UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE From Movement to Mobility: The Archaeology of Boca Chinikihá (Mexico), a Riverine Settlement in the Usumacinta Region A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Nicoletta Maestri June 2018 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Wendy Ashmore, Chairperson Dr. Scott L. Fedick Dr. Karl A. Taube Copyright by Nicoletta Maestri 2018 The Dissertation of Nicoletta Maestri is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation talks about the importance of movement and – curiously enough – it is the result of a journey that started long ago and far away. Throughout this journey, several people, in the US, Mexico and Italy, helped me grow personally and professionally and contributed to this accomplishment. First and foremost, I wish to thank the members of my dissertation committee: Wendy Ashmore, Scott Fedick and Karl Taube. Since I first met Wendy, at a conference in Mexico City in 2005, she became the major advocate of me pursuing a graduate career at UCR. I couldn’t have hoped for a warmer and more engaged and encouraging mentor. Despite the rough start and longer path of my graduate adventure, she never lost faith in me and steadily supported my decisions. Thank you, Wendy, for your guidance and for being a constant inspiration. During my graduate studies and in developing my dissertation research, Scott and Karl offered valuable advice, shared their knowledge on Mesoamerican cultures and peoples and provided a term of reference for rigorous and professional work. Aside from my committee, I especially thank Tom Patterson for his guidance and patience in our “one-to-one” core theory meetings. Thank you for listening and for helping me navigate through social thinking. At UCR I also found a wonderful community of fellow students: I thank my cohort for sharing the burden and the beer during the first year core theory. I am particularly thankful to John Gust and Ted Gordon, who saved my life inviting me in their core theory study group, and have been good friends since then. I also deeply cherish the long afternoons/evenings/nights at the Rivera Library studying and discussing with iv Kyoungduk Mun and Jun Gines. Some of my graduate fellows have become close friends, whose love and support I can feel, in spite of the physical distance. Luckily for me, among them, Michelle Butler shared my second part of the journey, and we now live only few hours apart. She has helped and supported me in these years with something that I can only define as sisterly love. Thank you for always being there for me and for sharing your loving family with “tía Nico”. Jon Spenard, Shyh-Wei Yang, Jay Dubois, and Andrew Turner have been true friends during and after my years at UCR. I am particularly in debt with Ryan Mongelluzzo whose friendship started even before I arrived in California. While working at Holmul together, he helped me understand the intricacies of a graduate program and offered invaluable advice and support before and after my arrival in the US. Other friends I made while at UCR and that created and invaluable community are: Theresa Barket, Jen Chmilar, Dan Leonard, Eric Heller, Jelena Radovich Fanta, Lauren Schwartz, Chelsea Blackmore and Shankari Patel, who both welcomed me in their house in Berkeley while pursuing a research project; Lisa Garibaldi, Sarah Grant, Scott Smith, and Christina Halperin. A welcomed later addition has been Alison Lee, who I met here in Mexico, and whose writing group helped me get back on track. To the wonderful ladies in the Anthropology Office goes my deepest gratitude for their help during my school years and especially in the final steps of the dissertation administrative processes. I am especially in debt with Lilia Liderbach-Vega, Becky Campbell, and Anna Wire. Dr Susan Ossman, as Graduate Advisor, was kind enough to smooth the final paperwork of my dissertation filing process. Outside the Anthropology Department, I am grateful for the help and guidance provided by Kelly Hinosawa and her colleagues at the International Student Office. v Several funding agencies made possible the second part of my journey, supporting my research in Mexico. An Explorers Club Award, a UC-Mexus Student and Postdoctoral Researcher Small Grant, and a UCR Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Research Grant funded my pilot field season. The bulk of my field and laboratory analysis was made possible by a UC-Mexus Dissertation Grant, along with generous lodging and logistic support offered by the Proyecto Arqueológico Chinikihá (PRACH), directed by Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo. Finally, the dissertation writing process benefitted from a Dumbarton Oaks Short-Term Predoctoral Residency. However, although this financial support got me to Mexico, this dissertation would have never been completed and reached its final form, if I had not found in the members of the PRACH generous and professional colleagues and friends. First and foremost, I wish to thank Rodrigo for his guidance and suggestions. Our long conversations in Palenque and at the UNAM have profoundly shaped this work, and lately, your loving support and faith gave me the strength and focus to complete it: gracias mi Rorro! Ari Campiani, Javier Lopez, Atasta Flores, Esteban Mirón (Pelón) and Erik Lopez helped me with the mapping of Boca. Thank you guys for making hard work fun and light! In the excavation I was aided by Christian Arias, who supervised some of the operations, Nathanael Hernandez and Alfonso Bonilla, as well as by a group of student from the Università La Sapienza, Rome, Italy, who participated in the 2001 field season, especially: Flaminia, Gaia, Luisa, Francesca, Valeria e Silvia. A special thanks goes to the people of Lindavista, Reforma Agraria and López Mateos, who welcomed me in their towns and homes, especially Doña Canda and Don vi Checo who opened us their home and fed us with affection; and Samuel Lopez, Franciso (Pancho) Lopez, Nicolás Lopez, and Moctezuma (Chuma) Lopez. I am very grateful to the other members of the PREP (Proyecto Regional Palenque)- PRACH with whom in these years I shared new field and lab seasons and from whom I learnt a lot: Luis Nuñez, Mauricio Obregón, Eos López, Keiko Teranishi, Flavio Silva, Carlos Varela, Felipe Trabanino, Concetta Bellomo, Mirko de Tommassi, Roberto (Beto) Silva, Ale Chavez and Sanja Savkic. I am especially thankful to Pelón for his patience in teaching me the project ceramic classification and helping with the analysis, and to Gerardo Jiménez at the Instituto de Investigaciones Antropologicas, UNAM, for teaching me the secrets of statistics with patience and accessibility. To Ari and Manu, the two special friends who have been my home and family in Mexico, go my deep gratitude and love for sharing this journey since the beginning, bridging two continents. In Italy, where my journey started, I wish to thank all the people who accompanied me and shared my passion for Mexico, its people and history. I am especially in debt with Davide Domenici, who firstly introduced me to Mesoamerica, and who has been a friend and inspiring colleague since then. To my grandma, uncle, the rest of my family and friends, thanks for your affection and encouragement in these years. vii Finally, but most importantly, to the two women whose unselfish love made all this possible: my mom, Laura, and my sister, Carlotta: grazie per aver reso con il vostro amore e appoggio incondizionato il viaggio e la lontananza più lievi. viii A mio padre Sergio. “La pagina ha il suo bene solo quando la volti e c’è la vita dietro che spinge e scompiglia tutti i fogli del libro...” (Il Cavaliere Inesitente, I. Calvino) ix ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION From Movement to Mobility: The Archaeology of Boca Chinikihá (Mexico), a Riverine Settlement in the Usumacinta Region by Nicoletta Maestri Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Anthropology University of California, Riverside, June 2018 Dr. Wendy Ashmore, Chairperson Current studies on the movement of goods among the ancient Maya have highlighted the variability existing in different regions in terms of degree of economic integration, control between main centers and outlying communities, and transportation modes. Yet, investigations on riverine ports, as locales of intra- and interregional economic networks, have been largely neglected, and until recently, biased by two main arguments. First, large exchange networks were not pivotal to the development of Classic period, inland Maya centers; and secondly, the development of a bustling trade economy emerged in later periods, when the conjunction of new political strategies and new coastal trade routes occurred. In light of recent data emerging in various riverine regions of the Maya area, researchers have started to question these assumptions and reassess the importance of riverine navigation for the development of inland Maya polities. This study explores the sophistication and internal variability of x riverine route systems within the Maya Lowlands, focusing on the Upper Usumacinta Region, where such sophistication has been barely recognized, possibly due to the unpredictable nature of the river course. However, recent research in the area has shown that facilitating and controlling inland and riverine movement was important, politically and economically, for major polities in the region. In this scenario, I propose that during the Classic period, the site of Boca Chinikihá was a trade port in the Upper Usumacinta landscape. Boca Chinikihá’s communication routes, infrastructure, and internal distribution of imported goods reflect its strategic position along an important communication artery, and convey its role as a trade node. Furthermore, on a regional scale, I suggest that movement of people and goods was not only a way to secure every day and luxury wares, but was also part of a larger political narrative used by the Usumacinta polities to define themselves in contrast to, or in alliance with, other neighboring polities.