Seibal (), known as El Ceibal in Spanish, is a Classic Period archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the northern Petén Department of Guatemala, about 100 km SW of Tikal. It was the largest city in the Pasión River region.Sharer & Traxler 2006 p. 520.
The site was occupied from the Preclassic Period through to the Terminal Classic, with a significant hiatus.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 520. Kelly 1996, p. 154. The principal phase of occupation dates to the Late Preclassic (400 BC – AD 200), followed by a decline in the Early Classic (AD 200–600).Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 520. Seibal experienced a significant recovery in the Terminal Classic immediately prior to its complete abandonment,Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 520. reaching its second peak from about 830 to 890, with a population estimated at 8–10,000 people.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 689. Kelly 1996, p. 154. The dates on the stelae at Seibal are unusually late, with monuments still being dedicated after the Classic Maya collapse had engulfed most of the Petén region.Tourtellot & González 2005, p. 61. Many of Seibal's late monuments show artistic influence from central Mexico and from the Gulf Coast of Mexico.
The early history of the site is lost due to the catastrophic defeat of the polity in AD 735 by the nearby Petexbatun kingdom with its capital at Dos Pilas, resulting in the destruction of its earlier sculpted monuments.Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 177. Seibal was reduced to being a vassal state until the destruction of the Petexbatun kingdom in the late 8th century AD.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 520. In AD 830 a new elite installed itself at the site with the arrival of Wat'ul Chatel from Ucanal to the east. This new arrival reinvigorated Seibal and allowed it to last to the dawn of the 10th century, well after the Classic Maya collapse had engulfed most of the region.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 524.
Etymology Seibal is a corruption of the Spanish word ceibal, meaning "place where many ceiba trees grow". El Ceibal was the name of a lumber camp near the ruins at the time of their discovery. The change in spelling originated with a publication by Teoberto Maler in 1908, which used a German form with initial "s".Coe 1999, p. 9. Kelly 1996, p. 154. Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 175. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (1).
Location Seibal is located on bluffs about above the Pasión River, a major tributary of the Usumacinta River.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 520. Tourtellot & González 2005, p. 60. About downstream, the Pasión River joins with the Salinas River to form the Usumacinta, which flows northwards to the Gulf of Mexico.Smith 1968, p. 82. The site lies in the Petén department of northern Guatemala, east of the modern town of Sayaxché.Smith 1968, p. 82. Seibal lay east of the Late Classic city of Dos Pilas and south of Tikal.Martin & Grube 2000, p. 58. Smith 1968, p. 82. Lake Petén Itzá lies to the north of the ruins.Smith 1968, p. 82.
Seibal lies among tropical rainforest on a limestone plain that is intermittently hilly and flat.Smith 1968, p. 82.
Population
Surveys have revealed an average of 436 structures per square kilometer (1118 per square mile) in the site core, falling to 244 structures/km2 (626/square mile) in the periphery.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 686. At its height in the Late Preclassic, the population has been estimated at 1600 in the site core with a further 8000 dispersed through the periphery, to produce an estimated total population of almost ten thousand.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 688. In the Early Classic the population suffered a severe decline,Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 690. population is estimated to have dropped to 34% of peak population.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 689. In the Late to Terminal Classic the population increased to 85% of its Late Preclassic level, an expansion that appears to have occurred rapidly and spread to all parts of the site,Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 689. Tourtellot & González 2005, p. 73. perhaps as the result of an influx of refugees arriving from other sites around AD 830.Webster 2002, p. 278. This was followed by a population crash to 14% of peak Preclassic population in the Early Postclassic (AD 900–1200) prior to the complete abandonment of the site.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 689.
Social Stratification The social stratification of Seibal was that of priest-kings, as well as nobility and elites living in the main ceremonial center, with the common people living in the peripheries of the city. During the 1964-68 excavations, 34 of the 45 found burials were from the peripheral zone, showing the distribution of population by class.Willey and Smith 1975-1990.
Known rulers All dates A.D. Name Title or nickname RuledYich'aak B'alam"Jaguar Claw"c.735–747+Martin & Grube 2000, pp. 61, 63.Ajaw B'otRuler D, Ah-Bolon-AbtaTourtellot & González 2005, p. 68. 771–?Sharer & Traxler 2006, p.409. Tourtellot & González 2005, p. 68.Wat'ul ChatelTourtellot & González 2005, pp. 68-9. Aj B'olon Haab'talSharer & Traxler 2006, p. 524.830–889+Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 524.
History The site was occupied by the Middle Preclassic, then declined from the Late Preclassic through to the Early Classic, with a renewed expansion in the Late to Terminal Classic before being completely abandoned.
Preclassic Seibal was first settled around 900 BC in the Preclassic Period.Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 176. It reached its peak population in the Late Preclassic around 200 BC, at the end of the Cantuse ceramic phase (300-200 CE).Sharer & Traxler 2006, pp. 288-9. Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 176.Willey and Smith 1975-1990 Ceramics from the deep Middle Preclassic levels at Seibal belong to the little-known Real/Xe phase, found in the western Petén region.Coe 1999, p. 54. A cruciform Olmec-style cache consisting of a bloodletter and jade celts is similar to those found in the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, and the artifacts were probably manufactured at La Venta.Coe 1999, p. 54. Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 202. This cache dates to approximately 900 BC.Adams 1996, p. 82. After the Real/Xe complex, came the Escoba period, dating to approximately 600CE-300CE. The ceramics between these two periods are similar, but Escoba ceramics are more extensive and stratigraphically separated. There is also evidence during this time of the population increase that would peak at the end of the Cantutse period.Willey and Smith 1975-1990
The earliest settlement in the Middle Preclassic was mostly confined to Group A. After 300 BC, in the Late Preclassic, settlement expanded to include Group D.Smith 1968, p. 82. During this period, there is evidence of ceremonial structures being built both in Group A and D.
By the end of the Late Preclassic (or Protoclassic), Seibal experienced an unexplained decline in population.Smith 1968, p. 84.
Early Classic During the Early Classic, the decline that began in the Late Preclassic continued unabated until the site was all but abandoned around AD 300 for unknown reasons.Smith 1968, p. 84. Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 176.
Late Classic Seibal underwent a revival in the Late Classic with an expansion of occupation linked to the great city of Tikal.Martin & Grube 2000, p. 227. About AD 650 new inhabitants moved into the city in order to found a new kingdom.Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 176. Groups A and D saw new construction, with a particular emphasis on Group D, which became an important part of the ceremonial centre.Smith 1968, p. 84. Any monuments raised by the Late Classic rulers responsible for this renewed occupation were defaced when the city suffered a catastrophic defeat in the 8th century AD.Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 177. After the defeat of Seibal, foreign influences can be seen from Central Mexico in the art and stelae of the site dating to the Bayal phase (mid-700 CE-post-classic).Sanders, F.J. 1977
The earliest mention of Seibal in hieroglyphic inscriptions is on Stela 15 at Dos Pilas, dated to 13 October 721, and refers to Seibal becoming involved in the long-running war between the great cities of Tikal and Calakmul and their respective allies and vassals. Dos Pilas was a newly founded city in the Petexbatún region, established by Tikal to exert its control over the Pasión River, a strategy that backfired when Calakmul seized control of the fledgling kingdom.Schele & Mathews 1999, pp. 176-177.
Defeat
In AD 735 Ucha'an K'in B'alam, the third king of Dos Pilas, attacked Seibal, capturing Yich'aak B'alam. The captive king was not executed but rather became a vassal of his more powerful neighbour.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 520. Martin & Grube 2000, p. 58, 61. Coe 1999, p. 130. Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 177. Ucha'an K'in B'alam raised monuments to his victory over Seibal at Dos Pilas, Aguateca and Seibal itself.Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 177. Yich'aak B'alam is shown under the feet of Ucha'an K'in B'alam on Aguateca Stela 2.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 407. At Seibal a hieroglyphic stairway was built recording the city's new status as a vassal of Dos Pilas. At the same time as he erected these monuments to his victory, Ucha'an K'in B'alam ordered the destruction of the hieroglyphic records on the earlier monuments of Seibal, with inscriptions at Dos Pilas and Aguateca specifically recording the destruction of Seibal's previously recorded history using phrases that translate as "they destroyed the writing" and "they chopped the writing off the statues that were made".Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 177.
Yich'aak B'alam continued as a vassal under the next king of Dos Pilas, K'awiil Chan K'inich, who presided over rituals at Seibal in 745 and 747.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 408.
Seibal regained its independence in the late 8th century with the destruction of the Dos Pilas kingdom.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 520. Ajaw B'ot acceded to the throne in AD 771, restoring Seibal as an independent capital.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 409. After AD 800 Seibal fell into a thirty-year hiatus during which no new monuments were erected.Schele & Mathews 1999, p. 178.
Terminal Classic
With its independence came a new apogee, and for a brief time Seibal became a prominent regional capital located on the important Pasión River trade route. The architecture and ceramics from this period demonstrate connections with the northern Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf Coast of Mexico.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 521. Seventeen stelae carved between AD 849 and 889 show a mix of Maya and foreign styles, including a lord wearing the beaked mask of Ehecatl, the central Mexican wind god, with a Mexican-style speech scroll emerging from the mouth, carvings of foreign-style foot slippers, and squared cartouches. Some of these stelae have a stylistic affinity with the painted murals at Cacaxtla, a site in the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala. This hybrid style seem to indicate that the new lords of Seibal were Maya lords adapting to changing political conditions by adopting a mix of symbols originating from both lowland Maya and central Mexican sources.Sharer & Traxler 2006, p. 522. Coe 1999, p. 154. Some of the more foreign-looking stelae even bear non-Maya calendrical glyphs.Coe 1999, p. 154. Changes at Seibal at this time are associated with the Chontal-controlled trade flowing along the Pasión River. The Chontal Maya themselves were warrior-merchants originating from the Gulf Coast of Mexico who displayed a mixture of Maya and non-Maya characteristics.Sharer & Traxler 2006, pp. 528-9.