Jennifer Kirker-Priest

Graduate Student Research Investigator

 Ph.D. Dissertation Research

University of Illinois

at

Urbana-Champaign

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Structure K-5, Piedras Negras, Guatemala 

(Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Piedras Negras Temple, Fig. 21: 1946) 

Project Outline 

ABSTRACT:  For this research, I propose to examine ceramic artifacts collected from archaeological sites in the near-periphery surrounding the ancient Maya center of Piedras Negras, Guatemala.  Collected in 1997, as part of the first systematic archaeological study outside the monumental center, these collections provide an opportunity to contextualize the architectural features from which they are drawn and facilitate the reconstruction of social organization and settlement history.  As the largest of the western Maya kingdoms, with a distinctive and well-documented political history, Piedras Negras provides an excellent context to test theories regarding the heterogeneity of social organization and social power from a bottom-up perspective.  This research will contribute to the study of social relations between elites and non-elites, between the center and the periphery, and between the Maya and their landscape.

Maya vessel, Piedras Negras

(Ingrid Calin, Image K30066 FAMSI Resources)

 

 Classic Maya Vessel

 Usumacinta River, near Piedras Negras, Guatemala

 

Background

       Situated along the eastern bank of the Usumacinta River in northwestern Guatemala, Piedras Negras was the largest of the Western Lowland kingdoms, known for endemic warfare, rich epigraphic tradition, and smaller epicenters. The emblem glyph for Piedras Negras has been read by Stephen Houston as Yok’ib, which means “entrance” or “portal” (Houston 2016).

      Since its initial discovery in 1889, Piedras Negras was the subject of sporadic investigations from 1895-1930. The first intensive study, led by the University of Pennsylvania from 1931-1939, mapped the apparent limits of the architectural core and began to reconstruct political history through hieroglyphic decipherments and intensive excavations in the monumental architecture (Houston 2016). In 1997, The Proyecto Arqueologico Piedras Negras (PAPN) was initiated jointly by Brigham Young University and the Universidad del Valle by permission of the Guatemalan Institute of Anthropology and History. This interdisciplinary, comprehensive study of the cultural history of Piedras Negras resulted in many dissertations and theses (Acuna 2003; Fitzsimmons 2002; Golden 2002; Hruby 2006; Munoz 2006; Nelson 2005; Perez 2006; Scherer 2004) and publications (Child and Golden 2008; Fitzsimmons et al 2003; Golden et al 2015; Golden and Scherer 2012, 2013; Houston 2004, 2016; Houston et al 2003) which greatly enrich our understanding of Piedras Negras, providing a level of detailed political history unique among Maya centers (Houston 2016).

       Both the beginnings of Piedras Negras and its ending, appear to have been quite abrupt. There was a slight preexisting population during Preclassic times, which can be characterized as that of a village, equivalent to other sites in the region at that time. There is a subsequent 20 year gap at the end of the Preclassic, when Piedras Negras appears to have been abandoned. Then, at AD 454, a ruler known as Yat-ahk (aka Ruler A) establishes a new dynasty at PNG, followed by a sequence of six more rulers. This is when we see the first archaeological evidence of epigraphy, monumental construction and a growing population. But it is in the Late Classic that we see an explosion of population within the city and the surrounding landscape. Ruler 1, known as K’inich Yo’nal-ahk, accedes to the throne in AD 603, and is followed by a rich epigraphic tradition that clearly reveals a successive line of 6 kings, ending with Ruler 7 who is killed in A.D. 808; his Throne is violently destroyed and occupation in the epicenter does not appear to last more than 20 years afterwards. Recent research in the borderlands of Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras has led Charles Golden and Andrew Scherer to suggest that sub-urban and rural settlement was present in the Preclassic, moved into the urban cores during the Early Classic, and then emerged back onto the landscape during the Late Classic (Golden and Scherer 2006, 2013).

Phase 1 Field Research Team, Piedras Negras, Guatemala

Jennifer Kirker Priest--Front Row, Center

Jungle Terrain in the Piedras Negras Periphery

Research Objectives

As part of the 1990's PAPN project, 89 separate and distinct sites were identified during the original settlement survey in the Piedras Negras near periphery (Kirker, 2000, 2001; Webster and Kirker 1997; Webster et al 1998). Twenty-nine percent of these sites were selected for test excavation by stratified random sample, and an additional five sites, which composed a neighborhood, were horizontally stripped by colleagues at Penn State University (Webster and Kirker 1997; Webster et al 1998; Webster and Kovak 1999; Kovak and Webster 1999). All of these artifact data have been meticulously recorded and the materials are now stored in Guatemala City, with the Department of Pre-hispanic and Colonial Monuments (Departamento de Monumentos Prehispanicos  y Coloniales-DEMOPRE), a branch of the Guatemalan Government General Directorate of Heritage (Direccion General de Patrimonio). This research connects the settlement and population work conducted by Zac Nelson in the contral core of Piedras Negras with settlement research conducted by Charles Golden and Andrew Scherer in the borderlands of the Piedras Negras polity (Golden and Sherer 2006, 2012, 2013; Sherer 2014).

