Maya Sacbeob and the Materialization of Ch’ulel Life Force

Introduction

Researchers have been fascinated by monumental causeways in the Maya cultural region for centuries. Known by the Yucatec Maya word sacbe (or, sacbeob in the plural), meaning “white road,” these features comprise key elements of the built environment at Lowland Maya city-states from the Late Formative through Terminal Classic Periods. The roads’ forms are relatively uniform, and a combination of site-level and synthetic studies have revealed typological categories of intersite and intrasite features.

The large corpus of known sacbeob, combined with the recent surge in large-scale discoveries of new landscape-scale features through aerial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), highlight the importance of developing compelling interpretive frameworks for understanding Maya causeways.

Unsurprisingly though, the purpose of sacbeob remains less clear, with roads at different sites conceptualized as movement corridors, symbols of social integration, and cosmographic expressions. Additionally, despite a wealth ethnohistorical data on the place of roads within Maya cosmology, these cultural understandings are rarely engaged with by archaeologists

In this paper, I build upon previous scholarship of Shaw (2008:122-124), Keller (2009), Stanton and Freidel (2005), and others to offer a revised investigation of Maya sacbeob within the framework of ritual landscapes as a feature class embodying conduits of life force energy.

Following an introduction to their form, typology, previous realms of interpretation, and ethnohistorical sources describing roads in Maya thought and cosmology, I interrogate the significance and interrelationships of the constituent conceptual units inherent to these causeways—the color white and linearity. Maya and other Mesoamerican ethnohistorical sources, considered alongside insights and analogies from the natural world and metaphor studies, suggest that sacbeob embody a materialization of the vibrancy animacy of life force and divinity known as ch’ulel in Maya.

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Ultimately, I argue that a focus on life force—inherent not only in spiritual matters, but in the goods and exchanges of daily life—as the conceptual basis of sacbeob offers a conceptual framework to unite “symbolic” and “functional” interpretations.

The Archaeology of Sacbeob

Dating and Distribution

Sacbeob are concentrated in the Northern Maya Lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula and are rarer at southern Maya sites (Figure 1; Shaw 2001:267). Some have suggested that drier conditions in the north may have resulted in superior preservation, but the sheer quantity of Northern Lowland roads in contrast suggests either the pattern is indeed true, or environmental factors in the south are so intense to have entirely erased a once-dense region of causeways. This pattern suggests, according to Shaw (2001:267), that whatever important fuction sacbeob played at northern sites must have been fulfilled by a complimentary feature in the south (e.g., plazas).

Causeways are known from sites throughout the Maya cultural sequence from the Middle Formative (ca. 550–300 BC) to Postclassic (AD 1200–Spanish contact). Dating these features is difficult and usually based on the chronology of the larger site they belong and through the associated features described above. Alternatively, some causeways have been excavated, revealing artifacts and features beneath that provide datable material.

Bearing in mind the difficulty of directly dating causeways, the earliest known examples are found at Middle Formative Maya sites such as El Mirador (Shaw 2008:5). Sacbeob increase in frequency over time, with the greatest quantity known from the Classic Period (ca. AD 250-850), the height of architectural extravagance, monumentality, and investment in public architecture throughout the Maya world. One well-known Terminal Classic sacbe system is that of Chichén Itzá (Cobos and Winemiller 2001). Some small causeways are known from the Postclassic, but these are not on the scale of earlier, Classic Period examples (Shaw 2008:6).

Form

Sacbeob are raised causeways built of stone. The sides of the sacbe consists of retaining walls that enclose an interior of stone fill (Figures 1 and 2). The fill is comprised of large, dry- laid boulder at the bottom with progressively smaller cobbles in layers above, terminating in gravel and sascab  Calcium Carbonate (limestone breccia) in the uppermost level (Shaw 2008:65). The top surfaces were plastered with lime, giving the roads a white appearance reflected in their Maya name (sacbe, “white road). The symbolic associations of white will be explored in depth later in this paper. Naturally, there is some variation in sacbe construction techniques, such as at Calakmul

Sacbe at Sayil, photo on Plant Design Online Flickr,https://www.flickr.com/photos/22887580@N 06/3215691334

Figure 2. Cross section of a sacbe at Yo’okop, demonstrating a typical construction technique (Shaw 2008:Figure 19)

where sacbeob were filled with packed earth (and in the case of Tobasco, oyster shells) rather than stone (Bolles and Folan 2001:304). Sacbeob vary in length, width, and height. Length is the best documented sacbe attribute. Shaw (2001:265; 2008:84-85) plotted the lengths of all known sacbeob, revealing that most (78%) are less than 1 km. Twenty three of the 293 sacbeob studied by Shaw (2008) are over 5 km, demonstrating that long-distance Maya causeways are the exception rather than the rule. Widths range from 1 to 20 m (Shaw 2008:69-70). Not surprisingly, road width appears to increase proportionally with height. The majority are raised above the surrounding ground surface, ranging from 30 cm high at sites such as Calakmul and Cobá to 3 m at Caracol (Shaw 2008:69-70). The size classes of sacebeob (especially length) suggest functionally distinct categories of intra- and intersite roads that are examined in full detail below.

The uncompromising linearity of Maya sacbeob is one of the roads’ most prominent features. Of course, the most parsimonious way to connect (and / or travel between) two points is with a straight line. Some causeways make angle changes or curve to avoid or incorporate destinations, but most prioritize straightness and thereby sometimes pass over earlier architecture or sascaberas Calcium Carbonate (limestone quarries) (Shaw 2008:68). Linearity, examined more closely later in this paper, is a key element in the diverse interpretations of sacbeob and their functions.

Architectural, human-modified, and natural features are associated with sacbeob and vary across locations. The destinations of sacbeob are discussed below, whereas the features I describe here occur alongside or atop the roads. For one, limestone (Calcium Carbonate) quarries are often present near causeways, not surprising given the large quantities of stone needed for their construction (Shaw 2008:72). “Ramps, steps, pedestrian passageways, [and] portal vaults” are another feature class that allowed individuals to access (or cross over / under) sacbeob (Shaw 2008:73).

Sacbe Types and Systems

The archaeological investigation of sacebeob has produced a diversity of interpretations of their function and meaning. It is important to remember that the Maya civilization consisted of separate, often warring city-states rather than a single unified empire. Despite this political organization, architectural forms and ideological concepts define a recognizable civilization understood today as the ancient Maya. Therefore, the manifestations of sacbeob across time and space should not be understood as representing a single, static concept or expression, though certain key aspects of their form, function, and meaning are unlikely to have morphed drastically across the Maya sequence (like pyramids, for example).

Many researchers posit the existence to two classes of sacebeob: intrasite (connecting structures or districts within a single site) and intersite (connecting two different sites) (e.g., Chase and Chase 2001; Shaw 2001, 2008; Stanton and Freidel 2005:227). Shaw (2001) proposes an important refinement to this classification, splitting intrasite sacbeob into two categories of “local intrasite” and “core-outlier” intersite to differentiate causeways that connect features within a dense core from those that connect the center and peripheral regions of a site. The histogram distribution of the lengths of all known sacbeob reveals three distinct clusters, suggesting that the categories likely reflect a reality of the Maya past (Shaw 2001:265). Of these subtypes, local intrasite are much more common, just as the larger category of intrasite causeways are much more common than intersite, highlighting their locally-focused nature.

Four sacbe patterns are evident in ancient Maya sites—linear, cruciform, solar, and dendritic (Figures 3a-d; Shaw 2008:92–105). The best known linear sacbe system is at the Late / Terminal Classic center of Sayil, where palaces, temples, a ball court, and other major architectural features were linked along a single causeway (Figure 4a; Shaw 2008:96). The linear pattern is generally interpreted as marking the relative equality of locations along the route, rather than highlighting the importance of a single center. The linear pattern is not widely distributed.

A more common sacbe pattern is the cruciform arrangement, in which causeways radiate out from (or, alternatively, into) a center comprised of an architectural complex or cenote in four directions (Figure 4c; Shaw 2008:98-100). The Maya and other Mesoamerican societies conceptualize(d) the cosmos in four quarters defining a central axis mundi (Freidel et al. 1993). Needless to say, the cruciform sacbe pattern has often been interpreted as an expression of cosmovision, described in more detail below. Some sites classified as having a cruciform pattern did not construct roads in all four cardinal directions, but rather clearly demonstrate an underlying quadripartite concept in settlement design even if all specifics of the concepts were not materialized (Shaw 2008:99). A close relative of cruciform systems, the solar (also known as radial) pattern also consists of roads radiating from a center, but in more than four directions. Cobá offers a clear example of the radial pattern (Figure 4b; Shaw 2008:101).

• linear sacbe pattern at Sayil (Shaw 2008:Figure 22),
• radial sacbe pattern at Coba (Shaw 2008:Figure 24),
• cruciform sacbe pattern at Ek Balam (Shaw 2008:Figure 23), and
• dendritic sacbe pattern at Caracól (Chase and Chase 2001:Figure 2).

At Caracól, sacbeob form a dendritic pattern, with roads radiating outward from the city center to “two distinct rings of architectural groups” they call “termini” (Figure 4d; Chase and Chase 2001:276). The first ring of termini (which I call Type 1) are those closest to the epicenter, 2.7–3.0 km away, and consist of plazas with small-scale monumental architectural elements. The second ring or Type 2 termini, 4.5–7.5 km from the center, are large complexes (smaller “centers”) with pyramids, elite residences, and so forth that were incorporated as the settlement expanded. Type 2 termini often have a a Type 1 terminus plaza set along the sacbe before it reaches the peripheral center-complex. It should also be noted that the second ring termini are distributed in four directions offset by right angles and thereby also present a cruciform pattern.

