58
8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998 http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 1/58 1 GARBAGE OF THE GODS? SQUATTERS, REFUSE DISPOSAL, AND TERMINATION RITUALS AMONG THE ANCIENT MAYA Travis W. Stanton, M. Kathryn Brown, and Jonathan B. Pagliaro DO NOT CITE IN ANY CONTEXT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE AUTHORS Travis W. Stanton, Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Sta. Catarina Mártir, S/N, Cholula, Puebla, C.P. 72820, México ([email protected]) M. Kathryn Brown, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas, Arlington, 601 South Nedderman Drive, Room 430, Arlington, TX 76019 ([email protected]) Jonathan B. Pagliaro, Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275 ([email protected])

Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 1/58

1

GARBAGE OF THE GODS? SQUATTERS, REFUSE DISPOSAL, AND

TERMINATION RITUALS AMONG THE ANCIENT MAYA

Travis W. Stanton, M. Kathryn Brown, and Jonathan B. Pagliaro

DO NOT CITE IN ANY CONTEXT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

AUTHORS

Travis W. Stanton, Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de las Américas, Puebla,Sta. Catarina Mártir, S/N, Cholula, Puebla, C.P. 72820, México

([email protected])

M. Kathryn Brown, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas,Arlington, 601 South Nedderman Drive, Room 430, Arlington, TX 76019

([email protected])Jonathan B. Pagliaro, Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University,Dallas, TX 75275 ([email protected])

Page 2: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 2/58

2

Abstract: 

Differentiating the material patterning between domestic refuse from squatters and

ceremonial trash generated from termination rituals has been difficult for Maya

archaeologists. Rich floor assemblages, especially from elite contexts, have been

interpreted as ‘decadent’ squatter refuse by some researchers and the remains of

abandonment rituals by others. The identification and separation of these classes of

 behavior are essential for interpretations of floor assemblages. In this paper, we examine

data from numerous contexts, in order to contextualize the debate over the interpretation

of these two models. Ethnoarchaeological, ethnohistoric, and archaeological data

indicate that close scrutiny of the context and material composition of such deposits are

needed to distinguish these very different classes of behavior.

Page 3: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 3/58

3

Resumen:

El patrón material entre el desecho doméstico y los restos de los rituales de destrucción

calculados, o depósitos de rituales de terminación, ha sido difícil de diferenciar para los

arqueólogos en el área maya. Los conjuntos de artefactos de piso, especialmente de

contextos de la élite, son interpretados como desecho de ocupación por algunos

investigadores y como restos de rituales de abandono violento por otros. La identificación

y separación de estas clases de comportamiento son esenciales para la interpretación de

los conjuntos de pisos. En este trabajo, examinamos información de varios contextos para

obtener una lista de características preliminares diseñada para distinguir depósitos rituales

de desecho doméstico. Información etnoarqueológica, etnohistórica y arqueológica de

tales depósitos indica que un buen análisis del contexto y de la composición de los

materiales de los depósitos puede ayudar a distinguir diferentes clases de

comportamiento.

Page 4: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 4/58

4

“A closely related process is ritual abandonment of structures.

Ethnographic accounts indicate the houses in some societies are

abandoned with considerable de facto refuse, sometimes after burning,

upon the death of an adult occupant (e.g., Deal 1985:269). Although such

 practices are seemingly common, archaeologists seldom consider this

 possibility.” (Schiffer 1987:92)

“Many archaeologists would be surprised, as we were, to find the almost

absence of ceramic or other artifacts in the excavation of a normally kept

up house of today.” (Moore 1965:32, in reference to the excavation of an

historic house at Dzibilchaltún, Yucatán)

Differentiating the material patterning between domestic refuse generated by

squatters and ceremonial trash (see Walker 1995) generated from termination rituals has

 been difficult for Maya archaeologists. Particular classes of midden-like deposits found

in abandoned elite-civic architectural contexts are currently interpreted as domestic refuse

 by some scholars while interpreted as termination ritual deposits by others. Considering

that ancient refuse has been studied all over the world and that the processes of

deposition (Binford 1978, 1983; Schiffer 1972, 1976, 1987) and modern Maya refuse

disposal (Clark 1991; Deal 1985, 1998; Deal and Hagstrum 1995; Hayden 1979; Hayden

and Cannon 1983; Smyth 1991) have been addressed in the anthropological literature,

such disparate interpretations of midden-like deposits on the floors of abandoned elite-

civic structures are problematic. Yet it is the ambiguous nature of some of these contexts

which has raised the current debate concerning domestic middens and ritual deposits. On

a superficial level they tend to look similar. Closer examination of many deposits

Page 5: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 5/58

5

identified as squatter refuse, however, reveals that they can yield distinct patterning not

expected for domestic refuse disposal. Unfortunately, the patterning of these problematic

deposits remains confusing to archaeologists focused on the analysis of elite floor

assemblages despite some attempts to classify them as the remains of ritual activity.

The current debate hinges on numerous midden-like deposits found primarily in

elite-civic architectural contexts (e.g., on palace or temple floors) throughout the Maya

lowlands and beyond. Although such deposits are often ascribed to ‘squatter’ activity,

ethnoarchaeological models of refuse disposal do not predict that domestic middens

should be encountered in these contexts (e.g., functioning ex-elite houses in pre-

abandonment stages [as implied by Thompson 1954] or abandoned temple

superstructures located above settlement zones). The squatter model was advanced by

Thompson (1954) over 50 years ago without much supporting evidence. Others have

adopted the model without critical reflection on its theoretical grounding (e.g., Pendergast

1979). Unfortunately, the squatter model does not employ ideas concerning

abandonment processes and implicitly assumes all refuse to be generated from relatively

similar processes. For Thompson, the fact that elite floor deposits superficially resemble

refuse in final depositional contexts proves that squatters were living decadently in elite

temples and palaces, throwing large amounts of trash irreverently on floors near or at the

location where the squatters were living. Work on termination rituals has been the first

attempt to really challenge this assumption. We believe, however, that before we begin

to call such floor deposit the remains of termination rituals or squatter activity, we should

take a step back and consider formation processes and alternative models in more detail.

We argue that these two general models (squatters and ritual abandonment) could

 be further investigated. First, the squatter model could be further developed to explain

Page 6: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 6/58

6

what kind of formation processes (e.g., dumping in already abandoned structures or

gradual abandonment processes) could have resulted in such deposits. Supporting the

squatter model with more detailed evidence will move us away from the type of

speculation that plagued Thompson’s work. Moreover, the idea of squatters could be

flushed out more. This is a term whose definition is often assumed, but rarely articulated.

Second, models focused on abandonment or post-abandonment ritual behaviors need to

 be further explored and developed with more quantitative studies. One of these models

relies on the idea that some structures were subjected to termination rituals during

extensive renovations or at abandonment. Progress towards the quantification of

termination deposits is being made, but much work remains. Other related models could

include a host of post-abandonment rituals that have yet to be explored.

This article is an attempt to contextualize the squatter/termination ritual debate

and identify the primary questions to be explored by future investigations. Despite recent

work on termination rituals, the interpretational problems associated with both sides of

the debate have been rarely articulated. Using numerous examples from the literature to

establish material patterning, we explore the contexts and depositional processes that

affected numerous floor deposits throughout the Maya lowlands. We begin by

considering how floor deposits form in pre-abandonment, abandonment, and post-

abandonment contexts, in order to establish a range of models for domestic refuse

deposition. Turning to a consideration of termination rituals, we discuss several

 problematic deposits. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the major questions

which continue to face archaeologists working with such deposits.

WHERE THE GARBAGE GOES IN PRE-ABANDONMENT CONTEXTS

Page 7: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 7/58

7

To begin a discussion contrasting ancient Maya domestic and ceremonial trash,

we should start with what we know about ancient Maya refuse disposal in pre-

abandonment contexts (cf., Deal 1998:117-126) from a non-archaeological perspective.

What does refuse disposal look like in a normally functioning Maya household?

Ethnohistories and ethnoarchaeological studies are logical places to search for

comparisons with archaeological refuse. Ethnohistoric evidence, however, is very scanty.

Bishop Diego de Landa described purification rituals that Contact period Maya undertook

in maintaining their houses and temples (Tozzer 1941:151-152). Landa stated that

domestic structures were kept clean by regular sweeping and annual renovations in which

some of the household material culture was replaced. The resulting refuse was disposed

in dumps located outside of towns. Although Landa’s descriptions suggest that the Maya

kept their houses clean, his focus was on annual rather than daily cleaning activities.

Further, Landa examined behavior in households where there is no indication that

abandonment processes were operating. Descriptions of abandoned houses are virtually

nonexistent in the ethnohistoric literature. It is unknown whether abandoned structures

were regularly used for refuse disposal during the early Colonial period. Landa only

mentions refuse dumps that were located away from communities leaving the answer to

this question ambiguous.

