Mesoamerica Center Field Reports - Fall 2005
The Development of a Maya Palace:
The Preclassic Architecture of the Tigrillo Complex,
San Bartolo, Guatemala
By Astrid Runggaldier, Department of Archaeology, Boston University
The palace of San Bartolo, also known as the Tigrillo Complex, is the subject of my dissertation research on Maya architecture and the development and function of court palaces from Preclassic times onwards. Following two seasons of preliminary investigation in 2003 and 2004 to understand the layout and formal plan of the complex, I conducted more intensive excavations into the main portion of the palace and in the surrounding areas, with the financial support from the Mesoamerican Center of the University of Texas at Austin.
My objectives for the recently concluded field season were threefold:
a) To reconstruct the evolutionary sequence of development of its earliest form.
b) To uncover and record an extensive and accurate architectural plan of the interior spaces of its most recent phases of remodeling.
c) To test the hypothesis that this complex served both private and public functions, as the residence of the San Bartolo ruling elite, and the setting for activities of courtly life.
As I prepare to process the materials from this season, the observations in this report reflect my current understanding of the data pending more detailed analysis over the course of the current year. Nevertheless, this season produced some interesting results that challenge my assumptions on the palace of San Bartolo and on the nature of the occupation at the site, particularly in the periods following its Late Preclassic apogee.
The site core of San Bartolo, 2 km2 in current survey (Fig. 1), is located approximately 45 km northeast of Uaxactun in an environment of montaña, or raised areas of sub-tropical forest, interspersed with bajos, or low-lying seasonal swamps (Saturno 2003; Hansen et al. 2002). In addition to the Las Pinturas group, the settlement comprises the larger group of Las Ventanas to the west, the Jabalí group farther to the northwest, and several outlying residential groups currently being surveyed. The site core is centered on the main plaza of the Las Ventanas group, dated to the Late Preclassic period with buried Middle Preclassic deposits (Fig. 2).
Figure 1.Map of the San Bartolo site center with major architectural groups, courtesy of the San Bartolo Regional Archaeological Project.
On the north side of the Las Ventanas plaza is the site s largest temple-pyramid, with both Middle and Late Preclassic construction phases including one with monumental stucco masks flanking the main staircase (Saturno 2004). On the south side of the plaza a causeway leads towards residential groups, one of which has evidence of Late and Terminal Classic occupation. The Tigrillo Complex that I am currently investigating is on the west side of the main plaza. Preliminary work indicated a predominance of Late Preclassic ceramic material on the surface and in excavations of the latest occupation phase, suggesting a developmental sequence that parallels that of the other major architectural complexes at the site, whose primary occupation was no later than the Late Preclassic period (Runggaldier and Pellecer Alecio 2003).
Figure 2. Close-up of the Ventanas Group around the main plaza, San Bartolo. The Tigrillo Complex is enclosed by the dashed line. Courtesy of the San Bartolo Regional Archaeological Project, 2004.
Thus, investigations so far indicated that the settlement of San Bartolo peaked in the Late Preclassic period. After a possible phase of abandonment, Late Classic occupation followed on a much smaller scale; this was primarily residential in character with no monumental construction. Carved monuments (stelae and pot-bellied sculptures) in the Las Ventanas group also appear to be of early date, although they were reused in the Late and Terminal Classic period (Craig 2004).
In the 2005 season I discovered that the construction and occupation sequence of the San Bartolo site core is more complex than previously surmised, and that the palace complex plays a key role in understanding the nature of settlement in particular in the late periods. I focused my excavations in three main areas of the palace: the monumental staircase and main platform; the upper range buildings; and the western mounds. These excavations addressed the above-stated objectives of understanding the development, architectural form, and function of the complex. In order to reconstruct the evolutionary sequence of development of the complex, I extended earlier excavations to collect a statistically significant sample of ceramics that would effectively indicate the construction date of the latest phase. In addition, I excavated a tunnel into the main platform of the palace façade to recover the construction sequence through its series of architectural phases.
In the analysis of materials from the previous season, project ceramicist Patricia Rivera Castillo had detected a small percentage of possible Late Classic sherds in the latest construction phase that could have been intrusive from above-floor occupation strata in places where the architecture was poorly preserved and the floor stuccoes heavily eroded (Rivera and Sagebiel 2004). In an effort to further investigate the presence of Late Classic material I extended excavations of the monumental staircase at the eastern side of the main platform, and I exposed the interior space of two rooms at the summit of the palace complex where I could compare materials from above and below floors in areas of good preservation. Since previous collections indicated a 1% presence of possibly Late Classic sherds in some contexts, I set out to expose large areas that would produce samples of more than 100 sherds in order to detect the low percentage (Fig. 3a and 3b).
Figure 3a (left). Aerial view of SE room of eastern range structure. Fig. 3b (right). View of NW room of western range structure.
The analysis of ceramics that I carried out during the months of June and July 2005 in the project laboratory in Antigua, Guatemala, currently indicates that the Late Classic is indeed represented not only in ceramic samples of the last occupation phase, above the most recent floor construction, but also in the two previous façade staircases (Fig. 4a and 4b). I was also able to recover several carbon samples that will be submitted for analysis at a future date, and that will give a definitive answer to the question of palace development and use.
Figure 4a (left). Façade staircase of Sub-1, penultimate phase. Fig. 4b (right). Façade staircase of Sub-2, inside Sub-1.
The presence of Late Classic material in such small quantities indicates that the builders of the latter phases of the palace complex mined construction materials from surrounding architecture of Late Preclassic date, rather than procuring fresh limestone from newly quarried sources. This could point to an impoverished elite that in the Late Classic period could no longer muster the necessary resources to engage in large construction efforts, as the Preclassic settlers of San Bartolo had done. Nevertheless, the results warrant further investigation because they point to a Late Classic occupation that included a palace with remodeling and monumental construction within the site core, previously considered to be only of Late Preclassic date. The presence of Late Classic occupation at San Bartolo was already known from scattered residences, some of which of poor construction (Pellecer Alecio 2003), but the new data shows that San Bartolo had an elite class, however small, that maintained a palace for public functions, and may have sponsored other construction efforts throughout the site.
The tunnel excavations beyond the Late Classic staircases also produced useful results in reconstructing the evolutionary sequence of the main palace platform (Fig. 5).
Figure 5. Tunnel excavation parallel to the central E-W axis of the main platform.
The excavation ran parallel to the main E-W axis of the palace, halfway between the center-point and the corner of the first step, so as to allow side tunnels both towards the central axis as well as towards the sides. The investigation revealed a buried building that I suggest has a N-S façade at least 13 m long that dates to the Late Preclassic period according to preliminary ceramic analysis. Given the lack of looters excavations in all lower portions of the palace, the tunnels I excavated followed the façade, corners, and staircase of the buried Preclassic structure in order to explore its interior through the central doorways. In the upcoming year, my work will concentrate on this buried building and possible earlier ones with the continuation of the tunnels begun in 2005.
With the 2005 season the architectural plan of the latest phase was completed through excavation of several areas of the monumental staircase, the façade range building, the upper patio, and the west range building (Fig. 6). Relying on evidence from previous seasons that shows that the main platform, the upper patio, and its two parallel structures are arranged in a symmetrical formal design along a central E-W axis, I was able to excavate areas on the north and south side of the axis wherever vegetation and surface conditions indicated a better preservation of the architecture. Using the symmetry of the design I am now producing a complete plan of the complex in CAD that will show what the palace looked like in 2 and 3 dimensions.
Figure 6. Plan drawing of the Tigrillo Complex, San Bartolo, with main palace platform, upper patio, parallel range buildings, and western mounds at left. Drawing by Robert Griffin, 2005.
