Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T20:27:09.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

RECONSTRUCTING THE FORMATION OF PERI-ABANDONMENT DEPOSITS AT BAKING POT, BELIZE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2020

Julie A. Hoggarth Open the ORCID record for Julie A. Hoggarth [Opens in a new window] ,
J. Britt Davis ,
Jaime J. Awe Open the ORCID record for Jaime J. Awe [Opens in a new window]  and
Christophe Helmke Open the ORCID record for Christophe Helmke [Opens in a new window]
Julie A. Hoggarth*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Institute of Archaeology, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97173, Waco, Texas76712
J. Britt Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, 5 East McConnell Drive, P.O. Box 15200, Flagstaff, Arizona86011
Jaime J. Awe
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, 5 East McConnell Drive, P.O. Box 15200, Flagstaff, Arizona86011
Christophe Helmke
Affiliation:
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Plads 8, DK 2300 København S, Denmark
*
E-mail correspondence to: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeological research in the Maya lowlands has identified special deposits that offer essential information about the abandonment of Classic Maya centers. We argue that some of the “problematical deposits” associated with terminal architecture may be more accurately described as peri-abandonment deposits since they temporally and behaviorally relate to the activities associated with the final use of ceremonial space. Here, we describe several peri-abandonment deposits that were identified in Group B at the site of Baking Pot, located in western Belize. Using detailed stratigraphic and contextual information, artifact assemblages, and calendar dates recorded on polychrome vessels recovered in the deposits, we describe the nature of activities associated with the formation of peri-abandonment deposits at Baking Pot in the eighth to ninth centuries. We find patterning in the spatial locations of deposits in the corners of plazas and courtyards at Baking Pot, with variability in artifact assemblages between specific deposits.

Type
Special Section: Problematic “On-Floor” Deposits in the Terminal Classic Eastern Maya Lowlands: Implications for the Maya Collapse
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , Spring 2020 , pp. 139 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aimers, James J. 2007 What Maya Collapse? Terminal Classic Variation in the Maya Lowlands. Journal of Archaeological Research 15:329–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aimers, James J., Hoggarth, Julie A., and Awe, Jaime J. 2020 Decoding the Archaeological Significance of Problematic Deposits in the Maya Lowlands. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:67–75.Google Scholar
Ambrosino, James N., Ardren, Traci, and Stanton, Travis W 2003 The History of Warfare at Yaxuná. In Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare, edited by Kathryn Brown, M. and Stanton, Travis W., pp. 109–123. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek.Google Scholar
Ardren, Traci 1999 Palace Termination Rituals at Yaxuna, Yucatan, Mexico. In Land of the Turkey and the Deer: Recent Research in Yucatan, edited by Gubler, Ruth, pp. 25–36. Labyrithos, Lancaster.Google Scholar
Audet, Carolyn Marie 2006 Political Organization in the Belize Valley: Excavations at Baking Pot, Cahal Pech, and Xunantunich. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.Google Scholar
Awe, Jaime J. (editor) 1993 Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: Progress Report of the 1992 Field Season. Trent University, Peterborough.Google Scholar
Awe, Jaime J., Helmke, Christophe, Aimers, James J., Ebert, Claire E., Stemp, W. James, and Hoggarth, Julie A. 2020 Applying Regional, Contextual, Ethnohistoric, and Ethnographic Approaches for Understanding the Significance of Peri-Abandonment Deposits in Western Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:109–126.Google Scholar
Awe, Jaime J., Aimers, Jim, Helmke, Christophe, and Wrobel, Gabriel 2009 Analyses of Terminal Classic Deposits in the Belize Valley and their Implications for Concepts of Rapid Abandonment and de-facto Refuse. Paper presented at the 7th Belize Archaeology Symposium, Bliss Centre, Belize City.Google Scholar
Brown, M. Kathryn, and Garber, James F. 2003 Evidence of Conflict during the Middle Formative in the Maya Lowlands: A View from Blackman Eddy, Belize. In Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare, edited by Brown, M. Kathryn and Stanton, Travis W., pp. 91–108. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek.Google Scholar
Bullard, William R., and Bullard, Mary R. 1965 Late Classic Finds at Baking Pot, British Honduras. Art and Archaeology Occasional Papers No. 8. Royal Ontario Museum, University of Toronto, Toronto.Google Scholar
Burke, Chrissina C., Tappan, Katie K., Wisner, Gavin B., Hoggarth, Julie A., and Awe, Jaime J. 2020 To Eat, Discard, or Venerate: Faunal Remains as Proxy for Human Behaviors in Lowland Maya Peri-Abandonment Deposits. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:127–137.Google Scholar
