Maya cartographies: Two maps of Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico

Abstract

It is common to view maps as simple reflections of the world. Maps, however, are more complex and dynamic. They are a potent form of spatial imagination and a powerful means of producing space. This article encourages archaeologists to experiment with, and to produce a multiplicity of, maps and other spatial images. As an example, this article juxtaposes two previously unpublished maps of Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico: a site map created using traditional archaeological conventions and a visual cartographic history created using Indigenous Maya spatial ontologies. Because they depict space relationally, Indigenous Maya maps are arguably more congruous with contemporary social theories about space than are traditional Western maps. Further, the juxtaposition of two radically different maps of the same place highlights those mapping conventions that scholars often take for granted; demonstrates how specifically maps are selective and subjective; and emphasizes that Western worldviews are neither natural nor ubiquitous.

A preliminary revised life history of Punta Laguna, Yucatan, Mexico: A persistent place

“…The archaeological site of Punta Laguna, located almost entirely within the nature reserve, covers approximately 200 ha of land immediately surrounding a three-basin lagoon (Figure 2). The site includes a cenote containing an ancient mortuary deposit of at least 120 individuals (Martos López 2008; Rojas Sandoval 2007, 2008, 2010; Rojas Sandoval et al 2008); two small, plain, Postclassic-period stelae; a series of caves; and more than 200 mounds (Kurnick and Rogoff 2020). These mounds range in height from just above ground level to approximately 6 m, and they include both house mounds and civic-ceremonial structures built in the megalithic architectural style characteristic of the Late Preclassic period (Mathews 2001); the Peten style prominent at Coba during the Late Classic period (Con Uribe and Martínez Muriel 2002; Satterthwaite 1945; Shaw 2005:149); and in the “East Coast” style characteristic of the Postclassic period (Figure 3; Andrews and Andrews 1975; Lorenzen 2003; Toscano Hernandez 1994).…”

“…In their published overview of the site, however, they did not specify the number or provenience of the sherds they collected (Benavides Castillo and Zapata Peraza 1991:46). In the early 2000s, Carmen Rojas Sandoval (2007; 2008; 2010; Martos López 2008) excavated the site's cenote and, since 2014, the Punta Laguna Archaeology Project (PLAP) has conducted fieldwork at the site (Kurnick 2019a; 2019b; 2020; 2023; Kurnick and Rogoff 2020).…”

“…Thus far, the PLAP has carried out a systematic site survey and produced site maps (Kurnick and Rogoff 2020). Although lidar is now commonly employed to map Maya sites, project members chose instead to survey on foot and spend substantial time working with and remunerating local community members (Kurnick 2019b, 2020; Kurnick and Rogoff 2020).…”

Walking Rural in Tzacauil, Yucatan, Mexico

“…Sacbes’ particular kind of groundless walking may diverge from the sterile pavement-pounding envisioned by Ingold (2004), but I reckon still that walking a sacbe would have produced an embodied experience of landscape fundamentally different from (but not the opposite of) traversing grounded trails. While Ingold's groundlessness conjures a kind of walking that is totally neutral, Hutson and colleagues (2020) have pointed out that sacbe walking would have been extraordinarily sensuous (see also Kurnick and Rogoff [2020] for recent discussion of sensuous walking in Maya landscapes). Sacbes’ plaster surfaces were capable of manipulating temperature, light, smell, and sight—all of which would have affected the bodies of walkers, as would have the time of day, night, season, or year in which they were walked.…”

Photographic Insights from Engaged Archaeology: Yucatan and Beyond

“…To take one example, the Punta Laguna Archaeology Project, co-directed by the author, hired a professional photographer to take photographs for community members. Located in the Yucatan peninsula, Punta Laguna is a contemporary village, an archaeological site, a spider monkey reserve and a tourist attraction owned and operated by Maya peoples (Kurnick 2019; 2020; Kurnick & Rogoff 2020). Perhaps not surprisingly, community members asked the photographer to record images of the tourist experience for use in promotional materials such as brochures.…”