Northern Maya Lowlands Research Articles

In Search of the Ancient Maya Foods. A Paleoethnobotany Study From a Non-elite Context in Sihó, Yucatán

Food consumption is one of the primary activities of all cultural groups around the globe. The procurement of plants, their transformation, and consumption are some steps in which we can identify social repercussions such as identity, gender roles, labor division, worldview, and status differentiation, among many other archaeological approaches. In the Northern Maya Lowlands, paleoethnobotany research has included information regarding the consumption of plants by the ancient Mayas, which has helped us to broaden our knowledge about past feeding habits; nonetheless, we recognize some of the dishes and plants consumed by the elites due to the epigraphy and iconography records. It is least known what the commoners consumed during their day-to-day meals. In this vein, this research is immersed in identifying plants exploited by two low-strata domestic groups in the archaeological site of Siho, Yucatan, Mexico, during the Late-Terminal Classic. Through the recognition of starches recovered from soil samples, some staple crops like maize (Zea mays) and beans (Phaseolus spp.) were identified. More importantly, other plants least representative in the archaeobotanical record, like arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea), and Mexican yam (Pachirhyzus erosus), were also recognized. This research contributes to the identification and study of starches that generates information for the broad discussion of food-related activities in non-elite household contexts.

Environmental history of the northern Maya Lowlands: Evidence from a karstic lake

Environmental history of the northern Maya Lowlands: Evidence from a karstic lake

Governance, Monumentality, and Urbanism in the Northern Maya Lowlands During the Preclassic and Classic Periods

Governance, Monumentality, and Urbanism in the Northern Maya Lowlands During the Preclassic and Classic Periods

Settlement Scaling in the Northern Maya Lowlands: Human-Scale Implications

AbstractSettlement scaling theory predicts that higher site densities lead to increased social interactions that, in turn, boost productivity. The scaling relationship between population and land area holds for several ancient societies, but as demonstrated by the sample of 48 sites in this study, it does not hold for the Northern Maya Lowlands. Removing smaller sites from the sample brings the results closer to scaling expectations. We argue that applications of scaling theory benefit by considering social interaction as a product not only of proximity but also of daily life and spatial layouts.

Mayan Fire: Calibration curve for the determination of heating temperatures of limestone, lime and related materials by FTIR measurements

A controlled heating experiment has been carried out on selected geological limestone samples obtained from the Yucatan peninsula to establish a heating temperature calibration curve for the determination of heating temperatures through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) ratios of υ2/υ4 peak intensities. This curve – the first produced in the Mayan area – will greatly benefit the study of the lime calcination technology employed by the ancient Maya society. This model was then applied to the study of an archaeological pit-kiln located on the northern Maya lowlands, allowing us to describe the temperature distribution at which the limestones were exposed within the structure, and consequently providing insights on the lime manufacturing process and the control of fire achieved by this culture.

Monumentality as traditional ecological knowledge in the northern Maya lowlands

The emergence of monumentality in the Maya lowlands has been linked to political complexity. But how did the emergence of these monuments relate to changing human-environment interactions? Here, the author proposes that Maya monumentality embodies traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK. Taking the example of Tzacauil, the gathering of fieldstone for the preparation of land for cultivation is connected to agricultural intensification and the florescence of monumentality in the Late and Terminal Formative period (300 BC–AD 250). Exploration of the relationships between monumental traditions and localised TEK practices may illuminate the entanglement of complexity, subsistence and human-environment interactions in other parts of the world.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF MASCULINITIES AT CHICHEN ITZA: A FUNCTIONAL INTERPRETATION OF STRUCTURE 2D6

AbstractThe structure of power underlying the hegemonic control Chichen Itza held over the Northern Maya Lowlands has been debated for decades. In this article, we present the idea of a dominant discourse on masculinities, which played a fundamental role in both practice and on a symbolic level among the strategies designed to support this emblematic pre-Columbian capital. Our discussion of archaeological evidence will focus on spaces where men are represented, where they would meet and carry out rituals. We contend that gallery-patios such as Structure 2D6 served as instruction and socialization locales for groups of warriors. The architectural configuration of this building is very similar to a series of venues at Chichen Itza and other Mesoamerican cities. In these spaces, associated iconography depicts male individuals in processions and ritual practice, including sacrifice and self-sacrifice. We argue that the gallery of Structure 2D6 was a semi-public, performative space, whose theatricality combined the central alignment of a sacrificial stone and a throne or altar with the presence of several patolli boards carved into the building's plaster floor. Chemical analyses of plastered surfaces testify to intense activities taking place around all three of these features.

