Zacpeten

Zacpeten is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in northern Guatemala. It is notable as one of the few Maya communities that maintained their independence through the early phases of Spanish control over Mesoamerica.

Chronology of occupation

The site has a long but sporadic occupation. The initial settlement of Zacpeten occurred during the Middle Preclassic (1000 – 300 BC). After abandonment during Late Preclassic and Early Classic, the site was resettled from the Late to Terminal Classic (A.D. 600 – 950). Abandoned again, it was reoccupied in the Late Postclassic by the Ko'woj Maya, who maintained the independence of the site until A.D. 1697.

ite Characteristics

Group A is the site’s central architectural complex and the focal point of the civic-ceremonial core of the site. The group contains two open halls and a small sacbe that bisects the plaza and separates the two halls.

Group B includes a Late to Terminal Classic ceremonial group that was later reused by the Postclassic occupants of Zacpeten. Inscriptions on the monuments and the layout of Group B suggest Late Classic ties with Tikal, a regional center located 25 km north of Zacpeten. Group F is a residential group to the north of the defensive system on the mainland and may also date to the Terminal Classic period.

Zacpeten's Late Postclassic period occupation is concentrated in four of the five groups on the peninsula. Groups D and E are residential groups while Groups A and C are dominated by ceremonial buildings grouped in the Ko’woj style. This style consists of a temple assemblage with raised shrines that lie a right angles to a western facing temple rather than facing into it. This specific variant appears at central Petén Basin sites including Topoxte and Muralla de Leon.

Ceremonial architecture outside the Zacpeten area follows a very different pattern. For example, Late Postclassic Itzá ceremonial groups do not appear to include formal temples. The residences at Zacpeten are tandem-shaped structures standing in patio groups. Tandem residences include a front room and back room and the former has a plastered and occasionally painted surface while the latter has an earthen floor. Household production activities are concentrated in the back room, while socializing and ritual performances were focused upon the front room.

References

*|year=2002 |chapter=Remembering Mayapán: Petén Kowoj Architecture as Social Metaphor and Power |title=The Dynamics of Power. (Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 30) |editor="in" Maria O'Donovan (Ed.) |location=Carbondale, IL |publisher=CAI Publications |pages=pp.301–323 |isbn=0-88104-086-X
*|year=2003a |title=A Cluster and Spatial Analysis of Ceremonial Architecture at Late Postclassic Mayapán |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=30 |issue=8 |pages=pp.941–953 |id=ISSN|0305-4403 |doi=10.1016/S0305-4403(02)00272-8
*Cite journal |author=aut|—— |year=2003b |title=The Exemplary Center of the Late Postclassic Kowoj Maya |journal=Latin American Antiquity |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=pp.408–430 |id=ISSN|1045-6635 |doi=10.2307/3557576
* |year=2004 |title=Activity Areas, Form, and Social Inequality in Late Postclassic Domestic Groups at Zacpetén, Petén, Guatemala |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |volume=29 |issue=3-4 |pages=pp.351–367 |id=ISSN|0093-4690 |oclc=51213011 |doi=10.2307/3250897