Ulúa-Style Marble Vase Project: Dissemination of Results

Conclusions

The results of this multi-disciplinary approach do indicate centralized production for Ulúa style marble vases. The skill involved in carving the vase as well as the knowledge required for sculpting the iconography are all hallmarks of highly trained artisans (see Reents-Budet 1994, 1998; Reents-Budet et al. 2000). Furthermore, the high frequency distribution at the prominent site of Travesía and nearby vicinity coupled with the chemical results pointing to a main procurement source with two possible secondary sources argue for a central production location. The number of vases known to exist (approximately 150-200) and the broad time frame of production over approximately 200 years (650-850 A.D.) suggest a specialized microtradition located in the lower Ulúa valley over a period of three to four generations. Approximately fifty to sixty vases would have been produced under one master sculptor in a central workshop of two to three apprentices. This type of organization suggests a prosperous site that supported the workshop as well as acted as a node for the communication of knowledge related to the sacred imagery on the vases and the exchange of luxury goods, including the vases themselves.

Travesía has long been considered a key site in the valley (Stone 1941), but not a site considerably larger or more powerful than other regional centers (Joyce 1991, 1983). Each center may have had specific iconography associated with it, under the larger Ulúan canon. Travesía used polychromes as visual identity markers (Joyce 1991), perhaps even sculpture and building materials–cut white stone–and carved white stone vases. And, Travesía also may have held considerable sway over the production as well as the movement of cacao. Located on the banks of the Ulúa river and in prime cultivation land for cacao, access to exchange and communication routes as a result of this sought after commodity may have placed Travesía in a particularly favorable position among other regional centers. Luxury goods would have signaled the social prominence of the site. Prominent community members may have gifted vases to form and strengthen alliances at smaller hamlets part of the greater Travesía community. The movement of cacao along the river may have allowed community members to receive as well as give luxury items to foreign dignitaries. And, as exchange routes shifted over time from a southern focus to the northern Caribbean sphere canons changed on the marble vases.

In conclusion, long-standing white stone vase traditions in Honduras (see Luke et al. 2000) allowed a specialized artisan and patron group at Travesía to tap skills as well as resources in their endeavor to develop a very specific luxury tradition. This tradition placed the Ulúa valley on the greater Mesoamerican map in a way not previously reached. Goods produced in the region, particularly polychromes and marble vases, influenced craft production in southern regions of El Salvador, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. And, in later times, these elaborate marble vases made their way to prominent central Maya Lowland sites along with other Late Classic white stone vase traditions known from the central and northern lowlands and México–also restricted in number and style and limited to putative elite contexts (see Luke 2003a). The link with white stone vases in various styles (Maya, Yucatán and Mexican) as elite goods is clearly shown in their associations with each other at the sites of El Abra, Altun Ha, San Jose, Yaxchilán, Uxmal, Ek Balam, and Chichén Itzá, among other sites. And, in many examples elaborate jades or gold objects were also associated with the vases in truly fantastic contexts (see Luke 2003a). The marble vases from the Ulúa valley are among the finest from greater Mesoamerica and clearly indicate a community interacting within a vast "Mesoamerican Corridor" from Guanacaste to the central Maya Lowlands.

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