Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-05-18T13:09:50.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Large-Site Archaeological Methods at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico: Investigating Community Organization at a Prehispanic Maya Center

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael P. Smyth  and
Christopher D. Dore
Michael P. Smyth
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45211
Christopher D. Dore
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Past Maya communities were composed of a number of social, political, and economic components that were bound together in specific ways. Understanding how such components were organized at the scale of the entire community to form a single functioning entity is an important archaeological issue that is presently not well understood. To address this issue, large-scale research into community organization has been initiated at the Terminal Classic (A. D. 800-1000) Puuc center of Sayil. A program of broad-scale surface collections has systematically covered almost 1.5 km2 of the site's mapped urban area (3.5 km2). Preliminary results from the 1990 field season are providing data related to important components of the community such as social differentiation, economic and subsistence specialization, and the spatial structure of political and religious organization. This study is contributing toward the development of new methods for exploring large archaeological sites and can be employed ultimately to address broader issues concerning societal transformations among the Prehispanic Maya.

Las comunidades de los antepasados mayas estuvieron formadas de un número de componentes sociales, políticos y económicos que fueron unidos en modos específicos. Comprendiendo cómo tales componentes estuvieron organizados—a la escala de toda la comunidad—para formar una sola entidad funcionante es un asunto arqueológico importante que actualmente no está bien entendido. Para abordar este asunto se ha iniciado una investigación a gran escala de la organización de la comunidad en el centro Clásico Terminal (800-1000 D. C.) de Sayil, en las colinas del Puuc. Un programa de recolección de superficie a una escala amplia ha cubierto sistemáticamente casi 1.5 km2 del área urbana mapeada del sitio (3.5 km2). Resultados preliminares de la temporada de campo de 1990 ofrecen información relacionada con componentes importantes de la comunidad, como serán la diferenciación social, las especializaciones de subsistencia y economía, y la estructura espacial de la organización política y religiosa. Este estudio está contribuyendo al desarrollo de nuevos métodos para explorar grandes sitios arqueológicos y poder ser empleado finalmente para dirigir temas más amplias que conciernen las transformaciones sociales de los mayas prehispánicos.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 1992 , pp. 3 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Ashmore, W. 1981 Some Issues of Method and Theory in Lowland Maya Settlement Archaeology. In Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns, edited by W. Ashmore, pp. 37–69. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Andrews, G. 1975 Maya Cities: Placemaking and Urbanization. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Andrews, G. 1982 Puuc Architectural Styles: A Reassessment. Paper presented at a symposium on the Northern Maya Lowlands: New Data, Syntheses, and Problems. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Andrews, G. 1985 Chenes-Puuc Architecture: Chronology and Cultural Interaction. In Architecture and Archaeology: Methodological Approaches in Yucatan Chronology, pp. 11–40. Collection Etudes Mésoaméricaines Serie II-8. Centre d’Etudes Mexicaines et Centraméricaines, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Arnold, P. J. III 1989 Household Ceramic Assemblage in Sierra de los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Research 44:357–383.Google Scholar
Arnold, P. J. III 1990 The Organization of Refuse Disposal and Ceramic Production Within Contemporary Mexican Houselots. American Anthropologist 92:915–932.Google Scholar
Arnold, P. J. III 1991 Domestic Ceramic Production and Spatial Organization: A Mexican Case Study in Ethnoarchaeology. Cambridge University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Ball, J. W. 1974 A Coordinate Approach to Northern Maya Prehistory: A.D. 700–1200. American Antiquity 39:85–93.Google Scholar
Barrera Rubio, A. 1978 Settlement Patterns in the Uxmal Area, Yucatan, Mexico. Paper presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Tucson.Google Scholar
Barrera Rubio, A. 1980 Patron de asentamiento en el área de Uxmal, Yucatán. XVI Mesa Redonda de la Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología (Saltillo, 1979) 2:389–398. México.Google Scholar
