ArchaeologyatElPeru Waka AncientMayaPerformancesofRitualMemoryandPower Navarro FarrandRich Eds

Archaeology at El Per-Waka
Native Peoples of the Americas

Laurie Weinstein, Series Editor
Archaeology
atElPer-Waka
Ancient Maya Performances of
Ritual, Memory, and Power
Edited by
Olivia C. Navarro-Farr and
Michelle Rich
tucson
We dedicate this book to David Freidel.
The University of Arizona Press

www.uapress.arizona.edu
The Arizona Board of Regents
All rights reserved. Published 2014
Printed in the United States of America
191817161514654321
Jacket designed by Miriam Warren
Jacket photo: Stela 9, Patrick Aventurier
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available from
the Library of Congress.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Ritual, Memory, and Power Among the Maya
andat Classic Period El Per-Waka
Michelle Rich and Olivia C. Navarro-Farr
1 Stelae, Buildings, and People: Reflections on Ritual

in the Archaeological Record at El Per-Waka
David A. Freidel and Hctor L. Escobedo
2 A Palimpsest Effect: The Multi-Layered Meanings of
Late-to-Terminal Classic Era, Above-Floor Deposits
at StructureM13-1
Olivia C. Navarro-Farr and Ana Luca Arroyave Prera
vii
ix
3
18
34
3 Royal Alliances, Ritual Behavior, and the Abandonment

oftheRoyal Couple Building at El Per-Waka
Mary Jane Acua
53
4 The Power of the Past: Crafting Meaning at a Royal

FuneraryPyramid
Michelle Rich and Varinia Matute
66
5 Ritual and Remembrance at the Northwest Palace Complex,

El Per-Waka
David F. Lee and Jennifer C. Piehl
85
6 The Ballcourt Complex at El Per

Juan Carlos Melndez
102
7 Ritual Narratives from El Per-Waka: Ceremonial Deposits

inNon-Royal, Elite Contexts
Keith Eppich
112
8 Sansamal Performance: Variability in Ritual Contexts

atElPer-Waka
Damien B. Marken
134
9 The Epigraphy of El Per-Waka

Stanley P. Guenter
147
vi Contents
10 Flint for the Dead: Ritual Deposition of Production Debitage

from El Per-Waka, Burial 39
Zachary Hruby and Michelle Rich
167
11 The Noblewomen of Waka: Mortuary and Osteological Insights

into the Construction of Gender, Identity, and Power
Jennifer C. Piehl, David F. Lee, and Michelle Rich
184
12 Surveying Landscapes of Power and Ritual at Waka

Evangelia Tsesmeli
203
13 Action, Thought, and Negotiation in Ritual: A Commentary

Takeshi Inomata
220
Epilogue
228
References
Contributors
Index
231
263
268
Foreword
Native Peoples of the Americas is a multi-volume series that covers North,
Middle, and South America. Each volume takes unique methodological approachesarchaeological, ethnographic, ecological, and/or ethnohistorical
to culture areas and regions and to themes that link areas across time and space.
The series has been published by the University of Arizona Press since 2003
and includes: Native Peoples of the Gulf Coast of Mexico by Alan Sandstrom
and Hugo Garcia Valencia (2005); Lifeways in the Northern Mayan Lowlands:
New Approaches to Archaeology in the Yucatan Peninsula by Jennifer Mathews
and Bethany Morrison (2006); and Anthropologies of Guyana: Cultural Spaces
in Northeastern Amazonia by Neil Whitehead and Stephanie Aleman (2009).
Archaeology at El Per-Waka: Ancient Maya Performances of Ritual, Memory,
and Power, edited by Olivia C. Navarro-Farr and Michelle Rich, is a much-
anticipated volume with cutting-edge research on a Classic Maya site in Petn,
Guatemala. The research, ongoing since 2003, is continually in the international
news featuring the latest discoveries of ceremonial art and the royal interments
of the rulers of this ancient city. David A. Freidel and HctorL. Escobedo, the
projects codirectors from 2003 to 2006, provide a good introduction to the
spectacular ruins:
Called El Per on existing maps, the sites ancient name is Waka. Covering
approximately 1 km2, Waka is a dense ruined city center of approximately 900
pyramids, palaces, plazas and elite households. More than 40 carved stone stelae
(slabs of stone or wood with inscriptions) and altars at Waka, tell of kings and
queens who ruled the site for four centuries. The kings and queens of Waka
were allies and vassals to some of the most important capitals of ancient Meso
america, including Teotihuacan, Tikal and Calakmul, and commanded a key
trade route along the San Pedro River linking the Petn Maya to distant markets
in Mexico. Their wealth and power is demonstrated by the artifacts found in
beautifully appointed tombs. (Waka Research Foundation. http://archaeology
waka.org/archaeology.html accessed March 7, 2014)
This volume examines the critical role ritual and memory play in the archaeological record, and the way memory was used to portray the aspirations
of the royal elite. But as the contributors aptly demonstrate, ritual was also a
daily event that consumed non-elites, helping to provide order and guidance
through tumultuous times (Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera, this volume).
Ritual and memory are tied to maintaining and validating the social order,
which are then concretized onto the physical landscape (Eppich, this volume) with monumental architecture that reified the past.
viii Foreword
Osteological analysis provides insights into gender and status of El Per-

Waka society and demonstrates that male elite fared better than all the other
categories of people in terms of health and longevity. Ceremonial artifacts from
burials, in the form of lithics, pots, exotic stones, and other materials also speak
to the power of the elite and their command of ritual and precious resources.
El Per-Waka played a pivotal role in the ancient Maya struggle for supremacy in the lowlands. This struggle was manifest in the increased ritual and
monumental building activities, the burials, and in ritual destruction of artifacts. Ballcourt and other ceremonial structure analyses also help show El Per-
Wakas relationship to other Maya polities and ceremonial centers.
All the contributors to this phenomenal book are to be commended, and
especially the editors, Drs. Navarro-Farr and Rich, who were able to assemble
such a multifaceted and in-depth interpretation of ceremony and ritual by linking a variety of analyses (e.g., archaeology, bioarchaeology, ceramics, and ethnography). Many scholars in this volume are well known and highly respected,
while others are beginning promising careers. THIS is a great book and will be
for years to come.
Laurie Weinstein, PhD
Series Editor, Native Peoples of the Americas
Danbury, Connecticut, 2014
Acknowledgments
This El Per-Waka volume represents ongoing collaboration among numerous
individuals, organizations, and institutions. We hope this work honors those
collaborators and their many efforts. In particular, we would like to thank the
Ministerio de Cultura y Deportesthe branch of the government that oversees cultural heritage in Guatemala, the Instituto de Antropologa e Historia
de Guatemala, the Departamento de Monumentos Prehispnicos y Coloniales,
and the Museo de Antropologa e Historia de Guatemala for granting the El
Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project (EPWRAP) permission to conduct
research at Waka, as well as for past and present technical support and supervision. Indeed, this edited volume represents the culmination of years of field and
laboratory work, which would have been impossible without this consent and
support.
We thank all members and staff of the EPWRAP from the communities
of Paso Caballos, Buen Samaritano, Cruce Perdido, Dolores, and El Jobo, as
well as the various individuals and organizations that have generously provided
funding over the years, either to the project or to individuals who are part of
the Waka team. Additionally, the Consejo Nacional de reas Protegidas and
the Wildlife Conservation Society deserve recognition for their continued support for our work in the Laguna del Tigre National Park. The University of
Arizona Press also warrants our gratitude for their assistance throughout this
process. Specifically, we wish to thank Allyson Carter, Laurie Weinstein, and
Amanda Krause for their guidance and patience. We also wish to acknowledge the invaluable contribution of the discussants for the Society for American Archaeology session upon which this book is based, Stephen Houston and
Takeshi Inomata; Sarah Van Oss, Navarro-Farrs undergraduate research assistant at the College of Wooster for her aid with the draft manuscript; copyeditor
J. L. Moreno and indexer Ina Gravitz for their attention to detail; and two
anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback. Finally, for financial support
related to indexing fees, we thank the College of Wooster and the dean for faculty development, Heather Fitz Gibbon; Far Western Anthropological Research
Group, Inc., and the companys principals; and David Freidel and Washington
University inSt.Louis.
Archaeology at El Per-Waka
Introduction
Ritual, Memory, and Power Among the Maya
andat Classic Period El Per-Waka
Michelle Rich and Olivia C. Navarro-Farr
Maya ritual was more than a symbolic act. It was conceived as a
power process that transformed spiritual beings into corporeal
existence in the human realm and allowed humans and people and
objects to become the sacred beings they represented.
Linda Schele and Mary Ellen Miller, The Blood of Kings
apestries of ritual behavior are woven into past and present Maya culture. Archaeologically, we have the privilege of recovering a vast
breadth of material remains that inform on the ritual lives of ancient Maya
people. These include artistically sophisticated stelae and polychrome ceramic
vessels depicting kings, queens, and gods carrying out ritual acts; expansive
murals detailing extravagant and supernatural performances painted on interior
walls of structures; and purposefully arranged burial contexts conveying intentional and elaborate treatment of the deceased. Artifacts found under the floors
of house mounds, elite residences, and other civic-ceremonial buildings attest to
the continued cycles of dedication, termination, and other ritual behaviors associated with place. Surface deposits also suggest complex suites of diverse activities encoding varied meanings. These ritual acts are intrinsically linked with the
final architectural phases and ultimate abandonment of many Maya structures.
This wealth of archaeological resources is enhanced by rich ethnographic
data, which lay the groundwork for analogies with modern Maya peoples, key
ethnohistoric sources, and hieroglyphic inscriptions crafted by the ancient
Maya themselves. The interpretive benefits of these valuable resources do not
come without challenges, which include grappling with the validity of the direct historical approachparticularly considering the effects of the colonial period, detecting bias introduced into ethnohistoric sources, and the influence of
political propaganda on the content of ancient public monuments. In spite of
these challenges, our understanding of ancient Maya ritual is certainly richer
because we can marshal multiple and varied information sources to implement
a conjunctive approach (Fash and Sharer 1991) to research. As such, the
4 Rich and Navarro-Farr
structure of ritual activity in ancient Maya society can be explored from many
different perspectives.
The richly complex ritual life of the Classic period Maya inspired us to organize a Society for American Archaeology (SAA) session in 2007 addressing material expressions of ritual behavior at the Classic Maya site of El Per-Waka,
Petn, Guatemala. Having conducted many seasons of intensive archaeological investigation at this ancient city, members of the El Per-Waka Regional
Archaeological Project (EPWRAP), along with research collaborators, have recovered significant information on use and abandonment throughout the site
center in addition to gaining a more refined understanding of architectural patterns and construction sequences in the sites principal buildings and a clearer
sense of the sites royal history. This volume, developed from the SAA session,
offers a great deal of new, substantive, and scientific research. The authors
tackle the archaeological data sets in tandem with fresh theoretical approaches.
In so doing, they lay out sound strategies for understanding complexities associated with the ritual manipulation of monuments, landscapes, buildings,
objects, and memories, as well as related topics encompassing the performance
and negotiation of power throughout Wakas varied and expansive sociopolitical history.
El Per-Waka History and Research

Petroleum exploration workers rediscovered Waka 1 in the mid-1960s (Escobedo and Freidel 2004a:2). It is the largest known archaeological site in the
Laguna del Tigre National Park, in the municipality of San Andrs in northern
Guatemalas Maya Biosphere Reserve (Figure I.1). East of the San Juan River
and some 6 km north of the San Pedro Mrtir River, this ancient city is situated on a major limestone escarpment which rises 100164m above sea level
(Escobedo and Freidel 2004a). The escarpments cliff face is located southwest
of the site. Wakas favorable location provided a central communication and
transportation route between the Classic period cities of Tikal and Uaxactun to
the east, and the Usumacinta River kingdoms of Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan
to the west. The city is 115 km southwest of Calakmul and 72 km west of Tikal.
Thus, Wakas geographic position suggests it was a key political and economic
center integrated into Classic period lowland Maya civilization. This status was
confirmed by textually documented interactions between Waka and the dominant capitals of the Maya lowlands, Tikal, and Calakmul.
Prior to field excavations by the EPWRAP, information about the site
originated from three types of epigraphic sources: first, from lintels and stelae found at other Maya sites, in particular Tikal and Calakmul (Martin and
Grube 2008); second, from studies of stelae and portions thereof illegally removed from the site itself, which are now in either public institutions or private
Figure I.1. Map of NW Petn featuring location of El Per-Waka in Laguna del Tigre National Park within the Maya
Biosphere Reserve. Map by E. Tsesmeli, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
collections (e.g., Miller 1973); and lastly, from mapping work completed at the
site by Ian Graham and associates to document and catalogue glyphic inscriptions (Dorfman and Slayman 1997; Graham 1988). Graham, of the Corpus of
Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions program, Peabody Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnology, Harvard University, originally mapped the sites epicenter in
1970 to record Wakas abundant stelae (Figure I.2). Additionally, upward of
660 architectural features were recorded in an area of 0.96 km2 (1.2 km on the
east-west axis by 0.8 km on the north-south axis).
The EPWRAP initiated scientific investigations in 2003 under the codirection of David A. Freidel and Hctor L. Escobedo. Mary Jane Acua, Juan Carlos
Melndez, and Jennifer C. Piehl served as past project codirectors, and Freidel
and Juan Carlos Prez Caldern are current codirectors. The EPWRAP conducted the first formal archaeological research at Waka, which included fieldwork in and around the city center and at the nearby satellite site of Chakah.
During the 20032006 field seasons, the northern area of the site core was the
main focus of excavation and survey. It is comprised of three primary plazas
surrounded by pyramids, smaller plazas, acropoli, palace structures, and elite
residential buildings. The site was extensively remapped with modern survey
equipment (see Figures I.3 and 8.2, this volume, for current maps). This process
resulted in the discovery of more buildings than depicted on Grahams original
map and an updated tally of 794 structures at the site (Tsesmeli 2013).
Specifically, preliminary reconnaissance of settlement directly to the west of
Plazas 1, 3, and 4 reveals this area was modified to form a constellation of terraces that supported large, residential plaza groups (Tsesmeli et al. 2005). These
constituted a fairly compact community that led down to undulating farmland
and scattered plaza groups and villages bordering the San Juan River. Other
research endeavors undertaken during these first four field seasons included
a comprehensive site-wide test excavation program; exploration, documentation, and consolidation of looted architecture; and reassembly and replication
of eroding stelae and other sculptural monuments. Although there has always
been a core staff of Guatemalan and foreign archaeologists affiliated with field
investigations and laboratory analysis, a complete list of yearly participants
and detailed results of these various field and lab undertakings are available in
the annual project reports submitted to the Instituto de Antropologa e Historia (Acua 2010, 2011; Acua and Piehl 2010; Escobedo and Freidel 2004b,
2005, 2006, 2007; Escobedo et al. 2008; Freidel and Melndez 2009).
Survey work and limited excavation continued from 2007 through 2009,
targeting areas generally beyond the known site core. The mapped area now
extends beyond the parameters of Grahams map and incorporates a much
larger region in the vicinity of Waka. As of 2011 the original grid system has
been expanded to cover nearly 20 km2, and a total of 1,269 structures have
been documented in the Waka area as part of the full-coverage survey thus far
Figure I.2. Preliminary map of the site of El Per. Survey by Ian Graham, courtesy of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions
program, Peabody Museum. President and Fellows of Harvard University.
Figure I.3. Mapped El Per-Waka epicenter with main structures and groups, including the Mirador Group. Map
compiled by E. Tsesmeli, 2012. Data collected by E. Tsesmeli, D. Marken, E. Romn, M. Knight, and J. C. Melndez,
courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
Introduction9
completed in an area of 10 km2 (Marken 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011). Current

maps depict several broad zones in the site core. The northern zone is architecturally dense and is relatively flat in terms of its topography. Areas directly south
and southwest descend in elevation with fairly continuous settlement although
not as dense as in the north. The eastern zone is typified by a rougher, undulating landscape, a large, low-lying, seasonally inundated bajo, and more sparsely
dispersed construction. The topography further to the west descends; however,
this region has not yet been well explored.
It is noteworthy that while the escarpment at Waka presents a dramatic cliff
face on the southwest, there is a decidedly more accessible slope on the northwest side of the city. The visitors view upon arrival by water from the northwest
would therefore have been of a large palace on the summit of the escarpment,
framed by a populous town below. From this Northwest Palace Complex, the
view to the southeast includes main Plazas 1 and 2, each bounded on the far
eastern end by large civic-ceremonial pyramids, Structures M12-32 and M13-1
respectively. Elite courtiers lived in plazuela groups bordering the northeast
peripheries of the palatial administrative centers and also on leveled hilltops
scattered between the main plazas and the ceremonial precinct on the high and
restricted escarpment to the southeast, known as the Mirador Group. At greater
distances from the site center, specifically to the northwest, the southeast, and
along the riverine, marshy low-lying areas, settlement disperses as one nears the
secondary satellite center of Chakah. Smaller communities, residential zones,
and riverine/farming locales continue in these outlying areas and were likely the
breadbasket for the site.
Ceramic Chronology of Waka

The ceramics at Waka are representative of and incorporate characteristics
shared by central Petn sites, though the assemblage does demonstrate its own
particularities. The occupation history, according to ceramic analysis, spans
some fourteen centuries (Eppich et al. 2005) from the Late-to-Terminal Preclassic (~ 400 BCAD 250) through the Terminal Classic (AD 8301000) (Eppich et al. 2005; Prez Robles 2005; Prez Robles et al. 2008). There is no
definitive evidence for Postclassic habitation at the site.
Wakas occupation began during the Late-to-Terminal Preclassic period. The
complexes of this period have been designated Kaq and Qan; they correspond
to the Chicanel and Tzakol ceramic spheres respectively, which cover the entirety
of the Maya lowlands. The Qan Complex is transitional in that it overlaps the
Preclassic and the Classic. Following the Terminal Preclassic period, we see a
robust expansion in population and settlement in the form of increased wares
dating to the Early Classic. This period corresponds to the Saq Complex and
occurred from approximately AD 250550/600. During this period there is a
marked increase in the quantity and quality of elite wares, notably in the form
of polychromes. The Late Classic period corresponds to the Qeq Complex at
Waka; the corresponding spheres are Tepeu I and II (AD 550820). The ceramics from this period are quite similar to other types seen throughout the Petn,
and they clearly situate Waka as a participant in regional trends and styles of the
period. Additionally, Eppich (2009b, 2010a) has identified a Late-to-Terminal
Classic transitional phase designated the Morai Complex (~AD 770820). This
includes ceramic types present during this transitional phase and into the Terminal Classic, as well as other types which appear to be restricted to the Morai
Complex. The Terminal Classic at Waka is called the Rax Complex and corresponds to the Tepeu III sphere; the dates range from AD 820 to 1000. The types
and varieties found in this period are largely similar to those from the preceding
era. These Terminal Classic materials account for about 45% of all ceramics recovered from excavations at the site. While this large percentage may reflect an
initial research strategy prioritizing horizontal exposure, it does confirm Waka
continued to function as an important center through this time.
Notes on Ritual: Theoretical Perspectives

and Conceptual Frameworks
In the history of archaeological research, a processual approach stressing the
idea that only certain facets of a cultural system are knowable via the study of
material remains has given primacy to what have been deemed more functional aspects of ancient societies: subsistence and technology among others
(e.g., Binford 1983; Binford and Binford 1966). This had the unfortunate effect
of relegating the ritual domain to epiphenomena. Yet, a great deal of literature
exists exploring various theoretical, conceptual, and methodological approaches
to researching and understanding the study of religion, ritual, meaning, and
action in the archaeological record. These studies offer a number of approaches
to stimulating questions regarding ritual in archaeology (see Fogelin 2007; Insoll 2004; Kyriakidis 2007; Merrifield 1988). Challenges exist primarily when
discussions regarding the motivations for and meanings of ritual activity are
conflated with the residue of ritual action.
Recently, archaeologists (e.g., Brck 1999; Lucero 2006; Walker 1995, 2002)
have addressed the issue of identifying evidence of ritual behavior in the archaeological record by stressing: 1) ritual can be defined as action, not beliefs; and
2) the separation of the sacred and mundane is ultimately a flawed dichotomy
archaeologists impose onto the past, which assumes ancient people similarly
distinguished sacred from mundane activities as meaningfully distinct. Firstly,
the idea that ritual is action, not beliefs (Lucero 2006:56; Walker 1995) provides a valuable perspective, because actions are rooted in uniquely understood
ideologies, which form part of the larger cultural system. Consequently, within
Introduction11
the archaeological record, remains of ritually related action can be observed in

the form of material patterning. This perception of ritual is as legitimate as the
assertion that other aspects of human behavior, such as subsistence strategies
and toolmaking techniques, leave archaeologically discernible residues, which
they, of course, also do. As such, if we resituate our understanding of ritual
action, then testable hypotheses can be proposed and theoretical frameworks
constructed that allow us to explore ancient ritual in a more comprehensive
manner.
Secondly, Joanna Brck (1999) persuasively argues the sacred/mundane dichotomy is the result of post-Enlightenment rationalism and Western values
applied to the interpretation of the archaeological record, and may not reflect
the actions of people who believed the same dichotomy existed. In a similar
vein, William Walker (2002) suggests explanatory frameworks based on a universal notion of practical reasoning and logic undermine cultural differences.
We follow Walker (ibid.) in his assertion that the conflation of contemporary
and ancient notions of practicality lead to serious problems for the identification of ancient ritual. He describes a distinction between what archaeologists
have considered practical and logical behavior (i.e., functional and mundane
tasks) and ceremonial and illogical behaviors. He argues this distinction between sacred and mundane acts is similarly flawed because it is based on an
assumption of a universal practical logic that archaeologists have imposed onto
the past. Brck (1999:321) eloquently rectifies the assumption that ritual is
illogical by asserting, it therefore seems likely that ritual actions are perfectly
logical, given a particular understanding of the way the world works. We believe the following review of ancient and contemporary Maya ritual, although
brief, suggests the Maya, past and present, embed ritual action into the routine
of daily life. We also assert that the rich body of data examined below permits
the reconstruction of certain aspects of an ancient Maya worldview, which we
draw upon in order to explain ritual phenomena seen at Waka and beyond.
Ancient and Modern Maya Ritual Practice and its Study

Researchers argue the ancient Maya constantly manipulated specific items
ascribed with sacredness through ritual, which encompasses a wide range
of activities including: votive offerings; feasting; burial ceremonies; accession rites; caching associated with raising a monument; and dedication and/
or termination of public, private, community, or domestic structures. In this
vein, ethnographic works provide insight into how Maya people today maintain strong ritual ties to their pre-Hispanic past. Contemporary Maya ritual
practice incorporates traditional Catholic beliefs, practices, and imagery with
indigenous ritual structures, which include specific ritual circuits, images, and
calendars. The degree of syncretism and the layering of pre-and postcontact
ritual elements are not uniform throughout contemporary and highly diverse
Maya landscapes. Rituals performed at both the household and community
levels, however, provide analogous frameworks for understanding ancient Maya
ceremonial behavior. Based on his studies among the Maya of Zinacantn, Chiapas, Mexico, Evon Vogt (1976:10) describes symbols of ritual, which contain
a system of meanings such that symbols are not just information but actually the building blocks or models for formulating the patterned processes of
believing, feeling, and behaving in a society. These symbols carry a multitude
of meanings ranging from the ideological to the physiological realm. More recently, Vogt (1998:2529) remarked on the difficulty in teasing out the Spanish
from the Maya elements of contemporary Zinacanteco ritual structures when
looking at house ceremonies, particularly death rites. He observes there are indeed strong elements of Maya-centric ritual symbolism anchored into ancient
indigenous Maya worldviews. These symbol systems include the use of copal
incense, the arrangement of the contemporary Maya house as a symbolic model
of the quincuncial universe, the reciprocal nature of relations between the
earth lord and the Zinacantecos, and the need to provide flesh offerings to
appease this lord (which may take the form of a chicken in present times), the
cutting, burning, or breaking of many items of grave goods associated with the
deceased, and the use and scattering of pine needles in ritual or sacred spaces.
In another example, Barbara Tedlocks (1982) work among highland Maya
daykeepers incorporated traditional anthropological field methods with a more
emic approach. She trained as an apprentice to become a professional diviner;
her engagement obscures the division between subjectivity and objectivity. The
resulting knowledge regarding present-day Maya timekeeping and ceremonies
conducted in strict accord with tradition offers a glimpse as to how the ancient
Maya may have kept time, as well as the social and political importance of carefully recording the order of days.
Archaeologists who study the Maya have recognized that these and other
ethnographic works provide vital information regarding the use of ritual to reiterate an ordered understanding of the cosmos, the universe, the natural world,
and the fragile relationship(s) between humans and these larger realms. We
recognize the Maya in antiquity, as now, performed rituals to achieve sacred
balance in pursuit of pragmatic, tangible, and practical benefits. In other words,
the sacred and the practical are conceptually indivisible. The transmission of
ancient Maya ritual traditions and symbols to modern contexts provides robust
analogies for ancient Maya ritual structures, symbol systems, and worldviews.
Because of this, we can postulate that ancient actors also manipulated their
spiritual environment through ritual performances with the intention of maintaining sacred order. This would be achieved, in the past and present, by careful
attendance to ritual structure passed down generationally, as well as by demonstrating obedience and reverence to the gods. The means of communication
Introduction13
with the gods is symbolically represented by sacred substances analogous to

those employed by the ancient Maya; these may include alcohol or spirits,
candle wax, tallow, and the blood of sacrificed chickens. In other instances,
these symbolic substances, through which communication with the gods is
accomplished, are the same substances used among the pre-Hispanic Maya.
For example, they can be copal incense, ceramic wares (broken and scattered
or accumulated around a shrine), corn meal, tamales, and other corn-based
foods. As such, ritual activities incorporate a variety of symbolically important
objects ranging from the sacred to the mundane. In fact, scholars of ancient
and contemporary Maya ritual practice have long noted the use of household
items among commoner Maya populations in ritual contexts where they are
transformed into sacred objects (Brown 2000, 2004; Freidel and Schele 1988;
Freidel et al. 1993; Lucero 2003, 2006; Tedlock 1982; Vogt 1976).
Other sources are also extremely informative when considering ancient Maya
ritual practice. Ethnoarchaeological research is useful to understand how material residues of ancient ritual are structured by diverse behaviors and culturally constructed ideologies (e.g., Brown 2000, 2004, 2005, 2009; Deal 1985;
Hayden and Cannon 1983, 1984). For example, in her research on the material correlates of ceremonies conducted at contemporary Maya shrines, Linda
Brown (2000, 2004) has found that shamans collect and curate ancient objects
for ritual purposes to be used as instruments of divining power. Their deliberate
deposition or offering at present-day shrines displays the importance, power,
and sacredness of ancient material culture within a modern framework. Ultimately, material evidence of ritual practices among ancient and contemporary
Maya reveals that the manipulation of sacred objects is instrumental to performances that maintain order and cosmic balance (Bassie-Sweet 1996; Freidel et
al. 1993; Joyce 1992; Schele and Miller 1986; Sosa 1985; Stone 1992; Tedlock
1982; Vogt 1976). This material-oriented approach is complemented by the use
of literary testimony (Carrasco 1990) to assist in deciphering ancient Maya religion, cosmology, ideology, and ritual. This can encompass ethnohistoric sources
such as Bishop Diego de Landas 1978 Relacin de las Cosas de Yucatan or Maya
folklore originally passed through oral tradition or dramatic performance but
now available in textual form. Examples include the Popol Vuh creation myth
(see Tedlock 1996 or Christenson 2003 for contemporary translations) or the
drama known as the Rabinal Achi (Tedlock 2003), which depicts political machinations and mysticism in precontact Maya civilization.
Chapter Overviews
The body of data on ancient and contemporary Maya ceremonial practices and
beliefs cursorily outlined above reflects a complex worldview. Certainly, aspects
of this view have transformed over time, and we acknowledge the challenges
of a direct historical approach when attempting to reconstruct ritual structures

and practices embedded in ancient lifeways. Yet, the large and varied quantity
of archaeological evidence recovered at Waka, coupled with the extensive body
of information on Maya ceremonial practicepast and presentpermit the investigation of ritual behavior in ancient Maya life at this southern lowland city.
The research included in this volume addresses manipulations and negotiations of meaning, social memory, power structures, and performance associated with ritual action. Varying methodologies and theoretical perspectives are
applied in conjunction with the presentation of diverse data sets from across
Waka. Many of the contributors examine monumental civic-ceremonial architecture as a principle location for ritual activity. Other authors investigate the
aforementioned themes using survey and mapping data or analysis of a particular class of archaeological remains. Often times, the authors incorporate more
than one focus and employ a multifaceted examination of evidence for ritual
action. As such, many chapters are multiauthored and reflect the need for collaborative approaches when conducting archaeological field research, carrying
out subsequent analyses, and building interpretive frameworks.
In the next chapter, the original codirectors of the project, David A. Freidel
and Hctor L. Escobedo, investigate Classic Maya ritual practice by focusing
on Wakas stelae and public buildings. Using data from across the site, they
emphasize that the relationships between monuments and buildings provide
an important domain of inquiry into Classic Maya ritual. This broad-based
perspective is complemented by chapters focusing specifically on major civic-
ceremonial buildings at the site, showcasing the types of temple-pyramids
with which stelae are associated. Olivia C. Navarro-Farr and Ana Luca Arroyave Prera explore the dynamics of power at Wakas principle public shrine,
Structure M13-1, as the sites royal court-governing body waned during the
Late-Terminal Classic. Through careful scrutiny of the diverse material remains
recovered in varied ceremonial deposits accompanying the buildings final construction and occupation sequences, Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera outline
evidence for a shift in the balance of power as the royal court authority declined, and a broader spectrum of Wakas ritual practitioners asserted their ritual
voices. In her chapter, Mary Jane Acua evaluates themes of power/authority,
monumentality, and performance at Structure M12-35, a prominent building
straddling both main plazas at the site center. Also called the Royal Couple
Building, this pyramid is flanked by a number of stelae and other monuments,
which prominently allude to a complex and important relationship with the
powerful site of Calakmul. Acua discusses evidence for continued ritual action
at Structure M12-35 as a significant component of an overall theme involving
the deliberate maintenance and communication of social memory through sacred public performance. Similarly, authors Michelle Rich and Varinia Matute
evaluate the Mirador Groups Structure O14-04 as a place where the deliberate
Introduction15
presentation of the past served to reinforce ruling power, as well as memorialize

Wakas dynasty. Their chapter explores the association of interments, artifacts,
and sculpture in this sacred built environment, and how the past was ritually
manipulated in the reproduction of legitimate authority.
Other chapters emphasize evidence collected at the scale of an entire architectural complex or group as the starting point for an analysis of ritual action.
In their investigations at the Northwest Palace Complex, David F. Lee and Jennifer C. Piehl highlight the diverse activities carried out at the royal court. Archaeological remains reveal patterns of reverential ritual, rejuvenation, and the
invocation of connections to legendary royalty in the southern Maya lowlands.
Their analysis provides essential information about cycles of life, death, and
rebirth in the history of the royal court. In the neighboring ballcourt complex,
Juan Carlos Melndez explores this locations transformational ceremonial significance and its relationship with the larger Northwest Palace Complex, nearby
stelae, the adjacent hieroglyphic staircase, and the associated ritual deposits. He
considers the dynamic and changing ritual use of this integral component of
courtly ceremonial practice and presents evidence of how the ballcourt formed
a space of ceremonial relevance for the ancient inhabitants of Waka. In a complementary perspective, Keith Eppich examines three different nonroyal, elite
ceremonial deposits, including interments and the consecration of architecture
and its preparation for continued reverence. In deducing the ritual use lives of
these buildings, Eppich explores the ability of ritual process to serve as narrative, and in so doing, outlines a strategy archaeologists may use to reconstruct
how the ancient Maya shaped their world. The resulting view is one of a complex network comprised of different ritual structures and ceremonial elements
existing in dynamic tension with each other.
Damien Markens chapter brings the investigation of ritual at Waka to yet
a different level by focusing on evidence for nonelite, domestic-centered performance. In looking beyond the site center, he finds ample demonstration of
power structures and ceremonial displays solidifying community-level ties that,
as he suggests, may lie beyond the direct dominion of royal authority. Marken
advocates an approach incorporating multiple social and functional scales, and
points out that by privileging elite-centered ritual performance, we may misinterpret the extent to which their theatrics were influential over the rest of the
population.
Several chapters focus on other distinct material data sets. These include
stone monuments, lithics, mortuary assemblages, or survey data. The authors
use these data sets as a jumping off point, to weave together more complex
interpretations of the ritual action they may represent. For example, numerous
monuments document Wakas history, and in his chapter, Stanley Guenter reviews 41 of the sites stelae to explore the monumentality of power and the commemoration of political history in stone while noting the inherent transitions
seen from both Early to Late Classic expressions. Guenter evaluates changing
political rivalries, and shifting sociopolitical affiliations embodying the dynamics of dynastic rule. Zachary Hruby and Michelle Richs chapter treats the issue
of debitage created during biface retooling as a component of a royal burial
reentry episode documented in Wakas Burial 39. The study investigates the
issue of debitage as a by-product or waste generated from chipped stone manufacture or maintenance and its prominent association with royal tomb contexts. In their discussion, the authors lay out the evidence, postulate possible
interpretations, and explore issues of symbolism and the sanctification of what
might otherwise be considered a quotidian practice. Jennifer C. Piehl, DavidF.
Lee, and Michelle Rich concentrate on the construction of gender and identity
represented in mortuary assemblages as an expression of power. The interments
of three noblewomen at Waka provide a rich context to illustrate the advantages of an approach integrating bioarchaeological and archaeological analyses
to explore the articulation of the health and history of the interred individuals
along with various clues provided by the mortuary assemblage and epigraphic
information. Through built-environment studies and a Geographic Information Systems viewshed analysis, Evangelia Tsesmeli uses survey data to evaluate
the opportunistic use of variation in elevation and topography by those who
planned, constructed, and modified Waka. She emphasizes monumental and
ceremonial architecture at the site center and explores Waka within established
notions of site-planning and cosmological order in relation to imposed positions of elite authority and power. Finally, Takeshi Inomata provides valuable
insight to the chapters and their interrelated themes in his summary piece, and
the original project codirectors provide an epilogue presenting some thoughts
on the EPWRAPs current and future directions.
Concluding Statements
The previous and extensive archaeological research in the Maya area and
throughout Mesoamerica, coupled with illuminating ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological, and ethnohistoric sources, creates a solid interpretive framework
allowing for the investigation of ritual action at Waka. This wealth of information does not necessarily alleviate all ambiguity or generate interpretive harmony; however, the robust data setsat both the site and regional scaleallow
the volumes authors to conduct inquiries into ancient Maya ritual from a well-
explored vantage point. The unifying theme among the contributions is the
focus on evidence reflecting performance of ritual, invocation of memory, and
statements of power at Waka. The results of these analyses can be compared
with similar evidence from across the Maya region, but these notions are also
broadly applicable to the study of ritual activity in other ancient cultures. That
said, it is not a goal of this book to generate broad anthropological definitions
Introduction17
of ritual action and generalized archaeological correlates, as the data sets presented are primarily concerned with one lowland Classic Maya city. So while
the approaches implemented by the authors are applicable to archaeological
research in general, the material particulars are uniquely relevant to archaeological research at other Maya siteswhose inhabitants participated in the same
sociopolitical system and wove their ritual lives from the same cloth as ancient
Maya people at El Per-Waka.
Notes
1. Each author has chosen to use whichever manifestation of the site name she or he
sees fit; the names El Per, El Per-Waka, and Waka are all valid place names referring
to the same location.
1
Stelae, Buildings, and People
Reflections on Ritual in the Archaeological Record
at El Per-Waka
e initiated archaeological research at the site of El Per-

Waka in 2003 with a team of Guatemalan and foreign archaeologists and local
workers from four different communities in and around southeastern Laguna
del Tigre National Park. Since then, the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project (EPWRAP) has carried out four major field seasons from 2003 to
2006 and has continued to conduct smaller seasons from 2009 onward, which
include excavation and survey in the city center. Furthermore, the periphery
has also been an ongoing focus of survey and archaeological testing since 2007
(Marken 2011). A number of technical monographs reporting the results of
field research and laboratory analysis are published in Spanish on Mesoweb.
com. Those and other reports in the Mesoweb Resources list all of the Guatemalan and foreign archaeologists participating in the ongoing program at El Per-
Waka and other sites in southeastern Laguna del Tigre National Park. Most
of the foreign and several of the Guatemalan archaeologists are represented in
the present volume, which is the first published collection of articles on our
research to appear in English.
We think it is quite appropriate that this debut edited book be thematically organized around ritual, for the first scholarly information to be published
about El Per involved looted Stelae 33 and 34 (Graham 1988; Miller 1973)
which depict a king and queen engaged in ritual performance (see Figures. 3.3a
and 3.3b, this volume). Subsequently, the data on the monumental sculpture
of the site gathered by Ian Graham and his colleagues in the Corpus of Maya
Hieroglyphic Inscriptions (CMHI) program at Harvard detailed more ritual
performance, including the remarkable Altar 1 with its portrayal of a king inside a cosmic turtle (see Freidel et al. 1993:215, Figure 4.27b). As described
below, the initial research strategies of the current project focused our attention
on the core area of El Per-Waka and on Chakah, a satellite community to
the south of our camp that was accidently discovered in the course of our first
season. The focus on central architecture, with its general ceremonial functions,
led to the concentration on ritual contexts in our research findings registered in
the chapters of this book.
Stelae, Buildings, and People 19
Moreover, as an intellectual matter, we have long been interested in ritual as

a lens through which to understand the cultural behavior of the ancient Maya
(Escobedo 2006; Freidel et al. 1993). We will leave the theoretical explications
of ritual as a focus in contextual analysis of Maya archaeological deposits to
the editors and other contributors as they find useful. For our purposes, we are
talking about religious ritual as culturally informed behavior designed to bring
people into communion with the divine, sacred, supernatural forces they collectively believe govern reality. The indigenous Mayan-speaking peoples today,
over the last five centuries of foreign domination, and as best we can discern in
the pre-Hispanic era, are and always have been generally given to serious devotion and to religious ritual. In contemporary and ethnohistorical observations,
Maya rituals have clear and sometimes substantial material residues. Some of
these, such as mortuary practices, are obvious and virtually universal. Others,
such as caching, burning, or scattering offerings, and demarcating sacred space
through architecture, altars, and images are widely distributed and are expected
in most Maya contexts. This is another good reason for Maya archaeologists to
look at patterns of ancient behavior through the lens of ritual practices.
Finally, both of us have an abiding interest in ancient Maya history as discerned through the ongoing decipherment of Classic Maya texts. We are also
mindful of the ways that the elaborate traditions of Maya art complement and
explicate symbolically what we can know through texts. El Per-Waka is an historical and important Classic royal capital. In the course of the Classic period in
this city, historical royal monuments of carved stone became not only a medium
for memorializing ritual performances and identifying vital ritual localities, but
artifacts subject to significant ritual manipulation in and of themselves. We
have structured the following discussion around this observation. While we
attempt to make reference to much of the research that we have had the privilege to witness since 2003, we should here note that important work like the
test-excavation programs supervised by Griselda Prez Robles and Juan Carlos
Ramrez provide solid empirical foundations, but do not easily lend themselves
to explicit incorporation into such an essay.
The site of El Per, ancient Waka, or Centipede Water (Guenter 2007),
witnessed at least fourand probably closer to sixcenturies of public royal
ritual between AD 200 and 800. Four major field seasons of research at the
site between 2003 and 2006 (Escobedo and Freidel 2004b, 2005, 2006, 2007)
and continued excavation, settlement pattern research, and laboratory analysis
(Acua 2010, 2011; Acua and Piehl 2010; Escobedo et al. 2008; Freidel and
Melndez 2009; Prez Caldern 2013; Prez Caldern and Friedel 2013) have
yielded significant archaeological data to complement, and sometimes complicate, the textual and iconographic records of royal activity documented by Ian
Graham and his colleagues on El Pers carved stone monuments in the 1970s
and 80s (Graham 1988). But the record of ritual practice in the communitys
20 Freidel and Escobedo
central localities does not end with the demise of the royal dynasty and its court
sometime after AD 801, which is the last probable recorded date on a monument (Guenter 2005, this volume). Here, as at other major centers of southern
lowland Maya civilization in Petn, the archaeologists have discovered evidence
of continued ritual activity for at least several generations during the ninth
century AD before El Per-Waka was finally depopulated and abandoned (see
Demarest et al. 2004 for discussions of the Terminal Classic). These activities
seem to register sustained devotion to the old sacred places of the center on
the part of people with ritual protocols distinct from those guiding the practitioners of the royal court. And the transition from one array of ritual practices
to the other is complex and intriguing in itself. From the research, we also
have some glimpses of the ritual practices of more ordinary people in the area
of Chakah, a satellite community south of the city, during the heyday of the
royal court (Quiroa 2004, 2007; Quiroa and Guillot 2006; Quiroa and Prez
Robles 2005), and no doubt we will learn much more as research focuses on
households throughout the city in future seasons. Such studies may allow us
to determine to what degree the Terminal Classic practices in the center were
normal for Late Classic households of modest means and to what degree they
were innovations of extraordinary times. Meanwhile, the ensuing chapters of
this book detail what we have learned so far, and the introduction by the editors
reviews the theoretical and methodological frameworks engaged in them.
El Per drew the attention of Ian Graham of the CMHI as a site with inscribed monuments vulnerable to looting and dismemberment. Indeed, two
important looted stelae, designated by Graham ultimately as El Per Stelae 33
and 34, ended up displayed in museums in the United States (Graham 1988,
2010). As Graham reports, Stela 34 surfaced in the Cleveland Museum of Art
in 1966 (see also Wanyerka 1996) and Stela 33 in Fort Worths Kimbell Museum in 1969. The looting of monuments at El Per followed the blazing of
a petroleum exploration road through the site. Northwestern Petn had not
been systematically investigated by earlier generations of archaeologists and
explorers, and these commercial explorations, followed by the flow of looted
monuments from the area, precipitated scholarly attention. In the course of
his expeditions to record the inscriptions and imagery on the monuments at
the site, Ian Graham and his assistant at the time, archaeologist and epigrapher
Peter Mathews, made a detailed plan map of the center (see Figure I.2, this
volume). Before our present project started, Graham generously made that map
available to us; it proved a useful guide in our own efforts to generate a new map
and to plan our general research strategy at El Per. Mathews became intrigued
with the Snake emblem glyph attributed by Joyce Marcus (1973, 1976) to the
site of Calakmul but found also on Stelae 33 and 34 from El Per. In the course
of his work at Harvard during the seventies, Mathews studied emblem glyphs
intensively (Mathews 1985, 1991; Mathews and Justeson 1984) and monuments exhibiting the Snake emblem glyph in particular. He compiled an inventory of monuments displaying this emblem and attributed it neutrally to Site
Q (Mathews 1998). Many of these monuments were looted in the mid-sixties
and are now masterworks in museums and private collections (Graham 1988;
Schuster 1997). He subsequently joined forces with the late Robert Sharer of
the University of Pennsylvania to launch a major archaeological project at El
Per in the early nineties, but this did not come to pass.
By 2000, when Freidel began to plan the present project, he had the advantage of Ian Graham and Peter Mathews generous encouragement, the map,
and the field drawings of the estimated 40 stone monuments from El Per.
The drawings of the El Per inscriptions had already circulated among working epigraphers for more than a decade by that time, placing the site firmly on
the historical map of Petn as a major player in regional events. Simon Martin
and Nikolai Grube (1994, 1995), in their seminal effort to outline a regional
geopolitical history of Late Classic southern lowland Maya civilizations superstate dynamics, identified El Per as a vassal polity to the Snake kings of
Calakmul during the Late Classic period. Martin and Grube also identified
a major defeat of El Per by Tikal in AD 743 and documented the role of
this strategic secondary center in an evident contest for regional supremacy
between Calakmul and Tikal. In their subsequent publication, Chronicle of the
Maya Kings and Queens, Martin and Grube (2008 [2000]) fleshed out these
arguments. Meanwhile, David Stuart who was also working with Graham at
Harvard, published a stimulating and seminal article (Stuart 2000) on a proposed Teotihuacan-inspired entrada into Petn in the fourth century AD that
was featured on a text on Stela 15 (see Navarro-Farr et al. 2008: Figure 5.12)
at El Per. In Stuarts analysis, this text suggested that an important foreign
conqueror, Siyaj Kahk, had arrived, that is subjugated, El Per, established
a vassal king there, and then staged out of that city to attack Tikal. His speculation that the key verb on the text was arrived was later substantiated by
Stanley Guenter who documented the missing glyph block on the course of
excavation on Structure L13-22, Stela 15s final location (Guenter and Rich
2004: Figure 5). El Per was thus already an established center in the ancient
history of the Maya when we initiated archaeological investigations in 2003.
Hctor L. Escobedo, expert in the epigraphy and archaeology of Pten, joined
the project as codirector, and Stanley Guenter came on board as epigrapher.
Along with graduate and Licenciatura students from Guatemala, the United
States, Canada, and Greece, we were prepared to carry out a project using the
conjunctive approach coordinating ancient history and archaeological data as
suggested by Fash and Sharer (1991). Local and extra-local security concerns at
the site and surrounding park were instrumental to our initial focus on the core
area. We took advantage of the substantial monumental record to immediately

investigate the contextual stratigraphic relationships between monuments and
architecturea traditional strategy in southern lowland archaeology going back
to the days when dated monuments were potentially key to placing architecture
in developmental sequences (viz. Smith 1950). At the same time, we spread out
our effort through an extensive test excavation program in the epicenter and by
initiating work at Chakah.
This initial research strategy yielded intriguing data during the 2003 field
season; and it influenced our continued work over the ensuing three seasons.
We expanded excavation operations in all of those localities where we had
started that contained monuments, including the main shrine group of the center, Structure M13-1 (see Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera, this volume); the
adjacent pyramid dubbed the Royal Couple Building, Structure M12-35 (see
Acua, this volume); the low rectangular mound demarcating Plazas 2 and 4
associated with Stela 15, Structure L13-22 (discussed later in this chapter); and
the smallest of the Mirador Group summit complexes, Structure N14-12 (Rich
2004, 2005, 2011). In light of the ritual theme of this book, our long-term
focus on major architectural complexes and monuments in association with
them provides us with a wealth of interesting information. While the chapters
here discuss these data in detail, we think it is worth reviewing some of the
theoretical and methodological themes raised by such a strategy.
Ruined Spectacle
Ever since Tatiana Proskouriakoffs (1960, 1963, 1964) path-breaking historical analyses of stelae, Mayanists have been parsing the meaning of the poses,
accoutrements, and settings illustrated on royal monuments to advance knowledge of royal ritual performance (among many others, see Coggins 1975;
Freidel 1988, 1992; Freidel et al. 1993; Houston 1993; Houston and Stuart
1996; Inomata 2006a; Jones 1977; Looper 2001; Schele 1978, 1985; Schele
and Miller 1986; Schele and Mathews 1998). Takeshi Inomata (2006a) provides a theoretically compelling and cogent review of how the meaning(s) and
function(s) of Maya monuments can be inferred in the context of plazas and
other relatively public settings. Offering the analogue of broad plaza areas of
Maya centers as theatrical spaces, Inomata suggests that stelae and related monuments conveyed the performance of rulers in spectacles, not only affirming
their divine nature but generating their political power through the periodic
gathering of the dispersed imagined community (Anderson 1983) into a real
and tangible one (Inomata 2006a:81819). Corollary to this hypothesis, Inomata proposes that hegemonic relationships between royal centers and their
polities were not only affirmed but established through public spectacles memorialized in monuments.
Inomata is building on a long tradition in Maya studies of identifying the

ceremonial function of community centers and the religious and ideological
underpinnings of elite power. But his specific conceptualizations provide us
with a useful framework for contemplating in general why the El Per monuments are found distributed as they were in the conditions that they were in,
again matters detailed in some of the following chapters of this book. Inomatas
study focuses on monuments as originally installed and viewed by their patrons and the gathered communities. At Tikal, the University of Pennsylvania
Museum project found evidence of monuments being moved, fragments reset,
and in some cases quite dramatically manipulated after original installation
Stela4 along with Altar 1 were reset upside down (Coe and Broman 1958;
Satterthwaite 1958). Beyond that, many early monuments at Tikal, and certainly some Early Classic monuments at Copan, were broken and the fragments
dumped or redeposited (Stuart 1992:172). Exploring manipulation of monuments, following Inomatas ideas, provides insight into the nature of changing
relationships between rulers and followers. For one thing, if royal patrons are
the principal agents in the erection of stelae and the performances they convey, that role decisively shifts to others in the case of desecration, breakage,
and manipulation of monuments. Stelae and their embedded persona (Freidel
1988; Houston and Stuart 1996) perform in the theatrical spaces of the ancient
Maya, not only in majestic perpetuity as their patrons no doubt intended, but
also through their desecration, breakage, scattering, gathering, and resetting
(Mock 1998). The El Per-Waka record is particularly rich in evidence of such
activity. Breaking, moving, and resetting monuments involves considerable effort that ruins the original sacred landscape commemorated in stone, and one
must suspect that it inspires a very different kind of spectacle. Just what those
spectacles might have entailed we must leave to the chapter authors reporting
out on the research; but it seems likely to us that they reflect complex beliefs
about the people portrayed on monuments and the history inscribed on them,
as well as ideas about the public spaces on which the majority of monuments
were originally set and finally deposited.
Bodies of Ritual
Mortuary practices are another major source of ritual information at El Per-
Waka. Project archaeologists have discovered a wide range of interments, from
formal entombments as discussed here to the incorporation of fragmented remains in surface deposits (Navarro-Farr 2004, 2005, 2009; Navarro-Farr and
Arroyave Prera 2006a, 2006b; Navarro-Farr et al. 2008, see also Navarro-Farr
and Arroyave Prera, this volume), and from modest plaza burials (Prez Robles
2004:282, Figure 7) to placement in room fill (Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera
2007). All of these contexts advance our knowledge of ritual variability and
provide clues to the relationships between the domain of the dead and the living. Of particular relevance to the carved monument portrayals are the careful arrangements, and rearrangements, of human remains and artifacts in the
elite tombs. Of the five tombs discovered prior to 2012, Burials 8, 37, and 39
show evidence of having been rulers (Escobedo and Melndez 2007; Hruby
and Rich, this volume; Lee 2005, 2012; Lee and Piehl, this volume; Piehl et
al., this volume; Rich 2008, 2011; Rich and Matute, this volume; Rich et al.
2007). Additionally, Burial 38 is evidently that of a high-elite individual (Eppich 2007a, 2007b, 2011, this volume), and Burial 24 is likely a royal sacrificial
offering (Piehl et al., this volume; Rich 2011; Rich et. al 2006). Three of these
tombs (8, 38, and 39) were certainly reentered in antiquity, and they exhibit
varying degrees of disturbance and rearrangement of materials. As discussed by
David F. Lee and Jennifer C. Piehl (this volume), Burial 8, a queens tomb (Lee
2005, 2012), was found in a pivotal ritual locality in the royal palace. Freidel
originally selected the building in which Burial 8 was found for excavation
because it is on the centerline axis of the palace and a likely reception place and
throne room. While Lee and colleagues found no evidence of a throne bench
the back of the structure had slumped off in antiquityit is still a focal point of
the palace visually and in terms of access. This is because it is situated at one end
of an axis of ritual activity documented to the east that includes reset monuments on the main stairway of the palace and elsewhere on Plaza 4 (Lee and
Gmez 2007). As Lee and Piehl detail in their contribution to this book, the
reuse of stone monuments is linked to the reentry of Burial 8 and the manipulation of its contents. While it is still a matter of open inquiry who this woman
was in life, Lee and Piehl make a persuasive case that she played an enduring
and central political role in the royal court of the city, a role perhaps filled by
several women over the course of the later Classic period. What is certain is
that the epigraphic record confirms powerful women ruled at El Per-Waka,
particularly Lady Kabel portrayed on Stela 34. The disturbance of the body
in Burial 8, either through taphonomic processes, deliberate manipulation, or
both (see Lee 2012), makes it difficult to discern the original arrangement of
the person and her ritual regalia. Nevertheless, there are opportunities to make
sense of the patterns Lee and his colleagues discovered on the stone dais and
surrounding space in Burial 8.
Over the course of the first three field seasons, Juan Carlos Melndez (2004,
2005, 2006) undertook a sustained investigation of the one known ballcourt at
the site, which is directly adjacent to the royal palace and physically connected to
its lower building complexes (see Melndez 2007, this volume). The ballcourt is
designated as follows: Structure L11-30 (north range), Structure L11-31 (south
range), and Structure L11-33 (court surface). By definition, Maya ballcourts are
ritual facilities, and it is normal to find them in central locations. Melndezs
research showed that originally the south range was a free-standing building
platform of fine masonry built in the Early Classic period. David Lees deep test
on top of the palace acropolis revealed buried Early Classic construction there,
so it is quite possible that the Early Classic royal residence was located here as
well as the Late Classic one. The Early Classic building platform, L11-31-Sub,
probably supported a perishable range structure of the kind found in the Late
Classic Palace Complex given its rectangular plan and relatively low and accessible design. Its prominent location on the main plaza of the palace (Plaza 4)
suggests its particular ritual significance in the Early Classic court. Structure
L11-31-Sub had a northern plaza space clearly less accessible than the southern
plaza area. We do not know if there were perishable buildings arranged around
this northern plaza but it was clearly an important space. Melndez discovered
a remarkable and substantial Early Classic ritual offering underneath the center
of it. Although problematic in its relatively inchoate nature as a pile of sherds,
bones, lithics, and precious materials, the deposit did contain a lip-to-lip cache
of plates and appears to be reverential and dedicatory. Among the materials
were jaguar bones and deer bones. The offering also contained green obsidian, a
diagnostic in this period of contact with highland Mexico. These clues suggest
that further research in the palace and its environs will archaeologically elucidate the era of the kings who celebrated their relationship to Siyaj Kahk in the
fifth century AD.
The historical importance of Structure L11-31 may have played a role in its
selection as the south range of the ballcourt constructed by Late Classic dynasts.
The northern range, Structure L11-30, was built de novo on the northern edge
of the north plaza of this complex. Ballgame ritual was particularly important
to the Late Classic Snake Dynasty kings who commanded the royal road from
Calakmul, through La Corona and El Per-Waka, and on south to the Petexbatun region of southwestern Petn. It is not surprising then that the vassal kings
of El Per-Waka constructed a ballcourt adjacent to their royal Palace Complex. David Lee and his colleagues discuss the ritual significance of ball playing
in the context of their contribution to this volume.
Moving eastward from the palace, Structure M12-32 is an 18m high pyramid that dominates Plaza 2, the northeastern end of the main center of the site.
Two Late Classic stelae, 24 and 25, flank the main stairway on the western side.
These stelae depict individuals standing on top of zoomorphic mountain masks
or witz, a typical baseline design for stelae at El Per-Waka. In the eyes of these
particular mountain masks, no doubt depictions of the pyramid in question,
are individuals peering out. This is an unusual motif at El Per-Waka. These
images represent deities or ancestors inside the mountain, and indeed there are
ancestors inside. In the course of excavating a tunnel along the centerline of the
stairway, Hctor L. Escobedo and Juan Carlos Melndez (2007) discovered a
masonry tomb. Burial 37 contained a single royal individual of unknown sex,
and a characteristic huunal diadem jewel was found on the head. Elsewhere
(Freidel and Escobedo 2007), we have proposed the arrangement of the black
ceramic cups (Balanza Black) and red Spondylus shells on the body forms a
cross, symbolic/representative of the World Tree. Above the head of the person
was a large plate decorated with a painted centipede headthe symbol of the
Wak Dynasty. At the foot, the individual was framed by an equally large plate
decorated with a Waterlily Monster headthe source of the Kan Naab Isimte
or Precious Pool Maize Tree (Stuart 2005). This tree is the Maize God and the
source of human beings as depicted in anthropomorphic cobs on the Panel
of the Foliated Cross at Palenque (Schele and Freidel 1990). We suggest the
deceased in Burial 37 was arranged to perform in the perpetuity of the afterlife
as the World Tree and maize deity of the Wak (centipede) Dynasty. In light of
the numerous depictions of Classic rulers performing as deities, such as the
Maize God, and decorated as divine trees on stone monuments (e.g., see Newsome 2001 for the stelae of the north plaza at Copan), the arrangement of the
interred as a world tree and maize deity in Burial 37 strengthens the conceptual
connections between ritual reifications of rulers as entombed ancestors and as
stone portraits. The ancestors, in the eyes of the living mountain place, entombed individuals literally in the monuments.
The architectural context of Burial 37, like that of Burial 8, reinforces the
theatrical staging of the deceased ruler as performer in spectacle. As Escobedo
and Melndez (2007) detail, the tomb chamber is situated underneath a single-
roomed masonry shrine. This shrine, bearing a framed panel and talud-tablero
sloped superior molding, suggests a strong resemblance to Early Classic depictions of Teotihuacan-style fire shrines in the Maya area, such as the one surmounting the GIII head carried by Siyaj Chan Kawiil II on Tikal Stela 31 or
on the Dazzler Vasea polychrome vessel likely personifying the dynasty
founder Yax Kuk Mo in the Margarita Tomb under Structure 16 at Copan
(Bell et al. 2004). The west-facing M12-32 shrine is blackened in the interior
and was clearly used for fire rituals. The Teotihuacan-style fire shrine can be
identified with the Wi-te-Naah origin house (Stuart 2004a) introduced into
the Maya area at Waka by the conqueror Siyaj Kahk in the fourth century AD
according to fifth-century retrospective history on El Peru Stela 15 (Guenter
2005; Stuart 2000). We have discovered that Stela 16 (see Navarro-Farr et al.
2008: Figure 5.13), also dedicated in the fifth century, is a posthumous portrait
of Siyaj Kahk carrying a Teotihuacan-style fire bundle (Freidel et al. 2007).
Escobedo and Melndez (2007) determined the masonry shrine inside Structure M12-32 was built directly against the mud-packed rubble fill of the pyramid without a freestanding back wall. The shrine was flanked on the northern
side by a masonry wall that simply stopped less than 3m out and again tailed
into the construction. This wall was, like a piece of modern theatrical scenery,
designed to give the impression that the shrine was built against a finished
platform. Preliminary investigation of the southern side of the shrine indicates
a similar flanking wall. The shrine appears to have been built inside of a wide
trench that involved removal of a pre-existing stairway extending from the western edge of the pyramid to a steep vertical face of construction fill deep inside it.
Escobedo and Melndez suggest this remarkable stratigraphic arrangement was
designed to place a second ruler in an earlier pyramid built to house another
rulers tomb, one perhaps further to the east below the center of the building.
The shrine, in this interpretation, was never intended as a place of long-term
ritual practice, but rather it was designed for funeral rituals linking the interred
individual with the earlier occupant of this ancestral mountain. Subsequent to
such rituals, the trench was carefully refilled and the stairway rebuilt. We suggest that there was an elaborately constructed and briefly used Teotihuacan-style
fire shrine situated directly above the tomb of the king in Burial 37. The shrine
was carefully preserved within the wet-laid fill of the repaired trench and ritually
connected some esteemed ruler from the textually documented fourth through
fifth century period of the Teotihuacan alliance at the site with the later Middle
Classic ruler placed in Burial 37.
Structure M12-32 remained an important ritual locus throughout the rest
of the Classic period. As mentioned above, Stelae 24 and 25, discovered in fragments flanking the stairway, evidently date to the mid-eighth century (Guenter
2005, this volume). They depict individuals standing on top of zoomorphic
mountain masks that have ancestors or gods peering out of their eyes. One
of the individuals was evidently depicted posthumously, while the other is a
smaller person, perhaps a young successor. The implication is clear; ancestors
inside the pyramid played an active role in legitimating subsequent transfers of
power in the royal dynasty. These stelae also illustrate the synergistic relationship between ritual performance depicted on stelae and in architectural design.
For if we are right in our reasoning, the interior stratigraphy seals in another
significant transfer of power from one king to another.
El Per-Waka has, in addition to the plazas and temples of the main center
at the western end of the escarpment, a temple acropolis on a natural promontory at the eastern end of the core settlement zone dubbed the Mirador Group
(Rich 2011; Rich and Matute, this volume). At some 45m above the level of the
main plazas to the west, this promontory with its pyramids visually dominated
the city (Tsesmeli, this volume). Reconnaissance by Freidel and his students in
2001 on the northeastern side of the promontory shows that it was terraced in
antiquity, enhancing its appearance as a massive pyramid and humanly modified sacred mountain. North of the Mirador Group is a large bajo (seasonally
inundated low-lying area). If it contained water in antiquity, as it does seasonally today, it could have represented the mountain-pool combination that Vernon Scarborough (1996) identified at Tikal as a symbolic Water Mountain. The
relatively level ground between the densely packed palatial residential groups
around the main plazas of the western end of the city and the towering Mirador
Group in the east suggests that public spectacles and processions moving from
west to east would have been enveloped in an awesome theatrical setting harkening to the myths of creation.
Michelle Richs excavations (Rich 2011; Rich et al. 2006, 2007) on and
in front of Structure O14-04, the second largest of the three temple pyramid
complexes on the acropolis, bear directly on the themes of this chapter. Stela1,
fallen and in pieces, was set in front of the building on its centerline. This stela
dates to the 9.11.5.0.0 Period Ending or AD 657 (Guenter 2005) and has iconographic elements suggesting it was commissioned by King Kinich Bahlam II.
The text of Stela 33 (see Figure 3.3a, this volume) indicates Kinich Bahlam II
was installed in power at El Per-Waka by the Snake king of Calakmul, Yuknoom Cheen II (Guenter 2005). It is plausible, therefore, that Stela 1, the first
monument following the century-long Middle Classic hiatus in stela erection in
the city (Freidel et al. 2007; Guenter 2005) was raised by this king.
Stela 1 evidently correlates temporally with a Late Classic masonry shrine
situated on an elaborate adosada (attached frontal platform) on the main stairway of Structure O14-04. Rich and her colleagues documented the exceptional
importance of this ritual performance space to the rulers of the city. They discovered a vaulted masonry tomb underneath the floor of this shrine in April
2006. Burial 39 (Rich 2008, 2011; Rich et al. 2007; Rich and Matute, this
volume) dates on ceramic and epigraphic grounds to the first half of the seventh century AD and contained the remains of a ruler. While the Classic Maya
are known to have erected stelae directly in front of the building entombing
the portrayed individual, Kinich Bahlam II lived into the eighth century, and
hence Burial39 is likely not his tomb. In relation to this idea, Bryan R. Just,
Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas at the Princeton University Art Museum, discovered a belt plaque in the collections there that provides a possible birth date for Kinich Bahlam II, along with a portrait of the
man in a Late Classic style (Just 2007). This date would make him 20 years old
at the time of the raising of Stela 1. The chronological placement of Burial 39
is plausible for the immediate predecessor of Kinich Bahlam II. Maya rulers
clearly venerated their ancestors by performing on and near their tombs (e.g.,
Freidel and Guenter 2006; Schele and Mathews 1998: Chapter 2), and this tradition evidently accounts for the relationship between Stela 1 and the adosada
shrine of Structure O14-04.
Freidel and Suhler (1999) identified an enduring pattern of Maya architecturally designed ritual performance spaces in which rulers reenacted descent
into the underworld and then ascent into the upper world. This kind of performance demonstrated their ability to survive the journey of death and spiritual resurrection exemplified by the Maize God and the Sun God. We posit
that the elaborate stairway of Structure O14-04 represented such a resurrection
path. There are really two stairways leading from the base to the summit of the
pyramid. The first stairway links the base to the adosada. To get to the summit,
one would have had to walk around the shrine, go up a narrow lateral stairway
paralleling the back wall of the shrine and then continue up the second central
stairway to the summit temple. The vertical movement in this design does not
take one literally down into the ground as in some variants of this performance
path, but it does take one to a clear threshold space: the shrine. For the ancient
Maya, as in the case of many other peoples, threshold space was metaphorically
a portal between the world of the living and the world of the gods and ancestors. In Burial 39, the king under the floor of the shrine marked it as a portal
place where his successors and descendants could commune with him. As Rich
(2011) has reported elsewhere, the arrangement of the figurines, offering vessels, and other furniture in Burial 39 explicitly denote this tomb, and the shrine
above it, as death and resurrection space. From that shrine, the performing king
could emerge into the world of the living and continue to the summit temple.
Fragments of Memories
Finally, stelae and buildings were placed in new relationships with each other
when broken fragments of stelae were arranged near, on, or even in, buildings. In the case of Structure M12-35 (Acua 2005, this volume; Escobedo and
Acua 2004), there is reason to suspect that the reset fragments of Stelae 11
and 12, representing King Kinich Bahlam II and his wife Lady Kabel on the
occasion of the 9.12.0.0.0 Period Ending, were being put back in the general
vicinity of their original location in front of the south face of the building. This
is because Stelae 33 and 34, depicting these rulers on the next Period Ending,
were set on the north side of the same building. Stelae 33 and 34 were in exceptionally good condition when looters sawed them up for removal and sale, ultimately to museums in the United States (Freidel and Rich 2012). This suggests
that they had not been broken up as in the case of Stelae 11 and 12, and were
in their original location. If this chain of inference holds up, and we still have
opportunities to test it in the field, then Stelae 11 and 12 served much the same
function in fragments that they did originally, to commemorate the rulers in
relationship to a building important to their reigns and ritual performances in
the center. In this regard, the open summit of Structure M12-35, and its design
facing north and south, makes it likely that it served as an observation location
for thrones of perishable materials, possibly palanquins.
As Olivia C. Navarro-Farr (2009; Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera, this
volume) has noted, Structure M13-1 was an important shrine center during
and following the collapse of the royal court and likely throughout the Classic
period as it has major construction phases dating to the Early Classic period
(Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera 2006b). Stelae 9 and 10, represented by fragments, were placed near the base of the north terrace of the building in this late
era. Stelae 5, 6, and 7 have the formal placement one would expect for original
locations of stelae in front of the main staircase, but excavations revealed that
they were likely broken and rearranged in the same late era. Stela 6, for example,
had a butt fragment of another cached stela underneath it along with a small
altar. But unlike Stelae 9 and 10, which are Early Classic, Stela 6, although
badly eroded, clearly portrayed a Late Classic queen. Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera (this volume) suggest that at least Stelae 9 and 10 were placed next to
M13-1 as part of the extensive and complicated ritual use of the building during and following the collapse of the royal court through the Late-to-Terminal
Classic periods that accompanied the buildings final phases.
Just how denizens of Waka shifted in their views of their ancient dynasty
and its rulers is an intriguing question that several archaeologists represented in
this volume are productively pursuing. Stanley Guenter (2006) has noted that
Stelae 14-17, now at the southwestern end of the center, show signs of having
been broken and discarded after their fifth-century commissioning but well
before their Terminal Classic period reuse, as the fragments clearly display the
differential weathering on their surfaces that would result from casual dumping for a period of many years. The evidence for destruction and reassembly
of these fifth-century monuments supports the notion that the century-long
monument hiatus in the sixth century is not just an artifact of preservation but
a historical reality. For it seems likely to us that broken sixth-century monuments would have been retrieved and displayed in the same fashion at the fifth-
century ones. Guenter expanded the excavations in Structure L13-22 to reveal
that fragments of the stelae, including a remarkable depiction of a Teotihuacano
on Stela 14, had been incorporated into the southwestern end of this Terminal
Classic platform.
Presumably, the people living in the elite residential complex adjacent to
Structure L13-22, called the Paal Group (Arroyave Prera 2006a, 2006b; Arroyave Prera and Martnez 2004; Arroyave Prera and Matute 2005), used this
newly defined ceremonial space and had motives for recalling the era of alliance
with Siyaj Kahk and Teotihuacan with some nostalgia. This particular residential complex raised a number of intriguing questions concerning its inhabitants.
Arroyave Preras research clearly shows that the Paal Group was occupied over
centuries spanning the Early to Late Classic periods. In the Terminal Classic period, Structure L13-22 was built in its entirety. This long, rectangular platform
effectively demarcated a new smaller plaza at the western end of Plaza2 with
the Paal Group on its southern side. Despite its relatively modest perishable
superstructures, the Terminal Classic Paal residence was part of an important
new ritual focus in the center.
One could speculate that the nostalgia of its Terminal Classic inhabitants
was shared with other southern lowland communities in the Terminal Classic
in light of the fashion of depicting leaders as kaloomte (supreme warriors) and
with Mexican style regalia at such sites as Ucanal and Seibal (Martin and Grube
2008). However, it might be that the inhabitants of this residential group had a
tradition of loyalty to the Early Classic kings who celebrated their alliance with
Siyaj Kahk. While they may have suffered obscurity in the Late Classic, the
fall of the vassal kings loyal to the Snake Dynasty may have inspired them to
reassert the memory of their heroes.
Structure M13-1 was apparently the main focus of this resurgent ceremonial
complex as seen in Stelae 9 and 10. The three fragments of Stela 9 pertain only
to the bottom third of the monuments sculpted surface. This is likely significant and intentional, as the three sections together included a depiction of a
basal fire mountain, a text fragment likely mentioning Kinich Bahlam I, and a
finely incised secondary text mentioning a Wi-te-Naah. As Taube (2004) has
argued, the Wi-te-Naah is a fire shrine cognate with lowland Maya fire shrines
dedicated to variants of Kinich Ajaw. The fragments of Stela 9 suggest that
these late ritualists may have thought of Structure M13-1 as a fire shrine. Stela
10, badly eroded, depicts a lord carrying a Mexican-style, rectangular shield
in the Early Classic period. He also wears a sequined headband below a giant
jaguar headdress. These regalia also have Teotihuacano affiliations. Only further
research on Structure M13-1 can reveal more information on its Early Classic design and use, but the Late-to-Terminal Classic inhabitants apparently regarded it as an important repository of memories about the Early Classic era in
their city (Navarro-Farr et al. 2008; Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera, this volume.) Finally, it may prove significant that the orientation of Structure M13-1
is close to true west while the major orientation of the plaza it dominates is,
like the rest of the ceremonial center, skewed to Maya north (1015 degrees
east of north). This distinct orientation may have been a result of its originally
unique role as a fire shrine facing west to Teotihuacan.
Stelae, Buildings, and Status

Not all stone monuments at El Per-Waka appear to have been carved. Directly
east of the M13-1 shrine center is an impressive leveled hilltop that supported
a large group nicknamed the Chok Group. Keith Eppich (2007a, 2007b, 2011,
this volume) describes his research on this Group and his discovery of the important seventh-century, cist-tomb Burial 38 in some detail. Here we wish to
remark that as a residential group, Chok is unique because of its stone monuments. The mere presence of these monuments along with Burial 38 suggests
that the inhabitants were of exceptionally high status in the city. As Eppich
describes in his chapter, he discovered a top fragment of a stela reset on the front
stairway of Structure M13-12 in the course of excavation. And below on the
plaza, he found a circular altar and more stela fragments. All of these, he deduces,
were put in place during the Terminal Classic period renovations. Nevertheless,
the only other place where archaeologists have discovered redeposited plain
fragments of stelae are in front of Structure M13-1, the primary shrine group in
the center (Navarro-Farr 2009; Navarro-Farr et al. 2008; Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera, this volume). So, evidently the Terminal Classic ritual specialists
who supervised the renovations knew about Burial38, the reinterred elite tomb
in the stairway. There is another plain stela at the northern end of the Chok
Group, so it is plausible that the Middle and Late Classic residents of this group
enjoyed the privilege of plain monuments and the rituals that went with them.
The status of the occupant of Burial 38 would strengthen this conjecture.
Eppichs close analyses of the context show that the original mortuary furniture
included painted and modeled ceramics of the highest quality, some with inscriptions. These date to the early part of the seventh century, coeval with the
ceramics Michelle Rich and her colleagues discovered in Burial 39 in Structure
O14-04 to the east of the Chok Group. Indeed, each of these tombs contains
a black background drinking cup with glyphs and images rendered in orange
with red outlining identified as Petkanche Orange Polychrome, Undesignated
Variety (Eppich 2009a). These vessels are virtually identical except that the one
from Burial 39 has an inscribed royal name on it. This and other evidence presented by Eppich and Rich (2007) suggest that the occupant of Burial 38 was a
courtier close to, if not indeed part of, the royal family of the time. This person
was, as Eppich persuasively argues, a revered ancestor in his own right. The
plain stela fragments and the altar suggest that, at least in retrospect from the
Terminal Classic, this funerary monument deserved all-but-royal treatment. In
sum, research in the Chok Group provides a fascinating glimpse of what future
work on the many other leveled hilltop, elite residential complexes to the east
of El Per-Wakas main center might hold in store. To be sure, the Chok Group
hilltop is higher and more impressive than the others, but several of them, discerned through reconnaissance work, also have multiple plazuela groups and
potential funerary pyramids.
Finally, stone monuments do not tell the whole story about the role of large
buildings in high elite or even royal ritual in our research arena. We mentioned
at the beginning of this chapter that the satellite site of Chakah to the south of
El Per-Waka was a long-term focus of research (Quiroa 2004, 2007; Quiroa
and Guillot 2006; Quiroa and Prez Robles 2005). The center at Chakah is,
like the Chok Group, a leveled hilltop group with a north-south main axis.
The largest and presumably the focal structure of the group is Structure C-3.
Looters severely damaged this building with several trenches and tunnels, the
longest runs east-west through the middle for more than 18 m. In the process
of cleaning out this massive trench for systematic documentation, a dreary routine practice in Petn archaeology, Fabiola Quiroa and Griselda Prez Robles
found the fragments of a reconstructable Late Classic cup decorated with wonderful magical birds and an elegant black-painted rim inscription. Epigrapher
Stanley Guenter discerned that this cup was inscribed with the name of a ruler
at the city of El Zotz (Houston 2008). El Zotz was a city located between El
Per-Waka and Tikal, closer to the latter city. It was on the likely route from
El Per-Waka to Tikal and it flourished in the Early Classic period during the
hegemony put in place by Siyaj Kahk. Here was an important clue concerning
the relationship between El Zotz and our area, but it was cached at Chakah, not
at El Per-Waka. The ruined context left by the looters makes it difficult to say
much more than this: Chakahs leader and this building were worthy of rituals
recalling a venerable strategic alliance in the form of a vital piece of history.
Concluding Thoughts
There are more dimensions to the relationship between monuments and architecture at El Per-Waka, but in the context of this review, we have sought to
demonstrate the promise for such inquiries in continued excavations at the site.
There are intriguing broader patterns in the relationship between monuments
and the grand plaza areas, for example, which merit further investigation. The
concentration on the southern plazas of Early Classic stelae dealing with the era
of Kinich Bahlam I and his immediate successors contrasts with the concentration of Late Classic stelae from the time of Kinich Bahlam II and his successors
on the northern plazas. The exceptions are reset Stelae 11 and 12 in front of
Structure M12-35, which faced both north and south, and stelae in front of
the main stairway of Structure M13-1, one of which certainly portrays a Late
Classic queen. These and some Early Classic interloper stelae in the north plaza
zone show the pattern was not by any means hard and fast. Still, its fairly clear
that Terminal Classic people were not resetting Early Classic monuments in the
north as they were in the south.
Research in Classic Maya sites containing monuments has come a long way
from the mid-twentieth century focus and priority (Proskouriakoff 1950) to
stratigraphically correlate dated monuments with architectural construction
phases. Edwin Shook and his colleagues (1958) on the University of Pennsylvania Museum Tikal Project revealed the complex manipulation of monuments
there, not only in the Terminal Classic but in earlier periods as well. They decisively introduced the notion that stelae were complexly imagined artifacts
among those who made and used them, worthy of very careful contextual and
taphonomic analysis. The EPWRAP aspires to live up to such expectations as
we work to correlate the words and images of community leaders with the deeds
and practices of the people who lived in their city.
2
A Cumulative Palimpsest Effect
The Multilayered Meanings of Late-to-Terminal
Classic Era, Above-Floor Deposits at
StructureM13-1
Olivia C. Navarro-Farr
and Ana Luca Arroyave Prera
Ritual provides an appropriate medium through which the values
and structures of a contradictory world may be addressed and
manipulated.
Jean Comaroff, Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture
andHistory of a South African People
he period from the end of the Late Classic to the Terminal Classic (which we define broadly as spanning from approximately AD 750
to 900) inspires scholarly debate regarding behaviors and adaptations that the
ancient Maya utilized during this time of considerable change.1 Among topics
widely discussed are patterns of abandonment and a heightened awareness of
and preoccupation with the public manipulation of social memory. Given the
breakdown of the system of dynastic kingship and decline in royally sponsored
public monuments, architectural projects, and hieroglyphic inscriptions (Rice
et al. 2004), commoners and elites alike would have taken notice. In these circumstances, Maya people may have sought measures to mitigate stress relating
to the uncertainty of the age. A focus on public performance of ritual would
have been one such measure to seek order and guidance through otherwise
tumultuous times. Nevertheless, questions about how everyday Maya inhabitants of larger cities like Waka responded to effects of politico-economic decline
are often subsumed by important overarching discussions about why and how
state collapse occurs at all. In other words, while strategies of adaptation and
attempted cultural continuity may be addressed at smaller centers where such
phenomena are seen at a comparatively larger scale, those same strategies employed by people at larger centers may be glossed over in favor of the broader
issue of state collapse itself. In the following, we discuss evidence for varied
A Palimpsest Effect 35
ritual manipulations carried out in association with a public ceremonial shrine

in the heart of the ancient city of Waka.
At this point it is germane to discuss the term cumulative palimpsest characterizing the nature of the evidence at Structure M13-1. A palimpsest refers to
scrolls from which earlier texts have been removed to permit additional writings. The term has been applied frequently to describe pertinent archaeological
examples (e.g., see Binford 1981; Schiffer 1985). Because a true palimpsest
implies all pre-existing evidence has been expunged, we employ Geoff Baileys
(2007:204) term cumulative palimpsest because it describes the successive
episodes of deposition, or layers of activity, [which] remain superimposed one
upon the other without loss of evidence, but are so re-worked and mixed together that it is difficult or impossible to separate them out into their original
constituents. Evidence indicates M13-1 was revisited episodically throughout
the Late-to-Terminal Classic periods by different ritual practitioners of varied
socioeconomic statuses for wide-ranging purposes that were likely intrinsically
linked to the sacred memory this building long held for Wakeos.
Structure M13-1
The west-facing Structure M13-1, also known as the Southeast Acropolis, is situated at the eastern end of Plaza 2 where it occupies a central location at Waka
(Figure 2.1). It is the largest building on Plaza 2 and includes a sizable central
staircase leveling off to a centrally located, attached frontal platform known in
Spanish as an adosadasuch as those on the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
at Teotihuacan. This is a rare architectural feature in the Maya area. A second,
narrower central staircase continues to a central summit temple. The building
also includes a long, flanking northern platform supporting a series of rooms
and a lateral staircase to the central platform. The southern flank supports a
structure with a staircase facing north. The southern architecture does not appear to face toward Plaza 2; it is also markedly asymmetrical when compared to
the northern flank. There are at least six stelae proximate to this building, two
of which were directly associated with a dense surface deposit atop the terminal
plaza floor surrounding the structures northwestern base.
A test excavation within the confines of a small room on the northern terrace
revealed this area of the buildings construction dates to the Early Classic (~AD
250500) (Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera 2006b). Horizontal excavations
throughout Structure M13-1 exposed evidence of cumulative and episodic
above-floor deposits resulting from diverse activities carried out in association
with a complicated series of Terminal Classicera architectural modifications
(see Figure 2.2). The buildings complex architectural configurations, its location as the focus of Plaza 2, and the material evidence discussed in the following
Figure 2.1. Structure M13-1 Plan featuring radiometric samples collected in

2006, units, architecture, and locations of architectural and archaeological findings
from research conducted from the 2003 through the 2006 field seasons. Drawing by
E.Tsesmeli, O. Navarro-Farr, and A. L. Arroyave Prera, courtesy of the El Per-Waka
Regional Archaeological Project.
indicate M13-1 likely held great ceremonial and politico-religious significance

for generations of Wakas inhabitants.
For the ancient Maya, shrine structures like M13-1 were considered to be
central features of their built landscape and, as such, were often repositories
of sacred memory and intangible Chulel, or energy. This word is translated
by some scholars as soul force (Freidel and Schele 1989; Freidel et al. 1993;
Schele and Mathews 1998), while others argue a more precise translation is
vital force or power that inhabits the blood and energizes people and a variety
of objects of ritual and everyday life (Houston and Stuart 1996:292 after Vogt
1969). Such sacred essence was imbued as part of dedicatory rituals involving
the caching or bundling of offerings. These rituals were also often the subject of
public ceremony, great reverence, and lingering social memory. Evidence suggests the memory and significance attached to Structure M13-1 was sufficiently
profound as to warrant a protracted series of ritual revisitations and structural
modifications. These were apparently performed by a diverse socioeconomic
body of ritual practitioners throughout the end of the Late-to-Terminal Classic
periods at Waka prior to the sites ultimate abandonment.
Investigation of the plaza floor associated with Structure M13-1s northwestern base near Stelae 10 and 9 (for stelae images, see Navarro-Farr et al. 2008:
Figures 5.4 and 5.5) revealed the primary context of a dense deposit including
flat-bedded ceramics with primarily worn edges (indicating they did not pertain to reconstructible vessels and were likely secondary or tertiary deposition),
other semi-complete vessels, broken projectile points, obsidian blade fragments,
worked-shell adornments, and partial human remains (see Navarro-Farr 2004,
2005, 2009). The ceramic material from this deposit dated to the early facet
of the Terminal Classic Rax Complex, or approximately AD 800900 (Eppich
2010a; see also Navarro-Farr and Romn 2004). Additional evidence of similarly flat-bedded surface deposits was documented in direct association with the
buildings superstructure architecture. Specifically, deposits were recorded atop
the far northern terrace, along the central northern terrace, behind the eastern wall of the central platform superstructure, and along the buildings south-
sector terrace at the base of the central temples southern wall (see Figure 2.1).
In this discussion we focus on the multifaceted nature of the above-floor
ceremonial activity at Structure M13-1, the strong evidence for a broad range of
ritual participants at a core monumental shrine, and how these findings pertain
to the sociopolitical landscape of the Late-to-Terminal Classic periods at Waka.
This article also actively revises previous interpretations in Navarro-Farr and
Arroyave Prera (2006a) and Navarro-Farr et al. (2008), which centered on the
premise that the activities that resulted in these dense deposits across Structure
M13-1 predominantly represented desecrating and/or reverential ritual terminations. Though we acknowledge the evidence for isolated instances of dedication
Figure 2.2. Structure M13-1 seen in plan view with a complete eastern profile of the northern terrace and the location of specific
architectural features and mortuary assemblages. Drawing by E. Tsesmeli, O. Navarro-Farr, and A. L. Arroyave Prera, courtesy of the
ElPer-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
and ritual termination in these deposits, we now recognize a much broader

array of ritual actions. Additionally, we have jettisoned the rather problematic
interpretive dichotomy that these actions can be identified and defined or entirely characterized as either reverential or desecrating acts. In establishing a
ritual meaning behind the deposition of these materials, however, we begin
with a brief discussion of the significance of ritual as process among the ancient
Maya before turning to the evidence for episodic and diverse ritual activities at
Structure M13-1.
Surface Deposits in the Maya Area

The significance of ritual cannot be evaluated without emphasizing the importance of place. In their introduction to the volume, Archaeologies of Memory,
Ruth Van Dyke and Susan Alcock (2003a:5) discuss the importance of memory
and place in the following terms: a sense of place rests upon, and reconstructs,
a history of social engagement with the landscape, and is thus inextricably
bound up with remembrance and with time.... As humans create, modify,
and move through a spatial milieu, the mediation between spatial experience
and perception reflexively creates, legitimates, and reinforces social relationships and ideas. With this in mind, we amply consider the place these materials
were deposited: a monumentally important ceremonial building anchoring one
of the largest public plazas at Waka.
Other important considerations are the content and context of the deposits themselves. Surface deposits that include a wide variety of fragmented materials have been variously defined as exposed offerings (Coe 1959:9495),
problematical deposits (Coe 1990; Moholy Nagy 1997), transposed ritual
middens (Garber et al. 1998), destructive event deposits (Houk 2000), domestic refuse or middens (Culbert 1973, 1988; Harrison 2000), and de facto
refuse (Chase and Chase 2004). One widely recognized variety of ritual action
often documented from the careful recording and recovery of surface deposits is
that of ritual termination. The definition of ritual termination deposits (Ambrosino 2007; Freidel and Schele 1989; Garber 1983; Inomata 2003; Mock
1998; Pagliaro et al. 2003; Suhler 1996), reverential (see Piehl 2005), and desecratory (see Duncan 2005) represents an advancement in our thinking about
above-floor deposits as the material result of ritually motivated acts. Interpretations of termination ritual derive from the existence of above-floor deposits in
direct relationship with architectural features, which often appear blocking passage ways and access routes (Freidel 1986; Inomata 2003; Mock 1998; Suhler
1996; Walker 1998). They also tend to include large quantities of flat-bedded
ceramics resulting from the smashing and scattering of vessels (Robertson and
Freidel 1986; Walker 1998); evidence of intense burning (Suhler 1996; Suhler
and Freidel 2003); and pulverized and scattered limestone in chalky marl form
40 Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera
(Ambrosino 2003, 2007). These deposits can also incorporate a variety of prestige objects (Coe 1959). Additionally, one notable distinction setting termination deposits apart from similarly structured deposits of occupational refuse
middens is the notable absence of faunal bones. In an attempt to challenge perceptions constrained by the idea of a universal and one-dimensional termination ritual, we argue that the ritual patterning and resultant material signatures
may be different through time and space depending on whether the locus of
activity is domestic or public in function. In other words, the variety of existing interpretations for surface deposits is likely because they actually represent
diverse activities carried out by different practitioners operating on varied economic scales. Termination deposits may be another black box housing what
are actually varied and distinct ritual actions.
Termination deposits have also been identified as ritual acts associated with
either benevolent or violent site-abandonment processes. We argue a focus on
causation versus adaptation in discussions of the Maya collapse has tended to
lead to identification of above-floor termination activity as desecratory abandonment in a site center context (e.g., Ambrosino 2007; Suhler 1996), while
domestic-centered abandonment along the periphery is accompanied by reverential ritual terminations (e.g., Piehl 2005). We suggest that greater attention to
the lived history of Late-to-Terminal Classic Maya society in dimensions other
than its precipitous and calamitous decline will permit thinking beyond reverence versus desecration in ritual terminations, while shifting focus toward consideration of how people at large centers may have been attempting to cope with
change and crisis. We argue a principal way elite and nonelite Maya coped with
this change was through the continued ritual manipulation of sacred material
objects. We also eschew a bifurcated model of ancient Maya society whereby the
elite population occupies the core and nonelite citizenry occupy the periphery.
We suggest this reinforces the perceived division between these spaces. Specifically, the separation of core and peripheral space situates nonelite people as active ritual agents only in the contexts to which they pertainthat is, their own
domestic space, while elite ritual agents are expected to enact their performance
in the site center in both public and private spaces. The question becomes more
nuanced as we endeavor to determine the nature of sociopolitical events unfolding throughout the Late-to-Terminal Classic periods and the possible ritual
manifestations at Waka.
Hypotheses
To help elucidate the meaning(s) of the deposits at Structure M13-1, Navarro-
Farr (2009) proposed the following hypotheses: 1) the evidence resulted from
cumulative, temporally distinct activities of diverse ritual meaning; and 2) the
evidence signifies transformational processes associated with the decline of the
royal court and represents a broader socioeconomic group of participants. The

carefully implemented methodology for data recovery and consistent, fine-
grained recording renders the consideration of such questions possible.
Hypothesis 1: Evidence for Episodic and Varied Ceremonial Activities

If the activities carried out at Structure M13-1 are the result of cumulative,
temporally distinct, and diverse ritual acts, then we should expect the deliberate inclusion of items generally characterized as ceremonial (Coe 1990). We
should also expect temporal distinctions to be reflected in the dates of the associated ceramic materials and in radiometric dates. In terms of ritual diversity,
we would expect evidence representing a wide suite of ceremonial activities.
The multiple deposits at M13-1 incorporate varying quantities of the following items: broken sherds with worn edges, fragmented and desiccated human
remains, chert projectile points, fragmentary painted stucco, figurine heads,
carved-shell adornments, pyrite fragments, and three jadeite pieces in varying
stages of production. In terms of accumulated materials suggesting ritual, there
is evidence for the deposition of whole vessels, marl-blanketed sherd deposits,
in situ smashing, and the resetting of Early Classic era stelae depicting Teotihuacan style imagery in the Plaza 2 deposit areas at the base of the building.
ceramic and radiometric chronology.
Regarding the temporally episodic

and cumulative nature of these activities, we turn to the ceramic and radiometric evidence (Tables 2.1 and 2.2). Ceramic data (see Table 2.1) indicate the various deposits and the associated activities occurred intermittently throughout
the latter part of the Late Classic and the beginning of the Terminal Classic.
The deposits from the far northern terrace and those along the central northern
terrace include eight out of ten type varieties associated with Wakas transitional
Morai Complex dating to approximately AD 770820 (Eppich 2010a). Deposits from the south terrace associated with a stucco portrait head (Figure 2.3,
Figure 2.1 for its location) include ceramics which Eppich (2010a) believes pertain to 14 type varieties split into 2 distinct complexes: the transitional Morai
Complex, ~AD 770820, and the early facet of the Terminal Classic Rax Phase,
~AD 800900. The dense and temporally diagnostic deposits at the base of
the structure in Plaza 2 include 19 type varieties. This highly accessible deposit
location also has the highest ceramic diversity. These activities are anchored to a
slightly later period than most of those atop the superstructurethe early facet
of the Terminal Classic Rax Phase (AD 800900). Additionally, three carbon
samples collected from separate deposit areas were tested (see Table 2.2 and Figure 2.1 for locations). The Burial 36 sample resulted in a two-sigma, calibrated
AMS date of AD 7801000, placing it from the Late-to-Terminal Classic. A
second sample from the deposit adjacent to the central adosada resulted in two
Table 2.1.Ceramic chronology: Relative dates from three deposit areas
Deposit location
Total number
of distinct
type varieties
Corresponding
ceramiccomplexes
Approximate
dates
Far northern and

central northern
terrace
10
Late-to-Terminal Classic
transitional Morai Phase
AD 770820
South sector
superstructure
14
Late-to-Terminal Classic
transitional Morai and
early facet of Terminal
ClassicRax Phase
AD 770820
and
AD 800900
Plaza 2 area
19
Early facet of Terminal

ClassicRax Phase
AD 800900
Table 2.2.Radiometric samples: Absolute dates from three deposit areas
Provenience
Context
description
Beta
Analytic
sample 1 Sigma
no.
(68% Prob.)
2 Sigma
(95% Prob.)
WK01E-70-3-361
Burial #36,
central northern
terrace
254436
AD 880980
WK01F-52-4-263
Deposit-Layer 5,
behind adosada
wall
254437
AD 9801030 AD 900920
and
AD 9601040
WK01H-732-3-385
DepositBlock:
B1 Layer 4
South sector
superstructure,
in association
with stucco head
254438
AD 650670
AD 7801000
AD 620690
distinct two-sigma, calibrated AMS dates that fall within the Terminal Classic.
A two-sigma, calibrated AMS date of AD 620690 was generated from the
third sample associated with the stucco portrait head on the buildings south
sector of the building, representing an earlier Late Classic date than expected.
We acknowledge this last date could be the result of taphonomic processes (possibly an old wood effect). Yet, there is the possibility that it constitutes evidence
for Late Classic period activity in this sector of the building that occurred before
the decline of the royal court at Waka, and well prior to the raising of the
sites final stela in the late eighth century (Guenter, this volume). Ultimately,
additional ceramic evidence and radiometric dating are needed to fine tune
our understanding of possible Late Classic era activities in this sector of the
building.
ritual diversity. Diverse ritual activity is represented through material remains
evincing acts characteristic of ritual termination, a wide array of mortuary activities, and a suite of votive offerings, which include a stucco portrait head (see
Figure 2.3, this volume) surrounded by dense ashy deposits and an inverted
Chablekal Fine Grey vessel situated in structural collapse (see Figure 2.1 for
location). There is also an intriguing pattern of manipulated and re-erected
Early Classic era monuments, deliberately reset or stacked in association with
the deposit areas at the base of the structure.
The human remains display a wide range of mortuary patterns, including:
1. Scattering of desiccated long bone and cranial fragments at the base of the
structure
2. Two separate instances of dismemberment: an articulated foot found at the
base of the structure on the plaza level and a cranium atop the northern terrace
3. Several interments designated Burials 27, 29, and 36.
Comprehensive osteological analyses of the fragmented and disarticulated

human remains reveal the Plaza 2 deposit consists primarily of long bones and
cranial fragments (Piehl 2004, 2010). Specifically, crania, dentition, and long
bones are preferentially represented in the deposit, with elements of the hand
and foot, ribs, vertebrae, pelvis, scapula, and clavicle occasionally included.
Cranial fragments are present in all levels and strata (Piehl 2010:190). Piehl
(pers. comm. 2003) also suggested the dried condition of these fragmented
skeletal elements indicates they may have been previously curated as bundled
remains. In many instances, the remains were subjected to heavy burning as
were numerous other artifacts in the area (Navarro-Farr 2009). It seems the
breaking, scattering, and burning of skeletal fragments from secondary contexts
was an integral aspect of this particular series of deposits at Structure M13-1.
Figure 2.3. In situ stucco portrait head. Photograph by O. Navarro-Farr, courtesy of

the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
Excavations atop the Plaza 2 floor also revealed in situ human skeletal remains in anatomically correct articulation suggesting evidence of dismemberment (Piehl 2004). This includes the articulated bones of a foot, which included
the minute sesamoid bones, indicating the remains would have been fleshed
upon deposition (Piehl 2004). Excavations also revealed the cranium of an individual sexed as male that included at least three articulated cervical vertebrae
(Piehl 2008). Designated Burial 31, this cranium was found outside of a small
room along the central northern terrace atop a layer of deposit materials. It
had been buried by subsequent layers of collapse intermixed with fragmented
ceramics, modeled stucco, and additional deposit materials.
There is abundant iconographic evidence of the use of long bones and crania as dedicatory offerings and ancestor bundles (for an in-depth review, see
Guernsey and Reilly 2006). Moreover, severed heads functioned as a significant
component of Classic Maya ritual. Decapitation and the use and meaning of
the cranium, in particular, are clearly important for the Maya as a means of
representing memorialized personhood (Moser 1973). According to the Popol
Vuh, the Hero Twin Hunahpu endures decapitation in the house of bats as
part of the trials while journeying through Xibalba (Christenson 2003:172).
The Popol Vuh (Christenson 2003; Tedlock 1996) illustrates the multiplicity
of meanings associated with the head as the embodiment of self, as well as the
source of germination and regeneration of self. Though decapitation was the
definitive Maya act of disembodiment, we know from the Popol Vuh that a
disembodied head still possesses the power to give life (Schele and Miller 1986;
Tedlock 1996). Furthermore, representations in Maya art reveal decapitation
was a means to humiliate and conquer captured foes. We suggest the placement
of this cranium with its articulated cervical vertebra, association with deposit
materials, and seemingly intentional burial by collapsed debris, represents a
sacrificial act.
As previously mentioned, we recovered a variety of interments (see Figure
2.1 for locations). Burial 27 was found in association with an area of extensively
burnt deposit materials, beneath the same layer of collapse and immediately
south of the location where the decapitated cranium, Burial 31, was found
(Navarro-Farr 2009; Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera 2006b, 2007). Burial 27
included the skeleton of an individual lying supine atop the floor. There was no
evidence of a formal cyst or crypt surrounding these remains. The individual
was largely incomplete, with less than 5% of the pelvis, a near total absence of
epiphyseal elements on most of the long bones, and only five thoracic vertebral fragments (Piehl 2008). It is unclear whether the incomplete state of the
remains is due to taphonomic processes or if it reflects deliberate intent on part
of those who interred these remains to exclude certain elements. Substantial
portions of the cranial vault, orbits, maxilla, and 19 teeth suggest the cranium
was originally a component of this interment.
Burial 36 (see Navarro-Farr et al. 2008: Figure 5.11) represents an early

middle-aged female (Piehl 2008) interred within a cobble-filled matrix surrounded by shattered ceramic vessels and modeled stucco fragments. The remains and artifacts were capped by a thin layer of stucco, which was entirely
buried by a series of collapsed vault stones. Deposit materials, including numerous fragmented human remains, were also mixed in with this upper layer
of vault collapse (Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera 2007). Though the burial
was partially covered by a thin layer of stucco, there was no clear cyst or crypt
surrounding the remains. The individual was laid within the confines of a small
room, and it seems the rooms surrounding walls were utilized opportunistically
as an impromptu formal crypt. Numerous large vessel fragments covered the
individuals face as if to substitute for a complete vessel on or near the cranium
as is typical for dedicatory reverential burials (Piehl 2005; Welsh 1988). Osteo
logical analyses indicate the individual was relatively healthy (Piehl 2009). Additionally, a few prestige items were placed with this individual including a
bone ring and a tubular jade bead.
Finally, Burial 29 was adjacent to the adosada, beneath the heavily burned
floor upon which excavations revealed one of the densest deposits on the superstructure. The Late-to-Terminal Classic date for the only vessel associated
with this burial suggests it was dedicated not long before the buildings final
abandonment (Navarro-Farr 2009; Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera 2007).
The presence of these multiple burials lends support to the hypothesis that
these deposits represent cumulative, temporally distinct, and diverse ritual acts
including, as noted, a varied array of mortuary patterns associated with the
buildings final use life.
As mentioned, we also encountered discrete evidence for offerings possibly of
a dedicatory or votive nature at various sections of the superstructure. The first
of these is the previously mentioned stucco portrait head stylistically similar to
those at Palenque, which may represent a youthful maize god (see Figure 2.3).
It likely originated from an architectural faade before being placed in a niche at
the base of a wall on the southern side of Structure M13-1s superstructure. The
head was surrounded by a dense deposit comprised of ashy sediment, numerous
examples of burnt worked-shell pieces and other broken artifacts atop a burned
and gouged plaster floor. Excavations also revealed a crudely constructed wall
abutting the niched wall where the stucco head was placed. This wall was added
subsequent to the construction of the niched wall; the result is the creation of
an enclosed space not visible to public view from Plaza 2 below (Navarro-Farr
and Arroyave Prera 2007).
Additionally, a Terminal Classic Fine Grey double-based vessel with a kill
hole in the base was recovered face down within a layer of collapse along the
central northern terrace (Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera 2007). We suggest
those depositing this vessel placed it within the existing collapse, thereby sealing it with the same debris as a means to dedicate the vessel to the building.
Given this material evidence, Structure M13-1 was continuously engaged ritually in apparent adherence to traditional votive or dedicatory practices even in
the absence of more abundant resources.
stelae. An important aspect of the surface deposits at Structure M13-1 involves
the associated stelae. Stela 10 was placed erect in a shallow pit oriented toward
Plaza 2 and surrounded by a crudely constructed masonry platform (Navarro-
Farr 2005). The collapsed remains of this platform were commingled with fragmented sherds and other deposit materials. Stela 10 is severely eroded on the
carved surface, but distinctive iconography related to Teotihaucan influence
during the late fourth through the fifth centuries in lowland Maya art is distinguishable (see Guenter, this volume). The individual is carrying a rectangular
shield in his left arm. This battle shield contrasts with the typical round Maya
shield. Of Stela 9, only the base remainedin three fragments surrounded by
deposit materials. Excavations also indicated these three large pieces were deliberately relocated to this location sometime during the Late-to-Terminal Classic. The base of the monument includes one of the finest examples of Early
Classic stone carving seen anywhere at the site. This segment of the monument features a witz monster with serpents seen emerging from the creatures
mouth. There is also a bird quite similar in form on Stela 40 in the center of
the creature (Guenter, this volume). Finely incised glyphic text near the feet
of the unknown ruler seen standing atop the witz monster reference a Wi-te-
Naah ([origin house] Guenter 2005:371; Wi-te-Naah is glossed by David
Stuart as origin house 2004b:237). This is a building that has been identified
as a fire shrine and possible locale of the New Fire Ceremony associated with
Teotihuacan (Fash et al. 2009; Freidel et al. 2007; Stuart 2000; Taube 2004).
Though the identity of the ruler depicted on Stela 9 (of which only his/her feet
remain) is uncertain, we do know that there is a reference in the text to the
name Kinich Bahlam. Due to the style of the renderings on this monument
(both iconographically and epigraphically), Guenter feels confident in dating
it to approximately late fifth/early sixth century (Guenter, this volume). We
propose the textual allusion to a fire shrine on the base of this monument and
the buildings adosada may signal recollections linked to the buildings possible
Early Classic importance as a sacred Teotihuacan-style fire shrine in this politically important city. The movement of the Stela 9 fragments to this location at
the base of Structure M13-1 is therefore likely linked to the other deliberate
depositional actions insofar as they relate to commemoration of sacred memory.
Lastly, the excavation of Stela 6 (see Navarro-Farr et al. 2008: Figure 5.8) in
front of the buildings central axis included further evidence of stacking patterns,
such as those observed in the other deposits (Navarro-Farr 2005). This monument was encountered atop the base of an unrecorded and uncarved monument
placed adjacent to a circular uncarved altar stone. Overall, the evidence suggests
multiple episodes of varied intent occurring throughout the building.
Hypothesis 2: Nonelite Ceremony at Structure M13-1

in the Wake of Royal Court Decline
In the second hypothesis, we suggest the activity at Structure M13-1 was carried out in association with the decline of the royal court, and that those responsible for these activities were representative of a broader segment of the
population than we as archaeologists may typically associate with a prominent
civic-ceremonial structure in the main plaza. This is based on the ceramic types
and other objects present in these deposits. We argue the ritual practitioners
that acted at Structure M13-1 were not operating under the sponsorship of
royal authorities. Thus, if the artifacts represent a more socioeconomically diverse population, then we should also see evidence of materials overlapping
utilitarian/domestic and specialized/ceremonial functions.
nonelite ritual practitioners. Material evidence recovered from each of the
cumulative deposit areas suggests these ritual activities were not carried out
by members of the royal court but by non-royal participants. In particular,
this is demonstrated by the abundance of artifacts associated with nonelite
domestic ritual, such as Petn Supercomplex wares (Forsyth 2005), as well as
varying quantities of household items that overlap ceremonial and utilitarian
use domains in nearly every deposit area. These include chert tools, grinding
stones, figurine fragments, shell beads, ocarinas, spindle whorls, and jade and
shell pieces in early or pre-form stages of manufacture, among other items. We
acknowledge this evidence may also signal a lack of access on the part of elites
to sumptuary goods; these may be less readily available during the decline of the
royal court system and its attendant supply network(s) in the southern lowlands
during the Terminal Classic period.
evidence for transitional ceramics. We now return to the ceramic chronology for further evidence of activity occurring coeval with the decline of the sites
royal authority. The monuments that bear the final dates at the site are either
Stela 32 at AD 790 or Stela 39 and Stela 38s altar, which include a Calendar
Round date that may read as AD 801. Guenter (this volume) provides a discussion of the date depicted on both of these stelae, and due to confusing arrangement of the text, a date of AD 749 instead of 801 cannot be discounted for
Stela 39 and Stela 38s altar. If this is the case, then we would expect deposits
to include ceramics identifiable with the Late-to-Terminal Classic transition
and the Terminal Classic, as well as signs of decline in the architectural elaboration. Keith Eppich has identified these transitional Morai Complex ceramics
and described them as a rough overlap of Late and Terminal Classic potting
traditions with a few distinct ceramics serving as marker objects. Distinct transitional ceramics here include Anonal Orange Polychrome and Undesignated
Morai Grey Polychrome (Suktan), which occur in neither Late nor Terminal
Classic deposits. Both are highly distinct (Eppich 2009b). Thus, if these activities relate temporally to the decline of the royal court, then we should see Morai
ceramics well represented in these deposits. Moreover, items elemental to royal
ritual, such as fine polychrome wares, hieroglyphic texts, and elaborately carved
jades, should be extremely limited or absent.
In terms of fine ceramic wares and other evidence for royal court-sponsored
activity, there is a notable absence of any Classic Period fine polychromes, such
as Yaloche Cream Polychrome, Caldero Buff Polychrome, and ActuncanDos
Arroyos Orange Polychrome. There are, however, approximately 15% of Late
Classic era polychrome fragments on the superstructure compared to less than
3% on the plaza floor. The relatively few finished prestige items include three
jade pieces, two of which were in preliminary stages of production and found
at the Plaza 2 level; one is a finished bead found with Burial 36. There are also
several fragments of a pyrite mirror. There is also one notable carved shell bearing a delicately rendered quatrefoil design. This is the only example of a glyphic
motif found in any of the deposit areas.
architectural evidence.
There is evidence throughout the superstructure, as

well as in the Plaza 2 deposit area, that architectural elaborations continued to
be carried out at a smaller scale throughout the Late-to-Terminal Classic period
(see Figure 2.2 for northern terrace examples). These refurbishments appear
to have been limited by scarce resources or inadequate skills, as they were not
well executed and consisted of awkwardly set abutting walls, a crude construction surrounding the reset Stela 10 in Plaza 2, crude plaster floors and finishes,
and poorly faced irregular stones, which are markedly distinct when compared
alongside Classic-era masonry.
Conclusions
There is evidence for multiple, temporally episodic, diverse ritual activities at
Structure M13-1 during the Late-to-Terminal Classic periods. Additionally, the
vast majority of materials found in these deposits are of decidedly non-royal ceremonial use. This is particularly true of the accumulated deposit materials seen
at the base of the structure. We propose this might be characterized as evidence
of domestic nonelite ritual were the context, in fact, a nonelite residence or
domestic shrine. This location is, however, the sites principal public shrine. As
the objects associated with it are nonelite, they suggest ritual engagement of the
building by nonelite peoplea subset of the population not typically identified
at such civic-ceremonial buildings.
We acknowledge that the decline in the quality of the items represented in
these deposits may represent the elite populations lack of access to prestige items
and preciosities during this political and socioeconomic transition. Navarro-

Farr (2009) has suggested a possible attempt at maintenance of hierarchy by
noting that a slightly higher percentage of items associated with elite status
(e.g., carved-shell adornments, polychrome ceramics, pyrite mirror fragments)
are found in deposit areas atop the superstructure than in the area at the base
of the buildingthough these kinds of items are not entirely absent from the
plaza floor deposit area either. There are also instances in which deposit locales
atop the superstructure were surrounded by architectural modifications or were
situated in areas of the building which would have restricted public view from
the plaza below. At this stage, additional fine-grained analyses on the artifacts
must be conducted before any more can be said about the identification of more
discretely bounded socioeconomic statuses of the various ritual practitioners
that acted at Structure M13-1. Indeed this research sheds important light on the
ambiguity associated with identifying more subtle variations in socioeconomic
status based on artifact and contextual analyses. In general, however, we do see
numerous poorly executed architectural modifications and a marked absence of
fine polychromes, glyphs, and finely crafted prestige goods. Late-to-Terminal
Classic transitional Morai Phase ceramics and radiometric dates from distinct
superstructure locations suggest related activities are roughly coterminous with
the end of the royal courts presence at Waka. Therefore, we do feel confident in
stating that the activities are not sponsored by the royal court and may indeed
reflect the engagement of a diverse socioeconomic body of participants.
Evidence for termination ritual does exist at Structure M13-1. There is,
however, evidence for other ritual acts, including mortuary and votive-centered
ceremonies, in direct association with the final phases of this buildings use life
whose material correlates or artifact life histories are inconsistent with existing
definitions of what ritual termination should look like. The buildings poorly
executed terminal-phase architectural modifications and the items found in
the varied deposit areas themselves suggest: 1) the resources are decidedly of a
lesser or inferior quality than would have been the case in the Classic period;
and 2) the items in the deposits appear to represent non-royal members of the
population.
We have described an overall picture at Structure M13-1 in which non-royal
Wakeos appear to have been ritually engaging this monumental shrine during a time of general decline. In this same vein it is important to briefly allude
to the evidence we have regarding other areas of Plaza 2 and westerly Plaza 3
during this transitional time. The following evidence lends support to the assertion that ceremonial activities at Plaza 2 and its primary shrine Structure
M13-1 were no longer under the strict regulation and/or supervision of a central royal authority. In her work on the Royal Couple Building, Structure M12-
35, northwest of Structure M13-1, Acua (this volume) documents evidence of
the deliberate removal of carved stone from the exterior of the building during
the Late-to-Terminal Classic, as well as purposefully smashed pottery, chert,

obsidian, modeled stucco, and figurine fragments deposited atop the buildings
northern facing Late Classic-era staircase. Though the precise nature of these
deposits remains unclear, it is possible that they too relate to activities seen
at neighboring Structure M13-1. We also see the Late-to-Terminal Classic era
construction of Structure L13-22 (Guenter and Rich 2004), which effectively
forms a western perimeter to Plaza 2 where there was none prior. This building
creates a new space, Plaza 3, and becomes the locus for the resetting of one of
the most important monuments, Stela 15, (see Navarro-Farr et al. 2008: Figure
5.12) documenting the arrival of Siyaj Kahk. Arroyave Prera (2006a, 2006b)
documents the presence of extensive feasting refuse immediately to the south of
this building and along the southwestern edge of Plaza 2, within the residential
compound called the Paal Group. Similar debris were recorded along the perimeter of Structure L13-22 (Guenter and Rich 2004; Guenter 2006). During
this time in the Terminal Classic, given the debris potentially indicative of ceremonial feasting both within the Paal Group and along the adjacent Structure
L13-22, the latter may have been incorporated into the Paal Group, effectively
appropriating the southern and eastern portions of Plaza 3. It seems that while
Structure L13-22 was initially constructed as a stand-alone building, it may
subsequently have been integrated into or utilized by those inhabiting the Paal
Group. That said, it may also have been constructed by residents of the Paal
Group. In any case, given all of this activity, Plaza 2which throughout the
majority of the sites history included the area that would become Plaza3was
no longer a primary focus of royal ceremonial activity; though it does continue
to be important for other members of Waka society throughout this period of
transition.
The implications for these findings challenge traditional understandings of
core-periphery models for nonelite ritual activity, particularly during this transitional period. Structure M13-1 may have functioned, in its later years, as a
locus of pilgrimage for all members of Wakeo society. We argue the suite of
ritual actions that is manifest as above-floor deposition of sacra (after Brown
2000, 2004) objects at Structure M13-1 (be they utilitarian or prestigious
and/or previously broken and redeposited material discards) does not suggest
squatting by non-locals or war-related activity but the participation of a range
of non-royals in a process of ritual engagement (for more on this, see Garber
1981, 1983). It appears members of a broader spectrum of the general population were ritually re-asserting themselves in the context of these urban spaces
throughout this process of abandonment, most notably at Structure M13-1.
We suggest these non-royal Wakeos ceremonial activities seen carried out
at a major public shrine can be considered comparable to and perhaps even predecessors of contemporary ceremonies in which a socioeconomically wide range
of modern Maya people routinely ritually engage ancient sites in monumental
landscapes. Such votive practices and their material manifestations have been
well documented by Linda Brown (2000, 2004, 2005, 2009). Her ethnoarchaeological research details evidence of ritual collecting of ceremonial sacra.
She documents the collection, curation, and bundling of ancient artifacts, such
as obsidian cores, figurine fragments, pieces of ancient ceramics, and other miscellaneous items (both ancient and modern). She notes these items are collected
because of their perceived spiritual potency and are often used as divinatory
devices. The variety of artifacts she notes that are collected by contemporary
Maya ritual practitioners is almost entirely analogous with those embedded in
the cumulative deposit activities at Structure M13-1. To this end, we must continue to pursue fine-grained excavations and high-resolution analyses of surface
deposits associated with Late-to-Terminal Classic era activity. This micro-scale
approach permits lines of inquiry regarding coping mechanisms employed
among a wider spectrum of people throughout the Maya lowlands for dealing
with collapsing political systems. This approach may ultimately reveal the complex ways ancient Maya people employed ritual to re-invent themselves during
liminal periods such as this.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank officials at the Instituto de Antropologa e Historia de Guatemala, who permitted this field and laboratory research from 2001
to the present. We are also grateful to the members of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project whose collaboration has made this research possible. This chapter was sponsored in part by a Postdoctoral Fellowship granted
to the first author by the University of New Mexicos (UNM) Office for Equity
and Inclusion in collaboration with the UNM Department of Anthropology.
Additional laboratory research was possible due to funding provided by Southern Methodist University though a Graduate Deans Grant Award, a Graduate
Research Poster Award, the Department of Anthropology, and the Institute for
the Study of Earth and Man. We are grateful to Michelle Rich, Keith Eppich,
and two anonymous reviewers for providing sound feedback.
Notes
1. In this chapter, whenever we refer to Late-to-Terminal Classic periods, we are
speaking about a period we consider broadly to encompass from approximately AD 750
to 900 as opposed to the Late-to-Terminal Classic ceramic transitional phase identified
by Eppich as Morai, which we also refer to in this chapter.
3
Royal Alliances, Ritual Behavior,
and the Abandonment of the Royal
Couple Building at El Per-Waka
Mary Jane Acua
n this chapter I will focus on evidence from one building in

particular, Structure M12-35, and its associated monuments: Stelae 11, 12, 33,
34, and 35 (Figure 3.1). Structure M12-35 is a small pyramidal building straddling the eastern end of Plazas 1 and 2 of El Per (see Figure I.3). Because of
the 5m difference in elevation between those plazas, the north side of Structure
M12-35 measures 10m in height, while its south side only 5 m. The building
is commonly known as the Royal Couple Building because Stelae 11, 12,
33, and 34 are displayed in pairs flanking its southern and northern sides, respectively. The stelae pairs depict one of the Late Classic period rulers, Kinich
Bahlam II, who reigned during the second half of the 7th and into the 8th
century, and his spouse Lady Kabel, each on an individual monument. These
monuments also commemorate three different period endings presided over by
Kinich Bahlam II.
As the various chapters in this volume indicate, ritual has been identified in a
variety of contexts at the site, primarily, but not exclusively, as household ritual,
funerary and mortuary rituals, and more generally, political and ceremonial rituals in specific architectural and artistic programs. These rituals are not always
independent of each other. Many of the architectural and artistic programs are
directly linked to funerary ritual, landscape display, and performance space, or
the abandonment of particular buildings. Following the theme of the present
volume, then, Structure M12-35 merits discussion because excavations revealed
an interesting assemblage of artifacts on its northern faade, which, in conjunction with events on the southern side and when compared with other contexts
at the site, suggests intentional ritual activities associated with the abandonment of the building. The overall context identified on Structure M12-35 symbolizes the importance of the building politically and ritually, and alludes to
its final use and meaning. Such activities, I argue, were not violent, as we lack
evidence of any type of burning or human remains in the assemblage at Structure M12-35. Instead, I suggest that, based on the current evidence, the events
Figure 3.1. Schematic map of Structure M12-35 illustrating location of associated monuments: Stela
11, 12, 33, 34, and 35, and excavation units. Map by E. Tsesmeli, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional
Archaeological Project.
Royal Alliances 55
marking the end of Structure M12-35s use life were ritual in nature, and they
allude to the symbolic historical meaning of the building. Who performed such
acts remains unknown, but the data point toward the importance of the building within the sites political landscape right up to its final days in the Terminal
Classic (ca. AD 7501000).
To support my arguments, I will explain pertinent archaeological evidence,
the relationship between the stelae and the building, their location within
the site and their significance to royal performance, and the importance of
directionality and site planning. Finally, I will address the possible meaning
and ritual significance of the building and the monuments within the overall
politico-ceremonial landscape at the site during the Late and Terminal Classic
periods (ca. AD 550900/1000).
The Archaeological Evidence

Unlike the majority of monumental buildings at El Per, Structure M12-35
has never been looted. Its pristine nature, its location, and its association to five
important dynastic stelae were obvious and attractive reasons to explore the
building scientifically. In the early stages of research at the site, the project directors, David Freidel and Hctor Escobedo, hypothesized that Structure M12-35
served as a funerary temple for either Kinich Bahlam II or Lady Kabel, the
latter being the most likely. A 2 2m excavation unit through the summit and
center of Structure M12-35 down to bedrock, however, revealed no evidence
of a burial (Escobedo and Acua 2004). Exploration under the north staircase
could prove otherwise, as other high-ranking and ritually significant burials
have been found beneath staircases at El Per (Eppich 2007a, 2007b; Escobedo
and Melndez 2007). The deep unit, in addition to excavations on the buildings south side, instead revealed the existence of an Early Classic construction
phase, with a nicely preserved stuccoed staircase providing access to Plaza 2 to
the south. In light of the absence of a burial thus far, it is important to consider
the manifold meanings and functions for the building, including the possibility of it serving as a throne for viewing spectacles in the large plaza below to its
north, Plaza 1 (see Inomata 2006a:816 for other examples). I will return to this
later in the chapter.
Ceramic evidence indicates the final construction phase of Structure M12-
35 took place in the Late Classic period; there were, however, certain minor
modifications in the Terminal Classic (Acua 2005; Escobedo and Acua
2004). These include the curved southeast corner, the very poor-quality remaining sections of the southern basal platform, and the ramp-style wall discovered
next to the buildings northeast corner that connects Plazas 1 and 2 (Acua
2005). Excavation units in the plazas indicate that the final replastering of the
floor took place sometime during the Late Classic. It is probable such an event
56 Acua
occurred when the monuments were reset in that location (see below for further
explanation on evidence for resetting).
Although a royal burial has not yet been found, the ritual meaning of the
building is evident by the presence of coupled stelae flanking its northern and
southern sides, the deliberate and partial destruction of the southern faade, and
evidence suggestive of an intentional closure of its Late and Terminal Classic
access, the northern staircase (Figure 3.2). Intentional destruction of the buildings architecture was found primarily on the south side, where large portions
of the walls configuring the terraces were removed. I specifically say removed
and not collapsed, because not a single cut stone like those still remaining as
part of the preserved basal platform wall was found anywhere near the base of
the structure. Instead, the area was completely devoid of any type of collapse.
Further evidence of the same behavior came from the summit where no architectural remains were discovered. It is possible, however, that the summit did
not have substantial architectural features if it was an open throne space only
covered by a perishable superstructure. The architecture on the northern side of
the building, however, did not present any evidence of having been deliberately
destroyed; to the contrary, it was quite well preserved. While circumstantial,
Terminal Classic pottery in the fill corresponding to the final modifications to
the building indicate that the removal of portions of the architecture occurred
during a later time in the same period, perhaps coeval with the placement of
a deposit on the northern staircase (discussed below). Unfortunately, ceramic
phases are not fine-grained enough to distinguish small temporal differences between the architectural modifications to the plaza and building, the intentional
destruction of the building, and the placement of the deposit.
Excavations on the south and north sides indicated that during the Late-
to-Terminal Classic phase, Structure M12-35 was only accessible on the north
from Plaza 1. No evidence for a southern staircase was found on the southern
faade corresponding to its final construction phase. Further, in spite of the deliberate dismantling of the buildings architectural features on the southern side,
the basal platform wall was present, which confirms the lack of a staircase. Excavations through the southern faade of the building exposed the Early Classic
substructures well-preserved staircase indicating its earlier access was from the
south or Plaza 2 (Escobedo and Acua 2004). This change in direction is likely
tied to the importance of Plaza 1 during the Late Classic, where several monuments were set during this period in conjunction with the construction and
modification of monumental architecture, such as the funerary temple Structure M12-32 at the eastern end of the plaza (see Escobedo and Melndez 2007
for details on M12-32).
The buildings Late Classic access on the northern side, however, was deliberately blocked by a deposit discovered on the first two steps of the staircase and
along the structures base (see Figure 3.2). This deposit dated to the Terminal
Classic (Eppich et al. 2005) and consisted of several smashed pots and large
Royal Alliances 57
Figure 3.2. El Per-Waka Structure M12-35s northern staircase showing

basal courses and Terminal Classic ceramic deposits. Photograph by M. J. Acua,
flat-bedded sherds mixed with fragments of chert, obsidian, shell, modeled

stucco, and figurines. On the eastern side of the staircase, approximately a meter
from the basal platform of the building, was a single intentionally dropped
vessel. In the western corner where the staircase and the basal wall unite were
two evidently unused and complete bark-beaters. Absent in this deposit were
human remains and evidence of burning that would make this ritual deposit
like-in-kind to the ones discovered on Structure M13-1 (Navarro-Farr and
58 Acua
Arroyave Prera, this volume). Nonetheless, the distribution and layout of the
deposit indicated that it was not merely collapse, but that the flat-bedded sherds
and the vessels dropped in situ had been deliberately deposited there. The way
the vessel fragments were discovered, very close together, in addition to being
mostly reconstructible, indicated that the vessels were dropped in that location,
rather than having tumbled down from atop the building. The modeled stucco
fragments may have been part of the decoration of the upper platform, but
since there was no remaining architecture at the summit, it is difficult to determine their original context. No standing architecture on Structure M12-35
uncovered during excavations had any stucco to suggest the entire building had
been plastered at any time. The lack of stucco remains on standing architecture
and the nature of the fine molded fragments are further indications that the
building was not completely covered. Perhaps the architecture, or possibly even
a throne, on the summit was decorated and subsequently destroyed, and parts
of the modeled stucco were then sprinkled when the deposit was laid out. An
alternative explanation would be that the stucco came from a different location
at the site altogether. If this were the case, it would further accentuate the symbolic importance of the building.
Stelae
Stelae 12, 33, and 35 depict elaborate full-body representations of one of El
Pers Late Classic (ca. AD 550758/800) rulers, Kinich Bahlam II, while Stelae 11 and 34 depict in similar fashion his spouse, Lady Kabel (Figure 3.3).
Four of these monuments were set in pairs flanking Structure M12-35Stelae
33 and 34 on the north; Stelae 11 and 12 on the southand represent the
royal couple. Lady Kabel is known to have been a princess from Calakmul
(Guenter 2005:372), a site to the north of El Per that was its major political
ally during the reign of Kinich Bahlam II. The occurrence at El Per of paired
monuments is not coincidental, as they are popular at Calakmul, where there
are nine, as well as at the sites under its influence (Stewart 2009:60). Stelae 11
and 12, located on the south side of Structure M12-35, have a dedication date
of 9.12.0.0.0 in the Maya Long Count dating system, which corresponds to the
year AD 672. Stelae 33 and 34 were dedicated one katun (20 years) later, celebrating the period ending date of 9.13.0.0.0 (AD 692). Due to looting, only
their remains are currently located on the northern side of the building. Stela35
is located to the west of these monuments in front of the northwest corner of
Structure M12-35, apparently still in situ, which registers a dedication date of
AD 711 to commemorate the period ending of 9.14.0.0.0; it is also the last
known stela dedicated by Kinich Bahlam II.
Further evidence of the strong ties between El Per and Calakmul during
this time period is found on a fragment of Stela 33, which Stanley Guenter
(2005:372) indicates is located at a museum in Oaxaca. The fragment mentions
Royal Alliances 59
Figures 3.3. El Per-Waka Stela 33 (left) portraying Kinich Bahlam II and Stela
34 (right) depicting Lady Kabel. In this image the royal couple is seen side-by-side as
the monuments would have appeared erected at Waka. Dedication date 9.13.0.0.0
(AD 692). Photograph of Stela 33 courtesy of the Kimbell Art Museum, and Stela 34
courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art.
the accession to rulership of Kinich Bahlam II occurring in the presence of

