Testing Methods of Microbotanical Analysis on Samples from the Copan Valley, Honduras

Summary

The Copan Valley in western Honduras has been the subject of a number of studies concerning human-environmental interaction, with particular emphasis on questions of ancient sustainable practices and whether or not land-use mismanagement contributed to the end of the Maya dynasty at Copan. The current PARAC project seeks to identify the range of foods consumed by the inhabitants of the Copan Valley during the Late Classic to Postclassic period. This paper will describe analyses conducted on artifacts recovered from residential contexts at the Late Classic site of Río Amarillo. The extraction of residues, as well as microbotanical analysis of ceramics and groundstones was used to test for the presence of comestibles processed using these implements. The results of this work are compared with the analysis of macrobotanical samples from local middens, thus providing a multivariate perspective on ancient foodways in this region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21807