Inequality, urbanism, and governance at Coba and the Northern Maya Lowlands

AbstractGini coefficients for residential groups at Coba for roofed surface area, volume of architecture, and houselot space range from 0.423 to 0.551, fitting well within the range of many ancient and modern state-level cities and societies and other Mesoamerican centers. These values are also similar to other large, Classic period, Northern Lowland cities, such as Dzibilchaltun and Chunchucmil. These data do not support the idea that autocratic regimes exhibit greater wealth inequality. We also failed to find a pattern in which inequality grew over the course of the Classic period. The Lorenz curves for Coba and other sites do not indicate any breaks that would allow households to be sorted into wealth classes. Thus, wealth differences were fluid, continuous, and out in the open, giving these settlements the dynamism and attractiveness that helped them grow into some of the largest and most remarkable ancient Maya cities.

SECONDARY GEOLOGICAL RESOURCES CATCHMENT STRATEGIES ON PRE-HISPANIC SIHÓ (YUCATÁN) SITE GEOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT THROUGH THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF LIMESTONE TOOLS

Sihó is a Prehispanic archaeological site located in the Northern Maya Lowlands at Yucatan Peninsula, where have been documented a considerable number of percussion and/or abrasive tools made from limestone cobbles. These artifacts have certain physical and chemical characteristics which may be symptomatic of a particular geological origin. The statistical treatment of data extracted by X-ray fluorescence gives us the possibility of discerning limestone materials from different geological formations, based on their proportion of silicon (Si), calcium (Ca) or iron (Fe). Together with a comparative calculation between sphericity indexes of this round cobbles, suggest it catchment at Ticul fault colluvial secondary geological deposits twenty km from the site.

Strontium and stable oxygen isotope analysis in the Classic and Postclassic northern Maya lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula: An analysis of social and sex-related reasons for population movement

Yucatan Peninsula’s northern Maya lowlands witnessed intense socio-political and commercial changes during Classic and Postclassic periods. Migration was part of many important changes, and isotopic analyses allow quantification of the extent of population movement and the migrants’ potential places of origin by sex, age, and other social determinants. The purpose of the present analysis is to highlight regional migration patterns using published data that move beyond site-specific interpretations. Overall, the picture that emerges is that mobility in the region was not limited to one specific sex or age group, nor was it the prerogative of any social level. A variety of reasons lay behind population movement, including trade, kinship, marital residence, and elite marriage alliances that served to reinforce power or establish new outposts. Regional analyses and comparison of large datasets will provide a better understanding of this complex and tangled process that shaped society on the Yucatan peninsula for millennia.

Response of a low elevation carbonate lake in the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) to climatic and human forcings

The importance of climate change, specifically drought, across the Maya region in the northern Neotropics, remains a topic of lively debate. Part of this discussion hinges on the coherency of response to climatic variability across different archives and proxies. In this paper we present a 6600-year palaeolimnological record from Yaal Chac, a carbonate lake (known locally as a cenote) in the northern lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula, < 2 km from the location of the previously published Aguada X'Caamal record. The Yaal Chac sequence has been analysed for loss-on-ignition (LOI), stable isotopes (δ18O, δ13C) and elemental analysis using μXRF, complemented by some mineralogical, charcoal and pigment data. Mid Holocene sediments, predating evidence of human impact, are carbonate dominated and finely laminated. δ18O values are positive (>2‰), but show no covariation with δ13C. A major transition occurs at ca. 4360 cal yr BP, with a change to generally more organic sediments and increased variability in all proxies. Although direct evidence for anthropogenic activity in the Yaal Chac catchment is limited, it seems feasible that human impact was affecting the system. Comparison with other records from the Northern Maya lowlands and the wider region shows little coherence in the mid Holocene, when Yaal Chac seems to have been quite stable, but possibly responsive to increased climatic seasonality, driving the production of seasonal laminae. In the late Holocene, when the climate was generally more variable, there is more coherence between Yaal Chac and other regional records, including the so called Pan Caribbean Dry Period (3500–2500 cal yr BP) and the droughts of the late Pre-Classic period (1800–1600 cal yr BP). The Yaal Chac record shows no evidence of drought at the time of either the Maya ‘hiatus’ or the Maya ‘collapse’ of the Terminal Classic, but does record drying from the 14th to 19th centuries CE, in keeping with other proxy and historical records. This new record from Yaal Chac highlights the spatial variability of responses to climate forcings and the importance of recognising individual system sensitivity.

La explotación de recursos líticos en el entorno geológico del sitio prehispánico de Sihó (Yucatán) a través del análisis fisicoquímico de los metates de caliza

Siho is an archaeological site located in the Northern Maya Lowlands, where a number of grinding tools have been documented, mostly metates made with local limestone that has petrological characteristics (physical and chemical) which may indicate a particular geological origin. The statistical treatment of data extracted by X-ray fluorescence allows us to discern limestone materials from different geological formations, based on the quantity of silicon (Si) and/or calcium (Ca) in the sample. This data shows a link between the limestone of the Sihó metates and the rocks from the geological formation known as Carrillo Puerto located in the Yucatan peninsula. Furthermore, the comparison by mean thin sections between geological and archaeological materials has been useful to characterise and identify lithic materials used to fabricate the metates. The complementarity between both archaeometrical techniques, together with ethnographic, historical and archaeological documentation, provide us with information that suggests an immediate exploitation of the limestone rocks used to make the metates and brings us closer to a better understanding of the quarrying strategies practiced by the ancient Mayans of Sihó.

Soil biomarkers of cacao tree cultivation in the sacred cacao groves of the northern Maya lowlands

The importance of cacao in ancient Mesoamerica is attested by the presence of cacao biomarkers in ritual pottery. By at least the Postclassic period, if not earlier, cacao beans are thought to have been a prominent mode of currency in the central Yucatan. During the colonial period the Maya of Yucatan were tending sacred groves of cacao trees in the shaded, humid microclimates of karst sinkholes that dot the peninsula. We report on the development of a method for the extraction and quantitation of the methylxanthine biomarkers of cacao (theobromine, theophylline, and caffeine) from soil. The presence of these biomarkers provides evidence of the distribution and ritual importance of these sacred cacao groves to the Maya. Methylxanthine biomarkers were present in the soils of nine of eleven sampled sinkholes in Yucatan and Quintana Roo, MX.

MIDDLE PRECLASSIC POTTERY PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE IN THE NORTHERN MAYA LOWLANDS: AN ICP-MS ANALYSIS

AbstractEvidence of complex and widespread occupations during the Middle Preclassic (1000–350 b.c.) have been identified throughout the Northern Maya Lowlands and are associated with both Mamom and pre-Mamom ceramics. Beyond typological information based on the visual examination of paste, slip, and surface treatment, archaeologists know little about the technology or economics of pottery production and exchange of this period. In this study, we analyze Middle Preclassic ceramics from four sites in northwest Yucatan, using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to determine the chemical variation that exists between and within different ceramic production areas. The analysis indicates that production occurred locally by the late Middle Preclassic (700–350 b.c.), and that the earliest pottery produced in the Northern Maya Lowlands, at the sites of Komchen and Kiuic, was compositionally linked to later phases of production. This means that the first ceramic complexes of the Northern Lowlands were locally produced and not the result of migrants bringing pottery from elsewhere. The study reveals it is possible to identify the origin of Middle Preclassic ceramics by their chemical signature and that compositional variation existed at the site level over time.

SELECTIVE MEMORY: MONUMENTAL POLITICS OF THE YAXUNÁ E GROUP IN THE FIRST MILLENNIUM B.C.

AbstractIn seeking continuities and disjuncture from the precedents of past authorities, the Mesoamerican emergent ruling class during the Formative period were active agents in directing changes to monumental space, suggesting that memory played a vital role in developing an early shared character of Maya lifeways (1000b.c.toa.d.250). The trend is most visible in the civic ceremonial complexes known as E Groups, which tend to show significant patterns of continuity (remembering) and disjuncture (forgetting). This article uses the northern lowland site of Yaxuná in Yucatan, Mexico, to demonstrate the use of early selective strategies to direct collective memory. While there are E Groups in the northern Maya lowlands, few Formative period examples are known, making Yaxuná a critical case study for comparative assessment with the southern lowlands. One implication of the Yaxuná data is that the broader pattern of Middle Formative E Groups resulted from sustained social, religious, political, and economic interaction between diverse peer groups across eastern Mesoamerica. With the emergence of institutionalized rulership in the Maya lowlands during the Late Formative, local authorities played a significant role in directing transformations of E Groups, selectively influencing their meanings and increasingly independent trajectories through continuity and disjuncture.

