Settlement Patterns in Uxmal Area, Yucatan, Mexico*

Alfredo Barrera Rubio
Settlement Patterns
in Uxmal Area, Yucatan, Mexico*
En el curso
del l e v a n t a m i e n t o
c a r t o g r á f i c o de U x m a l se
r e d e s c u b r i ó la muralla q u e c i r c u n d a b a el n ú c l e o central de este
c e n t r o Maya. A m o d o de p r u e b a se e x a m i n a r o n m á s d e t e n i d a m e n t e algunos g r u p o s de viviendas situados en el n o r t e . Ellas
d i e r o n p o r resultado una relación estrecha entre la t o p o g r a f í a ,
la naturaleza del suelo y l o s c o m p l e j o s habitacionales. T a m b i é n
a q u í se hallaron i n d i c i o s evidentes de una estructura social
y
urbana,
y
el p r o c e s o de p o b l a c i ó n
p u d o ser
investigado
r e t r o s p e c t i v a m e n t e hasta el p e r í o d o p r e c l á s i c o .
At Uxmal, one o f the most important archaeological sites o f the Puuc
region of northern Yucatán, the Centro Regional del Sureste o f the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia is conducting a detailed study
o f the community structure and settlement patterns. Among the results
obtained from this settlement pattern survey are the rediscovery o f the
Uxmal site wall and a study o f a residential sector on the north side o f
the site. In this sector, which represents a sampling o f the overall habitational zone o f the site, we have been able to determine a strong interrelationship between ecological factors such as soil and topography and
the distribution o f residential complexes.
•
Paper presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society
ogy,
for American
Archaeol-
Tucson, Arizona (May, 1978).
227
Considering the extent o f the residential zone, the highly nucleated
character o f the remains, and clearcut evidence o f social stratification
we believe that the community reflects a number o f features showing an
urban character. Also, the ceramics f r o m the survey attest to a long span
o f occupation at the site, beginning in Formative times.
As an ecological zone, the Uxmal area offers a number o f advantages
for human settlement; most important is the quality o f the soil, which
is highly fertile and is found in deep deposits around the site. On the
other hand, the scarcity o f water in the region posed a serious problem
f o r human settlers; the Puuc region lacks cenotes and rivers, and offers
only a few scattered aguadas or waterholes, most o f which are dry during
several months o f the year.
The Maya o f Uxmal overcame the water problem by building chultunes,
or underground cisterns, f o r purposes o f rainwater storage; in our limited
survey we have plotted over 122 o f these (Barrera Rubio 1977a and G o n zález Fernández 1977), in an area o f approximately one square kilometer;
these are found in plazas at the center o f the site, and in terraces and
platforms in the residential zone.
The stagnant water in the seasonal aguadas in the area were a likely
supply o f water for construction purposes, but were probably not major
sources o f potable water.
Archaeological surveys in the Puuc area in the past have paid scant
attention to settlement patterns. Chroniclers, travelers and explorers
have waxed eloquent on the beauty and monumentality o f the architectural remains o f Puuc sites; work in recent years has concentrated
almost exclusively on the consolidation and conservation o f these remains.
Reports on the residential areas have been superficial and few and far
between; the first such observation was made by Edward H. T h o m p s o n
( 1 8 8 6 : 2 5 2 f.), who reported a number o f small mounds and platforms
in the vicinity o f Labná, and consequently deduced that these were the
foundations f o r perishable residential structures.
Much later Karl Ruppert and Ledyard Smith ( 1 9 5 7 : 5 8 0 - 5 8 4 )
reported several residential clusters at Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil and Chacchob.
At Uxmal they made a sketch map o f 33 isolated structures o n the south
side o f the site next to the road to San Simón. Aside f r o m these brief
reports, settlement pattern studies at the site level in the Puuc area are
nonexistent.
The absence o f settlement pattern data in one o f the most important
archaeological regions in the northern Mayan Lowlands prompted our
survey and the selection o f Uxmal as an excellent site for a case study.
Our project is conducted under the premise that settlement patterns
reflect the e c o n o m i c and social structure o f the community and its
228
adaptation to the surrounding natural habitat. In the case o f Uxmal
we have determined that the diversity and distribution o f residential structures, the energy cost invested into their construction, their proximity
to goods and services areas, water cisterns and fertile soil, all provide
indications o f social stratification and community organization at Uxmal.
In addition, preliminary reconnaissance of the outlying areas is under
way, with the objective of establishing links between the site proper and
minor secondary centers in the periphery; this will enable us to provide
a preliminary sketch o f the political organization at the regional level.
The project began with the detailed mapping o f the civic ceremonial
center, including all major structures not marked on previous maps o f
the site. In the course of this mapping we relocated the wall around the
central part of the site which was partly mapped on its west side by
Stephens and Catherwood in 1 8 4 1 - 1 8 4 2 (Stephens 1843, I: 165);
later reports of the wall were made by Eligió Ancona in 1878 (1978:
85) and César Sáenz(1972: 36).
These reports only provide incomplete data o f the wall which we have
now mapped in its entirety; this was made possible with the help o f
detailed 1 : 20,000 scale airphotos o f the site provided by the Compañía
Mexicana de Aereofoto (Fig. 1).
The wall has an irregular elliptical plan; the north-south axis is approximately one kilometer long, and the east-west axis measures approximately
600 meters. Most of the major buildings are located inside the wall. The
west and south sides o f the wall are fairly well preserved, while sections
along the north and east sides have been destroyed by the construction
o f the modern highway and tourist facilities.
Similar walls have been reported from several sites in northwestern
Yucatán; at Aké, Muna anc Chunchucmil; these walls have been dated
to the Pure Florescent period ( 8 0 0 - 1000 A . D . ; Kurjack and Andrews
1976: 322). Our test pitting in the Uxmal wall indicates a similar date
of construction (Gonzáles Fernández 1977).
