Proyecto Río Verde, 2003: Report on Excavations at Yugüe

Operation 2

The Operation 2 excavations were undertaken to uncover what was presumed to be an elite residence built on Substructure 2. A total of 41m² were excavated in the process of uncovering a number of PreColumbian features. Overall, the Operation 2 excavations yielded very low artifact densities and few intact features. Due to the limited number of artifacts and the character of the features that were encountered, Substructure 2 was probably a ritual location in antiquity.

An initial stratigraphic trench was excavated to bisect Substructure 2 (Figure 10). These excavations revealed three occupation layers: (1) a deflated Late Postclassic/Colonial Period layer (10YR 4/3, silt loam); (2) immediately below that, a deflated Late Terminal Formative Period layer (10YR 3/2, silt loam); (3) separated by a layer of fill (10YR 5/4, clay), another Terminal Formative Period occupation layer (10YR 6/4, silty clay). Based upon permit restrictions and the practicalities of time and budget, it was decided that excavations would focus on the upper Late Terminal Formative occupation layer. Several features were found at or near the stratigraphic breaks that defined this occupation layer.

Despite extensive testing, no well-preserved foundation walls were uncovered at Operation 2. However, excavation did uncover shaped rocks and rocks with adobe attached to them in several places. It seems probable that one or more structures existed upon Substructure 2 in the Late Terminal Formative Period. This interpretation was strengthened by the discovery of a circular feature of calcified earth lying on the stratigraphic break near the southern margin of Substructure 2.

Two ritual deposits were also uncovered in the fill immediately beneath the Terminal Formative occupation layer. The first was a cache consisting of five coarse brownware vessels: four conical vessels arranged around a lidded ceramic box (Figure 11, shown above). The box was empty. A second, more ambiguous, deposit was found to consist of a partially reconstructable jar, half of a decorated grayware bowl, sherds, fragments from 13 ceramic earspools, fragments of adobes, a figurine, and marine shell. Densely-packed fragments of marine shell lined the wide, shallow pit that contained the large coarse brownware jar lying on its side, broken in half. The other objects were mixed into the matrix above these materials. The nature of this deposit is unclear, but it may represent discarded artifacts from a single ritual event that involved feasting.

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