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

1999 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hector Neff ◽  
James W. Cogswell ◽  
Laura J. Kosakowsky ◽  
Francisco Estrada Belli ◽  
Frederick J. Bove
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Microprobe Analysis ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Source Zone ◽  
Productive Capacity ◽  
Interaction Spheres ◽  
Late Formative ◽  
Firing Pottery ◽  
Copan Valley ◽  
New Perspective

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 light firing 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 Usulután) 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 (1) our own earlier hypothesis that Ivory ware originated somewhere in the Guatemalan highlands and (2) the hypothesis that cream paste Copador originated in the Copán Valley. If this inference is correct, then (1) 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, Copán 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.

Copan and Ceren

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Webster ◽  
Nancy Gonlin ◽  
Payson Sheets
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Volcanic Eruption ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Rural Sites ◽  
Copan Valley

AbstractThe volcanic eruption that buried Cerén, El Salvador, ata.d.590 preserved an extraordinary array of artifacts and features in or near their original positions. Household inventories are virtually complete, and activities can be reconstructed in almost ethnographic detail. It is therefore tempting to think that Cerén will automatically make less-well-preserved contexts at similar sites more explicable. This proposition is tested by comparing Cerén with a well-excavated set of household remains from seven small rural sites in the Copan Valley, Honduras, which have been much more heavily transformed by cultural and natural processes. Comparison is especially attractive because both the Cerén and Copan sites were small domestic places with similar social, residential, and economic functions. Both sets of sites also share a common basic cultural tradition on the southern periphery of Mesoamerica, and are in reasonably similar upland environmental settings.

CONVERGENCE ZONE POLITICS AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF UCANAL, PETEN, GUATEMALA

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-493
Author(s):  
Christina T. Halperin ◽  
Jose Luis Garrido Lopez ◽  
Miriam Salas ◽  
Jean-Baptiste LeMoine
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Convergence Zone ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Political Networks ◽  
Interaction Spheres ◽  
Maya Area

AbstractThe Maya archaeological site of Ucanal is located in Peten, Guatemala, close to the contemporary border with Belize. In pre-Columbian times, the site also sat at the frontiers of some of the largest political centers, Naranjo in Peten, Guatemala, and Caracol, in Belize. Entangled between these dominant centers and with ties to peoples in the Upper Belize Valley, the Petexbatun region in Guatemala, northern Yucatan, and elsewhere, Ucanal was a critical convergence zone of political and cultural interaction. This paper synthesizes archaeological research by the Proyecto Arqueológico Ucanal to underscore the ways in which this provincial polity, identified epigraphically as K'anwitznal, maneuvered within and between different cultural affiliations and political networks. We find that the site's role as a political frontier during the Late Classic period was more of a bridge than an edge. During the later Terminal Classic period, the K'anwitznal kingdom gained independence, but continued to serve as a critical convergence of influences and interaction spheres from throughout the Maya area and beyond.

A Maya Dam in the Copan Valley, Honduras

1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. L. Turner ◽  
William C. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Classic Period ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Copan Valley ◽  
River Bottom ◽  
Small Tributary

A prehispanic Maya dam is reported in the Copan Valley of Honduras. The dam is situated in the foothills above the river bottom at the headwaters of a small tributary, the Quebrada Petapilla. Constructed of cut stone and mortar, the dam was built immediately downstream from a spring and once created a small, flowing pond. The function of the dam is uncertain, although the creation of a greater head of water for the irrigation of the quality farmlands in the foothill zone is a possibility. The dam probably dates no later than the Late Classic period [A.D. 650-800].

