Part 6: Artifact Analysis
Analysis of artifacts from surface collections, test pits, and horizontal structure excavations was completed during the 2002, 2003, and 2004 seasons. The 2005 season was dedicated to data entry and codification of units of analysis (solare affiliation), as well as the analysis of architectural features described above. Full analysis was conducted of the following classes of material: ceramic sherds (type:variety and form of 100% of sherds recovered (classified by Wilberth Cruz Alvarado and Luis Flores), as well as modal analysis of rims from test pit collection samples from each milpa for major type categories (studied by Margaret McArthur), ceramic figurines (analyzed by Margaret McArthur and Yuko Shiratori), ceramic effigy censers (analyzed by Masson, Russell, and Elizabeth Paris), ceramic spindle whorls (analyzed by Yuko Shiratori), chert/chalcedony lithic tools (analyzed by Masson and Barbara Escamilla) and debitage (analyzed by Elizabeth France), obsidian tools (analyzed by Miguel Delgado, Barbara Escamilla and Laura Tycz), ground stone (Elizabeth France), shell tools/ornaments and manufacturing debris (Elizabeth France), faunal bone (Masson, Amanda Schreiner, Juliana Novic and Elizabeth Paris), bone tools (Juliana Novic), and copper bells (Elizabeth Paris).
Human skeletal material is being analyzed by Stanley Serafin for his dissertation at Tulane University, however, his activities have not been funded by this NSF project. Masson, along with Dr. Lori Wright (Texas A&M University) and Stanley Serafin secured a grant from FAMSI, Inc. for isotopic analysis of human skeletal material and faunal material from our project and that of Peraza’s INAH-Mayapán project. These results will provide important complementary information about Mayapán diet to the faunal analysis project undertaken under the auspices of our NSF grant.
The ceramic type and vessel form database (N=140239) is complete and has been sorted into time periods associated with each type. Prior to the SAA meetings in Puerto Rico, we plan to crunch these data and generate distribution maps showing the frequency of type distributions to indicate the chronological variation in settlement at Mayapán and locations of higher frequencies of specific types that may indicate social identity or external economic ties (e.g., Fine Orange, Polbox Buff types, Yacman Striated vs. Navula Unslipped).
Ceramic modal analysis has been partly analyzed and the completion of this study will be used to identify production variation in attributes of common Mayapán pottery by houselot and neighborhood. Ceramic figurine analysis includes those examples recovered by our project and those from Carlos Peraza’s INAH project in the site center. We created a figurine typology based on headdress form, body position, gender, clothing, animal type, and technology (solid/hollow, molded/modeled, etc.); this is the first comprehensive typology created for a Postclassic Maya figurine assemblage. We will analyze the distribution to determine whether figurine types concentrate in specific houselots, neighborhoods, or monumental contexts. This study will be presented at the ICA meetings in Seville in July.
The ceramic effigy censer study similarly included examples from the INAH project as well as tabulations of censers recovered and reported by the Carnegie institution and stone sculptures from the INAH/Carnegie projects that display similar iconographic themes (N=264). This database has been analyzed and partly published (m.s. submitted) in the proceedings of a conference in Merida held in March 2005, the full analysis has been written up as one chapter of the Kukulkan’s Realm book in preparation by Masson and Peraza. We compiled a database of deity identifications and headdress and adornment attributes and analyzed the distribution of these materials at the site. The frequencies of censer distribution indicate diverse and sometimes specialized rituals performed at specific groups at the site center (Figure 42); they also indicate that ritual outside of the monumental center was largely controlled by elite administrators who performed similar rituals in their palaces to those that took place in the monumental center temples and halls.
Ceramic spindle whorls (N=18) from our project and the INAH investigations have been classified by their technological attributes, and measured. This study will be published in the forthcoming site report monograph. We have determined that spinning was not common at Mayapán relative to its contemporary sites of the eastern and southern Yucatan peninsula, based on much lower overall frequencies. This study indicates Mayapán’s likely dependency on traded mantles for its textile needs. We plan a distributional analysis to determine which types of families (elite versus commoner) were spinning cloth at Mayapán, and whether this activity was concentrated in specific households or neighborhoods.
