Classic Maya Elite Households: The Analysis of Floor Assemblages from Burned Sructures at Aguateca, Guatemala

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Takeshi Inomata will conduct three seasons of analysis of archaeological material recovered from the site of Aguateca. Located in the Petexbatum region of Guatemala, this large multiroom site includes an extensive and complex system of defensive walls. Its epicenter contains a main plaza, causeway and a "palace group" which was the possible residence of a royal family. Surrounding this are elite residential areas. Dr. Inomata has conducted three seasons of excavation at the site and this indicates that the elite area was burned during an attack by enemies during the Late Classic period, ca. 800 A.D. The residents fled leaving most of their belongings behind and these have proven to be the richest floor assemblages ever found at a lowland Classic Maya site. Aguateca therefore offers a unique opportunity since at most sites, room materials which archaeologists recover represent worn-out and abandoned artifacts which provide only the most limited and biased insights into prehistoric lives. Dr. Inomata and a team of collaborators will now analyze the materials recovered. Because most pottery was smashed, significant effort will involved reconstruction. These objects, as well as many fragments, will be drawn and photographed. Use-wear analysis of stone tools will provide important information about the activities conducted the residents. The team will analyze the spatial distribution of various types of materials to examine activity areas and household organization. Soils will be analyzed to search for chemical signatures of specific cultural activities. Both archaeologists and cultural anthropologists have come, in recent years, to realize that in traditional societies households are the basic units of subsistence and production and to understand how groups such as the Maya functioned it is necessary to reconstruct activities on a household level. It is through comparison of individual well documented household groups that insight into social hierarchies and economic and political organization can best be understood. Dr. Inomata and his colleagues wish to understand how Classic period Maya households were organized. They will determine what kind of activities were conducted in and around dwellings and how individual households articulated with higher-level political, economic and social organizations. This research is important for several reasons. Because of the extraordinary nature of the site, it will provide a unique insight into Maya life and produce data of interest to many archaeologists. It should also shed new light on how with a relatively simple technology and in harsh environmental conditions the Mayan civilization arose and was maintained.