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

Culture Historical Analysis

This topic is highly relevant to lowland Maya archaeology and Mesoamerican archaeology in general. Knowledge has increased about household and community organization in the Late Classic period (Haviland 1988; Tourtellot 1988; Palka 1998) and about the political organization of Petén in the Late Postclassic and Early Historic Periods (A.D. 1525-1697; Rice et al. 1998; Jones 1998; Wurster 2000; Cecil 2001; Pugh 2001). The cultural and demographic transformation of that region from the Classic to Postclassic periods is still poorly understood.

In an effort to understand this period of cultural transformation, I conducted the 2001 field season in the Quexil-Petenxil Basins. The investigation focused on understanding how rural domestic architecture and use of space was modified following the decline of Classic Maya states, particularly the Terminal Classic Period, often termed as the Maya Collapse. Additionally, the project shed considerable light on the Early Historic occupation of the Quexil Islands. I document the seventeenth-century occupation of the island settlement, which Spanish missionaries and soldiers repeatedly visited and described (Comparato 1983; Jones 1998:351-352).

The FAMSI grant funded five AMS radiocarbon analyses that considerably clarify the occupational history of the Quexil Islands. It now appears that the eastern island and likely the western island were intensively settled by the Early Terminal Classic Period. That is, AMS radiocarbon dates of occupational floors of a small "open hall" structure with a C-shape bench on the eastern island demonstrate the use of these characteristically "Postclassic" forms of architecture (Rice 1986, 1988) by the beginning of the ninth century A.D. Also analysis of the stratified midden and an adult burial demonstrates occupational continuity of the Quexil Islands from the Early Terminal Classic Period (A.D. 800-900) to the Early Historic Period. Three whole ceramic vessels from these burials and sherds from four Terminal Classic and Postclassic unslipped ceramic types, six slipped and polychrome types, and three censer types were better dated by this analysis. AMS radiocarbon analysis of a perinatal burial and an offering of human bones indicates the occupation of the islands in the decades immediately before and around the Spanish Conquest of the Itzá at Taj Itzá in A.D. 1697 (Jones 1998).

The hilly eastern island supports 16 structures arranged in concentric groups of terraces with domestic structures on the lower terraces (Figure 2a). The acropolis group (Figure 5) consists of five structures including an eastern pyramidal temple (Q14) and a Postclassic open hall (Q18). Surrounding this group, Structure Q19 is immediately west and down slope from Structure Q18. During test excavations west of Structure Q19, I discovered a stratified midden that was underlain by two burials. The upper stratum (Level 2) of the midden included ceramics tentatively dated by Rice as Very Late Postclassic (A.D. 1250-1450; Figure 6). A lower stratum (L. 3) of the midden is dated by Rice to the Early Late Postclassic (A.D. 1250-1350).

Burial #2 is an extended, well-preserved adult female skeleton in a limestone cyst, aligned approximately westward (Figure 6, L. 5, Figure 7, shown above, and Figure 8). The burial offerings seemingly included four whole ceramic vessels. One vessel, a Jato Black-on-Grey tripodal dish, was placed over the cranium and dates to the Early Terminal Classic (Rice 1987:82-83 and personal communication; Figure 9, shown above and Figure 10). A red-slipped vase supported the cranium. It was most likely a polychrome, however all paint has eroded (Figure 10). Burial #3 is a perinatal human encountered within a large ceramic olla capped by a small plate (all human remains analyzed by SIUC physical anthropologist William Duncan; Figures 11, 12, and 13, shown below, and Figure 14). This vessel was placed at the knees and slightly above burial #2 so that their association was uncertain until I performed the radiocarbon analysis. The height of the vessel (28 cm) means that it protruded into the midden above, suggesting it to be a later intrusion. The two vessels are both Chilo Unslipped, a type generally identified with the Very Late Postclassic or Early Historic Periods (post A.D. 1450; Rice 1987:180). However, their placement in association with a putatively Terminal Classic burial complicates this identification.

I collected two samples for radiocarbon dating from these contexts. The first sample is bone material from burial #3. Bone is usable as a C-14 sample because of the sealed nature of the interment, precluding contamination. A cross-section collected from the femur has a high probability of accurate dating. The AMS radiocarbon analysis of the perinatal olla burial (Table 1, shown below) dates to A.D. 1668 ± 43. ¹   This date is exceptionally interesting because it demonstrates the occupation of the island in the decades immediately before and around the Spanish Conquest in this region. Second, it correlates with Rice’s (1987:179-181) identification of Chilo Unslipped ceramics as representative of the Protohistoric Ayer phase. The second sample is charcoalized wood (~ 3 grams) recovered from between the cranium of burial #2 and the tripodal dish. However, dating of this sample yielded an anomalous date of 6147 ± 47 B.C. It is likely, in retrospect, that the wood fragment that was thought to be associated with the burial is an ecofact that was merely part of the natural soil matrix. Nonetheless, the relative dating of the Jato Black-on-Grey tripod dish and other artifacts securely places burial #2 in the Early Terminal Classic Period.

