The Ancient Maya of Mexico

Reinterpreting the Past of the Northern Maya Lowlands

Geoffrey E Braswell, Geoffrey E. Braswell

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781908049315
• eBook ISBN: 9781317543596
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

The archaeological sites of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula are among the most visited ancient cities of the Americas. Archaeologists have recently made great advances in our understanding of the social and political milieu of the northern Maya lowlands. However, such advances have been under-represented in both scholarly and popular literature until now. 'The Ancient Maya of Mexico' presents the results of new and important archaeological, epigraphic, and art historical research in the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. Ranging across the Middle Preclassic to the Modern periods, the volume explores how new archaeological data has transformed our understanding of Maya history. 'The Ancient Maya of Mexico' will be invaluable to students and scholars of archaeology and anthropology, and all those interested in the society, rituals and economic organisation of the Maya region.

1	The Ancient Maya of Mexico
	Reinterpreting the Past of the Northern Maya Lowlands
	Geoffrey E. Braswell

The three modern Mexican states of Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo compose roughly half of the Maya area. The northern Maya lowlands, whose southern boundary runs east–west through south central Quintana Roo and Campeche at approximately 19 degrees north latitude, is—with the exception of the Puuc hills—a generally flat plain characterized by low scrub forest, moderate to low rainfall, little surface water, a subtropical climate, and many of the most spectacular cities ever built in the New World. For this reason, the archaeological sites of the Yucatan peninsula, including Chichen Itza, Tulum, Uxmal, and Coba, are among the most visited anywhere in the Americas.

The northern lowlands have long been the focus of Mexican archaeologists studying the Maya. Most of the projects of the past 30 years have been directed by investigators at the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) center in Merida, or by investigators at newer INAH centers in Campeche and Chetumal. Other important projects have been conducted by faculty and students at Mexican universities, by foreign scholars, and, recently, by a small group of independent Mexican archaeologists (see Bey 2006:14-15 for a partial publication list of many of these projects). Results of archaeological research in the northern Maya lowlands are regularly presented at meetings held in Mexico, Guatemala, the United States, and Europe. Publications concerning the archaeology, epigraphy, and art history of the region appear with growing frequency not only in Spanish and English, but also in German and French. Despite this, outside of Mexico the ancient past of the northern Maya lowlands remains less known and captures the eye of the public less frequently than does that of the tropical rainforests of the southern and central lowlands of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Chiapas, Mexico. Major textbooks and popular works published in English tend either to omit the northern lowlands (Demarest 2004) or to concentrate coverage on the Terminal Classic to Postclassic periods (e.g., Coe 2011; Schele and Freidel 1990; Schele and Mathews 1999; Sharer with Traxler 2006). George Bey (2006:16) quips that “[u]nfortunately, many authors think that it is not until the Terminal Classic period that the north is worth examining.”

Long considered to be a passive periphery by many who do not work in the area, the northern Maya lowlands has been depicted as a region where: (1) political and economic complexity began quite late and was derived from elsewhere; (2) the culture was largely illiterate and did not produce important works of art or architecture before about A.D. 800; (3) the pottery is dull and uninteresting compared to the vivid polychromes of the south; and (4) after a relatively brief but magnificent florescence, society slipped backwards into “decadence” and the region again became a passive backwater. Insofar as the northern lowlands experienced cultural elaboration, it was generally thought to have been the result of interaction first with the Maya of Guatemalan lowlands and with the Teotihuacanos of central Mexico, and later with the Toltecs and Aztecs.

Aims of the Ancient Maya of Mexico: Reinterpreting the Past of the Northern Maya Lowlands

The past 20 years have seen a revolution in our interpretations of social and political process in the northern Maya lowlands, but the great advances made by archaeologists to our understanding of this half of the Maya area are still under-represented in both scholarly and popular Anglophone literature (cf. Kowalski and Kristan-Graham 2007; Mathews and Morrison 2006; Shaw and Mathews 2005). One goal of this volume, therefore, is to present the results of new and important archaeological, epigraphic, and art historical research in the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. Except for this introduction and a broadly synthetic concluding essay that reviews what we have learned and seeks to define new goals and directions for the future of archaeology in the northern lowlands (Chapter 14), this volume presents original research. The organization of the volume is chronological (from the Middle Preclassic to colonial and modern periods), so that readers will understand how new data and interpretations have changed the whole of our understanding of Maya history.

A second goal of this volume is to pay tribute to E. Wyllys Andrews V, who has been in the vanguard of northern lowland archaeology for forty years. Earlier versions of many of our chapters were presented at the first of two sessions held in Will’s honor at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Saint Louis, Missouri. The hundreds of people present at both sessions—as well as at a party held in his honor—testify to Will’s continuing contributions to the archaeology of the northern Maya lowlands. His special roles as teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend during his many years as Director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University have been formative and inspirational, and mean a great deal to us all.

The New Paradigm

In a recent essay, Fernando Robles Castellanos (n.d.) has summarized what he calls the “new paradigm” regarding recent developments in our understanding of the Middle Preclassic period in northwest Yucatan. That work—to which Robles, Anthony Andrews, Tomás Gallareta Negrón, and scholars working at INAH (Chapter 3), Tulane University (Chapter 2), and other institutions have made great contributions—builds on research directed by Will Andrews at Komchen. For me, the many important changes to our general view of the prehistory of the northern lowlands that have emerged and coalesced during the past two decades can also be called a new paradigm, albeit in a metaphorical rather than literal sense. Using this phrase particularly acknowledges the role that these scholars and their many colleagues in Merida and beyond have played in forming this new perspective. Nonetheless, any historical summary is subject to bias, and my choice here is to draw attention to and emphasize the importance of contributions made by Will Andrews to our new and evolving perspective.

Rather than summarize each chapter in this volume, I hope to show how they are embedded within this new paradigm. Will’s impact has been felt most strongly in discussions of the origins of Preclassic society and the transition from the Classic to the Postclassic period, that is, to questions concerning the rise and fall of hierarchy and complexity. These are themes that he has also pursued in his work at Quelepa, El Salvador (Andrews 1976), and at Copan, Honduras (Andrews and Fash 1992; Fash et al. 2004). In the northern Maya lowlands, however, it is difficult to identify any era after the Palaeoindian period or any processual question to which Will has not made important contributions.

Recent research in the northern Maya lowlands has revealed temporal parallels with emerging complexity in other parts of Mesoamerica, and even precocious developments that occurred first in the northern Maya lowlands. Two archaeological projects have discovered hundreds of Middle Preclassic sites in northwest Yucatan and dozens of some of the earliest ballcourts known in Mesoamerica (Chapter 2). Scholars working outside of the modern city of Merida have found the earliest “throne room” in the Americas, implying that a complex chiefdom evolved in Yucatan by the late Middle Preclassic (Chapter 3). A particularly complex example of early “dynamic cycling” is demonstrated for Calakmul (a central lowland site in far southern Campeche) that grew eventually to be one of the largest cities in the Classic Maya world (Chapter 4). Work in north central Yucatan (Chapter 5) and Campeche (Chapter 6) has challenged our views about the transitions from the Preclassic to the Classic, and the Classic to the Postclassic. A new mapping project, which can trace its roots back to Frans Blom’s work at the Middle American Research Institute, reveals that the density of known sites in the northern Maya lowlands is greater than anywhere else in the Maya area (Chapter 7). The art and architectural planning of Uxmal, one of the most famous of all Maya sites in Mexico, demonstrates that it was one of the ancient “Tollans,” a great pilgrimage city on par with the Toltec capital of Tula (Chapter 8). Recent research at Chichen Itza reveals that the “International” style of the site center developed slowly over time and was not introduced by invaders from central Mexico or elsewhere (Chapter 9), and that a wall surrounding the center of the city first served to define sacred space and only later came to have a defensive function (Chapter 10). Analyses of Maya codices, murals, and cave assemblages suggest that appeasement of both local and foreign rain deities, and also of fertility deities linked to agriculture, became very important at the end of the Terminal Classic period (Chapter 11). This lends tangential support to the notion that the demographic decline of Chichen Itza and Uxmal might have been stimulated by poor agricultural conditions and drought. Most importantly, these rituals of renewal and regeneration continued throughout the Postclassic period, demonstrating great continuity. Although Mayapan, the last capital of the northern Maya lowlands, has often been depicted as culturally “decadent,” there have been few satisfactory explanations for its condition. Household archaeology reveals that, compared to earlier sites, Mayapan was relatively impoverished (Chapter 12). Finally, although it is often argued that the Spanish conquest is a boundary that clouds comparison between the prehispanic past and historical periods, archaeological and historical evidence demonstrates that during both periods, communities employed similar resilience strategies that often buffered society from the effects of periodic catastrophe and “dynamic cycling” (Chapter 13).

Four themes run consistently throughout our volume and this new paradigm. First, the northern Maya lowlands have their own incredibly rich history and fascinating in situ story to tell. Second, it is not even possible to understand the central and southern lowlands without considering the northern Maya lowlands. All three areas were integrated, and their histories are interlaced. Third, interaction and competition—at the site level, from a regional perspective, and even when considering the Maya area as a whole—are important forces that drove many cycles of rising and falling sociopolitical complexity. Finally, Will Andrews’ many intellectual contributions provide a solid foundation for much of this new research.

Palaeoindian Period (Ca. 13,500–8000 B.C.)

Palaeoindian discoveries are rather rare in the Maya area (Lohse et al. 2006). For the most part, with the exception of cave sites in the Guatemalan highlands (Gruhn and Bryan 1977), they consist of tools or bones recovered without context. Earlier claims for a Palaeoindian presence at Loltun Cave, Yucatan (Velázquez Valádez 1980), now seem unsupported. One of the most recent and exciting developments in the new paradigm has been the discovery of human remains and artifacts in submerged cave systems in Quintana Roo (Barclay 2008; González González et al. 2008, 2010; Than 2010; Universal 2010). To date, five sets of human remains—called the Woman of Hoyo Negro (Artdaily 2012; Rissolo 2012), the “Eve” of Naharon, the Woman of Las Palmas, the Man of El Templo, and the Young Man of Hol Chan—have been reported. The last of these sets of remains was found in an articulated position suggesting that it was deliberately placed in the cave (Than 2010). Also found in such submerged caves are hearths, chipped stone tools, and faunal remains, including examples from extinct Pleistocene species, such as a gomphothere (Artdaily 2012). Water-filled caves are extremely dynamic systems, and understanding site formation processes can be daunting. Dating the remains has also proven somewhat controversial. Nonetheless, the presence of stalactites and stalagmites in these caves indicate that they once were largely dry, and formed at a time before sea levels rose 15 meters or more at the end of the last Ice Age.

Archaeologists and biological anthropologists who have conducted preliminary studies of these human remains argue that they share more physical traits in common with inhabitants from South Asia and Indonesia than they do with people from northern Asia (González González et al. 2008; see also Barclay 2008; Than 2010; Universal 2010). For these scholars, the implication is that there were multiple migrations across the Bering Straits, that these new finds pertain to a pre-Clovis migration, and that subsistence patterns probably did not rely on Pleistocene megafauna. Such claims, no doubt, will continue to be controversial until many more examples are known. What is clear is that as similar research becomes more difficult to conduct elsewhere in North America, remains such as these found in Quintana Roo will become central to any understanding of the peopling of the New World.

Reconstructions of the climate and ecology of Yucatan ca. 15,000–10,000 years ago suggest that it was dominated by dry savanna, grassland, and perhaps even desert. Like today, surface water would have been scarce, and caves where rainwater collected—after percolating through the limestone—would have been important places for early inhabitants of the new landscape to find water. Although we cannot directly connect these early inhabitants to the Maya who have lived in Yucatan for at least the last 2,800 years, it may be that the importance of caves as ritual places where water was abundant dates back to these early times.

Archaic and Early Preclassic Periods (Ca. 8000–1100 B.C.)

We know little about the Palaeoindian period in Yucatan, but the Archaic and Early Formative are complete lacunae. It is even possible that the Early Preclassic (ca. 2000 B.C.-1100 B.C.)— by which I mean a developmental, cultural, or adaptive stage, rather than a chronological period—did not exist in Yucatan.

With the exception of northern Belize (Pohl et al. 1996) and the Chantuto zone of Chiapas (Voorhies 2004), very few Archaic sites are known in the Maya region (see Lohse 2010). Despite the lack of physical sites, a complex picture of the emergence of settled village life and agriculture has developed in those regions where we have sediment and soil cores. In several areas, maize pollen, charcoal, and other evidence demonstrate that the landscape was cleared and burned and that cultigens were known by 3000 B.C., even though we do not have direct evidence of habitation sites (e.g., Neff et al. 2006; Pohl et al. 1996; Robinson et al. 2002). Nonetheless, the adoption of permanent sedentism, a subsistence strategy based solely on agriculture, and the use of ceramics did not begin to occur in the Maya lowlands until roughly 1100 B.C. (uncalibrated 930 b.c.). It is probable that gourds, nets, baskets, and other perishable tools were used instead of pottery until this time. We do not know why the transition to a Preclassic lifestyle was so late. Some areas may not yet have been inhabite...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• 1. The Ancient Maya of Mexico: Reinterpreting the Past of the Northern Maya Lowlands
• Part I THE PRECLASSIC PERIOD
• Part II THE EARLY AND LATE CLASSIC PERIODS
• Part III THE TERMINAL CLASSIC AND EARLY POSTCLASSIC PERIODS
• Part IV THE LATE POSTCLASSIC TO HISTORICAL PERIODS
• Part V CONCLUSIONS
• Index