Making Senses of the Past: Toward a Sensory Archaeology

5. Maya Palaces as Experiences: Ancient Maya Royal Architecture and Its Influence on Sensory Perception

90 5. Maya Palaces as Experiences: Ancient Maya Royal Architecture and Its Influence on Sensory Perception Ryan Mongelluzzo Abstract: This work examines ancient Maya Classic (250–900 c.e.) palaces, with a focus on new evidence recovered from the royal court at Holmul, Guatemala . Ancient Maya palaces were designed and modified as expressions of authority and through nonverbal communication maintained the power and position of the rulers who were anchored inside them. I take a phenomenological approach using a series of spatial analyses and intersite comparisons with the main palace at the site of Tikal, the largest power near Holmul, to deduce how palace morphology affected sensory perception and movement. Uncovering ancient palace spatial systems is an integral part of understanding ancient Maya rulership, Maya tenets of architectural design, and how we as humans experience our built landscapes. Architecture, Power, and the Senses Palaces were the architectural embodiment of royal power. These buildings were not only a potent symbol but they also actively communicated that power in a dialectic with the people within and around their bounds. This communication was enacted through the use of behavioral, conceptual, and emotional cues built into the morphology of the architecture. A palace must give every entrant the realization that they are a member, guest, or trespasser and that they should behave, think, and feel accordingly. This was accomplished by controlling sensory Making Senses of the Past: Toward a Sensory Archaeology, edited by Jo Day. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 40. © 2013 by the Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois Univer­ sity. All rights reserved. ISBN 978-0-8093-3287-8. Maya Palaces as Experiences 91 perception. The palace would communicate messages like “Look” or “Listen” or “Do not see or hear.” Efforts to control sensory perception are strategies in the sense advanced by de Certeau (1984:36). In the case of Maya palaces, this strategy would involve the communication and maintenance of power as delimited by place. All the design decisions by ancient Maya rulers that went into the construction of a palace would have comprised a “means of control, and hence of domination, of power,” part of LeFebvre’s (1991:26) theory of the social production of space. Individuals are granted differential access in the ability to perceive a space, and Sanders (1990) has shown that concepts from environmental psychology, such as privacy and territoriality, are integral to exploring this phenomenon. Privacy can be defined as the control of unwanted personal interaction and communication (Sanders 1990:50). Key to this is information control. Territoriality is the definition of spaces, each marked for specific uses (Sanders 1990:49). Both privacy and territoriality were fluid in time—depending on occasion, day, and year—and this is at odds with the relatively static nature of architecture. However , at the design level, both of these factors are considered and subsequent uses of the spaces are constrained or facilitated by these design decisions. The Classic Maya and Holmul Holmul is an ancient Maya site in the northeastern Petén of Guatemala . The site possesses features (Figure 5-1) that mark it as a major center, including large temple complexes, a ball court, and numerous stelae (Estrada-Belli 2002; Merwin and Vailliant 1932). Artifacts dating to the Late Preclassic period (250 b.c.e. to 250 c.e.) have been recovered from the lower strata of the site, with evidence for continued occupation through the Terminal Classic (800–900 c.e.) period. Group III at Holmul consists of two adjoining courts, each sitting on its own platform (Figure 5-2). The southeastern court (Court A) has a temple as its central focus, while the northwestern one (Court B), considered to be the palace proper, is centered around a multiroom building that possesses thrones (Figure 5-3). Each of the platforms is ringed by ancillary structures. It appears that Group III was the royal palace at least as early as the Early Classic (400–600 c.e.) period and was so up to and including the Terminal Classic (800–1000 c.e.) (EstradaBelli and Mongelluzzo 2002; Mongelluzzo and Valle 2006a). The following analyses of the Holmul palace were completed after clearing excavations exposed large portions of the palace morphology, which was then planned and modeled in three dimensions using computer software. Subsequent comparisons to the Central Acropolis of Tikal are drawn solely using plans of that palace. Palaces Primer Of primary importance is the very nature of Classic Maya palaces because their layout dictates a complex and dynamic...