At some Maya sites, the population outgrew the city center, and the entire population could no longer be accommodated within the central plaza. Large causeways or elevated roadways (called sacbeobs in the Maya language) are a common feature of Maya communities, as arterial connections between building groups within a community, or as connections between distant communities. At some Maya sites, these causeways were used as processional routes with people lined up along the road to watch the festivities.
This photograph shows part of the great elevated road system leading to the large Maya regional capital of Calakmul, and it links many of the sites in the highly forested Maya lowlands. Sacbeobs from Calakmul extended southward to El Mirador (Guatemala) and northeastward to El Laberinto. Calukmal was occupied between the Late Formative and the end of the 10th century AD; by 800 AD it had developed into a capital rivaled only by Tikal, with a population estimated at 25,000.
More information and sources:
This photograph shows part of the great elevated road system leading to the large Maya regional capital of Calakmul, and it links many of the sites in the highly forested Maya lowlands. Sacbeobs from Calakmul extended southward to El Mirador (Guatemala) and northeastward to El Laberinto. Calukmal was occupied between the Late Formative and the end of the 10th century AD; by 800 AD it had developed into a capital rivaled only by Tikal, with a population estimated at 25,000.
More information and sources:
- The Role of the Plaza in Maya Festivals, more on the project by Takeshi Inomata
- William Folan. 2001. Calukmul (Campeche, Mexico). Pp 88-92 in Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America, S.T. Evans and D.L. Webster, eds. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York.
- Takeshi Inomata. 2006. Plazas, perfomers and spectators: Political theaters of the Classic Maya. Current Anthropology 47(5):805-842