Yuhknoom Cheen, a powerful ruler of Calakmul (Guenter 2005:372). Moreover, Lady Kabels prominence and power at El Per is well represented on Stela
34 where she is depicted in full regalia traditional of royal women of Calakmul,
La Corona, and El Per.
Excavations and ceramic analysis indicated that Stelae 11 and 12 were associated with the final plaza floor, which dates to the Late Classic period. This
evidence suggests, therefore, that the monument setting took place during the
Late Classic at the same time the replastering of the floor occurred. Ceramic
analysis also indicated that above-floor occupation dates to the Terminal Classic (ca.AD 850). No Terminal Classic materials were found below that floor,
and the presence of a majority of Terminal Classic ceramics above it indicates
that the floor plastering took place just prior to AD 850, or at the transition
from the Late-to-Terminal Classic period. A second, stratigraphically lower and
therefore earlier floor was found in both excavation units in front of Stelae 11
and 12. This floor dates to an earlier phase of the Late Classic. Stone wedges
used to brace the monuments were placed over the earlier floor and indications
that the stelae butts were intrusive through the floors plaster are direct evidence
60 Acua
the monuments were set in association with the final occupational floor. Therefore, given that the dedication date on each monument is AD 672, the contextual evidence exposed by my excavations revealed the monuments were reset in
this location during the first half of the ninth century. Their original location in
the seventh century when they were dedicated is unknown.
Though the bases of Stelae 11 and 12 are still in the ground, the monuments are fragmented, and this destructive activity likely took place in antiquity based on other examples at the site; however, where the destruction took
place remains unknown. Circumstantial evidence indicates that the monuments were broken in their original location, and transported as fragments
when they were reset. This substantiation comes from the identification of a
pattern of monument fragmentation and resetting at El Per; some evidence
points toward the resetting of selected fragments, for example Stelae 9 and 10
associated with Structure M13-1 (Navarro-Farr 2004, 2005; Navarro-Farr and
Arroyave Prera 2006b). However, there is also evidence for the resetting of
complete but fragmented monuments, as is the case of Stela 15 (Guenter and
Rich 2004). Guenter (Freidel and Escobedo 2006:8) has dated the destruction
of monuments at El Per to the time of the hiatus, between the latter half of the
sixth century and first half of the seventh. Stelae 11 and 12 were dedicated in
AD672, suggesting that monument fragmentation continued to be practiced
at El Per after the hiatus.
We are less fortunate with Stelae 33 and 34, because despite the fact that
Structure M12-35 was not looted, these monuments were sliced into portable-
sized blocks, defaced, extracted from the site and can now be found in the
Cleveland Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum, and in a museum in the
Mexican state of Oaxaca (Freidel and Rich 2012). Thus, the precise pre-looted
location of these stelae on the northern side of the building is unknown. The
position of Stela 35, apparently still in situ, however, suggests that the paired
monuments, Stelae 33 and 34, were aligned along the front of the building in
a similar fashion. Based on the scattered location of the defaced blocks as documented by the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project, they most likely
were flanking the staircase.
It is more difficult to discern whether Stelae 33 and 34 were in fact reset
in front of Structure M12-35, as I have done with Stelae 11 and 12. Unfortunately, looters completely destroyed the context associated with Stelae 33 and
34, possibly while searching for a cache. This is important because the simple
absence of a context for these monuments directly in the ground prevents us
from making any type of association with the plaza floors as was done for Stelae
11 and 12. Without further exploration it remains impossible to know whether
Stelae 33 and 34 were reset at all.
While the original location of all five monuments will likely never be known,
further testing in the vicinity of the remains of Stelae 33 and 34 were found in
Royal Alliances 61
front of Structure M12-35 could provide some hints. Another source for further information is to explore the area where Stela 35 is set and compare its floor
association with the dedication date. Its position toward the northwest of the
building would imply it was set precisely there because Stelae 33 and 34 were
already in place in front of the building. This therefore indicates that these two
monuments were originally set there, as opposed to being reset like Stela 11 and
12. It remains possible, of course, that Stelae 35 was reset along with Stelae 33
and 34, but was not disturbed by looters.
Discussion
During the reign of Kinich Bahlam II, El Per was closely allied with the great
political power to the north, Calakmul. As Stanley Guenter (2005) pointed
out, a fragment of Stela 33 mentions that the accession to rulership of Kinich
Bahlam II occurred in the presence of Yuhknoom Cheen of Calakmul in AD
656, indicating that an alliance was established at least by the time of his accession. As I have explained above, the relationship between the sites was further
strengthened with the marriage of El Pers then king to Lady Kabel, a princess
from Calakmul.
Following the victory of Tikal over Calakmul in AD 695, El Per entered
a period during which few monuments were dedicated. The final 20 years of
Kinich Bahlam IIs reign, for instance, only witnessed the dedication of Stela35
in AD 711, commemorating the period ending 9.14.0.0.0. Subsequent years of
dynastic history are less well known; however, despite El Pers defeat by Tikal in
AD 743 (Guenter 2005:373) the city remained an active participant in lowland
politics. This was due to its strategic location as midpoint between the east-west
traveling network of the San Pedro Mrtir River, the north-south route connecting Calakmul, La Corona, and El Per and south along the Pasin River
to Cancuen. Toward the end of the eighth century (AD 771), a marital alliance
between the local king and a foreign princess named Lady Pakal provided El
Per with its independence from Tikal and possibly reestablished a relationship
with Calakmul (Guenter 2005:375). Thus it seems evident that the Late Classic period of glory at El Per occurred during the reign of Kinich BahlamII,
which in later years, when the alliance with Calakmul was revived, would have
likely been remembered or commemorated, for example, with events such as
the resetting of Stelae 11 and 12 to emulate Stelae 33 and 34.
As Inomata (2006a:811) states, the resetting of stelae alter or reconstitute
the effects of monuments in the physical and perpetual construction of theatrical spaces. At the Royal Couple Building, stelae fragmentation and resetting,
and dismantling of its architecture, in addition to a clearly intentional deposit at
the base of the buildings northern staircase, indicate ritual behavior. Relevance
to performance comes from the role the building played and its association with
62 Acua
the monuments, which together form part of a larger context with other buildings and monuments comprising Plazas 1 and 2.
Various authors have highlighted the importance of architectural programs
and association with monuments in the creation of performance spaces (Baines
2006; Bradley 1998b; Inomata and Coben 2006b). The architectural landscape
of Plaza 1 is marked with multiple stelae, which enhance its significance as a
politico-ceremonial space (see Figure 3.1). Inomata (2006a:8078) argues that
stelae not only act as bodily performance, but their placement in performance
spaces like ancient Maya plazas also served to reassert ideologies. The endeavor
of creating these large performance spaces also may have served to promote hierarchical organization (Inomata 2006a:808) by the rulers. In this sense, stelae
are erected in these open spaces to play a part in a variety of ceremonial, political, and ritual performances, but at the same time would remain as permanent
participants once the portrayed individual was deceased. As interactive images
associated with place and the narration of history, monuments also play a role
in the long-term memory of the sites history (Joyce 2003). Of all the plazas
at El Per, Plaza 1 by far has the majority of stelae, most of which are aligned
along the eastern and southern sides, in addition to a few in the central area of
the plaza (see Tsesmeli 2004: Figure 2). The presence of stelae in direct association with Structure M12-35 underscores the importance of the building in the
overall performance space of the plaza. This serves to legitimize rulership and
invoke and convey ritual power, while at the same time establish the eternal
presence of the royal couple. Though we cannot be certain that the stelae on
the northern side (Stelae 33, 34, and 35) were dedicated in that location, the
resetting of Stelae 11 and 12 on the south side at a later date highlights the
function of stelae as devices used for remembering events over spans longer
than a generation (Joyce 2003:112), in other words, as a means of communication (see Inomata and Coben 2006b:1719). These monuments, depicting two
prominent figures in the history of El Per, would commemorate in perpetuity
and reassert the meaning of Structure M12-35 in the history of the site and
specifically emphasize the moments in time when the site enjoyed significant
power and regional importance.
The role of stelae in terms of powerful placemaking is also exhibited through
a number of modifications noted in the associated Plaza 1. This plaza likely
served at some point in its earlier years (during the Preclassic and possibly into
the Early Classic) as a reservoir. Depressions visible in elevation maps of the
site allude to this, but more evidence comes from a variety of test excavations
throughout the eastern and northeastern areas of the Plaza (Acua 2005; Prez
Robles 2004). This evidence reveals the presence of a compact clay similar in
consistency and color to that usually found as sediment in watery places in
early stratigraphic levels (Freidel and Escobedo 2004:415). Indirect evidence
comes from Stela 33, where Kinich Bahlam II is portrayed wearing a headdress
Royal Alliances 63
decorated with the Waterlily Monster, and the hieroglyphic text suggest the
ruler stood in an inundated plaza (Freidel and Escobedo 2004:415). Given
the potential for the plaza to have been a reservoir, it is important to consider
thelabor investment to fill and level the ground and to lay down a plastered
floor. These efforts, however, were to create an open space where carved monuments were set and organized in relation to architectural planning and provide performance space for large numbers of people, observers, and performers.
The test excavation program initiated by Griselda Prez Robles (2004) in and
around the plaza indicates the majority of construction activity took place in
the Late and Terminal Classic periods with antecedents in the Terminal Preclassic and Early Classic. I see these intentional architectural modifications as a
reflection of power relations, or practices, with political implications (see Bourdieu 1977). While these spaces were used politically, they also served for ritual
and ceremonial performances and underwent changes in accord with the sites
sociopolitical organization. Furthermore, the type of performances the archaeological context of Plaza 1 and M12-35 suggest falls within what Schechner
(1988) would categorize as ritualistic because they fulfilled more efficacious
purposes rather than entertaining ones. Among the characteristics qualifying
this category are the participation of an audience, the belief of the audience,
the discouragement of criticism, and collective creativity (Beeman 1993:378).
As such, the ultimate goal was to put on an authoritative performance (Hymes
1975:13). I would also like to point out it is not always necessary to have an
audience for all performances. Schechner (1988:30) indicates certain ritual
activities can be viewed as performance even when they do not involve the
physical presence of an audience, if gods, supernaturals, or performers take the
real or symbolic role of an audience. Thus, the resetting of stelae in the Terminal Classic, when the site is evidently undergoing dramatic changes prior to its
abandonment, may also allude to performance continuity, only symbolically by
ancestral kings and queens.
Performance, as a means of communication requires a context (Hymes 1975)
that was created through the careful planning of the distribution of buildings
and monuments around the plaza (see also Inomata and Coben 2006b). We
know from the evidence of monument resetting that the architectural landscape
changed diachronically. Buildings underwent architectural modifications, and
monuments were set, moved and removed, but the open space of the plaza
was maintained through time. Although the immediate context changed gradually throughout the citys history, Plaza 1 served as political legitimization and
sanctification of the divine power of the rulers, who witnessed and likely performed in spectacles of various kinds in that plaza. Structure M12-35 was part
of that context, and given its location in the ceremonial landscape, its size,
and shape, perhaps the building functioned as an elevated throne for the royal
couple as they witnessed various performances in the large plaza below. Inomata
64 Acua
(2006a:816) pointed out that such structures have been identified at Tikal and
Uaxactun, indicating this speculation is one worthy of further archaeological
testing.
Within the culturally constructed landscape, structures convey symbolic
messages related to ritual and politics. El Pers political scenario is in part related to directionality emphasized in the construction of its buildings. Structure
M12-35 is no exception, and its orientation must be considered when interpreting the related evidence. Although speculative, these ideas warrant consideration and, more importantly, further testing. Overall, the site is oriented on
an east-west axis with the major ceremonial buildings facing west. Few Late
Classic buildings face other directions, and include the Northwest Palace (east);
the Chok Group (north-south orientation); and Structure N14-12 (north). The
latter is located on the modified summit of a natural rise in the Mirador Group
and is associated with Stela 3 (Rich 2003, 2004, 2011). Structure M12-35
also disrupts the general pattern of important Late Classic politico-ceremonial
buildings facing west with its evident north-south orientation. In my opinion,
the building was strategically oriented this way so it not only faced onto the
major performance space of Plazas 1 and 2, in part as a response to architectural
symmetry and tradition, but more importantly so it faced toward the north and
ultimately Calakmul, its ally, and Lady Kabels place of origin (see Figure 3.1).
Stelae 33, 34, and 35, all faced north and function as permanent participants
in the ritual performances that took place in the plaza following the deaths of
the royal couple. The resetting of Stelae 11 and 12, I argue, functioned as a
reassertion of the symbolic meaning of the building in memory of the glorious
periodof the late seventh and early eighth centuries. Alternatively, the placement of these monuments may have merely reasserted El Pers political power
through the veneration of the reign of the royal couple, emphasizing the orientation of the building and its symbolic relation to the alliance with Calakmul.
This kind of commemoration would have served to reestablish the symbolic
meaning of the building and its connection to ritual, ancestry, and the past, and
facilitate social stability and the maintenance of tradition under the changing
political circumstances (Bradley 1998b; Thomas 2001) of the Terminal Classic.
In synthesis, Structure M12-35 seems to have retained symbolic value attached to the period of glory at the site and the dynastic couple that governed
it, as well as the participation of the site in regional affairs. As part of the overall
abandonment of buildings and the change of fortune experienced during the
Terminal Classic, Structure M12-35 suffered destruction on the southern faade,
which happens to be adjacent to Structure M13-1 (the Southeast Acropolis),
also subject of intense ritual activity (Navarro-Farr 2004, 2005, 2009; Navarro-
Farr and Arroyave Prera 2006b, this volume). Structure M12-35s northern side
was marked less dramatically by depositing a series of vessels dropped in situ,
large flat-bedded sherds, and the sprinkling of stucco fragments. As previously
Royal Alliances 65
mentioned, if in fact the building had a throne of some type on its summit,
perhaps the stucco fragments found in the deposit corresponded to its decoration; however, the possibility that they come from an entirely different location
is also considered here. Given the deposits small size, only covering a section of
the staircase, I would further argue that it might have served only as a symbolic
prevention of further access to the temple, perhaps as a result of a particular
ceremony.
Ritual activity associated with the Royal Couple Building includes activities
such as the resetting of Stelae 11 and 12. Although certainly ritual in nature, the
deposit on the northern side is difficult to understand, as thus far, it remains impossible to distinguish if it was a single ceremonial event or an accretion of individual vessels dropped in situ over time. Both of these activities underscore the
meaning of the building in the sites history and particularly in association with
Kinich Bahlam II and Lady Kabel. Though in this chapter the intentional removal of stones from the buildings southern side was looked at as ritual, I must
acknowledge that these activities may also be the result of non-ritual activity,
and instead may represent the utilization of available resources in a time of need
for the modification of other buildings, such as Structure M13-1 (Navarro-Farr
and Arroyave Prera, this volume). The symbolic meaning of Structure M12-35
may have limited the nature of the rituals associated with it during the Terminal
Classic. Finally, it is evident that Structure M12-35 is significant to the sites
political and ritual history, and it has further highlighted the importance of site
planning and orientation (see Ashmore 1991). The direct relationship between
the buildings orientation and the sites political alliances is a topic that needs
to be addressed further, but it is important to begin thinking about the sites
directionality not only being related to religious constructs but also to political
strategies and alliances.
Much remains to be explored at El Per, particularly at the Royal Couple
Building, in order to have a more complete understanding of the politico-
ceremonial significance of this small but complex pyramid and its associated
monuments. The data and discussions presented in this chapter are a first step
in this process, and what is clear is that Structure M12-35 adds greatly to the
overall understanding of the Late and Terminal Classic Periods at El Per. More
importantly, however, the Royal Couple Building explicitly emphasizes the
contextual relationship between carefully crafted architecture and the strategic
placement of monuments in city planning. The evidence for resetting monuments indicates they were moved across the city landscape to serve specific
functions in each location, as actors in a scene staged in accordance with the
directionality of the structure. Together, the architecture and the monuments
functioned to create rich, multifaceted performance spaces within ancient Maya
society at El Per-Waka.
4
The Power of the Past
Crafting Meaning at a Royal
FuneraryPyramid
Michelle Rich and
Varinia Matute
Places of memory serve to anchor the past in the present and,
alternatively, the present in the past.
Lynn Meskell, Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt: Material
Biographies Past and Present
he construction of social memory and the historical specifics

of space and place shaped the creation and maintenance of power and authority
in Classic period Maya society. During this era, the Maya constructed and refurbished large temple-pyramids, palaces, and other buildings of civic-ceremonial
function across the region. Through the study of ancient Maya monumental
architecture, we follow Ruth Van Dyke and Susan Alcocks (2003a:3) proposal
that in archaeological contexts it is easiest to identify top-down machinations
of elites who used social memory to create the appearance of a seamless social
whole, to naturalize or legitimate authority, or to create and support a sense
of individual or community identity. Monumental architecture is undeniably
linked to the Maya elite and ruling class, and our comprehension of the political systems led by ancient kings and queens affects our understanding of
the Classic Maya in general. In thinking about this, Structure O14-04, one
of the largest civic-ceremonial pyramids at Waka, provides an ideal venue to
investigate the relationships between memory, place, and power. Archaeological
evidence underscores that the building served as an enduring locus of activity
throughout the Classic era, and its repeated use for royal burial created a public architectural setting commemorating Wakas ruling elite. As such, Structure
O14-04s ritual function surely defined it within the ancient community, and
the building was likely a pervasive presence in Wakeo consciousness. Furthermore, public sculpture discovered in association with the architecture, as well as
artifacts included in the mortuary assemblages, indicate representations of the
past as encoded in material culture were purposefully manipulated to fortify
The Power of the Past 67
royal power and authority. In this chapter, we briefly evaluate theoretical approaches to memory, place, and power and how these concepts were expressed
in Classic Maya culture. We then present results of archaeological investigation
at the Mirador Group and Structure O14-04, which is followed by an examination of specific evidence articulating memory, place, and power. As part of this
process, we create a partial life history for Structure O14-04, enabling us to
relate the building to specific occurrences and major themes in Classic Period
political history.
Memory, Place, and Power in the World of the Ancient Maya

Numerous archaeologists have recently considered memory studies, or the past
in the past (e.g., Bradley 2002; Jones 2007; Mills and Walker 2008; Van Dyke
and Alcock 2003b; Yoffee 2007). These varied studies address a common theme:
past populations were as cognizant of their histories as modern-day societies.
Ancient peoples created and manipulated their collective past through material
media and ritual performance. These approaches to remembering relate to the
reproduction of social norms, identity, power, and authority. Certain Classic
Maya archaeological remains unequivocally demonstrate this awareness. One
obvious example is public sculpture incorporating texts that recorded events,
such as accessions, battles, births, or deaths, for posterity. Some monuments
commemorated these events in a timely fashion, immediately codifying specific
occurrences as worth knowing or remembering, while other sculpture did so
decades after an event occurred. This type of delayed public recognition may reveal the historical endurance of an event, although it may also suggest memory
can be redirected,guaranteeing past occurrences become part of a collective
sociopolitical consciousness at a later date. Accordingly, these monuments attest to the creation of memory and use of the past, particularly by individuals
or groups within ancient societies capable of commissioning historical public
sculpture. The permanence of the medium and the public venues in which
monuments were displayed reinforced the idea that some information was
worth recording for public consumption, as opposed to lintels with text placed
inside rooms to which access may have been more easily controlled or restricted.
Smaller portable objects with text, such as belt plaques or ceramic vessels, could
also record events, but were also only accessible to restricted audiences.
Archaeological remains without inscriptions, however, serve as less overt
prompts indicating ancient peoples also created and substantiated memories
through nontextual allusions. For example, portable objects can trigger associations with the past, often through style or iconography. Architecture can also
function in the same manner, either via decorative motifs adorning a buildings
exterior, architectural modifications encased within a buildings mass, or the
people and objects purposefully interred inside a structure. In early research at
68 Rich and Matute
the site of Kaminaljuyu, Alfred Kidder and colleagues (1946:34) postulated a

close and enduring relationship between mortuary ceremonies and architecture
at Structure B. They found a variety of construction modifications to be associated with mortuary rituals and interments, such as the modification of architectural features, partial demolition of existing structures, construction of entirely
new buildings, and the deposition of caches or placement of altars (ibid.). In
the decades since this research, we have continued to expand our understanding
of these widespread ancient Maya mortuary-related architectural modifications.
Certain buildings were specifically built to house a particular rulers remains,
while others were used and reused as mortuary monuments for centuries, rather
like mausoleums. An example of the former is Kinich Janaab Pakals opulent
tomb deep inside the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, while an example
of the latter is Kaminaljuyu Structure B.
The Classic Maya placed interments inside of architecture, either intrusively
into existing structures or in association with new construction phases. This
tradition established an inalienable and enduring link between the interment
and the building, and created a symbolically notable place on the landscape
fixed in social memoryat least for a time. The interment process was also
fundamental to the conversion of deceased individuals into ancestors, and the
status of the interred as revered ancestors immediately reinforced a link to the
past by commemorating and venerating real or fictive sociopolitical relationships that underscored the importance of tradition and memory (e.g., Helms
1998; McAnany 1995, 1998). This association to the past is valuable precisely
because it offers legitimation for ruling elites. Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat of Copan
created just such a link by commemorating all fifteen of his royal predecessors
on Altar Q and then setting it in front of the dynastic shrine Structure 10L-16
where founder Kinich Yax Kuk Mo was buried (Sharer and Fash et al. 1999;
Sharer and Traxler et al. 1999).
Along a similar line of thought, Allan Pred (1990) suggests the making of
histories and the production of places and spaces are intertwined and inseparable from the dialectical processes related to human agency and practice, power
relations, and knowledge. The production of space and place
involves the construction of an unevenly developed built environment, the shaping of landscape and land-use patterns, the appropriation and transformation
of nature, the organization and use of specialized locations for the conduct of
economic, cultural, and social practices, the generation of patterns of movement and interdependence between such localized activities, and the formation
of symbolically-laden, meaning-filled, ideology-projecting sites and areas. (ibid.:10,
authors emphasis)
Following Yi-Fu Tuan (1977), space and place are separate concepts requiring
each other for definition, with the more abstract space eventually transforming into place as a result of an increase in familiarity, knowledge, and then a
subsequent endowment of value. Places, then, can be regarded as specific points

on landscapes entwined with personal experiences and historical narratives that
evoke memories (Rubertone 2008:13). In accord with these ideas, buildings
were more than plastered and painted assemblages of cut limestone blocks. The
built environment itself was a medium of cultural expression, not simply a passive backdrop or container for various daily activities (Kostof 1985 in Kowalski
1999:7). This was manifested in part through the cosmological landscape of
the ancient Maya, which included human-made architectural replicas of natural and sacred topographic features. For instance, monumental pyramids were
conceptualized as mountains (Freidel et al. 1993), and human-constructed
mortuary spaces, such as cists or tombs, have been identified as analogs to caves
(Geller 2006). Caves were considered access points to the underworld (Bassie-
Sweet 1996:52; Brady and Prufer 2005; MacLeod and Puleston 1978) or places
from which ancestors emerged or resided (Stone 1995). As a result, deceased
rulers placed in tomb-caves within buildings could be conceived of as entering
a ritually controlled region of the underworld (Aldana 2007:11).
For the ancient Maya, concepts of natural spaces and built places were intertwined with ritual interments and sacred ancestors. These ideas were expressed
in a variety of architectural forms, from modest housemounds to eastern shrine
buildings (Becker 1999). Yet, this link is particularly compelling when examining civic-ceremonial monumental architecture utilized by the ruling class.
Many individuals interred in these types of buildings comprised the central
and most powerful faction of society, influencing the course of political events
and regional social interaction. In other words, these were the movers and the
shakers charged with exercising and fortifying royal power in order to manufacture and retain legitimate ruling authority. Preds approach cited earlier also
advocates that space and place cannot be addressed without recognizing the
concept of power. Anthony Giddens (1979:88) defines power as the transformative capacity of an agent to achieve a desired outcome. Often a culturally
defined construct, power may be achieved or ascribed based on any number of
characteristics, such as knowledge, gender, race, charisma, prestige, religion, or
ritual influence. Power may be perceived with a slightly more coercive nuance
as the capacity to achieve desired outcomes by means of persuasion or control
of peoples actions, and similarly, symbols can be manipulated ideologically to
convince others (Robb 2005:3). This is authority, or the ability to implement
power. During the Classic period, the institution of divine kingship was one
means by which the ruling class legitimated their authority. Ancient Maya rulers linked the earthly world to the gods and forces dwelling in the underworld
and the heavens by conducting bloodletting offerings to appease them (Schele
and Miller 1986). Conceptually, Bertrand Russell (2004:25) makes a distinction between traditional power and newly acquired power, in which those who
wield the former do not have to justify themselves continuously because traditional power is buttressed by the the force of habit, whereas the holders of
70 Rich and Matute
the latter are in a more precarious position. This station necessitates continuous
confirmation that their position cannot be usurped by opposition, no matter an
opposers strength. Preserving ruling power and authority must have been particularly important in Classic-era Waka as the southern Maya lowland region
was the setting for numerous intraregional alliances, relationships, and rivalries (e.g., Culbert 1996; de Montmollin 1995; Demarest 1992; Lucero 1999;
Marcus 1976; Martin 2003; Martin and Grube 1995, 2008; Rathje 1971;
Rice 2004). In this tumultuous political situation, ancient Maya rulers likely
exploited different avenues to generate leverage in a highly competitive environment. Crumley (1999:274) states through ritual, societies link economic
success, belief, and elite power. Elites employ the strong tugs of individual and
group experience and identity to demonstrate their mastery of time, space, and
mind. Anchoring places, people, and objects into a cosmologically powerful
and politically successful past served to maintain such an advantage.
The Mirador Group and Structure O14-04

Topographically distinct within Waka, the Mirador Group is located in the
southeastern extremity of the city center on a rocky uplift approximately 45m
higher than Plaza 2, the main public plaza. This physically restricted locale
includes two of the sites largest pyramids, Structures O14-02 and O14-04,
and a small three-building architectural group clustered together atop a steep
natural rise artificially leveled in antiquity (Figure 4.1). A causeway connects
Structures O14-02 and O14-04, both of which are oriented northwest toward
the site center, while the group atop the natural rise, which includes Structure
N14-12, faces slightly east of north. A stela is associated with each of these
three loci, although Stelae 2 and 3, positioned in front of Structures O14-02
and N14-12 respectively, appear to be uncarved. Stela 1, located in front of
Structure O14-04, is discussed below.
During the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Projects (EPWRAP) four
major field seasons from 2003-2006, Rich directed Mirador Group excavations,
atop the artificially leveled hill (Rich 2004, 2005) and at Structure O14-04
(Rich et al. 2006, 2007). The excavation strategies focused on horizontal exposure of architectural features, complemented by deep vertical test excavations to
explore architectural stratigraphy. The two excavated loci within the tripartite
Mirador Group provide evidence suggesting a use life for these buildings commensurate with the occupation of the site as a whole, from the Late Preclassic
or Protoclassic through the Terminal Classic period, approximately 400 BC
through AD 1000 (Eppich et al. 2005; Prez Robles 2005; Prez Robles et al.
2008; Rich 2011). Furthermore, this work shows Structure O14-04 is a large
composite building comprised of a terraced pyramid with an adosada (attached
frontal platform) atop a large basal platform. The adosada supported a vaulted
Figure 4.1. Plan view of the Mirador Group. Map by E. Tsesmeli, 2010, courtesy of the El Per-Wak Regional
72 Rich and Matute
masonry shrine room, and a vaulted masonry temple at the pyramids summit.
Horizontal excavation on Structure O14-04 revealed Late and Terminal Classic
period activity in surface contexts, while vertical excavation demonstrated the
principal construction of both the pyramid and adosada occurred during the
Early Classic. The adosada was remodeled at least twice, with final renovation
occurring in the Late Classic. An earlier substructure with a poorly preserved
red stucco finish was discovered within the adosada and most likely dates to
the Terminal Preclassic. It may resemble Structure 5C-49-1 at Tikals Mundo
Perdido (Laporte and Fialko 1995).
The preponderance of royal interments in the adosada highlights the ongoing
mortuary function of Structure O14-04 for Wakas royalty and marks this as a
place defined by ritual action (Figure 4.2). During the Early Classic, the plaster
plaza floor at the base of the aforementioned red-stuccoed substructure was cut
in order to inter two adult individuals in a vaulted tomb, which is designated
Burial 24 (see Figure 11.1, this volume). This rustic chamber was built into bedrock and contained the remains of two females. Both women were 2535 years
old and show few skeletal pathologies. The anatomically correct positioning of
fetal skeletal material indicates the lower woman was roughly five months pregnant at time of death (Piehl 2006:44143). The mortuary assemblage included
fragmentary Spondylus spp. shell and two greenstone earspools associated with
the adult crania, a stingray spine recovered from the pelvic region, two pearls,
two diminutive greenstone and three Spondylus spp. shell beads, and an obsidian prismatic blade fragment. The remains of three painted organic objects were
also included in the assemblage, and preliminary analyses suggest they were
two bowls and a lid (Beaubien and Snyder 2010; Beaubien and Weber 2007).
Finally, seven well-preserved ceramic vessels were among the offerings. Four
are Balanza Black basal-flanged bowls, and three are basal-flanged polychrome
vessels with scutate lids identified as Caldero Buff Polychrome, Yaloche Cream
Polychrome: Yaloche Variety, and Yaloche Cream Polychrome: Unspecified
Composite Variety (Eppich 2009a). The similarity of the polychrome vessels
to those excavated from burials at Mundo Perdido (Laporte 1989; Laporte and
Fialko 1995) and Burial 22 at Tikal (Culbert 1993) suggests a correlation to
Tikals Manik phase (AD 200550). A similar polychrome-lidded bowl (Vessel
9) was also recovered in Tomb 1, Structure III at Calakmul (Folan et al. 1995),
which is attributed to the fifth century AD. Ceramicist Keith Eppich (2009a)
places the Burial 24 polychrome vessels in the mid-to late-fourth century. Carbon fragments collected at the southern end of the Burial 24 chamber provided
a two-sigma calibrated AMS date of AD 240420 (Beta-239738).
Burial 25 was a second noble interment in Structure O14-04, and stratigraphically, this modest cist is located beneath the same plaster floor as Burial24.
Carbon fragments collected below the floor and near the cist resulted in two-
sigma calibrated AMS dates of AD 130350 and AD 120330 (Beta-239739
Figure 4.2. Profile of Structure O14-04 (W-E) detailing location of Burials 25, 24, and 39, and hypothesized configuration of substructure below
Burial 39. Drawing by E. Tsesmeli, M. Rich, and V. Matute, 2010, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
74 Rich and Matute
and 239740). These dates provide temporal context for the construction of the
floor, and by association, the red-stuccoed substructure. Burial 25 contained a
female of advanced age (Piehl 2010); artifacts comprising the mortuary assemblage include a large Spondylus spp. shell associated with the cranium, a greenstone bead found in the mouth region, a Triunfo Striated jar positioned in the
crook of her arm, and, finally, a macaw motif Dos Arroyos Orange Polychrome
basal flanged bowl placed under her knees. This vessel is similar to a Manik 2
phase (AD 300378) vessel from burial PNT-062 at Mundo Perdido (Laporte
and Fialko 1995:5861, Figure 31) and Uaxactun material (Smith 1955:28),
described as Tzakol 2 and 3.
A second vaulted tomb designated Burial 39 was encountered directly
atop the red-stuccoed substructure inside the adosada. The elaborate mortuary assemblage and the location of the masonry chamber in one of the grandest pyramids at the site convey the interred individual was a ruler of Waka.
Preserved textile fragments indicate the individual was wrapped or bundled
before mourners arranged the ruler on a stone bench bordered on the west by
a narrow alley. Impressive elite artifacts include a narrative scene of 23 ceramic
figurines depicting a royal court (Freidel et al. 2010), a greenstone Olmec-style
heirloom figurine (Rich et al. 2010), 33 ceramic vessels, and numerous other
objects. Zooarchaeologist Erin Kennedy-Thornton (Rich 2008) identified the
remains of several animals in the tomb, including a juvenile grey fox (Urocyon
cinereoargenteus, MNI = 1). The distribution of six jaguar phalanges (Panthera
onca, MNI = 1) on the bench indicates the individual was either wearing or lay
atop a jaguar pelt. Additionally, a child approximately seven years of age (Piehl
2008:201) was placed on top of several vessels in the northern end of the alley.
The ceramic assemblage dates to the Intermediate Classic period, AD 550700.
Eppich (Rich et al. 2010) indicates the barrel shape of the short vases, as well
as the presence of distinctive pottery types, including Chimbote Cream Polychrome and Petkanche Orange Polychrome, narrow the time of the interment
to an early seventh-century date. Epigrapher Stanley Guenter has identified
the El Per Emblem Glyph and the several male names on the vessels (this volume). Though none of these names can be securely associated with the interred
individual, Guenter believes the hieroglyphic texts are consistent with an Intermediate Classic interment date. Osteological analyses indicate the ruler was of
advanced age and enjoyed a life of generally good health. Sex is unknown due
to poor skeletal preservation (Piehl 2008:19597).
Illustrating Memory, Place, and Power atStructure O14-04

Some of the archaeological evidence at Structure O14-04 relates directly to the
concepts of memory, place, and power, and facilitates construction of a partial
life history for the building. We present four examples representing distinct
artifact categories or residues of ritual action that suggest memory invocation:
Stela1 represents public sculpture with a hieroglyphic inscription; a portable

Olmec style figurine conjures iconographic links to the past; reentry of Burial
39 underscores the immutable link between Structure O14-04 and the interments it contains; and finally, a Late Classic stucco head with motifs reminiscent of the defunct city of Teotihuacan is a decorative sculpture that likely
adorned the building. We argue the presence of these objects and residues of
action help elucidate Structure O14-04s story, and they illuminate how the
biography of the offering place is as informative as the offerings themselves
(e.g., Bradley 2000). Together these artifacts convey information that helps us
to understand how this place symbolized power and authority for ruling elite
throughout the Classic period at Waka.
Stela 1
Stelae served to orchestrate and manipulate collective memories by commemorating specific events. These events may have occurred right before the stela was
erected or sometime in the distant past. El Per Stela 1, in front of Structure
O14-04, is a notable monument because it ends the 103-year epigraphic hiatus at Waka, which lasted from AD 554 to 657. In spite of poor preservation,
Guenter (2005:37172; this volume) identified a date of AD 657 (9.11.5.0.0).
The eroded stela depicts a standing king, and one remaining clue to his identity
is the jaguar element in the headdress. This could allude to Kinich Bahlam II,
who ruled Waka from approximately AD 657711 (Guenter 2005:37172,
this volume).
The approximate contemporaneity of Burial 39 and Stela 1, as well as the
stelas placement in front of the building, suggest the ruler interred in the tomb
was likely affiliated with the person depicted on the monument. The individual
in Burial 39, interred between AD 600 and 650, would have reigned during
the period lacking inscriptions, which places the individual in the succession of
Waka kings sometime after Muwaan Bahlam who ruled around AD 550, but
before Kinich Bahlam II acceded to the throne ca. 657 (Guenter 2005:372).
Considering these points, it is possible the individual on Stela 1 is related to
the ruler buried in the tomb. From a historical standpoint, and given what we
know about Maya kingship, rulers frequently sought to associate themselves
with their predecessors, and they manipulated their real or fictive relationships
with previous rulers to legitimate their own authority. One of the ways of creating a direct link to the memory of past rulers is by placing monuments in front
of the temples housing those predecessors tombs.
An Olmec-Style Figurine
The second example of an artifact discovered at Structure O14-04 that directly references the past is an Olmec-style figurine included in the Burial 39
76 Rich and Matute
assemblage (Rich et al. 2010). Incorporating objects into mortuary assemblages

removes them from circulation while simultaneously demonstrating veneration
for or acknowledging their value. Votive deposits, hoarding, and caching behaviors produce similar end results. The Olmec-style figurine was placed in
two lip-to-lip bowls above the interred rulers head and paired with another
set of vessels containing a small pyrite mirror on a slate backing. Iconographic
and stylistic elements suggest this figurine dates to the Middle Preclassic; this
along with evident wear patterns indicate it may be a curated heirloom (sensu
Joyce 2000b). Preliminary interpretations propose the figurine depicts a young
dancing boy wearing a deity mask and shark-fin headdress (Rich et al. 2010).
The face of the mask alludes to the watery underworld, the shark-like Water
Monster, the severed head of the sacrificed Maize God, and death god imagery.
The figurine represents iconography important within the larger framework
of Mesoamerican cosmology, and its inclusion in this mortuary assemblage
therefore merits further examination. One approach involves the concept of
enchainment, which links people to objects and thus to each other through
time (Chapman 2000; Chapman and Gaydarska 2007). This objects likely
status as an heirloom figurine suggests it may have been passed down from
generation to generation, with each owner remembering the previous owner(s).
The withdrawal of this heirloom figurine from circulation via its interment in
Burial 39 may imply the link between this object and the interred ruler was
too strong to break. Regardless of whoever may have possessed this Olmec-
style heirloom figurine earlier in its use life, its entombment in this chamber
along with this deceased Waka ruler exhibits a reverence for this object and
what it embodies. With this act, the cycle of enchainment was halted, and the
figurine was inextricably linked to the ruler in Burial 39. As such, the figurine
itself can be viewed as a ritual sacrifice, because as a still-viable object, it was
diverted from other potential use contexts in order to harness its remnant use
life within the ongoing ritual tradition represented by Burial 39 (sensu Walker
1995:76). The enduring symbolism of the figurines attributes reference fundamental premises of Mesoamerican cosmological thought, and as proposed by
Mary Helms (1998:10), those persons or social groups who can evidence the
most privileged access to contexts of cosmological origins will be the most likely
to be accorded political legitimacy and political authority. Being buried with
an object of the Olmec-style figurines antiquity may have provided a certain
prestige for this ruler of Waka. We propose that upon interment, the ruler became what the figurine symbolizes: a reference to the past from which power is
drawn. Any ruling power the person in Burial 39 had during life transformed
postinterment to the power of one who holds ancestral status. This status created a compelling scenario for subsequent Waka kings and queens to promote
their relationship to the ruler in Burial 39, as discussed earlier in relation to
Stela 1. This situation also epitomizes the previously mentioned inalienable link
between the interment and the building, because the sacrificed Olmec figurine
and the deceased ruler belong to Structure O14-04.
A Reentry Event
During the late facet of the Late Classic (approximately AD 700770) or the
Late-to-Terminal Classic transition at Waka (roughly AD 770820/850), the
Burial 39 tomb chamber was reentered through its vaulted roof. The tomb was
located beneath the shrine room atop the adosada, and a portion of the shrines
terminal floor was removed in order to reenter the tomb. The floor was intact
in the entrance area of the shrine; this suggests the area above the tomb was
specifically targeted. It is remarkable this tomb was accessed with such precision
120250 years after the original interment, implying that knowledge of its location was somehow documented or passed along. It is important to bear in mind
this reentry occurred six to thirteen generations after the original interment,
and was carried out by a contingent whose identity remains unknown.
During the Burial 39 reentry process, the interred individual was covered
with carefully placed flat stones, and the tombs western vault and the capstones
were intentionally collapsed into the chamber, which was then filled with matrix containing various artifacts. Analysis of the materials indicates they likely
resulted from the dumping of recycled construction fill and refuse from reused
midden contexts commingled with material remains of behavior directly associated with the tombs revisitation (Rich 2009). In association with the reentry, it
appears in situ burning occurred on top of the flat slabs covering the bones of
the deceased. The o-ch kahk ritual, an epigraphically documented in-chamber
smoking or censing ritual (Stuart 1998), provides an analogy for what may have
occurred in Burial 39, perhaps in conjunction with the ceremonial reworking
and destruction of obsidian and chert bifaces (Hruby and Rich, this volume).
At Waka, a number of tombs show evidence of reentry: Burials 8 (Lee
2005), 38 (Eppich 2007a, 2007b), and 39, but not 37 (Escobedo and Melndez
2007). Revisitation of royal burials was a widespread phenomenon across the
Maya area and occurred repeatedly throughout the Classic period (see Chase
and Chase 2011 for a proposed reentry typology). It appears to have been a
legitimate means by which to pay tribute to ancestors or directly access the
power of the past. This pattern establishes that interments and the buildings
in which they were situated formed part of the collective social memory shared
by some faction(s) of ancient Maya society. It should be considered, therefore,
in accord with Berleant (2003:4243) that it is in the interaction of human
sensibility with an appropriate physical location that place acquires its distinctive meaning, and it may not be the physical characteristics of a location that
are important, but the historical or cultural associations that define place. The
creation of Structure O14-04 as a mortuary monument in the Late Preclassic
78 Rich and Matute
or first part of the Early Classic, its continued use in the Intermediate Classic,
and its ritual revisitation in the form of tomb reentry in the late facet of the Late
Classic or Late-to-Terminal Classic together imply this was a place that indeed
performed in the service of memory (e.g., Meskell 2004) and retained cultural
relevance throughout Wakas history.
Sculpture Depicting Teotihuacan Iconography

After reentry, evidence indicates the portion of the shrine room above the tomb
chamber was never refloored, and the shrine room itself was also filled in with
matrix. This suggests an act sealing off a major portion of Structure O14-04
from any future use. A stucco sculptural head exhibiting Teotihuacan-style imagery was recovered just inside the doorjamb of the shrine, lying slightly above
the terminal floor, which was intact only in the front portion of this room.
It depicts a male face sporting a nose pendant and Teotihuacan warrior shell
goggles in tasseled hair (Figure 4.3).1 If the head had been left exposed to the
natural erosional elements and covered by architectural collapse only when the
building was abandoned and fell into disrepair, it would certainly have deteriorated. To the contrary, the stucco sculpture was astonishingly well preserved,
suggesting it saw little if any weathering and was quickly buried after being
deposited on the floor. The heads lack of weathering bolsters the hypothesis
that the shrine room was infilled at the same time as Burial 39.
Seventy-three stucco fragments were collected in the fill above the Teotihuacan head. The concentration of these elements inside the doorjamb of the
shrine room away from wall surfaces signifies intentional deposition rather than
the accidental clustering that may happen when a stucco faade erodes off a
vertical surface. Among the stucco fragments were goggle-eyed owl eyes similar
to those identified by Karl Taube (Fash and Fash 2000:45253, Figure 14.7a)
as Central Mexican or Teotihuacan motifs included in the sculptural programs
of Copan Structures 10L-16, -21, -21A, and -26. William and Barbara Fash indicate these particular artifacts date to the eighth century. At Structure O14-04,
the ceramics associated with the head and other stucco fragments date to the
Late-to-Terminal Classic transitional Morai Complex defined by Eppich et al.
(2005). This indicates these objects were deposited sometime between AD770
820/850, thus mirroring the Late Classic allusions to the power of Teotihuacan
at Copan. This Late-to-Terminal Classic invocation of Teotihuacans legacy, well
after its decline sometime around AD 600 (Sugiyama 2004:102), significantly
postdates the link between Waka and Teotihuacan during the Early Classic
period documented on El Per Stelae 15 and 16. Ultimately, Late Classic data
from different locations across the Maya lowlands (e.g., Fash and Fash 2000;
Hellmuth 1976; Stone 1989) suggest that even after Teotihuacan collapsed, it
retained its status as an important place in the memory of the ruling elite. It
Figure 4.3. Stucco head recovered above the terminal floor in Structure O14-04s
adosada shrine room. Illustration by S. Sage, 2005, courtesy of the El Per-Waka
Regional Archaeological Project.
seems at Waka, like at Copan, motifs invoking past connections to the legendary political power of Teotihuacan may have served to reinforce power and
authority (Fash and Fash 2000:456; Fash et al. 2009).
Linking Structure O14-04 to Classic Period Political History

A final step in realizing how social memory, the historical specifics of place, and
the creation and maintenance of power and authority are intertwined at the Mirador Groups Structure O14-04 is to compare the archaeologically identifiable
bursts of activity at this funerary monument with broader geopolitical phenomena documented epigraphically (Rich 2011). In a summary of the shifting
political landscape in the southern Maya lowlands, powerful dynasties at Tikal
and Calakmul dominated rival lords and frequently enjoyed connections well
beyond their immediate sphere of influence. Tikal was a formidable power during the Early Classic, and this citys wide-ranging political network included
80 Rich and Matute
Teotihuacan. At the onset of the Late Classic, however, Tikals dominance was
supplanted by that of the Snake Kingdom seated at Calakmul. Comparing archaeologically documented activity at Structure O14-04 to a framework constructed from relevant sociopolitical benchmarks in Classic period southern
lowland Maya culture is instructive.
The Early Classic

The role of the historical personage known as Siyaj Kahk and the Central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in the southern Maya lowlands during the Early Classic
has been the focus of much scholarly deliberation (e.g., Braswell 2003; Martin
and Grube 2008:2931; Mathews 1985; Schele and Freidel 1990:13064; Stuart 2000). Siyaj Kahks ethnicity and military status, as well as the exact nature
of the relationship between Teotihuacan and the southern Maya lowlands, are
debates best left to other venues. Briefly summarized, Siyaj Kahk is identified
as coming from the west in AD 378. Evidence suggests he was affiliated with
Teotihuacan. Epigraphic data from the southern lowlands indicate Siyaj Kahk
may have been usurping or sponsoring ruling lineages throughout Petn, at
sites such as Tikal, Uaxactun, and Bejucal (Martin and Grube 2008:2931).
Siyaj Kahks arrival at Tikal in AD 378 directly presages the death of ruler
Chak Tok Ichaak and the subsequent installation of Yax Nuun Ahiin on the
throne in AD 379 (Martin and Grube 2008:32; Stuart 2000). Interments at
Tikals Mundo Perdido Commemorative Astronomical Complex (CAC) may
be relevant to this event. Laporte and Fialko (1990) interpret Tomb PNT-019
(Structure 5D-86-7) as possibly containing the interred remains of Chak Tok
Ichaak. They also suggested that five additional tombsPNT-024, PNT-025,
PNT-026 (Structure 5D-84-6), PNT-062, and PNT-063 (Structure 5D-88-
6)house the remains of Chak Tok Ichaaks kin who either died during his
reign or may have been sacrificial victims who were among the rulers close
relatives dispatched after his death (ibid., 45).
Certain activity at Structure O14-04 coincides with the known activities of
Siyaj Kahk. El Pers Stela 15 declared he traveled through Waka eight days
before his arrival at Tikal. Also, a likely portrait of Siyaj Kahk himself is displayed on El Pers Stela 16. This Early Classic monument erected in AD470
by Kinich Bahlam Is grandson reinforces the importance of Siyaj Kahks
stopover to Early Classic Waka (Guenter 2005). The commemoration of this
visit nearly 100 years later suggests Siyaj Kahks presence was associated with a
crucial event in Wakas history, possibly even the accession of Kinich Bahlam
I to the throne. This creates the potential for a situation analogous to that postulated at Tikal, and the aforementioned Mundo Perdido burials may provide
comparative examples to Structure O14-04s Burials 24 and 25. The women
interred in these burials were undoubtedly members of a Waka royal family.
Osteological evidence for causes of death of the three women is absent (Piehl
2006, 2010; Rich et al. 2006), which is typical for the majority of lowland
Maya interments. Based on the evidence across the Maya lowlands, it is reasonable to postulate these Waka noblewomen may have been interred in conjunction with an Early Classic king. Whether the events at Waka transpired in the
nefarious way that has been proposed regarding Siyaj Kahks involvement in
other southern lowland cities is a matter of further investigation. Nevertheless,
several facts underscore Early Classic similarities between Waka and Tikal: the
corresponding time period; similar tomb ceramics between Burials 24, 25, and
those found in the CAC buildings; Wakas geographic position as Tikals nearest
sizable western neighbor; and the fact that the two communities were undoubtedly participating in the same southern lowland cultural system affected by the
actions of Siyaj Kahk.
Drawing parallels with another site, in this case Teotihuacan, Structure O14-
04 possesses a significant feature mentioned earlier called an adosada, or frontal
platform, which is rare in Early Classic Maya architecture. In a recent article,
William Fash and his colleagues (Fash et al. 2009) propose the adosada fronting
the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan was the original Wi-te-Naah, or origin house
(Stuart 2004b): the place where visiting Maya lords acceded to kingship (Fash
et al. 2009:221). Fash et al. argue, following Taube (2004) and Stuart (2004b),
that Copans Structure 10L-16 represented a localized version of a Wi-te-Naah.
Structure O14-04 and its adosada are coeval with the use life of the adosada
shrine on the Sun Pyramid and, similarly, faces west, suggesting that Structure
O14-04 is a candidate to be Wakas local Wi-te-Naah.2
The Intermediate Classic (ca. 550700)

The middle of the Classic period was a time of various politically important
events. As previously mentioned, the Central Mexican powerhouse Teotihuacan
declined around AD 600 (Sugiyama 2004:102). Waka and Tikal experienced
epigraphic hiatuses from 554657 and 562692 respectively, but monuments
from other sites provide insight into political history during this time. In
AD562, Tikal was defeated in warfare, and Caracol Altar 21 suggests the Snake
Kingdom was responsible (Martin and Grube 2008:100104). At the time,
Calakmul was the likely capital of the Snake Kingdom, a city with which Waka
had a close relationship. According to El Per Stela 33, which dates to AD 692,
Kinich Bahlam II acceded to the throne in the presence of Calakmul ruler Yuknoom Cheen the Great (Guenter 2005:372). So while epigraphic information
suggests a link to activities at Tikal during the Early Classic, during the latter
portion of the Intermediate Classic, Waka appears to be a vassal to Calakmul.
In Structure O14-04, Burial 39 aligns temporally with the fall of Teotihuacan,
as well as the latter half of Wakas epigraphic hiatus, during which interments
82 Rich and Matute
and other archaeological evidence can help fill in details of an epigraphically

unknown period. Importantly, Burial 39 may contain Kinich Bahlam IIs predecessor, as strontium analysis conducted on dental enamel indicates a possible
Calakmul area origin for the individual interred in the tomb (Piehl 2009).3 This
implies the relationship between Waka and Calakmul began prior to Kinich
Bahlam IIs enthronement.
The Late Classic

One of the major occurrences of the Late Classic is Tikals resurgence as a dominant political force in the southern lowlands. In AD 695, Tikals king Jasaw
Chan Kawiil I defeated Calakmuls Yuknoom Yichaak Kahk (Martin and
Grube 2008:4445). Furthermore, Tikals wooden Lintel 3 was commissioned
to commemorate the battle victory enjoyed by Yikin Chan Kawiil, the next
king of Tikal, over Waka in AD 743. This was likely an era of turmoil and
change at Waka, and if Teotihuacans Sun Pyramid was indeed the first Wi-te-
Naah, the Late Classic revival of this distant and abandoned citys imagery at
Structure O14-04 invokes the use of objects embodying nontextual allusions
to the past to legitimize political power. This is even more relevant when considering the idea that monumental texts diminish at the site after the recorded
accession of Aj Yax Chow Pat on Stela 39 in either 749 or 801 (Guenter 2005).
Furthermore, as the Late Classic gave way to the Terminal Classic, the trademark features of divine kingship and hallmarks of Classic Maya society decline.
As such, monumental construction projects, mass production of polychrome
ceramics, erection of public monumental inscriptions, and the building of elaborate tombs ceased (Rice et al. 2004). A number of notable activities are documented at Waka from approximately 770 to 820/850, including the creation
of dense surface deposits at Structure M13-1 (Navarro-Farr 2009; Navarro-Farr
and Arroyave Prera, this volume), modification of the Royal Couple Building
(Acua, this volume), the reentry of Burial 39, and sealing of the adosadas
shrine room in Structure O14-04. The Terminal Classic denotes the transformation of Maya society in the southern lowlands, and Waka boasts robust evidence dating to the Terminal Classic which may attest to that change.
Discussion
As this brief review has shown, activity at Structure O14-04 correlates to epigraphically documented Classic period political history. That archaeological
evidence augments historical knowledge of ancient events is not surprising, and
creating the biography of the Mirador Groups Structure O14-04 provides a
better sense of how those in positions of authority at Waka were using civic-
ceremonial architecture to aid in constructing their own histories and public
relation strategies while negotiating a complex sociopolitical landscape. While

the layering of construction episodes, interments, and material objects at Structure O14-04 reflects individual historical narratives specific to the ruling elite
of Waka, it is clear this place was entangled within the broader machinations of
Classic Maya society.
Conclusion
Scientific investigation of Maya royal architecture is particularly relevant from
a contemporary perspective, as this is one of the most widely known features of
ancient Maya culture. Many Maya archaeological sites have been transformed
into tourist destinations on the merits of their spectacular monumental pyramids. Ancient cities claiming some of the greatest architectural achievements of
the Maya, such as Tikal, Palenque, Copan, Chichen Itza, and Calakmul hold
importance for the history of humanity and have been designated as UNESCO
World Heritage sites. When considering the past in the present, we recognize
these cities and their iconic architecture are not only emblematic of Classic and
Postclassic Maya culture, but symbols of modern national identities. As such,
linking specific archaeological research questions to popularized facets of the
Maya past, such as monumental architecture, combines the interests of Mayanists and the broader public. Moreover, incorporating innovative theoretical
perspectives into archaeological interpretation of these iconic attributes of ancient Maya society provides additional cultural insight. Although we can never
achieve an emic understanding of any ancient culture, approaches exploring
social memory and placemaking provide distinctive perspectives on the ways
in which elite Classic Maya may have understood their culture and constructed
their histories.
Returning to the Mirador Group, multiple aspects of Structure O14-04 reinforce this funerary pyramids enduring significance to rulership, and the four
specific examples described in this chapter illustrate how material culture signified links to the past and was purposefully employed for the construction and
maintenance of power and legitimate authority by royal Wakeos. This was
accomplished either through connections to actual historical events, performative ritual, or abstract allusions to ancestral or cosmological power. As a result,
monumental architecture provides a concrete anchor into the past, serving as a
symbol of the legitimacy of rulers who drew prominent and public links to particular places within Classic period Maya cities. Additionally, funerary temples
were inalienably linked to specific individuals and their life histories; thus their
persuasive vigor in the service of memory is augmented and sustained. In this
case, within the urban landscape of Waka, the Mirador Group would have towered over the city and been the most prominent visual focus for kilometers (see
viewshed analyses in Tsesmeli, this volume). The message and the spectacle of
84 Rich and Matute
Structure O14-04 was within the view of dedicated citizens and rival lords alike.
Consequently, the Mirador Group and Structure O14-04 in particular, serve as
a kind of architectural aide-mmoire looming over Waka. It clearly was a place
to memorialize and create history, to perpetuate myths, and to amass exclusive
and symbolic material objects meant to buttress elite power and authority.
Acknowledgments
Overwhelming thanks are due Guatemalas Instituto de Antropologa e Historia
and all EPWRAP members and staff. A National Science Foundation Graduate
Research Fellowship and a Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican
Study, Inc. grant awarded to the senior author supported some of the research
presented. The authors would like to thank Olivia C. Navarro-Farr, Mary Bennett, Keith Eppich, Kenneth Liss, Jennifer C. Piehl, John Seebach, and two
anonymous reviewers for comments.
Notes
1. Other similar stucco elements were discovered at Structure O14-04. A second
stucco object of similar size and shape as the Teotihuacan-style head was discovered
inside the tomb chamber. As if it was the last object tossed in when filling the tomb
after reentry, it was not buried within the fill matrix but sitting on top of it, tucked directly in a cavity under the vault in the northeast corner of the chamber. Because it was
exposed in this air pocket, it was much more poorly preserved than the buried stucco
head found in the open shrine room. Also, a lone stucco tassel identical to the one on
the Teotihuacan-style head was associated with the second terrace of Structure O14-04.
2. West-facing Waka Structure M13-1 also appears to have an adosada, and further
excavation will reveal information about the chronology of that building and its relationship to the Wi-te-Naah concept.
3. The results also correspond to strontium values from Bonampak and Caracol.
5
Ritual and Remembrance at
the Northwest Palace Complex,
El Per-Waka
David F. Lee and Jennifer C. Piehl
n addition to serving as royal residences and centers for diplomacy and administration, Maya palaces were also important loci of ritual
performance (Inomata 2006b). At the northwestern extent of the city center,
the main Palace Complex at Waka served as the seat of the royal court for much
of the sites dynastic history, from the Early Classic to the end of the eighth
century (Guenter, this volume). The lords of Waka presided over a city whose
control was often contested due to its key strategic location, a factor resulting
in occasions of conflict and shifting alliance. By the seventh century, the royal
line of Waka had allied itself with the great center of Calakmul and flourished
under its auspices. By the end of the eighth century, however, the power of
divine kings in the Maya lowlands was waning. As at many other cities, the
fortunes of the Waka royal court would be forever changed.
Excavations at the Waka Palace Complex have shed light on the lives of its
royal inhabitants in these tumultuous final decades of the Classic period. This
chapter discusses three discoveries: the interment of a royal woman and the
subsequent reentry of her burial chamber; the ritual termination of an immense
stucco faade that adorned the western face of the palace acropolis; and a panel
of carved stones depicting a ballgame that were reset in the palaces final staircase. Each of these features offers an individual glimpse into ancient rituals of
interment, termination, and ancestor veneration. Taken together, they provide
insight into the royal production and maintenance of social memory and into
the responses of divine kingship to the social and political changes at the end
of the Classic period.
The Northwest Palace Complex

Dominating Wakas westernmost monumental plaza (Plaza 4), the Palace Complex consists of three interconnected formal patios accessed by a broad staircase
spanning the plazas western side (see Figures I.3 and 8.2, this volume). Three
carved stela-altar pairs are located in Plaza 4, the palaces main public plaza
86 Lee and Piehl
(Stelae 37, 38, and 39). Stela 39 and the altar of Stela 38 retain partial inscriptions with dates of either AD 749 or AD 801 (Guenter 2005). If the latter is
correct, these monuments contain the latest known inscribed dates at the site.
Structure L11-33, which we interpret as a reviewing stand between the ballcourt and the Palace Complex (see Piehl and Guenter 2005), had some hieroglyphic blocks in its staircase. Guenter (Lee and Guenter 2010) suggests these
are reset stones and, together with the carved glyphic blocks found on the front
of the palace, probably once formed an earlier complete hieroglyphic staircase
that has been identified in existing literature as El Per Hieroglyphic Staircase 1.
Two formal plazas (PC-A and PC-B) form the summit of a raised palace
acropolis that spans the western side of Plaza 4; the southern plaza (PC-A) is
larger, and the elevated northern plaza (PC-B) is accessed through a range structure at the northern end of PC-A. The flow of access, increasingly restricted
space, and relative size suggest that the northern summit plaza was most probably the royal residential compound, and the southern plaza served a restricted
but still semipublic function.
The interment of a royal woman and a subsequent reentry ritual, the destruction and termination of the palace faade, and the installation of the ballplayer
panel were each important ritual events performed at critical times in the sites
history. The destruction of the faade and its supporting gallery of rooms probably represent the initiation of the final (uncompleted) large-scale architectural
remodeling effort at the palace during the transition from the eighth to ninth
century, which coincides with the installation of the sites final carved monuments (Eppich 2010b). The subsequent resetting of the ballplayer panel and
the construction of a defensive wall across the eastern acropolis evidence later
and comparatively modest modifications forming the latest known architectural renovation of the palace. We suggest that these late efforts represent a
reoccupation of the palace and an attempt to reassert royal authority at Waka.
These events not only indicate a clear change in the fortunes of the Waka royal
court, but as we argue here, they also represent an intentional invocation and
perhaps manipulation of social memory through Classic traditions of ancestral
power and veneration.
The Interment and Reentry of Burial 8

Burial 8 is the Late Classic interment of a royal woman in an intrusive vaulted
burial chamber in Structure L11-38. The building is a small range structure that
forms the western side of the palaces southern summit plaza. Visibly cut plaster
floors in the chamber walls indicate that its construction penetrated three previous architectural phases of the structure platform, to a depth of 1.2 m. The
roof of the chamber sat just 40 cm below the final floor of the superstructure.
Ritual and Remembrance 87
This placement suggests that the interment was associated with the structures
penultimate architectural phase. A central dais of roughly hewn stone, topped
by a wooden pallet, supported the body and the funerary regalia (Figure 5.1).
Twenty-three ceramic vessels were found surrounding the dais on the eastern,
western, and northern sides of the dais. From the positions of these vessels, we
hypothesize that the majority of the vessels originally sat on the wooden pallet,
and were deposited around the dais following the decomposition of the wooden
pallet.
Two postinterment processes affected the contents of the chamber: the decomposition of the wooden pallet, disturbing and intermixing some elements
of the assemblage; and the reentry of the burial and removal of the femora and
cranium, probably for the creation of an ancestor bundle (see also Piehl et al.,
this volume). Neither the staircase nor the burial chamber walls showed obvious
signs of damage from reentry, which suggests subsequent ingress was through
the superstructure room floor. Beyond the time required for the body to become skeletonized, 100 to 400 days (see Piehl et al., this volume), we cannot be
certain how long the tomb lay undisturbed.
The interred womans personal jewelry denotes her royal status. The assemblage contained 2,400 artifacts of greenstone and shell, including 1,155
greenstone beads and 537 shell beads that formed bracelets and necklaces. The
interment also included an elaborate headdress consisting of 22 square and
19 rectilinear greenstone plaques, a large, carved greenstone representation of
a huunal, (the Jester God), and mosaic greenstone elements. Pectoral mosaic
masks of greenstone with obsidian and shell eyes were also present. While we
initially hypothesized the plates might comprise a kohaw (plated helmet) of the
kind frequently depicted as royal regalia in carved palace scenes, the plaques
and huunal, combined with the mosaic elements, are more consistent with Late
Classic diadems (Moholy-Nagy and Coe 2008:Figure 111) depicted as the centerpiece of elaborate mosaic headdresses.
The determination of the interments date based on the mortuary assemblage
is complicated by the reentry, during which the assemblage may have been
altered by addition, subtraction, or rearrangement. Sampling for radiometric
dating of the human remains (a secure initial component of the assemblage)
was in progress at the time of this writing. Chronological placement of the
interment thus requires the consideration of assemblage elements that may be
most securely associated with the initial placement of the body. Based on the
combined stylistic dating of burial costume elements, most notably the huunal
jewel, and ceramic dating of the bulk of the vessel assemblage, we place the
interment in the late eighth century.
Of the 23 ceramic vessels found within the chamber, 14 belong to the Tepeu
2 phase and 3 span the Tepeu 1 and 2 phases. Six vessels, 5 of which are small
Figure 5.1. Burial 8 tomb dimensions and interior plan view. Illustration by S. Sage,
after M. J. Acua, 2005; tomb dimensions, after E. Tsesmeli, 2004, courtesy of the El
Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
cups, display an unidentified pattern of vertically divided orange and brown

hemispheres (Perz Robles and Melndez Mollinedo 2008; Eppich 2010b). The
stylistically earliest vessel, identified by Perz Robles and Melndez Mollinedo
(2008) as Infierno Black, is a lidded tripod cylinder vase with solid nubbin feet.
The knob on the vessel lid is similar in style to vessels found at Teotihuacan;
this fact suggests an Early Classic date. The latest vessel is a miniature Chablekal
Grey tripod vessel dating to the Late-to-Terminal Classic transition. Chablekal
Grey appeared in the Usumacinta region around AD 760 (Eppich 2010b; Foias
and Bishop 2005), and probably reached Waka some years later. The miniature
tripod vessel in the Burial 8 assemblage belongs to a suite of small cups that
were originally placed on the pallet to the right of the individual. The stylistically early vessel in the assemblage was perhaps an heirloom included in the
original interment.
The huunal jewel is an important factor in the attribution of the interment
to the eighth century. As described by Piehl et al. (this volume), the taphonomic
evidence indicates the body, regalia, and the majority of the vessels rested on a
wooden pallet and were displaced upon the pallets disintegration. Although the
cranium was removed, small cranial fragments remained intermixed with the
diadem plaques and huunal jewel. The headdress and greenstone jewelry, much
of which was still articulated with the postcranial skeleton, can thus be securely
associated with the original interment.
The Burial 8 huunal (Figure 5.2a) is demonstrably Late Classic in date. The
distinctive crossed bands on the figures forehead closely resemble diadem jewels depicted on numerous Late Classic Stelae, including Aguateca Stelae 7 and
19 (Inomata et al. 2002:315), as well as Terminal Classic Machaquila Stelae
2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 (Just 2007). The Aguateca stelae portray Ruler 5, Tahn Te
Kinich, who reigned at Aguateca from AD 770 to AD 802 (Martin and Grube
2008:64). On Stela 7, he wears a crossed-band huunal with a diadem of square
plaques that Inomata et al. (2002:315) describe as similar to a diadem in alabaster recovered in excavations. The El Per huunal also resembles a carved
greenstone example found in the funerary assemblage of Burial 49 at the site
of Topoxte in eastern Petn (Figure 5.2b). A ceramic plate from that interment
dates it to the mid-to late eighth century (Rice 2004:150). The 13 Ahau inscription on the plate suggests a date of 9.17.0.0.0, 13 Ahau, 18 Cumku, or
January 20, AD 771 (Guenter 2005).
Structure L11-38 received few modifications following the construction of
the tomb chamber; a single subsequent construction phase has been dated ceramically to the Late-to-Terminal Classic period (Eppich 2010b). This construction consisted of a two-course retaining wall of large, finely hewn, stone
blocks supporting a sloped ramp surface that covered the buildings penultimate
plastered staircase. It is consistent in style with Terminal Classic (AD 800900)
modifications found elsewhere on the palace and suggests the palace was probably abandoned within the first few decades of the ninth century.
90 Lee and Piehl
Figure 5.2. a) El Per-Waka huunal. Illustration by S. Sage, 2010, courtesy of the

El Per-Wak Regional Archaeological Project. b) Topoxte huunal. Illustration by
S.Sage, 2010, after photograph courtesy of the Museo Nacional de Arqueologa e
Etnologa.
The funerary ritual for the woman in Burial 8 was an act of devotion to a
powerful queen. Preparations for and performance of this ritual probably resonated throughout the city, and perhaps beyond. Elaborately dressed in the regalia of rulership, she wore a plated diadem and huunal jewel as part of a mosaic
greenstone headdress and mosaic pectoral masks that spoke to her royal power.
In a previous paper, Lee et al. (2005) suggested the woman in Burial 8 might be
Lady Kabel or Lady Pakal, two known female rulers from Calakmul who are
named in inscriptions at Waka. While the available data do not allow a secure
identification of the interred woman, the proposed late eighth century date
would certainly eliminate Lady Kabel as a prospect, whose first named appearance in Waka inscriptions is on Stela 34, dating to AD 692. The connection to
this Calakmul woman appears to have remained important, however. Evidence
from the final phase of the palace suggests that subsequent rulers evoked historical connections to Calakmul, specifically those established through the marriage of Lady Kabel to Kinich Bahlam II of Waka. It is possible the bundled
remains of the woman interred in Burial 8 may have served as an anchoring
point for this connection to powerful royal women.
Of the five Waka stelae that bear images of women, three are clustered
chronologically at the end of the seventh century: Stela 11, AD 672; Stela 18,
AD 682; and Stela 34, AD 692. Stela 34 portrays Lady Kabel and names her as
an Ix Kaloomte of Calakmul (Guenter, this volume), which roughly translates
to Lady Warlord or Lady Overlord. Lady Kabel is also a likely candidate for
the woman portrayed on Stela 11, which dates to one katun (20 years) prior to
Stela 34. Inscriptions on Stela 18 identify the portrayed woman as Lady Naah
Chan, which Guenter suggests could either be an alternate name of Lady Kabel
or possibly another wife of Kinich Bahlam II.
Lady Kabel was a princess of Calakmul and perhaps the daughter of Yuknoom Cheen II. Her marriage to Kinich Bahlam II of Waka was part of a systematic effort by Calakmuls Kan Dynasty to extend their control over a broad
region of the Maya lowlands in the seventh century (see Guenter 2005; Martin
and Grube 2008:1089). Inscriptions from several sites attest to the success of
this expansion. The title kaloomte used on Stela 34 was the highest royal rank,
reserved for members of the most powerful Classic Maya dynasties (Martin
2005; Martin and Grube 2008:19). The portrait and titles of Kinich Bahlam II
on Stela 33 clearly delineate the kings inferior position to his wife.
Stela 31, dating to AD 736, bears the image of an unidentified male and
female, and we know nothing of her history. The three-katun lord and his wife,
named Lady Pakal, appear on Stela 32 (AD 790). This is the latest securely
inscribed date from the site. Stela 32 also bears the zotz or bat emblem glyph,
which may identify Lady Pakal with Calakmul (Martin 2005). Ceramic dating of the construction sequence at the palace indicates a late eighth-or early
ninth-century date for the destruction and interment of the palaces great stucco
faade. Only two rulers and one queen are known in the hieroglyphic records
of this time: Aj Yax Chow Pat on Stela 39 and probably Stela 38, and the three-
katun lord and his wife, Lady Pakal, on Stela 32.
The Ritual Termination of the Palace Faade

The penultimate form of the palace included a multiroomed and vaulted range
structure located approximately halfway up the acropolis staircase and spanning the width of Plaza 4. The area above the superstructures superior molding
once supported a polychrome stucco faade depicting human and supernatural
figures. Later dismantled as part of an architectural renovation, the faade was
deposited as thousands of fragments in at least two chambers. A construction
staircase of rough stone was then built covering the chambers, apparently the
initial stages of an uncompleted architectural renovation.
In 2005 and 2006, we excavated all of one chamber and a portion of a
second chamber (Lee 2006; Lee and Gmez 2007). The eastern (front) wall of
the completely investigated chamber had been demolished to the height of the
92 Lee and Piehl
superior molding, and the doorway in the east wall (facing onto Plaza 4) had
been sealed with masonry. Recovered fragments (Figure 5.3, a and b) of the faade reveal a complex sculptural program of figures arrayed against a backdrop
of decorative volute elements. While the dismantlement of the faade and the
gallerys vaults obscure its original form, many of the elements are consistent
with other faades dating to the end of the Late Classic, most notably at Seibal
(Smith 1982).
Human figures are portrayed with dress typical of Late Classic royal regalia, including beaded skirts and a Sun God pectoral. A fragmentary god figure
(see Figure 5.3b), carved in the round, may have decorated an outer corner of
the structure or may have been a headdress component, as Proskouriakoff suggested, for the Seibal faade (see Smith 1982:16, Figure 16).
Excavations in the northwestern corner of the second chamber revealed an
elaborate above-floor ritual deposit consisting of a sifted-ash layer, 40 cm deep,
containing ceramic, shell, and bone artifacts (Lee and Gmez 2007). Five polychrome ceramic drums, a bone flute, a turtle carapace, and portions of other
ceramic vessels were recovered from the deposit. Neither the objects nor the revealed portions of the walls and floors were blackened or burned, indicating the
ash was prepared elsewhere rather than resulting from in situ incineration. In
another example of careful preparation, the neck and rim portion of a water jar
was carefully broken and positioned upright in the northwestern corner of the
chamber. The rim was cut away to accommodate the right angle of the chamber
corner, and the sherds of the neck were arrayed on the floor. Since the ash comprised a single contiguous stratigraphic layer that completely contained the deposit assemblage, it is clear the deposit was a single coherent depositional event.
Analysis of the ceramic assemblage from this deposit (Eppich 2010a; Prez
Robles 2006) documented materials from a broad temporal span including the
Early and Late Classic periods, as well as partial vessels diagnostic of the Late-
to-Terminal Classic Morai Phase (Petkanche Orange Polychrome, Carmelita
Incised, Anonal Orange Polychrome, Keeke Grey Polychrome, Chablekal
Grey). These late partial vessels provide a fairly precise date for the deposit. The
inclusion of a broad temporal range of ceramics might mean the termination
ritual involved the intentional destruction of heirloom ceramics, but since only
a small portion of the entire deposit has been revealed, the significance of this
range cannot be fully ascertained at present. There seems little doubt, however,
that the termination of the faade must have represented a significant transformative event at Waka.
The Palace Faade and Ritual Performance

