Early to Late Classic population mobility in the Maya site of La Joyanca and hinterlands, Northwestern Petén, Guatemala

Defining Rurality at La Joyanca (Peten, Guatemala): Architecture, Land Use, and Social Dynamics

“…This assumption had been formulated by 2003 based on the correlated archaeological and paleoenvironmental sequences indicating a co-occurrence of (1) the abandonment of agricultural activities on the Tuspan meseta inferred from changing conditions of erosion, and (2) the expansion of La Joyanca characterized by the construction of monumental residential groups (Arnauld et al 2004a; Galop et al 2004). Results from the tested sample of La Joyanca's small household groups (representing 30 percent, located throughout six neighborhoods) revealed that they doubled in number over a short time span, a.d. 500–550 to 600–650 (Figure 11; Arnauld et al 2017, 2021). This same Early to Late Classic time span marks the beginning of the demographic apogee in the city, while the paleoenvironmental studies indicate an early abandonment of intensive maize cultivation and regrowth of upland forest on the Tuspan meseta (Fleury et al 2014; Galop et al 2004).…”

“…Based on the economic and sociopolitical organization of the site reconstructed in its local and regional context (Arnauld et al 2004a; Lemonnier and Arnauld 2008), the more recent research compared the archaeological sequence to the paleoenvironmental sequence obtained from the proximate Lake Tuspan (Carozza et al 2007; Galop et al 2004) and carried out specific test excavations to detect and date regional population movements responsible for urbanization and de-urbanization of the city between a.d. 550 and 950 (Arnauld et al 2017; Fleury et al 2014). While starting the early research, to explore the La Joyanca regional context, two study areas were selected on the basis of available archaeological data and local geomorphology: (1) a microregion of 150 km 2 encompassing two limestone plateaus, or mesetas , bounded by rivers and wetlands—the San Pedro Mártir river to the north, lakes and swamps to the west, south, and east; and (2) a larger area of 600 km 2 determined by the location of the largest and well-known sites (Figure 3).…”

“…This is not the place to describe the La Joyanca research effort, which documented the Early-to-Late Classic population surge (Arnauld et al 2017), but a few words are in order since this case study represents an original way to tackle the rural/urban mobility issue. By means of several data sets, La Joyanca has been shown to illustrate the case of a city formed through time by processes of hierarchized social groupings and regular scattering over an agrarian landscape that probably integrated a mix of “urban” and “rural” populations.…”

“…The latter would have migrated into the settlement to expand the neighborhoods where they would have helped build the vaulted residences.

Figure 11.Program of test-pits carried out in five neighborhoods of La Joyanca (modified from Arnauld et al 2017:Figure 5) and comparison of the chronological sequences between the small households and the monumental groups

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“…Two research projects that were focused on the history of this small city within its regional framework were developed in succession in 1999–2003 and 2010–2013. Whereas the early project contextualized the city in an area then largely unknown through surveys on a regional scale in parallel with excavations done within the city (Arnauld et al 2004a; Forné 2006; Lemonnier 2009), the later project was centered on urbanization processes to test hypotheses derived from the previous research and thus more directly included rural populations in the research agenda (Arnauld et al 2017). The second season of fieldwork, however, did not permit excavating hinterland sites, limiting our evidence on local communities to survey data.…”