The investigations in the royal palace of Cancuen provide an invaluable set of data concerning our understanding of ancient Maya architecture and sociopolitical organization, because architecture constitutes one of the most important material remains of past societies. In this study, a structural approach has defined the royal palace of Cancuen as a built environment, multifunctional space and social stage for the nobility, where residential, political, economic, and religious activities took place. Although Cancuen was initially a minor center controlled by other major Maya cities, it became the main center of the Pasion river under the reign of ruler Taj Chan Ahk, during the mid 8th century. This florescence is well represented by its royal palace, one of the largest in the Maya Lowlands. Unlike other Maya palace, this one was built at once as a complex set of spaces that responded to particular political strategies. Together with other contemporary centers, Cancuen experienced changes in its sociopolitical organization and economic regime, being reflected in the proliferation of multi-roomed buildings that served as means to integrate rising secondary elites and other non-royal political actors. This case study demonstrates that the structural interpretation of architecture, particularly elite and public architecture, can reveal a great deal about the political and social structure of ancient societies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-05052014-125852 |
| Date | 15 May 2014 |
| Creators | Barrientos, Tomas Jose |
| Contributors | Hector Escobedo, Edward Fischer, William Fowler, Arthur Demarest |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-05052014-125852/ |
| Rights | restrictsix, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds