Querying Quarries: Stone Extraction Practices and Socioeconomic Organization in Three Sub-Regions of the Maya Lowlands

Household Quarry-Reservoirs at the Ancient Maya Site of Yaxnohcah, Mexico

“…These storage features range from well-studied, large, central-precinct reservoirs to individual household water jars (Brewer 2018; Scarborough and Gallopin 1991; Weiss-Krejci and Sabbas 2002). In addition, depressions of varying sizes that originated as either natural karstic sinkholes or as anthropogenically quarried cavities often were sealed to retain water (Dunning et al 2015; Horowitz et al 2021). These small water-storage features may have been individually or communally controlled “household tanks,” providing for the needs of individual homesteads or a group of residences (e.g., a plaza group).…”