Southeast Sector Settlement, A Stucco Statue, and Substantial Survey:   The Caracol 1997 Season

Investigations in the Vicinity Structure A1

Excavations were also carried out in the Caracol epicenter behind Structure A1 (Figure 8, shown above). Caracol Stela 1 and Caracol Altar 1 had been excavated and removed from this area in the 1950’s. A line of stone was noted washing out of the side of Linton Satterthwaite’s excavation area. Further excavation revealed that this feature was actually the eastern edge of a tomb that had once enclosed 3.63 m³ of space, but that subsequently had been purposefully filled in and buried by the Maya (Figures 3c and Figure 9, below).

The cremated remains of three individuals (an adult, a 2-year old, and another sub-adult) were recovered from within this late 6th century interment along with parts of some 41 broken, but largely reconstructible, vessels (Figures 10 and 11, shown below) and approximately 150 obsidian lancets.

Excavation behind (to the west of) the tomb recovered two elaborate caches dating from the end of the Early Classic era. A lidded pottery barrel from the first cache (Figure 12, below) contained spondylous shells, "charlie chaplins," a mirror, and a large carved jadeite figure (Figure 13, below) - among other things.

A second cache consisted of an intact ceramic box (Figure 14, below) containing a jadeite hunchback figure, a large rectangular jadeite breast pendant, and two oversize obsidian points (Figure 15, below). Ceramic boxes are relatively rare with only limited excavated examples from the Maya lowlands (such as in water-logged Quirigua stelae caches; Morley, 1935). Sub-flooring the Structure A1 rear tomb uncovered an intact, upright stucco foot.

Further investigation to the west of the tomb–beneath the two western caches–revealed the base of what had once been a free-standing stucco statue of an individual seated on a throne (Figure 16, shown below, and Figure 17). The figure and throne were some 2 m deep by an estimated 1.2 m wide by an estimated 2.8 m in height. The statue was created, modified, and used in the later part of the Early Classic era (ca. A.D. 500). The ceramic box had been located in the chest area of this statue. Nothing was found beneath the statue itself. This free-standing stucco statue is extremely unusual; only one other example is known and this comes from recent excavations at Bonampak (Tovalin A. and Velazquez de Leon C., 1997); however, the Caracol example precedes the one at Bonampak by over 250 years.

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