1

The Last Supper: The Role of Ceramic Serving Vessels in Ancient Maya

Mortuary Practice

Sarah Newman

Research paper in partial fulfillment of the M.A. degree requirements

Department of Anthropology

Brown University

Advisor: Stephen D. Houston

Date accepted: _________________________________________

Other readers: Andrew K. Scherer, Douglas Anderson

2

Name of Student: Sarah Newman Title of Paper: The Last Supper: The Role of Ceramic Service Vessels in

Ancient Maya Mortuary Practice ________________________________________________ Abstract:

In 2010, members of the Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz excavated the intact tomb of a Maya royal at the civic-ceremonial complex known as El Diablo, a satellite group located approximately 1 km to the west of the site of El Zotz itself, in the central Petén region of Guatemala. The tomb, known as Burial 9, dates to the Early Classic period (ca. AD 250-600) and was found to contain ten large jade objects, over one hundred marine shells, well-preserved objects including wood, stucco, and textiles. The associated grave artifacts also included twenty-three complete ceramic vessels (including several lidded bowls and dishes) with various shapes, designs, and surface finishes.

Based on the evidence from El Zotz Burial 9, such collections of interred serving vessels are understood to reflect the existence of an ideal assemblage of materials deemed appropriate, if not expected, for royal graves, while simultaneously illuminating the potential for flexibility within ancient Maya mortuary ritual. Finally, I argue that particular ritual behaviors witnessed in Classic Maya royal tombs such as Burial 9, served to delineate critical boundaries between the dead and the living, separating the one from the other through symbolic inversions of objects and offerings.

Faculty Approval: Advisor ___________________________________ Date __________ Committee Member _________________________ Date __________ Committee Member _________________________ Date __________

3

Introduction

In 2010, members of the Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz excavated the intact tomb of a

Maya royal at the civic-ceremonial complex known as El Diablo, a satellite group located

approximately 1 km to the west of the site of El Zotz itself, in the central Petén region of

Guatemala. The tomb, known as Burial 9, dates to the Early Classic period (ca. AD 250-600) and

was found to contain twenty-three ceramic vessels (including several lidded bowls and dishes)

with various shapes, designs, and surface finishes, ten large jade objects, over one hundred

marine shells, and well-preserved objects including wood, stucco, and textiles. The undisturbed

nature of the tomb and the impressive state of preservation of its associated artifacts represent a

rare find within the Maya lowlands. However, it is precisely the fullness of this assemblage that

allows Burial 9 to be understood not in isolation, but as a singular example of shared ritual

practices among the ancient Maya.

Drawing upon comparative evidence from other sites allows for identification of

commonalities in mortuary practices. At the same time, the idiosyncrasies found within Burial 9

further understanding of local variability. The purpose of this research is to contextualize Burial

9 within this broader scope of similarities and differences. The particular focus is on a single

facet of its contents - the substantial assemblage of ceramic vessels associated with the tomb.

Although the inclusion of serving and drinking vessels appears to be one of the few near

universal characteristics of Early Classic royal burials (Welsh 1988), wide variation can be seen

among the compositional and depositional patterns of ceramic assemblages interred with the

dead. Using the ceramic assemblage of El Zotz’s Burial 9 as a case study, supplemented by

evidence from other royal burials in the Maya lowlands, this study explores the shared, yet

variable, ritual actions and interactions illustrated by Maya mortuary practices. Mortuary rituals

4

reflect underlying assumptions about the nature of the after life, the complexities of negotiating

the common with the particular (both conceptually and physically), and the role of the funerary

repast in demarcating boundaries between the living and the dead. This paper argues that

collections of interred serving vessels reflect the existence of an ideal assemblage of materials

deemed appropriate, if not expected, for royal graves. Meanwhile, despite this consistent

understanding of the funerary repast fit for a king, the site-specific representations of this ideal

last meal illuminate the potential for flexibility within ancient Maya mortuary ritual. Finally, this

paper suggests that the underlying purpose of this particular ritual behavior witnessed in Classic

Maya royal tombs served to delineate critical boundaries between the dead and the living,

separating the one from the other through symbolic inversions of objects and offerings.

Theoretical Background

This research draws on three broad frameworks: studies of mortuary practice, food

offerings and symbolism, and the variability of ritual. The notion of an idealized last meal

placed within the tombs of ancient Maya royals represents a particular example where each

framework applies, but, more importantly, the meal serves as a locus for the intersection of all

three. As reviews and elaborations of each of these frameworks have filled entire volumes (e.g.

Bell 1992; Metcalf and Huntington 1991; Barth 1987; Goody 1982; Ruz Lhuillier 1968; Leví-

Strauss 1966;), this discussion is limited to their direct relevance to the interred funerary repast

among the Classic Maya.

Mortuary Ritual

5

Death is generally accepted as one of the inevitable biological facts of life, yet human

conceptions of, relationships with, and responses to death are anything but universal. As Mike

Parker Pearson (1999:22) and James L. Fitzsimmons (2009:4-7) have shown, anthropological

studies of the extraordinary diversity of such treatments of death and burial from around the

world have illuminated certain classic ideas, namely those developed by Robert Hertz

(1960[1907]) and Arnold van Gennep (1960[1909]), which have proven to be particularly

relevant to archaeological study of the same phenomena. Although more than a century has

passed since their initial formulations, the basic tenets of van Gennep’s theories of liminality and

transition and Hertz’s model of the importance of funerary rites in organizing the society of the

living still resonate in investigations of ancient mortuary behaviors, including those of the

Classic Maya (Fitzsimmons 2009:7). The same holds true for the present study of the subset of

ancient Maya mortuary ritual represented by the interred funerary repast, although the specific

nature of this context requires the application of particular aspects of these two well-known

models.

Van Gennep identifies rites of passage as a class of ritual representing transitions of state,

such as birth, marriage, initiation, and death. Each of these rites involves a tripartite structure -

rites of separation, transition rites, and rites of incorporation - by which an individual in society

is moved from one well-defined position to another equally well-defined position, with a liminal

phase between the two (van Gennep 1960:11). As Peter Metcalf and Robert Huntington

(1991:30) have noted, the value of van Gennep’s analysis of these symbolic themes lies in his

demonstration of the logic underlying their recurrence: as an individual undergoes these changes

in status, an old self must “die” in order for a new self to be “born.” Developing what he calls “a

state of transition,” Victor Turner (1967:94) elaborated upon the concept of the liminal phase,

6

which van Gennep described as sometimes acquiring a certain autonomy from the rest of the

ritual, particularly in case of funerals (1960:146). As Metcalf and Huntington (1991:33)

describe, this theme of transition dominates funeral symbolism, yet is never separated entirely

from its ritual context or the notion of change, process, and passage. Liminality depends entirely

on its ability to exist, in Turner’s (1967:94) words, “betwixt and between.” Two binary

opposites, such as life and death, must first be established in order for the liminal phase to gain

its remarkable power as a force able to connect the two disparate states while remaining

independent from either.

Hertz (1960:30), like van Gennep, identified what he called the “intermediary period,”

based upon ethnographic research in Borneo. Hertz’s intermediary period represents a liminal

stage, in which the deceased is neither still alive nor fully dead. Hertz’s unique insight and his

most lasting contribution, however, was his observation that this intermediary period, which

could last as long as ten years in some cases, was defined at its minimum by the time required for

the body of the deceased to fully decompose, leaving the bones dry. From this, Hertz surmised

that for mourners in Borneo, the state of the body reflected the state of the soul. The symbolism

of death rites, therefore, could mirror changing roles and relations in society. Among Borneo’s

dead, throughout the period of decay and putrescence of the corpse the soul of the dead person

remains homeless, existing somewhere on the outskirts of both human life and the afterlife. It

becomes hostile and spiteful, an object of dread capable of inflicting illness upon the living. It is

only through the recovery and movement of the dry remains, marking the end of the intermediary

period and allowing the soul to enter the afterlife, that fear of the dead can be assuaged. This

ritual serves to reestablish and reorganize relationships among the living, mending the social

7

fabric rent by death through the tripartite interrelationships among the corpse, the soul, and the

mourners.

Pearson (1999:23) has noted the further applications of anthropological accounts in

archaeological investigations of death and burial, often expanding upon the core ideas of van

Gennep and Hertz. Such studies provide archaeologists with detailed, ethnographically

grounded explorations of the symbols at play in the context of funerary practices, highlighting

death’s ability to both reflect and shape social values. Funerals have been shown to be political

events in which status and wealth are not simply reflected in the quantities and qualities of grave

goods and bodily treatments, but actively constituted to represent the social group rather than the

social persona (Goody 1962:69-75). Funerary practices have also been found to serve as

representations of idealized notions of social structure, at times even contradicting the lived

reality of social organization (Bloch 1971:166-170). Most importantly for the present study, fear

of the dead during the liminal phase or intermediary period can be mitigated through processes

of separation, often by means of rites of reversal. Inversion reinforces the normality and

naturalness of everyday practice by defining its opposite in the ritual sphere, markedly

delineating that of the living from that of the dead (Ucko 1969). Such instances of reversal by

extension include the symbolic “killing” of artifacts associated with the deceased, thereby

enabling the possessions to become “dead” and travel along the same supernatural channels as

the spirit (Leach 1976).

The two models provided by Hertz and van Gennep have been variously applied to the

Maya (e.g., Rosaldo 1968; Taube 1988; Woodrick 1995; Mock 1998), most recently to ancient

mortuary practices by James Fitzsimmons (2009). Focusing on archaeological, epigraphic, and

iconographic representations of death among the royal Classic Maya, Fitzsimmons finds

8

evidence for Hertz’s tripartite notion of the relationships among corpses, souls, and mourners as

serving the interests of both the living and the dead. According to Fitzsimmons (2009:182-183),

the scale of elaborate burial rites and funerary temples manifest the status of the deceased and the

foundations of divine kingship, reaffirming social order and revitalizing the society of ancestors

through monumentalization. Moreover, Fitzsimmons creatively applies van Gennep’s idea of

liminality to the principles of Classic Maya ancestor veneration, identifying widely known

practices, such as tomb reentry, as examples of multiple liminal periods during which corpses,

souls, and mourners are all in transition.

Food Symbolism and Offerings

The ceramic assemblages interred in burials have been interpreted as evidence for both

individual meals and shared ceremonial feasts (e.g. Fung 2000; McNeil 2010). In the present

discussion, I argue that the last meal placed within royal burial represents a food offering to the

deceased rather than a shared meal involving the living. As such, an important distinction must

be made between the potentially confusing concepts of the funerary feast and the funerary repast.

Michael Dietler and Brian Hayden (2001:3) define feasts as unusual events that are

fundamentally constituted by communal consumption of an unusual meal of food and/or drink.

Such feasts can serve a variety of practical purposes, from reaffirming group identity or

maintaining political authority to organizing labor or soliciting favors. Dietler (2001:75-88) has

created a typology of feasts based upon the social and economic status of the participants

involved and the ends achieved through the means of feasting. Although Dietler’s typology

relies generally on the assumption that all behavior can be interpreted as aggrandizing, his

typology does allow a useful method for archaeologists to identify the status and numbers of

9

participants involved, or, more generally, whether feasts are inclusive or exclusive affairs.

Dietler’s typology includes empowering feasts, which are held by individuals or groups to gain

prestige or social standing. Empowering feasts are open to groups of varying status and feature

large quantities of commonly consumed foods, generally under the expectation that the favor will

eventually be returned. Hayden (2009) has further elaborated upon the particular case of funeral

feasts as representing a subset within this larger analytical category, one with a more restricted

set of advantages (as the deceased are incapable of physically repaying or appreciating such

efforts).

Dietler’s typology also includes diacritical feasts, which are primarily exclusive to elites.

These feasts serve to legitimate social inequalities between the haves and the have-nots, the elites

who are in attendance and those not invited to participate (whether elites or non-elites). As such,

the quality of the food served at diacritical feasts is often more important than the quality, with

the ceremonial serving, preparation, and consumption of haute cuisine as a marker of cultural

“distinction” (Bourdieu 1984). Diacritical feasts, like empowering feasts, remain competitive

affairs between those commanding similar social and economic attention and among the lower

classes, who are often motivated to emulate elite tastes, preparation styles, or performances in

their desire to gain social standing (Dietler 2001:86).

Lisa LeCount (2001) and others (Reents-Budet 1994; Foias 2007) have used ceramic

analysis and ethnohistoric research to demonstrate the practice of exclusive diacritical feasting

among Classic Maya elites. Moreover, LeCount and Blitz (2010) have argued that, among the

Classic Maya, the lavish funeral feasts and mass sacrifices that would generally fall under

Dietler’s category of empowering feasts were more akin to diacritical feasts, as they were

reserved for royals and elites. Rather than opening the door to social and political maneuvering,

10

these excessive feasts served to confirm and reify the ideology underlying domination and

ranked differences in social positions.

Whether inclusive or exclusive, however, feasts highlight broader social, political, and

economic implications of relationships as they are shaped and sustained through food systems.

The singular meal represented by the funerary repast, on the other hand, enables a somewhat

narrower focus. The smaller scale of the meal, in combination with the relatively rare

occurrence of a royal funerary repast, emphasizes the food and drink being served, rather than

the larger ends toward which food may often be directed. Within specifically structured contexts,

food itself can reveal underlying rules and regulations governing its procurement, preparation,

and consumption, which often imbue it and the occasion for eating it with symbolic meaning and

reflect social status, ethnicity, and gender relations (Goody 1982; Gummerman 1997).

Extending these ideas, an exploration of the preparation and serving of the funerary repast allows

for the identification of the particular kinds and combinations of food that the ancient Maya

deemed appropriate for serving as the material correlates of symbolic and ritual actions.

