Preclassic ceramic economy in Belize: neutron activation analysis at Cahal Pech

Abstract

Abstract

Lowland Maya Genesis: The Late Archaic to Late Early Formative Transition in the Upper Belize River Valley

“…1600-900 b.c.). Significantly, the Baharona phase overlaps with both the Xe deposits reported by Inomata and colleagues (2020) at Aguada Fénix in Tabasco, and with the Cunil and Kanocha phases in the Upper Belize Valley (Awe 1992;Brown 2003;Ebert and Awe 2020;Ebert et al 2017Ebert et al , 2019aEbert et al , 2019bGarber et al 2004;Awe 2013, 2021;Sullivan et al 2018).…”

“…Pumice (or other forms of volcanic ash), which was used as temper for Cunil/early Jenney Creek phase pottery, may also have been imported from the Caribbean coast or from other sources in the Maya area. Recent INAA and petrographic analyses of Cunil, and Spanish Lookout phase pottery from western Belize confirm that much of this pottery was tempered with volcanic ash (Ebert and Awe 2020;Ebert et al 2019b;Sunahara et al 2018), andCallaghan et al (2018) report that Formative period ash-tempered pottery was traded from the Upper Belize Valley into the eastern Peten. Pumice has been found in Preclassic contexts at Cuello (Hammond 1991:197) and is available along beaches of the Caribbean coast of Belize.…”

“…Evidence for the local production of early pottery in the Upper Belize Valley comes from geochemical analyses that document a sophisticated understanding of the technological aspects of pottery production by the beginning of the Late Early Formative. Instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of Cunil pottery from Cahal Pech (n = 47 samples) revealed distinct paste recipes for both utilitarian (coarse wares) and decorated vessels (dull wares) that, when compared to a large database of sherds from Mesoamerica previously analyzed by INAA (>15,000, Archaeometry Lab at the University of Missouri Research Reactor), suggests production and consumption of Cunil/Kanocha pottery within the greater Upper Belize Valley region (Ebert et al 2019b;Ronald Bishop and Dorie Reents-Budet, personal communication 2021). Notably, several Cunil specimens with ash-temper were included in the study, indicating that an ash-paste tradition for the Late Early Formative and subsequent periods probably originated in western Belize (Ebert et al 2019b;Sunahara et al 2018).…”

Gathering and Sowing Across the Central Maya Lowlands: A Review of Plant Use by Preceramic Peoples and the Early to Middle Preclassic Maya

“…Some hints are provided by the presence of ceramic colanders (Figure 4a), which are believed to have been used for rinsing maize after it had undergone nixtamalization. Colanders have been found among the first ceramics during the Early Preclassic in the Belize Valley (Cunil ceramic complex), central and northern Peten (Eb complex), and the Pasion region (Xe complex), but seem to be missing from northern Belize (Swasey complex; Castellanos and Foias 2017; Cheetham 2010;Ebert et al 2019a;Garber et al 2002). Their use to rinse maize is supported by "occasional traces of white substance on colander interiors, the lack of soot on these vessels, and analogous ethnographic examples of the containers and procedures used to make nixtamal" (Cheetham 2010:361).…”

Maya Pottery Production at Nakum, Guatemala, during the Protoclassic Period (100/50 BC – AD 300/350)

“…2017), and the pottery that spanned over the course of the Preclassic period from Cahal Pech (Ebert et al . 2019). Neutron activation analysis (NAA) was used in both studies, revealing that these vessels were made and consumed within local context, and that the vessels with different function and decoration had different chemical composition and thus paste recipe.…”