Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-fqc5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:12:48.672Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

AMS 14C Dating of Preclassic to Classic Period Household Construction in the Ancient Maya Community of Cahal Pech, Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2016

Claire E Ebert*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, PA, USA.
Brendan J Culleton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, PA, USA.
Jaime J Awe
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, 5 E McConnell Dr., Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
Douglas J Kennett
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, 409 Carpenter Building, University Park, PA, USA.
*
*Corresponding author. Email: cebert@psu.edu.

Abstract

Archaeologists have traditionally relied upon relative ceramic chronologies to understand the occupational histories of large and socially complex polities in the Maya lowlands. High-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating can provide independent chronological control for more discrete events that reflect cultural change through time. This article reports results of AMS 14C dating of stratified sequences at the residential group Tzutziiy K’in, associated with the major Maya polity of Cahal Pech in the Belize Valley. Cahal Pech is one of the earliest permanently settled sites in the Maya lowlands (1200 cal BC), and was continuously occupied until the Terminal Classic Maya “collapse” (~cal AD 800). We use Bayesian modeling to build a chronology for the settlement, growth, and terminal occupation of Tzutziiy K’in, and compare our results to chronological data from the monumental site core at Cahal Pech. The analyses indicate that Tzutziiy K’in was first settled by the Late Preclassic period (350–100 cal BC), concurrent with the establishment of several other large house groups and the growth of the Cahal Pech site core. Terminal occupation by high-status residents at this house group occurred between cal AD 850 and 900. This study provides a framework for interpreting patterns of spatial, demographic, and sociopolitical change between households and the Cahal Pech site core.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, REW. 1971. The Ceramics of Altar de Sacrificios. Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Volume 63, Number 1. Boston: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Aimers, JJ. 1998. Excavations in Plaza 2, Group 1, Baking Pot. In: Awe JJ, editor. Report of the 1997 Field Season: Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project. Occasional Papers in Anthropology 1. Durham: University of New Hampshire. p 2239.Google Scholar
Aimers, JJ. 2007. What Maya collapse? Terminal Classic variation in the Maya lowlands. Journal of Archaeological Research 15(4):329377.Google Scholar
Aimers, JJ, Powis, TG, Awe, JJ. 2000. Formative round structures of the Upper Belize River Valley. Latin American Antiquity 11(1):7186.Google Scholar
Andrews, EW. 1990. The early ceramic history of the Lowland Maya. In: Clancy F, Harrison PD, editors. Vision and Revision in Maya Studies: Early Ceramic History of the Lowland Maya. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. p 119.Google Scholar
Awe, JJ. 1992. Dawn in the land between the rivers: formative occupation at Cahal Pech, Belize, and its implications for Preclassic development in the central Maya lowlands [unpublished PhD dissertation]. London: Institute of Archaeology, University of London.Google Scholar
Awe, JJ. 2008. Architectural manifestations of power and prestige: examples from Classic period monumental architecture at Cahal Pech, Xunantunich and Caracol, Belize. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 5:159173.Google Scholar
Awe, JJ. 2012. The last hurrah: Terminal Classic Maya occupation in the Belize River Valley. Invited Speaker, Second Annual Maya at the Lago Conference, Charlotte, NC, April 2012.Google Scholar
Awe, JJ. 2013. Journey on the Cahal Pech time machine: an archaeological reconstruction of the dynastic sequence at a Belize Valley polity. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 10:3350.Google Scholar
