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The Ceramic Chronology of Ek Balam, Yucatan, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

George J. Bey III ,
Tara M. Bond ,
William M. Ringle ,
Craig A. Hanson ,
Charles W. Houck  and
Carlos Peraza Lope
George J. Bey III
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology & Sociology, Millsaps College, Jackson, MS 39210, USA
Tara M. Bond
Affiliation:
Department of Geography & Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
William M. Ringle
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology & Sociology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28036, USA
Craig A. Hanson
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Charles W. Houck
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
Carlos Peraza Lope
Affiliation:
Centro Regional de Yucatán, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico
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Abstract

Since 1984, the Ek Balam Project has been investigating the organization and developmental history of a large Maya polity in the northeastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula. The survey included both urban Ek Balam, the largest regional center during the Late Classic period (a.d. 600–900), covering a minimum of 12 km2, and its rural hinterland. One result of this project has been the construction of a preliminary ceramic history of the region, the subject of this report. Evidence supports a sequence of occupations extending from the Middle Preclassic through the Hispanic period (600 b.c.–a.d. 1600). The ceramic sequence, constructed from a type-variety analysis of more than a quarter of a million pieces of pottery from surface survey and excavations, consists of six preliminary ceramic complexes. This ceramic analysis extends our understanding of Maya cultural development in the northern Maya lowlands to a largely unknown area of the peninsula.

Type
Special Section: Recent Chronological Research in Northern Yucatan
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , Spring 1998 , pp. 101 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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