Architectural Aesthetics, Orientations, and Reuse at the Terminal Classic Maya Site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala

ABSTRACT

The Terminal Classic period (ca. a.d. 830–950/1000) in the Southern Maya Lowlands is known as a time in which investments in public architecture and vaulted masonry buildings began to wane. Masonry constructions have often been noted to be of poorer quality in comparison with previous phases. Moving beyond models of scarcity, this paper examines the aesthetics, meanings, and reorientations of architectural projects at the site of Ucanal, Petén, Guatemala during the Terminal Classic period. We highlight three processes that were central to the new architectural programs at the site: an emphasis on the aesthetics of wood, the reorientation of sacred space in residential contexts, and the fragmentation and reuse of buildings and monuments. Although these materials and processes are often associated with a loss of splendor, we suggest that they were part of an active architectural revisionism, one that remade history by reworking the old and reorienting the new.

KEYWORDS:

• architecture
• aesthetics
• monumental reuse
• spolia
• shrines
• political collapse
• Maya
• Terminal Classic period
• Mesoamerica

Acknowledgments

Research by the Proyecto Arquólogico Ucanal was funded by a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC/CRSH), the National Geographic Society, Waitt Foundation, Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Société et Culture (FRQSC), San Diego Mesa College, and Université de Montréal. We thank our project excavators and personnel from San José, Barrio Nuevo San José, La Blanca, and Pichelito II for their expertise and assistance in the field, as well as Miriam Salas Pol for her dedicated work as ceramic specialist and laboratory director. We are grateful to the Departmento de Monumentos Prehispánicos y Coloniales from the Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes in Guatemala for their support and permission to work at Ucanal.

Disclosure statement

No financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the research conducted herein.

Notes on Contributors

Christina Tsune Halperin (Ph.D. 2007, University of California, Riverside) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Université de Montréal. Her research examines ancient Maya politics from the perspectives of household political-economies, gender, materiality, and everyday life. She has published extensively on topics such as ceramic figurines, Classic Maya textile production, chemical analysis of polychrome pottery, architecture, and landscape archaeology. Halperin has conducted archaeological field investigations, laboratory analysis, and museum research at numerous sites in Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize since 1997. Currently, she is directing the Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal in Petén, Guatemala to investigate inter-regional interactions during the wake of Classic Maya political collapse.

Jose Luis Garrido Lopez (Licenciado en Arqueología 2008, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala) has been the co-director of the Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal in Petén, Guatemala since 2014. He has participated in numerous archaeological projects in Guatemala, including Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Proyecto Arqueológico de Rescate Ixquisis, Proyecto Arqueológico Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, Cobán, Alta Verapaz, and the Proyecto Arqueológico de Rescate Grupo A – IV – 1 Sector III Norte de Kaminaljuyu. He is currently in the program on Specialization in Renewable Energy from the Facultad de Ingeniería at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.