Investigations of Peri-Urban Settlement and Domestic Reservoirs: Research from Yaxnohcah, Campeche, Mexico

Summary

Peri-urban zones of settlement are unique localities among the urban-rural continuum that form due to dispersed urban growth, creating hybrid landscapes of fragmented urban and rural characteristics. Within these zones, domestic-scale reservoirs that the ancient Maya modified and maintained to manage their seasonally-scarce water resources are an important component. This study focuses on processes of multiple nuclei urban development and associated peri-urban formation at the site of Yaxnohcah in southern Campeche, Mexico, with particular emphasis on the collaborative research on residential and small water reservoirs situated between the Alba and Fidelia complex groups. Yaxnohcah is located in the middle of the Central Karstic Uplands, a region in the Yucatán Peninsula known for its large, early urban centers. The extended period of occupation at the site (c. 1000 BCE-850 CE) combined with a distinct, dispersed, multiple nuclei settlement pattern provide an excellent opportunity to investigate questions concerning early urban development and its dynamic connections to local environmental and integrative processes. Our research to-date (2011-) adopts both higher and lower scale approaches—using lidar-derived imagery and investigating massive platforms, smaller urban houselots, and household tanks—to advance our awareness of early urban development in this area of the central Maya lowlands.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• The Dynamics of the Preclassic in the Heart of the Maya Lowlands

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15560