Documentation of Floor Assemblages from Aguateca, Guatemala

Aguateca Archaeological Project

From 1990 to 1993, Inomata directed systematic archaeological investigations at Aguateca as a part of the Petexbatún Regional Archaeological Project (Demarest 1997; Inomata 1995, 1997). The excavation of elite residential structures in the central part of the site revealed numerous reconstructible objects left on the floors and clear traces of burning (Inomata and Stiver 1998). These data, along with the construction of extensive defensive walls prior to the abandonment of the center, suggested that Aguateca was attacked by enemies at the end of the Classic period and that the central part of the site was burned (Demarest et al. 1997; Graham 1967; Houston 1993; Inomata 1997). The residents of the burned area probably abandoned their houses rapidly, leaving most of their belongings behind.

Building on these results, Inomata started the Aguateca Archaeological Project with Daniela Triadan and Erick Ponciano in 1996 with the specific objective of examining Classic Maya elite households through the extensive excavation of rapidly abandoned buildings. The success of its initial seasons supported by a FAMSI grant led to full-scale operations in the following seasons funded by the NSF and other agencies. During the four field seasons, the project members extensively excavated six structures in the rapidly abandoned elite residential area in the center of the site (Strs. M7-34, M8-2, M8-3, M8-4, M8-8, and M8-13). We also excavated two vaulted structures in the royal residential compound (Strs. M7-22 and M7-32). Excavators found these royal buildings nearly devoid of reconstructible objects, except for a sealed room of Str. M7-22 that contained numerous royal possessions. Excavations, however, revealed dense deposits of ceramic sherds and other broken objects inside and around these structures. Inomata has suggested that the royal family evacuated the center prior to the final attack and that the victorious enemies conducted termination rituals destroying these symbolically important buildings and depositing numerous broken objects (Inomata 2001c).

The quantity of complete and reconstructible objects found in the rapidly abandoned buildings is truly impressive. In particular, each of the multi-chambered elite residences (Strs. M7-34, M8-4, M8-8, and M8-13) housed 60 to 100 ceramic vessels, more than 1,000 stone tools, 20 to 60 shell ornaments, about ten spindle whorls, and up to 300 pyrite mosaic mirror pieces, as well as various types of figurines, musical instruments, and scribal tools (Inomata et al. 1998, 2002; Inomata and Triadan 2000; Triadan 2000). Such an inventory of objects in each structure emerged gradually through intensive lab work. Most objects were smashed and their fragments were mixed together when the stone walls of the structures collapsed. Thus, it was impossible to know the number of objects and their shapes without sorting thousands of fragments and refitting them. A significant part of the lab seasons supported by a NSF grant from 1999 to the present was devoted to this extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive work. In addition, the project members have classified all excavated artifacts, and basic data on their attributes, including their types and dimensions, have been recorded in computer databases.

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