Anthropologists have long identified food and drink as important vehicles for political

and symbolic activity (Goody 1982; Mauss 1967; Malinowski 1961; Sahlins 1972; Stephen

1991; Weismantel 1988). Much of the work done on food symbolism stems from Claude Lévi-

Strauss’s (1966) culinary triangle and his employment of linguistic analogies, using food as a

point of entry for understanding the structural elements he believed formed the foundation

underlying culture. Focusing on a single family’s weekly meal plan, for example, Mary Douglas

(1972) has presented choices in the combinations of food served on an average family’s table as

ritual activities encoding, and therefore structuring, social events within the family. According

11

to Douglas, the proper meal follows a system of formal rules, such that “the ordered system

which is a meal represents all the ordered systems associated with it” (Douglas 1972:80).

Unfortunately, the application of such anthropological models to archaeological contexts

is inherently difficult, as archaeologists are often left with little evidence of the specific types and

forms of foods prepared and served at feasting events or meals, let alone the intentions behind

such deposits. Food used symbolically, unlike typical prestige goods, which may be identifiable

archaeologically through the restricted nature of their distribution patterns, may range from

commonly available dishes to exotic meals. For example, Karl Taube (1989) has used epigraphic

and iconographic data to show that tamales were the main food used for both daily fare and

sacred rituals across the Classic Maya lowlands. As LeCount (2001:937) cautions,

“archaeologists must consider the context and ritual of eating in order to understand how

ordinary food is transformed into festival fare.”

Fortunately, a band of glyphs commonly found encircling the rims of polychrome vessels

of the Late Classic period, known as the Primary Standard Sequence (Coe 1973, 1978), provides

insight into the nature of Classic Maya cuisine. Houston and colleagues (1989) have used

epigraphic decipherments of the Primary Standard Sequence and accompanying painted imagery

to identify the contents such vessels were meant to hold and serve. They found that bowls and

cylindrical vessels were used for liquid substances, generally paired with glyphs reading kakaw

(chocolate) or sakha or ul (maize gruel), while flat plates, platters, and dishes contained solid

foods such as tamales. According to Houston et al. (2006:108) Classic Maya cuisine was based

upon this explicitly described and elemental dyad of bread and drink (tamales and water or

chocolate), but also included a variety of meat preparations evidenced archaeologically,

including deer, fish, fowl, armadillo, and even rodents. Continued developments in epigraphic

12

decipherment have further enabled descriptions of Classic Maya beverages, allowing for the

identification of individual ingredients, flavors, and recipes for mixed drinks of cacao or atole.

Not only do such decipherments clarify the nature of Classic Maya cuisine, but the specific kinds

of ingredients named within Primary Standard Sequences highlight key components and

qualifiers of taste or color, which the ancient Maya themselves deemed distinct or fundamental

aspects of various drinks. These ingredients, explicitly mentioned where others are ignored, may

provide further clues to the essential functions of specific types of food and drink, as well as the

contexts in which they were deemed appropriate for consumption (Beliaev et al. 2010:267-268).

As Michael Callaghan (2009:48) has argued for orange slipped pottery of the Terminal

Preclassic period, ceramic vessels, which were created first and foremost to hold and serve these

symbolically charged foods, offer insight into the set of meanings, interpretations, or ideologies

which they were fabricated and exchanged to materialize. The intended use of such vessels in

particular rituals shaped their conceptualization, creation, and function. In a similar vein,

Houston et al. (2006:104) have proposed that Classic Maya haute cuisine tended to emphasize

the quantity of foods and the use of elaborate presentation and serving styles to express the

hierarchical nature of exclusive gatherings, rather than especially rare preparations or exotic fare.

The commonalities among ceramic assemblages found in Early Classic burials attests to the

explicit connection between a vessel’s form and its ritual or symbolic function, both in the minds

of ancient potters and the observations of archaeologists today. As such, vessel shapes provide a

starting point for identifying commonalities and variations among the funerary repasts placed in

tombs at various sites.

In a study of the South Indian ritual of naivaedya (food offered to the gods), Gabriella

Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi (1977), uses linguistic analogies to grapple with the difficulty, noted by

13

LeCount (2001:937), of distinguishing between “unmarked” and “marked” categories of food

(everyday fare and ritual offerings, respectively). According to Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi,

combinations of food (i.e., meals) offered to deities incorporate both contrast and redundancy,

determined by the specific foods preferred by individual gods within Hinduism’s elaborate

pantheon (Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi 1977:508). Contrast adds a sense of totality to the offering,

which its individual constituents do not possess on their own, while redundancy adds emphasis

to the meaning of a particular type of offering. Moreover, Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi sees

contrasting elements as ones that reinforce distinctions between binary oppositions, such as that

between deities and humans. Using the analogy of linguistic contrasts signaled by the

substitution of a single phoneme (e.g., dies/das for this/that in German or moi/toi for me/you in

French), she describes food offerings which stress binary distinctions as those “into which a

contrasting feature has been introduced, either by adding some further element or by replacing

one of its elements” (509).

Cameron McNeil (2010) has proposed that food offerings placed in ancient Maya tombs

were likewise attached to a legacy of myths, with certain foods and food combinations intended

to produce particular outcomes. Like Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, McNeil sees such offerings as

mechanisms of communication between living humans and their revered ancestors, requiring

adherence to strict laws of procurement and production with respect to the food included. She

writes, “comestibles placed in tombs were not simply meals, but tangible obsecrations meant to

ensure the intercession on behalf of the living by ancestors with ancient gods” (2010:293).

Houston et al. (2006:122) suggest that although Classic Maya deities and the dead indeed

consumed offered foodstuffs, they were of a categorically different nature than those eaten by the

living. Offerings to deities of human parts - hands, feet, and hearts - are illustrated though text

14

and imagery, while upside-down bowls and ceramics drilled with “kill holes” from burials may

suggest the inversion of consumption among the dead, where food as not-food becomes

appropriate provisioning. McNeil (2010:293) further describes the ways in which food offerings

to the deceased are marked by additional processes or elements, which make them incapable of

being shared with the living. For the Maya of Copan, the final touch to the ritually prepared

foods sampled by McNeil appears to have been the inclusion of mineral substances such as

cinnabar and/or hematite, which would have rendered the foods inedible to humans. Cinnabar

and hematite both have a granular consistency that would have been unpleasant for a living

person to consume, not to mention the large range of health problems that can be caused by the

mercury contained in cinnabar. These minerals were found to be present in two lidded ceramic

vessels from Early Classic Copan tombs, indicating that they were treated as ingredients in the

preparation of the food offerings within the vessels, rather than mixed with the vessels’ contents

as an unintended consequence of the process of sprinkling cinnabar or hematite throughout the

burial space or over the body of the deceased (McNeil 2010:306). The combination of

archaeological, epigraphic, and iconographic evidence clearly suggests that the Classic Maya

differentiated between the meals they created for the living and those they prepared for the dead.

The Variability of Ritual

Studies of ritual and religion often have at their core Emile Durkheim’s conception of the

sacred and the profane as “two worlds between which there is nothing in common” (1915:53).

Despite efforts to move beyond Durkheim’s dichotomy, criticisms of his formulation of the

attributes of religion often end up serving more as testaments to their enduring influence.

Edmund Leach (1954:12), for example, argues for the existence of the sacred and the profane as

15

endpoints on a spectrum of variability in his attempt to denote aspects, rather than types, of

action. Yet in structuring this continuous scale, Leach reproduces and, in some senses,

reinforces the distinction between “actions which are entirely profane, entirely functional,

technique pure and simple” and “actions which are entirely sacred, strictly aesthetic, technically

non-functional.” Catherine Bell (1992:74) similarly recapitulates these categories in her

redefinition of ritual as “ritualization,” which she describes as the practices social actors employ

to create a “qualitative distinction between the sacred and the profane.”

Likewise, much of the employment of the sacred and the profane in ethnographic and

comparative terms (e.g. Malinowski 1954; Hubert and Mauss 1964; Douglas 1966) has led to an

understanding of the social phenomena within these two categories as operating in wholly

disparate spheres of existence. They become separated largely in terms of their physicality: the

sacred is fundamentally linked to the transcendental and the profane to the tangible. This

dichotomy reinforces conceptions of ritual as a collection of sacred postulates, which, by virtue

or failure of their immateriality, can be neither verified nor falsified (Rappaport 1979:209). For

the present study, these notions of the self-enclosed, transcendental nature of the sacred is

problematic, as it effectively removes the people responsible for ritual from the material products

of their actions. As Godelier (1999:171) writes, “the sacred can appear only if something of

human beings disappears.”

In order to move beyond this complete and inflexible bifurcation, ritual may instead be

understood as the interplay between immateriality and materiality. As Christopher J. Morehart

and Noah Butler (2010:591) write, “the materiality of rituals themselves – though recurrent,

repeatable, and set in motion through places, things, and people – is brief, fleeting, and transient.

In other words, ritual’s materiality is different than its physicality, and studies of ritual would

16

seem to be in constant struggle with its quasi-materiality.” Ritual acts, whether by word or

offering, are bound up within the material circumstances of life, making what is done and left

behind during the moment of ritual a representation not only of intangible belief, but also of the

tangible ways in which people navigate their social worlds. Fundamentally, then, what occurs

during ritual is shaped by the broader material interactions occurring before, after, and between

rituals, including political relationships, economic interests, available resources, kinship systems,

cycles of production and reproduction. Studies of artifact form and analyses of artifact function,

therefore, provide a methodology for examining the material aspect of ritual practice, even if that

practice is aimed at immaterial accomplishments or interactions (Fung 2000:68).

The immateriality of beliefs grants them an element of fluidity and of flexibility, which

allow for their transposition, incorporation, and materialization into different rituals, practices,

and social settings (Bourdieu 1977; Rappaport 1979; Sewell 1992). Barth (1987) describes ritual

along these lines, focusing on its attainability. Ritual practitioners use their own creativity to

move beyond static reproductions of particular ritual events, interacting with the sacred in ways

differing, though not entirely different, from those of their forebears. Moreover, although such

practices are permutations on a theme, they eventually become part of the more common themes

they evoke. Similarly, Hanks (1984:154) describes variability within modern Yucatec ritual as a

tension between normalization and particularization that is never fully resolved, but instead

constantly rearticulated, a process which is inherent and critical to the nature of the ritual itself.

Variability in ritual practice, then, exposes not only contextual differences, but also reveals

normative tenets.

Returning to the site of El Zotz, the previously undisturbed finds recovered from Burial 9

offer a rare opportunity to explore the variability of Classic Maya ritual via the crux of material

17

and immaterial interactions bound up in death, particularly royal death. The ceramic serving

vessels and their contents found within Burial 9 are material aspects of such practices, but the

symbolic functions of these funerary foods and offerings are aimed at satisfying immaterial

requirements and mediating intangible interactions. Burial 9 provides a singular example of the

residues of these practices, but one that is particular to the time and place of El Zotz and the

individuality of its royal dead. Exploring the details of the assemblage encountered within

Burial 9, and other Early Classic Maya royal tombs, highlights the complexity of ancient Maya

ritual practice and its ability to create and recreate unique events within the confines of shared

general expectations.

At the Edge of the Split Sky: The Site and Its Setting

The modern name given to the site of El Zotz (meaning “the bat” in several Mayan

languages), refers to the impressive exodus of a community of these creatures, numbering into

the millions, which pour out of the nearby Buenavista Escarpment every night at dusk. The

site’s ancient inhabitants, however, probably knew it as pa’ chan, perhaps “split sky” or

“fortified sky” (Houston 2008:7). El Zotz is centrally located within the Petén region of

Guatemala, among the dense lowland jungles comprising the ancient Maya heartland. The

archaeological site itself is relatively modest in size, unequivocally dwarfed by its enormous and

immediate neighbor to the east: the well-known site of Tikal. It may be Tikal’s long shadow that

is responsible for the largely unstudied nature of the site of El Zotz prior to current efforts

undertaken by Brown University’s Proyecto Arquelógico El Zotz (PAEZ), begun in 2006

(Laporte 2006; Houston 2008:6). Although nearly one hundred tunnels penetrate the ruins of El

Zotz, attesting to its familiarity to looters during the 1960s, the site did not receive

18

archaeological attention until 1977, when a preliminary map of the site center was made by

Marco Antonio Bailey (Houston et al. 2006). Over the next decade, George Andrews and Ian

Graham visited El Zotz independently, each undertaking additional mapping and recording of the

site, its architecture, and its monuments (Andrews 1986; Walker 2009). Additional mapping

efforts as well as test-pitting, salvage, and consolidation work were undertaken as part of the

regional investigations of the Proyecto Nacional Tikal during the 1980s and 1990s, although no

systematic excavations were conducted.

Since 2006, however, the site has been the focus of intensive archaeological studies on

behalf of PAEZ. PAEZ’s excavations in the El Zotz region have revealed significant

connections between the site center of El Zotz and several nearby archaeological ruins, including

the sites of El Palmar to the southeast (Matute and Doyle 2008) and Bejucal to the northeast

(Garrison and Garrido 2009), as well as the satellite groups of Las Palmitas to the north, El Tejon

to the northeast, and El Diablo to the west (Román et. al 2010). It is at this final civic-

ceremonial complex, El Diablo, that Burial 9, the royal tomb representing the focus of this

paper’s research, is located.

19

Figure 1. Regional Map of the archeological site of El Zotz, including the satellite groups known as Las Palmitas and El Diablo (Map by Thomas Garrison).

Located a mere kilometer west of the main ruins of El Zotz, the second half of the short

journey to El Diablo requires a steep uphill climb, making it feel much more remote than it

appears in a simplified bird’s eye view. Twenty-one structures compose this civic-ceremonial

group, as well as an associated aguada (a clay-lined limestone quarry) that likely provided

building materials for the group’s monumental architecture (Beach and Luzzader-Beach

2009:291). These structures range from imposing pyramids and palaces to smaller mound

platforms and individual tombs (Román et. al 2010:1). The group’s hilltop setting provides

expansive views across the Buenavista Valley below, all the way to the temples of Tikal, which

are just visible above the jungle’s foliage on the horizon (a distance of roughly 22 kilometers).

20

During its heyday, El Diablo was undoubtedly a place from which to see and be seen (Garrison

et al. 2010).

In 2008, archaeological investigations at this group, directed by Alejandro Gillot, focused

on the excavation of several small mound platforms located in the main plaza at El Diablo and

the cleaning and documentation of a looted tomb and its access tunnel. Gillot’s work indicated

that the construction, occupation, and eventual abandonment of El Diablo appear to have

occurred entirely within the Early Classic period (Gillot 2008:132-133). During the 2009 field

season, more intensive excavations at El Diablo were conducted under the direction of Edwin

Román and Nicholas Carter. Several of Román and Carter’s excavations revealed that a number

of the monumental structures within El Diablo’s main plaza were not only abandoned during the

Early Classic period, but were also ritually terminated - their stucco façades torn down and their

walls intentionally dismantled. Yet other excavations, particularly the extension of a looters’

tunnel penetrating El Diablo’s largest pyramid, uncovered earlier buildings carefully preserved

beneath the final phase of construction. On the last day of excavation during the 2009 season,

these finds culminated in the uncovering of a temple adorned with a façade of elaborate, once

brightly painted stucco sculptures, featuring solar iconography and full-figured masks (Román

and Carter 2009:84-86, 104).

In 2010, Román and I continued digging in the main plaza at El Diablo, excavating both

monumental structures and small mound platforms that had not been investigated by Román and

Carter during the previous field season. We also focused our attention on furthering the work

done by Román and Carter in the large pyramid at the southeast corner of the El Diablo complex,

known as Structure F8-1. We continued the extension of the former looters’ (now

archaeologists’) tunnel, moving further westward toward the center of pyramid. Excavations

21

were conducted atop Structure F8-1 as well, hoping to elicit a full understanding of the

pyramid’s architectural phases, from its earliest construction to its final abandonment. This work

at the surface included the cleaning and documentation of an enormous, collapsed looters’ trench

on the southern side of the structure. A comparison of photos taken during the 2010 season of

PAEZ with another taken by George Andrews on his expedition to El Zotz in the 1980s

illustrates with alarming clarity the severity and rapidity of the deterioration the structure has

suffered at the hands of illegal looting activities (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Looters’ trench on the south side of Structure F8-1 at El Diablo, photos taken by George Andrews (1986) and Arturo Godoy (2010).

Within the pyramid itself, at the rate of approximately one meter per day, tunneling

efforts slowly uncovered a smaller, and seemingly simpler, structure immediately in front of the

stuccoed building unearthed by Román and Carter in 2009. Despite its small size and relatively

modest appearance in comparison to the elaborate structure adjacent to it, this temple continued

to surprise us. As we exposed first the northwest and then the northeast doorjambs of this small

22

temple, we encountered ancient graffiti, crude depictions of bodies, faces, and geometric designs

roughly etched into the layer of stucco covering the stone jambs.

Figure 3. Ancient graffiti from the northwest doorjamb of the small structure within F8-1 (drawing by Edwin Román).

Located 2.8 m below the small temple at the center of Structure F8-1, the tomb itself is

vaulted, rectangular, and lined with cut stones, in accordance with a widespread pattern observed

across the Maya lowlands during the Early Classic (Welsh 1988:23-24). The walls of the

structure were covered in a thick layer of plaster, reaching up toward the top of the vault. The

final two layers of stones were left bare, presumably as they represent the final step in the

interment process, sealing the tomb after it had been filled. The chamber’s longitudinal axis runs

23

from north to south, measuring 3.12 m long by 1.25 m wide with a height of 1.5 m at the apex of

the vault, providing ample room for the extended body of its occupant and the plentiful array of

associated grave furniture.

Figure 4. Profile of excavations leading to and including the vaulted tomb of Burial 9 (drawing by Sarah Newman and Stephen Houston).

Inventorying a King: A Description of Burial 9

24

The floor of the tomb was almost entirely covered by its associated artifacts. The skeletal

remains of the occupant were found either above or interspersed with artifacts, suggesting that

the body had originally been placed in an elevated position above the array of grave furniture.

Powdered wooden remains recovered intermingled with the skeletal remains and above the

artifacts on the floor of the tomb suggest that the body was likely placed on elevated wooden

funerary bier, a widespread practice observed across the Maya area (Fitzsimmons 2009:188-

193). Approximately 0.5 m above the floor, the eastern wall of the tomb had collapsed inward.

The other walls of the tomb did not show signs of the same degree of deterioration, suggesting

that perhaps the eastern wall had originally provided the support for the elevated wooden bier

and was pulled inward when the perishable platform eventually deteriorated and collapsed.

Figure 5. Plan view of Burial 9 before excavation (photo by Arturo Godoy).

Several artifacts found intermingled among the grave goods on the floor of the tomb were

originally located atop the funerary bier with the deceased. These included a large obsidian

25

blade, a dancer’s belt composed of Oliva and Spondylus shells and a necklace of smaller shell

beads worn by the occupant, a jade bead (most likely originally placed within the mouth of the

deceased [Ruz Lhuillier 1968:459]), jade discs, celts, plaques, and masks, and possibly a jaguar

pelt, as suggested by the recovery of a distal phalanx, either worn by the occupant or laid atop

the bier underneath the body.

Osteological analysis of the skeletal remains (Scherer and Garret 2010) indicates that the

occupant was likely male and over 35 years of age. While still fleshed, the body appears to have

been covered in two consecutive layers of red pigment. A thick layer of specular hematite

appears to have been made into a solution and painted upon the body, followed by a second layer

of powdered cinnabar. An additional substance, a thick, dark clay, was also found among the

skeletal remains. Some samples of the clay exhibit a thin layer of painted stucco on one side and

red pigment on the other, suggesting that it may have served as a covering for the body of the

deceased while still fleshed, perhaps to protect the corpse and also to mask the smell of decay.

According to the classification established by Krejci and Culbert for the central Petén

(1995:108), in which “elegant burials were placed in carefully constructed tombs, all were

marked by the use of red pigment and contained significant offerings of jade, and … included at

least 13 vessels,” the structure of the tomb, its associated objects, and the treatment of the body

found within Burial 9 mark it as the burial of a member of a royal family, if not the ruler himself.

Turning to the focus of the present study, the ceramic assemblage within the tomb was

found to contain a total of twenty-three vessels (including paired bowls used in lip-to-lip caches

and several two-part serving vessels with lids). The forms and type-variety associations of the

vessels clearly situate the date of the tomb within the Early Classic period (Newman 2010). The

presence of particular forms (including basal-flange bowls with scutate covers and tetrapod

26

supports) and the absence of others (such as cylindrical tripod vessels and round-side bowls)

parallel the Manik 2 subdivision of the Early Classic Manik phase at Tikal, suggesting a

narrower date of AD 300-378 (Laporte and Fialko 1987, 1995; Laporte 1989). Burial 9’s Manik

2 characteristics make it one of only a handful of examples lacking any evidence of a major shift

(namely, the widespread incorporation of Teotihuacan influence and imagery) witnessed in Maya

ceramics and burials (Krejci and Culbert 1995:109). This analysis is confirmed by radiocarbon

dating of charcoal samples recovered from within Vessel 13B, one of the lip-to-lip cache vessel

found in Burial 9. The charcoal returned a 2σ calendar calibrated result of AD 240-420 (1710 ±

40 BP [Beta-288303/EZ-5B-29-V13B; charred material; δ13C = -25‰]).

In accordance with T. Patrick Culbert’s (1993) analysis of the ceramics of Tikal, each

vessel from the assemblage within Burial 9 has been classified in terms of its shape, shape class,

and shape category in addition to its assigned traditional type-variety. This process both isolates

serving vessels likely to have contained food offerings and facilitates comparisons with other

burial assemblages. According to Culbert, shape classes refer to “major divisions based on size,

body proportions, and nature of orifice … likely to have been strongly correlated with vessel

use.” Meanwhile, shapes describe “subdivisions of shape classes, based on differences in wall or

neck shape, modifications such as flanges and ridges, and so forth.” Culbert’s broader shape

categories (wide-mouth jars, narrow-mouth jars, large-capacity bowls, and serving vessels) are

used mainly for quantification purposes, simplifying comparisons among collections and

encouraging plausible results (Culbert 1993:52).

The following presentation of the individual vessels composing the ceramic assemblage

from Burial 9 adheres to Culbert’s typology of shapes as closely as possible. Additional

descriptive classifications are included where necessary, to highlight features that indicate vessel

27

function (gutter spouts, pot-stands, or handles, for example). The numbers used in naming each

vessel represent their chronological ordering within the tomb, moving from north to south, east

to west (see Figure 5). Where the vessel number is accompanied by a letter, the vessel belongs

to a two-part pair, with A and B distinguishing between the upper and lower vessel, respectively.

For more detailed descriptions of individual vessels from the assemblage, including

measurements and ceramic complex designations, see Appendix 1. The residues of ancient

organics found within the vessels of Burial 9 are all currently being studied by Dr. Patrick

McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Apron Covers

The assemblage from Burial 9 contains a single apron cover of the Caldero type of the

Caldero Buff Polychrome ceramic group, Vessel 5. Apron covers, characterized by their uniform

circular rims, concave sloping sides, centrally placed modeled handles, and relatively horizontal

edges, are found in multiple Early Classic tomb contexts (e.g., Smith 1955:Fig. 6i-l; Hall

1985:32; Laporte and Fialko 1987:147; Culbert 1993:Fig. 27a5). They are generally associated

with cylindrical vessels, whether tripods (Smith 1950:Fig. 121) or tetrapods (Laporte 2005:165).

Their association with cylindrical vessels suggests a role in preparing or serving liquids, perhaps

to keep beverages from spilling over or heated substances from rapidly losing their warmth.

Vessel 5 was not directly associated with another vessel in the tomb, although it was found

toppled over next to Vessel 6, a pot-stand. A similarly unassociated apron cover was recovered

from Burial 22 at Tikal (Culbert 1993:91). Unassociated lids, such as the example from Burial 9

or Burial 22 at Tikal (Culbert 1993:91) raise the question of whether perishable vessels, perhaps

28

gourds or objects of wood or stucco, might also have once been included among funerary

assemblages of serving vessels.

Figure 6. Plan view and rim profile of Vessel 5 (apron cover). Basal-flange Bowls with Gutter Spouts

The two examples of this vessel type found in Burial 9 are classified as the Balanza Black

type of the Balanza ceramic group. Each was associated with a hollow, globular vessel (see

below). The undersides and interiors of the bowls were badly burnt, blacked and severely heat-

cracked in some areas. Although other examples of spouted bowls are known among Early

Classic assemblages (Smith 1955: Fig. 30b3; Ball 1977: Fig. 12u; Callaghan 2009:218; Culbert

1993: Fig. 32e), examples from Tikal (Laporte and Fialko 1987:148-149), Holmul (Callaghan

2009:213) and Calakmul (Folan et al. 1995:323) provide specific comparative evidence for the

pairing of basal-flange bowls with gutter spouts beneath hollow, globular vessels. The relatively

rare occurrence of paired examples of these vessels makes inferences about their use merely

speculative, but the combination of the hollow cavity provided by the upper vessel and the gutter

29

spout feature of the bowl beneath may suggest a steaming function, perhaps for tamales (Golden,

personal communication 2010). The evidence of the severe burning of the vessels, however,

may suggest that their contents were set aflame rather than simply cooked, perhaps transformed

into smoke as an altogether different kind of “food” for the dead (Houston et al. 2006:125).

Figure 7. Vessels 14A, 14B, 3A, and 3B (basal-flange bowls with gutter spouts with corresponding hollow, globular vessels).

Basal-flange Bowl: High-Side Variety

The assemblage of vessels from Burial 9 includes seven basal-flange bowls with high

sides. These serving vessels, often elaborately painted polychromes or impressively incised

monochrome glosswares, are ubiquitous among Early Classic contexts. They are found at

Holmul (Merwin and Vailliant 1932; Callaghan 2009), Uaxactun (Smith 1955); Seibal (Adams

1963; Sabloff 1975), Altar de Sacrificios (Adams 1971), Becan (Ball 1977); Río Azul (Hall

1985), Tikal (Laporte and Fialko 1987; Culbert 1993); Calakmul (Folan et al 1995); and Copan

(Bell et al. 2004), to name only a few sites.

The seven vessels from Burial 9 at El Zotz include four incised monochrome glosswares

(one with a unique quatrefoil shape and one with attached tetrapod supports) and three painted

polychromes. Vessels 1B, 15B, 17B, and 20B represent the monochrome bowls, while Vessels

30

18B, 19B, and 22B are polychromed. Each vessel is accompanied by a scutate cover, one of

which has a knob handle (Vessel 19A). The other scutate covers feature modeled effigy heads,

sometimes as handles, which take the form of human or animal faces.

Figure 8. Rim profile for basal-flange bowl, high-side variety (Vessel 1B).

Vessel 1B is a glossy Urita Gouged-Incised vessel of the Balanza ceramic group, with a

unique quatrefoil form. The gouged and incised designs around the high walls of the vessel are

exquisite – featuring fine lines depicting an acrobatic god within another quatrefoil shape, a

centipede tail curving around the back of the vessel, and a cross-hatched mat motif around the

basal flange. The quatrefoil shape is a standard feature of Mesoamerican iconography.

Although it often represents the entrance to a cave, they quatrefoil can symbolize any sacred

aperture, including open or reopened tombs (Stone 1995:23). The monkey’s palms on either side

of the vessel and the centipede tail at the back provide clear evidence of the appropriate position

of the basal-flange bowl with respect to its scutate cover. This expected positioning was

explicitly reversed when the vessels were encountered within the tomb, which may signify a role

31

in inversionary concepts at play in Maya mortuary rituals (Houston, personal communication

2010). Some residue was found inside the walls and the base of the vessel, although the layer of

residue was extremely thin and only a small sample could be recovered for analysis. The rim

and base of the vessel are worn from contact with its associated cover and surfaces it was set

upon, indicating a history of use before it was included among the ceramic assemblage from

Burial 9.

Figure 9. Vessel 1B (basal-flange bowl, high-side variety)..

Vessel 15B is a lustrous black bowl classified as the Urita Gouged-Incised type of the

Balanza ceramic group. Two symmetrical, geometric designs are located above the basal flange

on either side of the vessel’s high walls. The vessel is somewhat crude in comparison to other

examples within Burial 9’s assemblage (such as Vessel 17B, for example), with uneven lines,

varying depths to the gouging, and a lopsided angle to the entire bowl. The center of the base of

32

the vessel’s interior also shows traces of an incised design (a feature also identified in Vessel

19B), although the design has mostly been worn away. This wear pattern could be the result of a

process used to clean the vessel, perhaps using a rough scourer to remove food residue from the

interior of the vessel (Orton et al. 1993:61), which would suggest that it was used, perhaps by the

tomb’s occupant himself, prior to being placed within Burial 9. The vessel’s upper rim is also

heavily worn from contact with its associated scutate cover. An angled ring of white, chalky

residue remained around the vessel’s interior when it was recovered from the tomb, suggesting

that it may have contained a liquid foodstuff of some sort, which pooled to one side due to the

vessel’s uneven positioning on the floor of the tomb.

Figure 10. Vessel 15B (basal-flange bowl, high-side variety).. Vessel 17B is both formally and iconographically more complex than Vessel 15B, but is

also a shiny black tetrapod that can be classified as Urita Gouged-Incised of the Balanza ceramic

33

group. The tetrapod supports are thick and short, giving the vessel a squat appearance. Four

incised and gouged designs are evenly spaced around the walls of the vessel, sharp and clear-cut

in comparison to those on Vessels 15B and 20B. Two of the designs are more or less identical

and a third represents an incised pectoral below the modeled effigy head of the scutate cover.

The designs on either side of the vessel illustrate a clear directional sway from front to back,

which, along with the pectoral design, provide clear evidence of the intended position of the

vessel with respect to its modeled scutate cover. Vessel 17B shows similar wear patterns to

Vessel 15B, with scouring along the interior of the base and around the outer rim of the bowl,

suggesting it may also have been used for some time before being included in the tomb’s ceramic

assemblage. The vessel’s interior is also coated with a thin white residue around the sides and

base, indicating that it may have once held foodstuffs similar to those placed inside Vessel 15B.

Similar elaborately incised monochrome serving bowls with tetrapod supports are known from

Holmul (Callaghan 2009:195, 206) and Calakmul (Folan et al. 1995:323), as well as

unprovenanced examples (Miho Museum 2009).

34

Figure 11. Vessels 17A (scutate cover) and 17B (basal-flange bowl, high-side variety). Photo by Arturo Godoy.

Vessel 20B is another incised monochrome basal-flange bowl and appears to be

classifiable as the Lucha Incised type of the Balanza ceramic group. A thick layer of calcification

encrusts the entire vessel, obscuring designs and wear patterns, although its overall form is also

slightly lopsided like that of Vessel 15B. This thick deposit, also found encrusted around the

surface of Vessel 9 of Burial 9, appears strikingly similar to vessels recovered from cave sites

(Brady and Prufer 2005). The Buenavista Escarpment, the home of the bats that give El Zotz its

modern name, contains at least one large sinkhole, suggesting a geological landscape supporting

modest cave systems. According to Thompson (1975:xv-xxii), vessels are often placed within

35

caves in order to collect zuhuy ha’ (pure or virgin water). The remote location in which the

zuhuy ha’ is collected and the manner in which it is obtained sanctify the substance, making it

categorically different from physically similar activities conducted at the surface (Brady et al.

2006:471). Such usage would further explain the pairing of the heavily encrusted Vessel 20B

with its associated scutate cover (completely free of calcification). The vessel’s lid would have

been removed to allow the collection of the zuhuy ha’, before being replaced atop the basal-

flange bowl, protecting its precious contents inside the tomb.

Figure 12. Vessel 20B (basal-flange bowl, high-side variety).. Vessel 18B is one of the most impressive vessels among the assemblage found in Burial

9, due mainly to its bright polychrome paint and the oversized modeled effigy handle in the

center of its associated scutate cover. The sides of Vessel 18B are remarkably high above its

low, deeply angled basal-flange that hides the base of the vessel from view. Four brightly

36

painted designs are symmetrically placed around the vessel, with identical pairs of designs on

opposite sides. Nearly identical designs are found on another basal-flange bowl from Uaxactun

(University of Pennsylvania Museum Photographic Archives #165112). The flange of the bowl

exhibits a spotted band of alternating colors, also found on Vessels 19B and 22B. The coloring

of the polychrome, with its red base and layers of black, buff, gray, and cream, is unusual and

not found at any other sites in the Maya lowlands, suggesting that it may be a variety unique to

the El Zotz region. The center and the rim of the vessel show wear patterns similar to those

observed among the other basal-flange bowls in Burial 9, probably indicating a period of use

prior to its interment. This bowl contained the skeletons of two New World quail, both

belonging to the Colinus genus, one of which could be positively identified as a Black-throated

Bobwhite (Colinus nigrogularis). Quail, particularly of the Colinus virginianus variety, were

favored as sacrifices among the Zapotec (Marcus and Flannery 2000:407), who regarded them as

‘clean’ or ‘pure’ animals due to their habit of drinking water from dew drops. They were also

used as food offerings among the Mixtec (Boone 2007:42), and the Aztec as well (Parsons

1933:615), for whom they were intimately associated with the myth of creation (Taube 1993:38).

37

Figure 13. Plan view of Vessel 18B, showing remains of two Colinus skeletons within. Photo by Arturo Godoy.

Vessel 19B is a red-based polychrome vessel of the same type as Vessels 18B and 22B,

again possibly made locally in the El Zotz region. The vessel shows similar patterns of use to

those seen on the other basal-flange bowls in the collection from Burial 9, although the degree of

wear is greater. The underside of the edge of the basal flange is also scratched and chipped, a

pattern not witnessed on the other basal-flange bowls from this assemblage. The interior of the

vessel shows clear residue markings (a distinct ring of a white substance around the side walls),

but the pattern of the residue is unusual in comparison to the other vessels within the tomb. The

base of the vessel is fairly clean, enough to show the same possible cleaning wear patterns as the

other basal-flange bowls, but the high sides of the vessel are coated nearly to the rim with a thin

layer of the white residue. The vessel was found resting at an angle when the tomb was

38

excavated – it may be that the vessel tipped over soon after being placed in the tomb and the

food offering within pooled against the sides before evaporating. The collapse of the wooden

bier holding the occupant’s body may have then caused the chips and scratches found on the

basal flange, which would have been resting against the floor of the tomb. Other vessels

featuring nearly identical flying macaw motifs are known from El Peru and Balamku (Edwin

Román, personal communication 2010), Uaxactun (Smith 1955:Fig.28a1), Holmul (Callaghan

2009:134), and the Lost World at Tikal (Laporte 2005:165). Pring (2000:51) and Hammond

(1984:4-5) identify the sherd temper of vessels with the flying macaw motif as a clearly Late

Preclassic paste mode beneath a clearly Early Classic style of painted decoration. The wide

reach of flying macaw motif vessels likely indicates a high level of standardization of these and

other painted polychrome vessels across the Petén region (Foias 1996:891-933).

Figure 14. Vessel 19B (basal-flange bowl, high-side variety). Vessel 22B is another brightly painted polychrome of the same undetermined variety as

Vessel 18B. Its associated scutate cover displays the modeled head of a peccary and its painted

body splayed across the lid. It has a higher base and sharper angles than most of the other basal-

flange bowls among the assemblage from Burial 9, but the flange around the bowl features the

39

same alternating spotted band as the other vessels. Vessel 22B was found to contain very little

residue of potential foodstuffs. The interior of the vessel, however, exhibits the same wear-

patterns described for the other basal-flange bowls from Burial 9, which may be evidence of its

use as a serving vessel prior to its placement in the tomb.

Everted-Rim Jar with Tall Neck

Burial 9 contains one example of a vessel of this shape, a small, unidentifiable cream

variety bearing the remains of a layer of hematite around its inner and outer neck and rim. The

vessel’s form is somewhat rare for the Petén, with only one or two similar examples found at

Tikal (Culbert 1993:Fig. 138d) and Holmul (Callaghan 2009:217), although the addition of an

everted rim to jars (rather than bowls or plates) is characteristic of regional trends in the central

Petén, emerging as a special feature toward the end of the Early Classic (Adams 1971:132). This

vessel contained an extremely thin layer of residue on the interior. Along with its somewhat

wide orifice and bulging, almost globular body, this may suggest that the vessel served as a

storage or holding container for a liquid of some sort. The remains of the hematite or cinnabar

on the neck and rim of the vessel may indicate that these minerals were included in the

preparation of the food or drink stored in the vessel, similar to examples known from Copan

(McNeil 2010:306).

40

Figure 15. Vessel 10 (everted rim jar with tall neck). Hollow, Globular Vessels

The two examples of this vessel type found in Burial 9 both belong to the Balanza Black

type of the Balanza ceramic group. Each was associated with a basal-flange bowl with a gutter

spout (see above). Vessel 3A and Vessel 14A share globular bodies with open bases, but Vessel

3A features the addition of a slightly outflaring jar neck while Vessel 14A is topped by a high,

sweeping handle (see Figure 7). These additions to the basic spherical shape of the vessels are

completely disconnected from the main bodies and were likely manufactured separately. These

two vessels were both severely and almost uniformly burned on their interiors. The exterior of

Vessel 14A is split in many places, indicating that it was exposed to extremely high

temperatures. Other examples of these rather rare vessel forms are known from burials at the

Mundo Perdido at Tikal (Laporte and Fialko 1987:148-149 ; Laporte 2005:164-166), at Holmul

41

(Callaghan 2009:213), and at Calakmul (Folan et al. 1995:323), although the examples from the

Mundo Perdido and Holmul are more complex, with zoomorphic appliqués and modeled effigy

faces. As mentioned above, a possible use for these vessels may have involved heating food by

means of steaming it, which may have been taken to the extreme in Burial 9, offering the

contents to the dead not as cooked food, but as burning smoke.

Narrow-Mouth Jar with Medium Neck

Vessel 21, of the Dos Hermanos Red type of the Dos Hermanos ceramic group, is a

glossy, globular-shaped jar with a straight-sided, narrow neck and orifice. The vessel’s form

indicates that it would most likely have been used as a storage, rather than serving, vessel.

Portions of the vessel, especially the neck and fragments of its broken base recovered from the

tomb floor, are covered with a thick layer of a chalky, almost bubbly, white residue, which forms

a thick stopper or plug inside the neck of the vessel. Although the neck and nearly half of the

body are intact, the base of the vessel appears to have exploded from the inside out after being

placed in the tomb. This, along with its unusual patterns of residue, suggests that the jar

originally contained some sort of expanding or off-gassing liquid (perhaps the fermented sap

beverage known as pulque). The “stopper” that formed inside the vessel most likely prevented

the gasses of the fermenting beverage from escaping, eventually building up enough pressure to

burst the bottom of the container. The substance inside the jar appears to have affected the

vessel’s slip as well, making it extremely friable in areas where the residue is thickest.

42

Figure 16. Vessel 21 (narrow-mouth jar with medium neck). Photo by Arturo Godoy. Narrow-Mouth Jar with Short Neck and Ring Base

Vessel 9 is a small jar, most likely of the Caribal Red variety of the Caribal ceramic

group. The vessel’s form is somewhat similar to a number of earlier examples with flat bases

from Tikal (Culbert 1993:Fig.11) and an example from Uaxactun, which also features a ring base

(Smith 1955:Fig. 13i). A nearly identical example was recovered from Burial A31 from

Uaxactun (Smith 1955:Fig. 8p), although it was paired with a flat disk-like lid. Similar forms are

also known from the Mundo Perdido at Tikal (Laporte and Fialko 1987:151). Although the form

and surface decoration for this vessel are generally considered to represent utilitarian wares, its

small size in comparison to the other vessels among the assemblage more likely suggests that

whatever its contents, they may have been considered especially rare or valuable. Vessel 9 is

43

also heavily encrusted with a thick layer of calcification, much like Vessel 20B. This may

indicate that Vessel 9 could have been used in the ritual collection of zuhuy ha’, the pure or

virgin water obtained from remote locations within caves (Thompson 1975:xv-xxii).

Figure 17. Vessel 9 (narrow-mouth jar with medium neck).

