Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T18:47:06.080Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

CONTEXTUAL AND COMPOSITIONAL COMPARISONS OF ABANDONMENT-RELATED, ON-FLOOR DEPOSITS AT CHAN CHICH, BELIZE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2020

Brett A. Houk Open the ORCID record for Brett A. Houk [Opens in a new window]
Brett A. Houk*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, Box 41012, Lubbock, Texas79409
*
E-mail correspondence to: brett.houk@ttu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

At Chan Chich, Belize, archaeologists have encountered Terminal Classic artifact scatters and piled artifact deposits in elite residential compounds near the epicenter of the site. This article presents a detailed comparison of four artifact deposits’ contexts and compositions to highlight similarities and differences among them. Commonly classified as “problematic deposits” in the field, all four examples considered here formed directly on floors or steps. Although they exhibit compositional variability, all four deposits appear to be abandonment-related features, which unknown actors deliberately created, specifically targeting elite residential architecture rather than monumental public structures in the site core.

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. 89 - 98
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., Hoggarth, Julie A., and Awe, Jaime J. 2020 Decoding the Archaeological Significance of Problematic Deposits in the Maya Lowlands. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:67–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Booher, Ashley 2016 Results of the 2016 Norman's Temple Complex Investigations at Chan Chich. In The 2016 Season of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, edited by Houk, Brett A., pp. 39–66. Papers of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, No. 11. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.Google Scholar
Booher, Ashley, and Houk, Brett A. 2017 Peri-Abandonment Deposits at Chan Chich, Belize. Poster presented at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Vancouver.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. Ancient Mesoamerica 16:119–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, William R., and Haviland, William A. 1982 Introduction to the Archaeology of Tikal, Guatemala. Tikal Report No. 12. University Museum Monograph 46. The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, Owen, and Rush, Amy E. 2000 1998 Excavations at the Western Groups. In The 1998 and 1999 Season of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, edited by Houk, Brett A., pp. 41–48. Papers of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, No. 4. Mesoamerican Archaeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Gallareta Cervera, Tomás, Houk, Brett A., and Palmer, Paisley 2017 The 2017 Investigations in the Upper Plaza at Chan Chich, Belize. In The 2017 Season of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, edited by Houk, Brett A. and Novotny, Claire, pp. 33–68. Papers of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, No. 12. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.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
Guderjan, Thomas H., and Hanratty, C. Colleen 2016 The Events and Processes Leading to the Abandonment of the Maya City of Blue Creek, Belize. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya King, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 223–242. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman 1970 Lubaantun: A Classic Maya Realm. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.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, Salt Lake City.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., Britt Davis, J., Awe, Jaime J., and Helmke, Christophe 2020 Reconstructing the Formation of Peri-Abandonment Deposits at Baking Pot, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:139–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houk, Brett A. 2000 Life, the Universe, and Everything: Re-evaluating Problematic Deposit 2 from Dos Hombres, Belize. In The 1998 and 1999 Seasons of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, edited by Houk, Brett A., pp. 141–150. Papers of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, No. 4. Mesoamerican Archaeological Research Laboratory, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Houk, Brett A. 2001 Chan Chich Archaeological Project (unpublished field notes). Manuscript on file, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.Google Scholar
Houk, Brett A. 2012 The Ruins of Chan Chich: A Self-Guided Archaeological Tour. 3rd ed. Chan Chich Lodge, Belize City, Belize.Google Scholar
Houk, Brett A. 2015 Ancient Maya Cities of the Eastern Lowlands. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Houk, Brett A. 2016 Signs of the Times: Terminal Classic Surface Deposits and the Fates of Maya Kingdoms in Northwestern Belize. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya King, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 203–222. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Houk, Brett A. 2017 An Introduction to the 2017 Season of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project and the Belize Estates Archaeological Survey Team. In The 2017 Season of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, edited by Houk, Brett A., pp. 1–32. Papers of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, No. 12. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.Google Scholar
Houk, Brett A., Sullivan, Lauren A., and Valdez, Fred Jr. 2008 Rethinking the Postclassic in Northwest Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 5:93–102.Google Scholar
Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A. 2016 Introduction. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya King, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 1–22. 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 Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Koenig, Emma 2015 Identifying Abandonment Processes Through Terminal Ritual Deposits at Aguacate Uno, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 12:323–338.Google Scholar
Lamoureux-St-Hilaire, Maxime, and Snetsinger, Andrew Kent 2020 Explaining Variability in On-Floor Assemblages: The Behavioral-Contextual Method. Ancient Mesoamerica 31:99–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoureux-St-Hilaire, Maxime, Macrae, Scott, McCane, Carmen A., Parker, Evan A., and Iannone, Gyles 2015 The Last Groups Standing: Living Abandonment at the Ancient Maya Center of Minanha, Belize. Latin American Antiquity 26:550–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meadows, Richard 1998 Test Pit Program in Group C. In The 1997 Season of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, edited by Houk, Brett A., pp. 59–66. Papers of the Chan Chich Archaeological Project, No. 3. Center for Maya Studies, San Antonio.Google Scholar
Navarro-Farr, Olivia 2009 Ritual, Process, and Continuity in the Late to Terminal Classic Transition: Investigations at Structure M13-1 in the Ancient Maya Site of El Perú-Waka’, Petén, Guatemala. Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.Google Scholar
Navarro-Farr, Olivia 2016 Dynamic Transitions at El Perú-Waka’: Late Terminal Classic Ritual Repurposing of a Monumental Shrine. In Ritual, Violence, and the Fall of the Classic Maya King, edited by Iannone, Gyles, Houk, Brett A., and Schwake, Sonja A., pp. 243–269. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.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, Toronto.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
Sullivan, Lauren A., Houk, Brett A., Zaro, Gregory, and Moats, Lindsey R. 2013 Deciphering a Terminal Classic Surface Artifact Deposit at Courtyard 100, La Milpa: The View from the Ceramic Data. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 10:211–218.Google Scholar
Tsukamoto, Kenichiro 2017 Reverential Abandonment: A Termination Ritual at the Ancient Maya Polity of El Palmar. Antiquity 91:1630–1646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaro, Gregory, and Houk, Brett A. 2012 The Growth and Decline of the Ancient Maya City of La Milpa, Belize: New Data and New Perspectives from the Southern Plazas. Ancient Mesoamerica 23:143–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar