Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:30:07.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Land Tenure Systems at the Ancient Maya Site of Actuncan, Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2019

Lisa J. LeCount Open the ORCID record for Lisa J. LeCount [Opens in a new window] ,
Chester P. Walker ,
John H. Blitz  and
Ted C. Nelson
Lisa J. LeCount*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 19 ten Hoor Hall, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Chester P. Walker
Affiliation:
Archaeo-Geophysical Associates, LLC, 5209 Acacia Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814, USA
John H. Blitz
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 19 ten Hoor Hall, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
Ted C. Nelson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 19 ten Hoor Hall, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A common property regime was established at the founding of the Maya site of Actuncan, Belize, in the Terminal Preclassic period (175 BC–AD 300), which governed access to land until the Terminal Classic period (AD 780–1000). This interpretation is based on urban settlement patterns documented through household excavation and remote-sensing programs. Excavations of all visible patio-focused groups in the urban core provided data to reconstruct residential histories, and a 60,621 m2 gradiometer survey resulted in a magnetic gradient map that was used to document buried constructions. Twenty ground-truth testpits correlated types of magnetic signatures to buried patio-focused groups and smaller constructions, including walled plots in agricultural field systems that were later exposed more fully through large-scale excavations. Combined, these methods provided data to reconstruct four correlates of land tenure systems: (1) the spatial proximity of residential units to land and resources, (2) diachronic changes in community settlement patterns, (3) land subdivision and improvements, and (4) public goods. Spatial analyses documented that houselots did not cluster through time, but instead became gradually improved, lending evidence to suggest the transgenerational inheritance of property rights in the Late and Terminal Classic periods.

Presentamos evidencia de un régimen de propiedad común, que se estableció en la fundación del sitio Maya de Actuncan, Belice, en el periodo Preclásico terminal (175 aC. – 300 dC), el cual fijó el valor de la tierra hasta el periodo Clásico terminal (780–1000 dC.). Esta interpretación se basa en patrones de asentamiento urbano documentados a través de excavaciones de viviendas y programas de percepción remota. Las excavaciones de los grupos de patios visibles en el centro urbano otorgan datos que permiten reconstruir la historia de las residencias. Igualmente, una medición de gradiómetro de 60.621 m2 proporciona un mapa de gradiente magnético utilizado para documentar construcciones enterradas. A través de veinte sondeos se correlacionan los tipos de firmas magnéticas con grupos de patios enterrados y otras construcciones pequeñas, incluyendo parcelas amuralladas en sistemas de campos agrícolas. Estos métodos proporcionan datos para reconstruir los sistemas de tenencia de tierra, incluyendo 1) proximidad espacial de las unidades residenciales a la tierra y a los recursos, 2) cambios diacrónicos en los patrones de asentamiento de la comunidad, 3) subdivisión de la tierra y su mejoramiento y 4) bienes públicos. El análisis espacial documenta que los lotes no se agruparon a través del tiempo, sino que se mejoraron, lo que permite sugerir la herencia transgeneracional de los derechos de la propiedad en los periodos Clásico tardío y terminal.

