Welcome to the website for the Highland Maya Colonial Archaeology Project!
Since 2009, the project has focused on the site of San Pedro de Aguacatepeque (or SPA for short), a Kaqchikel Maya site located on the southeast slope of the Volcan de Fuego; one of the most active volcanoes in Guatemala. The site was originally identified by Dr. Eugenia Robinson and collaborators in a 1990 survey of the region and preliminary excavations and archival research conducted in 2010 have indicated that the site was occupied for a very long time: approximately 900 years, between 900AD and 1800AD.
The goal of this project is to bring together archival sources, archaeological excavations, and various types of artifact/material analyses and paleoethnobotanical data to reconstruct daily life at the community of SPA over its long occupation. In particular, the project has focused on changes to daily life catalyzed in part by Spanish colonization in the region.
As part of this research direction, we hope to expand out our analysis of the colonial encounter by considering both the constraints/violence of colonialism as well as the creative transformations of practices, traditions and daily life undertaken by Maya people in colonial Guatemala, and at SPA specifically.