Awe, JJ, Brisbin, S. 1993. Now you see it, now you don’t: the trials and tribulations of settlement survey at Cahal Pech. In: Awe JJ, editor. Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: Progress Report of the 1992 Field Season. Peterborough: Trent University.Google Scholar
Awe, JJ, Helmke, CGB. 2005. Alive and kicking in the 3rd to 6th centuries A.D.: defining the Early Classic in the Belize River Valley. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 2:3952.Google Scholar
Awe, JJ, Helmke, CGB. 2007. Fighting the inevitable: the Terminal Classic Maya of the Upper Roaring Creek Valley. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 4:2842.Google Scholar
Ball, JW, Taschek, JT. 2004. Buenavista del Cayo: a short outline of occupational and cultural history at an Upper Belize Valley regal-ritual center. In: Garber JF, editor. The Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research. Gainsville: University Press of Florida. p 149179.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2004. Pragmatic Bayesians: a decade of integrating radiocarbon dates into chronological models. In: Buck CE, Millard AR, editors. Tools for Constructing Chronologies: Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries. Lecture Notes in Statistics 177. Berlin: Springer. p 2541.Google Scholar
Beramendi-Orosco, LE, Gonzalez-Hernandez, G, Urrutia-Fucugauchi, J, Manzanillia, LR, Soler-Arechalde, AM, Goguitchaishvili, A, Jarboe, N. 2009. High-resolution chronology for the Mesoamerican urban center of Teotihuacan derived from Bayesian statistics of radiocarbon and archaeological data. Quaternary Research 71(2):99107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337360.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2015. Bayesian approaches to the building of archaeological chronologies. In: Barcelo JA, Bogdanovic I, editors. Mathematics and Archaeology. London: CRC Press. p 272292.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Dee, MW, Rowland, JM, Higham, TFG, Harris, SA, Brock, F, Quiles, A, Wild, EM, Marcus, ES, Shortland, AJ. 2010. Radiocarbon-based chronology for dynastic Egypt. Science 328(5985):15541557.Google Scholar
Brown, MK, McCurdy, L, Lytle, W, Chapman, T. 2013. Mopan Valley Preclassic Project: results of the 2011 field season. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 10:137146.Google Scholar
Buck, CE, Kenworthy, JB, Litton, CD, Smith, AFM. 1991. Combining archaeological and radiocarbon information: a Bayesian approach to calibration. Antiquity 65(249):808821.Google Scholar
Chase, AF, Chase, DZ. 2004. Terminal Classic status-linked ceramics and the Maya “collapse.” In: Demarest AA, Rice PM, Rice DS, editors. The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. p 342366.Google Scholar
Chase, AF, Chase, DZ. 2012. Complex societies in the Southern Maya lowlands: their development and florescence in the archaeological record. In: Nichols DL, Pool CA, editors. The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology . Oxford: University of Oxford Press. p 255267.Google Scholar
Cheetham, DT, Vinuales, J, Bisquet, M, Holgate, C. 1993. A report of the second season of investigations at the Cas Pek Group, Cahal Pech. In: Awe JJ, editor. Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: Progress Report of the 1992 Field Season. Peterborough: Trent University. p 139151.Google Scholar
Clark, J, Blake, M. 1994. The power of prestige: competitive generosity and the emergence of rank societies in Lowland Mesoamerica. In: Brumfie E, Fox J, editors. Factional Competition and Political Development in the New World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p 1730.Google Scholar
Clark, J, Cheetham, D. 2002. Mesoamerica’s tribal foundations. In: Parkinson WA, editor. The Archaeology of Tribal Societies. International Monographs in Prehistory, Archaeology Series 15. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. p 278339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culbert, TP. 1993. Tikal Reports No. 25: The Ceramics of Tikal. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Culleton, BJ, Prufer, KM, Kennett, DJ. 2012. A Bayesian AMS 14C chronology of the Classic Maya center of Uxbenká, Belize. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(5):15721586.Google Scholar
Curtis, JH, Hodell, DA, Brenner, M. 1996. Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the past 3500 years, and implications for Maya cultural evolution. Quaternary Research 46(1):3747.Google Scholar
