Paleoethnobotanical Remains and Land Use Associated With the Sacbe

at the Ancient Maya Village of Joya de Cerén

A thesis submitted to the Division of Graduate Studies and Research

of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

in the Department of Anthropology

of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences

2015

Venicia M. Slotten

B.A., Miami University 2012

Committee: Vernon L. Scarborough, Chair

Sarah E. Jackson

David L. Lentz

! ABSTRACT

Paleoethnobotanical research conducted during the 2013 field season at the Classic Maya archaeological site Joya de Cerén in El Salvador focused on the analysis of plant remains found on the surface and associated features of a Late Classic period sacbe (causeway) that were well protected beneath tephra deposited by the volcanic eruption of Loma Caldera around AD 650.

Plant remains were retrieved from the sacbe surface, adjacent drainage canals, and agricultural fields on either side of the sacbe. Because the plant remains found in association with this sacbe were well preserved, a rare occurrence in Mesoamerica, the data recovered from Cerén are quite significant to the study of Maya plant use activities as well as Maya causeways.

The project systematically collected 62 macrobotanical samples and 160 flotation samples processed in a water flotation tank. Through careful paleoethnobotanical analysis, more than 140,000 carbonized seeds, achenes, charcoal specimens, and other plant parts that were present on the cultural activity surfaces at Cerén when Loma Caldera erupted were recovered.

Three main categories of plant remains emerged from the data: annual crops, weedy species, and tree species. Prominently represented in these samples are Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes, Zea mays cob fragments, Phaseolus sp. cotyledons, Amaranthaceae seeds, Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes, Mollugo verticillata seeds, Portulaca oleracea seeds, Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds,

Physalis angulata seeds, and abundant charcoal remains. Recovered plant remains reveal trends associated with each cultural context as well as distance from the site center, and offer an essentially economic perspective of Maya sacbeob. The study reveals that the ancient sacbe supplied an easy, dry, and efficient mode of transportation of goods among Cerén’s agricultural fields.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to my advisor, David Lentz. I am extremely thankful to him for sharing his expertise and valuable guidance and encouragement. Your advice on both research as well as on my career have been priceless. I would also like to thank my committee members, Vernon Scarborough and Sarah Jackson, for serving as my committee members and for your thought-provoking comments and suggestions both in courses and with this research. I am very grateful to the National Science Foundation for their grant funding the 2013 field season at Cerén and to the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center and the Graduate Student Government Association at the University of Cincinnati for providing generous funding for travel to multiple conferences to support me in presenting my research.

I would like to thank my research colleagues at Cerén - Payson Sheets, Nancy Gonlin,

Christine Dixon, Rachel Egan, Alexandria Halmbacher, and Rocio Herrara - who supported me with sample collection and for teaching me so much about archaeological methods, Cerén, the

Maya, and the Zapotitan region of El Salvador all while surviving the multiple stresses presented to us while working in the field. This study wouldn’t have been possible without the fine efforts of the field workers as well. A special thank you to Julio Eleazar Garcia for effortlessly constructing the flotation device used this season. My deepest gratitude for the hard work and friendship from Mercedes Haydeé Ramírez de Garcia and Carla Renee Coca Muñoz, who assisted in the flotation and sorting process of the paleoethnobotanical samples while in Joya de

Cerén.

I wish to express my sincere thanks for the help and guidance of Susan Allen, whose archaeobotany class taught me much of what I know of the subject today. I am very grateful for

iv of the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope and other imaging devices at the University of Cincinnati.

Many thanks to the other Maya paleoethnobotanical students that I have met along the way who have created an insightful and supportive community both in the lab and while at conferences, including Kim Thompson, Lauren Santini, Maia Deidrick, Clarissa Cagnato, and

Nicole Hansel. I also greatly appreciate the supportive and intellectual community of the graduate students in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati.

Words cannot express how thankful I am to my friends and family for supporting me in this pursuit throughout my years at UC and encouraged me to strive towards my goal. I am entirely grateful to Eric Stetz, who has kept me sane throughout this adventure. I truly appreciate the encouragement and support that my parents, Carolyn Slotten, and Daniel Pritikin, and my siblings, Marcus Pritikin and Jennifer Pritikin, have given me while I pursued this degree.

Without them I would not be where I am today.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...... ii

Acknowledgements ...... iv

Table of Contents ...... vi

List of Figures ...... ix

List of Tables ...... xiii

Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 1

Environmental Setting ...... 3

Climate ...... 3

Volcanic History ...... 5

Plant Preservation in Mesoamerica ...... 7

History of Archaeological Research at Cerén ...... 9

Plant Species Previously Recovered ...... 15

Agricultural Practices ...... 20

Cultural Context ...... 23

Maya Sacbeob ...... 25

Theoretical Context ...... 34

Summary ...... 38

Chapter 2: Research Methodology ...... 40

Field Methods ...... 40

Sample Collection ...... 40

Water Flotation ...... 42

Testing the Recovery Rate ...... 46

Laboratory Methods ...... 47

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Sorting Plant Remains ...... 47

Seeds ...... 50

Wood Charcoal ...... 51

Fruits, Leaves, and Stems ...... 54

Maize ...... 54

Summary ...... 55

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion of Collected Plant Taxa ...... 56

Identified Taxa and Quantitative Measurements ...... 56

Annual Crops ...... 60

Weedy Species...... 68

Tree Species...... 81

Tree Crop Species ...... 83

Other Tree Species ...... 89

Chapter 4: Interpretations and Conclusions ...... 111

Sacbe ...... 111

Agricultural Fields ...... 114

Why are there so many weedy species within the agricultural fields? ...... 116

The Agricultural Inter-ridges ...... 121

Canals ...... 122

Cleared Areas ...... 125

Significance...... 127

Future Research ...... 129

References Cited...... 131

Appendix A: Analysis Sheet Examples ...... 165

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Appendix B: Floor Plans of Sample Collection ...... 169

Appendix C: Summary of Plant Remains Per Operation ...... 173

Appendix D: Summary of Plant Remains Per Context ...... 177

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Map showing the location of the excavated operations from the 2013 field season in relation to the rest of the Cerén village including excavations from the 2011 field season

(Redrawn from Sheets 2002:2; Sheets and Dixon 2013)………………………………………….2

Figure 1.2 Map of El Salvador showing Joya de Cerén and other nearby sites situated within the

Zapotitán Valley (Redrawn from Kaplan et al. 2015). ……………………………………….…..4

Figure 1.3 Ceren’s nearby water source, the Rio Sucio (Photograph by Venicia Slotten)………5

Figure 1.4 a) Lake Coatepeque, b) Lake Ilopango, c) the Santa Ana volcano complex

(Photographs by Venicia Slotten)…………………………………………………………………6

Fig. 1.5 View of the western portion of Operation AK: with the earthen sacbe in the foreground, the canal running north-south on the edge of the sacbe, agricultural ridges in the background, and a canal that leads perpendicular to the sacbe towards the west. ……………...…………………30

Figure 2.1 Materials used for collection of soil samples designated for flotation: trowel, brush,

2-Liter container, cloth bag, and index card labels………………………………………………42

Figure 2.2 Diagram showing the five contexts in which data collection took place (Drawn by

Venicia Slotten)…………………….……………………………………………………………43

Figure 2.3 Diagram of the flotation tank created for the 2013 field season (Drawn by Venicia

Slotten)……………………………………………..…………………………………………….44

Figure 2.4 The flotation procedure: a) sample gently poured into flotation tank by Venicia

Slotten and David Lentz and then lightly agitated with running water (Photograph by Jerry

Rabinowitz), b) contents of heavy and light fraction emptied into fine nylon mesh by Mercedes

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Haydeé Ramírez de Garcia and Venicia Slotten (Photograph by David Lentz), c) both fractions labeled and hung on clothesline to dry (Photograph by Venicia Slotten)………………………..46

Figure 2.5 Work station used for paleoethnobotanical analysis, showing the light microscope, forceps, brushes, and scale……………………………………………………………………….49

Figure 2.6 Environmental Scanning Microscope in the Advanced Materials Characterization

Center and the Sputter coater in the UC Chemical Sensors and Biosensors Laboratory used for charcoal analysis…………………………………………………………………………………53

Figure 2.7 Cob midsection view showing data collection points (Bird 1980: 327)……………..55

Figure 3.1 Ubiquity of major crop species recovered from Cerén in 2013……………………..60

Figure 3.2 Zea mays cob fragments recovered in 2013. Sample form numbers from left to right:

50007-001, 50034-001, 50033-001. All three of the cob fragments were found in the east agricultural field in operations AE, AI, and AH respectively……………………………………61

Figure 3.3 Zea mays L. kernel from the east agricultural inter-ridge in Operation AH ...…..…...61

Figure 3.4 Phaseolus vulgaris L. recovered in 2013. Sample form numbers from left to right:

40136-002, 40140-002. Both of the beans were found in the operation closest to the site center,

Op. AK, in the west canal and east agricultural inter-ridge, respectively……………………….64

Figure 3.5 Cucurbitaceae rind recovered from Operation AE…………………………………..65

Figure 3.6 Agave sp. tissue recovered from sample 50011-003………………………………...67

Figure 3.7 Weedy seeds and achenes recovered during the paleoethnobotanical collections in

2013 via water flotation and macrobotanical samples…………………………………………...68

Figure 3.8 Ubiquity of weedy species recovered in 2013 based on cultural features…………...69

Figure 3.9 Plot of AMS data calibrated using OxCal and acquired by the University of Arizona

AMS Facility……………………………………………………………………………………..72

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Figure 3.10 Scanning Electron Micrograph of a Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seed…………………75

Figure 3.11 Tree species identified in the 2013 paleoethnobotanical samples organized by overall weight of charcoal………………………………………………………………………..82

Figure 3.12 Ubiquity of tree species recovered in 2013 based on cultural features…………….83

Figure 3.13 cf. Acrocomia aculeata fruit fragments recovered in sample 40138-002………….84

Figure 3.14 Scanning Electron Micrographs of Persea americana a tree crop species recovered in 2013: c) transverse section, d) tangential section……………………………………………..86

Figure 3.15 cf. Psidium guajava mesocarp recovered from 40138-003………………………...88

Figure 3.16 Scanning Electron Micrographs of tree species recovered in 2013: a) Astronium graveleons transverse section, b) Cameraria latifolia transverse section, c) Metopium brownei transverse section, d) M. Brownei tangential section, e) Tabernaemontana sp. transverse section, f) Ehretia tinifolia transverse section, g) Jacaranda sp. transverse section, h) Capparaceae transverse section………………………………………………………………………………...90

Figure 3.17 Scanning Electron Micrograph of the transverse section of Clusia sp., a tree species recovered in 2013………………………………………………………………………………...95

Figure 3.18 Scanning Electron Micrographs of tree species recovered in 2013: a) Haematoxylum campechianum transverse section, b) H. campechianum tangential section, c) Nectandra cf. globosa transverse section d) Heteropterys sp. transverse section, e) Ficus sp. transverse section, f) Ficus sp. tangential section……………………………………………………………………96

Figure 3.19 Scanning Electron Micrographs of tree species recovered in 2013: a) Pinus sp. transverse section, b) Exostema sp. transverse section, c) Colubrina aborescens transverse section, d) C. aborescens tangential section, e) Casearia sp. transverse section, f) Casearia sp. tangential section……………………………………………………………………………….101

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Figure 3.20 Scanning Electron Micrographs of tree species in the Sapindaceae recovered in

2013: a) Allophyllus sp. transverse section, b) Allophyllus sp. tangential section, c) Exothea paniculata transverse section, d) E. paniculata tangential section, e) Matayba sp. transverse section, f) Matayba sp. tangential section………………………………………………………106

Figure 3.21 Scanning Electron Micrographs of Dunalia aborescens recovered in 2013: a) transverse section, b) tangential section………………………………………………………..108

Figure 3.22 Scanning Electron Micrograph of Ampleocera hottlei transverse section………..109

Figure 3.23 Light micrograph of cf. Celtis sp. fruit recovered from Operation AE…………...110

Figure 4.2 Spatial distribution of macro-botanical remains among the major cultural contexts sampled…………………………………………………………………………………………111

Figure 4.2 Weight distribution of the macro-botanical remains from the sacbe……………….112

Figure 4.3 Weight distribution of the macro-botanical remains within the agricultural fields...115

Figure 4.4 Aerial view of Operation AF, showing the west the visible difference between the conditions of the western (top left) and eastern (bottom right) drainage canals (Sheets and Dixon

2013:90)………………………………………………………………………………………...116

Figure 4.5 Plaster cast mold of a squash recovered from an agricultural inter-ridge in Operation

AE (Sheets and Dixon 2013:96)………………………………………………………………..122

Figure 4.6 Weight distribution of the macro-botanical remains within the canals…………….123

Figure 4.7 Distribution of Spilanthes cf. acmella across the various contexts encountered during the 2013 excavations……………………………………………………………………………124

Figure 4.6 Weight distribution of the macro-botanical remains within the cleared areas of

Operation AN…………………………………………………………………………………...125

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Plant species recovered from previous paleoethnobotanical studies at Cerén (Hood

2012; Lentz 1996; Lentz and Ramírez-Sosa 2002; Sheets et al. 2012; Sheets and Woodward

2002)……………………………………………………………………………………………..17

Table 3.1 Summary of the ancient plant remains recovered during the 2013 field season at Cerén, organized by taxonomic family name……………………………………………………………57

Table 3.2 Cob measurements of the only cob recovered with a full circumference preserved

(50034-001), according to the procedures outlined in Figure 2.7. The cob came from an agricultural ridge on the east of the sacbe, from inside of a trench excavated on the north edge of

Operation AI……………………………………………………………………………………..62

Table 3.3 Average measurements of Zea mays cobs at Cerén based on plaster cast molds (Lentz et al. 1996: 253). …………………………………………………………….…………………..62

Table 4.1 Plant remains recovered from within the sacbe when a trench was excavated in the northern portion of each operation in order to examine the interior structure of the causeway..113

Table 4.2 Weedy species recovered during 2013, showing lifeform (annual/perennial) and ubiquity…………………………………………………………………………………………119

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Joya de Cerén lies in the southeastern borderlands of the Maya area in western El

Salvador. This well-known archaeological site is situated in the Zapotitán Valley and within a ancient minor polity dominated by the nearby site of San Andrés. Remarkable preservation due to a volcanic eruption around 650 AD of Loma Caldera has allowed for the recovery of not just structures, ceramics, lithics, and other durable artifacts, but also an abundance of paleoethnobotanical remains. Preservation of these ancient plant remains is so spectacular that they were often recovered from visible household gardens and agriculture fields. Cerén was a small, rural, farming community that only had roughly 100 inhabitants (Sheets 2006). Many artifacts found at Cerén, besides the plants themselves, display the importance of plants in their daily lives including fiber made of agave, manos and metates used for grinding maize (Zea mays

L.), serving vessels with food residue still present, and incense burners used with copal (Protium copal [Schltdl. & Cham.] Engl.). Products found within the household storage at Cerén provide an exciting insight into plant use in small Maya communities that are usually invisible archaeologically.

I conducted paleoethnobotanical analysis from eight archaeological operations (Ops. AE-

AK, AN) at Joya de Cerén in the summer of 2013 that followed an earthen causeway, or sacbe

(Fig 1.1). Soil samples were collected from the sacbe, the canals along either side of it, and the adjacent agricultural fields where maize was cultivated. If the causeway was utilized for facilitating transportation of goods, it seems likely that the plant products being transported would be routinely and unintentionally deposited along the route. Any preserved botanical remains were collected to address the following questions: Do the recovered plant remains

1 mirror those which have been previously identified at the Cerén village and its agricultural fields? Since the plants remains were largely recovered from manmade constructions such as a sacbe and its canals, where did these recovered plant remains originate? Were they transferred from somewhere outside of the village or were they already known to be plants Cerénians used?

The context from where the plant remains were recovered could reveal significant trends (e.g.,

Figure 1.1 Map showing the location of the excavated operations from the 2013 field season in relation to the rest of the Cerén village including excavations from the 2011 field season (Redrawn from Sheets 2002:2; Sheets and Dixon 2013:3). 2 distance to the site center, type of context, directional relationship to the sacbe, etc.). The content found on the road surface will either match what is being found in the agricultural fields or it will differ. If the plant remains recovered from the surface of the sacbe are also found in the agricultural fields, a local origin can be determined. What is their relationship with the causeway? What agricultural practices do these archaeological plant remains suggest the Cerén inhabitants were practicing in their fields adjacent to the roadway? What function did the plant remains in this location support at the time of the volcanic eruption (agriculture, trade, ceremonial, or just natural vegetation)?

The first chapter will describe the background information and theory regarding the archaeological site, the surrounding environment, and sacbeob (causeway). Chapter 2 explains the methodology and instruments used in recovery and analysis of the paleoethnobotanical samples both in the field and in the laboratory. Chapter 3 is a presentation of the results from the analysis and Chapter 4 concentrates on a discussion of these results in relation to their respective contexts both within the Cerén village and beyond. The final chapter concludes and summarizes this study’s significance towards the understanding of the ancient Maya and also offers further directions that could advance paleoethnobotanical knowledge regarding the Maya.

Environmental Setting

Climate

The ancient village of Cerén is located in the northern end of the Zapotitán Valley of El

Salvador (Fig 1.2). The climate of the highlands is temperate and spring-like all year except for the more mountainous regions which get cooler at elevations between 2,200 and 3,000 meters.

The archaeological site is situated at an elevation of 450 masl and latitude of 14N. It is located within a tropical monsoon climate and receives an average of 1,700 mm ±300 mm of

3 precipitation annually (Sheets 2002). The vast majority (96%) of this falls between May and

October (Sheets 2002: 1). Much like most of Central America, Cerén experiences a very hot and dry season from January to April and a wet, rainy season from about May to December. The average temperature for the area is 24°C (75°F), with a slight decrease during December making the lows generally around 22°C (72°F) and an increase in April of up to 26°C (79°F) (Sheets

2002: 1).

Figure 1.2 Map of El Salvador showing Joya de Cerén and other nearby sites situated within the Zapotitán Valley (Redrawn from Kaplan et al. 2015).

There has not been significant climatic change within Mesoamerica for the past 3,000 years (Markgraf 1989), thus the present climate is a reasonable approximation of the climate during Cerén’s occupation in the Late Classic Period. However, the Zapotitán Valley’s natural environment has been heavily impacted by both ancient and modern human populations, even by the Maya. Phytoliths collected from the Tierra Blanca Joven (TBJ), in Cerén’s agricultural fields reveal that the area surrounding the site was dominated by grass phytoliths, along with some phytoliths representing squash and maize (Sheets et al. 2012: 277). Tierra Blanca Joven is a local 4 white material in El Salvador sourced to be from the tephra layer that resulted from the eruption of Ilopango in AD 536. This means that Cerén’s environment was more forested previous to the

Late Classic settlement. The many interior valleys and basins of the highlands have ideal climates and fertile soils for cultivating maize, and natural routes of communication via lakes and river systems (Coe 2011: 23). The Río Sucio runs just northeast of the village, supplying both the ancient and present-day community with a local source of water.

Figure 1.3 Cerén's nearby water source, the Rio Sucio (Photograph by Venicia Slotten).

Volcanic History

The Zapotitán Valley is surrounded by numerous volcanoes, many of which are still active. The San Salvador volcano complex is to the east and the Santa Ana volcano complex is towards the west of the site, leaving Cerén in quite an active region. Coatepeque had the most notable eruption from earlier periods, somewhere between 40,000 and 10,000 B.C., with a catastrophic impact that left a massive crater, which is now a lake (Sheets 2002: 2). Ilopango

5 erupted around A.D. 400-536, leaving behind Lake Ilopango just outside of San Salvador. This eruption destroyed all life within at least 20 km and created an uninhabitable environment within about 1000 km for more than a century with its 1 to 5 m deep layer of white acidic ash (Sheets

2002: 2). It took at least a century or two before the area could be inhabited again by humans because of the need for recovery of soils, plants, and fauna. Resettlement of the Zapotitán

Valley was certainly substantial by the Late Classic period, where it can be said that a cultural florescence took place with the primary regional center of the area, Campana San Andrés, at its peak (Black 1983: 83).

a b c Figure 1.4 a) Lake Coatepeque, b) Lake Ilopango, c) the Santa Ana volcano complex (Photographs by Venicia Slotten).

The village of Joya de Cerén occupied the area for a little over a century until it was completely buried in ash by a relatively small eruption that only covered a few square kilometers, Loma Caldera. The vent where the eruption occurred is just 600 m north of the village, leaving the center buried under 545 cm thick deposits (Miller 2002: 13-15). Fifteen units, or layers, of ash were deposited during the eruption which could have lasted anywhere from a few hours to several days (Miller 2002: 16). Tephra falls and pyroclastic lava bombs caused destruction of many of the village’s structures and fields which would have caught on fire or collapsed. The rapid deposition of tephra on the site surface provided excellent preservation

6 of a variety of artifacts and plant remains in the village (Lentz and Ramirez-Sosa 2002: 31;

Sheets 2002: 2).

The area’s volcanic history continued even after Loma Caldera, with the next major eruption of the San Salvador volcano around A.D. 1000 and also Playón Volcano in 1658

(Sheets 2002: 2). Other more recent notable eruptions include San Marcelino in 1722, San

Salvador in 1917 and Izalco. Izalco, which is a part of the Santa Ana complex, was continuously erupting from 1770 to 1965 (Fig 1.4) (Sheets 2006: 6).

Even with the ever-present danger of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, people have heavily inhabited the highlands for thousands of years. Volcanic soils are very fertile, so they provided an attractive environment for human activity (Sheets 2006: 34). However, human activity has greatly impacted the environment of the highlands. The original highland forest was a tropical deciduous forest dominated by trees such as ceiba (Ceiba pentandra L. Gaertn.), guanacaste (Enterolobium cyclocarpum [Jacq.] Griseb.), volador (Terminalia obovata

Cambess.), fig (Ficus spp.) ramón (Brosimum alicastrum Sw.), and Spanish cedar (Cedrela spp.)

(Lentz et al. 1996: 248).

Plant Preservation in Mesoamerica

Recovering evidence of ancient plants in Mesoamerica is challenging due to the generally poor preservation of organic materials in the tropical environment. Environmental factors, cultural plant use practices, and formation processes can alter the paleoethnobotanical record.

Cultural formation processes include how human behavior modifies plant remains after their actual use, such as discard or abandonment (Schiffer 1996). Noncultural formation processes are the means in which the natural environment has an impact on plant remains (Schiffer 1996: 7).

Together these variables comprise the assemblages of plant remains that archaeobotanists collect.

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The cultural formation processes that affect archaeological plant remains continue past their deposition; sampling strategies and techniques used to analyze the remains by paleoethnobotanists to collect, sort, and ultimately identify these remains can also influence their state of preservation and morphological structures. These processes combine to skew the paleoethnobotanical record and favor the preservation of more dense, and large plant materials

(Pearsall 2000: 12). This means that plant parts such as wood, seeds, and nutshells are more likely to be recovered than fleshy fruits, roots, or herbs that would generally turn to ash when charred (Popper 1988: 56).

