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ALLY, CLIENT, OR OUTPOST? EVALUATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN XUNANTUNICH AND NARANJO IN THE LATE CLASSIC PERIOD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2020

Jaime J. Awe Open the ORCID record for Jaime J. Awe [Opens in a new window] ,
Christophe Helmke Open the ORCID record for Christophe Helmke [Opens in a new window] ,
Diane Slocum  and
Douglas Tilden
Jaime J. Awe*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, 5 East McConnell Drive, Flagstaff, Arizona86011
Christophe Helmke
Affiliation:
Institute of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Plads 8, DK-2300Copenhagen S, Denmark
Diane Slocum
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 301 Alumni Building, Campus Box 3115, Chapel Hill, North Carolina27599
Douglas Tilden
Affiliation:
Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project, Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, 5 East McConnell Drive, Flagstaff, Arizona86011
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]
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Abstract

Investigations at Xunantunich indicate that this major Belize River Valley site rose rapidly to regional prominence during the Late Classic Hats' Chaak phase (a.d. 670–780). While the social, political, and economic reasons for Xunantunich's relatively late and rapid rise are still not fully understood, it has been suggested that this ascent was a direct result of either a patron-client relationship with, or owing to direct control by, the larger primary center of Naranjo in neighboring Guatemala. In this paper, we evaluate previous arguments for this proposed dynamic relationship between the two sites, and we discuss the political implications of more recently acquired data in our assessment of this relationship.

Type
Special Section: Borders, Frontiers, and Boundaries in the Maya World: Concepts and Theory
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , Fall 2020 , pp. 494 - 506
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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