Beyond the obvious role these buildings must have played in public spectacle
and display, the significance of sculpted stucco faades is incompletely understood. The faade at Seibal, with associated inscription dates of AD 829 and
Figure 5.3. Stucco faade fragments from the Waka palace: a) Ankle and foot of
a human figure wearing banded anklet; b) Fragment of a supernatural figure head
(god image). Illustrations by S. Sage, 2010, courtesy of the El Per-Wak Regional
AD 849, was probably constructed later than the Waka faade. It included,
however, a number of similar design elements including physical location above
the superior molding, god imagery, volute and scroll decorations, vivid polychrome, and royal figural portraiture, which has been interpreted by Willey
(Smith 1982:3337) to represent ancestral connections. These elements, combined with the prominent position of the gallery on the acropolis staircase and
the life-size or larger scale of the figures, suggest an important ancestral and
memorial aspect to the faades function. The Waka faade would have been
visible from anywhere in Plaza 4 and served as a frame for public appearances
by the royal palace occupants. This would have placed living rulers literally in
the shadow of their ancestors.
The ritual killing of objects and structures through breakage to release the
spirit is a well-known Maya practice (Mock 1998:8). The dismantlement, fragmentation, and careful inclusion of the fragments within the room spaces conform well to this concept and suggest a ritual treatment of the faade that might
best be compared to interment. Excavations surrounding the fully excavated
chamber could find no fragments scattered around the chamber, and the royal
portraits within the faade may help explain this care. As Houston and Stuart
(1996) observe, these portraits would most probably have been perceived as extensions of the rulers essential being and would thus require special treatment.
The destruction of the faade and the collapse of the palaces front gallery, visible from one of Wakas major public plazas, would have been a significant public event, and the demolition, collection, and interment of the faade fragments
94 Lee and Piehl
also required labor and attention beyond that necessary for simple architectural
renovation. Faade buildings like the one that spanned the front of the palace have been described as probable locations for social and political theater
(Inomata 2006b:207). The musical instruments in the faade deposit support
a performative aspect of this event, where the playing of drums, turtle carapace
(perhaps a rattle), and bone flutes preceded the termination of the structure and
the inclusion of the objects in the interment. Evidence suggests this ritual was
followed by the initiation of a major architectural project designed to bury these
chambers. Yet, change intervened within a short interval and this construction
stopped abruptly after the completion of only a small portion.
Palace Abandonment
When excavated, the majority of the eastern side of the acropolis platform consisted of a rough stone construction stair covering the faade gallery (see Figure
5.4). This is typical of Maya monumental construction, where a coarse stair
block is constructed to support the finely dressed masonry facing stones. Four
courses of these finished stair blocks had been laid at the base of the staircase when construction was apparently halted. This pattern resembles that observed at Aguateca Structure L8-8 (Inomata et al. 2004), which we estimate to
have occurred during the same time period. As at Aguateca, the Waka palace
construction was uniformly core stone above the first few courses of dressed
stone, roughly outlining the final form of the building. This pattern is inconsistent with the patchwork of dressed stone that characterizes stone robbing
of abandoned architecture (Inomata et al. 2004:802). The sudden cessation
of a construction project that began with such an elaborate termination event
may mark a relatively abrupt change or perhaps even an abandonment of the
palace shortly after the installation of the final inscribed monuments at the site
(AD790 or 801) (Guenter 2005; see also Lee 2012).
This sudden interruption is further supported by remnants of two defensive
footings. Both constructed of rough stone, one of these features was laid across
the few courses of dressed stones at the base of the acropolis, while a similar
line of stones ringed the acropolis summit. Our investigations found no accompanying evidence of interpersonal violence or conflict at the palace. While
the double-line construction is reminiscent of stone footings at Dos Pilas (Demarest et al. 1997; Martin and Grube 2008:6667), the Waka palace footings
are much smaller and more limited in scale. Although several internal causes
might be imagined that could have halted the architectural renovation, such
as changes in economic fortune, natural disaster, or crop failure, the defensive
footings built across the few finished stairs, the cessation of monumental inscriptions, and the flight of royal courts from other sites around the same time
support the possibility of a departure of Wakas royal court.
Figure 5.4. East face of palace acropolis. Illustration by S. Sage, 2010, courtesy of the
El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
As discussed later in this chapter, the authors favor chronological placement

of the Burial 8 reentry sometime after this event. We must consider the possibility, however, that removal of the queens cranium and femora from Burial8
coincided with this palaces abandonment, perhaps in an effort to safeguard the
remains from potential destruction, and/or to venerate or reinter in another
location. The events depicted on Altar 5 at Tikal provide a precedent for such
action. The altar depicts a lord of Masul, once a vassal kingdom of Calakmul,
presenting the cranium and long bones of a woman from Topoxte to Jasaw
Chan Kawil, the king of Tikal (Martin and Grube 2008:46). Given the timing
and details of this event and those presented on Naranjo Stela 23, Grube and
Schele (1994:14849) hypothesized that the journey to retrieve the bones of
this woman was probably undertaken in response to tomb desecrations following a Naranjo attack on Topoxte.
The Ballplayer Panel: Return, Rededication, andDefense

The final architectural modification at the palace acropolis was placed outside
of the defensive perimeter and facing Plaza 4. It consists of a ramping plaster
surface supported by a retaining wall of large cut blocks, corresponding in form
and date to a similar modification at Structure L11-38 in the palaces south
96 Lee and Piehl
summit plaza (Lee 2005). The abandonment of the palace thus appears to have
been temporary.
Contemporaneous evidence at Aguateca suggests that the royal court rapidly
abandoned the palace but anticipated or hoped they might return (Inomata et
al. 2002). The final palace modifications at Waka suggest that such a return
did occur, and that the royal court attempted to reassert their political authority through historical connections to the powerful Calakmul Dynasty. The reduced scale and use of reclaimed stone for this final construction phase evince
a much-transformed Terminal Classic social landscape, wherein the court could
no longer access the resources and privileges it formerly enjoyed. While carefully
dressed, the wall stones comprising this feature are mismatched in size and shape,
indicating these were reclaimed materials rather than newly quarriedstone.
At the Plaza 4 centerline, the builders installed a panel of four carved stair
risers depicting a dynamic ballgame scene enacted in front of a broad staircase
([Figure 5.5] Lee and Guenter 2010). Both players wear kneepads, yokes, and
elaborate intricately carved plumed headdresses. The ball is depicted in play and
is inscribed with bolon nahb, or nine handspans, which may have described its
size (Zender 2004). Blocks with text naming the players flanked the two figural
blocks. The inscription to the left of the scene is unreadable, and that to the
right of it states, Ubaah ti pitz Yuhknoom Yichaak KahkHis image playing
ball Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk (Lee and Guenter 2010).
In all, excavations recovered 14 stones that once formed ballplayer scenes;
although only four were found in situ. An additional figural panel was recorded
by Ian Graham (Lee and Guenter 2010), but is no longer present at the site.
Depictions of this kind are part of a set of hieroglyphic stair compositions depicting ritual ballgames. Lee and Guenter (2010) demonstrated that these carvings, which appear to have been restricted in distribution to Late Classic vassal
kingdoms of Calakmul, commemorated and enacted scenes of alliance. The
stones recovered by our excavations include five blocks with distinctively costumed human figures and other blocks with fragmentary glyphic text. One text
names a king of El Per, although his name is unreadable, and another mentions the name and title of a different lord of Waka (Lee and Guenter 2010).
This panel thus commemorated a series of events involving the rulers of Waka.
Given the specific reassertion of the dynastic authority of the royal court represented by the resetting of the ballplayer panel, it seems unlikely that non-royal
inhabitants or squatters undertook this modification. As part of the postabandonment palace architecture, the finely carved stones (see Figure 5.5) represent
a final expression of courtly splendor at Waka and the ritual invocation of royal
authority in word and image.
Set on the front of the palace acropolis and easily viewed from Plaza 4, the
ballplayer panel references an important seventh-century historical personage.
Figure 5.5. Carved stones illustrating the ballgame. Illustration by S. Sage 2010, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological
Project.
98 Lee and Piehl
Following his defeat of Tikal, the great Calakmul king, Yuknoom Cheen II,
exerted his influence over the Maya lowlands, in part by marrying Calakmul
princesses into the royal lines of several Maya cities. Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk
was born in AD 649 (Martin and Grube 2008:111, Stela 9) and acceded to the
Calakmul throne in AD 686, an event commemorated on El Per Stelae 33 and
34 (Guenter 2005; Schele and Freidel 1990:183; see also Acua, this volume).
Through an analysis of similar ballplayer panels and carved stair risers from
Late Classic Maya centers, Lee and Guenter (2010) observed that these scenes
consistently involved Calakmul lords and contemporary allied vassals playing
ball in front of or against a backdrop of palace stairs.
The textual identification of Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk as the individual on
the right side of the ballgame scene suggests that the individual portrayed opposite him is probably his Waka contemporary, Kinich Bahlam II, king of Waka.
The ritual appeal to the Kan Dynasty is also supported by another carved block
bearing the titles of Lady Kabel, which must also have been reclaimed from the
sites hieroglyphic staircase. Its recovery from structural collapse suggests it was
reset at the top of the acropolis, but its original position is unknown.
Houston et al. (2006) have convincingly argued that depictions in stone of
royal personages were perceived to embody some of the individuals essence.
This is reinforced epigraphically by the term baah, which means both image
and self (see also Stuart 1996). The ballplayer panel, like stela monuments,
not only attested to the deeds and relationships of royalty, but literally reenacted
an important ritual of alliance between two ancestors, Kinich Bahlam II and
Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk. The images thereby became ritual extensions of the
individuals and components of social memory.
The installation of the panel constituted a second ritual performance that
invoked the assistance of storied ancestors who presided over the citys most
powerful and prosperous period. This action is telling because it was consistently royal in its approach, and perhaps indicates a failure or refusal on the
part of the Waka royal court to adapt to an altered sociopolitical landscape. The
mismatched stones indicate that the figures and inscriptions were not originally
part of the same composition but were selected to fulfill a Terminal Classic royal
objective. The inclusion of an inscription mentioning Calakmuls king suggests
that literate individuals chose the stones with the intention of invoking the
social memory of heredity, legitimacy, and authority.
Discussion
As a discussant for the 2007 Society for American Archaeology symposium
upon which this volume is based, Takeshi Inomata challenged participants to
move beyond the observance of rituals of memory and performance to inquiry
about the nature of those memories. Why and how were they constructed and
for what purpose? What circumstances may have led to reliance on one version
of a remembered past over another, and what do we know about how these
memories were conveyed? At the height of the Classic period, divine rulers established themselves as temporal anchoring points for the communities social
identities and collective memories (Lee 2012). By the beginning of the ninth
century, however, the widespread cessation of monuments and royal inscriptions evidences the declining fortunes of royal dynasties. The three discoveries
at the Waka Palace Complex illustrate these Late and Terminal Classic changes
in sharp relief.
A major architectural renovation began with the demolition and ritual termination of the palaces stucco faade and was then interrupted. While we do
not know the cause, it appears to have been relatively sudden and catastrophic
for the Waka court, a pattern observed at several other sites during this time.
The character of subsequent construction at the palace suggests these events
effected lasting social changes. The termination of the palaces faade and the
ritual attending it marked the closing of another chapter in the palaces history,
terminating royal portraits and at the same time reinvigorating royal tradition
and memory. The abandonment of the palace construction and of the palace
itself stand apart as a stark interruption of the royal continuum.
Two lines of defensive footings built around the acropolis suggest the final
occupation of the palace no longer filled a sprawling complex that dominated
the citys western plaza, but was confined to the top of the largely unfinished
acropolis platform. Modest ramped aprons made with reclaimed stone covered
the basal stairs of the acropolis and several structures in the south summit plaza,
including Structure L11-38, which housed Burial 8. Although this final construction effort was modest, the palace inhabitants made an important gesture
by invoking the memory of an ancient alliance and recalling the golden age of
Maya kingship at El Per. We hypothesize that the queens burial was also reentered at this time to collect the materials for an ancestor bundle that further
elicited the support of ancient and powerful royal ancestors.
A well-demonstrated component of Maya divine kingship was that of fulfilling a central role in communications between gods, human and, frequently,
royal ancestors, who operate as crucial intermediaries (Houston and Stuart
1996:289). Ancestor bundles, such as that presumably created with the cranium
and femora removed from Burial 8, facilitated communication between living
individuals and supernatural forces. While we cannot be certain of the time
of reentry, it is attractive to consider that reentry of the burial may have been
part of the return to the palace, where the intention was to reignite the important ancestral connection represented by the womans remains. The ballplayer
panel specifically references the memory of the Waka-Calakmul alliance, and
the bundling of the queens remains at this time may have also been an effort
to reestablish this ancestral connection and to restore recognition of the courts
100 Lee and Piehl
sacred royal power through the memory of the citys most powerful queen and
her family. Perhaps those who returned to the palace transformed or conflated
the identity of the woman in Burial 8 into that of Lady Kabel, as part of this
larger ritual invocation of specific social memory.
The transition from the Late-to-Terminal Classic is marked by changes in the
sociopolitical fabric of the Maya lowlands. Evidence of the final events at Wakas
palace is consistent with a traditionally elite response to the rapid changes occurring around them: employing an elite worldview by seeking to invoke the
supernatural power, authority, and intervention of their most storied divine
ancestors. This inability to adapt their role within a changing social landscape
perhaps provides some insight into the decline of the Classic period institution
of divine kingship.
Maya rulers actively sought to enact, reinforce, and at times, transform their
divine legitimacy, authority, and ability to rule in the minds of the people. It
is important to recognize that social custom and belief, and the importance of
their sacred and symbolic roles (Freidel 1990; Inomata and Houston 2001:14),
bound Maya rulers as much as it empowered them. In the face of social transformation, royal obligation and religious devotion are restrictive, limiting the
ability of rulers to react to novel or transformative events. This factor may explain the response of Maya royalty to the significant changes at the end of the
Classic period. Thus, when we ask why Maya elite society responded as they
did to the changes around them, the answer, at least in part, is that they could
respond in no other way. While royal ritual was a powerful tool for directing the
course of a community, it also bound the performers in devotion to the central
tenets of tradition and authority.
The reign of Kinich Bahlam II of Waka and Lady Kabel of Calakmul is
so well represented in the citys carved monuments that it was almost certainly
legendary in the memory of the community. As a royal woman of the highest
rank from Calakmul, Lady Kabel was a symbol of Wakas alliance with the
powerful Kan Kingdom. As exemplified in late events at the Northwest Palace,
the royal court sought to revive the memory of this superlative authority long
after its relevance had diminished. A similar pattern is also demonstrated from
inscriptions on the diminutive Stela I (AD 800) at the site of Quirigua, which
provide a retrospective reference to the citys connection to Calakmul (Martin
and Grube 2008:224).
As living performers and deceased observers, and as historical figures and
interceding ancestors, Maya rulers tangibly connected their present to the past.
The fluidity between the living ruler and representations of past events and
ancestors was an essential component of this process. Rituals of reverence, termination, and rededication at the Palace Complex illustrate the importance
placed upon a time when Calakmul extended its hegemonic power by sending
royal women across the Maya landscape to rule (Martin and Grube 2008:109).
Evidence suggests the woman in Burial 8 played a central role in the creation
and perpetuation of these memories, even in the face of world-changing events
that marked the end of the Classic period.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank Michelle Rich and Olivia C. Navarro-Farr, for organizing our
2007 Society for American Archaeology (SAA) session and this volume. We are
indebted to Takeshi Inomata and Stephen Houston for their comments on our
SAA paper, Sarah Sage for illustrations and figures, and Stanley Guenter and
Sarah Sage for reviewing a paper draft. This text also benefited from anonymous
reviewers, including drawing our attention to Quirigua StelaI. The research
presented here was completed with the generous support of the Jerome Glick
Foundation. We would like to thank all the members of the El Per-Waka
Archaeological Research Project, especially directors David Freidel, Hctor Escobedo, and Mary Jane Acua, Laura Gmez, and Varinia Matute, who participated in palace excavations. Finally, we are especially grateful to Guatemalas
Instituto de Antropologa e Historia, and to the people of Paso Caballos, Cruce
Perdido, Buen Samaritano, and Dolores for the hard work and generosity of
spirit they have devoted to our project.
6
The Ballcourt Complex
at El Per
Juan Carlos Melndez
lthough the ritual transcendence of the ballgame in Maya

cosmogony is well known (see Scarborough and Wilcox 1991), this chapter
presents some comments related to the ceremonial and political manifestations associated with the physical space where the ballcourt was constructed
at the site of El Per. This architectural compound is located in Plaza 4, in the
northwest section of El Pers epicenter and is one of the various important
ritual-administrative sectors at the site. The ballcourt itself, formed by Structures L11-30 and L11-31 and Platform L11-32, makes up the northeastern
part of a larger architectural group that includes the Northwest Palace, which
has two patios and Structure L11-33 with its hieroglyphic staircase situated east
of the palace. In the open space of Plaza 4 are Stelae 37, 38, and 39, as well as
the altars corresponding to Stelae 37 and 38 (Figure 6.1). This emphasizes the
importance of this location within the broader political and ceremonial landscape of El Per.
The Ballcourt Patio and its Chronology

To date, the ballcourt in Plaza 4 is the only complex of its kind known at the
site. Following the general characteristics of these types of architectural complexes, the ballcourt patio includes two parallel constructions, Structures L11-
30 and L11-31, built atop the artificial platform Structure L11-32.
Structure L11-30, the building on the northern side, measures 18.60m
long, 9.51m wide, and 2.25m high. Excavations in this structure revealed a
decline on the south side; the decline corresponds to the ramp-style wall characteristic of ballcourts, over which were laid smooth cut stones indicative of a flat
surface. Initially, it was hypothesized that the building supported a vaulted superstructure, but further investigations proved otherwise. Excavations through
the central axis revealed that the building was not remodeled throughout its
history, or at least it is not evidenced through the architectural features exposed
during the excavations.
The south side of the ballcourt, which is identified as Structure L11-31 and
measures 18m long, 16m wide, and 3m high, has a protruding staircase on the
The Ballcourt Complex at El Per 103
southern side that measures 1.5m high. The staircase has eight steps and a wall
that extends outward 1m from the rim of the base. Excavations revealed that
the building had undergone a series of modifications throughout its use history.
For example, after studying the design and morphology of the construction materials, it became clear that the southern half of the building was subsequently
added to the northern part. This was evident in the type of stone that was different on each side; the south side was built with finely cut blocks and the north
side with irregular slate shaped rocks. Furthermore, excavations in the center of
L11-31 uncovered the northern faade of a substructure constructed with finely
cut and smooth blocks. To the west of the substructure, an elaborate niche was
found parallel to the previously registered wall, which comprised a decorative
architectural feature of the building dated to the Early Classic, suggesting that
L11-31-sub-1 served as the construction base for the final occupation building
and that it formed part of the ballcourt. In its initial stage in the Early Classic period, and therefore prior to its function as a ballcourt, current evidence
suggests Structure L11-31-sub-1 could have been a precinct utilized by elite
members of society. This argument stems from the presence of fine masonry
architecture and distinct architectural features, including the niche. Based on
the location of this niche in the southwestern section of the building, it is assumed that there would be another one on the southeastern side. Moreover,
the general form of the building and associated artifacts support a preliminary
argument for its identification as elite. It is important to note, however, that this
observation is presented under the understanding that further research on the
Early Classic period at El Per is necessary for a more secure identification. At
Copan, for instance, there seems to be a connection during the Early Classic between elite spaces and the ballcourt as loci for public ceremonies (Ciudad Ruiz
2001:318). Although the evidence at El Per is dissimilar in that Structure L11-
31-sub-1 and the ballcourt are not contemporaneous, the latter results from
the modification of the former; it is worthwhile to point out the important
association that exists between these two kinds of spaces within the ceremonial
architectural landscape.
Platform L11-32, on top of which was built the two long structures that
shape the ballcourt, contained great amounts of large limestone boulders used
to fill and level the area. Over this fill, between structures L11-30 and L11-31,
fragments of a floor were discovered that corresponded to the courts pavement,
which also sealed the fill to the base of the walls of the buildings forming the
complex (Figure 6.2).
Based on the analysis of ceramic material collected from the excavations, I
suggest the ballcourt at El Per was constructed during the Late Classic period
(AD 550850) and used through the Terminal Classic (AD 8501000). Structure L11-30 revealed three remodeling episodes that occurred during the Qeq
Complex of the Late Classic. No less than four modifications were registered in
Figure 6.1. a) Map of El Per-Waka detailing the northwestern sector. Map by E. Tsesmeli 2006:411, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional
Archaeological Project. b) Northwestern sector of El Per-Waka illustrating ballcourt Structures L11-30, L11-31, and L11-32. Map elaborated by
E. Tsesmeli, courtesy of the El Per-Wak Regional Archaeological Project.
Figure 6.2. a) Profile of Structures L11-30, L11-31, and L11-32; b) Hypothetical reconstruction of the El Per ballcourt. Drawings by J. C.
Melndez 2007:55, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
106 Melndez
the southern building of the complex, Structure L11-31. Three of these floors
dated to the Late Classic, while the earliest was dated to the Saq Complex of
the Early Classic (AD 250550); this earliest floor is contemporaneous to the
adjacent Structure L11-31-sub-1 (Figure 6.3).
The surface of Structure L11-32, commensurate with the other two buildings of the complex, revealed ceramics pertaining to the Altar Group, which
dates to the Rax Complex of the Terminal Classic. Pottery diagnostic of the Late
Classic Qeq Complex was found in the deeper levels and over the fourth strata
represented by a plastered floor. A problematic deposit and cache that date to
the Early Classic Saq Complex was discovered below this floor. In sum, of the
7,378 sherds collected and analyzed in the Ballcourt Complex, 1,147 corresponded to the Terminal Classic Rax Complex, while 1,727 to the Late Classic
Qeq Complex, and 4,504 to the Early Classic Saq Complex.
The predominant Terminal Classic ceramic forms identified in the assemblage were jars, ollas, bowls, and plates belonging to the most frequent ceramic
groups, such as Cambio, Tinaja, Encanto, Azote, Maquina, Infierno, Tres Naciones, and Altar. For the Late Classic, the most common forms were jars, ollas,
bowls, plates, basins, lids, and cylinders corresponding predominantly to the
ceramic groups of Cambio, Tinaja Red, Encanto, Azote, Infierno, Maquina,
and Saxche-Palmar. In the Early Classic, the identified forms included bowls,
jars, ollas, incense burners, drums, lids, cylinders, tecomates, griddles, and basins
belonging to the most representative ceramic groups, such as Aguila, Triunfo,
Balanza, Quintal, Pucte, and Dos Arroyos.
Discoveries
Among the various discoveries during the investigations of the Ballcourt Complex was a deposit of various artifacts located 1.5m below the surface of the
courts center and between the two structures. The original intention of this
excavation unit was to determine the presence or absence of a ballcourt marker.
Upon removal of part of the fill corresponding to the latest floor and of the large
boulders comprising the artificial fill of L11-32, a well-preserved stucco floor
was found that measured about 8 cm thick. Beneath this feature, there was a
level of pasty textured dirt with high concentrations of lime mixed with large
quantities of pottery, faunal bones, obsidian, and chert. To assess the extent
of the deposit, another excavation unit was laid out parallel to the first one.
Excavation in this location revealed similar artifacts indicating that the deposit
extended greater than 5 m. Among the artifacts found in the second and parallel
unit was a sherd corresponding to a semicomplete vessel discovered in the first
unit; this suggests the dispersion of these artifacts may have been the result of a
ritual in which vessels were intentionally broken. This is further supported by
the presence of large refit sherds belonging to the same vessel. Moreover, within
Figure 6.3. Chronological chart of ceramic complexes from El Per. From

H.Escobedo 2006: 72, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
108 Melndez
the same stratigraphic level of the deposit, a cache offering was discovered consisting of two Aguila Orange bowls placed lip-to-lip.
The characteristics mentioned above suggest this deposit is consistent with
what are known as problematic deposits. According to Laporte (1989:305),
these types of contexts correspond to concentrations of primary refuse, sealed
by contemporary construction elements that secure their isolation from later
cultural moments, such as chamber or plaza floors (authors translation). Laporte (1989), citing Ball (1977:4), Coe (1959:9495) and Lowe (1960:55),
indicates that problematic deposits in the Maya area date as far back as the
Middle Preclassic period (800 BCAD 400). Moreover, research by these scholars indicates that the apparent function of these kinds of material assemblages
was ceremonial as determined by the quality and variety of artifacts, such as but
not limited to finely crafted ceramics, faunal bones, lithics, and malacological
remains (Iglesias 1987). The evidence for the problematic deposit, that is, its
location and material content, at this architectural compound suggests it was
of ritual intention. Presently, it is not possible to securely confirm whether the
ritual event was in dedication to the construction of Structure L11-31-sub-1.
However, because the deposit was placed prior to or during the construction of
the patio space over which the structure was built, it is possible to confirm the
deposit event was not a ritual related to its abandonment. The chronological
discontinuity between Early Classic Structure L11-31-sub-1 and the construction of the ballcourt indicates the deposit and the ritual event it represents is not
related to the construction of this ritual complex in the Late Classic; however,
it does support the ritual meaning of the space chosen for the placement of the
ballcourt. The nature of the ritual intention of the deposit also is supported by
the absence of any earlier construction features associated with the ballcourt.
For a further discussion of ritual deposits, see Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera
(this volume).
The presence of more than 40 carved monuments at El Per, indicative of
its great sculptural legacy, has led to the speculation that the Ballcourt Complex would likely contain carved markers or other sculpted monuments. Upon
completion of excavations in the entire complex, a total of three carved stones
had been discovered. One was found to the south of Structure L11-31 and in
front of its staircase; it was round in shape and carved with a zoomorphic figure that may depict an agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) (Figure 6.4a). The second
carved stone was discovered over the small platform that unites the hieroglyphic
staircase and the west side of L11-31. This one was carved on two of its sides,
one containing a representation of the Initial Series Introductory Glyph and
the expression for 12 katuns (Figure 6.4c). According to David Freidel (pers.
comm. 2006), this sculpted fragment may have been part of a stela, although
considering its proximity to the hieroglyphic staircase, it is also possible that it
formed part of a step. The third and final sculpted stone was discovered in the
110 Melndez
any specific association with that complex and its function as a ballcourt. In
fact, there is a stronger relation with Hieroglyphic Staircases 1 (Structure L11-
32) and 2 (Structure L11-37) where sculpted references to the practice of ball
playing are made. Among the 20 hieroglyphic and iconographic blocks from
Hieroglyphic Staircase 1 of El Per that Ian Graham discovered and registered
in the 1960s and five more that Jennifer C. Piehl and Stanley Guenter identified
in 2004 (Piehl and Guenter 2005:232), two make reference to the ritual sport.
One of them is carved with the calendar round date 12 Pax and the expression
jatznaj, which translates to the ballgame court (Guenter 2005:235). The second block contains the phrase pitzij kinal ha u-baah Huk Ajaw, or in the ball
game, place of sun water, his image Seven Lord (Escobedo, pers. comm. 2007).
During the 2005 field season, David Lee discovered four carved limestone
blocks in situ over the first step of the staircase that leads from Plaza 4 up to
the southern patio of the Royal Palace. These blocks form part of Hieroglyphic
Staircase 2 and represent a scene with two personages playing ball (for a discussion of this find, see Lee and Piehl, this volume).
In synthesis, Plaza 4 of El Per contains sculpted blocks that reference ball
playing despite the fact that in the ballcourt itself no indications of such practice were found. This leads to the following speculations: 1) the ballcourt architectural complex was specifically used for the actual activity of ball playing,
while the ceremonies and customs related to this practice were carried out in
association with Hieroglyphic Staircase 1, in the open space of Plaza 4, or at
Hieroglyphic Staircase 2, such as Miller and Houston (1987) suggested in their
study of ballgame and its architectural settings; or 2) some of the monuments
in Plaza 4 are not in their original location; rather, they were transported there
from other areas of the site, which is not an unusual practice at El Per. For example, Early Classic Stela 15 in Plaza 3 was reset on a Terminal Classic floor in
association with a contemporaneous building (Freidel and Escobedo 2004:12).
This allows the proposition that some of the blocks from Hieroglyphic Staircase 1 or 2 were in fact reset in their location of archaeological discovery and
may have originally been associated with Structure L11-31 in the Ballcourt
Complex.
Discussion
Comparative cross-references were made as part of the research process. Close
ties with the large polities of Tikal and Calakmul were evident throughout the
epigraphic record, but El Per also maintained relations with other nearby centers. At Tikal, four ballcourts have been reported to date: a small one located on
the south side of Temple I, and three parallel ones in the Seven Temples Plaza.
These last courts form a triple ballcourt, but neither shares any spatial similarities with the one at El Per. In contrast, through careful comparative analysis
The Ballcourt Complex at El Per 111
with Calakmul, we find some similarities, such as the closeness of the ballcourt
with the palatial Acropolis to the west. Another resemblance is the location of
the complex to the northwest of the site; although the courts orientations are
dissimilar. El Pers runs east-west, while Calakmuls north-south.
Other sites, such as Zapote Bobal (Gmez 2005:13), La Corona (Canuto
and Barrientos 2009:17), and La Joyanca (Breuil-Martnez et al. 2003:12),
which are geographically close to El Per, do not register the existence of any
ballcourts. Therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that El Per was not only an
important exponent of this practice, at least for the northwest region of Petn,
but also a primary regional center as confirmed by its geographical location, the
use of an emblem glyph, its long and complex political history, and its diverse
and intricate architectural and settlement patterns. The latter characteristic particularly makes reference to the presence of a palace, a ballcourt, a hieroglyphic
staircase, an extensive sculptural program, and overall politico-religious and
ritual architecture.
In conclusion, research at El Pers ballcourt indicates that during the Early
Classic, a ritual event possibly related to the construction of Structure L11-31-
sub-1 took place. This event and the elite nature of Structure L11-31-sub-1
emphasize the ceremonial importance of this location within the site. The event
established the building as a powerful locus that would eventually house the
ballcourt and form a ritual and political architectural compound. At the beginning of the Late Classic, Calakmul initiated a political alliance with various
strategic centers with the objective of defeating its nemesis Tikal. Specifically,
we know from the epigraphic record Calakmul established close ties with El
Per by means of a marriage between its princess Lady Kabelportrayed on
Stelae 34 and 12with El Pers ruler Kinich Bahlam II. Following this marital union, the spatial configuration of Plaza 4 is transformed with the construction of a new royal administrative sector that included the two hieroglyphic
staircases, the Ballcourt Complex, and the Palace Complex, which converted
this section of the site in the new center of power for the local dynasty until its
demise in the Terminal Classic.
7
Ritual Narratives from
El Per-Waka
Ceremonial Deposits in Non-Royal,
EliteContexts
Keith Eppich
eremonial deposits pose a unique problem for archaeologists. They are neither middens nor surface scatters of discrete activities that reflect patterns of subsistence, production, or consumption. The remains of ritual
activity occur at distinct times and places and usually involve items chosen and
placed with premeditation. Understanding such deposits requires an interpretive approach to recover the behaviors and potential motivations behind these
events.
These deposits are not merely the material correlate to ancient ritual events;
rather it is often the act of deposition itself that is the central feature of the
ceremony. In opening a sealed ritual deposit, one is struck by the particular
placement of the objects. The key aspect of such placement lies in its intentionality. Much like an obsidian blade or a slipped and painted vase, scholars
can view these ceremonial deposits themselves as a manner of artifact to be
analyzed. To the extent that it enters the archaeological record at all, the relative stages of ritual can be reconstructed. Like any other artifact, the issue of
functionality comes to the fore. What was the utility of such ritual acts; what
was their particular arrangement; and what were the contents? However imperfectly, the archaeological impact of ritual behavior relates to Classic period
ideologies reflecting the shared, subjective reality experienced by the Classic
Maya. Similar to the reading of iconography or the epigraphic record, analyses of ceremonial deposits address the role of cultural beliefs in the social and
cultural dynamic of the Classic period (see Demarest 1992:14749; Freidel
1992:11617; Freidel et al. 1993:39). If ritual and ceremony shaped the Classic social order, then understanding Classic society necessitates an examination
of these dimensions.
The key to this discussion is narrative. Ceremonies act as small-scale social
dramas highlighting proper behaviors, criticizing improper ones, and serving
as a means by which a society communicates its important symbols. Such social dramas follow distinct and often repetitive narratives (Turner 1988:39; see
Ritual Narratives from ElPer-Waka 113
also Tedlock 2003:18890). It is their repetitiveness that makes them effective as symbolic communication systems (Vogt 1993:8). The ritual narrative
serves as the means by which such communications are framed, mapped on
the landscape, and recalled by participants and spectators alike (Connerton
1989:3740; Hoskins 1998:18687; Van Dyke and Alcock 2003a:45). The
central thesis of this paper is, then, that from a close study of the ceremonial
deposits, it becomes possible to recover the ritual narratives employed by a distinct segment of Classic Maya society in an attempt to shape it to their liking.
Ritual Narratives and the Social Dynamic

The anthropological literature on ritual is indispensable for understanding the
roles held by the interconnected concepts of ceremony, performance, narrative,
drama, and the social memory. These mechanisms play critical roles in how we
relate to each other and the natural world. It is therefore important to explore
how these concepts function within human culture.
Victor Turner (1988:75) defined ritual as the performance of a complex sequence of symbolic acts. Scholars have utilized ritual to describe a broad range
of behaviors from microrituals performed daily to massive state-sponsored spectacles (Hodder 2006:9698; Houston 2006:13536; Marcus 2007:4446). The
definition lies in the goals of the individual researcher. The deposits discussed
here require a more precise definition. Adapting a concept from Merrifields
(1988:9) description of explicitly social ritual, ceremonial deposit works best.
Ceremony implies a set of formalized procedures following established formats.
It is a subset of ritual. Ceremonies require religious sanction, formal actors,
and some amount of spectators, but they remain free of complicating factors
of scale. The ceremonies here all took place in semipublic settings directly associated with large structures facing residential plazas. While not the vast spectacles of state-level performance, they would have required some expenditure of
wealth and oversight in their execution (see Inomata 2006b:19697).
One of the critical aspects of ritual lies in the role it plays as a reflexive agent
within society, both originating from while shaping culture. Ritual performance
acts as a transformative agent representing the eye by which culture sees itself
and the drawing board on which creative actors sketch out what they believe
to be more apt or interesting designs for living (Schechner 1994:62632;
Turner 1988:25; see also Inomata and Coben 2006b:19). Ceremonies remain
deliberate artifices, planned, executed, and probably directed by some kind of
authority. Even the fairly modest deposits presented below would have required
officiating. Inomata (2006b:19596) points out, for ceremonies of any significant scale, someone has to sponsor and direct the performance. The contact-
period Maya possessed a specific office for those who oversaw and conducted
ritual performance (Inomata 2006b:19597). The Yucatec referred to this office
114 Eppich
as the holpop, a principal singer and head of the banquet (Inomata 2006b:195
96; Roys 1943:63). The Quich call this a nim chokoj, the great convener of
banquets (Tedlock 1993:11415). If ceremonial performance acts as a culturally transformative agency, and such performances require sponsors and directors, then it can be said that these actors possess the ability to deliberately shape
their society. In such a manner, ceremony acts as a transformative tool held by
those elite wealthy enough to sponsor such events. This concept goes a long
way in explaining the repressive means by which Spanish authorities targeted
the activities of the colonial-era holpops among the Yucatec Maya (Ringle and
Bey 2001:271). In the Quich highlands, Catholic missionaries successfully attempted to transform native religious performance in line with Christian doctrine (Tedlock 2003:18889). Changing narratives changes the culture and the
perception of individuals toward that culture. The Classic Maya elite could then
manipulate ritual narrative to shape the society around them, as the creative
actors that Victor Turner (1988) describes.
Social memory plays a key role in the manipulation of society through ritual
action. Social and collective memory exists as a highly subjective enterprise
dependent on group participation and a certain degree of shared perception
(Connerton 1989:3, 17). Collective memory shapes the social order, and such
memories are sustained and punctuated by common ritual performances, either in terms of participant or spectator (Connerton 1989:34; Van Dyke and
Alcock 2003a:35). Ritual performances purposefully create memorable events
in the minds of attendees. Collective participation thus shapes group memories and solidifies cohesion among participants and spectators alike. In terms
of the archaeology below, such ceremonies could not have included any substantial proportion of the local population. Located inside bounded residential
compounds, such ceremonies and memories would have been restricted, most
likely, to those who inhabited the compounds. Such memories often possess a
direct linkage with the physical world (Connerton 1989:3638; Van Dyke and
Alcock 2003a:56). Collective memories become associated with the physical
landscape, which can be altered through group effort. This may explain one
reason why so much construction in the Maya world is associated directly with
ceremony and ceremonial deposits. Memorable events are thus fixed in group
consciousness by being physically anchored onto a particular building, be they
Roman victory columns or Medieval pilgrimage shrines (Bradley 2003:226;
Orr 2001:5859). Now, this is not restricted to human-made architecture; ceremonial activity can just as easily be attached to geologic formations (Bradley
1998a, 2003:225). In terms of Classic Maya centers, Joyce (2003:105, 11012)
and Inomata (2006b:197201) see the large, open, monument-filled plazas as
elaborate sets for theatrical performance (see also Looper 2001:115). In the dynamic envisioned here, they are not only theatrical sets, but permanent monuments to past ritual performances. Thus, a funerary temple is not just a place to
conduct ceremonies, but a monument to all the previous ceremonies conducted
there. These ceremonies were conducted on known dates and were remembered
as such (Looper 2001:12425; Reese-Taylor 2002:14647; Schele and Matthews 1998:13335). Thus, in crafting memorable events for specific groups,
Maya elite crafted memories of both the event and their own participation or
observation. Those memories were, in turn, concretized onto the landscape
through the commissioning of architecture or monuments. In the participation
and observation of social ritual, it can be said that ceremonies, then, do not
simply express the solidarity of a group, but they make a community (Inomata and Coben 2006b:24). Thus, private, exclusive events fashion and set the
boundaries for a given segment of society.
Furthermore, ceremonies are not unstructured; they possess a beginning,
middle, and end (Carr 2001:12; Turner 1988:80). They follow distinct narratives, purposefully placing participants into a ritual re-enactment of prototypical, idealized actions (Connerton 1989:4353). Indeed, the choice of narrative
itself often contains subtle distinctions in terms of which parts are emphasized
(Hinchman and Hinchman 2001:xvi; Hoskins 1998:13). Choices of narrative
structure largely shape the ceremony as a memorable event. Maya elites, who
were able to finance ceremony, shaped society through ritual. The shaping element is the narrative which frames how people remember its performance. Even
if the goal is to legitimize an elite familys position, the act manipulates the social fabric. Understanding this, it is no wonder that kings and rulers portrayed
themselves as foci of supernatural power.
Two important realizations come from understanding narrative as the structuring element of ceremony. One, in the choice of narrative, sponsors and managers reveal how they attempt to mold society. Secondly, in the concretization
of ritual discussed above, mapping the memorable events onto the physical
landscape crystallizes the ancient narrative. It is then possible to recover aspects
of this narrative. This has been done in the Maya region with architecture,
historical monuments, and public spaces (see Reese-Taylor 2002; Schele and
Mathews 1998). I attempt to apply such analyses to the archaeological assemblages recorded at El Per-Waka.
Ceremonial Deposits at El Per-Waka

The deposits described below were encountered during the 2005 and 2006 field
seasons at El Per-Waka. These excavations were part of a larger effort to study
the sites shifting social structure throughout Wakas occupation (see Eppich et
al. 2005). They took place at the Chok and Tolok residence compounds, on
the eastern portion of the site core (see Figure I.3, this volume). Excavations
revealed the presence of elites in both groups possessing close ties to ruling
families (Eppich 2006; 2007b; Eppich and Matute 2007). The Chok Group
was probably first constructed during the Early Classic, roughly AD 200550,
and abandoned late in the Terminal Classic, ~AD 8001000. The Tolok Group,
116 Eppich
on the other hand, shows a much briefer habitation. It was largely occupied
during the Late-to-Terminal transition, ~AD 770850 and abandoned early
during the Terminal Classic, ~AD 8001000.
The Ancestor Shrine of Structure M14-15

Excavations of the Tolok Groups Structure M14-15 took place during the 2005
field season. This group includes five structures atop an artificially shaped hillock some 10m above the surrounding terrain. The compound is bounded by a
low masonry wall probably serving as the foundation for a perishable fortification (see Demarest et al. 1997). The only entrance is a wide, ruined staircase
on the groups southern edge. Excavations of M14-15 revealed five rooms and
a set of plastered steps in front (Eppich 2006). The absence of vault stones suggests a perishable roof in antiquity. Five elite burials were excavated underneath
the plaster floor dating to ~AD 770850. Structure M14-15 functioned as the
compounds ancestral shrine (Eppich 2007a).
The placement of the burials relative to M14-15s architecture reveals the
sequence of its modification (Figure 7.1). The structure was enlarged as burials were added. The original portions were a large central wall, a long northern
wall, and the original plaster floors associated with both. These original plaster
floors included two large oval cuts with 50 cm of fine white marl. The plaster floor sank beneath, which indicates the underlying foundation had been
largely removed in antiquity and that no significant amount of weight had
been placed on the floor since the deposition of these burials (Burials 20 and
21). The burials capstones were revealed beneath the marl, which extended
over both capstones, indicating their simultaneous interment. Both were rich
interments, containing between them three polychrome serving vessels and a
single Ik-style polychrome vase as well as jade inlays and jade-inlaid teeth. The
individual in Burial 21 is the most likely candidate for the lineage head and
the groups founder (see Eppich 2007a). As per the arguments advanced by
Haviland (1981:1057, 1988:12325), Structure M14-15 may have originally
served as the lineage heads residence rebuilt into a mausoleum upon death. This
would explain the unusual northern placement of Structure M14-15 as ancestor shrine (most appear on the eastern side of residence compounds; see Becker
1999:24, 2003:25859).
At this point, the structure began serving as a muknal, or ancestral shrine
(Eppich 2007a:13; McAnany 1998:28889). Veneration ceremonies were conducted in and around such structures and the powers of ancestors called upon
to aid their descendants (Freidel et al. 1993:17980; McAnany 1998:2628).
Specifically, such ceremonies involved cleansing or burning in acts of ritual renewal or veneration (Stuart 1998:39799). Structure M14-15 featured patches
of burned plaster flooring in front of the wall constructed to seal off the eastern
chamber.
Figure 7.1. Plan of Structure M14-15. Drawing by K. Eppich, courtesy of the

The western portions of Structure M14-15 were added subsequently and

were constructed with less care than those of the eastern section. The capstones
of Burial 23 were exposed on the ground surface. Portions of the western walls,
however, lie on top of Burial 22 and 23s capstones. This placement indicates
the western section of M14-15 was added after those interments. Burials 22 and
23 were deposited simultaneously, and the western walls were erected on top of
them in short order. Similarly to the eastern burials, plastered steps were added
to the front, prior to the sealing of the western chamber. Excavators recovered a
number of broken and smashed censer fragments on these steps. Ritual censing
was noted in front of the western chamber as well.
The central portion of the structure was modified last. A second plaster floor
covers this section with an abutting bench on top of it. After this floor, Burial5
was interred. The Tolok Groups occupation ends near the final years of the
ninth century (Eppich et al. 2005; Eppich 2006).
The Maya practice of ancestor veneration is well attested in the archaeological and ethnographic literature (Christenson 2007:1617, 191; Freidel
et al. 1993:18893; McAnany 1995, 1998; Stuart 1998; Tedlock 1985:269,
1993:9498; Vogt 1993:1923, 1998:2829). The death of honored and
spiritually powerful elders threatens to extinguish a measure of sacred power
which is necessary to sustain the community and perpetuate life (Christenson 2001:203). Ancestor veneration ceremonies prevent the loss of the individuals spiritual power and ensure a triumph over death, so he or she may
continue to work on behalf of descendants (Vogt 1998:23, 29). Christenson
118 Eppich
(2001:2067) convincingly argues such practices reflect and are reflected in the
Hero Twins burial of their father, One Hunahpu, the foliated Maize God (see
Taube 1992:4144, 48). As told in the Popol Vuh, the Hero Twins defeat the
forces of death. The lords of Xilbalba clear the road of death and ensure the
rebirth and ascendance of the Maize God (Christenson 2007:19091; Tedlock
1985:159).
As recounted in Tedlock (1985:295), the deeds of the Hero Twins were seen
as the beginning of the veneration of the dead the act by which the ancestors
may pass through the underworld and be reborn, ascending into the sky. In the
burial and veneration of their ancestor, the Maya of the Tolok Group employed
the narrative of the death and rebirth of One Hunahpu. With such a narrative, not only is the deceased placed in the role of Maize God, but those who
conduct the ceremony play the part of the Hero Twins. Thus, the act of burial
not only raised the status of the honored dead, it assigns heroic status to those
enacting the ceremony.
This accords wholly with the role of ancestor veneration that McAnany
(1998:27276) describes, in which the acts of burial and veneration work to
establish a link between the living and the dead while establishing the right of
the descendants to the land of their ancestors (see also Becker 1992). Such an
act is, therefore, overtly political and an attempt to use the honored dead to
secure or improve the social status of the living. That the Maya of the Tolok
Group placed five such burials in a single structure within a fairly brief occupation (see Eppich 2006, 2007a), may speak to some insecurity over their position
within the Maya social dynamic. This supports previous ideas (Eppich 2007a)
that the Tolok Group residents were a recently established lineage lacking in the
deep historic association with the site. In comparison to the long occupation
sequences of other residence compounds (see Arroyave Prera 2006b; Eppich
2007b; Lee and Gmez 2007; Ramrez and Marken 2007), the Tolok Group
enjoyed only a brief florescence near the end of the Late Classic. Their insecurity, it would seem, was well founded, as the whole of its occupation lasted
under 100 years.
The Feast and Sacrifice of the N14-2 Deposit

Also located in the Tolok Group, Structure N14-2 served as the primary residence for the compounds duration. It is a low C-shaped mound bounding
the eastern edge of the compound with an interior courtyard. Traces of level
floor and collapsed stones indicate it held several small rooms, most facing the
private courtyard. On the buildings western face, two sizable piles of rubble
indicated a large fronting masonry faade and wide central stair. A small and
heavily eroded stela was encountered atop this rubble (see Eppich 2006; Eppich
and Matute 2007).
Excavations into N14-2s northern side uncovered a sheet midden spanning

from the Late-to-Terminal transition to the Terminal Classic, AD 7701000
(Eppich 2004; Eppich et al. 2005). The midden excavations also uncovered a
heavily deteriorated plaster floor and western-facing stairway. Excavations there
reached bedrock and revealed the Tolok Groups construction sequence (Eppich
2006). Beneath a series of thick plaster floors, excavators uncovered a deposit
comprising numerous smashed ceramic serving vessels, musical instruments,
figurines, burned and polished animal bones, and two human interments, Burials 18 and 19. The burials lay directly atop the smashed artifacts (Figure 7.2).
The materials comprising the N14-2 deposit consist of 12 chipped and broken obsidian flakes and bifaces, 25 pieces of chipped chert flakes, bifaces and
angular debris fragments, roughly a dozen or more fragmented pieces of shell,
and numerous broken faunal bones. The local Qeqchi Maya identified the
bones as turkey, deer, and tepezcuintle. All of this material was mixed in with
2,269 ceramic sherds. The ceramics represented at least 17 partially reconstructible vessels, including large water jars, unslipped cooking vessels, a cylindrical
ceramic drum, and three high-quality polychrome bowls. None of the ceramic
vessels were whole, indicating they were broken elsewhere.
Burial 19 lay in an extended supine position, tightly wedged into a partial
cist. The articulation of the vertebral column and hands indicated a primary
interment. The individual is an adult of indeterminate sex, most likely male,
but the deterioration of the bones makes it difficult to determine with certainty
(see Piehl 2008:18890). Burial 19 contained no obvious signs of trauma, but
a pronounced tabular modification of the skull may indicate a potential elite
status (Chase and Chase 1992:8; Saul and Saul 1997:4445; Tiesler 1999:34).
Burial 18, also in an extended supine position, is directly in line with Burial
19 and the staircases centerline. This is a young infant of indeterminate sex
(Piehl 2008). The matrix surrounding the ceramic concentration and atop these
burials is a moist, thick, clay-like dark brown, and packed sediment. It is similar
to material recovered from kitchen middens. This suggests a quantity of decayed organic material was mixed together with the recovered artifacts; and it
demonstrates the N14-2 deposit, including the two interments, represents a
single depositional episode. The deposits ceramics date to the Late-to-Terminal
transition, placing the deposit between the years AD 770 and 830 (Eppich et
al. 2005). The deposit is therefore associated with the earliest portions of Structure M14-15, meaning that it took place most likely during the lifetime of the
individual in Burial 21.
The N14-2 deposit strongly suggests a dedicatory function (Coe 1959:77
79; cf. Chase and Chase 1998:303). The epigraphic record indicates such
dedicatory events typically occur on the fronting stairs of the consecrated architecture (Freidel et al. 1993:24445; Schele 1990:156; Stuart 1998:39395;
2005:1819). Such ceremonies possess their own verb as in OCH-OTOT, och
120 Eppich
Figure 7.2. The N14-2 deposit with Burial 19. Drawing by K. Eppich, courtesy of the
otot (enters house) or ok-naah, (house entering), with the inscriptions placed on
balustrades flanking the staircase (Stuart 2005:1819; Tozzer 1941:161). The
position of the deposit, located along the centerline of the staircase above it, indicates a purposeful placement (see Becker 1992:189; Kunen et al. 2002:209).
Furthermore, the material from the deposit indicates a feasting event, marked
by open-mouthed jars and large polychrome bowls (LeCount 2001:94446;
Reents-Budet 2000:1029). The prominence of the polychrome serving wares,
the butchered and cooked faunal remains, and the dark black-brown sediment
resulting from organic decay suggest a midden relating to food preparation. The
inclusion of ceremonial elements like drums, eccentrics, and figurine fragments,
underscores the interpretation that this deposit represents the remains of a substantial feast. This deposit material does not resemble other quotidian midden
deposits from elsewhere at the site. That most of the vessels are semicomplete
is intriguing, suggesting the feasting event occurred elsewhere and that the vessels were smashed earlier to be secondarily deposited into the prepared bedrock
concavity. If the vessels were smashed elsewhere, given even their semicomplete
state, this debris could not have been moved any significant distance. The most
probable location for this feasting event is the small plaza of the Tolok Group.
Such feasting events are known from the epigraphic record and are indicated
by the verbs WE, eat, and UK, drink) (Boot 2005:23; see also Fields and
Reents-Budet 2005:20517; Houston et al. 2006:12730). As Houston and
Stuart (2001:69) point out, such glyphs occur in depictions of palace settings
with plates and bowls piled with foodstuffs. Landa describes Yucatec feasts as
fiestas of great abundance, involving roast fowl, bread, and alcoholic cacao
(Tozzer 1941:9093). These feasts involved public drinking and musicians,
including some with little drums which they play with the hand (Tozzer
1941:93). It is likely that these events also contained some degree of ritual
kratophony, the purposeful sacrificing of the feasting materials (see Kunen et
al. 2002:200201). The result of such ritualized violence would produce a kind
of ceremonial trash, to be deposited in a decidedly different manner than regular household refuse (Walker 1995:76). Finally, as LeCount (2001:941) points
out, during ceremonial feasts, food and drink are not merely consumed but, in
their consumption, sacrificed. Landa also notes, they had no fiesta in which
they did not get intoxicated and sacrificed (Tozzer 1941:91, 398). Thus, Maya
feasting involves the sacrifice of food and drink and the vessels that held them.
Were the individuals of Burials 18 and 19 themselves sacrifices? While
human body parts are not unknown in caches and deposits (Becker 1992:190
91; Chase and Chase 1998:3023; Freidel et al. 1993:239), the inclusion of two
intact individuals remains somewhat unusual for a dedicatory deposit. Welsh
(1988:16970) determined that some human remains are directly associated
with a dedicatory function, and he termed them dedicatory cache burials.
Those interments involved either incomplete body parts or infants with complete adults occurring in a few cases, and then usually in pairs of an adult female
and infant (Welsh 1988: Table 103). While Burial 18 is an infant, the sex of
Burial 19 is most likely male (Piehl 2008). Direct evidence of human sacrifices
associated with dedicatory deposits is known from Copan (Andrews and Fash
1992:8082). The individuals there, however, were either infants, possessed direct evidence of traumatic death, or were placed in a bound captive position.
Burials 18 and 19 lack evidence of physical trauma, though this may also be
due to poor preservation (Piehl 2008). Given the direct association with the
122 Eppich
sacrificed artifacts, it is possible that Burials 18 and 19 were themselves smashed

and sacrificed (Tiesler 2007:20, 29). However, the direct physical evidence is
conspicuously absent.
The N14-2 deposit is essentially dedicatory in nature. Such deposits are the
means by which a structure becomes ensouled through the sacrificial destruction and interment of select materials. These items are transformed into a kind
of soul-stuff, fed to the otherworld (Freidel et al. 1993:24044). This supernatural sustenance is the means by which spiritual debts are paid to the otherworld (Hamann 2002:353; Vogt 1993:5657). In terms of human sacrifice,
the sacrifice itself may become the spirit of the structure. Allen Christenson
describes the discovery of a few pieces of jade and a human skeleton beneath
the western stair of the modern church of Santiago Atitln. The modern Maya
believe the skeleton belonged to a woman sacrificed there when the church was
built in the fifteenth century, when she became rukux qmuq, rukux iglesia,
heart of the steps, heart of the church (ibid.). It is this narrative of transformation, from material to spiritual, through the act of deposition that characterizes
the actions that created the N14-2 deposit.
In his study of Zinacanteco ritual, Evon Vogt (1979:5255) describes the
process of house dedication. In a newly constructed structure, the family of
the owner, together with a shaman and accompanying musicians, ceremonially
feed the house in order to compensate the Earth Lord and provide the house
with an innate soul. The ceremony begins with a series of prayers in front of the
house, including incense and musicians. The blood of sacrificed chickens, their
heads, and their feathers are placed into a hole in the center floor of the house.
Additional broth and candles are fed to the four corners of the house and at
the center. The family is ceremonially washed and dressed in censed clothing,
and all concludes with a ritual meal. Vogts account describes all the elements of
the N14-2 depositmusical instruments, ritual sacrifice, interment of material
beneath the floor, and a ceremonial meal.
In enacting this narrative, it is the lineage head that bears the cost of ensouling the home. The spiritual debt is transferred from the individual members to
either the group or to the lineage head (see Hamann 2002:357). Such elaborate
ceremonies seal the bond between members of the group. That this memorable
event becomes cemented under the steps of the main residence reinforces this
bonding experience for the inhabitants. Furthermore, the size and richness of
the N14-2 deposit speaks to a degree of conspicuous consumption, a purposeful display and destruction of wealth (Houston 2000:151). William Rathje
(2002:3637) posits the existence of a Maya potlatching, by which nouveau
elites attempted to heighten their status through lavish ceremonial expenditures.
Rathjes argument attempts to explain the rise of a Maya elite in the Preclassic
period. Yet, if Maya potlatching intensified as Classic society coalesced, could
it also intensify as Classic society began to disintegrate? The Tolok Group fades
as Classic society fades, its occupation straddling the end of the Late and the
beginnings of the Terminal Classic periods (Eppich 2007b). During the Tolok
Groups brief florescence, the N14-2 deposit may have been a form of Maya
potlatching, showing some degree of fluidity in contemporary society. The Terminal Classic sheet middens evident prior to the buildings abandonment suggest residents are unable to afford anything on the scale of the N14-2 deposit
again.
The Twice-Buried Personage of Structure M13-12

The Chok Group, located immediately north of the Tolok Group, possesses a
much different layout and occupational sequence than its southern neighbor.
The Chok Group, at 13,500 m2, is one of the largest residential compounds
at the site. It rests on a broad, low platform facing west-northwest and rises
16m higher than nearby Plaza 2. The platform is an artificially shaped hillock
possessing an entrance ramp sloping down to Plaza 2. Activities in Plaza 2 are
clearly audible from the Chok Group. Conversely, any activities on the groups
main structures would have been visible from Plaza 2. The group contains some
28 structures framing six internal patio groups arranged around a west-facing
plaza. Structure M13-12 is the most impressive structure of the Chok Group; it
became the focus of excavation in the 2006 season (Eppich 2007b).
Structure M13-12 rests on a low platform with portions of a preserved plaster
floor. This fronting platform possesses fragments of eroded monumental stones,
including a circular altar stone and various stela fragments. The top portion of a
stela was set into the centerline stair, but it lacked a base or any carvings. Excavators encountered a deposit of pottery, lithics, and ceramic figurine fragments
covering the lower portion of the centerline staircase and most of the structures
fronting platform (Figure 7.3). The heavy concentration of censers and figurine
fragments, as well as the dearth of faunal remains, strongly suggested some kind
of ceremonial deposit. Excavators recovered 18,772 ceramic sherds, 80 figurine
fragments, 196 pieces of obsidian, and 116 fragments of chert. The pottery
included a disproportionate number of large striated water jars and censer fragments. The ceramic figurines consisted of zoomorphs and male figures in warrior headdresses. The inclusion of fine orange paste specimens clearly indicates
Terminal Classic deposition. Curiously, some of the elements from this deposit
were atop the buildings collapse, suggesting deposition of some material after
the building had begun to fall. Other elements lie between the collapsed rubble
and the plaza floor, indicating these votive offerings were more likely an accumulation of repeated ritual use throughout the Terminal Classic (see Navarro-
Farr and Arroyave Prera, this volume).
The wide centerline staircase included a Terminal Classic construction fill
(Figure 7.3), which differed considerably from that elsewhere on M13-12, and
124 Eppich
Figure 7.3. Structure M13-12 profile. Drawing by K. Eppich and E. Tsesmeli,

which consisted of large, irregular limestone rocks with little surrounding sediment. Immediately below the plaster treads, the staircase fill included tightly
packed, stacked limestone plates together with densely packed cultural materials including 2,527 pieces of obsidian, as well as 445 pieces of chert. The lithics appeared in discrete lenses with blades and flakes at the edges and snapped
cores in the center (see Hruby and Rich, this volume, for a similar discussion).
Almost certainly, this represents an activity of flaking blades off a core and then
snapping the core into pieces during deposition. This ritual construction fill
extended from the stair treads to the floor of Burial 38. Lying next to a floor
cut above the center of Burial 38, excavators uncovered a small Terminal Classic
bowl with large limestone plates carefully stacked on it.
Excavations in the centerline trench revealed an earlier staircase that had
been partially demolished. This earlier architecture dates to the period for the
interment of Burial 38, the seventh century Intermediate Classic occupation.
An earlier structure was indicated by the presence of a very thick plaster floor,
which was cut to allow the construction of Burial 38s chamber (see Figure 7.3).
This initial structure and platform likely date to the early portion of the Early
Classic, but the instability of the seventh-century dry core fill prevented further
excavation. Burial 38 lay beneath the ritual construction fill and partially intact
roofing stones (Figure 7.4). The western third of the chamber still possessed a
series of lajas (large flagstones), overlying the floor cut and a small void beneath.
The lajas lay across a cut in the thick plaster floor, indicating the original intrusive nature of the tomb chamber. The tomb chamber itself, 2.3 0.9 m, consists
of a plaster floor and limestone cobble walls. As described by Welsh (1988:18,
35152), this would be either a very elaborate elaborate crypt or a smallish
stone-lined tomb. This tomb yielded 11 whole vessels, 108 decorative spindle
whorls, 5 shell fragments, 2 jade beads, 92 mosaic jade pieces, 6 burned faunal
bones, a blue stuccoed river stone, a deteriorated slate mirror, a worked and
polished conch shell core, and a concentrated mass of human remains within
which was located 6 stingray spines (Figure 7.4). The vessels and the mirror are
arranged as if surrounding a supine figure. Excavators discovered fragments of
human bone scattered in the area, indicating the presence of a skeleton. The vessels consist of high-quality polychrome vases, bowls, and plates, complete with
dedication texts along the rims. Of particular interest is a small zoomorphic
ceramic vessel featuring a dog with a smashed face and an opening in its back
reminiscent of similar thin orange vessels (Fields and Reents-Budet 2005:228
29). Such vessels have been associated with high status individuals (Reents-
Budet et al. 2000:11617). Stanley Guenter identified a portion of a name on
one of the dedication texts: Chak Kin (human head?) -ta. However, the exact
relationship with this name and the interred individual remains unknown. The
vessels bear a strong resemblance to those recovered from Burial 39 (Rich 2011,
this volume; Rich et al. 2007) with some of the vessels practically identical. The
two tombs, if not directly related, are certainly contemporaneous and, together,
date approximately to the early portions of the seventh century. Notably, the
obsidian and chert littered across the tomb floor and throughout the construction fill occur on top of and around these vessels, but none is underneath them.
Burial 38 also contained three distinct clusters of artifacts: a concentration
of decorative spindle whorls; a mass of jade mosaic pieces; and a dense concentration of human remains (Figure 7.4). The mass of deteriorated bone contained pieces of long bones and ribs, a vertebral column, a femur, and a fibula.
Notably, only a few scattered and deteriorated teeth were recovered. Two jade
beads, numerous obsidian and chert flakes, blades, and core fragments, and a
cluster of six stingray spines were also mixed in with the bone mass. A number
of jade mosaic pieces were found beside the bone mass. The discovery of a jade
nose in the center confirmed that this was a mask, probably similar to one
recovered from a Late Classic interment at Dzibanch (Lpez Bravo 2004:58;
see also Miller and Martin 2004:69; Schimdt et al. 1998:55455). Layered
into Structure M13-12 are a number of different deposition events. Key to
understanding these events is the ritual construction sequence of packed earth,
126 Eppich
Figure 7.4. Burial 38. Drawing by K. Eppich, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional
stacked limestone blocks, and particularly, the obsidian and chert. This layer
comprised everything between the stones of the final staircase and the plaster
floor of Burial 38. Small, eroded fine orange sherds clearly place this layers
deposition in the Terminal Classic (Eppich et al. 2005). This clashes, however,
with the vessels from the tomb itself, which date to the sites seventh-century
Intermediate Classic. The construction fill, together with the stairs resting on
top of it, pertain to a Terminal Classic renovation of Structure M13-12. The
renovation involved the partial demolition of an earlier staircase and the reentry
of Burial 38 (see Figure 7.3). The scattering of obsidian and chert are associated
with the reentry and not the original interment. This places the vessels and the
mirror with the original interment, but the three concentrations of bone, jade,
and spindle whorls with the Terminal Classic reentry (see Figure 7.4). Indeed,
the concentration of human bone is probably all that was left of the original
occupant. The ritual construction fill was then deposited in the tomb chamber,
and the Terminal Classic staircase was then built on top. Later votive deposits
were accumulated on the steps and fronting platform around the reset monumental stones. As the structure deteriorated, the veneration continued on top
of the piled rubble and debris from the crumbling building. It should be noted
that more than two centuries separate Burial 38s original sealing and construction of the earlier staircase from the subsequent reentry and demolition of that
stair. Veneration activities on the staircase and fronting platform, the structural
collapse of portions of M12-32, and veneration activities amid the structural
collapse represent concurrent depositional activities, rather than discrete events.
Small funerary pyramids, located in residential compounds, are well known
at Maya sites and often contain high-status interments (Becker 1999:23;
2003:259, 261; Chase and Chase 2004:13940; Haviland 1981:100101;
Welsh 1988:18889). Structure M13-12 closely resembles Structures N5-7
and N5-71 from Dos Pilas (Demarest et al. 2003:12829; Escobedo 1998) and
Structure C-1 from Uaxactun (Smith 1950:62). If M1312 was reconstructed,
it would also closely resemble a reconstruction proposed for Tikals Structure
5G-8-1st (Becker 1999: Figure 58).
Similar to M14-15, Structure M13-12 would have served as a muknal,
an ancestral shrine. As such, it also served as the means by which the living
could interact with the honored dead. As described by Stuart (1998:39699),
one means to do so involved rites of burning or censing in an och kak (fire-
entering) ceremony. These rites explain the censer and figurine fragments from
the Terminal Classic votive deposits. Additionally, Stuart describes how some
fire-entering rituals involved the physical entering of the tomb chamber itself
and the manipulation of the skeletal remains.
Reentry of tombs and the manipulation and removal of skeletal material is
well known. Evidence for such is present in the archaeology of Burials 1 and
10 from Piedras Negras (Coe 1959:121, 12637, 131), Burial XXXVII-8 and
the Margarita Tomb at Copan (Stuart 1998:399), and for many of the tombs
at Caracol (Chase and Chase 1996:63, 6667), among others (see McAnany
1998). At El Per-Waka, the royal tombs at Structure O14-04 (Rich 2011)
and Structure L11-38 (Lee 2012) also show evidence for reentry and ritual
manipulation. On Tikals Altar 5, hieroglyphs mention the opening of a tomb
and exhumation of remains (Freidel et al. 1993:27879; McAnany 1998:288;
Stuart and Houston 1994). Patricia McAnany has explored this theme, noting
that the bones of the revered dead are generally part of a protracted series of
rituals (McAnany 1995:60). She links this directly with the ethnographically
128 Eppich
known practice of bundling the remains of ancestors. Furthermore, Freidel et

al. (1993:27981, 292) connect these ancestor bundles with ritual dance performance. They note how the Hero Twins exhumed the bones of their father,
danced, and so aided in his reanimation (see also Christenson 2007:19091;
Tedlock 1985:15960).
This strongly suggests the concentration of human bone in the middle of
Burial 38 is the remains of a bundled ancestor (see Figure 7.4). The tight concentration of the bones and the spindle whorls argues for some manner of perishable container; wrapped cloth would seem probable. Spindle whorls seem
associated with textile production, if not textiles themselves (Chase et al. 2008).
Bound human remains are well represented in the archaeological record. Smith
(1950:89) notes tightly flexed skeletons in direct association with charred rope
fragments or impressions of textiles in the grave matrix (Reese-Taylor et al.
2006). Furthermore, the presence of scattered teeth suggests a skull was present before the bones were manipulated. The most likely possibility is that the
remains were bundled during the reentry event and the bones removed.
The fragments of the jade mask lie in direct association with the skeletal
bundle. Annabeth Headricks (1999:7374; 2007:5155) work demonstrates
the long Mesoamerican tradition of bundling ancestors and the attachment of
stone masks known to have possessed perishable backings (Martinez del Campo
Lanz and Folloy Nadal 2004:78). That the small and numerous jade pieces are
concentrated in one area suggests the mask was part of the bundling during the
reentry. After this ninth-century reentry, the interred individual became the
focus of renewed ancestor veneration in the Chok Group.
The acts of veneration at Structure M13-12 greatly resemble those discussed
for M14-15. Veneration seeks to establish a link between the spiritual power
of an ancestor and his or her living descendants. As argued above, the acts of
the Hero Twins provide a script for the ritual access and rebirth of the honored
dead. There seems to be a key difference here, however. While the veneration at
M14-15 appears to be primarily concerned with ancestors and descendants, the
activities at the small pyramid of M13-12 more closely resemble world renewal
ceremonies involving cosmic forces of creation and destruction. The model for
this is the Dance of Deer among the Tzutujil Maya, documented by Allen
Christenson (2001:15469; 2007; see also Houston et al. 2006:252-4). Taking
place at the end of the harvest season on November 11, the Tzutujil remove the
bundle of Saint Martn from his sacred chest. Martn himself is a maize god associated with positive energy and who appears as an ancient nabeysil (shaman).
He is associated with all past shamans who handled him, and he lives in the
cave of Paqalibal with all the other nabeysils (ibid.:159). Martn is placed
on an altar accompanied with censer smoke. The dance takes place after dusk
and involves four dancers: two in jaguar skins and two in deerskins. After the
jaguars chase, catch, and kill the deer, the senior nabeysil opens the bundle
and removes sacred items, including clothing and a carved jaguar effigy called
rutzi Martn (the dog of Martn). During the structured dance, the nabeysil
collectively calls upon all the ancestors as well as bestowing Martn himself with
a long list of honorifics. The nabeysil then makes a ritual circuit, prays to the
four cardinal directions, and stands in the center with arms outstretched in a
pose that is both a crucifixion and a maize plant sprouting from the mountain
of creation. Everyone present then pays homage to the nabeysil as a resurrected
maize god. Later, the clothes and effigy are returned to the bundle, and the
Martn bundle is then returned to its sacred chest.
This is not to say that the Classic inhabitants of the Chok Group conducted
this exact ceremony in precise manner as the Tzutujil. The similarities, however, are strong enough to suggest an analogous narrative. Present in Burial 38
are an ancestor bundle, a mass of spindle whorls suggesting cloth, and a nearby
altar stone on the fronting platform. There is even a little ceramic dog. A likely
interpretation for the ceremonial narrative for Burial 38 is the Terminal Classic
transformation of an ancient, illustrious ancestor into some manner of Martn
bundle, one capable of being utilized in cosmic renewal ceremonies. The Terminal Classic inhabitants of the Chok Group do not seem merely to venerate a
high-status ancestor, they seem to want to revitalize their entire world.
That this transformation takes places in the Terminal Classic seems appropriate. By the middle of the sites ninth through tenth century occupation, El Per-
Waka was in deep crisis. Centralized authority appears largely absent in this
period. Patches of abandoned structures appear in the middle of the site during
the Terminal Classic, and traditions of material culture, stone monuments, architecture, and ceramics are in evident decline. Efforts at world renewal, at this
late stage, should not be surprising.
Conclusions: Shaping the Maya Social Dynamic

