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Society for American Archaeology Sak Tz'i', a Classic Maya Center: A Locational Model Based on GIS and Epigraphy Author(s): Armando Anaya Hernández, Stanley P. Guenter and Marc U. Zender Source: Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), pp. 179-191 Published by: Society for American Archaeology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557593 . Accessed: 10/11/2014 19:39 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Society for American Archaeology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Latin American Antiquity. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 19:39:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Society for American Archaeology

Sak Tz'i', a Classic Maya Center: A Locational Model Based on GIS and EpigraphyAuthor(s): Armando Anaya Hernández, Stanley P. Guenter and Marc U. ZenderSource: Latin American Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), pp. 179-191Published by: Society for American ArchaeologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3557593 .

Accessed: 10/11/2014 19:39

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Society for American Archaeology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to LatinAmerican Antiquity.

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SAK TZ'I', A CLASSIC MAYA CENTER: A LOCATIONAL MODEL BASED ON GIS AND EPIGRAPHY

Armando Anaya Hernandez, Stanley P. Guenter, and Marc U. Zender

The ancient Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions of the upper Usumacinta region record an intensive interaction that took place among its regional capitals. The precise geographic locations of some of these sites are presently unknown. Through the application of the Gravity Model within the framework of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we present the probable locations and possible territorial extents of a few of these: Sak Tz'i', Hix- Witz, and the "Knot-Site." On this occasion, how- ever, we concentrate our discussion on the role that the kingdom of Sak Tz'i'played in the geopolitical scenario of the region. It is our belief that this case study constitutes a good example of how, through a conjunctive approach that integrates the archaeological with the epigraphic data, GIS can represent an excellent analytical tool to approach archaeological issues such as the political organization of the Maya Lowlands during the Late Classic period.

Las inscripcionesjeroglificas Mayas contenidas en los monumentos de la region delAlto Usumacinta dan cuenta de una intensa interaccion que se dio entre las capitales regionales, algunas de las cuales aun desconocemos su ubicacion geogrdfica. En este trabajo, a traves de la aplicaci6n del Modelo Gravitacional, dentro del marco de los Sistemas de Informaci6n Geogrd- fica (SIG), proponemos la probable ubicacion y extensi6n territorial de algunos de estos centros: Sak Tz'i', Hix-Witz, y el "Knot-Site." En esta ocasi6n, sin embargo, nuestra discusi6n sobre la organizacion politica de la regi6n se centrard exclusi- vamente en el importante papel que desempeno el reino de Sak Tz'i' en el escenario geopolitico. A nuestro juicio este caso constituye un buen ejemplo de como, a travis de un enfoque conjuntivo que reune tanto el dato arqueoldgico con el epigrd- fico, los SIG representan una importante herramienta analitica para abordar el problema de la organizacidn politica durante el periodo Cldsico Tardio en las tierras bajas mayas.

T he hieroglyphic corpus of the Upper Usumacinta River describes intense inter- actions among the various kingdoms' of the

region. The main protagonists in this area were the major centers of Piedras Negras, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, and Lacanha (Figure 1). However, these were by no means the only major centers involved. Mathews (1988:379) has proposed the existence of two "buffer states," with the centers "Jaguar Hill" (known from the inscriptions as Hix- Witz), and the "Serpent Segment" site (currently known as Maan). A third important polity sur- rounding the "Knot-Site" was identified by Hous- ton (1986) and is dealt with in more detail by Palka (1996). A fourth polity was also later identified, Sak-Tz'i' (Schele and Grube 1994), whose lords were not only major antagonists of Piedras Negras, Yaxchilan, and Bonampak, but also crucial actors

and catalyzing agents of the hegemonic balance in the region.

Sak-Tz'i' is mentioned a dozen times in the extant hieroglyphic corpus. Nikolai Grube (in Schele and Grube 1994:111, 116) was the first to compile all known occurrences of the Sak Tz'i' emblem glyph and to illustrate its regional impor- tance from at least 9.9.11.12.3 to 9.17.16.3.12. Per- haps more importantly, Grube (Schele and Grube 1994b: 118) pointed out that the specific pattern of epigraphic mentions of Sak Tz'i' at other Upper Usumacinta centers, and not outside this immedi- ate area, strongly suggested that it was "a site some- where between El Cayo, Bonampak, Piedras Negras, and La Mar."

