Ancient Mayans ruled themselves, rather than rely on politicians and priests, making local decisions on disputes, what crops to grow, health care, worship and out-of-town trading.
This finding by University of Colorado archaeologist Payson Sheets has emerged from widening excavations at the Ceren buried village in El Salvador of “commoner” structures: houses, granaries, kitchens, religious buildings, an elders’ town hall and community sauna.
And a published report, unveiled earlier this week by the National Science Foundation, essentially overhauls a long-held belief among archeologists in a top-down Mayan world where elites controlled, dictating life around pyramid temples.
The new evidence may help solve a mystery of how in A.D. 660 apparently survived a sudden volcanic blast that buried their village in globs of lava, ash and suffocating toxic gas.
“What we’re talking about is decision-making as local as possible,” Sheets said from his office on the university’s Boulder campus.
“Let’s compare that with what happened during Hurricane Katrina. Remember those people stranded on overpasses day after day with no water or food looking up watching helicopters as bureaucrats observed them from above? Remember the people trapped in houses just waiting for authorities to tell them what to do? So often, in our modern hierarchical societies, we wait for political officials to tell us what to do, which is enforced by police.”
The Ceren site in 1993 gained United Nations protection as a New World Pompeii frozen in up to 20 feet of ash — unique in a tropical environment not conducive to preservation.
and gang turmoil to uncover ruins down to corn kernels, food residue in pots, mouse skeletons in thatched roofs, manioc plants and two types of ants.
For years, such as Tikal, in Guatemala, focused on dramatic stone pyramids and priesthood lives and deduced an autocratic society where farmers were passive.
“Sheets is providing an archaeology of the 99 percent of Mayans,” said Chip Colwell, anthropology curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. “That has implications for how we think of our economic relations today.”
A town hall had a large stone bench in a front room, signifying power and authority. Village elders likely met there to decide when to harvest crops, renovate canals and to resolve disputes, Sheets said. At a sauna sweat bath with fire in the middle — “it would seat 12 comfortably” — Mayans likely healed from respiratory illness, combining sauna sessions with herb remedies.
The mystery of how Ceren villagers escaped the volcano may hinge on frozen footprints. Dig crews have uncovered a dozen, more than half pointing away from the village along a hard-packed white road.
A fast escape, where villagers did not wait for leaders to order an exodus, may explain an absence of human remains, Sheets said. “As far as we can tell, they all evacuated,” he said. “Now we want to follow that roadway south and north. We want to know where it goes.”
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700, bfinley@denverpost.com or @finleybruce
