In the Petexbatun, the “proximate” manifestations of these common stresses broke out in the intercenter warfare and political fragmentation of the Late Classic political system. Between a. d. 760 and 830, first major centers and then even villages had been fortified and besieged—or were simply abandoned (see O’Mansky and Dunning, Chapter 5, this volume). The aftermath of this process and the nature of surviving population centers may provide insights into the end of Classic Maya civilization in general, as well as the possible impact of Petexbatun events on other regions of the lowlands.
By the end of the Late Classic and into the Terminal Classic, reduced settlement location and economic systems had adapted to the militarized landscape of the Petexbatun. Localized intensive food production systems, including box terraces, sunken gardens, dams, and intensive household gardens have been found near the defensible royal epicenter at Tamarindito and on the periphery of the extensive defensive system of Aguateca (Dunning et al. 1993, 1995, 1997; Dunning and Beach 1994, 2004; Van Tuerenhout 1996; Inomata 1995, 1997). Slope terraces have also been tentatively identified near hilltop village forts at the end of the eighth century (O’Mansky and Dunning, Chapter 5, this volume). By the beginning of the Terminal Classic, marked by Fine Orange and the Tepeu 3 diagnostics, most of these defensible or fortified locations had been abandoned. Only riverine enclaves like Punta de Chimino, Seibal, and Altar de Sacrificios continued to erect public architecture as part of the problematic Cycle 10 Terminal Classic occupation of those centers (see Tourtellot and Gonzalez, Chapter 4, this volume).
The best evidence of Terminal Classic subsistence and coordination of site defenses with food production systems was recovered at the site of Punta de Chimino. There, massive earthworks constructed in the eighth century formed three sets of walls and deep moats excavated into the limestone bedrock. The moats cut off the peninsula, creating an artificial island fortress (Figure 6.3). While the outer island itself was densely occupied in the Terminal Classic, the only occupation in the two adjacent moated zones of the peninsula was one residence near the third moat. The intermediate zone had crude low walls forming closed areas or terraces that were not associated with houses or middens.
Excavation of these features led to identification of these zones as areas of intensive food production, including low stone box gardens (Figure 6.4). Then, technical soil phosphate studies were applied to test this hypothesis. Mapping of soil phosphate field values in the Petexbatun has been used to identify areas of net phosphate depletion (which can be agricultural fields) and areas of phosphate enrichment (often midden deposits or fertilized gardens). Soil use can be further hypothesized through fractionation of constituent mineral phosphates with phosphate fractions occluded with iron and hydrous oxides (fraction 2), an indicator of possible artificial phosphate enrichment of soils through fertilization (Dunning et al. 1997; Dunning and Beach 2004; Beach 1996). Phosphate analyses from these two unoccupied Punta de Chimino perimeter zones were consistent with the hypothesis of intensive fertilization. Even more intriguing was the fact that the loci with the highest overall phosphate enrichment (and the highest fraction 2 ratios) were probable stone box gardens excavated in 1996 (Beach 1996; Dunning and Beach 2004). These were areas of dark soil and clay enclosed in crude stone walls with no other associated features or middens. Organic material from the bajo area on the south side of the peninsula could have been easily dredged up and used in these gardens. It is also probable that fertilizer included “night soils” generously contributed by the occupants of the heavily populated island center (Beach 1996).
Food production and distribution from these two zones may have been centrally managed. This pattern does not represent a radical change from Late Classic subsistence in the Petexbatun, or elsewhere. Small, state-managed intensive agricultural systems have been found adjacent to Late Classic site epicenters, although overall the agricultural landscape was decentralized (Dunning et al. 1997; Dunning and Beach 2004). As with other aspects of the economy, subsistence systems in the Terminal Classic show great continuity from the Late Classic
6J Punta de Chimino island for-tificationSy moats, and center. Courtesy of Vanderbilt University Press.
Period, but with drastic reduction in scale and with concentration in enclaves.
