The Archaeology of Complex Societies in Southeastern Pacific Coastal Guatemala: A Regional GIS ApproachThis volume presents the results of research conducted from 1995 to 1997 in an area of Guatemala previously overlooked by archaeologists and whose obscure prehistory had been the topic of many speculative culture-historical syntheses. The significance of its results lies in the finding of several important pre-Hispanic settlements and a web of trade interactions linking their populations with neighboring areas of the Maya region. The primary objective is to provide a chronological framework for cultural processes that go from the development of sedentary life to the emergence and decline of complex social organization. The work also discusses the internal composition and dynamics of hierarchical social organization as reflected in settlement patterns and artifact distributions. The archaeological findings include survey and excavation data from early villages and hierarchically organized polities centered at densely populated settlements, as well as the locating and documenting of several 'lost' historical places of the Spanish Conquest. |
Contents
iii | 39 |
CHAPTER FIVE THE POSTCLASSIC PERIOD | 91 |
MiddleLate Classic Period Villages | 115 |
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500 meters Fig acropolis Aerial view aggregate mound area alluvial Altar Alvarado archaeological area in m² artifact Atiquipaque Bonete Bove built area Cangrejo phase Cantarrana Ceiba Ceiba phase ceramic Cerritos Chiquimulilla Chiquiuitán civic/ceremonial structures Classic period coastal Copán Cotzumalguapa Distribution of sherd Durazno Early Preclassic east El Salvador Esclavos river Escuintla estuary excavation Feldman highland Jutiapa Kaminaljuyu km south km² Kosakowsky and Estrada large centers Late Classic Late Postclassic Late Preclassic Layout Location Maneadero Maquina Maria Linda Maya Mesoamerica Middle Classic Middle Preclassic Middle/Late Classic monuments Nancinta Nueva Nueve Cerros occupation Pacific Coast Pasaco Paz river piedmont platform polities population Postclassic period previous record range structures rectangular region Research History residential Salvador Santa Rosa sculpture settlement patterns sherd sherd counts slope Southeastern Coast Stela style surface pottery survey Tamarindo phase Taxisco Tecuamburro Termer Test pit Thiessen polygons transect Ujuxte UTM Coordinates village volcanic Xinca