Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Regeneration of Human Settlements amidst Ruins after Episodes of Societal Collapse

Roberto Rosado-Ramirez, doctoral candidate at Northwestern University, will investigate everyday life in a pre-Columbian Maya settlement that reclaimed the ancient city of Ake, located in present-day Yucatan, Mexico. Ake was abandoned at the end of the Classic period (AD 800-1000) and reoccupied at some point before the 16th century. This research will address abandonment and societal transformation in the aftermath of collapse in a complex society. These issues are consistently addressed across the social sciences and are relevant to the study of both contemporary and historic social groups. By focusing on people's day-to-day activities, this research will explore the timing, length, and nature of the reoccupation of Ake's urban center. These objectives will be accomplished by collecting data from vertical and horizontal excavations at the 12 structure groups identified at the abandoned site core of Ake, in an area enclosed by a stone wall. The results of this research project will contribute to understanding how the ancient Maya responded to the sociopolitical changes brought about by the so-called Classic Maya collapse. More broadly, this study will have significant implications for understanding the reuse of urban spaces and the processes of social change during and after periods of socioeconomic and political instability