Preclassic Maya Archaeology

"This paper synthesizes information on Late Preclassic Cerros pottery vessels from cache contexts.  An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2009 Belize Archaeology Symposium while negotiations were underway to transfer the Cerros collections to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Prior to that time, most of the materials had been stored in Dallas for more than 20 years and were difficult for researchers to access. Thanks to an agreement between permit holder David Freidel, the FLMNH, represented by Susan Milbrath and Debra Walker, and the Belize Department of Archaeology, represented by Jaime Awe, the transfer was completed at the end of 2009. Since that time Milbrath and Walker secured funding to curate the collection and create an online database of artifact images and other site records, termed the Cerros Research Online Catalogue (CROC). That work is still in progress, although a preliminary web site is active for viewing portions of the collection, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/latinarch/cerros/gallery.htm.

Unless otherwise noted, the figures and tables in this report were created by the author from FLMNH and CROC resources. Most of the pottery vessels illustrated have been photographed as a result of the 2009 transfer to the FLMNH. New images as well as details gained from curating artifacts and records improved the report dramatically. About 80 artifacts including pottery vessels from the 1970s project remain in the Belize Vault and are not part of the FLMNH collections. Images of those materials presented here are taken from the CROC photo archive which includes original project slides and photographs that have been digitized since 2009. The quality in these archival images is variable, but they add depth to the work as a whole. Most of these vessels have not been published before.
"

This volume presents the results of 35 years of archaeological research at the Maya site of Pacbitun, located in west central Belize. The site was continuously occupied from 900 BC to AD 800/900. Excavations focused on both the site core and periphery, with investigations centred around housemounds, workshops, causeways, caves, and other karst features. In the site core, we excavated at areas ranging from small domestic houses dating to the Middle Preclassic to large ceremonial architecture (e.g. courtyards, palaces, temples) and complexes (e.g. E Groups) dating to the Late/Terminal Classic periods. From a material culture perspective, we conducted extensive research on ancient Maya use of plants, animals, ground stone tools, musical instruments, and ceramics. Tying all of these aspects together, our project has routinely utilised spatial technologies and 3D modelling (aerial and terrestrial LiDAR, photogrammetry) that help to capture our research efforts, from architecture to material remains, over the long-term.

The Valley of Guatemala was populated from the earliest times. The first inhabitants of the valley were located around the Miraflores Lake, the waters of Las Charcas, Amatitlán Lake, and the El Naranjo Lagoon. Construction of clay platforms and mounds seems to have begun in the Las Charcas phase. This paper presents the results of the mapping of the site, evaluating the layout of its structures. To this, other elements are added that complement the spatial arrangement at the site.

The Grolier Codex (Codice Maya de Mexico, CMM) is discussed in the context of the archaeoastronomy of the ancient Americas on pages 98-99 of the March 1990 National Geographic Magazine article "America's Ancient Skywatchers" by John B. Carlson. One of four known ancient Maya books, the Grolier Codex depicts different manifestations of the planet Venus; the column of glyphs on the left of each panel records days in a 104-year Venus almanac. These plaster-coated bark-paper pages, carbon-dated to the 13th century, represent only half of the 20-page original. A numbered photographic arrangement of the Grolier Codex depictes the author's discovery that Codex pages 10 and 11 are actually two parts of the same "page 10".  Carlson clarifies the identities of Venus deities depicted in the Grolier Codex from a comparison of images from the Cacaxtla murals and links the images of the Grolier Codex with ancient Maya astronomically timed ritual warfare and sacrifice. (Grolier Codex photographs: Enrico Ferorelli; Other photos: Bob Sacha)

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

In this article, see pages 164, 166-168 for Stuart's discussion of the Grolier Codex.  It is highly significant that the Mexican State of Chiapas and the Universidad Autonoma de Chiapas chose to include the Grolier Codex as an authentic ancient Maya book in 1985 and make a fine color facsimile available along with the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid codices for further research. 

This review and essay of "Los Codices Mayas" is being posted as a personal tribute to my friend and colleague, the late George E. Stuart, Ph.D. (1935 - 2014) for his great generosity and many extraordinary contributions promoting world archaeology over several generations.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

This thesis reports on the 2010 excavations of the North Group and Eastern Court at the ancient Lowland Maya site of Pacbitun. It provides a construction history of the architecture and an analysis of associated artifacts, burials, and caches. The archaeological investigations demonstrate that the seven structures (Strs. 34-40) of this restricted access plazuela group were built in the Early Classic period, and renewed in the Late Classic period. Based on analyses of artifacts (ceramics and lithics), skeletal and faunal remains, and intra- and inter-site comparisons, the North Group functioned as a secondary elite domestic residential group. Reconstruction suggests that the inhabitants here were not commoners; instead, the occupants probably were related to the ruling elite of Pacbitun. Some of the evidence includes the central location and elevation of the North Group, the presence of red painted plaster surfacing, a burial with multiple ceramic musical instruments, and multiple dedicatory caches with exotic goods (e.g., marine shell, jadeite, "Charlie Chaplin" figures).

