The Production, Exchange, and Consumption of Pottery Vessels during the Classic Period at Tikal, Petén, Guatemala

Straight, Kirk Damon

doi:10.5876/9781607323921.c010

Cited by 3 publications

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“…While limited, paste data from sherds and provenienced whole vessels indicate that blackware was manufactured with multiple paste recipes but confined to a specific set of parameters (see references to sherd counts in Supplemental Tables 2 and 5). The most detailed come from Straight's () work at the site of Tikal in the central region. Chemical and mineralogical analyses of pastes from samples of Early Classic blackware indicate that the majority of vessels were being produced with one local clay source but that a few other sources were present, including sources from outside the Tikal geological area.…”

Section: Paste Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“Paint it black”: Wealth‐in‐people and Early Classic Maya blackware pottery

Callaghan

2020

Economic Anthropology

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During the Early Classic period in the Maya lowlands (AD 250-600), black serving vessels were placed as offerings in the highest-status elite burials. Complicated forms and sophisticated decorative conventions transformed these simple ceramic containers into precious social valuables that were deposited with only the most privileged individuals. This article presents new data, analyses, and interpretations of the production and exchange of Early Classic blackware that are informed by the concepts of wealth-in-people as wealth-in-knowledge. I specifically ask whether Early Classic Maya blackware was produced and exchanged by highly skilled artisans who were commissioned by political elites in an effort to grow political followers through gifting and increase a leader's wealth-in-people. This research demonstrates that Early Classic blackware was produced and consumed as a means to aid kings in becoming venerated ancestors. Blackware was part of a performative process of maintaining a leader's social network that continued in death and that was emphasized by descendants as a means to further legitimize their own accession and political futures.

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Section: Paste Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“Paint it black”: Wealth‐in‐people and Early Classic Maya blackware pottery

Callaghan

2020

Economic Anthropology

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“…Although reconstructing the organization of production and circulation of ceramics in the Maya lowlands is ongoing (Ball 1993; Bishop 1975, 2003; Bishop et al 1982; Fry and Cox 1974; Fry 1979, 1980, 2003a; McAnany 2009:199–268; Pool and Bey 2007; Rands 1967, 1969, 1987, 1988; Rands and Bishop 1980, 2003; Rice 1987a, 1987b, 1996a, 1996b, 2009; Stanton and Gallareta N. 2001; West 2003), my working hypothesis is that households of the Classic period acquired pottery through multiple provisioning strategies. At the very large Classic Maya center of Tikal, I have suggested that similar pottery forms were manufactured by fairly redundant production units (see Foias and Bishop 2007) and probably circulated through peripheral markets, among other distribution mechanisms (Straight 2012, 2014).…”

Section: Highland Tzeltal and Chuj Maya Ethnoarchaeological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Table 20 compares the vessel class frequencies from the large-scale University of Pennsylvania project at Tikal, 1955–1959, published by Fry (2003a:159, Table 5.2; 2003b: 86, Table 1) with frequencies calculated from peripheral Tikal middens by Straight (2012) and the household frequencies adapted from Aguateca (Inomata and Triadan 2010). The data from the Penn State Tikal Project (PSTP) were calculated from test pit data collected from middens at peripheral Tikal households in 2005–2006 (see Straight 2012:673–722) and serve as an independent check (and confirmation) on the previously published Tikal data. The PSTP results were calculated from rim sherds only, while the Aguateca frequencies reported represent numbers of reconstructable vessels from areal excavation.…”

Section: Relative Use-lives Of Archaeologically Recovered Vessel Classesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Houseful of Pots: Applying Ethnoarchaeological Data to Estimate Annual Ceramic Vessel Consumption Rates of Classic Maya Households

Straight

2017

Ancient Mesoam

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This article reviews data from the modern highland Maya area in order to develop a model of vessel discard frequencies applicable to Classic Maya contexts. Estimating the number of pots consumed by ancient households is crucial to reconstructing the organization of ceramic production and exchange in antiquity. The recent publication of in situ household assemblages from the Classic Maya center of Aguateca facilitates an analysis of household pottery use during the Late Classic period. Vessel class use-lives derived from ethnoarchaeological studies are applied to the Aguateca assemblages to estimate annual consumption rates. The simulated Aguateca discard assemblages are then compared to archaeologically recovered vessel class discard frequencies from the Classic Maya center of Tikal. The article concludes with a discussion of how and why pottery requirements for Classic Maya households differed from those of twentieth century Maya and the implications these distinctions have for interpreting consumption pattern for the Classic Maya.

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SHIFTING SOCIAL RELATIONS DURING THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000): CERAMICS FROM THE LOWLAND MAYA SITE OF UCANAL

LeMoine¹,

Halperin

2021

Ancient Mesoam

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The end of the Classic period was a tumultuous moment in Maya history, not only because the power of many dominant political centers waned, but because the ways in which elites and non-elites related to each other were increasingly called into question. To understand the nature of changing social relations in the southern Maya lowlands during this time, this study examines the distribution and provenance of decorated ceramics during the Late Classic (ca. a.d. 600–810) and Terminal Classic (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000) periods from the archaeological site of Ucanal, Peten, Guatemala. Comparisons of ceramics from different households across the site reveal that differences in access to decorated and imported ceramics decreased between these periods, suggesting that socioeconomic distinctions leveled out over time. In turn, chemical analysis of ceramics using a portable X-ray fluorescence instrument reveals that the site shifted its political-economic networks, with greater ties to the Petexbatun and Usumacinta regions and continued ties with the Upper Belize Valley.

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The Production, Exchange, and Consumption of Pottery Vessels during the Classic Period at Tikal, Petén, Guatemala

Abstract: Archaeological imagination [is] finding new ways of asking questions that link the most empirical of research projects with innovative social theory.

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

“Paint it black”: Wealth‐in‐people and Early Classic Maya blackware pottery

“Paint it black”: Wealth‐in‐people and Early Classic Maya blackware pottery

A Houseful of Pots: Applying Ethnoarchaeological Data to Estimate Annual Ceramic Vessel Consumption Rates of Classic Maya Households

SHIFTING SOCIAL RELATIONS DURING THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD (ca. a.d. 810–950/1000): CERAMICS FROM THE LOWLAND MAYA SITE OF UCANAL

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