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

   
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The Post Classic

The absence of clear Terminal Classic to Post Classic stratigraphy at Piedras Negras, makes it impossible to say with any precision when the Kumche ceramic phase ends. The majority of Post Classic materials from Piedras Negras was recovered by the University of Pennsylvania Project. The great majority of which consisted of "Lacandón" anthropomorphic censers found in the interiors of the South Group Court. The only possibly Post Classic material recovered by the BYU/Del Valle consisted of a pair plates cached beneath a collapsed wall of Str. P-7 (Child and Child 2002). These vessels have a fine dark orange to red paste and are clearly of non-local origin. The interiors of these vessels were decorated with crudely executed renditions of a caiman, and possibly of a bee. The exteriors of both dishes are decorated with an abstract geometric motif. The nearest analogs to these vessels are found at Chichén Itzá (Brainard 1958: Fig 84-85; Smith 1971: fig. 23r, s, t-v) and date to the Early Postclassic, where they are identified as a variety of Silho Fine Orange. A carved jade head inscribed with the name of a Piedras Negras Ruler was recovered from the cenote at Chichén Itzá and suggests some late, long-distance contact between the two sites.

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