Other Structures

Other Structures

In addition to the structures discussed above included in the major architectural groups (the Castillo, the Entrance Plaza Group, the Temple 8 precinct, and the Great Platform), there are a number of other vaulted masonry buildings at Muyil. All are believed to be single-room buildings. Save the smallest, all are in a condition of total collapse, and none were excavated. The following notes are, therefore, based on limited clearing of vegetation for our survey.

Platform 8K-8, with its complex set of room walls and multiple elevations, incorporates two small vaulted structures into the platform sides. Structure 8K-5 is a small one-room structure with a double entryway formed by the placement of a single front column. The doorway opens to the north, toward a small platform whose single run of steps faces south. This is the only instance of the use of a single column that we observed. Across the same plaza (courtyard) formed by the C-shaped platform, Structure 8K-8, is a second small vaulted room, whose single doorway opens to the south. Structure 8K-5 is an example of a small temple built into the edge of a platform at ground level. Muyil's other example is Structure 9K-23 built into the south face of Structure 9K-14, a large residential platform north of the Temple 8 precinct. Structures 8K-5 and 8K-8 face each other across a small plaza on a north-south line.

Structures 8K-1 and 8K-2, though collapsed, show traces of vaulting and painted stucco door jambs. Structure 8K-2 opened to the west-northwest, toward Structure 8K-8, but it is no longer clear where the doorway of Structure 8K-1 was located. All four of these structures (8K-1, 2, 5, and 8) are situated near Structure 9K-1 (Temple 8), and are located just outside the west entry to the Temple 8 precinct (8).

In the west transect (grid squares 2I and 2J) are two small vaulted one-room shrines. Structure 2I-3 sits on a 1-m-high platform and faces southwest. This platform rests, in turn, on a very low (one step high) larger basal platform. To the rear (northeast) and on the low basal platform is a smaller one-room shrine whose doorway opens to the northeast, facing the opposite direction from the doorway of the principal structure.

In several locations at Muyil, one encounters modest pyramid-temple structures that we came to call "neighborhood temples." They often shared the following characteristics: separation from the central ceremonial/civic architecture of the site; low basal platform (30 cm high); small truncated pyramid (2 m high) with a front stairway; a small vaulted structure atop the pyramid, often with a two-column triple entryway; an accompanying low altar at ground level in front of the central stairway; and residential structures nearby. Among the examples of this style of neighborhood temple we include Structures 5E-1, 7G-13, 7L-1, 9L-1, 10I-1, and 11L-1. All are in a much-advanced state of ruin.

Were it not for their location along the sacbe system, Structures 10H-1, 11H-1. and 12H-1 would also fit the description above. They are situated, however, at intervals along the sacbes and all are facing approximately 12° north of west. Structure 12H-1 was apparently standing and in good condition when encountered by the Mason-Spinden Expedition. Spinden drew a clear plan (with all but the south wall present) showing the basal platform, front steps, two central columns in the front doorway, column capstones, long slab lintels, and an interior bench-altar against the back (east) wall. His elevation shows a 5-cm offset at the spring of the vault, at a height of about 1.5 m (roughly equal to the height of the doorways.) His elevation shows, for the upper molding, dimensions and arrangements like those of Structure 9K-1 (Temple 8). Our own survey found, on the surface, a ½-m long cylindrical stone used for one of the front columns, and lintel stones amid the collapse on the front (west) side of the pyramid. We noted that a portion of the lower half of the north wall was still intact, although it was leaning precariously outward. This is the structure known as the Temple in the Savanna or Temple in the Cocos (for the coconut palms around it.) It is subject not only to seasonal flooding over the basal platform, but also to fires in the grasslands.

Structure 7I-9 is situated near the west end of Sacbe 2. The one-room building is atop a truncated pyramid which itself sits upon a 1.4-m high platform. The platforms of Structure 7I-9 and 7I-10 are built with vertical sides made of low-profile horizontally-laid stones. They appear to have once been individual structures, but at some point, stones were wedged between them (at the midpoint of their common northwest-facing wall line.) This had the effect of making a single platform of the two. The doorway of the single room of Structure 7I-9 faces to the northwest, however, the general orientation of Structure 7I-10 is toward the east where there are low aprons adjacent to the platform.

Other than the structures cited above, there are no additional vaulted structures at Muyil. The North Group, the Cenote Group, and Xlahpak each have one vaulted structure. Other platforms at Muyil consist of low rubble mounds, occasionally articulating with field walls. In some cases, these mounds have more or less well defined wall lines upon them, and these are shown on the maps. On rarer occasions, these platforms had sections of their retaining walls intact, either as low-profile horizontally-laid stones, or as large upright slabs. The following structures showed remaining portions of the horizontal technique: Structures 7I-24, Structure 8K-8, 7I-9, 7I-10 (three sides), and 9L-2. In addition to the supporting terraces of Temple 8, there are two notable examples of the use of large vertical slabs as platform retaining walls: Structure 9J-2 (south face) and Structure 9K-14 (east face.) Both of these are residential platforms.

In sum, the architectural inventory includes tall pyramids with vertically-faced terraces and sometimes with summit temples; lower bulkier highly-eroded pyramids with occasional wall-lines at the summit, but no masonry temple; plaza groupings of temples facing each other across a rectangular space with an altar; numerous temples with double columns on stepped platforms or truncated pyramids, painted stucco door jambs, and recessed lintels in the East Coast style; small U-shaped shrines constructed of parallel rows of upright stones at the base of the front steps of older eroded pyramids; large residential mounds with complex surface features, many with medial wall lines; a sacbe system in segments about 125 m long each with west-facing temple-pyramids articulating the segments; and smaller featureless house mounds. Construction techniques for platforms include either no retaining wall, a retaining wall of low-profile horizontally-laid stones, or a retaining wall of large upright vertical slabs. Construction of masonry buildings used rubble cores and more or less well-dressed facing stones, covered with stucco, and painted. Corbelled vaults were roughly formed by placing flat stones successively to protrude toward the vault center, making the vault interior a succession of rough 5-8 cm steps. Flat vault capstones were used to span the final 20-35 cm at the top of the vault. The single exception to this vaulting technique is the interior of Structure 9K-1-2d (Temple 8) which has a smoothly finished interior vault. Vaulted structures generally possess a smooth exterior to the height of the doorway, and a upper multipart molding. The sacbe segments were constructed with either vertical-slab retaining walls with slab and rubble fill, earthen fill, rubble fill, or by laying a single course of stones as a pavement. The distribution of structures over the site is discussed below.