Terminal Classic Period Research Articles

Ancient genomes reveal insights into ritual life at Chichén Itzá

The ancient city of Chichén Itzá in Yucatán, Mexico, was one of the largest and most influential Maya settlements during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (ad 600–1000) and it remains one of the most intensively studied archaeological sites in Mesoamerica1–4. However, many questions about the social and cultural use of its ceremonial spaces, as well as its population’s genetic ties to other Mesoamerican groups, remain unanswered2. Here we present genome-wide data obtained from 64 subadult individuals dating to around ad 500–900 that were found in a subterranean mass burial near the Sacred Cenote (sinkhole) in the ceremonial centre of Chichén Itzá. Genetic analyses showed that all analysed individuals were male and several individuals were closely related, including two pairs of monozygotic twins. Twins feature prominently in Mayan and broader Mesoamerican mythology, where they embody qualities of duality among deities and heroes5, but until now they had not been identified in ancient Mayan mortuary contexts. Genetic comparison to present-day people in the region shows genetic continuity with the ancient inhabitants of Chichén Itzá, except at certain genetic loci related to human immunity, including the human leukocyte antigen complex, suggesting signals of adaptation due to infectious diseases introduced to the region during the colonial period.

On not seeing like a state: rethinking ancient Honduras (The Gordon Childe Lecture for 2023)

This article exemplifies the way that moving from perspectives on inequality to questions of the exercise of freedom can change archaeological interpretation. Using a case study from Honduras, where conventional models suggest that social evolution stagnated at the level of chiefdoms, the article draws on recent advances in theories of anarchic social organisation to rethink the data relating to occupation during the equivalent of the Maya Classic and Terminal Classic periods (c. 500–1000 ad). Settlement pattern data from northern Honduras have previously been interpreted as exemplifying heterarchy, understood as the expression of multiple overlapping hierarchies, in distinct aspects of social life. Most settlements conform to the needs of farming, with small towns that are roughly evenly spaced providing opportunities for rural populations to participate in seasonal ceremonies, ball games and possibly markets. Considering the structuring role of freedom to move, to refuse commands and to create new forms of social life enables understanding underlying dynamics that the heterarchy model was missing. It allows for an account of the growth and decline of settlements as outcomes of strategies by leading families and refusal of these by the broader population. Central to these strategies are the roles of visual media, specifically art works, through which social values were created among this politically anarchic population.

The influence of tropical Atlantic sea-surface temperatures and the North Atlantic Subtropical High during the Maya Droughts

The frequency and duration of Late-Holocene hydrologic extremes in northern Guatemala were investigated using multiple sedimentological and geochemical proxies preserved in a sediment core collected from Lake Petén Itzá. A general trend of increasing aridity in the Maya Lowlands during the past 2000 years was punctuated by several multidecadal- to centennial-scale drought events recorded in the Petén Itzá sediments. In particular, the period spanning the Maya Terminal Classic Period and the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), between 800 and 1300 CE, was marked by several extreme droughts and included the driest conditions of the past 2000 years between 950 and 1100 CE. Similarities between our data and other existing regional paleoclimate records suggest regional drying events during this time may have been driven by a common mechanism. Specifically, comparisons between these records and tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) suggest that the dry intervals may have been driven by a westward expansion of the North Atlantic Subtropical High pressure system. This period was unique in the general agreement between regional proxy records, which are otherwise notably heterogeneous during the Late-Holocene. During the Little Ice Age (LIA; 1400–1800 CE) mean precipitation at Petén Itzá was further reduced, and multidecadal drying events were recorded between 1500–1530, 1600–1640, and 1770–1800 CE. However, regional hydroclimatic coherency was weaker during the LIA, suggesting that additional climatic mechanisms played a more important role in local-scale hydrology during that time.

Terminal Classic Conch-Shell Gorgets from the Maya Region and Central Mexico

AbstractThis article discusses a category of conch-shell gorgets, mainly semielliptical in shape, which were produced during the Terminal Classic period in central Mexico and/or the Maya lowlands. We describe the iconography and style of these ornaments, seek precedents in other media for their themes, and use stylistic and epigraphic data to connect them to long-distance economic and political interactions between the Maya region and central Mexico. Although the portraits on most of the gorgets diverge from earlier Classic Maya conventions, neither do they conform to central Mexican canons. Further discoveries of such pendants in archaeological context may clarify their origins and social uses.

