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THE CHRONOLOGY OF MAYAPAN : New Radiocarbon Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2007

Carlos Peraza Lope ,
Marilyn A. Masson ,
Timothy S. Hare  and
Pedro Candelario Delgado Kú
Carlos Peraza Lope
Affiliation:
Centro Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Yucatan, Km 65 Carretera Progreso, Merida, Yucatan, 97000, Mexico
Marilyn A. Masson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, AS 237, The University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222, USA
Timothy S. Hare
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy, Morehead State University, Morehead, KY 40351, USA
Pedro Candelario Delgado Kú
Affiliation:
Centro Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Yucatan, Km 65 Carretera Progreso, Merida, Yucatan, 97000, Mexico
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Abstract

Thirty-eight radiocarbon dates from Mayapan provide new information about the Postclassic chronology of this city. We analyze ceramic frequencies associated with our radiocarbon samples and discuss temporally diagnostic types in the Mayapan sequence. Radiocarbon samples from early construction contexts suggest that the Postclassic center was founded by at least the twelfth century, or possibly the eleventh century a.d. on a modest scale. Additional dates help to assign much of the city's later architecture to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries a.d., and provide hints of violence, conflict, and abandonment events prior to the final collapse. Our results imply that Mayapan may have begun as a small center while Chichen Itza waned from its dominant political position on the peninsula, and that the establishment of Mayapan as a major regional capital may have been a process that took a century or longer to complete.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , July 2006 , pp. 153 - 175
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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