Ethnoarchaeological investigations throughout Mesoamerica have been able to fill

some of the gaps present in the ethnohistoric literature. The most informative of these

studies have come from research in the Maya highlands (Deal 1985, 1998; Hayden 1979;

Hayden and Cannon 1983, 1984a, 1984b). In a study of Tzeltal and Chuj informant

responses, Hayden and Cannon (1984b; see also Deal 1998:117) found that several

 principles governed discard behavior: 1.) economy of effort; 2.) potential value of refuse;

Page 8: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 8/58

8

and 3.) potential hindrance by refuse. When combined with specific situations and types

of refuse Hayden and Cannon argued that these principles produced particular disposal

 behaviors. Subsequent ethnoarchaeological research supports the notion that these

 principles operate in a wide number of modern societies (Kamp 1991; Sutro 1991;

Wilson et al. 1991).

Operating within these principles several stereotypical discard behaviors were

generated by Deal (1985, 1998) in a study of 160 modern Tzeltal Maya households in

highland Chiapas. In relation to refuse accumulation within structure boundaries three of

these behaviors are relevant: provisional discard, maintenance disposal, and dumping

disposal. Provisional discard refers to the disposal of items that have become unusable

for their original use. Such items, however, may still have value; potential to be repaired

or used for some other function. Objects that are provisionally discarded enter a sort of

refuse limbo. They are placed in areas where they can be easily retrieved, but do not

interfere with daily activities. Some of these items are never retrieved and remain in

these contexts after abandonment. Maintenance disposal consists of the effects of

cleaning where refuse accumulates. In addition to high traffic areas such as patios where

refuse is swept or picked up and tossed or carried away, maintenance disposal focuses on

hard to sweep areas, or artifact traps (e.g., under beds). Dumping disposal is the discard

of refuse in dump sites within a household compound (outside of functioning

architectural contexts) or at neighborhood refuse dumps. While Deal (1985, 1998) does

not identify the dumping of refuse in abandoned structures, such behavior is certainly

 possible. In Deal’s pre-abandonment model, refuse may accumulate around patio edges

and in out of the way areas, but floors and patio areas are kept relatively clean. Thus,

Page 9: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 9/58

9

refuse does not accumulate in appreciable amounts in these contexts and what refuse does

accumulate tends to be small artifacts that are trapped in hard to clean areas.

Deal’s (1985, 1998) study finds parallels in other ethnoarchaeological studies.

For example, Hayden (1979; see also Deal 1984, 1998; Hayden and Cannon 1983) found

that functioning Maya houses were kept relatively devoid of refuse. He states that “all

structures were kept extremely clean. The only refuse in the kitchen was a few pieces of

 broken comal used as a windbreak for the fire.” (Hayden 1979:200) Refuse was not kept

in functioning houses, nor was it observed that abandoned structures were used as refuse

dumps. It was often deposited in community dumps (Hayden and Cannon 1983) away

from structures or in household refuse areas between 2 and 23 meters from occupied

structures (Hayden 1979:200, 216). While the placement of refuse within this zone may

 be variable and dependent upon the domestic lot size and composition (see Arnold 1991;

Santley 1992), this pattern has been confirmed by further ethnoarchaeological and

archaeological research (Hutson and Stanton 2006, in press; Joyce and Johannessen 1993;

Robin 2002).

Some of the best archaeological data regarding this occupational stage of refuse

disposal in the Maya area come from the site of Cerén, El Salvador, a site that was

rapidly abandoned and buried due to volcanic activity (see McKee 1999; McKee and

Sheets 2003; Sheets 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002; Sheets et al. 1990). Data from this site

suggest that relatively little refuse was in association with housefloors at the time of

abandonment (see Beaudry-Corbett et al. 2002; McKee 2002). These data also suggest,

however, that some provisional discard stored in rafters has the potential for being

mistaken for other types of deposits such as the remains of termination rituals.

Provisional discard might leave patterns of isolated sherd scatters on the floors of

Page 10: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 10/58

10

structures (partial vessels fallen from decayed rafters or stored under perishable

furniture). Additionally, provisional discard might be found in niches such as the whole

vessel found in a niche of Str. M8-8 of Aguateca (Inomata 2003:51). Non-curated

artifacts left as de facto refuse might also present problems of interpretation as well. Yet

as we will explain in more detail below, many of the deposits in question have far more

material than we might expect for provisional discard or de facto refuse explanations.

Further, a variety of materials (marl and fragmented bone) we might not expect to be

 provisionally discarded are often present in these deposits suggesting some other type of

activity.

Recent archaeological work at Chunchucmil, Yucatán also supports the

ethnoarchaeological model described above (Hutson and Stanton 2006, in press). The

large Early Classic occupation of this site is ideal for exploring activity areas and refuse

disposal, because many of the residential groups are bounded by stone walls, or

albarradas, that often form walkways (Magnoni 1995). Thus, spatial relationships

among open lots, structures, and walkways are well preserved. Two small adjacent patio

groups were intensively investigated between 1999 and 2001 with the intent to test Deal’s

(1985, 1998) ethnohistoric model of refuse disposal. We discuss the data from the A’ak

Group here.

The A’ak Group is a small patio group with four structures centered around a

 patio and one ancillary structure to the north (figure 1).1

Its albarrada walls enclose an

area of 3,910 m2. A two by two meter grid was placed across the entire houselot and

intensive surface collections were conducted in each grid square. Outside the area of the

 patio, 50 by 50 cm units were placed on every corner of a five by five meter grid.

Although chemical, phytolith, microartifact, and macrobotanical samples were collected

Page 11: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 11/58

11

from each unit, we discuss the macroartifacts collected in the ¼ inch screens here. Figure

1 illustrates the densities of ceramic artifacts across the solar area of the group. It is clear

that artifact patterning conforms to the Deal’s ethnoarchaeological model. Sherds were

encountered in greater quantities near the edges of patios or in ‘out of the way’ areas

 between structures. Additionally, middens were encountered near the ancillary structure

and between Str. 22 and Str. 23. This midden was exposed with a more extensive

excavation. In contrast, the complete horizontal excavations of Str. 23 and Str. 24 did not

yield high artifact densities (Hutson 2000, 2004). Artifact densities in and around Str. 22

were also generally low, though fragments of provisionally discarded vessels were found

around the structure’s edges (Hutson et al. 2004). In addition to supporting the

ethnoarchaeological model of refuse disposal in pre-abandonment households, the

Chunchucmil data suggest that in some cases abandonment processes do not result in

deposition on housefloors, a conclusion supported by numerous archaeological examples

of domestic floors that are relatively devoid of refuse (e.g., Fitting 1979:367; Hammond

and Gerhardt 1990:476; Matthews 1983:159; Thomas 1981; Webster and Gonlin

1988:187).

While these data may be probabilistic in the sense that future archaeological

investigations may reveal examples that do not conform to the ethnoarchaeological

model, they suggest that we should look beyond pre-abandonment refuse disposal to

explain the extensive deposits found on many civic-elite floors in the Maya area. Neither

the ethnoarchaeological nor the archaeological studies presented above indicate that

 people under normal circumstances live in the ‘decadent’ squalor implied by the squatter

model. Since no adequate reason is given as to why squatters, if indeed squatters were

responsible for the deposits in question, would live in filth,2 we must look to alternative

Page 12: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 12/58

12

models of squatter refuse deposition such as abandonment processes and dumping

disposal.

THE IMPACT OF ABANDONMENT PROCESSES ON FLOOR ASSEMBLAGES

While the ethnoarchaeological studies suggest that thick or extensive midden-like

deposits resembling the remains of the proposed termination rituals do not accumulate in

 pre-abandonment households, the questions of how abandonment processes may impact

archaeological floor assemblages or whether refuse dumping occurs in abandoned houses

are not fully addressed in the ethnoarchaeological literature on the Maya. Archaeological

and ethnoarchaeological studies of abandonment (see Cameron 1991; Cameron and

Tomka 1993; Inomata and Webb 2003; Stevenson 1982) indicate that the processes of

abandonment can shape the nature and composition of archaeological floor deposits. A

consideration of this literature can help to elucidate the patterning found in floor contexts.

Several ethnoarchaeological and archaeological studies have demonstrated that

when the abandonment of a settlement or structure is anticipated, there is a higher

likelihood that maintenance processes will be performed with less regularity (Deal

1998:126-127; Plunket and Uruñela 2003; Schiffer 1987:97-98; Stevenson 1982). Thus,

the process of anticipated abandonment results in the accumulation of refuse in areas that

would normally be kept clean in pre-abandonment contexts. If there is anticipated return,

objects may be cached. For example, Plunket and Uruñela (2003:16) found that prior to

the first century A.D. eruption of Popocatepetl many of the houses at Tetimpa, Puebla

had been cleaned and the material culture (e.g., ceramic vessels and metates) placed in

storage positions (e.g., corners of rooms). Since the volcanic activity prevented these

objects from ever being used again, they entered the material record as de facto refuse

(cf., Schiffer 1987:89).

