With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Leslie G. Cecil, with an international team of collaborators, will conduct a three-year multi-disciplinary project to address issues regarding the social reproductions of Postclassic (post A.D. 1200) Maya identity, interactions between the northern and southern Maya lowlands, and how archaeologists detect those exchanges. Current research into the Postclassic Maya of north-central Yucatan, Belize, and Guatemala reveals that it was a time of dynamic sociopolitical alliances and dominance relations, changing religious cults, long-distance exchange, and migrations of sociopolitical groups. New approaches to understanding the Postclassic Maya have centered on the exchanges of obsidian, salt, symbol sets, and pottery styles. These studies have advanced the understanding of sociopolitical complexity and far-reaching trade of some items, but the most ubiquitous artifact at most Postclassic Maya sites'pottery'typically has not been examined to its fullest potential. Thus, archaeologists are overlooking data that could identify places of manufacture, manufacturing recipes for different pottery wares and types, and ultimately exchange patterns. Consequently, archaeologists cannot state with certainty whether the Postclassic Maya exchanged pottery with similar iconography and forms or if the ideas behind the pottery were being transmitted, even though Postclassic pottery inter-regional exchanges have been suggested for more than 30 years. In order to rectify this lacuna, Cecil will combine stylistic and technological characteristics of pottery that was most likely used in rituals that (re)enacted collective memories and transmitted messages of Postclassic identity thus contributing new insights into the complexity of Postclassic Maya social, economic, and ritual life.
In order to discover stylistic and technological patterns that reflect Postclassic sociopolitical identity as manifest in pottery manufacture and exchange patterns, three kinds of analyses will be conducted: stylistic (type-variety classification); technological (petrographic analysis); and chemical (INAA). Ritually-laden redwares and incensarios (and effigy-face molds) excavated from ritual contexts (e.g., temples and oratorios) from Mayapan, Ek Balam, Santa Rita Corozal, Saktunja/Northern River Lagoon, Laguna de On, Tipuj, Macanche Island, Zacpeten, Tayasal, and Nixtun Ch'ich will be analyzed. Upon completion of the project, the stylistic and technological patterns will allow for a better understanding of the complexity of the interactions among the Postclassic Maya.
Ultimately, the theoretical and methodological basis for this project will reach beyond its three-year duration to advance and clarify our understanding of the political, social, and economic realms of the Postclassic Maya, how they identified themselves and/or transmitted that information and the directionality of their movements across the landscape before and during the Spanish conquest. In addition to promoting scholarly research activities, it will provide methodological (ceramic and archaeometric) training for undergraduate and graduate students in the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala, will open avenues of research not previously available to many archaeologists (and their students and university colleagues) in Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, and will enhance international collaboration among researchers, students, and research facilities in order to advance scientific, technological, and anthropological understanding.
