Columns and Ideology-Building in the Northern Maya Lowlands

Summary

Ancient Maya builders working in the Northern Lowlands often introduced and distributed columns throughout the architectural volumes they created in a way that distinguished them from their southern neighbors. While northern column usage served pragmatic needs by being load-bearing and facilitating entrance and egress, we explore the possibility that selection and placement of structural supports also seems to have functioned in a highly ideological fashion. We will use case studies from sites such as El Meco, San Gervasio, Santa Rosa Xtampak, Sayil and others to examine similarities and differences in the ways architects used this building form across and within sub-regions. In doing so, we will particularly focus on identifying column types based on shape, size, proportionality, and surface treatment. We will also analyze the ways in which columns are distributed vertically in building facades and aligned horizontally when found in single story structures. As we will demonstrate, such usage is often idiosyncratic, seeming to implicate specific viewing and activity patterns that vary from center to center, a pattern we hope to further codify through analysis.

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)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage