Ceramic History, Ceramic Change, and Architectural Sequence at Acanmul, Campeche: A Local Chronicle and Its Regional Implications

Abstract

Acanmul is a medium-size center located at the north end of the Bay of Campeche about 25 km northeast of the city of Campeche. Between 1999 and 2005, three independent sets of investigations and major architectural consolidation were carried out at the center by archaeologists from the Universidad Autónoma de Campeche (UAC), the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), Centro Regional de Campeche, and UAC in collaboration with San Diego State University. These efforts produced a wealth of new information on the archaeology of the central Campeche coast, including new insights into the emergence and evolution of the northern slateware tradition and the architectural history of the central coast from Preclassic through Postclassic times. New data concerning changing relationships through time of the central coast Maya to both the interior central and southern lowlands and to the northern plains also were documented, as was the mid ninth century sacking of the center. This article synthesizes the findings of the three separate institutional efforts at Acanmul and offers a number of new cultural historical scenarios and hypotheses based on them.

Pottery and Politics: Contextualizing the Classic to Postclassic Transition in Champotón, Campeche

“…Research by the Proyecto Champotón, directed by William Folan, and the CRSS, directed by the author, have documented a longer and more dynamic picture of regional settlement patterns (Ek 2012(Ek , 2015Folan et al 2003;Folan et al 2013;Forsyth 2013). These and other projects along the central Campeche coast have documented substantial Formative-and Classicperiod settlement (Ball and Taschek 2015;Ojeda 2010;Suárez et al 2010). The CRSS combined regional reconnaissance, intensive survey, and test excavations in the Río Champotón watershed to examine political, economic, and social change in the region (Figure 1).…”

“…The Champotón 4 ceramic complex is part of a regional ceramic sphere centered on Edzná and extending across west-central Campeche and the Chenes Region during the seventh and early eighth centuries (Ball and Taschek 2015;Benavides 1997:121-122;Forsyth 1983Forsyth :217, 2013Williams-Beck 1999). Although the preceding complex-Champotón 3-does not reflect participation in the material culture traditions of the interior Maya Lowlands (particularly the Tzakol sphere), Champotón 4 was a local expression of the Late Classic glossware ceramic tradition that developed in the interior southern Maya Lowlands.…”

“…The Cui group is common in the Río Champotón drainage, the Campeche coast, Edzná, and the Chenes, indicating local production in Campeche (Ball 1975;Ball 1977;Ball and Taschek 2015:254;Forsyth 1983:86-90;Williams-Beck 1999). Other groups include Tepeu sphere polychromes that have a more extensive distribution in the interior Maya Lowlands as far north as Cobá (Ball 1993;Ball and Taschek 2015;Boucher and Palomo 1989). A minority fineware in the Champotón 4 complex, Tonanche Black, is characterized by incised and gouged incised designs, with modal similarities with incised blackwares from the Petén.…”

“…Isla Fina/ Dzitbalche Fine Buff exhibits very different forms and decorative techniques, including hematite redon-white decoration and modeled feline head motifs that are shared with Baca Red (Ball and Taschek 2015:256). Stylistic and modal similarities link Fine Buff wares to centers in Veracruz, including Tres Zapotes, Cerros de las Mesas, and the Río Blanco-Papaloapan region (Ball and Taschek 2015;Jiménez et al 2006). This is reinforced by INAA studies indicating production in southern Veracruz and the Cunduacán region of Tabasco (Bishop et al 2006).…”

On the Trail of Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan: Tracing Mythic Interaction Routes and Networks in the Maya Lowlands

“…In many of these reconstructions, primacy was placed with historical narratives of the movements of ethnic groups such as the Itza, and their role in larger scale pan-Mesoamerican cultural dynamics. Although later research on the iconography, architecture (Lincoln 1986), and ceramic chronologies (Ball 1979;Robles Castellanos 1990) of Chichen Itza clearly demonstrated that the division of chronologically distinct New and Old components was untenable, this framework for understanding the past proved quite durable (Folan 1991(Folan -1992.…”