In an article on the recent archaeology at Chunchucmil, Hutson et al. (2004:81)
describe the Maya settlement patterns there as honeycomb-like, an observation
that seems apropos of Classic society as a whole. The Maya social order seems
to have been comprised of distinct lineage groups occupying their individual
residence compounds (McAnany 1995:2226). These lineages functioned as
the core of an enlarged group with a number of attached dependants bound by
various forms of patron-client relationship (Adams and Smith 1981:33637;
Fash 1983:264; Webster 2002:14345). Lineage heads occupied the apex of
an internally ranked social order with powerful leaders serving as subordinate
elites (Houston and Stuart 2001:5264; Schele and Freidel 1990:27076; Stuart 2005). Ultimately, the chief contrast between the Maya royal courts and the
residence compounds seems to lie in scale, not in any significant organizational
difference. What is the North Acropolis of Tikal if not a large and elaborate
130 Eppich
muknal serving the same function as Structure M14-15? There is no distinct

functional difference between Structure M13-12 and Temple 1 of Tikal.
These lineage groups thus served as semi-autonomous, internally ranked social units nested together in a series of heterarchical relations with others including the royal court, ruling family, and Classic state itself (Crumley 1995:3;
Gillespie 2000:469: Webster and Inomata 2004:15253; see also Elson and
Covey 2006:1415; Houston and McAnany 2003:37). It is thought Classic
society was organized along similar lines as that described by Restall (1997)
for the Yucatec Maya, in that the lineage group was similar to the chibal and
cah. The cah served as a single geographic, political, and economic entity. They
were based in both territory and kinship and functioned as the sole central and
indisputable units of Maya sociopolitics, with the chibal as the patronymic
subdivision of the same. Classic centers then could have been nucleated settlements of different cahs compressed together, as seems to have been the case at
Mrida-Tih, Campeche, Valladolid, and Izamal (ibid.: 16, 29). Each group
possessed its own varied fortunes over time with some prospering and expanding, while others stagnated and declined. Taken together, this differential prosperity reveals a Maya social order in a state of perpetual flux. It may therefore
be better to speak of an ever-changing Maya social dynamic rather than a static
Maya social order.
At El Per-Waka, this social dynamic seems quite unstable, likely a result of
the sites larger shifts in fortune throughout the Classic period (see Eppich et al.
2005). Beginning from its Preclassic origins, El Per-Waka expands dramatically in the Early Classic, serving as a close ally and key member of the Teotihuacanoid New Order (Guenter 2005:36667; Martin and Grube 2008:2931).
The site suffers from the Intermediate Classic unraveling of this order in an
epigraphic hiatus from AD 554 to 657, which closely parallels similar events
at Tikal (Guenter 2005:371). As reconstructed by Stanley Guenter (2005), the
epigraphic hiatus ends with the accession of Calakmul-affiliated dynasts from
AD 657 to 743 when the ruler of El Per was captured by a resurgent Tikal. A
series of rulers followed, of which little is known, and these were followed by a
final resurgence of royal authority in the personages of Lady Pakal of Calakmul
and her husband: the Stela 32 ruler at the end of the eighth century. While
Terminal Classic monuments exist, they are small in size and poorly executed;
at the same time the sites population expands dramatically through the ninth
century. The sites period of maximal population coincides with its apparent
dearth of centralized authority. In the tenth century, settlement thins considerably, and the site is abandoned by the beginning of the eleventh.
The timing of events in the Tolok and Chok groups place the ceremonies
conducted there at crucial moments in the overall sites occupation. The Tolok
Group doesnt exist prior to AD 750 and enjoys a brief period of florescence in
the latter half of the eighth century. The groups remaining occupation stretches
out into the relatively impoverished 800s, during which little construction takes
place and the burials are notably poorer. This brief period of prosperity coincides with Tikals victory over El Per in AD 743 and the final eclipse of royal
authority in the early 800s.
Similarly with the deposits in the Chok Group, the initial interment of
Burial 38 occurs toward the end of the sites epigraphic hiatus and remains
closely associated with the interment of the much more elaborate Burial 39
of Structure O14-04 (Rich 2011; Rich et al. 2007; Rich and Matute, this volume). The reentry of Burial 38 and the reconstruction of M13-23 occur in
the early ninth century, probably when royal authority begins to fail. The two
events are not isolated incidents. Other ceremonial architecture shows evidence
of reconstruction and ritual use at this same time. Like the fronting platform of
M13-12, Structure L13-22 in Plaza 2 also incorporates monument fragments
in its construction (Guenter 2006; Guenter and Rich 2004). The reentry of
Burial 38 also coincides with what seems to be a rash of tomb reentries around
AD 800. This is also close to the potential AD 801 date for a series of revivification ceremonies conducted in Plaza 4 by the last known ruler of El Per-Waka,
Aj Yax Chow Pat (Freidel et al. 1993:215; Guenter 2005:37677).
In short, these ceremonial deposits and the associated ritual narratives take
place during transformational periods in the sites occupation, during the epigraphic hiatus, after the AD 743 defeat, or on or about the ninth-century
dissolution of royal power. Within the sequence of the residence compounds
themselves, large and rich deposits seem to occur more frequently with foundational events, or during periods of architectural expansion or elaboration.
From these somewhat superficial observations, one can fashion a number of
conditional statements, which can be tested in future excavations.
The use life of Structure M14-15 matches the occupational sequence of the
group from the Late-to-the Terminal Classic. The Tolok Group has a single
period of architectural expansion and general prosperity, followed by a long
static period in which no significant expansion of either the group or the groups
structures occur. It has long been argued that such construction activity can be
used as a means of tracking the general prosperity of a residence compound
(Haviland 1981:100102, 1988:123; Tourtellot 1988:108109). That the
abundance and quality of funerary objects included in the burials of M14-15
match the general tempo of construction in the Tolok Group supports such
hypotheses. The Tolok Group was occupied long after this initial burst of construction, but it seems the inhabitants never duplicated the success of their
founding generation.
Similarly, from Structure N14-2, this large dedicatory deposit dates from the
sole late eighth-century burst of activity that established the compound. The
deposit is significantly larger than one would normally expect from a dedication, especially one from a small stair on the side of a structure. It seems that the
132 Eppich
establishment of a new residence compound in an already densely settled landscape required some degree of visible, conspicuous consumption. The Tolok
Group is a late addition to the site and residents had to shape their place in the
social dynamic. That this compound was most likely surrounded by a palisade
seems to indicate some degree of tenuousness in both their physical and social
position.
While the occupational sequence of the Chok Group is not as well understood as that of the Tolok Group, the placement of Burial 38 corresponds
with the earlier construction of Structure M13-12. The reentry of the tomb
and manipulation of the remains correlates to the much later Terminal Classic architectural modification. That two-and-a-half centuries separate the two
events speaks to the long memory of the Chok Groups inhabitants. They either were or perceived themselves to be the descendants of the individuals who
constructed M13-12 and the personage of Burial 38. If the suppositions given
above are correct, then other ceremonial deposits, as well as general periods of
architectural construction and elaboration, should mirror the dates for the initial interment and reentry of Burial 38. Any future excavations should support
or disprove this.
Across the site as a whole, one can see how dramatic political events shape
the social dynamics in antiquity. If the ceremonial deposits presented above are
any guide, it would seem that the defeats of the ruler and the ruling elite correspond to increased ritual activity among a sites constituent lineage groups.
The collapse of the Teotihuacanoid New Order, the AD 743 defeat, and the
late eighth century collapse of kingship all seem to correlate to, and possibly
even trigger, the ceremonial activities described here. It is interesting that these
political downturns do not seem to result in material impoverishment of the
sites inhabitants; indeed, the converse almost seems to be true. The inhabitants of the residence compounds do not, on the whole, seem to suffer material
disaster when the ruling family does. It could be that Classic society provided
the necessary adhesive elements required to maintain social cohesion following
political failure or collapse. When rulers could not perform the necessary public ceremonies to fashion social order, it seems that such ceremonies then took
place in the individual residence compounds. In an analogy with the Conquest
Period Maya, the rituals for the ancestors may have no longer taken place at
the Temple of Tojil in Qumarcaaj, but they still took place (see Christenson
2007:28591; Tedlock 1993:94103, 2003:18790). In this way, the relationship between Classic rulers and the Classic social dynamic can be seen as more
complementary than competitive. If this holds true, then at other sites with
similar political vicissitudes, there should be quantitatively and qualitatively
similar ceremonial deposits during periods of political disorder. At any rate, it
should not be forgotten that Classic rulers were not the only ritual actors present on the ceremonial stage.
In conclusion, the social dynamic of the Classic Maya, like societies everywhere, remained fluid and plastic, capable of manipulation by those with an
interest to do so or by those who felt they needed to. The ceremonial deposits
excavated at El Per-Waka seem to be the result of ritual activities expected
to establish or maintain a groups social position by incorporating memorable
events into the artificial landscape of the sites architecture. By the close study
of such deposits, especially when placed into their distinct archaeological and
social contexts, it is possible to recover the ritual narratives employed in the
ceremonial manipulation of Classic society. The ancient Maya enacted ceremonies to resurrect the world as the Classic period disintegrated; they held feasts
of conspicuous consumption for newly built residence compounds to ensure
potent souls for their homes; they built ancestral shrines to ensure prosperity for
their descendants. The patterns of such activities, when they occur, and the scale
at which they occur, can tell much about the fluidity and the degree of plasticity
present in the Classic Maya social dynamic. Ritual and ceremonial deposits can
be objectively studied, just like any other patterned human behavior (Merrifield
1988:18485; see also Marcus 2007:6768). The detection of such patterning
lies only in further excavation.
8
Sansamal Performance
Variability in Ritual Contexts
at El Per-Waka
Damien B. Marken
Sansamal: 1, 2, 7, 8: cada da 1: sansamal u beetik: cada da lo hace;
7, 8: todos los das 7, 11: cotidianamente 8, 11: diariamente 11: diario;
cotidiano
Alfredo Barrera Vsquez, Diccionario Maya Cordemex, maya-
espaol, espaol-maya
itual, its impact upon spectators, and its role in the construction (and deconstruction) of ideology are intimately connected to the
character and attributes of a rituals performance. The reconstruction of ancient
performance and its potential to express multivocal meanings is beginning to
garner greater attention in archaeological theory. In a recent volume, Takeshi
Inomata and Lawrence Coben (2006a) provide an important foundation for
continued and refined discussion of the related concepts of performance, spectacle, and theatricality. In an effort to articulate a theoretical perspective focused
on the spatial and social contexts of ritual with approaches oriented toward
interpretation of ritual content, Inomata and Coben (2006b:19) emphasize
performance as a key component in the communication of ideas and the formation of identities and asymmetrical power relationships.1 To advance discussion, the authors present a continuum of performance from broad definitions
to more narrowly focused ones ([Figure 8.1] Inomata and Coben 2006b:1315;
see also Inomata 2006b:806). This continuum is a rather effective conception of
performance with which to improve archaeological interpretations of not only
large-scale ritual events, but also the generally more mundane, even everyday,
interactions within small-scale social groupings, such as kin groups (Palmer and
Jankowiak 1996). Ethnographic documentation demonstrates that Maya ritual
performance is not restricted to highly public, ideology reinforcing rites. Many
anthropologists would, in fact, argue that daily activity in most societies incorporates some aspects of performance, though not necessarily possessing ritual
qualities.
Sansamal Performance 135
Broadly defined
Narrowly defined
Informal daily activities

Discursive
Formal spectacle
Consciously theatrical
Flexible identities
Highly circumscribed
Regulatory norms
Institutionalized
Goffman (1959)
Hymes (1975)
Schechner (1988)
Performance as a mode of
communicative behavior
Note : Whether peformance is public vs. private is not necessarily part of continuum.
Figure 8.1. Performance defined as a continuum. Table by D. Marken derived from

Inomata and Coben 2006b:1315.
In recent years, greater archaeological consideration has been given to non-

elite domestic ritual in Mesoamerican complex societies (e.g., Gonlin and
Lohse 2007; Plunket 2002). Although evidential focus varies, these studies
have generally drawn inferences of past performance from the physical contextthe stageof ritual, as well as its material components. Despite this
trend, much discussion of performance and ritual in the Maya area remains
focused on status-reinforcing spectacle by Classic Maya rulers. Examination of
the variation among potential ritual contexts within the Classic period center
of El Per-Waka suggests that monumental locations were not the only loci
of performances creating and reinforcing communal relationships potentially
outside the dominion of dynastic authority. As is the case across Mesoamerica,
the interment of individuals and caches within numerous residential patios indicates that these locations incorporated some ritual aspects beyond their everyday roles as centers of domestic life (cf. Ashmore 1981; Manzanilla 2002;
Plunkett 2002; Robin 2003).
While these habitation units at El Per-Waka remain to be extensively documented through horizontal excavation (though see Arroyave Prera 2006b; Eppich 2007b, 2011), comparison of their spatial layout with monumental spaces
within the ancient city suggests that an improved understanding of Classic period Maya ritual systems can be best achieved through a multiscalar analytical
approach.2 The validity and usefulness of examining performance at multiple social and spatial scales has been demonstrated ethnographically in the Maya area
(Vogt 1993:40, 155) and elsewhere (e.g., Kus and Raharijaona 2000). Within
this framework, the concepts of spectacle and theatricality gain increased importance in assessing the variability between ritual and performance contexts.
136 Marken
Spectacle
Although Ian Hodder (2006) has criticized Inomata and Coben for over emphasizing large-scale, elite-(or state-) sponsored, community-unifying public
events, they do distinguish spectacle from other, less flashy and more private
forms of performance. Spectacle is a specific type of performance: one of a
certain scale in clear spatial and temporal frames, in which participants witness
and sense the presence of others and share a certain experience (Inomata and
Coben 2006b:16; see also Beeman 1993:180). The prevailing focus on elites in
Maya archaeology makes this distinction a rather important one, particularly if
researchers conflate performance with spectacle (e.g., Houston 2006:136). As
Inomata and Coben recognize, this conflation unfortunately ignores much of
the theoretical usefulness of both concepts. By considering performance and
spectacle one and the same, the anthropology of performance becomes theoretically divorced from the complementary anthropology of experience (Palmer and
Jankowiak 1996). Aspects of performance are incorporated in nearly all facets
of everyday comportment, social interaction, and etiquette. From the way one
behaves around ones parents to ordering food at a restaurant, performance in
any social situation, even for an audience of one, including impressions of how
that performance is received, frames and creates an individuals social persona.
This is not to deny, by any means, the social and political importance of
spectacle in shaping collective experiences and identities. Archaeologically, the
stages of large spectacle are certainly more easily recognizable and, from a multiscalar approach, provide a necessary reference point with which to attempt to
identify less inclusive performance settings. The pitfall for an archaeology of
performance is that by emphasizing ritual spectacle, generally sponsored and
organized by elites, we may overlook other forms of performance serving to
create (or deconstruct) social identities at smaller scales, such as lineages, residential groups, or households (Inomata and Coben 2006b:12).
It is important to note that the degree to which performances are either
public or private, while implied, is not necessarily incorporated within Inomata and Cobens continuum of performance. By definition, spectacles are
public events; however, as the analysis of access patterns at various Classic
Maya palaces shows, restricted inner patios within certain architectural compounds could also provide the spatial setting for particular, semipublic ritual
and political performances (Liendo 2003; see also Marken and Gonzlez Cruz
2007:15053).
Theatricality
One axis of variation identified by Inomata and Coben as critical to the characterization of performance is the concept of theatricality. For Inomata and
Coben, theatricality refers to the density, rather than the presence or absence,
of signs used in a way comparable to formal theatre (Inomata and Coben
2006b:1516). Thus the degree of theatricality involved in a performance
should, for analytical purposes, be to some extent divorced from the scale of
that performance. For instance, greetings, in any context encompass elements
of the theatrical, yet meetings between Classic Maya noble dignitaries would
have likely entailed greater pomp and circumstance than that observed ethnographically in bow-and-release greetings occurring within Zinacanteco households (Vogt 1993:3537). However, as should be evident from this example,
the analytical separation of theatricality and scale is not entirely tenable in real
world performances; as the scale and complexity of performance is increased,
its theatricality often, but not always, tends to become amplified. As Inomata
and Coben succinctly summarize, it follows that the political implications of
performance, in terms of the reproduction of power relations, the negotiation
of ideologies, and the constitution of a community... are closely, but never in
a straightforward manner, related to its theatricality (2006b:16).
That said, it is clear from the ethnographic literature (e.g., Barth 1969;
Eidheim 1969; Siverts 1969; Vogt 1993) that non-theatrical, or minimally
theatrical, daily performance can influence the reproduction of power relationships, ideological structure, and the formation of community and personal
identities. Several cases of ethnic interaction (see Eidheim 1969; Siverts 1969;
Wade 1997) provide excellent examples of nontheatrical performance reinforcing asymmetrical economic, social, and political relationships. Furthermore,
performance within kinship structures may emulate, or be appropriated by, elite
spectacle (Walker and Lucero 2000).
Context Versus Content

Besides an emphasis on large-scale, public performance, Hodder (2006:84) has
also criticized Inomatas (2006b) suggestion that archaeological interpretations
of ritual performance should be largely based on contextual evidence, as opposed to attempting to discern an ancient rituals symbolic content. This methodological disagreement largely resides in Inomata and Hodders dissatisfaction
with each others general approach to archaeological interpretation. Hodder
(1982, 1986) has long advocated that the archaeological record is best viewed
and interpreted as a text. On the other hand, in recent works Inomata (2006a;
2006b; Inomata and Coben 2006b) has proposed performance theory as an
alternative theoretical basis for archaeological interpretation; specifically that,
the study of performance explores the dualityrather than the dichotomy
of thought and action without privileging either (Inomata 2006b:807; see also
Murphy 1971). This interplaythat performance not only transmits meaning,
but also creates and transforms itis echoed within several complementary
138 Marken
theoretical perspectives in anthropology, including those concerned with practice (Bourdieu 1977), structuration (Giddens 1979), ethnicity (Barth 1969),
and the use of space (Smith 2003). Performance theory integrates well with
such perspectives that focus on the dynamic qualities of identity construction
and social interaction (see also Parkinson 2002). Furthermore, emphasis on the
context of performance provides a material correlate more easily approachable
by archaeological methods than attempts at analyzing its content, of which we
can never be fully certain (e.g., Rapoport 1988; Smith 2008; Smith and Schreiber 2006).
A Multiscalar Approach to Performance Settings at El Per-Waka

Approaching ritual performance from a multiscalar perspective allows explicit
comparison of performative difference both between and within multiple social
scales, such as the household, community, or polity, as well as how performance
in varying spatial contexts can serve to reinforce or oppose (or neither) differing integrative or disintegrative roles and functions. Such comparisons bring us
closer to a portion of the acknowledged multivocal potential of performance
(Inomata 2006b:807). A brief comparison of the spatial layout of select monumental and residential spaces in and around El Per-Waka demonstrates how
multiscalar analyses of performance can enhance interpretations of the political
and social impact of ancient Maya rituals (Figure 8.2).
Residences as Multifunctional Performance Settings

The ethnographic and archaeological literature on the multifunctionality of
residences and household settings, both cross-culturally and in the Maya area,
is too extensive to review here, but suffice it to say that it is well established that
in numerous cultures, including the ancient Maya, residences were (and still
are) the locus of a wide range of daily and less frequent activities that incorporated various aspects of performance. These could range from daily meals and
economic activities to meetings and rites targeting specific dates or events. As
is often the case in archaeology, specific habitual activities are difficult to pin
down. For example, after a particular evening meal, the leftovers are generally cleaned up and maybe thrown out, while the durable material remains
are washed and stored. However, repeated processes of clean-up, storage, and
disposal over several years (or even generations) can leave detectable patterns
and/or traces in the archaeological record. At El Per-Waka, investigation and
analysis of residential units and their material content have yet to reach the
point of being able to discern patterns of daily performances within household
groups. Instead, it will be assumed here that daily activities occurred within
residences without specifying what they may have been, and the focus will be
Figure 8.2. Map of El Per-Waka, Petn, Guatemala, indicating monumental and residential areas discussed in
the text. Drawing by D. Marken, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
140 Marken
on briefly describing preliminary data on more singular performances that occurred within households.
Test excavations in Patio EC-B of the Encantado Group archaeologically illustrate the probable multifunctionality of residential patios at El Per-Waka.
Patio EC-B is one of several small elite patios within the Encantado Group,
a densely nucleated residential compound(s), as suggested both by the height
of its range structures and by cut-stone masonry visible in multiple looters
trenches. A test excavation in the western side of the patio by Juan Carlos
Ramrez (Ramrez and Marken 2007) uncovered two intrusive burials below
the patio floor. To inter these individuals, the existing floor was cut and ceramic
offerings accompanied their burial. Considering the cross-cultural pervasiveness of ritual occurrences surrounding the death of a household member, it is
likely that some form of rite and performance accompanied burial placement
and interment (e.g., Arriaza 1995; Bradley 1990:39; Brown 1971; Cabrera Castro 1999; Ciudad Ruiz et al. 2003; Geertz 1973; Harrison-Buck et al. 2007;
Hurtado Cen et al. 2007; Janusek 2008:6869; Klein 2001:123; Parker Pearson
1982, 2001; Saxe 1970; Sempowski 1999; Tiesler 2007; Winter 2002).
Test excavations in architecturally less-imposing, peripheral groups outside the site center proper also have recovered evidence of household-(or
community-) based rituals in the form of dedicatory caches, as well as burials
(Menndez 2008, 2009; Ramrez and Marken 2007). At Group U5-1, a settlement of 11 structures 2.1 km northeast of El Per-Waka, a test excavation in
Patio U5-A by Damaris Menndez (2008:81) recovered two adult male skulls
cached between natural depressions within the bedrock. Excavation did not reveal any indication that the skulls were subsequently disturbed after interment.
Osteological analysis of the skulls demonstrates that both individuals were not
only decapitated, but that they were the victims of additional violent action
(Matute 2008:15965; Jennifer C. Piehl, pers. comm. 2009). The first cranium
exhibits perimortem frontal trauma with no evidence of survival (Matute 2008).
On the second cranium, premortem, laterally oriented cut marks (parietal) and
defleshing marks (mandibular ramus) indicate that this individual was definitely flayed and may have also been scalped before decapitation (Jennifer C.
Piehl, pers. comm. 2009). While neither of the identities of these individuals,
nor their relationships to the inhabitants of Group U5-1 can be determined, the
traumas inflicted upon their heads, their decapitation, and the burial of their
skulls within the patio was a singular series of performances within the patio.
In terms of architectural investment, as determined by the unexcavated
heights of their structures, the Encantado Group and U5-1 are merely two examples of residential groups forming a continuum of socially stratified groups at
El Per-Waka. The buildings forming Patio EC-B are all large range structures
measuring one to more than 3m in height. The height and volume of these
structures, in conjunction with the fine cut masonry visible within the wall
of a looters trench on the western side of Structure M11-22 and the patios
proximity to the epicenter, suggest that its inhabitants were among the elite of
El Per-Waka. At the peripheral Group U5-1, Structure U5-4 (1.2m high) is
the only structure over 0.75 m. Thus, not only were residential patios the loci of
ritual performance, but households of differing social status appear to have been
equally engaged in ceremonial practices (though the specific rites, ceremonies,
and performances may or may not have differed).
Comparison of the Spatial Layouts of Performance and Ritual Contexts

Unfortunately, survey data fail to provide the necessary resolution to begin to
fully conceptualize the variety of ancient rituals and performances that occurred
in the past. Despite this obvious limitation of the current study, there appears to
be a prevailing disjunction in the spatial arrangement of performance contexts
between the city and household scales. Plazas 1 and 2 at El Per-Waka form
the largest, open public spaces in the center (Figure 8.3). Both these adjacent,
parallel rectangular plazas run slightly north of east-west. On the eastern edge of
each plaza, facing west, are situated the tallest and most imposing monumental
buildings of the epicenter, which one would expect to have been the locus of
ruler-sponsored polity-confirming spectacle (Anderson 1983; Houston 2006;
Inomata 2006a, 2006b). In contrast, the western borders are less clearly demarcated and more open. The small structures located on the western sides do not
carry the monumental impact of Structures M13-1, M12-32, and N12-1; the
attention of spectators of ritual and political performances in both Plaza 1 and
2 would have predominantly been to the east.
Within the urban core, residential groups with clear ritual architecture are
few (as determined by unexcavated surface remains). Nevertheless, from the
perspective of spectators the monumental plazas of El Per-Waka have a strong
eastern focus, and residential compounds containing patios with temple-type
structures are oriented slightly east of north-south with the dominant structure located at the southern patio end. For example, the Chok Group contains
a substantially sized formal plaza flanked at the southern end by an imposing temple-type structure, which faces a much smaller range structure (Figure
8.4a). This layout is replicated outside the urban core at Group T22-1 (Figure
8.4b) and Group R18-1 (Figure 8.4c) 2.5 km and 1.5 km to the southeast, respectively, as well as at other peripheral groups. Although the patios of these peripheral groups are better defined than that of the Chok Group, the disjunction
in patio orientation between residential and monumental performance settings
is striking and carries beyond merely temple-structure focused patios.
The largest residential patios at the peripheral settlements of Chakah, 3.3 km
southeast, and Yala (Figure 8.5), 18 km east of El Per-Waka, although lacking
a temple-type structure, also have a southern focus. Large, imposing southern
142 Marken
Figure 8.3. Map of El Per-Waka ceremonial center, 1m contours. Drawing by D.

Marken, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
range structures dominate both patios. The two principal groups mapped at
Yala, in particular, present an interesting contrast. The western, elite residential group, composed of seven buildings arranged around a patio that runs
north-south, follows the pattern of residential patio focus noted above.3 The
focus of the eastern, monumental group is Structure YL-12, a 7-m-high temple
structure facing west with two adjacent 4-m-high wings on its north and
south flanks. The unexcavated form of this structure is reminiscent of Structure
M13-1 at El Per-Waka. Moreover, the orientation of Structures YL-12 and
M13-1 are the same, and both face a largely open space. Thus, residential and
monumental settings exhibit the same disjunction in orientation at Yala as seen
at El Per-Waka. While this cursory comparison does not demonstrate that the
same sorts of performances and rituals occurred at these locations, it does raise
serious doubts as to validity of equating the concept of performance solely with
politically reinforcing spectacle.
Figure 8.4. North-south oriented residential patios at El Per-Waka: a) Tolok and

Chok Groups (1m contours); b) Group T22-1; c) Patio R18-A. Drawings by D. Marken,
Conclusion
Looking beyond El Per-Waka, the multiscalar nature of ritual is evident across
the Classic lowlands. In her recent synthesis of the archaeological signatures of
commoner ritual at Copan, Honduras, Nancy Gonlin (2007:8890) identifies
three organizational scales of ritual performance: 1) the polity level; 2) the community level; and 3) the household level. Moreover, these three scales correlate
to distinct, archaeologically identifiable ritual loci.4 As Gonlin (ibid.) describes,
the Great Plaza of Copan has often been interpreted as the gathering place for
ceremonial events for the entire polity. The temples, ballcourt, and palaces of
Figure 8.5. Map of Yala ceremonial center. Drawing by D. Marken, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
the Main Group were ritual loci where elites and commoners would publicly
come together, while concurrently reaffirming their respective places in the local
social hierarchies. As suggested above, Plazas 1 and 2 (and likely Plaza 4 as well)
in El Per-Wakas ceremonial epicenter likely served similar functions.
Below polity-level rites, ritual was also conducted at the community-or
corporate-group scale. These sorts of rituals are often assumed to have included
presentation ceremonies performed at elite residential loci, such as Structure
9N-82 (Patio A, Group 9N-8) in the Las Sepulturas enclave at Copan (Webster
1989, 2001:146; see also Marken and Gonzlez Cruz 2007). However, other
patios within Group 9N-8 appear to have also been the locations of additional
communal festivities, such as large-scale food preparation and consumption.
Julia Hendon (2009:121) in fact notes that other patios in Group 9N-8 (e.g.,
Patios B, D, and H, as well as Group 9M-22, Patio A) more frequently hosted
feasting activities than the larger and more imposing Patio A. Jason Yaeger
(2003:139) has found similar evidence for identity reinforcing community-
scale rituals at SL-13, a rural ritual complex in the Rancho San Lorenzo area
of the hinterlands of Xunantunich, Belize. In the absence of extensive examples
of exposed elite architecture at El Per-Waka, the degree to which elite patios
served as loci for community or corporate group/lineage rites of solidarity is
difficult to confirm. Nevertheless, it seems probable that at least some patios
at times functioned as receiving areas and for other ceremonies led by local
community leaders. The imposing range structures of Chakah and Yala appear
to fit this pattern. More open to interpretation is the role that leaders of humbler groups may have played in fostering corporate group identities. Was the
decapitation and burial rite conducted at Patio U5-A a community-level event,
bringing together all the inhabitants of Group U5-1, or was it a more private
occasion involving only household/patio members? It is difficult to speculate
without additional information.
The test excavation data from El Per-Waka and its hinterlands best inform
ritual practices at Gonlins third organizational scale, that of the domestic or
household level. As was the case at Copan, spectacle and performance were
not limited to elite or monumental contexts; besides the ritual events described
above, dedicatory caches and patio burials are common across the El Per-
Waka residential landscape cross-cutting socioeconomic status (Arroyave Prera
2010; Menndez 2008, 2009; Ramrez 2006; Ramrez and Marken 2007; see
also Gonlin 2007; Plunket 2002). While full consideration of the variety of
performance contexts at the Classic Maya center El Per-Waka is beyond the
scope of this chapter, this brief discussion suggests that ancient rituals took
place in most, if not all, residential groups. Admittedly more comprehensive
data sets provided by horizontal excavation of patio groups would significantly
improve the range and scope of multiscalar comparisons between groups, as
146 Marken
well as between residential and monumental settings at El Per-Waka (see Eppich, this volume).
A broader and more detailed record of household composition and activities at El Per-Waka may also potentially enable general reconstructions of
informal daily activities and interactions which constitute the majority social
performance.5 Sansamal, in Yucatec Maya, means daily, or habitual. If, as
anthropologists, we hope to truly create an archaeology of performance, we
must not overly focus on the more easily identifiable residues and contexts of
elite ritual at the expense of the social frameworks that demarcated everyday
interactions in the past. To do so could artificially over-estimate the influence of
rulers and elites in our interpretations of Classic Maya society.
Notes
1. Inomata (2006b) has also forwarded performance theory as an archaeological alternative to theoretical approaches viewing the archaeological record as text (e.g., Jones
2002; Patrik 1985).
2. This is not to say that ancient Maya ritual systems were not enmeshed with, or embedded within, other facets of Classic period society, including political, economic, and
kinship systems. A key strength of multiscalar approaches is their ability to separately
analyze and reintegrate data across class lines applying to distinct aspects of society (e.g.,
Barth 1994; Marken and Straight 2007; Parkinson 2002).
3. At the southern end of the patio sits Structure YL-1, a 4.6-m-high range structure
twice the height of the next tallest structure of the patio (see Marken 2008).
4. Gonlin (2007:89) actually labels this organizational scale as that of the corporate
group or lineage. However, I consider community to be a more appropriately flexible
term for this scale.
5. Moreover, a more complete stratigraphic and chronological record in residential
contexts would enable diachronic changes to be included in discussions of performance
as well.
9
The Epigraphy of El Per-Waka
Stanley Paul Guenter
l Per-Waka is one of the largest archaeological sites of western Petn in terms of its physical extent and amount of construction, as well as in
terms of the number of its carved stone monuments. Looters first became aware
of the site in the 1960s, and they sawed the best-preserved stelae and hauled
them away to be sold on the international art market. Subsequently, Ian Graham
investigated the site and with his colleagues produced a map of the center, including the positions of 39 stelae, a number of altars, and jumbled blocks from
at least one hieroglyphic staircase. Unfortunately, Grahams investigations and
sketches remain unpublished (but see Figure I.1). The epigraphic record of El
Per was poorly preserved due to extensive erosion from exposure to more than
a thousand rainy seasons, anthropogenic damage from modern looting activity,
and deliberate destruction of monuments by the ancient Maya themselves.
In 2005, this author presented a preliminary analysis of the epigraphic record of El Per in which the surviving details of the sites 40 plus monuments
were recounted (Table 9.1). In the years since this initial analysis, a number of
new discoveries have been made that add to and modify our earlier interpretations of El Pers epigraphic history. Thus, the following is an update on the
dynastic history and the first summary published in English. It presents these
monuments as repositories of this dynastic history and examines the changes
in treatment of these most material manifestations of memory at the site. As
Wakas rulers changed their alliances to suit the evolving balance of power in
the region, monuments that once were revered could be ignored or even damaged and broken up, and once discarded, monuments could be rehabilitated to
serve the interests of a new generation with less antipathy to the old kings. The
epigraphic record of El Per-Waka is thus eminently suited to any discussion of
ritual, power, and memory at the site.
The Emblem Glyph of El Per

The history of discussion about the Emblem Glyph of El Per (Figure 9.1) has
been presented elsewhere (Guenter 2007) and will not be included here. However, a brief summary may be helpful in order to highlight some of the divisions
between Early and Late Classic El Per in terms of its epigraphic record. In the
Early Classic, the Emblem Glyph of the site reads simply Wak Ajaw, or Lord of
Table 9.1.The Monuments of El Per

Monument
Early Classic Monuments
Stela 15
Stela 14
Stela 10
Stela 26
Stela 40
Stela 16
Stela 17
Stela 9
Stela 23
Stela 28
Stela 22
Late Classic Monuments
Stela 1
Stela 11
Stela 12
Stela 18
Stela 20
Stela 19
Stela 6
Stela 8
Stela 33
Stela 34
Stela 35
Stela 30
Stela 29/31
Stela 27
Stela 24
Stela 25
Stela 32
Stela 38
Stela 39
Terminal Classic Monuments
Stela 37
Undatable Monuments
Stelae 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 13, 21, 36, 41, 42
Date
8.19.0.0.0 (A.D. 416)

(5th c.)
(5th c.)
(5th c.)
(5th c.)
9.1.15.0.0 (470)
(late 5th/ early 6th c.)
(late 5th/ early 6th c.)
9.4.10.0.0 (524)
(ca. 550)
9.6.0.0.0 (554)
9.11.5.0.0 (657)
9.12.0.0.0 (672)
9.12.0.0.0 (672)
9.12.10.0.0 (682)
9.12.10.0.0 (682)
(ca. 680)
Late 7th c.
Late Classic (possibly late 7th c.)
9.13.0.0.0 (692)
9.13.0.0.0 (692)
9.14.0.0.0 (711)
8th c.
9.15.5.0.0 (736)
9.15.10.0.0 (741)
9.16.10.0.0 (761)
(761?)
9.18.0.0.0 (790)
Late 8th c.
Late 8th c.
(9th c.?)
The Epigraphy of El Per-Waka 149
Figure 9.1. a) Early Classic Emblem Glyph from Vase K8777. Drawing by S.Guenter
after a photograph by J. Kerr; b) Late Classic El Per Emblem Glyph from an unpro
venienced hieroglyphic block. Drawing by S. Guenter after a photograph by I. Graham.
Wak. As first noted by Simon Martin (2000), the ancient toponym of El Per,
as found on Stela 33, was Waka. This toponym incorporates a finala syllable,
which is a reference to populated centers as locations of water (ha/a in ancient
lowland Mayan languages) as first discussed by David Stuart and Stephen D.
Houston (1994). As such, this finala functions in much the same way as the
word city in the name New York City and is not a fundamental part of
the ancient name of the site. Instead, the basic name of the site was Wak, and
evidence suggests that this is likely an extinct word for centipede or the jaws of
some such creature (Guenter 2007).
This evidence includes the Early Classic version of the sites Emblem Glyph
(Figure 9.1a), which simply consists (in most cases) of a logographic main sign
in the form of a chilopodan head, greatly resembling the head variant of the
150 Guenter
CHAPA(H)T logogram that is known to refer to centipedes (see bibliography

on this subject in Guenter 2007).
In the Late Classic period, the scribes of El Per added a new hieroglyph to
the Emblem Glyph of the site, preceding the collocation Wak Ajaw (see Figure
9.1b). This first glyph consists of a young lords head marked with a black patch
on his cheek and a KIN sign as an earflare, of unknown reading, surmounted
by a T84 sign, reading NAL, and all prefixed by one of the KUH allographs.
This first sign thus reads Kuh(ul)... Nal, and while some scholars have taken
this to be a title peculiar to El Per, it is important to note that at El Per itself
the sign is never found alone and is always paired with the Wak Ajaw title that
is fundamental to the sites Emblem Glyph. As the first half of the Late Classic
Emblem Glyph remains undeciphered, we cannot be certain to what it refers,
but it is a title that the kings of El Per held in common with a number of
other lords of the central and western Maya region. Most importantly, it modifies their title as kings of El Per to indicate a clear distinction from the Early
Classic line of rulers. Furthermore, while the Early Classic Emblem Glyph of
the site usually spells the word wak with a logogram, almost all Late Classic
examples spell this word phonetically wa-ka, and the only Late Classic example
featuring a logogram does so with full phonetic complementation, suggesting
that the WAK logogram may have been falling into disuse already by the beginning of the Late Classic period.
The Early Classic Period

Evidence suggests that the kingdom of Wak was founded at the end of the Late
Preclassic or the beginning of the Early Classic period. Stela 28 bears a fragmentary text referring to a king as the twenty-fourth ruler of the site. Unfortunately,
Stela 28 is in a ruinous state, and no hieroglyphic date or even trace of one can
be gleaned from its surviving fragments. However, stylistic considerations suggest it dates to the sixth century (Guenter 2005). If we accept that the kings
of El Per had the typical average reign length (see Martin 1997 for a discussion), then this indicates that the founder of the Wak Kingdom must have lived
and ruled in the first couple of centuries AD. No monuments or hieroglyphic
inscriptions have yet been recovered from these early years of El Pers history,
but it is interesting that ceramic data recovered from test excavations in the
sites main plazas suggest they were laid out for the first time at just this time,
toward the end of the Late Preclassic or beginning of the Early Classic periods
(Eppich et al. 2005; Prez Robles 2004), effectively transforming the site into
a royal capital.
There are no known references to the founder of the dynasty in the surviving
texts of the site or to any of his successors for the next few centuries. Stela 15 is
El Pers earliest monument at the site, and it dates to AD 416. It provides the
earliest history of the site, and it preserves a list of katun endings that begin with
the Long Count date of 8.14.0.0.0, or AD 317, a century before the dedication
of the stela itself but still at least a few centuries after the reign of the founder.
The names of two kings from this list have been preserved. The first, Te Chan
Ahk, is associated with a date of 337, while the second, Snake Skull, whose
name has not yet been translated, ruled in 357 (Figure 9.2). The name of the
king who was ruling in 376 fell on part of the monument that has both suffered
breakage and extensive erosion and so has not been preserved. This is most unfortunate as this king was likely ruling when Siyaj Kahk arrived at the site on
8.17.1.4.4, or January 7, 378.1
Siyaj Kahk is one of the most important and controversial characters in
Early Classic Maya history, and his entrada into the Petn in 378 and subsequent career and cultural associations have been the subject of many studies
(Braswell 2003; Martin and Grube 2008; Stuart 2000). Siyaj Kahk is named
as overlord or referenced in a position of power by many lowland Maya kings
at this time, and he is associated with a major increase in the cultural influence
of Central Mexico in the region. At many of these sites, references to Siyaj
Kahk serve as watershed moments in their histories, and this is the case at El
Per as well. Stela 15 presents a long history of the sites kings, but it presents
the most amount of information about Siyaj Kahks arrival and, other than the
dedicatory date of the monument itself, in text twice the size of the rest of the
inscription. The damaged text on Stela 15 connects Siyaj Kahk with the local
ruler Kinich Bahlam I, also known as Kinich Bahlam Chan Ahk (see Figure
9.2c), but due to erosion, their exact relationship is not clear. It is possible that
Kinich Bahlam was the ruling king of the site when Siyaj Kahks arrived in
378, but this is not certain, and he may have been installed as ruler by Siyaj
Kahk in much the same way that Yax Nuun Ahiin I was at Tikal (Martin and
Grube 2008:32).
Whatever his relationship to Siyaj Kahk prior to 378, Kinich Bahlam became one of the most illustrious of El Pers rulers and is referred to on Stelae
15, 16, 17, and possibly 9. Interestingly, none of these were commissioned by
this king, and no monuments can yet be securely dated to his reign. Stela14
may be his work, as it bears an image of a lord thoroughly costumed as a Teotihuacano, complete with goggles over the eyes and a shell necklace. Other
El Per monuments with similar Teotihuacan figures include Stelae 10, 16,
and 26. In comparison to similar monuments at Tikal (Jones and Satterthwaite
1982), these stelae at El Per likely date to the late fourth century, or possibly
the early fifth and thus could date to the reign of Kinich Bahlam. However,
it should be noted that Stela 16 bears a clear dedicatory date of 470, and it
is possible that these other El Per monuments could also date to the later
fifth century. However, the text on Stela 16 indicates that it bears the image of
Siyaj Kahk himself (see below), making this a posthumous monument, and
152 Guenter
Figure 9.2. The name glyphs of various rulers of the Wak Kingdom: a) Te Chan Ahk;
b) Snake Skull; c) Kinich Bahlam Chan Ahk; d) Dragon Jaguar; e) Tapir Chan Ahk;
f) Muwaan Bahlam; g) Kinich Bahlam II; h) Lady Kabel; i)Bahlam . . . ; j) Bahlam
Tzam; k) Aj Yax Chow Pat; l) Lady Pakal. All drawings by S. Guenter, courtesy of the
ElPer-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
it remains more likely that the majority of these El Per monuments bearing
Teotihuacano images date to earlier, rather than later, than Stela 16.
Stela 15 is an all-glyphic stela erected by a son of Kinich Bahlam, whose
name unfortunately is not preserved on the monument. His mothers name,
Lady Wak To... survives and is the only female of the Early Classic whom we
know by name. This anonymous king who commissioned Stela 15 may well
be named in the side text of Stela 16. Here appears the name of one Dragon
Jaguar (the dragon part of his name has not yet been deciphered), who is said
to have been the son of Kinich Bahlam and who appears to have ruled in the
mid-fifth century (see Figure 9.2d). These considerations make Dragon Jaguar a
prime candidate for the lord responsible for Stela 15. He may also have been the
king who commissioned the altar of Stela 36, which bears a Long Count date
of 9.0.10.0.0 (445). Unfortunately, Stela 36 is a monument of irregular form,

which bears no carving today and may have been plain. In any event, it does
not match other Early Classic monuments at the site, and its association with
its altar is likely not to date to any time prior to the Terminal Classic (Guenter
2005). The altar itself bears some very eroded iconography consisting of curving
volutes and possible vegetal motifs but no other text than the Long Count date;
it thus does not indicate who was ruling at the time it was carved. This is the
only carved altar yet found that dates to the Early Classic period.
Dragon Jaguar was succeeded by a lord who has been nicknamed Tapir Chan
Ahk (see Figure 9.2e) (Guenter 2005). He acceded on 9.3.1.0.17, 11 Caban
15 Yaxkin (August 27, 458) and is the only securely dated accession known for
any king of El Per. The text on the side of Stela 16 referring to his accession
provides the only list of the kingdoms patron gods. Sadly, this, like so much of
the epigraphic record at El Per, is eroded, but enough remains to identify three
gods. The first is a variant of the Drunken Death-God Akan distinguished by
the color term yax (blue/green) and the T181 moon sign. This Blue-Moon
Drunken Death-God is, interestingly, the deity said on Lintel 3 of Temple IV
at Tikal to have been taken back to Tikal following El Pers defeat in battle at
the hands of Tikals king, Yikin Chan Kawiil, in 743. The two other deities
named on Stela 16 include an unknown god with a jaguar ear, whose name
glyph is badly damaged, and what appears to be the moon goddess, Ixik Uh,
Lady Moon.
Stela 16 itself was dedicated in 470 and, according to surviving text on the
front of the monument, was dedicated to Siyaj Kahk. The text indicates that
the image of the lord on the front is all but certainly of this Central Mexican
warlord (Freidel et al. 2007). Stela 16 thus provides the only known image of
this important individual in Classic Maya history, and it is interesting to note
that the spearthrower he holds in his right hand has its tip carved in the shape
of a birds head. This is surely a reference to Spearthrower Owl, likely the ruler
of Teotihuacan and overlord for whom Siyaj Kahk himself was working. In
the left arm of the figure on Stela 16 is a torch, another important ritual object
connected to Teotihuacan (Nielsen 2003). It is important to note that this stela
was carved nearly a century after Siyaj Kahks arrival, who must have been long
dead by this point. This posthumous portrait, then, demonstrates the extent to
which El Pers kings took pride in their association with this important political individual.
In 470, Tikal was abandoning Teotihuacan-inspired imagery in its monuments and iconography (Guenter 2002), and it is interesting to see a reemphasis at El Per of this same cultural influence at this time, suggesting divergent
political paths for these near-neighbors in the late fifth century. This contrast
between Tikal and El Per can also be seen in the outer form and size of each
sites monuments. While Tikals Early Classic monuments are generally small,
154 Guenter
usually less than 2m tall and quadrangular in cross-section, El Pers are very
large, rectangular, and often approach 3 or 4m of carved surface alone. Furthermore, while Tikals Early Classic monuments eschew hieroglyphic texts on
their front faades and often depict the parents of the king flanking the king
on the side of the monument, El Pers Early Classic stelae have vertical bands
of hieroglyphic text flanking the king on the front face of the monument with
only hieroglyphic texts carved upon the sides. Most of Tikals stelae of the period bear long hieroglyphic texts on the rear of the monument, while the backs
of El Pers monuments are in all cases plain. It is apparent that the sculptors of
El Per were following a very different path than those of Tikal. The lack of any
overt references to political control of El Per by Tikal at this time, combined
with this lack of evidence for cultural influence, suggests that during the fifth
century El Per was independent of Tikal.
This situation may have changed in the early sixth century. While there are
no surviving hieroglyphic records to attest to it (although a possible Tikal Emblem Glyph shows up on El Per Stela 28), iconographic considerations suggest
that the sculptors of El Per and Tikal were in closer contact in this later period.
One of the most common images on stelae of the early sixth century at El Per
is the king standing atop a basal mask, bearing a rigid double-headed serpent
bar, from whose ends hang shields with dangling flange elements. This can be
seen on Stelae 23 (Figure 9.3a) and 22, dating to 524 and 554 respectively, as
well as a number of later monuments. This same hanging shield with dangling
flanges appears on a number of monuments from the Central Petn, including Stela 26 of Tikal and Stela 3 of Uaxactun that also date to the late fifth or
early sixth centuries; this suggests a closer relationship between El Per and its
neighbors to the east. Further indication of this relationship is that all of these
sites began century-long hiatuses shortly after 550. Sadly, none of the names of
El Pers rulers in the early sixth century have been recovered. The name of an
otherwise unknown king from this general time period, Muwaan Bahlam (see
Figure 9.2f ), appears on an unprovenienced vase, K8777, where he is titled a
Wak Ajaw using the Early Classic form of the sites Emblem Glyph.
The Hiatus and Seventh Century

Unfortunately, there is no indication of what caused the hiatus at El Per,
which lasted from 554, when Stela 22 was erected, until 657, when Stela 1 was
commissioned. However, the concurrent hiatus of Tikal has been linked to a
series of defeats at the hands of the Snake Kingdom of Dzibanche and Calakmul, including epigraphically documented ones in 562 and 657 (Martin and
Grube 2008:3942). As El Pers kings emerged from the hiatus firmly in the
Calakmul camp, with there being no hieroglyphic evidence for this allegiance
earlier, it is clear that at some point during this century, El Per slipped into
Figure 9.3. Early and Late Classic stelae of El Per-Waka: a) Stela 23. Photograph
courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project. b)Stela 34. Photograph
courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art.
the Calakmul fold. A defeat in battle at the hands of the Snake Kings is quite
likely, and the shattered remains of El Pers Early Classic monuments attest to
a major episode of monument destruction at some point in the sites history.
This can be dated, at least for Stela 15, due to the fragments of this stela having been placed within a masonry bench on Structure L13-22 in the Terminal
Classic period (Guenter 2006; Guenter and Rich 2004). These fragments exhibit differential amounts of erosion, and due to their having all been placed in
this bench, it is clear that the differential erosion must have occurred prior to
their placement in the bench. As this placement occurred during the Terminal
Classic, the erosion must have occurred in the Late Classic period. Therefore
we must envision the fragments of the stela laying scattered about, with some
facing up and some facing down, for a considerable amount of time in the Late
Classic. The destruction of the monument must then have fallen at some point
between the Early Classic, when the stela was originally carved and the Late
Classic; and the hiatus period is the most obvious point in time to suspect for
this destruction.
The fact that at least some of El Pers Early Classic monuments were broken
and lying scattered about during the Late Classic suggests that the sites new
156 Guenter
kings in this later period were less than reverent regarding their Early Classic
predecessors. The Early Classic style of monuments was replaced in the Late
Classic with a new figural and hieroglyphic arrangement. The flanking vertical
bands of hieroglyphs on the Early Classic monuments were abandoned and,
starting on Stela 1 already in 657, short texts were inserted into the figural
scene, following a pattern seen in the monuments of Calakmul and its allies (see
Figure 9.3). However, not all aspects of El Pers earlier monument style were
discarded. Double-headed serpent bars with hanging shields would continue,
at least for the next half-century, but overall there were some major shifts in the
arrangement of iconography and hieroglyphs on El Per monuments.
This shift is paralleled by the adoption of the Late Classic version of the sites
Emblem Glyph. Unfortunately, no Emblem Glyphs are preserved on any of El
Pers Late Classic monuments until we see Stelae 33 and 34 erected in 692,
by which time the standard Late Classic form discussed above was clearly the
norm. These were the two best-preserved monuments of El Per and, most
lamentably, were sawed up and looted, their faces now being found in the Kimbell Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art, respectively. These stelae
portray Kinich Bahlam II (see Figure 9.2g) and his wife, Lady Kabel (see Figure 9.2h), a Calakmul princess, who were probably the sites most important
rulers of the Late Classic period. Interestingly, Lady Kabel, a foreign queen at
the court of her husband, is given the title of Ix Kaloomte, which gives her a
higher rank than her husband. This precedence is also found in a few technical
aspects of their monuments. Stela 34, portraying the queen, features deeper
carving, thus making her image stand out more than that of her husband, and
it is also the only one of the two to carry any sculptors signatures. In fact, Stela
34 bears no fewer than 10 and possibly 11 separate signatures of its carvers.
Lady Kabel is shown on Stela 34 (see Figure 9.3b) with her own personal
dwarf attendant, who is named Pat Tuun Ahk. He is the only dwarf known to
appear on any of the monuments of El Per, and it may be that he came with
Lady Kabel from Calakmul. The fact that her husband is not depicted with his
own dwarf again highlights Lady Kabels relatively higher status in comparison
to him. This undoubtedly stemmed from her identity as a royal princess from
Calakmul, the dominant power in the Maya lowlands during the mid-to late
seventh century. This was during the reign of Yuhknoom Cheen II (the Great),
who ruled for a half century from 636686, and his was a golden age of sorts
for the Snake Kingdom (Martin and Grube 2008:1089). Lady Kabels direct
relationship with this king is unclear, but she was likely his daughter or granddaughter and her husband, Kinich Bahlam, celebrated his accession under the
authority of Yuhknoom Cheen as well. Stela 34 even records the accession of
Yuhknoom Cheens successor, Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk, who may well have
been Lady Kabels brother.
Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk was also commemorated on the blocks of El
Pers Hieroglyphic Stairway 1. The blocks of this monumental assemblage had
been disturbed by looting, but in situ pieces were found on Structure L11-33
and L11-37 on the eastern edge of the royal palace and just next to the sites
lone identified ballcourt (Lee 2006; Piehl and Guenter 2005). Recovered blocks
include a number depicting ballplayers, as well as associated caption blocks, one
of which identifies one of these players as Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk himself
(Lee 2006). Other disordered caption blocks include the names and titles of
El Per lords, and associated hieroglyphic blocks include a number of references to Kinich Bahlam II and one to his wife, which is identified only by her
Calakmul Emblem Glyph and kaloomte titles (Guenter 2005; Lee 2006; Piehl
and Guenter 2005). Other blocks from this stairway include a reference to the
dedication of a ballcourt on a date only partially preserved, but this is enough to
suggest that this royal couple was likely responsible for a major refurbishment of
El Pers ballcourt (see also Melndez, this volume).
El Pers connection with Calakmul appears earlier in the sites Late Classic
history. Stela 20, dating to 682, records the birth of Yuhknoom Cheen and
could perhaps even portray the Calakmul king himself (Guenter 2005). Stela
12, dating to 672, bears a hieroglyphic text including the title kaloomte, which
at this time at El Per is all but certainly a reference to the king of Calakmul,
overlord of El Pers own kings. The name of the king who commissioned Stela
12 is not preserved, but is likely Kinich Bahlam. Not only does the figure on
Stela 12 bear a headdress featuring a prominent jaguars head emerging from
a sun symbol, an iconographic reference to the name of Kinich Bahlam, but
the titles on this stela include the information that the king at that time was
a 2 katun lord. Stela 33 indicates that Kinich Bahlam was a 3 katun lord two
decades later, and this means that if it is not Kinich Bahlam portrayed on
Stela12, it was someone from his own generation.
In fact, Kinich Bahlam may also be the king portrayed on Stela 1, the first
monument erected after the hiatus. This badly eroded monument is found in
front of Structure O14-04, a prominent pyramid on the southeastern edge of
the site (see Rich and Matute, this volume). The figure on this stela also features
a jaguar head in his headdress, just as Stela 12 did, and part of this kings name
may also include the word for jaguar; but unfortunately the name glyphs on this
monument are simply too damaged for a proper reading. If the katuns in the
katun ajaw record of Kinich Bahlam on Stela 33 refer to katuns of reign, rather
than of life, then he would have been a 1 katun lord in 652, and could easily be
the lord shown on Stela 1, which dates to 657.
Stela 1 is the only carved monument found outside of the site core, and as
the first monument erected after a century-long hiatus, must have had special
significance for the new lords of El Per. It is likely that it was erected as part
of a renovation of Structure O14-04 that followed the interment of one of
the most spectacular royal tombs found thus far at El Per, Burial 39. This
lavishly stocked tomb was discovered in 2006 by Michelle Rich and her colleagues (Rich et al. 2007), and its contents included a complex figurine scene
158 Guenter
representing the royal court, as well as countless polychrome vessels and an heirloom Olmec jade figurine (Rich et al. 2010). The ceramics suggest an early Late
Classic date (roughly Tepeu 1 or Ik Complex equivalent) (Rich et al. 2010),
and paleographical considerations of the hieroglyphic texts that many of these
vessels bear suggest a date in the very late sixth or early to mid-seventh century.
Together, these two lines of data suggest the same rough date, and Stela 1 may
well provide us with a terminus ante quem for the tomb.
The many polychrome ceramics found within Burial 39 originally gave hope
for the recovery of the name of the entombed ruler. Ironically, this is not possible, not due to a lack of names on funerary vessels but rather due to a surfeit
of them. One name is Bahlam Tzam, Jaguar Throne, whose namesake in the
mid-eighth century was the lord defeated by Tikal (see below). This repetition
of a royal name makes this a likely name for an earlier ruler, but we cannot
know whether this name belonged to the interred individual or was a gift from
his successor, or even predecessor. Another vessel bears a partially preserved
name Bahlam..., which may well be another reference to Bahlam Tzam,
but again, this cannot be confirmed. A third vessel provides a long name of a
lord who bears the Early Classic version of the El Per Emblem Glyph, while
two others bear the name Akab Bahlam, who is not given any otherwise known
royal or elite titles. Unfortunately, none of these names can be securely linked to
the lord buried in the tomb, and he must therefore remain anonymous. However, the texts in the tomb do provide the name of at least one, and possibly two,
early Late Classic lords of the Wak Kingdom.
Whoever this king was, he was certainly a wealthy lord, demonstrating that
while the site suffered a monumental hiatus that appears to have stretched into
the mid-seventh century, the royal court was not impoverished at this time. Following his interment, the lord on Stela 1 came to the throne, and he may well
have been Kinich Bahlam II in his early years. Over the next 35 years, leading
up to the carving of Stelae 33 and 34, El Per appears to have experienced its
own golden age paralleling that of its Snake King overlords. No fewer than
eight stelae were erected in this time, and probably considerably more. One of
the features of these monuments is that stelae were often erected in pairs, one
portraying the king and the other a queen. While women would continue to
be portrayed on monuments in the eighth century, these later monuments integrate the figures of both the king and the queen on a single monument. The
only securely dated monuments portraying individual female rulers all date to
the late seventh century, including Stelae 11, 18, and 34.
This helps in interpreting some of the more badly eroded monuments, such
as Stela 6, which bears a severely eroded portrait of a female on its front face,
and completely destroyed hieroglyphic texts on its sides (Navarro-Farr 2005).
This monument was placed, along with Stelae 7 and 8, in front of the central
staircase of Structure M13-1, the largest ritual structure at the site. Stela 7,
situated in the center of this group of monuments, has completely disintegrated

into small chunks of eroded stone, and no carving whatsoever has been preserved on it. The fragments of Stela 8 were excavated out of a large ants nest,
and although only a few stones with preserved carving were recovered, these
included a bare leg, indicating that a male ruler was originally portrayed upon
it (Guenter 2006). The presence of an eroded remnant of a sculptors signature
indicated a general Late Classic date. Unfortunately, these monuments are too
eroded to date precisely or determine the names of the individuals originally
portrayed on them. However, Stelae 6 and 8 may have formed one more stela
pair, framing Stela 7 in the center.
Stelae representing contemporary royal women, as opposed to mothers of
kings, and especially when portrayed on their own monuments, is a feature
particularly notable at Calakmul and allied sites. Lady Kabel, on Stela 34, is
the best known, while part of the name of the female on Stela 18 (actually on a
fragment of this monument currently in Sweden) reads Lady Naah Chan. It is
unclear if this is the womans personal name, and it remains quite possible that
this is simply another of Lady Kabels monikers. It can be noted that the jewelry and headdress of the woman on Stela 18 is identical to that worn by Lady
Kabel on Stela 34, making it more likely that these two portraits, only 10 years
apart, depict the same woman. Unfortunately, the identities of most of these
royal females at El Per are uncertain, but it is quite likely that most, if not all,
were princesses from Calakmul. It is interesting to note that while there are half
a dozen images of women on the monuments of El Per, there are no images
of captives, at least that have survived, and only a single possible reference to
warfare has been found in the sites admittedly fragmentary epigraphic record.
It seems clear that the golden age of El Per was due more to the marriage
alliances of its kings than their military prowess.
The Eighth Century

