Early scholarship on the disruption to political dynasties at the end of the Classic period in the Maya Lowlands argued that political collapse and the new material culture associated with it were due to the invasion of Putun/Chontal peoples from the Gulf Coast. One of the sites thought to have been targeted by such an invasion was Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala. Although no excavations had been undertaken at the site when the Putun invasion hypothesis was formulated, recent archaeological research at Ucanal provides an opportunity to re-visit the question of foreigners. This paper examines residential settlement histories and isotopic values from human teeth at Ucanal to better understand the changes that occurred during the Terminal Classic period. Our research indicates that while the possibility of foreign rule remains, the invasion hypothesis cannot fully capture the complex dynamics, multi-directional movements, and pluralistic influences of this time period. Ucanal was a thriving, heterogenous city with connections to multiple regions and peoples. Individuals born outside the Ucanal region were indeed present at the site, although the ways in which foreign identities were constituted were as much about peoples’ practices and performances of self (and others) as about where they were born.

早期关于玛雅低地古典时期末期政治王朝中断的学术研究认为，政治崩溃和与之相关的新物质文化是由于来自墨西哥湾沿岸的普顿/琼塔尔人的入侵。被认为是此类入侵目标的地点之一是危地马拉佩滕的乌卡纳尔。尽管在提出普顿入侵假说时并未在该地点进行挖掘，但最近在乌卡纳尔进行的考古研究提供了重新审视外国人问题的机会。本文研究了 Ucanal 人类牙齿的居住定居历史和同位素值，以更好地了解终端经典时期发生的变化。我们的研究表明，虽然外国统治的可能性仍然存在，入侵假说不能完全捕捉这个时期的复杂动态、多方向运动和多元影响。Ucanal 是一座繁荣的异质城市，与多个地区和人民有联系。出生在乌卡纳尔地区以外的人确实存在于该地点，尽管外国身份的构成方式与人们的实践和自我（和他人）的表现有关，也与他们出生的地方有关。