In this paper, we present the results of our recent research on the ancient causeways at the site of Chichen Itza, Yucatan. We first discuss some of the field methods we employed to map and facilitate the discovery of previously unrecorded causeways at the site. We also consider the spatial patterning and chronology of the Late and Terminal Classic periods causeway system at Chichen Itza and make inferences about the functional significance of linked terminal groups and the site-core. The Chichen Itza causeway systems reveals two important moments of Chichen Itza internal structure. During the Late Classic period, Chichen Itza was a socially homogeneous community organized by a loose and decentralized government. During the Terminal Classic period, the causeway system mirrors a centrally governed hierarchically organized community.

The study of macrobotanical remains recovered from excavations at Otumba provides evidence for past vegetation and the plants used by inhabitants of different sectors of the archaeological site. Opportunistic weedy genera commonly associated with crops were common among the archaeological specimens. Evidence for domesticated plants includes maize (Zea mays) and frijol (Phaseolus sp.), together with numerous genera that do not appear to have been domesticated as yet, such as Amaranthus sp., Chenopodium sp., Portulaca sp., and Salvia sp. The relative abundance of uncarbonized plant specimens in association with carbonized materials is discussed. The possibility of differential plant use among inhabitants of the nucleated core with respect to the dispersed residential zone is also considered.

Las ruinas de Calakmul se encuentran en la cuenca del mismo nombre localizado dentro del 723,000 ha Reserva de la Biosfera Calakmul en el sureste del Estado de Campeche. Investigaciones del Centro de Investigaciones Históricas y Sociales de la Universidad Autónoma de Campeche han demostrado que Calakmul formaba una de las más grandes centros regionales en el área maya desde 600 a.C. hasta los fines del siglo IX dentro de su estado regional de 13,000 km2. Investigaciones de prospección remoto alrededor de Calakmul combinado con trabajos topográficos dentro de la ciudad misma han revelado 15 sac beob identificados por nosotros entre los tipos de vías terrestres descritos en los diccionarios de la idioma Maya formados durante el período colonial. Entre estos sac beob se encuentran tipos regionales, estatales y los sac beob registrados dentro de la ciudad de Calakmul. Aunque existe un traslapo entre varios tipos de sac beob, pensamos que excavaciones futuras van a ayudarnos a clasificar cada sac be en una forma más precisa.

The Mapa de Otumba, a sixteenth-century document (1550–1575) currently archived in the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia of the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico, represents a small portion of the pre-Conquest altepetl of Otompan and its Early Colonial-period administrative successors, the parroquia and corregimiento of Otumba. The exact circumstances under which the map was executed, its original purpose, and any associated textual documents are unknown. The paper on which the map is executed (amate) and the style in which it was drawn clearly show pre-Conquest paper and the hand of a tlacuilo (scribe) influenced by post-Conquest style, script, and changes in sociopolitical and religious organization. Analysis of the elements of the document reveal its temporal and spatial setting; it also throws light on the changes in indigenous sociopolitical and religious organization during the first half-century of the Early Colonial period.

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.