Archaeological Reconnaissance at Tixan: Explorations in the Southern Sierra del Lacandón National Park, Petén, Guatemala

Discussion and Conclusions

The results of this season's reconnaissance in the southern area of the Sierra del Lacandón National Park have significantly improved our understanding of settlement within the Yaxchilán kingdom. Based on previous work by the SLRAP, we proposed that Tecolote and La Pasadita constituted the northern Late Classic border of the Yaxchilán kingdom (Golden, Scherer, et al. 2005). Both of these sites were secondary centers, and from the epigraphic record, we know with certainty that La Pasadita was ruled by a sajal subordinate to the k'uhul ajaw of Yaxchilán (Golden 2003a; Martin and Grube 2000: 124). However, prior to the work reported here, we lacked an understanding of settlement between the polity capital at Yaxchilán and the secondary centers along the northern border.

Based on three weeks of reconnaissance, we now know that settlement was dense in the Yaxchilán kingdom, as dense as anything encountered within the realm of Piedras Negras (Golden, Romero, et al. 2005; Golden, et al. 2003). Further, we have a general sense of the settlement hierarchy in the Yaxchilán kingdom. Following conventions established for cross-cultural studies of settlement hierarchy, settlement in the Yaxchilán kingdom can be divided into four levels (Marcus 2003: 103; 2004: 359). At the apex of this hierarchy was Yaxchilán itself. Secondary centers included La Pasadita, Tecolote, and Oso Negro. We know these sites were ruled by important nobles based on inscriptions from La Pasadita and Yaxchilán, as well as looted monuments from as of yet unknown sites in the area (Golden 2003a; Martin and Grube 2000). We know that the sajal had significant political functions (Culbert 1991; Houston and Stuart 2001; Parmington 2003; Schele 1991) and it is quite likely that they governed not only the secondary centers in which they lived, but administered nearby, lower-order sites as well. These sajaloob (sajal, pl.) were not only local governors, but were important military allies of Yaxchilán's rulers. The military function of the secondary centers ruled by the sajaloob is further underscored by the defensive nature of settlement at these sites, which is primarily located atop hills, and in some cases associated with probable defensive fortifications.

Based on observations in the Piedras Negras kingdom, tertiary centers would be expected to correspond to sites with a definable core of public architecture, but would nonetheless lack monumental architecture and associated inscriptions. At the fourth level were small rural agricultural hamlets with no definable site center.

Interestingly, defining tertiary and quaternary level centers is difficult in the Yaxchilán kingdom. For instance, settlement at Unión Maya Itza is extensive and would suggest it is a third order center, yet the lack of an obvious site core indicates a lack of an administrative node. El Túnel, with at least one small pyramidal structure, may constitute a tertiary center. Yet, the overall settlement size and density, as well as the quality of the masonry work, are more similar to what we know of the secondary centers. For El Túnel, there may exist an as yet unidentified monumental core for the site. Further, the presence of a probable defensive feature between El Túnel and La Pasadita, may indicate that El Túnel was not even part of the Yaxchilán kingdom. At El Kinel, the density of settlement and quality of architecture would suggest a third order center, yet the presence of a monument featuring the ruler of Yaxchilán would indicate the site had a more significant function.

This confusion is in contrast to what has been found to date in the Piedras Negras kingdom, where differentiating between second, third, and fourth order centers is relatively straightforward (Golden, Roman, et al. 2005; Golden, Scherer, et al. 2005). This suggests that Yaxchilán and Piedras Negras may have had different settlement hierarchies and taken alternative approaches to political organization in their respective Late Classic kingdoms. Further, the distinction between tertiary and quaternary centers in the Yaxchilán kingdom may not even be valid. Rather, it is possible that all rural settlement in the Yaxchilán polity was administered from second order centers like Tecolote and La Pasadita. Clearly, further research is needed to clarify this issue.

Nonetheless, one way in which the Yaxchilán kingdom paralleled that of Piedras Negras was in its bimodal cycle of settlement (Golden, Scherer, et al. 2005: 15-16). The following scenario can be extrapolated from the available data, though it needs to be confirmed with more complete chronological information from additional sites. During the Late Preclassic, Yaxchilán was apparently a relatively insignificant center. At the same time, La Técnica demonstrates evidence of occupation during the Late Preclassic period and the early part of the Early Classic period, including civic ceremonial architecture. However, by the end of the Early Classic period, the site was apparently abandoned. We can speculate that in the Early Classic period, as Yaxchilán rose to power, the countryside around the site was almost entirely abandoned as people immigrated into the center, perhaps drawn by the appearance of dynastic rule at Yaxchilán. However, in the Late Classic period, populations returned to the countryside around Yaxchilán at sites such as Unión Maya Itza, La Técnica, and El Túnel. This emigration was possibly motivated by rising populations at the polity capital. At the same time, secondary centers were established at La Pasadita, Tecolote, and Oso Negro, all three of which apparently date exclusively to the 8^th century A.D.  A similar pattern has already been proposed for the Piedras Negras kingdom, for which more complete archaeological information is available (Golden 2003b; Golden, Scherer, et al. 2005; Houston, et al. 2003).

Future investigations by the SLRAP will target excavations at secondary, tertiary, and rural centers in both the Yaxchilán and Piedras Negras kingdoms to clarify this settlement history. Specifically, we are interested in exploring changing processes of frontier and border formation within the Sierra del Lacandón and to determine whether control of land was an implicit desire for the lords of Yaxchilán and Piedras Negras. To do so, we will be examining changes in not only settlement histories, but community identities within the region. Finally, these data will be integrated with research in human osteology, zooarchaeology, and agronomy to clarify issues of resource production and redistribution within the Sierra del Lacandón.

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