Onset of the Early Classic Period in the Southern Maya Lowlands: New Evidence From Punta De Chimino, Guatemala

Abstract

Desecration of Punta de Chimino's ceremonial precinct around a.d. 430 was associated with the appearance of green Pachuca obsidian, pyrite mirror fragments, dart points, a Tikal-style vessel cache, and a peculiar grave with Mexican semblances. A structurally housed Protoclassic stela was removed in an apparent fire ritual and monumental masks adorning the E-Group range building were effaced in a termination rite involving large quantities of refuse. Disuse of the E-Group range building and unfinished refurbishment of the observatory pyramid suggest the site was promptly deserted. The forsaking of this time-honored ceremonial place coincided with reduced settlement in the Petexbatun region and abandonment of the nearby Pasión centers of Ceibal, Itzan, and Chaak Ak'al. Punta de Chimino's findings shed further light on these abandonments, suggesting that they were triggered by amplified central lowland involvement in Pasión River affairs by the end of the fourth century a.d.

Tikal's Early Classic Domination of the Great Western Trade Route: Ceramic, Lithic, and Iconographic Evidence

“…The Early Classic material shows strong outside influences and multiple ties to the central Peten, which corresponds with the close ties noted by Bachand (2006, 2010) at Punta de Chimino beginning in a.d. 430. The iconographic data in particular show interactions with the Tikal sphere, which corroborates data from Carot (1989) in the Candelaria system and Ichon and Arnauld (1985) in La Lagunita.…”

“…The Petexbatun material did not necessarily fall into the same chronological pitfalls, since the majority of investigations were limited to the Late and Terminal Classic periods in order to investigate the causes of the Classic Maya collapse. More recent research (Bachand 2006, 2010; Eberl 2007; Escobedo 1997) in the Petexbatun region has demonstrated the existence of a local dynasty (referred to as the “Scroll Dynasty” by Houston [1993] and Eberl [2007]) that existed at the sites of Tamarindito and Arroyo de Piedra. Petexbatun residents were involved in interregional trade—directly or indirectly—with other areas beyond the Maya world, as evinced by the presence of Mexican obsidian from at least two sources from fill at Punta de Chimino (Aoyama 2009; Eberl 2007).…”

“…Petexbatun residents were involved in interregional trade—directly or indirectly—with other areas beyond the Maya world, as evinced by the presence of Mexican obsidian from at least two sources from fill at Punta de Chimino (Aoyama 2009; Eberl 2007). While the dynasty appears to have been independent with little influence outside of the region, the region appears to have become so closely related to the central Peten in a.d. 430 that one recent dissertation (Bachand 2006:488, 2010) suggested that it had actually been conquered by Tikal.…”

“…Tikal's importance during the Early Classic period has been long recognized and discussed (Bachand 2010; Culbert 1996a, 1996b:314; Jones 1996:111; Martin 2003; Sabloff 2003). Epigraphic and iconographic data have shown the very aggressive military politic developed by its rulers at that time (see, for example, Martin and Grube 2000) toward its close neighbors, and its associations with the founding of the Copan and Quirigua dynasties have been interpreted as a clear strategy to obtain a privileged access to highlands goods and trade routes (Sharer 2003b).…”

Building an Early Maya Community: Archaeological Investigations at Caobal, Guatemala

“…These sequential platform renovations, however, created more restricted access to the temple precinct and ceremonies that took place in Caobal's main plaza. This pattern of restricted ceremonial space is repeated at a number of Pasión centers around this time (Bachand 2010;Johnston 2006;Smith 1972) albeit in variant architectural forms. The dedicatory burial practices associated with Caobal's renovated temple platform further imply new expressions of corporeal, as opposed to supernatural, power.…”