Perplexing Landscapes: The Role of Natural Landscape Features in Late Preclassic Site-Design of Noh K’uh in Chiapas, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Recent Archaeological Investigations in Chiapas, Mexico" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Late Preclassic (400 BC–AD 250) ceremonial center of Noh K’uh was designed in a quincunx pattern to commemorate the importance of cardinality and cosmological symbols. This kind of architectural design was commonplace in Preclassic Mesoamerica, as the earliest populations shaped their ceremonial spaces in reverence to natural phenomena, both terrestrial and celestial. Previous investigations at Noh K’uh have indicated that the quincunx pattern aligned to distant landmarks that surrounded the basin formation. A recent survey (2022) of these landmarks revealed a complex set of settlement patterns that blurred the line between the altered and unaltered environment. Ultimately, findings from the basin of Mensäbäk help redefine understandings of site boundaries, and ongoing survey work continues to reveal a site design that integrated massive construction projects together with natural landforms.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Recent Archaeological Investigations in Chiapas, Mexico   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39526.0