THURSDAY TALK
Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta
Worth a Million Words: Development and Technological Advancements in Archaeological Mapping in the Central Maya Lowlands
Archaeological maps have been essential from the earliest explorations to the most recent research projects in the Maya region. The introduction of airborne lidar scanning has expanded the capacity of archaeological mapping and the analysis of ancient settlements. Archaeological sites are now surveyed with greater range and precision as archaeologists continue implementing state-of-the-art technologies. Traditional instruments, such as a compass and a tape measure, converge methodologically with laser and digital technologies as tools for research and conservation. The ancient Maya sites of Tikal and El Mirador share a history of continual improvement in mapping methodologies. From the pedestrian surveys conducted during the twentieth century to the recent lidar initiatives, maps continue to reveal the nature of the Maya cultural landscape. This presentation offers a historical overview of the development of archaeological mapping in the Central Maya Lowlands and examines the scope of its technological advances.
FRIDAY FORUM
Alexandre Tokovinine & Marc Zender
The 'Garden City' in Classic Maya Art and Writing
As the result of decades of work—including painstaking surveys of Maya cities and landscapes, meticulous cataloging of plant and tree species around archaeological sites, and the truly transformative imagery of ancient settlements recently revealed by lidar—the key structural features of ancient cities are becoming increasingly clear. In particular, old debates arguing for ancient sites as either vacant ceremonial centers or dense urban landscapes have given way to more nuanced views of 'garden cities' surrounded by a 'managed mosaic' of forest preserves, milpas, and orchards. Perhaps surprisingly, Maya art and writing have hitherto contributed relatively little to these new insights. In part, this is due to their relatively restricted genres, only rarely featuring overt references to cities. There are no painted ceramics or sculptured reliefs depicting conurbations, for instance, and no ancient maps of settlements and the interspersed fields, forests, and orchards which are now thought to have characterized them. However, a close look at Maya hieroglyphs reveals several signs explicitly derived from the building blocks of Maya cities—e.g., ballcourts, houses, platforms, stairways, temples, tombs, and roads—as well as some key architectural tropes featured in monumental inscriptions. Further, ancient imagery reveals several points of contact with developing views of Maya cities, including defensive features, roads, orchards adjacent to palaces, and forest preserves and game within and between settlements. As will be seen, our appreciation of these rare glimpses of the 'garden city' in Maya art and writing is immeasurably deepened by considering them in the light of recent archaeological discoveries.
FRIDAY KEYNOTE
M. Charlotte Arnauld
Cities of the Maya People in the Rainforest
The ancient Maya cities were places of daily sociopolitical and economic interaction, like all cities, yet with a high proportion of agricultural activities. As fixed places of concentrated population in the lowland rainforest with scattered and seasonal resources, the clustering of Maya settlements caused structural tensions between the place of residence and the place of subsistence production for the peasants, and, above all, specific construction strategies and neighborhood-level social dynamics. During the Terminal Classic period, these dynamics led to acute sociopolitical tensions between kings and nobles and, following the collapse of dynasties, to gradual urban transformations, until the lowland urban system was almost completely relocated during the eleventh century.
SATURDAY SYMPOSIUM
Michael Callaghan
El Mirador's Urbanism Reconsidered: Mapping and Archaeological Excavation of the UCF El Mirador Lidar Project (2022-2025)
Co-authors: Brigitte Kovacevich, Karla J. Cardona, Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta, Scott Macrae, Jeffrey Brzezinski, George Micheletti, Daniel Pierce
Mirador, located in the northern Petén region of Guatemala, is one of the largest and most significant Preclassic Maya sites, offering insights into the emergence of complex society in Mesoamerica. Its monumental architecture, including triadic complexes, E-groups, defensive walls, causeways, quarries, aguadas, and agricultural features reflect a high degree of organization and planning during the Middle and Late Preclassic periods. While the site and region are critical for understanding cultural development and change among the Maya, they are challenging to study owing to their isolation in the Maya Biosphere reserve. This paper will discuss results of the University of Central Florida's lidar analyses and excavations from 2022-2025 as they relate to urbanism in the Mirador area. The research was funded by Fundación Patrimonio Cultural y Natural Maya (Pacunam) and began with digitization of lidar data from 512 km2 of the region surrounding the site of El Mirador with subsequent ground-truthing in 2022 and 2023. Excavation began in summer 2025 with a focus on ritual structures and plazas in the epicenter of El Mirador, including the Leon E-group complex. Using mapping and excavation data, this presentation will address issues related to urban landscapes, settlement hierarchy, architectural variability, landscape modification, and demographic reconstruction in the Mirador area.
