Warfare and the Fall of a Fortified Center: Archaeological Investigations at Aguateca

Vanderbilt Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology Series

by Takeshi Inomata

This volume presents for the first time the detailed data and dramatic findings of Inomata's investigations of this Classic period second capital of the ancient Maya Petexbatun kingdom. As widely discussed in journals and the media, the autonomous Aguateca subproject of the Vanderbilt Petexbatun research recovered remarkable new evidence on the violent end of a great Maya center,. This monograph presents summaries and interpretations of the excavations and surveys, site maps, and recovered ceramics and artifacts, as well as a wide range of applied analyses of this data. The sprawling defensive fortifications of this center, its already formidable natural location, and its final destruction and burning represent one of the most remarkable sets of evidence of the collapse of a Classic Maya kingdom. Inomata presents the evidence on Aguateca and its sudden end, and the implications of his findings for theories of the end of Classic Maya civilization in the Petexbatun.

VIMA Series #3

368 pages, Hardcover

First published August 30, 2006