Sociopolitical Developments and Methodological Issues at Copan, Honduras: A Conjunctive Perspective

1991 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
William L. Fash ◽  
Robert J. Sharer
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The North ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Large Populations ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Copan Valley ◽  
Single Data

Results of 16 years of archaeological research at Copán, Honduras, based on different methods and theoretical perspectives, can be used in combination to better understand the developmental trajectory of Classic period sociopolitical evolution in the Copán Valley. Although research continues, findings to date demonstrate the advantage of conjunctive research that applies archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic data in a crosscutting, self-corrective strategy. While the use of any single data set may produce incomplete or inaccurate conclusions, as in the use of settlement data alone to reconstruct Middle Classic population size and assess the developmental status of the Copán polity, more complete conclusions can be reached by applying a fuller range of data from excavations in both the valley and Acropolis of Copán's urban core, along with epigraphic and iconographic evidence. These combined data show that from its beginning in the fifth century, the Classic Copán polity was ruled by powerful kings who controlled large populations and, quite likely, an extensive territory that may have included the site of Quiriguá in the Motagua Valley to the north.At the other end of the developmental trajectory, the combination of research findings from the Acropolis and surrounding elite residential compounds and valley settlement data, has led to a redefinition of the Classic “collapse” at Copán, now seen as a long-enduring process involving the decentralization of political authority, the end of centralized dynastic rule, and gradual depopulation of the valley. This reconstruction, in combination with evidence for the end of the Classic period at other Lowland Maya sites, supports the long-standing conclusion that there was no single cause for the collapse, but rather that a complex and long-operating series of processes was responsible for the end of lowland Classic Maya civilization.

A SEVENTH-CENTURY INSCRIBED MINIATURE FLASK FROM COPAN FOUND AT TAZUMAL, EL SALVADOR

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeb J. Card ◽  
Marc Zender
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Late Classic ◽  
Political Relationship ◽  
The Common ◽  
Copan Valley

AbstractLate Classic interaction between Copan and western El Salvador has been archaeologically recognized in prestige items, monumental influences, and the common use of Copador ceramics. An inscribed flask excavated in 1952 in the main pyramid at Tazumal, El Salvador provides historical evidence for these ties. The flask is dedicated as the property of K'ahk' Uti' Witz' K'awiil (Copan Ruler 12), a long-lived seventh-century ruler who presided over the expansion of Copan's influence far outside of the Copan valley. The flask is the only hieroglyphic text from El Salvador naming a recognizable individual or that can be dated to an absolute calendrical span, one of only a few miniature Classic Maya vessels tagged with an individual's name, and the only one naming an ajaw (lord). The vessel's text, iconography, and context brings the political relationship between Copan and western El Salvador into sharper focus.

MANIOC CULTIVATION AT CEREN, EL SALVADOR: OCCASIONAL KITCHEN GARDEN PLANT OR STAPLE CROP?

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payson Sheets ◽  
Christine Dixon ◽  
Monica Guerra ◽  
Adam Blanford
Keyword(s):  
El Salvador ◽  
Drought Resistance ◽  
Classic Period ◽  
Ancient Maya ◽  
Late Archaic ◽  
Kitchen Garden ◽  
Kitchen Gardens ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Garden Plant ◽  
Staple Crop

AbstractMany scholars have thought the Classic period Maya did not cultivate the root crop manioc, while others have suggested it may have been an occasional cultigen in kitchen gardens. For many decades there was no reliable evidence that the ancient Maya cultivated manioc, but in the 1990s manioc pollen from the late Archaic was found in Belize, and somewhat older pollen was found in Tabasco. At about the same time of those discoveries, research within the Ceren village, El Salvador, encountered occasional scattered manioc plants that had grown in mounded ridges in kitchen gardens. These finds adjacent to households indicated manioc was not a staple crop, and vastly inferior to maize and beans in food volume produced. However, 2007 research in an agricultural area 200 m south of the Ceren village encountered intensive formal manioc planting beds. If manioc was widely cultivated in ancient times, its impressive productivity, ease of cultivation even in poor soils, and drought resistance suggest it might have been a staple crop helping to support dense Maya populations in the southeast periphery and elsewhere.

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