A millennium of anthropic and climate dynamics in the Lake Izabal Basin, eastern lowland Guatemala

Modern precipitation gradients across the Maya region in Central America result in a diverse vegetational mosaic that varies from scrub forest to rainforest. In this region, evidence of past changes in the distribution of vegetation indicates two main patterns: i) a Holocene long-term trend towards a more seasonal forest, and ii) sharp changes in vegetation cover resulting from human occupation. The history of vegetation in moister areas of the Maya region, however, has been mostly extrapolated from studies carried out in the Yucatan Peninsula. We reconstructed the paleoenvironmental and paleoecological dynamics of the last ∼1300 years in the Lake Izabal Basin, one of the wettest areas within the Maya region. Palynological and geochemical evidences indicate that from ∼650–1150 CE, vegetation assemblages were dominated by disturbance taxa, under relatively low erosion in the catchment area. This pattern probably resulted from anthropogenic activities during the Terminal Classic Period (800–950 CE) combined with the dry and more seasonal conditions of the Medieval Climate Anomaly. The record from 1150 to 1400 CE points to an increase in moisture availability with a change towards a forested landscape. From 1400 to 1950 CE, geochemical data indicate lower precipitation, while the vegetation appears less fragmented and a mature forest developed. Such pattern probably emerged from lower evapotranspiration associated with the Little Ice Age (1350–1850 CE) favoring vegetation recovery. During the last 1300 years, vegetation change in the Lake Izabal Basin parallels that of the Yucatan Peninsula, with anthropogenic influences and moisture availability exerting first- and second-order controls on vegetation turnover, respectively.

Four millennia of geomorphic change and human settlement in the lower Usumacinta–Grijalva River Basin, Mexico

The lower Usumacinta–Grijalva River Basin contains one of the richest biodiversity landscapes of the Maya region. Our research is based on (1) an integrative literature review of the geomorphological and archaeological papers published about the lower Usumacinta–Grijalva River Basin and (2) topographic analysis of digital elevation models using a geographical information system to explore the relationship between past human settlement and landscape accessibility along the coastal plain of Tabasco. This work provides a new synthesis of previous research and proposes new models for the geomorphic evolution of the lower Usumacinta–Grijalva River Basin in the context of four millennia of human land use and settlement. For the evolution of the strand-plain of the Usumacinta and Grijalva rivers, there are two published geochronological models that provide different chronologies. We discuss here how both geochronological models encompass Pre-Columbian human settlement in the delta. Interestingly, we notice that one of them overlaps a possible high-magnitude flood event (or events) that drove large geomorphic change around 750 CE (1200 BP), with implications for settlement patterns and chronology. Based on topographical analysis of the eastern-distal sector of the Usumacinta–Grijalva delta, we propose a new model for the evolution of this area with implications for the human occupation during the Mesoamerican Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic on the delta. As one of the main conclusions, we propose that the Pom–Atasta water bodies predate much of the Usumacinta–Grijalva delta and the most recent phase of delta building overlays the original lagoon barriers, resulting in a geomorphic setting more attractive to local human occupation after the Terminal Classic period. According to one of the geochronological models of the delta, this dates to ca. 900 CE, preceding the establishment of nearby settlements such as Atasta.

