Nuevos descubrimientos y evidencia de intercambio del largo distancia en Alta Verapaz, Guatemala

New Discoveries and Evidence of Long-Distance Exchange in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala

By Brent Woodfill

I. Introduction

Since 2001, members of the Vanderbilt Upper Pasión Archaeological Cave Survey (VUPACS) have been exploring caves, hills, and other sacred sites in the southwestern Petén and northern Alta Verapaz (fig. 1). This area is located at roughly the mid-point along a natural corridor connecting the highlands and lowlands, composed of a series of interconnected valleys that empty out into the Río Pasión and eventually the Usumacinta.

The region is mostly devoid of large settlements—in fact, only four major sites are known, and all date their principal phase of occupation to the Classic period. Very little work had been done here prior to 1999 (Carot 1988, Graham 1965, Mahler 1908, Morley 1938, Pope and Sibberenson 1989, Tourtellot et al. 1978), and all of the work consisted of brief reconnaissance in the larger settlements or iconographic and epigraphic examinations of monuments recovered by looters and archaeologists. While ample evidence has been documented elsewhere (Arnauld 1990, Demarest and Fahsen 2002, Hammond 1972) that by the Late Classic it was one of two major trade routes in the Maya World, little direct evidence has been published which shows that the region had the same importance in earlier time periods.

Recent work by VUPACS and other Cancuen sub-projects, however, have found the remnants of almost 2000 years of ritual activity at sacred sites along the proposed route, beginning around 1000 BC and continuing without interruption through the Terminal Classic. As one would anticipate in an area used mostly by merchants and travelers, virtually all corners of the Maya world are represented in the assemblage, from the Central Guatemalan Highlands to the Central Petén and Gulf Coast (Woodfill 2005).

II. The Upper Pasión Kingdom and northern Alta Verapaz

Investigations up to the present in the region have not strayed far from the proposed trade route, but can be divided into two different sectors—the Upper Pasión Kingdom along the Río Pasión and the highlands of Alta Verapaz immediately to its south.

The Upper Pasión

The seat of the Upper Pasión in the Late Classic was Cancuen (Barrientos et al. 2002, Kovacevich 2003), which was established at the headwaters of the river ca. 600 AD in order to take advantage of the flow of goods traveling down from the highlands. Unlike many Maya centers, the site has little monumental architecture, consisting mostly of a giant palace and some secondary elite structures surrounded by a multitude of workshops for jade, pyrite, obsidian, and other highland goods.

References to an Early Classic seat of power of the Upper Pasión were discovered by Ian Graham (1965) at the site of Tres Islas, located at the confluence of the Pasión and the Machaquilá. The site’s prominent feature is three Early Classic stelae, each of which depicts a man dressed in Teotihuacano garb (fig. 2). In spite of these monuments, however, there are few structures associated with them, and Tres Islas was probably a shrine in a strategic location. It does have some Preclassic ceramics and a small Late Classic component, but appears to have been used almost exclusively in the Early Classic, probably by the nearby site of El Raudal, which Tomasic and Quintanilla (2006) speculate was the capital of the Upper Pasión before Cancuen.

Across the river from Tres Islas are the San Francisco Hills, an area of approx. 35 km2 typified by “haystack karst”—steep hills filled with small caves (Woodfill et al. 2003, Spenard 2006). Three large hills are visible in the entire Upper Pasión, dominating the horizon at Cancuen and Tres Islas. Several ancient settlements have been found here; one, La Caoba Vieja, was sampled by VUPACS in 2002.

While the hills are bounded by the Pasión and the Machaquilá, the surface inside of the area is devoid of water. La Caoba, in fact, is a two hours’ walk from the river, and the ancient inhabitants (as well as their modern counterparts) survive with the help of small aguadas dug into a perched water table underneath the village (Woodfill et al. 2003).

In spite of the inconveniences encountered in walking through or living within these steep, dry hills and ridges, the longest history of cave use is found here, beginning around 1000 BC and ending in the Terminal Classic (ca. 900 AD). The earliest evidence consists of a highland version of Abelino Red (Bill et al. 2003, Castellanos pers. comm. 2005, Laporte, pers. comm. 2005) located in both an aguada and a small crevasse outside of La Caoba Vieja. Evidence of habitation in the village is slight until the Late Classic, but this might be the result of a sampling error—excavations were almost exclusively in back-structure middens, but the 3 pits that pierced architecture did reveal Early Classic and some Preclassic ceramics (Woodfill et al. 2005, Bill et al. 2003).

