Early Formative Interaction on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala: A Ceramic Perspective

Introduction

Several sites on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala have uncovered Early Formative occupation. Those that have reported intensive and extensive occupation are located around the edges of estuaries and mangroves on the Pacific Coast littoral. This project allowed us to obtain an overall view of the Early Formative occupation on the region as collections from the following sites were examined: Salinas Sinaloa, Quiñónez, Vidal, and Leonidas on the Suchitepéquez coast, Juan Lopez from Tiquisate, Grajeda, Albeño 1, Albeño 2, and Don Milo 2 at the San Jerónimo Complex in Sipacate, Escuintla, and Chiquihuitán on the lower coast of Santa Rosa (Figure 1). Permission was obtained from the Instituto de Antropología e Historia de Guatemala to house the collections at the Universidad del Valle laboratory as well as my private lab in Guatemala City.

The goals of this project were to carry out a comparative analysis of the Early Formative pottery so that ceramic change could be observed through time, and to train students on ceramic analysis. The project began in March 2002. It was carried out with student assistance from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala that worked under my supervision (Carlos Chiriboga, Jenny Guerra, Alvaro Paredes, and Karen Pereira).

Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page