The Bolonchén Regional Archaeological Project: Sixteen Years of Investigating Maya Society in the Eastern Puuc Region from the Preclassic through the Historical Period

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

The Puuc Region of the Northern Yucatán Peninsula has long been identified as a distinctive cultural sub-region of the greater Ancient Maya area along architectural, environmental, and demographic lines. Since 2000, the Bolonchén Regional Archaeological Project (BRAP) has investigated the formation of regionalism and the Ancient Maya community in the Eastern Puuc centering on the sites of Kiuic, Huntichmul, Labná, and Yaxhom. Taking a holistic approach that includes extensive inter-site survey work, systematic excavations, archaeometric analyses, and experimental archaeology, BRAP is continuing to shed light on the unique local trajectory of the Bolonchén District. Sub-foci of the project include such wide-ranging topics as: the evolution of public architecture and spaces; the settlement and exploitation of the hinterlands between the larger site centers; the development and organization of an elite suburban complex; the identification of some of the earliest permanent settlements in the region; Ancient Maya foodways; site abandonment processes; and, the continued occupation of the region in recent centuries, among others. As a result of these ongoing studies, BRAP is contributing to a more detailed understanding of the development and functioning of Maya society in the region from the Middle Preclassic all the way up through the Historical Period.

Other Keywords
Puuc • Maya • Political economy • Ceramics • Architecture • Pottery • Economy • Historical Archaeology • Ritual • Abandonment

Geographic Keywords
Mesoamerica • Central America

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  • Documents (12)
Documents
  • Acknowledging Anonymous Artists: Examining the Painted Stucco Facade from a temple at Kiuic, Yucatan (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melissa Galvan. Betsy Kohut.

    Excavations in the main plaza of Kiuic in Yucatan, Mexico, revealed the presence of a dismantled stucco façade south of the temple it once adorned. The façade dates to the temple’s initial Late Classic construction (600-800 AD) and is thought to have been stripped from it during a second construction phase in the Terminal Classic (800-1000 AD). Preliminary analysis of the deposit provided insight into the methods used to sculpt the stucco revealing its theme to have been a historic-narrative...

  • Boundary traits in archaeological settlements of the Bolonchen district, Yucatán, México. (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rossana May. Tomás Gallareta. William Ringle.

    In the course of surveying a kilometer-wide strip linking the archaeological sites of Labna, Kiuic and Huntichmul, several types of rare feature clusters were recorded that are difficult to interpret. Although some spatial patterns of these "special" features with respect to the local topography were recognized as the survey proceeded, it wasn’t until the sample of 10 km2 was completed and analyzed using GIS "least cost routes" that we were able to offer a more thorough interpretation of their...

  • A Comparative Analysis of Ritual Architecture in the Northern Maya Lowlands (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Anna Catesby Yant.

    In the past as in the present, powerful people used the built environment to display and reinforce their power, so that structures play an important role in the development and maintenance of sociopolitical inequality. Iconography and material culture indicate that ancestor veneration played an important role in Maya society from the Formative period until the Post Classic period. Excavations over the last 15 years in the Ulum Plaza of Kiuic, a site in the Puuc hills, supports the importance of...

  • Computing Material Culture: The utility of mobile photogrammetric techniques in capturing structures (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles Rappe. William Ringle.

    Photogrammetric techniques have been around for many years but have not been widely implemented because of the requirements of known camera positions and expertise in registering photographs, as well as the difficulty involved with going from data points to actual models. This paper addresses concerns with accuracy, efficiency and overall utility of using more mobile photogrammetric techniques and related software which we began using in 2013. In addition, some of the benefits of photogrammetry...

  • An examination of regional variation in early Middle Preclassic ceramics of the Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Betsy Kohut. George J. Bey III. Tomas Gallareta Negron. William Ringle. Evan Parker.

