Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Cause or Consequence? Planned Monumentality and Population Growth in the Middle Preclassic Maya Lowlands

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

As part of the El Zotz Archaeological Project (S. Houston, Director), James Doyle will undertake archaeological investigations at the site of El Palmar, an extensive settlement in modern Guatemala near the large Maya city of Tikal. The project will focus on the chronological relationship between early monumental architecture and settlement growth in a tropical landscape. Monumental buildings involve large-scale management of land and labor, as well as extensive planning and engineering. Yet the social processes behind them are elusive, raising the question of whether monumentality was a cause or consequence of large settlements. Founded during the Middle Preclassic period (ca. 1000 - 300 B.C.E), El Palmar shows heavy investment in early monumental architecture organized within a planned grid. Research will document the sequence of construction at El Palmar in the site's monumental core and outlying residential groups. The dominant monumental architecture at El Palmar is a so-called "E-Group," named after a comparable cluster of buildings in Group E at the nearby site of Uaxactun. The El Palmar "E-Group" plaza is bounded to the west by a large pyramid of 23m in height, an eastern 100-m long platform, and smaller buildings on the northern and southern edges. The frequency and distribution of similar "E-Groups" at major settlements during the Middle Preclassic suggest that the monumental structures and wide plaza formed an integral part of civic life. The central hypothesis of the field research is that monumental constructions were a consequence of population growth, that local peoples gradually constructed the settlement over time. The alternative interpretation is that non-local groups rapidly founded the settlement through acts of monumental construction, which then became fostered the civic conditions of population growth. Furthermore, little is known about the residences outside of monumental Middle Preclassic site centers in the central Lowlands. In addition to chronological data, excavations in El Palmar residential groups will provide information about the daily lives of early peoples in the region and provide key evidence of their relation in time to the monumental core of the settlement. The central location of the site and the lack of a substantial Classic Period (ca. 250-900 C.E.) overburden provide an ideal opportunity to investigate emerging sociopolitical complexity in Mesoamerica. While addressing key questions about a poorly understood time period in Mesoamerica, the project will provide training for American and Guatemalan archaeology students and promote community development in the area near El Palmar. The site of El Palmar is located within a protected park with extensive biological and natural resources. Because of the harsh reality of the economy in this rural part of Central America, archaeological fieldwork is often the only source of income for many of the excavation and camp assistants. The El Zotz Archaeological Project and the El Palmar dissertation work will allow for collaboration with local project assistants through excavation and data processing, contributing not only to short-term economic development, but also long-term career prospects as qualified excavators. This, in turn, will strengthen connections with the local community and promote the responsible stewardship of its archaeological and cultural heritage.