Sacred Landscapes and Building Practices at Uci, Kancab, and Ucanha, Yucatan, Mexico

Abstract

During the emergence of regional hierarchy around the site of Uci in northwest Yucatan, Mexico, ordinary people affected power relations in at least two ways. First, in the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods, Uci had the largest ceremonial center and the largest population within a 20 km radius. Uci also physically linked itself to smaller settlements, such as Kancab and Ucanha, by means of a broad stone causeway. Yet Kancab and Ucanha's quadripartite placement of causeways and central plaza suggests that its households created a sacred landscape that gave them a degree of ritual autonomy. Ordinary people impacted power relations a second way by participating in the development of the megalithic architectural style, which was used in the region's most authoritative buildings. The use of this style in domestic platforms illustrates the ability of modest households to make their own decisions and to act in ways that constituted society at large.

Small Buildings and Small Budgets

“…Whereas pedestrian survey identified drop-offs in settlement density that marked site edges on the north and south sides of Ucanha, analysis of the lidar DEM located the rest of the site's edges and established that Ucanha covered 2.19 km 2 (Hutson and Welch 2014). The lidar imagery shows that settlement density beyond the proposed site edges is at least six times lower than settlement density within Ucanha.…”

“…Since buildings with 20 m 2 or more of roofed space are large enough to serve as residences (Ashmore 1981:47;Kolb 1985;Tourtellot 1983:37), chi'ich piles and small structures with a surface area well above 20 m 2 may have been houses, as opposed to kitchens, storage sheds, or some other auxiliary edifice. Within Ucanha and Kancab, the maximum distance between a residential platform and its nearest neighboring residential platform is almost always under 50 m. We therefore consider clusters of three or more small buildings to be domestic compounds of their own-probably the residences of less wealthy people-if the nearest residential platform is located at least 50 m away and if one of the small buildings exceeds 20 m 2 (see also Hutson and Welch 2014;Tourtellot et al 1990). When small structures and chi'ich piles are located adjacent to larger platforms that support residential structures, it is more likely that they are not houses but rather auxiliary constructions (Ashmore 1981) or footings for economi-cally useful trees or succulents.…”

“…Previous research using aerial photography and limited mapping on the ground produced the following estimates of the size of the four large sites along the causeway: Ucí 4 km 2 , Kancab 1.5 km 2 , Ucanha 2 km 2 , and Cansahcab 2km 2 (Garza Tarazona de Gonzalez and Kurjack 1980;Kurjack and Andrews 1976:323;Maldonado 1995:76). Prior to the lidar flight, UCRIP's systematic pedestrian surveys showed that Ucí covered 7 km 2 and Kancab covered 1.2 km 2 , while Ucí had seven times as much monumental architecture as Kancab (Hutson and Welch 2014), leaving no doubt that Ucí overshadowed Kancab in the Ucí-Kancab settlement cluster. In the Ucanha-Cansahcab settlement cluster, UCRIP pedestrian survey was not extensive enough to determine Ucanha's size, and UCRIP had not surveyed any of Cansahcab, which is partially disturbed by the modern town of the same name (population approximately 5,000).…”

Islamicization Strategies in Kao Ancient Village, North Halmahera

“…Delle, 1999;González-Ruibal, 2012;Joseph, 1993;Lucas, 2009;McGuire, 1991;Ogundiran, 2014;Rodning, 2011). Beyond the edge of the historical record these investigations become more difficult, but here too archaeologists have identified ideology's effect on settlement patterns (Harrower, 2008;Siegel, 2010) and vice versa (Hutson & Welch, 2014;Love, 2013). Change in ideology may spur the contestation, abandonment, or destruction of old sacred sites (Bolender, Steinberg, & Damiata, 2011;Lucas et al, 2009;Oland, 2014).…”

Ancient Maya Commerce : Multidisciplinary Research at Chunchucmil

“…Unlike many sites in the northern lowlands during the Early Classic (see, for example, Puuc sites like Chac II [Smyth and Rogart 2004:figure 2] or sites in the Ucí/Izamal/Aké area [Hutson and Welch 2014]), Chunchucmil's domestic architecture conforms closely to Petén-like plazuela groups (see chapter 3). This suggests that Chunchucmil had close ties to the southern lowlands and may have been affected by Calakmul's ascendancy, unquestionably the largest transformation in southern lowlands politics at the time.…”