REHABILITATING BECÁN

Research in 1970 vaulted Becán to prominence on the landscape of great Maya centers. Mapping, excavation, and ceramic stratigraphy revealed that its enigmatic earthwork, first recorded archaeologically in 1934, was a fortification built at the end of the Preclassic period. Large-scale warfare thus unexpectedly turned out to have very deep roots in the Maya lowlands. The site's wider implications remained obscure, however, in the absence of dates and other inscriptions. The ever-increasing dependence on historical and iconographic information in our narratives, along with the invisibility of its Preclassic buildings and plazas, unfortunately marginalized Becán. Some colleagues even claimed that we have misinterpreted both the nature of the earthworks (not fortifications) and their dating (not Preclassic). We rehabilitate Becán by dispelling these claims and by showing that standard archaeological evidence, contextualized in what we know today, has much to say about Becán's role in lowland culture history. We identify intervals of crisis when the earthwork remained useful long after it was originally built, especially during the great hegemonic struggles of the Snake and Tikal dynasties, and introduce new ceramic and lithic data about Becán's settlement history and political entanglements. Our most important message is that inscriptions and iconography, for all their dramatic chronological detail and historical agency, must always be complemented by standard fieldwork.

The Social Use and Value of Blue-Green Stone Mosaics at Sites within Canal System 2, Phoenix Basin, Hohokam Regional System

The occurrence of nonlocal objects, raw materials, and ideas in the southwestern United States (U.S. SW) has long been recognized as evidence of interaction between prehispanic peoples of this region and those of greater Mesoamerica. Although many archaeologists have analyzed the directionality and potential means by which these objects and concepts moved across the landscape, few have assessed the degree to which Mesoamerican practices and traditional assemblages remained intact as the artifacts and ideas moved farther from their places of origin. The current study analyzes the distribution and deposition of blue-green stone mosaics, a craft technology that was well established in Mesoamerica by the Late Preclassic period (300 BC–AD 250) and spread to the U.S. SW by the start of the Hohokam Pioneer period (AD 475). We assess the spatial distribution, contextual deposition, and morphology of mosaics at sites within Hohokam Canal System 2, located in the Phoenix Basin of Arizona. We use these data to infer mosaics’ social value and function within Hohokam social structure. Analyses suggest that, although the technology of mosaic making may have originated in Mesoamerica, the contexts and ways in which mosaics were used in the Hohokam regional system were decidedly Hohokam.

Recent Research at San Isidro, El Salvador, in the Context of Southeastern Mesoamerican Archaeology

Archaeology of the extreme southeast of Mesoamerica, despite receiving a fair amount of scholarly attention, still remains a relatively poorly developed field. In this article I identify main factors that hamper our understanding of the ancient past of this region, including population density, volcanism, multiple historical reasons, and exceptionally uneven distribution of data from different periods. The second half of the Preclassic period (ca. 1000 BC - AD 250) seems to be the most understudied, and likely the most crucial time for the southeastern boundary of Mesoamerica from the perspective of reconstructing processes of cultural dynamics and emergence of identities. I offer a probable, if only partial solution to the problem by presenting recent advances, and future directions of my ongoing research at a large Preclassic site of San Isidro, Sonsonate, El Salvador. I argue that even at the early stage of investigation San Isidro shows great potential for providing the missing data.

The Real Business of Ancient Maya Economies

A timely synthesis of the latest research and perspectives on ancient Maya economics, this volume illuminates the sophistication and intricacy of economic systems in the Preclassic period, Classic period, and Postclassic period. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines move beyond paradigms of elite control and centralized exchange to focus on individual agency, highlighting production and exchange that took place at all levels of society. Case studies draw on new archaeological evidence from rural households and urban marketplaces to reconstruct the trade networks for tools, ceramics, obsidian, salt, and agricultural goods throughout the empire. They also describe the ways household production integrated with community, regional, and interregional markets. Redirecting the field of ancient Maya economic studies away from simplistic characterizations of the past by fully representing the range of current views on the subject, this volume delves deeply into multiple facets of a complex, interdependent material world.

A Discussion of Early Monumentality at Pacbitun, Belize

Powis and his colleagues have gathered significant information about the Middle Preclassic period at Pacbitun, data which speak to the broader subject of architectural monumentality. In Chapter 13, they present two specific case studies pertaining to Pacbitun’s Plaza A architecture. In the first case study, the authors’ discussion begins with the low residential/workshop platforms of Plaza B, an area well-recognized for its marine shell bead craft production, and the naturally elevated area to the east of Plaza B, where the large ceremonial structure of El Quemado was built on the highest point that would later become Plaza A. Unlike any structure previously built at Pacbitun, the presence of El Quemado implies an ability to organize a significant labor force and perhaps marks the beginning of institutionalized inequality. An apparent termination event in the form of chopped corners, extensive burning, and subsequent burial marks an important transition in the organization and ideology of Pacbitun’s society at the onset of the Late Preclassic period. Succinctly, the case studies in this chapter both demonstrate that monumentality refers to more than architectural scale. The labor force, energy, and resources needed to construct El Quemado and the E Group would have greatly surpassed what was needed to build contemporary domestic structures.

Ritual Practice, Urbanization, and Sociopolitical Organization at Preclassic Ceibal, Guatemala

In Chapter 4, Melissa Burham and colleagues examine urban growth, monumentality, and local community formation during the Late Preclassic period at Ceibal, Guatemala. Rather than focusing on the monumental epicenter of the site, the authors turn to the small communities that grew around the site core, each anchored by a minor-temple complex. Though smaller than temples in the site core, these community temples nonetheless represent monumental constructions that required considerable communal effort to build and maintain over an ever-expanding area. In this way, Burham and her coauthors consider how scale informs the definition of monumentality. Chapter 4 draws together various lines of evidence, including excavation and mapping data from Harvard’s previous work at the site and newer data from the current project, to spatially define communities and examine the role of minor temples and ritual in fostering local group identities.

Transformation by Fire: Changes in Funerary Customs from the Early Agricultural to Early Preclassic Period among Prehispanic Populations of Southern Arizona

We examine the changes in funerary rituals from the Early Agricultural period (2100 BC–AD 50) to the Early Preclassic period (AD 475–750) and how these changes concurrently reflect changes in social relationships between the dead, their families, and the community. The predominant mortuary ritual in the Early Agricultural period was inhumation, possibly emphasizing a variety of identity intersections of the dead and the mourners in the treatment of the body while creating collective memories and remembrances through shared ways of commemorating the dead. An innovation in funerary practices in the form of secondary cremation appeared in the Early Agricultural period and was slowly but broadly adopted, representing new social dynamics within the society. Thereafter, secondary cremation became the main funeral custom. During the Early Preclassic period, the variation in body position and the type and quantity of objects found with individuals decreased. It is possible that the vehicle for displaying different identity intersections changed and was not placed in the body, per se, as much as in previous periods. However, the transformation characteristics of these funeral rituals and the increase in community investment could have fostered the building or reinforcing of stronger social ties that highlighted a “collective identity.”