Revisiting the Xunantunich Palace: The 2003 Excavations

IV.  Remodeling the Frontal Terrace and Stairway

Sometime following the second major plaza surfacing and construction of the final superstructures of Strs. A-10, A-12 and A-13, the Maya modified the frontal terrace in front of the lower building. This modification involved two changes. First, they raised the surface of the terrace some 30 cm.  This modification did not impact the entire frontal terrace, but rather extended from the doorway to Room 8 to the doorway into Room 10, forming a small step up from the level of the original frontal terrace. The fact that this step does not occur in line with the jambs of the doorways, but rather in the very middle of the doorway, supports the inference that the doorways were blocked by this time.

Second, they removed the stair block in front of Str. A-11 and laid down a heavily plastered stairway directly over the old stairway and resurfaced the frontal terrace. Both of these architectural additions used small limestone blocks, contrasting with the earlier modifications that all used much larger limestone blocks. MacKie (1985) first distinguished these two masonry types, and he suggested that they were temporally diagnostic. Although small block masonry stratigraphically postdates large-block masonry in many structures at Xunantunich, other factors impact masonry choices and masonry style is therefore not a reliable temporal indicator (LeCount et al. 2002:55-56). The new stairway was wider than the earlier stairway, extending out to the middle of the doorways of Rooms 8 and 10 and corresponding with the addition to the frontal terrace just mentioned.

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