The settlement patterns of Komchen, Yucatan, Mexico (Mesoamerican)
Description
This dissertation describes the settlement patterns of the archaeological site of Komchen, located in the northwest corner of Yucatan, Mexico. This Maya town flourished during the Middle and Late Formative (approximately 600 B.C. to A.D. 250), although it was later reoccupied by smaller populations The site is of importance for several reasons. It first of all shows that complex communities were evolving in the northern peninsula at the same time, or even slightly earlier, than they were in the southern Lowlands, usually considered the heartland of Maya civilization. With approximately 1400 structures and a maximum population of 2500-3000 in an area of 2.4 square kilometers, Komchen also shows that the northern Maya pattern of dense residential settlement extended back into the Formative period, despite apparently unfavorable agricultural conditions. Massive ceremonial architecture at Komchen was constructed at the beginning of the Late Formative, perhaps around 350 B.C., and was comparable in size to Maya civic architecture elsewhere in the Lowlands at that time Komchen apparently evolved in a region marked by low rainfall and thin soils, but these were counterbalanced by several factors. One was Komchen's proximity to the sea and to coastal salt flats. Salt was a later trade commodity, and it is suggested that Komchen may have been involved in a regional exchange system. The high water table and scrub vegetation may also have made the area favorable to early agriculturalists with limited technology. The frequency of droughts and crop failures was another factor that probably fostered the development of more complex community organization in the northwestern peninsula through the evolution of exchange and communication networks that spread the risk of such failures across greater regions The study concludes with comparative studies of Lowland Formative demographics, settlement patterns, burial practices, and ceremonial architecture