A plant remain may “undergo many transformations between the time it was harvested by someone in the past and the time when it is quantified, measured, and reported on in an archaeological monograph” (Miksicek 1987: 212). Organic preservation can vary depending on the natural environment and is more likely in extreme conditions. Environmental conditions that favor organic preservation include freezing, acidity, waterlogging, and aridity (Miksicek 1987:

214). None of these conditions are commonly encountered at archaeological sites in the wet and dry Neotropics, especially in the Maya area. In an open archaeological site, the plant macroremains that have been preserved for long periods of time are generally carbonized

(Miksicek 1987: 219). Experimental archaeology has shown that plants become carbonized when exposed to temperatures between 250-500° C and under low oxygen conditions (Lopinot

1984). The carbonization process protects plant material from further organic decay by reducing it to about 60% elemental carbon (Meyer 1980: 403).

Unlike with a catastrophic event such as the volcano that buried Cerén, carbonization of plant remains in archaeological contexts usually occurs when a plant part is burned as fuel, charred during use, or burned during a fire of a structure or field, whether accidental or

8 intentional. The eruption of Loma Caldera has allowed for a greater preservation and recovery rate of plant remains, especially in contexts that normally would not experience burning activities. The contexts investigated in this study likely experienced persistent trampling by human agency because of the sacbe, which can considerably alter the reliability and completeness of the plant remains. The paleoethnobotanical samples collected for this study provide a rare opportunity to explore the plants utilized by the Maya that were not necessarily incorporated into a commonly carbonized context such as a hearth.

History of Archaeological Research at Cerén

Cerén is an important archaeological site because of its excellent preservation of a context that is not often given the most attention in Maya studies: the commoner lifestyle. The small village was rapidly abandoned and buried in volcanic ash, allowing for the recovery of perishable artifacts and materials that usually would not withstand a long length of time, such as earthen architecture and agricultural ridges. With rapid abandonment and burial, archaeologists view a snapshot in time of a context that was not scavenged or heavily altered as the villagers departed. Such rich preservation sets Cerén up as a model for interpreting less well-preserved commoner settlements in the Maya area.

The site was discovered in 1976 when a bulldozer that was creating foundations for grain silos exposed one of the earthen households. An archaeologist from El Salvador’s National

Museum determined that the exposed structure was relatively recent and the construction project continued. In 1978, Payson Sheets and his students examined the structure revealed by the bulldozer cut during their archaeological survey of the Zapotitán Valley. Sheets himself was unsure of the structure’s age and therefore collected some of the thatch roofing for radiocarbon dating. The thatch was shown to be around 1,400 years old, so Sheets and his team began to

9 partially excavate the structure (Sheets 2002, 2006). Since then, geophysical surveys have detected multiple structural features of the Cerén village and assisted with the placement of excavation operations (Conyers and Spetzler 2002: 24). Archaeological excavations have since unearthed four distinct households that include household structures, a sweat bath, a public building, a religious structure, small garden plots near households, and intensively cultivated agricultural fields.

The majority of structures at Cerén were made of bajareque (wattle and daub) walls with earthen columns in each corner, with the exception of the sweat bath and the public building which had solid clay walls (Sheets 2002: 41-43). The structures had grass-thatched roofs and were built atop a fired earthen platform made out of fine clay. The household structures were all oriented 30˚ east of north, aligning them with the Rio Sucio (Sheets 2006). The interior structural elements varied between each structure and included raised benches, niches, and high shelves

(Sheets 2002: 44).

Four separate households have been identified at the site based on their spatial distributions (Sheets 2002: 43). The first household excavated at Cerén, Household 1, is comprised of multiple structures: a domicile (where people would have slept), a storehouse, a kitchen, and a ramada (an earthen platform with no walls) (Beaudry-Corbett et al. 2002: 46-51).

The exterior space surrounding Household 1 had a variety of plant species being cultivated, which were all identified through plaster casts. The cultivated crops were identified from dental plaster casts made from voids in the volcanic ash found during excavations. The original plants have decayed and leave impressions in the ash that can be recovered with dental plaster. Maize was grown in a small milpa, and a there was also a kitchen garden with piñuela (Bromelia balansae Mez), malanga (Xanthosoma sagittifolium [L.] Schott.), cebadilla (Schoenocaulon

10 officianale [Schltdl. & Cham.] A. Gray ex Benth.), and manioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz)

(Sheets and Woodward 2002: 189). The household had an abundance of spindle whorls, metates, and other groundstone tools, leading Beaudry-Corbett et al. (2002) to argue that the residents of

Household 1 produced a surplus of thread, ground maize, and groundstone tools. These surplus materials could be exchanged for other items within the village and perhaps even traded outside the village in exchange for exotic goods at markets like Campana San Andrés.

The next household at Cerén, Household 2, has two known structures: a domicile and a storehouse (McKee 2002a: 59). Similar to the first household, the second one had two milpas for maize growing nearby. Also like the first household, a specialization of painted organic materials has been interpreted from the abundance of paint fragments, cinnabar, and hematite in the storehouse. The temascal (sweat bath) found at Cerén, the only adobe sweat bath excavated in the Maya region so far, is close to Household 2 and was likely constructed and maintained by the members of this household (McKee 2002b; Sheets 2006: 95-97). There is a doughnut-shaped vent in the bajareque domed roof of this structure that would have let out steam that was created by the fire chamber found within, as is described in ethnographic studies of similar structures in

Mesoamerica (Cresson 1938). Sweat baths are traditionally used for personal hygiene and for ritual purposes (McKee 2002b: 89).

The third household has only been partially excavated, with just the kitchen exposed.

Found within the structure was a metate, a possible hearth, and a large ceramic storage vessel that was filled with an unidentified red liquid (Calvin 2002). These artifacts likely indicate that the function of the structure was for food preparation.

The final known household at Cerén, Household 4, is represented by the excavated structure known as the storehouse. Materials found in this structure include a maize crib laid on

11 a bed of leaves, a metate covered with cottonseed (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fragments, some vessels containing more cottonseeds (likely as storage), a vessel containing cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) seeds and fruits, a portable fence made from mirasol (Tithonia rotundifolia [Mill.] S.F.

Blake), a ladle incensario, and chili (Capsicum annuum L.) seeds (Gerstle and Sheets 2002: 74-

78; Lentz and Ramírez-Sosa 2002). In addition to storage, the structure also served as a workshop for agave (Agave sp.) fibers and for painting with hematite. Several rows of agave were cultivated adjacent to Structure 4, amounting to approximately 70 plants. Additionally, numerous pairs of sticks were found associated with the household that would have been used to depulp the agave leaves. The surplus of plants and the associated tools supports the idea that this structure housed the fiber production. Other recovered features and plants surrounding the structure were a row of chili plants, a cacao tree, and a guava (Psidium guajava L.) tree (Gerstle and Sheets 2002: 79).

There are other structures that have been excavated and exposed at Cerén that are not associated with a household but rather with a civic complex and a religious complex. The civic complex includes a public building, a plaza, and a storehouse (Gerstle and Sheets 2002). The largest structure that has been excavated at Cerén is the public building. Two large benches facing each other in the front room help support this function as a public area. The benches were likely a space for community elders to make village-related decisions and settle disputes (Sheets

2006: 96). The storehouse adjacent to this building has only been partially excavated, but it did contain some interesting artifacts including a turtle carapace and uncommon ceramic vessels that would have been used for community events (Gerstle and Sheets 2002).

The religious complex, or Structures 10 and 12, was a non-residential space used for community feast, festivals, and divination (Brown and Gerstle 2002; Simmons and Sheets 2002).

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Structure 10 operated as a storage space and production area for festival paraphernalia. The archaeological evidence that suggests festival activities include materials dealing with food preparation, food dispensing, storage of ceremonial goods and food, and maintenance of the surrounding plaza (Brown and Gerstle 2002: 100). Plant species stored for festival use in

Structure 10 include maize, beans (Phaseolus spp.), squash, and achiote (Bixa orellana L.). The structure has several items indicating a ceremonial nature, such as a deer skull headdress and an obsidian blade with traces of human blood on it. Adjacent to the ceremonial Structure 10 is

Structure 12, a space where divination was likely practiced. Within the artifact assemblage for this structure is a female figurine, an animal figurine, manos, metates, and spindle whorls

(Sweely 1995). A ceramic ring, a deer antler, shell fragments, a pile of Phaseolus vulgaris beans, and curated obsidian blades found within the structure are viewed as offerings according to

Sheets and Simmons (2002). Similar materials have been reported as ritual tools used by Maya shamans in ethnographic studies (Sweely 1995; Vogt 1969; Wagley 1949).

In 2007 excavations at Cerén began to explore the area south of the village, an effort to investigate if the inhabitants maintained agricultural fields outside the extent of their immediate residences. Two exploratory test pits encountered massive planting beds that were 7 to 10 times larger than those previously found in the village (Sheets 2009: 6). This investigation continued in 2009 and revealed intensively cultivated and harvested fields of manioc, fields of maize not yet harvested, and also cleared areas just 200 meters south of the village center. The maize and manioc were planted in a series of ridges, similar to the kitchen gardens and milpas within the village center.

Since the manioc plants in the southern fields were so numerous, they signified that manioc was a staple crop at Cerén (Sheets et al. 2011). The crop has been recovered previously

13 within the Cerén village, in the kitchen garden of Household 1 (Lentz et al. 1996; Sheets and

Woodward 2002), but evidence for its use elsewhere in the Maya area is sparse due to its poor preservation archaeologically compared to Ceren where it can be recovered using the plaster cast technique. Seeds have been recovered from Tamaulipas and Chiapas (Flannery 1982), some stems were identified at Cuello (Miksicek 1991: 80), and manioc pollen has been recovered from northern Belize (Pohl et al. 1996). The manioc beds found at Cerén had stakes of manioc found to have been planted just days before the Loma Caldera eruption and some tubers still present that were missed from the harvest (Sheets et al. 2012: 264).

During 2009, below the Tierra Blanca Joven tephra platform in Operation P, a shallow sheet midden with lithics, sherds, and plant macrofossils was encountered (Sheets et al. 2011).

Operation P is located south of the village, near the manioc fields discussed previously (Sheets

2009: 5). Abundant plant remains recovered from this midden included maize, common beans, pine charcoal (Pinus sp.), and various hardwood charcoal such as logwood (Haematoxylon campechianum L.) and copal (Hood 2012: 58).

The sacbe in which I conducted paleoethnobotanical studies was initially encountered during the 2011 field season in Operation S, just south of the village and north of the manioc fields, and revealed a white layer of tephra as the uppermost layer (Sheets et al. 2011). This white layer was composed of Tierra Blanca Joven ash from the Ilopongo eruption, as discussed earlier. The white tephra is significant because Maya sacbeob are oftentimes coated with a white plaster, or in Ceren’s case, volcanic ash. This operation is located just north of the southern boundary of the Cerén Archaeological Park. Following this discovery, Ops. U and W also revealed sections of the earthen causeway, giving the structure an estimated length of 42 meters.

The primary research goals of the 2013 field season aimed to further document the sacbe that had

14 been discovered in terms of its extent, construction, and maintenance. The degree of maintenance of the road and its adjacent agricultural fields could assist in interpretation of the socio-political economy of the village by determining if upkeep of the sacbe was performed by local farmers, work groups, or a higher political organizing force (Sheets and Dixon 2013: 20).

Another goal of the season was to determine the extent of the Cerén sacbe in an effort to explain its cultural significance within the village. Depending on what structure it issues from in the village, it could have various meanings. Structures associated with either political authority

(Structure 3) or religious power (Structure 10) are near the southern end of the village (Sheets and Dixon 2013: 21). Further explanation of sacbeob roles will be discussed in the following chapter. The paleoethnobotanical remains recovered from the causeway add an additional perspective into its past functions during the Late Classic period.

The most recent excavations at the site, during 2013, were focused on continued exploration of the earthen sacbe and agricultural production at Cerén (Sheets and Dixon 2013:

191). Documentation of the sacbe construction techniques as well as the socio-political implications for sacbe maintenance informed our understanding of the site’s cultural organization. The sacbe had an average width of 187 cm, an average height of 21 cm, and an average slope of 6 degrees to the west and 3 degrees to the south. Two earlier versions of sacbeob were encountered in trenches of the already known roadway, revealing the possibility of studying the development of the site before the Loma Caldera eruption.

Plant Species Previously Recovered at Cerén

Paleoethnobotanical research in the Maya region has identified a diverse set of plant species used by ancient Mesoamericans, many of which have been contributed by research at the exceptionally preserved Cerén site (Table 1.1). Foods consumed by the Maya in the past were

15 similar to the traditional diet of Maya peoples still living in the area today, with the exception of some new plants and animals introduced after the Spanish Conquest (such as rice and wheat).

The core of the ancient Maya diet consisted of maize, beans, and squashes. However, investigations at Cerén have shown that a variety of root crops such as manioc and malanga were also major staple crops, at least among the inhabitants of Joya de Cerén (Sheets et al. 2012).

Root crops are not widely present in Maya archaeobotanical studies due to their fleshy nature, which preserves poorly in seasonally wet areas. Other root crops thought to have been exploited by the ancient Maya, but have not been recovered at Cerén include sweet potato (Ipomea batatas

[L.] Lam.), and jicama (Pachyrhizus erosus [L.] Urb.) (Lentz et al. 1996, 2014b). Evidence for sweet potato was found in Middle Preclassic deposits at Tikal (Lentz et al. 2014a), but thus far not at Cerén.

Evidence for maize consumption has been recorded at nearly every Maya site where systematic archaeobotanical studies have been conducted. Even though the crop is well suited for the lowland areas, it has been found throughout the Maya region. Morphologically, the majority of the maize plant parts identified at Cerén resemble the Chapalote-Nal-Tel complex (Staller et al. 2010). It is identified by its short ears, with 8-14 rows and smooth, rounded kernels (Staller et al. 2010: 363). Based on present practices among the living Maya, maize was prepared by first being dried, removed from the cob, and then soaked in water and lime to remove the casing around the kernels. This process increases the food’s nutritional value and also releases amino acids that would otherwise not be utilized when consumed (Staller et al. 2010: 363). Maize is then ground on a metate and mixed with water to form a dough that can be made into flat tortillas. The tortillas are cooked on a comal (griddle) or wrapped in palm leaves and steamed in a clay pot to make tamales (Flannery 1982: 102).

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Table 1.1 Plant species recovered from previous paleoethnobotanical studies at Cerén (Hood 2012; Lentz 1996; Lentz and Ramírez-Sosa 2002; Sheets et al. 2012; Sheets and Woodward 2002).

Annual Crops Trees Capsicum annuum [chili pepper] Acrocomia aculeata [coyol] Cucurbita spp. [squash] Aspidosperma spp. [white malady] Lagenaria siceraria [bottle gourd] Bixa orellana [achiote] Phaseolus spp. [common bean, lima] Byrsonima crassifolia [nance] Zea mays [maize] Casearia sp. [café de monte] Cedrela odorata [Spanish cedar]

Root Crops Celtis iguanaea [hackberry] Manihot esculenta [manioc] Crescentia alata [calabash] Xanthosoma sagittifolium [malanga] Cupania dentata [grande betty] Dalbergia sp. [black rosewood]

Fibrous Plants Ficus spp. [fig] Agave sp. [agave] Haematoxylum campechianum [logwood] Gossypium hirsutum [cotton] Hymenaea courbaril [palo colorado] Manilkara sapota [sapodilla]

Other Useful Plants Muntingia calabura [capulín] Arundinella sp. [rabo de gato] Nectandra sp. [timber sweet] Bromelia balansae [wild pine, pinuela] Persea americana [avocado] Cyperus sp. [tule] Pinus sp. [pine] Dasylirion sp. [sotol] Protium copal [copal] cf. Hamelia patens [scarlet bush] Prunus cf. brachybotrya [escobo] Schoenocaulon officinale [cebadilla] Psidium guajava [guava] Tithonia rotundifolia [daisy] Pterocarpus sp. [bloodwood] Trachypogon spicatus [spear grass] Spondias spp. [jocote] Theobroma cacao [cacao]

The common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the second part of the famous

Mesoamerican triad. Beans normally do not preserve well in the archaeological record and are quite scarce for the lowland Maya. Both common and lima (P. lunatus L.) beans have been recovered at Cerén, preserved by the handfuls in ceramic vessels and storage units (Kaplan et al.

2015). A variety of different kinds of beans are still grown today, but in the Maya highlands the

17 common bean is the most popular. The combination of corn, through tamales or tortillas, with beans provides most of the protein and amino acids essential to human nutrition (Bitocchi 2012;

Beebe at al 2013). Interestingly, smaller sized (most likely wild) Phaseolus sp. seeds have been found at both Cerén and Copán (Lentz 1991; Kaplan et al. 2015). These wild beans indicate that both elite and commoners in the Late Classic were using wild beans as a source of food in addition to their cultivated supply.

Squash (Cucurbita sp.) is the third component of the triad, providing various nutrients, carbohydrates, and vitamins. Squash works well with maize and bean crops because it can be planted along with the main crop, between the stalks (Lentz 1999: 11). Both the flesh of the squash and the seeds are consumed. The seeds can be dried, roasted, and incorporated into sauces. A plant cast of C. pepo L. was recovered from the most recent field season at Cerén

(Sheets and Dixon 2013: 96), found in between the maize ridges in its own “inter-ridge” in the agricultural field. This was not a surprise because several of the seeds had been recovered in previous field seasons.

Chili pepper seeds have been for the most part absent from Maya paleoethnobotanical studies, with the exception of Cerén, which has an abundant amount of chili seeds, peduncles, and rinds in storage rooms hanging from the rafters and also stored in containers (Lentz and

Ramirez-Sosa 2002: 35). The Maya consumed chilis fresh, roasted, or dried as a condiment. Use of chili peppers can still be seen today among the living Maya such as the Kekchi Maya in

Guatemala (Wilk 1997).

The diet was further supplemented by fruits that were domesticated or collected wild from the forest. A diverse set of tree taxa have been recovered over the years during archaeological excavations at Cerén in the form of carbonized wood, fruits, and other plant parts.

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Some notable tree species recovered include avocado (Persea americana Mill.), calabash

(Crescentia alata Kunth), cacao, fig (Ficus sp.), white malady (Aspidosperma sp.), pine (Pinus oocarpa Schiede ex Schltdl.), Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata L.), timber sweet (Nectandra sp.), escobo (Prunus cf. brachybotra Zucc.), and grande betty (Cupania dentata DC.) (Hood 2012;

Lentz 1996; Lentz and Ramírez-Sosa 2002). Many of these deciduous and evergreen tropical species parallel past reconstructions of the ancient Zapotitan Valley forests (Daugherty 1969).

Plant remains recovered in the Maya area archaeologically do not solely reflect food resources, but also reveal plants that were utilized as fibers for textiles, pigments, and as fuel. At

Cerén, cotton seeds were recovered from a metate in a storage area where it was being ground for oil extraction (Lentz and Ramirez-Sosa: 35). Cotton was a source of fibers for clothing, utilized for oil, and other purposes. The oil could have been used as a base for paints or other purposes, but its context at Cerén suggests that it was being used for cooking purposes to add fats to the diet where it might otherwise have been deficient. Another fibrous plant found at Cerén with abundant samples is agave, with extensive casts found in a garden plot adjacent to one of the households (Sheets 2002). This would have been their main source for fiber twine to be used in textiles and could have been combined with various dye plants such as indigo (Indigofera suffructicosa Mill.) and inkwood.

The Zapotitan Valley has clearly been altered through anthropogenic activities, as evidenced by the identified carbonized grass remains of Trachypogon spicatus (L. f.) Kuntze, a species that is now rare in El Salvador (Lentz et al. 1996). The grass was used as thatch roofing atop the structures excavated in the Cerén village. Since the species was used as a roofing material, it likely grew in large quantities within the valley during the Late Classic Period.

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However, today the grass in the region has disappeared due to competition from invasive species of Old World grasses, overgrazing by livestock, and agriculture.

Agricultural Practices

Environmental diversity was critical to the development of Maya civilization. Even though hunting and foraging were a significant source of protein and food sources for the Maya, the growth of their civilization depended on large permanently settled populations that were supported by agriculture. On the Mesoamerican landscape, maize is the most prominent crop, with the traditional field being called the milpa. Milpas are not just simple agricultural fields however, in that they may be visually dominated by maize but also incorporate many other crops including a variety of weeds that serve as greens, herbs, medicine, pesticides and herbicides

(Ford 2008). The milpas at Cerén were buried during the maturation phase of the first planting

(Sheets and Woodward 2002: 185). Maize was planted on the tops of ridges that were 10-20 cm high and spaced generally about 70 cm apart. This separation likely eased the infiltration of rainwater and avoided compaction of soil around the roots of the plants. Many of the maize stalks were doubled over to dry in the field, a practice that is still common in Mesoamerican agriculture (Sheets and Woodward 2002). The agricultural ridges were all oriented 30˚ east of north, aligning themselves with both the village household structures and the Rio Sucio.

The earliest Maya farmers harvested rich and naturally replenished riverbank soils.

However when colonizing new forest areas beyond the riverbanks, the farmers adapted to the landscape using swidden or slash and burn agriculture. The outfield plots would have been located away from the house compounds but within the settlement boundaries, and planted cyclically (Lentz 1991: 283). Swidden agriculture involved clearing the fields from overgrowth or fresh forests, burning the debris, and planting a field until the soil is exhausted. After harvest

20 a field may be planted for a second year, but rarely a third. An estimate of four or more years of a fallow field is necessary for stable agriculture with swidden agriculture (Wiseman 1978: 78-

80). Large trees and species that provided wild foods or other useful products were probably left to grow with the regular crops.

Swidden agriculture cannot support large, concentrated populations and keeps people more dispersed over the landscape. For this reason it is thought to be the earliest form of nonintensive agriculture for the Maya (Ford 2008; Lentz 1999; Flannery 1982), but as population increased more intensive practices were adopted. This could have a shortening of fallow periods using weeding and intercropping where maize and beans were grown together. These sorts of practices would have greatly increased the efficiency of the swidden method by decreasing competition for the food plants, reducing soil depletion, and even replenishing nutrients in the soil. The high-diversity and high-performance milpa is closely linked to the forests around it in such a way that it mimics their composition and structure in order to thrive (Ford 2008: 149).

Continuous maintenance and weeding of a field would have been strenuous work for the ancient

Maya because they did not have steel tools and instead relied on flint or obsidian tools.

Other agricultural methods which produced more food and larger concentrations of people were also practiced by the ancient Maya. These methods may have required more work in the initial stages of development, but they allowed settlements to enlarge in terms of concentrations (Schlesinger 2001). Terracing has been found in the Maya highlands archaeologically, and it is still used some today as a more intensive agriculture that supports more continuous resources (Beach and Dunning 2009). Raised fields were built up in swamp environments, creating man-made islands with fertile soil. These would have been quite productive because the canals being drained onto the islands would have renewed and

21 replenished the fields. These raised fields are not used today in the Maya highlands except for experimental purposes and were not found to have been used by the ancient Maya at Cerén.

