Maya kingship at Holmul, Guatemala. (News & Notes).

Belli, Francisco Estrada

In 1911 Holmul was the first Lowland Maya city to be stratigraphically excavated, yielding elaborate ceramics in elite tombs that established the first Maya ceramic chronology (Merwin & Vaillant 1932). Its subsequent neglect was partly the result of a paucity of inscribed stelae, and the history, structure and political significance of this city in northeastern Peten, 45 km east of Tikal, have remained matters for speculation. Our mapping and excavation of Holmul's urban core and its neighbouring minor centres began in 2000.

The 2001 excavation in Group III, one of the three main central platform groups, sought to test the hypothesis that buildings on this platform housed the local elite. Removal of rubble from Structure 43 revealed a 20-m long building containing four rooms. The central room was occupied by a sequence of three consecutive masonry thrones, the earliest of which (FIGURE 1) was tucked against the south wall and was decorated with an overhanging cornice and two large, red-painted, tapered false legs in stucco relief. Its style imitates the rare carved stone thrones found at Piedras Negras and Palenque. A later red-painted bench, perpendicular to the first, occupied the main eastern axis of the room, thus allowing its occupant to be seen from outside. The third bench in the sequence abutted the second, in the doorway leading to the western room, and was also decorated with modelled false legs. Four cord-holders behind this bench suggested a cloth or pelt stretched behind the occupant. Northern and southern rooms were later added, each with a large bench with sloping armrests, and enlarged by multiple additions, eventually occupying most of the room. The large number of throne-benches and lack of living space suggest that this was a dedicated `throne room' building within the royal court (Harrison 2001). Ceramics suggest Late Classic construction, with possible re-use in the Terminal Classic as a trash dump after the vault had collapsed.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The small site of La Sufricaya, found by Ian Graham, was re-located 1.2 km west of the main Holmul plaza; it comprises a dense cluster of elite residence groups and small temples around an elevated platform supporting an 11-m high temple-pyramid. Scattered in the main courtyard were seven fragmentary stelae, of which five were carved.

Stela 5 (FIGURE 2), the only one with a legible text, has a Long Count date of 8.19.6.8.5 8 Chicchan 3 Xul (August 6 AD 422); the fron and rear faces of the ste|a have five rows and three columns of eroded glyphs. Two crania associated with Late/Terminal Classic material were deposited in front of the stela in a shallow pit covered by limestone slabs, indicating that it had been repositioned with a new sacrificial offering.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

La Sufricaya Stelae 1,2, 3 and 6, found in 2001, have Early Classic style carving but lack legible inscriptions. Together with Stela 5 they suggest intense royal activity early in the Classic Period, when only a handful of other Maya cities, among them Tikal, Uaxactun, Copan, Balakbal, Tres Islas and El Peru (Mathews 1985) are known to have dated monuments.

Under the rubble of Structure 1 at La Sufricaya a 3x2-m section of wall from an earlier building phase, exposed by a looters' tunnel, revealed red, yellow and black lines and figures (FIGURE 3). The composition is divided into two parts, with small 10x20-cm red-lined frames on the left, and 5 stacked 20-cm high registers, each with five figures, on the right. All 25 individuals are seated and face left (west); each holds spear-thrower darts, some with trilobe-shaped points. Most wear a drum-shaped headdress, while some have eye-goggles and feathers; the outfit also includes knee-pads, thigh bands and belts with feather tails. The body proportions are unusual for Classic Maya art, showing traits more common in coeval central Mexico. On the left, one standing figure wears a jaguar-skin loincloth and tail, another a ball-game yoke around the waist. Both are in a recognizably Maya style.

The depiction of Teotihuacan warriors and Maya elites dressed as ball-players on this mural might show ceremonies associated with the arrival of foreigners; the only comparable example of such a representation is incised on a black vessel found in Tikal Burial 10, the ruler `Curle Nose' who died in AD 420 (Harrison 1999: 87, figure 49). A fragmentary Teotihuacan-style cylinder vessel found on the room floor dates the termination ritual which buried the room to the 5th century AD. A green obsidian blade found in the ball-court near Structure I shows contact with central Mexico.

We thus have evidence that Holmul might have been the seat of a Classic Maya kingdom, perhaps from the Late Preclassic. The earliest occupation is early in the Middle Preclassic, pre-800 BC, and the great time-depth of settlement in northeastern Peten thus opens the possibility of investigating the emergence of Maya kingship at Holmul itself.

Acknowledgements. The National Geographic Society, Vanderbilt University and the Ahau Foundation funded the 2001 Holmul Project. Ryan Mongelluzzo has supervised the Group III excavations. Dan Slater, Britta Watters, Mark Wolf, Kristin Gardella, Katie South, Meg Hoffman, Jason Gonzalez, Justin Ebersole, Molly Morgan, Emily Dawson, Luis Salazar, Mynor Silvestre, Maria Penados, Angel Chavez, Samuel Vazques and Enrique Monterroso did the hard work. We acknowledge IDAEH of Guatemala, especially Licda. Nora Lopez Olivares for permitting research at Holmul, and inspectors Bertila Bayley and Francisco Moro for facilitating our work. Many thanks to Clemency Coggins, Nikolai Grube, Norman Hammond and David Stuart for helpful comments.

References

MATHEWS, P. 1985. Early Classic monuments and inscriptions, in G.R. Willey & P. Mathews (ed.), A consideration of the Early Classic Period in the Maya Lowlands: 5-55. Albany (NY): State University of New York. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, Publication 10.

MERWIN, R.E. & G. VAILLANT. 1932. The Ruins of Holmul. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology & Ethnology III(2).

HARRISON, P.D. 1999. The Lords of Tikal. Rulers of Ancient Maya City. London: Thames & Hudson. 2001. Thrones and throne structures in the Central Acropolis of Tikal as an expression of the Royal Court, in T. Inomata & S.D. Houston, Royal Courts of the Ancient Maya 2: Data and case studies: 74-101. Boulder (CO): Westview Press.

Norman Hammond & Jeremy R. Bauer, Hammond, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston MA 02215-1406, USA. ndch@bu.edu

Jeremy R. Bauer, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN 37235, USA.