Komchen
Pre-Columbian History
Komchén is also the location of a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of the same name and is situated close to the site of Dzibilchaltun. Pre-Columbian Komchén was initially settled during the Mesoamerican Middle Preclassic. Its earliest settlement consisted of a small residential community with perishable structure. The site transitioned into a larger community during the Late Preclassic, reaching its peak in construction between the years 350-150 BC and employing permanent stone masonry in architectural construction. It appears that the site was entirely abandoned by the end of the Late Preclassic (ca. A.D. 250). Later, however, the site was partially reoccupied by residents of the expanding center of Dzibilchaltun.
Archaeological investigation of the site commenced during the early 1980s when a research project, under the direction of E. Wyllys Andrews V of the Middle American Research Institute (MARI) of Tulane University, began excavating at Komchén. This research documented nearly 1000 residential structures in an area approximately 2 km in size, including a core of five large platforms (the tallest of which was 8 meters) and a sacbe (one of the earliest identified in the Yucatán) (Andrews et al. 1984).
References
- ^ Census Results by Locality, 2005 Archived July 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine INEGI.
- ^ Sharer, Robert J. The Ancient Maya, 5th edition., page 130 Stanford University Press, Stanford. 1994. ISBN 0-8047-2310-9
- ^ Andrews, E. Wyllys, V, Ringle William M., Barnes P.J. Komchen, an Early Maya Community in Northwest Yucatán. In Investigaciones recientes en el área maya 1:73-92. XVII Mesa Redonda, Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia, Mexico City, 1984