Households also produced a variety of foods in kitchen garden plots along side the houses. The soil would be constantly replenished by refuse from the household. Modern Maya often grow their fruit trees in dooryard gardens, and these produce not only food but provide shade for the house compound (Lentz 1991: 283; Sharer 2009: 39). Plants raised in the kitchen gardens included ornamental flowers, cash and subsistence crops like maize and beans, and also perennial shrubs, vines, and trees. Found in kitchen gardens are medicinal herbs such as apoztes

(Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin & Clemants), crops like chili, arborescent plants like

Yucca guatamalensis Baker, and fruit and shade trees (Wiseman 1978: 81). Kitchen gardens provided a space for activities with shade and could be easily fertilized from plant residues and human and animal wastes from the household.

Cerén reveals the remains of both household gardens and maize fields. Food crops under cultivation that were recovered include maize, cacao, manioc, malanga, and agave. The household garden preserved at Cerén showed a series of six rows with plants spaced 75 cm apart.

One row contained manioc and malanga, while the other five contained malanga and cebadilla.

Cebadilla is a medicinal plant that has the ability to relieve upset stomachs. Another household garden as excavated at Cerén contained over seventy agave plants and a cacao tree. Household gardens are thought to have been present at other Maya polities such as Tikal which has been described as a “green city” because of the ideal spacing present between households for gardens

(Lentz and Hockaday 2009: 9).

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Cultural Context

Cerén was not the only settlement in the Zapotitán Valley when the volcanic eruption of

Loma Caldera occurred. The other sites in the valley also had Maya architecture and artifacts, leaving open the possibility of trade and communication between the inhabitants of the area. The largest Maya settlement in the valley was Campana San Andres, which was just a few kilometers to the south of Cerén. This would have been Cerén’s closest marketplace for exchanging goods and even ideas because it was the religious, economic, and political center for the Classic Period in the area (Sheets 2000: 217; Sheets 2002). San Andres had an extensive ritual complex with an elevated plaza, pyramidal mounds, and platforms. The center would have been capable of large- scale religious events that would have included communities from across the valley, including

Cerén (Black 1983: 80; Sheets 2006: 11). Architectural styles and goods such as jade, obsidian,

Copador ceramics, and a flint eccentric have been recovered from San Andres and other sites in the area, even at Cerén. All of these materials are exotic trade items that show signs of Maya cultural influence from the Southern Highlands (Sheets 2000: 220). However, the valley is part of the Southeastern Maya periphery, perhaps explaining its lack of hieroglyphs.

The population of the entire Zapotitán Valley during the late Late Classic period (AD 600-

900) is estimated to be between 40,000 and 100,000 people (70-180 people/ km²) according to an archaeological survey, which recorded 54 sites and assessed their time of occupation and artifact assemblage (Black 1983: 72-83). Settlements in the area ranged from regional centers, large villages, small villages, to hamlets (Sheets 2002: 3). Population density was focused around permanent water sources (within 100 meters) such as Laguna Ciega de Zapotitán, Lake

Zapotitán, and Rio Sucio (Black 1983: 88). The settlement system of the Zapotitán Valley had a hierarchical system of settlements according to Black (1983) with Campana San Andrés at the

23 top and remote hamlets at the bottom (Sheets 2002: 3).

Hierarchically, just below San Andrés are secondary regional centers (Black 1983: 72).

There are two Late Classic secondary regional centers in the Zapotitán Valley: La Virgen and La

Cuchilla. Both of these sites exhibit sizable pyramid architecture, elite residences, and occupational specialization (Black 1983: 79; Sheets 2000: 217). Like Campana San Andrés, it is likely that these secondary regional centers played a role in the distribution of exotic trade goods to smaller villages, as was done at San Andrés. Considerable numbers of obsidian tools and debitage have been found at at La Virgen and La Cuchilla, therefore indicating the processing of obsidian macrocores by occupational specialists (Sheets 1983: 215). La Cuchilla has a total occupational sequence that could have lasted over 1,000 years and was discovered by a roadcut that exposed a cache of Preclassic vessels (Black 1983: 79), similar to Cerén’s discovery.

Cerén is categorized as a small village whose population was probably only around 100

(Sheets 2000: 217). According to Black’s (1983: 77) survey estimations, there were over 100 small villages within the Zapotitán Valley between the Late Classic and Late Postclassic periods.

These settlements ranged in size from 23,000 m2 to 122,500 m2 and they rarely had architectural features preserved when the survey was performed. With Cerén’s exceptional preservation in comparison to these other small villages, it can act as a model for commoner sites which have been less extensively excavated and have generally very poor preservation. The smaller settlements in the valley, like Cerén, primarily focused on agricultural activities and cultivating maize, manioc, beans, and squash. Many material goods like food, clothing, ceramics, tools, and ground vessels were produced within the communities. Artifacts found at Ceren show that the community created an excessive amount of fiber using agave produced within the village.

Commoner settlements likely had a good deal of autonomy. They could settle internal disputes

24 and participate in religious activities that were separate from the larger-scaled events held at a primary regional center like San Andrés (Sheets et al. 2011).

The valley experienced a minor population decline in the Early Postclassic period and a shift into relatively larger sites rather than numerous hamlets (Black 1983: 83). Pipil, indigenous peoples closely related to the Maya both with their language and mythology, began to migrate into the area but artifactual evidence did not yield a very strong presence, with a concentration at the Pipil site of Cihuatán located about 35 km east of the valley and Cuscatlán near present-day

San Salvador. The valley continued to be dominated by Pipil until the time of the Conquest

(Daugherty 1969: 119).

Maya Sacbeob

Across a dense, expansive, and tropical rainforest, the ancient Maya built sizable masonry roads of a quality unrivalled in the preindustrial world. These elevated stone causeways are emerging in Maya studies as one of the most enduring features of elite Maya architecture from the Preclassic period up to the Conquest (Shaw 2008: 4). Sophisticated causeway systems have been mapped at numerous sites throughout the Maya region (Bolles and Folan 2001; Chase and Chase 2001; Cobos and Winemiller 2001; Folan, Kintz, and Fletcher 1983; Folan et al. 2001;

Sharer 1992), but are more common in the lowland centers in Guatemala, Belize, and the

Yucatan. Until recently, the prehispanic roads of the Maya were poorly recorded and rarely excavated (Shaw 2008; Keller 2009).

The term commonly used to discuss an ancient Maya roadway is sacbe, with the plural form of the word being sacbeob. The translation for the term sacbe is widely accepted to be

‘white road,’ and most often refers to a linear feature composed of stone that may have once been paved with a sascab (powdered eroded limestone) or plaster surface (Shaw 2008: 4). The

25 sacbe encountered at Cerén in 2011 and 2013 expanded our understanding of ancient Maya roadways by now incorporating the causeways made out of a white earthen material, in this case

Tierra Blanca Joven (Sheets et al. 2011; Sheets and Dixon 2013). These massive works of construction required an enormous amount of manpower, labor, and time investment for their initial construction and also required an ongoing process of cleaning and refurbishing as they were used for either commerce or possibly ritual ceremonies (Keller 2009). Regular maintenance was also necessary because of the rainforest environment where the landscape can be rapidly altered or taken over by vegetation.

Limestone bedrock provided the building material not only for sacbeob, but also for construction of Maya buildings, stone monuments, and as plaster for facing the buildings

(Mckillop 2004: 230). Limestone was quarried from pits in and around Maya communities

(Cobos and Winemiller 2001). In places where limestone was absent or rare, other local materials were used in the causeway construction such as sandstone, slate, coral rock (McKillop

2004: 32) or in the case of Cerén, volcanic ash. Commonly the bases of sacbeob are formed of dry-laid boulders topped with progressively smaller cobbles to create a smooth base for the roadway. As always there are exceptions, because Cerén’s sacbe is composed of tephra instead of rubble with a limestone covering. At Cerén, the sacbe was constructed out of different layers of volcanic tephra material, mainly Tierra Blanca Joven and “Tephra X,” which is a different source of tephra that still has an unknown source and is named so to distinguish it from the

Tierra Blanca Joven. Cerén’s sacbe reminds us that the general construction of sacbeob is not consistent throughout Mesoamerica in terms of material composition, height, width, and length.

Maya causeways vary greatly in size throughout Mesoamerica, likely based on function.

They are generally monumental in scale, measuring 3 meters to 50 meters wide, and some 1

26 meter to 2 meters tall (Folan 1991; Schwake 2000; Shaw 2008: 69-72). The sacbe at Cerén is quite small in comparison to most; it has an average width of 2 meters and an average height of

21 cm (Sheets and Dixon 2013: 67). The majority of sacbeob in the Maya area are less than 200 meters in length (Shaw 2008: 71), but there are some exceptions to this where sacbeob extend several kilometers. The longest known Maya causeway runs 100 km between the sites of Coba and Yaxuna in the Yucatan (Villa-Rojas 1934). The entire length of the Cerén sacbe is still unknown and is a likely focus of future excavations. Knowing that smaller-scale sacbeob did exist in the Maya region that were made of material other than durable limestone, the possibility comes to mind of a highly expansive network of roadways that were constructed throughout the region but are no longer visible today. Often in archaeology, it is vital to recognize that only certain portions of sites survive long enough to be encountered by archeologists, and usually this is just a small snapshot of the culture being studied. A massive trade network operating via sacbeob could very well have existed in the past that is no longer visible today (Scarborough and

Valdez 2014).

Various types of sacbeob exist in the Maya region, mainly intersite and intrasite (Shaw

2008: 80-91). Intrasite roads generally connected ceremonial precincts and public architecture within sites. At Caracol, the sacbeob extended from the site center to the peripheral areas and provided a way to link disparate parts of Caracol economically (Chase and Chase 2001).

Sacbeob often can also connect major political centers or sites to each other (Ashmore 1992; Coe

2011; Folan 1991; Folan, Kintz, and Fletcher 1983; McKillop 2004; Scarborough and Valdez

2014). It is likely that intrasite roadways that connected ceremonial centers to each other functioned as a nexus for processions, while intersite causeways that connected larger populations functioned instead as pilgrimage routes or modes of transportation (Shaw 2008: 81).

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The Cerén sacbe could have led to a different area of the community, serving as an intrasite causeway. Recent excavations (Sheets et al. 2011) found structures to the south of the village that could have been along the path of the sacbe. The road could also have served as an intersite connection between other communities or nearby marketplaces. The contemporaneous marketplace of San Andres is in the general direction that this feature is known to be heading, which would have provided a venue of commercial activity for the Cerén villagers to exchange their products. The Cerén commoners may have also chosen to conduct their exchange of goods with numerous secondary regional centers rather than San Andrés (Sheets 2000). This economic relationship created through trade did not necessarily pin Cerén as an unequal player politically because they had the ability to negotiate the costs of commodities between various centers.

Sacbeob were used collectively for transportation, communication, walking paths, and avenues for ritual processions (McKillop 2004; Sharer 1992; Schwake 2000). Despite the increased archaeological interest in Maya roads, a lack of associated artifacts and the great effort involved in excavating such large constructions is an issue (Keller 2009). For this reason, the

2013 excavations of the sacbe found at Joya de Cerén are quite significant. The excellent preservation resulting from the eruption of Loma Caldera makes it possible to examine any artifacts on or near the roadway and use those to gain a better perspective of the functions of

Maya sacbeob (Sheets and Dixon 2013). Before this discovery at Cerén, the function of the

Maya road systems was speculated from a more spatial analysis or from Colonial texts that documented both the speech related to the roadways and also observations of activities practiced upon them (Shaw 2008; Shaw 2001; Keller 2009).

The examination of roads and their connections can reveal organizational charts of social structure. They may indicate familial groups, geographically similar groups, and alliances made

28 between them, depending on where the roads lead and what areas they create a bridge between.

Causeways facilitate movement of people within and between communities. By constructing sacbeob, Maya rulers made the control of movement a fundamental design in urban space. With their roads, Maya elite could control the movement of people and power within and between their centers (Snead, Erickson, and Darling 2009). The paleoethnobotanical remains recovered from Cerén’s sacbe help to quantify such separations caused by the division created between fields. This differentiation occurs between the sides of the sacbe, with the road acting as a wall that essentially divides the different agricultural plots. The road could have defined different portions of the village and dictated what plants were grown in each area. Spatial differentiation of plants as a result of the causeway would be shown by a change in agricultural crops or even weeds present in each area, whether by taxon or by relative abundance.

Sacbeob also provide pragmatic adjustments to local topography and prior construction, essentially conquering the obstacles that presented themselves to the Maya people (Houston and

Inomata 2009). They were used as a mechanism to cross wet terrain with dispersed aguadas and swamps (Mckillop 2004). For this reason, the Maya roadway systems may have been manipulated as a part of a site’s overall water-management system (Scarborough 1993). The sacbe excavated at Cerén was raised several inches from the ground surface, with indented canals on the east and west sides. A canal that extends perpendicular on the west side to the roadway in Operation AK (Figure 1.5) indicates that the sacbe was indeed managing the water, if only just rainfall, in the village. This diversion could lead to a rainfall collection center.

Measurements of abundance of paleoethnobotanical remains could verify the functions assigned to the various feature found in each operation, especially the canal.

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Fig. 1.5 View of the western portion of Operation AK: with the earthen sacbe in the foreground, the canal running north-south on the edge of the sacbe, agricultural ridges in the background, and a canal that leads perpendicular to the sacbe towards the west.

Sacbeob can also be viewed in a ritual sense. This idea largely comes from Postconquest references (Lizana 1988 [1633]; Schele and Freidel 1990; Tozzer 1966 [1941]; Villa Rojas

1934), which have noted that the prominent functions of sacbeob were linked to ceremonial processions and pilgrimages among the elite and nobility. Roadways were ritually used for offering alms, making pilgrimages, and visiting oracles. Travelers participating in such rituals would burn copal incense at temples along their pilgrimage route (Shaw 2008). Ritual use has been associated with sacbeob in both mythical and cosmological references. Sacbe not only means ‘white road’ to the Maya, but is also one of the names for the Milky Way, the celestial

‘road of the heavens’ that spans the whole length of the night sky and even “touches” down to the earth on each end (Freidel et al. 1993:76). The Milky Way was seen as a way to be able to converse with supernatural and ancestral beings because it does seemingly ‘touch down’ to earth on its sides. In the Popol Vuh, the crossroads associated with the glyph for beh is where the

Hero Twins take the ‘black road’ to the underworld (MacLeod and Puleston 1978:71). The crossroads are a mythical place where this world and the spiritual world intersect, much like the

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Milky Way was viewed (Stuart 2006). Therefore, the term ‘sacbe’ references not just the color and construction of the roads but also their cosmological meaning and ceremonial function

(Keller 2009). Within the soil samples collected from the surface of the sacbe could be ritually used items such as copal incense, which would indicate a religious aspect being associated with the roadway.

The examination of roads and their connections can reveal organizational charts of social structure. They may indicate familial groups and alliances made between them, depending on where the roads lead and what areas they connect (Houston and Inomata 2009). The causeways can create borders and act as a wall-like border to separate different groups. These groups have been noted to be familial kin groups or even geographically defined groups (Shaw 2008: 110).

Causeways facilitate movement of people within and between communities, but walls restrict access. With their roads, Maya elite could control the movement of people and power within and between their centers (Snead, Erickson, and Darling 2009). Many of the large, archaeologically documented stone roads were associated with power and the ruler of the major center to which the road was connected (Keller 2009). However, the presence of a sacbe at such a small village such as Cerén questions the roadways exclusivity to elite populations.

Cerén’s sacbe did not serve as an adaptation to an otherwise difficult landscape to travel through; the terrain is quite passable. Perhaps there was a greater symbolic meaning attached to the construction of a major causeway (Hutson 2012). Constructing a sacbe at Cerén could have been a strategy to become an equal player politically with other groups, such as those interacting with the nearby center of San Andres. Many other Maya sites have roadways that connect triadic groups to a site core (Shaw 2008: 110). A sacbe could indicate a population seeking inclusion in the greater power dynamics, instead of being content with an outpost position (Hutson 2012).

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However, economy and political power may not have been so centralized in the Maya world. Scarborough and Valdez (2014) shows this with a dualistic economy in the Programme for Belize region. A sizable number of small communities are shown to have their own independent political power that is not wholly dependent on a major site center. Sheets (2000) shows this concept as well by expanding the understanding of the Maya economy to not just focus on the vertical aspects which reflect hierarchy, but also to show the horizontal economic and political relationships that existed among Late Classic villages.

As can be expected with any theory of functionality, exceptions to the rule exist. The causeways at Caracol do not provide any indication of ritual use for processions or ceremonies.

Chase and Chase (2001) have for this reason determined that the Caracol sacbeob performed more functional acts that deal with practical transportation of goods and other economic endeavors through the epicenter. They do not lead to ceremonial structures and they lack artifacts associated with more special functions (Chase and Chase 2001: 279). Stating that all sacbeob of the Maya civilization carried sacred and symbolic meaning can be deterministic and unrealistic. Special artifacts (such as copal) and structures that would point to ceremonial use have not been found associated with the Cerén sacbe, which brings into question whether or not the road had a ceremonial purpose. For this reason, the paleoethnobotanical study of the Cerén sacbe can provide evidence of sacbeob functionality.

The causeways could have functioned as a mode of transportation for goods and even ideas and communication. However, the use of sacbeob as ritual pathways and avenues of opportunity for merchants and trade activities, or even roads for moving armies, is a matter of some discussion among Mayanists still today, with many Mayanists questioning the validity of the idea that sacbeob were used for commerce (Cobos and Winemiller 2001; Coe 2011: 149).

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Causeway systems would connect site centers to satellite centers to ease the exchange of goods

(Chase and Chase 2001: 277; Demarest 2004: 162; Shaw 2008: 80). Many sites are strategically placed along natural trade routes on navigable rivers or in central positions between river routes to facilitate the need for trade in an environment that does not so readily allow long distance travel of resources both in terms of preservation but also in terms of costs. Such strategic positions were advantageous for both the local and the regional market exchange and also for elite access to highland and coastal exotic goods. It is speculated that trade routes used for obsidian, which came from a limited amount of sources, were also important for perishables and other traded products such as plumes, jade, volcanic ash, pyrite, ceramics, salt, chocolate, mercury, hard rocks, minerals, bones, pigments, shells, and stingray spines (Demarest 2004: 163,

McKillop 2004: 138).

Due to Mesoamerica’s lack of domesticated draft animals or beasts of burden, vehicles, or modern preservation techniques, the transfer of basic subsistence goods would have been a challenge. High transport costs are associated with Maya trade because of this. Human porters were used to physically carry the goods and resources, making it likely that plant materials would end up on the sacbe surface over time. Since such a high transport cost would inevitably be associated with trade, mainly exotic material would have preferably been exchanged long distances over more mundane, subsistence-based goods. Archaeological evidence suggests that the distance the majority of goods were transported was not very great (Shaw 2008: 107;

Demarest 2004: 152). Analysis of macrobotanical and flotation samples taken from the sacbe area could support the hypothesis that sacbeob served economic functions. If the plant remains that have been recovered from the road surface are high-value, exotic goods, they could point to commercial use of an intersite causeway that goes beyond the small village community.

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Notably, it is difficult to be certain of a function associated with sacbeob due to the lack of artifacts excavated from them. It is my hope that the paleoethnobotanical study of the sacbe found at Joya de Cerén during the 2013 field season will enlighten Maya studies concerning trade by contributing to the understanding of these poorly understood architectural features.

Being a commoner village, this case study will also create a more representative perspective by not just focusing on the traditional elite analysis that are so often conducted in archaeology.

Trade at Cerén would not have been limited to long-distance networks and might reveal more short-distance trade items that the village economy was operating within. The Cerén sacbe contained numerous ceramics and lithics (Sheets and Dixon 2013), and the study of the plant remains atop its surface will provide invaluable and exciting contributions to Maya archaeology.

Theoretical context

Since the site was discovered, household archaeology has been the theoretical framework guiding research at Cerén (Sheets et al. 1990). Household archaeology “focuses on the group sharing the same residence and participating in certain common functions” (Sheets 2006: 20). It attempts to reconstruct past activities on the household level that deal with the production of goods, sharing and redistribution of those goods, reproduction of their culture, and transmission of goods to the next generation (Wilk and Rathje 1982). This theoretical framework is applicable to this study because of its wide array of origins in settlement archaeology (Willey et al. 1965; Wilk and Ashmore 1988; Wilk 1997), ethnography (Wilk 1988), ethnoarchaeology

(Kramer 1982), and cognate sciences (Arnould 1986). Instead of abandoning positivism and processual approaches, household archaeology has integrated the post-processual movement by following a more “peopled” reconstruction of the past (Robin 2003: 309).

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A household is an activity group and social unit that shares various functions: production, consumption, shared ownership, co-residence, and reproduction (Wilk and Ashmore 1988: 4).

Household archaeology began during a time of self-criticism within the archaeological community (Binford 1972, 1983; Clarke 1968, 1973; Willey and Sabloff 1980). It grew out of settlement archaeology, which looked at the distribution of human activities across a landscape

(Wilk and Ashmore 1988: 7). Scholars began to understand that a culture could not be completely understood based on its palaces and temples and realized that communities where people worked and most likely spent the majority of their lives were just as significant of a field of study. Gordon Willey (1956) was the first to use the methodological approach of settlement archaeology to the Maya area with a survey of the Belize Valley settlements neighboring Barton

Ramie. Through settlement archaeology, studies of households in the Maya area took on a processual approach and focused on reconstructing the human behaviors related to the artifacts in the archaeological record. The processual approach in archaeology aims to describe an explanation for how and why archaeological evidence changes through time, whether natural or anthropogenic (Johnson 2004).

In Central America, the attitudes and ideas concerning political economies have become diverse, with various approaches being utilized to interpret archaeological settings. These range from top-down perspectives to marketplace, hierarchical, heterarchical, or even agency approaches (e.g. Dahlin et al. 2010, Douglass 2002, Garraty and Stark 2010, Joyce et al. 2001,

Masson and Freidel 2002, Potter and King 1995, Scarborough et al. 2003, Schortman and Urban

2004, Sharer and Traxler 2006, Smith 1991, Wells 2006). Studies generally focus on larger sites, sometimes including their peripheries. Past research that has focused on elite architecture and tombs has left out information on ancient Maya commoners, as well as women, slaves, and even

35 neighboring non-Maya groups (Sheets 2006: 20). This bias towards elite contexts in archaeology is generally due to its greater state of preservation. Architecture constructed out of earthen materials is much less likely to survive multiple centuries than is a large stone-made structure as found in elite settlements. Commoner archaeological sites are more affected by natural disturbances, especially in tropical climates, due to erosion, solar radiation, and bioturbation by flora and fauna (Sheets 2006: 21). Despite these challenges, research has increasingly focused on household archaeology (Deal 1985; Ford and Fedick 1992; Haviland 1988; Hendon 2002;

Killion 1992; Manzanilla 1987; McAnany 1993; Robin 2003; Wilk and Ashmore 1988). For example, sites like Copán in Honduras have the largest well-dated set of entirely excavated commoner residences in the Maya area (Webster, Gonlin, and Sheets 1997).

