Introduction: Activities
The primary goal of the Economic Foundations of Mayapán Project in our initial proposal was to reconstruct the production and consumption patterns of the city’s diverse social sectors. The significance of this project lay in its potential to reconstruct the complex economy of the primary, core urban city of the Maya world during the Postclassic Period. The political and domestic economies of Mayapán did not operate solely within the confines of the Maya world, as during this time period, greater external trading ties and interregional economic dependencies have been documented – investigating Mayapán’s economy is relevant to understanding the development of world systems-type configurations throughout Mesomerica in the centuries just prior to European contact. We are pleased to report that over the past five years we have amassed an enormous database on the economic patterns of Mayapán’s settlement zone. We were able to survey and map more square kilometers and perform more surface collections and test pits than we had anticipated. Thanks to teams of highly skilled student assistants, we have fully analyzed all of our materials and are on the threshold of disseminating our results to the academic community and beyond.
We performed a surface survey of 36 milpas (encompassing 52.99 hectares) across the city, from which we have 131 systematic surface collections primarily from domestic refuse zones. We have also completed 189 test pits, 63 of which were near structures outside of the city wall. All of the architecture in each of the 36 milpas was fully mapped and has been entered into a GIS database from which maps have been generated. This database has permitted a distributional analysis of house types and house group types across the city, as well as the identification of other patterned feature types of a domestic, nondomestic, or as yet ambiguous function. Our milpa maps expand the albarrada houselot data to new areas beyond those sampled by Bullard. During the Carnegie Project of the 1950’s, Bullard intensively mapped the houselot wall divisions in four sections of the city in great detail; these houselot walls, known locally as albarradas, provide the key to understanding household grouping and organization as they are analogs of modern enclosures that designate houselots in contemporary Maya villages. Bullard published a small sample of this research (1952, 1954), and were able to locate his largely unpublished file of original albarrada maps housed in the Peabody Museum of Harvard, and Timothy Hare has digitized this information into our GIS database so that it can be compared with our own original data.
Bradley Russell, as part of his UAlbany doctoral dissertation, has surveyed eight 1km X 250m transects extending in four cardinal directions outside the city wall, finding a total of 347 new structures linked to Mayapán, its nearby contemporary settlements, or earlier sites. Russell’s important work expands known the geographic extent of the Mayapán settlement zone to a distance of around 500 m in all directions, with interesting variation in settlement density.
Our test pits and surface collections provide us with a large comparative sample that augments our more limited structure excavations. The Carnegie Institution excavated 16 structures that were ultimately positively identified as dwellings, along with many other shrines, platforms, and oratories (Smith 1962). Carnegie investigators did not fully expose all of their investigated structures; some were only tested with strategically placed axial trenches designed to locate burials and other features. However, the Carnegie Project is widely acknowledged for launching one of the first sustained investigations of ancient Maya households. Our work expands the domestic samples from Mayapán significantly, as hundreds of structures have now been systematically mapped and their refuse zones sampled through surface collection or test pits.
We also fully excavated three domestic structures outside of the monumental zone. As a consequence of these horizontal investigations, we now have a comprehensive sample of domestic artifacts and features from two commoner and one mid-level elite house – these data provide different, but complementary information to the test pitting and surface collection assemblages, and help guide our hypothesis testing for the dynamics of urban growth and organization at Mayapán.
In addition to compiling a large database of domestic feature and artifact assemblages in accordance with our NSF research design, other significant discoveries were made unexpectedly. First, our test pits at a major outlying elite ritual/administrative architectural group known as Itzmal Ch’en located a mass human grave along the edge of the platform. Our intention had been to test this area for midden, and instead we encountered a human bone bed of chopped and burned skeletal remains – smashed effigy ceramics and projectiles were found amidst this layer, which was within 10cm of the site surface and was 30cm deep. This deposit seems to indicate an act of violence that occurred late in the city’s history; either the administrative lineage responsible for Itzmal Ch’en was annihilated or other acts of sacrifice performed by these individuals are represented by this unorthodox grave by the city’s standards. This mass interment represents another example of similar deposits located beneath the plaza of the monumental center of the site.
Survey work also revealed some important new features. Russell identified and mapped an administrative architectural complex, consisting of a colonnaded hall and oratory just outside of the city’s far northeast gate. This is the only hall located outside of the city wall – most features beyond the wall are modest and served residential or agricultural functions. Almost all of the other colonnaded halls are located within or near the city’s monumental plaza or at the outlying group of Itzmal Ch’en. The location of this feature raises new questions about the placement and function of administrative nodes across the city. Survey also revealed a cenote with red painted handprints on the roof of this natural feature; this type of cave painting is known elsewhere in the Maya area but is unique for Mayapán. This new cenote is located to the south of the monumental center, about midway between the center and the southern wall parameter. We also observed, with the help of local workmen, that many more cenote water sources are present within and outside of the city than previously documented by the Carnegie Institution; their locations were documented with GPS units and entered into our GIS database. The location of these features is essential for the analysis of domestic feature distribution at the city. One other important set of features was found by Russell to the west of the city wall – these were circular stone alignments that delineated depressions filled with carbonized logs. Russell hypothesized that these were limestone plaster production areas, and performed experiments with the assistance of residents of the town of Telchaquillo who remembered the old technology for making it.
