Komchén is a community in the Mérida Municipality in the state of

Yucatán Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida. ...

, located in southeastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Komchén is located 15 kilometers north of the city of Mérida, in the northwestern portion of the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula ( , ; ) is a large peninsula in southeast Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north and west of the peninsula from the C ...

and is approximately 20 km from the northern peninsular coast. Its name comes from the Yucatec Mayan and means: ''In the well of the hollow''. Its infrastructure includes, educational services (a kindergarten, a primary school, a high school and a Bachelors School and a municipal library), a clinic of the

Mexican Social Security Institute The Mexican Institute of Social Security (, IMSS) is a Federal government of the United Mexican States, governmental organization that assists public health, pensions and social security in Mexico operating under the Secretariat of Health (Mexic ...

as well as recreational parks and marinas. 90% of its streets are paved.

Pre-Columbian History

Komchén is also the location of a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

Maya Maya may refer to: Ethnic groups * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Mayan languages, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (East Africa), a p ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

of the same name and is situated close to the site of Dzibilchaltun. Pre-Columbian Komchén was initially settled during the

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

n Middle Preclassic. Its earliest settlement consisted of a small residential

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

with perishable structure. The site transitioned into a larger community during the Late Preclassic, reaching its peak in construction between the years 350-150 BCSharer, Robert J. ''The Ancient Maya, 5th edition.'', page 130 Stanford University Press, Stanford. 1994. and employing permanent stone

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

construction. It appears that the site was entirely abandoned by the end of the Late Preclassic (ca. A.D. 250). Later, however, the site was partially reoccupied by residents of the expanding center of Dzibilchaltun.

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

investigation of the site commenced during the early 1980s when a research project, under the direction of E. Wyllys Andrews V of the Middle American Research Institute (MARI) of

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

, began excavating at Komchén.Andrews, E. Wyllys, V, Ringle William M., Barnes P.J. ''Komchen, an Early Maya Community in Northwest Yucatán. In Investigaciones recientes en el área maya 1:73-92. XVII Mesa Redonda'', Sociedad Mexicana de Antropologia, Mexico City, 1984 This research documented nearly 1000 residential structures in an area approximately 2 km² in size, including a core of five large platforms (the tallest of which was 8 meters) and a

sacbe A sacbe, plural sacbeob (Yucatec Maya: singular ''sakbej'', plural ''sakbejo'ob''), or "white road", is a raised paved road built by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Most connect temples, plazas, and groups of structures withi ...

(one of the earliest identified in the Yucatán).

References

Maya sites in Yucatán Maya Preclassic Period Former populated places in Mexico {{mesoamerica-stub