Due to the typically poor preservation of household settlements archaeologists have incorporated studies of present-day cultures using ethnography, ethnoarchaeology, and ethnohistory. Including ethnographic studies helps to bridge the gap left by middle-range theory that separates perceptible archaeological phenomena from the imperceptible human behavior that produced it (Binford 1977). Household research in the Maya area has benefited greatly from ethnoarchaeology, the study of current peoples’ formation, use, and discarding of material culture (including architecture) and how that can explain archaeological phenomena. For example, Wilk (1997) tested whether or not house size correlates to social position, occupation length, or wealth. Fernández et al. (2002) looked at the presence and purpose of ancient household activity areas through soil chemical signatures on the surfaces of present-day Maya houses. While ethnographic studies and ethnohistoric description studies prove to be a useful data source, their accounts actually minimize the variation seen among social organization by

Pre-Columbian houses (Chase 1993; Allison 1999). Wilk (1997) warns that households are

36 dynamic and changeable, and therefore assuming stability of a household in a present-day situation as relatable to past households is problematic. Consequently, interpretations of ancient

Maya households using current and historic analogs must be done with caution and a skeptical perspective.

Household archaeology has also adopted various characteristics of the post-processual theoretical movement. Post-processualists generally reject positivism, which is the philosophical system that supports scientific methods that do not rely on direct observation (Trigger 1996).

They argue that all interpretations of the past are innately subjective. Post-processual archaeologists argue for the existence of multiple truths instead of a single narrative. In this theoretical framework, the role of archaeologists is to provide information to the public so that they can construct their own understandings of past cultures and peoples (Hodder 1984).

The degree to which the Maya elite had control and influence over every-day commoner activities such as agricultural production is still a subject of uncertainty and speculation. There is a lack of evidence for Maya food production which limits the understanding of complexities such as economy, which has been nearly absent from iconographic records (Jackson 2013; Potter and

King 1995; Scarborough and Valdez 2009). There is a substantial lack of knowledge about possible elite influence on agriculture (Webster 2002: 175). Elite had control over the maintenance of forests for religious or pleasure purposes (Thompson et al. 2015) and also likely redirected resources for their own consumption and towards construction of monumental architecture in order to assert their power and control both politically and ideologically

(Scarborough and Grazioso-Sierra 2015; Webster and Murtha 2015). Little is known concerning the influence elite had on the organization of labor, production, distribution, and any decisions regarding agricultural practices at the commoner level (Sheets and Dixon 2013).

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Did Maya households grow their own food and therefore make their economies more diverse (Dunning et al. 2003)? Food production could have been locally controlled (Foias 2002;

Hageman and Lohse 2003; McAnany 1989; Scarborough and Valdez 2003) and maybe even seen as relatively independent (Sanders and Webster 1988). Agricultural systems could also have been managed by elites who guaranteed that crops encouraged upward mobility in the hierarchical system (Chase and Chase 1996; Ford 1996). The reality was likely a combination of these possibilities. If the elite did have an overarching authority on agriculture, this would be revealed with standardized and large-scale features, as opposed to the smaller household gardens which can vary significantly by location (Houston and Inomata 2009: 240-249). Freidel and

Sabloff (1984) have found stone-partitioned fields on Cozumel, suggesting the possibility of land ownership leaving an archaeological signature. Recent excavations at Cerén provided an opportunity to see this land division of agricultural fields without such permanent markers like stone and clay (Sheets and Dixon 2013).

Household archaeology in the Maya area has developed with the assistance of settlement archaeology, middle range theory, ethnoarchaeology, post-processual archaeology, and cultural ecology. Mayanists have been interested in describing and explaining the variation observed in household studies (Marcus 2004: 265). Cerén offers a unique and exciting opportunity to study the daily lives of Maya commoners in the Late Classic Period because of its excellent preservation conditions due to rapid abandonment and a sudden burial. Commoners were the largest social class in ancient Maya society, but often are overlooked archaeologically because their materials and architectural structures were comprised of more perishable materials than the elite residences and cities. Using paleoethnobotany as a methodological tool reveals significant plant-human interactions of people of the past that add to other studies, which have typically

38 utilized architecture and artifacts (Robin 2003), creating a stronger and more in depth interpretation of household life.

Summary

Cerén has been well studied for nearly 40 years, with numerous house structures, agricultural fields, and artifacts such as ceramics, lithics, and macrobotanical remains recovered from the Late Classic period surface that was buried by Loma Caldera ca. AD 650. The ancient plant species that have been recovered at Cerén previously reveal similarities in consumption of what the Maya’s diet and material sources were in the past to the traditional diet of Maya peoples still living today. Botanical remains found in various anthropogenic contexts at Cerén such as storage containers, house structures, agricultural fields, and now the earthen sacbe provide evidence for how plants were used and valued by the Late Classic village commoners. The abundance of plant-derived products and Maya trade goods at Cerén suggests the potential contribution made by small farmers as both suppliers to and trading partners with the larger

Maya centers in Central America (Lentz et al. 1996). The paleoethnobotanical study conducted in 2013 provides an exciting opportunity to see the materials and supplies transported along the earthen sacbe at Cerén.

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CHAPTER 2

Research Methodology

Excavations at the archaeological site of Joya de Cerén continued during the summer of

2013. The foci of this chapter is the field and laboratory practices. The methodology employed in this project is fundamental to both the recovery and analysis of the paleoethnobotanical macroremains. The field methods used to recover paleoethnobotanical macroremains during the

2013 field season at Cerén (June 10th through August 8th) will be described, followed by an explanation of the laboratory procedures and tools used for the identification and analysis of the macroremain assemblage.

Field Methods

Sample Collection

During the 2013 field season, ten operations (Ops. AE-AN) were established south of the

Cerén village as an effort to follow the sacbe encountered previously during the 2011 field season. Eight of the operations (Ops. AE-AK, AN) were excavated to the TBJ soil surface with plant retrieval conducted from a variety of proveniences. These excavations ranged in area from

3 m2 to 4 m by 7 m, with expansion of certain operations that did not initially reveal the entire width of the sacbe. Loma Caldera (c. AD 650) deposited approximately 5 m of tephra on the site over several phases of eruption that probably lasted several hours (Sheets 2002: 15). The pyroclastic deposits created a sequence, beginning with Unit 1 and ending with Unit 14, that sits upon the tierra blanca joven (TBJ) tephra that erupted from the Ilopango Volcano about a century earlier. The inhabitants of Cerén occupied the TBJ tephra surface when the Loma

Caldera eruption began. The upper section of the Loma Caldera tephra sequence was removed from each operation quickly with shovels and picks and the lower three units (3 through 1) were

40 more slowly excavated with hoes and trowels down to the Classic period activity surface in which Cerén occupied, where visibly noticeable carbonized remains were extracted when encountered. When hollow voids were encountered, dental plaster was poured into these spaces, creating a plaster cast of plants that were present at the time of the eruption. The last step of the excavation process was the recovery of macrobotanical remains through flotation samples, which was conducted after all sacbe, canal, and agriculture field measurements were taken and all plaster casts were removed from an operation.

The main focus of the paleoethnobotanical recovery effort was the implementation of a systematic and intensive plant retrieval strategy of macrobotanical remains and flotation samples collected from the surface of a sacbe heading south out of the village from the site center, and also the agricultural fields on either side of this road. Each archaeologist was supplied with a soil collection kit to ensure that the macrobotanical remains could be collected in a timely manner with visibly noticeable plant remains immediately and appropriately transferred to storage containers in the field as soon as they were encountered in an operation. The collection kits contained 120 ml plastic cups, 20 ml glass vials, gelatin capsules, and cotton for padding.

Carbonized plant materials were carefully placed in vials by the excavators and then transferred to the on-site lab.

In situ macrobotanical samples were collected with the help of other archaeologists on the site including Payson Sheets, Christine Dixon, Rachel Egan, and Alexandria Halmbacher. A total of sixty-two macrobotanical remains were collected in the manner described above when encountered on the Classic period activity surface. The storage containers protected the fragile carbonized remains on their long journey from the field site back to the University of Cincinnati

Paleoethnobotanical Laboratory. This type of recovery tends to create the most effective

41 samples for successful identification of plant species because of their generally larger size, so their collection in this manner was a highly valuable component of this project.

Water Flotation

However, because there are also small seeds and other carbonized material that cannot be found strictly by visual observation with the naked eye, and trowel recovery is visually biased towards larger items and is often spatially uneven (Pearsall 2000: 12), additional samples were collected and designated for processing in the flotation device. Eighty two-liter soil samples designated for the flotation process were collected, in addition to the trowel-recovered macrobotanical remains. This collection ensured the maximum recovery rate with meaningful cultural provenience and expanded the sample size in comparison to previous seasons at Cerén.

A total of 160 liters of soil were collected and processed from the archaeological operations.

Flotation sample collection was largely conducted by myself throughout the field season, with assistance by Payson Sheets and Nancy Gonlin.

Figure 2.1 Materials used for collection of soil samples designated for flotation: trowel, brush, 2-Liter container, cloth bag, and index card labels.

Since the soil sample collection was the last activity accomplished in each operation, tephra from the above units and modern leaves often contaminated the designated sample location. All unrelated material was cleared from the sample surface with a brush and the trowel was wiped clean in between each collection of a sample in order to avoid contamination (Figure

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2.1). Using a trowel, two liters of soil were measured, placed in cloth sample bags, labeled, and transferred to the nearby laboratory facility. Pre-flotation preparations followed the suggested outline by Pearsall (2000: 33).

A “blanket sampling” strategy for flotation was implemented in order to give the utmost information on differential use of space (Pearsall 2000: 67). The collection process occurred from each context throughout each excavated operation in purposeful locations, in order to ensure a maximum recovery rate with meaningful cultural provenience. The specific location in which each sample was collected is displayed on each operation’s floor plan in Appendix B.

Five varieties of samples were collected from the excavations (Figure 2.2): sacbeob, canals, agricultural ridges, and also inter-ridges in fields and cleared, flat areas when present. Soil samples were collected from either side of the sacbe itself, and at different points in each individual operation with attention given to having a north and a south sample when space permitted or when a lava bomb had not damaged the cultural features.

Figure 2.2 Diagram showing the five contexts in which data collection took place (Drawn by Venicia Slotten.

Flotation is a method that allows for the recovery of all size classes of botanical macroremains, especially with a fine mesh (0.2 mm) sieve as was used with this season’s samples. Water flotation is generally the best method of recovery for plant remains in 43 archaeological soils in terms of providing a more complete depiction of the present plant remains, but it can be too forceful with some charcoal remains (Pearsall 2000: 13). Luckily the soil samples from Cerén are largely comprised of ash and pumice, so the separation process is not as difficult as paleoethnobotanical flotation at most other sites. The flotation device created specifically for this field season (Figure 2.3) was designed with the intention of consistently and reliably recovering any small seeds or other small plant material that was preserved on the activity surface. The floatation tank was designed and constructed by David Lentz and Julio

Eleazar Garcia.

Figure 2.3 Diagram of the flotation tank created for the 2013 field season (Drawn by Venicia Slotten).

We used a modified SMAP-style (Shell Mound Archaeological Project) flotation system to process the samples; this uses water pressure to separate materials (Pearsall 2000: 27). The machine was modified in that instead of using electrically pumped water, the design was operated on tap water pressure. This technique had not previously been employed in the paleoethnobotanical studies at Cerén and was made possible due to greater access of water at the 44 field house than in the past. Previous paleoethnobotanical studies at Cerén employed a modified

Apple Creek water flotation system (Hood 2012; Lentz et al. 1996a, 1996b; Lentz and Ramírez

2002; Pearsall 2000:15) which is more suited to a situation with a limited water supply. The previous system used a basin of water where the soil sample was agitated by hand.

The processing of samples within the flotation tank followed the outline provided by

Pearsall (2000: 55). Water flowed continuously into the 55-gallon tank, with the water inlet placed directly underneath the mesh-lined basket to create a continuous water flow from beneath and to apply an active agitation to the soil. When the tank is filled with water, the overflow cascades into a geological sieve lined with a fine mesh fabric (150 μm sieve opening) to catch the light fraction. Any burned plant remains present in the soil sample will float up to the surface and exit through the top opening and get caught in the fabric. However, it is possible that some light materials smaller than the sieve opening may be carried through the bottom, most float (Pearsall 2000: 18-19). Using the flotation device, each soil sample from the cultural zones was submersed in water and sifted through gently by hand in order to separate the light fraction

(the carbonized plant remains) from the heavy fraction (rocks, soil, etc.). To minimize the damage caused by handling and maximize the retrieval of tiny seeds, the cloth that caught the light fraction was immediately hung up on a clothesline to dry. The heavy fraction fell to the bottom of the basket on the inside of the tank and was captured by a fine mesh hardware cloth

(0.2 mm opening) that lined the bottom. This ensures that any archaeological plant remains present in the sample that may have sunk to the bottom will still be recovered.

After a flotation sample was fully processed and the light fraction was hung on a line to dry, we rinsed the interior basket and emptied the heavy fraction into a separate fine mesh nylon cloth that was also hung it on the clothesline to dry (Fig 2.4). In the evening, all samples were

45 moved indoors to complete the drying process. The drying process took anywhere from twelve hours to six days, depending on humidity and sample size. “Rapid drying in hot sunlight causes breakage of seeds and charcoal” (Pearsall 2000: 43), so all samples were carefully placed in appropriate drying conditions. When dry, the light fraction was carefully transferred into 20 ml glass vials labeled with the sample’s provenience and stored for transport to the

Paleoethnobotany Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati.

Figure 2.4 The flotation procedure: a) sample gently poured into flotation tank by Venicia Slotten and David Lentz and then lightly agitated with running water (Photograph by Jerry Rabinowitz), b) contents of heavy and light fraction emptied into fine nylon mesh by Mercedes Haydeé Ramírez de Garcia and Venicia Slotten (Photograph by Nancy Gonlin), c) both fractions labeled and hung on clothesline to dry (Photograph by Venicia Slotten).

Our SMAP-style flotation system allowed for an efficient flotation rate with the possibility of 16 samples being processed in an 8-hour day (Pearsall 2000: 79). Operation of the flotation system and initial sorting of the samples would not have been possible without the generous assistance of Mercedes Haydeé Ramírez de Garcia and Carla Renee Coca Muñoz.

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Testing the Flotation Recovery Rate

The flotation process “allows recovery of all size classes of botanical material preserved in a sediment sample, making quantitative analysis possible” (Pearsall 2000: 14). In order to ensure that quantitative examination would be appropriate with our collection strategy and to identify potential problems in recovery, the flotation process was tested for accuracy. Once the flotation device was constructed, its abilities were tested. The poppy seed test is a common form of testing the efficiency of recovery of flotation systems that was first suggested by Lawrence

Kaplan at the 1976 Society for American Archaeology Ethnobotany Roundtable discussions in

St. Louis (Pearsall 2000: 93). Due to limited options in the field setting, modern poppy seeds were heated on a stovetop oven until thoroughly blackened. After the poppy seeds (Papaver somniferum L.) were carbonized they were added to a soil sample and then run through the entire system as a test of its efficiency. The seeds were placed within the top few inches of the soil sample to ensure that they would be exposed to the longest period of potential loss during processing. Ninety-five of the one hundred seeds were found within the light fraction, revealing that the flotation device yields a 95% recovery rate. This rate of efficiency is relatively high when compared to the rate of other projects, but still within the expected range of SMAP flotation systems (Pearsall 2000: 95). The flotation process for the 2013 field season at Cerén was quite successful in recovering archaeological plant data.

Laboratory Methods

Sorting Plant Remains

Once a fraction is substantially dry, it can be closely inspected under a microscope with sufficient light to sort out, identify and quantify the delicate plant remains present in each

47 sample. The majority of the sorting and identification of samples was completed in David

Lentz’s Paleoethnobotany Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. Since it would be impractical and also costly to return all of the sediment in the heavy fraction back to the

Cincinnati laboratory, the heavy fraction was sorted while still in El Salvador in the field laboratory. The heavy fraction was sub-sampled using 100 g portions due to time constraints.

Any charred remnants and suspected archaeological plant remains were extracted, sorted by size and shape, and stored in vials to be further examined and identified in the future. Samples were sorted into three groups: items less than 2 mm in size, those between 2 mm and 5 mm, and those greater than 5 mm. The remains were further subdivided by species, if a distinct seed or other plant part could be identified to that level of taxonomic accuracy.

Once all samples were transported to Lentz’s laboratory, each sample was assigned a form number that would allow quick identification that refers to its individual contextual information. The 160 different flotation samples began with 40001: the light fraction being associated with a series that ended in an even number and the heavy fraction with odd numbers.

The 62 macrobotanical samples were assigned a form number as well, beginning with 50001.

Each specimen recovered within a sample was assigned its own form number: such as 40001-

001. This method continues the system of numbering utilized with paleoethnobotanical remains recovered at Cerén in the past.

I sorted all the remains in each sample using a Wild Herbrugg M5 light microscope (6-

50x) and a LED light (Figure 2.5). First, I divided the sediment into different size fractions using a series of geological sieves (2 mm, 1 mm, and 0.5 mm openings) and scanned each fraction for any possible plant remains. Within the first three fractions, all plant remains were removed for further examination, but in the smallest fraction (remains less than a millimeter in size) I only

48 extracted items if they had a distinguishing characteristic that could lead to their identification, otherwise the particles were too small to bear distinguishing features. Next, I divided the remains into broad classifications (wood charcoal, seeds, fruits, leaves and stems, and spermatophyte tissue) and then identified the plant material to family, genus, or species level if possible. All handling of samples was done with extreme caution because sample deterioration can occur even in the lab when material is removed from its storage container (Pearsall 2000:

43).

Figure 2.5 Work station used for paleoethno- botanical analysis, showing the light microscope, forceps, brushes, caliper, and scale.

The identification process began with a physical recording of each specimen in detail on data record sheets (See Appendix A). Properties recorded include the following: taxonomic plant name, plant part, a technical description, state of preservation, quantity, weight, a confidence rating, and a sketch of the specimen. Taxonomic identifications were supported by comparative material in Dr. Lentz’s sizable reference collection of plants from Central America in the Paleoethnobotanical lab. Identification manuals and botany textbooks also assisted in an accurate identification and technical description of specimen (Delorit 1970; Esau 1977; Lentz and Dickau 2005; Pearsall 2000). Since many of the sources used for identification may be out- of-date, all taxonomic identifications were checked with Tropicos (a botanical search engine

49 supported by the Missouri Botanical Garden), WCSP (2014), and The Plant List (2013) to ensure that the name is still accepted within the scientific community. I weighed specimens with a

Mettler BD202 electronic balance with a capacity of 0.01 g to 200 g. A confidence rating was appointed to each specimen to measure how certain I was of the accuracy of my identification.

The confidence ratings ranged from 01 to 03, with 01 representing complete certainty in the identification and 03 representing little certainty in the identification. All 02 and 03-rated specimens were reviewed by David Lentz. The preservation states of all specimens were recorded to determine their relationship with the archaeological context. Not all plant remains that are preserved and recovered from an archaeological context reveal anthropogenic influences.

Some of the specimens may be intrusive and of modern origin. They may have been blown in during excavation or were transported by plant roots or burrowing animals (Wright 2014: 6551).

Luckily, the volcanic eruption that preserved Cerén carbonized the majority of the recovered specimens and limited the number of intrusive plant remains.

Images of plant remains other than charcoal were taken with either a Keyence VHX-

1000E digital microscope in the Department of Chemistry’s Chemical Sensors and Biosensors

Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati or with an Olympus SZH-ILLD Stereo Zoom

Microscope in the Paleoethnobotany Laboratory. These images were taken to show the overall shape, size, and morphological features of plant remains that would assist in an accurate identification.

Seeds

There are a limited number of characteristics that can be used to identify seeds recovered archaeologically: mainly size, shape, and texture (Lentz and Dickau 2005; Pearsall 2000: 135).

Other distinguishing features that can be helpful in identification, depending on the state of

50 preservation, include coloration (of un-charred seeds), attachments (spines, bristles, awns, pappus), position of attachment scars (hilum), nature and placement of endosperm relative to the embryo, number of cotyledons, and other surface features (Pearsall 2000: 135-140). All of these characteristics were documented for all whole and fragmented seeds on the data record sheets.

The ability to identify a seed, however, decreases with many of the preservation processes. Charring can sometimes cause the seed coat to be lost and waterlogging can affect the outer layers and distort cell structure. Heating and post-depositional processes can also reduce seed size and distort distinguishing features (Wilson 1984). Without characteristics such as texture or color, it is more difficult to identify a seed to the species level. All post-depositional processes were taken into account when analyzing the seed remains.

Wood Charcoal

Wood charcoal was initially sorted into broad taxonomic categories such as hardwood, pine, or palm and then stored in a Sanpla Drykeeper Dessicator to remove all moisture from the samples because it is necessary to dry specimens before examination of anatomical features

(Pearsall 2000: 175). Wood must be substantially dry in order to achieve a clean fracture that could be used for a successful identification (Pearsall 2000: 175). Wood charcoal smaller than

2.0 mm was not examined further in this manner because wood charcoal smaller than this is generally unidentifiable even to broad taxonomic categories, let alone genus or species (Pearsall

2000: 107; Lentz 1991: 272). I fractured the wood charcoal specimens by hand into transverse and tangential cross-sections to observe identification features on a fresh, flat surface using an

Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM).

After they have been thoroughly dried, charcoal specimens intended for analysis using an

ESEM were mounted on 0.5” aluminum holders using a generous amount of colloidal graphite (a

51 liquid adhesive) and then stored in cases that hold 12 mounts. Each case of mounts was thoroughly labeled to ensure that the context information for each specimen would not be lost or mistaken. Each mount was labeled on their underside corresponding to their location in the case using the numbers 1 through 12. The top of the case was then labeled, associating the specimen’s form numbers with their mount location inside the case. I then checked each specimen using a light microscope to ensure that it contained a surface appropriate for ESEM analysis, meaning that it did in fact exhibit identifiable features. The cross-sections were cleaned using compressed air to remove any fragments of charcoal, soil, and any other material that could obstruct the identifiable features during future analysis.

Before a specimen could be analyzed using the ESEM, it had to be coated in a thin layer of a conducting material (Pearsall 2000: 177). We used gold applied with a Denton Vacuum

Sputter Coater (Figure 2.6), which was available in the Department of Chemistry’s Chemical

Sensors and Biosensors Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati and was operated by Dr.

Neçati Kaval. Coating the specimen is important because it sets up an electrical connection between the specimen stage and the specimen surface, which allows the dissipation of the charge

(Pearsall 2000: 177). The more electrons a specimen conducts, the less incidents of charging it will experience inside the ESEM, which will interfere with the picture quality.

