[Aztlan] New Mayapan Settlement Study Website and Dissertation Available

[Bradley Russell]

Dear Listeros,
I wanted to let you know that my recently completed dissertation, Postclassic Maya Settlement on the Rural-Urban Fringe of Mayapan Mexico is now available.
 
I launched a new project website yesterday:
 
mayapanperiphery.net
 
Please check it out.  It details and previews the findings of theis new settlement study.  There are numerous maps and figures there and I will be adding many more over the next couple of weeks and then when I get back from the field in the fall.  I hope it contains useful data for many of you.  
 
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments you have.  
 
The full dissertation can be downloaded in PDF format from the page's downloads page or by following these direct links:
 
Volume I - http://mayapanperiphery.net/Russell-2008-Vol-1.pdf
Volume II - http://mayapanperiphery.net/Russell-2008-Vol-2.pdf
 
Be warned they are rather large files and the download times are kind of long. But it is a lot faster than ordering it through your local library.
 
A PDF of a recent poster sized map detailing key settlement features and overall site organization can also be downloaded from the site.
 
 
 
 
As a preview here's a short abstract describing the work:
 
Postclassic Maya Settlement on the Rural Urban Fringe of Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico (2008)
 
abstract     This dissertation details the results of a multi-year (2001-2004) study of settlement patterning on the periphery of the Postclassic Maya capital of Mayapán, Yucatán, Mexico (regional map).  Ethnohistoric and archaeological evidence both suggest that the site was the capital of the last powerful Pre-Hispanic regional polity in the area.  The apparently coerced resettlement of local elites and portions of the populations of provinces that came under Mayapán’s control to its site center (Proskouriakoff 1957 map) led to a very rapid rise of the site and an equally rapid fissioning and depopulation when internal strife resulted in its demise. In contrast to earlier Classic Period political centers, Mayapán is a very large and dense settlement (site map).  The massive defensive walls surrounding the site are arguably the most formidable anywhere in Mesoamerica.  The obvious differences in settlement patterning seem to reflect significant social changes taking place between the two major periods of Maya pre-history.       Research reported in this volume includes mapping, test pitting and soil sampling of architecture encountered along eight survey transects extending 1 km in various cardinal directions from the city’s roughly 9 km city wall.  The study analyzed the form and function of all architecture recorded in this previously unexplored portion of the site.  New data presented here suggest that some 17,000 people were present at the site, rather than the 12,000 person population estimate that has been widely used since 1962.  The estimated site size more than doubled from 4.2 sq km to between 8.8 sq km (map) and 10.1 sq km (map).  The site-wide spatial distribution and function of, residential settlement zones, economic production activities, the road system, administrative architecture and ritual architecture are all explored in detail.  The results presented here and being generated by other ongoing research at the site by both INAH and Dr. Marilyn Masson of SUNY – Albany raise important questions about the scale of political complexity achieved by the polity centered at the site.  The complexity, size and form of the city suggest that it may be the capital of a previously unappreciated Maya/Itza empire that co-existed with other better known Postclassic empires such as the Aztecs and Tarascans.  
 
Hope to hear from you soon,
 
Brad Russell
 
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