Zacpeten Structure 719: Activities at a Contact Period Popol Nah Before Rapid Abandonment
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2018
Department
Anthropology and Sociology
Abstract
This paper addresses activities carried out in a late-sixteenth or seventeenth century Maya council house (popol nah) just before its abandonment. Structure 719 at the site of Zacpeten in the central Peten lakes district is considered a noble residence remodeled into a council house with an adjacent temple. Excavations revealed quantities of de facto refuse inside the structure's two rooms and around the exterior; recent studies focused on ceramics, lithics, faunal remains, and net sinkers. The back room held abundant lithics and diverse fauna, with evidence of grinding red pigment and snapping obsidian prismatic blades into segments for fashioning arrow points. Pottery and faunal remains indicate feasting, as well as possible use of animal parts in ritual and in making ceremonial objects. The Group 719 complex served as a center of production of various goods and community ritual until its abrupt abandonment, likely in the first decade or so of the eighteenth century.
Publication Title
Ancient Mesoamerica
Volume
29
Issue
1
First Page
137
Last Page
155
Recommended Citation
Rice, P. M.,
Boileau, A.,
Cecil, L. G.,
deFrance, S. D.,
Freiwald, C.,
Meissner, N. J.,
Pugh, T. W.,
Rice, D. S.,
Yacubic, M. P.
(2018). Zacpeten Structure 719: Activities at a Contact Period Popol Nah Before Rapid Abandonment. Ancient Mesoamerica, 29(1), 137-155.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/15492