A Statistical Examination of Settlement Patterns at Tikal, Guatemala

1980 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 713-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne E. Arnold ◽  
Anabel Ford
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Residential Units

The widely applied concentric zonation model for Classic period Maya centers, which specifies that high-ranking persons lived closer to the central civic-ceremonial precinct than low-ranking persons, is tested for the site of Tikal. Our method is to identify residential units from the Carr and Hazard (1961) Tikal maps and to compute labor investment costs of construction of residential units from variables derived exclusively from the cartographic data. Our finding is that the Tikal data do not substantiate the concentric zonation model.

MAYA HETERARCHY AS INFERRED FROM CLASSIC-PERIOD PLAZA PLANS

2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marshall Joseph Becker
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Lowland Maya

Recognition of architectural patterning among groups of structures at lowland Maya sites dating from the Classic period provides insights into the ways that residences and ritual complexes were organized. Each structured group arrangement, or Plaza Plan (PP), reveals an architectural grammar that provides the database enabling us to predict urban as well as rural settlement patterns. Wide variations in sizes among examples of residential PPs suggests that heterarchy was an important aspect of Classic Maya society. Examination of PP2 at Tikal indicates that a heterarchic pattern of organization existed. Heterarchy may relate to the fragility of the structure of lowland Maya kingship, and this may explain the gradual demise of states during the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods and their replacement by re-emergent Maya chiefdoms.

scholarly journals ARQUEOLOGÍA DEL AGUA Y LAS MONTAÑAS: PAISAJE Y PATRÓN DE ASENTAMIENTO EN LA COSTA ESTE DE LOS TUXTLAS

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Lourdes Budar Budar ◽  
Gibránn Becerra
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Study ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Los Tuxtlas ◽  
Methods And Techniques ◽  
Port System

Desde el año 2008 arqueólogos de la Universidad Veracruzana han realizado el estudio sistemático de la costa oriental de Los Tuxtlas, en el sur de Veracruz. Trabajos basados en un recorrido intensivo de superficie han cubierto un área de 250 km2. Gracias a estos estudios, se ha identificado evidencias de ocupación prehispánica, pautas de multiculturalidad y patrones de asentamiento distintivos en la región que se relacionan al desarrollo de un sistema portuario marítimo durante el periodo Clásico (300-1000 dC). Se hace un recuento de los métodos y técnicas utilizadas, así como de los resultados que se tienen hasta el momento. ARCHEOLOGY OF WATER AND MOUNTAINS:LANDSCAPE AND SETTLEMENT PATTERN ON THE EAST COAST OF THE TUXTLAS ABSTRACTSince 2008, archaeologists from the Universidad Veracruzana have carried out a systematic study of the eastern coast of Los Tuxtlas, in southern Veracruz. Investigations based on an archaeological survey have covered an area of 250 sq km. Thanks to these studies, evidence of prehispanic occupation, patterns of multiculturalism, and distinctive settlement patterns has been identified in the region that is related to the development of a maritime port system during the Classic period (300-1000 AD). This paper provides a description of the methods and techniques used in these investigations as well as the results that are available up to the present.Keywords: Los Tuxtlas; Prehispanic Ports; Settlement Pattern.

A new look at Maya statecraft from Copan, Honduras

Antiquity ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (234) ◽  
pp. 157-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Fash
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Environmental Studies ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religious Symbolism ◽  
New Look ◽  
The Revolution

The revelations in the study of the Ancient Maya made possible by the revolution in hieroglyphic decipherment have not occurred in isolation. Archaeological investigations within the last three decades have produced a much broader vision of Maya society during the Classic Period than previously possible. Particularly, the study of settlement patterns in conjunction with environmental studies has opened new vistas onto the size and organization of the populations which supported the rulers in their civic-ceremonial centres (Ashmore 1981; Culbert & Rice n.d.). The challenge for the present, and future, is to combine the archaeological record with the studies of inscriptions and politico-religious symbolism, to build a more complete and incisive reconstruction of the past. Where the two records are particularly clear and abundant, we may also aspire to explaining the past.

Land Tenure Systems at the Ancient Maya Site of Actuncan, Belize

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa J. LeCount ◽  
Chester P. Walker ◽  
John H. Blitz ◽  
Ted C. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Agricultural Field ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Residential Units ◽  
Maya Site ◽  
Land Tenure Systems

A common property regime was established at the founding of the Maya site of Actuncan, Belize, in the Terminal Preclassic period (175 BC–AD 300), which governed access to land until the Terminal Classic period (AD 780–1000). This interpretation is based on urban settlement patterns documented through household excavation and remote-sensing programs. Excavations of all visible patio-focused groups in the urban core provided data to reconstruct residential histories, and a 60,621 m2 gradiometer survey resulted in a magnetic gradient map that was used to document buried constructions. Twenty ground-truth testpits correlated types of magnetic signatures to buried patio-focused groups and smaller constructions, including walled plots in agricultural field systems that were later exposed more fully through large-scale excavations. Combined, these methods provided data to reconstruct four correlates of land tenure systems: (1) the spatial proximity of residential units to land and resources, (2) diachronic changes in community settlement patterns, (3) land subdivision and improvements, and (4) public goods. Spatial analyses documented that houselots did not cluster through time, but instead became gradually improved, lending evidence to suggest the transgenerational inheritance of property rights in the Late and Terminal Classic periods.

