‘The pivotal house: individual, community, and environment context at Cancuen, Verapaz, Guatemala’

Summary

An obvious foundation of archaeology is that of the often mundane-seeming house. Insights into any culture are most recognizable at the intimate house level. Simultaneously, this focused view is simply a snapshot into the multi-scalar chain that links the individual with an activity, an activity with a house, the house as an integral component of an architectural compound, etc., etc. These linkages continue into the neighborhood, community, regional and global scales. Other concepts become more relevant as the scales are cycled from close-up to landscape panoramas or greater. Artifacts are contextualized by a strata or feature, but it is as important to understand the associations between locations within that house as well as its relation to other architectural and natural landform features.

Cancuen, located at the interface of the Northern Guatemalan Highlands and the Petén Southern Lowlands, is a Classic Maya archaeological site that reflects these multi-dimensional aspects of the house. Topographic setting is crucial; architecture cannot be dis-entangled from its environmental backdrop. Slope and aspect patterns, associations with other structures and compounds, and relations to the surrounding landscape of rivers, mountains, and other water-bodies are only a few of these necessary frameworks.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Excavating the House: Residential Architecture in the Maya Area

Keywords

Spatial Coverage