Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Classic Maya Urban Planning in Central Quintana Roo, Mexico

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Joyce Marcus, MS Laura Villamil will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will survey and conduct test excavations at two Mayan archaeological sites, Lagartera and Margarita Maza de Juarez (MMJ), located in the Quintana Roo region of lowland Mexico. Centers of this type were, in fact, pre-industrial cities because they incorporated thousands of individuals into single spatially integrated units. Both sites contain temple and plaza complexes which indicate the ability of rulers to mobilize large numbers of individuals for public work projects. Differences in building type within such cities demonstrate they served multiple functions both public and domestic in nature. Archaeologists have focused considerable attention on the spatial organization of such entities because they believe such data will provide insight into the social, political and economic organization of the Maya. MS Villamil, along with other researchers, has noted that even within a single region cities vary significantly in form and that some have a single well defined center while others appear to have multiple clearly defined areas of public buildings. She wishes to understand why such is the case and hypothesizes that centers with a single core developed slowly over time and were situated at the top of the regional hierarchy. Multiple core centers, she believes resulted from a single building episode and that the cores serve complementary rather than redundant functions. Such cities, she argues represent secondary centers and appeared slightly later in time than their single core counterparts. To test this idea she will compare Lagartera and MMJ which have single and multiple cores respectively. Using aerial photographs she will create maps of both sites and over the course of two field seasons conduct ground surveys to verify them and to fill in additional detail. She will then excavate a large series of test pits to collect stratified ceramics which will allow individual structures and areas to be dated relative to each other. In this way she will determine the extent of construction contemporanity. This detailed examination of contrasting site plans will contribute to understanding of the development of urban society. The investigation of different urban patterns in the Maya area and of the specific historical trajectories which led to their development will contribute to cross-cultural studies seeking to understand the effects which various sociopolitical circumstances have on the appearance, growth and transformation of cities. The project will also assist in training a promising young scientist.