The final objective for the 2005 season was to address the question of function of the latest phase through the excavation of interior spaces in the rooms along the upper patio, and of mounds at the western area off the main platform. In 2003 the recovery of a large masonry bench at the center of the western range structure, opposite the main access atop the monumental staircase, suggested that this could have been a throne. In the 2005 season I exposed the interior of three other rooms representing architecturally different areas of the upper range structures in order to find more interior features that could be interpreted as thrones or sleeping benches. The results show that the only room at the palace that had a masonry bench was the central room excavated in 2003, and that the rest of the buildings had plain interior spaces with no architectural features such as sleeping benches, niches, storage spaces, or hearths that could indicate a residential function. In addition, the lack of domestic debris, middens, cooking vessels, and other artifacts common in residential structures suggests a preliminary interpretation of the main platform buildings of this palace complex as serving only civic and administrative functions in their latest phase.
The excavation of test pits in the western area off the main platform is still pending analysis; however, at present I believe that if the palace complex did represent both the residence of the court and the spaces for functions of public protocol, the western mounds will prove to be the domestic quarters where the ruling elite lived, while the upper range buildings served other specialized functions.
The funding of the Mesoamerican Center of the University of Texas at Austin proved instrumental in achieving the goals I had set for the 2005 season and provided a large body of data for analysis and interpretation of my dissertation topic. In the more immediate future, a complete report of the excavation data and analysis of materials from this season will be available in the 4th season report volume of the San Bartolo Project (Urquizú and Saturno 2005)
References
Craig, Jessica H. 2004. Investigaciones de la Estructura 63: Un Santuario Cerca de la Gran Plaza de San Bartolo. Paper presented at the XVIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2004, IDAEH and Asociación Tikal. Guatemala City.
Hansen, Richard D., Steven Bozarth, John Jacob, David Wahl, and Thomas Schreiner. 2002. Climatic and Environmental Variability in the Rise of Maya Civilization: A Preliminary Perspective from Northern Peten. Ancient Mesoamerica 13: 273-295.
Pellecer Alecio, Mónica 2003. SB 9: Excavaciones en el Complejo Habitacional ubicado al Oeste de la Pirámide de Las Ventanas, Estructuras 82, 83, y 84. In Mónica Urquizú and William Saturno, eds., Proyecto Arqueologico San Bartolo: Informe Preliminar No. 2, Segunda Temporada 2003. Report on file at IDAEH, Guatemala City, 69-84.
Rivera, Patricia, and Kerry Sagebiel. 2004. Analisis Preliminar del Material Ceramico de San Bartolo. In Mónica Urquizú and William Saturno, eds., Proyecto Arqueologico San Bartolo: Informe Preliminar No. 3, Tercera Temporada 2004. Report on file at IDAEH, Guatemala City, 312-367.
Runggaldier, Astrid, and Mónica Pellecer Alecio. 2003. SB 8A, B, C, y E: Excavaciones en el Palacio El Tigrillo, in Mónica Urquizú and William Saturno, eds., Proyecto Arqueologico San Bartolo: Informe Preliminar No. 2, Segunda Temporada 2003. Report on file at IDAEH, Guatemala City, 46 63.
Saturno, William A. 2003. Proyecto Arqueológico Regional San Bartolo: Resultados de la Primera Temporada de Campo 2002. In Juan Pedro Laporte, Barbara Arroyo, Héctor L. Escobedo, and Héctor E. Mejía, eds., XVI Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2002. Guatemala City: IDAEH and Asociación Tikal, 319-324.
2004. Proyecto Arqueológico Regional San Bartolo: Resultados de la Tercera Temporada de Campo 2004. Paper presented at the XVIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2004, IDAEH and Asociación Tikal. Guatemala City.
Urquizú, Mónica, and William Saturno, eds. 2005. Proyecto Arqueologico San Bartolo: Informe Preliminar No. 4, Cuarta Temporada 2005. Forthcoming.