Arianna Campiani
Households, Neighborhoods, and the Dynamics of Urbanism at Lakamha'
Co-author: Rodrigo Liendo Stuardo, Lisa M. Johnson
This talk will discuss ongoing spatial analyses in conjunction with archaeological findings surrounding the study of urbanism at Palenque, a politically powerful center in the Western Maya region. In our theoretical and methodological approach, we examine the city through time, focusing on its urban form as the result of collective actions and local decision making (bottom up) as well as centralized political authorities (top down), and we assess the impact on social practices in the establishment of a cityscape. Using recent lidar data and the ongoing archaeological information derived from excavated residential structures and their patios, we seek to explore the links between the development and activities of the single household, the neighborhood, and larger political processes. Thanks to the unique characteristics of the Palenque urban environment, our collaborative efforts aim to provide a comprehensive approach able to contribute new information on the dynamics of urbanism at Lakamha'.
Adrian S.Z. Chase
The Maya Mountain Metropolis of Caracol, Belize
Today, cities are ubiquitous; however, Mesoamerica represents one of the few places worldwide where cities independently emerged and thrived. Unlike cities today, some Maya cities intermixed their fields with their public and residential spaces to create garden cities. At its height around 700 CE, over 100,000 people called the city of Caracol, Belize home. The city's causeway system and distributed system of public plazas tied together over 200 square kilometers of agricultural terraces and residential plazuela groups. Initial settlement at Caracol focused on three important district nodes with an early East-West causeway that formed the backbone of Ux Witza' – "Three Mountain Place" the city's Mayan name. By combining pedestrian and lidar surveys, archaeological excavation, and computational analyses; forty years of research by the Caracol Archaeological Project have provided information about the city's urban services, governance, infrastructure, and residential life. This research demonstrates how the city of Caracol grew over time and how that growth led to a multi-centric, infrastructural system of districts and public plazas that fostered a system of widespread wealth and residential well-being.
Francisco Estrada-Belli
Redefining Maya Urbanism in the Central Maya Lowlands Through Lidar Data: Organizational Patterns of Settlement and Agriculture in Urban and Rural Areas
For the past 15 years, airborne lidar mapping has been revolutionizing Maya archaeology, providing increasingly widespread settlement data to address long-standing questions regarding the spatial extent, organization, and population of ancient cities at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of data from the Central Maya Lowlands consistently yields higher population estimates at both local and regional scales. Simultaneously, emerging patterns reveal a high degree of sophisticated planning in the arrangement of infrastructure across both residential and agricultural zones. These findings challenge the traditional dichotomy of urban versus rural life. Rather than viewing the city as a concentrated hub of authority and the hinterland as a detached constellation of independent communities, lidar-derived settlement data suggests a model of Maya urbanism where urban and rural zones are intricately connected through networks of elite residential nodes.
Thomas G. Garrison
The Growth of Tikal: New Insights from Lidar Analysis and Ground Verification
Tikal is one of the most intensively studied sites in the entire Maya area. Research by the University of Pennsylvania's Tikal Project, the Proyecto Nacional Tikal, and a number of smaller projects substantially shaped our understanding of the ancient Maya in the latter half of the twentieth century. The famous 1961 Carr and Hazard map of Tikal, combined with transect surveys, minor center reconnaissance and mapping, and tracing of the city's earthworks have all informed varied interpretations of the site's extent and population density. Lidar surveys in 2016 and 2019 covering 98% of the Parque Nacional Tikal present an unparalleled look at Tikal's settlement and resources. Based on these acquisition, and incorporating all research conducted at Tikal since the publication of the 1961 survey, we have updated Tikal's settlement map. GIS analysis and ground verification by the Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal allows us to put forth a new model for Tikal's initial settlement and growth while simultaneously raising new questions regarding site boundaries and temporal variation in the city's extent.
Kathryn Reese-Taylor
Urban Diversity and Early Markets at Calakmul
Co-authors: Felix A. Kupprat, UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Armando Anaya Herández, Universidad Autónoma de Campeche
Scholars increasingly recognize that diversity is not only a feature of cities, it can also help drive prosperous urban economies. We explore this idea at Calakmul by linking household variability to a wider, integrated system of exchange. Classic Maya cities embodied intersecting patterns of diversity, including, but not limited to, wealth. At Calakmul, these patterns are visible in both the built environment and household assemblages, beginning in the Early Classic (200–450 CE) and continuing through the Middle Classic (450–650 CE). This diversity likely fostered innovation and specialization, creating new needs and opportunities for exchange. We therefore argue that growing household diversity increased demand for exchange and catalyzed investment in economic infrastructure, especially marketplaces. Regional settlement and lidar data identify 13+ specialized "nested" plaza compounds that we interpret as marketplaces. Recent and legacy excavation data suggest that these markets appeared early, at least by 450–650 CE. Together, these patterns help explain how Calakmul's early demographic dynamism could translate into a robust economy through the Early and Middle Classic (200–650 CE).
