Final Report of the 2000 Yo’okop Field Season: Initial Mapping and Surface Collections
Justine M. Shaw, Dave Johnstone, and Ruth Krochock

Initial Hypotheses

The initial archaeological research at Yo’okop revolves around two sets of related hypotheses. The first of these predicts that the relative size of Yo’okop’s occupation will vary with the climate changes documented in studies of nearby lakes and cenotes. The second deals with Yo’okop’s political fortunes as a frontier site. These hypotheses will be discussed in depth here, but will be fully evaluated at the close of the report, after all data have been presented (see "Discussion and Conclusions").

It is believed that since Yo’okop has only one water source, an aguada not in direct contact with the water table, site occupation will be particularly sensitive to any abnormally dry episodes. Unlike many other northern sites, Yo’okop lacks cenotes, which provide access to the freshwater lens floating over a thicker layer of salt water (Dahlin 1983) and no ancient wells have been located at the site. Instead, its aguada functions more like chultunes, which capture and store potable water in the Puuc zone (Becquelin and Michelet 1994). Even if well maintained (Faust 1998), aguadas require regular local rainfall to refill. Cenotes, relying on the freshwater table within the limestone substrate, have a much larger water supply from which to draw. Therefore, any markedly dry periods would impact not just Yo’okop’s inhabitants’ ability to grow crops, but could go so far as to make potable water scarce or unavailable.

Evaluating the relative correlation between Yo’okop’s occupation and climate change involves the use of a local climatic sequence from Lake Chichancanab (Figure 2) (Hodell et al. 1995), located just 20 kilometers from Yo’okop. This sequence, using ¹⁸O/ ¹⁶O ratios, documents the region’s climate through most of the Holocene. These data, much more detailed than previous explorations of the lake’s record (Covich 1970; Covich and Stuiver 1974), demonstrate unambiguous evidence for climatic drying between A.D. 800 and 1000.  This evidence is consistent with data from Punta Laguna, located approximately 20 kilometers north of Cobá (Curtis and Hodell 1996), Cenote San José Chulchacá, in northwestern Yucatán (Leyden et al. 1996; Whitmore et al. 1996), Lake Cobá and Lake Sayaucil (Leyden et al. 1998; Whitmore et al. 1996), and Lake Miragoane, Haiti (Hodell et al. 1991). If this episode, the driest of the past 8,000 years, is at least partially responsible for the decline of the Classic Maya in the central lowlands (Lowe 1985; Gill 1995 and 2000; Shaw 2000), then climatic downturns detected in the local Lake Chichancanab sediment cores should be accompanied by some changes at Yo’okop.

It was predicted that the impact of such water scarcity should appear at Yo’okop through investments in water capture and storage and/or as a decrease in occupation size. We could begin to evaluate the first expected signal of water scarcity at Yo’okop, increased investment in water capture and storage, during the first season. Mapping portions of the site core (Figure 3), including the area surrounding the aguada, demonstrated that monumental constructions may have served to re-direct and capture water for storage. Future seasons may explore the degree to which these efforts might have also included enlarging the aguada by quarrying it for the construction of the adjacent Group A, which contains the site’s tallest structure. Folan and others (1983:455) have proposed that the lakes at Cobá may have originated as quarries, becoming lakes after excavations struck the water table.

Scarborough’s (1993 and 1994) work at Kinal and La Milpa demonstrates the prevalence of such subtle features at other Maya sites. The careful management of water storage features permitted long-term occupations in areas that lacked permanent natural sources of water, such as at Tikal (Scarborough 1998). Although such features may have been an integral part of site planning from early in Yo’okop’s occupational sequence, it was predicted that any marked changes in the evaporation/precipitation ratio, like that seen from about A.D. 800-1000, should be met with increased investment in these features. In the future, we would like to test-pit detected water management features in hopes of obtaining ceramics, or even C-14 samples, that might produce an estimated date for their construction. Future excavations will also be aimed at exploring if, and when, the aguada was modified by humans (e.g. Faust 1998; Shattuck 1933). Test pitting or trenching the aguada is clearly critical to the testing of this hypothesis, but the time investment needed for such a technically demanding excavation is beyond that available during the first few seasons of the project.