Stela 34, erected along with Stela 33 in 692, proudly records the accession of
Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk, which occurred six years earlier. However, in 695
this king of Calakmul was defeated by Tikal, and the power of the Snake Kingdom was overshadowed. This defeat had repercussions at and for El Per as well;
and while more than half a dozen stelae were erected at the site in the katun
between 672 and 692, only one has been found dating to the next katun. This
is Stela 35, which was situated just to the west of Stela 34 on the western edge
of Plaza 1, and it dates to 711. It portrays a king on the front, who may also be
Kinich Bahlam II, as the lord, whose name again has been lost to erosion, bears
a 4 katun ajaw title, which would be appropriate for this king. Furthermore, as
with Stela 12, his headdress includes a jaguar head emerging from a sun symbol.
If it is Kinich Bahlam II, there is no sign of any companion stela for his wife,
160 Guenter
Lady Kabel, who may well have been deceased by this time. Conversely, the
eclipse of Calakmul may have led to her own personal eclipse in her adopted
home as well.
No stelae have yet been found at El Per that date to the quarter century
between 711 and 736, and Kinich Bahlam II must have passed on in this interval, with probably less pomp than greeted his accession. Stela 31, whose lower
half turns out to have been the monument Graham designated as Stela 29, portrays a king and a queen on its front face, and while the dedicatory date of the
monument has been preserved, both of their names have been lost. Stela 27 was
erected just five years later in 741 and portrays a single king upon it. His name
is preserved and reads Bahlam... (see Figure 9.2i), which may be a variant
of Bahlam Tzam (see Figure 9.2j), who was the El Per king who was defeated
by Tikals Yikin Chan Kawiil in 743, just two years later. This must have been
a major military defeat of El Per, as it is featured on the innermost lintel of
Temple IV at Tikal, pride of place in Tikals largest temple. This occurred less
than a decade after Yikin Chan Kawiil had defeated Yuhknoom Took Kawiil,
king of Calakmul. It is important to note that this Calakmul king is said, on El
Per Stela 27, to have overseen the local El Per lords accession (Martin and
Grube 2008:112). With its main backer defeated for the second time in 40
years, El Per was easy prey for Tikals militaristic ruler.
The aftermath of this defeat is hard to judge today. Tikals scribes recorded
that one of El Pers patron gods, the Blue-Moon Drunken Death-God, was
taken back to Tikal and rehabilitated as a local god of that site in a new shrine
(Freidel and Guenter 2006; Martin 2000). At El Per, it used to be thought
that there was a 47-year hiatus until the erection of Stela 32 in 790 (Martin and
Grube 2008:50); however, fragments of Stela 24, recovered in 2003 (Guenter
2005) provide a date of 761, indicating that El Pers lords were erecting monuments again within 20 years of their defeat. Due to the looting of large sections
of Stela 24, there is today no record of whether the sites kings at this time were
independent or under Tikal suzerainty, but this was a period in which Tikals
power seems to have been at its apogee. Nevertheless, there is no indication in
the style of El Pers monuments of any Tikal influence, and whatever power
or dominion that Tikal exercised over El Per would appear to have been more
political than cultural in nature.
Stela 24 was originally paired with Stela 25 in front of Structure M12-32,
the tallest structure at the site. The two stelae are almost identical in shape and
iconographic layout. The only major difference is that the figure on Stela 25 is
much smaller than the one on Stela 24, and is essentially the size of a child. One
of the surviving fragments of Stela 24 preserves a death expression associated
with a day 13 Ahau, and this may well be the death date of the adult lord shown
on the monument. Stela 25, in this hypothesis, would portray the probable
son and successor of the deceased lord, and both monuments would have been
erected together in front of his funerary pyramid. Unfortunately, again due to

the fragmentary epigraphic record, this hypothesis cannot yet be tested.
No further securely dated monuments have been found to cover the time
span between 761 and 790. However, some of the stelae in Plaza 4 may date
to this period. Almost nothing remains of Stela 38, which was sawed up and
almost all of the carved sections removed. It was associated with a carved altar
that remains on the site, and this monument portrays a lord seated within the
body of a turtle. That this is an image of a deceased lord seems clear from the
hieroglyphic text that wraps around the body of the altar. This includes a calendar round date of 2 Imix 4 Pop and a reference to the ending of 12 and 3
katuns in the heart of the turtle. A series of titles follows and ends with the
name Kinich Bahlam and the El Per Emblem Glyph. This is all but certainly
the same Kinich Bahlam on Stela 33, and may refer to a date 72 years after his
death. If so, his death or burial must have fallen in 730, and this commemoration of his entombment would have happened in 801. However, the odd arrangement of the number 12 and 3 katuns in Glyph 4 of this text (the 12 could
refer to days, rather than years), plus the uncertainty of the text in general,
means that we cannot discount the possibility that this date is 749.
This is most problematic as the same 2 Imix 4 Pop date appears on Stela 39,
where it is the accession date of a new lord name Aj Yax Chow Pat (see Figure
9.2k). This lord must have come to the throne in either 749 or 801 and commissioned Stelae 38 and 39 at some later time. Stela 39 was one of the finer
monuments at the site, before it was sawed up and many of its best-preserved
sections looted. The remaining fragments have so far not yielded any clues as
to the proper Long Count date for the 2 Imix 4 Pop calendar round date, or
any relationship that Aj Yax Chow Pat might have had with the other rulers of
this era.
The only securely dated monument from this late period is Stela 32, which as
stated above, dates to 790 and portrays a king and a queen on its front surface.
The kings name is illegible, but he bears a 3 katun ajaw title. His wife is named
as Lady Pakal (see Figure 9.21), and she arrived at Waka in 771. Damaged
text at the end of the text associates her with a Bat Emblem Glyph. As Simon
Martin has noted (Martin 2005), Calakmuls late eighth century lords appear to
have returned to an earlier Bat Kingdom Emblem Glyph, and this suggests that
Lady Pakal is yet another queen at El Per who hailed from Calakmul.
After recording Lady Pakals arrival, the narrative of Stela 32 then jumps 14
years to the Period Ending date of 9.17.15.0.0, 5 Ahau 3 Muan (October 31,
785), and a considerable amount of text then describes the festivities conducted
on this event. This much attention for a nonmajor period ending suggests historical reasons for its prominence, and this may well have been a celebration for
El Pers final emergence from the shadow of Tikals dominance, under which
it had suffered since 743. Certainly there are signs elsewhere in the Petn for
162 Guenter
Tikals declining power in this time (Martin and Grube 2008:51). It is interesting to note that Stela 32 was placed toward the western edge of Plaza 1, just
north of Stelae 33 and 34, those of Kinich Bahlam II and Lady Kabel, suggesting a deliberate evocation of this earlier royal couple from the sites golden age.
The name of Kinich Bahlam appears in the eroded text on the sides of Stela 32;
this may be a reference to this earlier ruler, but it remains possible that this is
a reference to another ruler, perhaps even the king portrayed on Stela 32 itself.
While El Pers late eighth-century monuments do not preserve much evidence of political relationships, other than this probable marriage alliance with
Calakmul, there is some evidence of cultural contact with and influence from
neighboring kingdoms. Beginning with Stelae 24 and 25, El Pers monuments
start to feature a basal element consisting of a zoomorphic mountain monster
mask (already apparently de rigeur on the sites monuments since at least the
beginning of the sixth century), featuring eyes in the form of ancestor busts (see
Martin 2000 for a discussion). These types of iconographic motifs were also
common at sites along the Usumacinta River, such as Piedras Negras, where
the back of Throne 1 is carved in this fashion. Furthermore, the zoomorphic
supports of the altar of El Per Stela 39 are in the form of witz monsters heads
in a very similar style to those of Piedras Negras Altar 4. It is interesting to
note that despite a probable Tikal political domination of the Wak Kingdom
following the 743 war, there are no signs of cultural influence from Tikal on
El Pers monuments in the late eighth century. Rather, the sculptors of Waka
appear to have been influenced by trends that were current in sites to the west,
a possible indicator of political and cultural ties that are not explicit in the sites
epigraphic record.
There is some evidence of such cultural contacts from funerary ceramics recovered at the site as well. A polychrome vessel found in a late eighth-century
elite tomb in Structure M14-15 bears the name of Tayel Chan Kinich of the
Ik kingdom, which is seated on the site of Motul de San Jos, suggesting that
the interred noble had received the vase as a gift from this late-eighth century
foreign lord (Eppich 2007b). This is not the first indication of interaction with
eastern kingdoms, as a fragmentary vessel, encountered by looters but recovered
by El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project archaeologists, was found in
the Chakah (Quiroa Flores and Prez Robles 2005) settlement, 5 km southeast
of the site center, bearing the Emblem Glyph of El Zotz (Eppich et al. 2005).
These vessels were probably given to these subroyal elite when they visited these
foreign royal courts and participated in feasting ceremonies (Reents-Budet
2000). Such vases, bearing the names and titles of these foreign lords, would
serve as permanent reminders of this interaction and enhance the prestige of
their new owners. Such epigraphic clues remind us that elite interaction among
the ancient Maya was not restricted to intersite relationships between rival or
allied kings, or even intrasite relationships between local kings and their vassals,
but could include relationships between subroyal elites and foreign kings.
The late eighth-and early ninth-century royal history of El Per thus remains quite murky. There is one final stela to consider, Stela 37, which was set
with a gigantic but uncarved altar on the eastern side of Plaza 4. Only the lower
half of the monument has been recovered, but it bears the image of a male ruler
on one side and a female on the other. Stylistically, these images appear to be
Terminal Classic in date, as the figures are smaller than those of the earlier Late
Classic, and the better-preserved male figure is portrayed in a more rigid pose
with less attention paid to the details of the carving. A hieroglyphic text on the
left side of the monument has been partially preserved, and the glyphs seen
here are in a style most reminiscent of Terminal Classic monuments, such as
Calakmul Stela 61. If Stela 37 does date to the Terminal Classic, it would be,
however, the latest monument with the portrait of a woman, as well as one of
the only Terminal Classic monuments with a sculptors signature. The evidence
together suggests a probable early ninth-century date for the stela, but this cannot be confirmed; like so many other monuments at El Per, Stela 37 leaves
more questions than it answers.
While El Pers epigraphic record ends in the late eighth or early ninth century, we know that the site struggled on into the Terminal Classic and that these
late occupants felt free to move around and reuse the monuments of the old
kings and queens (Guenter 2006; Guenter and Rich 2004; Lee 2006; Lee and
Piehl, this volume; Navarro-Farr 2005; Piehl and Guenter 2005). Monuments
that were certainly moved around in the Terminal Classic period include Stelae
9, 10, 14, 15, and 28; all date to the Early Classic period, as well as the blocks
of Late Classic Hieroglyphic Staircase 1. The fragments of Stelae 14 and 15 were
set into a plaster bench on the west side of Structure L13-22 in an apparent
act of reverence. However, a staircase was subsequently added to this structure,
which covered the central portion of the bench, and shortly thereafter a considerable midden of feasting debris accumulated over the staircase, suggesting that
this Terminal Classic reverence was short lived (Guenter 2006).
Stela 28 had been allowed to slump until it broke into three parts, with
the lowermost section still interred. The fragments of the upper section of the
monument were then used to chock up the middle section, which was reset in
its original location (ibid.). To imagine this, and probably other monuments,
lolling in the middle of Plaza 1 indicates a profound disinterest in maintaining
royal monuments. While Stela 28 appears to date to the sixth century, a cache
vessel recovered in 2005 appears to date the reerection of Stela 28 to the Terminal Classic period (Eppich 2010a).
Unfortunately, the only contemporary hieroglyphs from the Terminal Classic
consist of illegible texts, often pseudoglyphic in nature, found on elite ceramics and one carved piece of shell (see Lee 2004). This means that no historical
information can be gathered for this period, nor can we know to what degree
the sites Terminal Classic elite were related to the Late Classic rulers. El Pers
epigraphic record thus ends in unintelligible pretensions to a literacy that was
164 Guenter
already well on its way to being entirely lost. The histories of rulers such as the
two Kinich Bahlams and the illustrious Lady Kabel were soon forgotten, and
the remaining stelae collapsed and were covered by the encroaching jungle.
Discussion
One might think that the epigraphic corpus of El Per, being as large as it is,
would provide unparalleled insight into the themes of power, ritual, and performance at the site of El Per-Waka over the four-century span of its written
record. However, the information these monuments provide on these topics is
extremely meager. While the original corpus undoubtedly provided more information, the only rituals that are discussed on these monuments that can be read
today include accession ceremonies, ballgames, the dedication of monuments,
and little more. While commonly mentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions from
other sites, there are no mentions of building dedications, marriage ceremonies,
captures, sacrifices, and so on. What is often not appreciated about ancient
Maya texts is how extremely laconic they are, with plenty of attention paid to
dates, names, and titles of the officiating kings and queens. The inscriptions of
El Per-Waka, due to the extreme damage they have suffered from both looting and just the vagaries of the jungle environment, are even more laconic than
normal for ancient Maya sites.
Nevertheless, the monuments and inscriptions of the site do attest to ceremony. The cache associated with Stela 28 demonstrates that the ancient Maya
of Waka did carry out elaborate ceremonies to dedicate or rededicate their
monuments. Over 1,500 obsidian flakes and pieces of flint were found above
the cache vessel, and all of this was covered by two large, but irregular, stone
altars. While the uppermost of these may have originally been exposed on
the surface of the plaza, when found these were significantly below the modern
surface, indicating that much evidence of ancient Maya ritual at the site remains
hidden pending further excavation.
The stelae at El Per-Waka also record that the deities of the site attended
the accessions of kings and dedication of monuments. While only three are
mentioned in the hieroglyphic texts, the site undoubtedly would have had more
deities than these. However, three were recognized as the principle deities of the
city, and perhaps the kingdom. Their witnessing of rituals likely occurred in
the form of their statues or idols being carried from their temples to be placed
in attendance at these rituals, or the rituals themselves occurred within those
temple locations. The monuments themselves depicted the kings and queens in
the moment of carrying out those rituals and thus provided a constant reminder
of the ceremonies they had enacted. In fact, the Maya words for image and
self are the samebaah in ancient Mayan (Stuart 1996). This indicates that
the monuments did not merely represent and reflect earlier rituals; for the
ancient Maya they were the kings and queens themselves, frozen in stone in the
perpetual act of carrying out those regal ceremonies. In this light, the destruction meted out to such monuments by enemies of the kingdom becomes more
understandable. The chipping away of the eyes and faces of the ancient lords
rendered them blind and thus, presumably, less able to assist their descendants
when rituals were performed in front of the monuments in order to request assistance from the ancients. This also makes sense of the caching of monuments;
for even though such monuments would be removed from sight of the contemporary people of the city, the ancient lords carved upon them would continue to
carry out their rituals in darkness and silence, rendering the structures in which
their monuments were interred all the more powerful.
In the Terminal Classic period, the broken monuments of earlier periods
were rearranged and reerected, or otherwise placed on display. Excavations
around Structure L13-22 suggest that this attention paid to earlier monuments
likely occurred relatively early in the Terminal Classic, as people living later in
the Terminal Classic placed stairways over these same monument fragments,
and even later still, deposited extensive middens over these same stairways. The
reuse of earlier monuments, including ones that appear to have been left discarded throughout the Late Classic, suggests an attempt to use these monuments, redolent with the power of earlier kings associated with the golden age of
the site, in order to spark a renaissance in the fortunes of the city and its citizens.
This attempt was less than successful, however, and the monuments seem to
have lost their power, perhaps inspiring the less than reverential attention paid
by later Terminal Classic occupants of the site. The fact that the earlier Terminal
Classic people of the site reused and venerated monuments from all periods of
the sites history, in contradistinction to the Classic period lords themselves,
suggests that these later peoples were not as intimately invested in the political
divisions and allegiances of these earlier lords. Whether these later Terminal
Classic peoples included any members of El Pers Classic period dynasties is
not clear. Yet Stela 37, whose style suggests a Terminal Classic date, suggests that
if they did not, there was at least an elite able to oversee this ritual attention
paid to earlier monuments and to commission new monuments.
Conclusion
El Pers epigraphic record thus covers a little over four centuries, and its fragmentary nature allows us only the smallest amount of information about the
lives of the sites kings and queens. However, the evidence presented shows that
the ritual treatment of Wakas monuments changed through time, as the memories of the kings and queens whose exploits were recorded upon them were
held in greater or lesser repute. El Per first enters history in the fifth century
as a vassal of the Teotihuacan-associated warlord, Siyaj Kahk. The many stelae
166 Guenter
carved in this period exhibit a flourishing royal court, and one that insisted on
distinguishing itself from that of nearby Tikal. Although El Per appears to
have been independent of Tikal in this period, by the early sixth century, El
Pers monuments reflect increasing contact with that central Petn power. El
Per would then suffer a century-long hiatus, from 554 to 657, which is similar
to many other sites in the region. This hiatus was likely due to conquests by the
Snake Kingdom of Calakmul, and many of the sites Early Classic monuments
appear to have been damaged or broken up at this time.
El Pers new Late Classic rulers would be allied closely with this new superpower of Calakmul, and the sites most important queens were princesses from
the Snake Kingdom. El Pers royalty appears to have reached its political and
cultural apogee in the late seventh century, under the reign of Kinich Bahlam II
and Lady Kabel, and their monuments exhibit clear evidence of cultural influence from Calakmul. Two defeats of Calakmul at the hands of Tikal, in 695 and
ca. 735, were followed by troubled times at El Per, and the kingdom itself was
defeated by Tikal in 743. While El Per may have been dominated politically by
Tikal, there is little evidence for a cultural domination, and the sites sculptors
continued to erect monuments in the sites by now well-established Late Classic
traditional style.
The last half of the eighth century is not all that clearly understood, but it
witnessed a return of El Pers lords to prominence and possibly a new alliance
with Calakmul. However, the advent of the ninth century saw a collapse of
royal power, and the sites elite in the Terminal Classic period tried to rehabilitate some of the monuments from the kingdoms Early Classic rulers. They also
continued to revere Kinich Bahlam II and Lady Kabel. However, the resources
of the old kings were gone, and even the ability to write was soon lost. The sites
last, illiterate occupants lived in a partially abandoned site surrounded by the
detritus of nearly 1,000 years of royal memory, until finally, the inexorable encroachment of the surrounding jungle smothered all in a silent amnesia.
Note
1. All western dates are given in the Julian calendar according to the 585,283 modified GMT correlation and are AD unless otherwise indicated.
10
Flint for the Dead
Ritual Deposition of Production Debitage
fromElPer-Waka, Burial 39
Zachary Hruby and Michelle Rich
oyal interments are undeniably ritualized contexts, but does

it follow that all the objects contained within them were symbolically potent
or had some role in public funerary ceremony? Are all the materials associated
with tombs unequivocally the material residues of ritual action directly associated with interment, or are there other potential explanations to account for
their inclusion in these contexts? In examining chipped-stone debitage from
the tomb reentry of Burial 39 at El Per-Waka, we are uniquely positioned to
address questions about the role of materials in royal graves that do not immediately appear to be prestige goods. In particular, we analyzed what, at first
glance, appeared to be a pedestrian lithic artifact deposit, similar to others
often found in association with the tombs of Classic period nobility. As such,
this study represents the first detailed technological analysis of chert, flint, and
chalcedony from a Maya tomb context.
Most of what we know about the systematic production of chert, flint, and
chalcedony bifaces in the Maya area comes from the analysis of lithic materials
from the eastern lowlands, or the chert bearing zone of Northern Belize (Hester
and Shafer 1991). Much less is understood about the southwestern lowlands
because there are fewer known production deposits in this region, which is a
situation caused by three possible factors: 1) a lower frequency of raw material
sources and, thus, less evidence for production activities; 2) off-site debitage
disposal, such as utilizing rivers in which to dump the debitage, which would
remove it from civic centers entirely; or 3) excavation strategies that have yet
to locate large quantities of production debris. The first of these is a probable
factor: chert, chalcedony, and flint nodules from the western lowlands tend to
be smaller and more widely dispersed than their eastern counterparts (Hruby
2006). Nodule size and frequency may affect the amount of debitage produced
and the size of the finished product, as is evident in the average smaller size
of Classic period eccentric flints in the west versus east. Fewer nodules, fewer
flakes, and less high-quality material in the southwest lowlands also may have increased the value of finished products and flakes created during the manufacture
168 Hruby and Rich
process. The apparent relative paucity of chert, chalcedony, and flint debitage
from workshop or residential contexts in the western reaches of the southern
lowlands limits our understanding of lithic production techniques in this area in
general. The present study helps to address this void in knowledge via an analysis
of a special deposit from a ritual context. As tends to be the case in the region,
the largest debitage deposits found to date are not from household excavations,
but rather royal and elite tomb contexts (Moholy-Nagy 1997).
The goals of analyzing material associated with Waka Burial 39 include determining: 1) the distribution of the flakes in the deposit; 2) whether the flakes
were created in the tomb and left in situ or brought in from another workshop
location; 3) the product of the manufacture; and 4) whether or not a symbolic
component to the production process or choice of debitage represented in the
deposit can be identified. We do not argue that this assemblage is representative
of all tomb debitage deposits, but its examination is an important initial step
in understanding the kinds of chert artifacts associated with tombs and tomb
reentry. Although we achieved mixed results, preliminary analysis of these chert
artifacts has expanded our knowledge of Classic Maya production techniques
and has implications for understanding the symbolism of certain types of debitage in elite burial contexts.
Lithic Deposits Associated with Tombs intheMaya Area

In the brief history of Maya lithic studies, it has been noted that flakes and
other debitage can be a significant aspect of royal and elite tomb burials in the
Maya lowlands. Summarizing Moholy-Nagys (1997:3046) overview of lithic
deposits recovered exterior to chamber burials at Tikal, the largest deposits of
chert and obsidian debitage encountered in Group 5D-2 were associated with
Burials 125, 10, 200, 23, 24, 116, and 196 (Coe 1990). An eighth interment
with an exterior debitage deposit was Burial 77 in Group 5D-10 (Coe 1967;
Harrison 1963). Burial 125 dates to the Protoclassic period, with the rest being
Classic-era interments. Chert and obsidian co-occurred in these deposits, but
chert is more prevalent by weight. Biface thinning flakes are predominant in
the chert assemblage, with some decortication flakes, cores, chunks, and unfinished artifacts also present. One of the deposits also contained chert blade cores.
The obsidian debitage mostly consisted of small percussion flake-blades, some
exhausted prismatic blade core fragments, unused pressure blades, macroblade
and flake fragments from large polyhedral cores, and transverse flakes unique
to the production of eccentrics from blade cores. Moholy-Nagy (1997:304)
observes the deposits associated with Burials 125, 10, 200, 23, 24, and 77
are formed by layers of chert incorporating clusters of obsidian, separated by
earthen fill mixed with stones, plaster, and other construction material. The two
largest of these deposits, dating to the Late Classic in association with Burials
Flint for the Dead 169
116 and 196, consisted of what appeared to be batches of chert and obsidian
placed within construction fill exterior to chamber burials. It is estimated that
the Burial 116 deposit may have included on the order of 157,000 pieces of
chert and 380,000 pieces of obsidian (ibid.:306).
Moholy-Nagy (1997:3067) notes that debitage deposits have been documented exterior to chamber burials at other Classic lowland centers including Uaxactun, Rio Azul, Altun Ha, Lamanai, Caracol, Altar de Sacrificios (see
Hall 1989:Table 16), Buenavista del Cayo (Taschek and Ball 1992:492), and
in looters trenches at Nakbe (Hansen et al. 1991:259). Of these, chert and
obsidian co-occurred at Lamanai, Caracol, Buenavista del Cayo, and Tikal.
Moholy-Nagy (1997:306) stresses that although the exterior burial deposits
usually incorporate tiny potsherds, charcoal and other small-scale sweepings,
they apparently lack other kinds of trash typically found in household middens.
The lithic deposits associated with tomb chamber interments have been interpreted as markers of high status (Hall 1989:181, 191, 248), warnings signifying
the location of burial chambers to future construction workers (Coe 1990:486;
Hall 1989:168), offerings of the raw materials that had symbolic significance in
Classic period culture (Hruby 2007a, 2007b; Moholy-Nagy 1997), or opportunistic dumps that enabled craft specialists to dispose of large quantities of waste
generated by the production of stone tools (Moholy-Nagy 1997).
Burial 39 Context
Richly appointed Burial 39 was discovered in Structure O14-04, one of El
Per-Wakas primary temple-pyramids (see Rich 2011; Rich and Matute, this
volume). The individual interred in the tomb was likely a ruler of Waka during the Intermediate Classic, as the ceramic vessels in the mortuary assemblage
suggest a date of approximately AD 600650 (Rich et al. 2010). The masonry
vaulted chamber is situated beneath a shrine room positioned atop the adosada
(attached frontal platform) of the building. Excavation showed that the plaster
floor from the terminal construction phase of the shrine had been removed, and
that Burial 39 had been reentered in antiquity through the top of the vaulted
chamber in association with this floor removal. Ceramic evidence indicates reentry took place during the late facet of the Late Classic Qeq Complex, approximate calendar years AD 700770, or the Late-to-Terminal transitional
Morai Complex, AD 770820 (Eppich et al. 2005). This date is corroborated
by a two-sigma calibrated AMS date of AD 670880 (Beta 239742) generated
from charred organic remains collected in the fill (Rich 2008). Various lines
of evidence associated with reentry indicate that: 1) the shrine room floor was
never repaired after reentry; 2) the entire tomb chamber was infilled after reentry; and (3) the shrine room above the tomb chamber also appears to have been
infilled in association with reentry. That the shrine room atop the adosada was
170 Hruby and Rich
infilled in conjunction with the tomb chamber implies the sealing off of a major
portion of Structure O14-04 from use. Thus, the Burial 39 excavation and
other excavation units across the building provide evidence akin to that which
has been previously identified as representing ritual termination (for multiple
perspectives on ritual termination see Ambrosino 2003; Garber 1983; Mock
1998; Navarro-Farr 2009; Suhler 1996).
The excavated portion of the shrine room directly above the tomb is nearly
devoid of artifacts, with a total of only 8 sherds and 16 shell fragments collected
from 8 m3 of loose, tan-colored fill. This pattern is in contrast to the fill inside the tomb chamber itself, which contained 2,561 artifacts in approximately
7.293 m3. It should be noted this figure does not include objects that were part
of the mortuary assemblage, only those contained in the fill inside the tomb
chamber. The artifact categories represented were ceramic sherds (11%), chert
(47%) and obsidian (11%) chipped stone tools and debitage, faunal remains
(15%), fragments of stucco sculpture and decorative elements (8%), and shell
(8%). Overall, nearly one-fourth (22%) of the artifacts recovered at Structure
O14-04 during two field seasons of extensive excavation were collected from
the fill of the Burial 39 tomb chamber.
The fill inside the tomb chamber had several separate components and consequently was excavated in two separate lots dictated by changes in the matrix.
A loose, tan-colored matrix very similar to the fill in the shrine room transitioned after approximately 2m to a hard-packed, darker matrix concentrated
in the center of the tomb. This layer was higher in the center (approximately 70
cm at its thickest) and ebbed away at the corners to the loose, tan matrix mixed
with small rubble. Additionally, flat slates that were likely vault stones and capstones were intermingled with the hard-packed matrix. Carbon was scattered
throughout the chamber fill, although it appeared more concentrated at the
juncture between the two matrix types. Here, carbon was present in what can
be roughly described as a 20-cm-thick swath, which may suggest the lower layer
of fill was hardened due to in situ burning. This evidence of burning activities is
similar to other reentry and subsequent filling rituals conducted by the ancient
Maya, for example in Burial 13 from Piedras Negras, the probable tomb of
Ruler 4 (see Houston et al. 1998).
Large stones became more prevalent nearer to the skeletal remains and the
quantity of matrix decreased. Finally, a layer of flat slabs was encountered, carefully arranged to cover the deceased. Despite the close proximity of burning
activity, the skeletal elements did not exhibit any signs of charring or blackening, suggesting the flat slates protected the bones from direct contact with fire,
embers, or smoke. Fairly well-preserved textile fragments in association with all
skeletal material not only suggest the body was wrapped, but that the tomb was
not exposed to the elements for any appreciable length of time after the reentry
and prior to being infilled.
The lithic artifacts analyzed were recovered from the fill located in the interior of the tomb chamber. The sample consisted of 1,197 chert artifacts dominated by biface fragments, alternate flakes, and rejuvenation flakes (see below
for a description of flake types). The majority of the sample originated from
fill closer to the body, with small quantities strewn directly onto the bench and
alley surface inside the tomb. The loose, tan matrix described above contained
78 chert artifacts, and this number increased significantly to 545 chert artifacts
within the hard-packed, carbon-rich matrix. A relatively thin layer of matrix
above the tomb bench contained 222 cherts artifacts, while another 37 were
recovered from directly atop the bench, some in direct association with skeletal elements. Fill directly above the narrow alley along the western side of the
bench contained 263 pieces of debitage, and another 52 pieces were collected
from the alley floor. In one case, a biface fragment was found inside one of the
many polychrome vessels located in the alley. In addition to the chert and flint
debitage, 287 pieces of obsidian were recovered from the tomb fill, including
prismatic blades, blade fragments, and debitage derived from the reduction of
polyhedral blade cores. These obsidian artifacts were for the most part deposited in discrete clusters within the fill, and they have been discussed elsewhere
(Hruby 2007b). A greenstone axe also was found among the debitage.
Analysis Overview
Due to time and resource constraints, only a preliminary analysis of the tomb
debitage was conducted. We believe, however, that this work is substantial
enough to characterize the techniques and technologies employed in the creation of the assemblage and to form propositions with which to create and test
future hypotheses about the nature of lithic deposits from tomb contexts. In
the present analysis, flakes were counted, examined, and characterized based on
size. Refitting studies were also conducted yielding conjoins of 13 large bifaces
(i.e., celtiform axe heads) and three small-to-medium bifaces (i.e., thin laurel
leaf or stemmed spearheads). In six cases, we refit flakes with biface fragments
of various types. The goal of the refitting analyses was to determine how many
separate bifaces and biface fragments were reworked and the average number
of flakes produced during the reworking of broken biface fragments. Knapping
skill level was also noted during these analyses.
The sample contained 79 biface fragments, many of which were reworked,
but unfinished. However, most of the artifacts are alternate and rejuvenation
flakes (Figure 10.1), which are those flakes removed to create a bifacial margin
from a square or broken edge, and those removed from already used or finished
bifacial margins, respectively. Rejuvenation flakes and the type of alternate flake
removed from broken bifaces are not involved in the primary reduction of nodules and finishing of fine bifaces but rather the retooling or reworking of broken
172 Hruby and Rich
Figure 10.1. Top: Six rejuvenation flakes from the debitage deposit of Burial 39; dorsal
(left) and ventral (right) surfaces; Bottom: Two alternate flakes from the debitage
deposit of Burial 39; dorsal (left) and ventral (right) surfaces. Photographs by M. Rich
and Z. Hruby, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
or used tools. Consequently, the platform of the flake will consist of an edge of a
previously finished biface. These flakes are relatively rare in excavations, but are
usually associated with households of both stone tool producers and consumers,
although poorly executed examples may mark reworking attempts by novices in
nonproducer households (Hruby 2006).
Rejuvenation flakes often feature large, multifaceted platforms derived from
a bifacial margin (Figure 10.1). They also tend to be thick (~0.81 cm) and have
largely noncortical and complex dorsal surfaces. There are a number of reasons
why rejuvenation flakes in this sample may be thicker than late biface-reduction
flakes, including small core size and knapper proficiency (e.g., broken bifaces
may have been turned over to novices for reworking; see below). Rejuvenation flakes were removed to resize or reformat a biface that was broken during
production or use because the symmetry of the biface had been altered by the
break. Alternate flakes may have a less complex platform, depending on where
the flake was removed from the biface fragment; they tend to have a flat or near
flat surface on one of the lateral edges of the flake. Alternate flaking was carried
out to remove a square or broken edge either from the initial production of
the biface blank, or, in this case, the surface where the biface was broken, either
through use or during manufacture (Figure 10.2).
The present deposit may represent the remains from a workshop specifically
devoted to the resuscitation of broken bifaces or perhaps a practice area for novices to work on the materials left over by more skilled knappers. Although it can
be difficult to tell the difference between late-stage biface reduction flakes and
rejuvenation flakes from unused bifaces, refits indicate the sample contained
exceedingly few actual primary biface-reduction, biface-thinning, or nodule-
reduction flakes. The morphology of the rejuvenation flakes in the sample is
distinct from primary biface reduction flakes with regard to platform angle and
complexity and flake thickness.
Our preliminary study provided evidence of two different biface types in the
sample: 1) medium and large bifaces made from chert and chalcedony, and 2)
small, fine bifaces manufactured from flint. The first, and most common types,
were medium and large (1015 cm long) celtiform bifaces, usually made of medium to rough grained chert (Hruby 2006:93101). The second biface type is
comprised of small and medium (510 cm long) celtiform or laurel leaf-shaped
bifaces of fine brown flint. There were 52 fragments of the larger celt types, and
27 of the smaller bifaces, and a number of them showed evidence of reworking
(Table 10.1).
We also counted the flakes and categorized them by size: small (< 15 mm in
diameter) and medium to large (> 15 mm in diameter) size. Some of the biface
fragments and a small portion of the flakes reveal evidence of intense burning.
Systematic refit studies were carried out on 16 different sets of biface fragments
and flakes made of cherts, chalcedonies, and flints of distinctive texture and
color. Other than refitting biface fragments on these 16 groups, we had success
with flake-to-biface refits with six different groups of artifacts, each of a material
with a distinct color and texture (i.e., 6 of medium to large bifaces of chert and
chalcedony). Given that the colors and types of material used in this deposit
varied greatly between nodules (e.g., opaque light-gray to orange to translucent
purple colors in chert and chalcedony, and fine brown to gray colors for the
flint), we were able to group fragments that likely came from the same original
nodule or biface. This system resulted in a greater number of refits.
Figure 10.2. Photographs of two different broken celtiform bifaces with plan and
profile views (top left and top right), respectively, and a plan view of another broken
celt with associated debitage (bottom). Alternate flakes were removed to create a new
margin, and rejuvenation flakes were removed to correct the symmetry of the biface.
The material is rough chert and chalcedony. Photographs by M. Rich and Z. Hruby,
Table 10.1.Biface fragments by type, with the quantity in parentheses showing

evidence of reworking
Size
Form
Material
Smallmedium (510 cm)

Celtiform or laurel leaf
Flint
4 (2)
Distal
16 (13) 17 (10)
9 (8)
7 (6)
TOTAL
Mediumlarge (1015 cm)

Celtiform
14 (8)
Chert, chalcedony
Lateral
Size
Form
Material
Medial
Biface Type
Proximal
Fragments
52
27
Technology
Medium and Large Bifaces of Chert and Chalcedony
The frequent occurrence of cortex on finished bifaces from El Per-Waka and
other southwestern Maya centers suggests the Maya often chose small oval-
shaped nodules to produce large-and medium-sized bifaces. In the present
case, the large bifaces appear to have been celtiform axe heads, which in other
contexts have been labeled oval bifaces and General Utility Bifaces ([GUBs]
Shafer and Hester 1985:295). Generally speaking, the manufacture of large
celtiform bifaces produces a low number of nodule-reduction flakes and biface
reduction flakes. Early stage flakes are often cortical and do not unambiguously
feature all of the characteristics of a well-formed biface reduction flake, which
include flake scars running in two or more directions on the dorsal side of
the flake, complex noncortical platforms, and a general lack of cortex. Of the
thousand or so flakes from the Burial 39 deposit, only two are clearly nodule-
reduction flakes and one an early-stage biface reduction flake. The remainder is
a collection of mostly small, noncortical flakes that are not clearly derived from
the initial production process associated with medium or large bifaces.
Of particular interest are the medium and large flakes (> 15 mm), because
they are few, but feature distinct morphology. The most common medium-
sized flakes are of two types: rejuvenation flakes, sometimes referred to as retouch flakes; and alternate flakes (described above; see Figure 10.1). The flakes
recovered from Burial 39 do not appear to be resharpening flakes, in the sense
that none of the multifaceted or bifacial platforms appear to have polishing or
176 Hruby and Rich
use wear on their surfaces. When an axe dulled through use, resharpening flakes
were removed from the working bit to create a new or sharper cutting edge,
and the resulting flakes feature this previous use-wear on their platforms. The
remaining platforms of the Burial 39 flakes appear to be fresh, and thus were
likely removed to realign the outline of an axe after initial breakage. The lack
of resharpening flakes in the sample suggests that the biface fragments in the
sample were created via initial manufacture failures and not during the resharpening of previously used celts. Only detailed use-wear analysis, to be carried out
at a future time, can test this.
Smaller flakes are more difficult to identify as either late-stage biface reduction flakes or as flakes derived from the reworking of broken bifaces. Generally
speaking, the smaller flakes in the sample tend to have more acute platform-to-
dorsal surface angles and complex platforms. These characteristics likely mark
them as rejuvenation flakes rather than late-stage biface reduction flakes. In this
study, not all of the small flakes were identified for each material group due to
time constraints, but identified small flakes were noted when possible in the
examples below.
Small Fine Bifaces of Flint

The fragments of small, fine bifaces are less clearly derived from manufacture
failures and may have resulted from either haphazard resharpening or retooling
of dull or broken bifaces or, in some cases, deliberate smashing. Although many
of the fragments were undoubtedly reworked (Figure 10.3) or reconfigured, for
example, transforming a stemmed point into a laurel leaf point, the reason for
their initial breakage is not known. Hrubys preliminary observations of lithic
materials from across Waka suggest there is decent evidence from the site core
and periphery, in the form of nodule-reduction flakes or biface-thinning flakes,
that Wakeos were reducing locally available nodules of a fine brown material
that geologically appears to be flint. Hence, it is clear once again that these
debitage resulted not from initial production activities, but from the final, last-
ditch efforts to revive, retool, or, in some cases, resharpen dull or broken bifaces.
In contrast to the large and medium-sized bifaces, it may be that the rejuvenation flakes and alternate flakes were removed to fix small bifaces broken through
use. The biface fragments also indicate that some may have been purposefully
smashed for the tomb reentry ritual (see Examples 79 below). Furthermore,
there are fewer refits and less evidence of complete bifaces in the sample, which
suggests not all of the debitage from biface reworking activities was collected for
the tomb reentry. Finally, if the small biface fragments were reworked via pressure, more pressure flakes would be expected than were found in the sample.
This lack of pressure flakes may, however, be due to screening and collection
techniques. The fill matrix from the chamber was screened through one-quarter
Figure 10.3. Three different smashed, broken, and partially resharpened small and
medium bifaces. The material is fine brown and tan flint. Photographs by M. Rich and
Z.Hruby, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
inch screen, which may not have been fine enough to capture pressure flakes
that tend to be no greater than 0.5 cm in size.
Specific Examples from Both Categories

Example 1 is a group of artifacts made from a pink and purple, slightly trans
lucent material easily recognizable in the sample. Only the distal fragment of
the original biface remained, but eleven medium-sized flakes and 21 small flakes
were identified. The distal fragment was partially reworked, but ultimately discarded, and the flakes were recovered from throughout all levels of the tomb fill.
Artifacts comprising Example 2 were a light gray-to-bluish-color chert with
tan spots. There was a partially reworked medial fragment and a distal fragment,
178 Hruby and Rich
with eleven medium-sized flakes and four small flakes recovered. Example 3
artifacts were made of a chert of similar color, but a finer texture. There was also
a reworked medial and a distal fragment with ten medium-sized flakes and two
small flakes identified.
Example 4 artifacts were made of a rough, very light gray chert, and they
feature a higher number of biface fragments but a lower number of medium-
sized flakes. An unworked proximal fragment and partially reworked medial
and distal fragments were identified in the sample. All of these biface fragments
refit, revealing the size of the original large biface before it broke. Four medium-
sized flakes and three small flakes were recovered. Three of these refit with the
medial biface fragment.
The artifacts from Example 5 were made from a distinctive tan and brown
chert material. Both of the biface fragments, a reworked medial segment, and
a reworked distal fragment refit, although it is likely that a missing proximal
fragment was reworked and later was used as a tool elsewhere (i.e., it left the
workshop area). Ten medium-size flakes and eight small flakes were identified
along with 13 very small flakes, which were easily identified due to the distinctive color of the stone.
Example 6 artifacts were of a reddish, purple, and tan petrified wood. Proximal, medial, and distal fragments were recovered, the latter two of which were
reworked. The refits of these fragments reveal the size of the original large biface preform before it broke, at roughly18 cm. Four medium-and large-sized
flakes were identified for this group along with three small flakes. Additionally,
this example provided the only two identified nodule-reduction, decortication
flakes in the sample.

These examples are less complete, with fewer refits, but require description as a
contrast to the larger refits. Examples 7 and 8 are both partially reworked biface
fragments. It is unclear whether these fragments broke during the retooling or
resharpening activities first, or entered the workshop already broken. It appears
that there was no attempt to pressure flake these pieces. Instead, knappers used
a crude form of direct percussion. In other words, if the goal was to resharpen or
retool these bifaces, or biface fragments, the wrong percussor was employed. In
both examples, there is evidence that even small biface fragments were further
battered, in an apparent attempt to remove part of the squared edge created
from the initial breakage of the biface.
Example 9 more clearly illustrates this crude attempt at retooling or resharpening these once-fine bifaces. The first blows directed at the biface were direct
percussion, probably with a hammerstone that was too large or too hard to
properly work the piece. The result was that the biface probably broke into
two or three pieces from shock and vibration. Once again, the smaller biface
fragments were further reduced with direct percussion. An obvious conclusion
is that the individual reworking this biface did not understand the technologies or techniques employed in the original manufacture of the biface. It is also
possible that Examples 79 were all the result of systematic destruction of the
bifaces, a possibility strengthened by other smaller, shattered biface fragments
in the sample.
Analysis of Both Categories

The ratio of fragments to flakes varies between each example, but a pattern
becomes evident: the number of flakes increases when fewer biface fragments
are present for each material group. For Examples 4 and 6, which feature proximal, medial, and distal fragments, only four and five medium-sized flakes and
three small flakes each were identified. Conversely, Example 1 contained eleven
medium-sized flakes and 21 small flakes with only one remaining biface fragment. Examples 2, 3, and 5, which feature two biface fragments each, contain
1011 medium-sized flakes per group. Since the collection of small flakes was
not done in a systematic manner, the medium flakes may be a better marker for
production activities carried out in each material group.
Given that no reworked product was likely achieved for Examples 4 and 6,
since almost the entire original biface is represented by the fragments present,
we argue the higher numbers of flakes for the other examples indicate a biface
fragment was successfully reworked and removed for use elsewhere. If Examples
1, 2, 3, and 5 represent successful reworking attempts, the corresponding average count of medium-sized flakes is 10.2 flakes. A failed reworking attempt
appears to produce around 4.5 medium-sized flakes. The average number of
medium-sized flakes per broken biface is 8.5.
If the tomb reentry deposit represents all of the flakes from a biface rejuvenation workshop, then it is possible to use the average count of medium-sized
flakes to calculate the original number of broken bifaces reworked in that place.
There were 187 medium-sized flakes present in the deposit, and at 8.5 flakes
per biface average, there were a minimum of 22 broken and at least partially
reworked medium and large bifaces represented by the debris.

As mentioned previously, there were 27 small biface fragments of various sizes,
and roughly 20 small flakes made by percussion. While more production flakes
may be discovered in the very small debitage, it can be said with certainty that
180 Hruby and Rich
large numbers of fine biface reduction flakes of either percussion or pressure

were not present in the deposit. Although small and microscopic artifacts contained in the fill may have been lost through the one-quarter inch screen, it
appears that all of the debitage and biface fragments present in the sample were
derived from brutal, perhaps untrained, knapping practices. Given that some
of the obsidian artifacts from the same deposit exhibit purposeful destruction,
such as the sectioning of exhausted prismatic blade cores (Hruby 2007b), it is
possible that the fine brown flints could have been systematically destroyed in a
similar way. Since so few refits were made in the extant small-biface sample, it
is likely that not all of the biface fragments from the original context of production (or destruction) were present in the tomb fill. At this point is it not clear
whether the fine brown flints were mixed with the chert and chalcedony artifacts at the hypothetical workshop location, or if they were dispersed differently
than the other lithic artifacts when the tomb was reentered and then infilled.
Exploring the Process of Debitage Deposition inBurial 39

After examining the full range of fill artifacts from Burial 39 (sherds, chert, obsidian, faunal remains, stucco sculpture, and shell) and their spatial distribution
within the fill, Rich (2009) posited that the tomb fill was comprised of recycled/
reused fill and refuse from construction or midden contexts commingled with
material remains of behavior directly associated with the tomb reentry. The
recycled fill contained miscellaneous trash, whereas other artifacts (such as discrete clusters of obsidian cores and blades that refit) suggest in situ activity. This
work highlights the complexity of interpreting the material remains associated
with highly-charged ritual contexts and demonstrates the need to parse out the
fine distinctions between material remains within the Burial 39 fill that are in
primary versus secondary contexts.
We hoped that by focusing solely on the lithic debitage of Burial 39 within
the tomb chamber fill that we could further elucidate patterning in these remains. The results of examination of lithics from the tomb chamber fill of
Burial 39 suggest production probably took place outside of the tomb context.
Additionally, we observed the debitage associated with tomb reentry was not
typical production debitage resulting from the reduction of nodules to form finished bifaces. Instead, the high frequency of biface fragments, alternate flakes,
and retouch flakes, as well as the near complete lack of early-, middle-, and
late-stage biface reduction flakes, indicates the chert debitage in the tomb solely
resulted from the retooling of broken bifaces. Realistically, there are a number
of behavioral processes which may account for these patterns. It is, therefore,
productive to explore possible alternatives for the creation and interment of the
fill debitage of Burial 39. They are presented below, in no particular order of
probability or likelihood, accompanied by brief recommendations for possible
future testing.
Hypothesis 1: The sediment used to fill the tomb chamber was collected
wherever it could be found, and consequently contained a number of miscellaneous artifacts. Within this scenario, it is possible the fill was randomly
collected proximate to a lithic workshop area, geared toward the retooling or rejuvenation of broken bifaces, and thus contained cast-offs and debitage related
to this manufacturing process. There is very little potential in future excavations
to demonstrate this prospect, barring the discovery of extraordinary evidence,
such as refits explicitly linking artifacts between tomb fill and lithic workshops.
Hypothesis 2: The debitage may have been seen as useless production refuse
created by amateurs, and the tomb context provided a perfect impromptu garbage dump for said otherwise useless garbage. Future detailed analysis specifically of chert, chalcedony, and flint debitage from other tomb contexts may
identify possible cultural patterning in this regard. It is unlikely, however, this
behavioral process would result in an archaeological signature distinct from that
of Hypothesis 3 (below).
Hypothesis 3: Any kind of debitage may have been ritually useful or symbolically appropriate for inclusion in tomb reentry/termination events; or its
inclusion could have even been part of priestly caprice. If the inclusion of this
kind of debitage was ad hoc, then in future analyses we would expect to find
extensive variability in tomb lithics over time as well as between tomb contexts,
at Waka and other sites.
Hypothesis 4: The chert, chalcedony, and flint debitage was saved especially
for tomb reentry/termination activity and then deposited, probably in a ritual
fashion, in association with burning activities commonly incorporated into past
and present Maya ritual action. The rejuvenation flakes may simultaneously
represent notions of the end of the line and ideas of rebirth or resurrection
implied by the rejuvenation of broken bifaces. Excavation strategies explicitly
geared at isolating the relationship between lithic debitage and evidence of
burning are a first step toward identifying this relationship in complex ritual
contexts.
Hypothesis 5: While the debitage appears to have been created by knappers
with little skill, these novices could have been special elite or royal craft apprentices (i.e., individuals related by blood to the royal line), and thus seen as ritually
potent or important. If there was a familial connection between the crafters and
the deceased ruler, the inclusion of this debitage may have been seen as a kind
of connection with ones ancestors. To demonstrate the validity of this scenario
would require extraordinary contextual circumstances with epigraphic confirmation of royal knappers that has not yet been found.
Hypothesis 6: The flakes and blades represented in the sample could have
been produced in situ as part of an elaborate performance during the reentry/
termination of the tomb. If this was the case, then there would likely be discrete
levels of debitage in the tomb chamber, and probably clear evidence of microdebitage in the fill matrix. Again, future excavation strategies of infilled tombs
182 Hruby and Rich
should include smaller excavation lots and use of fine mesh screen in order to
shed light on primary versus secondary contexts. This prospect is essentially the
opposite of Hypothesis 1.
Hypothesis 7: Chert and obsidian found within the post-reentry tomb fill
could originally have been located in construction fill exterior to the tomb,
similar to Tikal Burials 116 and 196 (discussed previously). It is possible the
chipped stone included in the Burial 39 fill was collected from construction fill
during reentry and then reincluded as a component of the tomb fill. Again,
there is very little potential in future excavations to demonstrate this prospect,
barring the discovery of extraordinary evidence, such as refits explicitly linking
artifacts between tomb fill and construction fill.
Conclusions and Discussion

Both obsidian and chert were associated with multiple elite and royal tombs at
Waka, including Burial 37 (Escobedo and Melndez 2007), Burial 38 (Eppich
2007a, 2007b), and Burial 39 (Rich et al. 2007; Rich 2009, 2011). The size
and configuration of the debitage deposits vary in each instance. Chipped stone
artifacts from Burials 37 and 38 suggest that the debitage associated with tombs
at Waka was chosen specifically for its symbolic value (Hruby 2007b). In this
study, we have provided many alternative hypotheses for how and why the chert
debitage was deposited in Burial 39. We believe that the chert, chalcedony, and
flint artifacts were chosen for this powerful religious and political event: the reentry of a tomb of a ruler of El Per-Waka. Similar to the obsidian component,
we argue that the chert debitage was interred as a symbolic element of tomb
reentry ritual, or perhaps in the termination of the tomb access.
A comparison of the lithic deposit from Burial 39 with other debitage deposits associated with Waka Burials 37 and 38, as well as tombs from other
Maya sites, highlights various similarities and differences. In contrast to the
Tikal deposits and the Waka Burial 38 deposit, which were located exterior to
the tomb chambers, the Burial 39 chert (n=1,197) and obsidian (n=287) were
deposited inside the tomb chamber. It is possible, therefore, that the Burial
39 chipped stone was originally a component of the construction fill exterior
to the chamber. While this possibility cannot be ruled out, several comments
must be made. First, the quantity of material discovered within the Burial 39
fill would suggest a hypothetical exterior deposit was much smaller than some
of the deposits discovered at Tikal, or that only a portion of the exterior deposit
was reincluded in the tomb fill. Second, evidence of in situ destruction of obsidian cores, with their fragments clustered closely together in the tomb fill, does
not support the idea that a mixed lithic deposit exterior to the chamber was
haphazardly collected and recycled or disposed of via dumping into the tomb
fill. Accordingly, it seems unlikely that the lithic component of the tomb fill
originated from repurposed midden collected elsewhere, since the lithics featured very specific refits identified during this analysis. Furthermore, 1,119 of
the 1,197 chert pieces recovered were recovered from lower lots inside the tomb
fill: 1) within the hard-packed matrix; 2) underneath the flat slates covering the
skeletal material; 3) directly on the funerary bench; and 4) in the tomb alley.
These patterns indicate purposeful scattering in locations closer to the funerary
bench and the interred individual. Together, these various lines of contextual
evidence support the idea that the chipped stone was worked in situ and as a
specific component of reentry activity.
Given the relative scarcity of chert, chalcedony, and flint in the western lowlands, it is possible that debitage may have been inherently more valuable in this
region than in the eastern reaches of the Maya world. If true, the very specific
types of chert, chalcedony, and flint debitage in the Burial 39 reentry context
represent the last attempt to produce something useful from the various blanks
and bifaces represented in the sample. Symbolically, the debitage represents the
end of the production cycle. This pattern contrasts with building or dedication
deposits associated with early stages of lithic nodule reduction and biface or
blade production, such as the cache contexts at Piedras Negras (Hruby 2007a)
that may signify the beginning or creation. Symbolic elements are apparent
in burials and caches found across the Maya world, and we argue that Wakeos
did not choose the debitage included in the fill of Burial 39 ad hoc. Rather, they
selected it specifically for its symbolism not as beginning or finely finished,
but as a metaphor for the end or termination of the tomb as an accessible
ancestral shrine.
Previous research has already illustrated an undeniable association of chert
and obsidian debitage with Classic Maya royal and elite chamber burials. The
present study aims to shed further light on the possibility of ritual incorporation of lithic debitage deposits into Maya tombs through a technological analysis of lithic artifacts coupled with an examination of the underlying behavioral
processes associated with the creation of these remains. We do not argue that
the chert, chalcedony, and flint debitage from Waka Burial 39 is representative of all tomb-related debitage deposits in the Maya area. This work does,
however, provide a starting point to begin assessing this link at an intrasite
scale. Explicit comparison with debitage assemblages from other royal tombs
at Waka is necessary and will allow for greater understanding of the potential
significance of chert, chalcedony, and flint debitage to ritual action associated
with the creation, reentry, or termination of lavish Classic period Maya royal
tombs. Only analyses that consider both the special and mundane artifacts from
these ritual contexts can lead to new breakthroughs in our understanding of
mortuary ceremony.
11
The Noblewomen of Waka
Mortuary and Osteological Insights into the
Construction of Gender, Identity, and Power
Jennifer C. Piehl, David Lee,
and MichelleRich
xcavations in elite and royal contexts at Waka have resulted

in the discovery of several complex mortuary assemblages. Through analyses of
the material remains of funerary rituals, the construction of social and ritual
identities of members of the royal houses of Waka can be considered. In particular, the interment of several noble female individuals invites examination of
the negotiation of gender and expressions of power in mortuary contexts, and
the articulation of these processes with the life histories of these individuals as
evidenced by health indicators.
The interments of these women and the resulting mortuary contexts show
the integration of individual personalities, social and political identities, revered
ancestorship, and ritualized personae (Gillespie 2001; Hendon 2003; Houston
and McAnany 2003; Houston et al. 2006). The intersection of the individual,
the noble figure, and the divine ancestor involved the layering of meanings and
symbolism, including those evincing the tension between gender and power.
Mortuary contexts simultaneously represent a social moment (or moments if
the burial is reentered) and the codification of divine and political order meant
to extend beyond the social moment. Mortuary contexts lend themselves to
many avenues of interpretation and contemplation; we focus the present discussion on the construction of gendered identity and its relationship to the role of
noble and royal power in these interments of prominent Waka women.
A primary goal of this chapter is a fuller and more meaningful integration
of bioarchaeological examination with mortuary evidence, directly relating
patterns of health and manipulation of the skeletal remains with the material evidence of funerary and nonfunerary activities. We use this approach to
explore the lives and deaths of Wakas noblewomen and the means by which
they were incorporated into the Waka community as living figures and as ancestralized personages. Such integrations remain rare in Maya studies, where
paleopathological research is most often reported separately from consideration
of the mortuary contexts in which the individuals were interred. The use of
The Noblewomen of Waka 185
health patterns to speak to gender relations, identity construction, and the complexities of social inequality thus frequently proceeds independently of detailed
examination of these same processes as reflected in the mortuary assemblages.
Much valuable archaeological and osteological scholarship has been produced at both fine and broad scales in the Maya area, but these two arenas of
investigation often do not meet. Successful exceptions (Houston et al. 2003;
Tiesler 2004; Tiesler and Cucina 2004) in recent years represent the development of the field in a direction that this chapter follows. On the whole, however, interpretations reflect a disjunction resulting from several methodological
barriers that serve to isolate the data resulting from archaeological and bioarchaeological studies. The first barrier is the scale at which meaningful data are
generated by each of these approaches. Bioarchaeological examination of health
patterns is necessarily performed upon groups of individuals, from subgroups
within a single community to regional population samples. The compilation
of life histories for single individuals from osteological data can generate useful
information about a specific individual, but clear pictures of health, disease,
activity, and dietary patterns are only attained at the group level. Archaeological
examination of mortuary contexts is also profitably undertaken at community
or regional levels, but such comparative investigation is limited in the Maya
area by the great diversity of ritual manifestations in mortuary assemblages. We
are not denying the utility of archaeological mortuary syntheses, but we note
that the most detailed and richest mortuary studies tend to be at the level of one
or a few prominent interments.
A second methodological barrier is the persistence of the uneasy relationship
between the concepts of sex, gender, and power in archaeological and osteological studies (Armelagos 1999; Pyburn 2004). Biological sex and the practice
of gendered identity have largely remained separate avenues of investigation
despite their integral coexistence among individuals and the impacts of these interwoven factors on life and death in Classic Maya society. Much research (e.g.,
Gustafson and Trevelyan 2002; Joyce 2000a; McAnany and Plank 2001; Sweely
1999; Tate 1999) has been conducted on gender and power relations among
the ancient Maya, but little of it has incorporated osteological data. Similarly,
Maya osteological studies examining patterned sex differences rarely extend to
interpreting the implications of these patterns with regard to the manipulation
of gender and power (attempts include Haviland 1997 and Storey 1998). Both
lines of inquiry have often been subject to the biases inherent in gendered social
models (Pyburn 2004). The fluidity of gender and power negotiations results in
dynamic expressions of identity throughout individuals lives. For this reason,
equally dynamic theoretical frameworks are required that are not traditionally
part of osteological investigations.
With these issues in mind, the following analysis investigates a group of individuals within the Waka community, using osteobiographic, paleopathological,
186 Piehl, Lee, and Rich
and taphonomic data in concert with inferences derived from examination of

the mortuary assemblages to achieve a fuller understanding of the processes
by which these individuals were encoded into the fabric of the Waka community in life and after their deaths. We will first discuss the interments of four
noblewomen at Waka with particular attention to the manipulation of their
gendered identities as reflected in the funerary assemblages. We then present
an analysis of the osteological patterns reflected in the remains of these women
in the context of other subgroups within the Waka skeletal assemblage. Interpretations generated from these two lines of inquiry are then discussed with
the goal of examining the negotiation of gender and power among the female
nobility of Waka.
Burial 8
Burial 8 (see Figure 5.1, this volume) is the Late Classic interment of a royal
woman in a vaulted tomb chamber within Structure L11-38 of the Northwest
Palace Complex (Lee 2005, 2012; Lee et al. 2005; Lee and Piehl, this volume).
This interment is also discussed in Chapter 5 of this volume; we focus here on
those aspects of Burial 8 that reflect the construction of gendered identities in
the expression of royal power. This perspective complements the consideration
of social memory in Chapter 5 and will highlight additional aspects of this
mortuary deposit in the context of the noblewomen of Waka.
Burial 8 contains an elaborate mortuary assemblage and evidence that the
human remains and material culture were manipulated during a reentry episode. Within this assemblage, a few salient properties encode gendered expressions of identity and power. The human remains are those of a middle adult
female based on the primary indicators of the pelvis and supporting evidence
throughout the postcranial remains. This woman was interred with emblems
of rulership and power that have led to her identification as a queen (see Lee
and Piehl, this volume). A full understanding of the events and processes affecting this mortuary assemblage can only be reached by detailed taphonomic
analysis of the human and material remains within the interment, an approach
recently labeled osteotaphonomic (Tiesler 2004). This approach, which has
regrettably been only marginally employed so far (Tiesler 2004:144) in the
interpretation of Classic Maya interments, focuses on the natural and cultural
taphonomic factors acting on the human remains from the time of their deposition. This allows for reconstruction of the elements and sequence of the cultural
activities comprising the often-protracted mortuary ritual complex.
The woman interred in Burial 8 was placed in an extended position with the
head to the north on a stone dais roughly centered within the chamber. The
stones forming the dais were not covered with an architectural finishing material, such as stucco or plaster, leaving an uneven surface with interstices between
the component stones. Abundant organic material on the dais surface and on
the adjacent chamber floor indicates the individual was placed on a wooden
litter that was laid across the dais surface. The position of the human remains,
in particular the location of the tibiae at the southern extent of the dais and the
recovery of ankle and foot bones from the floor of the chamber south of the dais
terminus, confirms that the wooden litter upon which the individual was placed
extended beyond the limits of the stone component of the dais. Upon the litters decomposition, the bones of the ankles and feet became disarticulated and
fell to the chamber floor. Displacement of small skeletal elements and artifacts
placed with the individual at the north end of the wooden litter also confirm
this interpretation.
Although the skeletal remains exhibit poor preservation typical of open-air
chambers, several taphonomic observations allow a detailed interpretation of
the mortuary process. The absence of pronation or vertical displacement of skeletal elements and the unconfined arrangement of the bones of the arms and legs
indicate that the corpse was not wrapped in textile or other perishable material.
The woman was placed with her arms loosely flexed and her hands resting on
her abdomen, and an inverted vessel was placed atop her crossed wrists. The
unrestricted nature of this position and the precision of articulation between
the vessels rim and the womans wrists and hands are particularly indicative of
the absence of mortuary wrapping. Similarly, the tibiae, although highly fragmented, appear to have been in a position indicating unconfined settling of the
lower legs upon decomposition.
The most salient osteological characteristic of Burial 8 is the absence of most
of the cranium and femora. The mandible (including seven teeth) and small
cranial fragments belonging to the right maxillary sinus and left zygomatic bone
were recovered, as were small fragments of the right distal femoral epiphysis.
These fragments had slipped into hidden locations at the base of the dais or in
the interstices of the uneven dais surface during decomposition of the human
remains. This taphonomic evidence indicates that the cranium and femora were
removed from the interment during a reentry episode after skeletonization of
the remains. Additional manipulation of the mortuary context (Lee and Piehl,
this volume) may have occurred at the same time as part of the same ritual
event. We interpret the removal of these skeletal elements in the context of the
Maya practice of ancestor veneration and infer that this noblewomans cranium
and femora were likely bundled and either curated or reinterred (or both in
turn) in another location.
The osteotaphonomic evidence correlates well with the established timing
of mortuary ritual (Eberl 2005), which divides the first two phases of funerary activity into initial interment within ten days of the individuals death and
a second period of mortuary ritual occurring 100 to 400 days or more after
death. As previously noted by Tiesler (2004:145), the interval between the
first and second periods allows decomposition of the corpse, and the mortuary
ritual during and subsequent to the second period would be carried out in the
presence of skeletonized remains. Well-documented examples indicate that the
period of time between burial and reentry was often much longer, reaching 20
years or more (Fitzsimmons 2009). The noblewoman interred in Burial 8 was
thus revisited at some point after the skeletonization of her remains, and her
bones (and possibly other objects from the chamber) were collected to form a
synecdochical representation and effect her transition from a deceased individual to a viable ancestor (Looper 2007:92). This is only one indication of her
importance within the sociopolitical landscape of Waka.
This royal woman was also interred with a headdress consisting of greenstone
plaques, mosaic elements, and a greenstone huunal (see Figure 5.2a, this volume), all of which are insignia of royal authority (Lee and Piehl, this volume).
This form of mosaic headdress is frequently part of royal female iconography,
and the huunal jewel is also worn, although less frequently, by female royalty in
Early and Late Classic carved images (see Fields 1991:1; Tate 1992:195, Lintel
14). The inclusion of such emblems of rulership (Freidel 1990:67) in the interment of a noblewoman, however, are rare. Exceptions include the Late Classic
burial of the Red Queen at Palenque, identified as Lady Ix Tzakbu Ajaw,
the wife of Janaab Pakal II (Tiesler and Cucina 2004), and the Early Classic
Burial 24 from Yaxuna (Ardren 2002:82). The inclusion in this category of the
woman interred in Burial 8 is thus a further marker of her extremely powerful
role at Waka.
Several lines of evidence strongly suggest that the noblewoman interred in
Burial 8 was a member of the Calakmul royal family who served as a queen at
Waka. Strontium isotope analyses have demonstrated that the chemical signatures from Waka and Calakmul are indistinguishable (Piehl 2009), eliminating
our ability to distinguish these two locations by currently known techniques,
although the strontium signatures of bone samples from Burial 8 correspond
with an origin in one of these regions. Two Calakmul women have been epigraphically identified as the wives of Waka kings: Lady Kabel and Lady Pakal
(Guenter, this volume). The late eighth-century date of Burial 8 precludes identification of the woman as Lady Kabel, and the paucity of knowledge about
Lady Pakal leaves an association with her unclear (see Lee and Piehl, this volume). Thus, the Burial 8 queen may have been Lady Pakal or a third, epigraphically unknown, Calakmul woman. In either case, her remains were probably
manipulated to evoke and become conflated with the identity of Lady Kabel,
the iconic and first Calakmul woman to marry into the Waka royal line. Lady
Kabel served as queen to Wakas Kinich Bahlam II in the seventh century. Stela
34 names her as an Ix Kaloomte (Guenter, this volume)denoting a female
figure of superlative political powerand portrays her with mosaic mantle and
bracelet elements closely resembling those found in Burial 8. The interment of
the noblewoman in Burial 8 with a huunal jewel, the royal costuming, and her
conflationary manifestation as Lady Kabel, an Ix Kaloomte from Calakmul
possessing political power outranking that of her husband, combine in a mortuary complex in a way that emphasizes the political power of the individual
and includes her in a category of female royalty who stepped beyond traditional
gendered identities.
A small but prominent group of female royalty in the Classic Maya lowlands
attained powerful political roles that required marked manipulation of their
gendered identities in the public record, in life and after death (Hewitt 1999).
Several of these women, likely including the noblewoman interred in Burial 8 at
Waka, were nonlocal individuals brought in from other sites to repair a political or dynastic crisis. Two such examples are Lady Ix Tzakbu Ajaw of Palenque
(Schele and Mathews 1998:108) and Lady Six Sky of Naranjo, daughter of
King Balaj Chan Kawiil of Dos Pilas (Martin and Grube 2008:74). These
cases clearly demonstrate that the particular nature of extraordinary spiritual
and political power employed by these women was not a component of traditional female identity and required manipulation in its presentation to justify
and sanctify these individuals as ceremonial and political agents. Thus, the case
of the Burial 8 mortuary complex at Waka is an example of a marked royal
female interment, in which the personal figure of the interred was manipulated,
both at interment and during reentry, in the process of creating and recreating
a royal personage.
Burial 24
A contrasting mortuary treatment of noblewomen at Waka is demonstrated in
the complex assemblage of Burial 24. This is an Early Classic ([AD 240420]
Rich 2008) interment of two young adult females in a vaulted tomb chamber
beneath Structure O14-04s adosada ([attached frontal platform] see Figures 4.1
and 4.2, this volume), in the Mirador Group located at the southeastern reaches
of the site core (Rich 2011; Rich et al. 2006; Rich and Matute, this volume).
Numerous lines of evidence identify these women as members of the royal family in power at Waka at this time (Rich and Matute, this volume).
The two primary occupants of this burial were interred in an atypical configuration, extended with heads to the north-northeast but stacked one atop
the other (Figure 11.1a). The lower individual was a young adult female, five
months pregnant, laid prone upon the floor of the chamber (Figure 11.1c).
The position of this individuals remains departs from traditional Classic lowland Maya mortuary practices. Her legs were splayed, and the lower legs and
ankles were to either side of a cluster of ceramic vessels at the southern end of
the chamber. Her right arm was slightly flexed with the hand below her body
at the abdomen, but the left arm was tightly flexed with the hand near the jaw.
Figure 11.1. Burial 24 from the Mirador Group: a) both individuals stacked one atop
the other; b) upper individual; c) lower individual. Drawing by M. Rich and J. C. Piehl,
Thehead was turned to the left and tilted away from her body. The overall visual
impact of this noblewomans position suggests her placement within the chamber was not accompanied by the usual arrangement of the deceaseds body into
one of the more common mortuary positions utilized in Classic Maya interments. The intent reflected in the mortuary activities was therefore not entirely
funerary in nature, but also incorporated an offertory use of the remains.
The upper individual, another young adult female, was placed in a supine
position atop the lower individual such that the two women were back to back
(Figure 11.1b). This noblewomans remains were displaced in relation to the
lower individual; she was laid along an axis rotated slightly further to the east
and interred in a more traditional extended position. Her ankles and feet, however, dangled into the ceramic vessels at the southern end of the chamber, which
had been placed before the deposition of the upper individual. This arrangement, like the position of the lower individual, suggests a purposeful departure
from traditional funerary placement of the individuals within the mortuary
complex. The positions of the individuals contrast with the array of traditionally placed, elaborately crafted items, which indicate a reverential and codified
burial assemblage. The stacking of the two noblewomen brings an additional
conflationary element to the mortuary context and simultaneously marks the
women as offerings and as subjects of funerary ritual.
Taphonomic analysis of the position and settling of the remains indicates
that neither of the women was wrapped prior to the interment, nor was a bench
or dais built in the chamber to support their remains. Abundant organic material amid and below the skeletal remains, however, indicates that a mat or
wooden litter was included in the interment. No evidence suggests reentry of
the tomb chamber subsequent to the deposition of the mortuary assemblage.
The crania of these two women were associated with large Spondylus spp.
shells. This association was also found in Burial 25, a more modest cist burial
containing an aged woman (described below). The shells appear unmodified
and were placed over the noblewomens anterosuperior crania in the manner
of skullcaps. Similar Spondylus spp. shells have been documented in Classic period noble interments at several sites, including Tikal and Copan (Andrews
1969:25; Moholy-Nagy 1985:147), although they were more frequently components of larger sets of Spondylus spp. ornamentation. Additionally, at Tikal
they have been associated with noble male burials. At Waka, these large shells
placed over the crania were used as single-component mortuary items associated specifically with noblewomen, and thus constitute a female-gendered mortuary marker. Spondylus spp. objects, particularly in association with greenstone
(also present in Burials 24 and 25 in small quantities), are associated with expressions of nobility and royalty (Freidel et al. 2002; Moholy-Nagy 1985) and
in many contexts embody female symbolism (Ardren 2002:76; Trachman and
Valdez 2006:8790). The use of large Spondylus spp. shells to cap the crania of
noblewomen was thus an Early Classic practice at Waka that marked individuals as female and noble.
Burial 24 thus contained the material remains of a complex expression of
funerary reverence for deceased noblewomen and the use of the individuals for
nonfunerary ritual purposes. The chronology of the mortuary deposit coincides
with the AD 378 arrival in the southern lowlands of the historical figure Siyaj
Kahk (Guenter 2005; Stuart 2000). This time period, in general, and the arrival of Siyaj Kahk, in particular, are associated with mortuary assemblages
interpreted as the burials of the royal families that were in power at the time at
Tikal, Uaxactun, and Yaxuna (Ardren 2002; Laporte and Fialko 1990). Tomb 2
at Yaxuna, which contained the remains of 12 individuals, has been interpreted
as evidence for the extermination of the royal family (Ardren 2002). This tomb
contained two young noblewomen who, like the occupants of Waka Burial24,
received complex treatment denoting both proper interment of royalty and
their identities as the victims of social and political upheaval during the displacement of one ruling house by another.
As is frequently the case for Mesoamerican physical remains, no osteological
evidence indicating trauma or violent death was found on the Waka women.
Poor preservation of the remains, as well as the possibility of violent activity
that did not result in corresponding markers on the skeleton, leave the manner
of death an open question rather than providing evidence for the absence of
such activity. The clear point is that, in a pattern familiar in the Early Classic,
reverence and tradition were maintained in the mortuary preparation of these
individuals, although the context makes the untimely death of the two women
in a regicidal context the most likely interpretation.
Burial 25
Burial 25 was also placed in platform fill below Structure O14-04s adosada
([see Figures 4.1 and 4.2, this volume] Rich et al. 2006; Rich and Matute, this
volume). Accelerated mass spectrometry analysis of carbon associated with this
interment yielded dates of AD 120330 and AD 130350, situating this burial
at the end of the Preclassic or the beginning of the Early Classic (Rich 2008).
An informally constructed cist housed the interment of an old adult female in
supine extended position with her head to the north. She was accompanied by
several artifacts that indicated her noble status, including a large Spondylus spp.
shell associated with the cranium. Her presence as a revered elderly woman
interred in Structure O14-04 opens a window onto typical early mortuary patterns for female interments at Waka. Some of these patterns were replicated
in Burial 24 and marked the two women as revered female royalty, even as
additional layers of symbolism directly related to gender and power were constructed in that more complex mortuary assemblage.
In summary, these three interments of four noblewomen thus constitute a

sample including typical and atypical mortuary contexts. The predominance
of assemblages marked by manipulation of gendered identities and expressions
of power among the interments of noblewomen at Waka demonstrates the
complexity of roles held by women of power in this ancient community. The
majority of the noblewomens mortuary assemblages indicate they held roles
that required layering and manipulation of their identities in death. To explore
whether their lives were similarly marked as separate or qualitatively different
when compared with their treatment in death, we examine the health patterns
of these women among the nobility of Waka.
Paleopathological Indicators
Paleopathological indicators reflecting adult and childhood health are examined
across the Waka mortuary sample to provide a comparative framework. As the
primary goal of this investigation is the examination of differences in sex and
status that may illuminate the position of the Waka noblewomen within the
community, only adults of known sex have been included. The sample has been
divided by sex and grouped into four broad contextual categories: royal/noble
individuals; individuals from elite contexts within the site core; individuals
from settlement contexts outside of the site core; and individuals included in
secondary or ritual deposits (Table 11.1). These categorizations are, by necessity,
approximations based on spatial context, mortuary context and elaboration,
and archaeological interpretations. The small sample size further necessitates
consideration of interments from all Classic time periods concurrently, and prohibits the use of statistical analysis. Although a more detailed paleopathological
analysis of the entire Waka sample would permit a greater degree of chronological and contextual specificity with a larger sample size, the patterns evident in
the current analysis are clear and remain consistent within the context of the
larger sample. Therefore, the current studys focus on sex and status differences
among adults of known sex is recognized as a broad but effective tool for the
investigation of the lives of the Waka noblewomen.
Indicators of Health in Adulthood

The skeletal indicators of adult health examined here are localized infection,
nonspecific infection, and trauma. Dental caries is examined as an indicator of
differences in adult dietary patterns. Inflammation and infection are osteologically manifested as periostosis in the Waka sample; no evidence of osteomyelitis
was observed on any individual in the current study. Periostosis, or nonspecific
periosteal reaction, is characterized by irregular bone deposition and hypervascularity on the cortical surface. Active woven bone is deposited over the existing
Table 11.1.Adult individuals of determined sex from the Waka

skeletal sample, divided by burial context
Group
Noble/Royal
Elite/Center
Periphery
Ritual
Burial
Age*
Sex
8
24A
24B
25
37
39
13
16
19
36
28
30A
30B
41A
42B
46
50
51
31
35
40A
40B
Middle adult
Young adult
Young adult
Old adult
Adult
Old adult
Old adult
Young adult
Middle adult
Middle adult
Adult
Adult
Adult
Adult
Adult
Adult
Adult
Young Adult
Adult
Adult
Adult
Adult
F
F
F
F
M
M
F
F
M
F
M
M
F
M
F
M
M
M
M
F
M
M
*Ages are presented by broad categories to facilitate comparison.
cortex, which is then remodeled during the healing process through the deposition of lamellar bone. Periostosis may be localized or distributed across several
skeletal elements, indicating a systemic reaction. This nonspecific pathology
indicates a reaction to an unidentified health insult, in most cases an infectious
disease.
The presence of nonspecific periostosis indicates a subacute chronic infection, often not a direct cause of death. Acute infections will often result in recovery or death of the host without accompanying bony response. Nonspecific
infection on the skeleton reflects a chronic condition, impacting the health of
the individual but also indicating the individual enjoyed sufficient health to not
succumb to the infection. In this study, nonspecific infection is categorized as
slight (limited in distribution and not bilateral) or systemic (bilateral evidence
on multiple skeletal elements). No treponemal infection or other diagnosed
pathology incorporating generalized periostosis was observed in the adult Waka
sample.
Within this sample, localized infections are defined as infections of limited
spatial extent, occurring on skeletal elements not frequently affected by slight
nonspecific infections, and unrelated within any given individual to any other
evidence of nonspecific infection. The maxillary sinuses, ribs, ankles and feet,
and vertebral facets are the elements displaying localized infections in the current sample. They are often related to trauma and in these cases are grouped
with the discussion of trauma patterns.
Skeletal trauma is characterized by mechanical insult resulting in damage
to bone, such as fracture or dislocation. Healing or healed fractures were recognized in this sample by the formation of a bony callus and/or remodeling
around the fracture site, and occasional slight abnormal angling of the bone
(Adams and Hamblen 1992; Judd 2002:1258). Traumatic arthritis may also
accompany a healing or healed fracture, observed in this sample on the commonly affected joints of the ankles and feet (Aufderheide and Rodriguez-Martin
1998:105). Perimortem trauma resulting from interpersonal violence was observed on some individuals in this sample, as discussed below.
The cycle of dental caries, abscess, and antemortem tooth loss can be related primarily to dietary factors. Dental caries is the manifestation of a disease process caused by bacterial development on tooth surfaces. Carbohydrates,
especially sticky carbohydrates such as maize, facilitate the development of
carious lesions (Larsen 1997:69). A complex set of factors causes dental caries,
including: food preparation methods, the use of the dentition in toolmaking or
for other tasks, the rate of dental attrition, and the presence of developmental
enamel defects (Larsen et al. 1991:179); but carbohydrate intake is an essential
and primary factor.
This pattern of dental infection is taken here to broadly reflect differences
in dietary practices among Waka adults. Caries rates were calculated by tooth
class to control for differential susceptibility. The incidence of caries has also
been adjusted by a proportional correction factor (Duyar and Erdal 2003; Erdal
and Duyar 1999), taking antemortem and postmortem rates of tooth loss into
account.
Indicators of Childhood Health

Cranial porosity and dental hypoplasias are indicators of childhood health observable on adult human remains. Cranial porosity, particularly when present
in bilaterally symmetrical patterns on the frontal, parietals, and occipital can
be interpreted as indicative of nutritional deficiency. Porotic hyperostosis is

the term given to bilateral cranial porosity with accompanying thinning of the
outer table of the cranial vault and expansion of the diplo, and is attributed to
iron deficiency anemia in childhood. In cases where porosity, albeit patterned
and bilateral, is the only condition present, it should not be specifically attributed to iron deficiency anemia. Other nutritional deficiencies such as scurvy
have been argued to also cause such patterns (Ortner and Eriksen 1997; Ortner
et al. 1999; Rothschild 2002). Cranial porosity is thus taken in this study to
indicate a condition primarily nutritional in cause, with possible contributing
factors such as infection or parasitic infestation. Individuals displaying cranial
porosity in association with evidence of systemic nonspecific infection are not
included in the discussion of nutritionally related cranial porosity to eliminate
conflation of nutritional deficiency and nonspecific infection.
Linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) is a commonly used dental defect indicating nonspecific childhood health stress. It is characterized by a linear groove on
the tooth crown resulting from a disruption in enamel matrix formation. A variety of factors may cause LEH, including malnutrition or undernutrition, infectious disease, and metabolic disorders. The position of an LEH on the tooth
crown may be correlated with the age of its formation (Reid and Dean 2000).
Health Patterns at Waka

Periostosis
Results of the paleopathological analysis are presented in Table 11.2. The overall
incidence of periostosis in this sample is 47%. This incidence is markedly lower
among the Waka nobility and elite individuals (40% and 25%, respectively)
than among individuals from settlement residential contexts (75%). When the
severity of periostosis is examined, two out of three cases among noble and elite
individuals are systemic, whereas the proportion of systemic infections among
the peripheral settlement sample is only 17%. No active periostosis was present
among the nobility, whereas the single case of elite periostosis was active and
17% of cases were active among the peripheral settlement sample. Thus, few
noble individuals evidence nonspecific periostosis, but infection among the nobility healed and tended to be systemic. In contrast, individuals from settlement
contexts show a greater incidence of nonspecific infection with fewer systemic
cases, some of which were active at time of death. The single elite case cannot be
taken as representative, but it falls between the noble and peripheral settlement
patterns in being systemic and active.
These data reflect the complex nature of pathological expression; absence
of pathology may indicate either that the individual did not experience a particular health stress during life, or that the stress contributed to mortality in
33:44
57:20
60:89
22 (2/9)
39 (7/18)
55 (6/11)
Dental Caries
Cranial Porosity 42 (5/12)
79 (11/14)
Active
LEH
Multiple
33:63
20:25
20:50
33 (3/9)
Systemic
50:44
47 (9/19)
M:F %
Periostosis
Total %
Sample
25 (1/4)
67 (4/6)
0 (0/1)
60 (3/5)
0 (0/2)
50 (1/2)
40 (2/5)
Total %
0:33
50:75
N/A
100:50
N/A
0:100
50:33
M:F %
Noble
100 (3/3)
100 (3/3)
0 (0/4)
25 (1/4)
100 (1/1)
100 (1/1)
25 (1/4)
Total %
Elite
N/A
N/A
0:0
0:33
0:33
0:33
0:33
M:F %
Table 11.2.Incidence of pathological conditions in the Waka adult skeletal sample.
33 (1/3)
75 (3/4)
60 (3/5)
29 (2/7)
17 (1/6)
17 (1/6)
75 (6/8)
Total %
0:50
50:100
50:100
20:50
25:0
25:0
67:100
M:F %
Periphery
N/A
N/A
100 (2/2)
50 (1/2)
N/A
N/A
0 (0/2)
Total %
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
0:0
M:F %
Ritual
the acute stage before evidence on the skeleton was formed. Similarly, evidence
of systemic periostosis may indicate a greater ability to survive a health stress
for long periods of time in samples where the health stress is endemic and
affects nearly all individuals (Wood et al. 1992; Wright and Yoder 2003). In
combination with the trend toward advanced age at death among the nobility,
this pattern therefore indicates that the nobility were infrequently affected by
chronic insults to health during life, but those members of the nobility who
were affected survived chronic and severe stages of the morbidity. In contrast,
fewer individuals from elite and settlement contexts appear to have been able to
survive severe periosteal conditions, resulting in a greater proportion of nonsystemic and/or active periostosis among these groups.
When sex differences in nonspecific periostosis are examined for the entire
sample, a slight female bias is apparent. Within the total sample, the incidence
of nonspecific periostosis is 44% for females and 50% for males. Only a single
nonspecific infection is present among male elites or nobility, whereas 33% of
female elites and nobles and 100% of females interred in settlement contexts
evidence infection. The incidence among females in each status group is higher
than the overall incidence in that group, with the exception of the female nobility. Periostosis also tends to more often be systemic in females, characterizing
half of the periostosis cases among females and only 20% of cases among males.
The degree of healing does not differ between sexes. Thus, although similar
numbers of females and males within the overall sample are affected by periostosis, within-group incidence and severity tend to be greater among females
than males. The noblewomen of Waka were more buffered against nonspecific
infection than individuals from settlement contexts; they are also the only female group to display patterns of infection that are not indicative of the overall
bias toward female susceptibility.
Trauma and Localized Infections

Localized infection was observed in 28% of the sample. The incidence of localized infections is 33% among females and 22% among males, reflecting a
slightly greater susceptibility among females. The majority (67%) of localized
infections in this sample are in the maxillary sinuses. Given the absence of associated dental abscesses, these bony reactions can most probably be attributed
to upper respiratory infections. The distribution of sinus infections is not related to status in this sample. The remaining localized infections occur in one
female from an elite residential context. These slight manifestations are located
on the left rib, right fibula, and right tarsals, and are not associated with skeletal
trauma.
Traumatic lesions were observed in 29% of the sample with no sex difference in overall incidence. Skeletal trauma is varied and includes rib and distal
ulnar fractures, metatarsal and foot phalanges affected by fracture or torsion,
lumbar vertebral injury, and evidence of interpersonal violence on two crania

(see Marken, this volume). With the exception of the latter, all traumatic lesions
may be attributed to non-life-threatening injuries. The two crania are males
from a ritual depositional context, appear without postcranial elements, and
have been interpreted to indicate acts of violence. One evidences a depressed
fracture of the frontal bone, and the other was scalped and/or defleshed; both
injuries occurred while the individuals were alive and were likely major contributors to cause of death. The presence of these violent injuries among individuals
recovered from ritual contexts (and their absence among other categories) forms
the only clear pattern of skeletal trauma in the sample.
One sinus infection and a healed fracture of two adjacent ribs are present
among the noblewomen of Waka. Slight tendencies for females to be preferentially affected were noted for both of these types of pathology. The lack of
patterns associated with status among this sample, however, limits the interpretation of these data.
Dental Caries
Among the total sample, 39% of individuals display at least one carious lesion. The distribution shows a slight female bias, with 44% of females and
33% of males affected by caries. The incidence of caries by individual is much
higher among the nobility (60%) than among individuals from elite (25%),
settlement (29%), or ritual (50%) contexts. Only a single individuals dentition
could be observed for caries in the ritual deposit group, prohibiting exploration
of sex differences. Intragroup sex differences are found in the settlement and
elite groups, with incidence among females higher than overall group incidence.
This pattern is not present among the nobility, where incidence among females
(50%) is lower than overall incidence.
When caries rates are examined by tooth class, no pattern distinguishes location or incidence by sex or status. Thus, caries patterns among the noblewomen
reflect the higher incidence of caries among the nobility and among females,
although the female bias is not as strongly expressed as among lower status
groups. The caries data suggest that the noblewomen may have consumed more
carbohydrates, particularly maize, than other members of the Waka community.
Cranial Porosity
Cranial porosity occurs among 42% of the sample, and shows a strong male
bias (57% of males, 20% of females). It is completely absent among noble and
elite individuals, occurring only among individuals from settlement (60%) and
ritual (100%) contexts. Like all elite and noble individuals at Waka who survived into adulthood, the noblewomen were free of childhood iron deficiency
anemia or other nutritional deficiencies that would cause this pathology.
Linear Enamel Hypoplasia

First, LEH is examined in terms of the number of individuals affected by at
least one hypoplastic lesion. As among many Classic Maya populations, the
incidence of LEH (79% of individuals) is characteristically high in this sample.
Among the individuals affected, 45% show only one lesion on a given tooth,
and 55% show two or more lesions on a single tooth. Females are more susceptible to multiple lesions (63% vs. 33% of males), whereas males show a strong
tendency to only be affected by single lesions (67% vs. 37% of females). Noble
(75%) and settlement (67%) individuals are more likely to have only single
lesions, whereas all affected individuals in elite residential and ritual contexts
had multiple lesions. Wakas sample of noblewomen includes one of the rare
individuals not affected by LEH, and 67% of those affected show only single
lesions. Thus, LEH patterns among the noblewomen conform more to those of
the nobility than to the female pattern.
When the number of LEH events per individual is analyzed, the female
tendency for a greater number of events remains consistent. Among the total
sample, 45.5% of affected individuals show only a single event, 45.5% show 3
events during childhood, and 9% show 4 events. The majority of females were
affected by 3 (50%) or 4 (13%) events; most males evidence a single event
(67%), with 33% affected by 3 events. As when assessed by individual, the
number of events tends to be lower among nobles, followed by individuals
from settlement contexts, and higher among elites and individuals from ritual
contexts. Again, the numbers of events affecting the noblewomen (67% show 1
event and 33% show 3 events) align more closely with male and noble patterns
than with other females in the sample.
All insults in this sample evidenced by LEH occurred between the ages of
two and five years. The female range (2.04.9 years) is longer than that of males
(2.43.7 years), as expected given that males are less likely to be affected by
childhood health insults. No patterning associated with status was found in
the age of LEH formation. The noble female sample includes LEHs at both
extremes of the female age range. This suggests that although the noblewomen
were less frequently affected by childhood health insults than other Waka females, the period of susceptibility to such insults was longer, like other females.
Discussion of Health Patterns

The most notable characteristic of these osteological data is their complexity.
This is due in part to the abundance of factors influencing the expression of
these pathologies and the relatively small number of individuals included in the
current study. Although the current sample size allows only broad interpretations, several patterns shed light on the health patterns of the Waka community
in general and its noblewomen in particular.
Indicators of adult health show that, in general, adults at Waka were moderately affected by those health insults common among skeletal samples from
the Maya lowlands. Most indicators examined here suggest that elite and noble
individuals were more buffered against these health threats than other members of the community. Status-related dietary differences are also indicated by
the dental caries and porotic hyperostosis data. These manifestations of better
health status among individuals from the elite and noble samples are to a large
degree expressed among the noblewomen but are tempered by the influence of
sex differences.
In addition to differences in health patterns influenced by socioeconomic status, some degree of differentiation by sex is apparent. Females were more often
or more severely affected by nonspecific infection, porotic hyperostosis, LEH,
and dental caries, indicating that cultural practices and biological processes
negatively impacted female health. The tendency for increased manifestation of
these health threats among females impacted the health of the noblewomen in
nearly all categories with the exception of porotic hyperostosis, which is absent
among the nobility of both sexes. This impact, however, is more subtle than the
effect of noble privilege indicated by the paleopathological data.
The noblewomen of Waka thus show health patterns that incorporate their
participation in the community as nobility and their identity as women. In
most cases, their noble status helped override health risks faced by other women
in the Waka community, yet the impact of their lesser health status as women
remains visible in these patterns. The negotiation of gender and power factors
in daily practice cannot be separated; the effects of both of these factors are visible, however, in the paleopathological data. This demonstrates that the noblewomen of Waka did not live in manners that marked them as atypical within
the community; their lives show a better fit within the culture than do their
constructed identities after death.
Conclusion
This discussion illustrates some examples of the use of mortuary contexts to
interweave the varied and sometimes competing expressions of power, authority, and gender in the presentation of the individual and their place within
society after death. The individual, the political figure, and the ritual practitioner that each of these women was in life governed the way that they were
situated and contextualized in death; however, additional layers of meaning and
manipulation of the body and the persona were also involved in the funerary
transformation.
In the Waka sample, the fluidity of gendered and powerful identities is evident in the mortuary contexts of these noblewomen. The identity of the individual interred in Burial 8 was transformed and merged with that of an iconic
Calakmul woman who ruled at Waka in materially evident ways demonstrating
the persisting association between these foreign women and regal authority at
Waka. Burial 24, in turn, is an example of the postmortem reconfiguration
of the noblewomens identities to reflect changes in political organization at
Waka. Our argument here is that these interments are most directly connected
to converting living powerful political actors into historical figures through the
construction and manipulation of memory and history.
The health status of these noblewomen demonstrates that patterns of daily
life also conformed more to their place within a privileged social group than to
their identity as females. Although typical female health tendencies indicated
by the paleopathological data are to some extent reflected in the health of the
noblewomen, the health of these individuals is characterized more by health
status typical of all nobility.
The sample of noblewomens interments from Waka contains evidence of
dramatic attempts to highlight their salient individual characteristics while
contextualizing them within the sites narrative history. Closer examination of
the mortuary and health data, however, shows the noblewomens participation
within the upper levels of the Waka community was fundamentally similar to
that of their noble cohorts, and was less guided by the factors of gender or sex.
These analyses allow us a glimpse of the tension inherent in negotiating gender
and power roles in both life and death, and highlight the interwoven complexity of all of these factors among Wakas noblewomen.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all of the members of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project, directed by David Freidel and Hctor Escobedo
during the years in which this research was carried out. We are also deeply
indebted to the projects skilled and dedicated excavation and camp staff, without whom we would have been literally and figuratively lost on innumerable
occasions. This research was undertaken with the generous support of the Jerome Glick Foundation and with the permission of Guatemalas Instituto de
Antropologa e Historia.
12
Surveying Landscapes of Power
andRitual at Waka
Evangelia Tsesmeli
l Per-Waka is located atop a natural escarpment running

east-west deep within the Laguna del Tigre National Park in the western part
of the Department of Petn in north-central Guatemala, about 78 km west of
Tikal (see Figure I.1, this volume). It was one of the settlements the Harvard
University team visited in the early 1970s when they led their Corpus of Maya
Hieroglyphic Inscriptions expedition throughout northwestern Petn (Graham
1988). While at El Per-Waka, Ian Graham, the director of the Harvard expedition, and his colleagues measured and mapped a site plan within an area of 96
ha, which they delimited as the sites center (see Figure I.2, this volume).
It was not until 2003 that the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project (EPWRAP) began conducting archaeological work at the site. The strategic
position of Waka along riverine and land routes presented an opportunity to
study political and social dynamics and exchanges with powerful neighbors,
such as Tikal and Calakmul. The project initiated a combined program of excavation, survey, and mapping, preservation of architectural features at the site,
and reconnaissance of the surrounding areas (Freidel and Escobedo 2002). As
part of this program, the intensive surface survey and mapping project concentrated on recording both the built and natural landscape at El Per-Waka. Excavated architecture; visible unexcavated remains of structures, plazas, and other
features; and complete topographical coverage of the natural terrain within
the settlement form the corpus of survey data documenting the site center at
ElPer-Waka. This chapter summarizes the different aspects and objectives of
the surface survey, highlights some of the theoretical concepts pertaining to the
built environment and its potential to inform on past activities, analyzes the
settlements layout, and presents a case of viewshed analysis emphasizing monumental and ceremonial architectural elements at the site center.
Survey/Mapping Methodology at Waka

The surface survey involved foot reconnaissance of the site area and detailed
mapping of the sites epicenter. The main objective of such intensive, 100%
204 Tsesmeli
surface coverage was to obtain as accurate an account as possible of the local

topography and structural remains on the visible surface instead of just sampling certain areas within the site center (Tsesmeli 2004). The survey included
detailed mapping of the terrain, visible non-excavated monumental architecture and low-elevation structures, excavated architecture, and test excavations
(Tsesmeli 2004, 2005). While the excavations at the most prominent structures
began at the site core in 2003, the hand-drawn map by Ian Graham was digitized, and the depicted structures were numbered to facilitate the management
and recording of the visible surface architecture throughout the site (Tsesmeli
2004:346347).
The preservation of surficial architectural elements considerably impacted
the outcome of the mapping effort. The quality of limestone and the conditions within the tropical forest that include heavy rainfall, considerable washout, accumulated mud infill deposits, and extensive looting are detrimental to
the preservation of architectural details. Public/monumental architecture and
structures of considerable size and height built with stone masonry are more
likely to be preserved and detected by a surface survey, and are usually associated with residents of status or of religious importance (Haviland 1981; Smith
1987). Lower elevation structures, possibly made of perishable materials, and
associated with commoner residences are more difficult to detect (Johnston
2002). Johnston (2004) has addressed the issue of nonvisible structures specifically in the context of the surveys conducted in the Maya lowlands, and based
on his data set at Itzan, Johnston has maintained that there are more invisible
structures than one may think. As such, estimates about population densities
could be wildly off (for abundance of nonvisible structures in the southern lowlands, see Chase 1990; Wilk and Wilhite 1991:118120; for a more cautionary
approach, see Rice and Culbert 1990:1415). At Waka, the survey did not use
geophysical prospecting techniques to detect nonplatform architectural remains
or other buried features. Such methods have been used without conclusive results at Chau Hiix, Belize (Sweely 2005:204), and it remains to be seen whether
they are suited for the limestone and tropical forest environment of Laguna del
Tigre National Park and the El Per area.
Preserved surface remains do not necessarily correspond to the actual shape,
size, form, and layout of a structure. Hendon (1992) examined how well the
interpretation of surface surveys of mounds, as she terms the unexcavated structures, can correspond to their excavated form. She noted that at Seibal the
ratio of success in classifying mounds correctly was 28.3 % (Hendon 1992:35,
Table7). The original configuration, therefore, can be best determined through
excavation. Under specific conditions, remote sensing techniques that can
penetrate through the dense canopy and have sufficient resolution, can also
determine structural configurations (for using light detection and ranging technology [LiDAR] as a reconnaissance tool in a high canopy tropical forest location, see Chase et al. 2010).
Surveying Landscapes of Power andRitual 205
Because of the importance of the tropical forest to preservationists, ecologists, and archaeologists alike, the mapping project at Waka operated under
strict guidelines for minimum disturbance to the vegetation obscuring access
to structures and features. Under these conditions, the surface survey focused
on creating a detailed map of the site core and the archaeological investigations underway by establishing a permanent datum and method of total station
recording. This was done by standardizing data recording and processing, and
by recording all excavation units and features within their natural setting. All
location and elevation measurements and comparisons are relative to Datum 1,
which was established at an arbitrary coordinate point of 5000m N, 5000m
E, and a 100m elevation at Plaza 2 (Tsesmeli 2004: Figure 2). Global Positioning System coordinates were regularly taken at various benchmarks and nails
throughout the site core in order to provide sufficient resolution for a precise
transformation of the arbitrary coordinates to geographic coordinates verified
by ground reconnaissance. The sites location in geographic coordinates is registered in the plan Rio San Pedro with a scale of 1:50,000, edition 1-DMA,
E754, Hoja 2167 IV of Instituto Geogrfico Nacional.
In the field, terrain and excavation units were recorded through a system of
traverses at established control points in the plazas and near the most prominent architecture (Tsesmeli 2005). The mapped areas reproduced the condition
of the terrain and structures as they were at the time of recording. Any additional information regarding the state of architectural features comes from excavation. The survey data set has been the foundation for creating a Geographic
Information System (GIS) geodatabase for El Per-Waka. The Waka GIS was
developed as the primary approach to geospatial analysis and data management
of the EPWRAP in order to combine all information into one coherent entity
and facilitate current and future research. Wakas GIS utilizes three sources of
information that relate to each other through specific rules and relationships:
the excavation unit and operation database that reflect the excavation activity at
the site; the ceramics and burial database; and the survey points data set (Tsesmeli 2005). The GIS tools have assisted in the analysis of spatial patterning,
the calculation of least-cost surfaces and paths, the identification of possible
routes, and the creation of intervisibility indices and viewsheds from certain
vantage points.
Derived from the collected survey coordinates, layers of information in the
GIS geodatabase represent excavation units, datums, exposed architecture outlines, burials, burial chambers, looters trenches, general topographic elevation,
and traverse points, and features such as chultuns (bottle-shaped cavities excavated into soft limestone bedrock), aguadas (water reservoirs or sinkholes), and
sakbes (raised paved roads). Layers also distinguish between units excavated each
year, structures excavated or not excavated, and other topographic features. The
end result is a topographic map of the area that can be displayed in numerous
configurable ways and the creation of a spatially developed unit system that can
206 Tsesmeli
be queried and researched for its contents. This effectively integrates the survey
data set with the site and artifactual databases. The survey data set has provided
the basis for a three-fold inquiry, the results of which will be discussed below:
What is the pattern of settlement within the mapped site core?
How do theoretical underpinnings on space, place, landscape, and ritual activities relate to the spatial organization and planning at Waka?
What kind of perception and visual limiting factors affect landscape visibility, intervisibility, and visibility directionality from the main civic-ceremonial
structures at the site?
Of Structures and Space

The spatial organization of the site core at Waka reflects the planning principles
used to build the city and has the potential to inform on the human activities
that took place in that specific area. The activities within or nearby a settlement
and the social practices and performances of its residents give meaning to space,
physical or conceptual, through its association to places. A space becomes place
through the process of habitation (Thomas 1996:86), which in turn serves as
a diachronic symbol of past events and as facilitator and instigator of remembering and imagining them (Basso 1996:7). The landscape is the backdrop of
past activity at a settlement. It encompasses not only the resource base through
which the settlement survives and thrives, but it is also, as Knapp and Ashmore
(1999:3) put it, an entity that exists by virtue of its being perceived, experienced, and contextualized by people. In this way, places are framed within
spaces and both of them within landscapes. The architectural remains and their
natural setting form constituent elements of Wakas settlementlandscapes
that shape and are shaped by human experiences (Cosgrove 1985). As such,
they serve as proxies to understand the builders technological choices, ideological beliefs, and sociocultural traits and needs (Cosgrove 1985:13; Willey
1953:1). Landscapes are active and dynamic, the loci of social and symbolic
interactions between people and the environment they inhabit (Thomas 2001).
They link physiographic features with connotations of continuity, past memories, and ritual activities (Bender 2002). The topographic and material aspects
of ritual as it is placed within the landscape are critical in the study of sacred
places. Rappaport (1999) makes the distinction between ritual and sacred landscape; ritual does not merely identify that which is sacred, it creates the sacred,
separating it from the profane. When imbued with meaning, the natural setting is transformedthe placeand is recognized increasingly as the source
and subject of symbols, often linked to ancestral beings (Morphy 1995), while
there is interplay between social experience and symbolic statements. Sacred
landscapes, therefore, can also be seen as social reinstatements of a culturally
constructed material environment (Moore 2004).
The natural landscape was manipulated to create sacred space/place as textual evidence, as the study of settlement layout indicates in the Maya area. The
Maya chose specific landform settings to transform the physical space of their
settlements into meaningful landscapes that reflected the ideational characteristics of their own culture and beliefs (Ashmore 1991). The ethnographic and
epigraphic records suggest the Maya considered pyramids as representative of
sacred mountains, thus connecting the natural with the ideational realm (e.g.,
Stuart and Houston 1994; Vogt 1964). Burial chambers may have resembled
shelter caves and portals to the underworld (e.g., Brady and Ashmore 1999;
Vogt 1981). The transformed ideational landscape indicated the social and political nature of space, in that the members of the ancient Maya society influenced in varying degrees the outcome, structure, scale, role, and nature of the
built environment (Ashmore 1991). Such agents had the authority and power
to effect change.
The debate as to whether factors such as cosmology, ritual, and local history
may have played a formative role in the planning of the Maya cities continues.
The proponents of a symbolic or cosmological aspect of the architectural layout
(Ashmore 1991; Ashmore and Sabloff 2002; Houk 1996; prajc 2005) contest
that the orientation of a sites civic center not only reflects the organization of
the sites sacred landscape and the connection of the ruling class to the cosmos
but it also correlates with the length of occupation span and the political history
of the area. Ashmore (1989; 1991) and Ashmore and Sabloff (2003) associated the north-south directionality of monumental architecture at Preclassic
and Classic centers with a concurrent elevated landscape from south to north,
symbolizing respectively the Maya underworld, Xibalba, and the heavens of
the north. Smith (2003:225) questioned Ashmore and Sabloffs (2002) cosmological model as lacking specificity and rigor, largely because the material
expressions of their cosmological and political models are vague or unspecified.
Smith (2003:226) felt the east-west axis is more prevalent in the cases Ashmore
and Sabloff discussed, and Smith claimed that inquiries on the role of cosmology in ancient urban planning could be more objective through a series of expressly defined architectural characteristics.
Neither side denies the fact that certain monumental architecture was built
following cosmological principles and symbolic connotations. Smiths comments are not without merit as there is considerable variability in city plans in
the Maya area, thus negating the one size fits all approach. This is in line with
the observation that there is no single model for form or growth pattern that
can account for the morphology of any Maya settlement in the region (Ashmore
2005:38; Marcus 1983), and results in considerable city plan variability in the
Maya area. Not only is there variability among different sites, but also within
the same site. A civic layout may initially adhere to a specific orientation, yet as
time passes there may be changes in political affiliations, local environmental
conditions, or belief systems. Such changes may result in new construction or
208 Tsesmeli
the rebuilding of existing structures according to a different orientation (Ashmore 2005:4244). In the following section, I examine the settlement layout
and the main loci of habitation and ritual significance that attest to the wide
variability of the built environment within the city of El Per-Waka.
The Site Plan

The ongoing mapping and foot reconnaissance project at the epicenter of El
Per-Waka has thus far yielded 794 structures (Tsesmeli 2013). The following
description of the sites layout and configuration is based on the survey results
during six field seasons (20032006 and 20112012). All mentioned structures, groups, and features are shown in Figure I.2 (this volume). Four main
plazas (Plazas 14) comprise the foci of the sites epicenter and are surrounded
by multiple plaza groups in a variety of configurations, size, and/or extent. Plazas 2 and 3 form a continuous plaza 7m higher than Plazas 1 and 4 to the
north and northwest, respectively. The southeastern border of Plazas 2 and 1
are defined by Structures M13-1 and M12-32. These are the two largest temple
structures of the site core; they are 17m and 19m high, respectively, and both
face west. Plazas 1, 2, and 3 have their long axes oriented east and slightly to the
northwest. Another east-northwest orientation is that of Structures M12-34,
M12-38, and L12-13 at Plaza 1. A looted subterranean, vaulted room (Structure M12-44) exists to the northeast of Structure M13-1. Its role and function
are still undecided. West of Plaza 4 is the Palace Complex that forms a two-
tiered complex. The first tier is comprised of long, range structures surrounding and overlooking Plaza 5 at nearly the same level as Plazas 2 and 3, but it is
6.5m higher than Plaza 4. The second tier is comprised of smaller structures
surrounding Plaza 6 and is 7m higher than Plaza 5. Burial 8 was discovered at
the first tier Structure L11-38 in 2004making this building not only a royal
residence but also a funerary structure (Lee 2005). The masonry tomb chamber,
measuring 3.5 1 1.25 m, was mapped to create a three-dimensional plan
for the excavators (Tsesmeli et al. 2005:131, Figure 1). A range structure, Structure L11-33, provided access to the Palace Complex through a steep staircase.
Excavations in this structure yielded a hieroglyphic staircase portraying rulers
playing the ballgame (Piehl and Guenter 2005). The ballcourt, part of the Palace Complex, is located northeast of Structure L12-8 (Melndez 2007). To the
north of Plaza 1 and east of the ballcourt, there are compounds of structures,
such as the residential groups Xican, Encantado, Max, and Xucub (Tsesmeli
and Marken 2006; Tsesmeli et al. 2005). These groups can be accessed from the
south through Plaza 1, which possibly formed the route that visitors from the
north took to enter the site. Two depressions were recorded to the southwest
and northern side of the Xucub Group with a diameter of about 38m and
44m respectively. They may have functioned as aguadas; however, their exact
purpose has yet to be investigated.
The area immediately south of Plazas 2 and 3 dips down extending about
100m at the north-south axis and 140m east-west. Although it is centrally
located, it can only be accessed from the west, as it is restricted from other
directions through steep inclines of about 8m high. The deepest central part
of this area could have functioned as a central aguada providing water to the
facilities and residences at the center of the city. Test excavations carried out in
the 2003 field season indicated the northern edges of this area were not part
of a dried lake or a watery bajo ([seasonally inundated low-lying area] Eppich
2004). Without further examination it is uncertain what kind of function this
sparsely inhabited area served. It is possible other structures exist within this
low-elevation area that are invisible and cannot be exposed without excavation
(Johnston 2002, 2004). The test excavations also revealed a wall at a depth of
about 0.70m with well-cut stone at the southeast of Structure M13-21 (Prez
Robles 2004). Uphill and within 200m from the southern end of the possible
aguada, continuing to the edge of the escarpment, well-constructed clusters of
structures surround small plazas. One of these clusters, Group Sur1, consists of
13 structures that surround at least two formal plazas in a two-tiered arrangement. Settlement at the south side may not continue to the extent northern settlement does because the escarpment provides a natural barrier to the southern
and western edges of the city center. The plaza groups, however, are numerous,
dense, and are located on naturally elevated platforms.
The Xik Group provides intermediary access between Plaza 2 and the enclaves to the east and south. The Chok Group (Eppich 2007b; this volume) is
strategically located 14m higher than Plazas 2 and 3 and overlooks not only
the site center but most of the southern side of the site. The presence of stela
fragments in the vicinity of the group, the temple architecture-style pyramid of
Structure M13-12, the recently found Burial 38 (Eppich 2007b; this volume),
and the presence of low-elevation structures suggest the groups residents as possibly a mixture of elites and others of varying status, as recent studies of Classic
Maya court networks and elite residential compounds have demonstrated (e.g.,
Hendon 1991; Rice and Puleston 1981). South of the Chok Group, another
elite residential compound in a prominent location is the Tolok Group at 20m
higher than Datum 1 (Eppich 2006), while to the southeast there is the ceremonial Mirador Group.
The Mirador Group consists of three distinct localities, prominently overlooking the site center at about 45m higher than Plaza 2 (Rich 2004, 2005,
2011; Rich et al. 2006; Rich and Matute, this volume). The western part of
the complex is comprised of a small triadic group atop a steep natural rise that
was intentionally modified to create a leveled summit upon which to build the
structures. The central structure at the triadic group, Structure N14-12, is oriented to the north in contrast to the two other pyramids of the Mirador Group,
Structures O14-04 and O14-02, which face northwest. These civic-ceremonial
buildings face toward the center of the site and are nearly in complete alignment
210 Tsesmeli
with the east-west orientation of Plazas 1 and 2. Additionally, they are among
the tallest buildings at the site, measuring 12m and 16m respectively, and
are connected by a small causeway. Mapping of the Mirador Group was completed in 2006 and incorporated details of architecture exposed by excavation,
such as walls, staircases, and platforms. Mapping included a three-dimensional
reconstruction of the tombs where Burials 24 and 25 were found (Rich et al.
2006). Several survey rods were combined to form a unified long pole to take
coordinates of a datum established at the center of the opening of the tomb that
was about 6.3m below the exposed floor of Unit 41 at the surface of Structure
O14-04. This quick solution has now become an integral component of mapping procedure for recording at such depths (Tsesmeli 2007).
The area east of Plazas 1 and 2 and north of the Mirador Group presents a
landscape with a variety of landforms. Steep inclines from the Mirador Group
lead down to the two large bajo areas that cover about 10 ha, 10.5% of the total
terrain area of the site core. Dense forest with high canopy difficult for walking
and reconnaissance and rock outcrops towering over the undulating hills in between elevated areas and plane surfaces surround a substantially sized settlement
(Type 3) of mostly elite residences (Willey and Leventhal 1979) grouped together in two to five structures atop high elevation, most likely natural mounds.
Topography favors such configuration since the bajos interchange with high-
elevation hills/mounds whose tops have been flattened to support the platforms
of the elite residences. Built with well-cut masonry, the eastern Groups 1, 2, 3,
4, 6, and 7 command an extensive view of the surrounding areas. East Group
5 seems to be the only group neighboring the bajo to the east while the natural
topography divides the two bajos with elevated outcrops. East Group 4 sits on
the boundary between the two bajos. The steepness of the hill upon which the
residences were built makes them difficult to access.
The western settlement of the city center exhibits several characteristics different from the eastern settlement or the groups to the north. It does not contain the alternating, undulating hills and the dominating steep inclines of the
eastern side. Surrounding the northwestern palatial area are low-elevation, small
structures forming such clusters as Groups Batz and Ikbolai to the north and
Groups Xam and Chol to the west and south of the Northwest Palace (Tsesmeli
et al. 2005:28587). These small structures lie most probably on the traveling
route from the banks of the San Juan River to the city center. Ceramic evidence
from a test excavation near Group Chol points to an occupation extending
from the Early Classic until the Late-to-Terminal Classic periods (Prez Robles
2005). The area to the west of Groups Xam and Chol is rather flat but deserted
as far as surface remains are concerned. West Groups 1, 2, and 3 and Group
Xam surround a rather shallow bajo. To the west of these groups another shallow, rather deserted area exists that is punctuated by small clusters of well-cut
masonry structures with metates on the ground surface, all bordering the edge
of the escarpment (West Groups 4 and 5). West Group 5 contains a complex
of structures of substantial size on each side of a sinkhole and is built on terraced platforms. The sinkhole is 5m lower than the lower terrace and 7.5m
lower from the top of the structures surrounding it. The well-cut masonry that
can be seen through the immense looters pit in Structure K13-3 points to a
small palatial complex in the vicinity of the sinkhole. This large terraced structure is surrounded by smaller masonry range structures where people seem to
have been engaging in household activities, as evidenced by the surface metates.
Physiographically, the western side of the city allows for communication and
water management, because it directly pertains to access toward the lagoon system and the San Juan River below the escarpment. Further, it contains a large
bajada and some smaller ones, and it is the border of the upper part of the sites
core settlement since the escarpment creates a natural barrier of about 30m
between the lower settlement and the higher epicenter.
Elements of Civic Planning and Prominence

Regardless of the size of a settlement, its spatial configuration did not happen
overnight. The longer an area was occupied, the more complex its construction
history and alterations in its layout. A settlement may have resulted from construction projects that spanned a significant amount of time, reflecting the dynamic changes not only in the social and political status, role, and importance
of its residents, but also the dynamics of perception and social significance that
landscape held for the residents. The construction sequence at El Per-Waka
is not fully known, and is currently being investigated. Ceramic analysis from
excavated structures and test excavations suggest that the site core of El Per-
Waka enjoyed a long, continuous habitation from the end of the Late Preclassic
(400 BCAD 150) until the Terminal Classic (AD 800950) (Eppich et al.
2005). The pottery recovered from deposits in test excavations indicates early
settlement and activity at the central part of the site. As time advanced, the
focus of habitation shifted to the northeast and the southeast, growing in settlement throughout the Late and Terminal Classic periods (Prez Robles 2004;
Ramrez 2006; Ramrez and Marken 2007). At the time that other sites in
the Petn area exhibit dramatic reduction in population and construction, and
either are destroyed or abandoned during the Terminal Classic (see Demarest
et al. 2004), this site presents an expansive settlement that most probably extended beyond the surveyed area (Eppich et al. 2005).
The mapped area at the sites epicenter covers 56 ha and includes 627
structures. Based on current work, the site core contains at least 794 structures (Tsesmeli 2013). Initial analysis indicates a site center densely occupied
by a variety of structures, including elite residential complexes and those of
monumental/ceremonial nature. The density of structures tapers down away
212 Tsesmeli
from the epicenter quite sharply, especially after a radius of 400m from the
main plazas. An indication of the scale of dispersion is the fact that the number of structures beyond the 400-m-radius decreases about 37% in the zone
between 400 and 500m to reach a 73% reduction at the 500600-m-radius.
This pattern is similar to a zonal settlement pattern where the size of architectural construction and monumentality decrease with distance from the civic-
ceremonial center. The center usually consists of monumental construction and
elaborate residencesa concentration of the most important temples and plazas. In the immediately adjacent area, one can find large well-built residences,
while in the outer zone the pattern becomes dispersed and residences smaller
(Haviland 1963; Kurjack 1974; Marcus 1983; Thomas 1981; Willey and Leventhal 1979). Conversely, based on the average surface area of open space surrounding the structures at the site, a ratio of open surface area per structure
was calculated for each buffer zone. The distribution of open space ranges from
0.07 ha per structure at 200m radius to 0.55 ha per structure at 500m from
the epicenter. Additionally, 106 small, low elevation structures were recorded in
a 20.7-ha area along two transects in the far northern sector at Waka (Marken
2007, 2008, 2010). This indicates that the settlement to the north continues
with small, dispersed residential groups for about 1 km from the central plazas.
Different areas of Waka demonstrate different functions within the site
core. For example, judging from the presence of the Palace Complex, the burial
chambers, the ballcourt, and the hieroglyphic staircase, the northwestern sector
of the site appears to have been an important administrative and ritual locale for
the residents at Waka. According to Juan Carlos Melndez (2007:11922), the
spatial configuration of this part of Waka resembles the western sector of the
Acropolis at Calakmul and the Central and Southern Acropoli at Tikal during
the Late Classic period. While Calakmul has not yielded a hieroglyphic staircase
yet, the northwest location of the palace center with the presence of a ballcourt
is similar to that at Waka (Melndez 2007:11922). The Mirador Group in the
southeastern area of Waka, with its triadic group of pyramids, could represent
the sacred mountainsvenerable places of ritual and ceremonyof the Maya.
The prominence of this group over the Waka landscape may reflect the commemoration of reverence and power, dominance, control, and the significance
of the group as an important ritual/ceremonial center (Rich and Matute, this
volume).
There is considerable intrasite variability in the direction structures face on
their long axes. Certain sectors at the site seem to follow an eastslightly northwest axis during the Late and Terminal Classic Periods. The palace area in Plaza
5 with Structures L11-38, the pyramid M12-32 at Plaza 1, pyramid M13-1
at Plaza 2imposing in size and heightand the two largest pyramids in the
Mirador Group, O14-04 and O14-02, follow that pattern. On the other hand,
the hieroglyphic staircase on Structure L11-33 that leads to the palace area,
the pyramid, Structure M13-12, in the elite residential Chok Group, Structure
M12-35 at Plaza 2, and Structure N14-12 at the smallest elevated pyramidal
hill in the Mirador Group all follow a slight northeast-southwest orientation.
Viewshed Analysis at Waka: A First Look

atVisibility Patterns
Surface survey and mapping registered the morphology/layout of the settlement
at El Per-Waka. These quantifiable data can assess ways through which the
viewer experienced the landscape at Waka. Those include patterns of visibility,
movement, and access from and to particular architectural forms and areas.
The process of perception does not involve only the physiographical landscape
but also the physiological limits of human vision. Factors, such as distance,
depression or elevation, light conditions, depth of vision, and angles of incidence are potentially limiting to the perceptive ability of the observer and affect
the cognitive perception of the landscape (Higuchi 1975; Litton 1968; Moore
2004). Distance and elevation may facilitate or hinder the visual perception of
any action (Moore 1996). Higuchi (1975) included distance as one of eight
quantifiable indices affecting human perception. The visual domain based on
distance is divided into three ranges from short to middle to long distance, in
which objects are either 1) identifiable and distinguishable, 2) just distinguishable, or 3) not discernable at all. The application of measurable and quantifiable classes of distant perception to viewshed and visibility analysis has been
explored in various settings, including archaeology (Lock 2000; Wheatley and
Gillings 2000), and will be used in the analysis of visibility in this chapter.
While the basic process of perception is the same for everyone, the priorities,
cultural or cognitive, and the observers visual ability determine the content of
perception, will diverge in different societies because of the different perceptual
habits (Segall et al. 1966).
Throughout the survey at Waka, it became evident that construction closely
followed the natural elevation of the terrain along with the necessary modifications for patios and platforms, mimicking mountains, and possibly caves. This
has led to the hypothesis that prominence in the landscape of the ceremonial
and palatial structures at the center of Waka, including the elite residential
compounds of groups Tolok and Chok and the ceremonial pyramids of the
Mirador Group, was deliberate to assert visual dominance and create statements
of power and memory for the residents of the city. To assess this hypothesis, a
viewshed/visibility analysis on a sample of ten structures within the site core, in
elite residential complexes, and public or ceremonial places (each represented
with a star in Figure 12.1) was performed against the cumulative viewshed of
the site (Wheatley 1995). A viewshed is the visible field from a specific location. Visibility is the ability to be seen from the surrounding terrain. The survey
Figure 12.1. Visibility surface analysis within the El Per-Waka epicenter, including the Mirador Group. Map and
graph compiled by E. Tsesmeli, 2012, courtesy of the El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological Project.
data provided the digital elevation model of the site and the coordinates of the
locations upon which the analysis was performed. The height of an observer
on top of a structure was assigned to 1.5m as offset for the average height of a
human being in the Maya area looking to and from that location (for temporal variations on the estimates and range of stature among the lowlands Maya
population, see Danforth 1994). The analysis ran on the GIS viewshed module
(ArcGIS 9.2 with Spatial Analyst extension). The resulting image is a raster
surface with a cell size of 2 m, small enough to provide adequate detail and
large enough to allow the analysis to be performed within an acceptable time
framework (Lake et al. 1998). Table 12.1 describes the location of the observer
points and the corresponding structure properties.
The objective of the inquiry into the visibility patterns of the civic-ceremonial
centers at Waka was threefold:
1. To demonstrate at a 95% confidence level that the view from public and ceremonial centers cannot be attributed to chance,
2. To create a visibility index of the mapped area to indicate the visibility extent
of every cell on the map, and
3. To identify other locations that may also have extensive visual domains.
The null hypothesis (Ho) expresses that the site configuration was randomly
exposed through the terrain. In other words, the visibility distributions of the
chosen locations and the background cumulative viewshed are drawn from the
same population. Therefore, the building of the ceremonial and elite complexes
with expanded visual domain and commanding intervisibility was not preferential. If the null hypothesis is rejected, then the alternative hypothesis (H1)
is accepted at the chosen appropriate confidence level, in our case 95% (a =
0.05), that ceremonial and elite locations were built preferentially to command
extended visibility.
The nonparametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov with one tail test was used to assess the null hypothesis because of its ability to deal with small sample size and
its nondependence on specific sample distribution patterns (Kvamme 1990).
The test statistic compares the cumulative frequency distribution of an empirical sample (civic-ceremonial prominent locations) against an expected referent
cumulative frequency distribution (cumulative viewshed). The maximum absolute value difference (Dmax) between the two distributions is compared with
the critical value d of the test statistic obtained from the sample size. In the case
of 10 samples, the critical value is approximated by the equation d = 1.36/n =
0.422 where n = 10, the number of cases, and alpha = 0.05. If Dmax is smaller
than the critical value d, then the null hypothesis cannot be rejected at this confidence level. The Dmax in this analysis is 0.703, larger than the critical value of
d, therefore we reject the null hypothesis with 95% confidence that the location
22.6 8.3 2
NW Palace area/ L11-38
NW Palatial area/ L11-33
Plaza 1/M12-32
Plaza 2/M12-35
Plaza 2/M13-1
Group Chok/M13-12
Group Tolok/M14-16
Mirador Group/N14-12
Mirador Group/O14-04
Mirador Group/O4-02
10
33 30 16
40 31.5 12
11 10 2.2
19 9 4.5
15 14 7
76.2 53.8 17
30 24 5
26.5 25 19
26.5 9.8 2.5
Structure dimensions
(l w h in meters )
No. Locus/Structure names
E-W, West entrance
E-W, West entrance
N-S, North entrance
N-S, North entrance
N-S, North entrance
E-W, West entrance
N-S, South entrance
E-W, West entrance
N-S, South entrance
E-W, East entrance
Orientation
Non excavated, Tsesmeli 2007
Rich et al. 2006, 2007
Rich 2004, 2005
Alvarado 2004; Eppich 2006
Eppich 2007b
Navarro-Farr 2004; Navarro-Farr and

Arroyave 2005, 2006, 2007
Acua 2005; Escobedo and Acua 2004
Escobedo and Melndez 2006, 2007; Prez

Caldern 2004
Piehl and Guenter 2005
Lee 2004, 2005
References
Table 12.1.Viewshed analysis: Location of observer points within the El Per-Waka epicenter
of the prominent centers was attributed to chance. There is always the 5% possibility that we are wrong in our evaluation.
Visibility analysis researches the relationship between spatially discrete areas
and the corresponding viewable surrounding terrain, and it is not without pitfalls. An environment with no visual impediments, besides topography, to the
assumed observers forms the ideal context for such analysis. In archaeology,
we introduce the bias of using the current terrain configuration as if it were
unaltered in antiquity. Several factors influence the degree of visibility, such
as the observers visual acuity, the distance between observer and target, the
degree to which the target stands out from its surroundings, and atmospheric
conditions, such as moisture, fog, and lighting. It is possible, therefore, that
what can be seen according to a calculated viewshed may not actually be seen
by a viewer and vice versa. Ground truth reconnaissance can accurately resolve
conflicting issues of intervisibility between features. In the case of the mapped
area at Waka, the terrain did not extend in the same fashion in every direction,
especially around the Mirador Group. This configuration adds directional bias
to inferences about the degree and relationship of intervisibility among various
civic and ceremonial centers within the mapped area. The viewshed, therefore,
and the calculated visibility from and to the Mirador, will be bound to face
toward the north and westward.
The extent of the visual domain within the mapped site area was explored
through the creation of a visibility index using the Higuchi Index for medium
distance ranges (1001,000 m) as a proxy for the physiological limits of human
visual perception. The areas with high visibility are depicted in white and those
with very low to no visibility in dark gray (see Figure 12.1). Within this visual
domain class, the observed objects tend to be distinguishable, a valuable and
desirable trait when the display of rituals, processions, performances, and power
seeks the audiences attention, reverence, and possible participation.
The preliminary visibility analysis indicated that places of ritual significance,
or associated with the ruling or high social order, were chosen to be built at
locations where the visibility from their surroundings was high. Additionally,
other areas that enjoy high visibility values include residential complexes in the
southern sector of the city, to the north at groups Ikbolai, Max and Encantado,
to the east (East Groups 4, 5, 6, and 7), and to the west (West Groups 1, 2, 5,
and 6). The importance and role of these spaces are uncertain beyond the potential classification of some of the northern and western groups as Type 3 or 4
elite residential groups (Willey and Leventhal 1979).
Although elevated areas are prominent features of the landscape, open spaces
at Waka, such as Plazas 1 to 4, also registered high visibility index values. The
plazas could have been used for public festivities and ceremonies, but may also
have served as foci of economic or political activities. Their role, therefore, in
shaping the social, political, and ritual landscape within the city was essential.
218 Tsesmeli
Structures M13-1 and M12-32 are features of considerable size and height associated with the plazas. Both are built at the eastern edge of the plazas with
no other immediate competing structures on the western side. Through their
own specific functions, they contribute to the sacred landscape at Waka. Their
prominence at the center of the city, as well as in the Mirador Group, and over
the Waka landscape may reflect the commemoration of reverence and power,
dominance and control, and the significance of these places as important ritual/
ceremonial centers.
Concluding Thoughts
Archaeologists examine the material record in a variety of ways using an extensive set of techniques and instruments. They delve into theoretical and analytical frameworks and interpretations to reconstruct the past built environment
and the activities within, and they argue about the structure of social/economic
and religious institutions through time. In this chapter, I presented the results
of the intensive surface survey and mapping project at the site center of Waka
that began in 2003 and continued until 2012. During this time, the survey
project identified and mapped the epicenters monumental architecture, residential groups, and the ceremonial center at the Mirador Group. Surface survey
is concerned with the materialistic examination and representation of space.
The Waka GIS project, a direct result of the survey, organized the survey and
excavation data sets into a central geodatabase, and provided the analytical tools
to investigate patterns of settlement and cosmological and experiential aspects
of the citys landscape.
Although a temporal construction layout is still in progress, Wakas Terminal
Classic site configuration is comprised of four plazas at the center surrounded
by monumental and residential architecture, and a prominent ceremonial center to the southeastern side of the site. There seems to be a preponderance of
an eastslightly northwest long axis orientation of prominent public and ceremonial structures during the Late and Terminal Classic periods: Plazas 15
and the surrounding structures, and the two largest pyramids in the Mirador
Group follow that pattern. The variability, however, needs to be assessed within
a tighter chronological framework.
The density of settlement decreases with distance from the central plazas, a
fact that points to a concentric zone pattern for the site. Differential occupation
density exists throughout the center of the city; the southern portion of the
site contains dense enclaves of small, well-constructed masonry plazuela groups
mostly built on elevated terrain bordering the escarpment on a southwest direction. Settlement north of the city center, however, appears far denser than
settlement to the south, west, and east of the central plazas. The presence of
the two large bajos to the east and the low-lying areas to the west may explain
this discrepancy in density. Reasons may also include elite political strategies or
ecological and/or economic factors, none of which can be confirmed without
excavation and further chronological information. Additional survey and mapping at the northern and southern periphery, and on-foot reconnaissance in the
four cardinal directions, indicated the site extends well beyond the site center
and below the escarpment that borders the southern and western sides of the
upper city, with dense settlement within 1 km from Plaza 2. The peripheral
groups that have been mapped so far are dispersed, residential in nature, and
surround small patios. The ongoing intensive surface survey and mapping at
the Waka site core and the periphery continue to advance our knowledge of the
settlements extent and layout.
The preliminary visibility analysis indicates that loci of power and ceremony
tend to occur in locations from which high numbers of other civic/ceremonial
centers may be visible, and this association is significant with 95% confidence.
A more precise chronological framework will also facilitate inquiries and comparison on the temporal prominence of landscapes of power and ritual, and
indicate whether the perceived landscapes have changed in scope and relevance
from the Preclassic to the Terminal Classic periods. A future research objective
is to examine the directionality of the primary axis of the earlier substructures,
as well as that of the terminal building phase, and assess the temporality and
spatial distribution of directionality at the site. It is possible that places of high
visibility were indicative of the ancient Maya efforts to take advantage of the
natural environment and local topography to plan and transform their built
environment into a model of cosmological unity and display of power, which
served as a reminder of power and reverence for generations of residents.
13
Action, Thought, and
NegotiationinRitual
A Commentary
Takeshi Inomata
avid Freidel has been a leading figure in the study of ritual

and its relation to politics in pre-Hispanic Maya society (Freidel and Schele
1988; Freidel et al. 1993; Freidel et al. 1998). Now his colleagues and students
further advance the debate on this issue through their research at El Per-Waka.
The project is one of the most important ones in the Maya area in recent years,
and many students have completed, or are completing, their PhDs through this
research program. Besides their dissertations, annual reports, and individual
articles, this book represents the first major compilation of their achievements.
Through this collection of papers, the contributors bring the theme of ritual
into a sharper focus and examine the relations between peoples actions (particularly the acts of ritual), their ideas (including religious beliefs, memories,
and perceptions of social relations), and material settings (including artifacts,
buildings, locations, and spaces). The authors address the theoretical issues of
ritual and the archaeological data gained from their field and lab work in a balanced, integrated manner, providing theoretical discussions that are contextually situated and historical interpretations that are theoretically informed. It is
impressive that diverse researchers with different kinds of approaches focusing
on a common theme have produced such a coherent book. At the same time,
the book is rich in dialogues between the contributors who express some different perspectives on this theme.
I would like to address some of the important issues that emerge through
this collaboration and dialogue. One set of questions concerns theoretical issues regarding ritual performance, and the other is about the interpretations
of specific cases of ritual situated in the historical contexts of El Per and the
Maya lowlands.
On Ritual
The central theoretical question is whether ritual expresses the belief of people
or whether it is primarily action. A related issue is the shared nature of religious
Action, Thought, and NegotiationinRitual 221
beliefs as opposed to multivocality involved in ritual and material symbols. The

question also touches on the concepts of sacred and profane and is tied to the
problem of intentions behind ritual. The editors, Michelle Rich and Olivia C.
Navarro-Farr, make their position clear in their introductory chapter. For them,
ritual is action, not belief, and the separation of sacred and mundane is ultimately a flawed dichotomy. Freidel and Escobedo present a somewhat different
view. They suggest that ritual is more closely tied to religious beliefs and the notion of the sacred because ritual is designed to bring people into communion
with the divine, sacred, supernatural forces they collectively believe govern reality. The former view implies that beneath coordinated actions, there may exist
diverse ideas held by different groups and individuals. This perspective reflects
the recent trend in archaeology inspired by practice theory and performance
theory, which refute the primacy of thought over action and emphasizes multivocality involved in action and material symbols. The latter view, in contrast,
emphasizes the unified, collective nature of a belief system shared by community members, and implies that collective beliefs strongly define acts of ritual.
This ideational perspective has a long tradition in Maya studies and continues
to be popular. Other contributors express views that may be placed variously
along a continuum between those points.
I should note that I am strongly biased toward the former position, and it is
probably necessary to lay out my view before I discuss specific issues concerning
the examples from El Per. I follow the central proposition of practice theory
and performance theory that action and idea are indissolubly tied together. As
thought directs action, action shapes thought, with their recursive relation making thought and action two aspects of the inseparable whole. This argument was
a reaction to the traditional view in anthropology and other fields of the social
sciences that ideas always precede and determine action. Although practice theory has become a common part of archaeological discourse, many archaeologists
remain unconvinced of its thesis or find its abstract arguments to be of little use.
For those critics, I would like to point to mounting evidence from the cognitive sciences. For example, if we carefully review our own acts throughout a day,
it should be clear that we conduct most of our actionswalking on the street,
driving to the office, and greeting peoplewithout seriously thinking about
each move of our body parts. In other words, we make a series of fairly complex decisions without consciously evaluating them. Cognitive scientists call
this process the adaptive unconscious (Wegner 2002; Wilson 2002). This concept of the unconscious bears important similarities to Bourdieus (1990) view
of practical logic (see Strauss and Quinn 1997 for the conversion of practice
theory and cognitive science). Likewise, neuroscientists are demonstrating that
what we commonly perceive as rational thoughts are often tied to emotions
and bodily states, thus refuting the dichotomy of mind/thought and body/action and the privileging of the former (Damasio 1994, 1999). A particularly
222 Inomata
suggestive insight is that people are commonly unaware of the fact that they do
not have access to substantial part of their own cognitive processes, thus holding
an illusion of the conscious will and preexisting intention. When asked about
their course of action, people typically explain that they held conscious reasoning before the action. Various studies, however, show that people often come up
with their explanations retrospectively based on the outcome of their action or
following the common forms of logic, and they are unaware of this retrospective nature of their reasoning (Johansson et al. 2005; Nisbett and Wilson 1977).
Action and its outcome indeed shape our perception.
The recursive relation of thought and action, however, does not mean that
they always shape each other in the same manner. In some contexts thoughts
may hold more weight dictating action, whereas in other situations, action
may largely shape peoples perception and understanding. It appears to me that
those who emphasize the primacy of thought tend to highlight those contexts
in which thoughts play important roles and assume similar patterns in other
contexts. Some may view ritual as one of these contexts in which thought and
idea take precedence. In examining this issue, however, we probably need to
reflect critically on the influence of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition that
affects Western scholarship. This is the tradition that strongly and consciously
privileges belief, which may be historically rather unique in a comparative perspective. In many other cultures, what we may call religion is not necessarily
rooted in conscious spiritual devotion but in somewhat unconscious understandings of the ways things are. The latter attitude is based largely on peoples
engagement with the world through their action and experience. We should
also note that even in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, the primacy of
belief is in its tenet and ideal, and the way people think and act in reality can
be quite different. At the very least, practitioners of this tradition participate in
prayers and sing hymns not only because they think that their beliefs dictate
them but also because they recognize that such physical actions are necessary to
reinforce and maintain their beliefs.
Some may refer to the resistance of the Maya to Christianity in the colonial
era to argue that the colonial and pre-Hispanic Maya had strong religious devotion comparable to that of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. I, however,
suggest that differences in historical contexts are critical. The Maya religious
attitude during the colonial period cannot be understood without the consideration of their encounter with Christianity, which possibly heightened their
conscious reflections on their traditional beliefs. We cannot simply assume the
same attitude existed before the contact with the Spaniards. Even after Spanish
contact, it may be misleading to assume that all the Maya fervently devoted
themselves to the beliefs and meanings behind ritual. For example, as I write this
essay during my fieldwork in Guatemala, the Qeqchi workers working with
my project celebrated a festival in their village, and some of them participated
in the traditional Danza del Venado. They practiced the dance for months, and
its performance with heavy costumes was physically demanding. But when I
asked them about the meaning and history behind the dance, nobody could
answer. Those dancers replied I do not know, we do it because it is fun,
because many people want to see it, and maybe the village seniors know. A
larger number of villagers chose not to bother with a long period of training and
came only to see the dance. Some did not even attend the festival. These uneven
attitudes and certain disinterest in meaning are not unique to this village but
can be found in various rituals throughout the world. Collective devotion to
certain beliefs should not be assumed a priori, but need to be demonstrated in
specific historical contexts.
If religion cannot be compartmentalized in the domain of purified spiritual
devotion, it also means that in most cases we cannot identify ritual as a discrete,
unique category. In many cultures of the world, there is no clear boundary
between religious ritual and secular daily activities. Activities of tending
agricultural fields and preparing meals may be considered to be interactions
with what we call supernaturals (Monaghan 1995). In this sense, it appears to
me that the connection between ritual and the sacred is ultimately a tautology.
Our (researchers) concepts of religion and ritual depend on the concept of the
sacred that we create and vice versa.
Given the diversity in attitudes and multivocality behind the appearance
of collective unity in action, I have suggested elsewhere that our research
should focus primarily on peoples action (Inomata 2006a; Inomata and Coben
2006b). This statement by no means implies that beliefs or meaning do not
matter. My point is that through the analysis of actions accessible to researchers,
we need to examine how actions shape peoples perceptions and experiences and
how people act on certain ideas. In this regard, I am uncomfortable with the
view that ritual is action, not belief (Lucero 2006:56). If action and thought
have recursive relation, the latter also has to be part of ritual (Fogelin 2007). If
we disregard thought, we can never understand the significance of religions that
hold such large weights in many peoples minds throughout the world (Bloch
1986). Likewise, the concept of the adaptive unconscious in the cognitive sciences does not mean the absence of thought. We should not forget that our
primary question is how action and thought shape each other.
Although my view on ritual is different from some contributors, I strongly
believe in the importance of dialogues between scholars with diverse perspectives. If the relation between action and thought is our primary concern, and
if action and thought affect each other in diverse ways depending on contexts,
the perspective that emphasizes action and the one that stresses thought are
not completely incompatible. Discussion among scholars with different views
should enrich our understanding of the relation between thought and action
involved in ritual. This volume provides such productive interactions.
224 Inomata
Rituals at El Per
Investigations at El Per have provided rich information on specific historical cases of ritual. Although we need to be cautious in categorizing complex
phenomena, for ease of discussion I will focus my comments on three kinds of
ritual that stand out in the El Per data set: royal or elite ceremonies, above-
floor ritual deposits, and nonelite ritual tied to the overall site plan.
Royal or elite rituals in a broader sense include royal and subroyal tombs discussed by Rich and Matute, Lee and Piehl, Eppich, Hruby and Rich, and Piehl,
Lee, and Rich; monument erections and narratives of the royal history described
by Guenter; and public ceremonies tied to elite buildings examined by Acua,
Melendz, and Tsesmeli. These spectacular finds provide remarkable views of
elite ideology and ritual and sometimes even the identities of elite individuals.
They also elucidate how the material settings of ritual, including rich tombs,
large pyramids, and stone monuments mediate subsequent acts of remembering and the negotiation of memories as seen in commemorative rituals, tomb
reentry, and monument resetting. A substantial part of this data set concerns interactions among elites themselves, including contacts with other dynasties and
negotiations among different groups within the royal court. In particular, the
detailed analysis of ritual situated in the dynamic contexts of external relations,
including the possible contact with Teotihuacan or Teotihuacan-related groups
and negotiations with the powerful centers of Calakmul and Tikal, constitute a
profound, lasting contribution to Maya archaeology. Eppichs study of subroyal
elite rituals further broadens our understanding of elite interaction.
The focus on elite ideologies and narratives in the study of this data set is
valid and productive, but I also think that these data sets point to other aspects
of social processes as well. One of the aspects is that ritual may not just highlight proper behavior, but many rituals have the characteristics of carnivalesque,
in which behavior different from ordinary ones, or inversions of them, may
be allowed or even encouraged (Bakhtin 1968; Kertzer 1988:14450; Scott
1990:17275). This tendency in Maya ceremonies can be seen from the pre-
Hispanic times to the present; ritual humor seen in Classic-period figurines,
ceramic painting (Taube 1989), monkey dancers, and other tricksters also appear in modern-day Maya festivals (Bricker 1973).
Another important aspect refers to the relations between diverse social
groups, including elite and nonelite, which may be reflected in the social commentaries of ritual humor. This aspect is critical for the understanding of elite
ideologies because the legitimization of elite authority is inseparably tied to
nonelite perceptions and practices. Nonelite attitudes do not necessarily have
to be outright resistance to elite rule, although such cases could occur. Modern
monarchies in Japan and various European countries are maintained mainly by
peoples support and the emotional and cultural values that they attach to these
institutions, rather than by top-down imposition. The longevity of Maya rulership well beyond a millennium, and similar examples across the world, suggest
that it could not have been sustained solely by top-down machinations or the
mystification of false consciousness. To a certain degree, nonelite may desire the
presence of the ruler or other central figures, consciously or unconsciously. It
follows that elaborate rituals were not only elite prerogatives but their obligations. Elites were as much bounded by social conventions and institutions as
nonelite, and they were expected, or even required, to follow the protocols and
precedence of rituals.
This view does not imply that elite and nonelite harmoniously shared the
same ideologies. Most likely, different social groups attached different values
and meanings to the same ritual, even though their views may not be in direct
opposition or contradiction to each other. The relations between elite, nonelites, and other social groups were highly complex mixtures of imposition,
resistance, collaboration, disinterests, etc. To avoid misunderstanding, I would
like to reiterate my view that reading fixed views or ideas that nonelites held is
not our primary objective. We need to keep in mind that meanings and ideas
are a critical part of social processes, but even social agents themselves cannot
clearly describe their own understandings of social relations in most cases. Perceptions of society are fleeting and incoherent even within single individuals; a
search of subjective meanings would probably lead to impositions of researchers own internal narratives (Wuthnow 1987:33234). Instead, it may be productive to examine how and when certain places and objects become important
points of negotiation among diverse groups.
It appears to me that above-floor ritual deposits provide remarkable opportunities for such an inquiry into the process of negotiation among different
groups. Among the rich data on ritual at El Per, those on above-floor materials
particularly stand out as seen in chapters by Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera,
Acua, and Lee and Piehl. It is well known that Freidel played a seminal role in
establishing the now-well-accepted concept of termination ritual (Freidel and
Schele 1989; Freidel et al. 1998). I wonder whether the prominence of termination ritual at El Per is due to the specific research strategy addressing this type
of ritual and the care that the investigators took in documenting their remains
or whether it is due to the abundance of those deposits at El Per and the importance of the city during the Terminal Classic. I suspect that both factors are
in play.
Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera cogently show that rituals at Structure
M13-1 involved multiple episodic events participated in by diverse groups. As
they argue, these activities point to the continuing importance of the building. The enduring significance of former royal buildings may in part reflect
the creation of new traditions by nonelites, but it may also be rooted in the
original meaning promoted by the royal family and shared to a certain degree
226 Inomata
by nonelite, as discussed by Acua in the case of the Royal Couple Building.

The construction of monumental buildings involved a wide range of groups,
including elite and nonelite, resulting in the creation of shared and contested
meanings and experiences. In this sense, royal buildings do not belong only to
the elite, but the perceptions of these structures must have varied significantly
from one group to another. Postdynastic collapse rituals possibly encompassed
in a complex way the reflection of the former relations between elite and nonelite on one hand and the creation of new community identities by the remaining population on the other.
As we address this question, it appears to me that two points are particularly
important. The first concerns continuity and break in ritual practice, attached
narratives, and memories before and after the dynastic collapse. The second is
the question of who conducted postdynastic collapse rituals and how. As to
the first point, the work by Lee and Piehl presents a remarkable history of the
Northwest Palace Complex with the use as a royal palace, mortuary rituals, destruction, and possible reoccupation. Their rich data present an unusual opportunity for the study of continuity and change. At the same time, the sequence
and timing of those various events are not easy to reconstruct. Further analysis
and detailed presentations of data in the future will be a significant contribution
to the field. Structure O14-04, discussed by Rich and Matute, which contained
spectacular royal tombs, presents an interesting case regarding this question,
and I wonder how this important building was treated after the dynastic collapse. Conversely, the extraordinary above-floor deposits found by Navarro-Farr
and Arroyave Prera at Structure M13-1 lead to an intriguing future research
question of how this building was built and how it served as a stage of various
rituals prior to its termination.
Regarding the second point, Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera and Lee and
Piehl have made significant progress through their analyses of above-floor deposits. I look forward to their future presentations of more detailed data and
interpretations, including specific inventories of ceramic types and other objects
through depositional episodes. An interesting question might be, if the Northwest Palace Complex was reoccupied by a royal court, how this event was reflected, or not reflected, in the deposits and treatments of Structure M13-1 and
other buildings. This question also concerns the broader issue of the Terminal
Classic period in the Maya lowlands. Despite the long-standing interest in this
period among Maya archaeologists, the Terminal Classic and its chronology
have been vexing problems. Examining Terminal Classic data from Ceibal and
other sites, I come to think about the possibility that the so-called Classic Maya
collapse was not a gradual or random process of abandonment but there might
have been waves of political crises and subsequent attempts for recovery across
wide areas (Houston and Inomata 2009). In this regard, I am intrigued by Lees
and Piehls suggestion that the El Per court might have returned after the
initial dynastic collapse. I anxiously wait for the projects future publications on
more specific data regarding Terminal Classic social processes and chronologies.
The broader settlement data that Marken and Tsesmeli present further highlight the diversity in ritual contexts and multivocality involved in them. As
Marken notes, residential groups of various sizes certainly provided stages for
ritual that shaped the creation and negotiation of social relations. Similarities
and dissimilarities between elite and nonelite rituals should offer important
insights into their relations. The analysis of spatial organization over a wide area
conducted by Tsesmeli also provides important clues about cosmological ideals held by community members, the nature of city planning, and patterns of
interactions among various groups. As Tsesmeli notes, an important next step
would be to trace these spatial patterns through time. My impression is that,
in contrast to the impressive results of investigations into elite remains, the
study of nonelite groups and the overall polity organization at El Per is still in
progress. In this sense, the value of Markens and Tsesmelis discussions perhaps
depends partly on how they direct and shape future research.
These rich data from El Per and the discussion among the researchers significantly enrich our understanding of Maya society. I would like to congratulate
all the authors for their remarkable contributions and would like to thank them
for allowing me to participate in their fertile dialogues.
Epilogue
he projects commitment to archaeological research at El

Per-Waka and in the polity surrounding it in antiquity is long-term and open-
ended. We have ambitiously proposed a large swath of wilderness surrounding
the site as a cultural and natural landscape worthy of world heritage status. This
would extend northward to join the jungles around La Corona where project
directors Marcello Canuto and Toms Barrientos endorse the same. For us, as
for the ancient people who lived here, it is sacred ground worth defending.
Our scientific work is always in progress and never completed. In the field seasons that archaeologists of the project have carried out since the drafting of
this book, there have been some surprising and enriching developments. On
the one hand we are happy to see that the general principals of interpretation
regarding ritual and monuments we posit are sustained, and on the other, they
have been significantly advanced.
Excavations into the stairway adosada (attached frontal platform) shrine of
Structure M13-1, the city temple for all intents and purposes, have revealed
that Kinich Bahlam II had the century-old Stela 44 cached inside a remodeling
of the shrine platform associated with the burial of his wife, Kaloomte Kabel,
in Burial 61, no later than AD 711 (Prez Robles and Navarro-Farr 2013). We
deduce this timeline from the fact that the king raised a lone commemorative
monument in AD 711 (El Per Stela 35) after likely raising paired stelae with
his wife beginning in AD 672 (El Per Stelae 11 and 12) and continuing with
the famous El Per Stelae 33 and 34 in AD 692. This means that the rulers
of Waka innovated the practice of repurposing historically significant monuments in and around the fire shrine, and that the tradition was sustained in the
postroyal era of the temples use life and certainly after the dynastys demise in
the early ninth century.
We can now be more certain of the function of the city temple as a fire shrine
because the same research program uncovered fragments of El Per Stela 9 built
into the northern terrace wall of the last construction phaseone that was associated with the postroyal use of the temple by ordinary people and their leaders (Navarro-Farr et al. 2013; Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera, this volume).
Stela 9 was dedicated at the beginning of the sixth century and depicts a king
with the Yopaat Chan title standing on a witz monster mask with a personified
fire glyph in his forehead cleft. A Kinich Ajaw deityone of the three tutelary
gods of the Wak polityis depicted in the mouth of a snake emerging from
Epilogue 229
the mouth of the Fire Mountain. A fine-line incised text next to the right leg
of this king mentions a Wi-te-Naah (origin house), the Teotihuacan-style fire
shrine introduced to Waka by Kaloomte Siyaj Kahk. While this lower portion
of Stela9 was placed at the base of the building, the upper third was actually
installed in the final terrace wall of the shrine. This is a very direct association.
Postroyal builders also installed fragments of a stela raised by Kinich
BahlamII in the terrace wall of the last version of the city temple. The stela,
dedicated in AD 702, might have been one of a final pair of stelae raised by the
king and his queen Kabel. This practice appears to have been reverential, as in
the manipulation of the Early Classic monument fragments. The meaning of
these actions will be enhanced through the further analysis of texts and images
on the monuments and their association with features in the building. There are
certainly more monuments cached in the city temple. In all, it would seem we
have just begun to uncover the patterns of monuments, buildings, and memories to be found at El Per-Waka.
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Contributors
Mary Jane Acua received her Licenciatura in archaeology from the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala in 2005. Her thesis focused on Early Classic
ceramics from Piedras Negras. In 2007 she earned her MA at the University
of Texas, and she recently completed a PhD in anthropology at Washington
University in St. Louis. Her dissertation and research interests focus on the
Preclassic Maya transition to social and political complexity, specifically using
archaeology and iconography as primary sources of evidence. Recent publications include senior-authored articles in Guatemalan Symposium volumes:
El Perodo Preclsico en la Regin Noroccidental de Petn: Datos Recientes y
Modelos Interpretativos and Conectando el Cielo y la Tierra: La Iconografa
del Eje Vertical en Contextos Funerarios; and Royal Death, Tombs, and Cosmic Landscapes: Early Classic Maya Tomb Murals from Rio Azul, Guatemala,
a journal article in review revising interpretations of the painted murals.
Ana Luca Arroyave Prera is the director of the Department of Prehispanic and
Colonial Monuments of Instituto de Antropologa e Historia de Guatemala in
Guatemala City. She received her Licenciatura in 2006 from the Universidad
de San Carlos de Guatemala, and is presently working toward an MA in monument restoration in the Department of Architecture at the same university, focusing on the conservation and restoration of the ballcourt at Guaytn. She has
worked in field and laboratory settings with various projects, including Piedras
Negras, El Zotz, El Per-Waka, and recently served as codirector of the Sierra
del Lacandn Project. She is a coauthor (with Olivia Navarro-Farr) of Un final
Macabro: La Terminacin Ritual de la Estructura M13-1 de El Per-Waka, in
the XX edition of Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueolgicas en Guatemala, and
Manipulating Memory in the Wake of Dynastic Decline at The El Per-Waka:
Termination Deposits at Abandoned Structure M13-1 (with Navarro-Farr and
David Freidel).
Keith Eppich crawled out of the Florida Parishes of Louisiana in the early
1980s and has been an active archaeologist for nearly three decades. He holds
degrees from Louisiana State University, San Diego State University, and Southern Methodist University in anthropology, history, and education. He is the
author of Ceramics and Interaction at El Pozito, Belize: A Type-variety Based
Perspective (2000), and numerous other articles and book chapters, including,
most recently, Death and Veneration at El Per-Waka: Structure M14-15 as
Ancestor Shrine (2008) and Feast and Sacrifice at El Per-Waka: The N14-2
264 Contributors
Deposit as Dedication (2009), both in the PARI journal. He focuses on the

geochronology and social implications of the Maya ceramic tradition in the
archaeological record.
Hctor L. Escobedo received his Licenciatura degree from the Universidad de
San Carlos de Guatemala and his PhD in anthropology from Vanderbilt University. From 1987 to 2007 he carried out field research at different archaeological sites in Petn. He participated in the Archaeological Atlas Project and the
Petexbatun Regional Archaeological Project before codirecting excavations at
Punta de Chimino with Arthur Demarest, Piedras Negras with Stephen Houston, and El Per-Waka with David Freidel. From 2008 to 2011 he occupied
important government positions in Guatemala, such as Minister of Culture
and Sports. He has taught as professor at the University del Valle de Guatemala
and the University San Carlos de Guatemala. He was at Dumbarton Oaks as a
senior fellow in Precolumbian studies, and is the author of numerous articles,
reports, and some books in Maya studies, such as Guatemala Maya: Ciudades
Milenarias (2006). His research interests are mainly Maya lowland archaeology,
monumental architecture, burial practices, and epigraphy.
David Freidel is professor of anthropology at Washington University. His PhD
dissertation at Harvard was on survey data from the Havard-Arizona Cozumel
Project, directed by Jeremy Sabloff and William Rathje. The director of the
first Cerros Project in Belize, he then carried out research at the ancient city of
Yaxuna in Yucatan. Presently, he is directing research at the royal capital of El
Per-Waka. Recent publications include Excavations at Yaxun, Yucatn, Mexico (2010) with his colleagues Travis Stanton, Charles K. Suhler, Traci Ardren,
James N. Ambrosino, Justine M. Shaw, and Sharon Bennett; and The Flesh
of God: Cosmology, Food, and the Origins of Political Power in Southeastern
Mesoamerica (with F. Kent Reilly III) in Pre-Columbian Foodways: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food, Culture, and Markets in Mesoamerica (2009), edited
by John E. Staller and Michael D. Carrasco. He is interested in ancient Maya
history, religion, politics, and economics.
Stanley Paul Guenter received his undergraduate degree from the University
of Calgary in 1999, his MA from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia,
in 2002, and is currently finishing his PhD at Southern Methodist University
in Dallas, Texas. Stanley works as an epigrapher and archaeologist with the El
Per-Waka Project, the La Corona Project, and the Mirador Basin Project, all
in northern Petn, Guatemala. He has presented at numerous conferences and
workshops in Europe and North and Central America, and has published many
articles, including On the Emblem Glyph of El Per, in the PARI Journal,
volume 8, number 2.
Contributors265
Zachary Hruby is currently teaching at Northern Kentucky University. His

recent book in press is The Technology of Maya Civilization published through
Equinox Press (co-edited with Geoffrey Braswell and Oswaldo Chinchilla). He
received his MA from Brigham Young University and his PhD through the
University of California at Riverside. His research interests include Mesoamerican lithic technology traditions, Mayan hieroglyphic writing, Mesoamerican
iconography, California archaeology, and representations of indigenous peoples
in the mass media and entertainment industries.
Takeshi Inomata is professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona. He
earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University. He is conducting field investigations at the Maya center of Ceibal, Guatemala, examining social change during
the Preclassic and Classic period. His recent publications include Burned Palaces
and Elite Residences of Aguateca: Excavations and Ceramics, University of Utah
Press (co-edited with Daniela Triadan) and The Classic Maya, Cambridge University Press (co-authored with Stephen Houston).
David Lee began archaeological fieldwork in 1993 in Western Belize focusing
on Preclassic occupation in the Belize Valley. From 2000 to 2004 he served as
the strategic planning consultant for the Belize Government Tourism Department Project designing a long-term strategy for archaeological conservation and
tourism development. He began graduate studies in 2001, and started research
at the main palace at the site of El Per in Petn, Guatemala, in 2003. The
primary focus of his current research is the late royal occupation at the site and
decline of the royal court. David completed his PhD at Southern Methodist
University, and is a codirector of the Waka Research Foundation.
Damien B. Marken is an instructor in the Department of Anthropology at
Bloomsburg University. He is also the president of the GeoOntological Development Society. He received his PhD in anthropology from Southern Methodist University in 2011. Since 1997, he has actively participated in field research
in the Maya area, most notably at the sites of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, and
El Per-Waka and La Corona, Petn, Guatemala. He is the editor of Palenque:
Recent Investigations at the Classic Maya Center (AltaMira Press, 2007), and is
co-editor (with James Fitzsimmons) of Classic Maya Polities: Integration, Interaction, Dissolution (University of Colorado Press, in press). His research interests
include the development of complexity, regional studies, urbanism, preindustrial state formation and organization, and ancient Maya cultural history.
Varinia Matute completed her Licenciatura in archaeology at the Universidad
de San Carlos de Guatemala in 2011. She is currently an MA candidate at
the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on an examination of funerary
266 Contributors
patterns and osteological analysis of human remains at the archaeological site

of Nakum, Petn. Varinia has collaborated on various archaeological projects in
the Maya region of Guatemala, such as the Atlas Arqueolgico de Guatemala,
Tringulo Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo, El Per-Waka, La Sierra Del Lacandn,
Noroccidente de Petn, El Zotz, and Holmul. She has conducted investigations
into ancient architecture, household archaeology, monumental and political-
ceremonial complexes, and ceramic and human bone analyses. Her research interests include osteological analysis of human remains to understand the social
treatment of death, the sociopolitical processes of ancient Maya culture, and the
link with the modern Maya peoples inhabiting Guatemala.
Juan Carlos Melndez graduated from Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala with a degree in archaeology. During the past eight years, he has collaborated in the investigation of various Maya archaeological sites in Petn,
Guatemala. His presentations and publications are related to material analyses
and settlement pattern research from sites such as Piedras Negras, El Zotz, and
El Per, as well as several centers located in the Sierra del Lacandn, which are
published in symposia, magazines, and journals. He served as director of the
National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Guatemala, which houses
one of the most important collections of Maya artifacts of known provenience.
He is currently a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis. His
interests include Mesoamerican archaeology, in particular Maya Lowland archaeology, and Prehispanic Maya ceramics.
Olivia C. Navarro-Farr is an assistant professor of anthropology and archaeology at the College of Wooster in Wooster, OH. She received her BA from St.
Marys University and completed her PhD at Southern Methodist University.
Her publications include Manipulating Memory in the Wake of Dynastic Decline at El Per-Waka: Termination Deposits at Abandoned Structure M13-
1 (with David Freidel and Ana Luca Arroyave Prera) in the University of
Colorado Press volume Ruins of the Past: The Use and Perception of Abandoned
Structures in the Lowland Maya Area (Travis Stanton and Aline Magnoni, eds.)
and Interpretando los Depsitos del Clsico Tardo-Terminal en la Estructura
M13-1 en Waka (with Ana Luca Arroyave) in the Proceedings of the Annual
Symposium of Archaeological Investigations in Guatemala. Her research interests
include the Late-Terminal Classic transition in the southern Maya lowlands,
the archaeology of ritual, and the nexus of ancient state formation, collapse,
and transformation.
Jennifer C. Piehl received her BA in anthropology from the University of
California, Berkeley, and her PhD from Tulane University. She has worked in
the Maya area since 1993, combining archaeological and osteological research
Contributors267
to investigate ancient Maya communities in Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. Her main research foci have been the articulation of health patterns with
community composition, and the manipulation of identity and social memory
through the ritual treatment of human remains. Piehl conducted her dissertation research at the site of Baking Pot in the Belize Valley, and has continued
osteological research with the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance. She
has been a member of the El Per-Waka Archaeological Project since 2003 and
served as its codirector in 2009.
Michelle Rich is a senior archaeologist with Far Western Anthropological Research Group in Davis, California. She completed her PhD in anthropology at
Southern Methodist University, funded in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. In Maya archaeology, her research interests include
civic-ceremonial and monumental architecture; scientific and contextual analysis of ritually charged deposits; space, place, and built environment in complex
societies; and Maya and Mesoamerican figurines. Recent collaborative articles
include An Olmec-Style Figurine from El Per-Waka, Petn, Guatemala: A
Preliminary Report in the journal Mexicon and The More the Merrier: Case
Studies and Lessons Learned about Collaboration between Archaeological Projects, Museums and Countries of Origin, in The Future of the Past: Ethical Implications of Collecting Antiquities in the 21st Century, SAR Press.
Evangelia Tsesmeli studied Classics (MA) at the University of Arizona, and
anthropology at Southern Methodist University, where she completed her doctorate. She has participated in archaeological and survey fieldwork in the Mediterranean, the American Southwest, and Central America. She has served as
GIS coordinator and developer in various multidisciplinary projects in Central
and Latin America and Asia, and contributed as illustrator to Ancient Indus:
Urbanism, Economy and Society, edited by Rita P. Wright. Recent publications
include a coauthored article on the interaction between the Wari and Inca states
that was published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, reports on the
survey at El Per-Waka (2003 to 2012), and an article on the settlement patterns at El Per-Waka in the volume XIX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueolgicas en Guatemala (2006). Her research interests include the social dynamics
of group identity, Ancestral Puebloan architecture, spatial/temporal analysis in
archaeology, GIS and remote sensing, quantitative research methods, geoarchaeology, and comparative analysis of ancient urban societies. She has a keen
interest in engaging the public and indigenous communities to preserve and
protect cultural resources.
Index
Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations.
abandonment rituals, 40, 53, 55
action/thought, recursive relationship,
22122
Acua, Mary Jane, 6, 13, 5051, 5365,
90, 263
adaptive unconscious, 22122, 223
adosadas: Structure M13-1, 35, 84n2;
Structure O14-04, 70, 71f, 72, 74, 79f,
81, 189; Teotihuacan influence, 81
age at death, 194t, 198
Aguateca structures, 89, 94, 96
Aj Yax Chow Pat, 82, 91, 131, 152f, 161
Altar 1, described, 18
altars, Early Classic, 153
alternate biface flakes, 17172, 172f, 173,
174f, 17576
ancestors, 68, 99
ancestor veneration: bundles, 45, 99, 128,
187; contemporary Maya, 12829;
on/near tombs, 28; purpose, 11718;
shrines, 116, 127; Structure M13-12,
128; Structure M14-15, 11618, 117f,
128; Tikal, 12930
animals in burials, 74
architecture: and iconography, 207;
location and density, 21112, 21819;
as medium of cultural expression,
69, 206; nonvisible structures, 204;
and physical landscape, 207, 20811;
preservation and mapping, 204; for
semipublic performances, 136; social
memory and legitimization of political
power, 67, 83, 11415; during Terminal
Classic, 130. See also placemaking;
spatial organization; and specific
structures
architecture and ritual: core-periphery
model, 51; evidence in material
patterning, 11, 164; imbuing sacred
essence to structures, 37; and placement
of structures, 62; planning, 207; site
locale, 212
audience and performance, 63
Ballcourt Complex (Northwest Palace

Complex), 104f, 105f, 208; carved
stones, 1089, 109f; construction and
modifications, 103, 106; location,
15, 2425, 102; purpose, 110; stucco
floor,106
ballcourts, Maya, 24, 102, 11011
ballplayer panel (Northwest Palace
Complex), 9596, 97f, 98, 99100
Bat Emblem Glyph, 91, 161. See also zotz
Batz Group, 210
biface flakes, 16768; alternate, 17172,
172f, 173, 174f, 17576; rejuvenation,
17173, 172f, 174f, 17576, 181. See
also specific materials
bloodletting offerings, 69
Blue-Moon Drunken Death-God, 153, 160
Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance
(Comaroff), 34
Burial 8, 88f; gendered identity and royal
power, 90, 100, 18689, 2012; human
remains, 90, 100, 187; huunal jewel,
87, 89, 90f, 188; internment, 8687;
location, 24; mortuary assemblage, 87,
89; reentry event, 77, 87, 95, 99; and
social memory, 90
Burial 18, 119, 120f
Burial 19, 119, 120f
Burial 24, 72, 8081, 189, 190f,
19192,202
Burial 25, 72, 74, 8081, 191, 192
Burial 36, 41, 46
Burial 37, 2526, 182
Burial 38, 31, 32, 12429, 124f, 182
Burial 39: dating, 28; deposit similarities to
Burial 38, 125; fill creation hypotheses,
180, 18183; lithic deposits, 168, 170
73, 172f, 174f, 17580, 175t, 177f,
18283; mortuary assemblages, 32, 74,
7577, 15758; origin of interred, 82;
as portal, 29; reentry event, 7778, 82,
16970, 176; Teotihuacan iconography,
7879, 79, 84n1
Index
269
burials of adults: indicating age and gender,
194t, 198. See also noblewomen burials;
royal burials
cahs, 130
Calakmul: ballcourts, 111; ballgame ritual,
25; defeated by Tikal, 61, 159; defeat of
El Per by, 154, 155; defeat of Tikal by,
8182, 154; golden age, 156; political
power during Late Classic, 80, 81; and
Quirigua, 100
Calakmul, relationship with: ballplayer
depictions, 96, 99100; and
directionality of structures, 64, 65, 212;
and Kinich Bahlam I, 61; and Kinich
Bahlam II, 28, 5859, 98; and Lady
Pakal, 61, 90, 91, 161, 188; mortuary
assemblages, 72; stelae, 58, 91, 157;
Structure M12-35, 13; as vassal polity,
21. See also Lady Kabel
carbon deposits, 170
caves, 69
ceramics: Ballcourt Complex, 106; Burial
39, 170; chronology, 910, 107t; elite
burials, 116, 119, 162, 169; feasting,
120121; noblewomen burials, 72, 74,
87, 89; Northwest Palace complex, 92;
rulers burials, 158; Structure M131, 37, 5658, 57f; Structure M13-1
chronology, 41, 42t, 43, 4849
ceremonial deposits: placement
intentionality, 112; Structure M13-12,
123; Structure N14-2, 11922
ceremonial feasting, 51, 12021
ceremonies, 113. See also performances
Chakah: Burial 39, 3233; EPWRAP at, 6;
mortuary assemblages, 162; overview,
32; residential patios, 14142; ritual
practices, 20
Chak Tok Ichaak, 80
chalcedony biface production, 16768,
17576
chalcedony deposits: Burial 39, 173,
17778, 179; nodule size and frequency,
16768; and termination rituals, 181;
value, 183
chert biface production, 16768, 17576
chert deposits: Burial 39, 77, 170, 171,
173, 17778, 179, 182; nodule size
and frequency, 16768; in non-El

Per burials, 16869, 182; Structure
L11-32, 106; Structure M12-35, 51,
57; Structure M13-1, 41; Structure
M13-12, 123, 124, 12627; Structure
N14-2, 119; and termination rituals,
181; value, 183
chibals, 130
Chicanel sphere, 9
Chok Group, 3132, 139f, 209; habitation
timespan, 115, 131; patios, 141, 143;
Structure M13-12, 12329, 124f, 216t
Chol Group, 210
Christenson, Allen, 11718, 122, 12829
civic planning and political power
relationships, 214f; and iconography
in architecture, 207, 21718;
manipulation of physical landscape,
207; number of structures in site core,
211; and placemaking, 206; placement
of stelae, 62; and repurposing/resetting
of stelae, 165; structure location and
density, 21112, 21819; structure
location and visibility, 215, 218;
Structure M12-35 and associated
stelae, 64; Structure O14-04, 7479,
79f, 82
Classic period: lithic deposits in non-El
Per burials, 16869; M12-32 as ritual
locus, 27; mortuary practices, 68;
political history, 7983; Tikal, 7980,
81. See also Structure O14-04
Cleveland Museum of Art, 60, 156
Coben, Lawrence: criticism of, 136;
purposes of performances, 134;
theatricality, 13637
cognitive sciences, 22122, 223
collective memory, 114. See also social
memory
communication, performances as form
of,112
community/corporate group rituals, 145
conjunctive approach to research, 34
contemporary Maya: ancestor veneration,
12829; and obsidian cores, 52;
performance conductors, 11314;
religious syncretism, 1112, 22223;
residence dedicatory offerings, 122;
rituals, 5152
270 Index
Copan: dedicatory deposits, 121; elite
spaces and ballcourt, 103; fire shrines,
26; legitimatization through mortuary
practices, 68; monuments manipulated
after installation, 23; nonelite rituals,
143, 145; spondylus shells in noble
internments, 191; Wi-te-Naah, 81
Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions
Program, Peabody Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard
University (CMHI), 6, 18, 203
cosmology: and architecture, 69, 207, 212;
political legitimacy and contexts of,
origins, 76
cranial porosity, 19596, 197t, 199
cumulative palimpsest, discussion of
term,35
daily activities: absence of boundaries
between sacred/mundane, 223; as
performances, 134, 136
Dance of Deer, 12829
death, age and gender at, 194t, 198
decapitation, 45, 140, 145
dedicatory deposits (offerings):
contemporary residence, 122; human,
12122; outside site center proper,
140; purposes, 122, 13132; Structure
M13-1, 44f, 4647
deities: attendance at rituals, 164; rulers as,
26, 99
dental health: in adulthood, 193, 195; in
childhood, 196; comparison by class,
197t, 199, 200
dietary practices, 193, 19596, 199, 201
directionality: and iconography, 207;
Structure M12-35 and associated
stelae, 64; variations, 21213; and
visibility,217
Dos Pilas constructions, 94
Dragon Jaguar, 15253
Early Classic period: altars, 153; ceramics in
Ballcourt Complex, 106; Chok Group,
115; destruction during Late Classic
of stelae from, 15556; El Per stelae,
154; Emblem Glyph, 147, 14950,
149f; similarities between El Per and
Tikal, 81; stelae text, 154; Structure
L11-31 niches, 103; Structure M13-1
construction, 35; Structure O14-04, 72;

Teotihuacan, 80; Tikal, 7980; Tikal
stelae, 15354
elite residences, 210; and political power,
213; Structure M1312, 12329, 124f;
Structure M14-15, 11618, 117f;
Structure N14-2, 11823
elite rituals, 2324, 69, 224
elites: dedicatory events as potlatching,
12223; evidence of interaction with
foreign counterparts, 162; health
compared to royals/rulers and nonelites,
196, 197t, 198, 201; material wealth
and royal power, 132; mortuary
assemblages, 2526, 31, 32, 76;
mortuary assemblages quality decline,
4950; mortuary practices and power,
69; nonelite legitimization of, 22425;
nonelite rituals in wake of decline, 48
49, 5051; as shapers of culture through
social memory, 11315, 132; spectacles
and focus on, 136; tombs reentries, 24,
131, 132; use of social memory, 6667.
See also Chok Group; Tolok Group; and
specific burials
elite wares, polychromes, 10
El Per-Waka Regional Archaeological
Project (EPWRAP), 203, 220;
background, 1921; GIS geodatabase,
205; information sources prior, 4, 6,
7f; overview, 6, 8f, 9, 18, 19; project
leaders, 6; Stelae 33 and 34, 60
El Zotz, 33
Emblem Glyph: Early Classic version, 147,
14950, 149f; Lady Kabels, 157; Late
Classic version, 149f, 150, 156
Encantado Group, 139f, 14051, 208, 217
enchainment concept, 76
ensoulment and dedicatory deposits, 122
epigraphic hiatus, 160, 16566; Burial 38,
124; Burial 39, 74; and Stela 1, 75;
Teotihuacan decline, 81; Tikal, 81, 130;
timespan, 81, 130, 154
epigraphy: end of record, 163; indicating
rulers lineage changes, 150;
preservation, 147, 151, 153
Eppich, E. Keith, 10, 11233, 26364;
Burial 39, 74; Chok Group, 3132;
Morai Complex ceramics, 41, 4849,
78; nonroyal elite rituals, 15
Index
271
Escobedo, Hctor L., 6, 1833, 55, 221,
22829, 264
ethnographic data, 1112, 13
fire shrines, 2627, 31, 47
flint biface production, 16768, 17677,
177f, 17880
flint deposits: Burial 39, 171, 173, 177f,
17880; nodule size and frequency,
16768; and termination rituals, 181;
value, 183
Freidel, David A., 1833, 22829, 264;
ancestor bundles, 128; Ballcourt
Complex sculpted fragment, 108;
EPWRAP, 6, 21, 220; ritual as religious
beliefs, 221; Structure M12-35, 55
funerary pyramids, 127
gender: and death, 194t, 198; and health,
198, 199, 200, 201
gendered identities: in archaeological and
osteological studies, 185; mortuary
assemblages, 16, 189, 190f; royal power,
90, 100, 18689, 2012; Spondylus
shells in mortuary assemblages, 26, 72,
74, 19192. See also Lady Kabel
General Utility Bifaces (GUBs), 175
Geographic Information System (GIS)
geodatabase, 2056, 218
Global Positioning System (GPS), 205
glyph analysis, 21
golden age of El Per, 158, 159
Graham, Ian: ballplayer scene stones,
96; Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic
Inscriptions Program, 6, 18, 203;
Hieroglyphic Staircase 1, 110; site plan,
20, 147, 203, 204; Stela 29, 160; Stelae
33 and 34, 20; and Stuart, 21
greetings as performance, 137
Group R181, 141, 143f
Group T221, 141, 143f
Guenter, Stanley Paul, 14766, 264;
ballplayer depictions, 96, 98; Burial 38,
125; Burial 39, 74; Chakah mortuary
assemblage, 3233; dating of Stela9,
47; epigraphic hiatus, 130; and
EPWRAP, 21; Hieroglyphic Staircase1,
110; installation of Kinich Bahlam II,
5859, 61; missing glyph, 21; power
and sociopolitical affiliations, 1516;
Stela 1, 75; Stela 18, 91; Stelae 14 to

17, 30; stelae dating, 48; Structure
L11-33,86
Harvard University, 6, 18, 203
health: bioarchaeological examination of
patterns, 185; indicators in adulthood,
19395, 201; indicators in childhood,
19596; overview of paleopathological
indicators, 193; patterns, 196, 197t,
198202
Hero Twins, 118, 128
Hieroglyphic Staircase 1, 110, 15657
Hieroglyphic Staircase 2, 110
Higuchi Index, 217
history. See social memory
holpop, 114
Houston, Stephen D.: ballcourts, 110;
ceremonial feasting glyphs, 121; final
a in Waka, 149; Northwest Palace
Complex, 93, 98
Hruby, Zachary, 16, 16783, 265
human remains: ancestor bundles, 99;
atypical configurations, 189, 190f,
191; dismemberment and burning,
43, 45; intact, 119, 121; manipulation
during burial reentries, 89, 95, 12728;
noblewomen, 18687; nonelite burials,
140; postmortem reconfiguration and
political power relationships, 202; ritual
uses, 45; skeletal trauma, 195, 19899;
teeth, 125, 128
human sacrifices, 12122
huunal jewel: Burial 8, 87, 89, 90f, 188;
Burial 37, 25
iconography and symbol systems, 12; altar
of Stela 36, 153; and architectural
directionality, 207; burial chambers,
207; disembodied head, 45; Late
Classic shift, 156; Mirador Group,
212; mountain masks, 25, 27;
Olmec-style figurine, 76; and physical
landscape, 206; pop, 109, 109f; on
portable objects, 67; pyramids, 207;
royal female, 188; spondylus shells,
26; Teotihuacan influence, 47, 7879,
79f,84n1
identity, 83
Ikbolai Group, 210, 217
272 Index
infections, 19495
Inomata, Takeshi, 16, 22027, 265;
criticism of, 136, 137; nature of
memories, 9899; performances, 113,
114, 134, 146n1; placement of stelae,
62; political power legitimatization
structures, 6364; resetting of stelae,
61; stelae as uniting sacred and political
power, 2223; theatricality, 13637
Intermediate Classic period: Burial 38, 124;
Burial 39, 74; Teotihuacan decline, 81
jade, 116, 128, 158
Jasaw Chan Kawiil I, 82
Kaminaljuyu, 68
Kan Dynasty, 98, 100
Kaq Complex, 9
Kimbell Art Museum, 60, 156
Kinich Bahlam I (Kinich Bahlam Chan
Ahk), 61, 80, 15152, 157
Kinich Bahlam II: and Calakmul, 28, 98;
as inferior in status to Lady Kabel, 91;
installation, 28, 5859, 61; monuments
repurposed, 22829; Stela 1, 28; Stela
11, 29; Stela 12, 29, 58; Stela 33, 58,
59; Stela 35, 58
Lady Kabel: Burial 8, 90, 100; Emblem
Glyph, 157; glyphs with titles, 98;
importance, 188; and relationship with
Calakmul, 59, 59f, 61, 160; status,
91, 156; Stela 11, 29, 58, 91; Stela 12,
29; Stela 34, 59, 91; Stela 35, 58; as
symbol,100
Lady Naah Chan, 91, 159
Lady Pakal, 61, 90, 91, 161, 188
Late Classic period: Burial 8, 8690, 88f,
95; Calakmul Snake Kingdom, 80;
ceramics in Ballcourt Complex, 106;
destruction of Early Classic stelae,
15556; Emblem Glyph, 149f, 150,
156; iconographic shift, 156; Northwest
Palace complex, 92; rulers, 15962;
Stela 1, 156; Stela 33, 156; Stela 34,
156; Structure M12-35, 3536; Tikal
resurgence, 82; Tolok Group, 118
Late-to-Terminal Classic period:
architectural modifications, 5051;
structural modifications to Structure
M13-1, 37, 50; termination rituals, 92;

Tolok Group, 116
layout, 213, 214f, 215, 216t
Lee, David F., 85101, 184202, 265;
ballplayer depictions, 96, 98; Burial
8, 24; Hieroglyphic Staircase 2, 110;
mortuary assemblages, 16; Northwest
Palace Complex, 15
light detection and ranging technology
(LiDAR), 204
lineage groups, 12930
linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), 196,
197t, 200
lithic deposits: Burial 37, 182; Burial 38,
124, 124f, 12627, 182; Burial 39,
168, 17073, 172f, 174f, 17580,
175t, 177f, 182; in non-El Per burials,
16869, 182; for termination rituals,
18182, 183
location, 4, 5, 18, 61, 203
looting, 18, 20, 21, 156, 161
Maize God, 76
Maize God tree, 26
mapping: future needs, 219; methods,
2036, 210; site plans, 20, 147, 203,
204, 20811
Marken, Damien B., 10, 13446, 265
material deposits: creation and
manipulation social memory, 67;
of nonelite rituals, 48; Northwest
Palace complex, 92; problematic, 108;
ritual in Ballcourt Complex, 106,
108; Structure L11-31-Sub, 25; at
Structure M13-1 and contemporary
Maya ritual, 52; termination versus
middens, 40
material to spiritual transformations, 122
Matute, Varinia, 1415, 6684, 90,
15758, 26566
Max Group, 208, 217
Melndez, Juan Carlos, 266; Ballcourt
Complex, 15, 2425, 10211;
Burial8 ceramics, 89; EPWRAP, 6;
spatial organization, 212; Structure
M12-32 shrine, 26, 27
memory. See social memory
middens, 40, 51
Mirador Group: assertion of visual
dominance, 213, 214f, 215, 216t;
Index
273
described, 70; excavations, 70; location
and symbolism, 2728; mapping,
20910; physical presence, 83; as sacred
landscape, 212, 218; surrounding
terrain, 217. See also Burial 24; and
specific structures
Morai Complex, 10; Burial 39 reentry,
169; ceramics at Structure M13-1, 41,
4849; ceramics at Structure O14-04,
78; ritual termination of Northwest
Palace Complex facade, 92
morphology, 213, 214f, 215, 216t
mortuary assemblages: ancestor bundles,
45, 99, 128, 187; ceramics, 162, 169;
ceramics and jade, 116, 125; Chakah,
3233; decline in quality of elite,
4950; elite, 2526, 31, 32, 76, 119,
120f; as expressions of gender and
power, 16, 189, 190f, 19192; Late
Classic Burial 39, 15758; noblewomen
burials, 72, 74, 87, 89, 186, 188, 189,
19192
mortuary rituals: burials as analogs to
caves, 69; during Classic period, 68;
elite burials, 2324, 69; fire rituals,
27; phases, 18788; and political
power legitimization, 68; royal, 90;
Structure M13-1, 43, 4546. See also
noblewomen burials; royal burials
mound classifications, 204
mountain masks (witz), 25, 162
muknals, 116, 127
multiscalar analytical approach, 135, 138,
143, 146n2
Mundo Perdido Commemorative
Astronomical Complex (CAC) burials,
80, 81
musical instruments, 94, 119
Navarro-Farr, Olivia C., 317, 3452,
221,266
New Fire Ceremony, 47
nim chokoj, 114
noblewomen: health patterns, 198, 199,
200, 2012; identity of, 159; non-El
Per, 189; on stelae, 91, 158, 159, 160,
163. See also Lady Kabel
noblewomen burials: atypical human
remains configurations, 189, 190f,
191; emblems of rulership in non-El
Per, 188; location, 73f; mortuary

assemblages, 72, 74; non-El Per, 192;
skeletal arrangement, 18687. See also
Lady Kabel; and specific burials
nonelite rituals: Copan, 143, 145; and coreperiphery model, 51; in wake of royal
decline, 4849, 5051
nonelites: health compared to royals/
rulers and elites, 196, 197t, 198, 201;
legitimization of elites, 22425. See also
Chakah
nonvisible structures and population, 204
Northwest Palace Complex, 15, 208;
abandonment, 94, 9596; ballplayer
panel, 9596, 97f, 98, 99100;
described, 8586, 95f; enduring
significance, 226; facade and ritual
performances, 9294, 93f, 99; final
occupation, 99; material deposits,
92; ritual termination of facade,
9192, 9394, 99; Structure L11-38
modifications, 89, 9596, 99; view
from, 9. See also Burial 8
nutrition, 193, 19596, 199, 201
obsidian deposits: Burial 39, 77, 170,
171, 182; contemporary Maya, 52;
in non-El Per burials, 16869, 182;
Structure L11-31-Sub, 25; Structure
L11-32, 106; Structure M12-35, 50, 57;
Structure M13-1, 37; Structure M1312, 124, 12627; Structure N14-2, 119;
Structure O14-04, 72
occupation period, 910
offertory rituals, 190f, 191
Olmec-style figurine, 7577, 158
osteological data information, 185
osteotaphonomic approach, 186
oval bifaces, 175
Paal Group, 142f; as ritual center, 30; and
Structure L13-22, 51
Palenque, 68
patio, U5-A, 140, 141
patios: Chakah, 14142; Chok Group,
141, 143f; EC-B (Encantado Group),
14051; feasting activities, 145;
multifunctionality, 140; Yala, 14142
patron-client relationships, 129, 130
Pat Tuun Ahk, 156
274 Index
performances: and architectural design,
27, 62, 206, 215, 21718, 219;
conductors, 11314; context versus
content, 13738, 139f, 14042, 142f,
143f; dedication/rededication of stelae,
164; defining, 134, 135t; elements,
63; within kinship structures, 137; and
landscape, 206; narrative of, 63, 115;
Northwest Palace Complex, 9294,
93f, 99; organizational scales, 143, 145,
146n4; purposes of public, 34, 112,
134; repetitiveness, 11213; residences
as settings, 132, 138, 14041, 145;
sansamal, 134, 136, 138, 14041, 145;
and social memory, 13, 1415, 67, 114;
spectacles/theatricality, 13637, 141,
142f; as transformative agents, 113
performance theory, 13738, 146n1, 221
periostosis, 19394, 196, 197t, 198
Petn Supercomplex wares, 48
petrified wood deposits, Burial 39, 178
physical landscape, 2068; cognitive
perception, 213; and creation and
manipulation of social memory, 6768,
114, 206; description of structure
locations in relation to, 20811; and
sacredness, 69
Piedras Negras, 162
Piehl, Jennifer C., 85101, 184202,
26667; Burial 8, 24; Burial 39, 157
58; EPWRAP, 6; gender and power in
mortuary assemblages, 16; Hieroglyphic
Staircase 1, 110; Northwest Palace
Complex, 15
placemaking: process, 6869; role of
stelae, 6263; and space, 6869, 206;
Structure O14-04, 7479, 79f; through
historical or cultural association, 7778
Platform L1132, 102, 103
Plaza 1, 142f; construction, 63; importance
during Late Classic, 56, 62; location,
141; as one foci of sites epicenter, 208;
and political legitimization, 63; uses,
6263, 141; visibility, 217
Plaza 2, 142f; and Chok Group, 123;
excavation, 22; Late-to-Terminal Classic
modifications, 5051; location, 141;
as one foci of sites epicenter, 208,
209; uses, 141; visibility, 217. See also
Structure M13-1
Plaza 3: creation, 51; as one foci of sites

epicenter, 208, 209; visibility, 217
Plaza 4: excavation, 22; modifications after
marriage of Kinich Bahlam II and Lady
Kabel, 11011; as one foci of sites
epicenter, 208; Stela 37, 163; visibility,
217. See also Ballcourt Complex
(Northwest Palace Complex); Stela 38;
Stela 39
political power relationships: and ancestor
veneration, 118; architectural location
and density, 21112, 21819; and elite
mortuary practices, 69; and gendered
identities, 90, 100, 18689, 2012; and
increase in ritual activities, 132; Late
Classic regard for Early Classic rulers,
15556; legitimatization of, 27, 6364,
68; maintained and communicated
through public performance, 1415;
patron-client relationships, 129, 130;
and postmortem reconfiguration,
202; and ritual transformations of
spiritual and corporeal beings, 3; and
theatricality, 137; and use of social
memory, 6667, 96, 98, 99100;
women holding, 18688. See also
Calakmul, relationship with; Tikal,
relationship with; and specific individuals
political power relationships and civic
planning, 214f; and iconography
in architecture, 207, 21718;
manipulation of physical landscape,
207; number of structures in site core,
211; and placemaking, 206; placement
of stelae, 62; and repurposing/resetting
of stelae, 165; and social memory, 67,
83, 11415; stelae as uniting sacred
and, 2223, 27; structure location and
density, 21112, 21819; structure
location and visibility, 215, 218;
Structure M12-35 and associated stelae,
64; Structure O14-04, 7479, 79f, 82
Popol Vuh, 45, 118
population and nonvisible structures, 204
porotic hyperostosis, 196, 201
postdynastic collapse rituals, 226
potlatching, 12223
power: defined, 69; traditional versus newly
acquired, 6970. See also political power
relationships
Index
275
practical logic, 22122
practice theory, 221
Precious Pool Maize Tree, 26
problematic deposits, 108
processual approach, 10
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, 22, 92
Qan Complex, 9
Qeq Complex, 10, 106, 169
Quich, 114
Quirigua, 100
Rabinal Achi, 13
radiometric chronology of ceramic
materials, 41, 42t, 43
Rax Complex, 10, 37, 106
rejuvenation biface flakes, 17173, 172f,
174f, 17576, 181
renewal rituals, 12829
research history, 4, 6, 7f8f, 9
residences: as performance settings,
138, 14041, 145; shift of focus of,
overtime,211
resurrection rituals, 2829
retouch biface flakes. See rejuvenation
biface flakes
Rich, Michelle, 317, 6684, 16783,
184202, 267; Burial 39, 28, 15758;
debitage association with royal tomb
contexts, 16; gender and power
expressed in mortuary assemblages,
16; maintenance and communication
of social memory through public
performance, 1415; ritual as
action,221
ritual and architecture: core-periphery
model, 51; evidence in material
patterning, 11, 164; imbuing sacred
essence to structures, 37; and placement
of structures, 62; planning, 207; site
locale, 212
ritual(s): abandonment, 40, 53, 55; as
action, 1012, 19, 221; action as part,
223; act of deposition as, 112; after
royal dynasty demise, 20; carnivalesque
characteristics, 224; community/
corporate group, 145; contemporary
Maya, 5152; as defined by religious
beliefs, 221; defining, 113; depicted on
stelae, 164; elite, 2324, 69, 224; fire,
2627; as limiting, 100; as logical, 11;

nonelite, 4849, 5051; nonelite in
Copan, 143, 145; offertory, 190f, 191;
postdynastic collapse, 226; purposes, 19,
34; as reflexive agent, 113; relationship
to sacred, 221; renewal, 12829;
resurrection, 2829; royal, 132, 224;
sacrifices, 76; symbols as building
blocks, 12; values and meanings
differences, 225. See also mortuary
rituals; performances; termination
rituals
royal burials: of adults indicating age and
gender, 194t; female iconography, 188;
lithic deposits, 182; reentry events,
77, 87, 18788; staged, 26; Structure
O14-04, 72, 73f, 74. See also specific
burials
Royal Couple Building. See Structure
M12-35
royals/rulers: association with predecessors,
75; as deities, 26, 99; Early Classic,
15054, 152f; epigraphy indicating
lineage changes, 150; health compared
to elites and nonelites, 196, 197t,
198, 201; Late Classic, 15962;
legitimization by divine kingship,
69, 99; as limited by social custom
and beliefs, 100; name glyphs, 152f;
preserving memory of, 62; relationship
of Late Classic, to Early Classic,
15556; rituals, 132, 224; stelae as,
16465; symbol, 109, 109f
sacred: as governing agent, 221; as
indivisible from mundane, 10, 11,
1213, 221, 223; landscapes as, 69,
2068, 218; rituals and transformation
of mundane and, 3; rituals bring people
to commune with, 19; stelae as uniting
political power and, 2223
sacred objects: to create and manipulate
social memory, 67; huunal jewel, 25,
87, 89, 90f, 188; manipulated to cope
with transformation processes, 25;
manipulated to maintain order and
cosmic balance, 13
Saint Martn, 12829
sansamal performances, 134, 136, 138,
14041, 145
276 Index
Saq Complex, 910, 106
Seibal facade, 9293
Sis Group, 142f
Siyaj Kahk: image of, 153; introduction of
Teotihuacan fire shrines, 26; overview,
80, 151; on Stela 15, 21; subjugation of
El Per, 21
skeletal remains. See human remains
skeletal trauma, 195, 19899
Snake emblem glyph, 2021
Snake Kingdom. See Calakmul
Snake Skull, 151
social memory: anchors, 66, 90; as creator
of culture, 11315, 132; and gendered
identities, 90, 100, 18689, 2012;
importance, 39; Northwest Palace
Complex facade, 93; and physical
landscape, 114, 206; political power
relationships and use of, 6667, 96,
98, 99100; and public performance,
13, 1415, 67, 114; studies of, 67; of
Teotihuacan, 7879; tomb reentries,
132; use by elites, 6667, 114
social memory and civic planning: and
iconography in architecture, 207;
and political power, 67, 83, 11415,
213, 215, 21718; stelaes role in, 62,
64, 162, 165; Structure M12-35, 64;
Structure O14-04, 7479, 79, 82
Southeast Acropolis. See Structure M13-1
spatial organization, 227; and cosmology,
69, 207, 212; to create and manipulate
social memory, 67; over time, 2078,
211; and performances, 11415;
resemblances to Calakmul and Tikal,
212; and spaces becoming places,
6869, 206; Structure M12-35
directionality and orientation, 64
Spearthrower Owl, 153
Spondylus shells, 26, 72, 74, 19192
staircases: ceremonial deposits, 11920;
Hieroglyphic, 110, 15657; Structure
M13-12, 12324
Stela 1: dating, 75; and Kinich Bahlam,
28, 157; location, 15758; and memory
making, 75; style, 156
Stela 6, 30, 47, 158
Stela 7, 15859
Stela 9: dating, 47; and fire rituals, 31, 47;
overview, 22829; placement, 2930
Stela 10, 2930, 47, 151
Stela 11: dedication date, 58, 60;

destruction, 60; directionality, 64;
Kinich Bahlam/Lady Kabel, 29, 91;
location, 54f
Stela 12: Calakmul connection, 157;
dedication date, 58, 60; destruction, 60;
directionality, 64; Kinich Bahlam and
Lady Kabel, 29; location, 54f
Stela 14, Teotihuacan influence, 30, 151
Stela 15: destruction, 30; earliest history of
site, 15051; erector of, 152; fragments
used in bench of Structure L13-22,
155; Kinich Bahlam I, 151; and Siyaj
Kahk, 21, 80, 151; and Teotihuacan
relationship, 78
Stela 16: accession of Tapir Chan Ahk, 153;
destruction, 30; Kinich Bahlam I, 151
52; Siyaj Kahk, 80, 153; Teotihuacan
influence, 151; and Teotihuacan
relationship, 78
Stela 17, Kinich Bahlam I, 30, 151
Stela 18, 91, 159
Stela 23, 154, 155f
Stela 24, 25, 160
Stela 25, 25, 16061
Stela 32, 91, 161
Stela 33: current condition, 18; dedication
date, 60; directionality, 64; Kinich
Bahlam and Lady Kabel, 29, 156;
Kinich Bahlam II, 5859, 59f, 61;
location: current, 20, 54f, 60; original,
6061; looting, 60; Snake emblem
glyph, 20
Stela 34: current condition, 18; dedication
date, 60; directionality, 64; Kinich
Bahlam and Lady Kabel, 29, 155f,
156; Lady Kabel, 24, 59f, 91, 159,
188; location: current, 20, 54f, 60;
original, 6061; looting, 60; Snake
emblem glyph, 20; Yuhknoom Yichaak
Kahk,156
Stela 35: dedication date, 58, 60;
directionality, 64; location, 54f, 58;
personage depicted, 15960
Stela 36, 15253
Stela 38, 48, 86, 161
Stela 39: accession of Aj Yax Chow Pat, 82;
dating, 48, 86, 161
stelae: Calakmul influence in paired, 58;
dating, 148t, 15152; destruction
of Early Classic during Late Classic,
Index
277
15556; Early Classic, 154; lack of
maintenance of, 163; looted, 20, 147;
manipulated after installation at El Per,
2930; manipulated after installation
at Tikal and Copan, 23; and memory,
62; noblewomen on, 91, 158, 159,
160, 163; placemaking role, 6263;
repurposing/resetting, 33, 60, 165,
22829; and ritual, 19, 62, 164; as
rulers, 16465; and social memory, 62,
64, 162, 165; Tikals Early Classic, 154;
as uniting sacred and political power,
2223, 27
stone masks, 128
Structure L11-30, 24, 25, 102
Structure L11-31: and Ballcourt, 24, 25;
described, 1023; Early Classic niches,
103; and elite, 103; and Hieroglyphic
Staircase 1/2 blocks, 110; modifications,
103, 106
Structure L11-31-Sub, 25, 103, 108, 111
Structure L11-33, 24, 86, 216t
Structure L11-38, 208; directionality, 212;
modifications, 89, 9596, 99; viewshed
analysis, 216t. See also Burial 8
Structure L13-22: ceremonial feasting, 51;
construction, 51; excavation, 22; Stela
15 fragments, 155; and Teotihuacan, 30
Structure M12-32: directionality, 212; fire
rituals, 2627; location, height and
orientation, 208, 218; stelae 24 and 25,
16061; viewshed analysis, 216t
Structure M12-35, 54f; abandonment, 53,
55; and Calakmul, 13; construction and
modifications, 55, 5658, 57f, 6162,
82; directionality and orientation, 64,
213; excavation, 22; Freidel-Escobedo
hypothesis, 55; importance, 62;
obsidian deposits, 57, 59; political
power legitimatization, 63; purpose, 29;
ritual activity at, 13, 6162, 6465; and
social memory, 13; viewshed analysis,
216t. See also Stela 11; Stela 12; Stela
33; Stela 34; Stela 35
Structure M13-1, 36f, 38f; adosada, 35,
84n2; ceramic materials chronology,
41, 42t, 43, 4849; and contemporary
Maya ritual, 52; dedicatory deposits,
44f, 4647; described, 35; directionality,
212; enduring significance, 22526;
excavation, 22; location, height and
orientation, 142, 208, 218; and nonelite

rituals, 51; as shrine center, 2930, 31,
37; stelae with Teotihuacan influence,
47; structural modifications, 37, 41, 42,
43, 49, 5051; surface deposits, 37, 41,
42t, 43; termination rituals, 3940, 50,
5658; viewshed analysis, 216t
Structure M13-12, 124f; Burial 38,
12429; ceremonial deposits,
123; construction fill, 12324,
12627; directionality, 213; viewshed
analysis,216t
Structure M14-15, 11618, 117f
Structure N14-2, 11823, 13132
Structure N14-12, 22, 210, 213, 216t
Structure O14-02, 20910, 212, 216t
Structure O14-04: Burial 24, 72, 8081,
189, 190f, 19192, 202; Burial 25, 72,
74, 8081, 191, 192; and Classic period
political history, 7983; described, 70,
71f, 72, 73f; location, orientation and
height, 20910, 212; Morai Complex
ceramics, 78; as resurrection path,
2829; royal burials, 72, 73f, 74; social
memory, place and power, 1415,
7479, 79f; and Stela 1, 157; Tikal
influence, 8081; viewshed analysis,
216t; visibility, 84. See also Burial 39
Stuart, David: ancestor veneration, 127;
ceremonial feasting glyphs, 121; Copan
Wi-te-Naah, 81; final a in Waka, 149;
Northwest Palace Complex facade, 93;
Siyaj Kahk on Stela 15, 21
stucco floor, Ballcourt Complex, 106
stucco head: Burial 39, 7879, 79f, 84n1;
Structure M13-1, 44f, 46
surface deposits: defining, 39; prestige
goods, 50; ritual termination, 3940;
Structure M13-1, 37, 41, 42t, 43
symbol systems. See iconography and
symbol systems
Tapir Chan Ahk, 153
Te Chan Ahk, 151
Teotihuacan, 80, 81
Teotihuacan influence: Burial 39, 7879,
79f, 84n1; fire shrines, 26, 27; Stela 10,
47, 151; Stela 14, 30, 151; Stela 15,
78; Stela 16, 78, 151; Stela 26, 151;
Structure L13-22, 30; Structure M13-1,
31, 47
278 Index
Tepeu I, II, and III spheres, 10
Terminal Classic period: ceramics in
Ballcourt Complex, 106; Chok
Group, 115, 12324; conditions, 82;
El Per site configuration, 218; in
Maya lowlands, 22627; monuments,
130; Paal Group as ritual center, 30;
repurposing/resetting of stelae, 33, 165;
stelae, 163; Structure M12-35, 55,
5658, 57f; Tolok Group, 116
termination rituals: and Burial 39, 170;
lithics for, 18182, 183; musical
instruments, 94; Northwest Palace
Complex facade, 9192, 9394, 99;
prominence, 225; Structure M13-1,
3940, 50, 5658
theatricality, 13637
thought/action, recursive relationship,
22122
Tikal: abandonment of Teotihuacaninspired imagery, 153; Altar 5 depiction,
95; ancestor veneration, 12930;
ballcourts, 110; burial reentry and
manipulation of human remains, 127;
defeated by Calakmul, 81; defeat of
Calakmul by, 61, 159; Early Classic
stelae, 15354; epigraphic hiatus, 81,
154; fire shrines, 26; lithic mortuary
deposits, 16869, 182; monuments
manipulated after installation, 23;
power during Early Classic and Classic,
7980, 81; resurgence during Late
Classic, 82; spondylus shells in male
noble internments, 191; Stela 26, 154
Tikal, relationship with: defeat by, 21,
61, 160; and hieroglyphic texts,
154; independence from, 16162;
as more political than cultural, 160,
162; mortuary assemblages, 72; Siyaj
Kahk, 21, 26, 80, 151, 153; spatial
organization similarities, 212; and
Stela 16, 153; and Structure O14-04
adosada,72
time, 76, 2078, 211
Tolok Group, 143f, 209; habitation
timespan, 11516, 13031; overview,
131; Structure M14-15, 11618, 117f;
Structure M14-16, 216t; Structure
N14-2, 11823; timespan, 118
topography, 9
toponym, ancient, 149
tourism, 83
Tsesmeli, Evangelia, 16, 20319, 267
Tzakol sphere, 9
Tzutujil Maya, 12829
underworld, 69
UNESCO World Heritage sites, 83
University of Pennsylvania Museum Tikal
Project, 23, 33
viewshed/visibility analysis, 213, 214f,
215f, 216t, 21718
visibility patterns, 84, 213, 214f, 215,
216t, 217
Wak, as ancient site name, 149
Wak Dynasty symbol, 26
Wak Kingdom, founded, 150
Water Monster, 76
Water Mountain, 27
Wi-te-Naah, 81, 82, 84n2
witz, 25, 162
World Tree symbol, 26
Xam Group, 210
Xican Group, 208
Xik Group, 209
Xucub Group, 142f, 208
Yala, 14142, 144f, 145
Yax Nuun Ahiin, 80, 151
Yax Pasaj Chan Yopaat, 68
Yaxuna royal burial, 192
Yikin Chan Kawiil, 82
Yucatec, 11314
Yuhknoom Cheen, 5859
Yuhknoom Cheen II (the Great), 28, 98,
156, 157
Yuhknoom Yichaak Kahk, 98,
15657,159
zoomorphs: Ballcourt Complex stones,
1089, 109f; ceramic vessels in
mortuary assemblages, 125; neighbors
in mortuary assemblages, 162; witz,
25, 27
zotz, 91, 161

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Archaeology at El Per-Waka

Native Peoples of the Americas

We dedicate this book to David Freidel.

The University of Arizona Press

1 Stelae, Buildings, and People: Reflections on Ritual

3 Royal Alliances, Ritual Behavior, and the Abandonment

4 The Power of the Past: Crafting Meaning at a Royal

5 Ritual and Remembrance at the Northwest Palace Complex,

6 The Ballcourt Complex at El Per

7 Ritual Narratives from El Per-Waka: Ceremonial Deposits

8 Sansamal Performance: Variability in Ritual Contexts

9 The Epigraphy of El Per-Waka

10 Flint for the Dead: Ritual Deposition of Production Debitage

11 The Noblewomen of Waka: Mortuary and Osteological Insights

12 Surveying Landscapes of Power and Ritual at Waka

13 Action, Thought, and Negotiation in Ritual: A Commentary

Osteological analysis provides insights into gender and status of El Per-

4 Rich and Navarro-Farr

El Per-Waka History and Research

6 Rich and Navarro-Farr

completed in an area of 10 km2 (Marken 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011). Current

Ceramic Chronology of Waka

10 Rich and Navarro-Farr

Notes on Ritual: Theoretical Perspectives

the archaeological record, remains of ritually related action can be observed in

Ancient and Modern Maya Ritual Practice and its Study

12 Rich and Navarro-Farr

with the gods is symbolically represented by sacred substances analogous to

14 Rich and Navarro-Farr

of a direct historical approach when attempting to reconstruct ritual structures

presentation of the past served to reinforce ruling power, as well as memorialize

16 Rich and Navarro-Farr

e initiated archaeological research at the site of El Per-

Stelae, Buildings, and People 19

Moreover, as an intellectual matter, we have long been interested in ritual as

20 Freidel and Escobedo

Stelae, Buildings, and People 21

22 Freidel and Escobedo

area. We took advantage of the substantial monumental record to immediately

Stelae, Buildings, and People 23

Inomata is building on a long tradition in Maya studies of identifying the

24 Freidel and Escobedo

Stelae, Buildings, and People 25

26 Freidel and Escobedo

Stelae, Buildings, and People 27

28 Freidel and Escobedo

Stelae, Buildings, and People 29

30 Freidel and Escobedo

Stelae, Buildings, and People 31

Stelae, Buildings, and Status

32 Freidel and Escobedo

Stelae, Buildings, and People 33

ritual manipulations carried out in association with a public ceremonial shrine

Figure 2.1. Structure M13-1 Plan featuring radiometric samples collected in

indicate M13-1 likely held great ceremonial and politico-religious significance

and ritual termination in these deposits, we now recognize a much broader

Surface Deposits in the Maya Area

40 Navarro-Farr and Arroyave Prera

royal court and represents a broader socioeconomic group of participants. The

Hypothesis 1: Evidence for Episodic and Varied Ceremonial Activities

Regarding the temporally episodic

Table 2.1.Ceramic chronology: Relative dates from three deposit areas

Far northern and

Early facet of Terminal

Table 2.1.Ceramic chronology: Relative dates from three deposit areas

Table 2.2.Radiometric samples: Absolute dates from three deposit areas