Santa Rosa Xtampak: Chronology and interregional integration of a Classical Maya Center

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• 1. Project Group
• 2. Short description
• 3. Cooperation Partner / Institutions
• 4. Products

1. Project Group

Scholars

• Dr. Iken Paap   
• Dr. Antonio Benavides Castillo (Centro INAH Campeche)   

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2. Short description

Point of departure

Santa Rosa Xtampak (SRX, Mpo. Hopelchén, Campeche, México) is considered, along with Edzná, to be the most important Classic Maya center on the central Yucatán Peninsula - an assessment based so far exclusively on investigations of the monumental architecture in the center of the settlement.
Settled since the Preclassic period, the site attained supraregional importance in the Late and Final Classic periods (ca. 700-1000 AD). Since the 19th century, Santa Rosa Xtampak has been the subject of numerous architectural and epigraphic studies. Some of the buildings preserved in the center of the site have been consolidated and restored since the 1980s.
Santa Rosa Xtampak holds a key role for an understanding of the economic and socio-political networks of Classic Yucatán, but to date has hardly been archaeologically explored by the means of cientific excavations.
As a basis for future research, an initial stratigraphically based chronology was established by means of systematic excavations in selected representative areas of the settlement, which can be linked to ceramic sequences from other sites in the region, such as Dzehkabtun, among others.

The project is directly linked to the holdings of the Ibero-American Institute, which preserves and makes accessible the legacies of Teobert Maler and Eduard Seler, two sources on the history of the archaeology of Mexico and Santa Rosa Xtampak that are still relevant today.

The project was carried out in cooperation with Centro INAH Campeche.

Co-director: Antonio Benavides Castillo.
Funded by: BKM - Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Duration: 2020-2022.

Further information: https://arqueologiai.de/srx/

Objectives

For one of the most important sites of the Classic Maya on the central Yucatán Peninsula, a stratigraphically based chronology was to be established, which can be connected to the established chronologies of the peninsula via pottery and other finds. This should close a glaring research gap in this region.
The project was also able to further deepen research cooperation with Mexico in the field of archaeology and thus make a substantial contribution to Mexican-German scientific and cultural relations.

Task Schedule

Expected Results

A total of nine stratigraphic trenches were excavated. Another trench was dug as a rescue excavation after human teeth and bone remains had been found on the surface of a path after heavy rainfall. In an area of only 5.5 m², three Terminal Classic urn burials (A.D. 750/800-950) and slightly deeper two Late Classic burials (A.D. 600-750/800) were documented and recovered.
Three of the sondages were located, contrary to earlier plans, to include old excavations by North American researchers from 1936 (Harry E. Pollock), 1949 (George W. Brainerd), and 1969 (Evan I. DeBloois), both to interfere as little as possible with the area south of the Great Pyramid and to allow evaluation of the old investigations that were not documented in detail.
The stratigraphic trenches were either lowered to the bedrock or excavated as deep into the Preclassic platform fill as possible for structural and safety reasons.
The investigations yielded a ceramic sequence and succession of construction phases from the Middle Preclassic (1000 B.C.) to the Late Terminal Classic (A.D. 950). Surface finds of remains of Postclassic censers attest to visits and sacrificial acts in the settlement, which was presumably already abandoned, for the period after AD 950.
In addition to the excavations, an area of about 50 m x 200 m in the west of the site was surveyed and mapped in detail by means of an electronic total station.

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3. Cooperation Partner / Institutions

Institutions

• Centro INAH Campeche
• Universidad Autónoma de Campeche (UAC)

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4. Products

Publications

• Publications and lectures