Another signal of water scarcity is anticipated to be a marked decrease in the site-wide relative population size. Although some population might concentrate at Yo’okop’s aguada for potable water during drought times, it would be impossible to grow enough food to sustain a sizeable population without a more extensive system of water provision with multiple water outlets. Therefore, the overall population of the site should drop during any extended dry period; even if the aguada was modified to the extent that it was able to store sufficient drinking water, prolonged crop failures would likely bring about a marked population decrease. Due to the limited nature of the 2000 project, and its focus on initially mapping major architectural groups, we can only begin to make very preliminary statements about the relative population of Yo’okop during any given time period.

Particularly dry conditions might also be reflected in a range of other social responses. One might expect the leaders of Yo’okop, as political and religious heads (Freidel et al. 1995), to have responded to drought with an increase in, or elaboration of, ritual activities and investments. Even if population decreased, more monumental constructions or modifications might have accompanied this prolonged threat. In the future, when excavations can be carried out to explore and date large architecture, this consequence may be evaluated. Additionally, or alternately, innovations in religious practice, such as the borrowing of deities or concepts, may have taken place as leaders feverishly attempted to appease the being(s) responsible for drought. It is hoped that Ruth Krochock’s studies of existing and future epigraphic materials can begin to explore this issue (see "Epigraphy").

We began to evaluate this first set of hypotheses during the first season of research through the comparison of relative ceramic frequencies from each time period. Analyzed according to the Type-Variety system, the total number of identified sherds from each time period can be compared. It is predicted that if the Terminal Classic (A.D. 750/800-1000) was so dry that water for agriculture, or even drinking, was scarce, sherd counts should decrease during this period. The very general trends detected in this initial test of the hypothesis (see "Ceramic Analyses") will be further explored in future seasons as more excavations provide a better picture of how settlement patterns change through time. After excavations are conducted, comparisons between time periods will be made on a site-wide basis in terms of the number of occupational loci per period.

A second set of hypotheses evaluated this first season concerns Yo’okop’s political affiliations. There is a lack of knowledge about the region for the Formative and Early Classic periods, often buried under layers of construction fill. Some sense of the political affiliations of Yo’okop (assuming the site was occupied during these times), as expressed through ceramic and architectural styles, could begin to be assessed during the first season. This was done by noting the appearance of diagnostic architectural elements (i.e. Early Classic Izamal-style blocks) and ceramics. As excavations are conducted in future seasons, it is hoped that the discovery of early in situ architecture and ceramics will enable researchers to determine the regions with which Yo’okop was affiliated during the first part of its occupation.

Currently, much more is understood about the Late to Terminal Classic at the site. Robles and Andrews (1986, Figure 3.4) place Yo’okop in an Eastern cultural sphere dominated by Cobá. If this was the case, then it is expected that the architecture, ceramics, and lithic sources of the site would closely resemble those of the dominant site in the cultural sphere, Cobá. An alternative hypothesis is that Yo’okop functioned as a frontier town between competing political and economic spheres. This might have resulted in a blending of traditions and styles. Although some initial assessments are possible after the first season (see "Architecture", "Ceramic Analyses", and "Epigraphy") it is premature to ascribe the site to any cultural sphere without further research.

Yo’okop is located between the Puuc, Central Yucatán, and Petén architectural styles (Figure 4), each associated with different regional ceramic spheres (Fry 1987; Robles 1990). These architectural and ceramic distributions are believed to represent cultural or political units with possible affiliations to macrostates (e.g. Martin and Grube 1995). Each of these surrounding regions were powerful enough to exert significant influence over Yo’okop, including direct conquest. Recent research (e.g. Andrews and Robles 1985) has shown that Maya warfare and alliance systems extended over large distances. The question of political affiliation may be addressed directly through contemporary texts, as well as inferred from architectural and ceramic data.

