Too Many Maya, Too Few Buildings: Investigating Construction Potential at Copán, Honduras

Abstract

The monumental public architecture so characteristic of many ancient civilizations creates impressions of concentrated social power and high levels of labor appropriation. Nowhere is this more true than for the Classic Maya of ancient Mesoamerica. Despite the importance of monumental architecture in reconstructing many facets of ancient Maya society and culture, archaeologists have generally not applied empirical, quantitative assessments of construction costs. Using various strategies of labor recruitment, models of labor investment derived from quantitative studies of monument construction at Copán, Honduras, are used to calculate the potential architectural output of the Copán population between A.D. 400 and 900. Results suggest that monumental constructions at Copán required much less input of time and labor than qualitative impressions suggest.

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