An 1800-year oxygen-isotope record of short- and long-term hydroclimate variability in the northern neotropics from a Jamaican marl lake

Hydroclimate variability on multi-decadal timescales has been a prominent feature of the circum-Caribbean region over the common era, with marked dry intervals noted in particular for the period 800–950 CE coinciding with the Terminal Classic Period (the so-called Terminal Classic Drought: TCD) in Mesoamerica, and with the Little Ice Age from about 1500 to 1800 CE, linked to complex ocean-atmosphere interactions. Previous compilations of palaeoclimate reconstructions have revealed a clear precipitation dipole between northern and southern Mesoamerica over the common era, which is consistent with meteorological data and modelling experiments. However, patterns of variability elsewhere within the region are less well understood, although palaeoclimate records do point to spatial complexity. Here, we present a ∼sub-decadal-scale lake-sediment hydroclimate reconstruction based on ostracod-shell stable isotopes from Wallywash Great Pond, Jamaica, covering the past ∼1800 years, which fills a spatial gap in records for the region. Variations in δ18O values at this site are a proxy for changes in effective moisture and they reveal a marked wet phase over the Terminal Classic Period (TCP), suggesting that the precipitation dipole over northern and southern Mesoamerica may have an east to west component. This is supported by some previous studies, although additional sites are required from strategic localities within the region to confirm this. The Little Ice Age interval at Wallywash is drier than the TCP, although the signal is less clear than at some sites within the wider region, suggesting that regional complexity in hydroclimate has characterised this interval as well.

CHANGING SPHERES OF INTERACTION IN TERMINAL CLASSIC WESTERN BELIZE

Archaeological investigations in western Belize have recorded a growing body of evidence that is indicative of non-central lowland Maya influences in this Maya sub-region during the Terminal Classic period. Evidence for Yucatec and non-Maya influence in the Belize River Valley is manifested by the presence of new architectural styles and programs, and by the introduction of “foreign” artifacts and ideologically charged symbols. These cultural changes represent a departure from the previous Late Classic cultural tradition which reflects closer ties with central Peten sites. Besides providing evidence for Yucatecan style architecture and artifacts in western Belize, we suggest that these non-local traits were likely associated with the waning influence of Peten sites during a period of economic and political decline in the central Maya lowlands, and with the concurrent rise of Terminal Classic polities in the northern lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula and the Gulf Coast of Mexico.

SEA-LEVEL RISE AND SETTLEMENT AT EK WAY NAL: CORING THE PAST

Excavations in the spring and summer of 2022 were carried out at the underwater ancient Maya salt work of Ek Way Nal in Punta Ycacos Lagoon, Paynes Creek National Park, Belize. Ek Way Nal provided salt to the ancient Maya during the Late and Terminal Classic periods (600-900 C.E.). In additional to excavations in buildings at the site, a 1 X 2 m unit was excavated to extract a sediment column for examining the relationship between the ancient Maya settlement at Ek Way Nal and sea-level rise. In this article, the excavations, extraction of the sediment column, and processing it for laboratory analyses are described. Field observations are discussed. Fine red mangrove root (Rhizophora mangle) and charcoal samples were extracted from the sediment column for radiocarbon dating. The results from the datum core excavation indicate that sea-level rise occurred before, during, and after the ancient Maya occupation at Ek Way Nal.

TRANSFORMATION, GROWTH, AND GOVERNANCE AT CARACOL, BELIZE

Around 650 CE the city of Caracol was one of the largest cities in the world. However, it did not begin as a large city. Instead Ux Witz Ha’ (“three stone place” – the city’s hieroglyphic name) came into being from the conurbation of three separate centers. Three architectural complexes formed the initial districts of the larger city – Downtown Caracol, Hatzcap Ceel, and Cahal Pichik – between the Preclassic and Early Classic Periods. This unification resulted in a path-dependent urban form with future growth focused on multiple monumental nodes and a dendritic causeway system. Settlement growth relied on the incorporation or construction of public plazas and monumental architecture to provide urban infrastructure and administrative cohesion over the landscape. What follows is a preliminary temporal sequence for the districts, tracing the growth of the city from the Preclassic to the Terminal Classic Periods. By combining lidar, archaeology, and hieroglyphic data a broader interpretation of governance within the city can be elucidated. Over time, Caracol shifted back and forth between more collective and more autocratic governance systems until the political, economic, and demographic collapse of the city around 900 CE.