    In the last decade, major strides have been made in the study of early ceramics in the northern Maya lowlands. Long considered to lack ceramic occupations dating before the late Middle Preclassic (600-300 B.C.) it is now recognized that communities were founded throughout much of the northern Maya lowlands, particularly in the Puuc and northwestern Yucatan peninsula, by 900-800 B.C. This paper examines similarities and differences among these early pottery complexes at various occupations in the...

  • Experiencing Yaxhom: Materiality, Memory, and Monumentality in the Puuc Hills of Yucatan (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only William Ringle. Gabriel Tun Ayora.

    Research conducted at the ancient Maya site of Yaxhom has identified very early monumental architecture next to one of the most fertile tracts in the Puuc region of northern Yucatan. A third field season, reported on here, carried out further mapping and testing of the urban center to determine the extent of accompanying Formative architecture. We wished to test whether the platform served to mark place for a population with minimal investment in residential architecture or whether it formed...

  • Fringe Benefits?: Historical Household Investigations at Rancho Kiuic, Yucatan, Mexico (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maggie Morgan-Smith.

    This paper presents preliminary findings from recent research at Rancho Kiuic, an 18th- 20th century landed estate in the Puuc region of Yucatán, México. Occupied by generations of Maya-speaking landowners and laborers during the Colonial and Republican eras, the Rancho represents a site type with that has seen little archaeological or ethnohistoric investigation. Drawing on household-level excavation data, oral histories among the Rancho’s descendant community, and archival research,...

  • The Intermediate Elite of the Puuc Maya Suburbs: Excavations at Terminal Classic Escalera al Cielo (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Evan Parker. George Bey III. Tomás Gallareta Negrón. Stephanie Simms. Amanda Strickland.

    Seven years of extensive horizontal excavations at the Terminal Classic suburban hilltop complex of Escalera al Cielo have uncovered nearly the full range of social and economic activities undertaken by a class of intermediate elites on the edge of the Kiuic polity. Rather than considering Escalera al Cielo as simply another rung in the settlement hierarchy, we view it as a constituted community that formed and maintained ties of affiliation with the urban elite of Kiuic and with the commoners...

  • Lord of the Ring Structures: Burnt Lime Production and the Ancient Puuc Economy (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Ken Seligson. Tomás Gallareta Negrón. Rossana May Ciau. George J. Bey III.

    Burnt lime was one of the most significant and ubiquitous materials utilized in the daily lives of the ancient Maya. Lime was a key ingredient in the mortar that they used to construct monumental edifices and residential structures, as well as the lime plaster that they used to coat the facades, floors and interior walls of these structures. Lime was also crucial for maintaining a viable maize-based diet through the nixtamalization process. The recent identification of a series of ring...

  • A Model for Interpreting the Royal Court Puuc Tradition (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tomás Gallareta Cervera.

    Throughout sixteen years of research at the archaeological site of Kiuic, located in the Puuc zone of the Yucatán Peninsula, explorations have yielded the complete construction sequence of its Late Classic Period royal court and central architectural group, Yaxché. Deep and detailed excavations at the group’s central building, Str. N1065E1025, have produced a unique picture of the evolution of architecture, modification of the landscape, and its role in the consolidation of royal power through...

  • Over the Hills: Decline and Abandonment of the Bolonchén District (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Rebecca Hill.

    This paper examines the final decades of the Terminal Classic and the beginning of the Postclassic in the Bolonchén district of the Puuc region of the northern Maya lowlands. Archaeological evidence for the decline and abandonment of the Bolonchén district at the close of the Terminal Classic period is presented. Particular attention is given to the material remains of a late Terminal Classic population at Huntichmul, an example of a Puuc center in decline and most likely abandoned by the close...

  • Seeding the Clouds: A Model of Late Classic Puuc Political Process (2016)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Christopher Gunn.

    This paper synthesizes the growing body of chronological, settlement, economic, epigraphic, and iconographic data generated from recent research to critically examine traditional models of a short Terminal Classic occupation for the Puuc. The Late Classic period (600-800 AD) was the period in which the political and economic systems of Puuc states crystallized. Settlement patterns suggest that land was a widely available resource during the seventh century, but that the rapid infilling of the...