Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology, Vol. 11, 2014, pp. 55-66. Copyright © 2014 by the Institute of Archaeology, NICH, Belize. 5 LIVING THROUGH COLLAPSE: AN ANALYSIS OF MAYA RESIDENTIAL MODIFICATIONS DURING THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD AT ACTUNCAN, CAYO, BELIZE David W. Mixter, Kara A. Fulton, Lauren Hahn Bussiere, and Lisa J. LeCount Research during the 1990s by the Xunantunich Archaeological Project found that Mopan River Valley populations experienced a relatively rapid decline during the ninth century in association with the collapse of Classic Maya polities. Recent research by the Actuncan Archaeological Project indicates a locally different demographic pattern. Rather than a slow abandonment, Actuncan’s urban households continued to grow during the Terminal Classic period. This paper reports on the patterns of architectural modifications within three households at Actuncan during the Late and Terminal Classic periods and their possible implications for shifting social and political power structures within the Mopan Valley region. Introduction In recent years, the ninth and tenth century collapse of Classic Maya society in the southern lowlands has been increasingly characterized as varied in pace and form (Aimers 2007; Demarest et al. 2004). As the regimes of Classic period kings failed, the institution of divine kingship marked by the title k’uhel ajaw was rejected (Rice et al. 2004); however, the processes of collapse varied substantially between polities (Yaeger and Hodell 2008). This variability was particularly true for Maya occupying secondary centers in the hinterlands of eighth century capitals. These populations may have had greater latitude in reacting to political turmoil, possibly because distance allowed them to disassociate themselves from failing rulers. How hinterland communities responded to the collapse of centralized power has been a particular concern of research in the upper Belize River Valley (Ashmore et al. 2004; Connell and Silverstein 2006; Hoggarth 2012). Multi-scalar research on rural and secondary center households provides evidence to investigate different reactions to collapse within a single polity (Golden and Scherer 2013; Manahan 2004). For example, during the dissolution of the Xunantunich polity, the majority of rural households emigrated in step with the declining political authority of capital elites during the latter part of the Late Classic period (Ashmore et al. 2004). Yet some populations remained longer than others. At the farming village of San Lorenzo, founding households endured into the Terminal Classic period, reflecting their deep investment in land and local resources. In a similar vein, we view the collapse through the lens of strategies adopted by households at Actuncan, located 2 km south of Xunantunich. Here, populations remained stable through the Late to Terminal Classic periods, indicating a different set of strategies than those adopted by households at Xunantunich, San Lorenzo and other minor and major centers in the valley. Investigating the varied responses of households within sites, as well as across different sites, will help us untangle the socio-political impact of the collapse at all scales of Maya society. Antonia Foias (2013) emphasizes three different scales of socio-political interaction: macro-, middle- and micro-scales. Macro-scale politics address interactions between polities, which for Mayanists is largely reconstructed through events recorded in hieroglyphic texts found on monuments, gifts exchanged across royal families, and similarities in site layouts (Ashmore and Sabloff 2002; Martin and Grube 2008). Middle-scale politics focus on the structure of political organization and administration within polities, evident through site-size hierarchies and the distribution of populations across the landscape. Finally, micro-scale politics focus largely on household mechanisms for establishing, maintaining, or resisting community and polity level authorities as signaled through household architecture and artifact assemblages (Canuto and Yaeger 2000). The two smaller scales provide an opportunity to understand the agency of commoner and non- royal elite households within Maya politics.