Cerros is a coastal Maya site in northern Belize ( ) noted for its precocious Late Preclassic Tulix Phase florescence that recent 14 C dates put at between 150 BCE and 150 CE. 1 First excavated by David Freidel between 1974 and 1981, the site produced over 300,000 artifacts, pottery sherds and other categories of materials. After excavation, the entire collection was shipped to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas for analysis except for selected items that were left in the Belmopan, Belize vault. Ten dissertations and many publications were written using these materials; subsequently the collections were put in long term storage making them inaccessible for further research.

This study explores the multifaceted Maya Deluge Myth, from its pre-Columbian origins to current fantasies about a great world-destroying flood at the 13 Baktun period ending of the Maya Long Count on 21 (or 23) December 2012. No such flood is prophesied in any Maya records for this date, and the famous scene on Dresden Codex page 74 is discussed in its context as a symbolic depiction of the annual world-renewing downpours at the onset of the rainy season in springtime in the Maya world. The presiding gods of warfare and blood sacrifice were the agents of fertility and the regeneration of nature, and not the agents for the destruction of the Maya in a world-ending deluge. The misinterpretation of Dresden page 74 has propagated, unchallenged, for over a century of Maya scholarship and found its way into “new age,” fringe, and popular culture. This research helps to set the record straight along with providing a history of the meme.

A lo largo de este trabajo se hace énfasis en la importancia que los santuarios en
las cuevas y montañas tenían para los antiguos mayas y cuya tradición en Mesoamérica
fue tan arraigada que forma parte de una amplia práctica social compartida por varios
pueblos indígenas actualmente, algunos de los cuales siguen realizando ceremonias y
peregrinaciones a estos lugares sagrados.
De esta manera, se intentará analizar qué características específicas en el paisaje
natural buscaron los antiguos habitantes de la laguna Metzabok (Mensabak en maya
lacandón) para establecer sus asentamientos y cómo modificaron su medio ambiente para
lograr conformar un paisaje simbólico en torno a ellos durante el periodo Preclásico Tardío (200 a.C- 200 d.C).

This investigation explores the emergence of ancient astronomical systems of knowledge at the site of Cerros, Belize. We argue that the ancient Maya of Cerros early on observed features in the coastal landscape that marked zenith events, and over time they constructed buildings to memorialize this observation point on a unique promontory at the site. As the site grew, the system of observation at Cerros developed into a form of architecture that only elites could access, thus creating a separate privileged form of knowledge. Later construction marked other important horizon events, most notably the spring equinox. The architecture itself became a form of landscape that helped mould their ceremonial activities. Using three-dimensional reconstructions of the site based on recorded archaeological data, we focus on how the Maya at Cerros developed an astronomically influenced cosmological system.

INTRODUCCIÓN - Ivan Šprajc;
1. EL SURESTE DE CAMPECHE: NATURALEZA E HISTORIA - Ivan Šprajc;
2. TRABAJO DE CAMPO - Ivan Šprajc;
3. DEFINICIÓN Y JERARQUIZACIÓN DE LOS SITIOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS - Ivan Šprajc;
4. DESCRIPCIÓN DE LOS SITIOS - Ivan Šprajc y Atasta Flores Esquivel;
5. RESCATE DE LAS ESTELAS DE LOS ALACRANES - Ivan Šprajc;
6. INTERVENCIONES EN MUCAANCAH Y ALTAR DE LOS REYES: UN ACERCAMIENTO A TRAVÉS DE SUS MATERIALES ARQUEOLÓGICOS - Daniel Juárez Cossío y Adrián Baker Pedroza;
7. ANÁLISIS DEL MATERIAL DE SUPERFICIE - María Isabel García López;
8. MONUMENTOS ESCULPIDOS: EPIGRAFÍA E ICONOGRAFÍA - Nikolai Grube;
9. ALINEAMIENTOS ASTRONÓMICOS EN LA ARQUITECTURA - Ivan Šprajc;
10. GIS AND REMOTE SENSING ANALYSIS - Tomaž Podobnikar and Krištof Oštir;
11. ARQUEOLOGÍA DEL SURESTE DE CAMPECHE: UNA SÍNTESIS - Ivan Šprajc y Nikolai Grube;
BIBLIOGRAFÍA;
ANEXO 1: MAPAS;
ANEXO 2: TABLA DE COORDENADAS DE LOS SITIOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS;
ANEXO 3: PLANOS DE LOS SITIOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS

El objetivo general de esta investigación se basa en la integración de datos e información, para lograr una mejor interpretación del objeto de estudio, en este caso ubicando en un contexto socio-político e ideológico el origen, función-modificación y abandono de la Estructura 4D3-4. Se tomó como punto de partida el concepto de patrón triádico y el funcionamiento de un conjunto de este tipo. Tratando el aspecto intangible que posee cualquier ‘bien cultural’ respecto al proceso de desarrollo, derivado de una
serie de actitudes y reglas cambiantes, conforme la dinámica de las relaciones sociales de un determinado grupo de personas.
El término ‘cambiante’ se relaciona con las diferentes etapas constructivas y uso de la Estructura 4D3-4. Este proceso está reflejado no solamente en la arquitectura, sino que también en las actividades representadas por los artefactos, depósitos rituales y la asociación de estos rasgos a la edificación. En conjunto éstos refieren la funcionalidad, significado y simbolismo de la misma.

Archaeologists agree that ancestors figured prominently in the lives of the Classic (CE 250-900), particularly in the Late Classic (600-900), the period for which we have a wealth of epigraphic, iconographic, and archaeological evidence.  Most data are from monumental site centers where royalty were lavishly interred in large pyramids.  Much less is known, however, of the roles ancestors buried in small, often rural, shrines played in the lives of commoners--the remaining 90-98% of the Classic era population.  Still less is known regarding the origins and development of ancestral practices int he Lowland Maya area.  In this chapter I review archaeological evidence for ancient Maya ancestors rather than the deceased in general.  I approach this from a chronological perspective, beginning with the earliest evidence of ancestor during the Preclassic (1000 BCE- CE 250).  In so doing I emphasize changes in burial practices, including body position, architecture, and symbolic elements of grave goods.  I also evaluate practices of kings and commoners in the Classic era, with a focus on the ongoing use of various Preclassic symbols and practices in the continued creation of ancestors.  My emphasis is on the material manifestation of these ancestors, the practices associated with them, and the resulting implications for our understanding of ancient Lowland Maya society.

Investigations at Cahal Pech, in the upper Belize River Valley region, uncovered 10 monuments: nine stelae and one altar. Of the nine stelae recorded at the site, only one was carved. It is argued that the "wrap around" style of carving, the iconography, size, and general design all indicate that this monument dates to the Late Formative period. It is further hypothesized that carved Preclassic stelae in the Maya lowlands may have developed from an earlier, local, stucco mask tradition executed on monumental architecture. The ritual deposition of the stela in an a relatively elaborate Classic period tomb also indicates that the monument may have been kept as an heirloom, and that the human figure depicted on the stela probably represents an important member of the ruling, Late Preclassic, Cahal Pech lineage.

The archaeological site of K'o is located in the Peten region of northeast Guatemala, and it is one of several medium-sized ceremonial centers surrounding the Classic Maya city of Holmul, Guatemala. This paper begins with a brief review of the recent archaeological research at K'o, highlighting the discovery of a Preclassic chultun burial within a high status residential group.

Propaganda was present in human history as early as the formation of the first states. Very often, it helped ruling elites convince subordinates of their connection to gods and local mythologies. This was probably the most common strategy for maintaining power. Visual art played a very important role here. Alexander the Great is considered to be an ancient master of propaganda: "Alexander the Great became the son of Zeus, and his face soon appeared on coins, replacing that of Heracles, the real mythological son of Zeus … He was the first to recognize that to maintain cohesion and control over his vast empire, such propaganda symbols could serve as a constant reminder of the various subjugated populations just where the center of power resided." 1