Once the samples were fully prepared for analysis, they were taken for imaging either to the UC Department of Chemistry’s Chemical Sensors and Biosensors Laboratory or the

Advanced Materials Characterization Center in the UC College of Engineering, depending on availability. A Philips FEI XL-30 Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (Figure 2.6) was used at both facilities and operated by myself with training provided by both Neçati Kaval and Pablo Rosales. After the specimen chamber was vented, the aluminum mounts were secured

52 on the microscope’s stage, the chamber was closed, and a vacuum pump removed air from the chamber. Images of the transverse and tangential sections were taken at multiple magnifications, usually 50x and 100x, while the tangential sections were imaged at up to 1000x. These standardized magnifications ensured that all micrographs of wood charcoal were comparable among each other and also comparable to specimens found in reference literature (Esau 1977;

Hoadley 1990; Insidewood [insidewood.lib.ncsu.edu]). These magnifications are ideal for the exhibition and measurement of anatomical features useful for identification.

Figure 2.6 Environmental Scanning Microscope in the Advanced Materials Characterization Center and the Sputter Coater in the UC Chemical Sensors and Biosensors Laboratory used for charcoal analysis.

An ESEM provides a greater view of the surface and has an excellent depth of field that gives three-dimensional quality photographs that simply cannot be achieved with a light microscope. The ESEM produces fine images by focusing a beam of high-energy electrons using an electron gun directed at a specimen from the top of the specimen chamber (Neçati

Kaval, personal communication 2014). The electrons interact with atoms in the specimen as the beam encounters the sample surface; secondary electrons are released thereby producing signals that contain information about the sample's surface topography. The resulting image is therefore

53 a distribution map of the intensity of the signal being emitted from the scanned area of the specimen (Goldstein 2003).

The Neotropical wood reference collection in the Paleoethnobotanical Laboratory at the

University of Cincinnati and a number of reference sources on Neotropical wood were used in the identification process, including Chichignoud et al. (1990), Détienne and Jacquet (1983),

Hoadley (1990), Insidewood (insidewood.lib.ncsu.edu), Kribs (1959), Mainieri and Chimelo

(1978), and Uribe (1988). Anatomical features used to identify the wood charcoal include the following: size and arrangement of vessels, vessels per mm2, axial parenchyma, the presence of tyloses, size and arrangement of rays, rays per mm, resin canals, and vascular bundles (Hoadley

1990: 28-45). Analysis of these features allowed for the identification of charcoal to family, genus, and sometimes species level. David Lentz reviewed and confirmed my identification of wood charcoal specimens imaged with the ESEM.

Fruits, Leaves, and Stems

Some non-reproductive plant structures (leaves, grasses, stems, twigs, and rinds) were also recovered from the paleoethnobotanical samples. Stems, rinds, and leaves were analyzed for multiple characteristics: leaf form/outline, leaf arrangement of stem, shape of base and apex, surface characteristics, bud type, bud-scale arrangement, arrangement of vascular tissue, and venation pattern (Lawrence 1951; Pearsall 2000: 165-168).

Maize

Morphological traits of cobs and kernels are necessary to distinguish races of Zea mays

(maize), but measurement of archaeological maize is limited because cobs often are broken with incomplete spikelets (Bird 1980: 326). When a section of a carbonized maize cob was recovered, it was measured using Bird’s (1980) procedure of measurements to determine its variety (Figure

54

3.6). Measurements taken include: (a) rachis diameter, (b) rachis segment length, (c) cupule width, (d) cupule length or height, (e) cupule wing width, and (f) cob diameter. Whole and broken cobs were also measured for their total number of rows in order Figure 2.7 Cob midsection view to compare with other archaeological showing data collection points samples (Staller et al. 2010; (Bird 1980: 327).

Wellhausen et al. 1952). The measurements recorded for each specimen depended on what features had been preserved on the archaeological sample. The most common maize plant part present was a broken cupule, so generally just the cupule width was taken if possible. Maize specimens were then compared to known types according to their measurements (Bird 1980:

326).

Summary

The paleoethnobotanical macroremains analyzed for this study were systematically collected as they were encountered during excavations from agricultural fields, canals, and atop the sacbeob. Samples underwent water flotation on site and then all plant remains were sorted, examined, and identified at the Paleoethnobotanical Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati with assistance by Lentz’s comparative collection, reference material, and botanical manuals.

Specimens were imaged using a Keyence VHX-1000E electronic light microscope and ESEM for identification purposes. The next chapter will describe the results of the materials and paleoethnobotanical techniques described above.

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CHAPTER 3 Results and Discussion of Collected Plant Taxa

The focus of this chapter is on the results of the paleoethnobotanical macroremains recovered at Cerén during the 2013 field season. The collection yielded a total of 142 samples, including 62 macroremain samples large enough to see with the naked eye and collected during excavation and 80 flotation soil-samples of two liters each. Through careful paleoethnobotanical analysis, more than one hundred thousand carbonized seeds, achenes, charcoal specimens, and other plant parts were recovered that were present on the cultural activity surfaces at Cerén when

Loma Caldera erupted. The collection of remains encompasses 31 plant families with samples further identified to genus and species level, if possible.

Identification of these remains (Table 3.1) has expanded the known taxonomic species for the Cerén village considerably with over ten new weedy plants and over ten new tree species.

This expansion is most likely due to the more sophisticated plant retrieval strategy than has been employed previously, now involving a SMAP flotation tank. Three main categories of plant remains emerged from the data, and will be discussed as follows: annual crops, weedy species, and tree species.

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Table 3.1 Summary of the ancient plant remains recovered during the 2013 field season at Cerén, organized by taxonomic family name. Ubiquity indicates the percentage of times each taxon was observed among the 94 sampled contexts. Ops. indicates the excavated operation(s) in which the plant parts were recovered. Cultural Feature indicates the feature(s) associated with the sample location: R = Agricultural Ridge, I = Agricultural Inter-ridge, S = Sacbe, C = Canal, F = Flat Area. * indicates that the species has been recovered previously at Cerén as well † indicates non-carbonized remains present.

Common Plant Weight Cultural Taxonomic Name Quantity Ubiquity Ops. Name Parts (g) Feature GYMNOSPERMS PINACEAE AE, AH, Pinus sp.* pine charcoal 0.50 10.64% AI, AJ, AK R, S, C AE, AF, AG, AH, AI, AJ, R, I, S, DICOTS charcoal 5.48 42.55% AK, AN C, F AMARANTHACEAE seeds 7 <.01 7.45% AF, AK S, C

AE, AF, AG, AH, Amaranthus sp. amaranth seeds 31 <.01 20.21% AI, AJ, AK R, I, S, C cf. Cycloloma seed, atriplicifolium pericarp 2 <.01 1.06% AE I ANACARDIACEAE glassy- Astronium graveleons wood charcoal 0.11 1.06% AE S posion- AE, AH, Metopium brownei wood charcoal 1.24 4.26% AI R, C APOCYNACEAE white poison- Cameraria latifolia wood charcoal 0.58 2.13% AE, AH S Tabernaemontana sp. milkwood charcoal 0.27 1.06% AH C AF, AH, ASTERACEAE achenes 10 <.01 5.32% AJ R, S, C AE, AF, AG, AH, AI, AJ, R, I, S, Spilanthes cf. acmella paracress achenes ~146,246 3.61 89.36% AK, AN C, F BIGNONIACEAE Jacaranda sp. jacaranda charcoal 0.38 1.06% AI R BORAGINACEAE bastard Ehretia tinifolia cherry charcoal 0.05 2.13% AE, AF R, S CAPPARACEAE charcoal 0.04 1.06% AE S CARYOPHYLLACEAE Drymaria cordata chickweed seed 1 <.01 1.06% AF S CLUSIACEAE Clusia sp. matapalo charcoal 0.50 1.06% AE S 57

Common Plant Weight Cultural Taxonomic Name Quantity Ubiquity Ops. Name Parts (g) Feature CUCURBITACEAE squash rind 1 <.01 1.06% AE S EUPHORBIACEAE grassleaf Euphorbia graminea spurge seeds 3 <.01 3.19% AH, AN R, I FABACEAE - CAESALPINIOIDEAE Haematoxylum AG, AH, campechianum* logwood charcoal 0.82 4.26% AI, AK R, S, C AE, AF, FABACEAE - AG, AI, PAPILIONOIDEAE 44 0.08 21.28% AJ, AN R, I, S, C AE, AG, AH, AI, R, S, C, Crotalaria cf. sagittalis rattlebox seeds 31 0.01 12.77% AN F prairie cf. Marina nutans clover seeds 2 <.01 2.13% AE, AG S AE, AG, AH, AI, Phaseolus sp.* beans beans 17 0.25 10.64% AK R, I, S, C common Phaseolus vulgaris* bean beans 3 0.02 2.13% AK I, C LAURACEAE timber Nectandra cf. globosa* sweet charcoal 0.21 1.06% AE S charcoal, AE, AH, Persea americana* avocado pit, seed 3 0.74 3.19% AI R, I, S MALPIGHACEAE Heteropterys sp. redwing charcoal 0.01 1.06% AG S MOLLUGINACEAE carpet- AF, AG, Mollugo verticillata weed seeds 19 <.01 14.89% AH, AI, AJ R, S, C MORACEAE Ficus sp.* fig charcoal 1.28 4.26% AH, AI R, S MYRTACEAE cf. Psidium guajava* guava mesocarp 1 0.09 1.06% AK C PORTULACACEAE AH, AI, Portulaca oleracea† purslane seeds 4 <.01 4.26% AK R, S, C RHAMNACEAE Colubrina aborescens greenheart charcoal 0.09 1.06% AH R RUBIACEAE prince- Exostema sp. wood charcoal 0.03 1.06% AI S SALICACEAE café de Casearia sp. monte charcoal 0.64 2.13% AE, AH R SAPINDACEAE Allophylus sp. chal-chal charcoal 0.03 1.06% AH I Exothea paniculata inkwood charcoal 0.13 1.06% AH R white Matayba sp. copal charcoal 0.05 1.06% AK C

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Common Plant Weight Cultural Taxonomic Name Quantity Ubiquity Ops. Name Parts (g) Feature SOLANCEAE hollow- Dunalia arborescens heart charcoal 0.26 1.06% AK C Physalis angulata tomatillo seeds† 3 0.01 2.13% AF R, S night- Solanum sp. shade seed 1 <.01 1.06% AN I TALINACEAE cf. Talinum fruticosum waterleaf seed 1 <.01 1.06% AI S ULMACEAE Ampelocera hottlei bullhoof charcoal 0.72 2.13% AK I, S cf. Celtis sp. hackberry fruit 1 0.01 1.06% AE S AE, AF, MONOCOTS leaves 6 <.01 6.38% AH R, S, C AGAVACEAE Agave sp.* agave tissue 1 0.03 1.06% AE S ARECACEAE palm endocarps 4 0.05 3.19% AE, AJ S, C cf. Acrocomia aculeata* coyol endocarps 1 <.01 1.06% AK C CYPERACEAE forked AF, AG, Fimbristylis dichotoma† fimbry achenes 35 <.01 20.21% AH, AI, AJ R, S, C cf. Fimbristylis indian ferruginea† fimbry achenes 1 <.01 1.06% AJ R POACEAE seeds 2 <.01 2.13% AN R, F Panicum sp. grass seeds 5 <.01 4.26% AH, AI R, C AE, AF, AG, AH, cupules, AI, AJ, R, I, S, Zea mays* maize kernels 224 5.75 51.06% AK, AN C, F

AE, AF, AG, AH, AI, AJ, R, I, S, Spermatophyte tissue 9.05 81.91% AK, AN C, F bark, epidermis, endocarp, Angiosperm charcoal 3 0.05 4.26% AE, AN S, C endocarp, AE, AF, exocarp, AG, AH, root, seeds, AI, AJ, R, I, S, Unknown tissue 91 8.98 47.87% AK, AN C, F

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Annual Crops

Many species that have already been identified at the site as annual crops were again recovered in the 2013 samples: Zea mays (maize), Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean), Agave sp.

(agave), and Cucurbitaceae (squash). The maize was the most ubiquitous of these annual crops, with common beans a distant second (Figure 3.1). The annual crops were mainly recovered from agricultural fields, but these crops were also present in the canals and atop the earthen sacbe.

35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% Agricultural Fields 10.00% Sacbe 5.00% Canals Flat Areas 0.00%

Figure 3.1 Ubiquity of major crop species recovered from Cerén in 2013.

Zea mays L. [Poaceae]

Maize, ostensibly the principal crop of the ancient Maya, is a large annual grass often cultivated throughout Mesoamerica. It grows best in warm climates and in low elevations of 900 meters or less (Lentz and Dickau 2005: 20). Nearly every Maya site that has conducted paleoethnobotanical excavations has recovered evidence for maize utilization (Lentz 1999: 4).

Previous studies of the extensive agricultural fields and gardens at Cerén have indicated that the

Late Classic inhabitants maintained their maize fields both close and far from their house compounds and tilled the soil using a ridge and furrow technique (Zier 1992). This demonstrates

60 that these people were not relying on agricultural techniques traditionally associated with

Mesoamericans, such as slash-and-burn. Instead, the residents employed a continuous, infield agricultural system within the village (Dixon 2013: 76). Maize was also recovered in storage contexts at Cerén, such as within baskets inside of Structure 4, the storeroom of Household 4.

Figure 3.2 Zea mays cob fragments recovered in 2013. Sample form numbers from left to right: 50007-001, 50034-001, 50033-001. All three of the cob fragments were found in the east agricultural field in operations AE, AI, and AH respectively. However, the samples collected in 2013 were centered on the sacbe heading south out of the village, which was surrounded by extensive maize fields to the east and west of the road.

Nearly 300 maize plants were identified via plaster cast molds within the agricultural fields in 2013 (Dixon 2013: 107-109).

A variety of fragmented plant parts identified as Z. mays were recovered from the macrobotanical remains including kernels, cupules, and larger cob fragments (Figures 3.2 and 3.3). It is not a surprise that many of these plants were found predominantly in the agricultural fields adjacent to the ancient Figure 3.3 Zea mays L. kernel roadway (Figure 3.1), since the species was heavily from sample in the east agricultural inter-ridge in represented through the plaster cast technique within the Operation AH. agricultural ridges. The kernel pictured in Figure 3.3 is quite small; it has a width of 1 mm, a 61 length of 0.8 mm with a triangular shape and glabrous surface texture. It is not a surprise that only one whole cob was recovered, since most charred archaeological maize is found in a delicate state (Goette et al. 1994). The majority of the maize parts recovered were cupules, which could be a result of preservation bias against fragile kernels or due to the act of processing maize while still in the fields. Experiments in charring maize have resulted in extensively broken and fragile kernels (Goette et al. 1994; Pearsall 1980). Maize was the second most ubiquitous plant species found in the samples, with an overall ubiquity of 51%. As expected, 96.3% of the weight recorded from Z. mays throughout the samples was found in the agricultural fields.

Table 3.2 Cob measurements of the only cob recovered with a full circumference preserved (50034-001), according to the procedures outlined in Figure 2.7. The cob came from an agricultural ridge on the east of the sacbe and was discovered inside of a trench excavated on the northern edge of Operation AI.

Maize cob from Measurement sample 50034-001 Number of Rows 13 Cob Diameter 10.93 mm Rachis Diameter 9.76 mm Rachis Segment Length 2.30 mm Cupule Wing Width 0.42 mm Cupule Width 3.28 mm Cupule Height 1.0 mm

Table 3.3 Average measurements of Zea mays cobs at Cerén based on plaster cast molds (Lentz et al. 1996: 253). Measurement Previous Studies at Cerén Number of Rows 13.1 Kernel Width 6.3 mm Kernel Thickness 4.3 mm

When possible, the number of rows was calculated from carbonized cob pieces with a full

(or nearly full) circumference preserved (Figure 3.3 and Table 3.2). This measurement revealed that the maize cobs recovered have an average of 12-14 rows, making them the same race as maize previously recovered at the site via plaster casts: Chapalote-Nal-Tel, which is part of a

62 cluster of races known as the Isthmian Alliance (Benz 1986). The Chapalote-Nal-Tel complex has short ears, smooth rounded kernels, and 8 to 14 rows (Lentz 1999: 4). The lack of denting and the kernel dimensions suggest a strong resemblance with Chapalote-Nal-Tel as well. The average row number of Cerén’s maize (13.1 rows, see Table 3.3) is slightly higher than

Chapalote-Nal-Tel, which is 11.9 rows (Welhausen et a. 1952), but the rest of the measurements are all still within what is expected for the race.

Phaseolus vulgaris L. [Fabaceae]

Beans are another cultigen that likely played a major role in the diets of the ancient

Maya. The genus is a cultivated vine common in fields, moist thickets, and forest borders (Lentz and Dickau 2005: 1150). Common beans are usually planted in June and harvested in the fall sometime between August and early November (Atran et al. 2004: 110). The volcanic eruption that buried Cerén occurred in the fall (Sheets 2002), so any beans growing near the village were likely about to be harvested, if not already collected. Beans are considered a fertilizer for milpas because they grow in a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Atran et al. 2004:

110; Lentz 1999: 5), so their presence within the fields was expected. Multiple populations of

Phaseolus have been recovered from storage contexts, middens, and activity surfaces at Cerén, including both Phaseolus vulgaris and P. lunatus (Hood 2012; Kaplan et al. 2015; Lentz et al.

1996). The bean collections are associated with both subsistence and divination purposes, and also represent both wild and domesticated varieties of P. vulgaris (Kaplan et al. 2015).

Phaseolus beans have been recovered from many other archaeological sites as well:

Aguateca, Albion Island, Barton Ramie, Cahal Pech, Cerros, Chan, Cihuatán, Coba, Copán,

Cuello, Lamanai, Naco, and Tikal (Beltrán Frias 1987; Crane 1996; Lentz 1991; Lentz et al.

2012, 2014a, 2015; Miksicek 1988, 1990, 1991; Wiesen and Lentz 1999; Willey et al. 1965).

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Generally, beans have been encountered less often than expected at Maya sites; their poor preservation is one possibility and another is because they were a target of consumption, leaving them less likely to be discarded. Modern ethnographic studies show that beans were boiled prior to consumption, which would also lower their chance to be preserved archaeologically.

Medicinally, the seeds can be mixed with Cucurbita (squash) seeds to create a paste applied to skin rashes. Bean leaves, when mixed with water, can be used to relieve sore throats (Atran et al.

2004: 110).

Two common bean cotyledons (P. vulgaris) were recovered from samples in Op. AK, the excavation that was closest to the site center (Figure 3.4). Fifteen other bean cotyledons were present in the samples, but were too fragmented to securely identify to species level. Both of the

P. vulgaris beans exhibit dimensions that place them into the wild range according to previous collections at the site. However sample 40136-002 is broken (Figure 3.4a), and if its estimated

Figure 3.4 Phaseolus vulgaris L. recovered in 2013. Sample form numbers from left to right: 40136-002, 40140-002. Both of the beans were found in the operation closest to the site center, Op. AK, in the west canal and east agricultural inter-ridge, respectively.

64 full length is taken into account, it could classify as a domesticated variety.

One of the P. vulgaris beans was recovered from an agricultural inter-ridge (Figure 3.4b), as were eight other Phaseolus beans. This context indicates that Cerén milpa was likely inter- cropped with both maize and beans. The other P. vulgaris cotyledon (Figure 3.4a) was found in the canal on the western side of the sacbe, possibly indicating that it was once part of a transfer of goods along the roadway until it was dropped onto the road surface and washed away into the canal. The close proximity to the site center of both of the plant remains suggests that the farmers wanted to keep the beans closer to their households, within a reasonable distance for collection.

Cucurbitaceae

Figure 3.5 Cucurbitaceae rind recovered from Operation AE.

Squash has its origins in southern Central America or northern South America and is an annual vine that is widely cultivated (Breedlove and Laughlin 2000: 127; Lentz 2000: 99). Even though an entire squash gourd was recovered via a plaster cast in the inter-ridge in Operation

AE, very few carbonized plant remains were recovered for the species. A possible

Cucurbitaceae rind was found inside of the trench excavated into the sacbe in Operation AE

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(Figure 3.5). Even though the rinds were carbonized, this likely happened previous to the eruption, possibly in a hearth, since they were buried within the roadway.

Previous excavations at Cerén have unearthed squash seeds and rinds (both Cucurbita moschata and C. pepo) from multiple ceramic vessels, a basket, and a trough metate within the kitchen and multiple storeroom contexts (Lentz et al. 1996: 254). Seeds and rinds of the genus

Cucurbita have been recovered through several archaeobotanical studies in the Maya area at sites such as Albion Island, Cerros, Cihuatán, Coba, Copán, Cuello, Pulltrouser Swamp, and Tikal

(Beltrán Frias 1987; Cliff and Crane 1989; Hurst et al. 1989; Lentz 1991; Miksicek 1983, 1990,

1991; Turner and Miksicek 1984). The cooked, ripened fruit has many food-based uses known among present-day Maya (Atran et al. 2004: 102; Breedlove and Laughlin 2000: 128; Williams

1981: 93). The seeds can be ground to a powder and consumed in a stew or used on fruits, vegetables, and fish. The flowers can be combined with corn dough, and eaten with tamales.

Squash resin and seeds have been applied to the face and body for acne treatment, skin rashes, and burns (Atran et al. 2004: 102).

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Agave sp. [Agavaceae]

Agave is an erect perennial native to dry Neotropical regions and it often grows in fencerows and hedges (Standley and Steyermark 1952: 117). In addition to the leaves serving as a cooked food source, the fiber in the leaves is made into twine, sacks, and rope, giving it a commercial importance (Lentz and Dickau 2005: 45; Lentz et al. 1996; Parsons and Parsons

1990; Standley and Calderon 1925: 51). The modern Peten Itza Maya value agave as a very thin and resistant fiber useful in hammocks, cordage, nets, and shoes (Atran et al. 2004: 85).

The agave tissue recovered in 2013 (Figure 3.6) came from within the sacbe, in a trench excavated into the north side of Operation AE. Its presence as a carbonized material is curious, since it would not have been carbonized from the volcanic eruption if it were already buried within a feature. The tissue was likely burned previous to the eruption, possibly cooked as a food source, and then the unused remains were re-deposited as fill into the roadway. Agave fibers have been recovered previously at Cerén within the village house gardens and vessels

(Lentz et al. 2002; Lentz et al. 1996). A vessel from the storehouse of Household 4 contained some loosely woven cloth created from agave fibers, likely protecting the vessel contents below. Additionally, plaster casts of the plant have been recovered extensively from the garden adjacent to the same building, Structure 4, showing that the plant was Figure 3.6 Agave sp. tissue recovered heavily utilized at the site as a fiber source. from sample 50011-003.

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Weedy Species

Figure 3.7 Weedy seeds and achenes recovered during the paleoethnobotanical collections in 2013 via water flotation and macrobotanical samples.

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A highlight of the 2013 season’s findings is the abundance of small weedy seeds and achenes throughout the agricultural contexts (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). It has been previously thought that the Cerén residents had well-maintained agricultural fields with few weeds or intrusive plants present among their annual crops. The relationship these seeds share with each other and the various contexts in which they were recovered will be further discussed and interpreted in the following chapter.

45.00% 40.00% 35.00% 30.00%

25.00% 20.00% Ubiquity 15.00% Agricultural Fields 10.00% Sacbe 5.00% Canals 0.00% Flat Areas

Figure 3.8 Ubiquity of weedy speciesWeedy recovered Species in 2013 based on cultural features.

AMARANTHACEAE

Amaranthus sp.

Amaranth, also known as pigweed, is a common annual herb associated with fallow or secondary growth and disturbed areas such as waste ground, thickets, and maize fields at elevations between 400 and 2500 meters (Lentz and Dickau 2005: 67; Standley and Steyermark

1946: 155). The species is found throughout temperate and tropical regions of the Americas, and

69 has been recorded throughout El Salvador on roadsides and in gardens (Standley and Calderon

1925: 75). Over 30 amaranth seeds were found in the 2013 samples from all of the operations except for Op. AN. The seeds were located across all of the cultural proveniences except for the cleared, flat paths (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The genus represents the second most ubiquitous weedy seed, having been recovered from 20% of the 94 culturally distinct contexts collected. All of the whole amaranth seeds that were recovered are lenticular in shape, rounded, and compressed with an average width of 0.5 to 0.8 mm. The seed surfaces are glabrous, highly glossy, and minutely dimpled without any appendages (Delorit 1970; Lentz and Dickau 2005). Amaranth also was found during paleoethnobotanical studies at the Chan site (Lentz et al. 2012).

The Maya boiled the plant as a part of religious practices, yielding a blood-colored water.

This led the Spanish to ban cultivation and collection of amaranth, leading to the loss of its nutritional and ceremonial uses among present-day Maya (Atran et al. 2004: 86). It is an edible potherb with the seeds and leaves used as a condiment or often put in salads to strengthen the body (Atran et al. 2004: 86; Balick et al. 2000: 62; Williams 1981). The leaves can be used to heal skin lesions on the hands and feet (Atran et al. 2004: 86).

Cycloloma atriplicifolium (Spreng.) J.M. Coult.

Winged pigweed (Figure 3.7 and 3.8) is an annual herb that was recovered from the east agricultural field in Operation AE within an agricultural inter-ridge. It is commonly found in disturbed areas such as fields or roadsides. Multiple plant parts were recovered as part of a charcoal sample, including a seed and a pericarp. The seed is circular and compressed with a width of 1 mm. The seed scar is in the center and it has a dull, granular surface texture. The pericarp with a width of 1.2 mm, resembling a papery, winged margin that gives the appearance of a shallow bowl with five ridges that run out from the hilum, was also recovered.

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ASTERACEAE

Spilanthes cf. acmella (L.) Murray

By far, the most abundant and most ubiquitous (found in 89% of contexts examined) plant remains present in the entire sample set are Spilanthes cf. acmella (paracress) achenes

(Figure 3.7 and 3.8), an herbaceous species in the Asteraceae family that apparently was dispersing its seeds around the time of the volcanic eruption that buried the village. S. acmella is commonly found in damp thickets, open fields, and often along stream banks or irrigation ditches at elevations below 1,900 meters (Nash and Williams 1976: 320). Its roots can act as an anesthetic on the tongue or used as a remedy for toothaches. Nearly 150,000 achenes (a fruit encasing a seed) of this species were recovered, ranging across all five contexts, with a greater emphasis on the agricultural fields. The quantity of achenes was estimated based on weight, with about 400 achenes amounting to .01 g. The achenes are obovoid in shape, with a socket at the apex and a finely reticulate surface. The average achene measures about 2.0 mm in length and 1.2 mm wide. Since the achenes are carbonized, the fine hairs and bristles were not preserved.

This plant has also been recovered in previous studies conducted at Cerén (Hood 2012).

However, Hood’s thesis dismisses the relevance of these achenes because she thought they were of modern origin. Hood proposes that they could have been introduced into the setting via rodents, roots, or water (Hood 2012: 49). My data suggest otherwise because the quantities differ greatly, largely based on context, suggesting that they are associated with the ancient agricultural surface. Because of this discrepancy between interpretations and because the species is so strikingly abundant, an Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon date was obtained to confirm the age of the numerous seeds on various activity surfaces. The results

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(Figure 3.9) showed that the achenes are in fact ancient; their exact age was somewhere between

AD 592 and 660, which corresponds nicely with previous AMS dates taken from the site.

Figure 3.9 Plot of AMS data calibrated using OxCal and acquired by the University of Arizona AMS Facility.

This strikingly abundant species reveals that the farmers of Cerén were certainly not meticulously weeding their fields, and perhaps even encouraging the growth of other valuable weedy species such as Portulaca oleracea, Amaranth sp., and Mollugo verticillata, which are all edible potherbs and some of which are common in agricultural fields along with maize, beans, and nightshades (Lentz and Dickau 2005). Weeds can be useful additions whether fertilizing the soil, increasing moisture, or serving as a foodstuff. Or perhaps the small households at Cerén did not have an abundance of labor available to remove the weeds efficiently from their fields.

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CARYOPHYLLACEAE

Drymaria cordata (L.) Willd. Ex Schult.

A single chickweed seed was recovered in Operation AF from the center of the sacbe

(Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The weedy herb is commonly found in moist thickets, shaded banks, waste ground, or forests at elevations lower than 900 meters (Standley and Steyermark 1946: 228).

The plant is used as an ornamental decoration and also for medicinal purposes in Belize and El

Salvador (Balick at al. 2000: 63; Standley and Calderon 1925: 81). The seed recovered is ovoid in shape, compressed, with a papillose surface, and a width of about 0.8 mm. A chickweed seed has also been recovered at the Olmec site of San Andres, dating to 800-350 cal BC (Lentz, personal communication).

CYPERACEAE

Fimbristylis dichotoma (L.) Vahl.

Forked fimbry is a sedge, often used as an herb, that grows in areas associated with wetlands or with nutrient poor soils that have adequate moisture in tropical and subtropical regions (Balick et al. 2000: 182; Gonzalez et al. 1983; Zahoor et al. 2012). The achenes encountered in the 2013 paleoethnobotanical assemblage are the third most common weedy species recovered, with a ubiquity of 20.21% and 35 achenes recovered from flotation samples

(Figure 3.8). The achenes were unearthed from the agricultural ridges, canals, and the sacbe surface from Operations AF, AG, AH, AI, and AJ. The achenes recovered have a broad-ovate shape that is compressed (Figure 3.7). Numerous longitudinal grooves meet at the apex with transversal lines in between. On average, the achenes exhibit a length and width of 0.7 mm by

1.0 mm.

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Their presence is curious because the species is typically thought to inhabit aquatic areas such as swamps, marshes, and ponds (Zahoor et al. 2012: 4). Sedges are known to tolerate a variety of habitats, however, even dry-lands with saline sodic soils. The achenes were recovered a considerable distance from any water source, nearly 50 meters from the nearest river, the Rio

Sucio. Zahoor and colleagues (2012: 5) have shown that the sedge tends to be a dominant weed within more heavily disturbed or tilled areas, and it has a well-developed root system resulting in a drought tolerant plant. cf. Fimbristylis ferruginea (L.) Vahl.

Another fimbry achene was recovered within the samples, commonly known as West

Indian fimbry (Balick et al. 2000: 182). A single achene was recovered from an agricultural ridge west of the sacbe in Operation AJ. The achene recovered differs from F. dichotoma in that it has more condensed surface features, a more ovate shape, and a smaller size of 0.7 mm in length and a width of 0.5 mm (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The species has been documented in Belize, Mexico, and

Panama (Davidse 1994). Multiple other species of the genus Fimbristylis have been documented in El Salvador, such as F. diphylla, F. miliacea, and F. spadicea (Standley and Calderon 1925:

40). The genus is common in dry, sandy environments, but is also found in disturbed areas.

EUPHORBIACEAE

Euphorbia graminea

The grassleaf spurge is often found near water, and in wet or dry thickets, pine forests, or open fields at elevations between 600 and 1900 meters (Standley and Steyermark 1949: 107).

Three seeds identified to this species have been recovered from the agricultural ridges and an inter-ridge in Operations AH and AN (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The seeds are broad-ovate with a glabrous surface with minute indentations and an average width of 0.6 mm and length of 0.8

74 mm. On one side of the seed, a prominent seam or line runs from the hilum to the chalaza on the opposite end of the seed (Delorit 1970).

Other species in the genus have been documented ethnographically among the Maya to be used medicinally as an antibacterial and antifungal for physicians (Atran et al. 2004: 105), and also as possibly having poisonous properties (Balick et al. 2000: 109). The flowers are used as an ornamental decoration and for beauty because of their milky white color (Lentz and Dickau

2005: 133); Standley and Calderon 1925: 132). Euphorbia seeds have been found archaeologically before at Cobá and were thought to have been used medicinally (Beltrán Frias

1987).

FABACEAE – PAPILIONOIDEAE

Crotalaria cf. sagittalis L.

Rattlebox seeds were the fifth most ubiquitous weedy species recovered in the study, with

31 separate seeds recorded, ranging across all major contexts: agricultural fields, canals, sacbe, and flat areas (Figure 3.7, 3.8, and 3.10). The weed is mainly found at elevations lower than

2500 meters in open dry areas such as hillsides, sandbars, or pine forests (Standley and

Steyermark 1946: 199). The carbonized seeds have a reniform shape with a hook-like projection and glabrous surface. The widths recorded range from 0.8 – 1.0 mm, and the lengths from 1.0 – 1.5 mm. One of the samples was found within a light fraction taken from the central sacbe that was accompanied by two Figure 3.10 Scanning Electron Micrograph of a Crotalaria cf. sagittalis small ceramic sherds. seed.

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Crotalaria seeds were also recovered through paleoethnobotanical studies at Copán

(Lentz 1991). The genus has been documented in ethnobotanical studies as growing in house gardens with the leaves being used for soups, stews, and tamales (Atran et al. 2004: 107). The herb has been documented as a useful fodder and fertilizer. The Tzotzil create a tea from the plant and bathe patients in it who experience nightmares (Breedlove and Laughlin 2000: 221).

Additionally, a decoction of the roots is used as a diuretic and to treat liver diseases (Standley and Calderon 1925: 110). cf. Marina nutans (Cav.) Barneby

This leguminous herb, commonly known as ‘prairie clover’, was recovered in two different locations along the sacbe, once in the center of the sacbe in Operation AE and again on the east edge of the sacbe in Operation AG (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The carbonized seeds were just fragments, but had a length of 0.4 mm with a semi-broad, obovoid shape, and a verrucose-like surface, and a hollow interior. No appendages were attached to the archaeological specimens, but would normally be present. The herb is commonly found in both dry and wet fields, often in areas that have been cultivated, and sometimes along streambanks (Lentz and Dickau 2005: 113;

Standley and Steyermark 1946:214). Economically, the plant has known uses as a dye and as brooms and brushes when the branches are tied together.

MOLLUGINACEAE

Mollugo verticillata L.

Carpetweed, sometimes referred to as whorled chickweed (Delorit 1970), is an annual herb that has been recovered from the agricultural ridges, the canals, and atop the sacbe in

Operations AF, AG, AH, AI, and AJ (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The potherb is grown in moist lowland open areas, damp thickets, cultivated or disturbed environments, rich soil in tilled crops,

76 and in areas slightly above sea level (Standley and Steyermark 1946: 204; Uva et al. 1997).

Nineteen carpetweed seeds were recovered, all from the light fraction samples. The seeds were reniform in shape, compressed, with a slightly hook-like projection. Their lengths ranged from

0.4 to 0.7 mm and their widths from 0.4 to 0.5 mm. The surfaces had a series of raised ridges arranged in curved rows out from the apex. Carpetweed is the fourth most ubiquitous weedy species recovered in the 2013 plant assemblage.

The seeds are thought to have originated in the tropics and have been found archaeologically as far back as 3000 years ago in North America (Chapman et al. 1974: 412).

The weed is often accompanied with the cultivation of sunflowers (Helianthus annuus), sumpweed (Iva annua), chenopods (Chenopodium sp.), squash (Cucurbita pepo), and gourds

(Lagenaria siceraria) (Chapman et al. 1974: 412). Few medicinal applications are known for the species, but a closely related species (M. radiata) is used medicinally as a poultice (Lentz and

Dickau 2005: 70). Carpetweed has little known food value and is considered a weed in the gardens and milpas of El Salvador (Chapman et al. 1974; Standley and Calderon 1925: 80), so its presence was likely just as a weedy occupant of the disturbed areas, in this case fields.

Carpetweed seeds have also been recovered through paleoethnobotanical studies at Copán (Lentz

1991).

POACEAE

Panicum sp.

The grass is often found in forests, meadows, and along the banks of rivers, lakes, and aguadas from elevations of about 1350 meters down to sea level (Atran et al. 2004: 113; Lentz and Dickau 2005). There are over 600 species in the genus, growing in tropical and warm temperate climates. Five Panicum seeds were unearthed from both the east and west canals in

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Operation AI, and the east agricultural field in Operation AH. The recovered seeds are ovoid to ellipsoid with glabrous surfaces and an average length of 1.7 mm (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The genus contains species often used as thatch for field houses, ornamentals, and also as fodder

(Breedlove and Laughlin 2000: 255).

PORTULACACEAE

Portulaca oleracea L.

Purslane is a very common annual herb in El Salvador (Standley and Calderon 1925: 80); it is also widely distributed around the world in tropical regions at elevations of 2400 meters or lower (Standley and Steyermark 1946: 212). The plant is commonly found in both weedy and cultivated contexts as dooryard garden plants (Williams 1981). Four purslane seeds were recovered archaeobotanically within an agricultural ridge, a canal, and the sacbe in Operations

AH, AI, and AK (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The seeds are obovate, compressed, with each face slightly convex. The surfaces are covered with rounded tubercles that are arranged in curved rows. The widths of the seeds ranged from 0.5 to 0.6 mm and the lengths from .6 to .9 mm. Only two of the recovered P. oleracea seeds were carbonized, the other two had a dark orange surface color.

Most scholars agree that purslane’s origins lie in Europe and western Asia, but its arrival in the New World is a subject of debate. Archaebotanical evidence establishes its presence in the

New World during Pre-Columbian times (Chapman et al. 1978). The weedy herb grows naturally in disturbed environments, moist fields, roadsides, stream banks, and even city streets.

The herb is highly valued as a food source eaten as a vegetable similar to spinach (Standley and

Calderon 1925: 80); its seeds are often consumed raw in salads and soups. When crushed, the leaves can be rubbed on the body to treat wounds, swelling, and chronic coughs (Atran et al.

2004: 122). The plant is a good source of potassium, ascorbic acid, and the alkaloid

78 norepinephrine (Atran et al. 2004: 122). Several bins of purslane are mentioned in the Codex

Mendoza as tribute to Montezuma, which was collected annually across nearly 400 towns

(Chapman et al. 1974: 411; Kaplan 1971).

SOLANACEAE

Physalis angulata L.

Tomatillo is a perennial herb commonly found in sandy field margins, open forests, and roadsides at elevations below 1,000 meters (Gentry and Standley 1974: 82). Three different non- carbonized Physalis angulata seeds were recovered in the 2013 paleoethnobotanical collections, all within close proximity of each other in the north end of Operation AF: two recovered in an agricultural ridge and another from the sacbe surface. The seeds are obovoid with one end acute

(Figure 3.7 and 3.8). All of the tomatillo seeds have a tan surface that is covered with thick, wavy, translucent veins. Their average length is 1.5 mm with an average width of 1.2 mm, which is slightly smaller than modern comparative specimens (Lentz and Dickau 2005: 219). This slight decrease in size is expected among archaeological remains because the carbonization process can reduce the mass of seeds by up to 30% of their previous size (Wilson 1984; Wright

2003).

The herb is a food source, a medicinal application, a spice or flavoring, and a source of poison (Balick et al. 2000: 125). Other species in the genus have been documented in ethnobotanical studies as a treatment for fevers, malaria, headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, kidney pain, and “evil eye” (Atran et al. 2004: 128).

Solanum sp.

Part of the nightshade family, this edible herb is often found growing as a weed in orchards, milpas, thickets, and forests. The genus, which is native to the Neotropics, is quite

79 large, with several dozen species in the form of shrubs and small trees (Balick et al. 2000). The

Solanum seed recovered in 2013 came from the agricultural inter-ridge in Operation AN, the only operation that did not uncover a sacbe. The seed has a width of 0.8 mm and a length of 1.1 mm, a reniform-globose shape, and a surface that is minutely tuberculose (Figure 3.7 and 3.8).

Many of the species within the genus are consumed fresh, cooked as a vegetable, or utilized as a medicinal source (Balick et al. 2000: 126; Gentry and Standley 1974: 129). The leaves are cooked in soups and are thought to help with both nutrition and to increase productivity and thought (Atran et al. 2004: 128). Some seeds in the genus have even been found in ceremonial contexts, such as those found within a vessel at the Maya cave site of Actun Che

Chem Ha (Morehart 2011: 66). Other Maya sites that have recovered Solanum seeds include

Albion Island, Cuello, and Pulltrouser Swamp (Miksicek 1983, 1990, 1991).

TALINACEAE cf. Talinum fruticosum (L.) Juss.

The weedy herb, known as waterleaf, can be found growing in moist or dry environments, often in rocky thickets and low forests at elevations below 650 meters in El

Salvador (Standley and Calderon 1925: 80; Standley and Steyermark 1946: 214). A fragment of the waterleaf seed was recovered in Operation AI along the sacbe, identified using a comparative sample of T. triangulare (the accepted name is now T. fruticosum) from the collection in the

Paleoethnobotanical laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. The identification is tentative because just a fragment of the seed was recovered, revealing just the papillose surface texture and general size (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). The species is used as an ornamental because of its white flowers and also as a potherb (Lentz and Dickau 2005: 72; Standley and Calderon 1925: 80).

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Tree Species

A variety of tree species were recovered throughout the excavations, revealing that the use of wood products at the site did not heavily rely on any one species in particular. These included 24 wood morphospecies, 13 identified to species level and encompassing 19 plant families. All samples of wood were quite small in size (Figure 3.11). No sample contained more than one gram of charcoal, and only two species collectively amounted to over a gram in weight

(Ficus sp. and Metopium brownei). The most ubiquitous wood in the assemblage was Pinus sp., followed by Metopium brownei.

The various species present within the assemblage indicate that the Cerén inhabitants were using a diverse set of trees that were locally available for their fuel, construction, food, and possibly medicinal needs. All taxa were identified using Scanning Electron Microscopy with the exception of Psidium guajava and cf. Celtis sp., which had carbonized fruit fragments preserved on the cultural surface.

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cf. Ehretia tinifolia Metopium sp. Heteropterys sp. Exostema sp. Allophylus sp. Capparaceae Matayba sp. Ehretia tinifolia Colubrina aborescens Astronium graveloeons

Exothea paniculata Nectandra cf. globosa Dunalia aborescens

Tree Tree Species Tabernaemontana sp. Jacaranda sp. Persea americana Pinus sp. Clusia sp. Cameraria latifolia Casearia sp. Ampelocera hottlei Haematoxylum campechianum Metopium brownei Ficus sp.

0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 1.40 Weight (g)

Figure 3.11. Tree species identified in the 2013 paleoethnobotanical samples organized by overall weight of charcoal.

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3.50% 3.00% 2.50%

2.00% 1.50% Ubiquity 1.00%

0.50% Agricultural Fields 0.00% Sacbe Canals Flat Areas Ficus sp. Pinus sp. Clusia sp. Arecaceae Matayba sp. Caseariasp. Exostema sp. Capparaceae Jacaranda sp. Allophylussp. Heteropterys sp. Metopium brownei cf. Ehretia tinifolia Cameraria latifolia Exothea paniculata Dunalia aborescens cf. Persea americana Astronium graveolens cf. Ampelocerahottlei Colubrina aborescens Nectandra cf. globosa Haematotoxylum campechianum Tree Species

Figure 3.12 Ubiquity of tree species recovered in 2013 based on cultural features.

Tree Crop Species

Previous studies at Cerén have revealed extensive use of household courtyards to cultivate tree crops, based on macrobotanical remains such as seeds and charcoal, and also plaster casts retrieved of seeds, branches, and other plant parts (Lentz and Ramirez-Sosa 2002:

38). Many economically important trees were planted outside of each household including avocado (Persea americana), guava (Psidium guajava), calabash (Crescentia alata), cacao

(Theobroma cacao), and nance (Byrsonima crassifolia). Many of these species were also recovered in the form of charcoal along the sacbe and in the agricultural fields.

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ARECACEAE cf. Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd. Ex Mart.

Acrocomia aculeata is a common palm that is well known in El

Salvador and Mesoamerica (Standley and Calderon 1925: 41). The common name for this tree, coyol, is of Nahuatl origin, but is also known as ‘tuk’ among the Yucatec Maya and as ‘maap’ among Figure 3.13 cf. Acrocomia aculeata endocarp the Teenek maya (Lentz 1990: 184). fragments recovered in sample 40138-002. Coyol is a cultivated, medium-sized palm tree that usually grows to a height of 10 meters (Lentz and Dickau 2005: 25; Standley and

Steyermark 1946). Generally, the species grows below 1000 meters in open lowland forests or on dry open hillsides (Lentz and Dickau 2005), thriving in areas disturbed by fires (Mocote-rios and

Bernal 2001). Coyol produces globose, oil-rich fruits, edible seeds, and sugar-rich sap (Smith

1967; Lentz 1991; Mocote-rios and Bernal 2001). The tree’s fruits are so valued that the Teenek

Maya spare the palms that grow within their milpas (Alcorn 1984: 421). The flowers have a strong scent and are used as decoration of altars (Standley and Calderon 1925: 41). The kernels are edible and the sap can be made into wine (Breedlove and Laughlin 2000: 192). The endocarps can be manufactured into miscellaneous products such as jewelry and spindle whorls

(Lentz and Ramirez-Sosa 2002: 40; Standley and Steyermark 1958: 202). The fruits can be made into a jam if boiled, and the seeds are edible and candy-like (Atran et al. 2004: 133).

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Two cf. Acrocomia aculeata fruit fragments were recovered in Operation AK, additionally a few endocarps identified to the family level were recovered in Operations AE and

AJ along the sacbe and canals (Figure 3.13). Within Operation AK, the fragments were recovered from a canal on the west side of the sacbe that was oriented perpendicular to the roadway, heading west, directly towards Household 2. This was the only canal encountered that did not run alongside the sacbe. The palm fragments were compared to modern samples available in the Paleoethnobotanical Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. The fragments show the same glabrous surface, thickness, and angular breaks that the modern comparative collection exhibited.

