FINAL MOMENTS: CONTEXTUALIZING ON-FLOOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIALS FROM CARACOL, BELIZE

The description and analysis of materials from on-floor deposits that reflect the final activity before site abandonment are key to making a determination as to what happened during the Maya collapse around a.d. 900. On-floor deposits recovered at Caracol, Belize indicate that factors like warfare, the breakdown of the site's market system, and heightened social tensions were in play prior to the abandonment of the site. In an attempt to understand the meaning of these deposits, we first examine why on-floor remains constitute an important data class for archaeology. We next look at the kinds of artifactual materials that are recovered in these deposits and then at the locations and nature of on-floor deposits at Caracol. Finally, we offer our thoughts on what they represent in the broader Maya context.

Where Are the Outsiders?

This chapter analyzes the historic narrative of Dogtown, Massachusetts, a New England outsider community. The shift from insider to outsider community in the early nineteenth century is examined by placing the documentary record side by side with the past and present landscape. The constructed nature of the historic narrative along with today’s physical space is unpacked, arguing that Dogtown’s communal identity is still an unknown and that the modern understanding of the community has been constructed in the one hundred years since site abandonment.

A New Archaeological Chronology for Aztec-Period Calixtlahuaca, Mexico

We describe the development of a new chronology for the Postclassic site of Calixtlahuaca, Toluca, Mexico. We identify three ceramic phases using discriminant analysis of decorated and plainware types. These phases are consistent with excavated stratigraphy, as well as a series of 54 radiocarbon dates. We then assign absolute dates to the phases using Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates and historical information on the date of site abandonment. The resulting chronology identifies three phases at the site: Dongu (A.D. 1130-1380), Ninupi (A.D. 1380-1450), and Yata (A.D. 1450-1530). We then discuss the local and regional implications of the chronology. More broadly, our results demonstrate the utility of using multiple, complementary methods for developing more precise chronologies.

The Construction, Use, and Abandonment of Angel Site Mound A Tracing the History of a Middle Mississippian Town Through Its Earthworks

Mound A is the largest platform mound at the Angel site (12VG1), a Middle Mississippian town along the Ohio River in southwestern Indiana, and consists of an upper and lower platform joined by an offset conical peak. Solid-earth cores, geophysical data, and 14C ages indicate that mound construction began at 900 B.P. by stacking 10–15 cm-thick turf blocks two meters high at the junction of the upper-lower platform and that by 890 B.P. the upper platform was built to nearly its full 8m height. The dates from Mound A are among the earliest recorded from the site, which implies that earthwork construction coincided with the initial occupation of the site and was among the first construction tasks undertaken. Cultural features associated with a structure partly buried under the conical offset on the upper platform of Mound A yielded 14C ages of 750–520 B.P., which show that the upper platform surface was probably used throughout occupation. As also occurred on Mound F (the only other platform mound investigated at the site), the Mound A structure was destroyed and covered with a fresh layer of fill just before site abandonment. This final filling episode to cap the mounds may have been part of a "ceremonial closing" of the site. The youngest dates from the structures buried on Mounds A and F, as well as others across the site, suggest that the Angel site was essentially abandoned by 500 B.P., which also corresponds with the abandonment of Mississippian sites throughout the region.

Ancient Maya Defensive Barricades, Warfare, and Site Abandonment

In a recent report (Latin American Antiquity 11:283-299), Bruce Dahlin presents evidence from Chunchucmil, Yucatan, and other ancient lowland Maya centers, which indicates that low stone and earth barricade walls may have been important defensive constructions. He also postulates that population annihilation occurred during Maya warfare, particularly at Chunchucmil. In this commentary I explore alternative explanations regarding Maya defensive works and warfare derived from recent archaeological research and historic sources from the Maya lowlands. The existence of palisades or thorny bush on barricade walls, and more gradual abandonment of Maya sites during episodes of conflict, warrant further consideration and testing along with Dahlin"s intriguing hypotheses.