Speculation about what ancient Maya texts have to say about 2012 is becoming a global phenomenon in popular culture. This speculation, largely apocalyptic, is more often based on acquaintance with historical Western interpretations than on familiarity with the texts themselves and their cultural contexts. This paper approaches the 2012 phenomenon through close readings of Maya texts and images considered within the contexts of historical and contemporary Maya culture and Western scholarship. It focuses on images of mythological events depicted on two Late Classic Maya vessels: the 'Vase of the Seven Gods' (Kerr no. 2796) and the 'Vase of the Eleven Gods' (Kerr no. 7750). These images are interpreted as representing deities, gathered in 'cosmogonic conclave', preparing to re-create the world with their sacrifices at the last completion of a great cycle and the beginning of a new 5,125-year 13-Bak tun Maya 'Long Count'. The rites of passage are presided over by an enigmatic Venus-warrior/sacrificer deity previously known only as God L. God L's principal name and nature had remained undeciphered and his identity obscure until the author's researches resulted in the decipherment and 'reading' presented here. This study offers an explication of why God L, whom the author has demonstrated is the Maya god of tobacco among his many aspects, takes the senior role in presiding over these 13-Bak tun completion rituals and why it is reasonable to hypothesize that the same entities would be back for the fulfillment of the present cycle in 2012.

This thesis presents archaeological data collected in 2008, 2010 and 2011 from El Mirador to assess Maya warfare during the Late Preclassic (400 B.C. – A.D. 250). One school of thought argues that warfare prior to the Late Classic (A.D. 600) was largely ritualistic. If true, it would preclude the need for large scale defensive features prior to this time. The other school believes warfare played a major role in the rise of complexity as early as the Middle Preclassic (600 B.C.).

I document a feature called, “The Wall” one of the features that enhanced the defensive posture of El Mirador. A survey of the Maya lowlands shows that defensive features were a regular component of Preclassic architecture. No evidence was found to support the claim that Preclassic warfare was ritualistic. Instead, considerable evidence shows that massive expenditures were directed at making site cores defensible. This suggests that warfare was a serious concern during the Preclassic.

"This brief essay introduces eight papers in
a thematic volume of Archaeoastronomy devoted
to research into the Maya calendar,
creation mythology, prophecy, and the 2012
phenomenon. It includes six new and expanded
discussions of research presented at the special
session “The 2012 Phenomenon: Maya Calendar,
Astronomy, and Apocalypticism in the
Worlds of Scholarship and Popular Culture,”
which was part of the Ninth “Oxford” International
Symposium on Archaeoastronomy
(IAU S278) held in Lima, Peru, January 5–9,
2011. These eight papers, including a brief introduction
(immediately following) by Mark
Van Stone to the Maya calendar and the Long
Count in particular, address research interests
within six categories of investigation, including
several caveats outlined here."

Definitive proof of an ancient calendric science is emerging with astro-calendric designs embedded in Palenque's Temple XIX inscriptions, revealing a computationally derived reconstituted mythological cosmological framework, and shows how Eurocentric Greenwich current time perspectives distort original intent in these astro-calendric alignments, when a JDN correlation platform should admit an elapsed time perspective and day's-ending interval alignments, in addition to a Eurocentric current time perspective and day's-start alignments. It is not possible to combine the two perspectives without introducing a correlation paradox thus necessitating a dual JDN correlation platform, and this is only achieved by deferring to a 90°W longitude correlation authority rather than a Greenwich correlation standard alone. Modulo arithmetic integer period residuals in any base-period are fully fledged proper fractions despite absence of an explicit fraction notation, with modulo base period as an implied denominator, which forms leap days of a different kind across all calendric base periods, and computational precision emerges with a hitherto unrecognized rich source of calendric proper fractions using integer period residuals as fractions. A recent paper by the author entitled " Who are the Palenque Gods " analyzing all Palenque Temple XIX Platform South and West Panel inscription passages, is reduced to analyzing only the South Panel S-1 & S-2 inscription passages as translated by David Stuart (2005), in a bid to focus on evidence of the great cycle's alignment that resolves the GMT correlation debate; as well as evidence of precession calculations presented in terms of ecliptic noble sacrifices, with a new correlation constant and a refined dual JDN correlation platform. The methodology adopted reconstitutes mythological astronomy representative of the given dates, and compares this against the astronomical references in the inscriptions themselves, thus verifying an underlying Mayan computational practice using modulo period residual arithmetic supportive of a rich source of calendric proper fractions. This shows the true Mayan calendar is explicitly embedded within the cycle's astronomical alignment, while the Calendar Round attachment is merely an embellishment to provide a more exotic fixed dating-format, that makes no attempt to directly track the astronomy using adjustments. Companion astro-calendric computations are responsible for deriving date adjustments independently, derived on an as needed basis without distorting the Calendar Round dates, and these astronomical computations are rarely recorded as they are always easily derived if needed.

