STRUCTURE 5N2 (“GROUP A”): A RÍO BEC PARADIGMATIC PALACE?

Abstract

AbstractStructure 5N2 (initially named “Group A”) at Río Bec is the first ruin in the region to have been recorded and is its most important towered building. While it is reasonable to question the specific role such emblematic monumental structures played in the region's sociopolitical organization, precise data concerning their dating, construction history, and functions has been lacking. The recent study of Structure 5N2 has improved our understanding of this building type and of the structure itself, which combines a private residential sector (that astonishingly includes a central pyramid-temple) and a public space. The structure's construction history also reveals a great deal. Originally it consisted of only a tandem two-room residence constructed at roughly a.d. 700–720. Around a.d. 830–850 the original residence was transformed into a large palace, which remained unfinished until abandonment just after a.d. 950. Analysis of the final building, replaced in the process of transformation to the settlement around Structure 5N2, also enables us to explore the social and economic dimensions of its dramatic but incomplete growth.