Maya Monumental “Boom”: Rapid Development, Hybrid Architecture, and “Pretentiousness” in the Fabrication of Place at Alabama, East-Central Belize

Abstract

Boomtowns are the product of unique flows of development characterized by relatively rapid population growth and land conversion, and the sudden appearance of functional and place-making features, much of which may not be readily apparent in the archaeological record. While settlements may expand rapidly in the absence of these forms, and thus lie outside the boomtown definition, we propose that the process does, in fact, describe development at the ancient Maya site of Alabama, Belize. We invoke archaeological evidence in the description of the tempo and tone of development at Alabama during the Late to Terminal Classic period (ca. 700–900 a.d.): a dynamic interval of Maya civilization. If, as archaeologists, we are truly interested in understanding the social and demographic processes that drove change in prehistoric and historic human landscapes, we must take care to incorporate descriptions of the human-scale experiences of development itself.