Outflaring-Side Cache Vessels: Large Variety

Eleven of these large bowls with outflaring sides were found among the assemblage

within Burial 9: Vessels 2A, 2B, 11A, 11B, 12A, 12B, 13A, 13B, 16A, 16B, and 23A. Vessels

2A and 2B are classified as the Dos Hermanos Red type of the Dos Hermanos ceramic group.

Vessels 12B and 13A are of the Triunfo Striated type of the Quintal ceramic group, while

Vessels 13B and 23A are classified as the Quintal Unslipped type of the same. Vessels 11A,

11B, 12B, and 16A and 16B are classified as the Aguila Orange type of the Aguila ceramic

group. Each was placed in the tomb in a lip-to-lip position with another cache vessel, although

Vessel 23A was paired with a simple silhouette medial-flange bowl, a vessel of a different, and

44

perhaps somewhat earlier, shape. As Krejci and Culbert (1995:110) suggest, the utilitarian wares

used in constructing lip-to-lip caches merely serve as containers for the important materials they

hold. The significance of the contents of the vessels may have been emphasized by downplaying

the appearance of the vessels themselves. The placement of the pairs of lip-to-lip vessels forms

roughly a straight line, corresponding to the north-south axis of Burial 9. This arrangement is

nearly identical to that described by Folan et al. (1995:322) for Tomb 1 at Calakmul, in which a

line of lip-to-lip cache vessels was laid out below the body of the occupant and covered in

textiles, forming a bed for the deceased. Each of the pairs of lip–to-lip cache vessels in Burial 9

held the skeletal remains of a young child or infant, many of which appeared to have been

burned prior to being placed within the caches (Scherer and Garret 2010). Several of the cache

vessels in Burial 9 show distinctive markings around the exterior walls, suggesting that they may

have been wrapped in leaves, a possibility supported by other examples of wrapped cache

vessels recovered from El Diablo (Roman and Newman 2010) and the nearby site of Bejucal

(Garrison and Beltrán 2010). Although the contents of the strikingly similar arrangement of

cache vessels at Calakmul are not described, comparative data on the practice of placing infant

bodies in cache vessels do exist at other sites across the Maya lowlands, including Uaxactun,

Tikal, Piedras Negras, and Barton Ramie (Welsh 1988:65, 257), although it is rare. In their

study of Preclassic and Classic burials and caches, Krecji and Culbert (1995:111) attest to only

seven cases in which sufficient quantities of material remain to suggest the presence of complete

bodies. Like the six pairs of lip-to-lip vessels found in Burial 9, other known examples of caches

with human remains are often poor with respect other materials (such as jade, shell, or obsidian).

Karl Taube (1994:672) describes infant sacrifice as part of a larger practice of k’ex

(meaning “substitute” or “exchange” in many Mayan languages) offerings among the Maya.

45

Contemporary accounts and ancient imagery attest to the importance of k’ex ceremonies

performed at birth. Taube writes, “as the new child is brought into the world, something must be

given in return to the gods of death and the underworld to maintain equilibrium.” In the case of

the Classic Maya kings, Taube recalls van Gennep’s three stages of death, liminality, and

eventual rebirth. He argues that the accession of a king is a rite of passage involving these three

stages, culminating in an individual’s rebirth as king. It therefore requires a k’ex offering, the

sacrifice of an infant (or, at times, the sacrifice of adult captive made to appear as infants). As

the king’s ultimate rite of passage, the death of a ruler may have called for a similar a k’ex

offering of infant sacrifice, or, as evidenced by Burial 9, even multiple k’ex offerings.

Figure 18. Rim profile of Vessel 11B (outflaring side cache vessel, large variety).

Pitchers with Gutter Spouts and Pedestal Bases

Two of these vessels are found within Burial 9’s ceramic assemblage, Vessel 4 and

Vessel 7, both of the Pucte Brown type of the Pucte ceramic group, with striated exteriors.

Although Culbert (1993:Fig. 123r) acknowledges only one instance of a similar vessel form at

Tikal, nearly identical examples are known from Uaxactun (Smith 1955:Fig. 12r, 17c16),

46

Holmul (Callaghan 2009:213), and the Mundo Perdido at Tikal (Laporte 2005:164). Thin rings

of residue were found toward the rim around the interiors of the vessels and also within the

groove of their gutter spouts. Joyce and Henderson (2007) argue that as chocolate served by the

Maya shifted from an alcoholic beverage to a non-alcoholic one, the non-alcoholic drink was

prepared through frothing or whisking (in contrast to earlier methods of frothing accomplished

by blowing into spouted vessels [e.g. Powis et al. 2002]). Callaghan (2009:62) has suggested

that forms such as Vessels 4 and 7 from Burial 9, with their gutter spouts and relatively wide

orifices, may reflect this shift in the preparation and serving of chocolate and would have served

as the Early Classic replacements to well-known forms of Preclassic spouted pitchers. Vessel 4

and Vessel 7 are both badly burnt on their exteriors, however, with Vessel 4 showing severe

cracking patterns from intense heat. The burn patterns, most intense on the undersides of the

vessels and progressing up the walls of their bodies, suggest that the pitchers might have been

placed directly into open flame. This suggests that, as with Vessels 3A, 3B, 14A, and 14B,

whatever liquids they may once have held were likely burned off or evaporated into a more

suitable form for consumption by the dead.

Figure 19. Vessel 4 and Vessel 7 (pitchers with gutter spouts and pedestal bases).

47

Pot Stand with Pedestal Base

Vessel 6 is a painted, polychromed, ring-shaped stand of the Caldero type of the Caldero

Buff Polychrome ceramic group. This “vessel” could not hold its own contents and most likely

served to elevate another vessel, possibly a perishable gourd or bowl of some sort. Heavy signs

of wear on the top of the pot-stand provide evidence that this object was used prior to being

placed in the tomb. Vessel 6 is painted with alternating designs in red and black encircling its

everted rims, possibly imitating jaguar skin patterns. The body of the pot-stand features two

repetitive, squared designs, symmetrical about the vessel. The uneven lines and thickly applied

paint on Vessel 6 appears to be the work of either an inferior or less careful artist than the one

responsible for several other painted polychromes within Burial 9’s assemblage (such as Vessels

18B and 19B, for example). Several similar pot-stands are known from Holmul (Callaghan

2009), Uaxactun (Smith 1955:Fig.15e1), and Río Azul (Hall 1985:33), with polychromed

examples being rare in comparison to monochromed vessels decorated with appliqués or

perforations. Although pot-stands of this form are frequently included in Late Preclassic

assemblages, both Callaghan (2009:136) and Smith (1955:22) believe that the pot-stand is a

more of a distinctly Early Classic form than a Late Preclassic one. Pot-stands like Vessel 6 may

be indicators of a shift from the low, flat-bottomed vessels of the Preclassic period toward an

emphasis on height in serving wares during the Classic period. This characteristic transitions

may be a function of elites hosting feasts while seated on thrones, as is often witnessed on Late

Classic painted ceramic vessels (Callaghan 2009:62).

48

Figure 20. Vessel 6 (pot stand with pedestal base). Scutate Covers

The ceramic assemblage from Burial 9 includes seven scutate covers, each paired with an

associated basal-flange bowl (see above). Scutate covers can generally be differentiated from

apron covers based on the form of the lip of the lid – where apron covers generally end more or

less flush with the edge of the vessel they cover, scutate covers often feature a downturned edge

overhanging the rim of their associated base. One of the scutate covers in Burial 9 features a

knob handle (Vessel 19A), while the remaining six covers are characterized by modeled effigies,

elaborate faces of men (Vessels 17A and 20A), monkeys (Vessels 1A, 15A, 18A), and a peccary

(Vessel 22A). Four of the vessels are monochrome examples (Vessels 1A, 15A, 17A, and 20A),

leaving three polychomes (Vessels 18A, 19A, 22A). Monochrome and polychrome scutate

covers are known from multiple Maya sites, ubiquitious in Early Classic mortuary contexts. A

few examples include: Uaxactun (Smith 1955: Fig. 21 and 29), Seibal (Sabloff 1975:Fig. 19c),

Tikal (Culbert 1993:Fig. 22-24, 136, and 149), Calakmul (Folan et al. 1995: 322), La Milpa

(Hammond et al. 1996:89), and Holmul (Callaghan 2009:139-149).

49

Figure 21. Rim profile for scutate cover (Vessel 1A). Vessel 1A is a uniquely quatrefoil-shaped cover of the Urita Gouged-Incised type of the

Balanza ceramic group. As mentioned for Vessel 1B, the quatrefoil shape holds important

symbolic associations for the Maya, illustrating sacred apertures such as caves and tombs (Stone

1995:23). The quatrefoil forms of the lid and its accompanying base are rare among known

serving wares, highlighting the skill of the potter responsible for the vessel. Likewise, the

gouged and incised decorations on both the lid and the base are extremely fine and carefully

executed. The centrally placed effigy handle is modeled in the form of a monkey, much like the

handle found on Vessel 18A and similar to modeled monkey effigies known from other mortuary

contexts (Smith 1955:Fig. 11j, Fig. 24b11, Fig. 75a7; Coggins 1988:103). Although many of the

other effigy handle covers from Burial 9 display the bodies of the animals associated with the

50

modeled faces (such as Vessels 15A and 22A), Vessel 1A shows only the head of this cosmic,

howling monkey. The incised designs below the handle instead include a chest pectoral, images

of deities, and k’in signs indicating solar associations (reinforced by the quatrefoil shape of the

vessel as a whole, which mirrors the shape of the k’in sign). The modeled head and the curving

lid are distinct pieces, most likely made separately and joined together for firing. The head is

thin and hollow, with a small opening at the mouth of the monkey. Some wear is visible on the

monkey’s face and around the rim of the lid, but evidence of use is clearest at along the base of

the lid’s lip, where it came into contact with Vessel 1B. A visible firing core in the rim of the

scutate cover indicates the presence of organic material in the paste and is illustrative of control

over the temperature and length of the firing process (Foias 1996:897).

Figure 22. Vessel 1A (scutate cover). Vessel 15A is a Lucha Modeled-Incised type cover of the Balanza ceramic group, again

with a modeled form of a monkey’s head. Vessel 15A’s monkey effigy differs from those of

51

Vessels 1A and 18A, however, as the monkey’s face does not serve as the handle for the lid, but

rather is accompanied by a separate handle directly behind it. Vessel 15A’s effigy also has a

somewhat more anthropomorphic appearance (particularly in the areas of its nose, ears, and

beard) and is accompanied by an incised depiction of its entire body, splayed out on the scutate

cover below. This decorative style can also be observed on Vessel 22A from Burial 9 and other

examples from Tikal (Culbert 1993: Fig. 22b; Laporte and Fialko 1995:61-62), Holmul

(Callaghan 2009:195, 203), and unprovenanced ceramics (Miho Museum 2009). Like Vessel

1A, the head of the monkey is hollow and made separately from the rest of the lid, with three

small holes in the mouth and one in each ear to enable firing. Vessel 15A’s monkey face is also

a rattle with a small clay bead inside. The monkey’s face is slightly lopsided, sloping downward

toward its left side. A small curl incised in his forehead likely indicates the animal’s smell

(Houston 2010). The curl, along with the rest of the incisions on the monkey’s face and some of

his limbs, are rubbed with a red pigment, probably hematite or cinnabar. The incised limbs and

tail of the monkey are detailed representations, sketching out the individual lines of the

monkey’s fur and claws. Wear is evident not only on the handle, but also on the head of the

monkey effigy, perhaps a result of turning the lid upside down and setting it next to the base

while filling it.

52

Figure 23. Vessel 15A (scutate cover). Vessel 17A, like Vessel 15A, belongs to the Lucha Modeled-Incised type of the Balanza ceramic

group and features a separate handle in addition to its modeled forms. Vessel 17A shows the

head and tail of a turtle, with the face of a god emerging from the stretching, open mouth of the

turtle. The handle, head, and tail again appear to be made separately, with two small holes

drilled on either side of the god’s mouth for firing. Like Vessel 15A, the incisions on the god’s

face and around the sides of the lid are rubbed with a red pigment, again probably cinnabar or

hematite. Unlike Vessel 15A, Vessel 17A does not show the body associated with the molded

effigy. Instead, incised designs on either side of the head and tail mirror those incised on Vessel

17B below, providing clear evidence of a particular position for the basal-flange bowl and

53

scutate cover in relation to one another.

Figure 24. Vessel 17A (scutate cover). Drawing by Kallista Angelhoff. Vessel 20A is another glossy Lucha Modeled-Incised type cover of the Balanza ceramic

group, although this vessel has only a single human effigy face as a handle, rather than an

additional piece like Vessels 15A and 17A. The head, once again, seems to have been made

separately from the rest of the lid, with two small holes piercing the hollow interior, allowing hot

air to escape during the firing process. The man’s incised collar, ear flares, nose ring, and

banded hair are rubbed with a red pigment, as with Vessels 15A and 17A. There is some wear

around the head of the effigy, including a large chip where some of the figure’s hair has been

lost, but the vessel is only slightly deteriorated around the lip of the cover. This light wear is not

surprising, considering that the basal-flange bowl with which it is associated is Vessel 20B (the

heavily calcified bowl that was likely placed in a cave setting to collect zuhuy ha’). This could

suggest that Vessel 20A was created specifically to be paired with Vessel 20B and only used

with its appropriate base, rather than being reused while Vessel 20B was being used to collect

cave water.

54

Figure 25. Vessel 20A (scutate cover).

Vessel 18A is a painted polychrome scutate cover of the unidentified polychrome variety

that seems to be a possible local variation unique to the El Zotz region. The vessel’s modeled

effigy handle takes the form of a cosmic monkey like that atop Vessel 1A, so similar that they

may be the work of the same talented sculptor. The monkey’s face is surrounded by painted

images of gods and a chevron band in shades of gray, orange, buff, and black on a red base slip.

