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The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Maya Petty Royal Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gyles Iannone
Gyles Iannone*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario K9J 7B8
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Abstract

The Maya “collapse” began shortly after A.D. 750, and the events associated with this transition period would play out over the next three centuries. Many factors contributed to the collapse, not the least of which was the trend toward widespread power sharing that began in the eighth century, when lesser nobles, particularly the lords of secondary centers, began to acquire more wealth and political autonomy. The examination of secondary centers, particularly in frontier zones farthest from the polity capitals, offers an advantageous perspective from which to document the events leading up to the collapse and to explore the nature of the collapse itself. Sometime near the beginning of the eighth century, Minanha, one of these secondary centers, emerged as a petty royal court in the frontier between the contracting Naranjo and Caracol polities. After a century of apparent sociopolitical and socioeconomic success, Minanha’s royal residential compound was willfully buried, some of its most important facades and stelae were destroyed, and the center went into rapid decline. The rise and fall of Minanha are discussed with respect to regional politics, as well as the broader ninth-century “collapse” of the southern Maya lowlands.

“El Colapso” de los sitios del Bajío Maya sur comienza un poco después de 750 d.C. Una de las tendencias más significativas fue el periodo de co-poderío general que comienza a principios del siglo ocho d.C., cuando nobles de menor grado, particularmente mandatarios de centros secundarios, empiezan a adquirir más poder y más autonomía política. Es claro que el estudio de centros secundarios, especialmente los ubicados en zonas fronterizas y los más alejados de los grandes centros, nos of recen una perspectiva ventajosa de la cual se pueden documentar los eventos que conllevan al colapso y a estudiar las características del colapso mismo. El tema central de este artículo es el ascenso y la caída de uno de estos centros. Al principio del siglo ocho d.C., Minanha’ emerge como una corte secundaria en la frontera política entre los centros de Naranjo y Caracol. Después de un siglo de éxito socioeconómico y sociopolítico, el complejo residencial real de Minanhá es enterrado a voluntad, algunas de sus estelas más importantes son destruidas, y el centro entra en un periodo de rápido deterioro general. Se investiga el ascenso y la caída de Minanhá, en el contexto del “Colapso” en el siglo nueve d.C.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2005 , pp. 26 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Society for American Archaeology.

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References

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