Barrera Rubio, A. 1982 Obras hidraúlicas en la región Puuc, Yucatán, México. Simposio: Area Maya del norte: Nuevos datos, sintesis y problemas. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E. 1978 Monte Albán: Settlement Patterns at the Ancient Zapotec Capital. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Blanton, R. E., Kowalewski, S., Feinman, G., and Appel, J. 1981 Ancient Mesoamerica. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Brainerd, G. W. 1958 The Archaeological Ceramics of Yucatan. Anthropological Papers Vol. 19. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Carmean, K. 1991 Architectural Labor Investment and Social Stratification at Sayil, Yucatán, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 2:151–165.Google Scholar
CEMCA 1986–1989 Proyecto de investigaciones arqueológicas en la región de Xculoc (Campeche): Informe de la temporada. Centre d’Etudes Mexicaines et Centraméricaines, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Chase, D. Z. 1986 Social and Political Organization in the Land of Cacao and Honey: Correlating the Archaeology and Ethnohistory of the Postclassic Lowland Maya. In Late Lowland Maya Civilization: Classic to Postclassic, edited by J. A. Sabloff and E. W. Andrews V, pp. 347–377. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Coe, M. D. 1965 A Model of Ancient Community Structure in the Maya Lowlands. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21:97–114.Google Scholar
Cowgill, G. L., Altschul, J. H., and Sload, R. S. 1984 Spatial Analysis of Teotihuacan: A Mesoamerican Metropolis. In Intrasite Spatial Analysis in Archaeology, edited by H. Hietala, pp. 154–195. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Deal, M. 1985 Household Pottery Disposal in the Maya Highlands: An Ethnoarchaeological Interpretation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 4:243–291.Google Scholar
de Montmollin, O. 1988 Scales of Settlement Study for Complex Societies: Analytical Issues from the Classic Maya Area. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:151–168.Google Scholar
de Montmollin, O. 1989 Archaeology of Political Structure: Settlement Analysis in Classic Maya Polity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Dore, C. D. 1986 Cultural Spaces in a Philadelphia Restaurant. Coyote Press, Salinas, California.Google Scholar
Dunnell, R. C., and Dancey, W. S. 1983 The Siteless Survey: A Regional Scale Data Collection Strategy. In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 7, edited by M. B. Schiffer, pp. 267–287. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Dunning, N. P. 1989 Archaelogical Investigations at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico: Intersite Reconnaissance and Soil Studies During the 1987 Field Season. Publications in Anthropology No. 2. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Farriss, N. M. 1984 Maya Society Under Colonial Rule: The Collective Enterprise of Survival. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. 1990 At the Margins of the Monte Alban State: Settlement Patterns in the Ejutla Valley. Latin American Antiquity 1:216–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, K. V. 1976 Sampling by Intensive Surface Collection. In The Early Mesoamerican Village, edited by K. V. Flannery, pp. 51–62. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Folan, W. J. 1969 Dzibilchaltún, Yucatán, Mexico: Structures 384, 385, and 386: A Preliminary Interpretation. American Antiquity 34:434–461.Google Scholar
Folan, W. J., Kintz, E. R., and Fletcher, L. A. 1983 Coba: A Classic Maya Metropolis. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Garza Tarazona de Gonzales, S., and Kurjack B., E. B. 1980 Atlas arqueológico del estado de Yucatán. 2 vols. Institute Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Hayden, B., and Cannon, A. 1983 Where the Garbage Goes: Refuse Disposal in the Maya Highlands. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2:117–163.Google Scholar
Healan, D. M., and Stoutamire, J. W. 1989 Surface Survey of the Tula Urban Zone. In Tula of the Toltecs, edited by D. M. Healan, pp. 203–236. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.Google Scholar
Hillier, B., and Hanson, J. 1984 The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge Univeristy Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hunt, M. 1974 Colonial Yucatan: Town and Region in the Seventeenth-Century. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Killion, T. W. 1990 Cultivation Intensity and Residential Site Structure: An Ethnoarchaeological Examination of Peasant Agriculture in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas. Latin American Antiquity 1:191–215.Google Scholar
Killion, T. W., Sabloff, J. A., Tourtellot, G., and Dunning, N. P. 1989 Surface Assemblages at Terminal Classic (A.D. 800–1000) Sayil, Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:273–294.Google Scholar
