Civic and Residential Settlement at a Late Preclassic Maya Center Author(s): Vernon L. Scarborough and Robin A. Robertson Source: Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Summer, 1986), pp. 155-175 Published by: Boston University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/530218 Accessed: 18/10/2010 15:48 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=boston. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Boston University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Field Archaeology. http://www.jstor.org Civic andResidential Settlement at a Late PreclassicMaya Center VernonL. Scarborough Universityof Texasat El Paso Robin A. Robertson SouthernMethodist University Dallas, Texas The Late Preclassic period in the Maya Lowlands (300 B.c.-150 A.c.) docu- ments the transition toward increased social and economic complexity culmi- nating in the Classic Maya civilization (250-900 A.C.). The Late Preclassic Maya community of Cerros in northern Belize has revealed a settlement pat- tern of dispersed household clusters and scattered public architecture. More- over, the site manifests a clear, three-part concentric zonation, similar to later Classic period communities. The authors' analysis provides a definition through time of civic and residential architecture and of the division between elite and non-elite domiciles. The study draws heavily on a functional analy- sis of the excavated ceramic assemblage. The unique settlement pattern of the semitropical Maya is suggested to be an environmental adaptation with rural elites coordinating the dispersed sustaining population through public monuments and associated ritual. Introduction munity did not change radicallyfrom that of its Late The Late Preclassicperiod in the Maya Lowlandshas Preclassic antecedents. Although public and private been viewed as a transitionalperiod in which levels of building styles were alteredsignificantly through time, social complexitydeveloped from chiefdomsinto state- the overall settlementpattern was always composedof like institutions.'This transitionin other areas of the dispersedhousehold clusters. At the sites of Tikal,3Dzi- world has involved markedchanges in settlementform bilchaltun,4Altar de Sacrificios,5Seibal,6 Barton Ra- and density,giving rise to nucleatedcities.2 In the Maya Lowlands,however, the of the com- spatialorganization 3. W. R. Coe, Tikal: a Handbook of the Ancient Maya Ruins (Uni- versityMuseum, University of Pennsylvania:Philadelphia 1967); D. 1. R. E. W. The Civilization Adams, ed., Origins of Maya (Univer- E. Puleston, The Settlement Survey of Tikal. Tikal Report 13, Uni- of New Mexico Press: W. R. sity Albuquerque1977); Coe, "Tikal, versity Museum Monographs (University of Pennsylvania: Philadel- and Science 147 Guatemala, EmergentMaya Civilization," (1965) phia 1983); R. F. Carrand J. E. Hazard,Map of the Ruinsof Tikal, D. A. "CultureAreas and Interaction 1401-1419; Freidel, Spheres: El Peten, Guatemala. Tikal Report 11, University Museum Mono- to the of Civilizationin the ContrastingApproaches Emergence Maya graphs (Universityof Pennsylvania:Philadelphia 1961). Lowlands,"AmAnt 44 (1979) 36-54. 4. E. B. Kurjack, Prehistoric Lowland Maya Community and Social 2. W. T. Sanders,J. R. Parsons, and R. S. Santley, The Basin of Organization. Middle American Research Institute Publication 38 Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization (Ac- (TulaneUniversity: New Orleans1974); E. W. AndrewsV, "Dzibil- ademicPress: New York K. V. andJ. 1979); Flannery Marcus,eds., chaltun," in J. A. Sabloff, ed., Supplement to the Handbook of Middle The Cloud Evolution the People: Divergent of Zapotec and Mixtec AmericanIndians 1 (Universityof Texas Press: Austin 1981) 313- Civilizations(Academic Press: New York 1983); R. M. Adams, 344. Heartlandof Cities (Universityof Chicago Press: Chicago 1980); 5. G. R. and A. L. The Ruins Altar de Kwang-Chih Chang, The Archaeology of Ancient China (Yale Press: Willey Smith, of Sacrificios. No. New Haven 1977); B. J. Kemp, "TheEarly Development of Towns PapPeaMus62, 1 (HarvardUniversity: Cambridge 1969); A. L. Excavations at in Egypt,"Antiquity 51 (1977) 185-200; M. E. Moseley and K. C. Smith, Altar de Sacrificios. PapPeaMus 62, No. 2 Day, eds., Chan Chan: Andean