scholarly journals Chemical paste characterization of Late Middle Preclassic-period ceramics from Holtun, Guatemala and its implications for production and exchange

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 334-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Callaghan ◽  
Daniel E. Pierce ◽  
Brigitte Kovacevich ◽  
Michael D. Glascock
Keyword(s):  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Middle Preclassic

THE FIRST MAYA TRADE WARE? NEW DATA ON MIDDLE PRECLASSIC-PERIOD MARS ORANGE PASTE WARE FROM HOLTUN, GUATEMALA

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 821-827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael G. Callaghan ◽  
Daniel E. Pierce ◽  
William D. Gilstrap
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Activation Analysis ◽  
Activation Analysis ◽  
Neutron Activation ◽  
Short Distance ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
The West ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Combined Data

This study reports on type: variety-mode classification, digital stereomicroscopy, petrography, neutron activation analysis, and previously published reports and characterizes production and distribution of Mars Orange Paste Ware in the Middle Preclassic-period Maya Lowlands. The sample consists of 2028 sherds of Mars Orange Paste Ware from Holtun, Guatemala, and 4105 sherds reported from sites in Central Belize and Peten Guatemala. The combined data suggest Mars Orange Paste Ware was a “short-distance” trade ware produced in the northeastern Maya Lowlands and distributed from Central Belize to the west.

El Achiotal

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Jane Acuña
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Location ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Conventional Models ◽  
And Control

This chapter summarizes the archaeological and iconographic evidence from Structure 5C-01 that indicate rulership was established at the small center of El Achiotal in the Late Preclassic period. The symbolic vocabulary at El Achiotal suggests rulers were knowledgeable of the widespread ideology that was being institutionalized in the southern Maya lowlands as well as the more ancient symbolic vocabulary that represented the institution of kingship developed by the Middle Preclassic at La Venta and other centers in Mexico. Variables such as geographic location and control over knowledge provided Late Preclassic centers with leverage to negotiate their status and power within the broader regional geopolitics, thus challenging conventional models used to understand early political authority and its organization over the landscape.

Middle Preclassic Maya Shell Ornament Production

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bobbi Hohmann ◽  
Terry G. Powis ◽  
Paul F. Healy
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Large Scale Production ◽  
Belize River Valley ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Degree Of Control ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Marine Shell

Extensive archaeological investigations at the site of Pacbitun, a medium-sized Maya center located in west-central Belize, have revealed the large-scale production of marine shell ornaments during Middle Preclassic period (900-300 B.C.). Non-local marine shell and the restricted nature of its distribution indicate that some degree of control may have been exerted over the production and/or distribution of marine shell or the finished shell products. The sheer quantities of shell working debris in the site core of Pacbitun suggest that these ornaments were intended for intra- or extra-community exchange. Two different scenarios are presented to account for the quantity and spatial distribution of Middle Preclassic shell and shell working materials at Pacbitun and in the Belize River valley.

The History, Function, and Meaning of Preclassic E Groups in the Cival Region

Maya E Groups ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Estrada-Belli
Keyword(s):  
Initial Function ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Place Making ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Archaeological Project ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Ritual Behavior ◽  
Single Locality

This chapter summarizes archaeological data and interpretations regarding 13 E Groups from the Cival region mapped and excavated by the Holmul Archaeological Project between 2000 and 2015. In the Middle (1000-350 BCE) and Late Preclassic (350 BCE-0 CE) periods Cival was the main political and ritual center in this region of northeastern Petén. Over the course of the Late Preclassic Period, four additional E Groups were built at Cival and nine more have been found so far at surrounding minor centers. These data from E Group complexes provide a coherent sample of architectural chronology, dimension, orientation and evidence of ritual behavior. Excavations in the Cival Main Plaza provide the most complete example of a Middle Preclassic E Group available to date. The ritual function of Cival’s earliest E Group focused on solar hierophanies that uniquely connected, calendrical, metereological and geomantic observations within a single locality. Subsequent Late Preclassic complexes in the region were built following the same principles according to each site’s peculiar topographic setting. In accordance with their initial function as place-making devices for emerging communities, E Groups in the Late Preclassic Period were associated with the emergence of regional political systems as centers of religious and political interactions.