Chase, Arlen F., and Chase, Diane Z. 2004 Terminal Classic Status-linked Ceramics and the Maya “Collapse”: De Facto Refuse at Caracol, Belize. In The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation, edited by Demarest, Arthur A., Rice, Don S., and Rice, Prudence M., pp. 342–366. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Chase, Arlen F., and Chase, Diane Z. 2020 Final Moments: Contextualizing On-Floor Archaeological Materials from Caracol, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:77–87.Google Scholar
Clayton, Sarah C., Driver, W. David, and Kosakowsky, Laura J. 2005 Rubbish or Ritual? Contextualizing a Terminal Classic Problematical Deposit at Blue Creek, Belize: A Response to “Public Architecture, Ritual, and Temporal Dynamics at the Maya Center of Blue Creek, Belize.” Ancient Mesoamerica 16:119–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, William R. 1982 Tikal Report No. 12: Introduction to the Archaeology of Tikal, Guatemala. University Museum Monograph 46. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadephia.Google Scholar
Davis, Jeffrey Britt 2018 Scattered, Smothered, and Covered: The Cultural Significance of Terminal Classic Deposits at Baking Pot, Belize. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff.Google Scholar
Demarest, Arthur A., Rice, Prudence M., and Rice, Don S. (editors) 2004 The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Dietler, Michael, and Hayden, Brian (editors) 2010 Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Freidel, David A. 1986 The Monumental Architecture. In Archaeology at Cerros Belize, Central America, Vol. I: An Interim Report, pp. 1–22. Southern Methodist University, Dallas.Google Scholar
Freidel, David, Suhler, Charles, and Palma, Rafael Cobos 1998 Termination Ritual Deposits at Yaxuna: Detecting the Historical in Archaeological Contexts. In The Sowing and the Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological and Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by Mock, Shirley B., pp. 135–144. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Gifford, James C. 1976 Prehistoric Pottery Analysis and the Ceramics of Barton Ramie in the Belize Valley. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 18. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Guderjan, Thomas H. 2004 Public Architecture, Ritual, and Temporal Dynamics at the Maya Center of Blue Creek, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 15:235–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Richard D., Howell, Wayne K., and Guenter, Stanley P. 2008 Forgotten Structures, Haunted Houses, and Occupied Hearts: Ancient Perspectives and Contemporary Interpretations of Abandoned Sites and Buildings in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala. In Ruins of the Past: The Use and Perception of Abandoned Structures in the Maya Lowlands, edited by Stanton, Travis W. and Magnoni, Aline, pp. 25–64. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Harrison-Buck, Eleanor 2012 Rituals of Death and Disempowerment among the Maya. In Power and Identity in Archaeological Theory and Practice: Case Studies from Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Harrison-Buck, Eleanor, pp. 103–115. University of Utah Press, Provo.Google Scholar
Harrison-Buck, Eleanor 2016 Killing the “Kings of Stone”: Defacement of Classic Maya Monuments. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 61–88. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Harrison, Peter 1970 The Central Acropolis, Tikal, Guatemala: A Preliminary Study of the Functions of its Structural Components During the Late Classic Period. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Hayden, Brian 2001 Fabulous Feasts: A Prolegomenon to the Importance of Feasting. In Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power, edited by Dietler, Michael and Hayden, Brian, pp. 23–64. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Helmke, Christophe 2006 A Summary of the 1999–2002 Seasons of Archaeological Investigations at Pook's Hill, Cayo District, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 3:173–191.Google Scholar
Helmke, Christophe 2008 Excavations of Structures B1 and B7 at Baking Pot, Belize. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2007 Field Season, edited by Christophe Helmke and Jaime J. Awe, pp. 109–144. Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan.Google Scholar
Helmke, Christophe, Awe, Jaime J., and Grube, Nikolai 2010 The Carved Monuments and Inscriptions of Xunantunich. In Classic Maya Provincial Politics: Xunantunich and Its Hinterlands, edited by LeCount, Lisa J. and Yaeger, Jason, pp. 97–121. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Helmke, Christophe, Hoggarth, Julie A., and Awe, Jaime J. 2018 A Reading of the Komkom Vase Discovered at Baking Pot, Belize. Precolumbia Mesoweb Press, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Helmke, Christophe, Hoggarth, Julie A., Awe, Jaime J., Bednar, Sarah E., and Johnson, Amber L. 2017 Some Initial Comments on the Komkom Vase Discovered at Baking Pot, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 14:227–240.Google Scholar