The painting is exact and fine, more careful work than can be seen on other polychromed,

painted vessels from Burial 9’s assemblage (Vessels 5 and 6, for example). Vessel 18A was

badly broken due to rock fall when the eastern wall of the tomb collapsed and was found in

several large fragments.

55

Figure 26. Vessel 18A (scutate cover).

Vessel 19A is another painted polychrome lid of the unidentified El Zotz variety and is

the only scutate cover from Burial 9 featuring a knob handle. The painted designs on the lid are

symmetrical, illustrating similar depictions of gods on either side of the central handle. Some of

the painting shows thick, uneven lines, which are not as carefully executed as those on Vessel

18A, suggesting separate hands were responsible for the two covers despite their shared type-

variety designations and probably local fabrication. A similar vessel with a knob handle is also

found associated with a flying macaw motif basal-flange bowl at the Mundo Perdido of Tikal

(Laporte 2005:165). These observations may be further evidence of the proposed

56

standardization and mass production of flying macaw motif vessels, which are found at

numerous sites in mortuary contexts (see Basal-flange Bowls, High Side Variety above).

Figure 27. Vessel 20A (scutate cover).

Vessel 22A features the same color scheme as Vessels 18A and 19A, making it another

example of the unidentified polychrome variety found at El Zotz. Like Vessels 1A, 18A, and

20A, the modeled peccary effigy head in the center of Vessel 22A also serves as its handle. Like

Vessel 15A, the body of the peccary is depicted across the lid below the handle, although it is

painted, rather than incised, on this vessel. Similar examples of painted animal effigies,

including jaguars and deer, are found at Uaxactun (Smith 1955:Fig. 3b) and Tikal (Culbert

1993:Fig.22; Laporte 2005:164-166). The peccary’s forehead shows a painted version of the

57

same curl incised in the forehead of the monkey from Vessel 15A, again probably indicative of

the characteristic smell of these potent jungle creatures. The peccary’s nose and head are made

separately from the rest of the lid and from one another, with the nose seemingly one thick

cylinder-shaped piece and the head hollow. The head of the peccary is visibly worn, making it

likely that the vessel was in use for some time prior to being included in the tomb’s assemblage.

No firing core is visible in the lip of the cover (unlike Vessel 1A), perhaps suggesting a different

firing process with respect to time and temperature in the production of monochromes and

polychromes.

Figure 28. Vessel 22A (scutate cover). Simple Silhouette Medial-flange Bowl

Vessel 23B is the only lip-to-lip cache vessel found in Burial 9 that is not characterized as

an Outflaring-Side Cache Vessel. Instead, it belongs to the Dos Hermanos Red type of the Dos

58

Hermanos ceramic group and is characterized by its slight medial flange. This type-variety

classification of the vessel and its medial-flange form place it temporally ahead of most of the

other vessels found within Burial 9. Other examples of this vessel form and type are known

from Late Preclassic contexts at Altar de Sacrificios (Adams 1971:Fig. 10e) and Tikal (Culbert

1993: Fig. 7b,c,d), often found as caches with evidence of charcoal inside the vessels. Although

it is not particularly well-made or impressive, this vessel may have been intended as an imitation

of an earlier style or even a kind of “antique,” which would have increased its symbolic value.

The vessel is heavily worn around its rim and interior, again indicating that it was not made

exclusively for its interment within Burial 9 and probably used beforehand.

Figure 29. Vessel 23B (simple silhouette medial-flange bowl).

Wide-Mouth Jar with Tall Neck and Handles

Vessel 8, a wide-mouth jar with a rounded base and appliqué handles on either side, can

be classified as the Dos Hermanos Red type of the Dos Hermanos group. Handled jars are

known from earlier contexts at Kaminaljuyu (Kidder et al. 1946:Fig. 67p,q, 69f,g) and somewhat

59

similar examples are found at Tikal (Culbert 1993:Fig.11b, Fig. 154e). The vessel is heavily

burned on its exterior, similar to Vessels 4 and 7. The bottom of the vessel is rounded, although

it is able to stand upright on a flat surface with careful placement. The remains of some form of

organic cordage were found around one of the vessel’s handles in the tomb, suggesting that the

pot might have been carried or hung. A thin white residue is visible fairly high up around the

inner walls of the vessel, indicating it was once nearly full, probably with some kind of liquid

substance. The same residue can also be seen pooled inside the vessel near the rim and even on

the surface of the rim itself. The rim and base of the vessel show only slight signs of wear

compared to other vessels, which may be another indication of its having been carried or hung.

There are two small appliqué “buttons” on either side of the vessel toward the center. The

handles also appear to have been made separately and added to the body of the vessel, with clear

evidence of the potter’s efforts to smooth the joints visible where the handles meet the body.

The indication of a high level of liquid in the vessel and the possibility that it was designed to be

hung or carried rather than set on a surface could suggest an association with the frothing of

drinking chocolate, often accomplished during the Classic period by pouring chocolate back and

forth from one vessel to another (Coe and Coe 1996:50). Although this process is generally

depicted using cylindrical bowls and drinking vessels, these forms are entirely absent from

Burial 9’s assemblage. The pitchers and wide-mouth jars found in Burial 9 may therefore

represent a transitional ceramic form, enabling the continuity of frothing chocolate at El Zotz

between the spouted jars of the Preclassic period and the cylindrical vessels of the later Classic

period (see Pitchers with Gutter Spouts and Pedestal Bases above; Callaghan 2009:62).

60

.

Figure 30. Vessel 8 (wide-mouth jar with tall neck and handles).

Perishable Vessels

At least two vessels made of perishable stucco were found in Burial 9. One of these

featured tripod or tetrapod supports in the shape of small peccary heads, remarkably similar to

known vessels from Calakmul (Folan et al. 1995:322-323), K’axob (McAnany et al. 1999:141),

and looted contexts (Schele and Miller 1986:289; Freidel et al. 1993:84). According to

McAnany et al. (1999:141), peccaries were prized as a meat source, linked with wealth and

abundance in daily life. The other perishable vessel from Burial 9 took the form of a small red

bowl, unfortunately too crushed and fragile to describe its form or function with any reliable

degree of certainty. The extremely fragile nature of these artifacts also prohibited any initial

scraping of organic residues that they might have held.

61

Figure 31. Stucco tetrapod support in the shape of a peccary. Discussion and Conclusions

The descriptive presentation above indicates that the great majority of the ceramic vessels

recovered from Burial 9 functioned as serving vessels. This fact can be further illustrated

quantitatively. The vessels composing Burial 9’s ceramic assemblage can be distributed among

Culbert’s (1993:9-10) shape classes as follows: 2 wide-mouth jars, 2 narrow-mouth jars, 18

medium diameter bowls and dishes, 5 small diameter bowls and dishes, 3 cylindrical vessels, and

9 covers. Further quantified into Culbert’s (1995:53) four “shape categories,” the assemblage

from Burial 9 can be regrouped into two wide-mouth jars, two narrow-mouth jars, and 34 serving

vessels. Using this distribution, 89% of Burial 9’s ceramic assemblage falls under the category

of serving vessels.

62

Furthermore, the specific shapes encountered in Burial 9 correlate with comparative

counterparts in numerous examples from royal burials across the Maya area. Following the

method of quantification outlined above, a comparison of the percentages of serving vessels

among the ceramics included in selected examples of several Early Classic royal burials is

presented in Table 1. This table is by no means an exhaustive representation of interred funerary

ceramic assemblages. Rather, it is intended to show that (1) the high proportion of serving

vessels found in Burial 9 is not at all uncommon during the Early Classic period and (2)

remarkably similar quantities and kinds of vessel shapes comprise the ceramic assemblages from

royal burials elsewhere in the Maya lowlands. Indeed, when classified according to Culbert’s

categories, the ceramic assemblage from Tomb 1 at Calakmul is composed entirely of serving

vessels. Alternatively, the lowest percentage of serving vessels found within an interred ceramic

assemblage selected for Table 1 is represented by the 83% value obtained for the Margarita

Tomb at Copan.

63

 Wide-mouth Jars

Narrow-mouth Jars

Large Capacity

Bowls

Medium Diameter

Bowls and

Dishes

Small Diameter

Bowls and

Dishes

Cylindrical Vessels

Effigy Vessels Covers

Percentage Serving Vessel in

Assemblage

Sources

Calakmul: Tomb 1 6 3 2 100

Folan et al. 1995: 322-

323

Copan: Margarita

Tomb, Chamber 1

2 1 8 3 2 2 83

Reents-Budet et

al. 2004:180-

181 El Zotz: Burial 9 2 2 19 5 2 8 89 Newman

2010

Holmul: Room 1,

Skeleton 1 1 11 4 1 2 95

Callaghan 2009:151-

158

Mundo Perdido: PNT 062

2 7 6 2 5 91

Laporte and Fialko 1987:147-

149; Laporte

2005:164-166

Rio Azul: Tomb 19 1 6 2 6 1 93

Hall 1985:32-

35

Tikal: Burial 22 1 1 6 3 5 1 9 88

Coe 1990:308, Fig. 86; Culbert

1993:Fig. 22-27

Uaxactun: Burial A-

22 2 10 3 16 4 7 94

Smith 1950:96, Fig. 121

Table 1: Serving vessels within ceramic assemblages found within Early Classic Maya royal tombs (categories after Culbert 1993).

64

The majority of vessels presented in Table 1 were used either for serving liquids

(including cylindrical vessels and wide-mouth jars) or for serving solid foods (small and medium

diameter bowls and dishes, for example), recalling the elemental dyad identified by Houston el

al. (2006:208). While these comparisons highlight a shared mortuary practice among ancient

Maya elites, the fact that Table 1 includes data obtained only from royal burials prohibits

generalization among all Maya social and economic classes. The patterns observed in royal

burials may or may not filter down through the ranks of society. Investigating the relative

occurrences of drinking and serving vessels in non-elite contexts, however, allows for the

identification of patterns widely practiced. This, then, suggests the existence of an ideal

assemblage of material required for the appropriate funerary repast. As Metcalf and Huntington

(1991) describe in their treatment of Berewa mortuary rituals, perhaps only those who were able

to muster sufficient material and social resources could achieve the ideal burial.

Welsh’s (1988) catalogues of Early Classic lowland Maya burials include numbers and

forms of vessels found in burials ranging from simple to elite to royal. A total of 79% of the

simple, cist, chultun, or household shrine burials at Mountain Cow included ceramic serving

ware, with 50% displaying a combination that included both vases for drinking and bowls and

dishes for serving. At Barton Ramie, 39% of burials similarly classified as “simple” include

ceramic serving ware, with a number of examples featuring a combination of bowls, jars, and

vases, both monochrome and polychrome. Even sites represented by Table 1, where unequal

access to wealth is made obvious through the extravagance of their royal burials, Welsh’s simple

grave types still include ceramic offerings in 38% of the sample from Holmul, 51% of the

sample form Uaxactun, and 58% of the excavated examples from Tikal. At the site of El Zotz

itself, two Late Classic, most likely non-elite burials, one from the El Zotz Acrópolis and one

65

from the satellite group of Las Palmitas, were found to contain the necessary triad of a vase and

cup or bowl for storing and serving a liquid and a tripod plate for serving solid foods (Marroquín,

Garrido, and Houston 2010; Carter and Gutiérrez 2010).

The amounts of inter- and intra-site variety among ceramic assemblages from burial

contexts suggests that mortuary ritual was not a homogenous practice on a small-scale, let alone

at regional levels. However, the widespread practice of placing vessels in graves and the

frequency of specific kinds of serving vessels (for liquids or solids) do point to a common

understanding of the ideal assemblage of offerings that would best provide for the deceased.

Within this consistent understanding of a fitting funerary repast, the observed site- and status-

specific representations of the last meal illuminate the potential for flexibility within ancient

Maya mortuary ritual. The lack of uniformity indicates not only differential access to the

resources that would have enabled a “textbook” Maya funeral, but also that individuals may have

been buried in specific and personalized fashions. Grave goods, including ceramic assemblages,

therefore offer a unique opportunity to move beyond an understanding of artifacts as static,

fossilized indicators of wealth and status. Instead, these objects may be investigated as the

material correlates of ritual practice (Bourdieu 1977), structured and significant acts undertaken

as purposive, meaning-laden behaviors. Given the evidence for the pan-Maya understanding of

the necessity of the funerary repast in mortuary rituals, the obvious question to follow becomes

why this last meal was considered a crucial part of treating the dead. Was it for the benefit of the

recently deceased or the benefit of the living? What was the function, not of individual vessels,

but of the funerary repast as a whole?

Returning to Table 1 and the comparisons among Burial 9 and other royal burials from

the Maya area, it is immediately obvious that Culbert’s shape categories are broad, with serving

66

vessels representing a sort of catchment category for any and all vessels that do not clearly serve

storage functions. This is not a criticism of Culbert’s analysis, but rather a reflection of the

nature of ceramic vessels and their use among the ancient Maya. Whether tied to ritual

(Callaghan 2009), political economy (Foias 2007), or identity (Howie et al. 2010), Maya

ceramics (excluding figurines) categorically fall into either serving/preparation or storage

vessels. This is the challenge presented by the funerary repasts found within mortuary contexts,

from which many of the most impressive and elaborate Maya ceramics are known. Formal and

functional analyses, like those above, can identify the proportions of drinking, serving, and

storage vessels among burial assemblages, but cannot overcome the obvious conundrum of their

interment with the deceased, who have no need of sustenance. This suggests that the vessels

serve at the very least an additional function, if not an altogether different one, as part of a burial

assemblage. This additional or alternative function is clearly not physical in nature and is

therefore interpreted as symbolic. Yet how can that function be accessed archaeologically? As

Lewis Binford (1971:16) has argued, “we expect nothing intrinsic in the form of a symbol to

limit it to any particular referent. In turn, there is nothing intrinsic in a referent which

necessarily determines the form of the symbol to be used in its designation or conceptualization.”

