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GN 366 MHT £& SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 3 [Whole Volume] $ r T*. -%**•IS****--*-"&* ^•••** **g*~ a Microenvironments in the Ocos area, Guatemala, a, View of beach sand and scrub, looking north toward the village of Ocos. b, The lagoon-estuary system just north and east of Ocos. c, Stilt-rooted red mangrove forest, d, The riverine habitat, looking upstream on the Rio Naranjo toward Salinas La Blanca. e, A tidal stream running through the savannas of the Pampa La Morena. /, The Naranjo River, looking downstream from Salinas La Blanca. i Early Cultures and Human Ecology in South Coastal Guatemala *% I -r* Michael D. Coe and Kent V. Flannery SMITHSONIAN PRESS Washington 1967 A Publication of the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION United States National Museum LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CARD 65-62172 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, 1967 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 • Price $3.50 Preface The program "Interrelationships of New World Cultures" was initiated in 1960 by the Insti tute of Andean Research and continued for 3 years with the support of the National Science Foundation. The investigations described in this report were carried out as Project C of the pro gram's third year. We wish to gratefully acknowledge the advice and encouragement of the formulator of the program, Dr. Clifford Evans, of the Smithsonian Institution, and the support of the treasurer of the Institute of Andean Research, Dr. Gordon F. Ekholm, of the American Museum of Natural History. Our colleagues and friends in Guatemala again provided the same generous aid which they had shown to the senior author during his previous field season of 1958. Our profound thanks go once more to Sr. Don Carlos Samayoa Chinchilla, director of the Instituto de Antropologia e Historia, and to Sr. Don Antonio Tejeda Fonseca, director of the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia y Etnologia. Dr. Francis Gall, of the Direction de Cartografia, furnished us with maps and excellent advice drawn from his extensive knowledge of Guatemalan geography and history. Our stay in the village of Ocos was made pleasant by the willing cooperation of the mayor, Sr. Don Juan Reyes. We feel deeply grateful to Sr. Don Vicente Cuadros and his family, who are the present occupants of the Salinas La Blanca site; many of the insights which we have had into human ecology in the Ocos area were gained from conversations with our friend Don "Chente." This report would have been an impossibility without the identifications so kindly furnished us by colleagues in the natural sciences. In particular, we owe debts of gratitude to Dr. Paul C. Mangelsdorf, of the Botanical Museum, Harvard University, for his report on ancient maize specimens; to Dr. Willard D. Hartman, of Yale University, and Dr. Fenner Chace, of the Smith sonian Institution, for aid in identifying crab fragments and modern crabs; to Dr. W. I. Follett, of the California Academy of Sciences, for reporting on fish remains; to Dr. Raymond A. Paynter, Jr., of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, who identified bird bones; to Dr. William J. Clench and Dr. Ruth Turner, also of Harvard, for establishing the species desig nation of some difficult mollusk specimens; to Dr. Matt Walton and Dr. George H. Myer, of the Department of Geology, Yale University, for their identifications of the raw materials used in stone artifacts and the analysis of pottery thin sections; to Dr. B. Francis Kukachka, of the Wood Identification Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Madison, Wis. for his report on charcoal samples; and to Dr. Matsuo Tsukada of the Department of Biology, Yale University, for his analysis of pollen samples from Salinas La Blanca. The four radiocarbon samples from Salinas La Blanca were analyzed in the Yale Geochrono- metric Laboratory by Dr. Minze Stuiver. We have benefited from conversations with archeological colleagues working on problems similar to ours, especially with Dr. Richard S. MacNeish and Fredrick Peterson, then with the Tehuacan Archaeological-Botanical Project; Gareth W. Lowe and Dee F. Green, of the New World Archaeological Foundation, and Dr. Stephan F. de Borhegyi and Dr. Lee Parsons, of the Milwaukee Public Museum. Our thanks go also to Sophie D. Coe, who oversaw the washing of the potsherds and was responsible for the cataloging of all specimens. All of the pottery drawings in this report are the work of Carl Wester, of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. We thank Nancy H. Flannery for the preparation of figures 3, 8, and 42. Tale University MDC New Haven, Conn. KVF Smithsonian Institution Washington, D.C. April 1, 1965 Contents Page PREFACE m INTRODUCTION 3 Problems in the study of the Formative period 3 Previous investigations in the Ocos area 5 Aims of the 1962 project in the Ocos area 6 THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE OCOS REGION 9 General remarks 9 Microenvironments 11 Beach sand and low beach scrub 11 Marine estuary and lagoon system 11 Mangrove forest 11 Riverine 12 Salt play as and madresalar 12 Mixed tropical forest 14 Tropical savanna 15 Cleared fields and second growth 15 EXCAVATIONS AT SALINAS LA BLANCA 17 Location and general features 17 Excavations 17 Reconstructed depositional history 20 THE FORMATIVE CERAMIC SEQUENCE ON THE GUATEMALAN COAST: A REVISION AND SYN THESIS 21 Introduction 21 The pottery of Salinas La Blanca: study and classification 22 The stratigraphic succession at Salinas La Blanca 23 Cuadros Phase 23 Jocotal Phase 23 Crucero Phase 24 Other pottery 24 The Formative pottery sequence viewed as a whole 24 Major pottery types and traditions of the coastal Formative 25 Types restricted to the Ocos Phase 25 Red-rimmed tecomate tradition 25 "Brushed" or "striated" tecomate tradition 28 Incised black ware tradition 32 Red monochrome tradition 35 Red and white bichrome tradition 37 Incised white ware tradition 42 Incised gray monochrome pottery 46 Zoned red-on-buff pottery 47 Orange monochrome and bichrome traditions 47 Streaky brown-black pottery 49 Minor pottery types and traditions of the coastal Formative 55 Ocos Phase 55 Cuadros Phase 55 Conchas Phase 56 Crucero Phase 56 Phase uncertain 57 VII VIII CONTENTS VOLUME 3 Page Miscellaneous coarse wares from Salinas La Blanca 58 Cuadros Phase 58 Jocotal Phase 58 Cerro del Tiestal Complex 59 Marcos Phase 59 Rare sherds or trade sherds from Salinas La Blanca 59 Cuadros Phase 59 Jocotal Phase 60 Crucero Phase 61 THE ARTIFACTS OF SALINAS LA BLANCA 63 General remarks 63 Cuadros Phase 63 Jocotal Phase 64 Crucero Phase 65 DATING THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SEQUENCE 67 Cultural stratigraphy in the Ocos area 67 Cultural affiliations of the Cuadros Phase 68 Cultural affiliations of the Jocotal Phase 69 Cultural affiliations of the Crucero Phase 70 Cultural affiliations of the Ocos Phase 70 SUBSISTENCE IN THE CUADROS AND JOCOTAL PHASES 71 Plant foods 71 Maize 71 Other cultigens 72 Animal foods 73 White-tailed deer 73 Homo sapiens 74 Birds 74 Reptiles 74 Fish 76 Crabs 77 Mollusks 80 Food preparation 80 Summary 82 SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE Oc6s AREA 84 Early Formative sites 85 Archeological criteria 85 Sites 85 Discussion 87 Middle Formative sites 87 Archeological criteria 87 Sites 87 Discussion 89 Late Formative sites 89 Archeological criteria 89 Sites 89 Discussion 89 Sites of the Cerro del Tiestal complex 91 Archeological criteria 91 Sites 91 Discussion 92 Late Classic sites 93 Archeological criteria 93 Sites. 95 Discussion 95 Post-Classic sites 97 Archeological criteria 97 Sites 97 Discussion 97 WHOLE VOLUME CONTENTS IX Page Sites of unknown affiliation 99 CONCLUSIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS 100 Summary of the Salinas La Blanca sequence 100 Ancient life in the Cuadros and Jocotal Phases 101 Patterns of land use in coastal Guatemala 102 Salinas La Blanca and the establishment of village life in Mesoamerica 102 The highland and coastal traditions 104 Village life and potterymaking 105 LITERATURE CITED 106 APPENDIX 1: Larger mammals and reptiles known from the Ocos transect 113 APPENDIX 2: Tables 11-13 118 APPENDIX 3: Report on mineralized corncobs and other prehistoric specimens from Salinas La Blanca, by Paul C Mangelsdorf 127 APPENDIX 4: Fish remains from Salinas La Blanca, an archeological site on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, by W. I. Follett 129 APPENDIX 5: Petrography of pottery thin sections from Salinas La Blanca, by George H. Myer 135 Tables TEXT Page 1. Chronology of the Guatemalan coast in 1961 6 2. Relationship of the stratigraphic cuts at La Victoria and Salinas La Blanca 67 3. Chronology of the Guatemalan coast 70 4. Maize cob remains from Salinas La Blanca 72 5. Impressions of fruit seeds from Salinas La Blanca 73 6. Mammal, bird, and reptile remains from Salinas La Blanca 76 7. Fish remains from Salinas La Blanca 76 8. Crab remains from Salinas La Blanca 77 9. Mollusks from Salinas La Blanca 78 10. Charcoal from hearths at Salinas La Blanca 82 APPENDIX 2 11. Distribution of pottery types by sherd count in Cuts 1 and 2, Salinas La Blanca 118 12. Decorative modes, Salinas La Blanca 122 13. Distribution of artifacts, Salinas La Blanca 126 APPENDIX 3 14. Characteristics of Salinas La Blanca mineralized cobs compared with those of modern Nal-Tel and Chapalote 127 15. Measurements and observations on mineralized cobs from Salinas La Blanca 128 Illustrations FIGURES Page 1. Map of southeastern Mesoamerica, showing the location of Salinas La Blanca and other sites mentioned in the text 2 2. Map of the Ocos area on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, with Salinas La Blanca and La Victoria located in relationship to some important microenvironments 10 CONTENTS VOLUME 3 3. Northeast-southwest transection of the Ocos area, showing microenvironments 13 4.