Revisiting the Xunantunich Palace: The 2003 Excavations

VI.  Abandonment

By the end of the Hats’ Chaak phase, most buildings of the palace were abandoned, including Str. A-11.  The ceramic material found in Strs. A-11 and A-12 and associated trash on the patio point to a relatively early date for this abandonment, sometime late in the Hats’ Chaak phase, perhaps around AD 750 or 775.  This is less than a century after the palace’s original construction.

The abandonment of Plaza A-III is part of the larger process of site contraction at the end of the Hats’ Chaak phase (LeCount et al. 2002), which in turn is part of the polity’s decline into the Terminal Classic Tsak’ phase (Ashmore et al. 2004). It is noteworthy that the palace was abandoned early in this process. Although many of the buildings at the site that were abandoned in the Hats’ Chaak phase, including the collapsed Str. A-12, were scavenged for stone, the Maya never disturbed the collapsed architecture of Str. A-11, suggesting that it was still recognized as a powerful place.

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