Travis Stanton
The Making of Deer Mountain: The Politics of City Building at Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico
During the Late Classic period, the city of Coba was one of the largest and most powerful cities in the Maya lowlands. While previous research at the site did not uncover much evidence of settlement prior to the sixth century CE, recent data suggest that there was a sizable Early Classic town around the Coba Lake system prior to Late Classic urbanization processes starting. This paper will discuss these recent data and how they fit into the broader settlement dynamics across the region. Data suggest that foundational events in the Nohoch Mul group, called Deer Mountain on a recently found monument, were integrally tied into how the sixth-century changing political landscape in northern Quintana Roo impacted the three-century dominance of Coba as an urban center.
Alexandre Tokovinine
In the Heart of the Snake: the City of Dzibanché as an Imperial Capital
Co-author: Sandra Balanzario, Centro INAH, Quintana Roo
Between 554 and 640 CE, the archaeological site of Dzibanché known as Kaanu'l in Classic Maya texts served as the seat of the most powerful hegemonic state in the history of pre-contact Maya polities. It was also one of the largest urban centers of its time. This presentation reviews what is known of architectural and monumental landscapes of the ancient city and considers several research questions. First, it compares Dzibanché to the contemporaneous landscapes of cities which were part of the Kaanu'l political network to identify elements of sculptural and architectural programs that originated from Dzibanche reflecting its ideological and political supremacy or, alternatively, had been adopted by Dzibanché rulers in response to their new geopolitical role and aspirations. To further clarify the potential directions of cultural influence, the presentation explores what is known of the political discourse specifically linked to the Kaanu'l expansion. Finaly, the presentation compares the case of Dzibanché to prior and later imperial capitals in Mesoamerica and addresses an even broader context of imperial capitals as a cross-cultural phenomenon.
WORKSHOPS
Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta
Sight Beyond Sight: Current GIS Methods in Mesoamerican Archaeology
Technological advances in cartography, such as the development of airborne lidar scanners and improvements in geographic information systems (GIS) software, have significantly contributed to the advancement of Mesoamerican archaeology. When applied to archaeological research, GIS allows for the manipulation of layers of georeferenced information, ranging from site locations to lidar and satellite imagery. ArcGIS Pro is one of the most advanced and comprehensive tools for processing, analyzing, and visualizing archaeological geographical data. Digital cartography from Mesoamerica is processed daily at the MARI-GIS laboratory, resulting in peer-reviewed publications, conference papers, theses, and dissertations, among other outcomes. This workshop is designed to introduce participants to the range of tools available for conducting spatial analyses in archaeology. Participants will gain hands-on experience working with lidar imagery from Mesoamerica, and no prior GIS experience is required.
Patricia Lagarde
Object Migrations: A Workshop on Provenance, Movement, and Material Histories
Around the time the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University was founded in 1924, institutional collecting of "Pre-Columbian art" gained significant momentum. By mid-century, however, these practices slowed dramatically, and new laws were introduced that prohibited the illicit import, export, and transfer of cultural property. Despite these legal protections, many objects remain in public and private collections around the world. This workshop addresses the urgent need for the study of the history of ownership of ancient American objects housed in museum collections today. Participants will engage in focused discussions on contemporary approaches to provenance research, including key resources, investigative methods, and the ethical considerations that shape this work.
Rubén Morales Forte & Olivia Shorter
Reading the Ancient City: An Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs
In this workshop (open to all beginners and to other participants who might enjoy a refresher course), you will learn about the history of decipherment and explore the basic structure and contents of the Classic Maya Hieroglyphic inscriptions. The ancient Maya recorded a wide range of topics in their hieroglyphic texts, and the decipherment of their writing system in the second half of the twentieth century opened up exciting new avenues of research into ancient Maya culture and civilization. After a brief history and overview, the workshop will walk through deciphering texts and the challenges that face translation and decipherment. No prior experience is necessary, and each participant will receive a workbook containing all necessary background materials and exercises.
Amy E. Thompson
Mapping, Measuring, and Modeling Maya Cities: An Interactive Workshop of the Spatial Analysis of Ancient Maya Settlements
In this interactive workshop, participants will work with archaeological legacy data and lidar-derived datasets from an ancient Maya city using ArcGIS Pro. First, we will digitize a legacy map of an ancient Maya city in GIS. This step is foundational for conducting robust spatial analyses of ancient urban landscapes. Participants will then measure household sizes and assess variations in domestic and public architecture. We can use these measurements to calculate a Gini coefficient, a standardized metric of inequality, for broader comparisons of inequality among Maya cities. Next, we will model movement across the landscape using a Least Cost Path analysis and delineate ancient Maya neighborhoods using density-based cluster tools. Together, we will map, measure, and model social and settlement dynamics of an ancient Maya city. By the end of the two-hour workshop, participants will understand how we can leverage legacy data with modern spatial technologies to broaden our understanding of the heterogeneity of past human behaviors, social diversity, and settlement patterns.