Keywords

Mayaland tenuresettlement patternsremote sensinghousehold archaeologyMayatenencia de tierrapatrón de asentamientoteledetecciónarqueología del hogar
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 245 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adler, Michael A. 1996 Land Tenure, Archaeology, and the Ancestral Pueblo Social Landscape. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 15:337–371.Google Scholar
Baxter, Michael J., Beardah, Christian C., and Wright, Richard V. S. 1997 Some Archaeological Applications of Kernel Density Estimates. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:347–354.Google Scholar
Birchall, C. J., and Jenkins, R. N. 1979 The Soils of the Belize Valley, Belize. Foreign and Commonwealth Office Overseas Development Administration, Land Resources Development Centre, Tolworth, UK.Google Scholar
Blanton, Richard E., and Fargher, Lane F. 2008 Collective Action in the Formation of Pre-Modern States. Springer, New York.Google Scholar
Brookfield, Harold S. 1984 Intensification Revisited. Pacific Viewpoint 25:15–44.Google Scholar
Cap, Bernadette 2015 Classic Maya Economies: Identification of a Marketplace at Buenavista del Cayo, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Proquest (ATT 3680340).Google Scholar
Carballo, David M. 2013 Cultural and Evolutionary Dynamics of Cooperation in Archaeological Perspective. In Cooperation & Collective Action: Archaeological Perspectives, edited by Carballo, David M., pp. 3–34. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Dunning, Nicholas P., and Beach, Timothy 1994 Soil Erosion, Slope Management, and Ancient Terracing in the Maya Lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 5:51–69.Google Scholar
Earle, Timothy K. 1998 Property Rights and the Evolution of Hawaiian Chiefdoms. In Property in Economic Context, edited by Hunt, Robert C. and Gilman, Antonio, pp. 89–118. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Earle, Timothy K. 2000 Archaeology, Property and Prehistory. Annual Review of Anthropology 29:39–60.Google Scholar
Estrada-Belli, Francisco 2011 The First Maya Civilization: Ritual and Power before the Classic Period. Routledge, Oxford.Google Scholar
Farriss, Nancy M. 1984 Maya Society under Colonial Rule: The Collective Enterprise of Survival. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Freidel, David A. 1983 Lowland Maya Political Economy: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives in Light of Intensive Agriculture. In Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: Essays on the History of Ethnic Relations, edited by MacLeod, Murdo J. and Wasserstrom, Robert, pp. 40–63. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.Google Scholar
Freiwald, Carolyn 2015 Life and Death at Actuncan: An Examination of Burial Treatment and Taphonomy. In The Actuncan Archaeological Project: Report of the 2014 Field Season, edited by Lisa J. LeCount, pp. 55–70. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Fulton, Kara A. 2015 Community Identity and Social Practice during the Terminal Classic Period at Actuncan, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa. Proquest (ATT 3714712).Google Scholar
Gaffney, Chris F. 2008 Detecting Trends in the Prediction of the Buried Past: A Review of Geophysical Techniques in Archaeology. Archaeometry 50:313–336.Google Scholar
Halperin, Christina T. 2007 Materiality, Bodies, and Practice: The Political Economy of Late Classic Figurines from Motul de San José, Petén, Guatemala. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside. Proquest (ATT 3298216).Google Scholar
Hann, Chris M. 1998 Introduction: The Embeddedness of Property. In Property Relations: Renewing the Anthropological Tradition, edited by Hann, Chris M., pp. 1–47. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Healy, Paul F., Lambert, John D. H., Arnason, John T., and Hebda, Richard J. 1983 Caracol, Belize: Evidence of Ancient Maya Agricultural Terraces. Journal of Field Archaeology 10:397–410.Google Scholar
Heindel, Theresa 2017 Investigating Agricultural Strategies: On-going Operation 14 Excavations. In The Actuncan Archaeological Project: Report of the 2016 Field Season, edited by LeCount, Lisa J. and Mixter, David W., pp. 7–20. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Heindel, Theresa 2018 Investigating Agricultural Plot Systems and Chich Cobble Mounds: Operation 51 and 52, and On-going Operation 14 Excavations. In The Actuncan Archaeological Project: Report of the 2017 Field Season, edited by Mixter, David W. and LeCount, Lisa J., pp. 11–48. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Hunt, Robert C. 1998 Properties of Property: Conceptual Issues. In Property in Economic Context, edited by Hunt, Robert C. and Gilman, Antonio, pp. 7–27. University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Hutson, Scott R., Stanton, Travis W., Magnoni, Aline, Terry, Richard, and Craner, Jason 2007 Beyond the Buildings: Formation Processes of Ancient Maya Houselots and Methods for the Study of Non-Architectural Space. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26:442–473.Google Scholar
Johnston, Kevin J. 2002 Protrusion, Bioturbation, and Settlement Detection during Surface Survey: The Lowland Maya Case. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 9:1–67.Google Scholar
Johnston, Robert 2005 Pattern without a Plan: Rethinking the Bronze Age Coaxial Field Systems on Dartmoor, South West England. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 24:1–21.Google Scholar
Killion, Thomas W. 1990 Cultivation Intensity and Residential Site Structure: An Ethnographic Examination of Peasant Agriculture in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 1:191–215.Google Scholar
Killion, Thomas W. 1992 Residential Ethnoarchaeology and Ancient Site Structure: Contemporary Farming and Prehistoric Settlement Agriculture at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. In Gardens of Prehistory: The Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture in Greater Mesoamerica, edited by Killion, Thomas W., pp. 119–149. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Kvamme, Kenneth L. 2006 Magnetometry: Nature's Gift to Archaeology. In Remote Sensing in Archaeology: An Explicitly North American Perspective, edited by Johnson, Jay K., pp. 205–233. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
