Soil Chemical Investigations of Ancient Maya Marketplaces
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2010-07-12 The Dirt on the Ancient Maya: Soil Chemical Investigations of Ancient Maya Marketplaces Daniel Aaron Bair Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Animal Sciences Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Bair, Daniel Aaron, "The Dirt on the Ancient Maya: Soil Chemical Investigations of Ancient Maya Marketplaces" (2010). Theses and Dissertations. 2121. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2121 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Dirt on the Ancient Maya: Soil Chemical Investigations of Ancient Maya Marketplaces Daniel Aaron Bair A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Richard E. Terry Eric N. Jellen Von D. Jolley Bradley G. Geary Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Brigham Young University August 2010 Copyright © 2010 Daniel Aaron Bair All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The Dirt on the Ancient Maya: Soil Chemical Investigations of Ancient Maya Marketplaces Daniel Aaron Bair Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Master of Science Various criteria or lines of evidence have been used to identify ancient Maya marketplaces, including location near trade routes, artifactual evidence of trade, open space adjacent to transportation routes, proximity to public structures, low platforms and rock alignments to denote market spaces, and regular patterns in soil and floor chemical concentrations. Seibal and Mayapán were important economic Maya polities controlling the trade routes at the apex of their civilizations. The objectives of these studies were to apply geochemical and geospatial analyses of the soils and floors from public plazas and household patios, to discover the anthropogenic chemical residues of phosphorus (P) and heavy metals associated with the trade of foodstuffs and workshop items that may have been marketed there. Public access, causeways, reservoirs and a pattern of high P and metal concentrations are consistent with marketing of organic foodstuffs and workshop items within suspected marketplaces of each site. In contrast, geochemical patterns of the soils and floors of household structures are consistent with ceremonial and household activities. Keywords: phosphorus, trace metals, geochemical analysis, geoarchaeology ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Funding for this project came from the Brigham Young University Mentored Environments Program. This project would not have been possible without the support of Brigham Young University, in particular the faculty and staff from the Plant and Wildlife Sciences Department. I especially thank my committee members, Drs. Von Jolley, Eric Jellen and Brad Geary. My advisor and committee chair, Dr. Richard Terry, has been my professor, friend and mentor throughout my undergraduate and graduate experiences. I thank him for both his patience and persistence while guiding me through the completion of this project. I would like to thank everyone who participated in the collection and analysis of the soil samples. I am grateful to Bruce Webb, Richard Burnett, Chris Balzotti, Ryan Sweetwood, Eric Becker, Rachel Bair and Eric Coronel both for their technical and moral support. I thank all my family and friends, and in particular my parents. I am especially grateful for my wife, Anna, for her constant support, love and understanding. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 1 ANCIENT MAYA ACTIVITIES AT PUBLIC PLAZAS AND HOUSEHOLD PATIOS AT SEIBAL, GUATEMALA INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 3 SEIBAL SITE DESCRIPTION ........................................................................................................................... 7 OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................................................. 9 METHODS ................................................................................................................................................... 10 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................................... 13 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 20 TABLES ...................................................................................................................................................... 22 LIST OF FIGURE CAPTIONS ......................................................................................................................... 26 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................. 28 FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 48 GEOCHEMICAL SIGNATURES OF A POSSIBLE POST-CLASSIC MARKETPLACE AT MAYAPÁN, YUCATAN, MEXICO INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 50 MAYAPÁN SITE DESCRIPTION .................................................................................................................... 54 METHODS ................................................................................................................................................... 57 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................................... 59 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 65 TABLES ...................................................................................................................................................... 68 LIST OF FIGURE CAPTIONS ......................................................................................................................... 71 LITERATURE CITED .................................................................................................................................... 73 FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................................... 77 iv Chapter 1 ANCIENT MAYA ACTIVITIES AT PUBLIC PLAZAS AND HOUSEHOLD PATIOS AT SEIBAL, GUATEMALA Daniel A. Bair, Richard E. Terry, Michael Shurtz, Rachel G. Bair Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 USA Prepared for submission to Latin American Antiquity. 1 Abstract Various criteria or lines of evidence have been used to identify ancient Maya marketplaces, including location near trade routes, artifactual evidence of trade, open space adjacent to transportation routes, proximity to public structures, low platforms and rock alignments to denote market spaces, and regular patterns in soil and floor chemical concentrations. Seibal was an important economic Maya polity controlling the trade routes along the Rio Pasión. The objectives of the study were to apply geochemical and geospatial analysis of the soils and floors from the Central Plaza in Group A of Seibal, to discover the anthropogenic chemical residues of P and heavy metals associated with the trade of foodstuffs and workshop items that may have been marketed there. Public access, causeways, reservoirs and a pattern of high P and metal concentrations are consistent with marketing of organic foodstuffs and workshop items within the Plaza. In contrast, geochemical patterns of the soils and floors of the East Court and Group C are consistent with ceremonial and household activities. Keywords: Seibal, Ceibal, Rio Pasión, marketplace, geochemical analysis, activity areas, phosphorus 2 Introduction Many ancient Maya sites were slowly abandoned and artifacts were moved or taken from their locus of ancient use either in ancient or modern times. Archaeological interpretation is often difficult when artifacts are displaced or altogether missing. Analysis of ancient human activities at archaeological sites can be facilitated by determination of certain elemental residues that persist in the soils and floors. In the humid tropics, in particular, high decomposition rates result in the complete loss of perishable artifacts, particularly those related to food products (Dahlin et al., 2009). Examination of soil chemical concentrations can elucidate areas where past activities repeated in a given locale would have left byproducts of such activities such as elevated concentrations of phosphorus (P) and other minerals. Anthropogenic P originates from plant and animal materials gathered for food and brought