AIA Lecture: Long-Term Politics on a Long-Distance Road: The Ancient Maya of Ucí

This talk by Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Scott Hutson presents the results of research conducted over many years at a collection of ancient Maya towns linked by a long-distance road in northern Yucatan, Mexico. These towns tell some unusual stories about ancient politics. For example, Ucí was the largest town but its political authority did not match its dominance in terms of size. Eventually, causeways/roads linked Ucí with smaller towns, but these towns still exerted independence in terms of ritual expression. Linkage of towns by roads did not result in the kinds of economic advantages that sometimes result from new roads today. Leadership at Ucí appears to have rotated between factions. Oddly, the only ballcourt in this area was at a small, rural village. Even more odd was the discovery of a text which improbably links Ucí with much larger Maya kingdoms jockeying for power at distant places like Calakmul and Tikal. Free and open to campus and community.

About the speaker: Dr. Scott R. Hutson’s (University of Kentucky, Department of Anthropology) current research interests lie in urbanism, inequality, economic anthropology, demography and settlement patterns, lidar, political and social organization, household archaeology, identity, practice theory, and Mesoamerica. Since 1996, he has been doing archaeology in the Maya area, working briefly in Belize and Guatemala before settling down in Yucatan, Mexico. His main research project explores how the integration of several archaeological sites in the Northern Maya lowlands transformed political, economic, social, and ritual life. Integration took place at the beginning of the Classic period (250-550 AD) when an 18km long stone causeway connected the regional center of Ucí with the site of Cansahcab as well as other sites.

Presented by the CU Museum and the Department of Classics.

Doors to the Lucile Berkeley Buchanan building, (formerly known as the Education Building), can be accessed from the west side of CU's Shakespeare Garden, west of Hellems.