Archaeological Investigations at Holmul, Guatemala

Preliminary Report on the Ceramics from Holmul, Guatemala: Year 2000 Season
Laura J. Kosakowsky
Visiting Scholar, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona & Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, Boston University

The Ceramic Chronology of Holmul

The site of Holmul is located at the very edge of the northeastern Petén region of Guatemala as well as at the northwestern limit of Belize sites, spanning the watershed between the upper Hondo River basin of Belize and the interior reaches of the Petén. It is thus situated at a ceramic crossroad, or potentially within more than one sphere of ceramic interaction, central to major centers in northern Belize and the Belize River Valley, as well as proximate to the larger polities of Naranjo, Tikal, Caracol and the more distant site of Calakmul. The ceramics recovered this season from the minor test pit excavations and looters’ trenches provide some hints to these inter-site relationships as well as to Holmul’s chronological history. In lieu of any radiometric dating from Holmul, the following standard ceramic complex time periods and ceramic sphere names have been adopted from Uaxactún (Smith, 1955):

The earliest ceramics found at Holmul were recovered from looters’ trench 2 in the north face of the pyramidal structure in Group III.  One sherd, possibly of Joventud Red: Mocho variety (Adams, 1971; Fig. 13 c, d) is an eroded mushroom stand form. It should be noted, however, that this form continues at Altar de Sacrificios into the Plancha and Ayn Complexes on Sierra Red and Caribal Red types, respectively (Adams, 1971), and given the eroded nature of the example from Holmul it is with no certainty that it can be placed as early as the Mamom horizon. Ceramics dating to late Mamom (600-350 B.C.) or early Chicanel (350 B.C.- A.D. 250) include examples of Ahchab Red and Buff: Variety Unspecified found in looters’ trench 5 in the east face of Structure 8 and some sherds with surface treatments that are transitional between Joventud Red and Sierra Red.

Settlement at Holmul clearly was well established by the beginning of the Late Preclassic (350 B.C.). All six looters’ trenches sampled from site center produced pottery from the Chicanel period (350 B.C. - A.D. 250), as did test pits 2 and 3 in the main plaza, and test pit 4 in front of Structure 8.  Examples of Sierra Red: Sierra Variety and incised varieties (Laguna Verde, including the double-line break motif), and Polvero Black: Polvero Variety are abundant, occurring on outcurving, incurving, and flaring sided dishes and bowls as well as small orifice jars. There are many examples of labially and medially flanged or tabbed bowls with groove incising decoration, that typologically would appear to be late in the Late Preclassic based on comparisons with other sites in the region (Culbert, 1993). One example of Alta Mira Fluted from looters’ trench 6 (Group II, Building F) is similar to examples from Tikal (Culbert, 1993) and possesses a highly glossy hard Sierra Red slip. The range of ceramic types and varieties parallels those found in Late Preclassic ceramic complexes at other Petén and Pasión sites (Adams, 1971; 1998; Culbert, 1993; Sabloff, 1975; Smith, 1955) and the presence of Society Hall Red: Society Hall variety, a type found in northern Belize (Kosakowsky, 1987) and the Belize River Valley (Gifford, 1976) illustrates that during the Late Preclassic Holmul’s ceramic affiliations were across a wide interaction sphere that included the sites of the Petén and Belize.

One might have expected that preliminary research at Holmul would produce large quantities of pottery from the "Protoclassic" period given the association of Holmul with the original identification and definition of the "Protoclassic". But as has been suggested elsewhere (Brady et al., 1998) misinterpretations concerning the meaning of the "Protoclassic" as well as misidentifications of "Protoclassic" ceramic types have clouded our understanding of the distribution of ceramics from this time period. The paucity of Holmul I pottery found this season supports the assertion that "Protoclassic" deposits are limited in distribution and variable in context, even at sites with fairly sizable collections of "Protoclassic" ceramics (Case, 1982; Meskill, 1992). Furthermore, there is no evidence yet of a functionally complete ceramic complex for this time period, and the Holmul I ceramics found by Merwin and Vaillant (1932) would seem to represent a specialized burial sub-complex, coeval with Late Preclassic and Early Classic ceramic traditions, confirming prior research on "Protoclassic" pottery from other sites (Brady et al., 1998). Red on cream decorated ceramics found in looters’ trench 1 (Group III) are reminiscent of some examples from the original Merwin and Vaillant (1932) descriptions of Holmul I, and the same trench produced 5 sherds of Aguacate Orange. The former are well within the Petén Gloss Ware tradition of the Early Classic, while the latter are placed in Holmul Orange Ware and represent a non-glossy slip treatment that is derived directly from the Late Preclassic. Additionally, during this same time period, there is evidence of the continued production of monochrome red pottery that approaches the glossiness and hardness of Early Classic ceramics but within the slip color range for Sierra Red. Similar material has been identified on the varietal level at some sites (Kosakowsky, 1987) and on the typological level at others (Robertson, 1980). The persistence of Late Preclassic ceramic types well into the Early Classic has been suggested elsewhere in both Belize and the Yucatán (Kosakowsky and Pring, 1991; Lincoln, 1985; Robles Castellanos, 1990) and may explain the smaller sample of "Early Classic" ceramics found at Holmul this season.

