Textile-Clay Laminates:  A special-use material in ancient Mesoamerica

Research Outline for the Current Study

The research undertaken with FAMSI Grant #01010 seeks ultimately to establish the textile-clay laminate material as a Maya craft technology. The primary objectives were to expand the data set through identification of additional laminate examples, and to conduct preliminary analysis of these, in order to test hypotheses formed on the basis of only two previously known occurrences. Several collections, with the potential to include laminate examples, were defined after interviewing a number of archaeologists working in various parts of the Maya world. The list included Aguateca, which continued to yield more laminate examples subsequent to the 1998 season’s discovery of the masks in excavations by several other projects. Other textile-clay laminate prospects (although not identified at the time as such) were from various sites investigated by the earlier Proyecto Arqueológico Regional Petexbatún ³ , Aguateca among them.

The study of these materials was carried out during several research periods, primarily during the summer of 2002 and in follow-up visits in December 2002 and January 2003. The review was conducted in the following locations in Guatemala:

• Aguateca Archaeological Project house, Guatemala City: private house, serving as a temporary laboratory facility and storing most of the material excavated by the Aguateca Archaeological Project [AAP], pending completion of analysis and transfer to IDAEH.

• Aguateca storeroom, Aguateca (Departamento Petén): on-site storage building belonging to IDAEH, holding all bulk ceramics, ground stone and some small finds excavated in 1999 and 2000 by the Proyecto de Restauración Aguateca [PRA]. Material excavated since 2002 by the Proyecto de Restauración Aguateca Segunda Fase [PRAS] is stored in a separate facility at the site.

• Departamento de Monumentos Prehispánicos storeroom, Guatemala City: storeroom within IDAEH’s facilities, containing specially designated collections from many archaeological projects, including Aguateca.

• Salon 3, Guatemala City: IDAEH storeroom containing bulk or other non-museum collections turned over by all archaeological projects at the conclusion of research, including those of the Proyecto Arqueológico Regional Petexbatún [PARP].

These investigations were successful in identifying new examples of textile-clay laminate from two additional sites in the Petexbatún region, Arroyo de Piedra ⁴   and Tamarindito ⁵ , as well as from Aguateca. It is significant, however, that two other possibilities were brought to my attention by researchers, who were alerted by our earlier discussions. One, a small sample of a promising composite material from a burial at Tikal and examined at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, proved not to be a textile-clay laminate (personal communication H. Moholy-Nagy, 2002). The other, a fragment found during a study of ceramic figurines from Piedras Negras (personal communication Z. Nelson, 2002), was examined at the project’s house in Guatemala City ⁶ . It was indeed made of textile-clay laminate, thereby adding a significant dimension to this study.

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