ONSET OF THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD IN THE SOUTHERN MAYA LOWLANDS: NEW EVIDENCE FROM PUNTA DE CHIMINO, GUATEMALA

Desecration of Punta de Chimino’s ceremonial precinct around a.d. 430 was associated with the appearance of green Pachuca obsidian, pyrite mirror fragments, dart points, a Tikal-style vessel cache, and a peculiar grave with Mexican semblances. A structurally housed Protoclassic stela was removed in an apparent fire ritual and monumental masks adorning the E-Group range building were effaced in a termination rite involving large quantities of refuse. Disuse of the E-Group range building and unfinished refurbishment of the observatory pyramid suggest the site was promptly deserted. The forsaking of this time-honored ceremonial place coincided with reduced settlement in the Petexbatun region and abandonment of the nearby Pasion centers of Ceibal, Itzan, and Chaak Ak’al. Punta de Chimino’s findings shed further light on these abandonments, suggesting that they were triggered by amplified central lowland involvement in Pasion River affairs by the end of the fourth century a.d. One of the more shadowy moments in Lowland Maya history is the beginning of the Early Classic period. Important scholarly volumes devoted to this topic have appeared in each of the last three decades (Braswell 2003a; Grube 1995a; Willey and Mathews 1985). From these, it has become increasingly clear that the Early Classic period began in domino fashion, with one center, Tikal, creating a social vortex through which other Lowland communities passed in staggered succession. The material traits typically ascribed to the Early Classic period—Initial Series stelae, vaulted architecture, roof combs, talud-tablero architecture, cylindrical tripods, green obsidian—are widely distributed across the region but seem to appear first and in greatest quantity at Tikal. Thus, ample reasons exist to trace the origin of many Early Classic period lifeways to Tikal. For four decades Mayanists have used a.d. 250 to mark the inception of the Early Classic period (Willey et al. 1967). This date was arbitrarily established to accommodate Tikal Stela 29, the oldest known Cycle 8 stela, which possesses a Long Count date of a.d. 292. But recent epigraphic and archaeological findings imply that a later sequence of Tikal-centered events beginning in a.d. 378 had a more widespread, if not profound, impact on Lowland Maya society than the era of Tikal’s third century rulers. A pivotal event was the arrival of the foreigner Siyaj K’ak from the west on the precise death date of Tikal’s reigning lord Chak Tok Ich’aak on January 16, a.d. 378 (Stuart 2000). This latter event ushered in a new cultural order distinguished by the political expansion of a militant junta of native and foreign-born Teotihuacan-inspired leaders who established a power base at Tikal (Martin 2003; Martin and Grube 2000). Elements such as fully phoneticized glyphic monuments, dynasticism, and specialized prestige good industries were clearly more prevalent in the central lowlands than elsewhere during the first three centuries a.d. These features spread rapidly to the north, south, east, and west in the late fourth century following the arrival of Siyaj K’ak. It stands to reason that these elements did not become a cultural reality for most lowlanders until the end of that century. Given this observation, events before a.d. 378 at Tikal and before a.d. 400 in other lowland zones are herein treated as “Protoclassic” in nature. The Protoclassic was a time when Mexican influence was isolated, sporadic, and probably of little social consequence in most sectors of the Maya lowlands. During this time many small and moderately sized Maya communities produced ascendant leaders in an effort to distance themselves from Preclassic megacenters. What emerged was an environment of political atomization and social upheaval—an atmosphere contrasting with earlier centuries of Preclassic period political cohesion (Bachand 2006; Reese-Taylor and Walker 2002). Thus, in addressing the onset of the Early Classic period, I refer specifically to Tikal’s dynastic expansion, implemented with greatest zeal and regional impact between a.d. 378 and 450, a timespan that corresponds to Tzakol 2 at Uaxactun and Manik 2 and 3a at Tikal (Table 1).