Using Architectural Sculpture to Think about Center and Periphery in the Puuc Region

Summary

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

The Puuc region of Yucatán is distinguished by its architectural style, composed primarily of low, range-type structures with limestone veneers. These building surfaces, elaborately carved with iconographic content, also served as backdrops for stucco and stone sculptures, which were placed in niches, on projecting platforms, and incorporated directly into the façades. At the largest, and consequently most well-known, Puuc sites there is considerable experimentation with building forms and architectural adornments, while at the smaller sites the structures and their decoration tend to be more restrained. This paper assembles data from dozens of archaeological sites to compare how iconographic elements are distributed across the region as well as their placement on buildings. The aim of this research is to expand what we know about the region's socio-political organization using extant architectural sculpture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25735