Previous studies at Ceren show that phytoliths were abundant and well-preserved in the sediment, but palm phytoliths are scarce in the samples which were largely dominated by

Poaceae remains (Sheets et al. 2012: 277) suggesting that palms were not cultivated near the settlement. Within Structure 7 of Household 2 at Cerén, a coyol endocarp was carved into a spindle whorl. The item is thought to have been imported into the site, or possibly reveals that the Cerenians did not necessarily value the fruit as a food source like it was at Copán. The endocarp fragments recovered in 2013 indicate that the people of Cerén did use the fruit for subsistence, and not just as a tool.

The oldest known archaeological remains of coyol come from Santarem in northeastern

Brazil (11,200 B.P.) (Mocote-rios and Bernal 2001). The species has been found previously at many Maya archaeological sites including Aguateca, Cerros, Chan, Colha, Copán, Dos Pilas,

Lamanai, Tiger Mound, Tikal, San Andres, Wild Cane, and also at Cerén (Caldwell 1980; Cliff and Crane 1989; Crane 1986; Lentz 1990, 1991, 1994, 2014; Lentz and Ramirez-Sosa 2002;

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Lentz et al. 1996, 2012, 2015; Lentz, personal communication; McKillop 1994; Turner and

Miksicek 1984).

LAURACEAE

Persea americana Mill.

Charcoal remains of an avocado tree were recovered from the sacbe surface in Operation

AI (Figures 3.11, 3.12, and 3.14). The charcoal exhibited about 13 vessels per mm2 that ranged in size from less than 50 to 150 μm. The vessels were irreguar in shape, likely a result of carbonization. The pieces also exhibited 10 rays per mm that were 2 to 6 cells wide. The parenchyma are aliform-lozenge and 1 to 4 cells wide. Another avocado plant part was also recovered archaeologically: a tentative pit fragment from the east field of Operation AH. Even though the pit fragement is in poor condition, it resembles that of an avocado pit in size (13 mm length, 8.5 mm width, 4.5 mm thickness) and also reveals the same smooth surface depressions found on comparative samples. Previous collections of avocado have been recovered at the site both in a midden and in the courtyard gardens of all of the households in the form of branches, leaves, and cotyledons (Hood 2012; Sheets 2006).

Figure 3.14 Scanning Electron Micrographs of Persea americana a tree crop species recovered in 2013: c) transverse section, d) tangential section.

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The avocado tree is commonly found in house gardens and orchards at elevations below

3000 meters in the Neotropics, and it is cultivated today throughout El Salvador (Standley and

Calderon 1925: 85; Standley and Steyermark 1946: 331). The Peten Itza Maya name for the tree is ‘agwakaate,’ which originates from the Nahuatl word ‘ahuacatl’ (Atran et al. 2004: 113). The leaves have medicinal uses, where they can be used in tea to treat fungal and gastrointestinal problems (Atran et al. 2004: 113). When the seed is crushed and heated, it can be applied to the skin to treat warts (Atran et al. 2004: 113). Oil from the fruits, heavily laden with lipids, is used for cosmetic purposes and the bark is a source of dye (Standley and Steyermark 1946: 331). As documented among present-day Peten Itza Maya (Atran et al. 2004), the fruit can be toxic: the seeds can kill pests like rats and mice, while the leaves can poison cattle. Seed remains found in the Tehuacan Valey suggest that the avocado was utilized as early as 8000 BC (MacNeish 1964;

Smith 1969).

The domesticated trees are thought to have been introduced into the Maya cutural area by at least 3400 BC (Colunga Garcia and Zizumbo-Vilareal 2004). Avocado pits and charcoal fragments also have been recovered from other Maya sites such as Aguateca, Albion Island,

Chan, Colha, Copán, Cuello, Dos Pilas, Pulltrouser Swamp, Santa Leticia, Tikal, and Wild Cane

(Caldwell 1980; Cavallaro 2013; Lentz 1991, Lentz et al. 2012, 2014a, 2015; McKillop 1994;

Miksicek 1983, 1986, 1990, 1991; Turner and Miksicek 1984). The fruit has importance iconographicaly in the Maya cuture. For example, the Haab calendar, based on agricultural events, has the 14th month represented by a gyph representing the avocado (Landa [1560] 1978;

Galindo-Tovar et al. 2007). Additionally, avocado trees are depicted on the side of Pakal’s tomb at Palenque, along with other fruti trees commonly cutivated near Maya homes: cacao

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(Theobroma cacao), soursop (Annona muricata), and chicozapote (Manilkara zapota) (Schele

1974).

MYRTACEAE cf. Psidium guajava L.

Guava is a tree crop commonly grown in orchards that often forms thickets, mostly in moist or dry areas such as pastures. It can grow at elevations below 1,800 meters (McVaugh 1963: 392).

The guava fragment recovered is a mesocarp with a glabrous surface and a length of 8.7 mm (Figure 3.15).

The sample came from the light fraction taken in the western canal perpendicular to the sacbe in Operation

AK. The fragment likely washed into the canal after Figure 3.15 cf. Psidium guajava mesocarp recovered from 40138-003. falling onto the surface of the sacbe while being transported. This is not the first time that guava has been seen in the paleoethnobotanical remains at Cerén; an abundance of plaster casts revealing fruits, stems, and leaves have been recovered in the courtyards outside of Households 1, 3, and 4, indicating the use of the species as a tree crop. Guava remains also have been recovered from Aguateca within a ceramic jar within

Structure M8-4 (known as the House of Mirrors), an elite residence, and from a midden adjacent to Structure M8-2 (Lentz et al. 2014b: 211). The tree can be seen growing around the archaeological site today, and it is still grown by present-day Maya populations (Breedlove and

Laughlin 2000).

Economically, the species serves many purposes. Medicinally, the leaves create a remedy for stomachaches and indigestion (Heinrich et al. 1998; McVaugh 1963). The leaves can

88 be applied and treated to various insect bites, skin fungus, or general wounds when toasted and grinded into a powder (Atran et al. 2004: 118). Besides medicinal applications, the fruits are a common food source, often eaten fresh and made into preserves. The wood utilized as a fuel and in carpentry, for fences, firewood, combs, toy manufacturing, and as a source of tannin (Atran et al. 2004: 118; Gutierrez et al. 2008; Standley and Calderon 1925: 162).

Other Tree Species

ANACARDIACEAE

Astronium graveleons Jacq.

Glassywood, also known as ‘jobillo’ (Bohn et al. 2014: 279), is a tree common in wet or moist forests near sea level elevations (Standley and Steyermark 1949: 180). A small charcoal specimen (0.11 g) identified to this species was recovered from within the sacbe in Operation AE

(Figure 3.16a). The specimen exhibits about eight vessels per mm2 that are 50 to 150 μm in size.

About 10 to 13 rays are visible per mm, with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen are scanty. The wood has been found in other paleoethnobotanical studies in the

Maya area, such as Chan, Dos Pilas, and Tikal (Lentz 1994; Lentz et al. 2012, 2015).

The heart of the wood is used for construction, furniture, cabinetry, and the roots for artisanry (Atran et al. 2004: 87; Standley and Steyermark 1949: 180). The leaves and resin can be ground for medicinal purposes and used as a paste to be rubbed on skin rashes, and the leaves can be used as a fertilizer (Atran et al. 2004: 87; Balick et al. 2000: 117). The wood recovered must have been carbonized previous to the eruption, since it was buried within the sacbe. This indicates that the wood could also have been utilized as a fuel source for the people of Cerén, or that a construction material had been burned and discarded, and subsequently used as a fill for the roadway.

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Figure 3.16 Scanning Electron Micrographs of tree species recovered in 2013: a) Astronium graveleons transverse section, b) Cameraria latifolia transverse section, c) Metopium brownei transverse section, d) M. Brownei tangential section, e) Tabernaemontana sp. transverse section, f) Ehretia tinifolia transverse section, g) Jacaranda sp. transverse section, h) Capparaceae transverse section. 90

Metopium brownei (Jacq.) Urb.

Poisonwood, or ‘chechem’ to the Yucatec Maya (Bohn et al. 2014: 279), is a canopy tree commonly found in moist or wet forests and thickets and sometimes along seashores (Mize and

Castillo 2006: 85; Standley and Steyermark 1949: 184). It can be found at or slightly above sea level. Charcoal fragments of the species were recovered from the agricultural ridges and canals in Operations AE, AH, and AI (Figure 3.16 c, d). The specimens exhibit between 7 and 15 vessels per mm2 that are 50 to 150 μm in size. About 6 to 10 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 4 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen are vasicentric with a thickness of

3 to 6 cells. Each of the Scanning Electron Micrographs for the species also shows a hint of tyloses present. Poisonwood is the second most prevalent species among the tree remains according to the combined weight of charcoal fragments. The species has been found archaeologically at other Maya sites such as Chan, Cobá, and Tikal (Beltrán Frias 1987; Lentz et al. 2012, 2015).

Just like the common name suggests, the tree does have poisonous properties. When the tree is in bloom it emits a respiratory irritant and the resin can cause eye burning and skin reactions much like poison ivy (Atran et al. 2004: 87; Standley and Steyermark 1949: 184).

When the hardwood is soaked in water the poison can be removed and then used for craft items such as cabinetry, tool handles, and furniture (Atran et al. 2004: 87). The tree is also used as lumber and as a medicine within Yucatec-Maya agroforestry systems (Bohn et al. 2014: 279).

APOCYNACEAE

Cameraria latifolia L.

White poisonwood is a shrub or small tree that grows in low mixed forests near or above sea level (Standley and Williams 1969: 341). Charcoal fragments identified to be white

91 poisonwood were collected from the surface of the sacbe in Operations AE and AH (Figure

3.16b). The charcoal specimens exhibit around 40 vessels per mm2 that are less than 50 μm in size. About 7 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 5 cells per ray. The specimens have confluent parenchyma with a thickness of 3 to 8 cells. As the common name suggests, the latex is poisonous and causes swelling and inflammations on the skin upon physical contact

(Atran et al. 2004; Balick et al. 2000). White poisonwood has been encountered previously in paleoethnobotanical studies in the Maya area at Tikal (Lentz et al. 2015).

Tabernaemontana sp.

Milkwood is a small shrub (1-6 meters in height) found in moist or dry thickets, sandy substrates, or secondary growth at lowland elevations below 700 meters (Standley and Calderon

1925: 174; Standley and Williams 1969: 391). Charcoal fragments of milkwood were recovered from the canal in Operation AH. The SEM of the specimen (Figure 3.16e) exhibits about 100 vessels per mm2 that are less than 50 μm in size. About 8 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 4 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen are scanty.

The species has been recovered paleoethnobotanically from multiple Maya cave sites in

Belize (Morehart 2011). An abundance of charcoal remains were found on the floor and within a

Late Classic cache at Actun Chapat (Morehart 2011: 47-52), suggesting a ceremonial connection of the species to the Maya. Today the species is a source of medicine used on inflammations and insect bites, a poison, a latex substitute for chicle, the wood for the construction of children’s toys, and the flowers used as a white ornamental in house gardens (Atran et al. 2004: 90; Balick et al. 2000: 123; Standley and Calderon 1925: 175; Standley and Williams 1969: 391).

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BORAGINACEAE

Ehretia tinifolia L.

The bastard cherry tree grows in lowland areas and occasionally cultivated (Standley and

Williams 1970: 135). Some charcoal remains of Ehretia tinifolia were unearthed from the west agricultural field in Operation AF and also from within the northern sacbe in Operation AE. The

SEM of the specimen (Figure 3.16f) exhibits about 13 vessels per mm2 that are between 50 and

100 μm in size. There are about 10 to 13 rays visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 3 cells per ray. The specimens both have banded-convergent parenchyma that is 6 to 14 cells thick. The species has known uses as a food and also for construction, ornamental, and medicinal purposes

(Balick et al. 2000: 130; Williams 1981: 58).

BIGNONIACEAE

Jacaranda sp.

Jacaranda is a tree cultivated throughout Mesoamerica and northern South America in wet forests that are slightly above sea level (Standley and Calderon 1925: 200; Williams 1981:

46). A hand-picked sample taken from the wall of a ceramic sherd in the east agricultural field in

Operation AI contained 0.38 g of Jacaranda sp., possibly signifying that the species was previously stored in a ceramic vessel. However, ethnographic accounts describe that the wood is suitable for boxes, crates, and lighter construction projects (Atran et al. 2004). This economic purpose does not align well with the specimen’s presence in a ceramic vessel.

The SEM of the specimen (Figure 3.16g) reveals about 30 vessels per mm2 that are between 50 and 200 μm in size. About 11 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 3 cells per ray. The parenchyma are banded-convergent and lozenge-shaped around each vessel with a thickness of about 4 to 6 cells.

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CAPPARACEAE

Capparaceae, or the caper family, mainly consists of shrubs and trees found in the

Neotropics. Species in this family are usually dominant evergreens within dry forests. A small piece of charcoal identified to this family was recovered from the top of the southeast side of the sacbe’s surface in Operation AE. The Capparaceae charcoal specimen exhibits between 13 vessels per mm2 that are less than 50 μm in size (Figure 3.16h). About 3 to 5 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 3 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen are scanty, but also vasicentric with a thickness of only 1 to 2 cells. Some species are cultivated as ornamentals, some of the species have edible fruits that are commonly consumed by both humans and monkeys, and other species are highly poisonous (Cornejo 2009).

CLUSIACEAE Clusia sp.

Known as matapalo, this tree is still present in the area around the archaeological site today and is common in the mountainous areas of El Salvador (Standley and Calderon 1925:

151). The tree grows in moist or wet mixed forests at elevations of 1,300 meters or lower

(Standley and Williams 1961: 42). Matapalo charcoal was unearthed from within the trench excavated into the sacbe in Operation AE, much like many of the other macrobotanical remains discussed thus far which likely signified species utilized as fuel sources. The charcoal examined using SEM analysis had about 20 vessels per mm2 that ranged in size from 50 to 150μm (Figure

3.17). It also contained 6 rays per mm, with each ray about 3 cells wide. The parenchyma are vasicentric and anywhere from 1 to 3 cells thick. The genus has also been recovered through paleoethnobotanical studies at Aguateca and Tikal (Lentz at al. 2014a, 2015).

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Latex from the tree is used to treat toothaches and to adulterate chicle (Atran et al. 2004:

100; Standley and Williams 1961: 42). The bark is used to make containers for liquids and the wood is used as a fuel source and as fence posts. Known uses among present-day Maya populations show that the resin can be applied to cuts to stop bleeding, as a tint for cloth, and as an adhesive for repairs (Atran et al. 2004: 100).

Figure 3.17 Scanning Electron Micrograph of the transverse section of Clusia sp., a tree species recovered in 2013.

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Figure 3.18 Scanning Electron Micrographs of tree species recovered in 2013: a) Haematoxylum campechianum transverse section, b) H. campechianum tangential section, c) Nectandra cf. globosa transverse section d) Heteropterys sp. transverse section, e) Ficus sp. transverse section, f) Ficus sp. tangential section.

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FABACEAE - CAESALPINIOIDEAE

Haematoxylum campechianum L.

Logwood, known as ‘tinto’ to the Yucatec Maya (Bohn et al. 2014: 280), is found in wetlands, swamp forests, and in regenerative forests with clay-rich soils (Atran et al. 2004: 108;

Lentz and Dickau 2005: 102; Rocas 2003). Logwood is the third most abundant tree species in the assemblage based on weight (Figure 3.11), present in the sacbe and canals in Operations AG,

AH, AI, AK. Analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy reveal that the specimens exhibit between 16 and 30 vessels per mm2 that are less than 50 to 100 μm in size (Figure 3.18 a and b).

About 15 to 20 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells per ray. Parenchyma cells on the specimen are banded and confluent with a thickness of 2 to 10 cells.

Peten Itza Maya used the heartwood of the tree as house-posts and informants say that the

Lakantun Maya made arrows from the wood (Atran et al. 2004: 108). If soaked in water for several days, the wood creates a dark red stain applied to cloth in Pre-Columbian times (Standley and Steyermark 1946: 139). Additionally, the wood extract is used as an astringent for treating dysentery.

H. campechianum is not documented in either modern or historic forests of El Salvador

(Carlson 1948; Daugherty 1969; Komar 2003; Standley and Calderon 1925), likely a result of extensive deforestation throughout the country or a change in soil composition due several deposits of tephra since the Late Classic Period. Archaeological specimens of the species have been previously found at many other Maya sites including Aguateca, Chan, Lamanai, Pulltrouser

Swamp, and Tikal (Lentz et al. 2012, 2014a, 2015, personal communication; Miksicek 1983;

Pohl et al. 1996). At Tikal, H. campechianum is a dominant species in the forest today and the ancient Maya populations used the timber in lintels in the temples and palaces (Coe et al. 1986;

97

Lentz and Hockaday 2009; Thompson et al. 2015). Logwood was also a dominant hardwood in

Hood’s study of a midden deposit at Cerén (Hood 2012: 83), showing that the inhabitants were consistently using the timber as a fuel source throughout the village.

LAURACEAE

Nectranda cf. globosa (Aubl.) Mez

Charcoal fragments of timber sweet wood, known as ‘aguacate del monte’ in El Salvador

(Standley and Calderon 1925: 84) or bosh’ok to the Yucatec Maya (Bohn et al. 2014), were found within the trench excavated into the northern end of the sacbe in Operation AE. The micrograph taken of the transverse cross-section (Figure 3.18 c) reveals about 10 vessels per mm2 that range in size from 50 to 150 μm. There are nine rays per mm with a thickness of 2 to 5 cells. Thick winged and vasicentric parenchyma are visible (2-5 cells wide). Nectandra charcoal has also been found at the Classic Maya archaeological sites of Dos Pilas and Naco (Cavallaro

2013; Lentz 1994; Lentz et al. 1991).

The tree is commonly found in moist forests, pastures, roadsides, and even on limestone at elevations of 1500 meters or lower (Standley and Steyermark 1946: 318). The species is sometimes referred to as the “hummingbird tree” or the “odorous tree” because when the wood is cut it releases a honey-like odor (Atran et al. 2004: 112). The wood is used for fuel and lumber needs and the heart is utilized for construction purposes because it is water resistant (Bohn et al.

2014: 280). The wood has also been documented as a component of children’s toys among the

Peten Itza Maya (Atran et al. 2004: 112).

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MALPIGHACEAE

Heteropterys sp.

The genus is commonly found in the forms of shrubs, trees, or woody vines in low, moist regions of the Neotropics (Anderson 2001). A small piece of redwing charcoal was recovered via flotation from the surface of the southeast side of the sacbe in Operation AG. The piece exhibits about 35 vessels per mm2 (Figure 3.18d). The vessels are of two distinct sizes that range in size from 50 to 150 μm. About 18 rays are visible per mm with uniseriate rays. Parenchyma on the specimen are scanty and vasicentric are a thickness of only about 1 to 2 cells. The genus is used medicinally because of its antiviral, antimicrobial, and stimulant effects (Pott and Melo et al.

2008; Pott 1994). Additionally, the plants prove useful as a spice, fiber, construction material, food product, and also for miscellaneous products like toys (Balick et al. 2000: 112).

MORACEAE

Ficus sp.

Ficus, or commonly known as ‘copoh’ to the Yucatec Maya (Bohn et al. 2014), is a generally large tree found in forests, open fields, hillsides, river sides, and nearby settlements at elevations up to 1400 meters that can grow to reach the upper canopies in tropical deciduous forests (Standley and Steyermark 1946: 39). The fig germinates in the canopy and sends its aerial roots down to parasitize the vascular system of host trees, and it mainly flowers at night. The genus has been heavily documented in El Salvador, with at least 20 species recorded in the country (Standley and Calderon 1925: 65-70).

Ficus is the genus with the most collective weight recorded over the various samples in this study (Figure 3.11). Analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy reveals that the specimens exhibit between 15 and 20 vessels per mm2 that are less than 50 to 100 μm in size

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(Figure 3.18 e and f). About 16 to 18 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen are banded and convergent with a thickness of 5 to 9 cells.

Multiple charcoal fragments identified to the genus were recovered from the sacbe surface and the east agricultural ridges in Operations AH and AI. One of the samples was scraped off of the wall of a ceramic sherd in Operation AI, possibly indicating that the charcoal had been stored in a vessel previously or was mixed together when disposed. Perhaps the Cerén inhabitants were aware of the medicinal applications now associated with the species. Known medicinal uses of the resin include using it to reduce swelling and help with arthritis (Atran et al.

2004: 116). Additionally, the roots can be cut as an immediate water source. The juice produced by the fruits is used as a decorative dye. The fruits are edible, but mostly eaten by birds and mammals rather than humans because of the taste (Standley and Steyermark 1946: 40).

Fig trees are still present within the archaeological park today and have also been recovered in previous years’ excavations from Structure 6 at Cerén, the storeroom in Household

1. The charcoal fragments were thought to be a piece of structural material that fell into a vessel when the roof collapsed (Lentz et al. 1996). Other paleoethnobotanical studies at Maya sites have recovered the genus as well, including Aguateca, Actun Halal, Albion Island, Barton Creek

Cave, Colha, Cuello, Dos Pilas, Pulltrouser Swamp, Tikal, and Wild Cane (Caldwell 1980;

Cavallaro 2013; Lentz et al. 2014a, 2015; McKillop 1994; Miksicek 1983, 1990, 1991; Morehart

2011).

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Figure 3.19 Scanning Electron Micrographs of tree species recovered in 2013: a) Pinus sp. transverse section, b) Exostema sp. transverse section, c) Colubrina aborescens transverse section, d) C. aborescens tangential section, e) Casearia sp. transverse section, f) Casearia sp. tangential section.

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PINACEAE

Pinus sp.

Pine grows in abundance on hillsides and plains at low elevations of between 200 and

2,500 meters, forming pine savannas (Standley and Steyermark 1958: 45). In El Salvador, pine trees grow mostly on mountains and volcanoes, such as Santa Ana, San Salvador, Conchagua, and in the mountains along the Honduran border (Standley and Calderon 1925: 25-26). The genus is highly important economically in the Maya area, noted for being a source of construction material, resin, and firewood (Standley and Steyermark 1958; Williams 1981).

Additionally, pine served as a significant ceremonial resource for the ancient Maya (Morehart et al. 2005; Lentz et al. 2005). Pine is the most ubiquitous tree species recovered among the 2013 sample set; charcoal fragments of pine were recovered from the agricultural ridges, canals, and the sacbe surface in Operations AE, AH, AI, AJ, and AK (Figure 3.19a).

Pine charcoal has been recovered previously at Cerén in the ash above the floor of

Structure 4, the storehouse in Household 4 (Lentz et al. 1996: 257). The charcoal represents a portion of the burned roof that collapsed during the eruption. Both the presence of the pine recovered in 2013 and that which was recovered in the past at the site are curious and problematic. Pine mostly grows on well-drained slopes above 1,000 meters (Standley and

Steyermark 1946), and the nearest location for this relative to the site today would be over 10 km away (Lentz et al. 1996: 257). This would have been a considerable distance to transport wood materials without any assistance of draft animals, machinery, or water transport that leads into the highlands. However, P. oocarpa can grow rapidly in disturbed or burned environments at low elevations (Perry 1991). This means that the pine could have grown closer to the site in the past, but its growth was likely disrupted by volcanic activity and has since disappeared.

