The Rise of Formative Period Complex Societies in the Northern Maya Lowlands

chapter 1 9

THE RISE OF FORMATIVE-PERIOD COMPLEX SOCIETIES IN THE NORTHERN MAYA LOWLANDS

Travis W. Stanton

While the study of the rise and development of early complex societies in the south-ern Maya lowlands has a long history of scholarship (e.g., Freidel and Robertson 1986; Hammond 1991; Ricketson and Ricketson 1937), our knowledge of how Formative-period communities developed in the northern lowlands (Figure 19.1) has expanded only in the last few decades, with investigations intensifying over the past fifteen years. Archaeologists who worked for Carnegie Institution projects in the first half of the twentieth century had identified a Late Formative compo-nent to the ceramic sequence at northern sites like Yaxuná and Acanceh (Brainerd 1958; Smith 1971; Thompson 1954), but little concerted work was undertaken to comprehend what early sites were like. Formative-period occupation was gener-ally ignored, given the wealth of better-preserved and more “spectacular” Classic cities.

This lack of systematic work on early sites began to change with the ground-breaking research at Dzibilchaltún during the 1960s (Andrews and Andrews 1980). Unfortunately, the first Middle to Late Formative ceramic sequence developed at Dzibilchaltún by Joesink-Mandeville (1970) has proved incompatible with the

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the northern maya lowlands 269

accepted type-variety system first implemented by Smith (1971) and used by all subsequent researchers. Ball (1978a, 1978b) began to rectify this work, adapting Smith’s classificatory system to early ceramic sequences in the northern lowlands, but it was not until Andrews (1988) published the outline of the Komchen sequence that a workable ceramic chronology was in place and the first steps to actually understanding early northern lowland societies were undertaken.

Migrations Versus In Situ Development

Archaeologists have known for some time that the northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula was inhabited by Paleo-Indian peoples. Discoveries in caves like those reported at Loltún, and more recently cenotes, have revealed megalithic fauna (possibly in association with cultural material) and the actual human remains of these early populations (Mercer 1896; Velázquez Valadéz 1980). Very little,

Izamal

Naranjal

Cobá

AkéDzibilchaltúm

Xcambó

92

Area ofMap

20

18

92 90

Calakmul

El Mirador

Cerros

18

20

88

SCALEin kilometers

0 25 50 75 100 125

90 88

KomchenXuman Susulá

XtoboPoxilá

OxkintokXcochTzubil

Edzná Santa RosaZtampak

Loltún Chacsinkin

YaxunáChichén ItzáAcanceh

Flor de Mayo

XocnacehTipikal

Kuruxtun

Figure 19.1 Map of the Maya lowlands with sites mentioned in the text.



270 villages, cities, states, and empires

unfortunately, has been published on these finds. What should be the subsequent Archaic period is even less understood. In fact, there are neither published arti-facts that look Archaic nor absolute dates that indicate occupation at this time. In northern Belize, Lohse (1995, 2010) has reported an Archaic component to the archaeological sequence, which suggests that if more systematic research were undertaken in caves and cenotes in the northern lowlands some evidence of this occupation might be revealed. Yet the possibility remains that the northern low-lands were generally unoccupied at this time, possibly due to climatic factors.

The inability to understand the Archaic in the northern lowlands frustrates our attempts to understand the remains of the earliest identifiable Maya communities. E. W. Andrews (1990; see also Bey 2006: 21–22) proposed that modal ties between ceramics in Yucatán and southwest Petén/Chiapas during the Middle Formative indicate that the northern lowlands were settled rapidly by early Maya sedentary farmers, maybe as early as 800 bc. The earliest pollen evidence (from lake coring) for forest clearing around the site of Cobá, however, has been dated to 1650 bc and the first maize pollen to 850 bc (Leyden et al. 1998). These data appear to confirm the suspicions of many archaeologists working in the northern lowlands that an undocumented Early Formative occupation of the peninsula exists, yet it has not been identified due to current research strategies focused on later contexts and the fact that early deposits are often deeply buried. Therefore, we are unclear as to how much of the Middle Formative occupation now documented was a result of in situ development out of an unknown Archaic/Early Formative period (with maintained contact with the southern lowland Maya explaining cultural similari-ties) or how much was the result of population replacement through migrations out of the southern lowlands (Stanton 2000; Stanton and Ardren 2005). We know that migrations were frequent in the Maya area during the Postclassic (Rice and Rice 2009), and we suspect it occurred at earlier times. Yet without stable isotope analyses on human bone samples, the reconstruction of possible migrations based on stylistic similarities in ceramics remains problematic. What we can say is that the northern lowland Maya of the Middle Formative shared many cultural traits with their southern neighbors, while at the same time expressing important differ-ences. For the time being, the origin of the Maya in the northern lowlands remains a mystery.

