Behemoths of the Bajo el Laberinto: The Development of Urban Reservoirs at Yaxnocah and Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Elevated Interior Region of the Maya Lowlands, including the area surrounding the sprawling Bajo el Laberinto, faced acute water availability issues that necessitated the annual capture and storage of rain water to support urbanization. Two large urban areas dominate ancient Maya settlement around Bajo Laberinto: Yaxnocah, an extensive Preclassic center on the bajo’s southern flank, and Calakmul, the eventual Late Classic seat of the powerful Kaanul dynasty, on its northern rim. Unsurprisingly, urban development at these two centers was accompanied by the development of an elaborate system of reservoirs constructed on a wide range of scales. In this presentation we summarize evidence for the development of their water capture and storage systems beginning in the Middle Preclassic and continuing well into the Postclassic. Among other findings is evidence for some of the earliest and some of the largest urban reservoirs known in the Maya Lowlands. However, in addition to massive civic projects, water management also took place as the household level.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New and Emerging Perspectives on the Bajo el Laberinto Region of the Maya Lowlands, Part 1   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39746.0