Spouted Vessels and Cacao Use among the Preclassic Maya

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry G. Powis ◽  
Fred Valdez ◽  
Thomas R. Hester ◽  
W. Jeffrey Hurst ◽  
Stanley M. Tarka
Keyword(s):  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Chemical Analyses ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Ceramic Assemblages

Spouted vessels are diagnostic forms of Middle Preclassic (1000–400 B. C.) and Late Preclassic (400 B. C.-A. D. 250) Maya ceramic assemblages. Mayanists have traditionally called these vessels “chocolate pots,” but until recently there has been little direct evidence to support this interpretation. In fact, few studies have focused on the role these specialized forms played in the daily social and ritual activities of the ancient Maya. This paper provides a contextual and functional analysis of Preclassic spouted vessels found across the Maya lowlands and highlands. Additionally, the results of chemical analyses on residues collected from spouted vessels found in Middle and Late Preclassic burials at Colha, Belize are provided. Preliminary data reveal that some of the vessels from Colha contained substantial amounts of theobromine, a distinct marker for cacao or chocolate. The significance of the discovery of chocolate in Maya spouted vessels is discussed as well as its implications for the rest of Mesoamerica.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kathryn Brown ◽  
George J. Bey
Keyword(s):  
Social Complexity ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Time Period ◽  
New Information ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
First Time

This introduction to the edited volume by Brown and Bey summarizes past research on the Preclassic Maya and discusses an explosion of new information from the last fifteen years pushing back the origins of social complexity into the Middle Preclassic. This chapter highlights the fact that this volume brings together important archaeology and research considering the Middle and Late Preclassic periods from both the southern and northern Maya lowlands for the first time. The Late Preclassic was long thought to be the time period by which archaeologists could explain the rise and nature of Classic Maya culture. However, as the fifteen chapters in this volume argue, any discussion of the development of social complexity must be focused on the Middle Preclassic (1000-300 B.C.).

The Ceramics of Cuello, Belize

1998 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Kosakowsky ◽  
Duncan C. Pring
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Middle Preclassic

AbstractThe site of Cuello in northern Belize provides a long ceramic sequence from the early Middle Preclassic, ca. 1200 b.c., to the Late Preclassic, sometime in the fourth century a.d. Excavations begun at Cuello in 1975 were completed in 1993. The initial controversy concerning the chronological placement of the earliest pottery of the Swasey and Bladen complexes is challenged by examining the 1992 and 1993 excavated material in a “blind analysis,” without benefit of stratigraphic information. The results demonstrate conclusively the stratigraphie priority of Swasey ceramics below Bladen, which in turn lie below pottery of the Middle Preclassic Lopez-Mamom complex. Cuello operated within the homogeneous Mamom ceramic sphere during the Middle Preclassic and within the Chicanel ceramic sphere during the Late Preclassic. The ultimate breakup of the Chicanel sphere resulted in Cuello's adherence to the older ceramic traditions, while other Maya sites had begun the production of polychrome pottery. Cuello represents one of the best-known Middle Preclassic Maya sites yet investigated, and it provides an important perspective on this poorly understood time period in the Maya lowlands.

Preclassic Maya architectural ritual at Cuello, Belize

Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (284) ◽  
pp. 265-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Hammond ◽  
Jeremy Bauer ◽  
Sophie Hay
Keyword(s):  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
North West ◽  
Ancestor Veneration ◽  
Open Platform ◽  
The North ◽  
Domestic Activities ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Middle Preclassic

The Preclassic community of Cuello, the earliest village site hitherto excavated in the Maya Lowlands, centred on Platform 34, a flat-topped eminence where investigations between 1975 and 1993 documented occupation from at least 1200 BC to c. AD 400 (Hammond 1991; Hammond et al. 1995). Between 1000 and 400 BC the locus was occupied by a courtyard which with successive rebuildings became both larger and more formally organized, domestic activities shifting to the margins and ritual, including ancestor veneration, becoming more important (Hammond & Gerhardt 1990). Around 400 BC the final Middle Preclassic structures on the north, west and south sides of the court were ceremoniously demolished, their faqades hacked off and their superstructures burned. The entire courtyard was filled with rubble prior to the construction of the broad, open Platform 34, which itself underwent successive enlargements over the ensuing seven centuries.

A reconstruction of Middle Preclassic Maya subsistence economy at Cahal Pech, Belize

Antiquity ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (280) ◽  
pp. 364-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry G. Powis ◽  
Norbert Stanchly ◽  
Christine D. White ◽  
Paul F. Healy ◽  
Jaime J. Awe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Consumption ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Reef Fishes ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Game Species ◽  
Subsistence Economy ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Fish And Shellfish

The recovery of animal and plant remains from the site of Cahal Pech provides data on early diet and subsistence practices in the Belize Valley region of the Maya lowlands. Analysis of the material remains suggests that the Middle Preclassic Maya were practising a mixed subsistence economy relying on agricultural foodstuffs, local terrestrial game species, freshwater fish and shellfish and marine reef fishes. Isotopic analysis of human bone is used to aid in the reconstruction of actual food consumption.

GATHERING AND SOWING ACROSS THE CENTRAL MAYA LOWLANDS: A REVIEW OF PLANT USE BY PRECERAMIC PEOPLES AND THE EARLY TO MIDDLE PRECLASSIC MAYA

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 486-501
Author(s):  
Clarissa Cagnato
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Sociopolitical Complexity ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Plant Use ◽  
Chemical Residues ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Middle Preclassic ◽  
Village Life ◽  
Chili Peppers

AbstractThe recovery of macro- and microbotanicals, along with the study of chemical residues, allows us to shed light on a number of anthropological issues concerning ancient populations. This article reviews the data available to date on the plants used by preceramic peoples during the Archaic period and by the Early to Middle Preclassic Maya across the central Maya lowlands. Archaeobotanical data suggest that early preceramic populations took advantage of their ecologically rich natural environment by gathering a range of wild foods and by cultivating domesticates such as maize, manioc, and chili peppers, a pattern that seemingly continued into the Early to Middle Preclassic, as the Maya settled into village life and left more visible traces of modifications to their natural environment in the form of canals and terraces. This region is of particular interest with regard to the development of sociopolitical complexity, as mobile hunter-gatherers used domesticates during the millennia that preceded the onset of sedentary life. These early populations set the stage for patterns of plant use that endured through time, but also across space in the Maya region.

scholarly journals Preclassic Maya Houses and Rituals: Excavations at the Karinel Group, Ceibal

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica MacLellan
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Sedentary Life ◽  
Middle Preclassic

The site of Ceibal was founded around the beginning of sedentary life in the Maya lowlands. Excavations at the Karinel Group within the site reveal domestic structures and ritual deposits dating to the Middle Preclassic, Late Preclassic, and Terminal Preclassic periods (c. 1000 BC–AD 300). The results complement data from Ceibal's Central Plaza and publications on early households in other regions of the lowlands, inviting future investigations of temporal and geographic variation in Preclassic Maya domestic rituals.

Regroup On “E-Groups”: Monumentality and Early Centers in the Middle Preclassic Maya Lowlands

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Doyle
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Geographic Information Systems ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Viewshed Analysis ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Middle Preclassic

AbstractFor nearly a century, scholars have used astronomical evidence to explain the Lowland Maya architectural type known as “E-Groups” as solar observatories and, by extension, as locations for rituals related to solar and agricultural cycles. This article departs from the usual focus on the observational properties of E-Groups and places them in the context of early Maya monumentality during the Middle Preclassic period. Specifically, E-Groups are seen as the earliest monumental social spaces in the Maya Lowlands, with multifaceted functions and placements that indicate a shared social map of the landscape. Geographic information systems viewshed analysis of Middle Preclassic E-Group sites demonstrates that populations constructed E-Groups in places that maximized visibility of the nearby landscape. Viewsheds conducted at sites with Middle Preclassic E-Groups in the central Maya Lowlands suggest that the large plazas and similar monumental architecture represent the centers of comparable, mutually visible communities. Settlers founding these communities consciously created distance from neighboring monumental centers, perhaps as means of defining and buttressing group identity and undergirding spatial claims to political authority. Recent archaeological evidence affords clues that such spaces were civic, allowing architectural settings for social gatherings and access to resources.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kathryn Brown ◽  
George J. Bey
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Craft Specialization ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Preclassic Maya ◽  
Maya Civilization ◽  
Similarities And Differences

In this concluding chapter, Brown and Bey summarize the contributions to the volume and provide an updated synthesis of the development of ancient Maya civilization from the Preceramic to the Middle and Late Preclassic. The similarities and differences between regions in the Maya lowlands are highlighted in regards to ceramics, craft specialization, ritual, and architecture. This chapter concludes with a list of problems for consideration for future research pertaining to the Preclassic Maya.

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