The Middle Formative

Ball’s (1977, 1978a) characterization of the Formative-period Maya as being orga-nized in “chiefdoms” helps us, in part, to understand why E. W. Andrews (1990) argues for migrations. The first known archaeological remains of the Maya in the northern lowlands date to the Early Nabanché (equivalent to the late Middle




Formative or Mamom horizon), which we could arguably place between 800 and 400 or 300 bc with the few radiocarbon samples dating to this span of time (Glover and Stanton 2010). Sites from this period exhibit a range of characteristics indicat-ing prestate complexity that can only be explained by external influence (includ-ing, but not limited to migration) and the existence of an undocumented Early Formative.

One of the most compelling traits demonstrating prestate complexity during the Early Nabanché is the variability in the sizes of sites and public architecture. Andrews and Robles Castellanos (2004; see also Anderson 2005) have conducted one of only two thorough surveys of Formative-period sites in the northern low-lands in the region to the northwest of Mérida; Glover (2006) has also conducted a survey in northern Quintana Roo, but few Middle Formative materials were reported. While excavation data are understandably minimal, given the size of the survey region that was explored, Andrews and Robles Castellanos report a large number of sites with Formative-period materials on the surface. Given the lack of comprehensive excavations, however, it is difficult to correlate site size by period to formulate settlement hierarchies. Yet at sites like Poxilá and Xtobo siz-able public architecture and settlement indicate that settlement hierarchies were in place during the Early Nabanché in this region. Anderson (2010) calculates that Xtobo, a site boasting pyramidal structures, a plaza, causeways, and a ballcourt, had a population of around 1,500 people at its apex, probably at the Middle to Late Formative transition. In fact, more than twenty ballcourts have been found in this region, many of them dating to the Middle or Late Formative (Medina Castillo and Lawton 2002). These data indicate that fairly complex sociopolitical organizations were in place not only to organize labor, but also to plan and implement strategies (e.g., rituals and games) to integrate sizable communities.

Fairly large Middle Formative public architecture and extensive settlements have been reported in other parts of the northern lowlands, among others at the sites of Izamal (Quiñones Cetina 2003, 2006), Komchen (Andrews and Ringle 1992; Andrews et al. 1984; Ringle 1985, 1999; Ringle and Andrews 1988, 1990), Xcoch (Smyth and Ortegón 2008; Smyth et al. n.d.), Xocnaceh (Stanton and Gallareta 2002), and Yaxuná (Stanton and Ardren 2005; Stanton and Freidel 2005; Suhler 1996). Specifically, Izamal is a site that calls the attention of archaeologists because it boasts the largest pyramid north of the Mirador Basin in Guatemala. This site, however, has substantial Protoclassic, Terminal Classic, Postclassic, colonial, and modern occupations, resulting in a mass of architectural overburden that has obscured the potentially very sizable Middle Formative occupation.

Both Xocnaceh and Yaxuná exhibit large pyramidal structures and plat-forms dating to the Middle Formative. These sites have substantial Late Formative occupations, however. Therefore, the Middle Formative building phases have been gleaned only though deep test pits and trenches. At Yaxuná, Str. 5E-19 has a Middle Formative substructure at a height of 11 meters above the surrounding ground surface. Yet given that there are Late Formative buildings up to 22 meters in height that have not been deeply probed at Yaxuná, it is possible that even larger




structures exist. In the Puuc region, where Xocnaceh and Xcoch are located, a Middle Formative ballcourt at Paso del Macho has been reported, and at Yaxuná a Middle Formative causeway has been published (Stanton 2005a; Stanton and Freidel 2005; Stanton et al. 2010). These data indicate that while not many ball-courts or causeways have been securely dated to the Middle Formative outside of the northwest part of the peninsula, the patterns reported by Andrews and Robles Castellanos (2004; see also Anderson 2010) are more widespread.

Archaeologists have also recently discovered that the northern lowland Maya were active participants in long-distance exchange relationships at this early date. Andrews (1986, 1987) was the first to report the presence of Olmec-style green-stones from a looted context at Chacsinkin, located in south-central Yucatán. Since this time, Middle Formative Olmec-style jades have been reported from the small site of Tipikal (Peraza Lope et al. 2002) and Yaxuná (Suhler 1996), among others. Andrews (1986, 1987) also identified ceramics from the northern Maya lowlands at La Venta, Tabasco, indicating a Gulf Coast exchange network that may have included important perishable goods such as salt, found in abundance along the coast of Yucatán. Yet exchange networks appear to have extended beyond the Gulf Coast as Central Mexican ceramics, classified by Mayanists in the El Llanto group, have been reported at Edzná and Yaxuná (Stanton and Ardren 2005).

The greenstone and ceramic data indicate ties between the Gulf Coast Olmec and the Yucatec Maya during the Middle Formative, but it is the architectural evi-dence that suggests that the northern lowland Maya were participating in ideol-ogy that was widespread throughout Mesoamerica at this time. We are starting to understand that one of the principal types of public architecture in the northern lowlands is the in-line triadic structure; a long building with three superstructures, the middle one being the tallest, flanked by two symmetrical buildings (Figure

Figure 19.2 An example of in-line triad architecture at Poxilá, Yucatán.




19.2). Triadic architecture, in different forms, was widespread in different areas of Mesoamerica during the Formative. The in-line triadic form is found across southeast Mesoamerica and may be an ancestor to the early E-Group form con-centrated in the southern lowlands, discussed in more detail by Chase and Chase in Chapter 18. Only one E-Group, found at Yaxuná, has been identified with cer-tainty in the northern lowlands. Another may be located at Santa Rosa Xtampak. Yet the in-line triadic form has now been reported at a number of sites across the northern plains.

A pair of dance platforms, also reported at Yaxuná (Stanton and Freidel 2005; Suhler 1996; Suhler et al. 1998), indicates that “Olmec” ideological concepts made their way into the northern Maya lowlands. Both platforms were performance stages with internal corridors that snaked around each structure in the form of the Kan Cross, most famously depicted in Olmec iconography on Chalcatzingo Monument 9, where it represents the mouth of the cave of the underworld. Staircases led up from the corridors to the platforms’ stages, allowing participants to appear from the underworld and perform for a large public. In the center of each platform the corridors led to a central sanctuary where in one case a Middle Formative vessel with four colors present on its surface (not to be confused with later Protoclassic and Classic polychromes) was found with an Olmec-style greenstone (Figure 19.3). At the end of the Middle Formative the structures were burned and abandoned. Radiocarbon assays have been performed on two burned wood samples recovered from above the floor of Str. 6E-120 but sealed within and sealed by the building’s roof collapse. The first sample dates this event to 2250+/-40 bp (Beta-265025) with an intercept of 370 bc (calibrated). The second sample returned a date of 2360+/-40 bp (Beta-265026) with an intercept of bc 400 (calibrated). Both dates mark the abandonment of the building.

On a final note, there is growing evidence that the northern lowland Maya were using caves as early as the Middle Formative, with early ceramics being reported from Loltún (Robles Castellanos 1997), Kuruxtun (Donald Slater, personal

Figure 19.3 Middle Formative cache vessel at Yaxuná, Yucatán.




communication, 2009), and numerous caves in the Yalahau region of Quintana Roo (Rissolo 2003; Rissolo et al. 2005). While the use of caves for ritual purposes has a long history in Mesoamerica, given the lack of surface water in the northern lowlands many of these caves may have been used for water sources as well.

The Late Formative

While there is growing evidence for a substantial population in the northern low-lands during the Middle Formative, it is during the Late Formative that regions of Yucatán and Quintana Roo reached high demographic levels (Glover 2006; Glover et al. 2005; Quintal Suaste 1993, 1995; Stanton 2000). Just as the cities of the south-ern Maya lowlands increased the size of their populations and monumental centers (e.g., Hansen 1998; Hansen et al. 2008), Late Formative northern lowland sites grew exponentially. Places like Xcoch, Xocnaceh, and Yaxuná (Smyth et al. n.d.; Stanton 2000; Stanton and Gallareta 2002) experienced vigorous building episodes with some of the largest structures at these sites erected during this period; however, none reached the size of structures like those found at El Mirador or Calakmul in the southern lowlands. Both research and salvage projects across the northern plains demonstrate that even rural areas were being filled in by smaller towns and homesteads (e.g., Andrews and Robles Castellanos 2004; Glover 2006; Hernández Hernández 2005; Hernández Hernández and Arias 2003; Hernández Hernández and Viana Camps 2006; Peniche May et al. 2009). The Late Formative rivals the Late-Terminal Classic in terms of reaching the greatest demographic levels during Pre-Columbian times. Again, apart from the surveys conducted by Andrews and Robles Castellanos (2004) and Glover (2006), no systematic data have been col-lected to understand settlement hierarchies specifically for the Late Formative. Yet it is clear that polity development reached a sufficient complexity to indicate the existence of great towns and possibly cities, which controlled a sizable area of their hinterlands.