These texts present Sak-Tz'i' as an important player on the regional political stage: it fought wars, winning some and losing others. Perhaps most

Armando Anaya Hernandez and Stanley P. Guenter * School of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia 3083 Marc U. Zender * Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N, 1N4

Latin American Antiquity, 14(2), 2003, pp. 179-191 CopyrightO 2003 by the Society for American Archaeology

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LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY

Figure 1. Map of the Western Maya Lowlands indicating the study area of the Upper Usumacinta Region (adapted from Mathews 1988).

importantly, it seems to have dominated, for a time, both the kingdom of Bonampak and the site of El Cayo. With Piedras Negras, the foremost regional power, Sak Tz'i' had a complex relationship, at times subservient, and at other times antagonistic. Clearly, we can better understand Usumacinta pol- itics by knowing Sak-Tz'i's geographical location, the region it controlled through time, as well as which cities/polities were its closest neighbors.

The Sak-Tz'i' emblem glyph is most commonly composed of three parts: the logograph SAK "white," TZ'I' "dog," and AJAW "lord" (Figure 2). On occasions the TZ'I' logograph can be substi- tuted for by the two syllabic signs tz'i (Stuart 1987) and 'i (Tozzer 1941), yielding the completely pho- netic spelling tz'i-'i > tz'i', "dog" (The name of the polity, therefore, was Sak-Tz'i' "white dog"). Niko- lai Grube (1991:226-227) and Stephen Houston (cited in Stuart 1987:10) were the first to apply this spelling to the emblem glyph under discussion, and to read the T58.563a:679/1000d2 SAK-tz'i-'i- 'AJAW and T58.T168:"DOG" SAK-TZ'I'- 'AJAW collocations as Sak-Tz'i'-'Ajaw "White Dog Lord."

Anaya Hemrnndez (2001) applied Geographic

Information Systems (GIS) to model movement over natural terrain in order to estimate cost of movement. This, in turn, aided in estimating the ter- ritorial extent of the Upper Usumacinta regional polities, as well as in identifying probable com- munication routes. Anaya Hernandez's research was framed within the context of landscape archae- ology, assuming that the characteristics of the phys- ical setting of the Upper Usumacinta Valley greatly influenced the location of the more important archaeological sites (Aliphat Fernandez 1994; Anaya Hermandez 2001 ). The location of these sites was constrained by what Hammond (1975) has described as "strategic factors" such as their prox- imity to the critical points along major communi- cation routes. Through the application of the Gravity Model, Anaya Hernmndez (2001) proposed the plausible locations of Sak Tz'i' and the other unknown sites mentioned at the outset, showing that the reconstruction of ancient geopolitical maps in conjunction with epigraphic evidence was feasible.

The Gravity Model and GIS Modeling The Gravity Model has been applied in archaeol- ogy to gauge the level of interaction between cen-

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REPORTS

SAK

AJAW

TZ'I'

SAK

AJAW

SAK

a

tz'i'

b

AJAW

c

Figure 2. Examples of the emblem glyph of Sak Tz'i': (a) Brussels Panel (after Mayer 1978: Plate 18), (b) Piedras Negras Stela 26 (after Maler 1901: Plate XXIII), (c) El Cayo Panel 1 (after Maler 1902: Plate XXXV). (All glyph drawings by Marc Zender unless stated otherwise.)

ters (Dunham 1990; Hodder and Orton 1976; Tobler and Wineburg 1971). Hodder and Orton, however, cautioned that although higher levels of interaction are more likely to occur between cen- ters and their nearest neighbors than with centers located further away, attention should be paid to the size and importance of the sites. Thus, larger centers tend to attract interaction from larger areas (Hodder and Orton 1976:188); the interaction should increase proportionally with the size of the center and decrease with distance.

According to this model the amount of interac- tion between two places is obtained by the follow- ing equation (see Waters 1995:179):

Iij = k (( Pi) (Pj) / (dij)2)

Where k = a constant that is case specific Pi and Pj = the population of i andj (Dij)2 = the squared distance between i andj Reilly (1931) modified this equation in order to

estimate the breaking point between the service areas of two adjacent centers of different size:

Dxj = dij / 1 + Pi / Pj

Where Dxj is the distance from breaking point (x) to

the center (j). Dunham (1990) applied this modified equation

to his research problem concerning the develop- ment of secondary centers along the boundaries of the territories of pre-existing primary centers in the Maya lowlands. With it, he was able to reconstruct the boundary between the polities of Nim Li Punit and Lubantuun located in southern Belize, in order to address the development ofXnaheb, a small Late Classic site located between them (Dunham 1990:148-152, 641-643).

