Maya Polities Research Articles

Forced settlement and political centralization in a Classic Maya polity

Settlement and political structure in the Classic Maya Rosario polity are analyzed within a multistep research scheme (originally devised for political anthropology). Single variables arranged along continua are used to conceptualize political structure, in preference to multivariate societal types. Emphasis is given to political centralization and its implementation through forced settlement of subject population into political centers. Settlement nucleation measures for the Rosario polity and its subunits depend on various problem-oriented classifications of settlement remains (residential sites, political plaza hierarchies, and territorial divisions). Marked variation is found in the degree of nucleation (interpreted as forced settlement) in the Rosario polity's different subunits, and controlled comparison suggests that such variation relates to differences in the proportional sizes of elite groups and to “backwash” effects between neighboring subunits with unequal degrees of centralization, rather than to population scale, physical environment, or stage reached in a developmental cycle.

Interregional Interaction in the SE Maya Periphery: the Santa Barbara Archaeological Project 1983–1984 Seasons

Archaeological study of the SE Maya Periphery has lagged considerably behind research in other portions of Mesoamerica, resulting in a dearth of time-space systematics for this extensive zone. In addition, the examination of prehistoric interaction networks encompassing state and non-state level societies and their mutual effects has not received much scholarly attention. These joint practical and theoretical concerns have been addressed by the 1983–1984 research efforts of the Santa Barbara Archaeological Project working within a 135 sq km region in the middle Rio Ulua drainage, west-central Honduras. Work completed to date within two of the largest sub-regions of the zone has revealed a culture history ranging from the Late Preclassic (ca. 400 B.C.) through the Spanish Conquest (ca. A.C. 1536), during which time ranked political systems developed and maintained extensive interregional ties. Data in hand suggest that different portions of the region followed divergent developmental trajectories in response to varying regional and interregional stresses. The major Maya polity of Copan to the west is seen as having played a large role in the history of the entire zone. The 1983–1984 seasons of the Santa Barbara Archaeological Project provided new data on the culture history of the SE Maya Periphery and suggest a novel way of modeling the relationships among regional and interregional factors in accounting for the development of social complexity within non-state societies interacting with indigenous states.

Swamps, canals, and the locations of ancient Maya cities

The recent radar mapping discovery of widely distributed patterns of intensive agriculture in the southern Maya lowlands provides new perspectives on classic Maya civilization. Swamps seem to have been drained, modified, and intensively cultivated in a large number of zones. The largest sites of Maya civilization are located on the edges of swamps. By combining radar data with topographic information, it is possible to suggest the reasons for the choice of urban locations. With the addition of patterns elicited from rank-ordering of Maya cities, it is also possible to suggest more accurate means of defining Classic period Maya polities.

The Collapse of Classic Maya Civilization in the Southern Lowlands: A Symposium Summary Statement

A review of evidence on the cultural, economic, and demographic collapses in the Maya southern lowlands after 790 A.D. has led to new theories of the history and causes of these events. Intense population growth, rising socio-political competition between centers, sharpening class divisions, and nascent militarism generated difficult problems for the conservative theocracies of the Maya polity. These problems were intensified by military and economic pressures ultimately originating from the more dynamic Mexican societies. Ensuing breakdowns in trade and agriculture led to an intensifying cycle of disbalances and, finally, collapses. Maya recovery was later inhibited by the rise of new competing centers with stronger resource bases than those of the Maya southern lowlands.