The Investigation of Classic Period Maya Warfare at Caracol, Belize (original) (raw)

The organization and composition of classic lowland Maya society: the view from Caracol, Belize

Eighth Palenque Round Table, 1993

Earliest known habitation at Caracol. ca. A.D. 70 Structure A6-1st, "Temple of the Wooden Lintel," constructed; full Maya ritual complex present at Caracol. A.D. 250-900 Classic A.D. 331 Caracol Royal dynasty officially founded. ca. A.D. 480 Elite tomb placed in Structure D16. A.D. 531 Accession of Lord Water's predecessor. A.D. 537 Use of initial tomb in Structure B20-3rd. A.D. 553 Accession of Caracol Ruler Lord Water. A.D. 556 'Axe-Event' involving Tikal. A.D. 562 'Star-War' defeat of Tikal by Caracol. A.D. 575 Birth of Smoke Ahau. A.D. 577 One of three tombs in Structure B20-2nd used. A.D. 577 or 582 Front tomb in Structure A34 initially consecrated. A.D. 588 Birth of Caracol Ruler Kan II. A.D. 599 Accession of Caracol Lord Smoke Ahau. A.D. 614 Tomb in Structure L3-2nd covered. A.D. 618 Accession of Kan II. A.D. 626-636 Naranjo wars; major expansion of Caracol follows. A.D. 634 Woman's tomb in Structure B19-2nd closed. A.D. 658 Accession of Caracol Ruler Smoke Skull; Death of Kan II. ca. A.D. 690 Final use of front tomb in Structure A34. A.D. 696 Tomb in Structure A3-1st covered. A.D. 702 Capture of Tikal lord noted on Stela 21. A.D. 800 Capture of 3 prisoners, including Ucanal lord, by Caracol Ruler Hok K'awil, his father, or his underlings. A.D. 859 Last recorded date at Caracol on Stela 10. A.D. 900-1500 Postclassic ca. A.D. 1050-1100 Last use of Caracol Structure A6; Caracol totally abandoned.

Maya Warfare: Implications of Architecture that Infers Violence in the Preclassic Maya Lowlands

This thesis presents archaeological data collected in 2008, 2010 and 2011 from El Mirador to assess Maya warfare during the Late Preclassic (400 B.C. – A.D. 250). One school of thought argues that warfare prior to the Late Classic (A.D. 600) was largely ritualistic. If true, it would preclude the need for large scale defensive features prior to this time. The other school believes warfare played a major role in the rise of complexity as early as the Middle Preclassic (600 B.C.). I document a feature called, “The Wall” one of the features that enhanced the defensive posture of El Mirador. A survey of the Maya lowlands shows that defensive features were a regular component of Preclassic architecture. No evidence was found to support the claim that Preclassic warfare was ritualistic. Instead, considerable evidence shows that massive expenditures were directed at making site cores defensible. This suggests that warfare was a serious concern during the Preclassic.

Ancient Maya Warfare: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Socio-Political Strategies among the Maya from the Classic Period to the Present, 2014

Ancient Maya armed conflicts have recently been studied extensively. This article builds both on earlier and on innovative research, examining the topic from the point of view of traditional disciplines, such as archaeology, epigraphy, iconography, and Colonial history, but also introducing a new actor -military sciences. Notwithstanding the progress in the field of Maya epigraphy and the advancement in the co-operation between different disciplines, we are still lacking a thorough analysis of ancient Maya armed conflicts. The article seeks to bring together all potential disciplines relevant to the study of ancient Maya warfare and invites scholars in the future to accumulate further data and prospective research questions on the topic. The article calls for interdisciplinary co-operation between different branches of learning, including military sciences -and its sub-branches, such as military geography. As regards the motivation of war, some theories stress economic over ideological factors and ritualistic captive-taking over political motivations. One of the strategies of any military force in the world is to secure captives and/or to 'inactivate' the enemy leaders. It is quite possible that this was the case with the ancient Maya as well. The author argues that the primary motivations of ancient Maya warfare were political and economic -rather than religious or ideological, with the caveat that motivations for warfare almost certainly varied between the elite and the commoners.

Chronology and the Evidence for War in the Ancient Maya Kingdom of Piedras Negras

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2022

Through a case study of the Classic period (A.D. 350–900) kingdom of Piedras Negras, this paper addresses a number of debates in the archaeology of war among the ancient Maya. These findings have broader comparative use in ongoing attempts to understand war in the precolonial Americas, including the frequency of war, its role in processes of polity formation and collapse, the involvement of non-elites in combat, and the cause and effect of captive-taking. This paper provides the first synthesis of a number of datasets pertaining to war and violence in the region of Piedras Negras while presenting new settlement data gleaned from recent lidar survey of the area. Focus is especially on tracing the material, iconographic, and epigraphic evidence for war in diachronic perspective. Material evidence includes the spatial distribution of settlement, presence of fortifications, weaponry, and human skeletal remains demonstrating evidence of traumatic injury. Additional data are drawn from epigraphy and iconography. As with all archaeological contexts, there are crucial gaps in the record. Nevertheless, by combining these datasets it is possible to reconstruct a history of warfare within this precolonial indigenous polity of the first millennium.

