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8. A Portal Vault and Temple at Mayap
- University Press of Colorado
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85 Str. Q-127 lies at the western edge (265 S, 110 W) of a small assemblage of ceremonial structures that appears to be distinct from the Main Group, some 70 m to the west (Jones 1952, map). A fair likeness of the ground plan is recorded on the map of Mayapán, and from that and what the cleared mound looked like, the structure seemed surely to be a portal vault. In plan (Fig. 8.1) it somewhat resembles the major gates of the Great Wall (Shook 1952), but the vaulted roofing here is quite different, and it is not connected with any existing wall or visible city division. As it is the only building of the kind, a free-standing portal vault, thus far known at Mayapán, it seemed well to examine the structure more closely. The building was very much in ruin; the outer walls were virtually all fallen and one can only guess at what the outside originally looked like. The passageway from the west was filled to the spring of the vault with the tumbled-down roof materials. In the portico, or hallway, to the east the north side of the vault was standing almost to its full height and well above the level of the fallen debris. On the south side of the portico the vault had fallen to within a course of the spring of the vault. It is surprising that this much of the structure was still standing, considering that the rudely broken , unshaped stone slabs used for walls and vault were laid dry, as far as can be seen at present (Fig. 8.3a,b). It is possible, however, that mud mortar had been used, and that the many centuries of heavy rains and filtration may have washed it out completely. The portico is nearly square, a little over 3 m by 3 m, with a rectangular pier in the middle and two round columns bearing the west façade. One column shaft is standing to the height of 1.50 m, its sides slightly bulging in the fashion of Puuc doorway columns . It lacks one more drum and the wooden lintels , that probably were about 30 cm thick, to bring it to the height (1.90 m) of the spring of the vault. The other column is missing; only the hole in the floor C u r r e n t R e p o r t s Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Archaeology No. 8 December 1953 A Portal V ault and T emple at Ma yapán GUSTAV STRÖMSVIK GUSTAV STRÖMSVIK 86 and a sliver of its bottom end prove its existence. The portico had been provided with a plaster floor, fragments of which were seen at the central pier and around the missing column. Incidentally, this column could not have been long removed, otherwise the edges around the hole would have been more obliterated. The roofing was the common corbeled arch, built of uncut stone slabs, some almost 1 m wide, each stone projecting 5–10 cm beyond the one below it. The vault of the passageway, as is common with portal vaults, no doubt extended clear through from the west façade to the portico, where it intersected the inner transverse vault. The four inner soffits of 8.1. Plan of Strs. Q-127 and Q-127a. [44.204.94.166] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 17:06 GMT) A Portal Vault and Temple at Mayapán 87 the portico vaults were apparently carried on a rectangular pier, and the outer four soffits rose from the inner transverse wall, the two lateral walls, and the columns and lintels of the east doorway (Fig. 8.2a–c). These lintels were undoubtedly of wood. It is difficult to believe that this structure had ever been plastered even on the inside, as not a trace of it could be found. Fragments can be seen in most cases, as on the neighboring Str. Q-127a. It also seems that the floor of the western passageway had never been plastered, as not the faintest speck could be found when the bedrock bottom was cleared. No cut or dressed stone had been used in this structure, with the exception of a large, rectangular one used in the base of the central pier, and of course the columns. The former most likely is a jamb stone from a Puuc period building, re-used here. The function of this structure...