Explaining Tzakol: Social interaction during the early Classic. A view from Naachtún, Petén, Guatemala

Abstract

I argue that diffusion of Tzakol ceramics was enabled as an effort to overcome social boundaries established between the second half of the second and the early part of the fourth centuries AD. Using the case of Early Classic (AD 200-500/550) ceramics of Naachtún site, I propose that the dispersion of the Tzakol ceramics has to do with an effort to establish systems of interaction of great extent, partly in reaction to social barriers set in earlier times. By participating in this particular network of interaction, the denizens of Naachtún had access to the flow of a considerable amount of resources that enabled the growth of this center.