Revisiting the Xunantunich Palace: The 2003 Excavations
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Research Year:  2003
Culture:  Maya
Chronology:  Late Classic
Location:  Belize
Site:  Xunantunich

Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Xunantunich and the Upper Belize River Valley
Excavations in the Xunantunich Palace
Objectives
Methodology
Findings
I. Initial Construction of Plaza A-III and Associated Structures, including Str. A-11
II. Changing Access to the Upper Building
III. Dismantling and Filling the Flanking Rooms of the Lower Building
IV. Remodeling the Frontal Terrace and Stairway
V. Dismantling and Filling the Central Room of the Lower Building
VI. Abandonment
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Sources Cited

Abstract

The Xunantunich Archaeological Project (1991-1997) excavated significant portions of the palace complex, including the ruler’s residence and adjacent structures. In 2003, the Xunantunich Palace Excavations program continued clearing the frontal terrace and lower building of Str. A-11, the ruler’s residence. This report synthesizes those two sets of data, with a focus on results of the most recent excavations. I use the data to reconstruct the occupation history of the palace and changes in access patterns and use of different structures. This in turn illuminates Xunantunich’s changing political organization. The palace complex’s simple layout and absence of features like a royal throne suggest that it housed an abbreviated elite court, politically dependent on another polity, likely Naranjo. The palace’s location at the cosmologically powerful northern edge of the site associated its residents with revered ancestors and the celestial realm, and the palace’s built environment created a series of architectural spaces that structured interaction between the polity’s residents and its ruling elite. Increasing restrictions to the ruling family over time reflects ideological changes that distanced ruler from subject, a trend paralleled elsewhere at the site. Roughly 75 years before the abandonment of Xunantunich, the palace’s residents vacated the complex, and it was partially dismantled, indicating a radical shift in rulership at the site.

Submitted 02/14/2005 by:
Jason Yaeger
Department of Anthropology
University of Wisconsin - Madison
jyaeger@wisc.edu

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