Page 13: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 13/58

Page 14: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 14/58

14

Post-abandonment dumping behavior is another possibility to explain the final

deposits found on many elite-civic floors in the Maya area. Although the manner in

which Thompson (1954) and others (e.g., Pendergast 1979, 1982, 1990) phrase their

explanations of these deposits is to suggest that in some cases Terminal Classic

‘squatters’ were dumping refuse in abandoned rooms, indicating a breakdown of Classic

 period norms, the question that arises from this hypothesis is: what would post-

abandonment dumping look like?

Unfortunately, very little work has been done on post-abandonment dumping.

While most of the ethnoarchaeological research done on refuse disposal covers the idea

of dumping refuse in discreet areas away from functioning households, not very much of

this literature focuses on the practice of dumping inside abandoned structures. While

many archaeologists who have lived in traditional communities know that this practice

exists in modern contexts (e.g., Hutson and Magnoni 2002; Rothschild et al. 1993:125),

there are very few data concerning its nature.

Archaeologically, clear examples of post-abandonment dumping disposal are hard

to find due to their confusion with termination deposits. At Cerén, Beaudry-Corbett et al.

(2002:49) identify Str. 5 as standing, but having fallen into disuse prior to the Loma

Caldera eruption. Several “small sherds and a handful of broken and worn obsidian

 blades found scattered on and around the structure platform” (Beaudry-Corbett et al.

2002:49) indicate that small amounts of refuse were being disposed at this location. It

was not, however, the kind of refuse dump that might be interpreted as termination

deposits discussed in detail later in this paper. We cite this example from Cerén, because

there has been very little work published to distinguish dumping behavior from

termination rituals in the archaeological literature. Although the Cerén example does not

Page 15: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 15/58

15

help us make this distinction very well, it is one of the few examples we can be confident

of calling refuse disposal in an abandoned structure. In fact, although domestic middens

in general have been unquestionably identified by researchers working in the Maya area,

descriptions of such deposits are neither common nor extensive. For instance, Haviland

(1985:100) generally defined archaeological refuse as consisting of sherds and other

artifacts, as well as animal bones, charcoal, and ashes, while Schortman (1993:64)

identified midden as cultural material deposited as the result of purposeful refuse

disposal. These types of definitions are common, but are unproductive for our attempt at

distinguishing middens from termination deposits. It is as if Maya archaeologists have a

tendency to treat domestic middens as an obvious category that requires little or no

description, leading to the masking of potential variation that could be essential for an

informed understanding of these types of contexts.

Beyond the problem of lacking comparative archaeological data, several problems

arise with the consideration of dumping behavior. First, we might imagine dumping

 behavior to be extremely variable in regards to formation (e.g., one event vs. several),

material consistency (what is being dumped), and further methods of treatment (burning

or covering with soil). We would surmise that understanding dumping deposits will

require some intensive study, in order to make clear comparisons with termination

deposits. A second problem does not simply relate to the lack of ethnoarchaeological

work on dumping behavior, but to the ethnoarchaeological study of refuse disposal in

general. The ethnoarchaeological contexts we have are very different from the

archaeological contexts of the deposits in question. Even if further studies are conducted

on the ethnoarchaeology of dumping disposal in abandoned structures, we must take care

in choosing the context in which this research is conducted. To date, the

Page 16: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 16/58

16

ethnoarchaeology of refuse disposal has focused on domestic refuse in household

contexts. The archaeological deposits in question generally come from abandoned (e.g.,

termination rituals or squatter activity)3 or re-used (squatter activity or post-abandonment

ritual behavior) elite-civic structures such as temple and palaces. We have no

ethnoarchaeological data on similar ethnoarchaeological contexts in abandoned churches

or municipal palaces for example. While the proponents of the squatter model might

counter that the ancient temples and palaces in question had been converted into domestic

space by the proposed squatters, this problem should be kept in mind since many ancient

elite-civic structures were probably not viewed as ordinary architecture. Many of these

structures had been highly charged sacred spaces, at most, only several decades prior to

the placement of the deposits in question. By explaining away what we know about

Maya concepts of place, cosmology, and consecration/dedication-

termination/undedication by interpreting the supposed squatters as profane peoples does

little more than portray the Terminal Classic Maya as a people fallen from grace,

 perpetuating the old idea of a decadent Postclassic Maya culture.

The ambiguous concept of ‘squatters’ also leaves our understanding of how such

 people would behave rather muddled. Not only do we not have ethnoarchaeological data

concerning ‘squatter’ refuse disposal patterns, we are not sure exactly who these squatters

were. The term squatter implies someone who re-uses architecture in a domestic fashion

after an abandonment episode without the express consent of the previous owners-users.

Since re-use is involved, the architecture is no longer technically abandoned. The term

also seems to imply a lack of substantial architectural rebuilding or modification. Yet

who are the hypothetical people who during the Terminal Classic are proposed to have

re-used many of the structures that have the problematical deposits discussed here? Were

Page 17: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 17/58

17

they invaders, commoners who took over sacred space after the collapse of kingship, or

remnants of elite families? Each of these cases might present different residential and

disposal patterns. Yet except for the proposed fine orange invasion (e.g., Sabloff and

Willey 1967) we see few attempts to try and distinguish different types of ‘squatters.’

We certainly agree that there are data that suggest squatters may have existed in certain

contexts (e.g., Child and Golden, in press). Yet they remain very ill-defined in the

literature. We feel that the term is useful, but that it needs greater clarification using

archaeological and ethnographic data. Now turning to the following section we discuss

the concept of termination rituals as a alternative explanation to the squatter model.

TERMINATION DEPOSITS AS A TYPE OF ABANDONMENT PROCESS

Since the 1980s termination rituals have been seriously considered as alternative

explanations to the extensive and often complex deposits found on many elite-civic Maya

floors (see Ambrosino et al. 2003; Ardren 1999; Brown and Garber 2003; Farr 2004;

Freidel et al. 1998, 2003; Inomata 2003; Mock 1994, 1998; Pagliaro et al. 2003; Stanton

and Brown 2003:7-10; Suhler 1996; Suhler and Freidel 2000, 2003; Walker 1998).

Sharing some of the same attributes as domestic midden deposits, the material correlates

of termination rituals can be quite misleading. Although termination deposits may be

found in other contexts (e.g., in transposed midden deposits where the remains of these

rituals were swept), they are often found on the floors of abandoned elite structures.

Robert Wauchope (1948:25) and William Coe (1959:94-95) were the first Maya

archaeologists to recognize the ritual nature of these deposits (see also Stanton and

Brown 2003; Suhler and Freidel 2000). Coe coined the phrase ‘terminal offering’ in

reference to a deposit of partial smashed censers on Str. K-5-2nd

 at Piedras Negras,

Guatemala during the University of Pennsylvania excavations. Satterthwaite (1958:67-

Page 18: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 18/58

18

70) also identified patterns of intentional building collapse and monument destruction

with ‘hostile’ intent at Piedras Negras, although this activity may not have been

temporally related to the Str. K-5-2nd

 deposit. Even with the identification of this type of

 behavior with ritual and possibly hostile activity, subsequent research by the University

of Pennsylvania at Tikal rejected this possibility (Shook 1958) in spite of similar

 patterning (Coe 1990; Coe and Browman 1958:48). Many of these scholars, along with

Thompson (1954), were convinced that the ‘debris’ associated with many of these

deposits were the refuse of squatters living ‘decadently’ in the temples. This model was

 perpetuated for decades and continues to influence the interpretations of elite-civic floor

deposits in the Maya area (see Brown [1977:263] for an exception). Interestingly,

though, archaeologists working at Tikal were also proponents of the term ‘problematic

deposit.’ This term is used to identify deposits which are unexpected given their contexts

(such as middens on elite structure floors). As we shall discuss in more detail below, this

term may provide a useful alternative to mono-interpretational models such as squatters

or termination deposits when the data appear too ambiguous to distinguish what type of

 behavior caused deposition.

Regardless of the utility of the term ‘problematic deposit,’ recent research

indicates that the act of terminating structures should be reconsidered as an alternative

explanation to the squatter model or the general explanation of these types of deposits as

domestic middens. This work suggests that termination rituals were performed for a

variety of different reasons including the initiation of new construction episodes, warfare,

and structure abandonment. Detailed analyses of deposits associated with the destruction

and abandonment of buildings have been conducted at a number of Maya sites (see

Ambrosino et al. 2003; Brown and Garber 2003; Freidel et al. 1998, 2003; Inomata 2003;

Page 19: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 19/58

19

Mock 1994, 1998; Pagliaro et al. 2003; Suhler 1996; Suhler and Freidel 2000, 2003;

Walker 1998). Evidence suggests that much of this destruction can be considered the

remains of complex rituals of structure termination. Several classes of destructive

deposits have already been identified and more will likely be teased out of complex

stratigraphic deposits in the future. Although each class of deposit has been associated

with different behaviors, all termination deposits appear to have one thing in common;

the intent to ritually ‘kill’ an object, structure, person, or place. This behavior results in

what Walker (1995) terms kratophanous material culture; material culture purposefully

removed from dynamic cultural contexts, in order to contest their continued use.

