UCLA

Although the wars waged by Classic Maya kings were carefully documented in stone by ancient Maya scribes, little is known about the internal battles fought on the political field. Maya inscriptions present the court as a body unified behind its king, however there is reason to believe that courtiers under the king possessed their own aspirations, and competed with one another for power and security. During the Late Classic a flourish of new elite residential construction at royal centers and the appearance of new sub-royal titles on public monuments signaled that a burgeoning noble class gained influence in Maya courts. This second tier of elites existed in an exclusive political system primed for competition over power and resources. Hints in the ancient textual record suggest that factions within Maya courts contended with one another to improve their positions. This dissertation seeks to establish the competition within the aristocracy of a Classic Maya polity, and what methods the secondary elite pursued to jockey for power.Unfortunately, the dearth of non-royal elites in art and texts at most Classic Maya sites poses a methodological challenge: how does one study the internal dynamics of Maya courts without explicit historical references? I hope to address this question by analyzing the Late Classic aristocracy of El Zotz, using archaeological evidence to compare the practices of different lineage groups at the site. I focus on three residential complexes built outside the royal palace of El Zotz during the Late Classic, each with elite characteristics. My research seeks to answer two questions: (1) which of the newly constructed Late Classic residential groups around El Zotz housed non-royal elites? And (2) what strategies did the non-royal elites at El Zotz pursue to gain power within the political system? With these questions I identify the politically influential parties in the court of El Zotz beyond the royal family, and the tactics that they used to compete for dominance inside the government structure at the site.