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1. Plaza Builders of the Preclassic Maya Lowlands: The Construction of a Public Space and a Community at Ceibal, Guatemala
- University of Arizona Press
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19 ChaPter one Plaza Builders of the Preclassic Maya Lowlands The Construction of a Public Space and a Community at Ceibal, Guatemala Takeshi inomaTa The spacious plaza was the focus of communal life at virtually all maya settlements during the classic and Postclassic periods. The results of recent investigations at the Preclassic center of ceibal (also spelled seibal) have shown that a prototype of this form of social interaction and spatial practice emerged at the very beginning of a sedentary community during the middle Preclassic period. The construction of a public space and the celebration of communal rituals there constituted a central process through which new forms of social relations were formed and negotiated. although discussions and studies by archaeologists tend to focus on the role of pyramidal temples that are conspicuously visible in the landscape, at the early community of ceibal the construction of a plaza was at least as important as those of pyramids; the construction volumes of the former likely surpassed those of the latter. When we initiated our research at ceibal, our working assumptions were that the plaza was the focal point of communal activities and values, and that it deserved to be a central subject of archaeological investigations. The early middle Preclassic period was a time of major social change in the maya lowlands when some groups began to adopt a fully sedentary way of life. We tend to assume that such transitions were gradual ones in which the first settlers began to live in small villages and then slowly formed larger settlements with formal ceremonial complexes. at ceibal, however, there was a drastic transformation. a formal ceremonial center with a public plaza was founded at the very beginning of this settlement (inomata et al. 2013). This takeshi inomata 20 transition probably involved the development of social inequality, new ritual practices, and reorganization of domestic activities. as the residents built a new form of community, public events held in the plaza probably provided a crucial field for fostering collective identities and negotiating social relations. Thus, the construction of a formal plaza meant not only the appearance of a new architectural form but also the emergence of new ways of social interactions and new senses of attachment to a place. The lowland maya were among the last mesoamerican groups to adopt a fully sedentary way of life with the use of ceramics and substantial architecture (clark and cheetham 2002). surrounded by sedentary agriculturalists, groups occupying the maya lowlands during the Early Preclassic period appear to have maintained mobile life ways relying on a mixed economy of horticulture, hunting , and gathering (Lohse 2010). Their presence is indicated by evidence of maize pollen and forest disturbance dating to 2,000–1,000 Bc, found in cores taken from Laguna Tamarindito, Lake Petenxil, Lake Quexil, and other lakes (anselmetti et al. 2007; Brenner et al. 2003; Dunning et al. 1997; islebe et al. 1996; Pohl et al. 1996; rosenmeier et al. 2002; Tsukada 1966; Vaughan et al. 1985; Wahl et al. 2006). archaeological remains of these groups, however, have not been confirmed in the Pasión region, indicating that their population density was low and that they did not use, or rarely used, ceramics and substantial architecture. ceibal is located atop an escarpment overlooking the Pasión river in the southwestern maya lowlands. researchers from harvard university first explored this center extensively from 1964 through 1968. This research, led by Gordon Willey, included mapping, extensive excavations of monumental buildings , epigraphic studies, and survey and excavations in the peripheries, marking a milestone in the history of maya archaeology (Graham 1990; sabloff 1975; smith 1982; Tourtellot 1988; Willey 1978, 1990). The results of their investigations showed that within the site of ceibal the area named Group a was the focus of its earliest occupation dating to the real-Xe phase of the early middle Preclassic period (1,000–700 Bc) (figure 1.1). a cruciform cache with greenstone axes (cache 7) found in the central Plaza indicated that this open space was an important stage of ritual activities (smith 1982:118, 243). Except for deep plaza pits, however, the harvard university investigations focused primarily on upper layers of buildings dating to the classic period (aD 250–950), and much of the substantial Preclassic construction remained unexplored (Tourtellot and hammond 2007; Willey 1990). in 2006, nearly forty years after the harvard university research, i initiated the ceibal-Petexbatun archaeological Project with Daniela Triadan, Kazuo aoyama, and Erick Ponciano to re-examine this...