Kneebone, R. R. 1990 The Community as Artifact: An Investigation of Prehispanic Community Structure. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Kowalski, J. K. 1987 The House of the Governor: A Maya Palace at Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Kurjack, E. B., Garza T., S., and Lucas, J. 1979 Archaeological Settlement Patterns and Modern Geography in the Puuc Hills Region of Yucatan. In The Puuc: New Perspectives, edited by L. Mills, pp. 36–45. Scholarly Studies in the Liberal Arts No. 1. Central College, Pella, Iowa.Google Scholar
Leventhal, R. M. 1983 Household Groups and Classic Maya Religion. In Prehistoric Settlement Patterns: Essays in Honor of Gordon R. Willey, edited by E. V. Vogt and R. M. Leventhal, pp. 55–78. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
McAnany, P. A. 1986 Lithic Technology and Exchange Among Wetland Farmers of the Eastern Maya Lowlands. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of New Mexico, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
McAnany, P. A. 1989 Stone-Tool Production and Exchange in the Eastern Maya Lowlands: The Consumer Perspective From Pulltrouser Swamp, Belize. American Antiquity 54:332–346.Google Scholar
McAnany, P. A. 1990 Chultunes: A Key to Population Estimates and a Method for Assessing Architectural Variability. In Prehistoric Population History in the Maya Lowlands, edited by T. P. Culbert and D. S. Rice, pp. 263–284. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. 1973 Territorial Organization of the Lowland Classic Maya. Science 180:911–916.Google Scholar
Matheny, R. T. 1978 Northern Maya Water-Control Systems. In Pre-Hispanic Maya Agriculture, edited by P. Harrison and B. L. Turner, pp. 185–210. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Millon, R. F. 1973 The Teotihuacan Map. Urbanization at Teotihuacan, Mexico, vol. I, pt. 1: Text. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
O’Brien, M. J., Lewarch, D. E., Mason, R., and Neely, J. A. 1982 A Late Formative Irrigation Settlement Below Monte Alban: Survey and Excavation on the Xoxocotlan Piedmont, Oaxaca, Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Parsons, J. R. 1971 Prehispanic Settlement Patterns in the Texcoco Region, Mexico. Memoirs No. 3. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patch, R. C. 1979 A Colonial Regime: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Pollock, H. E. 1980 The Puuc: An Architectural Survey of the Hill Country of Yucatan and Northern Campeche, Mexico. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Memoirs Vol. 19. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Pool, C. A. 1990 Prehistoric Ceramic Production in Mesoamerica: A View from Matacapan. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Pool, C. A., Ortiz, P., Salazar, Z., and Martinez, J. 1987 Final Field Report, Matacapan Project: 1986 Season. Submitted to the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., and the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Rapoport, A. 1977 Human Aspects of Urban Form. Pergamon, Oxford.Google Scholar
Rapoport, A. 1982 The Meaning of the Built Environment: A Nonverbal Communication Approach. Sage, Beverly Hills.Google Scholar
Rivera, M. 1989 Excavaciones arqueológicas en Oxkintoc, Yucatán: Tercera temporada. Mexicon XI:96–102 Google Scholar
Roys, R. L. 1957 The Political Geography of the Yucatan Maya. Publication No. 613. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Ruppert, K., and Smith, A. L. 1957 House Types in the Environs of Mayapan and at Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Chichen Itza, and Chacchob. Current Reports No. 39. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Rugg, D. S. 1979 Spatial Foundations of Urbanism. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J. A., and Tourtellot, G. 1991 The Ancient Maya City of Sayil: The Mapping of a Puuc Region Center. Publication No. 60. Middle American Research Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J. A., McAnany, P. A., Fahmel Beyer, B., Gallareta, T., Larralde, S., and Wandsnider, L. 1984 Ancient Maya Settlement Patterns at the Site of Sayil, Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico: Initial Reconnaissance (1983). Research Series No. 14. Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sabloff, J. A., Tourtellot, G., Fahmel Beyer, B., McAnany, P. A., Christensen, D., Boucher, S., and Killion, T. 1985 Settlement and Community Patterns at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico: The 1984 Season. Research Series No. 17. Latin American Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sanders, W. T., Parsons, J. R., and Santley, R. S. 1979 The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Santley, R. S., and Arnold, P. J. III 1984 Obscured by the Clouds. Journal of Anthropological Research 40:211–230.Google Scholar
Santley, R. S., Arnold, P. J. III, and Pool, C. A. 1989 Ceramic Production Systems at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 16:107–132.Google Scholar
