CREATING ANCESTORS TO GUIDE US: HINTERLAND LIFE AT EARLY CLASSIC SAN LORENZO

Abstract

During periods of transition in the Maya region, the importance of ancestors becomes increasingly central to both political legitimation and ritual expressions. From the Preclassic to Early Classic periods, the role of individual ancestors not only transformed civic-ceremonial centers and political legitimation, but also hinterland household and community ties to the land and landscape. At the community of Rancho San Lorenzo, near the larger centers of Actuncan and Xunantunich, broad Early Classic social transformations are reflected at both the household and community levels. Here, we examine this transition through Early Classic interments at two distinct settlement clusters: the San Lorenzo ritual center, SL-13, and in the largest household complex of Floodplain North (FPN), SL-63. We explore how the rituals of daily life bound ancestors to the landscape, the community, and created enduring places. Burials were used to construct sacred space, and through this ritual behavior families and lineages actively laid sacred claim to the land. At SL-13, multiple Early Classic burials create a communal ritual-religious connection between the living and the dead, sustaining political and economic rights within the community. At FPN the Early Classic burial is the only one of its kind in the entire settlement, suggesting it helped to establish the SL-63 household as the first family in the area. This household was also the wealthiest and had the most diverse temporal occupation history, likely due to the Early Classic establishment of a sacred landscape. The burials at these specific locations established enduring personal ties to the land anchored by ancestors.