Understanding the Classic to Postclassic Architectural Transformation of Rural Households and Communities in the Quexil-Petenxil Basins, El Petén, Guatemala

Project Summary

The project involves the excavation and analysis of prehispanic domestic and ceremonial architecture and associated activity areas from sites in the Quexil-Petenxil Basins of the Petén Lakes region of Guatemala (Figure 1). I investigated how Petén Maya households and rural communities transformed and reorganized themselves during a time of cultural change from the Late Classic (A.D. 600-800) through Postclassic Periods (A.D. 1000-1525). This research extends recent ethnohistoric and archaeological research into the political geography of the Postclassic and historic Petén Maya (Jones 1998; Rice et al. 1996, 1998). I investigated the Quexil Islands, two islands in Lake Quexil that were the site of a densely built and occupied Postclassic village which featured distinctive architecture in comparison with similarly sized Classic Period villages. I view changing architectural form and household behavior as indicators of sociopolitical change (Wilk and Rathje 1982; Deetz 1982; Lawrence and Low 1990; Berman 1993, 1994; Gonlin 1994; Freter 1994). This association holds because the provisioning of social space through architecture is best viewed as a process of ongoing structuring of society in which the organization of society, core societal forces and external influences are played out (Giddens 1979, 1984). Through architecture, we can examine rural community survival, social reorganization and/or in-migration during and after the Terminal Classic period (Sabloff and Willey 1967; Thompson 1970; Tourtellot 1988; Rice 1988; Rice et al. 1998). More specifically, following the political decline (ca A.D. 800) events in the Central Petén may have led to increasing militarism and possible in-migration of Epiclassic groups from other regions, such as Yucatán (Kremer 1994; Rice et al. 1998), the Gulf Coastal region (Thompson 1970; Fox 1987) or the Petexbatún region of Guatemala (Tourtellot 1988; Rice 1988; Webster 2002). Several earlier investigators suggested that these in-migrants carried with them characteristic ceramics (Fine Orange and Plumbate) and architecture (C-shaped bench structures and central shrines among other forms). In contrast, my hypothesis is that political instability during the Terminal Classic led to the establishment of the island community by local villagers, a community that then grew under conditions of relative autonomy until it was incorporated in the Itzá polity during the Late Postclassic Period (Jones 1998; Rice et al. 1998). I infer that internal social processes including shifting practices of memorialization of ancestors (McAnany 1995; Gillespie 1999) contributed to the building of new forms of shrines in houses and public architecture as a part of the materialization of social reorganization.

My goal is to compare the formal and behavioral spatial manifestations of daily life in the Classic and Postclassic periods by exposing these architectural elements and associated artifacts. In 2001, I excavated extensive horizontal exposures of houses, temples, open halls and surrounding spaces of 14 Terminal Classic and Postclassic structures on the Quexil Islands (Figure 2a, Figure 2b, Figure 3, shown above, and Figure 4, shown below) and sampled six Late Classic structures in the adjacent Petenxil Basin. The excavations reveal a complex transformation in settlement location, site plan, civic-ceremonial and domestic architecture and use of activity areas. In the summer of 2002, with assistance from project ceramicist Dr. Prudence Rice, I finished the analysis of recovered artifacts. Completion of the project required radiocarbon dating of several archaeological contexts to better understand the site chronology of the Quexil Islands. Anchored by the AMS radiocarbon dating of five excavated samples funded by the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI), I present a contextual analysis of the excavation data that provides a unique opportunity to further our understanding of the occupational history of the Quexil Islands and the Classic to Postclassic transition in Petén.

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