Historical and Archaeological Perspectives on the Itzas of Petén, Guatemala ed. by Prudence M. Rice, Don S. Rice (review)

A comprehensive synthesis, almost encyclopedic, of everything we know of the Itza Maya, this volume, edited and mostly written by two archaeologists heavily engaged for decades in research in the Petén, Prudence Rice and Don Rice, scrutinizes social, political, environmental, and linguistic evidence from archaeological and historical studies on the Petén. In this truly interdisciplinary work, the focus is chiefly on the chain of eight central Petén lakes. The authors use multiple and distinct perspectives to answer the complex question: Who were the Itzas?

A summary of the environmental, linguistic, social, and political history of the Petén introduces us to the Itzas. In the Epiclassic, the turbulent interlude in the Maya world that bridged the Classic and the Postclassic, from roughly 750 to 1000 CE, the Itzas seem to have emerged, not as a monarchy, but as a coalition of powerful lineages that took on a distinct ethnopolitical identity. But the record of their origins and migrations is murky. Clues in indigenous texts, with both Postclassic and colonial roots, such as the various books of chilam b’alam, along with other corroborating evidence, place their origins in the Petén, but also imply a strong link between the leaders in the Petén and the northern Itzas in that unstable era of the Epiclassic. Thus, in the Postclassic, the Itzas wielded critical sway in both the Petén and in important Yucatecan city-states such as Chich’en Itza and Mayapán.

Remarkably, from the Spanish arrival in the early sixteenth century to the conquest in 1697 of their island capital of Tayza, the Itzas survived as the last independent, unconverted, and unconquered Maya polity. The interpretation of that era depends mainly on Spanish documentation and a reiteration of the groundbreaking work of ethnohistorian Grant Jones, to whom the volume is dedicated. But the account here incorporates much scholarship undertaken since the publication of Jones’s book, as well as some original elucidations.

A fascinating piece of detective work is the critical scrutiny of a report, written in 1696 by Franciscan Andrés de Avendaño y Loyola. The editors meticulously track his journey through the Petén to ascertain seventeenth-century ethnopolitical entities and settlement patterns. To complement his narrative, Avendaño sketched the earliest known map of Lake Petén Itza and the surrounding region. The analysis of that sketch, a key facet of the overall deconstruction of the account, leads to the construction of a new, modern map that shows the approximate locations of ethnonyms, toponyms, physical features, and routes found on Avendaño’s sketch, a valuable exercise in historical geography. Finally, the editors retell the story of Spanish efforts to conquer and convert the Itzas, incorporating recent scholarship and giving us a thorough and up-to-date account.

Departing from historical narrative, the volume moves into a discussion of material culture, with thorough chapters on pottery, architecture, and projectile points by various contributors. Postclassic pottery in the Petén displays noteworthy aesthetic differences between the eastern and western areas of the lakes, indicating clear regional identities. Architecture also exhibits unique Itza architectural practices, and a study of projectile points concludes that raw materials varied according to ethnopolitical origin, most of the resources were local, and different ethnopolitical entities developed distinct technological styles. Material culture, then, bears evidence of a distinctive Itza identity. The book ends with four chapters on Tayza, as seen through the lens of the challenges of conducting archaeological research amid the modern city of Flores.

Of course, many questions about the Itzas remain unanswered. Yet, with so many issues treated in this carefully nuanced, heavily documented, and methodical work, we learn all that is currently known...