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Maya conflict left many images. With a few exceptions, however, they reveal limited numbers of victors and captives In contrast, glyphic accounts point to broader convulsions, and the challenge remains of linking such conflicts to the infrastructure of concerted attack and defense. Lidar, a technology using laser pulses to record and model surfaces, does so with aplomb. By now, most Mayanists accept that, in the late 4th century A.D., Classic Maya kingdoms became entangled with the distant polity of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Tikal refers to that encounter in precise detail, identifying an enigmatic, victorious belligerent, Sihyaj K’ahk’, and possible ruptures in the local dynasty. To unexpected extent, lidar shows that the western entry to Tikal bristled with numerous citadels, surveillance platforms, moats with protected settlement, and ramps for rapid ascent and descent on high ridges and hilltops. Current evidence places these features in the general time of Sihyaj K’ahk’, underscoring that the threat and actuality of violence enmeshed regions, at systemic scale. 

We present results from the archaeological analysis of 331 km2 of high-resolution airborne lidar data collected in the Upper Usumacinta River basin of Mexico and Guatemala. Multiple visualizations of the DEM and multi-spectral data from four lidar transects crossing the Classic period (AD 350–900) Maya kingdoms centered on the sites of Piedras Negras, La Mar, and Lacanja Tzeltal permitted the identification of ancient settlement and associated features of agricultural infrastructure. HDBSCAN (hierarchical density-based clustering of applications with noise) cluster analysis was applied to the distribution of ancient structures to define urban, peri-urban, sub-urban, and rural settlement zones. Interpretations of these remotely sensed data are informed by decades of ground-based archaeological survey and excavations, as well as a rich historical record drawn from inscribed stone monuments. Our results demonstrate that these neighboring kingdoms in three adjacent valleys exhibit divergent patterns of structure clustering and low-density urbanism, distributions of agricultural infrastructure, and economic practices during the Classic period. Beyond meeting basic subsistence needs, agricultural production in multiple areas permitted surpluses likely for the purposes of tribute, taxation, and marketing. More broadly, this research highlights the strengths of HDBSCAN to the archaeological study of settlement distributions when compared to more commonly applied methods of density-based cluster analysis.