ABSTRACT
Inspired by a urry of new eldwork in Yucatan, by the chapters in this book, and by Geoff Braswell’s request that I write about the directions Maya archaeology might take, I will review what we have learned and suggest how we might move forward. The Yucatan Peninsula is divided among three Mexican states: Yucatan, Campeche, and Quintana Roo. It comprises almost 200,000 square kilometers, or two-thirds of the Maya region. Yucatan, however, receives neither two-thirds of all funding nor two-thirds of the attention of Maya archaeologists. For these and other reasons, mentioned below, it is not surprising that the story of the northern Maya lowlands is less well documented than that of the southern lowlands. Indeed, when the term “Maya” is mentioned, most people immediately think of the southern lowlands, with its myriad cities, giant temples, and white roof-combs poking up through the green rainforest, and its thousands of hieroglyphic texts providing the names, deeds, and rites of Maya kings and queens. Many young archaeologists arrive in the southern lowlands, fall in love with it, and cannot imagine leaving it for another region. Still others begin in the northern lowlands, grow tired of the dense secondary growth and the acahuales, and end up going to the southern lowlands. Now, however, the northern lowlands seems to have a hard core of excellent archaeologists who look as if they will stay and continue to conduct long-term excavations and surveys (e.g., Anderson 2003, 2009; Ardren 1997; Ardren et al. 2003; Bey et al. 1998; Bey and May Ciau 2005; Bond-Freeman et al. 1998; Burgos et al. 2003; Gallareta Negrón et al. 2003, 2004; Glover and Amador 2005; Glover et al. 2005; Hutson et al. 2004; Johnstone 2001; Magnoni et al. 2008; Mathews 2001, 2003; Mathews and Morrison 2006; Morrison 2000; Rissolo et al. 2005; Shaw and Mathews 2005; Sierra Sosa 1999, 2001; Smith 2000; Smyth 2006, 2008, 2009; Smyth and Rogart 2004; Stanton 2000; Stanton and Ardren 2005; Stanton et al. 2010; Uriarte Torres 2004, 2007; Varela Torrecilla 1998; and the authors of the papers in this volume). One reason the contributions of the northern lowlands have never been fully appreciated relates to the image of the region: it is still perceived as the poor country cousin of the southern lowlands. This view persists despite the fact that it was interregional interaction that set in motion many of the developments seen in the northern lowlands, southern lowlands, and Guatemalan highlands. All three areas were inextricably linked by language, history, the exchange of craft goods and raw materials, and a wide range of co-occurring processes that
united the Maya world. Each area contributed key elements to the emergence of new social and political institutions (Marcus 2008). Without this interaction, none of the apogees and collapses seen in these regions can be understood. Large numbers of people moved between regions. Without economic competition and political conict, some of their political institutions would not have emerged. Collapses seem less mysterious when one can document refugees moving from one region to another. To be sure, our increasingly ne-grained chronologies suggest that one region occasionally had a headstart on another, but even these may be the apparent products of where one excavates and what is preserved there. If we continue to downplay our data from the northern lowlands, we will lack essential pieces of the Maya puzzle. Giving those data their due will make it easier to explain the dynamic cycles so characteristic of Maya societies (Marcus 1992, 1993, 1998; Sharer with Traxler 2006). Features of the Northern Lowlands
What were the distinctive features of the northern lowlands that played a role in both local and regional developments? What might the northern lowlands have contributed to making Maya civilization what it was? Let us begin with the fact that the Yucatan Peninsula has no rivers, and includes some of the driest zones within the Maya area. In the northwestern corner of the Yucatan Peninsula, for example, some places receive no rain during the dry season; and even during the rainy season, when they receive about 50 centimeters, they experience very high rates of evapotranspiration. Much of the northern lowlands has thin or poor soils, and more than 25% has been characterized as having virtually no soil at all (Beach 1998; Isphording and Wilson 1973; LuzzadderBeach 2000; Perry et al. 1995, 2002, 2003). Bedrock is exposed in these deated zones. Although having no soil in some locales was a negative for ancient Maya farmers, it can be a positive for archaeologists. Exposed bedrock can allow archaeologists to locate the remains of Paleoindian and Archaic sites on the surface. In other words, a systematic and comprehensive survey of areas with exposed bedrock should yield important data on early periods. The poor soils of the northern lowlands, in tandem with low rainfall and high evapotranspiration rates, posed formidable challenges to the support of large concentrations of people. It would have been particularly difcult during the long dry season for thousands of people to meet their daily water needs (Houck Jr. 2006). In spite of these difculties, the ancient Maya clearly made a successful living, as exemplied by the particularly arid area where the site of Chunchucmil is located. Chunchucmil lies 68 kilometers southwest of Merida and 55 kilometers northwest of Uxmal. Fortunately, it is less than 20 kilometers from a swampy estuary, which could be navigated with canoes to gain access to the Gulf of Mexico. By A.D. 500 it had become an urban center with walled residential groups, streets, and a possible marketplace. Chunchucmil apparently specialized in maritime trade, and met the needs of its population by importing basic subsistence items, all the while exhibiting a brand of urbanism that seems distinct from that seen in the southern lowlands (Ardren et al. 2003; Dahlin 2009; Dahlin et al. 2005, 2007; Stanton et al. 2000, 2010). Given its thin soils and its location, Chunchucmil evidently relied much less on maize and more on estuary and marine foods than was the case with other sites on the peninsula (Mansell et al. 2006).
