The Architectural Development of an Early Maya Structure at Nakbé, Petén, Guatemala

Investigation Setting

Structure 1 (Figure 2) is located in the Western Group of major architecture at Nakbé. The building was built in the triadic architectural form and rises 48 m above the forest floor. It rests on a Middle Preclassic platform about seven meters high (Figure 3, shown below) in association with other Middle and Late Preclassic buildings. ¹   The final visible version of Structure 1 was erected during the early Late Preclassic period (ca. 300-200 B.C.). ² 

Seven masks and panels (or portions of them) have been excavated on the building, including a mask 11 m wide and 5 m high depicting a bird image known as the Principal Bird Deity (Hansen, 1992a) (Figure 4 & Figure 5). Detailed stucco analyses of the art by the Getty Conservation Institute (E. Hansen et al., 1995; 1997) show that it was created in a single, complex effort, although some modification of the original mask and panels included the covering of an earspool on the lower portions of the panels. Excavations also show that the three buildings of the triadic pattern on the summit were built in a single effort. However, five superimposed plaster floors dating to the Middle and Late Preclassic periods were known to extend into the interior of the structure (Figure 6) suggesting the probability of earlier, well-preserved buildings inside.

Excavations in the well-stratified Middle Preclassic deposits at Nakbé have shown distinct features in the evolution of architectural construction techniques and structural form (Hansen, 1998). According to the data from Operations 47 A, 47 B, 48 A, 48 B, 49 A, 51 G, 51 H, 51 I, 51 K, 51 L, 51 M at Nakbé, the earliest forms of architecture, dating from ca. 1000-800 B.C. consisted of residential constructions consisting of low, wattle-and-daub houses with hard packed clay floors, perishable constructions with packed earth with post holes carved into bedrock, and elongated low walls with roughly hewn stones. The earliest monumental architecture at Nakbé (between 700 and 500 B.C.) consisted of vertical wall platforms, approximately two to three meters high, constructed with roughly hewn stones, and covered with a thin, crude, plaster. However, during the latter portions of the Middle Preclassic period (500-350 B.C.), radical architectural changes included the construction of platforms and walls with large, finely cut blocks, the introduction of apron moldings, a "conspicuous consumption" of limestone and lime plaster, and distinctive technology in the manufacture of stucco (Hansen, ibid).

The evolutionary pattern of architectural sequences at Nakbé has been determined by numerous excavations throughout the site. However, it was believed that the largest architectural complex at the site might be able to show a continuum of the constructional sequence, provide better preservation of buried features, and verify (or discredit) the sequence of architectural development that had been observed. For this reason, excavations in the form of tunnels through Structure 1 were thought to be the most productive, efficient, and most conservative methods of determining the architectural sequences and antecedent patterns of the largest structures at the site.

Endnotes

1. Excavations of the central area of the plaza/platform (Operation 01 F) revealed at least three stucco floors near the surface, with the possibility of a later floor near the surface which had been completely eroded. Ceramics below the subsequent three floors were exclusively Middle Preclassic pottery, consisting of chamfered tecomates, Palma Daub type ceramics, and typical monochrome types.

   Excavations on Structure 04 by Gustavo Martinez indicated a Middle Preclassic construction date for this small building, while excavations and extensive tunnels directed by Hansen on Structure 13, located on the east side of the platform, revealed that the entire structure was built in a single episode in the Late Preclassic period. The consistent triadic format, the associated architectural art, consisting of badly damaged masks and panels (Hansen, 1992a), and the off-set entrances in the upper rooms of the building are standard architectural patterns for the Late Preclassic period. Additional structures on the platform (Str. 10, 11, 12) have not been tested.

2. The antiquity of Structure 1 has been determined ceramically to date to the early Late Preclassic period. Ceramics from this period consist of labial flange bowls, small incurved rim, monochrome bowls, and waxy/semi-waxy red slips. The majority of the ceramics associated with the primary Late Preclassic populations at El Mirador and Nakbé consist of medial flange monochromes, pseudo-Usulután decoration, very large basin-type bowls, mushroom stands, waxy monochromes, unslipped striated jars, and other typical types of the Chicanel Ceramic Sphere. However, most of these typical types and forms from the Late Preclassic period were absent from the materials associated with the monumental masks and panels, leading me to suggest an early Late Preclassic date for the erection of the majority of the structure. The ceramics recovered directly on the floor in association with the last phase of construction indicates a slightly later Late Preclassic use. Extensive excavations at El Mirador and Nakbé have indicated the diachronic sequences and forms of Late Preclassic types and associated stratigraphy associations (e.g. Hansen and Forsyth, 1987; Hansen, 1990; Forsyth, 1989; 1993).

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