Plaza Plans and Settlement Patterns: Regional and Temporal Distributions as Indicators of Cultural Interactions in the Maya Lowlands

Abstract

The identification of a series of plaza plans at Tikal, Guatemala and studies of specific examples through time provide some understanding of ceremonial and residential activity at the site. Comparative studies within the site reveal the complexity of this city and the nature of the structural groups (plaza plans). Using these units one may distinguish several types of ceremonial groups as well as several types of residential groups and infer a function for each. Applying these observations to other sites, Maya and non-Maya, provides a means by which comparative evaluations may be made. These evaluations, of the numbers of distinct «groups» within a site as well as the range of differentiation among the groups within a site, depend on detailed maps that were not available at the time of the plaza plan proposal. Examination of detailed maps of sites and subsequent excavations in the Maya area permit conclusions to be drawn regarding the integrity of the Northern and Southern zones of this area, to suggest cultural and linguistic boundaries and spheres of influence, trade nets, and perhaps origins and culture change.