Attempts to reconcile a vessel’s intended function and the purposes it serves in mortuary

contexts have argued that ceramic vessels in burials are used to mark social status (Binford

1971), to materially manifest axes of power such as social authority and lineage (Bloch and Parry

1982), or to construct solidarity and inequality (Joyce 1994). Rather than expressing the wishes

of the dead themselves, Joyce (1997) has further argued that mortuary rituals represent the

concerns of those burying the dead, which may be reflected among the artifacts found in burials.

I wish to extend this argument to include not only the objects found in burial assemblages, but

67

their use and contents as well. It is not merely the placement of a pot inside a tomb that is

significant, but, more importantly, what that vessel holds and why its contents were important for

both the living and the dead.

Two major discoveries, beginning in the late 1980s, have ushered in a new era of

understanding the contents of ceramic serving vessels. The work of epigraphers in deciphering

the Primary Standard Sequence (Coe 1973, 1978; Houston and Taube 1987; Houston et al. 1989)

and the glyph for cacao (Stuart 1988) has been complemented by advances in chemical analyses,

which have enabled the identification of cacao (Hall et al. 1990; Hurst et al. 1989; Henderson et

al. 2007) and other organics (McGovern et al. 2004) in ancient residues.

Recent applications of these and other techniques have proven impressively fruitful in

exploring the offerings made to the dead. Basal-flange bowls recovered at Copan from the

Margarita tomb were found to have contained fish remains (Bell et. al. 2004:140) and a basal-

flange bowl with mammiform supports found in Offering 93-16 was found to have contained

cacao and turkey bones (McNeil 2010:301). Likewise, a polychrome basal-flange bowl from

Calakmul likely contained food, perhaps chocolate, pozole, or atole (Folan et al. 1995:323). One

of the basal-flange bowls from Burial 9 at El Zotz (Vessel 18B) held the remains of two small

game birds, at least one of which can be identified as a species of quail known as a Black-

throated Bobwhite (Colinus nigrogularis). The other specimen is too fragmentary to identify to

the species, but is also a member of the Colinus genus of the New World quails. Other vessels

from Burial 9’s assemblage may yet prove to have held other food offerings, pending Dr.

McGovern’s ongoing investigations.

These finds suggest that ceramic vessels found in burials, thorugh the uses to which they

were put and the contents they held, served symbolic as well as functional purposes. Their

68

functional purposes have often been understood in terms of feeding the dead or negotiating

relationships between living people and their ancestors (McNeil 2010; Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi

1977). While this may be an important aspect of funerary food offerings, I believe they served a

different fundamental purpose in managing fear of the dead and delineating boundaries between

the living and the deceased.

Recalling Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi’s (1977:509) argument that the inversion of a single

element can create a binary distinction through contrast, the inclusion of cinnabar and/or

hematite in otherwise palatable dishes at Copan (2010:306) and possibly Vessel 10 from Burial 9

shifts food offerings from the unmarked category of sustenance appropriate for humans to the

marked fare appetizing to deities and the dead. Similarly, the likely inclusions of zuhuy ha’ and

quails in the funerary repast from Burial 9, both hailed for their purity, may represent other items

offered to underscore the contrasts between the food for the living and the food for the dead.

The appetite of the dead and deities for intangible feasts of smoke, noted by Houston et al.

(2006:125) may be further witnessed through the ceramic offerings placed within tombs. The

severely burned vessels (Vessels 3A and 3B, 4, 7, 8, 14A, and 14B) from Burial 9 may have

once contained ordinary fare that was transformed by fire into something more appropriate for

the dead to consume. The sacrificed and burned bodies of children placed in the six pairs of lip-

to-lip cache vessels laid out along the floor of Burial 9 may be yet another example of the

“strange fruit” (Houston et al. 2006:122) preferred by the dead. The process of death among the

Classic Maya, particularly for rulers, was a transformative one (Fitzsimmons 2009:16). Like the

dead witnessed by Hertz in Borneo (1960), the Classic Maya royal passed through a liminal

phase or intermediary period immediately following death, in which his soul, his sak ik’ (white

breath), must undergo the transition required to leave his body and eventually join a pool of

69

worshipped ancestors. Like the dead witnessed by Hertz in Borneo, this period is marked by fear

of the dead, as described in the Popol Vuh, the Quiché Maya myth of creation, “It’s just the flesh

that makes his face look good. And when he dies, people get frightened of his bones” (Taube

1993:57).

Inversionary concepts in mortuary rituals mitigate this fear by drawing a stark line

between the living and the dead. Inversions may have been created through the transformations

of food offerings into inedible substances and previously sustained bodies into forms of

sustenance, as observed in Burial 9. Further evidence of inversionary tactics at play in Burial 9

is found in the explicit reversal of Vessel 1A with respect to its associated basal-flange bowl.

Placing the lid of the vessel backwards on its base may represent a symbolic “killing” of the

object and its offering, allowing them to transition from the world of the living into the world of

the dead while simultaneously marking the separation between the two. The normality of

everyday life, often strained by the death of important and powerful personages, is reinforced by

explicitly defining its opposite through mortuary ritual. Fear of the dead is then mitigated by this

clear-cut separation (Ucko 1969).

The ceramic assemblage and associated funerary feast recovered from Burial 9 at El Zotz

contribute valuable data to current understandings of Early Classic ceramic vessel forms and

surface decorations, ancient Maya mortuary rites, feasts and food offerings, and local variability

within widespread ritual practices. Burial 9, like other royal Maya burials, represents an attempt

to provide an appropriate funerary assemblage for a king that would provide the dead ruler with

tantalizing and nourishing offerings for consumption and ensure his success on the journey

awaiting him. Simultaneously, however, it represents meaningful action on behalf of the living

70

survivors, a fitting testament to the memory of their king and a mechanism for demarcating the

necessary boundary between the world he entered and the world he left behind.

71

REFERENCES CITED

Adams, Richard E.W. 1971 The Ceramics of Altar de Sacrificios. Peabody Museum, Cambridge. 1963 Seibal, Petén: Una secuencia ceramica preliminary y un nuevo mapa. Estudios de Cultura Maya 3:85-96. Andrews, George F. 1986 Notes on “El Zotz”: A Little-known Site in Peten, Guatemala. Mexicon 8(6):123-125. Ball, Joseph W. 1977 The Archaeological Ceramics of Becan, Campeche, Mexico. Middle American Research Institute, New Orleans. Barth, Fredrik 1987 Cosmologies in the making: a generative approach to cultural variation in inner New Guinea. University Press, Cambridge. Beach, Timothy and Sheryl Luzzader-Beach 2009 Investigaciones Paleoambientales en El Zotz, Temporada 2009. In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 4, Temporada 2009, edited by Griselda Pérez Robles, Edwin Román, and Stephen Houston, pp. 289-294. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Beliaev, Dmitri, Albert Davletshin, and Alexandre Tokovinine 2010 Sweet Cacao and Sour Atole: Mixed Drinks on Classic Maya Ceramic Vases. In Pre- Columbian Foodways: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food, Culture, and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by John Edward Staller and Michael Carrasco, pp. 257- 272. Springer, New York. Bell, Catherine 1992 Ritual theory, ritual practice. University Press: Oxford. Bell, Ellen E., Robert J. Sharer, Loa P. Traxler, David W. Sedat, Christine W. Carrelli, and Lynn A. Grant 2004 Tombs and Burials in the Early Classic Acropolis at Copan. In Understanding Early Classic Copan, edited by Ellen E. Bell, Marcello A. Canuto, and Robert J. Sharer, pp. 131- 158. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. Binford, Lewis R. 1971 Mortuary Practices: Their Study and Potential. In Approaches to the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, edited by James Brown, pp. 6-29. Memoir of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington DC. Bloch, Maurice 1971 Placing the Dead: Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in Madagascar.

72

Seminar: London. Bloch, Maurice and Jonathan Parry (editors) 1982 Death and the Regeneration of Life. University Press: Cambridge. Boone, Elizabeth Hill 2007 The House of the Eagle. In Cave, City, and Eagle’s Nest: An Interpretive Journey through the Mapa de Cuauhtinchan No. 2, edited by Davíd Carrasco and Scott Sessions, pp. 27-48. University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque. Bourdieu, Pierre 1984 Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Harvard University Press: Cambridge. 1977 Outline of a theory of practice. University Press: Cambridge. Brady, James E. and Keith M. Prufer 2005 In the Maw of the Earth Monster: Mesoamerican Ritual Cave Use. University of Texas Press: Austin. Brady, James E. and Dominique Rissolo 2006 A Reappraisal of Ancient Maya Cave Mining. Journal of Anthropological Research 62(4):471-490. Callaghan, Michael George 2009 Technologies of Power: Ritual Economy and Ceramic Production in the Terminal Preclassic Period Holmul Region, Guatemala. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville. Carter, Nicholas and Yeny M. Gutiérrez 2010 Investigaciones en el Grupo Norte o Las Palmitas. In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 5, Temporada 2010, edited by Jose Luis Garrido López, Stephen Houston, and Edwin Román pp. 69-76. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Coe, Michael 1978 Lords of the Underworld: Masterpieces of Classic Maya Ceramics. The Art Museum, \ Princeton University Press: Princeton. 1973 The Maya Scribe and His World. Grolier Club: New York. Coe, Sophie and Michael Coe 1996 The True History of Chocolate. Thames and Hudson: London. Coggins, Clemency Chase 1988 Classic Maya Metaphors of Death and Life. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 16:64- 84. Culbert, T. Patrick

73

1993 The Ceramics of Tikal: Vessels from the Burials, Caches, and Problematical Deposits. Univeristy of Pennsylvania: Philadephia. Dietler, Michael 2001 Theorizing the feast: Rituals of consumption commensal politics, and power in African contexts. In Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power, edited by Michael Dietler and Brian Hayden, pp. 65-114. Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington DC. Dietler, Michael and Brian Hayden 2001 Digesting the Feast – Good to Eat, Good to Drink, Good to Think: An Introduction. In Feasts: Archaeological and Ethnographic Perspectives on Food, Politics, and Power, edited by Michael Dietler and Brian Hayden, pp. 1-20. Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington DC. Douglas, Mary 1972 Deciphering a meal. Daedalus 101(1): 61-81. 1966 Purity and danger. Praeger: New York. Durkheim, Emile 1915 The elementary forms of religious life. Free Press: New York. Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi, Gabriella 1977 Ritual as Language: The Case of South Indian Food Offerings. Current Anthropology 18(3):507-514. Fitzsimmons, James L. 2009 Death and the Classic Maya Kings. Univeristy of Texas Press: Austin. Foias, Antonia E. 2007 Ritual, Politics, and Pottery Economies in the Classic Maya Southern Lowlands. In Mesoamerican Ritual Economy: Archaeological and Ethnological Perspectives, edited by E. Christian Wells and Karla Davis-Salazar, pp. 167-196. University Press of Colorado: Boulder. 1996 Changing Ceramic Production and Exchange Systems and the Classic Maya Collapse in the Petexbatun Region. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville. Folan, William J., Joyce Marcus, Sophia Pincemin, María del Rosario Domínguez Carrasco, Laraine Fletcher, and Abel Morales Lopez 1995 Calakmul: New Data from an Ancient Maya Capital in Campeche, Mexico. Latin American Antiquity 6(4):310-334. Freidel, David, Linda Schele, and Joy Parker 1993 Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. William Morrow: New York.

74

Fung, Christopher 2000 The Drinks are on Us: Ritual, Social Status, and Practice in Dawenkou Burials, North China. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 2 (1/2):67-92. Garrison, Thomas and Fernando Beltran 2010 Operación 1, Investigaciones en Bejucal. In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 5, Temporada 2010, edited by Jose Luis Garrido López, Stephen Houston, and Edwin Román, pp. 249-264. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Garrison, Thomas and Jose Luis Garrido 2009 Operaciones IR 8A, Program de Investigaciones Regionales, Excavaciones de Sondeo en el Sitio La Avispa (Cuadrantes O9 y P8). In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 4, Temporada 2009, edited by Griselda Pérez Robles, Edwin Román, and Stephen Houston, pp. 265-280. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Garrison, Thomas G., James A. Doyle, and Stephen D. Houston 2010 La aplicación de las tecnologías nuevas en la teledetección de las Tierras Bajas Mayas. In XXIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2009, edited by Barbara Arroyo, A. Linares Palma, and L. Paiz Aragón, pp. 231-238. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología: Guatemala City. Gillot Vassaux, Alejandro 2008 Grupo El Diablo (Operación 5). In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 3, Temporada de Campo 2008, edited by Ernesto Arredondo Leiva and Stephen Houston, pp. 115-134. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Godelier, Maurice 1999 The enigma of the gift. University Press: Chicago. Goody, Jack 1982 Cooking, Cuisine, and Class: A study in comparative sociology. University Press: Cambridge. 1962 Death, Property, and the Ancestors. Stanford University Press: Stanford. Gummerman IV, George 1997 Food and complex societies. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 4(2):105- 139. Hall, Grant D. 1985 Results of Tomb Investigations at Río Azul, Season of 1984. Report submitted to R.E.W. Adams for Río Azul Reports 2, July 1985. Hall, Grant D., Stanley M. Tarka, Jr., W. Jeffrey Hurst, David Stuart, and Richard E.W. Adams 1990 Cacao Residues in Ancient Maya Vessels from Río Azul, Guatemala. American Antiquity 55(1):138-143.

