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Significance The Terminal Classic decline of the Maya civilization represents a key example of ancient societal collapse that may have been caused by climate change, but there are inconsistencies between paleoclimate and archaeological evidence regarding the spatial distribution of droughts and sociopolitical disintegration. We conducted a new analysis of regional drought intensity that shows drought was most severe in the region with the strongest societal collapse. We also found that an earlier drought interval coincided with agricultural intensification, suggesting that the ancient Maya adapted to previous episodes of climate drying, but could not cope with the more extreme droughts of the Terminal Classic. Paleoclimate records indicate a series of severe droughts was associated with societal collapse of the Classic Maya during the Terminal Classic period (∼800–950 C.E.). Evidence for drought largely derives from the drier, less populated northern Maya Lowlands but does not explain more pronounced and earlier societal disruption in the relatively humid southern Maya Lowlands. Here we apply hydrogen and carbon isotope compositions of plant wax lipids in two lake sediment cores to assess changes in water availability and land use in both the northern and southern Maya lowlands. We show that relatively more intense drying occurred in the southern lowlands than in the northern lowlands during the Terminal Classic period, consistent with earlier and more persistent societal decline in the south. Our results also indicate a period of substantial drying in the southern Maya Lowlands from ∼200 C.E. to 500 C.E., during the Terminal Preclassic and Early Classic periods. Plant wax carbon isotope records indicate a decline in C ₄ plants in both lake catchments during the Early Classic period, interpreted to reflect a shift from extensive agriculture to intensive, water-conservative maize cultivation that was motivated by a drying climate. Our results imply that agricultural adaptations developed in response to earlier droughts were initially successful, but failed under the more severe droughts of the Terminal Classic period.

This article discusses the results of my diachronic analysis of lithic artifacts collected around Ceibal, Guatemala, in order to elucidate one aspect of long-term changing patterns in the pre-Columbian Maya economic systems and warfare. The importation of large polyhedral obsidian cores and local production of prismatic blades began as the result of sociopolitical development in Ceibal during the early Middle Preclassic Real-Xe phase. El Chayal obsidian was heavily used during the early Middle Preclassic period, while San Martín Jilotepeque was the principal source in the late Middle Preclassic, Late Preclassic, and Terminal Preclassic periods, and El Chayal once more became the major source in Ceibal during the Classic period. There is increasing evidence of the production and use of chert and obsidian points in the central part of Ceibal during the Late and Terminal Classic periods, indicating elites' direct involvement in warfare. Although the spear or dart points were predominant weapons in Classic Maya warfare, the increase in both chert small unifacial points and obsidian prismatic blade points in Ceibal points to bow-and-arrow technology by the Terminal Classic period.

Skeletal remains excavated from the lowland Maya site of Ceibal, representing approximately 117 individuals, provide significant data for the study of changes in bodily treatments and mortuary practices from 1000 b.c. to a.d. 900. The early Middle Preclassic residents of Ceibal apparently did not bury their dead inside residential structures, which represents a burial practice different from those found at contemporaneous Belizean sites. During this time, tabular erect cranial deformations were found among possible local residents. Sacrificial burials were present by the end of this period, but skeletal remains of violent rituals deposited in public spaces increased from the Middle Preclassic to the Late Preclassic. During the Late Preclassic, tabular erect cranial deformations coexisted with tabular oblique shapes. The Classic period witnessed a prevalence of tabular oblique forms, which were probably tied to local residents. The common placement of the dead under house floors and the preference of ceramic vessels as burial goods also indicate Ceibal's strong affinities with other parts of the Maya lowlands during the Late Classic period. During the Terminal Classic period, there was a resurgence in the placement of sacrificial burials in public spaces and tabular erect cranial deformations were found in possible non-local individuals.

Archaeological investigations at the minor center of Caobal provide clues about local traditions of civic-ceremonial architecture as well as the relationship between these buildings and broader social and political transformations during the Preclassic period. The remains of pre-Hispanic Maya architecture represent a series of actions, decisions, and repeated practices, which contribute to long sequences of construction observed in the archaeological record. In particular, these data shed light on two major building campaigns that took place within Caobal's central precinct from about 850 b.c.–a.d. 250. By examining the materiality and temporality of minor temple architecture beyond primary centers of power, we examine how these buildings were constructed and, in turn, how these structures may have transformed the daily practices, identity politics, and religious values of pre-Hispanic Maya communities. Repeated construction of buildings in the temple precinct of Caobal provides a long and detailed archaeological record that allows us to reconstruct the history of material and social practices that shaped this local community beyond the Ceibal center.

