Building the Environment at Palenque

The Sacred Pools of the Picota Group

Bibliographic Data

ID6033630
AuthorsKirk D French, Kirk French (0009-0007-3887-4984, Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author), Kirk Damon Straight (Pennsylvania State University), Elijah J Hermitt (Pennsylvania State University)
Year2020
Volume31
Issue3
Pages409-430
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAncient Mesoamerica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0956-5361 • E-ISSN: 1469-1787
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0956536119000130
OpenAlexW2970589453
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited39

Throughout the world, past and present, social organizations develop to cope with restricted water sources. Relying on traditional archaeology, labor estimates, and ethnographic data, the Palenque Pool Project set out to better understand a series of interconnected artificial water features located in the western sector of this Classic Maya site. Here, we detail our 2014–2015 fieldwork. First, there is consideration that the Picota Group was a civic-ceremonial center first established in the Early Classic period (a.d.250–500), one km to the west of the “downtown” nucleus of the site. A review of labor estimates for the construction of architectural features of the Picota Group follows. We then explore the ethnographic component, comparing similar pool configurations investigated in the highland Tzotzil community of Chamula in 2015. The article concludes with a theoretical discussion of how and why social organizations evolve to manage water resources in the region, with reference to ethnographic information from highland Tzotzil communities

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Center (category theory · Ethnography · Geography · Maya · Period (music · Sociology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Latin American history and culture · Mexican Socioeconomic and Environmental Dynamics