Desert City (University of New (HarvardUniversity: Cambridge 1972). Mexico Press: Albuquerque1982); B. Allchin and R. Allchin, The 6. G. R. Willey, A. L. Smith, G. TourtellotIII, and I. Graham, Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan (Cambridge University Excavations at Seibal. MemPM 14, No. 1 (Harvard University: Cam- Press:Cambridge 1982). bridge 1975); G. Tourtellot,"The Peripheriesof Seibal: an Interim 156 Late Preclassic Maya Center/Scarborough and Robertson mie,7 Becan,8Colha,9 and the Lake Yaxhaarea,'0 there was little majorsettlement reorganization after the Late MEXCO Santa Elen MEXICO Preclassicdespite an increasein the size and density of these communitiesduring the Classic period. Nucleated \?, I rlSantaRita cities were the exception ratherthan the rule." Given A CERO Chetumal Bay GUATEMALA?, AventurCCE the sociopolitical heights to which the Maya were to aspire, the absenceof a spatiallywell-controlled consti- SBenqueViejo tuency has mistakenlycontributed to the notion of the iNohmul "mysterious"character of Maya civilization. MEXICO hipstern The communityof Cerrosin present-daynorthern Be- SonLuis Sn Antonio lize (FIG.i) has recently revealed a settlementpattern Cuello datingto this transitionalperiod.12 The site is uniquein been a Late Preclassic with little having community ElPbsito Kic6on- subsequentClassic and Postclassic construction.Con- sequently, the data permit a closer inspection of the 1. of Belize. transitionand provide a baseline for assessing the sub- Figure Map northern tleties involved in the developmentof later centers. bulk of the architectureat this early date, and they are The dichotomy between civic monumentalarchitec- clusterednear the present-daybay. Divisions between ture and residentialarchitecture has providedthe best elite and non-elite seem not to have been very great. evidence for shifts in settlementwhich did occur during During the late facet of the Late Preclassic, the civic the LatePreclassic. The earlyfacet of the LatePreclassic architectureincreased in size, frequencyof appearance, at Cerrosmanifests a relativelysmall portionof the total and complexity;though there was a slight closure of public architecturefound at the site. The little monu- space within a well-definedcentral precinct, a consid- mentalarchitecture that does occur is associatedwith an erableamount of civic architecturewas constructedaway open centralprecinct. Residential structures make up the from this zone. Although the growing elite may have deliberatelybegun delimiting the central precinct and thereby made it less accessible, the remainderof the in R. and Report," W. Bullard, ed., Monographs Papers in Maya communityappears to have incorporateda more open Archaeology.PapPeaMus 61 (HarvardUniversity: Cambridge 1970) 405-421. display of civic architecture.Outside the central pre- cinct, access the to activitieswas 7. G. R. et Prehistoric Settlement in the Belize by people manypublic Willey al., Maya maintained.The constructionof a 1200-m Valley. PapPeaMus 54 (Harvard University: Cambridge 1965). curvilinear, canal and its apparentfunction as a territorialmarker 8. P. M. Thomas, Jr., Prehistoric Maya Settlement Patterns at Becan, a of controlledaccess for the Campeche, Mexico. Middle American Research Institute Publication provided degree greater 45 (TulaneUniversity: New Orleans1981); D. L. Webster,Defensive core zone, but the scatteredpattern of civic architecture Earthworks at Becan, Campeche, Mexico. Middle American Research withinthis residentialzone was well maintained.Despite InstitutePublication 41 (TulaneUniversity: New Orleans1976). the increasingdifferentiation of elites and non-elites,the 9. H. J. Shaferand T. R. Hester,"Ancient Maya ChertWorkshops two groups sharedthe core zone definedby the canal. in NorthernBelize, CentralAmerica," AmAnt 48 (1983) 519-543; J. Before the implicationsof this settlementdesign are in D. Eaton, "Colha:an Overviewof Architectureand Settlement," discussed,a descriptionof the settlementpattern and the T. R. Hester, H. J. Shafer, and J. D. Eaton, eds., Archaeologyat thatare not Colha, Belize: the 1981 Interim Report (Center for Archaeological data-gatheringmethodologies fully presented Research,University of Texas: San Antonio 1982) 11-20. elsewhere'3seems