Paleoethnobotanical Remains Associated with the Sacbe at the Ancient Maya Village of Cerén

Summary

Paleoethnobotanical research conducted during the 2013 field season at Joya de Cerén in El Salvador focused on the analysis of plant remains found on the surface and associated features of an ancient Maya sacbe (causeway) that were well protected beneath tephra deposited by the volcanic eruption of Loma Caldera around AD 660. Plant remains were retrieved from the sacbe surface, adjacent drainage canals, and agricultural fields on either side of the sacbe. Because the plant remains found in association with this sacbe were well preserved, a rare occurrence in Mesoamerica, the data recovered from Cerén are quite significant and unique to the study of Maya plant use activities as well as Maya causeways. The project collected over 60 macrobotanical samples and 160 flotation samples processed in a water flotation tank. Prominently represented in these samples are Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes, Zea mays cob fragments, Phaseolus sp. cotyledons, Amaranthaceae seeds, Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes, Mollugo verticillata seeds, Portulaca oleracea seeds, Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds, and abundant charcoal remains. Recovered plant remains reveal trends associated with each context as well as distance from the site center, and offer a perspective an essentially economic perspective of Maya sacbeob.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Construction of a Community: Recent Findings from Ceren, El Salvador   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage