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FAMSI © 2007: Patricia A. Urban |
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Rural Production in Northwest Honduras: The 2004 Season of the Lower Cacaulapa Valley Archaeological Project Craft Production Investigations conducted at Sites 607, 598, 120, 161, and 162, in conjunction with research pursued at Las Canoas, El Coyote, and two other small settlements in the Chamelecon drainage (Sites 599 and 602) during the 2004 field season, cast new light on the area's Late Classic through Early Postclassic political economy. Specifically, we can begin to discern how craft production figured in contests for power within the middle Chamelecon and lower Cacaulapa valleys. The crafts for which we currently have the most data are: ceramic manufacture (including pottery vessels and figurines); obsidian blade knapping; and copper processing. Please remember that analyses are ongoing and the interpretations offered here are subject to revision as the work progresses. Vague as the resulting picture certainly is, however, its emerging outlines suggest that crafts played variable roles in structuring political and economic relations within one polity through time. In addition, specialized manufacture was differentially significant in the political economies of even neighboring contemporary realms in Southeast Mesoamerica. Blanket generalizations about the political and economic significance of craft production, even within this restricted portion of the world, therefore, may not be warranted.
Evidence for pottery production in the research area dates primarily to the Late Classic and comes in the form of manufacturing debris (ash and large quantities of broken sherds in particular) and implements, especially vessel fragments recycled as tools used in shaping vessels (Lopez Varela et al. 2001; Figure 33a, shown above; Figures 33b through 33g, shown below) and potstands that supported containers during final finishing and firing. No firing facilities were recorded at any of the excavated sites in this or previous years.
Potstands comprise a particularly distinctive artifact class that we have not seen in earlier work at Late Classic pottery workshops in the Naco valley. They conform to a fairly standard design consisting of a flaring base surmounted by a straight neck terminating in a flat rim (Figures 34a through 34f, shown below).
Clay is often found spattered and burnt on the exterior surfaces of these items, especially their bases. As many as three layers of clay have been noted baked onto potstands, suggesting that some were used multiple times. This pattern implies that potstands supported vessels while they were still wet and being shaped. That the clay splatters resulting from this stage were baked onto their surfaces, implies that potstands held vessels when they were fired. Despite the excavation of two Late Classic pottery kilns at La Sierra, no similar artifacts were unearthed here or anywhere else in the Naco valley. This patterning may indicate that ceramics were fashioned at the same time, but following different procedures, in these adjacent areas. The largest quantities of ash and sherds are recorded at Las Canoas (Figure 35). Here, debris deposits as much as 1 m deep underlie most of the central and southern parts of the center. Structures dating to late in Las Canoas' occupation were raised atop these deep middens, with most of them, as well as a few smaller buildings, filled with ash, sherds, and other trash, organic and inorganic. The largest building at Site 598 was also filled with ash, sherds, and other midden material. It appears that the flat terrain currently characterizing Las Canoas is largely the result of trash disposal which filled in and leveled an earlier north-to-south descent. Based on the prevalence of distinctive high-necked, red-painted (as much as 35% of some sub-assemblages), unslipped jars in the Las Canoas assemblage (Figures 36a through 36l, shown below), it appears that these were the primary types manufactured here. Sherds from this sort of vessel are so common in Late Classic Naco assemblages that we had assumed they were made in that valley. Comparable vessels are recovered in smaller numbers at Late Classic El Coyote and rural sites along the middle Chamelecon and the Rio Cacaulapa.
The depth–up to 2 m below the current ground surface–and spatial extent of trash deposits at Las Canoas strongly suggest that large numbers of pots were fashioned at the center over the course of its two centuries of occupation, possibly by at least a few full-time specialists. While some of the output was locally consumed, a considerable proportion was apparently destined for export to both Naco and the lower Cacaulapa valleys. Las Canoas is well situated to serve as the center of a ceramic industry. Extending out for roughly 500 m to the north, south, and west of the settlement are extensive, easily accessible clay deposits. These layers could have fueled the Las Canoas workshops for many years. The reddish-brown clay common to the area has two layers, an upper one with few inclusions, and a lower zone with large quantities of white particles. In the center of Canoas, the upper layer appears to have been removed early in the Late Classic: the site's monumental structures are set on and into the lower, coarser layer. On the east and south margins of the site, cultural materials are found as deep as 2 m below the contemporary ground surface and final phase construction. These deep deposits appear to be filled-in borrow pits. Borrow pits in the adjacent open areas are less obvious, but to the west there are at least a dozen surface-visible depressions. Test excavations in two do support a tentative identification of borrow pit. Preliminary analysis of soils levels revealed in a test pitting program to the south of Canoas also indicates clay removal there, although it may have been more a stripping operation than pit digging. It is currently not possible to provide reliable estimates of the number of used and worked sherds in the assemblages of any excavated site in the research area. These artifacts are usually only identified during the course of detailed analyses of pottery from specific collection units and not enough of them have been studied to date to serve as a basis for inferring the distribution, scale, and intensity of production. Potstands, on the other hand, are sufficiently distinctive to be recognized during the initial sorting stage. We can, therefore, use preliminary data on potstand distributions to infer where pottery was being produced. More than 1,000 potstands were found in Late Classic deposits at Las Canoas. This concentration supports other evidence for large-scale ceramic manufacture at the site. Interestingly, potstands were also found in much smaller numbers at six rural settlements: Site 607 (n=22); Site 599 (n=13); Site 598 (n=3; excavations in 2005 produced more, including two in situ inside a residential building); Site 602 (n=1); Site 120 (n=10); and Site 161 (n=8). The first four settlements are in the Chamelecon drainage within 3 km of Las Canoas. Sites 120 and 161, as noted earlier, lie on the west bank of the Rio Cacaulapa up to 300 m south of its junction with the Chamelecon. It appears, therefore, that a wide range of people distributed throughout both drainages was engaged in fashioning ceramic vessels using at least some of the same techniques. One of the salient exceptions to this pattern is El Coyote where extensive excavations from 1999-2004 recovered only one potstand. It may be that occupants of this regional center, unlike Las Canoas or La Sierra in the Naco valley, were consumers of pottery vessels made elsewhere. Some of these containers likely were provided by Las Canoas' workshops while others could have derived from myriad small-scale producers. Judging the scale and intensity of rural ceramic manufacture is difficult at this point. The absence of large trash deposits associated with the industry outside of Las Canoas implies that production throughout the hinterland generated limited quantities of vessels and was probably conducted by part-time specialists. There is also no sign that rural artisans were fashioning large numbers of specific vessels, like the red-on-natural jars so prevalent at Las Canoas. More likely, craft workers outside Las Canoas produced a wide range of utilitarian wares for their own use, exchange with other households, and, possibly in the lower Cacaulapa valley, as tribute paid to rulers at El Coyote.
Thirteen molds for making the figurative portions of figurines, ocarinas, and whistles, and a probable mold for faces on incensarios, were also recovered from Late Classic contexts at Las Canoas during the 2002 and 2004 field seasons (Figures 37a through 37d, shown above). An additional two molds were also unearthed, one at Site 599 and the other at Site 120. As in Naco, figurines, ocarinas, and whistles themselves, likely used in household rituals, are widespread, coming from every investigated Late Classic site. It may be that Las Canoas' artisans enjoyed a local edge in fashioning these generally needed items, though they did not monopolize their production. Figurine manufacture may also have not been a purely local concern. La Sierra, with its far greater number of molds as well as fine-grained clays more suitable than those of other sites for showing the details of molded items, may well have been a major provider of ceramic effigies over a wide area that stretched to include the middle Chamelecon and lower Cacaulapa valleys. Artisans at Las Canoas, Sites 598, and 120, therefore, could have been secondary and tertiary producers, respectively, their output geared to meeting parochial demand within a broader network dominated by La Sierra. Chemical and mineralogical tests of figurine pastes from various sites, matched against local clay sources, are needed to evaluate this proposition. There is no evidence of pottery or figurine production in the lower Cacaulapa and middle Chamelecon valleys which dates to the Early Postclassic. Figurines largely disappear from assemblages pertaining to the latter period. Pottery is certainly being made during the Early Postclassic, though the absence of potstands suggests a marked change in the manufacturing process. The middle Chamelecon has several sources of perlite, that is, a form of obsidian found in small nodules in volcanic tuff. These nodules are very seldom large enough for blade production, but were instead made into expedient flakes that were used in a variety of ways. Such expedient tools are common at all investigated sites. Obsidian blades are also ubiquitous in the lithic assemblages of all Late Classic and Early Postclassic sites within the research zone. Nevertheless, prior to late in the 2004 field season, we had found few of the cores from which they were removed. Excavations at Site 162 in the Cacaulapa drainage, however, dramatically changed this picture. Site 162 initially drew our attention because of its relatively isolated location. Set on a very narrow area of level terrain within steeply sloping hills, devoid of any nearby perennial water sources, and without ready access to arable land, Site 162 seemed admirably located to make meeting the needs of daily life as difficult for its inhabitants as possible. We, therefore, presumed that Site 162 was a special-purpose site, possibly occupied only intermittently during the year.
