Investigations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala: 1999 Field Season

Among the River Kings: Archaeological Research at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
Stephen D. Houston, Héctor Escobedo, Richard Terry, David Webster, George Veni, and Kitty F. Emery

Conclusion and Prospect

In large part, the 1999 field season confirmed and extended patterns perceived in earlier seasons. Chronology was refined considerably by the recovery of stratified sequences in solid architectural context. The beginnings of Piedras Negras, and its ending, appeared as abrupt as ever, with little evidence of gradual development or steady decline. As a city, Piedras Negras came into existence with astonishing rapidity, and in evident break from the villages that had formerly occupied the site. During the Preclassic, the rule seemed to have been discontinuity and episodic settlement. During the Classic there existed an unbroken ceramic sequence unruffled by the so-called hiatus, although, strangely, the evidence for breaks in architecture was strong and marked by burning events. At present, we do not believe that these events, seemingly varied in their precise dating, resulted from warfare: the destruction was too thorough and deliberate, with complete leveling of structures. Nonetheless, one does wonder whether these events arose from a profound dynastic shift, in studied break with earlier rulers of Piedras Negras. To a notable extent, the Early Classic kings are opaque in biographical terms, a problem we hope to address by concentrating on the South Group in our next season. As for the Collapse, at Piedras Negras this event–a more apt label than "process," which connotes time depth–took place with extraordinary speed. What is counterintuitive is the evidence, still to be tested in future work, that occupation in the palace outlived the city itself, perhaps an example of rulers without anyone to rule. The paradoxes of this pattern may be elucidated by more test-pitting or shovel-testing in the periphery of Piedras Negras. The Kings of the River, the lords of Piedras Negras, have spoken through their ruins, and it is up to us to discern, with all available tools, what they had to say.

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