Demarest, AA, Rice, PM, Rice, DS, editors. 2004. The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands: Collapse, Transition, and Transformation. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Dorenbush, WR. 2013. Western and northern settlement survey of Cahal Pech. In: Hoggarth JA, Ishihara-Brito R, Awe JJ, editors. The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2012 Field Season. Belmopan: Belize Institute of Archaeology, NICH. p 168184.Google Scholar
Douka, K, Higham, TFG, Wood, R, Boscato, P, Gambassini, P, Karkanas, P, Peresani, M, Ronchitelli, AM. 2014. On the chronology of the Uluzzian. Journal of Human Evolution 68:113.Google Scholar
Dunning, NP, Beach, T, Luzzadder-Beach, S. 2012. Kax and kol: collapse and resilience in lowland Maya civilization. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 109(10):36523657.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebert, CE. 2015a. Lidar Mapping and settlement survey at Cahal Pech, Belize. In: Hoggarth JA, Awe JJ, editors. The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2014 Field Season. Belmopan: Belize Institute of Archaeology, NICH, p 138--167.Google Scholar
Ebert, CE. 2015b. Chemical characterization of obsidian artifacts from Cahal Pech and Lower Dover, Belize. In: Hoggarth JA, Awe JJ, editors. The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2014 Field Season. Belmopan: Belize Institute of Archaeology, NICH, p 210--221.Google Scholar
Ebert, CE, Awe, JJ. 2014. Integrating Airborne Lidar and Settlement Survey at Cahal Pech, Belize. Paper presented at the 5th annual South-Central Conference on Mesoamerica, 24–26 October, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.Google Scholar
Ebert, CE, Dennehy, T. 2013. Preliminary investigations at Tzutziiy K’in. In: Hoggarth JA, Ishihara-Brito R, Awe JJ, editors. The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2012 Field Season. Belmopan: Belize Institute of Archaeology, NICH. p 185209.Google Scholar
Ebert, CE, Prufer, KM, Macri, MJ, Winterhalder, B, Kennett, DJ. 2014. Terminal long count dates and the disintegration of Classic Period Maya polities. Ancient Mesoamerica 25(2):337356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estrada-Belli, F. 2011. The First Maya Civilization. Ritual and Power before the Classic Period. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Garber, JF, Awe, JJ. 2008. Middle Formative architecture and ritual at Cahal Pech. Research Reports in Belizean Archaeology 4:185190.Google Scholar
Garber, JF, Brown, MK, Awe, JJ, Hartman, CJ. 2004. Middle Formative prehistory of the central Belize Valley: an examination of architecture, material culture, and sociopolitical change at Blackman Eddy. In: Garber JF, editor. The Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p 2547.Google Scholar
Gifford, JC. 1976. Prehistoric Pottery Analysis and the Ceramics of Barton Ramie in the Belize Valley. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Cambridge: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Healy, PF, Awe, JJ. 1995. Radiocarbon dates from Cahal Pech, Belize: results from the 1994 field season. In: Healy PF, Awe JJ, editors. Belize Valley Preclassic Maya Project: Report on the 1994 Field Season. Peterborough: Department of Anthropology Trent University. p 198215.Google Scholar
Healy, PF, Cheetham, D, Powis, TG, Awe, JJ. 2004a. Cahal Pech: the Middle Formative Period. In: Garber JF, editor. The Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p 103124.Google Scholar
Healy, PF, Hohmann, B, Powis, TG. 2004b. The ancient Maya center of Pacbitun. In: Garber JF, editor. The Ancient Maya of the Belize Valley: Half a Century of Archaeological Research. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p 207227.Google Scholar
Higham, T, Douka, K, Wood, R, Bronk Ramsey, C, Brock, F, Basell, L, Camps, M, Arrizabalaga, A, Baena, J, Barroso-Ruíz, C, Bergman, C, Boitard, C, Boscato, P, Caparrós, M, Conard, NJ, Draily, C, Froment, A, Galván, B, Gambassini, P, Garcia-Moreno, A, Grimaldi, S, Haesaerts, P, Holt, B, Iriarte-Chiapusso, M-J, Jelinek, A, Jordá Pardo, JF, Maíllo-Fernández, J-M, Marom, A, Maroto, J, Menéndez, M, Metz, L, Morin, E, Moroni, A, Negrino, F, Panagopoulou, E, Peresani, M, Pirson, S, de la Rasilla, M, Riel-Salvatore, J, Ronchitelli, A, Santamaria, D, Semal, P, Slimak, L, Soler, J, Soler, N, Villaluenga, A, Pinhasi, R, Jacobi, R. 2014. The timing and spatiotemporal patterning of Neanderthal disappearance. Nature 512(7514):306309.Google Scholar
