The Piedras Negras Project: Preliminary Report of the 2000 Field Season

In the Land of the Turtle Lords:
Archaeological Investigations at Piedras Negras, Guatemala
Stephen Houston, Héctor Escobedo, Mark Child, Charles Golden, Richard Terry, and David Webster

Results in 2000

Earlier seasons had uncovered remains of Preclassic ceramics, including Middle Preclassic sherds (Hol period) from about 400 B.C. (Forsyth and Hruby, 1997). Soundings in the South Group Court, particularly in deep pits near Pyramid R-5, found further deposits of this period. As in prior years, these levels were seen to press against bedrock. A surprising finding was the assignment to this period of a public building under R-3 (see below). Despite extreme care with stratigraphy, the dating of Hol ceramics continues to perplex us, as virtually all appear to be mixed with Late Preclassic deposits, although some purer deposits may, with further study, be perceived in Operation 47. Radiocarbon dates from these levels should help resolve this issue. At least two of the four sides of the South Group were delimited by the Middle Preclassic and Late Preclassic (Abal) periods. Excavations under the front basal platform of Pyramid R-5 found a well-preserved wall (ca. 25 cm. high) that faced the plaza. Below lay one of the more enigmatic deposits at Piedras Negras, a 2 m.-thick capping of almost pure plaster or sascab, which may have resulted from large-scale plaster production (Escobedo and Zamora, 1999:225).

In parts the overlay was of discontinuous consistency, purest in the axis of R-5, but veined with dark brown clay near the Preclassic platform. A smattering of Early Classic sherds in the latter area suggested either a transitional date between the Late Preclassic and Early Classic periods or a limited amount of mixing. (A sherd under R-3 did display an Early Classic form with Flor Cream finish [Donald Forsyth, personal communication, 2000]). Attempts were made to penetrate this level and commence a tunnel on bedrock into the core of R-5, but, as ever, the loose fill of Piedras Negras frustrated this excavation into the core of the pyramid. A vertical pit some meters in, near the base of the R-5 stairway, encountered the same obstacle. It is important to remember that R-5 was nonetheless largely of Yaxche date, with diagnostic sherds inside a buried stucco floor, 3.70 m. from the summit level of humus. A cache under a cylinder altar was recovered close to the presumed base of Stela 36.  A panel from its summit (Panel 4) makes it clear that buried within is the tomb of Ruler 1, Yo’nalahk the First, but doubtless Early Classic constructions as well.  R-5 was more than likely a building that changed function through time.

The R-32 platform on the southwestern side of the South Group Court began its life as an outcropping of bedrock, shaved by the Maya during the Middle Preclassic into a level plane and then sheathed with masonry. A relatively modest expansion in Naba or Early Classic times resulted in the placement of a monolithic staircase looking across to Structure R-7.  Buried under R-3, a pyramid of Early Classic date, were two levels of Preclassic structure, one about 1 m. in height (Middle Preclassic), the later another 2 m., for 3 m. in total (Late Preclassic, Figure 1). The lowermost riser of a Late Preclassic staircase remained, covered with a thick coat of mud-plaster. These buildings, along with that under R-5, are the first Preclassic structures found in the Middle reaches of the Usumacinta. There is a clear break with the Early Classic pyramid that covered both Preclassic levels. This pyramid in turn antedated the R-2 platform that rested on an extension of the largely Preclassic R-32 terrace. Unique at Piedras Negras, R-2 exhibited elaborate cornices, recessed panels on the sides, and front stairway with balustrades. The total aesthetic effect is utterly distinct from other structures at Piedras Negras, and strongly suggests Mexican influence. Through time, this building was augmented with a second-stage front stairway, and added length to the back.

Excavations in the R-13 sweatbath had confirmed its Early Classic date, the first in this series of structures, uniquely abundant at Piedras Negras (Child, 1997). Explorations in R-8 demonstrated again that much of this area was Early Classic. The surface of R-8 exhibited an unclear layout consisting apparently of columns and a bench against a back wall; all were so poorly preserved and footed that it seemed uncertain whether they were not merely the preparations for an unfinished building. This Late Classic structure had an antecedent in two walls defining a small corridor that led to the front of the building. At some point this corridor must have slumped, leading the Maya to pave it in part with slabs usually used at Piedras Negras in outdoor patios, as in front of Pyramid O-13 (Escobedo and Alvarado, 1998:7). An indurated and calcined level under this deposit, elsewhere a sign of floors atop Early Classic layers, enclosed a structure with apron-molding in two terraces. Clearly, the building, R-8-sub, had been truncated to create the Late Classic floors, with better preservation in its northwestern corner and only indifferent survival in the corners closest to the eventual outline of R-8.  The stairway of R-8-sub 1 had evidently been destroyed to accommodate subsequent layers of fill, yet it seems likely that its orientation was not radically different from the poorly made or unfinished Late Classic structure above.

A sounding within R-8-sub 1 found, at a depth of 4.5 m., an Early Classic tomb (Burial 110) of such richness as to indicate its royal character. It was vaulted, measuring some 3.05 m. (length) by 1.04 m. (width) by 1.40 m. (height), with mud-plastered walls that had slowly melted over the years into two layers on the floor, one encrusted and shell-like, the higher of fine powder. Rodent bones and burrows showed that the crypt housed creatures other than deceased Maya in the intervening years. Cavities in four points near the capstone indicated the presence of decayed support beams, surely an unnecessary precaution in such a well-built crypt. Two niches existed at floor level on the north side of the tomb, a walled-up entrance to the east. Deposits within included the principal interment, now little more than four parts of long bones, a portion of a clavicle, four vertebrae, and a mandible. Crammed against its feet lay a far better preserved skeleton of a youth. This individual was unsexable because of a fragmentary pelvis, but was aged ca. 15-18 years, as adjudged from epiphyseal union and dental development (Andrew Scherer, personal communication, 2000). From the variable preservation of the two skeletons it seems reasonable to posit that the youth was added later, in an episode of tomb reentry. Pairs of jewelry and shells, jade ornaments and mosaics, carved turtle shell, and "egg-shell" pottery, among the finest made by the Classic Maya, were disposed around the principal body. The practice of mortuary sacrifices, of which the youth may be one, is distinctive at Piedras Negras to royal burials, as in Burials 5 and 13.  Regrettably, no texts survived from the tomb. The main individual was, despite its poor preservation, tentatively identified by Andrew Scherer as a male (> 35 years old, based on antemortem tooth loss patterns), and may have been one of the three-known Early Classic rulers of Piedras Negras. The discovery of a substantial Early Classic building (S-5) suggested a residential precinct from this approximate time in the neighborhood of the tomb.

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