The probable E-Group assemblage was a primary focus of our investigation at the lowland Maya center of Ceibal. Tunnel excavation into Structure A-20 (the western structure of this complex) demonstrated that the Ceibal residents built the earliest version (Structure Ajaw) by carving natural marl around 950 b.c. The earliest version of the eastern platform (Structure Xa'an) was also made at the same time out of the natural marl layer. Through a series of renovations, the western structure grew into a pyramidal shape, and later versions of the eastern platform were moved further to the east. In addition, excavations revealed numerous caches, many with greenstone axes, along the center line of the E-Group assemblage. These results show that a formal ceremonial complex was established at the beginning of occupation at Ceibal, and its construction and public events held there played an important role in the creation of a new community.

Archaeologists have traditionally thought that the development of Maya civilization was gradual, assuming that small villages began to emerge during the Middle Preclassic period (1000–350  bc ; dates are calibrated throughout) along with the use of ceramics and the adoption of sedentism 1 . Recent finds of early ceremonial complexes are beginning to challenge this model. Here we describe an airborne lidar survey and excavations of the previously unknown site of Aguada Fénix (Tabasco, Mexico) with an artificial plateau, which measures 1,400 m in length and 10 to 15 m in height and has 9 causeways radiating out from it. We dated this construction to between 1000 and 800  bc using a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. To our knowledge, this is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region. Although the site exhibits some similarities to the earlier Olmec centre of San Lorenzo, the community of Aguada Fénix probably did not have marked social inequality comparable to that of San Lorenzo. Aguada Fénix and other ceremonial complexes of the same period suggest the importance of communal work in the initial development of Maya civilization. Lidar survey of the Maya lowlands uncovers the monumental site of Aguada Fénix, which dates to around 1000–800  bc and points to the role of communal construction in the development of Maya civilization.

Excavations in large platforms in the center of Ceibal revealed extensive early Middle Preclassic constructions. They consisted of extensive clay platforms that supported low basal structural platforms. Although the function of the earliest platform, Sulul, during the Real-Xe 1 and 2 phases (950–775 b.c.) is not clear, the one built during the Real-Xe 3 phase (775–700 b.c.) likely supported multiple residential buildings. The emphasis on elevating this domestic space above the natural land surface and the communal labor involved in these constructions indicate that they were most likely inhabited by an emergent elite. These places were continuously remodeled and used until the end of the Middle Preclassic. This new data from Ceibal contributes significantly to our understanding of the processes involved in the transition to a sedentary lifestyle and the development of social and political differentiation in the Maya lowlands.

Our investigations at the lowland Maya center of Ceibal have demonstrated that a formal spatial pattern consisting of an E-Group assemblage and large platforms started around 1000 b.c. and gradually expanded over the next several centuries. A re-evaluation of ceramic and radiocarbon data from other lowland Maya sites suggests that the beginning of sedentary life and ceramic use in various parts of the Maya lowlands started roughly simultaneously around 1000 b.c., which may have been triggered by a change in maize productivity. The standardized spatial pattern including the E-Group assemblage probably developed in the Isthmian Interaction Sphere, encompassing the southern Gulf Coast, central Chiapas, the Chiapas-Guatemalan Pacific Coast, and Ceibal, during the transitional period between the decline of San Lorenzo and the rise of La Venta as a major center (1200–800 b.c.). Most of the lowland Maya communities adopted the E-Group assemblage after 800 b.c., but not other elements of the standardized spatial pattern.

The Ceibal-Petexbatun Archaeological Project has been conducting field investigations at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal since 2005. Previous research at this site by Harvard University allowed us to develop detailed research designs geared toward specific research questions. A particularly important focus was the question of how lowland Maya civilization emerged and developed. Comparison with contemporaneous sites in central Chiapas led us to hypothesize that the residents of Ceibal established a formal spatial pattern similar to those of the Chiapas centers during the Middle Preclassic period (1000–350 b.c.). Through excavations of important elements of this spatial pattern, including a probable E-Group assemblage and large platforms, we examined how the Ceibal residents participated in interregional interactions with Chiapas, the Gulf Coast, and other areas, and how construction activities and architecture shaped the course of social change.