Political Interactions among Social Actors: Spatial Organization at the Classic Maya Polity of El Palmar, Campeche, Mexicó

Research at the outlying Guzmán Group of El Palmar, Campeche, Mexico, reveals that these peripheral settlements played a crucial role in negotiating power and ideology during the Late and Terminal Classic Maya period (ca. A.D. 600-900). The discovery of a hieroglyphic stairway provides unprecedented epigraphic evidence linking a prominent individual to lakam (banner-bearer) officials and foreign rulers, including those from Copán and Calakmul. This finding challenges the traditional focus on central sites by demonstrating that outlying groups were active participants in political interactions, shaping the spatial organization of Maya polities through complex social dynamics.

Tsukamoto, K., Camacho, J. L., Valenzuela, L. E. C., Kotegawa, H., & Esparza Olguín, O. Q. (2015). Political Interactions among Social Actors: Spatial Organization at the Classic Maya Polity of El Palmar, Campeche, Mexicó. Latin American Antiquity, 26(2), 200–220. https://doi.org/10.7183/1045-6635.26.2.200