For a few centuries during the Late-Terminal Classic periods (A.D. 700-950), the Puuc architectural style flourished in the hilly northwest corner of the Yucatan peninsula, an area now largely devoid of population. This style influenced architecture throughout northern Yucatan, as well as exhibiting close ties to the Rio Bec and Chenes regional subcultures. The overarching purpose of this project, directed by Tomas Gallareta Negron (INAH, Mexico), George J. Bey III (Millsaps College), and William M. Ringle (Davidson College), is to understand the genesis and elaboration of this regional subculture in economic, political, and social terms. In contrast to the large, widely spaced cities of the northern plains, the communities of the Bolonchen district of the eastern Puuc Hills are smaller and much more densely packed. Although soils of the region are quite fertile, the hilly landscape of the Bolonchen District seems to have militated against large sites. Lack of surface water also forced reliance upon cisterns (chultunes). Despite this, Bolonchen sites evidence a high level of prosperity and social complexity.
With support from the National Science Foundation, this project will examine three neighboring mid-level communities (Labna, Kiuic, and Huntichmul), all classic exemplars of the Puuc style. Since agricultural production may be one key to their wealth, urban development will be contextualized through examination of the hinterlands connecting the three centers, the first rural survey in the Puuc. Excellent surface visibility and preservation permits accumulation of detailed information on structure size and elaboration, even of the most humble.
A central hypothesis is that prosperity was due in part to a process of rural reorganization paralleling the proliferation of small urban centers. Preliminary work suggests this involved expansion of a broadly based landed elite present in both town and country. Elites and their dependents may have formed small production units residing in manor-like settlements on individual hills, each unit presiding over a pocket of cultivable land. One goal of the project will therefore be to document the distribution of settlement, especially elite settlement, to these cultivable pockets and to date the evolution of land management by means of surface collections and architectural styles. Alternatively, hill groups may have been involved in craft production, in which case less connection to arable parcels may be expected. Two of these units will be intensively excavated to assess economic activities and architectural development over time.
A further goal will be to understand the connection between urban centers and their hinterlands. Was administration and ritual life centralized or not? Were these centers in turn subject to larger cities such as Uxmal? Were urban elites like those of the hinterlands? Detailed mapping of civic architecture in particular will demonstrate whether communities shared common administrative or ritual facilities, reflecting centralized leadership, or were perhaps more varied, suggesting political independence. Further questions include the time depth of Puuc settlement. Work has already demonstrated construction centuries earlier than previously believed, but the nature of the Terminal Classic boom remains to be clarified, as does its demise. Recent discovery of post-monumental structures suggests abandonment may have been less abrupt than previously believed. One such compound will be excavated, as well as a late Puuc-style residential compound for comparison.
The intellectual merits of this proposal will thus be to 1) elucidate past successful management of an area which today is underpopulated, 2) understand the developmental history of this process, and 3) understand how regional identities are formed, politically, economically, and socially.
More broadly, this project is part of a larger initiative directed toward preservation and management of both cultural and natural resources in one of the last stands of primary forest in the Puuc Hills. It will involve senior staff and students from Mexico, the U.S., and elsewhere. We hope too that employment, training, and education of local villagers will place them advantageously in a rapidly evolving tourist economy.
