The Carnegie Maya III: Carnegie Institution of Washington Notes on Middle American Archaeology and Ethnology, 1940-1957

37. The Southern Terminus of the Principal Sacbe at Mayap

481 The principal sacbe at Mayapán has been referred to in an earlier report in this series (Pollock, 1950). The road runs from a large group of buildings in the western part of Square R to a somewhat smaller group in the northeastern part of Square Z (Jones 1952, map). The limited excavations described in the 1954 report were at the northern terminus of the sacbe and were made with the purpose of determining the age of the road. It was fairly well demonstrated that the sacbe was a late construction in the history of the city and also was late in relation to the quadrangle of buildings (Strs. R95 to R-99) at the northern end of the road. Although the excavations were not sufficiently extensive to throw any light on the character or function of the group, the opinion was expressed that the quadrangle was domiciliary and might accurately be termed a palace. Recent work by Proskouriakoff and Temple (1955) in a strikingly similar nearby assemblage of structures (R-85 to R-90) has amply demonstrated the domiciliary character of such groups, and we now feel little doubt that the quadrangle at the northern end of the sacbe served as living quarters for the well-to-do. The group of buildings at the southern end of the road (565 S, 120 W), which is the subject of this report, is less securely defined as to function. As will be seen from the plan and sections (Fig. 37.1), Group Z-50 consists of a raised courtyard with buildings on three sides. A few meters west of the group an opening in the bedrock, now choked by the roots of trees, may be the mouth of a cenote that once served as a source of water. The main approach is from the north, where the sacbe enters, and secondary approaches in the form of stairways are at the northwest and the east. None of the three buildings is characteristically residential in plan. The southern building, Str. Z-50b, has a single enclosed rear chamber affording the privacy that seems to be a mark of household architecture, but the rest of the structure is very open, and the other two buildings are quite different C u r r e n t R e p o r t s Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Archaeology No. 37 June 1956 The Southern T erminus of the Principal Sacbe at Ma yapán, Group Z-50 H.E.D. Pollock 37.1. Plan and Sections of Group Z-50. The Southern Terminus of the Principal Sacbe at Mayapán, Group Z-50 483 in plan from the usual dwelling. Though the character of the architecture is atypical for a residential group, the ceramic remains recovered are very much in the nature of household material. One is therefore tempted to believe that this assemblage of buildings had both residential and ceremonial functions. No earlier archaeological work, other than the general mapping of the site, is known to have been carried on at Z-50. Our excavations began with the intention of developing a relatively detailed plan of the group in its final stage of occupation and of trenching through the sacbe at its southern end in order to check the time of construction of the road against the findings of similar work a year earlier at the northern terminus (Pollock 1950). As work progressed, there were indications that something might be learned of building sequence by carrying our excavations somewhat further. This was done, still on a limited scale, with the results that appear below (also see Pollock 1955). Our work here seems to confirm the relatively late time of construction of the sacbe that was indicated by the earlier digging at the north. Parts of Group Z-50 were built even later than the road. Building Sequence It will be seen from the plan of Group Z-50 that the sacbe, which enters the group from the north, originally extended some 5 m south of the stairway that now forms the terminus of the sacbe and the principal approach to the assemblage (Fig. 37.1). In the earlier stage the sacbe ended against a terrace wall that was subsequently buried for the most part by the extension northward of the main basal platform of the group. This fact was discovered by means of a pit that uncovered the east...