Northern Alta Verapaz

South of the Upper Pasión Kingdom, underneath the last foothills of the northern highlands, is located the Candelaria Caves (fig. 3), the second largest subterranean system in the Maya world (Woodfill et al. 2005). Twenty-three kilometers of the Río Candelaria flow through the seven principal caves of the system and among the numerous karst towers above and around them.

Unlike others in the region, these are large, dramatic caves, often with 30 meter ceilings and illuminated by numerous large entrances and skylights. They also appear to have been the principal shrine in the region during the Early Classic, with evidence of hundreds of thousands of smashed pots, almost entirely in a Central Petén style, carpeting the floors and filling small nooks (Carot 1988, Woodfill et al. 2004, Woodfill et al. 2005). During the Late Classic, there is a much smaller and more concentrated use which is almost exclusively northern highland in nature.

Two villages are associated with the caves, Muqb’ilha’ Viejo and La Lima. The former is located in the center of the system and a brief surface collection (Woodfill and Monterroso 2006a) suggests that it was associated with the Early Classic lowland cave use. The latter is a small village consisting of approximately six different mound groups spread out over 1.5 kilometers following a narrow, roughly east-to-west valley. The two principal mound groups are located at the extreme edges of the site in front of large entrances to one of the four largest caves in the Candelaria system and the principal focus of Late Classic ritual activity (Monterroso and Woodfill 2006a, Monterroso 2006). The site is organized in a typical northern highland manner (fig. 4), with larger mounds built into the valley walls (Ohnstad 2004, A. Smith 1955) with a rubble and earth fill. Exterior stones are irregular in shape and size and roughly hewn, heavily eroded and pitted on the non-visible sides. The ceramics here (fig. 5) demonstrate the same mix of highland and lowland traits, as, although they have lowland forms, the technology used to make them—temper and slip—are northern highland. Much of the utilitarian ware has a vegetal temper, while the service wares are almost exclusively ash and pumice, which had to be imported, although quartz and calcite are readily found in La Lima’s environs. While chert artifacts are much more common here than in the northern highlands, they also used a special groundstone hand-axe (fig. 6), other examples of which have been found throughout the northern highlands and around Coban (Woodfill et al. 2005, Monterroso 2006)

Located about 5 km. to the east of the Candelaria Cave system and La Lima is the site of Raxruha Viejo (O’Mansky 2003, Morán and Pereira 2003, Ohnstad 2004), a large center which appears to date exclusively to the Late Classic and has the same ceramics, hand axes, and settlement patterns as La Lima. Its palace complex is built into the side of a hill next to a small cave opening, and a platform that appears to be the primary temple associated with it is built into a large, pyramidal hill and topped with a row of uncarved stelae and altars.

The Cave of Hun Nal Ye (fig. 7, Woodfill et al. 2005, Woodfill and Monterroso 2006b) is the southernmost site presently under investigation. Located across a small pool atop an eight meter waterfall, it is a small, restricted cave containing 30 whole pots from disparate parts of the Guatemalan Highlands, including the Salamá Valley and Kaminaljuyu. Fifteen more whole vessels were recovered by the landowner in the pool below. While most of the vessels date to the Late Preclassic, there is a strong Late Classic presence, although with exclusively local wares.

Quite possibly the most striking artifact in the cave is an Early Classic carved stone box (fig. 8), the only lowland artifact in the assemblage. The box, made by at least three different hands, has been worked on the four sides and the lid, each with hieroglyphs and one or more personages, including the moon god, jaguar gods of the Underworld, and various artisans (Woodfill et al. 2005).

III. Chronological Patterns

While the artifact assemblage differs among different sites and time periods in the region under study, we can begin to paint a picture of changing patterns of use of the area’s shrines, and through this present intriguing evidence of long-distance trade and travel as well as larger political struggles in the Maya World. What follows is a preliminary description of the region’s chronology.

Preclassic

In an article from the late ‘80’s, Andrews (1988) proposed that there were multiple entries of Pre-Mamom ceramics into the Maya lowlands, and pinpointed a southern entry from Chiapas or Alta Verapaz. While he favored the former, he did suggest that stylistic links between the ceramics of the Salamá Valley and the Lower Pasión (Altar de Sacrificios and Seibal) were strong enough to warrant the possibility of a direct link. The region under study provides the most direct link between the two areas, and, while small in number (under 10 fragments from at least 3 different vessels), the ceramics recovered from this time period provide tantalizing evidence that the two areas were linked. However, since the ceramics share characteristics of both highland and lowland types, they might present evidence for a third, transitional group (unless one were to propose that Andrew’s settlers evolved their ceramic technology on the road) and are not evidence of transit between the zones.

The Late Preclassic is well-represented in the cave assemblage and occupation is hinted at in sites throughout the region—Cancuen (Bill et al. 2002), Tres Islas (Tomasic et al. 2006), El Raudal (ibid.), and La Caoba Vieja (Bill et al. 2003), although it was probably scanty at best. Unlike other time periods, however, there does not appear to be any unifying pattern—ceramics deposited in the region’s caves are coming from the lowlands, the northern highlands, the central highlands, and possibly the Motagua Valley (Woodfill et al. 2005), which would appear to indicate that the primary activity in the region was simply transit between the highlands and lowlands.

The Early Classic

The ceramic assemblage of all of the sites except Hun Nal Ye is overtaken by lowland wares by the Early Classic, a process that is complete at the height of shrine use here in Tzakol 2 and 3 (around 350-600 AD). Interestingly, the ceramics most resembling the Central Petén are actually found at the edge of the lowlands in the Candelaria Cave system (fig. 9). Those of the San Francisco Hills and Tres Islas are more related to the clunkier style found at El Raudal and the area immediately to the north, showing a more local affiliation (Woodfill et al. 2005).

The ceramics in Candelaria are also much more restricted in form and type than at the other sites, and the decoration is almost exclusively a stylized serpent commonly found at sites which appear to have been associated with Tikal (Woodfill et al. 2005, c.f. R. Smith 1955). In spite of the similitude to ceramics from Tikal and its neighbors in style, the vessels are unquestionably locally produced (although the results of INAA by Dr. Ron Bishop are pending), suggesting that the ceramics here were produced by a single workshop or group of workshops producing large quantities of ceramics imitating the Central Petén for cave use. A brief settlement sampling program around the cave system in 2006 will hopefully pinpoint the probable location of these workshops, but initial evidence gleaned from surface collection points to the village of Muqb’ilha’ Viejo.

Because of the lowland style ceramics, the Teotihuacano imagery on the Tres Islas stelae, and the staggering quantity of ritual activity in an area without much of a population, it is probable that the region’s shrines were mostly used by lowland merchants entering the highlands for raw materials. South of the Candelaria Cave system, however, there is little direct evidence of lowland use, with the exception of the stone box in Hun Nal Ye, but here many of the cached vessels come from the sources of the different materials that the merchants would have acquired, again strongly suggesting a movement of highland goods.

The final piece of the puzzle in the Early Classic comes from a recently-discovered Late Classic inscription at Dos Pilas (Fahsen 2002) which justifies the founding of the site as a way for Tikal to maintain control over the river route and not, as previously thought, gain control. If this is the case, the Teotihuacano iconography and the stylistic and potential epigraphic references to Tikal could be part of the same process—an Early Classic dominance of at least the lowland portion of the trade route by this large center.

The Late and Terminal Classic

Several factors greatly changed the patterns of use and population found in the region at the close of the Early Classic, however. The aforementioned text at Dos Pilas alludes to a crisis of control by Tikal in the region, which resulted in the founding of this militaristic city to enforce its control over the route. This was unsuccessful, however, as this city, along with the rest of the region, soon fell under the sway of Calakmul (Fahsen et al. 2003, Martin and Grube 2000).