We performed a full typological classification of all of the formal lithic chert and chalcedony tools (N=592) recovered by our project and that of the INAH project (Figure 43). This is the first systematic typological classification undertaken for a northern Maya Postclassic site. Some artifact types overlap with those known for the eastern/southern lowlands (notably, side notched projectiles and specific knife or spearpoint forms), while others seem far more unique to the northern area (teardrop shaped bifacial knives) and bear closer resemblance to forms known in Central Mexico. The Mayapán formal tool assemblage is far more diverse than that of its contemporaries (in Belize), and we have identified specific bifacial forms that likely reflect particular industries such as wood-working and agriculture (wedge-shaped miniature biface axes). In addition to side-notched flake points, some bifacial points are present as well, including an extremely narrow, quadrangular form; these may reflect specific social groups within the city. This narrow, awl-like point was the only type recovered among the human remains of the Itzmal Ch’en bone bed and may indicate a foreign attack on this group. No strong correlations of round, square, or concave base side-notched points yet indicate specific group identities, but patterns may emerge once our full distributional analysis is completed. These data will be published in the Kukulkan’s Realm book as well as in a separate article sent to a journal.
We also analyzed 100% of the utilized chert and chalcedony flakes (informal tools) from Mayapán. These were identified and removed from the debitage bags – each flake was examined with an 8X geologic hand lens for evidence of use damage or wear along the edges in an effort to identify all utilized flakes. This process was time consuming but quite valuable as utilized flakes were the primary cutting edge used at Mayapán. Each utilized flake was then measured (length, width, and thickness) and its raw material type identified. We plan to analyze the variation in these attributes and the distribution of utilized flakes at the city in the Kukulkan’s Realm chapter on Mayapán’s economy.
One hundred percent of the site’s lithic debitage (non-utilized flakes and cores) was analyzed. Each bag of flakes was placed screened through four gradations of 2”, 1”, ½” and ¼” screen sizes in order to perform a mass analysis on flake size variation by context. Each screen size fraction was then subsequently analyzed for the percent cortex (0-24%, 25-49%, 50-74%, 75% or more) and type and color of raw material. These data will be used to reconstruct systems of lithic production at the city. Our surface survey and test pitting program identified two houselots that specialized in late stage lithic biface production. Few cores were recovered from Mayapán; the city primarily acquired its raw material in a preliminarily reduced form. The large majority of raw material is a gray/brown patinated chalcedony for which the source is not known but it is thought to be within the greater region of northwest Yucatan based on its abundance at the site.
Our obsidian blades and a few cores were also analyzed. Edge wear was classified as light, medium, or heavy, and blade widths and thickness (and in the rare case of whole blades, lengths) were recorded. Mayapán blades closely resemble those of the eastern peninsula in size, technology, and the major source (Ixtepeque, according to Geoffrey Braswell). It is likely these blades were gained through down-the-line exchange along the Caribbean Coast. Obsidian side-notched projectile points resemble the chert/chalcedony examples, but tend to be smaller and shorter. This pattern is also observed at eastern sites in Belize where Masson has worked. Obsidian projectile points of the Late Postclassic are identical throughout Mesoamerica, and indicate a widespread bow and arrow technology.
Ground stone fragments, including manos, pestles, and hammerstones were described. These artifacts are few in number from our test units. Another class of ground stone is the polished miniature green stone celt. These artifacts, which originate from the Maya highlands, are regularly found at Mayapán and throughout the Postclassic Maya area. They were likely used in woodworking. We have performed a detailed study of their morphology and breakage patterns; no such study currently exists for this artifact class.
