Welcome back Everyone!

Welcome to the Conference

Thursday 6:00 - 7:00pm

Maxime Lamoureux-St-Hilaire — Davidson College & AFAR
Mat Saunders — Davidson Day School & AFAR
F. Kent Reilly — Texas State University

Mat and Max will welcome everyone and kick the weekend off by sharing a brief overview of the conference and updates on all of AFAR’s projects and programs. They will attempt to help everyone navigate this virtual space, while summoning the spirits of the Maya at the Lago Conference to ensure an enjoyable time. Following the conference introduction, Dr. Kent Reilly will welcome participants and introduce Dr. David Freidel, whose career will be celebrated over the course of the weekend.

Crowns of Creation Revisited

Thursday 7:00 - 8:00pm

David Freidel — Washington University in St. Louis

In 1975 the Cerros Project (Belize) discovered Cache 1 on the summit of Structure 6C. The main floral bucket contained deliberately arranged materials: mosaic hematite mirrors with mother-of-pearl backing, Spondylus shells, jade ear flares and tubular beads, and four jade pebble carvings, pierced for suspension, framing a central jade pectoral. Along with Jim Garber and other colleagues like Jaime Awe, I have suggested that these are royal diadem jewels. One of these jades has a headdress of three spikes, a variant of the trefoil cap of one form of the “Jester God” (a.k.a. K’awiil). In 2012, David Stuart published a remarkable and persuasive study of the “Jester God”, finding that it read was Ux Yop Hun, “three leaf paper”, and had three variant forms: an avian Great Bird, a Shark, and a Trident Blossom. His study was based on texts and images, although there are certainly archaeological examples of these three variants. But Stuart noted that the Cache 1 jewels showed no indication of being Jester God jewels.

Over the course of three long-term projects, I have encountered several diadem jewels in royal tombs. What seems clear to me is that Stuart is unclear about archaeological or artifactual examples of Maya royal jewels. These do not all squarely fall into the iconographic range of the Maya corpus. But they remain royal jewels contextually. Here I will review the royal jewels I have encountered, reference similar studies by others like Garber and Awe, and reflect on the need not only for archaeologists to pay attention to ancient history, but for Maya epigraphers and iconographers to pay close attention to the archaeological record as they progress in their research.

Dangerous Transitions: Tracking Ajaw across the 8th Baktun 

Friday 4:00 - 5:00pm

Kathryn Reese-Taylor - University of Calgary Debra Walker - Florida Museum of Natural History Felix Kupprat - Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

In their 1990 volume, A Forest of Kings, David Freidel and Linda Schele developed a model for elite interactions that focused on events recorded in Maya documents dated to the year 378 CE at Uaxactun, Tikal, El Peru/Waka’, and elsewhere. This presentation discusses some fascinating discoveries made in the decades since publication that revise our understanding of events in that year. We set these events in the larger context of the eighth baktun, from 41–435 CE, tracking the complicated relationships that transformed Preclassic lifeways across the region. We draw on disparate data sets, including glyphic texts, environmental data, and material remains from a variety of sites. We highlight developments in sites where we have worked, framing them against the large and complex interactions of the Early Classic Maya.

Centering the World: Mountains, the sea, and the tree 

Friday 5:00 - 6:00pm

Travis Stanton - University of California, Riverside

Kathryn Brown - University of Texas at San Antonio

While Mayanists have long recognized iconography related to mountains, trees and the sea, it was David Freidel and Linda Schele who brought these concepts together to understand the sacred geography and cosmology of the ancient Maya. At Cerro Maya, David’s analysis of Structure 5C-2nd showed how these abstract concepts were materialized and communicated in a particular place and time. Furthermore, he argued that 5C-2nd and the rituals that occurred there were essential to the establishment of divine kingship at the site. In this presentation we build upon the conceptual themes of mountains, water, and world trees in our own research programs at Yaxuna, Mexico and Xunantunich, Belize. Our research shows that these concepts are expressed in sacred landscape through both built and natural features and were organized around a conceptual center. Our comparison shows the ways in which these ideas were expressed vary, but the conceptual themes were widely shared across the Preclassic Maya world suggesting a deeply rooted ideology that was essential for the development of early institutions of rulership.   