FACELESS HIERARCHY AT NIXTUN-CH'ICH’, PETEN, GUATEMALA

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-260
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Pugh ◽  
Evelyn M. Chan Nieto ◽  
Gabriela W. Zygadło
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Social System ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Centralized Planning ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
The City

AbstractSocieties vary in how they approach the challenges of increased population, inequality, and occupational specialization. The city of Nixtun-Ch'ich’ and its satellite, T'up, in Peten, Guatemala exhibit orthogonal urban grids—a trait absent from all other known Maya cities. Such grids require extensive planning and the ability to mobilize the population. The present data suggests that Nixtun-Ch'ich’ was substantially larger than any of the surrounding settlements and was, therefore, a primate center during the Middle Preclassic period. The extensive urban planning of the site, as well as that of T'up suggests centralized planning. Yet, we have not encountered evidence of a central ruler propagated as a unifying symbol of the polity. The gridded public streets and lack of a rulership cult suggest that Nixtun-Ch'ich’ had a more collaborative social system.

Preclassic Round Structures of the Upper Belize River Valley

2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Aimers ◽  
Terry G. Powis ◽  
Jaime J. Awe
Keyword(s):  
River Valley ◽  
Architectural Form ◽  
Maya Architecture ◽  
Belize River Valley ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
The World ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Maya Site

Round structures are considered a rarity in Maya architecture. Four late Middle Preclassic period (650-300 B.C.) round structures excavated at the Maya site of Cahal Pech demonstrate that this was a common architectural form for the Preclassic Maya of the upper Belize River Valley. These open platforms are described, and compared to similar forms in the Belize Valley and elsewhere. An interpretation of their significance is offered that uses information from artifacts, burials, and ethnohistory as well as analogy with round structures in other parts of the world. We suggest that these small round platforms were used for performance related to their role as burial or ancestor shrines.

scholarly journals ANCIENT MAYA ECONOMY: LITHIC PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE AROUND CEIBAL, GUATEMALA

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 279-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuo Aoyama
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Lithic Artifacts ◽  
San Martín

AbstractThis article discusses the results of my diachronic analysis of lithic artifacts collected around Ceibal, Guatemala, in order to elucidate one aspect of long-term changing patterns in the pre-Columbian Maya economic systems and warfare. The importation of large polyhedral obsidian cores and local production of prismatic blades began as the result of sociopolitical development in Ceibal during the early Middle Preclassic Real-Xe phase. El Chayal obsidian was heavily used during the early Middle Preclassic period, while San Martín Jilotepeque was the principal source in the late Middle Preclassic, Late Preclassic, and Terminal Preclassic periods, and El Chayal once more became the major source in Ceibal during the Classic period. There is increasing evidence of the production and use of chert and obsidian points in the central part of Ceibal during the Late and Terminal Classic periods, indicating elites' direct involvement in warfare. Although the spear or dart points were predominant weapons in Classic Maya warfare, the increase in both chert small unifacial points and obsidian prismatic blade points in Ceibal points to bow-and-arrow technology by the Terminal Classic period.

At the Foot of the Hills

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomás Gallareta Negrón
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Middle Preclassic

This contribution is about Xocnaceh, an early Yucatecan site with monumental architecture located on the edge of the Puuc escarpment. A program of excavations at the Acropolis, a trapezoidal basal platform whose surviving volume exceeds 100,000 m3, has identified building episodes and artifacts dating from the Middle Preclassic Period (800-300 B.C.) This chapter focuses on the evidence for identifying the construction stages and the associated artifacts useful for dating these contexts and for inferring commercial contacts outside the region. Instead of pyramidal temples or funerary monuments, these early structures were designed to accomodate large numbers of people, at least on special occasions. These great complexes with large open spaces suggest that social differences had not yet hardened suffiently for restricting social interaction.

E Groups and Ancestors

Maya E Groups ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kathryn Brown
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Social Memories ◽  
Burial Rituals ◽  
Over Time

Over time, E Groups come to have a funerary function housing burials of important ancestors. Using the data recovered from the Preclassic Period (1000 BCE-250 CE) E Group at the site of Xunantunich (Benque Viejo), Belize, I trace the development and elaboration of ritual and mortuary practices from the early Middle Preclassic (1000-350 BCE) to the Terminal Preclassic or Protoclassic Period (0-250 CE). I explore the transformation of Xunantunich’s Preclassic E Group from a venue for communal solar and maize rituals, to a sacred space also associated with commemoration of ancestors and elite individuals. I examine the ephemeral traces that ritual activities often leave behind such as fire features and perishable altars. Additionally, from the layout of architectural features found within the E Group plaza itself, such as paved ramps, I address the role of processions in early ritual practices. Although the built environment can encode important messages, it is through activities like commemorative events that those messages are embodied and transformed into collective and social memories. Ritual activities like feasts, processions, and burial rituals performed at sacred locations made these places powerful, so that they became part of both the physical and ideological landscape of an ancient community.

