Ceremonial Spaces and Public Events at the Preclassic Maya Centers of Ceibal, Guatemala, and Aguada Fénix, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Humble Houses to Magnificent Monuments: Papers in Honor of Jerry D. Moore" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Dr. Jerry Moore’s work has been highly influential not only in Andean archaeology but also in the archaeology of Mesoamerica and other parts of the world. Dr. Moore’s pioneering analysis of the lived experience of the built environment has inspired us to examine ceremonial spaces at Maya sites, including plazas and other open spaces. Although investigations in the Maya area traditionally focused on temples, palaces, and other buildings, dense interaction involving large numbers of individuals must have taken place in plazas, causeways, and other open spaces. Public events held in those spaces and their memories embedded in those locations had profound social significance. Our excavation of the Central Plaza of Ceibal revealed numerous caches with greenstone axes dating to 950–700 BC. Our subsequent work in eastern Tabasco documented a large platform measuring 1,400 × 400 m and connected with nine causeways/avenues at Aguada Fénix, dating to 1100–700 BC. These spaces served for large communal events during the period when the inhabitants had just begun to use ceramics and many groups still retained certain degrees of mobility.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)   •
• Humble Houses to Magnificent Monuments: Papers in Honor of Jerry D. Moore

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35922.0