Connecting Ceremonial Groups across the Terminal Classic and Postclassic Constructed Landscapes in the Mayapán Region

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

I present an analysis of the landscape connecting shifting ceremonial groups and settlement distributed across the Terminal Classic and Postclassic landscapes in the Mayapán region. Mayapán is the largest Postclassic urban center in the Maya Lowlands and has been the focus of previous research in the area. Traditional and lidar surveys at Mayapán reveal a broader landscape characterized by widely distributed ceremonial groups linking settlements across the region. The Terminal Classic landscape is densely occupied and dispersed. The Postclassic landscape is dominated by Mayapán's walled urban core, surrounded by a halo of ceremonial groups. This analysis examines regional settlement transformations through reconstruction of connections, such as pathways and gates in the constructed landscape in relation to the locations and forms of key public architectural features, walled houselots, cenotes, and the defensive wall. The settlement disjunction between the two periods suggests collapse followed by recovery.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32183