The Pomoná Kingdom and its Hinterland

Research Problem and General Objectives

Although the epigraphic and archaeological data available indicates that Pomoná was an independent polity, and the repeated attacks it suffered supports placing it as a very important participant of the hegemonic struggle for the control of the western lowlands, no archaeological research addressing this particular issue has been done. In this sense, this project constitutes the initial step towards that end. One of our initial aims: the comprehensive survey of the unexplored architectural groups of the ceremonial core at Pomoná was dropped due to two reasons. First, Roberto García Moll, co-director of the Proyecto Arqueológico Pomoná, informed me that the complete topographic survey of the core area of Pomoná had been concluded and would be published shortly, along with other information in a monograph. Second, after a detailed inspection of Panhale and surroundings, the complexity of the site became apparent, making it evident that it would require much more work than the originally estimated.

With this in mind the project proposed was geared towards the completion of the following objectives:

• To conduct a detailed survey at Pomoná’s subsidiary centre Panhale. The map thus obtained would provide the information on the general disposition of the site, and possible function, and would constitute the necessary preamble to the exploration of their structures.

• To conduct an archaeological survey of the region around Pomoná and Panhale in order to approach the study of the settlement and ancient land use patterns.

• To excavate a series of test pits aimed towards the recovery of archaeological materials in stratigraphic context. The assemblages thus obtained will in turn assist us in the definition of a ceramic sequence and consequently the temporal location of the sites.

• To gather enough empirical observations for the design of a GIS-based spatial model on the territorial extent and boundary definition between Pomoná and Piedras Negras.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page