The excavations at Toucan House are only a small part of a large, long-term effort on the part of the Maya Research Program to comprehensively understand the structure of an ancient Maya city and its relationship with its neighbors. Blue Creek was a medium-sized community of about 20,000 people with a large public precinct surrounded by numerous, well-defined residential and agricultural components. The overall Blue Creek project is focused upon the interaction between these components as well as the dynamics of the city’s growth and collapse.
MRP's 2011 field season focused on expanding the understanding of the abandonment and collapse of Blue Creek through excavations of elite residential areas adjacent to the site core of Blue Creek. This focus included both monumental architecture and residential architecture (such as Toucan House) at the nearby site of Nojol Nah (15 kilometers west of Blue Creek), elite residences at other sites in the project area, and wetlands agricultural systems.
What the MRP will learn from the excavations at Toucan House will not be fully understood until the analysis of the artifacts and architecture is completed, months and perhaps years in the future. The role of Toucan House in the larger scheme of the archaeological investigation of Blue Creek and its environs will only then be appreciated.