This combination of waterside location, defensi-bility, and intensive food production capacity was the formula for survival in the Pasion region in the early ninth century and the beginning of the Terminal Classic period. This combination of features may also apply for the region’s major Terminal Classic center at Seibal. Terrace-like formations and contours are common around that site, although none were identified as agricultural terraces by the Harvard project (Dunning et al. 1997; Dunning and Beach
2004). Most inland centers were abandoned by the beginning of the ninth century, probably because such intensive investments in architecture or agricultural systems could not be protected from episodic predation by enemies (O’Mansky 1996,1999; O’Mansky, Hinson, Wheat, and Demarest 1995; O’Mansky and Wheat 1996a; O’Mansky and Dunning, Chapter 5, this volume).
Inland occupation in the Terminal Classic was limited to just a few scattered hamlets in the entire region. Terminal Classic hamlets at Tamarindito and Dos
6.4 Stone box gardens in protected zones of Punta de Chimino. Courtesy of Vanderbilt University Press.
Pilas may represent later reoccupation in more peaceful intervals after the end of the eighth-century period of war and massive population reduction. Hamlets of several houses were located near springs in prime positions for hunting and agriculture. At the Dos Pilas hamlet, Emery excavated and studied a bone workshop that seems to have specialized in the highly efficient production of tools from deer bone using a standardized Terminal Classic technology (Emery 1992,1995a, 1995b, 1997). Yet at these two sites and the few scattered Terminal Classic occupations elsewhere there is no investment in public architecture or intensive food production. With investment at a minimum, the occupants, if attacked, could simply flee.
Terminal Classic Production and Exchange
Terminal Classic production and exchange systems in ceramics have been studied by Foias and Bishop (e. g., Foias 1996; Foias and Bishop 1997; Foias 2004). In the Terminal Classic assemblages at Punta de Chimino and at the larger Pasion centers of Altar and Seibal, most Tepeu 2 polychromes were replaced by fine paste wares, including Altar Fine Orange and Tres Naciones Fine Gray. Contrary to earlier hypotheses of the foreign, “Putun,” or Mexican importation of these ceramics, compositional studies now show that they were produced within the Pasidn region (e. g., Foias and Bishop 1997; Foias 2004).
Fine paste style and technology may reflect influence from the Lower Usumacinta region, where there was a long tradition of fine paste ceramics and figurines (Bishop 1994; Foias and Bishop 1997). Even such a diffusion of style and technology, however, probably occurred earlier in the eighth century. In fact, it is the earlier Late Facet of the Nacimiento phase (late Tepeu 2, a. d. 760-830) that is the period of greatest long-distance exchange and Petexbatun contacts with the west and northwest. During that period, early fine paste Chablekal Fine Gray ceramics were being imported from the Palenque region, along with some fine brown and fine cream wares (Foias 1996; Foias and Bishop 1997). We might hypothesize that, during this period of endemic warfare, trade routes within central Peten were disrupted and alternative elite ceramics were sought from the west. By Terminal Classic times, the Petexbatun and Pasion regions were producing their own distinctive fine paste gray and orange ceramics, with very few imports of any kind.
Pasion region parochialism in Terminal Classic material culture can also be seen in evidence of ceramic specialization and standardization of production. Both monochrome and polychrome ceramics show less standardization in the Terminal Classic as evaluated by statistical study of quantifiable modes such as vessel diameter, wall thickness, and vessel height. Foias and Bishop (Foias 1996, 2004; Foias and Bishop 1997) cite this evidence to refute earlier theories of a Terminal Classic period of great commercialization of Maya economies, greater mass production, and wider exchange systems. Their neutron activation compositional studies show no dramatic shift in exchange patterns and less, not more, standardization (Foias and Bishop 1997). Continuity is also observed in the style of most Terminal Classic ceramics and artifacts at Seibal, Altar, and Punta de Chimino.
Neither foreign invasion nor radical economic transformation were registered in the economies of the remnant Terminal Classic public centers of the Pasion and at Punta de Chimino in Lake Petexbatun. Careful assessment of the Petexbatun burials, osteology, architecture, and artifacts have negated the scenarios of a new economic order managed by mercantile, militaristic “Putun” warrior elites (Demarest 1997; Foias and Bishop 1997; Stuart 1993). Instead, at both Seibal and Punta de Chimino, the Terminal Classic economies appear to be a more regionalized and reduced re-entrenchment of Classic-period patterns (e. g., Tourtellot and Gonzalez, Chapter 4, this volume).
World History
