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

Architectural Details

To date, twelve excavation operations (Operations 01 A-L) have been conducted on Structure 1 at Nakbé, forming an important body of data relevant to the construction and form of this early structure. These investigations were placed on both the upper platform of the building, the northern and southern corners, as well as the basal portion of the east facade.

The excavations of the upper platform indicated that the upper structures of the triad were constructed in a single effort. However, the central structure did have two staircases, constructed in the Late Preclassic period, with a poorly preserved stairway added over a well-preserved, main staircase of the building (Figure 3). A tunnel placed by looters in 1990 through the central axis of the central building of the upper approximately eight meters below the summit located no burials or tombs. In addition, no burials were located in the north summit structure of Structure 1 which had also been tunneled by looters, and excavated, recorded and backfilled in 1990. The lack of tombs or burials in the summit triadic structures of large Preclassic buildings replicates a pattern previously observed at El Mirador and other triadic structures at Nakbé. ³   Excavations of the facades of the summit buildings at Nakbé, however, revealed the remains of five Preclassic masks and panels in poor condition. ⁴   Four of these masks and panels were on the eastern facade of the Central summit structure, while an additional panel was located on the North building. The construction of the masks and panels of the summit structures corresponds with the earliest floor of the upper platform, and no additional, interior facades were evident. The placement of illicit tunnel excavations in the Central and North structures of the triadic arrangement on the upper platform in 1990 and 1991 also revealed no interior buildings. This serves to indicate that the panels served both stairway construction phases and the three floors of the upper platform. It can be deduced from this that the construction of the summit buildings was primarily a single, monumental effort, and not a cumulative modification.

Three superimposed lime plaster floors were located on the summit platform, with the upper, badly damaged floor measuring 5 to 8 cm thick, while the second floor was extremely hard and in good preservation. This floor was placed on a layer of sascab (limestone marl) mixed with numerous chunks of polychrome stucco fragments. At a depth of 24 cm below the upper floor, a third, hard stucco floor was located which is directly associated with the panels portrayed the architectural art on the summit of the building. This thin, hard floor was placed directly on the rubble fill of the structure, and no earlier phases of construction were detected. Excavations into the fill ceased at 2.35 meters below the third, hard floor, and lateral extensions of the excavations into the fill of the platform extended across the base of the central stairway of the building. No detectable anomalies such as the foundation caches under the stairway of Preclassic structures in Alta Verapaz (Sharer and Sedat, 1987: Plate 3:34), or burials at the base of the central structure of the triad such as on the Late Classic structure of Caaná at Caracol were located.

Excavations at the base of Structure 1 in 1991, 1992, and 1998 revealed that large masks and panels in good condition had been deliberately buried by subsequent masks and panels of the facade of the final construction phase of the building. It was during the early Late Preclassic period that architecture art appeared, forming deity portraits that flanked the central stairway of structures. These last masks and panels were in extremely poor condition, with only small portions of the masks and panels still intact (Figure 4). The panels contained poorly preserved earspools carved out of the blocks with attached profile deity portraits, a down-turned "bird" deity beak, and a J-scroll and bracket motif attached to the end of the snout (Figure 7, shown below). A bench was located at the base of the panels, and excavations in 1996 recovered a ceramic implement believed to be a modeling tool directly on the bench where the artisan left it after apparently breaking it (Figure 8, shown below). The implement was curved and pointed, so as to fit precisely over the stucco scrolls that had been modeled over the stone armatures. In addition, the back side of the implement had what appears to be a very early glyph, perhaps a name or title of owner. The presence of this element is indicative of the early writing systems that had begun to appear during the Late Preclassic period in the Mirador Basin (e.g. Hansen, 1991a).

The interior or earlier masks and panels depicted the large ear spools, terrestrial and celestial elements in the panels, and profile deity replicas of the central image (Hansen, 1992a). The image is a deity portrait depicting the Principal Bird Deity (Bardawil, 1976; Cortez, 1986; Hansen, ibid; Kappelman, 1997), a supernatural protagonist identified in the Popol Vuh as well as sculpture and other examples of Mesoamerican art. This image forms a primordial symbol of power and authority to which incipient Lowland Maya elite could lay claim to or descendency from. The Popol Vuh mentions that the supreme deity of the previous era was a bird macaw known as Vucub Caquix, who was tricked and defeated by the Hero Twins of the story. In this manner, power was usurped and acquired by the defeat of the opponent. Often, Maya rulers appear to have imitated the avian characteristics of Vucub Caquix of the Popol Vuh which allowed them to inherit legal authority (Hansen, ibid; Kappelman, ibid).

In order to adequately evaluate the architectural sequence of Structure 1, it was deemed necessary to include an expanded horizontal study of the last construction phase of the structure to understand the iconography and variations in construction techniques, as well as relevant chronological information to help identify the architectural sequence of the building through tunnel excavations.

Endnotes

3. Extensive excavations of the triadic structures of Monos, Danta, and Tigre pyramids at El Mirador, as well as Structures 13, 27 and 59 at Nakbé showed no evidence of burials associated with the triad architecture. Important major exceptions to this are the Preclassic tombs found in Structure 3 at Wakna, and the Classic burials found by Arlen and Diane Chase in Caan Ná at Caracol, and in Structure 5D-22 at Tikal. Excavations placed in the same locations as the those at Wakna and Caracol failed to locate burials, and any pattern for burial locations in triadic architecture cannot yet be reliably predicted.

4. The poor condition is believed to be attributed in part to the fact that the summit faces east, the direction of predominant winds and storms.

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