We have received C14 dates for 38 radiocarbon samples submitted to the University of Arizona laboratory. These samples compare contexts from the monumental center to those of the outlying domestic settlement zone. This is the largest sample of radiocarbon dates submitted for any Postclassic Maya site or any Maya site in northern Yucatan; these results represent an important landmark study that will help refine regional chronology, as well as permit a detailed understanding of the timing of Mayapán’s urban growth.
All of the work described above was accomplished in four field seasons of investigation (2001-2004), the bulk of which was performed in 2002-2004 under the auspices of NSF support (2001 was a preliminary season supported by FAMSI, Inc). The vast majority of the fieldwork was completed during 2002 and 2003, with some final testing in 2004. The main focus of the 2004 season was the successful completion of our artifact analysis, and the summer of 2005 was spent completing data entry. Every class of artifact has been analyzed, including: ceramic sherds, ceramic figurines, ceramic effigy censers, ceramic spindle whorls, chert/chalcedony lithic tools and debitage, obsidian tools, ground stone, shell tools/ornaments and manufacturing debris, faunal bone, and bone tools. We analyzed all of the materials from our own investigations in the settlement zone in addition to artifacts collected from the monumental zone by our INAH collaborator, Carlos Peraza Lope – these provide valuable comparisons to the domestic assemblages we tested.
At the time of this report preparation, we stand poised to finish crunching artifact and architecture databases for the purpose of publication – this final analysis step has already begun. Publications in progress for this project include: a descriptive monograph to be submitted to the University of Pittsburgh Press or the BAR Reports Series, a book by Peraza and Masson (Kukulkan’s Realm: The Postclassic Maya City of Mayapán, contracted with UColorado Press), and two journal articles detailing our analysis of the spatial organization of Mayapán and the city’s political economy (preliminary versions of hese publications will be presented at the 2006 SAA meetings in Puerto Rico). Two book chapters (by Masson, Hare, and Peraza n.d. and Masson and Peraza 2004) are in press or have been recently published (respectively), and one journal article (Peraza, Masson, and Hare n.d.) on the radiocarbon chronology was just accepted by Ancient Mesoamerica. Two additional book chapters have been or will soon be published in Mexico (proceedings of conferences held in Campeche and Mérida during 2004 and 2005). Four other presentations are planned for Summer/Fall 2006 that will result in published chapters or articles (International Congress of Archaeozoology, International Congress of Americanists {2 papers}, Dumbarton Oaks Conference). One doctoral dissertation (Russell) and one master’s thesis (Elizabeth Paris) are currently in progress that are based on our NSF research. A project bibliography is provided at the end of this report.
This report gives details of each avenue of investigation: horizontal house excavations, surface collections, test pits, survey and mapping (within and beyond the wall), and artifact analysis. Once we have completed the analysis of architecture and artifact distributions, we will have even more to report. The ultimate goal of this latter analysis is to understand the spatial and social context of economic production and consumption at Mayapán, with particular emphasis on household and barrio organization and variation according to social class. Some preliminary observations of this nature are included in the discussion below.
Education opportunities resulting from this project lay primarily in providing experience and training in archaeological field and laboratory methods for 23 undergraduate and graduate staff members of the project (listed as crew chiefs and analysts in the list of project participants). The majority of the students were enrolled at UAlbany-SUNY, although some were from Grinnell College, and seven were from the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán in Mérida, Mexico. Each student advanced their skills by working on this project. Further educational opportunities include two upper division graduate courses in Zooarchaeology taught at UAlbany-SUNY during the Spring and Fall semesters of 2005; these courses involved 40 students who learned faunal analysis by performing preliminary identifications (all checked and corrected by Masson). With their assistance in sorting, data processing, and data entry, we were able to complete the analysis of eleven additional large boxes of faunal bone from various contexts at the site. These boxes were exported with permission from INAH for the purpose of this symbiotic opportunity to involve students in research. Further educational opportunities have arisen from the use of Mayapán databases for graduate student research projects, including three potential master’s papers (Margaret McArthur on ceramic rim modal variation, Elizabeth Paris on copper bell technology and spatial distribution, Elizabeth France on shell tool technology and manufacture) and one doctoral dissertation (Bradley Russell on the settlement outside of the city walls). When project publications are completed, two books will be available to serve as educational resources for students and the interested public, including one thematic monograph and one descriptive edited report that will include chapters contributed by student analysts of the project.
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© 2006 Institute for Mesoamerican Studies
Updated February 7, 2006