CHAPTER

introduction
in late 1978 ray T matheny asked me to
examine the ceramic artifacts from joyce marcus s test excavations at el mirador in early
1979
197911 examined the el mirador ceramics stored
in the peabody museum 1I noted that the collection included large amounts of late preclassic
pottery and moderate amounts of early classic
and late classic period materials forsyth 1980
in the winter of 1979 dr matheny began a
joint expedition to el mirador with bruce
dahlin dr dahlin to continue his work in the
baj
bajo
bal 0 areas and dr matheny to undertake studies of selected architectural and residential complexes these investigations continued through
successive field seasons through 1982
As a result of my work with the peabody
museum materials from el mirador dr matheny asked me to analyze the pottery recovered
from his and dr dahlin s excavations at the site
during the 1981 field season 1I began an analysis
of the ceramics recovered from el mirador see
ab during the 1978 to 1980 seasons
2a 2b
figs 1 aa
the original goals of this ceramic analysis were
three fold 1 to provide a chronological framethreefold
work for the site 2 to provide a means of comparing ceramic development in the el mirador

archaeological work other than brief reconnaissance activities has been carried out in the region major investigations at sites in east central
peten such as uaxactun tikal and more reyaxha have provided a better underyasha
cently yaxhl
standing of chronological and ceramic changes in
that area more recently excavations at the
km to the north of el
Cam peche site of
ofbecan
campeche
campiche
becan 100 kin
mirador have provided comparative and developmental
op mental data for the ceramic sequence in the
southern portion of the yucatan peninsula ball
1977 the area in between however is practically unknown aside from our own efforts at el
mirador and those of marcus virtually no controlled excavation or investigation has taken
place there such investigations as have been
undertaken have generally been small scale and
little information regarding these investigations
has reached publication As a result el mirador
is an area about which very little aside from
preliminary calendrical epigraphic and architectural
tec tural data is actually known
this is clearly the case with the ceramic reweli conceived
weil
conce ived and well
mains 1I believed that a well
executed ceramic analysis would serve as a basis
for comparing the ceramics of the northern
peten southern campeche
Cam peche region with ceramcampiche
ics sequences to both the north and south as well
as with those to the east in belize
As part of the third goal 1I wanted to define
changes in ceramiccontent
ceramic content at the site through
time as well as to specify ceramic continuities 1I
hoped by this to determine whether the form
surface treatment and decoration apparent in
the ceramic inventory at el mirador showed evidence of smooth transition or abrupt change 1I
also hoped to determine whether or not there
were differences in the process of change between different ceramic sub
subcomplexes
complexes eg
between ceremonial and domestic pottery 1I
expected that such detailed ceramic evaluations
would help refine the more general site chronology

region with known ceramic complexes from

other maya lowland sites and 3 to provide data
on the process of ceramic change through time in
the northern peten area
the establishment of a ceramic chronology
for the site which could then be utilized by the
various investigators participating in the project
as a means of chronological interpretation was
of course of primary importance see thomas
1979139 140 1I wanted to use observable
changes in the ceramics recovered from stratigraphic contexts in order to meet this goal the
estab
use of ceramics for this purpose is a long bestab
dished
lished practice in this area
the importance of the second goal derives in
part from the inaccessibility and current low population density of the el mirador area very little
1I