The Architectural Context of Caches , Burials , and Other Ritual Activities for the Classic Period

W hat goes inside a Maya building is just as signif icant in determining its function as a building's architectural plan and external appearance. Structures are not alike in their contents. Some hold in-terments and caches; some contain earlier buildings; others are single or multiple construction efforts with no contents other than f ill. Artifacts are found littered on the f loors of some buildings, whereas other buildings are found completely clean. Careful consideration of the overall context of Maya architecture, in terms of both its siting and contents, leads to many questions about the associations of architecture and archaeological materials. For example, is there a correlation of ritual offerings with new construction? Do caches, burials, or " termination " rituals ref lect the " dedication " of a new building, the f inal use of the previous construction, or something else altogether? Are changes in a building's function apparent archaeologically in the f inal treatment of a given structure? Which buildings contain ritual deposits and which do not? And what other determining factors are there besides structure form and location? Almost by def inition, many architectural forms and contents imply specif ic functions. Function may be manifest in the physical layout or iconographic decoration of a given building, or it may be revealed by associated ritual activity and deposits. Although the concept of temple as funerary construction is sim-plistic in that some temples bear multiple interments, and others contain no interments at all, certain buildings did apparently function as ancestral shrines and were used repeatedly for both interments and ritual offerings. In this con