Classic Maya Seaports: Uaymil, North Campeche Coast

Conclusion

The cultural remains found at Uaymil showed the presence of Cehpech and Sotuta ceramic materials associated with obsidian and architecture typical of Chichén Itzá and Uxmal. All these materials relate Uaymil to Uxmal as much as to Chichén Itzá and, for that very reason, there can be no doubt that Uaymil took part in the distribution network of objects which arrived at the center of Yucatán from the southeast of Campeche, the Usumacinta region, the highlands of Guatemala, Veracruz, the highlands of México, and western México during the Terminal Classic period (A.D. 800–1050).

When we consider how strategic Uaymil’s position was on the north coast of Campeche, its internal layout, and the Terminal Classic period archaeological remains found at the site, all this suggests to us that Uaymil neither functioned as an independent coastal port nor a coastal port dependent on one political capital located inland. Rather, the evidence found at Uaymil suggests that it must have functioned as a trans-shipment station. This is to say that the function of Uaymil was to facilitate the movement of objects and merchandise that would eventually arrive at Chichén Itzá via Isla Cerritos. Apparently, Uxmal—the great capital of the western Maya northern lowlands—also benefited from the specific function that Uaymil carried out at the end of the Classic period.

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