A Meta-Analysis Approach to Understanding Maya Fish Use on the Yucatán Peninsula

This meta-analysis uses seven previously published fish assemblages from sites in the northern Maya lowlands to evaluate if environmental or human social factors, such as elite status, provided impetus for the increased emphasis on coastal trade during the Terminal to Postclassic periods. Following the political decline of sites in the central and southern Maya lowlands during the Terminal Classic period, the northern Maya lowlands rose in prominence. As political systems changed, so too did economic systems. Using species area curves, richness, nestedness, non-metric multidimensional scaling, evenness, and differences in habitat, this paper addresses to what degree fish trade in the northern Maya lowlands was driven by habitat differences, site distance from the coast, time period, or social status. The results indicate social factors, rather than environmental, explain more of the variation in the fish taxonomic composition at each site. The different taxonomic communities are explained less by specific environmental factors, recovery methods, or identification procedures than by site distance from the coast and social context of the site (i.e., elite versus non-elite). These data demonstrate that meta-analyses can explain how access-based differences—such as site distance from the coast or due to the social context of a particular assemblage—are expressed among large faunal datasets within complex societies.

In the Realm of Rain Gods: A Contextual Survey of Rock Art across the Northern Maya Lowlands

Regional rock art studies have provided insight into the role of caves in Maya ideology and worldview. In addition to the content of the imagery itself, the placement or siting of rock art with respect to natural and cultural features within the cave environment can reveal much about the function and meaning of cave use practices. This comparative analysis of rock art emphasizes contextual considerations with a discussion on the spatial and symbolic relationships between images in individual caves. Rock art in the northern Maya lowlands is commonly associated with watery areas and pathways leading to pools in caves. Across the northern Yucatan Peninsula, watery caves witnessed the rites and rituals of religious practitioners who appealed to the rain gods. Rock art scenes throughout this region were often devised and positioned in ways that reveal or are consistent with this unique and pervasive emphasis on rain and agricultural fertility in religious practice.

Influential landscapes: Temporal trends in the agricultural use of rejolladas at Tahcabo, Yucatán, Mexico

In the northern Maya lowlands, agricultural practices varied as farmers responded to changing local and external circumstances. However, past agricultural dynamics have been difficult to detect archaeologically in the northern Yucatán peninsula of Mexico, in part due to shallow soils and poor preservation conditions. Deeper soils can be found in the region, particularly within landscape features called rejolladas—solution sinkholes that form large, bowl-like areas with characteristics advantageous for horticulture. As part of this study, based in the community of Tahcabo, Yucatán, we interviewed current town residents to understand the factors they consider when deciding what to grow today in centrally-located rejolladas. To determine what people grew within rejolladas in the past, we excavated within them and studied resulting pollen and soil carbon isotope samples. Results show that even as populations changed, farmers living in Tahcabo responded to the landscape, using rejolladas in broadly consistent ways through time. For example, one rejollada was used primarily for gardening, another for ritual activities, and a third for intensive cultivation. Still, innovations occurred—Tahcabo residents used rejolladas more intensively during the Late Formative through Early Classic periods, when populations were high and climate studies reveal a regional drying trend.

Mul Meyaj Tía U Betá Jump’el Kaj: Working Together to Build a Community in Puuc Archaeology

This paper explores specific challenges that archaeologists face when attempting to involve a broader community of local stakeholders in cultural heritage research. We combine our perspectives as a US-based archaeologist and a local community member in a discussion of practical approaches for promoting more equitable research collaborations in the Puuc region of the northern Maya lowlands. The format of the paper includes a blend of dialogue, narrative, and analysis. First, we evaluate the importance of engaging in social interactions outside of the fieldwork setting and examine the limitations to full-coverage community participation. Next, we discuss the structural barriers discouraging greater local interest in cultural heritage research. We assess the potential of linguistic education and digital conservation programs for encouraging broader-scale engagement with knowledge production. Finally, we highlight the importance of employment by archaeological research projects as the critical factor influencing local participation in heritage-related activities. Barring immediate structural changes to the socio-economy of the Yucatán, the most significant way to promote local involvement in cultural heritage projects is for archaeologists and community members to work together to try to secure funding for more sustainable employment opportunities.

COMPREHENSIVE DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION AND PRELIMINARY STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT OF SATUNSAT: A UNIQUE MAYA ARCHITECTURAL LABYRINTH AT OXKINTOK, YUCATAN, MEXICO

Abstract. Located in the Puuc region of Yucatan, Mexico, the Labyrinth of Oxkintok, also known as Satunsat, is one of the most enigmatic ancient structures in the northern Maya lowlands. Inside this otherwise unremarkable terraced building platform is a series of interconnected vaulted passageways and horizontal ducts that spans three levels. In 2016, we conducted a comprehensive digital documentation of the exterior and interior surfaces and spaces of Satunsat via terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry. The result is a fused, geometrically accurate, full coverage model with exceptional color and texture fidelity. These data enabled a preliminary structural health assessment and evaluation of the varied masonry techniques employed in the construction of Satunsat and can inform future studies related to the structure’s function and meaning.