Digital supplementary materials of the project "Asymmetrical Dependency and Resource Control Among the Classic Maya of the Southern Lowlands"

Citation Metadata

Title title

Digital supplementary materials of the project "Asymmetrical Dependency and Resource Control Among the Classic Maya of the Southern Lowlands"

Author author

1. Author Name

   Graf, Paul

   Author Affiliation

   University of Bonn

   Author Identifier Scheme

   ORCID

   Author Identifier

   Type Name

   authorIdentifier

   Multiple

   False

   Type Class

   primitive

   Value

   https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6790-0607

   Expandedvalue

   Person Name

   Graf, Paul

   @id

   https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6790-0607

   Scheme

   ORCID

   @type

   https://schema.org/Person

Dataset Contact datasetContact

1. Dataset Contact Name

   Graf, Paul

   Dataset Contact Affiliation

   University of Bonn

   Dataset Contact Email

   moncro@uni-bonn.de

Ds Description dsDescription

1. Ds Description Value

   Premodern societies in tropical environments lived under extreme conditions that influenced their social structure. In the Classic Maya society in the Southern Maya Lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula, human–environment interactions contributed to the emergence of strong inequalities between different social groups. But in which way were these groups entangled with each other? This project was developed in the context of a PhD dissertation (Graf 2026) and includes different types of data. The research project explored different forms of asymmetrical dependency among the Classic Maya. It considered distinct individual actors and social roles (captives, servants, dwarfs), and intergroup relationships between households and neighborhoods. The latter was studied by examining the role of essential resources, i.e., tangible and intangible things that are considered vital or morally necessary for individuals in their social environment. The goal consisted of identifying unbalanced power relations based on the control of essential resources and revealing the social mechanisms that legitimated these asymmetrical relationships in society. The project pursued a multidisciplinary methodology consisting of different approaches from environmental archaeology, digital archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, ethnohistory and linguistics. Archaeological fieldwork was conducted in the western periphery of Tzikin Tzakan and southwest Tamarindito in the Petén region of Guatemala. Remote-sensing and ground-truthing techniques were used to create a representative sample of resource zones, residential areas, infrastructure, and certain landscape features. This data was processed in a geographic information system in order to study interaction spheres and draw their spatial connection using Least Cost Path and other analyses. Apart from the archaeological case study, forms of asymmetrical dependency in the Classic Maya society were reconstructed by conducting a lexical analysis of emic terms in different Mayan languages (emic = from an intracultural view). It was concluded that various forms of asymmetrical dependency existed in the Classic Maya society, including captive-taking, patronage, servitude and exploitation for tribute and corvée labor. Furthermore, it was pointed out that fictional kinship relations and moral values, including the moral aspect of resources, played a crucial role in legitimizing these asymmetrical relationships.

Subject subject

1. Arts and Humanities

Subject Refinement subjectRefinement

1. Subject Refinement Value

   Ancient Cultures: Prehistory and World Archaeology [101-01]

2. Subject Refinement Value

   Geophysics and Geodesy: Geophysics [315-01]

3. Subject Refinement Value

   Geophysics and Geodesy: Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography [315-02]

4. Subject Refinement Value

   Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies: Social and Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology [106-01]

5. Subject Refinement Value

   Plant Sciences: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems [202-02]

Free Keyword freeKeyword

1. Free Keyword Value

   Asymmetrical Dependency

2. Free Keyword Value

   Archaeology

3. Free Keyword Value

   Classic Maya

4. Free Keyword Value

   Southern Lowlands

5. Free Keyword Value

   Tzikin Tzakan

6. Free Keyword Value

   Tamarindito

7. Free Keyword Value

   Guatemala

8. Free Keyword Value

   Geophysics

9. Free Keyword Value

   Essential resources

10. Free Keyword Value

    Ethnohistory

11. Free Keyword Value

    Ethnobotany

12. Free Keyword Value

    Spatial analysis

Publication publication

1. Publication Relation Type

   IsCitedBy

   Publication Citation

   Graf, Paul. 2026. Asymmetrical Dependency and Resource Control Among the Classic Maya of the Southern Lowlands: The Social Impact of Resource-Based Dependency Relationships in Premodern Societies. PhD dissertation. De Gruyter, Berlin, forthcoming.

Notes Text notesText

The digital supplementary material includes multiple datasets from different aspects of the project. On the one hand, they include reviews in tabular form on theories (geopolitical models for the Classic Maya, Suppl.-1) and methods (geophysical applications in the Latin America and the Caribbean, Suppl.-2). On the other, archaeological and technical data is provided, including the excavation database (Suppl.-4), material analyses (Suppl.-6 and 7), postprocessing scripts and documents (Suppl.-3, 5 and 11), and multiperspective approaches on resource preferences and dietary behaviors, as well as ethnographic and corpus-linguistical data (Suppl.-8, 9, 10 and 12).

Language language

1. English
2. Spanish, Castilian

Production Place productionPlace

Archaeological site Tzikin Tzakan, Petén, Guatemala, WGS84 17.032379 -89.242951

Contributor contributor

1. Contributor Type

   Researcher

   Contributor Name

   Benz, Annkatrin

2. Contributor Type

   Researcher

   Contributor Name

   Schwendener, Omar

3. Contributor Type

   Supervisor

   Contributor Name

   Grube, Nikolai

4. Contributor Type

   Supervisor

   Contributor Name

   Eberl, Markus

5. Contributor Type

   Researcher

   Contributor Name

   León Antillón, Mónica de

6. Contributor Type

   Researcher

   Contributor Name

   Arenales, Grecia

7. Contributor Type

   Researcher

   Contributor Name

   Elías, Silvia

8. Contributor Type

   Researcher

   Contributor Name

   Botzet, Marie

9. Contributor Type

   Data Collector

   Contributor Name

   Fajardo, Ivannoe

10. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Vela, Marie

11. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Estrada, Rebecca

12. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Quiñonez, Kimberly

13. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Morgan, Hannah

14. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Dávila, Melvin

15. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Wyatt, Andrew

16. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Lima Albeño, Elián

17. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Bac Pac, Julián

18. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Juárez Sandoval, Edwin

19. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Donis Gómez, Francisco

20. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Donis Portillo, Marvin

21. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Osorio Pineda, Wendy

22. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Chiquin Díaz, Ezequias

23. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    López, Vilda

24. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Leonel, Hugo

25. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Bac Xitumul, Mynor

26. Contributor Type

    Data Collector

    Contributor Name

    Chó Coc, Santiago

Grant Number grantNumber

1. Grant Number Agency

   EXC 2036, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Depositor depositor

Graf, Paul

Date Of Deposit dateOfDeposit

2026-02-23

Time Period Covered timePeriodCovered

1. Time Period Covered Start

   800 BCE

   Time Period Covered End

   2025

Date Of Collection dateOfCollection

1. Date Of Collection Start

   2019-10-01

   Date Of Collection End

   2024-10-20

Kind Of Data kindOfData

1. textual data
2. coded documents
3. survey data
4. aggregate data
5. process-produced data

Software software

1. Software Name

   R

   Software Version

   4.0 to 4.4

2. Software Name

   QGIS

   Software Version

   3.40.10 (LTR)

3. Software Name

   SAGA

   Software Version

   8.4.0

4. Software Name

   GRASS GIS

   Software Version

   8.4.1

5. Software Name

   Agisoft Metashape Professional

   Software Version

   1.7.4