Excavations designed to test this proposition successfully undermined our interpretation. Not only was the settlement apparently used year-round, but it yielded 82 polyhedral obsidian cores and core fragments, 24 from one small room alone in the chief residence, Str. 162-2 (Figure 38, shown above). Based on the analyses of William McFarlane, production debris recovered from the site strongly points to the knapping of blades here during the Late Classic (Figures 39a through 39h, shown below).
It currently appears, therefore, that blade production in the Late Classic lower Cacaulapa valley was highly centralized, possibly monopolized by a small household residing above, but not in, El Coyote. It is unclear whether Las Canoas' residents also obtained blades from those living at Site 162. One polyhedral core, reworked into a tool, and a small amount of obsidian production debris have been recovered from Las Canoas. While this pattern indicates that blades were imported into, and not made at, the center, the source of these implements could be the Naco valley where large blade workshops have been identified. In addition, the point of origin for a remarkable obsidian biface found at Site 120 (Figure 40a, shown below) is unclear. Current evidence does not suggest that it was made locally, but neither is a local manufacturing precluded.
Who the denizens of Site 162 were, how they obtained their cores, and how much control they had over the distribution of their output remain unknown. The physical isolation of Site 162 may imply some social distance between its residents and those of the regional capital. At the same time, the lack of water sources and arable land close by suggest that these hilltop denizens relied on others for basic resources essential to their survival. This small enclave, therefore, occupied a distinctive place in Late Classic lower Cacaulapa society and may have been linked to that society through ties of mutual dependence. Whether these processes contributed to the construction of the Late Classic political hierarchy, however, is unknown. There is still no evidence of blade production anywhere in the lower Cacaulapa or middle Chamelecon valleys during the Early Postclassic. In fact, about a third of the El Coyote obsidian assemblage during this period is comprised of green obsidian blades from the Pachuca source, blades that were imported ready-made; in addition, one Pachuca blade was found at Site 598 during work in 2005. It is very likely that blades from other sources, including Ucarero in western México and Ixtepeque in eastern Guatemala, also arrived in the valley in completed form. The primary Early Postclassic lithic industry consisted of producing bifacial tools using local chert. A large workshop devoted to this task was uncovered at El Coyote where over 700 pounds of chert tools and debris were recovered from approximately 4 m3; Figure 40b, below, illustrates such a biface, found at Site 120, but not definitively made at El Coyote. At present, however, it appears that whereas chert tool manufacture may have been localized at the lower Cacaulapa's regional center, obsidian blade production was occurring outside the research zone entirely.
Recovery of copper-bearing slag from the far southeastern margins of El Coyote at the end of the 2002 field season suggested that this metal was being processed here (Figure 41 and Figure 42). Identification of easily accessible copper sources, within 6 km east and southwest of the capital, supported the feasibility of copper working at El Coyote. As of the start of the 2004 field season, however, this copper workshop was only tentatively identified, poorly understood, and undated. Excavations conducted during 2004, in close consultation with Dr. Aaron Shugar of the Smithsonian Institution and Buffalo State University, have greatly clarified this picture. Testing of eight activity areas in the vicinity of the original slag find-spots have revealed: an area where copper-bearing rocks were collected and initially broken up; an in situ ceramic furnace where the resulting ore nuggets were heated; a stone surface where post-heating slag was crushed and the copper removed; and two piles where broken furnaces and slag were dumped. There is little doubt that copper processing was being carried out at El Coyote on a fairly large scale. The dates for this industry, however, remain to be determined.
The mound of copper-bearing rocks stockpiled for processing is associated with three large stones, one of which bears a basin-shaped depression resulting from repeated pounding and grinding (Figure 43a, shown above; Figures 43b and 43c, shown below). The goal of this stage seems to have been to separate most of the copper from the surrounding matrix in which it was embedded. A crudely fashioned stone mallet was found in another excavation unit; it likely was used for ore crushing.