Tobler and Wineburg (1971) presented a tanta- lizing application of the Gravity Model for archae- ological site location. They employed this model to estimate the geographical position of several unidentified pre-Hittite towns mentioned on a series of tablets from Bronze Age Anatolia (ca. 1940 to 1740 B.C.). These authors used a total of 754 tablets, on which 62 different towns were men- tioned. The number of occurrences of a town name was taken as proportional to its population. A fre- quency table was then created in which the num- bers of joint mentions of particular towns were tallied. Tobler and Wineburg (1971:2-3) inverted the formula for the Gravity Model to solve for dis- tance, and subsequently transformed distances to coordinates through an iterative, least square tri- lateration technique (i.e., multidimensional scal- ing). The Upper Usumacinta region contains far fewer texts, approximately 200 monuments with hieroglyphic inscriptions. Of these, 11 mention Sak

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LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY

Table 1. Numerical Values Assigned To Various Types Of Site Interaction.

Type of Interaction

Statements of direct political subordination, e.g., "Under the aegis of..." (u kab'ji); "The vassal lord of..." (yajaw)

Statements of political alliances, e.g., royal visits; "In the presence of..." (yichnal)

Major war events, e.g., "Star war"; "Downed was his flint and shield"

(hub'uy u took' u pakal) Marriage alliances, denotes the establishment of political alliance,

e.g., royal marriages Confirmation of political ties, e.g., foreign wives participating in rituals

Taking of captive as status marker denotes political importance of captive. "Was captured" (chuhkaj)

Statements that imply political peerage. "In the company of..." (yitaai) Exhibition of captives prior to sacrifice, denotes political importance

of captive. "He was adorned (for sacrifice)" (nawaj) Isolated occurrence of foreign emblem glyph or toponym.

Denotes political interaction of unknown significance

Value

100

90

90

80 60

60 40

30

30

Tz'i'. However, it is important to note the diversity of these references both in terms of the type of interaction recorded and the geographic distribu- tion of the monuments. References to Sak-Tz'i' occur in the texts of such sites as Piedras Negras, Bonampak, El Cayo, Tonina, and Nuevo Jalisco.

Although our dataset is considerably smaller than that used by Tobler and Wineburg, their tablets dealt with fundamentally economic transactions, while the monuments of the Upper Usumacinta

region recorded a whole range of political rela- tions. We believed this context also would be well suited for application of the Gravity Model.

The interaction between sites was measured on the basis of the type of relationship expressed in the texts (warfare, royal visits, statements of polit- ical submission, royal marriages, etc.); the measure of interaction was obtained by assigning a numer- ical value to the different relationships identified in the inscriptions. To formulate this measure, the

logistics necessary to establish and maintain effec- tive control or contact between sites was taken into consideration. For example, war events that are recorded as mere captures could have taken place anywhere between two polities. Wars in which the center of one polity was attacked and burned by another, implying actual movement of a sizeable

army from one center to the other, were given greater weight than a mere capture. Royal mar-

riages, although of prime importance for the par- ties involved, could be established over long distances, and thus were accorded less weight in

the model. On the other hand, the participation of

foreign rulers in the domestic affairs of another

polity has much stronger implications for either the size or proximity of the controlling party. There is an unavoidable element of subjectivity in assign- ing these values but we believe that, in general terms, they reflect both the importance of the inter- action and the distance between centers. Table I shows the values assigned to the various types of site interaction.

Table 2 gives all the figures used in the Gravity Model calculations. In this case, the constant k was obtained by performing a simple linear regression between interaction and distance. Pi and Pj repre- sent the total number of individual references to one site from the inscriptions of another, and are included in the second and third columns of Table 2. The terms of the Gravity Model were then mod- ified to use distances between sites of known loca- tion to obtain distances for the unknown sites. The modified equation is:

dij = /1 / k [(Pi) (Pj) / lij

The results obtained with this equation (which we have termed "gravity distance") are included in the last column of Table 2. These figures show an inverse relation to distance; in other words, the smaller the distance the higher the value. In order to translate these figures to Euclidean distance, the data were grouped by site and distances were cal- culated in two stages. First the ratio between real

?-1111 L...'- I- -- '" -

-----"-

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REPORTS

Table 2. Gravity Model Values for Some of the Upper Usumacinta Sites.

Sites P1 P2

Piedras Negras/Yaxchilan 7 3 Piedras Negras/Bonampak 1 3 Piedras Negras/Lacanha 1 1 Piedras Negras/Pomona 1 Piedras Negras/La Mar 8 2 Piedras Negras/El Cayo 1 5

Yaxchilan/Bonampak 3 5 Yaxchilan/Lacanha 2 1 Yaxchilan/La Pasadita 1 2

Bonampak/Lacanha 8 3

Bonampak/La Mar 1 1

Bonampak/ Nuevo Jalisco 1 1 Lacanha/Nuevo Jalisco1 1 Sak Tz'i'/Piedras Negras 4 1 Sak Tz'i'/Yaxchilan 1 1 Sak Tz'i'/Bonampak 3 2 Sak Tz'i'/Lacanha 1 1 Sak Tz'i'/La Mar 2 2 Sak Tz'i'/E Cayo 1 4 Sak Tz'i'/Nuevo Jalisco 1 1 * Distances obtained through the application of the Gravity Model

distance and gravity distance was obtained with the following equation:

rd = dab/Dab

Where dab is the gravity distance between known sites Dab is the distance between known sites. Secondly, with this ratio the distance between

the known sites and Sak Tz'i' was obtained with the following formula (fifth column of Table 2):

Dij =((dab - dij) /rd) + Dab

where dij is the gravity distance between a known site

and an unknown site. Using the distances obtained from the above

equation as radii, a series of circles were traced around the known sites. These circles were over- laid, resulting in a residual enclosed area, which

represents the potential limit of the territory of the unknown site. Figure 3 shows these overlaid cir- cles delimiting a polygon for Sak Tz'i'.3 Finally, the central point of this polygon was determined and was subsequently used in the GIS modeling of refined territorial extent.4

Three basic assumptions were made in the next

stage of (re)constructing the territorial extent of the regional polities of the Upper Usumacinta:

1. That by taking into account the characteris- tics of the natural terrain we could approximate the optimal territory serviced by a specific primary center, by estimating the cost of moving over it.

2. That each primary center would have prompt access to the specific subsidiary sites contained within its initially estimated territory.

3. That in turn, following the same criteria as in the first assumption, the optimal territory serviced by each subsidiary center can be estimated, thus obtaining a more accurate delineation of a primary center's final territorial extent.

Based on these assumptions, through the appli- cation of GIS, four different friction surfaces were created. These represent a measure of effort of mov-

ing over natural terrain during the dry and rainy sea- sons, upstream and downstream from the Usumacinta, Lacanha, and San Pedro Rivers. Then an algorithm that calculates cost distances from a set of designated features (a series of targets, which in this case are the primary centers including Sak Tz'i' ) while accommodating the effects of fric- tional elements was used to obtain a series of cost surfaces. These included both Isotropic and

I

810 80 80 90

690 510 655 125 200 850 60

100 90

440 60

360 100 180 400 100

Dij 45 56 54 48 14 11 22 25 15 5

48 13 10 13* 25* 25* 11* 13* 11* 11*

k

251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671 251.671

dij .010150 .007048 .007048 .006644 .009599 .006241 .009539 .007973 .006304 .105920 .006010 .006304 .006644 .006010 .008138 .008138 .006304 .006644 .006304 .006304

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LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY

10 0 10 20 30 Kilometers

le~~ r t i

Figure 3. Gravity Model results for Sak Tz'i'.

Anisotropic costs. The former deals with friction that is equal in all directions, while the latter con- siders frictions that have direction and magnitude, that is, when the cost of movement is not equal in all directions, e.g., walking up or down a slope. The cost surfaces were used to model the actual cumu- lative cost in time/energy of moving over natural terrain.

The cost surfaces were then used to estimate the areas that would be optimally serviced from each primary center (for a detailed discussion of this procedure see Anaya Hernandez 2001:44-49). This analysis produced the initial territorial extent of the 9 regional polities. On a map with these territorial divisions (Figure 4), the secondary sites were then plotted in order to identify the primary center to which they were allocated.5 Once again a cost sur- face was derived, this time using all of the sites, and the areas optimally serviced by each individ- ual site were derived.

Finally, these individual areas were assigned the numerical classifier of the primary center under which they had originally fallen (Figure 4), in order to compile the final territorial extent for the nine polities of the Upper Usumacinta region. Hence,

in this sense the final territorial extents (Figure 5) obtained through GIS represent the areas that would be best serviced or covered by a specific primary center.

Sak Tz'i' in History As can be observed from Figure 5, the domain of Sak-Tz'i' occupied a "keystone" position between the two most important polities of the region, Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan. Sak-Tz'i' seems to have been located almost intrusively on the bound- ary between these two kingdoms, extending across the Usumacinta River and encompassing the strate- gically located site of El Chile. From this position, Sak-Tz'i' could have easily restricted travel both along the river and inland routes, not only for Yax- chilan and Piedras Negras but also for Bonampak and Lacanha. In support of this interpretation, the epigraphic evidence presents Sak-Tz'i' throughout most of its history as a great antagonist; it attacked and was attacked by Piedras Negras, La Mar, Yax- chilan, and Bonampak.

Sak Tz'i's early history is not well known, due to a dearth of texts from the Early Classic, but the earliest inscription is crucial to establishing its polit-

184 [Vol. 14, No. 2, 2003]

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REPORTS 185

1. Pomonala Seccion 2. Panhale I & II 3. Lindavista 4.Chinikiha 5. Sta. Margarita 6. Paso El Naranjito 7. Las Delicias 8. San Jose de los Rieles 9. Ojo de Agua/Usumacinta 10. San Claudio 11. Sto.Tomas 12. El Porvenir 13.Texcoco 14. La Mar 15. El Cayo

%^, _ 16. El Chile 17. Anaite II 18. La Pasadita 19. El Chicozapote

| ^ y ..y^^-20. Santa Clara 21. Anaite I 22. El Tornillo

, ,""'S^^ i^ i ^ 23. La Cascada/Lacanha @ 2 l,: fism ^^24. Nuevo Jalisco

25. El Cedro 26. Landeros

/ 27. EI Pato

10 0 10 20 30 Km FM ,

l I

Figure 4. Initial territorial extents of the nine regional polities of the Upper Usumacinta region, including the secondary centers.

10 0 10 20 30 Km

Figure 5. Map of the Upper Usumacinta region showing the proposed territorial extent for the nine regional polities.

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LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY

K'ab' Chan Te'

Sak Tz'i'

Lord

, Ch'ok

o B'ahlam

the ajk'uhuun of...

(the) king of Palenque

Figure 6. Piedras Negras Stela 26 depicting the Piedras Negras king and his captives Ch'ok B'ahlam of Palenque and K'ab' Chan Te' of Sak Tz'i' (after Maler 1901: Plate XXIII, and an unpublished drawing by John Montgomery).

ical affiliations. Stela 26 of Piedras Negras (Figure 6) portrays its king, Yo'nal Ahk I, arrayed in his battle gear over two captives he took in A.D. 624. The captive on the right is named as Ch'ok B'ahlam, the aj k'uhuun of the king of Palenque, who at the time was the famous K'inich Janaab' Pakal (Schele and Grube 1994:111). The captive to the left of the king is named as K'ab' Chan Te', lord of Sak Tz'i' (Schele and Grube 1994:111), and as both of these men were captured on the same day by the Piedras Negras king, it can be established that Sak Tz'i' and Palenque were allies at this time. Because Palenque is situated far to the west of the Usumacinta River in present-day Mexico, we may assume that Sak Tz'i' had important connections with the western side of the Usumacinta region.

K'ab' Chan Te' reappears on the Brussels and Denver Panels6 (Berlin 1974; Mayer 1980; Schele and Grube 1994) that, by the content of their inscriptions, are believed to have been originally from the site of Sak Tz'i' itself7 (Figure 7). Unfor- tunately the opening passage of the monument with these panels is missing and/or destroyed, so we do not have the associated verb. Whatever the event may have been, it involved Yo'nal Ahk, then king

of Piedras Negras, and was carried out by K'ab' Chan Te' of Sak Tz'i' (see Schele and Grube 1994:116). Given the later rhetoric of these mon- uments, however, it is most likely that this was a war event of some kind. The text goes on to record that five years later the center of Sak Tz'i' was burned by Nik Mo' of La Mar, a subsidiary city of Piedras Negras. La Mar is located on the Mexican side of the Usumacinta River, directly west of Piedras Negras and north of Laguna Santa Clara. A day later, after Sak Tz'i' had been sacked, K'ab' Chan Te' captured and decapitated Nik Mo'. He then pursued his attackers, who apparently included a contingent from Bonampak, for Ek' Mo' of that site is included in a list of captives taken two days later. It is interesting to note that Piedras Negras, on the right bank of the Usumacinta, does not attack Sak Tz'i' directly, but employs the services of vas- sals from the left bank of the river, lending weight to our placement of the site of Sak Tz'i'.

After these events, Sak Tz'i' enters a lengthy hiatus of more than fifty years, during which it is not mentioned on any known monuments. When the site finally re-enters history it does so on a grand scale. A set of hieroglyphic monuments, the Nuevo

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REPORTS

T _ l

. 1 5 Sip south to the Chinikiha River in the north (Figure 13 1k' HIc at (14 April, 641) 8). As the southern parts of this territory were tra-

He scattered fe ditionally under the influence, if not outright dom- ination, of Yaxchilan, Sak Tz'i' would have come

NL Mor t the center

Teof' into conflict with that site, though open warfare may La Mar K'ab Chan Te' Lord ( have been avoided at this time as Yaxchilan was still

; 1 day later preoccupied with Piedras Negras. Sak Tz'i' Lord l i 1 (on) 1 Akb'al Yaxchilan was involved in its own affairs for B'akab' (15April 641) another thirty years, a time that included a defeat

at the hands of Piedras Negras (Guenter and Zen- he der 1999; Martin and Grube 2000:147) and, appar-

.??? V < \; decapitated ently, a civil war over the royal succession (Grube ...33^ ??and Schele 1995; Mathews 1988; Proskouriakoff

1964). When everything was finally settled and Nik Mo', C under the Yaxchilan emerged under the leadership ofYaxuun La Mar Lord authority of B'ahlam IV, it is not surprising to find Sak Tz'i'

JK^?3<~ ^)having entered into alliance with Piedras Negras, its old enemy, as both were now threatened by a

2 K'atun Lord J Kab Chan Te' resurgent Yaxchilan. This information is gleaned from Panel 1 of El Cayo (Maler 1902: Plate

q 2 K'an. ?XXXV), a site just south of Piedras Negras on the The K'in Lord |( ) 3 Chikchan Mexican side of the river. This monument also

A

g

C TTrTT~ ~(17 April 641) records that the sajals, or governors, of El Cayo ruled under the direct control of Sak Tz'i' (Figure

was captured Bonampak Lord9), even though they were officially a part of the Ek Mo' greater kingdom of Piedras Negras. Once again, this

points to Sak Tz'i's prominence and position to the west of the river. Yaxuun B'ahlam IV may have Figure 7. The wars of K'ab' Chan Te' as recorded on the west of the river Yaxuun Bahlam Imay have

Denver and Brussels Panels (after Berlin 1974: Figures 1- received support from Bonampak in his fight for 2, and unpublished drawings by John Montgomery). the throne, as we find him on a sculptured stone

from that site recording that he oversaw the acces- Jalisco panels,8 record that Tab' B'ahlam (a.k.a. sion of a new king there. This must have meant that "Knot-Eye-Jaguar), originally from the "Knot- Tab' B'ahlam had been driven out of the region and Site,"9 was installed inA.D. 722 by K'ab' Chan Te' likely reflects a downturn in Sak Tz'i's fortunes. of Sak Tz'i' as king of Bonampak and Lacanha. Yaxchilan's war against SakTz'i'seems to have This implies that by the second decade of the eighth continued for a number of decades because, on the century Sak Tz'i' had gained control of both of lintels of Bonampak Structure 1, Itzamnaaj these kingdoms.10 The domination of the Bonam- B'ahlam IV ofYaxchilan andYajaw Chan Muwahn pak/Lacanha region by Sak Tz'i' follows the con- II of Bonampak led a battle against Yete' K'inich quest of that region by K'inich B'aaknal Chaak of of Sak Tz'i' in A.D. 787 (see Mathews 1980:Fig- Tonina. It may be the case that K'ab' Chan Te' ure 6). Yajaw Chan Muwahn appears to have been stepped into the political vacuum left after Tonina carrying out a family grudge against Sak Tz'i', as pulled back to its home territory far to the west. In his father, Aj Sak Tel Huh, is known to have gone so doing, Sak Tz'i' must have engendered the ani- to war with Tab' B'ahlam of the "Knot- Site" when mosity of its neighbors, which had controlled the the latter was king of Bonampak and Lacanha. This disputed areas before Tonina's campaign. Thus, it battle, recorded on the third lintel of Structure 1 at appears that around A.D. 725, Sak Tz'i' and its Bonampak, took place during the apparent civil allies controlled nearly the entire west bank of the war at Yaxchilan. Perhaps Aj Sak Tel Huh had Usumacinta River from the Lacantun River in the decided to bide his time until he could obtain help

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LATIN AMERICAN ANTIQUITY

Z Pomona W : ... Piedras Negras

Umr Yaxchilan

""--:~ Sak Tz'i

a El Chorro

-/// "Knot- Site" m Hix-Witz

10 0 10 20 30 Km

Figure 8. Map of the Upper Usumacinta region illustrating Sak Tz'i's domain during the early part of the eighth century.

He was invested

Aj Chak Suutz'

under the authority of

Sak Tz'i' Lord

in saja/ship

K'utiim

Aj Sak Maax

Figure 9. El Cayo Panel 1, accession of Aj-Chak-Suutz' as sajal "under the auspices" of Aj Sak-Maax, Sak Tz'i' ajaw. (after Maler 1902: Plate XXXV)

from that city to overthrow this "foreign overlord" for he seems to have come to some sort of agree- ment with Tab' B'ahlam and recognized his supremacy. We know that he did eventually receive

this help and did fight his "war of independence" against Tab' B'ahlamr as his son, Yajaw Chan Muwahn II, acceded as king of the joint kingdoms of Lacanha and Bonampak in A.D. 776.11

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REPORTS

Unfortunately for Sak Tz'i' its major ally, Piedras Negras, was at this time obsessed with con- flicts with its northern neighbors such as Pomona. Around this time Palenque's demise began, and Tonina once again irrupted into the region, sack- ing Sak Tz'i' itself, and taking a number of cap- tives (Anaya Hernandez 2001:72; Martin and Grube 2000:188). However, while the rest of the Upper Usumacinta fell silent at the turn of the ninth century, Sak Tz'i' may have held out for a number of decades as the Randall Stela (Grube and Schele 1995; Mayer 1980) records the death and eventual burial of B'ahlam Chilkay, a sajal of a final K' ab' Chan Te' of Sak Tz'i' in A.D. 864. Although this stela is not a Sak Tz'i' monument it does record the name of the last king of that site and closes its writ- ten history.

Conclusions

The Gravity Model, rather than pinpointing Sak Tz'i's location, has provided us, in conjunction with the historical records of the region and the application of GIS cost surface modeling, with an area that may represent the territorial extent of this polity wherein the site itself should be located. The history of the ancient Maya, as recorded in their monumental inscriptions, dovetailed with the results obtained from the GIS modeling. Our under- standing of the geopolitical composition of the Upper Usumacinta region led us to propose the ter- ritorial extent of nine major polities. From the his- torical records contained in the hieroglyphic texts it is obvious that these nine kingdoms were orga- nized in a hierarchical political arrangement. Nev- ertheless, each of these kingdoms had its own ruling dynasty and domain. Though attempts have been made through the use of Thiessen polygons to pre- sent the geopolitical composition of the Maya low- lands (e.g., Hammond 1974; Mathews 1991), to date a comprehensive study addressing the issues surrounding the demarcation and maintenance of boundaries between the various Classic Maya states has been lacking.

By taking into account the characteristics of the natural terrain along with a more detailed analysis of the specific mentions of site interaction, we hope to present a more realistic political map of the Upper Usumacinta region. These maps, however, represent a working hypothesis that is fully open

to adjustments with the recovery of new data. Nonetheless, we believe that the basic assumptions as stated above will remain valid. This, we think, well illustrates the potential for interdisciplinary approaches to the solution of archaeological prob- lems.

Acknowledgments. The authors would like to express their

gratitude for the ongoing support they have received from Professor Tim Murray, Head of the School of Archaeology at La Trobe University, and Dr. J. Scott Raymond, Head of the

Archaeology Department of the University of Calgary. Dr. Peter Mathews has been a continuous source of academic discussion and encouragement, as was Dr. Nigel Waters of the Geography Department of the University of Calgary. Thanks are also due to John Montgomery for allowing us to use his drawings in this paper. Armando Anaya Hernmndez would also like to acknowledge CONACYT for the financial

support received throughout his graduate program. Likewise, Stanley Guenter acknowledges the financial support received from La Trobe University through a La Trobe University Postgraduate Research Scholarship. We would also like to thank our reviewers for all their helpful comments.

