Koba

Architecture and Construction

The central core zone and palace space at Koba is not like any other site: it is unique in its setting on the shore of Lake Koba and Lake Macanxoc, extending north to the Nohoch Mul group. Features include two ball courts, high platforms topped with double-vaulted structures, altars, stelae, enclosed private courtyards surrounded by substantial constructions with vaults, staircases, and tombs. Multiple entrances into restricted courtyards are seen in buildings adjacent to the Iglesia pyramid, at the south and terminal end of Sacbe 27, and in the large, but perhaps unfinished, enormous mound to the west of the Nohoch Mul pyramid. Small spaces open onto large plaza areas (such as the zone in front of the Iglesia pyramid, from adjacent plazuelas, and from the high mounds and vaulted structures in the Coba Group B). Another large plaza area is found in front of the Nohoch Mul pyramid and main staircase. Large courtyards and the open plaza areas were the location of public theater, ritual and secular activities. More intimate enclosures (such as the modest plazuela behind the Macanxoc group, perhaps the area around the Las Pinturas group, smaller courts such as those associated with vaulted structures found at the end of Sacbe 27, and plazuela groups dispersed throughout the suburban zones) also functioned as loci for ritual celebrations and secular activities. Elite constructions involved high-energy investments in collecting the stone, rubble fill (chich), and plaster for stuccoing the walls. The amount of stone collected and shaped to construct the pyramids and some of the complex elite residential structures was enormous. Small sascaberas(granular limestone mines) for collecting raw materials for stucco are found adjacent to the perimeter of the central core area, in the northern survey zone, and elsewhere. In the suburban zones, platforms, vaulted constructions, and the foundations of pole-and-thatch housing required the collection of stone. Granular limestone for stucco, support beams, wall poles, and roofing thatch were required for construction of vaulted and unvaulted structures that served as shrines, residences, kitchens, storage buildings, and foundation stones for small garden areas. While stucco murals and fragmentary stucco in walls can be seen in the core area, stucco was also applied to walls outside the central zone. To the south, stucco walls were found at Dzib Mul and fragments of stucco can be seen on the high vertical walls on the east side of the Kitamna mound.

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