Santley, R. S., Ortiz, P., Arnold, P. J. III, Smyth, M. P., and Kerley, J. M. 1984 Final Field Report, The Matacapan Archaeological Project, 1983 Field Season. Submitted to the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., and Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Santley, R. S., Ortiz C., P., Arnold, P. J. III, Hall, B. A., Kann, V., Kneebone, R. R., Mora M., D., Olivares M., R., Parra U., C., Pool, C. A., Salazar B., Z., Smyth, M. P., and Yarborough, C. M. 1985 Final Field Report, Matacapan Archaeological Project: 1984 Field Season. Submitted to the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., and Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Smith, R. E. 1971 The Pottery of Mayapan. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Smyth, M. P. 1989 Domestic Storage Behavior in Mesoamerica: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. In Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 1, edited by M. B. Schiffer, pp. 89–138. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Smyth, M. P. 1990 Maize Storage Among the Puuc Maya: The Development of an Archaeological Method. Ancient Mesoamerica 1:51–69.Google Scholar
Smyth, M. P. 1991 Modern Maya Storage Behavior: Ethnoarchaeological Case Examples from the Puuc Region of Yucatan. Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology No. 3. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Smyth, M. P., and Dore, C. D. 1990 La organización de la comunidad en Sayil, Yucatán, México, fase III: Una investigación arqueológica de un sitio grande de los mayas. Informe final de la temporada de 1990 al Consejo de Arqueología y Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, D.F.Google Scholar
Thomas, D. H. 1975 Nonsite Sampling in Archaeology: Up the Creek Without a Site? In Sampling in Archaeology, edited by J. W. Mueller, pp. 61–81. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Thompson, J. E. 1970 Maya History and Religion. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Thompson, P. C. 1978 Tekanto in the Eighteenth Century. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Tolstoy, P., and Fish, S. K. 1975 Surface and Subsurface Evidence for Community Size at Coapexco, Mexico. Journal of Field Archaeology 2:97–104.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G. 1983 An Assessment of Classic Maya Household Composition. In Prehistoric Settlement Patterns: Essays in Honor of Gordon R. Willey, edited by E. V. Vogt and R. M. Leventhal, pp. 35–54. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J. A., and Carmean, K. 1992 Will the Real Elites Please Stand Up?: An Archaeological Assessment of Maya Elite Behavior in the Terminal Classic Period. In Mesoamerican Elites: An Archaeological Assessment, edited by A. F. Chase and D. Z. Chase. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, in press.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J. A., and Smyth, M. P. 1990 Room Counts and Population Estimation for Terminal Classic Sayil in the Puuc Region, Yucatan, Mexico. In Prehistoric Population History in the Maya Lowlands, edited by T. P. Culbert, pp. 245–261. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J. A., Smyth, M. P., Whitley, L. V., Walling, S., Gallareta N., T., Perez A., C., Andrews, G. F., and Dunning, N. P. 1988 Mapping Community Patterns at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico: The 1985 Season. Journal of New World Archaeology 8:1–24.Google Scholar
Tourtellot, G., Sabloff, J. A., McAnany, P. A., Killion, T. W., Dunning, N. P., Carmean, K., Cobos Palma, R., Dore, C. D., Fahmel Beyer, B., Lopez Varela, S. L., Perez Alvarez, C., and Wurtzburg, S. J., with an appendix by M. P. Smyth 1989 Archaeological Investigations at Sayil, Yucatan, Mexico, Phase II: The 1987 Field Season. Anthropological Papers. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Tozzer, A. M. (editor and translator) 1941 Landa’s Relación de las cosas de Yucatan. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 18. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wandsnider, L., and Ebert, J. I. 1988 Issues in Archaeological Surface Survey: Meshing Method and Theory. American Archaeology 7:2.Google Scholar
Webster, D. 1988 Investigating Maya Institutions and Culture History of Copan, Honduras. Paper presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Phoenix.Google Scholar
Webster, D., and Gonlin, N. 1988 Household Remains of the Humblest Maya. Journal of Field Archaeology 15:169–190.Google Scholar
Willey, G. 1973 The Altar de Sacrificios Excavations: General Summary and Conclusions. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, Harvard University 64:3. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Wilk, R. R., and Ashmore, W. (editors) 1988 Household and Community in the Mesoamerican Past. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Wurtzburg, S. 1990 Sayil Lithics: Implications for Urban Economic Organization. Paper presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Las Vegas.Google Scholar