A Paleoethnobotanical Analysis of Ceramic Residues from Caches and Burials at the Lowland Maya Site of Holtun, Guatemala

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Among the Maya, plant-based foods were not just important for sustenance but also had ritual meaning, especially emphasized when placed in graves and caches. Food offered during ritual performances created a reciprocal relationship between living individuals, their ancestors, and the gods. This poster will present the paleoethnobotanical results from examination of seven ceramic sherds from the Preclassic through the Terminal Classic periods (800 BC-AD 900) associated with burial and cache offerings from the lowland Maya site of Holtun, Guatemala. Each whole vessel fragment was subjected to starch analysis, a method used to determine plant taxa on a microscopic level, as well as high-performance liquid chromatography and Raman spectroscopy to test for cacao residues. The identification of crops, aside from the usual suspects like maize and cacao, such as manioc, yam, and malanga, suggest evidence of a complex ritual diet of the residents at Holtun. Although the environmental conditions of the Maya Lowlands can lead to poor preservation, the results gathered from the preliminary starch and chemical residue analyses at Holtun indicate our ability to recover diverse plant remains from archaeological contexts and illuminate possible patterns of grave and offering types, social class, and variety in ritual diet.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36882.0