To briefly summarize the ideas behind termination rituals, research suggests that

the ancient Maya believed that their world was animate. Power derived from sacred

landscapes, material objects, or deceased ancestors could be manipulated by social

agents. Ritual behavior focused on imbuing or charging these sources of power with life,

termed consecration rituals, is known from ethnographic sources (see McGee 1998;

Stross 1998: Vogt 1998). House animating rituals involving the sacrifice and

consumption of chickens with the burial of the chicken heads facing the cardinal

directions is a well-known ethnographic example of structure animation (Vogt 1998).

The house must be fed during the ritual, because it is in the process of becoming alive.

Caching behavior is an often cited example of the remains of consecration rituals from

the archaeological record (see Pendergast 1998). Archaeologists generally argue that

much of the caching behavior we see in archaeological contexts reflects behavior similar

to the ethnographic animating rituals just mentioned. Yet there appear not only to have

 been rituals of symbolic charging and rejuvenation in the past, but rituals of decharging

and destruction as well. We call these termination rituals. In the ethnographic record,

Page 20: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 20/58

20

termination rituals are generally associated with death (Stross 1998:37; Vogt 1998:27-

29). Stross (1998:37), however, notes that the ritual “abandonment of houses in

Mesoamerica involves pulling down one or more corner posts, and often the roof, usually

accompanied by copal incense purification, prayers, and other offerings.” This

architectural destruction in the ethnographic record resonates with the ideas of

architectural destruction proposed by those forwarding the termination model.

In many archaeological contexts, especially from abandonment or post-

abandonment elite-civic architecture, we find patterns that suggest the deliberate

destruction of buildings, as well as the breaking and deposition of material culture.

Although these deposits can in some ways mimic patterns of domestic refuse disposal, we

argue that their contexts often differentiate them from what we would expect from

domestic refuse disposal. They more resemble the ritual acts of destruction that occur

during the ethnographic structure abandonment described by Stross (1998:37). Our prior

research goals regarding termination deposits have primarily focused on deposits related

to violent conflict (Brown and Garber 2003; Pagliaro et al. 2003; Stanton and Brown

2003; Stanton and Gallareta Negrón 2001). These deposits are termed desecratory

termination ritual deposits. Other types of termination deposits have been identified,

however, highlighting the poorly understood variability of ‘killing’ a structure. Other

termination deposits include those from reverential ritual behavior. These deposits have

 been described extensively by researchers working at Cerros (Freidel 1986; Garber 1981;

Walker 1998) and in the Belize River Valley (Pagliaro et al. 1998, 2003).

Desecratory termination deposits were formed by the violent destruction of

artifacts and architecture after some type of conflict. Such conflict could be conquest

warfare or internal factional competition. Regardless of the type of conflict, selected

Page 21: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 21/58

21

structures were sometimes ritually ‘killed,’ in order to symbolically destroy (or kill) the

symbols of the ‘enemy.’ Given pur prior research goals we will highlight this type of

termination deposit to demonstrate some of the reasons why the ancient Maya ritually

terminated structures. Some of the archaeological examples we give in the following

section may be associated with warfare. Yet since many of these deposits are

 problematical, they may represent a wide variety of different behaviors. Our point in the

following sections is to distinguish these problematic deposits from what we would

expect from domestic refuse to look like.

DESCRATORY TERMINATION RITUAL DEPOSITS

Desecratory termination rituals could be interpreted as relating to the world-wide

 practice of sacking. Sacking is well-known from many parts of the world. Whether the

 people instigating the sacking were external like the Viking raiders of English coast or

internal like the French revolutionaries, buildings were often burned or dismantled,

valuables were looted, people were killed, monuments were defaced, and so forth.

Variable as the practice of sacking may be, it often has these and other manifestations.

The situation here, however, is more complex as the Maya highly ritualized this behavior.

The sacking itself becomes part of a destruction ritual geared to desecrate and remove

sacred power from objects, monuments, and important buildings within a community.

This ritualized behavior has patterns recognizable in the archaeological record.

Therefore, while Chase and Chase (2003) argue that extensive floor deposits found at

sites such as Caracol are the result of sacking, we suggest that the sacking of elite

structures by the ancient Maya followed a set of highly ritualized proscribed rules beyond

 just random destruction and therefore should be classified as a type of special ritual.

Page 22: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 22/58

22

Most, if not all, scholars of the Maya would agree that this was a highly ritualized

society. Likewise, few, if any, Maya archaeologists would dispute the presence of

dedicatory offerings in architecture. As argued above, we believe that such offerings,

when located in elite-civic contexts, represent the remains of ancient acts to create and

harness supernatural power by elite attempting to create and maintain positions of power.

For instance, Brown (2003) has documented that the introduction of subfloor caches or

consecration offerings in public architecture during the Preclassic corresponded directly

with the introduction of restricted monumental architecture such as the pyramidal form,

associated with the emergence of elites. These data suggest that elites were purposefully

manipulating rituals associated with the construction of public architecture to legitimize

their elevated position in the community.

We argue that Classic Maya rulers continued to legitimize their status, in part, by

co-opting civic space from the community and commissioning the construction of

monumental architecture that they symbolically imbued with supernatural power.

Legitimization of power was often accomplished by linking one’s self to the ancestors

 buried within housemounds and temple complexes which may have been considered

w’itz or sacred mountains (Schele and Freidel 1990; Stuart 1997). Structures such as

Pakal’s funerary monument, the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, Chiapas, seem to

have functioned as portals to the otherworld where the deified ancestors resided (Freidel

et al. 1993; Schele 1986). Some buildings were even marked with breath imagery

indicating that they were symbolically alive (see Houston and Taube 2000; Taube 2001).

We argue that the placement of ancestors, as well as dedication caches were acts of

laying claim to power by various factions. Just as the burial of an important ancestor in

the floor of a house may have functioned for a corporate group to lay claim to the

Page 23: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 23/58

23

household and possibly agricultural rights within the community (see McAnany 1995),

the placement of a ruler within civic architecture may have been a particular faction’s

claim to rulership or even a community’s claim to a larger socially prescribed territory.

More succinctly, some architecture was imbued with cosmological power symbolizing

and legitimizing claims in the material world.

These same cosmological forces animating structures must have been considered

 by opposing groups when conflict occurred. For the Maya to go to great lengths to

cosmologically charge their structures with the power of their deities and ancestors, they

must have given this power great respect. Places and objects could be dangerous,

 because they were vessels of supernatural power. To successfully defeat a center or

ruling line and gain control of a center, this power may have had to be defused and

replaced with one that would serve the needs to the usurping group.4  In other words,

Maya sacking was not just random and wanton destruction. Rather, it was carefully

executed so that the loser’s ties to ancestral power and legitimization was dismantled by

killing their living temples and houses. In other words, desecratory termination rituals

were acts of undedication or in Hubert’s (1994:13) terms, deconsecration. Rededication

through renewed construction could then occur if the victors chose to lay claim to the

defeated center and re-establish dynastic rule or if a local faction gained ascendance.

Although the evidence for the desecration of architecture may be variable

throughout the Maya region, many of the patterns appear to be similar. These rituals

involved extensive damage to structures and the deposition of several artifact types on

floors and atop collapse. Floors were often cut open, possibly in attempts to locate and

defile ancestors and dedicatory caches buried beneath them. Burials are sometimes found

looted and burned with the remaining contents strewn about crypts, tombs, or floors. In

Page 24: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 24/58

24

short, structures were sometimes subjected to intensive burning, monuments were

defaced, and several types of deposits, often resembling refuse, were laid down. These

deposits also include ceramic vessels and other objects that were smashed on floors and

can be found scattered throughout structures giving the floor deposits the look of

domestic midden. Reconstructable partial and whole vessels can often be refitted from

relatively discrete areas. Vessel assemblages from such deposits are sometimes

characterized by a high percentage of non-local types such as the slatewares discovered

in destroyed buildings at Río Azul (Adams 1990) and Colha (Mock 1994, 1998). When

these activities occurred at the time of abandonment of the site or structure, they often

remained as final deposits on floors rather than being cleaned up.

In a previous publication (Pagliaro et al. 2003:79-80), two of us proposed a

 preliminary trait list for desecratory termination ritual deposits. This list included:

1. intensive burning,

2. intentional structural damage,

3. deposition of white marl (possibly signifying ritual burial [death?] or

 purification, depending on the context),

4. breaking and scattering of pottery (scattering rituals being an important part of

elite rituals including blood sacrifice),

5. rapid deposition,

6. dense concentrations of sherds with sharp breaks (due to the erosional

 protection of rapid breakage and deposition in a large deposit), and

7. large quantities of elite artifacts (which might better be stated as ritual

artifacts).

Page 25: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 25/58

25

While we still agree that the traits in this list generally typify deposits we believe to be

the result of termination rituals, it is only a rough qualitative preliminary assessment of

what may generally characterize such deposits. More quantitative studies are currently

 being performed at places such as Yaxuná (Ambrosino, in prep), but these data were not

available during the writing of this article. Further, it is important to mention that

termination deposits may contain materials that were not intended to be part of the ritual

(e.g., de facto refuse left on in the structures prior to the beginning of the ritual).

