PRECLASSIC MAYA FORTIFICATION AT MURALLA DE LEÓN, PETEN: DEDUCING ASSETS, MILITARY STRATEGIES, AND SPECIFIC THREATS THROUGH ANALYSIS OF DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS

Abstract

AbstractIn the absence of historical records, ethnography, or artistic depictions, fortifications provide one of the best forms of evidence for insight into the nature of warfare within past societies. Excavations into the monumental stone perimeter wall, 1.5 km in circumference, at Muralla de León in the Peten Lakes Region have dated its initial construction to the first two centuries of the Late Preclassic period (400–200b.c.). Investigation into this apparent fortification offers new insight into Maya settlement and monumental construction in relation to warfare in this era, as sociopolitical complexity became increasingly widespread across the southern lowlands. Calculations of affordances of movement across the local landscape using geographic information systems and Circuitscape inform a spatial statistical analysis of fortification at Muralla de León, performed to test a hypothesis of defensive functionality for the encircling perimeter wall. A separate affordance of movement analysis at a regional scale locates the site within probable intersite paths of travel. The research indicates a significant, but not exclusive, defensive intent underpinning the Preclassic form of the main wall system. Thus, the system was built in part as a fortification, restricting movement toward the interior, while facilitating other uses such as hydraulic control and possibly trade.