Middle Preclassic Hydraulic Planning at Nixtun-Ch'ich', Peten, Guatemala

Abstract

Nixtun-Ch'ich', on the western edge of Lake Peten Itza in Peten, northern Guatemala, features an axis urbis and an urban grid dating to the Middle Preclassic period (800–500 b.c.). New research reveals that Middle Preclassic constructions—five circular or oval artificial pools and planned surface drainage—facilitated or impeded the movement of water. Large limestone rubble lines at least two of the pools (aguadas) in the city's core; two pools lie on the axis urbis, demonstrating that they were central ceremonial constructions. The gridded streets facilitated drainage: they consistently slope from west to east and from the center to north and south. In some areas seeing intense water flow, the streets divide into waterways and pedestrian-ways and/or were given special paving. Many scholars argue that water management contributed to the power of despotic kings, but no evidence of such rulers exists among the Middle Preclassic Maya. Nonetheless, we believe that such systems emerged in the Middle Preclassic. Nixtun-Ch'ich' appears to have been cooperative in its organization and its water management system was a public good.

Preclassic environmental degradation of Lake Petén Itzá, Guatemala, by the early Maya of Nixtun-Ch’ich’

“…The city also features a unique, modular, urban gridded layout consisting of seven north-south "avenues" that intersect with six east-west "streets", covering an area of 2.5 km 30,2,25] . This system of roughly orthogonal corridors, supplemented with canals in areas that likely experienced intense runoff during rainfall events, facilitated drainage from the site 24 . The sediment core site lies downstream and bathymetrically downgradient from two of the archeological site's major north-south trending avenues (G and H), which run adjacent to major structures in Nixtun-Ch'ich' and likely served as focal points for the delivery of dissolved and suspended material in runoff to this arm of the lake (Fig.…”

“…The onset of aquatic ecosystem changes coincides with the early Maya occupation at the site and changes in land-use practices, suggesting that prolonged and spatially concentrated ancient human activities had a profound impact on this shallow arm of the lake. Whereas massive Maya-induced siltation in other Petén lakes may have suppressed lake productivity, paving of the riparian gridded city of Nixtun-Ch'ich' [23][24][25] likely enhanced nutrientladen runoff from the urban center, which fueled primary productivity in the relatively shallow and hydrologically isolated southern basin of Lake Petén Itzá. A sharp decrease in lithogenic elements at the top of the disturbance zone in core PI-NC-1 indicates an abrupt reduction or cessation of human constructional activities at the end of the Late Preclassic period 8 , and the lake ecosystem experienced a relatively swift, but incomplete, recovery after partial depopulation of the city during the Terminal Preclassic.…”

The Development of Landesque Capital in the Maya Lowlands During the Middle Preclassic

“…From 1000 to 800 b.c. , during this interregnum between the emergence of maize agriculture and the complete shift to a sedentary lifeway, the lowland Maya constructed enormous platforms and leveled massive hilltops to create spaces for communal activities, including sweat baths (Estrada-Belli 2011; Hammond and Bauer 2001; Inomata et al 2013, 2019, 2020, 2021; Źralka et al 2022), and E-Groups were built in the western lowlands, the Central Karstic Uplands, and into central Peten (Aimers and Rice 2006; Doyle 2012; Estrada-Belli 2006, 2011; Hansen 1998; Inomata 2013; Inomata et al 2020; Pugh et al 2022; Reese-Taylor 2017; Rice and Pugh 2017; Rice et al 2019).…”

“…While the timing of the first permanent settlements varied from region to region, by 800 b.c ., sedentism appeared to be an established lifeway throughout the Maya Lowlands. Evidence for permanent communities has been recovered in the Belize River Valley (Awe 1992; Ebert et al 2017; Powis et al 2009), northern Belize (Hammond 1991; Hester et al 1982; McAnany and López Varela 1999; Potter et al 1984; Valdez 1987), the Pasion River area (Adams 1971; Triadan et al 2017), the Peten Lakes region (Pugh et al 2022; Rice and Pugh 2017; Rice et al 2019), the Central Karstic Uplands (Hansen 1998; Reese-Taylor et al 2018), the Gulf coast of Campeche (Ek 2022), as well as in the Puuc Hills (Gallareta Negrón 2018; Parker et al 2022; Smyth et al 2020).…”

“…along the Pacific Slope at La Blanca (Love and Guernsey 2011) and at Kaminaljuyu (Love 2022:19). In the Maya Lowlands, E-Group complexes appear at Cival (Estrada-Belli 2006), Nixtun Ch'ich' (Pugh et al 2022; Rice and Pugh 2017; Rice et al 2019), and Yaxnohcah (Reese-Taylor et al 2018) by 900–800 b.c. , and at Yaxuna (Stanton and Collins 2022) in the Northern Lowlands and Early Xunantunich in the Belize River Valley by 700 b.c.…”