Collective and Exclusionary Coordination

How people organize themselves has been central to archaeological research, especially in the study of urbanization. In Mesoamerica, urban development was influenced by social transformation, institutional experimentation, and regional interaction (Love and Guernsey Reference Love and Guernsey2022; Pool and Loughlin Reference Pool, Loughlin, Love and Guernsey2022). Recent debates highlight the difficulties of identifying political and economic institutions without written records, especially when governing bodies undergo major internal changes but perform ideological continuity outwardly (Carballo and Feinman Reference Carballo and Feinman2023:8–13). However, broad-scale and long-term trends in settlement patterns, resource distribution, and site design can reveal whether a society leaned toward a collectivist or exclusionary model of organization (Carballo and Feinman Reference Carballo and Feinman2023:15). Following the recent literature on cooperation and collective action (Carballo and Feinman Reference Carballo and Feinman2016; Carballo et al. Reference Carballo, Roscoe and Feinman2014; Feinman and Carballo Reference Feinman and Carballo2018; Pugh Reference Pugh2022), we demonstrate how the Maya transitioned along a broad spectrum between collectivist and exclusionary practices. Levels of collectivism can be analyzed through material manifestations of organizational practices, including how societies structured resource extraction and distribution, managed property and public resources, allocated power, and invested in palaces and monumental structures (Feinman and Carballo Reference Feinman and Carballo2018).

Systems of social organization leave observable imprints on institutions, social networks, ideological principles, and settlement patterns. Inomata and colleagues (Reference Inomata, Triadan, Eberl, Ponciano, Liendo and Zalaquette2011) identified significant shifts in settlement patterns and site design in the political organization and ritual landscape use at Aguateca in Petén, Guatemala. During the site’s early Preclassic history, temples and houses were organized in an inclusive and collective pattern; however, access to temple constructions and plazas became restricted by the Late Classic. Similarly, Nixtun-Ch’ich’ was characterized by interconnected urban spaces and pedestrian corridors during an initial phase of population expansion and was guided by a communal social order during the Middle Preclassic (Pugh Reference Pugh2019, Reference Pugh2022). By the Late Preclassic, such public projects declined as surrounding polities moved to a more exclusionary model that focused more on competition and agricultural production; these polities had more dispersed population and a rising royal class (Pugh Reference Pugh2019:993) Although Mesoamerican social systems varied greatly over time, we argue that dominant coordination models can visibly shape the institutions and structures that govern daily life. Whether a society is ruled by a singular leader or by a collective influences how social networks are formed, ideological principles are expressed, and settlement patterns are organized.

Collective societies tend to share authority among groups, lineages, and families. They reflect collective ownership and access to resources and labor for public construction projects, fostering initiatives prioritizing the public good, community identity and solidarity, and societal prosperity (Blanton and Fargher Reference Blanton and Fargher2016; Blanton et al. Reference Blanton, Feinman, Kowalewski and Peregrine1996). This model limits elite power while emphasizing shared ownership and resource distribution, greater investment in large public works, ample gathering spaces, the absence of palaces, and low-level disparities in wealth (Carballo and Feinman Reference Carballo and Feinman2016:292, Reference Carballo and Feinman2023:15).

Collective societies emphasize shared cosmologies over individual leadership, grounding their practices in broad spiritual or cosmological frameworks rather than individualistic and aggrandizing rulers (De Lucia Reference De Lucia, Robin and Brumfiel2008). Mesoamerican cosmologies emphasized the importance of an interconnected universe governed by powerful spiritual forces or deities (Astor-Aguilera Reference Astor-Aguilera2011:3). Large-scale projects were driven by an ideology centered on these forces, rather than on the actions of specific leaders. Individuals were rarely depicted in the iconography of collective societies. Instead, Preclassic societies devoted most public works to venerating cosmological forces, thereby grounding their belief systems in the landscape (Chase et al. Reference Chase, McAnany, Sabloff, Freidel, Chase, Dowd and Murdock2017).

In exclusionary coordination models, power and resources are consolidated by individual leaders and their elite families for their gain. Authority is passed through royal lineages (Blanton and Fargher Reference Blanton and Fargher2008; Blanton et al. Reference Blanton, Feinman, Kowalewski and Peregrine1996), and elites exact tribute from the local populace, in addition to controlling trade goods and sumptuary items (Aoyama Reference Aoyama2007). Ruling elites also manage the production of high-quality crafts and build elaborate residences that symbolize their power and separate them from the rest of society (Chase and Chase Reference Chase, Chase, Chase and Chase1992; Houston and Inomata Reference Houston and Inomata2009). Evidence of exclusionary leadership appears in the earliest civilizations, such as the portrait monuments of royals and elite ancestors’ tombs within monumental architecture in Early Formative Olmec societies (Robertson Reference Robertson1980:174–180).

