Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T17:33:41.530Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE RISE OF SECONDARY STATES IN THE SOUTHEASTERN PERIPHERY OF THE MAYA WORLD: A report on recent archaeological and epigraphic research at Pusilha, Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2004

Geoffrey E. Braswell ,
Christian M. Prager ,
Cassandra R. Bill ,
Sonja A. Schwake  and
Jennifer B. Braswell
Geoffrey E. Braswell
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, M.C. 0535, La Jolla, CA 92093-0532, USA
Christian M. Prager
Affiliation:
Institut für Altamerikanistik und Ethnologie, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn, Römerstraße 164, D-53117, Bonn, Germany
Cassandra R. Bill
Affiliation:
Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Sonja A. Schwake
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, M.C. 0535, La Jolla, CA 92093-0532, USA
Jennifer B. Braswell
Affiliation:
Center for Research in Biological Structure, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, M.C. 0043, La Jolla, CA 92093-0043, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How does state-level political organization develop in small polities located in peripheral areas? The Pusilha Archaeological Project, which has completed two field seasons, is studying political and economic development at the ancient Maya city of Pusilha, Toledo District, Belize. Pusilha emerged in the Early Classic period (a.d. 250–600) as a small regional polity, but throughout much of the Late Classic period (a.d. 600–800) it may have been influenced by larger neighbors such as Copan and Caracol. Our goals are to study both the political and economic trajectories of the site to better understand processes of integration and state formation from the perspective of a marginal, second-order polity. Our research entails (1) the detailed epigraphic and iconographic study of the 46 monuments known from the site, (2) systematic mapping of the entire 6- to 9-km2 city, (3) test-pitting operations in non-architectural contexts, (4) excavation and consolidation of select structures, and (5) artifact analyses. During the 2001 and 2002 field seasons, described in this report, we conducted systematic survey of a 1.5-km–long transect through the site core, mapped many additional groups at the site, excavated 24 test pits in various architectural groups, excavated and consolidated a partially destroyed structure occupied during the Postclassic period, developed a multi-phase ceramic chronology, and analyzed the many hieroglyphic inscriptions that describe Pusilha's 700-year–long dynastic and mythological history.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , July 2004 , pp. 219 - 233
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ashmore, Wendy A. 1991 Site-Planning Principles and Concepts of Directionality Among the Ancient Maya. Latin American Antiquity 2(3):199–226.Google Scholar
Bill, Cassandra R., Michael G. Callaghan, and Jeanette Castellanos 2003 La cerámica de Cancuén y el región del alto Pasión. In Proyecto Arqueológico Cancuén: informe temporada 2002, edited by Arthur A. Demarest and Tomás Barrientos. Ms. on file, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
Braswell, Geoffrey E. 2001 Pusilhá Archaeological Project: 2001 Annual Report. Ms. on file, Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, and the Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
Chase, Arlen F. 1994 A Contextual Approach to the Ceramics of Caracol, Belize. In Studies in the Archaeology of Caracol, Belize, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase, pp. 157–193. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute MonoGRAPH;04014mo;usb 7. San Francisco.
Culbert, T. Patrick, Laura J. Kosakowsky, Robert E. Fry, and William A. Haviland 1990 The Population of Tikal, Guatemala. In Precolumbian Population History in the Maya Lowlands, edited by T. Patrick Culbert and Don S. Rice, pp. 103–121. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Eberl, Markus 1999 Tod und Begräbnis in der klassischen Maya-Kultur. Master's thesis, Philosophischen Fakultät, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Foias, Antonia E. 1996 Changing Ceramic Production and Exchange Systems and the Classic Maya Collapse in the Petexbatun Region. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI.
Gifford, James C. 1976 Prehistoric Pottery Analysis and the Ceramics of Barton Ramie in the Belize Valley. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 18. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Gruning, E.L. 1930 Report on the British Museum Expedition to British Honduras, 1930. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 60:477–483.Google Scholar
Gruning, E.L. 1931 Excavations for the British Museum. Man 31:26.Google Scholar
Guenter, Stanley 2003 El Mirador and Teotihuacan: The Cultural Foundations of Classic Maya Civilization. Paper presented at the 10th Annual Symposium of the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington, DC.
Hammond, Norman 1975 Lubaantun: A Classic Maya Realm. Monographs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, No. 2. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Joyce, Thomas A. 1929 Report on the British Museum Expedition to British Honduras, 1929. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 59:439–457.Google Scholar
Joyce, Thomas A., Thomas Gann, E.L. Gruning, and R.C.E. Long 1928 Report on the British Museum Expedition to British Honduras, 1928. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 58:323–350.Google Scholar
Leventhal, Richard M. 1990 Southern Belize: An Ancient Maya Region. In Vision and Revision in Maya Studies, edited by F.S. Clancy and P.D. Harrison, pp. 124–141. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
Manahan, T. Kam 2000 Reexaminando los días finales de Copán: Nuevos datos de la fase Ejar. In XIII Simposio de investigaciones arqueológicas en Guatemala, 1999, edited by Juan Pedro Laporte, Héctor L. Escobedo, Ana Claudia de Suasnávar, and Bárbara Arroyo, pp. 1149–1155. Museo Nacional de Arqueología e Etnología, Guatemala.
Marcus, Joyce 1992 Dynamic Cycles of Mesoamerican States: Political Fluctuations in Mesoamerica. National Geographic Research and Exploration 8:392–411.Google Scholar
Marcus, Joyce 1993 Ancient Maya Political Organization. In Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century A.D., edited by J.A. Sabloff and J.S. Henderson, pp. 111–183. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.
Marcus, Joyce 1994 The Collapse of Maya States: A Dynamic Process. Paper presented at the 93rd Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Atlanta, GA.
Marcus, Joyce 1998 The Peaks and Valleys of Ancient States: An Extension of the Dynamic Model. In Archaic States, edited by G.M. Feinman and J. Marcus, pp. 59–94. School of American Research, Santa Fe, NM.
Marcus, Joyce 2003 Recent Advances in Maya Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 11(2):71–148.Google Scholar
Martin, Simon, and Nikolai Grube 2000 The Chronicle of Maya Kings and Queens. Thames and Hudson, London.
Morley, Sylvanus G. 1938 The Inscriptions of Peten, Volume IV. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication 347. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Washington, DC.
Prager, Christian M. 2002 Die Inschriften von Pusilha: Epigraphische Analyse und Rekonstruktion der Geschichte einer klassischen Maya-Stätte. Master's thesis, Philosophischen Fakultät, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Prager, Christian M. 2003 A Study of the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of Pusilha, Toledo District, Belize. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing, Washington, DC, in press.
Reents, D. 1982 The Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of Pusilha: Preliminary Comments. Ms. on file, Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan.
Robichaux, Hubert R. 1995 Ancient Maya Community Patterns in Northwestern Belize: Peripheral Zone Survey of La Milpa and Dos Hombres. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI.
Varela Torrecilla, Carmen, and Geoffrey E. Braswell 2003 Teotihuacan and Oxkintok: New Perspectives from Yucatán. In The Maya and Teotihuacan: Reinterpreting Early Classic Interaction, edited by Geoffrey E. Braswell, pp. 249–271. University of Texas Press, Austin.