Hodell, DA, Curtis, JH, Brenner, M. 1995. Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. Nature 375(6530):391394.Google Scholar
Hodell, DA, Brenner, M, Curtis, JH. 2005. Terminal Classic drought in the northern Maya lowlands inferred from multiple sediment cores in Lake Chichancanab (Mexico). Quaternary Science Reviews 24(12–13):14131427.Google Scholar
Hoggarth, JA, Culleton, BJ, Awe, JJ, Kennett, DJ. 2014. Questioning Postclassic continuity at Baking Pot, Belize, using direct AMS 14C dating of human burials. Radiocarbon 56(3):10571075.Google Scholar
Huster, AC, Smith, ME. 2015. A new archaeological chronology for Aztec-period Calixtlahuaca, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 26:325.Google Scholar
Iannone, G. 1996. Problems in the study of Ancient Maya settlement and social organization: insights from the ‘Minor Center’ of Zubin, Cayo District, Belize [PhD dissertation]. London: University of London.Google Scholar
Iannone, G. 2003. Rural complexity in the Cahal Pech microregion: analysis and implication. In: Iannone G, Connell S, editors. Perspectives on Ancient Maya Rural Complexity. Los Angeles: Costen Institute of Archaeology. p 1326.Google Scholar
Iannone, G, Yaeger, J, Hodell, D. 2014. Assessing the great Maya droughts: some critical issues. In: Iannone G, editor. The Great Maya Droughts in Cultural Context. Boulder: University of Colorado. p 5170.Google Scholar
Inomata, T, Triadan, D, Aoyama, K, Castillo, V, Yonenobu, H. 2013. Early ceremonial constructions at Ceibal, Guatemala, and the origins of lowland Maya civilization. Science 340(6131):467471.Google Scholar
Inomata, T, Ortiz, R, Arroyo, B, Robinson, EJ. 2014. Chronological revision of Preclassic Kaminaljuyú, Guatemala: implications for social processes in the Southern Maya Area. Latin American Antiquity 35:377408.Google Scholar
Ishihara-Brito, R, Can, J, Awe, JJ. 2013. Excavations and conservation of Structure B1-West Face. In: Hoggarth JA, Guerra RA, Awe JJ, editors. The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2012 Field Season. Belmopan: Belize Institute of Archaeology, NICH. p 7189.Google Scholar
Jazwa, CS, Gamble, LH, Kennett, DJ. 2013. A high-precision chronology for two house features at an early village site on Western Santa Cruz Island, California, USA. Radiocarbon 55(1):185199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, AA. 2013. Polity and Ecology in Formative Period Coastal Oaxaca. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Ingram, BL, Southon, JR, Wise, K. 2002. Differences in 14C age between stratigraphically associated charcoal and marine shell from the Archaic period site of kilometer 4, Southern Peru: old wood or old water? Radiocarbon 44(1):5358.Google Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Culleton, BJ, Voorhies, B, Southon, JR. 2011. Bayesian analysis of high-precision AMS 14C dates from a prehistoric Mexican shellmound. Radiocarbon 53(2):245259.Google Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Breitenbach, SFM, Aquino, V, Asmerom, Y, Awe, J, Baldini, J, Bartlein, P, Culleton, BJ, Ebert, C, Jazwa, C, Macri, MJ, Marwan, N, Polyak, V, Prufer, KM, Ridley, HE, Sodemann, H, Winterhalder, B, Haug, GH. 2012. Development and disintegration of Maya political systems in response to climate change. Science 338(6108):788791.Google Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Culleton, BJ, Dexter, J, Mensing, SA, Thomas, DH. 2014. High-precision AMS 14C chronology for Gatecliff Shelter, Nevada. Journal of Archaeological Science 52:621622.Google Scholar
LeCount, LJ, Yaeger, J, Leventhal, RM, Ashmore, W. 2002. Dating the rise and fall of Xunantunich, Belize: a Late and Terminal Classic Lowland Maya regional center. Ancient Mesoamerica 13(1):4163.Google Scholar
