The Idea of a Maya Town
Wendy Ashmore

The Idea of a Maya Town embodies considerable, complex meaning, whose specific sources and intricacy of expression are becoming increasingly evident. Indeed, the form and structure of such settlement has been a focus of at least intermittent inquiry since early Spanish colonial times, and most concertedly so, within the past half century. This paper takes three key works as springboards for discussion: Bishop LandaÍs 16th-century description of Yucatec Maya town form, Joyce MarcusÍs masterful review of the structure of Mesoamerican cities, and Joseph Rykwert's important comparative treatise on The Idea of a Town. Building from these foundations, I consider "The Idea of a Maya Town" in light of recent research relating Maya town planning to cosmology, ancient political strategies, and interpretations of landscape. Drawing on specific examples, I contend that settlement forms many still see as having little evidence of concerted planning actually evince complex material enactment of a well-structured and highly meaningful spatial order.

Wendy Ashmore, University of California at Riverside
Wendy Ashmore has investigated structure and meaning in ancient settlements of the Maya and neighboring peoples. Her fieldwork has included archaeological survey and excavations in Guatemala (Quirigu½), Honduras (Cop½n and Gualjoquito), and most recently, Belize (Xunantunich). Currently Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Riverside, her publications include articles on multiple aspects of this research, together with edited volumes on Lowland Maya Settlement Patterns (1981), House and Household in the Mesoamerican Past (1988, with Richard Wilk), and Archaeologies of Landscape (1999, with A. Bernard Knapp). Her monograph on Quirigu½ settlement is in final stages of revision.