Inomata’s (1997; Inomata and Stiver 1998; Inomata and Triadan 2000) floor assemblages

at Aguateca may reflect a mixing of termination, or ceremonial, and de facto refuse.

In the following section we discuss deposits from several sites across the Maya

lowlands. Comparing these data to the general trait list for termination deposits above, as

well as with the models domestic refuse deposition presented in a previous section we

illustrate that there are some obvious contextual differences. The data demonstrate that

there are many patterns in final abandonment deposits on elite-civic structure floors that

are unexpected given models of domestic refuse disposal. We suggest that some of these

deposits are the result of termination rituals following violent conflict, often at a moment

of structure or site abandonment. We caution, however, that some of the deposits we

 present below may be the result of other types of activities. These deposits were selected

not for their relation to possible warfare-related destruction, but because the quality of

research and reporting of these deposits makes them execellent examples to compare

them with the material patterning discussed in the previous sections. Our discussion of

these deposits is cursory and further research is clearly needed to understand the

variability and complexity of such contexts.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXAMPLES OF PROBLEMATIC DEPOSITS

Page 26: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 26/58

26

We begin our discussion of archaeological examples with a case that has been

 previously interpreted within logic of the squatter model. Although we believe these

deposits to be the remains of termination rituals, in all fairness we should introduce them

in terms of being problematic deposits. All of the following deposits we describe come

from elite-civic contexts and are associated with some form of architectural destruction.

In our opinion, the element of destruction associated with these contexts is a key part of

making the interpretation of these deposits problematic.

We begin with the site of Altun Ha, Belize. Several deposits found at this site

were interpreted by Pendergast as the remains of domestic refuse formed after

abandonment by squatters. Excavations revealed ‘midden-like’ deposits on many of the

floors of the A Group (Pendergast 1979, 1982, 1990). Pendergast (1979) identified a

domestic use for the A Group during the period following initial abandonment.5  This

interpretation follows the idea proposed by Thompson (1954) that the collapse of Maya

civilization in the southern lowlands was due, in part, to the moral decay of Maya society.

“Though probably the most sacrosanct part of A-1, the Building was

clearly profaned by domestic use after its abandonment, resembling in this

respect the Building of A-3. In both A-1 and A-3, it appears that one or

more front rooms (in A-1, the two with exterior doorways) were used for

residence, while the remainder served as repositories for garbage.”

(Pendergast 1979:94)

“No clearer indication could be found of the shift in Altun Ha life which

came with the fall of the Classic, as what had been a sacred area devoted

to worship of a deity came to be a smoke-blackened, garbage strewn,

decaying home.” (Pendergast 1979:161)

Page 27: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 27/58

Page 28: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 28/58

28

indeed appear to be trash of some sort. A case could be made that the material was

domestic refuse that was transposed from some other context, and in fact, there is some

evidence from other types of contexts that the Maya regarded some trash as symbolically

charged (Hutson and Stanton, in press). The fact that the floor deposits occur in only two

rooms suggests that it is possible that ‘squatters’ may have been living in the other rooms.

What is curious, however, is the eroded nature of the deposit which suggests that it may

have been exposed to the elements for some time rather than protected within the

confines of vaulted architecture. Further, the proposed squatters were placing trash in an

enclosed area that could not air out, just meters from where they may have been living.

We suggest an alternative to this interpretation; that these deposits were refuse brought in

to the structure and employed to end the use of, or perhaps defile, the inner sanctum of

the temple. Similar processes of midden transposal to architectural contexts at the time

of abandonment have been described elsewhere in the Maya lowlands (e.g., Clayton et al.

2005; Driver and McWilliams 1995) and from the American Southwest (e.g.,

Montgomery 1993). While, other explantions are certainly possible, the contexts do not

appear to suggest squatter activity.

A second deposit was encountered in the debris atop Str. A-1. This deposit

consisted of a large number of sherds (1,556) which contained numerous Terminal

Classic and Postclassic basins suggesting a transitional date between the two periods or

 perhaps an introduction of Postclassic ceramics from an external source at a time when

Terminal Classic material was falling into disuse. Pendergast (1979) uses these data to

argue that the top of the temple continued to be used as a refuse dump after the building

had collapsed. Additionally, four to five individuals were ‘buried’ in this debris, all of

which were found in fragmentary and ‘scattered’ form. Only one of the burials was

Page 29: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 29/58

29

found in situ and was located within Room 2. Although fragmentary, this burial was

thought to be an adult male individual. The materials in the collapse debris are perhaps

the most puzzling. If ‘squatters’ continued to live at Altun Ha after the collapse of the

superstructure of A-1, why would they have transported midden up a tall building that

could not have served well as a residence? This behavior certainly goes against the

 principle of economy of effort suggesting that motives other than simple refuse disposal

were at work. Further, the presence of fragmented and scattered human bone suggests

that the materials, at least in the debris, may be ceremonial trash rather than domestic

midden.

Complementing the evidence from Altun Ha Str. A-1, data resembling similar

deposits have been reported from from Str. A-11 at Xunantunich, Belize. Str. A-11 is

 part of the Plaza A-III complex and is suggested by Yaeger (2005) and MacKie (1985) to

 be the residence and court of the Xunanatunich rulers during the Late Classic. MacKie

(1985:31-50) suggests that the ‘ruined’ state of Str. A-11 in conjunction with a lack of

sediment buildup on the floors may indicate that the building was destroyed rapidly by

either an earthquake or human agents. He found it implausible, however, that the 17 or

more whole vessels recovered on the floors of the structure could have been so scattered

across the rooms if the vault stones had caused the vessels to break. After analyzing the

sherd distribution, he stated that “the extensive scattering of sherds of individual vessels

inside the building is very strange.” (MacKie 1985:47) Although MacKie (1985)

suggested a possible earthquake for this destruction, more recent excavations on Str. A-

11 clearly shows intentional dismantling of all the lower rooms of the building. Yaeger

(2005) found evidence that the corbel vaults and wall facings in four lower rooms were

intentionally pulled down. Recent excavations also revealed that several large vessels

Page 30: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 30/58

30

were broken in the central and eastern rooms and that the sherds were scattered across the

floor, similar to the deposit Mackie had encountered in the upper rooms of the building.

The remains of a young adult individual was encountered in the far eastern lower room of

Str. A-11 and may be the remains of a sacrificial victim. Interestingly, the deposits on

the floors were sealed with white marl and limestone rocks which essentially filled in the

rooms. An unusual offering was placed on top of the marl layer in one of the lower

rooms and consisted of several red-slipped bowls of a type that is rarely found at

Xunantunich (Yaeger 2005). The purposeful architectural destruction, scattering of

 broken vessels, and sealing of the rooms with white marl in conjunction with the

 presence of ‘foreign’ ceramic vessels may suggest some form of violent action against

the royal residence and court of Xunantinich (Jason Yaeger, personal communication

2005). This may be they same type of behavior observed for Str. A-1 at Altun Ha.

Returning to Altun Ha, located immediately to the south of Str. A-1 Pendergast

(1979:127) found an “extensive mass of grey, ashy soil” containing charcoal on the east

side of Str. A-8. This deposit was found to be 1.8 m thick where it abutted the platform

face of the structure. Included within the deposit was a large amount of faunal material

(2,982 specimens), 405 small artifacts, 84,334 sherds (lots of polychromes; common

forms were bowls, cylindrical vases, and dish-plates suggesting a focus on food

consumption rather than cooking or storage), 41 partial or nearly complete vessels, 100

vessel sections, 43 bone artifacts, and 45 shell artifacts. The deposits certainly has a look

of a massive event, or series of closely spaced events, including a focus on food

consumption. At the north end of the deposit, the refuse overlay the lower steps (Stair 8)

of the structure indicating that the people responsible for its deposition were not

concerned that the refuse could hinder passage around and up the structure. This context,

Page 31: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 31/58

Page 32: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 32/58

32

refuse’ during the Terminal Classic just prior to the cessation of occupation. We suggest

that this ‘refuse’ is the result of termination rituals. Not only do these deposits occur in

the remains of collapsed elite structures at Copán, but they are directly associated with

intensive burning. In the words of Andrews and Fash (1992):

“It might be argued that our evidence for the destruction of buildings at

the core of Copan is limited to four buildings and that fires in a few

 buildings could have come about in more natural and less meaningful

ways. But it must be remembered that the four buildings mentioned are

among the few vaulted structures of importance excavated in recent years.

Such evidence was most likely overlooked in the past, and most of the

great buildings in central Copan were cleared long ago, so that we will

 probably not find large numbers of structures with clear traces of

destruction by burning. In considering the case for violent terminal

events, we should recall the small round altars from Structures 10L-29 and

10L-43. Both commemorate 11 Ahau 18 Mac (790) and both were neatly

and identically snapped in half. The one from 10L-29 was vandalized just

 before the building collapsed, and the one from 10L-43 may have been

 broken as part of the same event. The fragmentary rectangular altar

excavated in 1990 from the building collapse behind 10L-32 (CPN 19222,

(probably a companion piece sitting next to Altar F on the bench of the

center room, was badly shattered, and most of it was not found.

Intentional vandalism preceding the destruction of 10L-32 seems

indicated.” (Andrews and Fash 1992:86)

Page 33: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 33/58

33

Structure 9N-82, or the House of the Bacabs, is another example of an elite

residential structure from Copán which exhibits non-accidental burning (Webster 1989).

In short, the stratigraphy of this structure from floor level upwards consists of a layer of

cultural debris, or ‘refuse,’ a flexed individual, and collapse. It is possible that the

individual represents a sacrificial victim who was either sacrificed and placed in the room

or was killed when the vault collapsed. In another building in the same complex,

Structure 9N-81, pieces of charcoal and burned daub were recovered from atop the floor

indicating that the structure had been burned. A smashed olla and effigy incensario were

also recovered along with stone replica ballgame gear. Some of this ballgame

 paraphernalia was broken. Although the ‘cultural debris’ is not extensively described,

these excavations seem to fit the pattern of destruction associated with termination

rituals.

While the exact nature of the activity resulting in these deposits is open to

interpretation, they do not appear to resemble domestic middens. Although we suggest

that termination rituals may be a possibility, such deposits should be considered

 problematic. There are many different interpretations that can be forwarded for these

types of floor deposits. Further research into the context and artifact composition of such

deposits may clarify what types of behaviors were responsible for their depositions.

Using examples from the literature we can only point out that the patterning on these

floors does not correlate with what we might expect for domestic middens. The level of

detail in the published data is often not fine enough to actually restudy the deposits in

their entirety. We have tried to rectify our lack of understanding of these deposits by

examining problematic contexts in our own work, but have found that the complexity and

ambiguity hinders our comprehension of depositional behaviors in many cases.

Page 34: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 34/58

34

For example, one of us has previously reported on termination deposits at the site

of Blackman Eddy, Belize (Brown 2003; Brown and Garber 2003). The Blackman Eddy

case is intriguing due to the fact that it dates to a very early period (Middle Formative, ca.

600 B.C.) and suggests that warfare related ritual destruction has a long history in the

Maya lowlands. Evidence associated with the destruction of Structure B1-4th

 includes

architectural dismantling and burning of a mask facade, parts of the summit surface, and

 basal platform. The upper portion and backing to the mask facade had even been

dismantled and pulled away from the platform. Yet the summit of the platform did not

have a large amount of debris on the surface, and appears to have been swept clean prior

to the construction of the overlying architectural phase. An unusual deposit, however,

was found abutting the back retaining wall of the platform consisting of a dense cluster of

smashed ceramic material and carbon. The ceramic material was in secondary context

suggesting that it was broken on the summit surface and deliberately swept off the back

edge. We believe that the ‘ceremonial trash’ of a termination ritual had been dumped in

this secondary context, creating interpretational problems for the deposit. The remains of

the desecration were for the most part, cleaned up and removed prior to the construction

of a new architectural phase (although still abutting the structure). We bring up this

context to illustrate that some of the types of interpretational problems arising from the

study of ‘trash’ in elite-civic contexts. We believe this to be the remains of a desecratory

termination ritual, but can easily see of the secondary nature of the deposit could fit more

easily into the patterns of refuse cleaning illustrate in the ethnoarchaeological studies. 

DISCUSSION

The confusion as to what constitutes normal ancient Maya refuse as opposed to

remains of termination rituals has been a result of their seemingly similar material

Page 35: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 35/58

35

 patterning. On closer examination, many terminal deposits located on elite-civic

structure floors appear to be found in contexts which suggest behavior other than

domestic refuse disposal by sacrilegious squatters. These deposits are often associated

with architectural destruction, intensive burning, and the deposition of layers of white

marl.

The primary goal of this article is to point out that there are some basic patterns

regarding terminal deposits in elite-civic floor contexts to be further explored. The

squatter model does not explain the presence of intensive burning,7 architectural

destruction, and high levels of valuable and often broken objects, as well as occasional

 burial disturbance and sacrificial victims. Although other post-abandonment activity may

 be responsible for some of the patterns identified as termination rituals or squatter

activity, we believe that a large proportion of these deposits are the result of rituals of

structure termination conducted during abandonment activity, often after violent conflict.

Alhough more archaeologists are accepting termination rituals as legitimate ways of

interpreting data, an increased focus on formation processes is needed to really begin to

understand the nature and complexity of these deposits. The formation of desecratory

termination deposits as the result of rituals associated with conflict is one testable

hypothesis that can be pursued when confronted with deposits similar to those we have

outlined here. Other possibilities such as the ceremonial deposition of refuse in

architectural contexts at the time of abandonment should be further investigated. Even

the squatter model could be further pursued. Our point is that many of the ‘domestic

middens’ found in elite contexts and attributed to ‘squatters’ may be the result of other

activities. It is necessary to closely analyze the contexts and compositions of such

deposits to understand depositional behavior.

Page 36: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 36/58

36

 Acknowledgements. We thank James Ambrosino, Traci Ardren, David Freidel, Scott

Hutson, Takeshi Inomata, Payson Sheets, Charles Suhler, William Walker, Jason Yaeger,

and two anonymous reviewers for comments of previous drafts of this paper. Payson

Sheets generously provided unpublished data from excavations at Cerén, El Salvador for

a previous draft of this paper. Melisa Santoyo Espinosa translated the Spanish abstract.

We maintain responsibility for the final version.

Page 37: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 37/58

37

REFERENCES CITED

Adams, R. E. W.

1990 Archaeological Research at the Lowland Maya City of Rio Azul.  Latin

 American Antiquity 1:23-41.

Ambrosino, James N.

in prep Warfare and Destruction in the Archaeological Record at Yaxuná,

Yucatán, México. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology,

Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

Ambrosino, James N. Traci Ardren, and Travis W. Stanton

2003 The History of Warfare at Yaxuná. In Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare,

ed. by M. Kathryn Brown and Travis W. Stanton, pp. 109-124. AltaMira

Press, Walnut Creek.

Andrews, E. Wyllys, V, and Barbara W. Fash

1992 Continuity and Change in a Royal Maya Residential Complex at Copan.

 Ancient Mesoamerica 3:63-88.

Ardren, Traci

1999 Palace Termination Rituals at Yaxuna, Yucatan, Mexico. In Land of the

Turkey and the Deer , edited by Ruth Gubler, pp. 25-36. Labyrinthos,

Lancaster.

Arnold, Phillip J., III

1991  Domestic Ceramic Production and Spatial Organization: A Mexican Case

Study in Ethnoarchaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Beaudry-Corbett, Marilyn, Scott E. Simmons, and David B. Tucker

2002 Ancient Home and Garden: The View from Household 1 at Cerén. In

Page 38: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 38/58

38

 Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén Village in Central

 America, edited by Payson D. Sheets, pp. 45-57. University of Texas

Press, Austin.

Binford, Lewis R.

1978 Dimensional Analysis of Behavior and Site Structure: Learning from an

Eskimo Hunting Stand.  American Antiquity 43:330-361.

1983  In Pursuit of the Past: Decoding the Archaeological Record . Thames and

Hudson, New York.

Brown, Kenneth L.

1977 The Valley of Guatemala: A Highland Port of Trade. In Kaminaljuyu and

Teotihuacan: A Study in Prehistoric Culture Contact , edited by William T.

Sanders and Joseph W. Michels, pp. 205-395. The Pennsylvania State

University Press, State College.

Brown, M. Kathryn

2003 Emerging Complexity in the Maya Lowlands: A View from Blackman

Eddy, Belize. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of

Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.

Brown, M. Kathryn, and James F. Garber

2003 Evidence of Conflict during the Middle Preclassic in the Maya Lowlands:

A View from Blackman Eddy, Belize. In Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare,

edited by M. Kathryn Brown and Travis W. Stanton, pp. 91-108. Altamira

Press, Walnut Hill.

Cameron, Catherine M.

1991 Structure Abandonment in Villages. In Archaeological Method and

Page 39: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 39/58

39

Theory, Volume 3, edited by Michael B. Schiffer, pp. 155-194. The

University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Cameron, Catherine M. and Steve A. Tomka (editors)

1993  Abandonments of Settlements and Regions: Ethnoarchaeological and

 Archaeological Approaches. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Chase, Diane Z., and Arlen F. Chase

2003 Texts and Contexts in Classic Maya Warfare: A Brief Consideration of

Epigraphy and Archaeology at Caracol, Belize. In Ancient Mesoamerican

Warfare, edited by M. Kathryn Brown and Travis W. Stanton, pp. 171-

188. AltaMira Press, Walnut Hill.

Child, Mark B., and Charles W. Golden

in press The Transformation of Abandoned Architecture at Piedras Negras. In

The Use and Perception of Abandoned Structures in the Maya Lowlands,

edited by Travis W. Stanton and Aline Magnoni. University Press of

Colorado, Boulder. 

Clark, John E.

1991 Flintknapping and Debitage Disposal among the Lacandon Maya of

Chiapas, Mexico. In The Ethnoarchaeology of Refuse Disposal, edited by

Edward Staski and Livingston D. Sutro, pp. 63-78. Anthropological

Research Papers, No. 42. Arizona State University, Tempe.

Clayton, Sarah C., W. David Driver, and Laura J. Kosakowsky

2005 Rubbish or Ritual? Contextualizing a Terminal Classic Problematic

Deposit at Blue Creek, Belize.  Ancient Mesoamericaa 16:119-130.

Coe, William R.

Page 40: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 40/58

40

1959 Piedras Negras Archaeology: Artifacts, Caches, and Burials. The

University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

1990  Excavations in the Great Plaza, North Terrace, and North Acropolis of

Tikal. Tikal Report, No. 14. The University Museum, University of

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Coe, William R., and Vivian Broman

1958  Excavations in the Stela 23 Group. Tikal Report, No. 2. The University

Museum Press, Philadelphia.

Deal, Michael

1985 Household Pottery Disposal in the Maya Highlands: An

Ethnoarchaeological Interpretation.  Journal of Anthropological

 Archaeology 4:243-291.

1998 Pottery Ethnoarchaeology in the Central Maya Highlands. University of

Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Deal, Michael, and Melissa B. Hagstum

1995 Ceramic Reuse Behavior Among the Maya and Wanka. In Expanding

 Archaeology, edited by James M. Skibo, William H. Walker, and Axel E.

 Nielson, pp. 111-125. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Driver, David and Jennifer K. McWilliams

1995 Excavations at the Ontario Village Site. In The Belize Valley Archaeology

Project: Results of the 1994 Filed Season, edited by James F. Garber and

David M. Glassman, pp. 26-57. Report submitted to the Department of

Archaeology, Belmopan, Belize.

Farr, Olivia Navarro

Page 41: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 41/58

41

2004 Killing Spaces: Ritual Termination at the Southeast Acropolis at El Perú-

Waka’. Paper presented at the 103rd

 Annual American Anthropological

Association Meeting, Atlanta, GA.

Fitting, James E.

1979 The Kaminaljuyu Test Trenches: Description and Artifact Yield. In

Settlement Pattern Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, edited by

Joseph W. Michels, pp. 307-589. The Pennsylvania State University

Press, State College.

Freidel, David A.

1986 The Monumental Architecture. In Archaeology at Cerros Belize, Central

 America, Volume I: An Interim Report , edited by David A. Freidel and

Robin A. Robertson, pp. 1-22. Southern Methodist University Press,

Dallas.

Freidel, David A., Linda Schele, and Joy Parker

1993  Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman’s Path. William

Morrow and Company, INC., New York.

Freidel, David A., Barbara MacLeod, and Charles K. Suhler

2003 Early Classic Maya Conquest in Words and Deeds. In Ancient

 Mesoamerican Warfare, edited by M. Kathryn Brown and Travis W.

Stanton, pp. 189-215. AltaMira Press, Walnut Hill.

Freidel, David A., Charles K. Suhler, and Rafael Cobos Palma

1998 Termination Ritual Deposits at Yaxuna: Detecting the Historical in

Archaeological Contexts. In The Sowing and the Dawning: Termination,

 Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological and Ethnographic

Page 42: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 42/58

42

 Record of Mesoamerica, edited by Shirley B. Mock, pp. 135-144.

University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Garber, James F.

1981  Material Culture and Patterns of Artifact Consumption and Disposal at

the Maya Site of Cerros in Northern Belize. Unpublished Ph.D.

Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist

University, Dallas.

Hammond, Norman, and Juliette C. Gerhardt

1990 Early Maya Architectural Innovation at Cuello, Belize. World

 Archaeology 21:461-481.

Haviland, William A.

1985  Excavations in Small Residential Groups of Tikal: Groups 4F-1 and 4F-2. 

Tikal Report, No. 19. The University Museum, University of

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Hayden, Brian D.

1979 Material Culture in the Mayan Highlands: A Preliminary Study. In

Settlement Pattern Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, edited by

Joseph W. Michels, pp. 183-222. The Pennsylvania State University

Press.

Hayden, Brian D., and Aubrey Cannon

1983 Where the Garbage Goes: Refuse Disposal in the Maya Highlands.

 Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2:117-163.

1984a The Structure of Material Systems: Ethnoarchaeology ion the Maya

 Highlands. Paper No. 3. Society for American Archaeology, Washington,

Page 43: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 43/58

43

D. C.

1984b Interaction Inferences in Archaeology and Learning Frameworks of the

Maya.  Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 3:325-367.

Houston, Stephen D., and Karl Taube

2000 An Archaeology of the Senses: Perception and Cultural Expression in

Ancient Mesoamerica. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10:261-294.

Hubert, Jane

1994 Sacred Beliefs and Beliefs of Sacredness. In Sacred Sites, Sacred Places,

edited by David L. Carmichael, Jane Hubert, Brian Reeves, and Audhild

Schanche, pp. 9-19. One World Archaeology, No. 23. Routledge,

London.

Hutson, Scott R.

2000 Excavations at the A’ak Group. In Chunchucmil Regional Economy

Program: Report of the 2000 Season, edited by Travis W. Stanton, pp. 18-

46. Business and Social Science Division, Jamestown Community

College, Jamestown, New York.

2004  Dwelling and Identity at the Ancient Urban Center of Chunchucmil,

Yucatan, Mexico. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of

Anthropology. University of California, Berkeley.

Hutson, Scott R., and Aline Magnoni

2002 Mapping Modern Garbage Disposal in a Village Setting. In Pakbeh

 Regional Economy Program: Report of the 2001 Field Season, edited by

Bruce H. Dahlin and Daniel Mazeau, pp. 55-57. Department of Sociology

and Anthropology, Howard University, Washington D. C.

Page 44: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 44/58

44

Hutson, Scott R., and Travis W. Stanton

2006 Patrones de Acumulación de Desechos en una Unidad Habitacional

Prehispánica de Chunchucmil, Yucatán. In Los Mayas de Ayer y Hoy:

 Memorias del Primer Congreso Internacional de Cultura Maya, Tomo I ,

edited by Alfredo Barrera Rubio and Ruth Gubler, pp. 73-88. Solar

Servicios Editoriales, Mérida.

in press Trash and Practical Reason: The Logic of Discard in Ancient Maya

Houselots. Cambridge Archaeological Journal.

Hutson, Scott R., Crystal West, Jamie Ford, and Brett Moore.

2004 Horizontal Excavations at the A’ak Group. In Pakbeh Regional Economy

Program: Report of the 2002 Field Season, edited by Bruce H. Dahlin and

Daniel Mazeau, pp. 86-104. Department of Sociology and Anthropology,

Howard University, Washington, D. C.

Inomata, Takeshi

1997 The Last Days of a Fortified Classic Maya Center: Archaeological

Investigations at Aguateca, Guatemala.  Ancient Mesoamerica 8:337-351.

2003 War, Destruction, and Abandonment: The Fall of the Classic Maya Center

of Aguateca, Guatemala. In The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment

in Middle America, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Ronald A. Webb, pp.

43-60. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Inomata, Takeshi, and Laura Stiver

1998 Floor Assemblages from Burned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala: A

Study of Classic Maya Households. Journal of Field Archaeology 25:431-

452.

Page 45: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 45/58

45

Inomata, Takeshi, and Daniela Triadan

2000 Craft Production by Classic Elite Maya in Domestic Settings: Data from

Rapidly Abandoned Structures at Aguateca, Guatemala.  Mayab 13:57-66.

Inomata, Takeshi, and Ronald W. Webb (editors)

2003 The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in Middle America. The

University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Joyce, Arthur A., and Sissel Johannessen

1993 Abandonment and the Production of Archaeological Variability at

Domestic Sites. In Abandonment of Settlements and Regions:

 Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches, edited by Catherine

M. Cameron and Steve A. Tomka, pp. 138-153. Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge.

Lange, Frederick W., and Charles R. Rydberg

1972 Abandonment and Post-Abandonment Behavior at a Rural Central

American House-Site.  American Antiquity 37:419-432.

Lightfoot, Ricky R.

1993 Abandonment Processes in Prehistoric Pueblos. In Abandonment of

Settlements and Regions: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological

 Approaches, edited by Catherine M. Cameron and Steve A. Tomka, pp.

165-177. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

MacKie, Euan W.

1985  Excavations at Xunantunich and Pomona, Belize, in 1959-60. BAR

International Series 251. BAR, Oxford.

Magnoni, Aline

Page 46: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 46/58

46

1995  Albarradas at Chunchucmil and in the Northern Maya Area. Unpublished

B.A. Thesis, University College London, Institute of Archaeology,

London.

Marcus, Joyce, and Kent V. Flannery

1996  Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca

Valley. Thames and Hudson, London.