Frontiers in Late Preclassic Maya Politics: Reflections from preliminary Investigations into the Triadic Group at Actuncan, Belize

Friday 6:00 - 6:30pm

David Mixter - Binghamton University

For the Maya, the Late Preclassic period was a time of growth and consolidation. Populations boomed and a common set of cultural ideas spread across the Maya Lowlands. This process is evident in the widespread presence of Chicanel Horizon ceramics, the dispersal of a unified Late Preclassic figural style found on mural and carved monuments, and the construction of a common set of architectural forms including canonical Triadic Groups. In the lower Mopan River Valley, the adoption of these ideas is evident in the rapid growth of the major center of Actuncan, Belize, which contains each of these cultural forms. In his book Architecture and the Origins of Maya Politics, James Doyle identifies this suite of characteristics as the Central Lowlands Cultural Tradition, which seems to be associated with the growing influence of El Mirador in Northern Petén, Guatemala and its neighbors. Similar tendrils of influence extend along other transport routes from Petén at this time, for example to the east past El Achiotal and down the New River past Lamanai to Cerros, where David Friedel directed excavations on the coast.

Yet, downstream from Actuncan, at Cahal Pech and other sites, the Late Preclassic looks quite different. It is as though the influence of the Mirador zone stopped at Actuncan and never continued further. Ongoing research into the Late Preclassic at Actuncan asks: why did Actuncan adopt the tenants of the Central Lowlands Cultural Tradition while those downstream did not and what can that tell us about the nature of regional politics in the Late Preclassic? David Friedel has argued that El Mirador may have been an empire, a model which suggests direct control and the integration of Actuncan into a Mirador state. Alternatively, we may see evidence that Late Preclassic Actuncan was a colony of a Mirador state attempting to control far flung trade routes or that the people of Actuncan were an independent polity emulating the forms of northern Petén. To begin to answer this question, this presentation reports on several years of preliminary research by the Actuncan Archaeological Project into the site’s Triadic Group, including the original documentation of site’s extensive looters’ tunnels and trenches, two seasons of original excavations, and archival work to recover original notes and drawings from research in the 1990s.

Vislumbrando el gobierno de El Tintal a través del tiempo

Friday 6:30 - 7:00pm

Mary-Jane Acuña - Proyecto Arqueológico El Tintal

Durante la larga ocupación de El Tintal, desde aproximadamente 600 a.C. hasta 900/1000 d.C., el asentamiento pasó a través de dos apogeos culturales. El primero ocurrió en el Preclásico Tardío (400 a.C. – 250 d.C.) y el segundo en el Clásico Tardío (550 – 800 d.C.), separados por un período de decaimiento poblacional y cultural durante el Clásico Temprano (250 – 500 d.C.). En esta presentación revisaremos la evidencia arqueológica para vislumbrar los aspectos de gobierno en cada período y sus adaptaciones a través del tiempo.

Severed Heads, Blood Bowls:  Resurrecting the Maya Maize God

Friday 7:00 - 8:00pm

Jim Garber - Texas State University Jaime Awe - University of Northern Arizona

A common motif in Maya iconography is the depiction of a human head in a bowl.  Through the combined contributions of several scholars, the motif has been shown to represent the severed head of the Hero Twins father which is taken to the place of creation where the young Maize God emerges resurrected.  The re-enactment of this ritual evokes the power present at the most important moment in Maya cosmology - creation.  The ritual is also employed to recognize the supernatural power of the ruler as he becomes the embodiment of the Maize God and to proclaim his divine right to rule. 

The Legacy of Waka`s Snake Queens: Classic Maya Royal Women as World Builders, Creators, and Rulers

Saturday 9:30 - 10:30am

Olivia Navarro-Farr — The College of Wooster
Mary Kate Kelly - Tulane University
Griselda Perez Robles - Proyecto Arqueológico Waka´, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

David Freidel paves a powerful legacy, linking material data, contextual analyses, and epigraphic insights in ways often far ahead of our field. David’s ideas force us to think outside the box, to imagine possibility, and to think passionately and ceaselessly about the complex interconnectedness of Classic Maya history. He often pushes the envelope far sooner than some may be comfortable with. However, what one generation might regard as a leap is subsequently appreciated for its prescience. We seek to advance arguments honoring the kind of cutting-edge thinking David has long been known for. Our paper focuses on the symbolic significance of Classic Maya royal queens and their political power which rose prominently during the Late Classic under the auspices of the Kaanul regime. Their hypogamous marriages to subordinate vassal polities throughout the southern Maya lowlands created a network of alliances that elevated Kaanul’s hegemony. Utilizing the Indigenous ontology of gender complementarity as a foundational creation principle, we argue that the power of these snake Queens was grounded not just in their association with Kaanul, but as women with the attendant implications of fecundity and reproductive power as central to their political cachet. These power domains, steeped in the potent magic of fertility, were also central to their rule as conjurers and diviners, acts of sorcery themselves metaphorically linked to birth and birth work. Orienting our position from the ancient city of Waka’, we review the substantial archaeological and epigraphic data surrounding two such queens who ruled during the 6th and 7th centuries respectively. We evaluate how these lines of evidence permit keen understanding of their governing strategies, their wielding of sacred power, and how the people they ruled ancestralized them in memory for generations to follow, cementing their legacy within Waka’s social and political landscape and beyond.  

