The Long Goodbye: Problematic Pottery and Pilgrimage at Cahal Pech, Belize

Abstract

Investigations in the site core of Cahal Pech have recovered a range of data reflecting Terminal Classic Maya activity at this Belize Valley site. The materials, which were recovered in a tomb, a burial, and in epicentral plaza deposits, include a diverse assemblage of cultural remains including whole and partial vessels, projectile points, obsidian blade fragments, deer antlers, figurines, pottery flutes, spindle whorls, and jade beads. Similar deposits at other Maya sites in western Belize have been interpreted as evidence for de facto refuse or rapid abandonment. Contextual analyses of the Cahal Pech data suggest that the deposits are more likely associated with post-abandonment activity such as pilgrimage from the still-occupied periphery of the site.

The Last Hurrah: Examining the Nature of Peri-Abandonment Deposits and Activities at Cahal Pech, Belize

“…Demarest et al 2004), on recent volumes that address questions concerning the collapse of Maya civilization (Iannone 2014;Webster 2002), and in the numerous papers that have examined the significance of peri-abandonment deposits (Braswell et al 2004;Chase and Chase 2004;Moholy-Nagy 1997;Inomata and Webb 2003;Lamoureux-St-Hilaire et al 2015;Newman 2015Newman , 2018Stanton Taschek and Ball 2003;Tsukamoto 2017). A review of the latter publications (see Aimers et al 2020) notes that periabandonment deposits have been interpreted as evidence for rapid abandonment due to invasion and destruction by marauding armies, that they are associated with the termination/desecration of Late Classic buildings, that they represent squatters refuse, or that they constitute the remains of feasting events. The questions we sought to answer in our contribution to this Special Section of the journal is, what does the evidence from an intensively and extensively excavated site tell us about the nature of peri-abandonment deposits?…”

“…Vessel 4, a small, cream-slipped pedestal vase, in the Structure H1 tomb is also similar to the small vase found with the intrusive child burial (BU-A3-1) in Structure A3 in Plaza A (Aimers and Awe 2020). Vessel 2, a Cabrito Cream polychrome vase thought to be made in the Belize Valley based on neutron activation analysis by Reents and Bishop (Dorie Reents, personal communication 2018) is identical to the single vase found with the intrusive burial (BU:B4-1) in Structure B4 (Aimers and Awe 2020). What is particularly significant here is that these data collectively indicate that Plaza H was still occupied when the periabandonment deposits in Plazas A, B, and G, the H1 tomb, and the intrusive burials were being deposited across the site core of Cahal Pech.…”

“…First referred to as "problematical deposits" by researchers at Tikal (Coe 1982:49;Moholy-Nagy 1997:67), peri-abandonment deposits generally include Terminal Classic (a.d. 750-900) cultural remains that are recovered on or above the floors of "prominent locations in monumental centers" (i.e., elite residences and adjacent to temple pyramids; Aimers et al 2020). As Aimers et al (2020) note in their introductory paper to this Special Section of the journal, archaeologists working in the Maya area have proposed several functional interpretations for peri-abandonment deposits over more than 30 years of research. The more common of these interpretations include arguments that suggest the deposits represent evidence for rapid abandonment due to invasion and site destruction (cf.…”

“…The more common of these interpretations include arguments that suggest the deposits represent evidence for rapid abandonment due to invasion and site destruction (cf. Chase and Chase 2004;Inomata 2008;Inomata and Webb 2003), or that they are associated with the termination/desecration of buildings, with squatters refuse, or the remains of feasting events (Braswell et al 2004;Mock 1998;Newman 2015Newman , 2018Stanton et al 2008;Taschek and Ball 2003;Tsukamoto 2017; also see Aimers et al [2020] for a detailed discussion of these interpretations). In this paper, we examine several peri-abandonment deposits that were recovered at the Belize River Valley site of Cahal Pech and compare their associated cultural remains with those recovered at other sites in western Belize.…”

Point Counter Point: Interpreting Chipped Chert Bifaces in Terminal Classic “Problematic” on-Floor Deposits From Structures A2 and A3 at Cahal Pech, Belize

“…A "problematical" or "problematic deposit" originally denoted a special deposit that was neither a burial nor a cache, but whose function was unclear (Aimers et al 2020). More recently, the term has been applied to assemblages of artifacts of various types and conditions, including ceramics, lithics, skeletal remains, and other objects, typically recovered on the surfaces of the terminal phase of elite civic-ceremonial architecture, including monumental structures, residences, and plazas.…”