McGee, R. Jon

1998 The Lacandon Incense Burner Renewal Ceremony. In The Sowing and the

 Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the

 Archaeological and Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by

Shirley B. Mock, pp. 41-46. University of New Mexico Press,

Albuquerque.

McKee, Brian R.

1999 Household Archaeology and Cultural Formation Processes: Examples

from the Ceren Site, El Salvador. In The Archaeology of Household

 Activities, edited by Penelope M. Allison, pp. 30-42. Routledge, London.

2002 Household 2 at Cerén: The Remains of an Agrarian and Craft-Oriented

Corporate Group. In Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén

Village in Central America, edited by Payson D. Sheets, pp. 58-71.

University of Texas Press, Austin.

McKee, Brian R., and Payson D. Sheets

2003 Volcanic Activity and Abandonment Processes: Cerén and the Zapotitan

Valley pf El Salvador. In The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in

 Middle America, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Ronald A. Webb, pp. 61-

Page 47: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 47/58

47

74. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Mock, Shirley

1994 Destruction and Denouement During the Late-Terminal Classic: The

Colha Skull Pit. In Continuing Archaeology at Colha, Belize, edited by

Thomas R. Hester, Harry J. Shafer, and Jack D. Eaton, pp. 221-231.

Studies in Archaeology 16. Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory,

University of Texas, Austin.

1998 The Defaced and the Forgotten: Decapitation and Flaying/Mutilation as a

Termination Event at Colha, Belize. In The Sowing and the Dawning:

Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the Archaeological and

 Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by Shirley B. Mock, pp.

113-123. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Montgomery, Barbara K.

1993 Ceramic Analysis as a Tool for Discovering Processes of Pueblo

Abandonment. In Abandonment of Settlements and Regions:

 Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches, edited by Catherine

M. Cameron and Steve A. Tomka, pp. 157-164. Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge.

Moore, William E.

1965 Excavations at Structures 601-06. In Dzibilchaltun Program: Progress

 Report on the 1960-1964 Field Seasons, edited by E. Wyllys Andrews IV,

 pp. 29-35. Middle American Research Institute, Pub. 31. Tulane

University, New Orleans.

Pagliaro, Jonathan B., James F. Garber, and Travis W. Stanton

Page 48: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 48/58

Page 49: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 49/58

49

Hazards at Tetimpa, Puebla, Mexico. In The Archaeology of Settlement

 Abandonment in Middle America, edited by Takeshi Inomata and Ronald

A. Webb, pp. 13-27. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Reilly, F. Kent, III, and James F. Garber

2003 The Symbolic Representation of Warfare in Formative Period

Mesoamerica. In Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare, edited by M. Kathryn

Brown and Travis W. Stanton, pp. 127-148. AltaMira Press, Walnut Hill.

Robin, Cynthia

2002 Outside of Houses: The Practices of Everyday Life at Chan Nòohol,

Belize.  Journal of Social Archaeology 2:245-268.

Rothschild, Nan S., Barbara J. Mills, T. J. Ferguson, and Susan Dublin

1993 Abandonment at Zuni Farming Villages. In Abandonment of Settlements

and Regions: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches,

edited by Catherine M. Cameron and Steve A. Tomka, pp. 123-137.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Sabloff, Jeremy A., and Gordon R. Willey

1967 The Collapse of Maya Civilization in the Southern Lowlands: A

Consideration of History and Process. Southwestern Journal of

 Anthropology 23:311-336.

Santley, Robert S.

1992 A Consideration of the Olmec Phenomenon in the Tuxtlas: Early

Formative Settlement Pattern, Land Use, and Refuse Disposal at

Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. In Gardens of Prehistory, edited by

Page 50: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 50/58

50

Thomas W. Killion, pp. 150-183. University of Alabama Press,

Tuscaloosa.

Satterhwaite, Linton

1958 The Problem of Abnormal Stela Placements at Tikal and Elsewhere. Tikal

Report 3. The University Museum Press, Philadelphia.

Schele, Linda

1986 Architectural Development and Political History at Palenque. In City-

States of the Maya: Art and Architecture, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson,

 pp. 110-137. Rocky Mountain Institute for Pre-Columbian Studies.

Schele, Linda, and David A. Freidel

1990  A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. Quill, New

York.

Schiffer, Michael B.

1972 Archaeological Context and Systematic Context.  American Antiquity

37:156-165.

1976  Behavioral Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.

1987 Formation Processes in the Archaeological Record.  University of New

Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Schortman, Edward M.

1993 Quirigua Reports III: Archaeological Investigations in the Lower

 Motagua Valley, Izabal, Guatemala.  The University Museum, University

of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Sheets, Payson D.

Page 51: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 51/58

51

1992 The Ceren Site: A Prehistoric Village Buried by Volcanic Ash in Central

 America. Case Studies in Archaeology Series. Harcourt Brace College

Publishers, Fort Worth.

1998 Place and Time in Activity Area Analysis: A Study of Elevated Contexts

used for Artifact Curation at the Cerén Site, El Salvador.  Revista

 Española de Antropología Americana 28:63-98.

2000 Provisioning the Ceren Household: The Vertical Economy, Village

Economy, and Household Economy in the Southeastern Maya Periphery.

 Ancient Mesoamerica 11:217-230.

Sheets, Payson D. (editor)

2002  Before the Volcano Erupted: The Ancient Cerén Village in Central

 America. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Shook, Edwin M.

1958 Tikal Report No. 1: Field Director’s Report: The 1956 and 1957 Seasons .

Tikal Reports, No. 1. The University Museum Press, Philadelphia.

Smyth, Michael P.

1991  Modern Maya Storage Behavior . University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in

Latin American Archaeology, No. 3. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.

Stanton, Travis W., and M. Kathryn Brown

2003 Studying Ancient Mesoamerican Warfare. In Ancient Mesoamerican

Warfare, edited by M. Kathryn Brown and Travis W. Stanton, pp. 1-16.

AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek.

Stanton, Travis W., and Tomás Gallareta Negrón

2001 Warfare, Ceramic Economy, and the Itzá: A Reconsideration of the Itzá

Page 52: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 52/58

Page 53: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 53/58

53

1998 Deliberate Destruction and Looting in Precolumbian Times at the

Feathered Serpent Pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico. In The Sowing and

the Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the

 Archaeological and Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by

Shirley B. Mock, pp. 147-164. University of New Mexico Press,

Albuquerque.

Suhler, Charles K.

1996 Excavations at the North Acropolis, Yaxuna, Yucatan, Mexico. 

Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Southern

Methodist University, Dallas.

Suhler, Charles K., and David A. Freidel

2000 Rituales de terminación: Implicaciones de la guerra maya. In La Guerra

 Entre los Antiguos Mayas, edited by Silvia Trejo, pp. 73-103. Instituto

 Nacional de Antropología e Historia, D. F.

2003 The Tale End of Two Cities: Tikal, Yaxuna, and Abandonment Contexts

in the Lowland Maya Archaeological Record. In The Archaeology of

Settlement Abandonment in Middle America, edited by Takeshi Inomata

and Ronald A. Webb, pp. 135-147. The University of Utah Press, Salt

Lake City.

Taube, Karl

2001 The Breath of Life: The Symbolism of Wind in Mesoamerica and the

American Southwest. In The Road to Aztlan: Art From a Mythic

 Homeland , edited by Virginia M. Fields and Victor Zamudio-Taylor, pp.

102-123. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles.

Page 54: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 54/58

54

Thomas, Prentice M., Jr.

1981 Prehistoric Maya Settlement Patterns at Becan, Campeche, Mexico.

Middle American Research Institute Pub. 45. Tulane University, New

Orleans.

Thompson, J. Eric

1954 The Rise and Fall of Maya Civilization. University of Oklahoma Press,

 Norman.

Tozzer, Alfred M. (translator)

1941  Landa’s Relación de las Cosas de Yucatán. Papers of the Peabody

Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. Harvard University. 

Kraus Reprint Corp, New York.

Vogt, Evon Z.

1998 Zinacanteco Dedication and Termination Rituals. In The Sowing and the

 Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the

 Archaeological and Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by

Shirley B. Mock, pp. 21-30. University of New Mexico Press,

Albuquerque.

Walker, Debra S.

1998 Smashed Pots and Shattered Dreams: The Material Evidence for an Early

Classic Maya Site Termination at Cerros, Belize. In The Sowing and the

 Dawning: Termination, Dedication, and Transformation in the

 Archaeological and Ethnographic Record of Mesoamerica, edited by

Shirley B. Mock, pp. 81-99. University of New Mexico Press,

Albuquerque.

Page 55: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 55/58

Page 56: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 56/58

Page 57: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 57/58

57

1993:161).

Page 58: Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

8/13/2019 Stanton Brown Paglia Ro 1998

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/stanton-brown-paglia-ro-1998 58/58

58

FIGURE CAPTIONS:

Figure 1: Distribution and Density of Ceramic Artifacts from the Solares of the A’ak and

Muuch Groups, Chunchucmil, Yucatán