Recently excavated ancient Maya hall may reflect early power-sharing among leaders
The Art Newspaper
April 23, 2026
© Christina Halperin
What is believed to be a council house built more than 1,000 years ago sheds light on how Maya systems of governance shifted.
Archaeologists working at the ancient Maya site of Ucanal in Guatemala have identified a building in which leaders may have discussed political decisions more than 1,000 years ago.
Described as a council house, it was built during a tumultuous
era in Maya history, when consensus and power-sharing among rulers and nobles replaced the decisions of divine kings.
“The popular conception of the ancient Maya society is that they underwent a major collapse,” says archaeologist Christina Halperin of the Université de Montréal in Canada, lead author of the research published in the journal Antiquity.
“Archaeological investigations at Ucanal and elsewhere, however, show that there was not a collapse everywhere and that ancient Maya peoples resiliently reworked their governing systems.”
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