Given the size of sites in the north and the fact that some southern lowland Maya sites were employing iconography directly related to kingship we suspect that a similar institution was in place in the northern lowlands by the Late Formative. We know that kings existed at some sites during the Classic period, given glyphic texts and iconography on stone monuments. Yet even during this period, there are few sites that really display these trappings of kingship so common in the south-ern lowlands, suggesting that political organization and the use of political propa-ganda could have varied somewhat between the northern and southern lowlands for quite some time. In any event, we know that there is at least one Late Formative image of a Maya king at Loltún cave in the Puuc region of western Yucatán (Freidel and Andrews n.d.). Further, a thronelike feature in what has been interpreted as a




small Late Formative palace structure has been reported from the site of Xaman Susulá near Mérida (Peniche May et al. 2009). Yet until royal tombs, stelae, and glyphs are introduced during the Early Classic period there are few other pieces of data to suggest kings were present. This mirrors the low occurrence of clear sym-bols of kingship in the southern lowlands during the Late Formative.

Contact between the northern and southern lowlands during the Late Formative seems to have been prevalent, as is amply demonstrated by ceramic studies that show less variation in ceramic modes from region to region during the Chicanel Horizon (e.g., Smith 1971). Shared ideological expressions also appear in the large stucco masks found at Acanceh (Quintal Suaste 1999), similar to masks on temple façades at sites in the south like Cerros, Belize (Freidel and Robertson 1986). The tendency toward homogeneity in ceramics at this time suggests increased contact among potting communities across the lowlands, implying more widespread social and perhaps political ties. At some sites in the northern lowlands like Xocnaceh and Yaxuná, visual analysis of paste and surface treatments strongly suggests that southern lowland ceramics were being imported, possibly as containers for other products.

At Yaxuná specifically, a large quantity of Petén-looking ceramics in Late Formative assemblages raises questions concerning the origins of the E-Group at the site. In the first half of the twentieth century Brainerd (1958) excavated some trenches into this structure and the associated Central Acropolis. While the data are not clear for the E-Group, he reported that the Central Acropolis is Late Formative in date, suggesting that the E-Group also has a Late Formative compo-nent. During the Early Classic, Yaxuná continued to have high amounts of south-ern lowland ceramics, specifically polychromes, indicating that it may have been located on an overland trade route between the southern lowland kingdoms and the north coast of Yucatán. In fact, later Classic-period polities appeared to have vied to control this trade route. During the Late Classic, the site of Cobá was at its apex, controlling the coastal trade in the northern Caribbean area. At this time, the longest causeway ever constructed in Mesoamerica, Sacbé 1, was extended for 100 kilometers between Yaxuná and Cobá, effectively incorporating Yaxuná into the Cobá polity. Shortly thereafter, Chichén Itzá was founded a mere 18 kilometers to the north of Yaxuná, cutting off access to the north coast. During the Formative period there are only small sites reported along the coast of Yucatán (Eaton 1978). Coastal trade appears to really begin to develop during the Early Classic at sites like Xcambó (Sierra Sosa 1999). The presence of clearly southern-looking ceramics and architecture at Yaxuná during the Late Formative may indicate that southern lowland peoples were involved in establishing and maintaining this inland trade route during the Formative. Later on, Yaxuná and its location on this trade route would have presented a problem for communities like Cobá and Chichén Itzá, intent on controlling trade along the coast (A. Andrews 1990). The placement of Chichén Itzá just to the north of Yaxuná in the Terminal Classic brought an end to occupation at Yaxuná (Suhler 1996) and cut off an important direct route that the southern lowland kingdoms had to the salt flats of Yucatán.