Hoggarth, Julie A. 2012 Social Reorganization and Household Adaptation in the Aftermath of Collapse at Baking Pot, Belize. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Hoggarth, Julie A., Zweig, Christina M., and Mzayek, May 2014 Methodology and Preliminary Findings from the 2013 Excavations in the Royal Palace Complex at Baking Pot. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2013 Field Season, edited by Hoggarth, Julie A. and Awe, Jaime J., pp. 160–173. Belize Institute of Archaeology, National Institute of Culture and History, Belmopan.Google Scholar
Hoggarth, Julie A., Awe, Jaime J., Bednar, Sarah E., Johnson, Amber Lopez, McKeown, Ashley, Lonaker, Sydney, Green, Kirsten, Moraza-Keeswood, Niyo, Ray, Erin, and Walden, John 2016 How It Falls Apart: Identifying Terminal Deposits in Group B to Date the ‘Classic Maya Collapse’ at Baking Pot, Belize. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2015 Field Season, edited by Hoggarth, Julie A. and Awe, Jaime J., pp. 240–267. Institute of Archaeology, Waco.Google Scholar
Houk, Brett A. 2016 Signs of the Times: Terminal Classic Surface Deposits and the Fates of Classic Maya Kingdoms in Northwestern Belize. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 203–242. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Iannone, Gyles (editor) 2014 The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context: Case Studies in Resilience and Vulnerability. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A. (editors) 2016a Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A. 2016b Introduction. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 1–26. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inomata, Takeshi 2016 Concepts of Legitimacy and Social Dynamics: Termination Ritual and the Last King of Aguateca, Guatemala. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 89–107. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.Google Scholar
LeCount, Lisa J., Yaeger, Jason, Leventhal, Richard M., and Ashmore, Wendy 2002 Dating the Rise and Fall of Xunantunich, Belize: A Late and Terminal Classic Lowland Maya Regional Center. Ancient Mesoamerica 13:41–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lonaker, Sydney, Davis, Jeffrey Britt, Moraza-Keeswood, Niyo, and Hoggarth, Julie A. 2017 Group B, Plaza B, Peri-Abandonment Deposit Excavations at Baking Pot, Belize. In The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2016 Field Season, edited by Hoggarth, Julie A. and Awe, Jaime J., pp. 9–26. Belize Institute of Archaeology, Belmopan.Google Scholar
Mock, Shirley 1998 The Defaced and the Forgotten: Decapitation and Flaying/Mutilation as a Termination Event at Colha, Belize. In The Sowing and the Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological and Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by Mock, Shirley, pp. 113–124. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Navarro-Farr, Olivia C. 2016 Dynamic Transitions at El Perú-Waka': Late-Terminal Classic Ritual and Repurposing of a Monumental Shrine. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 243–269. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Navarro Farr, Olivia C., Freidel, David A., and Arroyave Prera, Ana Lucia 2008 Manipulating Memory in the Wake of Dynastic Decline at El Perú-Waka’: Termination Deposits at Abandoned Structure M13–1. In Ruins of the Past: The Use and Perception of Abandoned Structures in the Maya Lowlands, edited by Travis W. Stanton and Aline Magnoni, pp. 113–146. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Pagliaro, Jonathan B., Garber, James F., and Stanton, Travis W. 2003 Evaluating the Archaeological Signatures of Maya Ritual and Conflict. In Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare, edited by Brown, M. Kathryn and Stanton, Travis W., pp. 75–89. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek.Google Scholar
Pendergast, David M. 1979 Excavations at Altun Ha, Belize, 1964–1970, Volume 1. Royal Ontario Museum, University of Toronto,Toronto.Google Scholar
Ricketson, Oliver 1931 Excavations at Baking Pot, British Honduras. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 403. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Schwake, Sonja A., and Iannone, Gyles 2016 Destruction Events and Political Truncation at the Little Kingdom of Minanha, Belize. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya Kings, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 134–158. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Stanton, Travis W., Brown, M. Kathryn, and Pagliaro, Jonathan B. 2008 Garbage of the Gods? Squatters, Refuse Disposal, and Termination Rituals among the Ancient Maya. Latin American Antiquity 19:227–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, J. Eric S. 1954 The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Tsukamoto, Kenichiro 2017 Reverential Abandonment: A Termination Ritual at the Ancient Maya Polity of El Palmar. Antiquity 91:1630–1646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willey, Gordon R., Bullard, William R., Glass, J.B., and Gifford, James C. 1965 Prehistoric Maya Settlements in the Belize Valley. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, No. 54. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar