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'''La Joyanca''' is the modern name for a [[pre-Columbian]] [[Maya civilization|Maya]] [[archaeological site]] located south of the San Pedro Martir river in the [[Petén (department)|Petén department]] of [[Guatemala]]. It is east of the Maya site of La Florida (Namaan), now the modern town of El Naranjo on the [[Mexico]]-Guatemala border. The site was discovered in [[1994]] during the construction of the Xan-La Libertad oil pipeline in Guatemala. It was immediately recognized as an important, undiscovered [[Mesoamerican chronology|Classic period]] (AD 200-900) Maya [[city]] and became the focus of an [[archeology|archaeological]] project. Directed by Charlotte Arnauld, Erik Ponciano, and Veronique Breuil, the La Joyanca project conducted [[excavation]]s here between [[1998]] and [[2003]]. Several members of this group have continued work at other related locations in the Northwest Peten, including the sites of [[Zapote Bobal]] and [[Pajaral]], as part of the Proyecto Peten Noroccidente [http://www.jaguarhill.com (PNO).]
==Archaeology==
La Joyanca was occupied for well over 1000 years. Dates from the site range from the Late Preclassic (200 BC) to the Terminal Classic/Postclassic (AD 1000). Population levels reached their height here during the Late Classic (AD 600-900); during this era the [[ruler]]s of La Joyanca embarked upon an ambitious building project in two areas, dubbed the Plaza Principal and the Grupo Guacamaya. The Grupo Guacamaya, a complex of vaulted rooms and corridors, may have served as their palace and thus the seat of local [[government]]. Following this prosperous era, the site, like most of its Classic period contemporaries, underwent a dramatic collapse. The Grupo Guacamaya was briefly occupied by [[squatter]]s in the [[10th century]], but the area was ultimately abandoned by AD 1000.
The central portion of La Joyanca includes several [[Mesoamerican pyramid|temple-pyramids]] and other mounds. The two tallest of these, situated in the Plaza Principal, are 10 and 12 meters high (Str. 6E and 6E-12, respectively). Several of these have been restored, including Structure 6E-12, which contains several vaulted rooms, the remains of [[hieroglyph]]ic inscriptions, and a [[stucco]]ed image of ''[[List of Maya gods and supernatural beings#K|K'inich Ajaw]]'', the Classic Maya sun god. Also noteworthy among the central buildings is Structure 6E-13, which has several rooms atop a platform 6 meters high and 56 meters long.
Although the Grupo Guacamaya seems to be a [[palace]], La Joyanca lacks the clearly identifiable center characteristic of most archaeological sites in the Central [[Peten]]. There are few sculpted [[monument]]s, no [[Mesoamerican ballgame|ballcourt]], and scant signs of a strong, [[centralization|centralized]] [[royal]] [[dynasty]] comparable to those functioning at ancient Maya sites like [[El Peru]] or [[Tikal]]. Likewise, settlement in the area seems to have fluctuated, with longstanding occupied areas standing in stark contrast to [[community|communities]] like the small Gavilán Group, which seems to have been occupied for scarcely a generation.
While the names of the [[elite]]s who ruled La Joyanca are largely absent from the [[archaeological record]], [[epigrapher]] David Stuart, of the [[University of Texas]], has recently demonstrated that an individual bearing the name ''Chan Ahk'' or "Sky/Serpent Turtle", an appellation found at the neighboring sites of [[Zapote Bobal]] and [[Pajaral]], appears on La Joyanca [[Stela]] 1 (dated to AD 485). This suggests that all three sites were related during the Classic Period (AD 200-900) and that they possibly formed a political unit, each site waxing and waning in power over time.
==References==
*Arnauld, Charlotte (2004). ''La Joyanca (La Libertad, Guatemala): Antigua Ciudad Maya del Noroeste del Peten''. Mexico City: Centro Frances de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos. ISBN 968-6029-79-6
*Fitzsimmons, James (2006) ''The discovery of a Classic Maya kingdom''. Invited paper given at the Peabody Museum for the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.
*Stuart, David (2003) ''La identificacion de Hixwitz''. Paper presented at the XV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueologicas en Guatemala, Museo Nacional de Arqueologia y Etnologia de Guatemala.
[[Category:Maya sites in Guatemala|Joyanca, La]]
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