Elite residences of the K'iche at Q'umarkaj, El Quiche’, Guatemala

Summary

When one visits the archaeological site of Q'umarkaj, they enter through a large open space covered by numerous platforms of different shapes from 1 to 2 m high. Closer to the Main Plaza are larger mounds, some over 40 m in length. At the edges of the plateau, beyond the cliffs that surround and limit access to the site, one is able to see three settlements, also on promontories, a few hundred meters from Q'umarkaj: to the north the site Mukwits Pa 'Ilokab-Chisalin, to the south Pa'Ismachi, and El Resguardo Chajnel to the east. They form the area of greater Q’umarkaj.

Thus far, a total of 120 structures have been identified in Q'umarkaj, with functions ranging from, religious, socio-political and residential. Less than 15% of the structures at the site have been excavated. This paper mainly presents the results of excavations and comparative studies of residential structures conducted at the site between 2003 and 2007. This research has contributed to better understand not only the architectural morphology of the site, but have aided in a better understanding of the chronology of occupation and form a comparative basis for other sites excavated in the K'iche’ area.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

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