Terminal Classic changes and the decline of Classic-period kingdoms is probably more precisely reconstructed for the Petexbatun than for any other region of the Maya world. This more complete view is due to the combined efforts of forty years of researches in the region, which have refined our understandings of ceramics, chronology, epigraphy, art, and regional culture-history (e. g., I. Graham 1967; Willey and Smith 1969; Willey 1973; Houston 1987a; Demarest 1989,1990, 1997; Demarest and Escobedo 1998). By the end of the Vanderbilt University Petexbatun and Punta de Chimino projects, ceramic sequences closely linked to historical and architectural chronologies were able to subdivide the Late and Terminal Classic into three distinct periods:
1. Full Tepeu 2 (Nacimiento phase, Early Facet) from about a. d. 630 to 760
2. Late Tepeu 2 (Nacimiento phase. Late Facet) from about a. d. 760 to 830
3. Terminal Classic (Sepens phase, Tepeu 3) from a. d. 830 to a. d. 950/1000.
Ceramic markers distinguishing the Late Facet of the Tepeu 2 Nacimiento phase include not only decorative attribute and form frequencies, but the presence of new pastes and types (Figure 6.2), particularly imported Chablekal Fine Gray and local imitations of this fine paste ceramic (Foias 1996; Foias and Bishop 1997). Note that significant quantities of Chablekal, as well as their own local imitations, have been found in the recent excavations at Cancuen more than sixty kilometers to the south in the Upper Pasion (Demarest and Barrientos 1999, 2000, 2001,2002). Ultimately, it should be possible to use these late Tepeu 2 markers to subdivide chronologies throughout western Peten. In turn, such chronological refinement would illuminate our comparative understanding of the eighth-and ninth-century processes throughout the western Maya world.
Changes in ceramics allow assessment of shifts in settlement, population, architecture, and economy at the end of the Classic period. Terminal Classic, and the initial Postclassic. The eighth-century historical inscriptions record wars, alliances, and dynastic struggles, and then fall silent as public architecture and monuments cease, first at Dos Pilas and later at other centers in the region. Paralleling the political fragmentation, ceramic production becomes more localized and less standardized, as conflicts disrupted patterns of exchange (Foias 1996; Foias and Bishop 1997). Other eighth-century changes in the Petexbatun and Pasion region include the development of new house forms, such as those with C-shaped benches, once believed to be a Postclassic development or a “foreign”
Poice Insiso
Altar Naranja
Camaron Lnsiso
6.2 Some Terminal Classic ceramic types of the Petexbatun. Courtesy of Vanderbilt L niversity Press.
Element introduced at the time of the “collapse.” The Petexbatun evidence shows that many such elements were present in the eighth century at Dos Pilas and at other sites in the Pasion before the Terminal Classic (Palka 1995; Tourtellot and Gonzalez, Chapter 4, this volume). The salient change in settlement in the late eighth century is concentration of settlements on natural defensible locations and the conversions of major site epicenters and even villages into palisaded forts (O’Mansky and Dunning, Chapter 5, this volume).
Major site epicenters were in ruins with only small remnant populations present by the early to middle ninth century, as marked by the shift to Tepeu 3 ceramic forms, modes, and wares. These include Fine Gray, Fine Orange, characteristic Terminal Classic incurved wall tripod bowls, and other clear diagnostics (Foias 1996). By the beginning of the Terminal Classic period, reduced populations are found in scattered households or small hamlets inland. Population at Dos Pilas was reduced to 20 percent of previous levels by the end of the eighth century (Palka 1997), and by the Terminal Classic, small hamlets of a few households were located near the springs in the ruined epicenters of Dos Pilas, Tamarindito, and Arroyo de Piedra.
The only major Tepeu 3 epicenters with substantial population still constructing monumental architecture were located in defensible positions along the Pasion and its tributaries. Seibal, Altar, and the smaller island fortress of Punta de Chimino are the best excavated of these Terminal Classic enclaves. Excavations at these three centers, together with the Petexbatun Project study of the hamlets and houses inland, allow a characterization of the economy and material culture of the Terminal Classic and a contrast with the Classic period. Comparisons of the full range of changes in the Late to Terminal Classic allow speculations on the causes for the eighth and early ninth century acceleration of warfare, depopulation, and the political collapse of the inland centers.
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