Surviving the Apocalypse: A Late Terminal Classic Household in Northern Yucatan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Following the widespread Terminal Classic florescence that saw booming occupations at every site in the Cochuah region of west-central Quintana Roo, Mexico, many settlements were entirely abandoned. However, some sites possessed late Terminal Classic populations, living in novel architecture yet continuing other Classic Maya material practices. One such round foundation brace, at the site of Sisal, was excavated in 2018, with its interior and immediate exterior subjected to detailed spatial analyses of its ceramics, lithics, shell artifacts, soil chemistry, and burials. Comparing and contrasting these patterns to those of other ethnographic and archaeological examples provides a rare window into the household activities and practices that characterized this generally ignored point of collapse, as the few remaining resilient inhabitants both clung to past practices and attempted new strategies to provide for themselves and their households.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22973