Settlement patterns and architectural styles in exclusionary systems reflect the concentration of power among elites. These societies commemorate individual rulers and their achievements in their material culture through the construction of palaces, stelae, and tombs. Elite families resided in the palaces and conducted rituals to ancestors and patron deities of their lineages and polities in the temples (Baron Reference Baron2016; Grube Reference Grube2001; Martin and Grube Reference Martin and Grube2008) while also managing plaza rituals and markets (King Reference King2015). In Uxbenká, Early Classic elites (around AD 300–500) demonstrated their power by constructing a formal stone shrine in a mountain cave and then oriented their monumental constructions toward it; outlying structures, likely used by nonroyal elites and commoners, did not have this orientation (Prufer et al. Reference Prufer, Moyes, Culleton, Kindon and Kennett2011). The mountain shrine may have been an origin place for emerging Maya rulers or was dedicated to elite patron deities.

Ancestors, patron deities, lineages, and personal goods play an important role in elite beliefs and rituals (Baron Reference Baron2016; Grube Reference Grube2001; Martin and Grube Reference Martin and Grube2008). In societies with individual rulership and elite privilege, small private spaces were individually designed and owned by a small number of elite families. Elites were buried in tombs inside temples where they venerated their ancestors in closed rituals. Material culture in these domestic and ritual spaces reflected elite status, individual styles, and restricted use. The built environment and the limited distribution of goods at Palenque demonstrated the exclusionary political, religious, and economic tactics of elite Maya rulers.

Societies cannot be neatly divided into a simple dichotomy; governance models are arrayed along a spectrum, ranging from collective governance to individualistic, exclusionary rulership (Beekman Reference Beekman2008; Blanton and Fargher Reference Blanton and Fargher2008, Reference Blanton and Fargher2016; Blanton et al. Reference Blanton, Feinman, Kowalewski and Peregrine1996). This spectrum does not follow a linear progression, as various models emerged throughout all Mesoamerican periods. For example, Classic Maya households maintained communal leadership structures distinct from the regional-level hegemonic systems (Gillespie Reference Gillespie2000). Long-term collective rule has been argued for Formative (Preclassic) to Postclassic Cholula because of its importance as a regional pilgrimage center, its split rulership between political and religious elites, its large homogeneous public constructions, and its lack of royal portrait stelae and elite tombs (Coronel et al. Reference Coronel, Hutson, Magnoni, Balzotti, Ulmer and Terry2015).

Mesoamerican societies reflected the ever-changing nature of political strategies and the continuous search for effective governance and social coordination. The prominence of specific models changed in response to broader environmental and social changes. Sanders and Webster (Reference Sanders and Webster1988), for instance, caution against using a single characterization of corporate-leaning societies because of the diversity of Mesoamerican social systems. Over time, societies borrowed and adapted elements from neighboring systems, creating variable political landscapes. Although our argument focuses on the polar ends of the spectrum, there is also room for variability within these models. As we discuss later, the dispersed residences and public spaces of similar sizes and types across Mensäbäk in the Preclassic and Postclassic periods suggest the presence of collective sociopolitical and economic coordination strategies.

The Preclassic Maya Community in Northern Chiapas

The earliest inhabitants of the Mensäbäk valley built the city of Noh K’uh and public shrines. They followed the sierras, the Naja River, and the Tulijá River to the site’s lakes. During the Preclassic period, it is plausible that Maya from the Tabasco Plain migrated up the Tulijá River to Mensäbäk (Palka Reference Palka2023b). In the Classic period, Maya sites along the Tulijá and other rivers in Chiapas and Tabasco became allied to Maya elites at Palenque, building on Preclassic cultural and economic connections that likely continued into the Postclassic period. However, the Preclassic Maya at Mensäbäk also had ties to polities in Petén, as shown by the similarity in their ceramic wares and obsidian sourced from San Martin Jilotepeque and El Chayal in Guatemala.

The Preclassic Maya chose Mensäbäk for their settlement and rituals because of its symbolically rich landscape features. Here, a range of mountains encircles riverine lakes, forming a small and isolated basin. The Tulijá River originates at the lake at the base of a cleft water mountain adjacent to caves and cliffs. This mountain is called Mirador Mountain, or Chäk Aktun [K’uh], by local Lacandon Maya; the wide cliff on its east side has a large, natural red stain, which reflects Mesoamerican directional color symbolism. This mountain may be the Chäk K’uh (“red deity/life force”) place name in inscriptions of the nearby Classic Maya polity at Chancalá and Las Cascadas (Miller and Stuart Reference Miller and Stuart1981; Stuart Reference Stuart2011; Stuart and Stuart Reference Stuart and Stuart2008:235), located just northwest of Mensäbäk. A Classic period panel from El Encanto, on the Tulijá River, shows the water and earth deity Chak emerging from a split mountain, echoing Lacandon beliefs relating to their Mensäbäk deity. A Late Preclassic ceramic incense burner with a modeled Chäk face was recovered from a cleft on top of Chäk Aktun (Figure 2). Chäk Aktun dominates vistas from every direction and is riddled with cenotes and caves, including a deep vertical cave entrance on its summit. The surrounding lakes reflect the mountain: an image of a landmark emerges from the jade-colored water. Other visually impressive cliffs, caves, lakes, and monoliths contribute to Mensäbäk’s ritual landscape.

Figure 2.

(A) Late Classic image of the rain and earth deity Chäk (right) emerging from a split mountain (after Blom Reference Blom1924:404) and a (B) Preclassic Chäk incense burner from the summit of Mirador Mountain.

The Maya migrants to Mensäbäk built a major pilgrimage shrine on Mirador Mountain during Late Preclassic times. They leveled the summit of the mountain to build a small plaza and a temple complex adjacent to the cave mouth. Survey and lidar reveal how the northeast façade of the mountain peak was reshaped into a multi-stepped temple, reinforcing the symbolic connection between mountains and pyramids (Figure 3; Palka Reference Palka2014). Thirteen large terraces up the north side of the mountain, representing the 13 levels of the Maya overworld (Rice Reference Rice2007:13), allowed pilgrims to ascend to the shrine on the summit. A large platform on the seventh terrace formed a plaza around a fallen monolith that was near a cave at a split cliff. Beyond this shrine, the terraces and platforms became progressively smaller, limiting the number of worshipers.

Figure 3.

Lidar map of Mirador and terrace structures located on its northeast façade. The mountain is split by a cleft to the right of the summit. (Color online)

At the mountain’s base, a complex of large plazas and temples is found on its north side, along with two canoe ports. Pilgrims followed the Tulijá River to the lake and crossed it to reach the north base of Mirador Mountain. There, multitudes gathered in the plazas and a range of structures for public ceremonies. About a kilometer south were the ritual shrines of Noh K’uh: they were not dedicated to elite ancestors or patron deities but served as sites for collective rituals focused on community origins, solidarity, and natural forces that sustained prosperity

The Late Preclassic Maya at Mensäbäk built several platforms, perhaps with a domestic function, around the lakeshore adjacent to Mirador Mountain, but most lived at the city of Noh K’uh. It was established on the largest expanse of flat terrain, ideal for dense habitation and agriculture, and was located along a travel route through the basin. This area is called Noh K’uh (“great deity/life force”) by contemporary Lacandon Maya because the large mounds are believed to contain a potent life force (Figure 4); its fertile agricultural land is still used by the Lacandon.

Figure 4.

Lidar map of Noh K’uh and associated mounds. (Color online)

Maya inhabitants built up the urban landscape at Noh K’uh to elevate it from flooding. They then constructed several large temples, an E Group, and wide plazas near the center of the site. The main ceremonial plaza is encircled by an estimated 250–300 mounds organized by extended family households. Archaeological findings suggest that households were grouped together and connected by shared gathering spaces, with structures evenly distributed across irregularly shaped platforms constructed on the low-lying hills in the basin (Juarez Reference Juarez2021). These large collectives included multilevel platform mounds, dedicated activity spaces, and ceremonial structures of varying sizes. Recent investigations into outdoor spaces indicate that communal gatherings were central to domestic and ritual life at Noh K’uh. Elevated causeways and ceremonial platforms emphasized inter-household interaction through cosmological rituals that guided behavior and local ideology (Juarez Reference Juarez2022). Expansive plazas, large ceremonial platforms, and temples could accommodate people from various lineages, highlighting the communal nature of the site. These monumental constructions required coordinated labor, likely organized by different collectives. Notably, there are no structures at Noh K’uh or along the lakeshore that resemble elite residences, palaces, or compounds, suggesting the absence of an overt ruling class. Instead, Noh K’uh appears to have been organized as an alliance of large households, each with their own patios, shrines, and designated areas of consumption and production.

During the Preclassic period, residents reshaped the basin bottom into artificial plateaus and linear waterways connected to multiple fishponds (Palka Reference Palka2023a). These modifications served more than utilitarian needs: hills were leveled and reconstructed in rectilinear patterns, maintaining a shared orientation across the site. Labor investment in platform construction was high, given that many hills were suitable for occupations in their natural form. Each artificial plateau shows evidence of small communities, each with its own set of ceremonial structures, activity areas, and open-air gathering spaces.

Excavations over the past decade reveal a marked tendency to limit variation and suppress individual expression during the Late Preclassic. Nearly 50 test-pit excavations in household contexts uncovered only two partial depictions of anthropomorphic faces: images, figurines, or other representations of human beings are absent. This absence aligns with Late Preclassic (400 BC–AD 250) patterns that prioritized communal ideologies over individualism. Architectural evidence reinforces this priority, given the uniformity of construction techniques. Except for the ceremonial plaza, buildings across the site used rectangular, stone retaining walls to support basal structures composed of a mixed clay fill. Figure 5 compares the retaining walls of the smallest and largest analyzed structures. Mound NK-D-11, about five times larger than NK-B-5, uses larger, finely worked stone. The differences are subtle compared to the stark contrasts between household and palace structures of the Classic period.

Figure 5.

Retaining walls from structures NK-B-5 (top) and NK-D-11 (bottom). Although the two walls are similar in style, note how the foundational gravel is more compact in NK-D-11 than in NK-B-5. (Color online)

Toward the end of the Late Preclassic period, more isolated and exclusionary family compounds were built near the lakeshore and Mirador Mountain, likely reflecting changing leadership roles and greater differentiation within these family groups. Rising social tensions and demographic growth contributed to exclusionary political systems. Similar shifts away from collective organization are noted across the Maya region in the Late Preclassic, including Nakbe and Nixtun-Ch’ich’ (Pugh Reference Pugh2022).

The architectural and settlement patterns at Tz’ibana, just 2 km northwest of Noh K’uh, distinguish it from Noh K’uh (Figure 6). In Lacandon Mayan, Tz’ibana means “House of the [Painted] Writing” (tz’ib ban naj) or “Painted/Writing House” (tz’iba naj), likely referring to the red painted hieroglyphic text on the cliff on the site’s south side. The ceremonial complex at Tz’ibana contains several tall temples and wide plazas. Ceremonies were conducted by ritual specialists and political leaders in the limited space on the summits of the temples and in caves, involving fewer people than those held in Noh K’uh. Some of the region’s largest individual structures surrounded a small 40 × 60 m plaza; clearly, Preclassic Maya did not build their residences on that plaza.

Figure 6.

Lidar map of Tz’ibana including both Preclassic Temples and Postclassic (small platforms) sites. (Color online)

Tz’ibana is home to the region’s tallest structure, a triadic temple. Triadic temples were common at the end of the Late Preclassic but were often built adjacent to the E Group complexes. Tz’ibana’s triadic group exists in relative isolation along the northeast shore of the lake system, away from habitation areas. Smaller ritual structures are located across the lake at Ixtabay, along the southeastern edge of Mirador Mountain’s base. The two 6 m high temples with small, elevated spaces restricted participation; however, their elevation allowed people in the surrounding plazas to witness the religious activities.

Preliminary ceramic data indicate that these lakeshore sites were constructed at the end of the Late Preclassic and the beginning of the Early Classic period (Nuñez Ocampo Reference Nuñez Ocampo2015), whereas Noh K’uh was likely abandoned midway through the Late Preclassic. It is currently unclear how much these sites overlapped in time, but the different ceramic dates suggest that broader sociopolitical changes drove the population closer to the lakeshores and their ritual landscapes over time.

The triadic complex at Tz’ibana marks a shift toward spatial exclusivity, indicating a transition from community-centered practices to centralized political authority at the end of the Late Preclassic (Pugh Reference Pugh2019; Saturno et al. Reference Saturno, Beltran, Rossi, Freidel, Chase, Dowd and Murdock2017:280). E Group formations, like the one at Noh K’uh, are associated with mass gatherings; they encompassed open-air plazas that could accommodate large communal events (Doyle Reference Doyle, Freidel, Chase, Dowd and Murdock2017). The plaza space was likely designed as an open processual space that both supported and surrounded the associated E Group. In Noh K’uh, the pyramid and associated elongated platform were both visible and accessible from multiple directions. Triadic pyramid groups, in contrast, are more exclusive: only a single staircase at the base of a pyramid leads to the smaller triadic formation. At Tz’ibana, surrounding rock formations limit access to a single stretch of shoreline, which is further limited by a set of artificial terraces. In short, the triadic group at Tz’ibana and the E Group formation at Noh K’uh communicate two antithetical messages about accessibility.