Marine shell tools and shell manufacturing debris were also fully analyzed (Figure 44). The marine shell study also included materials collected from the monumental center. All pieces of shell were identified to species, measured, and the portion and types of modification (cutting, abrading, incising) and type of tool or ornament were also recorded. A significant quantity of ornament manufacturing debris implies that residents of the city obtained unworked shells for conversion to ornaments at Mayapán. We hope that once analysis is completed, we will be able to identify specific kinds of regularly-occurring ornaments that may have been used as exchange currencies as historic documents suggest. Elizabeth France is planning a master’s thesis on this study.
The Mayapán faunal study represents a major effort that included most of the monumental center fauna along with that collected from our project. Fauna was analyzed during all seasons in the lab, and additional boxes were exported to Albany so that zooarchaeology students (supervised and checked by M. Masson) could assist with analyzing a larger sample over the course of two academic semesters. This study will represent the largest sample of faunal bone ever studied for a Maya site. Observations recorded include: taxa, element, and age; additional measurements were taken on fish otolith length and deer tooth crown height to permit evaluations of age structure. We are currently analyzing these data to determine if specific foodways distinguish social groups at the city, including a preference for particular species or young animals. Monumental zone contexts have an unusually large proportion of full size subadult deer and dog that suggests younger animals were preferred in tribute offerings of animals used in central feasts and ceremonies. The disproportionate number of unfused long bone epiphyses for the site overall suggests that Mayapán deer were not solely obtained from hunting, rather, they were likely tamed and raised within the city’s houselots. Results of this work will be disseminated at the International Congress of Archaeozoology in Mexico City in August, 2006, and will be incorporated into the Kukulkan Book project and site monograph.
Bone tools were classified and described by Juliana Novic, whose results will be published in the site monograph. Both human and faunal bone was used for tools at the site (Figure 44). Hideworking was likely important based on the frequency of bone needles; this would have been a complementary industry to that of raising game for meat at the city. Human bone was primarily used for rasps. Perforators (bloodletters or hideworking implements) are also commonly identified fish spines that exhibit polish and wear.
The copper bells from Mayapán (our project and INAH) have also been analyzed – Elizabeth Paris is writing a master’s paper on them during the Spring 2006 semester. While we have not sourced the bells, a typology has been developed based on their morphology and their measurements have been documented and analyzed (Figure 45). These were important artifacts for commerce (used as monetary exchange units) and derive from outside of the Maya area. At one elite residence excavated by Carlos Peraza’s project, bells were manufactured locally from imported raw materials.
Thirty eight radiocarbon samples were sent to the University of Arizona Radiocarbon laboratory (Figures 46, 47); the results have now been returned and an article analyzing them has just been accepted to the journal Ancient Mesoamerica. These data represent an important contribution to the chronology of Yucatan, as they clarify the beginning of the Late Postclassic Period linked to Mayapán and place it at least a century earlier than previously documented. These findings correlate with recent chronological revisions of earlier periods that also place the timing of major political developments a century or two earlier than previously assumed. Our dates also aid us in understanding the urban growth of the city, for example:
1) massacres represented by human bone beds beneath the monumental plaza and
at Itzmal Ch’en date to at least 50 years before the final violent end
of the city, raising new questions about the stability of Mayapán’s
regimes and thus far undocumented cycles of political upheaval,
2) termination events linked to the abandonment of elite house Y-45a also date
to the 14th century, rather than the mid-15th century fall of the city –
like the bone bed results, this provides corroborating evidence of major calamity
in the final generations of occupation that are not documented in ethnohistoric
records,
3) some burials in outlying portions of the city date to the latter part of
the Postclassic period, which correlates well with other lines of evidence that
suggest that the margins of the settlement were occupied late and briefly in
the city’s history,
4) another off mound burial in a sparsely occupied area near the city wall dates
to the Classic Period – this observation underscores the need for caution
in attributing all such features to the occupation of Postclassic Mayapán.
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© 2006 Institute for Mesoamerican Studies
Updated February 8, 2006
