Mineralogical and Chemical Properties of Preclassic Maya Ceramics from Colha, Belize

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper examines the question of whether or not Preclassic Maya exploited volcanogenic ceramic raw materials, which have refractory properties such as thermal conductivity, resistance to thermal shock, abrasion, chemical weathering, and thermal decomposition. Scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-rays, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence, and X-ray diffractometry are used to examine the mineralogical and chemical composition of Preclassic Maya pottery from Colha, Belize. These analyses demonstrate that the pottery was manufactured from ancient volcanogenic minerals, which has significant implications for understanding the Preclassic Maya ceramic technology. Potential sources of these ceramic raw materials are illustrated.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25424