CHALLENGES IN BUILDING ARCHAEOLOGICAL CHRONOLOGIES IN THE STANN CREEK DISTRICT

Key to archaeological research is our ability to recognize and define material-culture patterns and organize such patterns in time and space. Since 2014, the Stann Creek Regional Archaeology Project (SCRAP) has focused on understanding processes of settlement development and growth at the Ancestral Maya town of Alabama in East-Central Belize, constructed and occupied primarily during the transition period between the late facet of the Late Classic to Terminal Classic periods. While we may never know precisely who settled Alabama and why, we aim to answer questions about the where, when, and how of its development in our ongoing research. In following these lines of inquiry, we have had to grapple with several obstacles that have frustrated standard practices of building archaeological chronologies at the site. Such barriers include earthen-core architecture with minimal artifact refuse within platform cores. Additionally, local and regional soil conditions that result in a poorly preserved and highly fragmentary ceramic assemblage and no preservation of human or faunal remains to date. Finally, we face the difficulties of constraining the radiocarbon calibration curve during the primary period of Alabama’s settlement and growth. This paper details these problems and outlines our various approaches in their confrontation.

Maya molded-carved ceramics as boundary objects: Terminal classic ceramic production and the forging of political relations in the mopan valley of Guatemala

• Terminal Classic period Mopan Valley potters produced a range of decorated serving vessels including ‘Ahk’ utu’ Molded-carved, Portia Molded-carved, and Local Fine Orange ceramics. • In addition to producing their own ceramics, inhabitants of the middle Mopan Valley sites of Ucanal, La Blanca, and Calzada Mopan had access to ceramics produced in or close to the Upper Belize Valley, the Holmul River, and the Usumacinta River region, underscoring their diverse social and political relationships throughout the Southern Maya Lowlands. • Microphotography and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analyses of ceramic pastes complement visual typology studies to provide a more holistic perspective of archaeological ceramics that can address both different and overlapping pottery communities of practice. • We find that Terminal Classic polities often shared in an overlapping network of ceramic production and gift exchange that bridged different political communities, a pattern that contrasted with the most elaborate polychrome ceramic traditions of the earlier Late Classic period, which were more highly controlled and circumscribed in nature. Fine Orange ceramics, speciality serving wares of the Terminal Classic (ca. A.D. 810–950/1000) in the Maya area, have long been implicated in the identification of changing political and social relationships. Some previously subordinate political centers thrived during this time as many of the dominant Classic polities were embroiled in crises and reductions in their populations. This paper examines molded-carved Fine Orange and “imitation” Fine Orange ceramics from a trio of closely-located sites that prospered during the Terminal Classic period: Ucanal, La Blanca, and Calzada Mopan in the middle Mopan Valley in Petén, Guatemala. Chemical paste analyses using a portable X-ray fluorescence instrument, microphotography, and traditional Ware-Type-Variety analyses reveal that potters in this region did not blindly imitate Fine Orange ceramics, but picked and chose techniques and designs that drew from multiple communities of practice. Furthermore, these sites had access to decorative serving vessels that were produced in multiple regions throughout the Southern Maya Lowlands, placing them at an important nexus of political, economic, and social interaction. We argue that molded-carved and other decorated ceramics served as boundary objects, which articulated different pottery producing communities and forged marriage and political ties between different polities in a new decentralized political landscape.

Drought and water management in ancient Maya society

Paleoclimate research in the Maya region of Mesoamerica provides compelling evidence of drought during key periods of cultural transition in Maya society. These include the transition from the Preclassic to the Classic, and from Classic to the Postclassic. Previous research emphasized a causal relationship between drought and cultural change, or so-called “collapse” in the Maya region. Recent advances in the range and precision of climate-sensitive proxies and the development of new archives have enabled quantitative reconstructions of past hydroclimate, as well as providing evidence of high impact, short-duration events, such as tropical cyclones. Simultaneously, archaeological research has unearthed widespread evidence of technologies used by the Maya to exert control over water resources in urban, rural, and agricultural settings. Evidence suggests that many of these water features were in use for multiple generations, possibly centuries, and many were constructed during the Terminal Preclassic and Terminal Classic periods. We suggest that, given the availability of new archaeological and paleoclimate records, these data can be combined to identify the full complexity of Maya adaptation to hydroclimate variability to emphasize adaptation and resilience to both water scarcity and over-abundance (e.g., flooding). Such syntheses, which can offer lessons for present-day efforts to grapple with regional climate change, will benefit from additional studies in data-poor zones of the Maya region, as well as public archiving of paleoclimate and archaeological data.

