Humanities

Towards the end of the Classic Maya period, many southern lowland city-states were abandoned. It is now well known that abandonment played itself out in many different ways across this region. This paper addresses the abandonment of the site of Minanha, west-central Belize, and argues that the best markers for studying abandonment are on-floor assemblages, which represent the very last occupation of sites.
At Minanha, a dozen of on-floor assemblages were recovered, and represent contexts spanning the entire social spectrum, from commoners to royal elites. The contextual-behavioral analysis of this dozen of assemblages indicates that the different segments of the community of Minanha were abandoned at different times and in different ways. The nature of these on-floor assemblages ranges from secondary refuse to exposed offerings, representing termination rituals.
Gradual abandonment has not figured prominently in ancient Maya settlement abandonment studies. However, this paper argues that abandonment, even if gradual, provides us with the opportunity to glimpse at a very critical moment of ancient Maya culture-history, where many aspects of their ideology and social structure played themselves out.

The best archaeological correlate for the collapse is likely settlement abandonment following the Late Classic Period, which is sometimes recognizable in the very last occupation of structures, or 'on-floor artifactual assemblages'. Unfortunately, the taxonomy for abandonment-related assemblages varies widely among scholars, ranging from 'problematical deposits' or 'de-facto refuse', to 'termination caches'. This paper proposes a methodical approach to on-floor assemblages based on site-formation processes theory, and anchored in a thoroughly contextual archaeology. This behavioral-contextual approach examines the vertical and horizontal architectural context of artifacts, the relative completeness of ceramic vessels, and the represented vessel forms, in order to produce quantitative and qualitative data which may be complemented by multivariate statistical analyses. The resulting interpretive framework allows for distinct settlement abandonment scenarios to be reconstructed in a systematic, replicable fashion, while using a specific contextual terminology. This model accounts for rapid and gradual abandonment, abandonment with anticipated return, mundane and ritual abandonment practices, and post-abandonment behaviors, which correspond to various socio-political contexts and differential resiliency. Case studies from the sites of Minanha, Belize, La Corona, Guatemala, and Escalera al Cielo, Yucatan – all abandoned in distinct fashions – serve to illustrate the operation of this methodological approach.

Abandoned landscapes have powerful semiotic values which variably affect different types of agents. Sedentary households surrounded by abandoned architecture would have had many ways to conceive this abandoned/occupied dichotomy. Commoners who settled near abandoned domestic and ceremonial structures – whether humble or elite – were aware that their current state of settlement may have to be seriously altered. The ancient Maya city-state of Minanha, Belize, was gradually abandoned over a period of three centuries. Indications are that Minanha's elite epicenter was first abandoned, early in the Terminal Classic (ca. 810 AD), while several non-elite household groups remained living around that area for centuries. Several burials were placed in site core groups after their abandonment, and Postclassic (900-1200 AD) ceramic sherds were retrieved from site-core locations. This paper investigates the identity and motives of the agents who buried their dead in these loci, and revisited the functions of this vacant constructed landscape. We suggest that remaining inhabitants from the surrounding hinterlands reused the abandoned administrative and religious elite site-core for mnemonic and ritual purposes. This paper further contrasts the use of this vacant monumental site-core by these agents with their management of the surrounding, omnipresent abandoned commoners' households.

The most archaeologically visible dimension of the Classic Maya Collapse is the abandonment of monumental royal courts. Yet, in some cases, non-elite populations lived for centuries in and around Classic Maya centers without rulers. Processes of abandonment among Classic Maya commoners are detectable and reflect their own ritual and social practices divorced from the ritual performances undertaken by the ruling elite. We study the abandonment context and chronology of three domestic groups from the Contreras Valley, an agricultural community located on the outskirts of the Classic Maya center of Minanha, Belize. There, several artifact assemblages were deposited at the time of abandonment, representing termination rituals. This study goes beyond the ideological dimension of termination rituals, as we examine how these ceremonies helped reshape the identity of social groups who were about to abandon their home. We explore how the last inhabitants of a mostly abandoned landscape lived through this process of gradual depopulation. Moreover, we evaluate potential explanations for the archaeological processes behind the occurrence or non-occurrence of termination rituals in different domestic groups.

El aspecto arqueológico más visible del colapso Maya Clásico es el abandono de las cortes reales monumentales. Sin embargo, en algunos casos, poblaciones que no pertenecían a la élite vivieron por siglos en centros Mayas Clásicos sin la presencia de gobernantes. Los procesos de abandono de la gente común durante el periodo Clásico pueden ser discernibles y reflejar sus propias prácticas rituales y sociales, las cuales fueron distintas de la élite. En este artículo estudiamos el contexto de abandono y la cronología de tres grupos domésticos del Valle de Contreras, los cuales formaron parte de una comunidad agrícola ubicada en los alrededores del centro Maya Clásico de Minanha, Belice. Varios conjuntos de artefactos fueron depositados durante el abandono de este valle, los cuales representan rituales de terminación. Este estudio va más allá de las dimensiones ideológicas para examinar cómo estas ceremonias transformaron la identidad de los grupos sociales que estuvieron a punto de abandonar sus casas. Exploramos cómo estos últimos habitantes de un paisaje prácticamente abandonado vivieron este proceso de despoblación gradual. Además, evaluamos explicaciones potenciales para los procesos arqueológicos responsables de la presencia o ausencia de rituales de terminación en diferentes grupos residenciales.