Most of the major buildings of the civic ceremonial center are located
inside the wall. The same is true for the above mentioned sites. At Uxmal,
our general impression is that the wall encloses the central precinct in
which the elite lived; this was the seat o f government, and the nucleus o f
economic activity in the city.
Beyond the wall lived the minor functionaries and servants o f the
elite, along with the majority of the population, composed by peasants
who provided the economic foundations for the city. The settlement
pattern survey o f this area reflects an efficient adaptation to the surrounding habitat. As mentioned above there is a clear interdependence between
topographical features, soil types and human settlement patterns.
229
In the Uxmal area there are three major different soil types, called in
the Mayan language: Pusluum, Kankab and Akalché.
Pusluum is a reddish brown soil (Munsell 1975: 5 Y R 4 / 3 ) , which is
reputed to be the most fertile o f the region for seasonal agriculture; it
is always f o u n d on hillsides and natural rises with g o o d drainage. Kankab
is a dark red soil (Munsell 1975: 2.5 Y R 3 / 6 ) f o u n d in flat lands without
g o o d drainage. Akalché soils are light olive brown b o t t o m soils (Munsell
1975: 2.5 Y 5 / 4 ) and are o f t e n the receptacles o f seasonal aguadas.
In our survey we f o u n d that all the residential complexes were located
in Xhs. Pusluum soil areas (Fig. 2). However, the Kankab and Akalché areas
were also exploited, as they still are today. Several colonial sources indicate
that the Maya exploited several kinds o f soil types and microenvironmental areas simultaneously; certain areas o f the Puuc were reputed to
have produced two crops a year ( R Y , I: 138, 207). These sources and
other data imply that the Puuc region was the foodbasket o f northern
Yucatán (Patch 1977: 63).
In the area in which we mapped most o f the residential structures we
f o u n d a great variety o f residential types; most prominent were large
platform complexes supporting vaulted buildings and assorted perishable
structures. These complexes also incorporated most o f the chultunes
located in the survey, some o f which have rehef carvings in their interior
walls (Fig. 3).
Other complexes are characterized by small platforms without vaulted
buildings; these rarely have chultunes. Finally, at the b o t t o m o f the
social scale, we have isolated foundations o f apsidal and round structures
which lack chultunes altogether.
Excavations in the residential areas did uncover ceramics which date
to Formative and Terminal Classic (Pure Florescent) times. The lowest
levels o f the excavations contained wares characteristic o f Smith's Tihosuco
c o m p l e x (Yucatán opaque ware. N o l o Red and Ucu Black groups). These
formative wares represent approximately 10 % o f the sample. The primary
period o f occupation was during the Pure Florescent, as most o f our
ceramics are representative o f the Cehpech c o m p l e x .
CONCLUSIONS
The ultimate objective o f our project is to provide a general view o f
the types o f settlement patterns that occur in this previously unsurveyed
region in the northern Maya Lowlands. On the basis o f our work so far
we would like to make t w o preliminary observations.
230
Our survey o f chultunes reflects a massive investment o f labor for
purposes o f rainwater storage; on the other hand, the vast rainwater
facilities indicated a precarious dependence o f the population on seasonal
rainfall patterns. The primary association o f chultunes with-high status
residential complexes also reflects elite control o f water deposits.
Another fact that became apparent in the course o f our study was that
the Uxmal settlement pattern is quite different from that o f other sites
in northern Yucatán. At sites like Chunchucmil (Vlcek 1978), Dzibilchaltun (Kuijack 1974), Coba (Fletcher and Kintz 1977; Garduño 1977),
Mayapán (Smith 1962), Cozumel (Freidel 1976) and Tulum (Barrera
Rubio 1977), which are located on flat plains, the habitational zones
tend to be evenly distributed over the landscape. In the hilly Puuc region
the settlement pattern reflects an adaptation to the irregular terrain. At
Uxmal residential complexes occur in nucleated clusters on elevated land
areas. These grouping o f residential units on natural features also makes
the use o f walls unnecessary, unlike the above mentioned sites, which have
extensive networks o f such walls defined by features o f the terrain.
We believe that Uxmal has an urban character similar to the above
mentioned sites. What remains to be determined is whether the settlement
pattern it exhibits reflects a different kind o f social structure o f merely
an adaptation to a different type o f terrain.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is being conducted under the auspices o f the Centro Regional del Sureste o f the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia
de México. The director o f the project was Norberto González Crespo and
the field work was directed by the author o f this paper; the mapping o f the
site wall was undertaken by Baltazar González Fernández, and Teresa
Ramayo Lanz was responsable for the excavation o f several o f the chultunes. Both are associated with the school o f A n t h r o p o l o g y o f the University o f Yucatán. I would like to thank Norberto González Crespo,
Juan M. Andrews and A n t h o n y P. Andrews for their comments o n the
preparation o f this paper. The latter translated the paper into English.
231
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Fig. 1: Aerial p h o t o g r a p h o f U x m a l , Y u c a t á n . N o t e part o f the l o w wall e n c l o s i n g
m u c h o f the central g r o u p .
234
Fig. 2 : U x m a l and its surroundings. H o u s e p l a t f o r m s are visible in the cleared fields,
these are l o c a t e d southeast o f the civic c e r e m o n i a l center o f U x m a l .
Fig. 3 : R e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f aquatic animals associated with the rain c u l t : s t u c c o basreliefs l o c a t e d o n an interior wall o f an u n d e r g r o u n d cistern that was f o u n d in an
habitational p l a t f o r m in the n o r t h e r n sector o f U x m a l . ( D r a w n b y Henri Christopher
Dunster)
235