Volcanic Ash Tempered Pottery Production in the Late to Terminal Classic Belize Valley, Belize

Production and consumption of pottery tempered with fresh volcanic ash peaked in the Late to Terminal Classic periods in the Maya lowlands. Differences in the type of volcanic inclusion and vessel form indicate that the pottery was produced in multiple locations by different groups of potters. In this article, we characterize pottery from household contexts at Baking Pot, Belize, using thin-section petrography and neutron activation analysis (NAA) to document mineralogical and chemical variability and determine provenance. The pottery was produced by adding fresh volcanic ash to a micritic clay. The petrographic and chemical data indicate that this paste recipe was produced locally in the Belize Valley. Variation in the paste recipes used is likely due to both production differences and postdepositional alteration. We argue that it is critical to use both petrography and NAA to understand pottery production and provenance in the Maya region.

CONTROL, COLLAPSE, AND RESILIENCE AT RÍO AMARILLO IN THE COPAN VALLEY, HONDURAS

AbstractThis article documents the transition from the Late Classic to Postclassic periods at Río Amarillo, a hinterland outpost of the Copan polity, and at an associated residential group, Site 5, in the Río Amarillo East Pocket of the Copan Valley. Late Classic period evidence indicates that the site of Río Amarillo operated as an administrative center for the Copan polity with the likely objective of increased agricultural production for the burgeoning population in the Copan Pocket. In the Terminal Classic period, Río Amarillo shared the fate of Copan, with evidence indicating it was burned and sacked. However, unlike the Copan Pocket, many residential groups remained occupied during the Early Postclassic. Here we focus on Site 5. An unbroken occupation from the Late Classic through to the end of the Early Postclassic period, as this site provides a window into an existence without the requirements of tribute given to their western neighbor. We hypothesize that the smaller settlement size and higher amount of rainfall in this valley pocket, as well as a richer and more diversified environment, were important factors in the survival of some of its population.

FOCAL NODES AND RITUAL ECONOMY IN ANCIENT MAYA HINTERLAND COMMUNITIES: A CASE STUDY FROM SAN LORENZO, BELIZE

AbstractPublic structures in the Maya region materialize ideologies and define centers of power as they create politically charged sacred landscapes. These locations are focal nodes for community and polity making processes, embedding social hierarchies, ideologies, and social memories into the physical landscape. Archaeologists, however, have historically focused little attention on small-scale focal nodes within rural communities. To explore the ways hinterland or rural communities may integrate and articulate with larger heartland seats of power, this article examines one such public group at the hinterland site of San Lorenzo, Belize. Drawing from studies of integrative features, we explore practices of affiliation from the Late Preclassic through the Terminal Classic periods and the ways they are expressed at a civic-ceremonial community space through ritual economy. Focal nodes facilitated the face-to-face interactions that were necessary for community integration and the practices enacted within such spaces allow associated groups to negotiate and display their status within the community and to larger regional polities.

Large variation in availability of Maya food plant sources during ancient droughts

Paleoclimatic evidence indicating a series of droughts in the Yucatan Peninsula during the Terminal Classic period suggests that climate change may have contributed to the disruption or collapse of Classic Maya polities. Although climate change cannot fully account for the multifaceted, political turmoil of the period, it is clear that droughts of strong magnitude could have limited food availability, potentially causing famine, migration, and societal decline. Maize was undoubtedly an important staple food of the ancient Maya, but a complete analysis of other food resources that would have been available during drought remains unresolved. Here, we assess drought resistance of all 497 indigenous food plant species documented in ethnographic, ethnobotanical, and botanical studies as having been used by the lowland Maya and classify the availability of these plant species and their edible components under various drought scenarios. Our analysis indicates availability of 83% of food plant species in short-term drought, but this percentage drops to 22% of food plant species available in moderate drought up to 1 y. During extreme drought, lasting several years, our analysis indicates availability of 11% of food plant species. Our results demonstrate a greater diversity of food sources beyond maize that would have been available to the Maya during climate disruption of the Terminal Classic period than has been previously acknowledged. While drought would have necessitated shifts in dietary patterns, the range of physiological drought responses for the available food plants would have allowed a continuing food supply under all but the most dire conditions.

