Procession ritual at Naachtun, Guatemala during the Late Classic period

In general this thesis is concerned with procession ritual in the Maya Classic period. At a deeper level I attempt to discuss the complex relationships between the natural and the supernatural landscapes so prevalent in the ethnographic record and the ways in which procession ritual could have been used to negotiate these landscapes in the Classic context. To this end I ask three questions: (1) What spatial and symbolic characteristics were required of the built environment for the successful completion of a procession ritual? (2) How were society, politics, religion and ritual interrelated, and how specifically could the act of ritual procession relate to these interactions? (3) Can evidence be seen for procession ritual archaeologically and what can be suggested of it in the context of Naachtun? I use the site plan and political, social, and cosmological landscapes of central, Late Classic Naachtun, Guatemala as the context for this discussion.