Abstract
This chapter seeks the causes and forms of political collapse at the royal Maya center of Piedras Negras, Guatemala by reconnecting the community of the Terminal Classic period (c. AD 800–900) with over a millennium of social and political history. The cessation of royal-political life at Piedras Negras in the aftermath of regional warfare was followed by a century of gradual population decline and dramatic episodes of architectural modification and destruction. The result was a mosaic of evidence for continuity and change in ritual and daily practice. Yet we do not see in the remains of the post-dynastic occupation, even the rich evidence for burning and destruction of royal monuments, a complete break with the past. Instead, conceptions of architectural space and transformations of ritual practice made reference to the dynastic past, even if the mode of making such references was inversion and erasure.