Community Resilience and Urban Planning during the Ninth-Century Maya Collapse

A Case Study from Actuncan, Belize

Bibliographic Data

ID6044576
AuthorsDavid W Mixter (0000-0002-3881-4996, Binghamton University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume30
Issue2
Pages219-237
Publication date2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCambridge Archaeological Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-7743 • E-ISSN: 1474-0540
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s095977431900057x
OpenAlexW2987204408
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited63

To remain in place in the immediate aftermath of the ninth-century Maya collapse, Maya groups employed various resilient strategies. In the absence of divine rulers, groups needed to renegotiate their forms of political authority and to reconsider the legitimizing role of religious institutions. This kind of negotiation happened first at the local level, where individual communities developed varied political and ideological solutions. At the community of Actuncan, located in the lower Mopan River valley of Belize, reorganization took place within the remains of a monumental urban centre built 1000 years before by the site's early rulers. I report on the changing configuration and use of Actuncan's urban landscape during the process of reorganization. These modifications included the construction of a new centre for political gatherings, the dismantling of old administrative buildings constructed by holy lords and the reuse of the site's oldest ritual space. These developments split the city into distinct civic and ritual zones, paralleling the adoption of a new shared rule divorced from cosmological underpinnings. This case study provides an example of how broader societal resilience relies on adaptation at the local level

Archaeology · Geography · Ideology · Maya · Negotiation · Ninth · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Psychological resilience · Social science · Sociology · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Law · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies

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