Preclassic Period Maya Warfare

The earliest potential evidence of warfare in the Maya area dates to the time of the first settled villages in the region, the first half of the Middle Preclassic period (1000-700 bce).

The latter part of the Middle Preclassic period (700-400 bce) exhibits a considerable increase in the number of permanent settlements, indicating that most populations were now sedentary. Greater cultural homogeneity is further indicated by the widespread adoption of Mamom pottery, which is ‘characterised by distinctive red, black, and cream slips, sometimes with a waxy tactile quality'.^[399] With this as the backdrop, archaeologists have encountered more evidence of warfare than in the preceding period, though it largely continues the focus on violence in public ceremonies that commemorate warfare, and which likely included war captives.

In the subsequent Late Preclassic period there is rapid growth in the number of permanent settlements. Analyses of the imagery in the recently discovered murals at the site of San Bartolo indicate that the institution of divine kingship was established by this time. El Mirador, which had the tallest pyramid and may have been the largest of all pre-Hispanic Maya sites, dates to this period. It dwarfed all contemporaneous sites and presided over a period of considerable cultural homogeneity, as reflected partly by the widespread distribution and degree of uniformity of pottery belonging to the Chicanel Ceramic Sphere. In this context of increasing socio-political com­plexity, archaeological evidence of warfare in the form of defensible settle­ment patterns, defensive architecture, mass burials and skeletal trauma grows in abundance and indicates further intensification of conflicts. Changes in settlement patterns at numerous sites indicate greater concern with site defensibility. In the Petexbatun Lake region, Middle Preclassic villages were situated at low elevations along the Pasion River, whereas in the Late Pre­classic new settlements such as Aguateca were established on top of the escarpment.^{[401] [402]} Walls, moats and/or fortifications were built around a number of sites, such as Becan and El Mirador in northern Peten.

Evidence in human skeletons of warfare-related violence also increases during this time. Two mass burials collectively representing the remains of forty-seven sacrificial victims were excavated under plaza floors at the site of Cuello in Belize.11 Several elements exhibit cut marks suggesting defleshing and dismemberment. These remains, nearly all of which pertain to males, also exhibit a number of healed fractures of the skull and post-cranium, suggesting that some of these individuals had participated in violent activ­ities, perhaps warfare, well before their deaths. Healed skull fractures reflect­ing engagement in interpersonal or inter-group conflict have also been reported in two males from the small northern lowland site of Misne located near modern-day Merida.^{[403] [404]}

In summary, the evidence for warfare in the Preclassic period, while not extensive, has been slowly accumulating. The pattern beginning to emerge is that there is considerable time depth to several important aspects of Maya warfare that become clear in the subsequent Classic period. This includes the sacrifice of captives in public ceremonies, trophy taking and an association of warfare with rulership.