Where the Rich Folks Lived: Deranging Factors in the Statistical Analysis of Tikal Settlement

1982 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Haviland
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Statistical Study ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Valid Test ◽  
The Rich

In a recent statistical study of settlement patterns at Tikal, Guatemala, Arnold and Ford failed to find evidence for the concentric zonation model which specifies that high-ranking persons generally lived closer to the site center than persons of lesser rank. However, their conclusions are invalidated by their exclusion from consideration of the houses occupied by the wealthy and powerful members of Tikal society. Attention is called to other deranging factors which need to be considered before a valid test of the concentric zonation model can be carried out Tikal, or at any other large and complex site.

scholarly journals RÍO BEC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AND LOCAL SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Nondédéo ◽  
M. Charlotte Arnauld ◽  
Dominique Michelet
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Sociopolitical Organization ◽  
The Social ◽  
Study Zone ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractBased on settlement patterns in the Río Bec micro-region, a study zone (100 km2) focused on the eponymous site, there is no evidence that any of the monumental groups underwent true processes of significant, sustainable nucleation on a broad sociopolitical level. This paper analyzes Río Bec settlement patterns in order to better understand why processes of agglomeration did not occur at the site. Our approach to this question consists of analyzing the spatial distribution of settlements in relation to their internal hierarchy, while taking in account evolution through time. The study was carried out at two different scales of analysis, and results are presented for both the “micro-region” and “nuclear zone” (159 ha) scales. The overarching objective of this contribution is to gain greater insight into the social dimensions of the processes that took place at Río Bec during the Classic period.

Cycles of change in Jomon settlement: a case study from eastern Tokyo Bay

Antiquity ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (338) ◽  
pp. 1169-1181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico R. Crema
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Tokyo Bay ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
The North ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Regular Cycle ◽  
Residential Units ◽  
North Eastern

Japanese archaeology benefits from the large number of rescue excavations conducted during recent decades that have led to an unparalleled record of archaeological sites. That record is here put to use to interrogate changing settlement patterns in the north-eastern corner of Tokyo Bay during several millennia of the Jomon period (Early, Middle and Late Jomon: 7000–3220 cal BP). Jomon hunter-gatherer occupation is characterised by large numbers of settlements, some of them substantial in size, containing hundreds of individual pit-house residential units. Detailed analysis of the rank-size distribution of these settlements reveals a pattern in which periods of settlement clumping, with few large settlements, alternate with more dispersed settlement patterns on a regular cycle of approximately 600 years. The regularity of this cycle might suggest a correlation with cycles of climatic change, such as Bond events. Closer scrutiny shows, however, that such a correlation is unconvincing and suggests that cyclical change in Jomon settlement patterns may instead be due to other factors.

LIVING IN THE CITY: SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AND THE URBAN EXPERIENCE AT CLASSIC PERIOD CHUNCHUCMIL, YUCATAN, MEXICO

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Magnoni ◽  
Scott R. Hutson ◽  
Bruce H. Dahlin
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Urban Experience ◽  
Urban Settlement ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Basic Characteristics ◽  
The City ◽  
Early Late

AbstractIn this paper we illustrate the distinctive settlement patterns of the city of Chunchucmil during its largest occupation in the middle of the Classic period (a.d.400–650). The unusually dense urban settlement showcased a network of boundary walls andchichbessurrounding residential groups and narrow streets winding between the tightly bounded houselots. Using a sample of 392 completely and unambiguously bounded houselots, we review the basic characteristics, the structural composition, and variability of late Early Classic and early Late Classic residential groups. Then, we explore how these city dwellers may have experienced their urban environment. Our focus is on understanding how the material aspects of the socially constructed space affected people's practices and how this materiality helped create and define specific household identities as well as extra-household social bonds.

THE HIATUS AT TIKAL, GUATEMALA

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hattula Moholy-Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Preliminary Conclusion ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Stone Monuments ◽  
Lowland Maya

Research on the Lowland Maya Hiatus that focuses solely on the inscriptions on monuments is too limited to provide information about its causes, nature, and consequences. I consider the hiatus at Tikal using additional evidence from architecture, settlement patterns, caches and burials, domestic artifacts, and inscriptions on portable objects. A preliminary conclusion is that Tikal's long hiatus can be regarded as part of a sequence of internal political development rather than due to conquest from outside. The displacement and destruction of inscribed and plain stone monuments was an ongoing phenomenon at Tikal. It was present from Terminal Preclassic times and occurred with increasing frequency until the beginning of the late Late Classic period. Monument destruction may have come to a halt then under a series of powerful rulers. The setting of inscribed stone monuments and wooden lintels continued for another two centuries until the disappearance of dynastic rule itself.

scholarly journals Ancient and modern use of pine at the site of Chinikihá, Chiapas, México

2017 ◽  
pp. 107-114
Author(s):  
Felipe Trabanino ◽  
Aurora Muriente Pastrana
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Economic Importance ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Home Gardens ◽  
Wood Charcoal ◽  
Agricultural Fields ◽  
Regional Markets ◽  
Residential Units ◽  
Archaeobotanical Remains

Archaeobotanical remains of ocote pine have been recovered from different Classic Period (AD 300 - 900) Maya sites indicating use in ritual ceremonies and in household refuse for the fertilization of agricultural fields. Our results in the Palenque region, at the archaeological site of Chinikihá dating to Cal AD 620, suggest that there was no difference in the use of ocote in the residential units compared to that in the palace units. Ocote wood charcoal remains were found in ceremonial contexts, burials, household refuse deposited in home gardens, and patio’s soils. We consider the ancient use of ocote pine alongside modern use of ocote in Guatemala and Chiapas, which has an economic importance with the cutting of pine sticks to sell in regional markets to use as torch for illumination and lighting daily cooking fires.

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