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Abstract Societies vary in how they approach the challenges of increased population, inequality, and occupational specialization. The city of Nixtun-Ch'ich’ and its satellite, T'up, in Peten, Guatemala exhibit orthogonal urban grids—a trait absent from all other known Maya cities. Such grids require extensive planning and the ability to mobilize the population. The present data suggests that Nixtun-Ch'ich’ was substantially larger than any of the surrounding settlements and was, therefore, a primate center during the Middle Preclassic period. The extensive urban planning of the site, as well as that of T'up suggests centralized planning. Yet, we have not encountered evidence of a central ruler propagated as a unifying symbol of the polity. The gridded public streets and lack of a rulership cult suggest that Nixtun-Ch'ich’ had a more collaborative social system.
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From the Streets: Public and Private Space in an Early Maya City
Modern life in cities involves perpetual tensions between private and public spaces evoking the question whether such tensions existed when cities first emerged. This paper investigates such tensions at the lowland Maya site of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ in Petén, Guatemala. The city developed along with other such settlements in the Maya region, sometime between 2800 and 2500 years ago. This anomalous site has the earliest known rectangular urban grid in the Americas. Such grids have not been found in other preColumbian Maya settlements. Gridded urban space requires the invention of public space, streets, and the grid. Even with these three characteristics present, they require social mechanisms (city planning and the means to implement the plan) capable of “rationalizing” city space. They also necessitate the power to regulate public spaces if the grid is to exist over long periods of time. The gridded streets of Nixtun-Ch’ich’ seem to be the most public of all spaces at the site. Nevertheless, a longue durée examination of the site reveals that private space gradually extended into and decreased the size of public space. These transformations tend to suggest a shift from a more cooperative to a more competitive social environment, which may correlate with elaborated social differentiation and segmentation.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1734036
- PAR ID:
- 10110298
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of archaeological method and theory
- Volume:
- 26
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1072-5369
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 967–997
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-018-9404-0