Lesure, RG. 2011. Early Mesoamerican Social Transformations: Archaic and Formative Lifeways in the Soconusco Region. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lesure, RG, Carballo, J, Carabllo, DM, Borejsza, A, Rodriguez Lopez, I. 2014. A Formative chronology for central Tlaxcala. In: Lesure RG, editor. Formative Lifeways in Central Tlaxcala, Volume 1: Excavations, Ceramics, and Chronology. Monumenta Archaeologica (Book 33). Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Love, M, Kaplan, JH. 2011. The Southern Maya in the Late Preclassic: The Rise and Fall of an Early Mesoamerican Civilization. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Martin, S, Grube, N. 2008. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory. 2nd edition. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
McClure, SB, Podrug, E, Moore, AMT, Culleton, BJ, Kennett, DJ. 2014. AMS 14C chronology and ceramic sequences of early farmers in the eastern Adriatic. Radiocarbon 56(3):10191038.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medina-Elizalde, M, Rojling, EJ. 2012. Collapse of Classic Maya civilization related to modest reduction in precipitation. Science 335(6071):956959.Google Scholar
Overholtzer, L. 2014. A new Bayesian chronology for Postclassic and colonial occupation at Xaltocan, Mexico. Radiocarbon 56(3):10771092.Google Scholar
Powis, T. 1996. Excavations of Middle Formative round structures at the Tolok Group, Cahal Pech, Belize [Master’s thesis]. Peterborough, Ontario: Trent University.Google Scholar
Prufer, KM, Moyes, H, Culleton, BJ, Kindon, A, Kennett, D. 2011. Uxbenká: the development of a complex polity in the eastern periphery of the Maya lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 22(2):199223.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffmann, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):18691887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenswig, RM. 2010. The Beginnings of Mesoamerican Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenswig, RM, Kennett, DJ. 2008. Reassessing San Estevan’s role in the Late Formative political landscape of northern Belize. Latin American Antiquity 19(2):124146.Google Scholar
Sabloff, JA. 1975. Excavations at Seibal; Ceramics. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum Archaeology and Ethnology Volume 13, Number 2. Boston: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Santasilia, CE. 2012. The discovery of an elite Maya tomb: excavations at the summit of Structure B1 at Cahal Pech, Belize. In: Hoggarth JA, Guerra RA, Awe JJ, editors. The Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance Project: A Report of the 2011 Field Season. Belmopan: Belize Institute of Archaeology, NICH. p 3555.Google Scholar
Schiffer, MB. 1986. Radiocarbon dating and the “old wood” problem: the case of the Hohokam chronology. Journal of Archaeological Science 13:1330.Google Scholar
Smith, CB, Ebert, CE, Kennett, DK. 2014. Human ecology of shellfish exploitation at a prehistoric fishing-farming village on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 9(2):183202.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355363.Google Scholar
Sullivan, LA, Awe, JJ. 2013. Establishing the Cunil ceramic complex at Cahal Pech, Belize. In: Aimers JJ, editor. Ancient Maya Pottery: Classification, Analysis, and Interpretation. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p 107120.Google Scholar
Webster, D. 2012. The Classic Maya collapse. In: Nichols DL, Pool CA, editors. The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology. Oxford: University of Oxford Press. p 324334.Google Scholar
Webster, D, Freter, A, Storey, R. 2004. Dating Copán culture history: implications for the Terminal Classic and the collapse. In: Demarest A, Rice P, Rice D, editors. The Terminal Classic in the Maya Lowlands. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. p 231259.Google Scholar
Webster, JW, Brook, GA, Railsback, LB, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Alexander, C, Reeder, PP. 2007. Stalagmite evidence from Belize indicating significant droughts at the time of Preclassic abandonment, the Maya hiatus, and the Classic Maya collapse. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 250(1–4):117.Google Scholar
Willey, GR, Bullard, WR. 1956. The Melhado site, a house mound group in British Honduras. American Antiquity 22(2):2944.Google Scholar
Willey, GR, Bullard, WR, Glass, JB, Gifford, JC, editors. 1965. Prehistoric Maya Settlements in the Belize Valley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar