The importance of place and memory in the maya past: The variable appropriation of ancient settlement at chunchucmil and yaxuná, yucatán, during the terminal classic

Place and memory were and are central components of community identity and ties to the land among the ancient and contemporary Maya. For example, archaeological evidence suggests that the ancient lowland Maya began constructing monumental site centers to define places by at least 400 B. C. (e. g., Hansen 1998). Of course, placemaking also occurs without monumental architecture (Edmonds 1999) and societies conceived to have minimal social complexity can have complex practices of placemaking (e. g., Taçon 1994). Yet the ancient Maya went to extended lengths to create monuments with layered meanings, and by the Early Classic (A. D. 300)….