Early Classic ceramics of the Tzakol sphere are not well represented in the collections from looters’ trenches at Holmul, though this may be due to sampling, or the persistence of Late Preclassic traditions. There are examples of Early Classic eroded monochrome red-oranges, within the range of Aguila Orange, particularly at Río Azul (Adams, 1999) and Tikal (Culbert, 1993), and black (Balanza) body sherds from small orifice jars, found in looters’ trenches 1, 2, 3 (all in Group III), and 5 (Structure 8). There were sherds of an eroded Balanza Black basally ridged tripod bowl in looters’ trench 4 (Group III), Boleto Black on Orange sherds from looters’ trench 6 (Group II, Structure F), and Dos Arroyos Orange Polychrome sherds, and a Yaloche Cream Polychrome from looters’ trench 1 (Group III). In addition, Test Pit 4 in front of Structure 8 produced one eroded basal flange bowl that in form dates to the Early Classic. The limited sample indicates a typical ceramic assemblage for any Petén site during the Early Classic (Culbert, 1993).

There is abundant evidence of Late Classic ceramics in virtually all surface collections and test pits from site center, and from surface collections in looters’ trenches at an outlying L-shaped residential structure some 1.2 km to the southeast of site center. Looters’ trenches 1 (Group III), 4 (Group III), and 5 (Structure 8) produced polychrome ceramics of the Saxche and Palmar Ceramic Groups, as well as Tinaja Red (and Subin Red), Achote Black, Cambio Unslipped, and Encanto Striated sherds, and red ridged plates similar to Mountain Pine Red at Barton Ramie in Tepeu 1, but on a local rather than an ash paste (Gifford, 1976). The polychrome pottery consists of standard Tepeu vessel forms including Saxche and Palmar types occurring on ridged plates in Tepeu 1, small barrels and round sided bowls in Tepeu 1 and 2, and a preference for cylinders in Tepeu 2.  Many of the bowls and cylinders are decorated with pseudo-glyphs along the exterior of the rim, and other design elements include stylized step-scrolls, pyramidal, floral, and Ahau and mat designs, all of which are commonly depicted on Late Classic polychrome ceramics from many Petén and Belize sites (Adams, 1971; Culbert, 1993; Reents-Budet et al., 1994; Gifford, 1976; Sabloff, 1975; Smith, 1955). In one case, from the outlying L- shaped structure, a highly eroded Palmar Orange Polychrome ridged plate with a ring base appears to have had, a now unreadable, primary standard sequence around the interior of the rim, and a serpent design on the interior of the base. Another Palmar Orange Polychrome barrel, from the same structure, exhibits design elements similar to pottery from Altun Ha (Reents-Budet et al., 1994:Figure 5.42), although lacking the characteristic black or yellow/cream background.

In looters’ trench 1 (6 sherds) and from the outlying L-shaped structure (2 sherds) came a minute quantity of Cabrito Cream Polychrome: Cabrito Variety (or Zacatel Cream Polychrome: Cabrito Variety), a ceramic type that often is referred to in the literature as "Holmul-style" pottery (Reents-Budet et al., 1994) because it was discovered in Holmul burials (Merwin and Vaillant, 1932:Figure 9b). It is perhaps puzzling that even in this preliminary season so little "Holmul style" ceramics were recovered, but these findings support prior research that has hinted that the "Holmul style" is in fact a tradition of ceramic production across a broad region of eastern Guatemala and western Belize (Reents-Budet et al., 1994). The many distinct styles of the category of "Holmul style" ceramics, and instrumental neutron activation analyses that demonstrate multiple centers of production (Reents-Budet et al., 2000), when taken in light of the paucity of this type of pottery from the recent work at Holmul, might suggest that Holmul was not a major production locale for Cabrito Cream Polychrome, despite it having been named for the site.

The ubiquity of standard Petén style polychromes, of the Saxche and Palmar ceramic groups, as well as traditional monochrome red and black (Tinaja and Achote Groups respectively), and unslipped types of the Tepeu sphere suggest that Holmul’s connections to the Petén sites to the west were of paramount importance during the Late Classic. The presence of some "Holmul-style" ceramics, produced in a broader region that encompasses sites of the Belize River Valley, would lead one to suspect that Holmul’s position on the eastern edge of the Petén and within range of the many sites in northern Belize and the Belize River Valley, allowed it to bridge more than one sphere of ceramic influence during the Late Classic.

Finally, from the outlying L-shaped structure, there are examples of poorly executed geometric polychromes reminiscent of Benque Viejo Polychrome (Gifford, 1976), though on a local paste rather than Vinaceous Tawny Ware. These are also similar to examples of the Zacatel Cream Polychromes of the Eznab Complex at Tikal (Culbert, 1993) that are clearly Tepeu 3 in date. Further evidence of occupation at Holmul, at least through the Terminal Classic, includes Subin Red bowls (in looters’ trench 1 and the outlying L-shaped structure), two small body sherds that are possibly plumbate (looters’ trench 1), and one small body sherd of a fine gray paste (from the outlying L-shaped structure) that is similar to Tres Naciones Gray, a Tepeu 3 type from the Pasión River area (Sabloff, 1975). As yet there is no evidence for Postclassic occupation at Holmul based on the work of the year 2000 season, although one example of a Tinaja Red tripod footed bowl is formally equivalent to late Terminal Classic/ Early Postclassic examples from the Spanish Lookout and early New Town complexes at Barton Ramie (Gifford, 1976).

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