed an unexpected level of variability among several Middle Preclassic architectural features and construction sequences beneath Plaza B. Construction activity in Plaza B resembled neither the carefully planned monumental templates of Middle Preclassic Petén communities nor the incremental superposition of domestic platforms found in northern Belize, but was rather a punctuated equilibrium of building “events” that occurred at different tempos in different areas. Differential investment in architecture suggests that social relationships at Middle Preclassic Cahal Pech may have been more fluid and dynamic than
would be expected in a community where social rank was hereditary and well established. This paper synthesizes Middle Preclassic architectural data from beneath Plaza B and explores their implications for understanding the development of social complexity in the Maya Lowlands.