Despite the shifts in architecture and site design, it remains unclear whether an elite class existed within the basin during the Late Preclassic; if it did, it was still emerging by the terminal Preclassic. Although the triadic groups at Tz’ibana reflect a shift in political authority, these monuments lack any evidence of domestic habitation. Houses, plazas, and temples shared the same east-of-north orientation as the shrine compound constructions on Mirador Mountain’s summit. Excavations of Noh K’uh’s households reveal that all residents had access to exotic goods such as jade, obsidian, and marine shell. Religious rites included large public gatherings honoring community origins at the mountain, lake, and cliffs and providing offerings to deities for water, food, and spiritual forces. The shared orientation of architectural features at Noh K’uh, Tz’ibana, Ixtabay, and Mirador Mountain, demonstrated the collective input of the broader populace in the construction programs in domestic areas and ritual landscapes. Their religion and worldview supported the collective input of numerous groups in coordination and governance. After the basin’s abandonment in the first century AD, elite-centered models replaced collective systems of organization.

Dynastic Politics at Classic Period Palenque

The political strategies and lifeways of Classic Maya rulers found in hieroglyphic texts and archaeology at Palenque provide the benchmark for analyzing Maya civilization in northern Chiapas. Before kings and queens reigned at the site, extensive Preclassic Maya populations stretched across the Tabasco plain and toward the edges of the Gulf Coast (Inomata et al. Reference Inomata, Triadan, Vázquez López, Fernandez-Diaz, Omori, Belén Méndez Bauer and García Hernández2020; Vargas Pacheco Reference Vargas Pacheco2011); they were likely attracted to Palenque by its springs and water mountain ritual landscape. These Maya lived in houses across the site and on the plain (Liendo Stuardo Reference Liendo Stuardo2002). As interregional interaction, trade in luxury goods, and elite political alliances increased in the Classic period, Palenque’s population grew. The site was located along trade routes from the highlands to the south that were used into the nineteenth century. An important node in these routes was Lake Catazajá (Ch’ol Mayan for “expanding and receding water”), where people could travel by boats from the Río La Hamaca at Palenque to the Gulf of Mexico. This lake provided abundant aquatic resources, including fish, birds, and even manatees (Palka Reference Palka2023a)—all of which figured prominently in local iconography and writing.

Mesoamerican concepts of water mountain (altepetl in Nahuatl) and bodies of water as ritual landscapes of origin, renewal, and fertility began in Preclassic cultures on the Gulf Coast and Central Mexico (Cyphers Reference Cyphers2018; Grove Reference Grove1987; Inomata et al. Reference Inomata, Triadan, Vázquez López, Fernandez-Diaz, Omori, Belén Méndez Bauer and García Hernández2020; McCafferty Reference McCafferty, Koontz, Reese-Taylor and Headdrick2001). In Classic period Palenque, Maya rulers and royal families demonstrated their ritual ties to their ancestors and deities who resided in the ritual landscapes of Lake Catazajá and the water mountain at Palenque. Caves, mountaintops, and springs were the foci of these rites, and Maya elite ceremonial architecture became concentrated in these landscapes, as at other Classic Maya sites in Chiapas, such as Chinkultic and Toniná. Kings built temples and plazas on the water mountain where they performed ceremonies to maintain ties with spiritual forces that brought rain and agricultural abundance.

Lake Catazajá was likely a ritual site for Maya elites. Inscriptions at Palenque refer to a main place name Lakamja (“wide water”), probably referring to this expansive lake. Birds such as herons and cormorants, which prefer large lakes like Catazajá, are common in texts and images. Ancient Maya knew that this lake drew thousands of migrating birds to nest on its islands. Hence, Lake Catazajá and Palenque were viewed as centers for fertility and renewal.

At Palenque, the settlement configuration and temple design demonstrate the power of Maya dynasts. Elaborate constructions and restricted spaces were designed for the use of elites, who represented the smallest social stratum. Palaces, small plazas for elite ceremonies, and elite temples were built in specific, ritually significant locations. For example, the Temple of the Foliated Cross and its small superstructure are located on one of the tallest hills, El Mirador, at the site. The Temple of the Inscriptions and other elite funerary monuments were built into the base of the large mountain near the springs. Excavations of these temples uncovered elite tombs and exotic remains of royal Maya ritual, including ceramic incense burners, jade ornaments, and shell artifacts. Near the Picota Group, aqueducts redirected water into artificial pools, reflecting both a substantial investment and the symbolic importance of water. Ethnographic parallels suggest that such pools often served ceremonial functions (French et al. Reference French, Straight and Hermitt2020).

Elite Maya reinforced their social, political, and economic position by living among and carrying out rituals in monumental architecture on their water mountain and springs. In these rituals, elites worshiped their ancestors and communicated with their patron deities, making offerings to them to ensure adequate supplies of water, agricultural abundance, military success, and economic prosperity. In this manner, they connected their identities, status, and their origins with spiritual forces within the ritual landscapes. These religious beliefs reinforced the political power of individual Maya rulers and their families. The focus on Classic Maya rulers and elite dynasties at Palenque—as seen in construction, material culture, and direct personal connections to ritual landscapes (Nuñez Reference Nuñez2023)—contrasts greatly with the evidence for the collective coordination and lineage-based sociopolitical structure at Mensäbäk.

Postclassic Maya Lineage Rule at Mensäbäk

Maya had abandoned Mensäbäk by the Late Classic period, perhaps because of regional droughts (Gunn and Folan Reference Gunn, Folan, Mcintosh, Tainter and Mcintosh2000), a rapidly expanding royal class (Pugh Reference Pugh2019), and the development of Palenque, which attracted rural populations. The Postclassic period, however, was a time of conflict, migration, and economic change. Some Maya moved to the Ocosingo Valley near the site of Toniná, but many Maya returned to Mensäbäk to live along its lakeshores following the downfall of Classic period polities. They likely migrated there from the heavily populated areas of the Gulf Coast; many followed the Tulijá River to Mensäbäk to live near the ritual Mirador Mountain (Palka Reference Palka2023b). These migrants sought spiritual protection in the ritual landscapes, especially in Mirador Mountain. The concept of community as symbolized by a water mountain—the altepetl—was important in Mesoamerica at this time (Dobereiner and Socorro del Pilar Jiménez Reference Dobereiner and del Pilar Jiménez2015; Kovacevich and Callaghan Reference Kovacevich and Callaghan2013:192–193).

By Late Postclassic times, Maya had formed several distinct settlements along the Mensäbäk lakeshore. Unlike Preclassic Noh K’uh, these distinct settlements were likely founded by separate Maya lineages and allies who migrated to the lakes. Multiple household clusters at Mensäbäk point to a corporate governing structure, which was common at the time of Spanish contact. This joint lineage rule, called multepal in Yucatán, consisted of elite batabob (regional governors) who constructed alliances with heads of Maya families (Alexander Reference Alexander, Kepecs and Alexander2005; Quezada Reference Quezada2014). These governors provided political leadership, protection, and ritual ties with spiritual forces in exchange for labor, tribute, and military support. Commoner support was crucial to these governors, thereby giving families some political power and checks on the batabobs’ actions. At times, some leaders gained power over other governors and created larger alliances, becoming provincial rulers. Often, two or three leaders shared rulership over their lineage alliances. The leaders generally presided over rituals to gods associated with nature and the cosmos for community well-being. Parallel corporate governance, coordination, religious structures, and social organizations existed at this time in Campeche, Petén, and northern Chiapas (Alexander Reference Alexander, Kepecs and Alexander2005; Chávez Gómez Reference Chávez Gómez2019; Rice and Rice Reference Rice and Rice2012).

La Punta became the largest Late Postclassic settlement and a political and economic center of Mensäbäk (Figure 7). Overlooking the lake, an elite complex may have housed an important Maya batab, his family, and allied lineages. Its plaza, which contained an altar, a small limestone stela, and palace structures, was only accessible by a staircase on the hill’s west side; small residential platforms were nearby. Most low house platforms of the commoners were randomly scattered in different orientations throughout the settlement, but there were a few house clusters or central patios between houses. One cluster surrounded a small patio that had a small central stone altar, in addition to a large monolith built into its southern edge. It is possible that this compound housed an important Maya lineage.

Figure 7.

Lidar map of La Punta. (Color online)

Other platforms clustered in a grid-like fashion northwest of the elevated plaza at La Punta. These larger buildings were potentially storage facilities based on their proximity to the large canoe port on the west side of the site. Goods that arrived by canoe were stored in these large rectangular structures and carried up the stairs to the elite lineage’s compound. The large number of storage facilities near the canoe port shows that these Maya may have collected tribute and trade goods from surrounding settlements.

La Punta’s economic importance is clear from the excavations near the plaza and in middens, which contained the largest quantities of Late Postclassic Fine Orange Pottery of the Matillas and Cunduacan varieties from Chontal Maya in Tabasco and marine shell artifacts, such as an earspool and bangles (Palka Reference Palka2023c). Green obsidian from the Pachuca source in central Mexico comprised about 35% of the obsidian at the site; copper bells from west or central Mexico were also found. These objects may have been transported by Chontal Maya or Aztec merchants. Feasting at the elite Maya compound on the plaza was evidenced by the large quantity of animal bones and ash found in nearby middens.

The batab and his elite Maya lineage held great political and economic power at Mensäbäk. Their residences at La Punta were set apart from others and were accessible to only a few. Overlooking the residential compound, the elite were able to control trade and canoe traffic coming into the site. Importantly, the elite residential compound contained structures oriented to the same east-of-north line maintained by the shrine structures on the summit of Mirador Mountain. The unique arrangement of La Punta’s elite structures indicates that only they were connected to Mirador Mountain and its spiritual forces—and thus only one lineage group held political power. Rather than being a place of origin of the La Punta and Mensäbäk community, Mirador Mountain likely housed the tutelary gods of the elite Maya lineages. Late Postclassic burials in caves on the mountain and its island further reinforced a connection between elites and spiritual forces, explaining why they built their center on the island where the water mountain is found.

Other batabob and elite Maya lineages resided at the site of Tz’ibana on a peninsula across the lake from La Punta; there, they built their residences on the ruins of Preclassic temples. However, one of the Late Postclassic constructions maintains the orientation to the Mirador Mountain structures exhibited at La Punta. Several large Late Postclassic residential structures for Maya families of higher socioeconomic status ring the plaza at Tz’ibana, and they obtained large quantities of green obsidian from Pachuca as well. Although these Maya were not as high status as the elites living in the plaza compound at La Punta, they were of higher rank than most Postclassic Maya around the lake; for example, at the sites of Los Olores (also known as Kechem) and Tzunun (Hernandez Reference Hernandez, Deeb, Kestle and Palka2011; Kestle Reference Kestle, Deeb, Kestle and Palka2011). Yet, the residents of Tz’ibana lacked access to the large amounts of Fine Orange pottery and other trade goods seen at La Punta, including marine shell ornaments.

The Tz’ibana Postclassic Maya may have enjoyed more religious than political importance at Mensäbäk because of their proximity to the Preclassic mounds, the ceremonial cliff with rock art, and a cave. They revered spiritual forces related to their lineages residing in these landscape features. Importantly, Tz’ibana lacked residential and ritual spaces that restricted access, but it is possible that these elites controlled rites on top of the ruined temples.

Other Late Postclassic residential sites scattered around the lakeshores at Mensäbäk reflect a corporate ritual, economic, and political organization. Their geographic separation indicates that different lineages, perhaps each with its own batab leaders, ruled each site, rather than being ruled by a single dynasty. Tzunun consists of scattered residential platforms on different elevations across a defended peninsula (Hernandez and Palka Reference Hernandez, Palka and Benfer2017), and some platform clusters were likely built by allied families. A hilltop compound with larger structures may have housed another batab or another important family whose members specialized in metallurgy; access to this compound was more restricted than to others. At Los Olores, residential platforms are similarly placed randomly in clusters; there are no obvious buildings of wealthier, more politically powerful families that restricted access to their residences (Kestle Reference Kestle, Deeb, Kestle and Palka2011).

Late Postclassic rituals at Mensäbäk occurred in public shrines at ritual landscapes, especially lakeside rock art shrines and collective burial sites (Palka Reference Palka2014). At these open shrines, corporate groups organized ceremonies focusing on ancestors and spiritual forces associated with geographic features, including cliffs and caves. Here they created rock art depicting animals and abstract symbols, in addition to handprints of several community members, emphasizing the importance of collective identities and wider ritual coordination over individual power.

Discussion and Conclusions

Across the Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic periods, Maya societies embedded sociopolitical ideologies in everyday material culture, connecting landscape, ritual, and political authority. Both collective and exclusionary political organizations reshaped their surrounding environment to incorporate ritual landscapes into their identities, whether it be their ethnicity, polity, town, neighborhood, lineage, or family. Mountains and caves marked the symbolic territories of community origins and belonging (Barabas Reference Barabas2003; Liffman Reference Liffman2014). People’s myth-histories included stories of their origins at these places, which were also homes of deity protectors and providers for the community or, conversely, elite rulers exclusively.

