To tbe south, the Maya Mountains zone is associated with the origin of the major rivers of southeastern Peten (Machaquila, Pusilha, Mopan, and Chiquibul).
Le Maya Mountains extend into southeastern Peten, Guatemala (municipios of olores, Poptun, and San Luis), from the Stann Creek district in Belize, where e central and highest cordillera is located (Dunham and Prufer 1998). This ountainous zone, measuring approximately 150 to 100 kilometers wide, has
Been widely studied in its physical aspects (Ford and Williams 1989; E. Graham 1987a; Jennings 1985; Laporte 1996; Ower 1928).
Overall, this mountain chain is characterized by low elevation (below 1100 meters above sea level) and consists of a volcanic core of igneous and metamor-phic material surrounded by a heavily eroded limestone cliff, situated along a sedimentary plain. Elevation varies, creating micro-niches in small basins and plateaus with good agricultural soil. The area has a high degree of biodiversity, usually indicating mature and undisturbed tropical forests (Miller and Miller 1994: 15). It has two well-differentiated vegetation sectors: pine forests and tropical rainforest. Fields of corozo palms {Orbignya cohune) are also common, and may be part of the region’s original vegetation. The karstic nature of this landscape is appropriate for the formation of sinks {resumidews or siguanes) and caves, as a consequence of soil, bedrock, and water. Lagoons (bajos or ponors) form in some areas where these sinks do not have enough water flow. Residual limestone hills or domes also emerge through the alluvial plains.
The Guatemalan sector of the Maya Mountains is subdivided into four areas: the San Luis Mountains, the Dolores-Poptun Plateau, the eastern high mountains, and the northern Yaltutu sierra. Although all four areas have been surveyed, only the Dolores Plateau and high mountain areas have relevant Terminal Classic components for discussion here.
The Wet Savanna Subregion
To the north, humid savannas occur in the extensive valleys of the region’s rivers, along with other drier zones (Figure 10.1). Many climatic, edaphic, and floristic features must be considered in defining savannas (Bartlett 1956; Cole 1986; Furley 1992; Hammond 1980; Harris 1980; Hopkins 1992; Laporte 1996; Lundell 1937; Snow 1988; Stevens 1964). Although different types of tropical savannas can be defined, they share structural and functional characteristics that allow them to survive seasonal droughts, while their vegetation is favored by a high degree of light intensity, temperature, and evaporation.
The term “wet savanna” identifies certain conditions of precipitation (>1000 millimeters), water table, and soil texture (more clay than sand). Wet savannas in southeastern Peten are mixed tropical forest zones and fluvial valleys with permanent rivers (Mopan, Salsipuedes, and Chiquibul to the east and San Juan to the west). Here I do not consider the Chiquibul and lower Mopan Valleys, both surveyed in the 1998 and 1999 seasons of the Atlas Arqueologico project. A good part of the settlement is already known, with large centers like Naranjo, Caracol, and Xunantunich.
Another wet savanna area in southeastern Peten lies in the municipio of Santa Ana. It is not associated with the fluvial valleys mentioned above and lacks surface water. Edaphically, the area responds to a drier climatic pattern than other wet savannas, with fewer and smaller islands of tropical forest. Despite previous indications of low settlement potential in this zone (D. Rice and P. Rice 1979; P. Rice and D. Rice 1979), recent surveys indicate more complex occupation.
Productive Resources
A wide variety of raw materials rare in other central lowland zones are found in the mountain area. The area itself consists of a block of metamorphic sediments with volcanic intrusions. Rocks include granite, sandstone, and quartzite, as well as schist and slate (Bateson 1972; Hall and Bateson 1972; Healy et al. 1995). In Belize, several resources have been documented: porphyritic andesite, diorite, porphyry, and conglomerate cemented by silica, materials used for making grinding stones and identified in samples from Papayal and Ruina Martin in Belize (Dunham 1996: 329) and Uaxactun and Seibal in Peten (Shipley and Graham 1987). Massive beds of hematite, pyrite, goethite, limonite, and manganese oxide in the granite intrusions were used for making red, orange, and yellow pigments (Bullard 1963; Dunham 1996; E. Graham 1987a; Ower 1928). Furthermore, high quality clays for ceramic production have been found in many caves or in surface contexts, resulting from the erosion of volcanic materials.
Similarly, the pine forests and tropical forests of the Maya Mountains offer varied botanical and zoological resources (Dunham and Prufer 1998), because the annual rainfall is higher than in any other part in the region and the temperature is more moderate. Resources obtained from the pine forests include resins and ocote for illumination. Moreover, the soils in the mountains allowed production of com and beans, just as today (Laporte 1993), as well cacao cultivation.
The location of some sites is ideal for exploitation and exchange of resources, that is, maximizing the access to mineral and biotic resources, permanent water, dry and plain terrain, and soils for agriculture (Dunham and Prufer 1998). Networks of exploitation and exchange existed along the rivers. Such exchange could have been internal and short range, and helped to establish more distant contacts. This territory’s location also had economic importance for regional trade routes that crossed the central lowlands (Lee and Navarrete 1978). Some centers are located in sectors where the long-distance routes must have passed, as suggested by the preference for the same route in the Colonial period and today. Routes through the mountains were favored in order to avoid the lower zones, where rivers and flooded areas are larger. The mountain routes allow an east-west passage, linking the Caribbean with the Usumacinta system, as well as north-south movement, favoring communication between the lowlands and highlands.
World History
