Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MAYURB (Understanding ancient urbanism: site planning and unintended consequences of the Classic Maya city as a model)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-01-01 al 2022-12-31
MAYURB addressed the study of ancient urbanism using the Classic Maya Period (250-900 CE) as the basis. The novelty of the project relies on its comprehensive understanding of the ancient city, with a perspective that delves into site planning theory, explores the conditioning imposed by location, tradition and practical needs while considering the city as a pattern of relations between human groups. MAYURB focused on the Classic period capital of Palenque as a case of analysis to understand ancient Maya society and urban complexity. Specifically, MAYURB developed around five research objectives:
• Define the urban layout of Palenque to understand the city performance through its composition, sectorization, functioning and accessibility at different scales of analysis;
• Elucidate to what extent Palenque’s form is the result of landscape morphology, authority’s decisions, basic dwelling-needs satisfaction and negotiation, corporate groups participation, the effect of religion and worldview on buildings’ astronomical orientation, social differences and subsistence.
• Understand the unintended consequences of city life and growth at Palenque through time.
• Explore the participation of community in shaping the urban fabric and the role of place in forging relations or in contributing to social differentiation.
• Propose a novel methodological framework and contribute to a theoretical enhancement for the study of ancient urbanism, which rely on the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration and interchange between the disciplines that investigate the urban environment and its relation with its inhabitants.
Thanks to the collaboration of the Department of Ancient World Studies of the Sapienza University of Rome and the Anthropological Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIA-UNAM), and the connection and teamwork with international institutions such as the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), the University of California (UC) Berkeley and San Diego, the ZRC SAZU, the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), the project explored new ways of addressing the spatiality of the urban.
MAYURB results led the ER to confirm the importance of neighborhoods and their inhabitants in forging the urban layout, with variations that complemented and modified the infrastructural network at a local scale. Our excavations in spatially close architectural compounds, are helping in reassessing Palenque development, pointing to neighborhoods formation as a direct response to city center growth. Our findings highlighted considerable differences in architectural arrangement and daily practices, suggesting a hierarchical social organization at a neighborhood and compound levels. The research at a neighborhood-scale was integrated with innovative digital archaeological documentation of Palenque, allowing the ER and colleagues to explore new ways of collaboration and interaction with the 3D image of the city. This city-scale analysis helped us in reviewing the size of Palenque in Late Classic time (800-900 CE), to better appreciate the extension of landscape modification for a growing population, while identifying new entrances to the city that helped in understanding mobility and daily interactions.
• Define the urban layout of Palenque to understand the city performance through its composition, sectorization, functioning and accessibility at different scales of analysis;
• Elucidate to what extent Palenque’s form is the result of landscape morphology, authority’s decisions, basic dwelling-needs satisfaction and negotiation, corporate groups participation, the effect of religion and worldview on buildings’ astronomical orientation, social differences and subsistence.
• Understand the unintended consequences of city life and growth at Palenque through time.
• Explore the participation of community in shaping the urban fabric and the role of place in forging relations or in contributing to social differentiation.
• Propose a novel methodological framework and contribute to a theoretical enhancement for the study of ancient urbanism, which rely on the strength of interdisciplinary collaboration and interchange between the disciplines that investigate the urban environment and its relation with its inhabitants.
Thanks to the collaboration of the Department of Ancient World Studies of the Sapienza University of Rome and the Anthropological Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (IIA-UNAM), and the connection and teamwork with international institutions such as the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), the University of California (UC) Berkeley and San Diego, the ZRC SAZU, the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), the project explored new ways of addressing the spatiality of the urban.
MAYURB results led the ER to confirm the importance of neighborhoods and their inhabitants in forging the urban layout, with variations that complemented and modified the infrastructural network at a local scale. Our excavations in spatially close architectural compounds, are helping in reassessing Palenque development, pointing to neighborhoods formation as a direct response to city center growth. Our findings highlighted considerable differences in architectural arrangement and daily practices, suggesting a hierarchical social organization at a neighborhood and compound levels. The research at a neighborhood-scale was integrated with innovative digital archaeological documentation of Palenque, allowing the ER and colleagues to explore new ways of collaboration and interaction with the 3D image of the city. This city-scale analysis helped us in reviewing the size of Palenque in Late Classic time (800-900 CE), to better appreciate the extension of landscape modification for a growing population, while identifying new entrances to the city that helped in understanding mobility and daily interactions.
The five research objectives of MAYURB project have been addressed thanks to an interconnected set of actions developed during the Outgoing and the Incoming phases. Most of the tasks have been carried out with relatively minor deviations from the original program, allowing the completion of the envisioned milestones and deliverables.
During the year of the Incoming Phase at the Department of Ancient World Studies at Sapienza, while completing her formation on ancient urbanism and ancient topography, the ER organized workshops and seminars for students and colleagues, as to transfer the knowledge acquired during the Outgoing Phase.
The action culminated with the symposium “Understanding ancient urbanism: urban form, site planning, and daily life at the Classic Maya city (250-900 CE)”, held in Rome with PIs and colleagues involved with MAYURB, joining in presence or virtually from Mexico, the US and Europe.
Throughout the whole action and during the Incoming Phase the scientific results of the project have been disseminated at public and scientific events, through publications, and thanks to the project website and public talks.
Of notice, during 2022 it was possible to carry out the first fieldwork season at Palenque after the Covid-19 pandemic disruption, along with UNAM, UC Berkeley and UNLV colleagues. The recovered materials are still under analysis in Mexico.
The intellectual and practical experiences fostered and re-enforced with the GF have increased the ER’s research-related and transferable competences, with a critical impact on the ER’ scientific profile and career development, opening the possibility of a tenure-track appointment at the Host Institution.
During the year of the Incoming Phase at the Department of Ancient World Studies at Sapienza, while completing her formation on ancient urbanism and ancient topography, the ER organized workshops and seminars for students and colleagues, as to transfer the knowledge acquired during the Outgoing Phase.
The action culminated with the symposium “Understanding ancient urbanism: urban form, site planning, and daily life at the Classic Maya city (250-900 CE)”, held in Rome with PIs and colleagues involved with MAYURB, joining in presence or virtually from Mexico, the US and Europe.
Throughout the whole action and during the Incoming Phase the scientific results of the project have been disseminated at public and scientific events, through publications, and thanks to the project website and public talks.
Of notice, during 2022 it was possible to carry out the first fieldwork season at Palenque after the Covid-19 pandemic disruption, along with UNAM, UC Berkeley and UNLV colleagues. The recovered materials are still under analysis in Mexico.
The intellectual and practical experiences fostered and re-enforced with the GF have increased the ER’s research-related and transferable competences, with a critical impact on the ER’ scientific profile and career development, opening the possibility of a tenure-track appointment at the Host Institution.
MAYURB project has and will continue to create a significant impact on scientific research and dissemination, specifically on urban and architectural studies with a strong digital component. The results of the research will foster progresses beyond the state of the art, as additional manuscripts and conferences building on MAYURB data are currently in preparation.
MAYURB results hold potential to advance the comprehension of urban sustainability today. The excavation data are helping in reassessing the history of neighborhoods formation within Palenque and, thus, are providing new information on city growth, expansion and performance. By highlighting the factors leading to city resilience we can better comprehend settlements persistence in the past. As lately advocated by more archaeologists, these aspects can help us thinking at city sustainability nowadays. Moreover, our excavations are casting new light into the presence and formation of interstitial urban spaces for everyday interaction. The persistence of face-to-face relationship despite a hierarchical social organization and the secluded architectural arrangement of compounds, points to the importance of everyday space in forging interactions. The role of space in promoting a sense of community and in combining daily life together might be taken into account by modern developers when designing new urban areas.
Another relevant result able to foster the connection between academia and society relate to the 3D image of Palenque. In fact, a joint effort entailing the collaboration between Sapienza with the ER, UNAM, LMU and UCSD is allowing the construction of the Palenque 3D Archaeological Atlas. The 3D Atlas, which will be linked to the next MAYURB publications, is intended to be an online geospatial collection capable of visualizing large 3D and geospatial datasets. The online Atlas will allow colleagues to interact with the 3D archaeological record of the city and its surroundings, and will enable new ways of collaboratively interpreting and disseminating large 3D and geospatial datasets on the Web. With diverse degrees of accessibility, and in the respect of the sensitiveness of archaeological data, the proposed workflow will open new dissemination and exploitation capabilities.
MAYURB results hold potential to advance the comprehension of urban sustainability today. The excavation data are helping in reassessing the history of neighborhoods formation within Palenque and, thus, are providing new information on city growth, expansion and performance. By highlighting the factors leading to city resilience we can better comprehend settlements persistence in the past. As lately advocated by more archaeologists, these aspects can help us thinking at city sustainability nowadays. Moreover, our excavations are casting new light into the presence and formation of interstitial urban spaces for everyday interaction. The persistence of face-to-face relationship despite a hierarchical social organization and the secluded architectural arrangement of compounds, points to the importance of everyday space in forging interactions. The role of space in promoting a sense of community and in combining daily life together might be taken into account by modern developers when designing new urban areas.
Another relevant result able to foster the connection between academia and society relate to the 3D image of Palenque. In fact, a joint effort entailing the collaboration between Sapienza with the ER, UNAM, LMU and UCSD is allowing the construction of the Palenque 3D Archaeological Atlas. The 3D Atlas, which will be linked to the next MAYURB publications, is intended to be an online geospatial collection capable of visualizing large 3D and geospatial datasets. The online Atlas will allow colleagues to interact with the 3D archaeological record of the city and its surroundings, and will enable new ways of collaboratively interpreting and disseminating large 3D and geospatial datasets on the Web. With diverse degrees of accessibility, and in the respect of the sensitiveness of archaeological data, the proposed workflow will open new dissemination and exploitation capabilities.