In communities that emphasized collective identity and coordination, ritual places—especially localized shrines and altars—were related to neighborhoods, lineages, and families worshiping together. The entire community revered select ritual landscapes and used public shrines to perform collective rituals. Some ritual landscapes were viewed as more powerful than others: they were linked to patron deities, ancestors, and particular lineages (Baron Reference Baron2016; Davenport and Golden Reference Davenport, Golden, Kurnick and Baron2016). Individuals with higher sociopolitical status, often elites and religious specialists, led ceremonies at these ritual landscapes.

At Mensäbäk, the political structure, commoner participation, and community collectivity evolved in response to shifts in social organization, economic situations, and religious practices. Power between elites and commoners transformed over time because of changes in religious beliefs tied to the landscape and to sociopolitical structures. Collective action and commoner solidarity are evident in settlement patterns, architectural configurations, trade goods, ceremonial practices, and ritual landscapes, which were linked to community, lineage, and family identities.

The Preclassic Maya of Mensäbäk also built major pilgrimage shrines on Mirador Mountain on the lakeshore away from Noh K’uh’s habitations. Community members and neighbors in the region, especially to the northwest and down the Tulijá River, participated in rituals at the lakeside shrines. The economy revolved around local labor, subsistence, and producing household items, such as obsidian cutting tools. Because large temple constructions were not located in agricultural areas, no one group controlled land access. Near the end of the Preclassic period, however, higher-status Maya began to control access to religious practices in temples and in ritual landscapes, fostering early elite classes and exclusionary practices. Their managing of ceremonies gave them increasing political and economic privileges. By the end of the Preclassic, the Mensäbäk Basin was abandoned, likely contributing to new sociopolitical systems in the region.

During the Classic period, Palenque rulers gained power by controlling the interregional trade of sumptuary goods, local agricultural lands, and rituals related to the worship of ancestors, deities, world renewal, and agricultural abundance. Palenque Maya elites strategically built their houses and temples along many crucial trade routes between the highlands and the coast. Elites gained power through their connections to important spiritual forces in the landscape features, such as mountaintops, springs, and pools. Temples contained tombs for individual elite ancestors: ancestor worship provided legitimacy for Maya rulers’ differential access to exotic trade items, such as finely decorated ceramics, carved marine shell, and jade ornaments. Elites also managed labor for temple and palace construction, creating raised fields, and building canals. They lived in intricate buildings apart from commoners in restricted residential compounds and had exclusive access to the temples, many of which were placed in small, restricted spaces out of the reach of commoners. Temple ceremonies at ritual landscapes were devoted to elites, ruling dynasties, and their spiritual and personal connections to resident patron gods.

The breakdown of individual Late Classic Maya rulership led to joint rule and corporate lineage organization in the Postclassic period. Increased conflicts and instability led to dispersal of Maya populations, pushing them to seek protection in fortified places, such as mountains and peninsulas. At Mensäbäk, some Maya found defensible places around the lakeshore, but they also desired connections to spiritual landscape forces for community cohesion and protection. The Mirador Mountain and cliffs at Mensäbäk were peoples’ origin places and housed natural forces that could be contacted through rituals and offerings. The segmented social structure of the Postclassic period resulted in the founding of several settlements at Mensäbäk. Some lineages gained political, economic, and religious power by creating larger alliances of families and connecting to spiritual forces in the most culturally significant landscape features. Ceremonies in ritual landscapes reflected community identity, but elite lineages managed the rites through their connections to spiritual forces. When elite Maya lineages disappeared in the Spanish colonial period throughout Chiapas, the ritual landscapes surrounding settlements delineated symbolic territories of communities and neighborhood organizations like at Mensäbäk, and not the origin places of Maya elites seen at Palenque.

The Mensäbäk Basin was a symbol of cosmological power because it included an array of landscape symbols that communicated connections between multiple worlds and different states of being. The mountains, caves, and waterways surrounded by parallel mountain ridges provided an arena to commemorate the forces of creation linked to people’s origins but were used to meet the needs of multiple leaders over time. Our findings indicate that changes in access to cosmological forces correlated to shifts in local society and politics that left indelible marks on the landscape. Settlement patterns, architectural design, and site planning provide visible clues to understanding how the Maya organized themselves within their societies. The basin of Mensäbäk demonstrates how leadership systems were regularly negotiated as societies sought a balance between coordination and hierarchy in an ever-changing environment and use of ritual landscapes.