This dissertation is an archaeological study of the ancient settlement of Labna, a Lowland Maya community in the Puuc Region of Yucatan, Mexico. The form, layout, and architecture of Labna are representative of a large number of Maya centers. The architectural core is considered a model for studying ancient Maya social organization and reflects the debate among Mayanists about the mechanisms and principles that held together Maya communities and states. Analysis of form and layout, as well as of function and meaning of built spaces in Labna, indicates a stratified type of community, with an internal composition based on social units integrated by different organizational principles. This conclusion is based on comparisons of archaeological feature clusters on basal platforms, the remains of several types of roofed spaces on top of such platforms, and the presence/absence and location/distribution of underground cisterns for storing rain water (chultuns), and grinding stones for corn (metates). In the site center, architectural style, form, layout, and iconography were important sources for inferring chronological and functional information. Excavations that exposed the building sequence of structures forming the architectural core of the ancient community revealed several stages of development. Continuous growth and reorganization of the public buildings resulted in changes in form and function of built spaces. A diachronic approach for understanding core composition of the ancient community showed the dynamic nature in the layout of public architecture. The final layout of the urban core of Labna was the result of architectural programs conducted by several generations of rulers. The notion of sequential architectural programs and the identification of a particular form of built space as throne rooms provided a way to define temporal periods. The notion that throne rooms were manufactured in a sequential order in palace complexes, when combined with analysis of architectural styles, suggest three major building episodes, each probably related to a ruler. This dynamic perception of the social organization reflected in the layout of the site center is the result of a long term conjunctive study that included archaeological excavations, site and intersite settlement patterns, iconographic, geographical, and architectural approaches. / acase@tulane.edu

Maize is universally considered to be the basis of prehispanic Maya foodways and maize-beans-squash agriculture the primary means of food acquisition. This narrow view is attributable to a lack of direct evidence and an oversimplification of the ethnographic data. In this dissertation I employ new methods to recover evidence of ancient plant foods at Escalera al Cielo (EAC)—a Terminal Classic (A.D. 800-950) Puuc Maya settlement located in Yucatán, Mexico—and challenge the notion that all Maya everywhere ate an unvarying diet of agricultural staples. By highlighting the tremendous variety of environments, foods, and food practices as well as the potential biases contained within the ethnohistorical and ethnographic literature, I use the archaeological evidence to reevaluate established models and explore daily food practices at EAC. The research focuses on domestic spaces from three excavated households, the artifacts that formed part of the culinary toolkit (e.g., ceramic vessels, grinding stones, chipped stone tools, and fired clay balls), and microbotanical residues (phytoliths and starch) associated with these spaces and artifacts. Modal analyses of artifacts and identifications of their residues permit testing of functional assumptions about culinary implements (e.g., "maize grinding stones"). The results reveal that most implements were multifunctional and that the food prepared and consumed at EAC included a range of cultivated and wild resources in addition to the expected staple ingredients of maize, beans, and multiple varieties of squash. There are also abundant starch residues from chile peppers (ground for seasonings and salsas), palm phytoliths that may represent foodstuffs, and at least three root crops—arrowroot, manioc, and Zamia sp.—the first of which may have been an additional staple ingredient. These new data illuminate regional food preferences, techniques of preparation, the diversity of food production and procurement strategies, symbolic associations of certain foods (identified in ritual contexts), and the skill and labor required of women who are widely considered to have been responsible for most food practices.

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This thesis presents the results of petrographic point counting analyses of Muna Slate ware, thepredominant slipped ceramic ware in the Northern Maya Lowlands during the Late and TerminalClassic Periods (600-1000 A.D.) of Maya prehistory. Recently, it was hypothesized that MunaSlate wares were centrally produced and distributed from the Puuc Hills site of Sayil (Smyth andDore 1994; Smyth et al. 1995). Given that Muna Slate wares may be considered utilitariansubsistence items (sensu Brumfiel and Earle 1987), this suggestion runs counter to severalarguments that ancient Maya utilitarian ceramics production is associated with outlyingcommunities and that their distribution is localized. In the research presented here, the model ofMuna Slate ware production presented for Sayil is evaluated in terms of ceramic ecology,economic theory and models of craft distribution, the culture-historical context of Muna Slateware use, and previous studies of ceramic production and distribution in the Maya Lowlands.Muna Slate wares from three sites in the northern Lowlands - Kiuic, Labná, and Ek Balam –were then analyzed in order to test the whether or not Sayil was the sole producer of theseceramics.