Investigations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala: 1999 Field Season

Among the River Kings: Archaeological Research at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
Stephen D. Houston, Héctor Escobedo, Richard Terry, David Webster, George Veni, and Kitty F. Emery

Schedule of Fieldwork in 1999

As in past years, the field season began in late March with camp construction and the transportation of several tons of food and equipment by river. Security at Piedras Negras, just across from the unstable Mexican state of Chiapas, had improved during our absence. The Guatemalan military had installed a group of military specialists (paracaidistas) at El Porvenir, an hour’s walk to the northeast. During the interim their presence and continuous patrolling had quickly discouraged further incursions by milperos from the Mexican border village of Corregidora Ortíz. Within a week, the camp had been erected in the same location as last year, but with new materials: massive tarps and self-supporting tents required less cutting of local vegetation. Excavations commenced thereafter. Houston continued his excavations in the Acropolis, as did Charles Golden and a new member of the team, Mónica Pellecer; later, Houston was joined by Ernesto Arredondo as his principal assistant. The purpose of these investigations was to discover the nature of architectural superimposition from bedrock to the latest stages of the Acropolis. The larger aim was to finish a comprehensive study of this, one of the most elaborate artificial constructions in the Maya region. In general, this work had to adjust itself to the few spaces left undisturbed by Pennsylvania or otherwise bereft of their spoil. In the next season, the project will refill as many of these pits as it can, especially in Court 2, the focus of current consolidation efforts.

In the South Group, Escobedo and his assistant, Marcelo Zamora, directed themselves to Pyramid R-5, a structure explicitly labeled by glyphs as the muk, or burial, of Ruler 1.  Here there seemed to be an ideal opportunity to link the historical and archaeological records of Piedras Negras at the key juncture between the Early and Late Classic periods, and at a time when the South Group lost its preeminence as the ritual center of the city. An even earlier construction, the buried Early Classic palace complex under the West Group Court, was again explored with slot trenching by Lilian Garrido. Mark and Jessica Child examined all sweatbaths left unstudied from earlier seasons, including Structures J-17, N-1, and O-4, along with ancillary buildings O-3 and P-6.  Mark Child also served again as Field Director, with full responsibility for the difficult logistics of working at Piedras Negras. Christian Wells and Luis Romero built on earlier excavations by Wells and Nancy Monterroso by proceeding with the stripping and trenching of Structures R-18, R-31, and U-16.  The first two buildings lay directly adjacent to a Late Classic cemetery around Structure R-20 (Houston et al., 1999: Figure 4). This, together with the presence of an Early Classic substrate, motivated a complete cleaning of its lower terraces and the penetration of its early component. Structure U-16 was the sole remaining building of its group not excavated in 1998. Wells completely stripped it of overburden and effected a wide trench in its north-south axis.

By mid-season, all operations were in full-swing. In the so-called "servant’s quarters," the N/O sector of settlement below the West Group Plaza, James Fitzsimmons excavated two structures, N-7 and N-10, and ended the season by investigating an enigmatic and ruined building, O-17.  Through test-pitting, Alejandro Guillot had fortuitously encountered fertile concentrations of crypted burials, Early Classic walls, and caches in the patio of a group dominated by Structure C-13.  The detection of a probable burial panel and an eastern mound, both clues to mortuary function, led to the excavation of a burial, largely dug and recorded by Zachary Hruby and René Muñoz. Meanwhile, Webster and Amy Kovak excavated two groups to the south, as part of a "community" or "barrio" study that rested on earlier, more extensive surveys in the 1997 and 1998 field seasons (Webster and Kirker, 1997; Webster et al., 1998). This work was assisted by Zachary Nelson’s computer-assisted mapping, which established, for the first time, absolute elevations in peripheral zones. Nelson also concentrated in the southeast zone of Piedras Negras proper, known to contain many, hitherto unmapped mound groups.

Simultaneously, Jacob Parnell, with the assistance of Fabián Fernández and Benjamin Crozier, perfected the process of phosphate prospecting and heavy metal sampling as pioneered in earlier seasons, taking a total of 1217 samples. In the low mound group south of Structure C-10, Parnell had great success in predicting the location of rich middens and human burials (Figure 1). Areas in the periphery and the Acropolis (Operation 46) were also gridded and tested, with positive results that bode well for systematic use of this procedure in the future. Emily Elmer floated hundreds of soil samples sent in from excavations, again with excellent retrieval of carbonized plant remains, fish bone, lithics, and small artifacts. Ten soil profiles located within Piedras Negras and at rural sites outside the city were described and samples collected from each horizon. Soil properties will be characterized and taxonomic designations will be determined at the Soil Analysis Laboratory at Brigham Young. A side-project included the cave or rock shelter investigations of Pierre Robert Colas, who dug in three areas: the so-called "Maler’s Cave," the Cueva de Alberto located 2 km. south of Piedras Negras, and Actun Yuch’ib, overlooking the Northwest Group Court. By mid-May, all operations ceased. Work parties filled open units, and then planted the backfilled areas with xate palm.

The Piedras Negras project continued its commitment to consolidation. Our consistent objective was to follow a conservative program that rescued standing masonry in dilapidated condition and, where justified, restored limited sections of adjacent wall. This season we focused our efforts on Structure J-11 in the Acropolis. Roots had dismantled and weakened two extant vaults and several walls were leaning dangerously. In the vain hope of finding burials, Penn excavators had hollowed out two benches, tossing fill in all directions. Under the supervision of a master mason, eight specialists sifted through Penn’s backdirt, separating building stone from degraded plaster. On clearing Penn’s debris within Structure J-11, they began the arduous work of transporting hundreds of liters of water up from the river to storage tanks in Court 1 (two pumps and 400 m. of tubing were necessary because of the Acropolis’ height above the Usumacinta). While project members took photographs of standing masonry, workers mixed the degraded plaster and earth with a light cement. (The master mason suspected the presence of other, organic binders in the original mortar.) Following customary practice, all rotten mortar was removed and unstable stones refooted. Stones retrieved from Penn backfill were reshaped and carefully fitted to surround and protect the endangered vaults. Leaning walls had to be marked, disassembled, and rebuilt on correct vertical plane. Finally, the benches were refilled with stone, leveled, and covered with 5 cm. of plaster, leaving original surfaces well marked. In no case could large trees be felled–Piedras Negras lies within a biosphere reserve–but the remaining trees on J-11 should prevent the regrowth of smaller plants cleared during consolidation. Next year we hope to complete work on this building, consolidate J-9 just across the courtyard, and remove the box-like heaps of Pennsylvania fill that still obstruct movement across Court 2.

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