Chase and Chase (2001; 2017) interpret Type 1 termini as “market plazas” used for economic transactions and as administrative hubs. Their excavations in market plazas and structures revealed distinct deposits from “ritual” and “domestic” sites in the Caracól epicenter, (Chase and Chase 2001:276), yet the dichotomous definition of these categories is likely unhelpful. Other causeways, some of which are less monumental than sacbeob and called vias by the Chases, connect both elite and commoner residential clusters to sacbeob and/or termini (Chase and Chase 2001:279). Interestingly, causeways do not link termini to one another, but instead all emanate from the center in the dendritic or radial pattern described above, suggesting a highly centralized economic system. In sum, Chase and Chase (2001:280) argue that Caracól’s sacbeob “integrated the site’s economy, providing both a means by which local household and long-distance trade items could be distributed to the general populace and a means by which the bureaucracy or elite could control the taxation and distribution of goods.”

The pattern of causeways at Chichén Itzá parallels that at Caracól. The monumentally elaborated center is connected to an inner ring of termini from which more causeways extend to connect with an outer ring (Cobos and Winemiller 2001). The terminus locations are defined by architectural features that include, most frequently, “a temple, an altar, and a gallery–patio structure” (Cobos and Winemiller 2001:289), offering a possible divergence from the market plaza interpretation at Caracól. Other sacbeob at Chichén Itzá appear more clearly cosmologically-focused, providing links to cenotes (including the site’s Sacred Cenote), caves, and associated ceremonial architecture (Shaw 2008:79).

Intersite sacbeob present a final category. The longest known sacbe runs 100-km east-west to connect the sites of Yaxuná and Cobá (Stanton and Freidel 2005:228). It appears to have been constructed during the Late Classic Period (AD 600–700). Understandings of the function of the Yaxuná-Cobá causeway range from economic to political to ritual, spanning the interpretive frameworks to which we now turn.

Interpretations of Sacbe Function

The range in the patterning of sacbeob systems is complimented by an even more diverse assortment of functional interpretations. Here, I review the major conceptual frameworks under which Maya causeways are understood by different researchers, providing case studies within each analytical category.

Movement & T rade

Naturally, roads are corridors of movement for human beings. The steps and ramps that ascend to Maya causeways and the fact they connect architectural complexes including residences suggests, unsurprisingly, that people walked on sacbeob. Furthermore, roads not only facilitated, but enhanced, movement through the thick rainforests, soggy bajos, and the thorny underbrush vegetation of the Maya Lowlands (Shaw 2012:131). Additionally, defined roadways offer the potential to channel movement in crowded city cores (Shaw 2001:266).

For what reasons do people move between locations? Though the Maya did not possess beasts of burden, “bureaucrats, military personnel, ritual specialists, traders, religious pilgrims, and farmers could have used these causeways to move goods and personnel into, and out of, site centers” (Shaw 2001:266). It must be remembered, however, that whatever movement sacbeob facilitated was likely local, given the predominance of intrasite causeways.

Stanton and Friedel (2005:227) suggest that while narrower roads such as those at Chichén Itzá may have facilitated the utilitarian movements described above, the great width and short lengths of most intrasite sacbeob appear more likely to represent integrative or symbolic architecture. Many sacbeob lead to water sources, either cenotes, aguadas, or lagoons (Shaw 2012:131), though these natural features undoubtedly spanned the false dichotomy of utilitarian-ceremonial. Finally, causeways are interpreted as facilitating trade, such as in the Caracól market plaza system (Chase and Chase 2001), or between the centers of Yaxuná and Cobá (Loya González and Stanton 2013).

Political Control

Other interpretations emphasize the political nature of sacbeob. Shaw (2001:132), citing Carrasco (1993:211) and Folan (1992:163), makes the excellent point that monumental causeways connecting structures or settlements is a far more powerful message of political alliance or dominance than a written text, which could only be read by a select few.

For example, the 100-m causeway linking Yaxuná and Cobá may have manifested the latter’s political dominance over the former (Shaw 2001:266), literally linking the sites together as an expression of a political connection. Like massive constructions throughout the world, sacebeob also would have indexed the mobilization of labor on a large-scale, presumably by a powerful and influential ruler. On the other hand, abruptly terminated or altered causeways may also offer examples of political resistance and the agency of the individuals who constructed sacbeob (Kristan-Graham 2001:352; Stanton and Freidel 2005).

Water Management

Scarborough (1993) posits that Maya sacbe at El Mirador, Tikal, and other sites served as dams and dykes for water diversion and management. Water control is key in the Yucatán, which lacks rivers. Gaps in causeways provided channels for water courses to flow across their lengths, and the excavation pits from which limestone (Calcium Carbonate) for road construction was removed could subsequently serve as reservoirs. Thus, sacbeob also appear to have played an important role in facilitating and guiding the movement of water in culturally modified Maya environments.

Social Integration

Another school of thought emphasizes the socially integrative function of roads. Like other monumental construction efforts in the ancient world, the collective labor to build and maintain the massive