Early Copán Acropolis Program 2000 Field Season

Analysis of Pottery

During the 2000 field season Ellen Bell continued the analysis of ECAP’s pottery collection, by means of both typological and form classifications, carried out in the CRIA (Figure 5). The comprehensive sampling of both whole vessels and sherds for neutron activation analysis begun in 1999 continued with final collection of samples from the sherd collection. Direct funding for this study by FAMSI Grant 99102 has been through the support of Ellen Bell’s research at Copán–support for the other participants in the neutron activation analysis, Dorie Reents and Ronald Bishop, has been provided by The University of Pennsylvania Museum and the Smithsonian Institution, respectively.

Neutron activation analysis is aimed at sourcing the major components of both the pottery sherd and whole vessel collection to identify ceramic production areas, distribution networks, and patterns of use within the Copán valley and beyond. The neutron activation sourcing of Copán pottery complements both the typological and form classifications being implemented by Ellen Bell. Once they are completely integrated, these studies will furnish significant new data on vessel functions, culture change, and patterns of redistribution and trade.

The samples collected in 1999 from both whole vessels and pottery sherds were exported to the US where they were analyzed to determine manufacturing sources by Dr. Ronald Bishop (Smithsonian Institution). Further samples were collected during the 2000 season. To date Bishop has completed the neutron activation analyses of 30 offering vessels from the Hunal and Margarita Tombs (Bell and Reents-Budet, 2000). A number of samples have yet to be analyzed, but the results available thus far, summarized in Table 1, show that both tombs contained combinations of locally-produced wares and vessels imported from several of the most important regions of Early Classic Mesoamerica: Central México (Teotihuacán), the central Maya lowlands (Tikal), and the Maya highlands (Kaminaljuyú).

The Hunal Tomb is believed to contain the burial of Copán’s dynastic Founder, K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ (Sharer et al., 1999). Stylistically, the Hunal offering vessels have close parallels to those from Tikal Burial 10 (Culbert, 1993), the presumed tomb of that site’s king Nun Yax Ayin ("Curl Nose"), along with the Esperanza tombs at Kaminaljuyú and even Early Classic burials at Teotihuacán. Neutron activation analyses have been completed on samples from nineteen Hunal Tomb vessels recovered from beneath the burial slab (Bell and Reents-Budet, 2000). These results show that eleven vessels are of local manufacture, seven are imports, and one is unidentified. The seven imported vessels provide evidence for the far-flung connections maintained by Copán in the years following the dynastic founding. Specifically, neutron activation has identified two modeled-carved lidded tripods as being from the central Maya lowlands, five vessels being derived from Central México (two Thin Orange ring-based bowls and three stuccoed vessels), and eleven vessels being from the Copán region. The vessel from an unknown source is a large deer effigy. In form and execution it certainly recalls contemporaneous effigy vessels from Esperanza phase Kaminaljuyú (Kidder, Jennings, and Shook, 1946) and Tikal Burial 10 (Culbert, 1993: Figs. 14, 18).

The Margarita Tomb is believed to hold the burial of Copán’s matriarch, the royal wife of K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ and mother of Ruler 2 (Sharer et al., 1999). Although the vessels recovered from the burial chamber floor have yet to be tested, neutron activation analyses results from ten vessel samples from the upper offering chamber of the tomb are available. These results indicate that five vessels are of local manufacture, four appear to be imports, and the source of one is unidentified (Bell and Reents-Budet, 2000). The local vessels include stucco painted tripod dishes and ring base red-orange bowls similar in form and color to Thin Orange pottery from Central México. The imports include two basal flanged polychrome dishes, one being from the central Maya lowlands and is similar to a vessel from Tikal Burial 177 (Culbert, 1993: Fig. 37). While the chemical composition of the second basal flanged polychrome does not match a known workshop signature, it appears to be from Kaminaljuyú based on its form and decoration, especially vessels from Tomb A-VI (Kidder, Jennings, and Shook, 1946: Fig. 207). It is also similar to a vessel from Tikal Burial 10 (Culbert, 1993: Fig. 18), which also may be a Kaminaljuyú import. Finally two Margarita Tomb vessels are identified as being from Central México, a Thin Orange ring base bowl, and a fine paste orange fragment.

Interestingly, neutron activation analysis of a sample from a lidded stucco-painted polychrome cylindrical tripod nick-named the "Dazzler," failed to identify a source for this, the most extraordinary vessel found in the Margarita Tomb. The chemical composition of this vessel is not similar to any of the other 14,000 samples in the Maya Survey chemical database. Reents-Budet (personal communication, 2000) points out that its proportions are like those of cylindrical tripods from Kaminaljuyú and Teotihuacán, but its cut-out, hollow slab are more like contemporaneous vessels from the Petén sites of Uaxactún and Tikal. Its painted design appears to be Teotihuacán in style, but closer examination shows that the building depicted on the vessel is Maya in style.

Reents-Budet also points out that an iconic rendition of the name of Yax K’uk’ Mo’ is painted at the side of the depicted building. The evidence indicates that this vessel is unusual both in its paste chemistry and style of painted imagery. Reents-Budet proposes that the potter who made the vessel mixed Teotihuacán, Kaminaljuyú and central Maya lowland forms, and that the artist who painted the scene on the vessel was schooled in Maya pictorial and glyphic systems.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page