The Ceramic Sequence at Nakbe, Guatemala

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald W. Forsyth
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Major Type ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
The North ◽  
Large Structures ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Kan Complex

AbstractThe site of Nakbe, located approximately 13 km southeast of El Mirador in the far northern part of the Peten, has been investigated by the RAINPEG Project, directed by Richard Hansen, for the last four field seasons. The ceramic sequence from Nakbe has provided us with a much broader view of cultural development in the north-central Peten. We have defined a series of preliminary ceramic complexes that span Middle Preclassic through Late Classic times.The earliest complex at Nakbe, called Ox, which belongs to the Mamom horizon, is one of the two best represented at the site, and definitely associated, late in the period, with large-scale architecture. The principal ceramic groups are the Juventud, Chunhinta, and Pital. The main forms are bowls or basins with flaring walls and direct or everted rims, short-necked jars, cuspidors or semicuspidors, and composite-silhouette bowls. Particularly notable, although rare, are the types Muxanal Red-on-Cream and Tierra Mojada Resist. The Ox Complex is characterized by a high frequency of decoration executed by penetration methods, especially incision and chamfering.The unslipped pottery pertains to the types Achiotes Unslipped and Palma Daub. The latter is marked by a red wash applied to the exterior neck of the jar, the major form in these types. Daub is a form of decoration limited to the Middle Preclassic in this area, as is the chamfering technique on the slipped pottery.The ceramic complexes most similar to Ox are located to the south of Nakbe at Uaxactun and Tikal. The high frequency of chamfering, daub, and other traits strongly link Nakbe to these southern sites during the Middle Preclassic, while sites to the north and southwest, such as Seibal, Altar de Sacrificios, and Becan exhibit more tenuous connections.The Kan Complex belongs to the Late Preclassic period, and is characterized by the Sierra, Polvero, Flor, and Sapote Ceramic Groups. Although associated with the large structures in the site center, Kan ceramics are less abundant than Ox ceramics in our samples. Kan pottery corresponds closely to that of El Mirador and is similar to other complexes of the Chicanel horizon. Particularly noteworthy are everted rims with circumferential grooves and lateral, labial, and medial flanges and ridges. The unslipped pottery of the Kan Complex consists almost exclusively of jars bearing exterior striation from the shoulder to the base.The closest ceramic ties to Kan pottery continues to be with the southern complexes, especially Uaxactun and Tikal. Moreover, the similarity to Seibal is greater during Chicanel times, while Belize appears to differentiate itself ceramically from the Peten during this time. Nevertheless, the Chicanel horizon is the period in which the maximum geographical extent of a ceramic sphere is reached.“Protoclassic” ceramics are rare, but the small amounts recovered at Nakbe are similar to those from El Mirador. The major type is Iberia Orange, found in small quantities in surface contexts. Characterized by hollow, mammiform supports, hooked rims, and orange slip, this Nakbe pottery seems to be more similar to pottery at Seibal than to other complexes with Protoclassic pottery.Early Classic pottery is virtually nonexistent in our excavations, suggesting an insignificant occupation during this period.Late Classic pottery (Uuc Complex) appears in significant quantities at Nakbe, mainly in the outskirts of the site. All of the types and modes defined at El Mirador are found at Nakbe, principally Tinaja Red, Chinja Impressed, Infierno Black, and Carmelita Incised, as well as the polychrome types. Moreover, Codex-style polychrome was also found at the site. As at El Mirador, the Uuc ceramics are not found in association with large-scale architecture, and it appears that Nakbe was not a major center at this time.The major occupations at Nakbe pertain to the Middle and Late Preclassic periods. The abundance of architecture, ceramics, and other classes of artifacts from the Ox Complex provides us with an opportunity to investigate a Middle Preclassic occupation in which there was a much more complex social organization, at least at Nakbe, than had previously been suspected.

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