Tecolote, Guatemala: Archaeological Evidence for a Fortified Late Classic Maya Political Border

Abstract

A newly discovered system of fortifications at Tecolote, Guatemala, a Late Classic period (A.D. 600–900) Maya secondary center in the Yaxchilan polity, consists of a series of stone walls and hilltop watchtowers. The stone walls appear to have been used as foundations to secure wooden palisades, as suggested previously for other Classic Maya sites, and were used in concert with strategic settlement at the site to maximize overall defensibility. We interpret the site core of Tecolote together with its associated walls and watchtowers as part of an integrated polity-wide system of defense meant to protect the kingdom of Yaxchilan against attack from the polity of Piedras Negras. Furthermore, Tecolote and other sites along Yaxchilan's northern border were used as staging grounds for attacks into the Piedras Negras kingdom. We use epigraphic and archaeological data to discuss the significance of this new find for understanding 8th-century geopolitics in the western Maya lowlands and the role of regional warfare and fortification systems in the expansion and demise of Classic polities of this region. Our analysis seeks to develop models for ancient warfare beyond the basic assessment of site-based defense.