Subsequently, these copper-rich fragments were taken to furnaces no more than 20 m to the south where they were heated to their melting point. The one such oven found in place, off the south edge of a 0.12 m high stone platform, is a square adobe construction (Figure 44a, shown above; Figures 44b and 44c, shown below). The south side, that facing away from the platform, was broken off at the end of the heating cycle, allowing the molten material to flow out and pool in a prepared depression within the ancient ground surface. A similar platform, with furnace fragments in its vicinity, lies 7 m west-northwest of this construction. There may, therefore, have been several heating facilities in operation at any one time in the workshop's history.
A stone pavement was found 3.6 m south of the in situ furnace (Figure 45a, Figure 45b, and Figure 45c, shown below). This floor, composed mostly of white limestone slabs, is partially ringed by vertically-set stones. Directly overlying the surface is a 0.05 m thick level of crushed ore associated with a stone hammer left lying in the northeast corner of the feature. At least two of the stones comprising the floor also bear marks of repeated pounding. It appears, therefore, that this construction was where the slag produced in the nearby furnace was crushed in order to separate out pure fragments of copper suitable for casting.
As Ellen Bell initially noted, the white stones of the floor would have made an excellent background against which even small fragments of copper could have been seen. Aaron Shugar, in conversations with whom we arrived at these interpretations, suggests that water from the nearby Rio Cacaulapa or Quebrada Seca may have been channeled across the pavement to help remove detritus and isolate copper pieces.
Furnaces (hornos) were apparently used only once, their remnants being dumped into heaps located west and east of the firing spot. An estimated ton of slag (Figures 46a and 46b, shown above) and broken furnaces was recovered in the course of excavating the larger of these disposal sites, which covers 5.3 × 7.2 m (38 m2) and averages 0.45 m thick. Such quantities of debris imply a substantial production scale. Given the complexity of copper working, it seems likely that at least those responsible for firing and casting were full-time specialists. When these activities were carried out remains uncertain. Both Early Postclassic and Historic period diagnostics were recovered from the workshop and its environs. The retrieval of small fragments of copper ore from Early Postclassic contexts in southeastern El Coyote favors a pre-hispanic date for at least some of the copper working pursued at the center. In addition, crushed copper ore was found on the summits of several buildings in the SE portion of the site, and river cobbles fused together by slag or vitrified clay from hornos were used in wall construction. Still, there is no denying the possibility that some, if not most, of the evidence uncovered this season dates to the Historic period. More carbon-14 dating of samples embedded in the slag and directly associated with the firing facility will help to address this central issue. Results from materials examined to date, in experimental attempts to date the slag directly, have been equivocal, spanning pre- and post-columbian eras. There is no sign of copper working at any rural site. Similarly, copper artifacts have not been recovered outside El Coyote where one small prill was found in the center's Northeast complex. We must note, however, that if the copper working at El Coyote does not date to the Postclassic, we are left with a major question: what did the inhabitants of El Coyote have to trade for the large quantities of Pachuca obsidian and Plumbate pottery found at the site? Pachuca blades make up at least 40% of the obsidian blade total there, and Plumbate, though a small percentage (about 1-2%) of the overall assemblage, is much more common than in neighboring regions. For example, in the Naco valley, two or three Pachuca blades were recorded in a total of ca. 50,000 analyzed lithics, and a similar number of Plumbate sherds was found in an analyzed total of just over 850,000 pieces of pottery. El Coyote is an unlikely end point for Pachuca and Plumbate trade, unless the residents produced a valuable, low-bulk commodity. If not copper, what?
The most obvious signs of long distance trade are the obsidian cores, as well as the Pachuca and other Central Mexican obsidian blades and the Plumbate pottery found in Early Postclassic contexts. Again, what moved out from the study area into wider trade networks remains unknown. There are small quantities of imported ceramics, particularly Ulua polychromes (Figure 47b, shown above), whose origin point is unclear: our pieces are so small, and generally so eroded, that current sorting schemes based on design configurations cannot be utilized to determine loci of manufacture. In Late and Terminal Classic contexts, we see a very few fine-paste materials similar to those from the Lower Motagua Valley and/or Quiriguá, and possibly like Sula Valley materials as well, though it should be noted that Naco Valley potters made fine-paste ceramics virtually identical macroscopically to Sula Valley products. There are also a few sherds of carved wares in Maya styles which may hale from the La Entrada region (Figure 47a, shown above); they do not appear to be locally made. Luxury goods other than pottery are even more uncommon, although the occasional surprise does turn up, such as the greenstone, possibly jade, bead and the jade earflare illustrated in Figure 47c and Figure 47d, shown below.
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