Komchén is a community in the

Mérida Municipality Mérida Municipality is one of the 106 municipalities in the Mexican state of Yucatán containing (858.41 km2) of land with the head or seat being the city of Mérida. Because the archaeological remains of the Maya reminded the Spaniards of ...

in the state of

Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the political divisions of Mexico, federal entities of Mexico. I ...

, located in southeastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

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

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...

and is approximately 20 km from the northern peninsular coast. Its name comes from the

Yucatec Mayan Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as Maya or as , is one of the 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic commu ...

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 ( es, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, IMSS) is a governmental organization that assists public health, pensions and social security in Mexico operating under the Secretariat of Health. It also forms ...

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 spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...

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

of the same name and is situated close to the site of

Dzibilchaltun Dzibilchaltún ( Yucatec: Ts'íibil Cháaltun, ) is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán, approximately north of state capital of Mérida. Location In the view of modern researchers, the ancient builders of Dzibilcha ...

. Pre-Columbian Komchén was initially settled during the

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

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

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

with perishable structure. The site transitioned into a larger community during the Late Preclassic, reaching its peak in construction between the years 350-150 BC and employing permanent stone

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

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 constructing buildings o ...

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 scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

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 The Middle American Research Institute was established at Tulane University in 1924. Mission The Middle American Research Institute seeks to study and safeguard the culture and history of the areas of Mesoamerica and lower Central America. The Ins ...

(MARI) of

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

, 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 Sacbe at Dzibilchaltun in the Yucatán Arch at the end of the sacbé, Kabah, Yucatán A sacbe, plural sacbeob (Yucatec Maya: singular ''sakbej'', plural ''sakbejo'ob''), or "white way", is a raised paved road built by the Maya civilization of pr ...

(one of the earliest identified in the Yucatán) (Andrews et al. 1984).

References

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