Ancient Maya Pottery

by Aimers, James John; Chase, Diane Z.; Chase, Arlen F.

• ISBN13: 9780813042367
• ISBN10: 0813042364
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-01-08
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida

Summary

The ancient Maya produced a broad range of ceramics that has attracted concerted scholarly attention for over a century. Pottery sherds-the most abundant artifacts recovered from sites-reveal much about artistic expression, religious ritual, economic systems, cooking traditions, and cultural exchange in Maya society. Today, nearly every Maya archaeologist uses the type-variety classificatory framework for studying sherd collections. This impressive volume brings together many of the archaeologists signally involved in the analysis and interpretation of ancient Maya ceramics and represents new findings and state-of-the-art thinking. The result is a book that serves both as a valuable resource for archaeologists involved in pottery classification, analysis, and interpretation and as an illuminating exploration of ancient Mayan culture.

Author Biography

James John Aimers is associate professor of anthropology at the State University of New York, Geneseo.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Tables	p. x
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Type-Variety: What Works and What Doesn't	p. 11
Types and Traditions, Spheres and Systems: A Consideration of Analytic Constructs and Concepts in the Classification and Interpretation of Maya Ceramics	p. 29
Interpreting Form and Context: Ceramic Subcomplexes at Caracol, Nohmul, and Santa Rita Corozal, Belize	p. 46
Ceramic Resemblances, Trade, and Emulation: Changing Utilitarian Pottery Traditions in the Maya Lowlands	p. 74
Type-Variety on Trial: Experiments in Classification and Meaning Using Ceramic Assemblages from Lamanai, Belize	p. 91
Establishing the Cunil Ceramic Complex at Cahal Pech, Belize	p. 107
Technological Style and Terminal Preclassic Orange Ceramics in the Holmul Region, Guatemala	p. 121
Acanmul, Becán, and the Xcocom Phenomenon through a Type-Variety Looking Glass: Resolving Historical Enigmas through Hands-On Typological Assessments	p. 142
Looking for Times: How Type-Variety Analysis Helps Us "See" the Early Postclassic in Northwestern Honduras	p. 163
Slips, Styles, and Trading Patterns: A Postclassic Perspective from Central Petén, Guatemala	p. 185
Mayapán's Chen Mul Modeled Effigy Censers: Iconography and Archaeological Context	p. 203
Problems and Prospects in Maya Ceramic Classification, Analysis, and Interpretation	p. 229
References	p. 239
Contributors	p. 281
Index	p. 283
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