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1902 Researches in the Central Portion of the Usumasintla Valley. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. II No. 2. Harvard Uni- versity Press, Cambridge.

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Notes 1. In referring to these polities as kingdoms, we follow

Schele and Miller's (1986:14) lead in comparing the Maya rulers and their domains to the many independent petty states ruled by the early Anglo-Saxon kings, which quite often had overlords. Recent epigraphic analysis of Classic Maya politi- cal structure (Grube and Martin 1998; Houston 1993; Martin and Grube 1995, 2000; Mathews and Willey 1991; Schele and Freidel 1990) reveal a comparable situation in which

independent kingdoms were arranged in a hierarchical struc- ture not dissimilar to the Anglo-Saxon example. The fact that certain centers were politically subordinated to others does not in any way detract from the existence of functionally autonomous polities (see for example Grube and Martin 1998:15-25). These kingdoms are identified by emblem

glyphs, which from a social dimension identify all holders of this title as ajaw, or "king" and their polities as individual

kingdoms (Mathews 1991). In this context, political hierar-

chy exists on a separate plane from social status; thus polities that share the same social standing did not necessarily wield the same political power, and were in fact arranged in hierar- chical relationships.

2. T-numbers employed here refer to the conventions for

Maya hieroglyphs devised by J. Eric S. Thompson (1962); transliteration conventions conform to those proposed for the Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing (Stuart 1988).

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REPORTS

3. In order to evaluate the reliability of these results we

applied the same process to Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras to see how well it fitted with these known polities. The results thus obtained were satisfactory enough to confirm the relia-

bility of this method (see Anaya Hernmndez 2001, Figures 4-9).

4. The GIS packages used were: ARC/INFO 7.0, to cre- ate the digital maps from a series of 19 topographic maps at a scale of 1:50,000, comprising a total area of almost 9254 km2. Idrisi for Windows Version 2 was used to create the

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the area and to perform all of the spatial modeling. Finally, ArcView 3.0a was used in the

production of the final maps. 5. It is important to stress the fact that in this initial allo-

cation subsidiary sites such as La Pasadita and El Chile fell within the territory of Yaxchilan, and La Mar and El Cayo were contained within the territory of Piedras Negras, a situ- ation that is thoroughly supported by the inscribed monu- ments, thus lending a higher level of confidence to our

approach. 6. The Denver Panel is presently located at the Denver

Museum of Science and Nature, while the Brussels Panel is at the Musees Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire in Brussels.

7. These two hieroglyphic panels present the history of Sak Tz'i' from a local perspective. On this basis, we believe that these pieces were originally from this site.

8. These panels were recovered from looters working in the vicinity of Nuevo Jalisco, a site located about 12 km northwest of Bonampak (see Figure 4 for location). They are

currently safeguarded by INAH in the bodega of Bonampak. 9. The "Knot Site" is the provisional name that has been

assigned to another regional polity whose exact location is also presently unknown. Anaya Hernmndez (2001), however, through the use of the Gravity Model has proposed that the

territory of this kingdom could have extended towards the southeast of Bonampak and Lacanha (see Figure 5).

10. Two more monuments, the Zurich and New York Panels (Grube and Schele 1995; Mayer 1987) also date to 9.14.15.0.0 (A.D. 727), and bear additional records of this

king of Sak Tz'i'. This K'ab' Chan Te' is said to be the king of Bonampak as well as overlord of the nearby site of Lacanha, further reinforcing our reconstruction of the extent of Sak Tz'i's domain at this time.

11. We know that Aj Sak Tel Huh eventually won the war of liberation for, though on his own monument, Lintel 1 of Lacanha, he merely takes the title "he of Lacanha" while Tab' B'ahlam is given the titles of "King of Bonampak, King of Lacanha, he of the "Knot-Site," on Lintel 3 from Bonampak his son credits him with the very royal titles accorded Tab' B'ahlam on the Lacanha lintel and leaves the latter with only his "he of the "Knot-Site" title. This suggests to us that late in his life Aj Sak Tel Huh, likely with the help of Yaxchilan, overthrew Tab' B'ahlam and established himself as king of his native city of Lacanha as well as Bonampak.

Submitted February 15, 2002; Accepted December 9, 2002; Revised December 19, 2002.

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