Part 3: Test Pit Excavations
Test Pits – Within the Wall. Within or near the city wall, we performed 57 1X2m stratigraphic test units in areas where surface concentrations were identified during the 2002 survey and other key areas of importance (Table 2a). Figure 2 shows the subset of milpas in which we placed subsurface test units. Within or near to the city walls, we tested neighborhoods in 17 different milpas (Figure 13). We also performed off structure testing at the Itzmal Ch’en ceremonial/residential group and a nearby houselot (H-20). In addition to the 57 test units that followed up our earlier information, we also excavated 55 random sample 1X1m pits in the same milpas (Table 2b) – these were placed within a pocket of deep soil within randomly selected 5m grid squares within each milpa. Sixty-three additional test pits were placed in five sample areas outside of the city wall (Figure 14). Altogether, we excavated 175 test units during 2003 and an additional 14 were completed during 2002 for a grand total of 189. All units were excavated in 10cm levels (except for basal bedrock depressions) and artifacts were collected in ¼” screens. Test pits within Mayapán were conducted by Clifford T. Brown in 2002, and under the supervision of Antonina Delu, Ryo Braco, and Amanda Schreiner in 2003.
Our 1X2m units recovered many samples of domestic middens and craft activity areas that will be critical for analyzing and comparing economic patterns of production and trade across the city. We also learned that sascaberas were popular areas for discarding domestic refuse. We took many soil samples from our sascabera (soft limestone “sascab” quarry depressions near houses) units and other midden and natural soil zones so that future ethnobotanical research can proceed to evaluate patterns of infield gardening in residential zones. Sascaberas retain considerably more moisture than off mound soils, and we hypothesize their use as planting surfaces near to domestic structures – although it is likely that garden locations were not limited to sascaberas.
Along with our random sample pits, our 1X2m pozos also revealed new information about mortuary patterns. We recovered seven interments in off-mound locations in these units. Although the Carnegie investigations provide much information about interments within structures and interior terraces and courtyards, our 2003 efforts suggest that many more Mayapán residents were buried in bedrock pockets beneath midden or natural soil deposits in off-mound locations. A surprising discovery from our 2003 test-pitting program was the presence of a bed of butchered and burned human bone and censer fragments found at the base of the southeast slope of the Itzmal Ch’en ceremonial group platform (Figure 15). This may represent a terminal episode for the occupants of this group, identified from historic sources as the Kowoj family, as the human remains were encountered in a shallow deposit just a few centimeters below the surface. This event may relate to the overthrow in the late history of the city. The bone bed extended in all directions from our units, and may cover much of this platform edge. We hope to expand our excavations of this feature in future seasons. Analysis of all materials collected from our test-pitting program is completed, as described in a later section of this report. This database will be the basis for our primary reconstruction of Mayapán’s domestic and political economies.
Test pits were placed in five survey transects outside of the city wall, as well as in Milpas 8 and 21, which are located beyond at a considerable distance from the city wall (Figure 1). These tests were excavated under the supervision of Bradley Russell, who is analyzing the Mayapán periphery settlement patterns for his doctoral dissertation at the University at Albany - SUNY. Russell excavated 53 1X1m stratigraphic test units in Transects #1 (15 pits), #2 (5 pits), #3 (11 pits), #4 (11 pits), and #5 (11 pits) to gather chronological and functional data from representative structure types present in these transects beyond the city wall (Table 2c). Milpas 8 and 21were tested in three 1X2m pozos and 7 random sample pits (Table 2d). These results are described in greater detail in the section below.
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© 2006 Institute for Mesoamerican Studies
Updated February 8, 2006
