The Ceramic Sequence of Piedras Negras, Guatemala: Type and Varieties

Previous Research

Piedras Negras has been subject to two major archaeological projects. The first was sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania and directed by first Frank Mason and later by Linton Sattherwaite. The Pennsylvania project was active at the site between 1931 and 1939.  The second project was directed by Stephen Houston of Brigham Young University and Héctor Escobedo of the Universidad del Valle. The BYU/Del Valle project was active at the site for four years, from 1997 to 2000.

Mary Butler (Butler 1935; see also Mason et al. 1934:35-36) and Frank Cresson (1937) attempted the first analyses of the Piedras Negras ceramics. Butler’s work was primarily descriptive, though she did attempt to place the ceramics of Piedras Negras in chronological order following variations in decorative technique and stratigraphic association. Cresson’s research focused on temporal variation in pottery foot forms, and the implications of this seriation for the dating of acropolis construction periods.

Robert Rands derived the first ceramic sequence for Piedras Negras in 1960.  This research, undertaken in a search for materials comparable to those of Palenque (Robert Rands, personal communication, 2001) was reported briefly, in only a few publications (Rands 1967, 1973). In addition to these published papers, additional information on Rands’ work with the Piedras Negras ceramics is recorded in a number of short manuscripts on file with the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania (Rands 1960, 1961).

George Holley, working with the ceramics excavated by the Pennsylvania Project, assembled the first Type:Variety description of the Piedras Negras ceramics (1983, 1986, 1987). Holley’s work is in every respect an excellent source of data on the ceramics of Piedras Negras. However, as Holley notes, the erratic collection procedures employed by the Pennsylvania project, the uncertain division of the materials between Guatemala and American institutions, as well as the difficulties in reconstructing the provenience of specific deposits, resulted in a skewed ceramic sample significantly under-representing the variety and variability of the Piedras Negras ceramic assemblage (Holley 1983). Bachand (1997) applied Holley’s seriation to the Piedras Negras ceramics housed in the Museo Nacional in Guatemala City.

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