What Happened on Monte Albán’s Main Plaza? Insights from a Socio-Spatial-Sensory Analysis

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Despite increasing scholarly interest in the role of plazas in prehispanic Mesoamerica, we still have a relatively incomplete understanding of what actually occurred in such places. In this paper, we address this vexing question for the Main Plaza at Monte Albán in Oaxaca, Mexico. Our study draws on data from recent fieldwork on the Main Plaza, including drone-aided photogrammetry and terrestrial mapping. We take a “socio-spatial-sensory” approach that includes a comparative and relational study of the Main Plaza and its multitude of smaller, linked plazas and patios. Given the dynamism of social practices, we consider the likelihood that they included movement through and among these linked areas. We seek further insights by examining how people experienced social practices in these spaces through the body and senses. Utilizing GIS-based modeling of intervisibility and acoustics, we measure how well people could have seen and heard one another in particular areas of the plazas. The results provide the opportunity to reflect upon previous ideas about the nature of social practices on the Main Plaza. Furthermore, we argue that the Main Plaza may have been designed, in part, to accommodate and enhance ritual processions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37615.0