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AN ANALYSIS OF ROADS LISTED IN COLONIAL DICTIONARIES AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO PRE-HISPANIC LINEAR FEATURES IN THE YUCATAN PENINSULA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2002

David Bolles
Affiliation:
133 Castle Lane, Milford, CT 06460-7515, USA
William J. Folan
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigaciones Historicas y Sociales, Universidad Autónoma de Campeche, Avenida Agustin Melgar s/n, Campeche, 24030, Campeche, Mexico

Abstract

The archaeological evidence for pre-Columbian roadways in the northern Mayan area is well documented. These range from broad intracity causeways and long, raised intercity roadways to small local pathways. In the colonial Mayan–Spanish and Spanish–Mayan dictionaries written by Franciscan friars in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries there are various references to roadways. These references were located through a computer-aided search through the dictionaries. Supplementing these references is the information given in various documents written by Franciscan historians, as well as the variety of documents written by the Maya. This information was also located through searches in computerized versions of these documents. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate these references to determine how the information in them can be used to broaden our understanding of Mayan roadways, culture, and society.

Type
SPECIAL SECTION: RECENT RESEARCH ON MAYA CAUSEWAYS
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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