Ceramics at Piedras Negras, Guatemala

Discussion

The need to demonstrate ownership of unique items of material culture as a means of distinguishing one from one’s peers may have been a principle factor driving ceramic innovation at Piedras Negras at this time. This need developed out of the generalized socio-political disruptions affecting almost the whole of the Lowlands at this time. At Piedras Negras, this period of time corresponded with the development of the site as the primary center for the region, and the stabilization of the dynasty that would remain in power at Piedras Negras for the next two hundred years. It seems reasonable to conclude that the ceramic changes evident at Piedras Negras during this time were part of this much larger shift in material culture that included major changes in both architectural and monumental programs.

Looking at these deposits synchronically, we see that they have a number of things in common. First, all three of these deposits have a preponderance of well-made polychromes, many of which appear to be unique or have very limited distribution in contemporaneous deposits. This suggests that only a few potters or artists were responsible for the manufacture of these pieces and that they did not see wide distribution, at least not initially. In two of the three cases, the deposits are located in fairly restricted or specialized settings. This suggests attendance by an exclusive audience. This inference is supported by the presence of Ruler 2’s name on several of the vessels found near Str. N-10.  Taken together these facts suggest that the people participating in the terminations were probably the highest members of the Piedras Negras society. Given this, it seems likely that the vessels destroyed in these termination events were likely produced by artisans attached directly to the participant’s households, and charged with producing distinctive works in a variety of mediums. This model for the organization of craft production agrees with archaeological and epigraphic research from elsewhere in the Maya area (Inomata and Stiver 1998; Inomata 2001; Reents 1994; Reents-Budet et al. 1987, 1995; Wallace and Carmack 1977).

Looking at the termination deposits diachronically, we can see the effects of the attached artisans decisions on the direction of ceramic technology at the site as a whole. The earliest smudge-resist vessels are found in the J-20 termination. Later, more sophisticated resist-decorated vessels are found in the F-2 termination assemblage. Both smudge and polychrome resist-decorated vessels are found in this assemblage. This assemblage, however, marks one of the last appearances of smudge-resist at Piedras Negras. A few vessels of the same type are known from a similar, roughly contemporaneous deposit excavated in Court 4 of the Acropolis (Strs. J-24, 25, 26, see Golden and Quiroa 2002) but no examples have been found elsewhere at the site.

The earliest polychrome-resists at Piedras Negras are those found in the termination deposit excavated from in front of Str. F-2.  These resists, while not as complex as those found in later contexts, are suggestive of the later materials. The first polychrome-resist easily relatable to the types that come to dominate the Late Classic polychrome tradition at Piedras Negras were found in the deposit located near Str. N-10.  The high quality of the pottery found within this deposit as well as the presence of Ruler 2’s name on several of the vessels found in this deposit indicate that this deposit represents an accumulation of royal refuse. The real significance of the materials in this deposit when we compare them to materials found elsewhere. The major resist-decorated polychrome type found in this deposit is Santa Rosa Cream Polychrome: Horqueta. This type is almost invariably found in elite contexts dated by the appearance of other, independent, modes to early facet Yaxche. This type is rare in contemporaneous non-elite contexts. After about A.D. 680, different varieties of Santa Rosa are found in a wide variety of contexts, and in all levels of settlement. Resist-reserve decoration becomes so popular, in fact, that it becomes the dominant polychrome mode at Piedras Negras for the next 100 years. The context of the earliest Santa Rosa and other resist-decorated polychromes suggest that it was the product of a limited number of artisans exclusively, or nearly so, for members of the royal court.

The decision by potters at Piedras Negras to focus on resist-decoration as the primary polychrome mode beginning in the early Late Classic had a lasting affect on the range of options available to Piedras Negras potters. Polychrome-resist and later, reserve, decorated vessels became the dominant polychrome mode at Piedras Negras. They become so common in fact, that the positive-painted figural or iconographic decoration so commonly associated with the Late Classic Maya are, in fact, minority types through most of Piedras Negras’ Late Classic history. Because of the long life of resist-reserve ceramics at Piedras Negras, it is within this mode that are we are best able to observe the reflexive relationship between practice, habitus and style. Resist-reserve technology developed through program experimentation and was intended, consciously or not, as a partial solution to particular social, cultural and technical problems facing the elite at Piedras Negras at a critical juncture in their history. The locus of production and the status of the producers imbued the early resist-decorated ceramics with particular symbolic and ideological qualities. The diffusion of resist-reserve decoration across the site implies a process whereby the artistic and cultural value of ceramics produced under restricted conditions was downplayed in favor of the economic benefits gained by the production of a popular commodity (Kopytoff 1986). It is only after the introduction of fine gray ceramics from lower Usumacinta sources at around A.D. 730 that the potters of Piedras Negras begin producing wares that diverge significantly from those of their predecessors at the site, though this shift is not of the same magnitude as that apparent between the Early Classic and Late Classic.

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