Caracol, Belize, and Changing Perceptions of Ancient Maya Society

Journal of Archaeological Research, 2016

Archaeological research at Caracol, an ancient Maya site that was rediscovered in 1937, has become a major resource in the interpretation and understanding of the ancient Maya. Caracol, in west-central Belize, is situated in a subtropical region once characterized as being unsuitable for the development or maintenance of complex societies, yet it is one of the largest, if not the largest Classic period Maya site in the southern Maya Lowlands, home to over 100,000 people at its height between AD 600 and 700. The investigations at Caracol underscore the utility of long-term archaeological projects incorporating large-scale settlement study that combine excavation with varied research designs and the use of a contextual approach. By employing Maya epigraphic history, traditional archaeology, and modern technology like LiDAR, research at Caracol details the rise, maintenance, and fall of an ancient Maya city, affording a large window into ancient Maya lifeways. Archaeological work provides evidence of sustainable agriculture, a market economy, city planning that included a road system, the impact of warfare on the site's inhabitants, the sociopolitical status of women, the role that archaeology can play in refining written history, and the significance of commemorating the cyclical passage of time to the ancient Maya. This article

TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC LANDSCAPES: A STUDY OF MAYA FORTIFICATION AT TZUNUN, CHIAPAS, MEXICO

Ancient Mesoamerica, 2023

Although studies of warfare are now common in Maya archaeology, much remains to be learned about strategy, tactics, and various other practical factors in the process of making war. An emphasis on the concrete and practical is necessary to both acknowledge agency and understand how conflict relates to the human experience. Through an examination of documentary and archaeological data in a comparative framework, I elaborate on practices of Maya fortification construction and how the creation of a martial landscape ties into relations of power during the Late Postclassic/Early Spanish Colonial period (a.d. 1200-1600). During this period, in the region of Mensabak, Chiapas, Mexico, Maya peoples fortified a peninsula according to principles of defense-indepth. In other words, they created layers of fortification to slow and stall an attack. My analysis reveals how the creation of a martial landscape shaped local culture by incorporating elements of sacred geography and ritual landscape to perpetuate social inequality.

Stones, Bones, and Crowded Plazas: Evidence for Terminal Classic Maya warfare at Colha, Belize

This study provides a synthetic review of the Terminal Classic collapse of the Maya site of Colha, Belize, based on new data drawn from recent lithic and osteological studies and previously reported information. The well-known Colha skull pit has figured prominently in previous hypotheses of the site's collapse, which focus on either warfare or ritual termination. In this review, these two hypotheses are reexamined using data from: (1) shifts in settlement patterns; (2) transitions in lithic production; and (3) the death en masse of at least 55 individuals coincident with the site's abandonment. Based on the evidence presented here, we argue that warfare precipitated Colha's collapse. In light of Colha's role as a secondary site that functioned primarily as a lithic-production locality, the Terminal Classic destruction of the site illustrates the significance of material motivations in Maya warfare and accents the diversity of collapse processes in the Maya Lowlands.

UNLEASHING MAYA WARFARE: INQUIRY INTO THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF WAR-MAKING

Ancient Mesoamerica, 2023

Across many decades of Maya archaeology, the study of war has typically been focused on its geopolitical, systemic, evolutionary, and structural implications. We argue these approaches stand to benefit from deeper interrogations of practice. Such a perspective shifts scholarly attention toward the ways in which Maya peoples prepared for and engaged in combat, and how they administered the outcomes of war. Deploying this approach requires the study of tactics, strategy, fortifications, materiel, landscape, embodiment, and a host of other related factors. With the issue of practice at the forefront of our analysis, we demonstrate how the study of war has been "blackboxed" in Maya archaeology, then undertake a comparative analysis to highlight how digging into the details of past martial practice enriches debates in Mesoamerican studies regarding the role of war in the rise and disintegration of states.

CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF WARFARE IN THE MAYA WORLD

Ancient Mesoamerica, 2023

Archaeological studies worldwide have revealed a wide range of cultural contexts within which practices of violence and warfare have occurred. In Mesoamerica, ongoing studies have enriched our understanding of social contexts of violence and warfare in Maya societies. This expanding body of field data allows deeper exploration of the ways violence was intricately linked to different aspects of cultural life for many Maya communities. In this article, we contemplate the culturally embedded nature of violence and warfare with a specific focus on the Classic period and questions related to political strategy, ritual practices, and total warfare. We provide empirical frameworks for the study of war to address issues of ritual warfare and societal impact, and we emphasize a regional scale of analysis.