Laura J. Kosakowsky

A New Perspective on the Relationships among Cream Paste Ceramic Traditions of Southeastern Mesoamerica

New ceramic compositional evidence has come to light that bears on the relationships among the cream paste ceramics of southeastern Mesoamerica. This evidence, which derives from instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and microprobe analysis, suggests that Ivory ware, a Late and Terminal Formative diagnostic found in southern Guatemala, is chemically similar not to other Guatemalan lightfiring pottery, but to Formative and Classic period cream paste wares from western El Salvador and Honduras. El Salvador is the clearest region of overlap between the Late Formative (Ivory Usulutatn) and Classic (Chilanga, Gualpopa, and Copador) representatives of this chemically homogeneous cream paste tradition, and therefore we argue that the source zone for all of them lies somewhere in western El Salvador and not in Honduras or Guatemala. This inference contradicts (I) our own earlier hypothesis that Ivory ware originated somewhere in the Guatemalan highlands and (2) the hypothesis that cream paste Copador originated in the Copan Valley. If this inference is correct, then (I) the importance of ceramic circulation in the Late and Terminal Formative Providencia and Miraflores interaction spheres has been underestimated and (2) during the Classic period, Copan absorbed the productive capacity of western El Salvador (represented in this case by cream paste polychrome pottery) to a greater extent than has been appreciated previously.

RUBBISH OR RITUAL? CONTEXTUALIZING A TERMINAL CLASSIC PROBLEMATICAL DEPOSIT AT BLUE CREEK, BELIZE: A response to “Public Architecture, Ritual, and Temporal Dynamics at the Maya Center of Blue Creek, Belize” by Thomas H. Guderjan

In this paper we present the results of our analysis of the contents and context of a Terminal Classic “problematical deposit” at Blue Creek, in northwestern Belize, and consider the kinds of behaviors, ritual and otherwise, that may have been responsible for it. We argue that the deposit is secondary, and not the result of a termination ritual in which whole vessels are smashed in situ on the front of a monumental structure in the site center. Based on analysis of the ceramics found in the deposit, specifically the number of whole pots and the forms of vessels represented, as well as a careful consideration of the stratigraphic evidence, we hypothesize that this problematical deposit may represent the transported remains of feasting events that occurred elsewhere at Blue Creek. The research that we present here has important implications for understanding the behaviors and events that occurred prior to the abandonment of Maya sites during the Terminal Classic period (a.d. 830/850–1000). Furthermore, we offer a methodology for the interpretation of problematical deposits that too often go unanalyzed and demonstrate that detailed investigation of such deposits contributes to a greater understanding of Maya ritual behavior.

PRECLASSIC THROUGH POSTCLASSIC

Ceramic and radiometric data from the three seasons of survey and excavations, 1995–1997, conducted in the coastal districts of Santa Rosa and Jutiapa in southeastern Guatemala are used to construct a chronological sequence for this previously little-known 1000-km2 region. Patterns of local ceramic manufacture and interregional trade are identified through the use of type-variety classification methods coupled with neutron-activation analysis. The resulting 3000-year-long uninterrupted chronological sequence, beginning in the Early Preclassic, shows patterns of continuity in manufacturing techniques, as well as evolving styles and shifting networks of interregional interactions that span much of the Pacific Coast and the highlands and lowlands of southeastern Mesoamerica, from the Gulf of Mexico to Copan, Honduras. These interactions indicate the southeastern Pacific Coast participated in exchange systems that brought together different ethnic groups whose cultural manifestations included Maya ceramics in the Preclassic and Classic periods, and ceramic, architectural, and sculptural evidence suggesting the southeastern Pacific Coast was actively involved in the Cotzumalguapa Nuclear Zone that stretched to the west into Escuintla and to the east into Pacific El Salvador during the Classic period.