Harmful algal blooms and cyanotoxins in Lake Amatitlán, Guatemala, coincided with ancient Maya occupation in the watershed

Human-induced deforestation and soil erosion were environmental stressors for the ancient Maya of Mesoamerica. Furthermore, intense, periodic droughts during the Terminal Classic Period, ca. Common Era 830 to 950, have been documented from lake sediment cores and speleothems. Today, lakes worldwide that are surrounded by dense human settlement and intense riparian land use often develop algae/cyanobacteria blooms that can compromise water quality by depleting oxygen and producing toxins. Such environmental impacts have rarely been explored in the context of ancient Maya settlement. We measured nutrients, biomarkers for cyanobacteria, and the cyanotoxin microcystin in a sediment core from Lake Amatitlán, highland Guatemala, which spans the last ∼2,100 y. The lake is currently hypereutrophic and characterized by high cyanotoxin concentrations from persistent blooms of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa Our paleolimnological data show that harmful cyanobacteria blooms and cyanotoxin production occurred during periods of ancient Maya occupation. Highest prehistoric concentrations of cyanotoxins in the sediment coincided with alterations of the water system in the Maya city of Kaminaljuyú, and changes in nutrient stoichiometry and maximum cyanobacteria abundance were coeval with times of greatest ancient human populations in the watershed. These prehistoric episodes of cyanobacteria proliferation and cyanotoxin production rivaled modern conditions in the lake, with respect to both bloom magnitude and toxicity. This suggests that pre-Columbian Maya occupation of the Lake Amatitlán watershed negatively impacted water potability. Prehistoric cultural eutrophication indicates that human-driven nutrient enrichment of water bodies is not an exclusively modern phenomenon and may well have been a stressor for the ancient Maya.

Terminal Classic residential histories, migration, and foreigners at the Maya site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala

Early scholarship on the disruption to political dynasties at the end of the Classic period in the Maya Lowlands argued that political collapse and the new material culture associated with it were due to the invasion of Putun/Chontal peoples from the Gulf Coast. One of the sites thought to have been targeted by such an invasion was Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala. Although no excavations had been undertaken at the site when the Putun invasion hypothesis was formulated, recent archaeological research at Ucanal provides an opportunity to re-visit the question of foreigners. This paper examines residential settlement histories and isotopic values from human teeth at Ucanal to better understand the changes that occurred during the Terminal Classic period. Our research indicates that while the possibility of foreign rule remains, the invasion hypothesis cannot fully capture the complex dynamics, multi-directional movements, and pluralistic influences of this time period. Ucanal was a thriving, heterogenous city with connections to multiple regions and peoples. Individuals born outside the Ucanal region were indeed present at the site, although the ways in which foreign identities were constituted were as much about peoples’ practices and performances of self (and others) as about where they were born.

REDUCING RISK: MAYA LITHIC PRODUCTION AND ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION AT CALLAR CREEK QUARRY, BELIZE

AbstractThe role of craft producers in past economies provides information that helps contextualize the role of economies in broader sociopolitical systems. Through this examination of lowland Maya lithic producers in the Late to Terminal Classic period (a.d.600–890), this article explores the centrality of economic activities in integrating craft producers into larger regional political communities and simultaneously buffering them against regional political conflicts. Through a study of lithic extraction and production at Callar Creek Quarry, Belize, this article examines the relevance of crafting activities in the minimization of economic uncertainty. These data indicate that lithic reduction served to diversify economic activities for lithic producers, and thus minimized economic risk. The use of economic activity to minimize risk provides evidence for the continuity of small-scale householders. This illustrates the independence of economic activities from political frameworks, and suggests that economic diversification serves as a critical stabilizing force for rural Classic-period Maya residents.