Consideraciones sobre el Entierro 80: un enterramiento Real del Clásico Temprano de Waka.

Saturday 10:30 - 11:00am

Griselda Perez Robles - Proyecto Arqueológico Waka´, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
Juan Carlos Pérez Calderón - Proyecto Arqueológico Waka´, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

En 2017, investigadores del Proyecto Arqueológico Waka´, descubrieron en el interior de un edificio Preclásico, una pequeña cámara funeraria intrusiva construida sobre la roca madre, conteniendo los restos de uno de los primeros gobernantes del sitio, que data de finales del Siglo III o inicios del IV. El simbolismo contenido en su ajuar funerario y sus semejanzas con otros enterramientos contemporáneos permiten interpretar que se trata de un gobernante de gran trascendencia histórica para los pobladores de Waka´, en un contexto de evidente interacción con otras ciudades del área Maya, especialmente con Belice y el centro de Petén, incluso antes de “La Entrada” del 378 d. C. 

Waka’ Forum

Saturday 11:00am - 12:30pm

Chair: Olivia Navarro-Farr - The College of Wooster

Participantes:
Keith Eppich - TJC - The College of East Texas
David Freidel - Washington University in St. Louis
Stanley Guenter - Independent Scholar
Mary Kate Kelly - Tulane University Damien Marken - Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Griselda Perez Robles - Proyecto Arqueológico Waka ´, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala Michelle Rich - Dallas Museum of Art
Sara Van Oss - Tulane University

Rulership Forum

Saturday 1:30 - 3:00pm

Moderator:
David Mixter - Binghamton University

Participants:

Mary Jane Acuña - Proyecto Arqueológico El Tintal Jaime Awe — Northern Arizona University
Kathryn Brown - University of Texas in San Antonio
Marcello Canuto - Tulane University
David Freidel - Washington University in St. Louis
Jim Garber - Texas State University
Kathryn Reese-Taylor - University of Calgary
Travis Stanton - University of California Riverside Debra Walker - Florida Museum of Natural History Marc Zender - Tulane University

The Inscriptions of El Perú-Waka’, Petén, Guatemala

Sunday 9:30am - 3:00pm

David Freidel - Washington University in St. Louis Stanley Guenter - Independent Scholar Mary Kate Kelly - Tulane University Marc Zender - Tulane University

This team-taught, seminar-style hieroglyphic workshop provides a chronological tour through the royal inscriptions of El Perú-Waka’, highlighting the discoveries made during the past five decades, the prospects for future work, and the considerable mysteries that still remain. It is designed to be accessible and informative for all participants, whether beginners or advanced students of Maya glyphs. Because many of the inscriptions of El Perú-Waka' remain unpublished—including field drawings made by Ian Graham for the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Project, not to mention the most recent discoveries of the Proyecto Arqueológico Waka’ (PAW)—it sadly won't be possible to provide a ‘workbook’ for participants containing all of the inscriptions that will be discussed, so we have instead provided a reading list below, with links to 15 articles, chapters, and reports containing key inscriptions.

Discovered in the 1960s, but unfortunately looted almost immediately, the archaeological site of El Perú-Waka’ and its damaged monuments have always posed a challenge to epigraphers. Thankfully, Ian Graham’s initial documentation of the site’s surviving monuments in the 1970s was able to demonstrate that several of the sawn remains left behind by looters were in fact fragments of stelae known from both private and public collections. Further mysteries were dispelled when David Freidel and Héctor Escobedo launched the PAW in 2002. The past twenty years have seen considerable archaeological excavations (including the discovery of several royal burials), the piecing together of a baseline chronology and king list, and the documentation of both long-known and recently-discovered inscriptions via photogrammetry and digital illustration. As a result, we can now say that the Classic dynasty of El Perú-Waka’ likely originated in the first century, and saw some thirty kings before its early 9th century collapse. Although not as large or influential as major sites like Calakmul and Tikal, the city nonetheless often found itself at the center of international diplomacy during its turbulent history. Key events to be traced in the workshop include the late 4th century “arrival of strangers” from Central Mexico, the ascendance of the Kaanul kingdom (which likely contributed to a monumental hiatus of more than a century at El Perú-Waka’, from the mid 6th to mid 7th centuries), and grievous military defeats at the hands of Tikal in both 673 and 743. A secondary focus will be on the monumental programs of El Perú-Waka’s longest-lived and arguably most influential king, K’inich Bahlam II (r. 657-730). He was the first king to emerge from the monumental hiatus and was married to the Kaanul princess Lady “K’abel”, almost certainly the daughter of his overlord, the Kaanul king Yuhknoom Ch’een II (r. 636-686).

Reading List:
Castañeda, José Francisco
2011 Registro Fotogramétrico de la Estela 1 del Perú-Waka’. Proyecto Arqueológico El Perú-Waka’: Informe No. 9,Temporada 2011, pp 42-46. www.mesoweb.com/resources/informes/Waka2011.pdf

Graham, Ian
1971 The Art of Maya Hieroglyphic Writing. Peabody Museum of American Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. archive.org/details/artofmayahierogl0000grah/
1988 Homeless hieroglyphs. Antiquity 62(234):122-126. doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00073609

Guenter, Stanley
2005 Informe Preliminar de la Epigrafía de El Perú. Proyecto Arqueológico El Perú-Waka': informe no.2, temporada 2004, pp. 359-399. www.mesoweb.com/resources/informes/Waka2004-Cap13.pdf
2006 WK-12 y WK-04b: Excavación de los Monumentos Esculpidos. Proyecto Arqueológico El Perú-Waka': informe no.3, temporada 2005, pp. 275-298. www.mesoweb.com/resources/informes/Waka2005-Cap09.pdf
2007 On the Emblem Glyph of El Peru. The PARI Journal 8(2):20-23. www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/journal/802/PARI0802.pdf
2014 The Epigraphy of El Perú-Waka’. In Olivia Navarro-Farr and Michelle Rich, eds., Archaeology at El Perú-Waka’, pp. 147-166. University of Arizona Press. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183pd7x
muse.jhu.edu/book/39733

Just, Bryan
2007 An incised slate belt plaque at the Princeton University Art Museum. Mexicon 29(3):61-62, and covers. www.jstor.org/stable/23759452

Kelly, Mary Kate
2019 Documentación epigráfica: Ilustración de inscripciones jeroglíficas de El Perú-Waka’. Proyecto Arqueológico Waka’ (PAW), Informe No. 16, Temporada 2018, pp. 349-361. www.mesoweb.com/resources/informes/Waka2018.pdf

Kelly, Mary Kate, and Hannah Paredes
2019 Documentations epigráfica: Fotogrametría. In Proyecto Arqueológico Waka’ (PAW), Informe No. 16, Temporada 2018, pp. 333-348. www.mesoweb.com/resources/informes/Waka2018.pdf

Martin, Simon
2000 Nuevos datos epigráficos sobre la guerra maya del clásico. In Silvia Trejo, ed., La guerra entre los antiguos mayas, Memoria de la Primera Mesa Redonda de Palenque, 1995, pp. 105-124. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.

Miller, Jeffrey H.
1974 Notes on a Stelae Pair Probably from Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico. In M.G. Robertson, ed., First Palenque Round Table, Part 1, pp. 149-161. R.L. Stevenson School, Pebble Beach, California. www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/RT01/Calakmul.pdf

Piehl, Jennifer, and Stanley Guenter
2005 WK-10: Excavaciones en la Estructura L11-33, La Escalinata Jeroglífica. Proyecto Arqueológico El Perú-Waka': informe no.2, temporada 2004, pp. 209-250. www.mesoweb.com/resources/informes/Waka2004-Cap08.pdf

Stuart, David
2000 The Arrival of Strangers. In D. Carrasco et al eds., Mesoamerica’s Classic Heritage: From Teotihuacan to the Aztecs, pp. 465-513. University of Colorado Press. www.academia.edu/8797489/

Wanyerka, Phil
1996 A Fresh Look at a Maya Masterpiece. Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1(1):72-97. Cleveland Museum of Art. www.latinamericanstudies.org/maya/El_Peru-stela.pdf