The regional architectural styles are relatively easily distinguished, at least for the Terminal Classic and Postclassic periods. The Petén style consists in part of plain load-bearing walls of roughly quarried stone, slab corbelled vaults, and plain terraces with rounded corners. This style has been noted at Cobá (Thompson et al. 1932:108), and in the "Petén Corridor" of Eastern Quintana Roo (Harrison 1982:120-121). The Puuc style is composed of core-veneer masonry, including the vault stones, with plain substructures (Pollock 1980). The Central Yucatán style (Potter 1977) includes corbelled vaults whose stones have either rounded or beveled faces, walls composed of a combination of semi-load-bearing and cut veneer stone, and terraces with recessed panels. Veneer stones are present at Yo’okop, especially in Group B.  No substantial intact Terminal Classic structures were noted however, making a stylistic determination of the architecture impossible at this time. This state of preservation may be the result of the systematic destruction and burial of these buildings and the subsequent reuse of their stones, as has been reported at Uomuul (Harrison 1979:200).

Ceramically, the Northern Yucatán is dominated in the Terminal Classic by slate wares belonging to the Sotuta, Eastern Cehpech, and Western Cehpech spheres (Bey et al. 1992; Johnstone 1998). These wares have been reported from southern Quintana Roo (Fry 1987), though in lower frequencies. Ceramic spheres may be distinguished on the presence of certain types and varieties, as well as on the basis of vessel form. During the Late Classic, the differences between the Central Yucatán, Northwest Plains, and Northeast regions were based on local redwares represented by Becanchén Red-Brown, Conkal Red, and Batres Red respectively (Johnstone 1998), and on differences in the origins of tradewares, particularly polychromes (Fry 1987; Robles 1990). Regional differences in the Early Classic are unclear, due in part to the paucity of data for areas to the west and south.

If Cobá was dominating the region of Yo’okop, as Andrews and Robles suggest, then it was expected that the ceramics and architecture would follow that of Cobá (i.e. Eastern Cehpech and Petén). Alternately, if Yo’okop managed to resist the imperial aspirations of Cobá and remained independent, then local, or possibly hybrid, architectural (e.g. E.W. Andrews 1979; G. Andrews 1985) and ceramic styles are predicted. According to Krochock’s evaluation of Yo’okop’s epigraphic materials, the southern distribution of the kalomte title in hieroglyphic texts and the presence of the diagonally-held double-headed serpent bar at sites in the central Petén suggest that Yo’okop may have been more affiliated with the Southern Lowlands than the Northern Late Classic period sites. Because Cobá also tends to be affiliated more with the Southern Lowlands that other Northern sites, the pattern of distribution might help to support the notion that Yo’okop was an outpost of Cobá.

The two major sets of hypotheses, involving drought-related abandonment and conquest-related depopulation, would imply similar archaeological signatures under certain conditions. Therefore, research in following seasons will seek to distinguish between these causal factors by meticulously documenting numerous contexts (i.e. areas with evidence of burning, collapsed vaults, smashed ceramic vessels, and/or cut floors) around important structures in the site center (Freidel and Suhler 1995; Inomata 1997). It is hoped that this will then allow investigators to distinguish superficially similar events, such as natural decay accompanied by refuse accumulation and the purposeful destruction and desecration of key locales.

Neither hypothesis should be considered in isolation. It is clear that climatic events, such as significantly dry periods, can have profound social and political implications. Gaining, losing, or changing political affiliations could be one of the many responses aimed at dealing with drought. If Yo’okop was faced with a climate dry enough to make sustaining its population without assistance impossible, leaders may have indeed turned to Cobá, centered around lakes, for such aid. When conditions allowed locally grown crops to support the site, Yo’okop may have struggled to attain or maintain itself as a more independent center.

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