Excavations at Seibal, Department of Peten, Guatemala : peripheral survey and excavation, settlement and community patterns /

This fourth volume of the Peabody Museum Seibal Project publications concerns the survey and excavation of outlying districts of the Mavan city of Seibal. (Previous volumes have dealt with the architecture of the site center and with analyses of ceramics and other artifacts. A fifth volume, still to come, will study hieroglyphic inscriptions and analyze the skeletal material.) The present volume is packed with technical archaeological detail on the survey and excavations of the Seibal peripheries. Chapters 11 and 12 discuss the historical development of Seibal. Located in the valley of the Pasion River in northern Guatemala, Seibal was first occupied in the Middle Preclassic (900-600 BCE). Fortunes of the city fluctuated, with a hiatus in Early Classic times and a Late Classic developmental climax. Seibal was in decline by the beginning of the Postclassic, late 9th century CE, and was likely deserted by the time of the Spanish conquest. An impressive work with many excellent maps, 19 of them in a special oversized packet; tables; 226 figures, including numerous, relatively poor quality, in-text photographs; appendixes; bibliography. There is no index. Advanced undergraduates and up. -C. L. Riley, emeritus, Southern Illinois University--Carbondale