For the 2016 project, I want to examine the ceramic collections from the Piedras Negras settlement survey and the comparative collections in the National Museum of Archaeology to address the following questions: 1) What is the primary function of sites in the periphery around Piedras Negras? ; 2) When were sites occupied? ; and 3) Who was living in the periphery, elite or non-elite? What is the variation?

Archaeological reports indicate that sites found on settlement survey were visibly different in size, quality and layout. These differences are suggestive of social and functional variation. Site function cannot be interpreted from architecture alone, but must utilize excavated material to study evidence of past activity. Were these domestic residential sites for agrarian families? Are temporary field sites also present in the data? Given the endemic warfare characteristic of this region, are some sites lookouts or staging areas for battles? To test my hypothesis that the majority of sites are domestic residences, ceramic forms (e.g. bowl, jar, plate, etc) and ceramic functions (sherds from the rim, neck, body, etc), will be identified as indices of domestic or non-domestic activity.

 The identification of occupation is crucial to reconstructing population history. Maya archaeologists look at ceramic type-variety to identify phases of occupation. Based on variations in surface decoration, temper, paste as well as ceramic form, this archaeological method does not yield an absolute time for occupation, but rather provides a relative date. Using the ceramic sequence developed for Piedras Negras by Rene Munoz (2006), I intend to examine the ceramic sample and test the hypothesis proposed by Golden and Scherer (2013) that rural settlement was occupied in two specific time periods, rather than continuous.

      It is clear that sites in the Piedras Negras near-periphery are not identical. Differences may be the result of variation in family size, length of occupation, or social status. I can start to understand these differences by examining the ceramic collections for evidence of elite and non-elite materials. Ceramicist Rene Munoz (2006) identified particular elite ceramic varieties and forms that I can use to distinguish between elite and non-elite ceramics.

 Throne 1, Piedras Negras

(Justin Kerr, Image K 4899, A Precolumbian Portfolio, research.mayavase.com) 

Timeline:

A permit request is pending and all work on this phase of research will be conducted under the auspices of the Proyecto Paisaje Piedras Negras - Yaxchilan, directed by Griselda Perez Robles, Andrew Scherer and Charles Golden.  Work will take place in July 2016 at DEMOPRE in Guatemala City.

Methodology

Starting with the completely excavated sites and then moving on the test excavations, study of the ceramic artifacts will focus on the identification of vessel form, vessel part, and ceramic group. Analysis of the ceramic materials will be based on the established type variety classifications for Piedras Negras, as developed by George Holley (1986) and refined by Rene Munoz (2006), Mary Jane Acuna (2005) and Griselda Perez (2006). Extant analysis forms for recording ceramic identifications will be used, to ensure consistency.  

Analysis

Initial analysis will take place during the ceramic study.  A preliiminary report will be prepared by the end of August, 2016, meeting a requirement of the Government of Guatemala.  Further analysis of the ceramic data will be conducted at the University of Illinois throughout the 2016-2017 academic year in completion of Ph.D. dissertation requirements.

Significance

Despite the proliferation of archaeological research on the Classic Maya, the political organization and sociality of the western Maya kingdoms remains poorly understood. The settlement survey at Piedras Negras left archaeologists with the impression of smaller, more centralized populations than Maya kingdoms in central Peten, Guatemala or Belize; however, without systematic or scientific study of the data collected, it is impossible to know for certain. This research begins to explore the data more scientifically for specific evidence of the temporal and spatial distribution of settlement around Piedras Negras. As part of a growing body of archaeological research which reconstructs political life histories for distinct Maya kingdoms, this research will enrich our understanding of variation in political organization and social power among the Classic Maya and emergent states elsewhere.

Bibliography

Please see the bibliography in the Piedras Negras Folder at:

 ARC RESEARCH INFORMATION EXCHANGE 

Researcher

Jennifer Kirker-Priest is the Director of the Pick Museum of Anthropology at Northern Illinois University, a member of the Graduate Faculty and a Professor in the Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program. Increased scholarly attention to the importance of Maya settlement patterns outside of ceremonial centers has inspired renewed attention to the archaeological material previously recovered from outlying Maya occupation zones as Piedras Negras. Director Kirker-Priest is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  

Please see the full resume of Jennifer Kirker-Priest at:

ARC RESEARCH INFORMATION EXCHANGE

FUNDING

Contributions received:          

Crowdfunding                      $      2,900

               Third Party Grant                 $      1,600

Funded $                4,500

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