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Terminal Classic Occupation in the Maya Sites Located in the Area of Triangulo Park, Peten, Guatemala

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Terminal Classic Occupation in the Maya Sites Located in the Area of Triangulo Park, Peten, Guatemala Prace Archeologiczne No. 62 Monographs Jarosław Źrałka Terminal Classic Occupation in the Maya Sites Located in the Area of Triangulo Park, Peten, Guatemala Jagiellonian University Press Kraków 2008 For Alicja and Elżbieta CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER I: Introduction .................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER II: Triangulo Park – defi nition, geographical environment, history and methodology of research ............................................................. 19 CHAPTER III: Analysis of Terminal Classic occupation in the area of Triangulo Park ............................................................................................. 27 – Nakum ............................................................................................................ 27 – Naranjo ........................................................................................................... 135 – Yaxha .............................................................................................................. 146 – Minor sites ...................................................................................................... 175 – Intersite areas .................................................................................................. 187 CHAPTER IV: Summary and conclusions ......................................................... 191 – The Terminal Classic period in the Southern Maya Lowlands: an outline ..... 191 – The Terminal Classic in the area of Triangulo Park: patterns of collapse and development ............................................................................................ 197 – The issue of collapse ....................................................................................... 217 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 225 PHOTOGRAPHS ................................................................................................. 247 The publication of this volume was supported by the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University REVIEWER Prof. dr hab. Janusz K. Kozłowski COVER DESIGN Agnieszka Dobosz Photograph on the cover: Structure E from Nakum (photograph by the author) TECHNICAL EDITOR Lucyna Sadko PROOFREADER Jadwiga Rolińska TYPESETTING Wojciech Wojewoda © Copyright by Jarosław Źrałka & Jagiellonian University Press First edition, Kraków 2008 All rights reserved All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 978-83-233-2585-7 ISSN 0083-4300 www.wuj.pl Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego Redakcja: ul. Michałowskiego 9/2, 31-126 Kraków tel. 012-631-18-81, tel./fax 012-631-18-83 Dystrybucja: ul. Wrocławska 53, 30-011 Kraków tel. 012-631-01-97, tel./fax 012-631-01-98 tel. kom. 0506-006-674, e-mail: [email protected] Konto: PEKAO SA, nr 80 1240 4722 1111 0000 4856 3325 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all those who made it possible to prepare this book which is based on my doctoral dissertation, Terminal Classic Occupation in the Maya Sites Located in the Triangulo Park Area and the Problem of Their Collapse. I am very thankful to my supervisor and mentor Professor Janusz Krzysztof Kozłowski from the Jagiellonian University for his guidance, comments and help given before and during the preparing of the dissertation. I am extremely grateful to Professor Robert Sharer from the University of Pennsylvania for his constructive comments and remarks as well as for all the academic and moral support he has given me through the entire process of gather- ing the data and writing my doctoral dissertation. I would also like to express my grati- tude to Professor Mariusz Ziółkowski, Director of the Centre of Precolumbian Studies, Warsaw University who introduced me to the various aspects of American Archaeology and has been supervising my scientifi c work since my fi rst visit to Mexico and Guatemala in 1997. My participation in the research of the Triangulo Project was possible partly due to his help and support. I wish to thank Arq. Oscar Quintana for the invitation to participate in the Triangulo Project investigations, beginning in 1999, as well as for his permission to use illustra- tions from the Project annual reports. The research opportunities at Nakum, Yaxha, Naranjito and El Tigre provided invaluable archaeological experience and also the frame- work for my doctoral dissertation. I am very thankful to my teacher, friend and “Jefe” – Lic. Bernard Hermes for everything that he taught me at Nakum and also for important comments regarding the third chapter of this book and my dissertation. Special thanks to Zoila Calderón for her remarks concerning the third chapter as well as for her kindness, support and advice during my time at Nakum. Many thanks to other members of the Triangulo Project, especially. Arq. Raul Noriega, Arq. Julio Sánchez, Miriam Salash and Rosa María Chan for all their help. I would also like to express my gratitude to Lic. Laura Gámez, Lic. Daniel Aquino and Lic. Paulino Morales for their comments and for sharing data from unpublished papers that were presented at the XVIII, XIX and XX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala. I also thank Christophe Helmke for important comments concerning fi ne paste ceramics from Yaxha and Nakum, and Simon Martin for remarks regarding inscriptions from Nakum. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Dean of the History Faculty, Prof. Piotr Kaczanowski; the Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University, Prof. Jan Chochorowski and the Polish-American Ethnological Society in Atlantic City, NJ, USA for fi nancial aid, without which my participation in the Triangulo Project would be im- possible. I am very thankful to the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (Tokyo Foundation) for providing me with a scholarship for my stay at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia. I would like to express my gratitude to both the 10 Williams Directors of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Prof. Jeremy Sabloff and Prof. Richard Leventhal for the opportunity to use the University Museum facilities while working on my doctoral dissertation. I am also grateful to Dr. John Weeks, the Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Library, for all his support and help during my stay in Philadelphia. I owe inexpressible gratitude to my friend, Samuel David for his help in preparing my dissertation in English. I wish to thank Mirosława Lenarcik who also helped me with the English translation of parts of my dissertation. Last but not the least; I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my family, es- pecially to my wife Elżbieta and daughter, Alicja, for the love, understanding and indul- gence that they showed during the preparing of my doctoral dissertation and this book. 11 Chapter I INTRODUCTION This book is a shortened and updated version of the doctoral dissertation that was com- pleted and defended by the author in 2005. Its main objective is to examine the cultural situation during the Terminal Classic period in the Triangulo National Park area, situated in the north-eastern part of Guatemala, east of Tikal National Park (Fig. 1). The area has been investigated thoroughly since 1989 by the Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo Triangulo Project. This research revealed copious evidence of Terminal Classic occupation at sev- eral Maya sites, particularly at Nakum and Yaxha. More importantly, archaeological data presented in this book shows that contrary to the fate of most Maya cities in the Southern Lowlands, certain centres in the Triangulo Park region did not experience a sudden and catastrophic decline during the Terminal Classic period but in fact experienced an impor- tant cultural, demographic and architectural surge. Archaeological data show that the Terminal Classic period in the Triangulo Park should be perceived as an era of funda- mental political, cultural and economic changes. It was a period during which the decline of some centres, including great powers such as Tikal or Naranjo, was accompanied by the appearance and rise of the new political powers, which managed to survive the fall of their neighbours by 100 years or more. In Nakum and to some extent at Yaxha, a con- centration of power, population and construction activities occurred during the Terminal Classic. These robust new Terminal Classic “winners”, as we could call them, created new economic and possibly even political alliances with various Lowland Maya sites that were struggling to survive the crisis that ultimately brought about the end of Maya civilisation in this region. There are four principal chapters. The fi rst one is an introductory chapter and apart from presenting the objectives and scope of this book, it elaborates on the issues pertain- ing to the defi nition of the Terminal Classic and the changes that took place during that time in the Maya Lowlands. The second chapter comprises information concerning the territory of the Triangulo Park and its geographical setting. Information about the history of research in the park and the neighbouring areas is included in this chapter as well. The third chapter presents an analysis of Terminal Classic occupation in centres situated in the Triangulo Park. After analysing the largest centres of the park like Nakum, Naranjo and Yaxha, the smaller
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