An Early Classic Colonnaded Building at the Maya Site of Blue Creek, Belize

Abstract

Investigations of the civic architecture at the Lowland Maya site of Blue Creek, Belize, have documented an Early Classic building with a colonnaded superstructure. Although one of only six such buildings reported from the Maya Lowlands, this architectural form appears to be a variant of a more common type of colonnaded building. An examination of such structures from a site-planning perspective indicates that columns may have been used by the Maya to create buildings that were conducive to movement, and for the conduct and/or viewing of public activities. The present study refutes the commonly held assumption that the use of columns in Maya architecture was limited in both spatial and temporal distribution, and instead shows them to have been widely distributed throughout the Maya Lowlands by the middle of the Classic Period.