75

Hammond, Norman 1984 Holmul and Nohmul: A Comparison and Assessment of Two Maya Lowland Protoclassic Sites. Ceramica de Cultura Maya 13:1-17. Hammond, Norman, Gair Tourtellot, Sara Donaghey, and Amanda Clarke 1996 Survey and Excavation at La Milpa, Belize, 1996. Mexicon 18:86-91. Hanks, William F. 1984 Sanctification, Structure, and Experience in a Yucatec Ritual Event. The Journal of American Folklore 97(384):131-166. Hayden, Brian 2009 Funerals as Feasts: Why are they so important? Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19:29-52. Henderson, John S., Rosemary A. Joyce, Gretchen R. Hall, W. Jeffrey Hurst, and Patrick E. McGovern 2007 Chemical and Archaeological Evidence for the Earliest Cacao Beverages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104(48): 18937-18940. Hertz, Robert 1960 A contribution to the study of the collective representation of death. In Death and the Right Hand, translated by Rodney Needham and Claudia Needham, pp. 63-71. Free Press: New York. Howie, Linda, Christine D. White, and Fred J. Longstaffe 2010 Potographies and Biographies: The Role of Food in Ritual and Identity as Seen Through Life Histories of Selected Maya Pots and People. In Pre-Columbian Foodways: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food, Culture, and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by John Edward Staller and Michael Carrasco, pp. 369-398. Springer, New York. Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, and Karl Taube 2006 The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience Among the Classic Maya. University of Texas Press: Austin. 1989 Folk Classification of Classic Maya Pottery. American Antiquity 91:720-726. Houston, Stephen D. and Karl A. Taube 1987 “Name-Tagging” in Classic Mayan Script: Implications for Native Classifications of Ceramics and Jade Ornament. Mexicon IX:38-41. Houston, Stephen D., Zachary Nelson, Héctor L. Escobedo, et. al. 2006 Levantamiento Preliminar y Actividades de Registro en El Zotz, Biotopo San Miguel La Palotada, Petén. In: Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Informe No. 1: Temporada de Campo 2006, edited by Hector Escobedo and Stephen Houston. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz,

76

Guatemala. Houston, Stephen D. 2010 Maya Musk. Electronic document, http://decipherment.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/maya-musk/, accessed September 4, 2010. 2008 Al Cielo Quebrado: Investigaciones en El Zotz, 2008. Paper presented at the XXII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatamala, Guatemala City. Hubert, Henri and Marcel Mauss 1964 Sacrifice: its nature and functions. University Press: Chicago. Hurst, W. Jeffrey, Robert A. Martin, Jr., Stanley M. Tarka, Jr., and Grant D. Hall 1989 Authentication of cocoa in Maya vessels using high-performance liquid chromatographic techniques. Journal of Chromatography A 466:279-289. Joyce, Rosemary A. 1997 “Burying the dead at Tlatilco: Social memory and social identities.” Paper presented at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington, DC, November 1997. 1994 “The social construction of power in Formative Period Honduras.” Paper presented at the 94th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Anaheim, CA, April 1994. Joyce, Rosemary A. and John S. Henderson 2007 From Feasting to Cuisine: Implications of Archaeological Research in an Early Honduran Village. American Anthropologist 109(4):642-653. Kidder, Alfred Vincent, Jesse David Jennings, Edwin M. Shook 1946 Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. Carnegie Institute of Washington: Washington, DC. Kreji, Estella and T. Patrick Culbert 1995 Preclassic and Classic Burials and Caches in the Maya Lowlands. In The Emergence of Lowland Maya civilization: the transition from Preclassic to Early Classic: a conference at Hildesheim, November 1992, edited by Nikolai Grube, pp. 103-116. Acta Mesoamerican 8. Verlag Anton Saurwein: Möckmühl, Germany. Laporte, Juan Pedro 2006 Trabajos no divulgados del Proyecto Nacional Tikal, Parte 4: Rescate en El Zotz, San José, Petén. In XIX Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2005, edited by Juan Pedro Laporte, Barabar Arroyo, and Hector Mejía, pp. 877-894. Musceo Nacional de Arqueológia y Etnología: Guatemala City. 2005 Exploración y restauración en la Plataforma Este de Mundo Perdido, Tikal (Estructuras 5D-83 a 5D-89). In XVIII Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, 2004, edited by Juan Pedro Laporte, Bárbara Arroyo and Hector Mejía, pp.147-193. Museo

77

Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología: Guatemala City. 1989 Alternativas del clásico temprano en la relación Tikal-Teotihuacán: Grupo 6C-XVI, Tikal, Petén, Guatemala, Unpublished PhD dissertation, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City. Laporte, Juan Pedro and Vilma Fialko 1995 Un Reencuentro con Mundo Perdido, Tikal. Ancient Mesoamerica 6(1):58-62. 1987 La cerámica del Clásico Temprano desde Mundo Perdido, Tikal: una reevaluación. In Maya Ceramics, edited by Prudence M. Rice and Robert J. Sharer, pp. 123-181. B.A.R. International Series 345: Oxford. Leach, Edmund R. 1976 Culture and Communication: The logic by which symbols are connected. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. 1954 Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure. Beacon: Boston. LeCount, Lisa J. 2001 Like Water for Chocolate: Feasting and Political Ritual Among the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize. American Anthropologist 103(4):935-953. LeCount, Lisa J. and John H. Blitz 2010 A Comment on “Funerals as Feast: Why Are They So Important?” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 20:263-265. Lévi-Strauss, Claude 1966 The Culinary Triangle. Translated by Peter Brooks. The Partisan Review 33:586-596. Malinowski, Bronislaw 1961 Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Waveland Press: Prospect Heights, IL. 1954 Magic, science, and religion and other essays. Doubleday: New York. Marcus, Joyce and Kent V. Flannery 2000 Ancient Zapotec Ritual and Religion: An Application of the Direct Historical Approach. In The ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica: a reader, edited by Michael Ernest Smith and Marilyn A. Masson, pp. 400-421. Blackwell: Malden, MA. Marroquín, Elizabeth, Jose Luis Garrido, and Stephen D. Houston 2010 Operación 2, Excavaciones en la Acrópolis. In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 5, Temporada 2010, edited by Jose Luis Garrido López, Stephen Houston, and Edwin Román, pp. 9-68. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Matute, Varinia and James Doyle 2008 Sitio El Palmar (Operación 6). In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 3, Temporada 2008, edited by Ernesto Arredondo Leiva and Stephen Houston, pp. 135- 152. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala.

78

Mauss, Marcel 1967 The Gift. Norton: New York. McAnany, Patricia, Rebecca Storey, and Angela K. Lockard 1999 Mortuary Ritual and Family Politics at Formative and Early Classic K’axob, Belize. Ancient Mesoamerica 10:129-146. McGovern, Patrick E., Juzhong Zhang, Jigen Tang, Zhiqing Zhang, Gretchen R. Hall, Robert A. Moreau, Alberto Nuñez, Eric D. Butrym, Michael P. Richards, Chen-shan Wang, Guangsheng Chenge, Zhijun Zhao, and Changsui Wang 2004 Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101(51):17593-17598. McNeil, Cameron L. 2010 Death and Chocolate: The Significance of Cacao Offerings in Ancient Maya Tombs and Caches at Copan, Honduras. In Pre-Columbian Foodways: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food, Culture, and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica, John Edward Staller and Michael Carrasco (Eds), pp. 293-314, New York: Springer. Metcalf, Peter and Richard Huntington 1991 Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Miho Museum 2009 Tetrapod Vessel with Dog on Lid. Electronic document, http://miho.jp/booth/html/artcon/00004354e.htm, accessed November 29, 2010. Mock, Shirley Boteler 1998 Preface. In The Sowing and the Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological and Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by Shirley Boteler Mock, pp. 3-18. University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque. Morehart, Christopher T. and Noah Butler 2010 Ritual exchange and the fourth obligation: ancient Maya food offering and the flexible materiality of ritual. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16:588-608. Newman, Sarah 2010 Catálogo y Análisis Preliminar de la Cerámica de la Tumba Real, del grupo El Diablo. In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 5, Temporada 2010, edited by Jose Luis Garrido López, Stephen Houston, and Stephen Houston pp. 610-662. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Orton, Clive, Paul Tyers, and A.G. Vince 1993 Pottery in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

79

Parsons, Elsie Clew 1933 Some Aztec and Pueblo Parallels. American Anthropologist 35(4):611-631. Pearson, Mike Parker 1999 The Archaeology of Death and Burial. Texas A&M University Press: College Station, TX. Powis, Terry G., Fred Valdez, Jr., Thomas R. Hester, W. Jeffrey Hurst, and Stanley M. Tarka, Jr. 2002 Spouted Vessels and Cacao Use among the Preclassic Maya. Latin American Antiquity 13(1): 85-106. Pring, Duncan C. 2000 The Protoclassic in the Maya Lowlands. BAR International Series 908: Oxford. Rappaport, Roy 1979 Ecology, meaning, and religion. North Atlantic Books: Richmond, VA. Reents-Budet, Dorie 1994 Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period. Duke University Press. Román, Edwin and Nicholas Carter 2009 Operación 5: Excavaciones en el Grupo El Diablo. In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 4, Temporada 2009, edited by Griselda Pérez Robles, Edwin Román, and Stephen Houston, pp. 121-154. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Román, Edwin and Sarah Newman 2010 Operación 5: Excavaciones en el Grupo El Diablo. In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 5, Temporada 2010, edited by Jose Luis Garrido López, Stephen Houston, and Edwin Román, pp. 77-120. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Román, Edwin, Sarah Neman, Stephen D. Houston, Thomas G. Garrison, Nicholas Carter, Andrew Scherer, Zachary Hruby, and Catherine Magee. 2010 El Diablo: Grupo Cívico-Ceremonial del Clásico Temprano en El Zotz, El Petén. In XXIV Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas de Guatemala, 2010. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala. Rosaldo, Renato I., Jr. 1968 Metphors of Hierarchy in a Mayan Ritual. American Anthropologist 70(3):524-536. Ruz Lhuillier, Alberto 1968 Costumbres funerarias de los antiguos mayas. UNAM: Mexico City. Sabloff, Jeremy A. 1975 Excavations at Seibal: ceramics. Memoirs of the Peabody Msueum of Archaeology and

80

Ethnology: Cambridge. Sahlins, Marshall D. 1972 Stone Age Economics. Aldine-Atherton: Chicago. Schele, Linda and Miller Ellen Miller 1992 The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. Thames and Hudson: London. Scherer, Andrew K. and Chelsea Garret 2010 Osteología del Complejo El Diablo: Escondites y Entierro 9, El Zotz. In Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz: Informe Preliminar No. 5, Temporada 2010, edited by Jose Luis Garrido López, Stephen Houston, and Edwin Román, pp. 535-589. Proyecto Arqueológico El Zotz, Guatemala. Sewell, William F. 1992 A theory of structure: duality agency and transformation. The American Journal of Sociology 98:1-29. Smith, Alfred Ledyard 1950 Uaxactún, Guatemala: Excavations of 1931-7. Carnegie Institute of Washington,: Washington, DC. Smith, Robert E. 1955 Ceramic Sequence at Uaxactun, Guatemala. Middle American Research Institute: New Orleans. Stephen, Lynn 1991 Zapotec Women. University of Texas Press: Austin. Stone, Andrea J. 1995 Images from the underworld: Naj Tunich and the tradition of Maya cave painting. University of Texas Press: Austin. Stuart, David 1988 The Río Azul Cacao Pot: Epigraphic Observations on the Function of a Maya Ceramic Vessel. Antiquity 62:153-157. Taube, Karl A. 1994 The Birth Vase: Natal Imagery in Ancient Maya Myth and Ritual. In The Maya Vase Book: A Corpus of Rollout Photographs of Maya Vases, Volume 4, edited by Barbara Kerr and Justin Kerr. Kerr Associates: New York. 1993 Aztec and Maya Myths. University of Texas Press: Austin. 1989 The Maize Tamale in Classic Maya Diet, Epigraphy, and Art. American Antiquity 54(1):31-51. 1988 The ancient Yucatec New Year festival: The liminal period in Maya ritual and cosmology. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University,

81

New Haven, CT. Thompson, J. Eric S. 1975 Introduction. In The hill-caves of Yucatan: a search for evidence of man’s antiquity in the caverns of Central America, by Henry C. Mercer. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman. Turner, Victor 1967 The Forest of Symbols. Cornell University Press: Ithaca, New York. University of Penn Museum Photographic Archives #165112. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. van Gennep, Arnold 1960 The Rites of Passage. Translated by Monika A. Vicedom and Solon T. Kimball. University Press: Chicago. Walker, Caitlin A.H. 2009 A Ceramic Chronology of the El Zotz Region, Petén, Guatemala. Unpublished MA thesis, Brown University, Department of Anthropology, Providence, RI. Weismantel, Mary J. 1988 Food, Gender, and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes. University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadephia. Welsh, W. Bruce M. 1988 An Analysis of Classic Lowlan Maya Burials. BAR International Series 409: Oxford. Woodrick, Anne C. 1995 A Lifetime of Mourning: Grief Work among Yucatec Maya Women. Ethos 23(4):401- 423. Ucko, Peter J. 1969 Ethnography and the archaeological interpretation of funerary remains. World Archaeology 1:262-290.