This study examines 2,000 years of marine trade to the ancient Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala. Located almost 150 kilometers from the nearest coast in Belize, Ceibal was a large community spanning the Middle Preclassic through early Postclassic periods (1000 b.c.-a.d. 1200). It therefore provides an excellent opportunity to assess the marine resources imported through the southern Maya lowlands over many centuries, offering insight into trade networks, uses of shell ornaments, religious beliefs and rituals, and other activities involving marine species. The study compares marine invertebrate data from Ceibal to a neighboring subordinate community, Caobal, as well as data previously reported from sites in the southern Mesoamerican lowlands, in order to understand regional sociocultural and trade connections over time. The majority of Ceibal's marine taxa are Atlantic species and reflect shell trends observed elsewhere in Guatemala and Belize, suggesting strong ties to trade networks eastward to the coast that lasted many centuries.

This dissertation presents the investigation of underwater materials, specifically, a total of six vessels were collected, their contents and sediments from the cenotes, Kan Kab Chen and Kan Kal, located in the municipality of Homún, Yucatán, México. The research developed a wide range of analyzes applied to ceramics, sediments, pollen, phytoliths, macrobiological identification (mainly seeds), carbon-14, identification of chemical residues. The results together provided us with more precise information about the variability of uses and practices that were carried out by societies since the pre-classic around the cenotes.

Esta disertación expone la investigación de materiales subauáticos, específicamente, se colectadas un total de seis vasijas, sus contenidos y sedimentos provenientes de los cenotes, Kan Kab Chen y Kan Kal, ubicados en el municipio de Homún, Yucatán, México.  La investigación desarrollo un amplio rango de análisis aplicados a la cerámica, sedimentos, polen, fitolitos, identificación macrobiológica (principalmente semillas), carbono-14, identificación de residuos químicos. Los resultados en conjunto nos proporcionaron de información más precisa acerca de la variabilidad de usos y prácticas que se llevaron a cabo por las sociedades desde el preclásico entorno a los cenotes.

The December 13, 1977 New York Times article by Laurie Johnson giving a brief history on the whereabouts of the Grolier Codex since its exhibition at the Grolier Club in New York City in 1971.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Grolier Codex.

Multidisciplinary studies over nearly three decades in the Mirador Basin have revealed data on its settlement, interaction and trade, politics, economy, and ecology, which help to understand some of the cultural and natural processes in this complex zone during the Preclassic and Classic periods. A synthesis of archaeological, geological, epigraphic, botanical, biological, ceramic, and topographic studies in the area demonstrates the cultural splendor associated with the origins, development, and cultural process of the first Maya state and cultural and environmental consequences of its precocious flowering in the Preclassic. The result of this development and abandonment in the zone had a strong impact on much of the Maya world. Preservation measures have been implemented at the cultural and natural level, and the intense collaboration arising between local communities and national and international institutions gives new optimism for the preservation integral to the cultural and natural system of the zone.

Public goods are "non-excludable" and "non-rivalrous" resources, including roads, water management systems, and plazas, as well as "symbolic public goods," such as religious architecture and social identity. Public goods occur in greater abundance in cities with more cooperative and inclusive forms of organization, which seems to undermine arguments that elites constructed them to augment their power. Such goods are major "pull" factors drawing migration to modern cities, but ancient cities also had public goods that likely attracted immigrants, increasing their population and diversity. We examine these ideas at Middle Preclassic-period (cal 800-300 BC) Nixtun-Ch'ich', in Petén, Guatemala. This city and other Preclassic metropoles in the Maya lowlands seem to have been on the more-cooperative end of a cooperative-competitive spectrum, compared to most cities of the Classic period (AD 200-900). We also speculate about how symbolic public goods were coopted to create a more exclusive social system in the Late Preclassic period (300 BC-AD 200).

Investigations of Middle Preclassic communities in Belize rely heavily on architectural analysis, as the remains of ancient structures represent one of the largest and most durable categories of material culture from this period. Architecture can reflect patterns in social organization and interaction, and comparisons of architectural investment have frequently been used to identify differences in status among social groups. Excavations at Cahal Pech by the Belize Valley Archaeological Project revealed an unexpected level of variability among several Middle Preclassic architectural features and construction sequences beneath Plaza B. Construction activity in Plaza B resembled neither the carefully planned monumental templates of Middle Preclassic Petén communities nor the incremental superposition of domestic platforms found in northern Belize, but was rather a punctuated equilibrium of building “events” that occurred at different tempos in different areas. Differential investment in architecture suggests that social relationships at Middle Preclassic Cahal Pech may have been more fluid and dynamic than
would be expected in a community where social rank was hereditary and well established. This paper synthesizes Middle Preclassic architectural data from beneath Plaza B and explores their implications for understanding the development of social complexity in the Maya Lowlands.