The Late Preclassic Maya Collapse and the Protoclassic Transformation

At the end of the Formative period, lowland Maya civilization underwent a drastic transformation. A massive depopulation has been recorded in many areas of the Maya lowlands (Glover and Stanton 2010) as well as in other parts of Mesoamerica. Preliminary data suggest that a drought event, coupled with high population den-sity and environmental degradation, could have contributed to this collapse (Hansen et al. 2002). In the northern Maya lowlands, we can note the sharp drop in popula-tion levels from the Late Formative to the Early Classic. Many sites like Xocnaceh and Xcoch in the Puuc region were abandoned, most likely in the first centuries ad. A limited number of centers survived, and some even thrived during this period. Izamal appears to have experienced unprecedented monumental construction during this period of time (Quiñones Cetina 2003), and it may have developed into a regional state based on the fact that a series of causeways connected important sites sharing a similar architectural style (Figure 19.4) in the north-central region of Yucatán (see Covarrubias Reyna and Burgos Villanueva n.d.; Maldonado Cárdenas 1979).

How the expansion of a possible regional state in the northern lowlands may have been affected by the collapse of places like the Mirador Basin in the south is uncertain. There is evidence to suggest that many Classic-period dynasties traced their origins to El Mirador (Hansen et al. 2008), giving the impression that local political developments in many regions of the Maya lowlands were integrally tied to the fall of this Formative center. To be sure, there are dynasties established in the northern lowlands by at least the fourth century ad at sites like Oxkintok. There is, however, no glyphic evidence to suggest that the explosion of construction at

Figure 19.4 Example of the Megalithic architectural style at Aké, Yucatán.




Izamal or the settlement and architectural patterns in its surrounding region (which suggest state development) was somehow related to events in the south-ern lowlands. In any event, the first suggestive evidence of state formation in the northern lowlands appears during a time of stress and social reorganization.

The Early Classic Rise of Dynasties

The Early Classic marks the slow resurgence of Maya polities in the wake of the Late Formative collapse. While sites such as Izamal, Aké, and Yaxuná appear to have weathered the collapse and even flourished during the Protoclassic, there is nota-bly less occupation during the Early Classic across the northern lowlands. Several new centers with scant evidence of previous occupation, however, were founded during the early part of the Classic period. One of these centers is Oxkintok, where a rich tradition of carved stelae highlights the development of a royal dynasty. Early Classic royal tombs have been reported at both Yaxuná and Oxkintok, and this indicates that at least some northern lowland Maya paralleled their southern neighbors in the early development of regional royal lineages.

One issue that inevitably comes to mind when discussing the Early Classic is the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan. Despite claims that people from Teotihuacan were living in Yucatán during the Early Classic (Smyth 2006), there is relatively little evidence of any direct contact (Stanton 2005b). Talud-tablero architecture and tri-pod cylinder vases reported at sites such as Chunchucmil, Dzibilchaltún, Oxkintok, and Yaxuná are dated to the period 550–700 ad, after the fall of Teotihuacan and centuries after their appearance at sites in the southern lowlands (Varela Torrecilla and Braswell 2003). There are a few artifacts dating from 250–600 ad that look to have a central Mexican influence in Yucatán (e.g., Suhler 1996), but they are isolated finds that do not shed much light on any possible contact between people from central Mexico and people in the northern Maya lowlands. Why the “trappings” of Teotihuacan culture appear so late in the sequence is unclear. Yet as population levels began to rise again toward the end of the Early Classic, these symbols become prominent tools in the ideological toolkit of northern Maya dynasts.

Conclusions

The study of the origins of complex societies in the northern lowlands has increased exponentially over the past few decades, giving us a better understand-ing not only of the early archaeological sequence, but also of the questions that




need to be researched. While the scarce data from Paleo-Indian contexts are tantalizing, very little systematic work has been done to investigate the apparent plentiful data in caves and cenotes. Further, we really have no understanding of the Archaic period and how it may have transitioned to the Formative. The earli-est data we have for a Maya occupation of the northern lowlands indicate a fairly complex society with strong, but distinct, cultural ties to their neighbors to the south. These data have spawned speculations that the northern lowlands were populated by Maya migrating out of the south, but to this date, the evidence is ambiguous. We also now know that large sites existed in the Late Formative and that the Maya of the northern lowlands experienced a similar collapse as that documented for the southern lowlands. The pace and pattern of this develop-ment, collapse, and transition to the Classic, however, have yet to be teased out of the archaeological data, making the early archaeological sequence of the north-ern lowlands an exciting topic of research. Finally, while there is solid evidence that the northern lowland Maya developed the institution of divine kingship in the Early Classic, there is scant evidence of Teotihuacan “influence” among the northern kingdoms. While continued research may change this view, it appears that the north was impacted by Teotihuacan to a lesser extent than their southern neighbors had been.

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The Rise of Formative Period Complex Societies in the Northern Maya Lowlands

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