Maya Monumental “Boom”: Rapid Development, Hybrid Architecture, and “Pretentiousness” in the Fabrication of Place at Alabama, East-Central Belize

ABSTRACT

Boomtowns are the product of unique flows of development characterized by relatively rapid population growth and land conversion, and the sudden appearance of functional and place-making features, much of which may not be readily apparent in the archaeological record. While settlements may expand rapidly in the absence of these forms, and thus lie outside the boomtown definition, we propose that the process does, in fact, describe development at the ancient Maya site of Alabama, Belize. We invoke archaeological evidence in the description of the tempo and tone of development at Alabama during the Late to Terminal Classic period (ca. 700–900 a.d.): a dynamic interval of Maya civilization. If, as archaeologists, we are truly interested in understanding the social and demographic processes that drove change in prehistoric and historic human landscapes, we must take care to incorporate descriptions of the human-scale experiences of development itself.

KEYWORDS:

• archaeology
• ancient Maya
• boomtown
• architectural planning
• Belize
• monumental architecture
• spatial analyses

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Research Centre and Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences at Athabasca University, and our generous supporters through Experiment.com. We thank the Belize Institute of Archaeology for granting us a permit to conduct archaeological investigations at Alabama, and the property owners for allowing us access to the private land on which Alabama is situated. None of this research could have been accomplished without our SCRAP team, including local and foreign assistants, students, and research collaborators. A special thank you to Dr. Elizabeth Graham, Dr. Brett Houk, Dr. Laurie Milne, Dr. Elizabeth Paris, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Any mistakes are our own.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on Contributors

Meaghan M. Peuramaki-Brown (Ph.D. 2013, University of Calgary) is Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Athabasca University and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, both in Alberta, Canada. Her research focuses primarily on ancient settlement development and household activity patterns. She is Principal Investigator of the Stann Creek Regional Archaeology Project and has worked at several sites in Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Her university teaching takes place entirely online and, as a result, she has a particular interest in technology-enabled learning in archaeological pedagogy, education, and outreach.

Shawn G. Morton (Ph.D. 2015, University of Calgary) is a Lecturer in Anthropology at Northern Arizona University, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, and a Research Associate at Michigan State University. He is interested in the development of early civilizations, particularly the urban societies of the Maya region. Much of his work has focused on aspects of public performance and ritual within the ancient cityscape and broader landscape, including extensive work in the deep cave contexts of Belize. He is also interested in modifying and applying techniques of analysis and modelling used in the study of modern urban contexts and exploring their utility in the ancient context. He is currently co-Principal Investigator of the Stann Creek Regional Archaeology Project.