A Tale of Two Ports: A Preliminary Assessment of Ceramic and Artifactual Assemblages from Conil and Vista Alegre

Summary

Coastal communities in the Maya Lowlands played a myriad of roles in the ebb and flow of political, economic, and social formations over the past 3000 years, yet these roles have remained along the periphery of Maya studies. Though ever present, Maya coastal sites were atypical – perhaps even idiosyncratic – in terms of how they were imagined and lived-in by the Maya. Critical to our understanding of these coastal settlements is the material culture traded and utilized by the occupants of these sites. In this paper we present our preliminary analysis of the ceramic and artifactual assemblages collected at the neighboring ancient Maya port sites of Vista Alegre and Conil during the 2016 and 2017 field seasons. Research at both sites included survey work and surface collection, off-structure test excavations, and architectural excavations. Aside from the strikingly high concentration and deeper deposits of material culture at Vista Alegre in comparison to Conil, these excavations have provided a better understanding of both sites’ chronologies and their relations with other parts of the Maya and Mesoamerican world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21876