T. PATRICK CULBERT, 1930–2013

T. (Thomas) Patrick Culbert was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 13, 1930. He attended the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1951 with a major in chemistry. After college he worked at 3M Corporation from 1951 to 1953, and served in the United States Army from 1953 to 1955. Subsequent to his army service, he entered the graduate program in anthropology at the University of Chicago and wrote his thesis under the supervision of Robert McC. Adams. Pat received his Ph.D. in 1962 and his dissertation, entitled The Ceramic Sequence of the Central Highlands, Chiapas, Mexico, was published by the New World Archaeological Foundation in 1965. Prior to receiving his degree he taught at the University of Mississippi during the fall semester of 1960. Upon completion of his Ph.D. he taught for two years at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville (1962–1964), before moving to the University of Arizona in 1964, where he taught until his retirement in 2000 as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology. From the outset his research was characterized by a meticulous attention to the data and strengthened by the value he placed on cross-cultural and comparative analyses. After Pat’s work in Chiapas, he joined the University of Pennsylvania’s Tikal Project in the mid-1960s (Figure 1), thus beginning his lifelong research on Maya ceramics, and his love for working in Guatemala (as well as the personal discovery, upon climbing Temple I at Tikal, that he disliked pyramids and was afraid of heights). His ceramic research prioritizing vessel form as a chronological marker along with type has continued to frame Maya pottery analysis for all who have followed. Working at Tikal also served to crystallize Pat’s interests in Maya population, settlement, and subsistence, particularly the prehistoric use of bajos, and the structure of Classic Maya polities and their collapse. Those of us who had the pleasure of working with Pat, both in the classroom as well as in the field, quickly learned that he was happiest while surveying the rough terrain of Peten bajos, or discussing the intricacies of Maya ceramic typology at the end of a long day in the field, lukewarm beer in hand. During the 1970s, Pat’s love for bajos led to an interest in understanding more about the subsistence base for the large populations that inhabited Classic period Maya centers, as well as the role of subsistence and other factors in the decline of southern lowland Maya civilization. Consequently, Pat organized one of the first seminars at the School for Advanced Research (SAR; then the School for American Research) in October 1970. This advanced seminar brought together eminent scholars of Maya archaeology; they debated a variety of explanations for the Maya collapse, and Pat’s 1973 edited volume, The Classic Maya Collapse, continues to be relevant today. It demonstrated both the complex and varied nature of the collapse across the Maya lowlands. The book also stimulated research into “collapse” in other parts of the world, which has since yielded a veritable cascade of publications. Equally groundbreaking was Pat’s early interest in, and the use of, satellite radar mapping to examine prehistoric Maya land use and settlement in the late 1970s, which produced some of the first evidence of the prehistoric use of wetlands for agriculture (Adams

Leaders, farmers, and crafters: The relationship between leading households and households across the chan community

Abstract Households, communities, and society exist in a mutually constituting relationship, shaping and being shaped by one another. Daily life within households can have political dimensions and affect societal organization. Research at the Maya farming community of Chan in Belize demonstrates how households shaped their lives, history, and politics for 2,000 years (800 b.c.–a.d. 1200). We examine the households of Chans leaders and the social, economic, political, and religious relationships between leading households and other households across the community to show how novel forms of political practice arose through household interaction. Community leaders and households across the community developed community-focused ritual practices and group-oriented social, economic, ideological, and political strategies that were critical in the development of their community, were distinctive from normative individual-focused political practices of the Classic Maya kings, and may have influenced the later development of more diverse political strategies in the Maya area in the Postclassic period.

SHAPING CERAMIC RESEARCH AT THE MAYA SITE OF CUELLO, BELIZE

Traditional analyses of ceramics from Maya Lowland archaeological sites have focused on descriptive typologies to define site and regional chronologies. However, T. Patrick Culberts groundbreaking work on the ceramics of Tikal (1993) utilized vessel shapes, as well, involving an analytical system of two levels: shape classes and shapes. His systematized modal analysis and concentration on vessel-shape classes, in conjunction with a focus on the importance of deposit types and site-formation processes, revolutionized what ceramics can tell us about prehistoric Maya behavior. The same approach was applied to the research on the Cuello ceramics presented here to gain a better understanding of the behavior associated with ceramic-vessel usage during the Preclassic period at this northern Belize site.