Cancuen also strongly affected transit along the trade route—while in earlier periods there was no major settlement at the base of the river, Cancuen soon established itself not only as the last lowland outpost but also as a major production center (Kovacevich 2003), processing the jade, pyrite, and other highland goods before they entered the lowland market. Because of this, there is little to no evidence of lowland forays south of Cancuen after the Early Classic. Use of the Candelaria Cave system by Peteneros ceased entirely (with the exception of a small amount of activity which probably came from Cancuen), and a new people moved into the region from Alta Verapaz, carrying with them distinctly northern highland technology. Even after several hundred years of living in the lowlands, they appear to have continued to work to maintain their affiliations with the northern highlands, to the point that they continued to import almost all of their temper and other raw materials which would have been cheaper and easier with local variants.

Although no lowland ceramics have been found in Raxruha Viejo or La Lima, ample material from their ceramic sphere has been found at Cancuen and La Caoba Vieja in the San Francisco Hills (Bill et al. 2003). While earlier studies of Cancuen ceramics did not fully take into account a northern highland presence, a preliminary survey has uncovered a substantial presence of Alta Verapaz utilitarian wares in the assemblage outside of the elite areas, suggesting that the founding of the city involved populations entering from multiple directions. Although it cannot be presently substantiated, it appears at present that the site might be similar to Copan, with a lowland Maya elite ruling over a largely northern highland population. At La Caoba Vieja, the scant Early Classic material is identical to its lowland neighbors (pers. obs.) and the introduction of Alta Verapaz service wares and groundstone axes is concurrent with a transition into Cancuen-sphere wares, it is probable that they are coming from Cancuen and simply derive from its dominance over the Upper Pasión Kingdom.

Unlike previous time periods, there is an unprecedented local quality to the assemblage—over 90% of the Late Classic ceramics from Candelaria are the same highland-lowland transitional wares found at neighboring sites (Monterroso 2006), while further north in the San Francisco Hills all of the ceramics used are well-represented in the Cancuen sphere (Bill et al. 2003). Although it is difficult to separate the Early from the Late Classic wares from Hun Nal Ye, this is largely the result of their local, northern highland style, which needs further study (c.f. Arnauld 1987, Ichon 1992).

Cancuen and Dos Pilas met their ends around the beginning of the ninth century (Bill et al. 2002, Foias 1996), and the rest of the southwestern lowlands followed within a few generations (Adams 1971, Sabloff 1975). The area immediately to the south, however, appears to have lasted slightly longer, with some examples of Early Postclassic Alta Verapaz wares in Candelaria (Woodfill 2005). Investigations in the northern highlands certainly indicate an Alta Verapaz florescence during this time period (c.f. Arnauld 1986, 1987). However, without the demand for highland goods and traffic along the Río Pasión, the area around Hun Nal Ye and Candelaria became a hinterland that appears to have been abandoned soon after the lowland collapse.

IV. Conclusions

While several scholars have posited that the Upper Pasión and northern Alta Verapaz were parts of a major Maya trade artery, the view from the surface is that the region was a backwater, with very little evidence of occupation until the Late Classic boom. Research in caves and other shrines is revealing a more complex picture, with fluctuating boundaries between the highlands and lowlands and “Maya superpowers” vying for control of the area much earlier than previously thought. The route from the Salamá Valley down to the Pasión and Usumacinta is one of the easiest ways to transport goods into the lowlands, and for that reason the Maya took advantage of it, not just during the Late Classic, but the 1700 years preceding it.

The hypotheses presented above are still preliminary, and much more work needs to be done in order to flush out the picture. There are still large swaths of terrain that have not been explored by archaeologists, ones which might reveal new sites or more evidence of cave use with direct links to highland and lowland centers. The information found up to the present, however, does provide enough evidence to warrant further investigations into the history of the region and its significance in the ancient Maya world.

More than revealing the hidden history of this region, the importance of this study lies in the use of caves and other shrines as a way of understanding larger issues. Caves have only in recent years been accredited with more than a modicum of importance, and few studies (c.f. Brady et al. 1997, McAnany 2002, Dunham and Prufer 1998) have attempted to correlate cave use with settlement. What this investigation reveals is that caves can not only contain important data of ritual activities but can provide ample evidence of larger patterns of transit and politics, providing a basic skeleton to be filled out with future investigations.

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