Chan: An Ancient Maya Farming Community

Foreword

Foreword While farming is generally recognized as forming the basis for the rise of complex societies, few archaeological researchers have actually focused on the excavation of basic farming households and their relationships to broader social and political structures. Yet that is precisely what the longterm , multidisciplinary research at Chan, Belize, was designed to accomplish . The investigations reported by Cynthia Robin and her colleagues within this volume use the lens of a small farming community to frame the rise and fall of Classic Maya civilization. The site of Chan was occupied from 800 BC to AD 1200 and provides a relatively long vantage point from which to view the role of farmers in a changing Maya society. The smaller community of Chan is only 4 km away from the more architecturally impressive center of Xunantunich. However, rather than assuming that Chan reflected the policies and lifeways of the larger neighboring site, the archaeological project at Chan found a long-term adaptation that was different from the one immediately adjacent in Xunantunich. The detailed study within this volume resulted from almost a decade of fieldwork at Chan that emphasized extensive horizontal excavation; it succeeds in demonstrating the heterogeneity that existed within this community and the ways in which it both supports and contradicts paradigms that are currently accepted in archaeology. The investigations at Chan focused on the role of farmers and its farming community through the course of Maya prehistory. Archaeological work emphasized households and their relationships to the built and natural environment . Households at Chan participated in both agricultural and nonagricultural production. Material remains and ritual contexts show both intracommunity and pan-Maya connections. Chan was at times community -centered and at other times more outwardly focused. Chan residents were integrated into greater Xunantunich, but the self-sufficiency of farmers and their “leaders” within this community also afforded them a degree of independence. Thus, this volume provides the opportunity to view farmers not only as respondents to events occurring within a broader world but also as self-directed individuals and, potentially, as agents of change for that broader universe. xiv · Foreword The detailed studies in this volume will be of great interest to practitioners of Maya studies. This volume functions as a synthetic statement on the archaeological research undertaken at Chan. It provides important information on landscape modifications and the long-term role of farmers within broader Maya society. It also shows how empirical data can influence the theoretical positions that are proffered. The contextualization of mundane items like ceramics and worked stone in conjunction with the ritual deposits of burials and caches demonstrates both the heterogeneity and variability that existed within this community as well as an unexpected level of wealth and power of Chan’s farmers. Incorporating these various studies into a single volume permits the reader to see the necessity and value of undertaking and combining interdisciplinary material analyses. Through reporting on and analyzing the results of long-term fieldwork and through providing the details for the underlying archaeological assessments , monographs like this one form the backbone for future interpretations and breakthroughs—both within Maya studies and in general archaeological method and theory. These same carefully reasoned field reports are also key to understanding the dynamics of state formation and the dissolution in complex societies. Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase Series editors ...