Events

Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

VIRTUAL - Surviving the Maya collapse at Actuncan, Belize

October 21, 2021 @ 6:00 pm EDT Eastern Time

This is an online event.



AIA Society: East TN (Knoxville)

Lecturer: David W. Mixter

In the southern Maya Lowlands, the 9th century featured a major political and demographic collapse precipitated by a combination of elite overreach, expanding warfare, disruption of trade networks, and an increasingly unstable climate. At this time, most communities that survived in place and were forced to negotiate new forms of political authority and legitimacy. In this talk, I present the ancient Maya site of Actuncan, located in western Belize as a case study of collapse-era survival and transformation. Excavations, activity area analysis, and urban planning data from Actuncan, located in western Belize, indicate that the local community transformed their political institutions—abandoning the hierarchical system of divine kingship in favor of an inclusive political system that was largely disentangled from religious precepts. This is just one of several strategies adopted by communities in the upper Belize River Valley region. Based on this case study and nearby data, I argue that 9th century Maya sociopolitical was an inherently local process, anchored in communities’ deep-rooted social traditions and memories of their past.

 

Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:

Mixter, David W., 2017. Political Change Expressed in Public Architecture: The Terminal Classic Maya Civic Complex at Actuncan, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 14: 65–75.

Mixter, David W., 2020. Community Resilience and Urban Planning during the Ninth-Century Maya Collapse: A Case Study from Actuncan, Belize. Cambridge Archaeological Journal: 219–237.

When placing events on your calendar using these buttons, please check that time zone displays correctly.

Details

Date:
October 21, 2021
Time:
6:00 pm EDT
Event Categories:
, ,

Contact

Stephen A. Collins-Elliott
Email
sce@utk.edu

Other

In-person or Virtual Event
Virtual
Subscribe to the AIA e-Update

support Us

The AIA is North America's largest and oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to archaeology. The Institute advances awareness, education, fieldwork, preservation, publication, and research of archaeological sites and cultural heritage throughout the world. Your contribution makes a difference.