The role of conflict and endemic warfare has been increasingly highlighted in some reconstructions of the Maya Late Classic period. We believe that much of what has been read as “battles” and “star wars” among southern lowland Maya sites are instances of ritualized combat for the purpose of obtaining the captives so prominently trampled by rulers on period-ending monuments (P. Rice n. d.). Furthermore, it is likely that many of these so-called “battles” were actually ballgame contests and the captives—losers of the game—were sacrificial victims, trussed as a ball, as seen at Yaxchilan on Structure 33, Hieroglyphic Stair 2 (see Freidel, Scheie, and Parker 1993; 356-362).
That being said, we also acknowledge that there is evidence of real conflic-tive relationships in the southern lowlands during the Late Classic period. At least one, and perhaps more, disaffected factions of elites existed within Tikal. It seems fairly clear that one such group moved to the Petexbatun and began displaying the Tikal Emblem Glyph (Demarest, Chapter 6, this volume). Possibly others—leaving voluntarily or being ousted; perhaps joined by like-minded groups from other Peten sites—moved northward, and were responsible for the introduction of Peten-like architectural and iconographic traits to the northern lowlands. It is apparent that throughout Peten the Terminal Classic saw a dramatic demographic loss (Culbert and Rice 1990).
The lakes area also experienced population decline, as settlement data reveal a drop in the number of architectural constructions datable to the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods relative to the Classic. Nonetheless, central Peten—in particular the region of the central Peten lakes—was not completely depopulated (D. Rice and P. Rice 1990). There is evidence for continuity of occupation from the Classic period, through the collapse of royal dynasties, and into the subsequent Postclassic period in all lake basins that have been surveyed. In addition, it is evident that during the Terminal Classic period, groups of people were moving into central Peten from the northern lowlands, the Pasion region, and perhaps the Gulf Coast.
Furthermore, the Terminal Classic period in the lakes area witnessed the beginning of a marked change in location of settlements between the Classic and Postclassic. Small, densely settled and nucleated Postclassic communities are found primarily on naturally defensible islands or peninsulas in the lakes. Postclassic constructions exist on the mainland slopes of the basins, but they are much reduced in number and density relative to Classic-period patterns. The choice of easily defended sites for focal settlements suggests that conflict was a key feature of the political environment, and perhaps also that the nature of warfare had changed during the later centuries of the Classic period. It is significant here that the Terminal Classic to Historic-period peninsular site of Zacpeten, on the north shore of Lake Salpeten (Figure 7.2), was fortified at its narrow join with the mainland by a wall-and-moat complex (Pugh 2001).
Also during the Terminal Classic, that is, ca. the tenth and eleventh centuries, new settlements were founded at the site of El Fango in the savanna region south of Lake Peten Itza (P. Rice and D. Rice 1979; D. Rice and P. Rice 1980), and at the sites of Pasaja in the southern Peten Itza basin and Chachaclun on Peten Itza’s north shore. Contemporaneous, intrusive domestic structures also have been identified in the site peripheries of Nixtun Ch’ich’ on Peten Itza’s western San Jeronimo peninsula and at Michoacan in the basin of Lake Quexil, south of the main body of
1. Topoxte
2. Flores
3. Muralla de Leon
4. Yalain
5. Zacpeten
6. (xlu
7. Rio Ixlu
8. Piedra Blanca
9. Jobompiche 1
10. El Astillero
16
11. Uxpeten
12. San Pedro
13. Chachaclun
14. Nixtun-Ch’ich’
15. Sacpuy Islands
16. Pasaja
17. Colonia Itza
18. Quexil Islands
19. Cenote
20. Tayasal
7.2 Map of Peten Lakes region sites.
Lake Peten Itza. Each of these sites, save Nixtun Ch’ich’, is located on relatively impoverished soils formed over hard and nutrient-poor limestone bedrock, low in organics, high in clay content, and ferrogenic. Historically these soil suites have supported vegetation communities dominated by grasses, low oaks, and xero-phytic or fire-resistant herbaceous species (P. Rice and D. Rice 1979; D. Rice and P. Rice 1980), and they were not the focus of Maya settlement in the Classic period.
The location of these late sites in zones of poor agricultural potential, areas devoid of prior settlement, and the peripheral nature of intrusive residential architecture at the established sites of Nixtun Ch’ich’ and Michoacan, suggest the migration of small groups into the Peten Itza zone at the close of the Classic period, groups forced to settle in marginal pockets of an established settlement system. The residential structures are poorly constructed, largely consisting of unworked chert cobbles that are ubiquitous in Peten’s grasslands and seemingly plastered with savanna clays as opposed to limestone-based plaster.
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