The burials were located at the western edge of an east-west axis through the ceremonial core of the site (Figure 16, shown below). The association of the west with the underworld (Coggins 1980) suggests that the burial locale was a symbolically chosen and powerful place. Human ossuaries are associated with the western margin of ceremonial groups at other Petén Postclassic sites [e.g., Zacpetén (Pugh 2001:279-286, 2003:422) and Topoxté (Bullard 1970)]. The confirmation of two juxtaposed burials over a long time span (Terminal Classic–Early Historic Periods) suggests the persistence of social memory and sacralization of place among the inhabitants (McAnany 1995:160-162).

Structure Q18 is a Postclassic open hall that supports a well-made C-shaped bench and well-preserved stucco floor (Figure 15, Figure 16, shown above). The floor was relatively clean of artifacts but large amounts of charcoalized wood fragments sat in front of the bench. The charcoal may have been deposited through ritual activity since the concentration was near the building centerline. A sample of ~10 grams was collected. Most artifacts from Q18 come from the already mentioned midden, including Terminal Classic and Postclassic fine serving wares. The charcoal sample was AMS dated to A.D. 810 ± 43. The occupation of the open hall with the C-shaped bench demonstrates that the eastern island acropolis group was utilized early in the Terminal Classic Period. It also confirms that C-shaped bench structures were built in the Quexil-Petenxil Basin at a relatively early date. The finding places both the occupation of Structure Q18 along with the interment of burial #2 in the Early Terminal Classic Period (A.D. 800-900). This fact is important to my culture historical reconstruction of the movement of local inhabitants within the Quexil-Petenxil Basins to the islands. It also demonstrates the use of C-shaped bench forms at a relatively early date in the Quexil Basin.

The smaller western island supports six structures, arranged on architectural terraces roughly on a north-south axis (Figure 2b). The most southerly terrace supports a diminutive temple-open hall complex, structures Q1 and Q2 (Figure 17). Structure Q1 is a temple with an east-facing staircase in front of which Late Postclassic effigy censer fragments were deposited. These censers featured modeled depictions of Maya gods (Figure 18), including a fragmentary depiction of the diving god. I excavated a test pit on axis into the west side of Q1 that revealed an offering of human bone intruded into the structural fill. The offering includes two clavicles, a humerus, and female pelvis with Terminal Classic and Postclassic ceramics (Rice, personal communication). I recovered a sample of wood charcoal (<5 grams) among the bones that was dated to A.D. 1652 ± 41 (Table 1). Structure Q1 is abutted by a low open hall to the north, Structure Q2, with a C-shaped bench. A hearth feature was discovered on the bench surface that includes burnt rocks, sherds and fragments of wood charcoal (~5 grams) that were dated to A.D. 1041 ± 33. The radiocarbon analysis dates the occupation of the open hall and deposition of the offering at Q1 and provides a comparison of chronologies between the western and eastern islands.

For the western island, it is less certain if the settlement was mostly built in the Terminal Classic Period, although certainly Terminal Classic sherds were found on that island. However, the ceramic date of an upper level of construction fill for Structure Q1 to the Late Early Postclassic (A.D. 1100-1200) and the hearth date of the adjoining Structure Q2, an open hall demonstrate better the Early Postclassic occupation of this island. The dating of the offering of human bone that was placed intrusively into the west side of the structure indicates the long term usage of this structure group. The occupation of both islands thus spans into the period of Spanish contact with the Itzá Maya, culminating with conquest of A.D. 1697. These dates also corroborate the 1690s account the Spanish chronicler Juan Villagutierre Soto-Mayor (Comparato 1983:343) who in a written manuscript described the island village of "Equexil", likely the Quexil Islands, ²   as inhabited by Itzá Maya who were engaged in religious activities ("idolatry") at a temple. That is, the evidence of effigy censers or "idols" found in association with temple buildings on both islands supports the use of these islands for religious ritual during the time frame of Villagutierre’s description.

Endnotes

1. All radiocarbon dates discussed here are both calibrated and corrected.

2. "Equexil" and "Eckixil" are most likely versions of Ek’ el xiw, a Mayan toponym Hofling and Tesucún (1997:xiii, 237) identify as meaning ek’, or black, and el xiw, an herb or plant. Likely a specific plant grew in the vicinity of Lake Quexil, from which the lake’s name is derived.

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