Item Details

title

Settling Down at Ceibal and Cuello: Variation in the Transition to Sedentism Across the Maya Lowlands

author

MacLellan, Jessica

abstract

During the Middle Preclassic period (c. 1000–350 BCE), the people of the Maya lowlands transitioned from a mobile horticulturalist to sedentary farming lifestyle, exemplified by permanent houses arranged around patios and rebuilt over generations. Early evidence of this change has been found in northern Belize, in the Belize Valley, and at Ceibal, Guatemala. At Cuello and other sites in northern Belize, mortuary rituals tied to ancestor veneration created inequality from the beginning of sedentary life. There, relatively dense populations facilitated the emergence of competitive sociopolitical strategies. However, Maya communities in different regions adopted different aspects of sedentism at different times and employed different power strategies. Unlike Cuello, Ceibal was founded as a ceremonial center by semi-mobile people. Middle Preclassic ritual practices at Ceibal and in the Belize Valley were associated with more collective leadership. At the end of this period, increased population densities contributed to a shift to more exclusionary rituals and political strategies throughout the lowlands.

subject

Maya archaeology

household archaeology

ritual

ancestor veneration

sedentism

Preclassic Maya

Mesoamerica

social complexity

citation

6 (Institutions and Collective Action) (volume)

date

2024-11-05T16:29:50Z (accessioned)

2024-11-05T16:29:50Z (available)

2024 (issued)

identifier

MacLellan J (2024). Settling Down at Ceibal and Cuello: Variation in the Transition to Sedentism Across the Maya Lowlands. Frontiers in Human Dynamics 6 (Institutions and Collective Action): 10.3389/fhumd.2024.1354725 (citation)

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/110062 (uri)

publisher

Frontiers

rights

Copyright © 2024 MacLellan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. (license)

source

Frontiers in Human Dynamics

type

Article