Archaeological Investigations at Holmul, Petén, Guatemala
Preliminary Results of the Third Season, 2002

Synopsis of the 2002 season results

During the 2002 season, settlement pattern explorations were directed towards locating and mapping sites in the northwestern and northeastern quadrants of Holmul.

The new site of Hahakab was located and mapped 2.8 km NW of Holmul by directing teams to a location based on a prediction generated by a GIS model. The site displayed substantial Late Classic Period ceremonial and elite architecture.

An additional ceremonial center (Hamontun) was located 4 km NE of Holmul following local informants’ directions. Both sites appear to be part of a ring of ceremonial centers with substantial ritual and elite palatial groups within an hour’s walk from the Holmul main plaza.

At Holmul, total-station mapping was continued in the site center, adding detail to the area between Group I and Group II.  The 250 m-wide western transect (WT) was mapped by Kristen Gardella and Collin Watters from the 1 km marker westwards to the 3.5 km marker. An area of high-density settlement between the 1 and 2 km markers was noted in connection with an upland area (near La Sufricaya). Further mapping was also carried out by Marc Wolf at the minor center of Cival south of the main plaza, where new ceremonial and elite/residential acropolis platforms and a hastily built low wall were noted.

Excavations were placed on ceremonial and residential architecture at Holmul, La Sufricaya and Cival. At Holmul, work focused on the Late Classic palace structures in Group 3 (Courts A and B) and on residential occupation in Group 13 (facing Group II, Figure 2). In Court A, an earlier phase of the throne room structure was found under the Str. 43 stairway and in Court B, an eastern ceremonial stairway was found under later elite residential architecture. In Group 13, several burials and remains of perishable architecture pertaining to the Terminal Classic occupation were found. At about 1 km outside the main center, structures and chultuns were excavated in South Group 1 and West Groups 2 and 12, which provided examples of Late and Terminal Classic residential architecture.

At La Sufricaya, excavations were placed in connection with stone monuments bearing Early Classic inscribed dates (Stelae 1, 5, 6) to document their relationship with plaza floors (Figure 3). Within Str. 1 two excavation units explored the eastern and southern exterior of the painted room (a sub-str. found in 2001) by uncovering walls exposed in looters’ trenches. On the exterior face of the southern wall, a new mural painting was found to have been buried by the third and last stage of construction of the edifice.

At Cival, the southwestern structure atop the Triadic Group (Group 1) was explored by clearing the contents of a looters’ trench and exploring its eastern façade (Figure 4). Portions of two beautifully stucco-faced substructures were uncovered under the rubble of the last construction, all dating within the Late Preclassic Period and earlier than the last stage’s date of A.D. 100.

Also at Cival, a test pit explored the sequence of the 124 m-long E-Group range structure (Str. 7) in connection with a Late Classic partial monument. The building’s three construction stages spanned the Late Preclassic Period while the monument’s carving style placed it within the Late Classic period. Finally, on the centerline of Str. 7, the Stela 2 monument originally reported by Merwin was re-discovered and stylistically identified by Nikolai Grube as an early Late Preclassic ruler’s portrait, possibly the earliest such monument yet to be found in the Maya Lowlands.

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