Upstairs, Downstairs: Excavations of a Throne Room and Kitchen in the Kuche Palace, Kiuic, Yucatán

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project: 25 Years of Research in the Puuc" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Beginning around AD 800 the Puuc region experienced a major construction boom of monumental architecture, including large palace complexes. At Kiuic, in the Bolonchen region of the Puuc, the early Yaxché Palace (AD 550–800) was replaced by a much larger complex of structures, still under construction at the time of the center’s abandonment around AD 1000. This paper examines the results of several field seasons of excavation of two important buildings associated with the later Kuche Palace, the throne room and the kitchen. Although examining a number of aspects of the late palace, the paper focuses primarily on a functional analysis of these two structures. What does a detailed excavation tell us about the archaeological function and history of these two structures? Are the two buildings actually the throne room and kitchen; if so, are similar structures found at other important Puuc cities. The throne room underwent significant modification over this 200-year period, suggesting a dynamic period of sociocultural development. The results of these excavations are finally considered in relation to the larger complex of buildings and plazas that formed the Kuche Palace and what this tells us about palace life in the Late/Terminal Classic period at Kiuic.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Bolonchen Regional Archaeological Project: 25 Years of Research in the Puuc

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38531.0