Abstract
This dissertation conveys the results of excavations at the site of El Zotz, Petén, Guatemala. Specifically, it focuses on a small group of individuals who lived at the site after the demise of its royal dynasty before the tenth century. This work aims to locate the economic and social practices of this Early Postclassic (A.D. 950-1250/1300) community within the context of research into the transition away from dynastic rule and the Classic period “collapse”, in which Maya centers of the southern lowlands were abandoned in the eighth to ninth century A.D., royal dynasties ceased to be memorialized in monumental architecture and art, and the ideas of divine kingship crumpled.\r Evidence from several ancient settlements, including the site of El Zotz, indicates that the turbulent transition from the Classic to Postclassic period was experienced in different ways, at different times, and in different places. Instead of a full abandonment and decay of sites and culture, the tenth century proved to be a dynamic process of adaptation to new sociopolitical circumstances—in the absence of specialists who had been supported by royal courts, for example, individuals developed new techniques for producing obsidian blades and ceramic figurines. Far from being a brand new era, however, ceramic traditions from the Classic period continued far into the Early Postclassic period as populations maintained household practices they had been observing for centuries. Additionally, these individuals adopted elements of larger Postclassic Maya traditions from Yucatan to the southern lowlands and continued to inhabit El Zotz for three to four centuries after the demise of its royal court. \r Findings from the site suggest that the success of this small population likely lay in the sociopolitical processes of the centuries before, specifically, the apparent minimal linkage of individual households to the political center and ruling institutions of El Zotz. In fact, the longevity of certain economic practices imply that at the height of the Classic period, the oversight of households by royal courts was focused on controlling only selective objects. Overall, then, this dissertation aims to give granularity to the interplay between individuals and governing institutions in the past suggesting that, at least at El Zotz, socioeconomic choices were made at the household not community level.