Animal Use at the Pre-Columbian Maya Urban Capital of Mayapan, Yucatan, Mexico

Animal use was important in everyday life as well as in public and ritual ceremonies for ancient societies, including the Maya civilization of southern Mesoamerica. Analyzing the animal bones from archaeological sites permits comparisons of spatial variation in use of different taxa in public or domestic settings. This research uses a sample from the last regional capital city of the Maya area, Mayapan, of the Postclassic Period (A.D. 1150-1450), colonnaded hall Q-99 (an administrative and ritual building), that I helped analyze in 2018. Hall Q-99’s faunal remains are compared to those of two other buildings at the city’s monumental center, Hall Q-54, and the principal pyramid Q-162 (the Temple of Kukulcan). Halls were constructed and used by political lords who represented many regional states of the Mayapan confederacy. Preferences for animal foods or animal sacrifices might suggest these regional tastes. The Temple of Kukulcan was a unitary emblem of the Mayapan state (dedicated to the city’s mythical founder), but activities there may have been controlled by the most powerful members of the council government. What differences, if any, are observed in the faunal bone assemblages at these two halls and the principal temple? How might such differences be interpreted