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

Current Research

Because of the importance of Piedras Negras in regional perspective, and because of the enormous ceramic sample available to us, we approached the analysis as if no previous work had been done with the Piedras Negras ceramics. We felt that the sample available to us and the importance of our work in a regional context merited as complete and independent analysis as possible–one based on our familiarity with Piedras Negras and the excavations, and on our own observations regarding local ceramic change.

The current research is based on a much larger and better provenienced sample than was available to previous researchers. Our overarching goal was to create as large and as varied a type collection as possible–one as representative of the overall diversity of the collection as possible. Our research has benefited from our first-hand knowledge of the site and excavations, and our direct consultation with excavators and other project members conducting materials analysis. The current research has also benefited as a result of our improved understanding of the region’s historical trajectory (Culbert 1991; Stuart 1998; Martin and Grube 2000; Houston et al. 2003a, 2003b).

Throughout our research, we made a conscious effort to keep as many of the extant type, group, and complex names as possible. This was done in order to maintain comparability between our research and the work of Holley. We have, however, modified the ceramic complexes to concur with our own observations and with our understanding of ceramic change. As a result of our experience at the site and the improved contextual and historical data available to us, we feel that our work supercedes previous ceramic research and stands as the major resource for archaeologists working in this area in the future.

The Sample

Despite the great deal of work done at Piedras Negras during the 1930s, the extant ceramic sample available from those excavations is small, consisting of no more than about 12,000 sherds (Holley 1986:49). Though by some standards this may seem large, given the results of the recent excavation at Piedras Negras, this must represent only a fraction of the total material recovered. As an example of just how small a segment of the total recovered ceramic sample this must represent, during the 1998 season, the Proyecto Arqueológico Piedras Negras discarded, for logistical reason, 1.7 tons of non-diagnostic ceramics at the site. That same season over 25,000 diagnostic sherds, with a total weight of over two tons, were shipped to the project’s laboratory facility in Guatemala City. This is more than double the total retained by the Pennsylvania project, and was the result of only a single season of excavation by the Piedras Negras archaeological project.

The total ceramic sample recovered by Piedras Negras archaeological project is enormous, more representative of the site-wide assemblage than the Penn sample, and very well provenienced. The current ceramic sample is comprised of over 100,000 sherds drawn from over 900 excavation units comprised of approximately 2,500 stratigraphic lots. The excavations from which this sample was drawn were placed in every major architectural group at Piedras Negras and at every level of settlement, and included test-pitting, horizontal stripping, and tunneling operations. Stratigraphic control while in the field was maintained through the use of a standardized recording system common to Maya archaeology–the "Altar" or "lot" system (Adams 1971:12).

Methods Employed in this Study

The Type:Variety system is the standard approach to ceramic classification in the Maya Lowlands and was the approach employed in our work. We followed this system of analysis as closely as possible, emphasizing the surface finish, color, and decoration over other aspects of vessel morphology. However, we found, that paste color and composition also served as useful chronological markers. These data, supplemented by data on vessel form, were used for defining chronologically sensitive varieties. This approach proved successful only because of the careful excavation of several sealed ceramic deposits.

The context and content of these deposits indicates that they probably did not result from the reuse of materials for construction fill or other processes resulting in the mixing of materials from disparate periods. As a result, we were confident that these deposits were the result of discrete activities and likely contained ceramics manufactured and used at about the same time. In short, we felt that the ceramic assemblages found in these deposits formed an adequate basis for defining ceramic complexes and for establishing provisional ceramic groups.

After completing sorting the ceramics from these unmixed deposits into their component ceramic groups, we moved on to deposits that were also likely single-phase deposits, but that were not the result of discrete activities. Instead, the majority of deposits analyzed at this stage of study came from less secure contexts including construction fill and shallow middens. Like much of the work done at the previous stage of the research, the intention of this analytical step was to increase the variety and variability of the materials within the provisional ceramic groups.

The ceramics recovered from the 1997 and 1998 excavations at Piedras Negras were sorted completely, i.e., every identifiable sherd from every lot was grouped with materials from the appropriate ceramic complex and group. As the ceramics were being sorted into groups, we recorded information on the assemblage composition of every lot. Data gathered included ceramic group, vessel form, vessel part, number of sherds (organized by form and part), and, finally, minimum number of vessels as determined from matches between pastes, form, and surface color. When the quantitative analyses of the Piedras Negras ceramics are completed, this data will have allowed us to track major changes in vessel form over time, and to use this data to supplement data on vessel finish for defining phases and complexes.

After completely sorting the ceramics excavated from the 1997 and 1998 field seasons, we moved on to the materials from the 1999 and 2000 seasons. Because our type collection was by this time already very large, we elected to only sample the materials from the 1999 and 2000 seasons. We continued analyzing every excavated ceramic lot, and recording the same assemblage information, but instead of sorting every sherd from every lot into groups, we selected only the best-preserved and most diagnostic sherds.

Once the analysis of all the excavated ceramic was completed, we began sorting the provisional ceramic groups into provisional types. In the same way that the ceramics from the special deposits were used to define provisional ceramics groups, materials from these deposits were used for the initial definition of types. Types were initially sorted by surface finish and decoration. Later, as we became more and more aware of the chronological importance of vessel shape and paste, we began to utilize these data in defining types and, more specifically, varieties. We took this approach because we felt that changes in shape, in combination with changes in surface finish or decoration, were more sensitive chronological indicators than surface finish alone.

Once the ceramics had been sorted into types (an iterative procedure requiring numerous passes through each provisional type grouping) we began recording type-specific data. Data was recorded on every sherd and included paste color, slip color, vessel shape, rim form, rim diameter, decorative motif, and the organization of decoration, (number and type of framing lines, position of decoration, etc.). These data were recorded in a manner amenable to easy quantification. The analysis of this data is underway, and the results will be presented in a forthcoming monograph. The analysis of the Early Classic ceramics from Piedras Negras is now essentially complete and has been presented as a thesis to the faculty of anthropology at the Universidad de San Carlos (Acuña 2004). Griselda Pérez is completing the analysis of the Preclassic ceramics from Piedras Negras.

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