ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL SETTING OF LATE CLASSIC CALAKMUL

Calakmul is located in the northern Peten region of the central Maya lowlands in an area that today is heavily forested. Recent analyses indicate that the millennium in which Calakmul thrived was characterized by moderate but dependable rainfall (Gunn et al. 1994, 1995). Compared to the rainforest of Guatemala, however, little surface water is available in the region. For this reason, the ancient Maya of Calakmul built and relied on thirteen public reservoirs to supply water throughout the dry season. The largest of these reservoirs, Aguada 1, encompasses an area of five hectares (Figure 9.2). We estimate that the minimum total capacity of these reservoirs was 200 million liters (Dominguez Carrasco and Folan 1996;

9.2 Inner core of Calakmul, showing reservoirs, canals, and structures (after May Hau et al. 1990),

Gates and Folan 1993; Zapata Castorena 1985). Thus, if filled to capacity each rainy season, the hydraulic system of Calakmul easily could have supplied enough water to support 50,000-100,000 individuals. We could find no evidence that the reservoirs of Calakmul were used to irrigate crops (Dominguez Carrasco and Folan 1996).

The urban center of the city was called Ox Te’ Tuun (‘Place of Three Stones’), perhaps a reference to the massive triadic pyramid Structure II as the place of the fourth creation (Marcus 1987; Martin 1996; Pincemin et al. 1998). The many triadic structures built throughout the site center served as constant reminders of the identity of the city. Calakmul is organized in a strongly concentric fashion on the margin of the large seasonal swamp called El Laberinto. The initial Middle and Late Preclassic occupation was situated along the perimeter of the bajo, and the majority of large Classic structures were built in the ecotone up to twenty or thirty meters above its edge (Fletcher et al. 1987; Folan, Marcus, and Miller 1995). The rich and moist soils of the bajo margin were heavily planted and chert deposits in the heart of the swamp were exploited as the source of lithic material for stone tool production (Dominguez Carrasco and Folan 1996). The inner thirty-square-kilometer core of Calakmul, much of which sits on an artificially leveled limestone dome, has been mapped. A total of 6,250 structures and other stone constructions have been identified. The most striking architectural features within the urban core are a central plaza containing an astronomical commemorative group similar to Uaxactun Group E (Figure 9.3: Structures IV and VI), two of the largest pyramidal structures ever built in Mesoamerica—each more than fifty meters high (Figure 9.3: Structures I and II)—and the Great Acropolis, a complex of buildings currently under investigation by Ramon Carrasco Vargas of IN AH (Carrasco Vargas 1998).