LeCount, Lisa J. 2010 Ka'Kaw Pots and Common Containers: Creating Histories and Collective Memories among the Classic Maya of Xunantunich, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 21:341–351.Google Scholar
LeCount, Lisa J., Christian Wells, E., Jamison, Thomas, and Mixter, David W. 2016 Geochemical Characterization of Inorganic Residues on Plaster Floors from the Palace Complex at Actuncan, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 5:453–464.Google Scholar
Leventhal, Richard M., Ashmore, Wendy, LeCount, Lisa J., and Yaeger, Jason 2010 The Xunantunich Archaeological Project, 1991–1997. In Classic Maya Provincial Politics: Xunantunich and Its Hinterlands, edited by LeCount, Lisa J. and Yaeger, Jason, pp. 1–19. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
McAnany, Patricia A. 1995 Living with the Ancestors: Kinship and Kingship in Ancient Mayan Society. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
McGovern, James O. 2004 Monumental Ceremonial Architecture and Political Autonomy at the Ancient Maya City of Actuncan, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles. Proquest (ATT 3121224).Google Scholar
Mixter, David W. 2016 Surviving Collapse: Collective Memory and Political Reorganization at Actuncan, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis. Proquest (ATT 10160011).Google Scholar
Mixter, David W. 2017 Collective Remembering in Archaeology: A Relational Approach to Ancient Maya Memory. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 24(1):261–302.Google Scholar
Mixter, David W., Jamison, Thomas R., and LeCount, Lisa. J. 2013 Actuncan's Noble Court: New Insights into Political Strategies of an Enduring Center in the Upper Belize River Valley. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 10:91–103.Google Scholar
Mixter, David, Fulton, Kara, Bussiere, Lauren, and LeCount, Lisa 2014 Living through Collapse: An Analysis of Maya Residential Modifications during the Terminal Classic Period at Actuncan, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 11:55–66.Google Scholar
Morehart, Christopher T. 2016 Let the Earth Forever Remain! Landscape Legacies and the Materiality of History in the Northern Basin of Mexico. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22:939–961.Google Scholar
Oosthuizen, Susan 2013a Tradition and Transformation in Anglo-Saxon England: Archaeology, Common Rights and Landscape. Bloomsbury, London.Google Scholar
Oosthuizen, Susan 2013b Beyond Hierarchy: The Archaeology of Collective Governance. World Archaeology 45:714–729.Google Scholar
Östrom, Elinor 1990 Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Restall, Matthew 1997 The Maya World: Yucatec Culture and Society, 1550–1850. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.Google Scholar
Robin, Cynthia 1999 Towards an Archaeology of Everyday Life: Ancient Maya Farmers of Chan Nóohl and Dos Chombitos Cikín, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Proquest (ATT 9953587).Google Scholar
Rothenberg, Kara A. 2012 The 2011 Excavations at Group 1. In Actuncan Archaeological Project: Report of the 2011 Field Season, edited by LeCount, Lisa J. and Blitz, John H., pp. 33–48. Report submitted to the Belize Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. 1927 Documentos de Tabi. Typescript on file, Latin American Library, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. 1943 The Indian Background of Colonial Yucatan. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 548, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Roys, Ralph L. 1962 Literary Sources for the History of Mayapan. In Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico, edited by Pollock, Harry E. D., Roys, Ralph L., Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, and Smith, A. Ledyard, pp. 25–86. Carnegie Institute of Washington Publication 619, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Simova, Borislava S. 2015 Ceramic Analysis and the Revised Construction Sequence of Structure 73. In Actuncan Archaeological Project: Report of the 2014 Field Season, edited by LeCount, Lisa J., pp. 105–114. Report submitted to the Belize Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Simova, Borislava S., Mixter, David W., and LeCount, Lisa J. 2015 The Social Lives of Structures: Veneration Rituals and Changing Cultural Landscapes at Actuncan, Belize. Research Report in Belizean Archaeology 12:193–204.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael M. 2003 The Aztec. 2nd ed. Blackwell, Hoboken, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Sweely, Tracy 2005 Detecting “Invisible” Dwellings in the Maya Area Using Electromagnetic Induction: Significant Findings of a Pilot Study at Chau Hiix, Belize. Latin American Antiquity 16:193–208.Google Scholar
Walker, Chester P. 2012 Geophysical Survey at the Actuncan Site. In Actuncan Archaeological Project: Report of the Fourth Season 2011, edited by LeCount, Lisa J. and Blitz, John H., pp. 162–174. Report submitted to the Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.Google Scholar
Whallon, Richard 1987 Simple Statistics. In Quantitative Research in Archaeology: Progress and Prospects, edited by Aldenderfer, Mark S., pp. 135–150. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Wheatley, David, and Gillings, Mark 2002 Spatial Technology and Archaeology: The Archaeological Application of GIS. Taylor and Francis, New York.Google Scholar
Wyatt, Andrew R. 2008 Gardens on Hills: Ancient Maya Terracing and Agricultural Production at Chan, Belize. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago. Proquest (ATT 3345506).Google Scholar
Yaeger, Jason 2010 Landscapes of the Xunantunich Hinterlands. In Classic Maya Provincial Politics: Xunantunich and Its Hinterlands, edited by LeCount, Lisa J. and Yaeger, Jason, pp. 233–249. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

LeCount et al. supplementary material

LeCount et al. supplementary material 1

Download LeCount et al. supplementary material(File)
File 18.5 MB