Middle Preclassic Nixtun-Ch'ich': A lowland Maya primate/ritual city

Abstract It is argued that the southern lowland Maya city of Nixtun-Ch'ich' (Peten, Guatemala) centered a Middle Preclassic (ca. 900/800–400 BCE) primate settlement distribution and was the capital of an archaic state. This highly atypical, gridded site provides a new view of Maya socio-political development, contrasting with traditional rejection of the existence of true cities and early state-level organization. The city’s roughly orthogonal urban grid of paved streets, mimicking the dorsal surface of a mythological creation crocodile while more pragmatically draining it of excess rainwater, defined 50+ sectors of dense construction with “E-Group” ritual architectural complexes at the monumental core. Six satellites of the city can be identified by similar complexes with shared orientations toward solar phenomena. The grid, drainage system, and creation landscape are evidence of massive labor mobilization for construction of public goods, and we argue a collective politico-ritual organization for early Nixtun-Ch'ich'.