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Pine can be used as fuel, for construction purposes, or even as a torch or incense (Atran et al. 2004; Morehart et al. 2005: 264-265). Pine has been found paleoethnobotanically from multiple ceremonial contexts (e.g. caches) from sites such as Aguateca, Dos Pilas, Chan,

Lamanai, Tikal, and multiple cave sites in Belize (Cavallaro 2013; Lentz et al. 2005, 2012,

2014a, 2015; Morehart 2011). Pine charcoal found archaeologically also has been recovered in contexts that revealed its use in construction and as firewood at Cihuatán, Copán, Cuello, Dos

Pilas, Naco, and Pulltrouser Swamp (Lentz 1994; Lentz et al. 1991; Miksicek 1983, 1988, 1991).

RHAMNACEAE

Colubrina aborescens (Mill.) Sarg.

Greenheart is a tree found in humid lowland forests and thickets, mostly below 1400 meters (Standley and Steyermark 1949: 281). Charcoal fragments identified to this species were recovered from the east agricultural field in Operation AH. Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed that the specimen exhibits about 24 vessels per mm2 (Figure 3.19 c and d). The vessels are of two distinct size class that are between 100 and 200 μm in size. About 20 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen are scanty but vasicentric with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells.

The species has multiple economic uses; it is a source of beverage, medicine, and other products (Balick et al. 2000: 111). The wood can be used as interior paneling, but is not water resistant (Atran et al. 2004: 122). It can be planted as a shade tree and also used in construction

(Standley and Steyermark 1949: 281). Greenheart charcoal has been seen previously in paleoethnobotanical studies conducted at Chan (Lentz et al. 2012).

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RUBIACEAE

Exostema sp.

Princewood is a small tree or a slender shrub often found in regenerative forests, pine woodlands, or on limestone substrate in the Neotropics. A fragment of charcoal identified to this species was unearthed from on top of the central area of the sacbe in Operation AI, a location that strongly suggests that the charcoal was being transported along the roadway. Analysis using

Scanning Electron Microscopy reveals that the specimens exhibit between about 100 vessels per mm2 that are less than 50 μm in size (Figure 3.19b). About 16 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen is scanty, but some vasicentric parenchyma are visible with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells.

The wood is used for roofing support and the bark can be consumed to treat malaria and snakebites (Atran et al. 2004: 122). Bark extracts are also used medicinally to treat anemia, hemorrhoids, stomach aches, ring worm, and to increase appetite (Deciga-Campos 2006). The species has been documented as useful in miscellaneous products, fuel, and construction (Balick et al. 2000)

SALICACEAE

Casearia sp.

Café de monte is a small tree or shrub present in tropical and dry forests, open savannas, second growth, and the understory of tropical deciduous forests below 1,300 meters (Standley and Williams 1961: 91). Both charcoal specimens identified to this genus came from agricultural ridges east of the sacbe, one in Operation AE and the other from Operation AH.

Analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy reveals that the specimens exhibit between 70 and

100 vessels per mm2 that are less than 50 μm in size (Figure 3.19 e and f). About 8 to 10 rays are

104 visible per mm with a thickness of 1 to 4 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen are scanty, but some vasicentric parenchyma are visible with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells.

C. nitida is called canjuro today in El Salvador and the Maya called it iximche, which means ‘maize-tree’ (Lentz et al. 1996; Standley and Calderon 1925: 153). The wood is used as a source of construction material, medicine, food, and other products (Balick et al. 2000: 71.) This species can be used for fuels and fence posts (Breedlove and Laughlin 2000: 168). Casearia has been encountered previously at Cerén inside of a ceramic vessel within Structure 4, the storehouse and workshop for Household 4 (Lentz et al. 1996: 258). Other Maya sites have also recovered Casearia charcoal through paleoethnobotanical studies such as Cobá, Dos Pilas,

Lamanai, and Tikal (Cavallaro 2013; Lentz et al. 1996, 2015; Lentz personal communication), showing that the genus is widely used as a construction and fuel source throughout the Maya region.

SAPINDACEAE

Allophylus sp.

Chal-chal is a small shrub or tree found in the Neotropics and other tropical regions of the world (Standley and Calderon 1925: 138). A charcoal fragment of Allophylus was unearthed from within an agricultural inter-ridge in the field east of the sacbe in Operation AH. Analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed that the specimen exhibits about 20 vessels per mm2 that are less than 50 to 100 μm in size (Figure 3.20 a and b). About 15 rays are visible per mm that are uniseriate. Parenchyma on the specimen are banded and 2 to 5 cells thick.

The red chal-chal fruits are edible with a sweet taste and the wood is durable and used as a truss for walls (Atran et al. 2004: 125). Allophylus has a strong ethnopharmacological background, known as an anti-inflammatory, and useful in elephantiasis, bone fractures,

105 gastrointestinal disorders, and as a protective against ulcers (Poonam et al. 2005: 362). The roots contain tannin and are an astringent used to treat nose bleeding (Agarwal 1997).

Figure 3.20 Scanning Electron Micrographs of tree species in the Sapindaceae recovered in 2013: a) Allophyllus sp. transverse section, b) Allophyllus sp. tangential section, c) Exothea paniculata transverse section, d) E. paniculata tangential section, e) Matayba sp. transverse section, f) Matayba sp. tangential section.

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Exothea paniculata (Juss.) Radlk.

Inkwood is a Neotropical sub-canopy tree that can grow up to 50 feet in height (Balick et al. 2000: 115; Mize and Castillo 2006: 85) This hardwood tree is mainly used for construction purposes or tools, but can also be useful as a shade tree because of the canopy it creates. The tree is mainly used as a durable wood for construction. As the common name suggests, the berries and bark create ink used to dye cloth.

A charcoal fragment of inkwood came from the eastern agricultural field in Operation

AH. Analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed that the specimen exhibits about 30 vessels per mm2 that are all less than 50 μm in size (Figure 3.20 c and d). About 8 rays are visible per mm with that are uniseriate. Parenchyma on the specimen are vasicentric, winged, and 3 to 8 cells thick.

Matayba sp.

Matayba sp., or commonly known as white copal or tempezquit to the Yucatec Maya

(Bohn et al. 2014), is a tree that grows to about 15 meters high in secondary forests (Comerford

1996: 335). A charcoal fragment of this wood was identified from the west canal on the northern edge of Operation AK, the excavation closest to the center of the village. Analysis using

Scanning Electron Microscopy revealed that the specimen exhibits about 8 to 12 vessels per mm2 that are all between 100 and 200 μm in size and may contain tyloses (Figure 3.20 e and f). About

12 rays are visible per mm that are 1 to 2 cells wide. Parenchyma on the specimen are vasicentric and 3 to 6 cells thick.

Often used as firewood, fencing, construction, and in miscellaneous products in modern

Belize (Robinson and McKillop 2013: 3590), this tree has some known medicinal purposes; the roots are used in tea to treat snakebites (Atran et al. 2004: 125). The species is used in

107 beekeeping for the Yucatec Maya (Bohn et al. 2014: 279). Additionally, Maya today in the

Peten, Guatemala boil the bark in water along with other species and bathe in the mixture to sooth skin rashes (Comerford 1996: 335). The genus has also been recovered through a paleoethnobotanical study conducted at Dos Pilas (Cavallaro 2013: 43), revealing the plants association with elite burials.

SOLANACEAE

Figure 3.21 Scanning Electron Micrographs of Dunalia aborescens recovered in 2013: a) transverse section, b) tangential section.

Dunalia arborescens (L.) Sleumer

Hollow heart is a small tree or shrub common in damp or wet environments such as thickets and grows at elevations below 1,360 meters (Gentry and Standley 1974: 4). A charcoal specimen identified as hollow heart came from the east canal in Operation AK, the 2013 excavation closest to the site center. Analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy reveals that the specimen exhibits about 32 vessels per mm2 that are about 50 μm in size (Figure 3.21).

About 3 to 4 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 3 to 6 cells per ray. The parenchyma on the specimen are vasicentric with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells. The fruits of hollow heart are edible and can be made into preserves and the tree serves as a host for orchids (Williams 1981: 306).

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ULMACEAE

Figure 3.22 Scanning Electron Micrograph of an Ampleocera hottlei transverse section.

Ampleocera hottlei (Standl.) Standl.

Commonly referred to as bullhoof, this tree is water resisitant and often used in construction as an interior wood and the bark is incorporated into floor mats (Atran et al. 2004:

129; Balick et al. 2000: 56). Bullhoof is one of the more heavily weighted tree species recovered in the sample set, with 0.72 g recorded over two samples (Figure 3.11). Both A. hottlei specimens were collected in the south end of Operation AK, likely originating from the same plant. One of the fragments was on the eastern edge of the sacbe and the other was a part of the east inter-ridge. Analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy reveals that the specimens exhibit about 30 vessels per mm2 that are about 100 μm in size (Figure 3.22). About 8 rays are visible per mm with a thickness of 3 to 7 cells per ray. Parenchyma on the specimen are scanty, but some vasicentric parenchyma are visible with a thickness of 1 to 2 cells. The species has also been recovered from paleoethnobotanical studies conducted at Tikal, Guatemala (Lentz et al.

2015).

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cf. Celtis sp.

Figure 3.23 Light micrograph of cf. Celtis sp. fruit recovered from Operation AE.

Hackberry is a small understory tree found in the Neotropics, also called wild cherry in

Belize (Balick et al. 2000) because the edible fruits are sweet and have a dark red mesocarp.

Additionally, the plant has medicinal applications (Balick et al. 2000). A possible Celtis fruit was recovered from within a trench excavated into the northern section of the sacbe in Operation

AE. The fruit recovered is fragmented and has a length of about 3.0 mm (Figure 3.23). The interior surface and curved shape matches the exterior surface visible on a hackberry pit from

Lentz’s comparative collection. Celtis pits were excavated previously at the site from Household

1, and pits and charcoal of hackberry have also been found at Copán, Cuello, Cerros, Dos Pilas, and Tikal (Cavallaro 2013; Cliff and Crane 1989; Lentz 1991; Lentz et al. 1996; Lentz et al.

2015; Miksicek 1991).

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CHAPTER 4

Interpretations and Conclusions

Four major cultural contexts were sampled for paleoethnobotanical remains: the sacbe, canals, agricultural fields, and cleared areas. The macro-botanical remains recovered from the various cultural contexts were not distributed equally. Once corrected for how many samples were taken in total for each location, the weight of macro-botanical remains recovered per context was more abundant within the agricultural fields compared to other locations (Figure

4.1). This clear distinction was expected since the location was defined by the knowledge that plants were cultivated in this area.

Cleared Area 12% Canals 12% Agricultural Fields 47%

Sacbe 29%

Figure 4.1 Spatial distribution of macro-botanical remains among the major cultural contexts sampled.

The Sacbe

Twenty-nine morphospecies were recovered from either the sacbe surface or interior

(Table 3.1), indicating that there was a diverse set of plant materials in contact with the causeway. The vast majority of the weight recorded for the sacbe samples comes from charcoal specimens, with little representation of annual crops or weedy species (Figure 4.2). This could

111 indicate that charcoal was an item transported Sacbe Weedy using the causeway, or it could be a result of Species 12% Annual the volcanic eruption displacing nearby Crops 2% materials.

Few plant remains recovered during this season offer a ceremonial perspective on Tree the functionality of the sacbe that led south Species 86% out of the Cerén village. The only species recovered that has a known connection to Figure 4.2 Weight distribution of the macro- Maya ceremonial practices elsewhere in the botanical remains from the sacbe.

Maya area was pine charcoal (Pinus sp.) (Lentz et al. 2005; Morehart et al. 2005), but 53% of the total weight recovered of pine came from a trench that was excavated into the sacbe. Only 0.07 grams of pine were identified from the sacbe surface. This was a small amount, but still significant. Materials present on the sacbe surface were vulnerable to various activities that would frequently displace, crush, and clear the surface. The pine charcoal could have been deposited from a villager carrying a supply to be used as a household item, timber, incense, or even as a torch for ceremonies or traveling at night (Morehart et al. 2005: 264-265).

The construction, maintenance, and function of the Cerén sacbe can be explored through paleoethnobotanical remains. The construction of the sacbe likely involved the incorporation of midden materials, given the large presence of carbonized plant remains within its structural fill

(Table 4.2). Of the 25 wood species identified, 8 were recovered from within the sacbe itself when a trench was excavated along the northern portion of each operation. These trenches also revealed other plant remains, including Agave sp. tissue, Phaseolus sp. beans, and Z. mays

112 cupules and kernels. The plants must have been carbonized previous to Ceren’s demise in a hearth or other burned context because the volcanic eruption would not have carbonized any plant materials buried deep beneath the cultural surface. This collective set of remains suggests that the creation and construction of the sacbe required anthropogenically altered sources of sediment, likely from a midden. Many of these plant remains are known as sources of food or fuel. The construction and frequent maintenance of the sacbe did not necessarily require a fill that was entirely composed of Tierra Blanca Joven tephra; other types of fill such as refuse and sediment in the immediate vicinity were practical and were evidently used as well.

Table 4.1 Plant remains recovered from within the sacbe when a trench was excavated in the

northern portion of each operation in order to examine the interior structure of the causeway.

Taxon Plant Part Agave sp. tissue Arecaceae endocarps Astronium graveolens charcoal Cameraria latifolia charcoal cf. Celtis sp. fruit fragment Clusia sp. charcoal Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds Cucurbitaceae rind Ehretia tinifolia charcoal Ficus sp. charcoal Nectandra cf. globosa charcoal Persea americana charcoal Phaseolus sp. bean Pinus sp. charcoal Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes Zea mays cob fragments, cupules, and kernels

Additionally, the sacbe can be imagined as a clear open space that supplied a valuable work area for processing maize growing in the agricultural fields, as seen by the numerous maize

113 cupules found on the road’s surface. In 2009, large cleared areas were excavated adjacent to the fields that were thought to be a locus for the processing maize and manioc. The sacbe would have been an additional area for such activities, conveniently located near the fields where the maize was cultivated. The activities performed on the sacbe would not be limited to movement and transportation of materials, but could also entail a work space where separation of the maize cobs from their stalks took place.

The Agricultural Fields

Although the initial intent of this paleoethnobotanical investigation was to better understand the role of the Cerén sacbe in relation to the village and its surroundings, the agricultural fields along each side of the causeway have also presented some interesting qualities.

Since the depth excavated to reach the cultural surface is quite substantial (5 meters), it is difficult to predict where the sacbe will be encountered. This causes the placement of operations not always to be centered perfectly atop the causeway, exposing sizeable sections of the agricultural fields. Additionally, the agricultural fields east of the sacbe were encountered more frequently and with greater exposure than the western side.

The eastern and western agricultural fields differed in macro-botanical composition significantly (Figure 4.3). The samples taken from the western fields revealed a significantly larger percentage of weedy species per sample than those taken from the eastern fields. This distinction between the fields could indicate a different level of time and intensity that the farmer in the western maize field dedicated towards removing the weeds from the agricultural fields compared to the farmer who tended the eastern maize fields. However, the eastern field has a more diverse set of weedy species than the western field (See Appendix D). Nevertheless, the

114 opposing maize fields have different compositions of plant material, suggesting that they could have been tended with different levels of attention.

Figure 4.3 Weight distribution of the macro-botanical remains within the agricultural fields.

Additionally, the western canal was very sandy and much less compacted than the eastern canal, as seen in Figure 4.4. This variation in canal conditions indicates a further difference in the maintenance of features on the two different sides of the causeway. Variation is common in the formality of drainage canals and ditches that are associated with sacbeob (Schwake 1999).

This varying attention could be from different individuals or households, who had varying agricultural strategies. The maize fields excavated in 2013 are part of the intermediate agricultural zone at the site (Sheets and Dixon 2011), located at a midway distance to the village center when compared to the manioc fields excavated further south. The intermediate agricultural zone is “quite different from the highly organized village zone and the southern zone” (Sheets and Dixon 2013: 5). The area exhibits great variability in cultivation strategies, somewhat irregular fallowed areas, and less defined boundaries. Perhaps the variation between

115 the plant composition of the east and west fields is just another characteristic of this less formally dictated section of cultivation.

Figure 4.4 Aerial view of Operation AF, showing the visible difference between the conditions of the western (top left) and eastern (bottom right) drainage canals (Sheets and Dixon 2013:90).

Why are there so many weedy species within the agricultural fields?

Milpas are not just simple agricultural fields dominated by maize; they incorporate many other crops and a variety of weeds that may be unwelcome intruders or may serve as greens, herbs, medicine, pesticides, and herbicides (Ford 2008; Sharer 2009). Due to our recent paleoethnobotanical studies, this is seen to be true within the milpas at Cerén as well. This study has shown an abundance of weedy species throughout the agricultural contexts, but more heavily in the fields (Figure 3.7 and 3.8). Previously, the Cerén agricultural fields were considered to

116 have been well maintained with very few weeds or intrusive plants present among the annual crops.

The larger plants such as maize, agave, and manioc can leave large, visibly noticeable voids in the layers of volcanic ash above what was once the activity surface (Sheets et al. 2011,

2012). These voids were filled with dental plaster during excavation and became the extraordinary plants casts at Cerén that have become so widely discussed. Plant parts such as thin stems and seeds are less likely to be recovered via plaster casts because of their extremely small size, leaving them both less noticeable to the naked eye and less durable during deposition processes. The majority of the weedy seeds recovered in 2013 have an average width of less than a millimeter, making water flotation the most reliable form of sampling. The more sophisticated flotation tank constructed during 2013 helped reveal a large variety of weedy seeds, all common in field settings, which had not been found previously at Cerén.

Traditionally, a weed is defined as a plant that grows predominantly in disturbed areas, is fast growing and herbaceous (Baker 1965; Zimdahl 1992). Generally, weeds are considered to be unwanted pests in agricultural fields (Hilje et al. 2003). Weeds create a competition for soil nutrients and moisture within a field and can contribute to the decline in yields of a field along with other factors such as a decline in soil fertility or increased presence of insects and other pests (Cowgill 1962: 279). Many have suggested that weeds are the leading cause of yield decline in the Maya area (Emerson and Kempton 1935; Hester 1954; Sanders 1957; Steggerda

1941). Sanders’ (1957: 178) study in Quintana Roo states that the growth of weeds is so invasive that a serious reduction in crop yields occurs after just one season, resulting in fields that are rarely cultivated more than three consecutive years. Sanders also shows that weed competition does vary significantly from year to year and based on the humidity of the soil

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(Sanders 1957: 236). Steggerda (1941: 97-99) insisted that weedy species were a major concern in milpa agriculture in the Yucatan, explaining that the prevention of weed growth was a top priority and would have required a considerable amount of labor. Steggerda found that the shifting of fields within just a couple years was necessary because of the invasion of weeds, especially the grasses. However, Cowgill’s (1962: 280) interpretation of Steggerda’s study of factors impacting the decline of successive crops actually points to a change in soil fertility rather than the presence of weeds. Cowgill did not find any correlation between the density of weeds and the various years of cultivation in her own study (Cowgill 1962: 282).

The ethnobotanical studies that have noted an issue of weeds invading the milpas

(Emerson and Kempton 1935; Hester 1954; Steggerda 1941) could be a result of invasive species that have been introduced from the Old World post-conquest, and therefore would not have been a concern at all to the village of Cerén. As always, making a comparison of modern circumstances to ancient practices is problematic. However, exotic and invasive Old World weeds may not have been the concern in the ethnobotanical studies regarding maize production.

While the weeds introduced from the Old World may contribute numerous species to fields, an ethnobotanical study of the weed communities within maize fields in southern Mexico has shown that native weed species are actually much more dominant and the Old World species are not as competitive (Vibrans 1998). The same has been shown with native and exotic grasses in a study by Corbin and D’Antonio (2004), where the native grasses significantly reduced the productivituy of the exotic grasses over time. Therefore the modern studies of milpas in the

Maya area may still be able to speak towards the problem of weeds within their fields as a comparison to the ancient peoples’ practices.

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If weed competition was a major factor, one could simply overcome this obstacle by more laborious weeding. So why then do the maize fields excavated at Cerén in 2013 have such an outstanding presence of weedy species? Small households, such as those at Cerén, may not have had an abundance of labor available to remove weeds efficiently from their fields, possibly explaining why the majority of the recovered macro-botanicals were weedy seeds and achenes.

Weed removal and clearing vegetation of any kind would have been performed by manual labor using stone and wooden tools since the Maya did not have domesticated animals to pull plows or carry fertilizer in large quatntities. Wooden and stone tools would have limited their capacity to control weed growth (Sanders 1973: 333), which is a laborious task even with modern technology.

Table 4.2 Weedy species recovered during 2013, showing lifeform (annual/perennial) and ubiquity.

Anuuals Ubiquity Perennials Ubiquity Amaranthus sp. 20.21% Euphorbia graminea 3.19% Crotalaria cf. sagittalis 12.77% cf. Fimbristylis ferruginea 1.06% cf. Cycloloma atriplicifolium 1.06% cf. Marina nutans 2.13% Drymaria cordata 1.06% Panicum sp.* 4.26% Fimbristylis dichotoma 20.21% Physalis angulata 2.13% Mollugo verticillata 14.89% cf. Talinum fruticosum 1.06% Portulca oleracea 4.26% Solanum sp. 1.06% Spilanthes cf. acmella 89.60% *6 of the 7 Panicum found in El Salvador are perennials (Standley and Calderon 1925).

Additionally, not all plants are equally manageable in a field setting. Annuals which only live for one season and have generally more shallow root systems can be removed much more effectively than perennial weeds (Roumet et al. 2006). However, ecological data show that

119 annuals are more abundant than perennials in disturbed areas such as agricultural fields and that annuals grow much more rapidly (Garnier 1992: 665). Perennials are quite difficult to eliminate completely from a field because they have deeper root systems and also spread by the dispersal of seeds. Of the 14 different weedy species recovered in the sample set (Table 4.2), the majority are actually annual plants that would have been relatively easy to manage, if so desired. The grasses that Steggerda (1941) found to be so problematic were not very prevalent in the Ceren maize fields. Those that would have been challenging to manage (the perennials) collectively have a minimal presence in the sample set based on both quantity and ubiquity. Therefore, the vast majority of the weedy species encountered in this study would not have been difficult for the

Maya to control, suggesting that the plants may have had desirable qualities to the ancient peoples.

Perhaps the paleoethnobotanical results from Cerén suggest a difference in the way weedy plants were conceptualized by the ancient Maya compared to modern views on the plants.

According to Steggerda (1941: 99), the main goal of agriculture in the Yucatan was to “use the land constantly and keep it covered, as far as possible, with useful plants instead of with useless weeds.” Alternatively, the species referred to as ‘weeds’ in this study may have been viewed quite differently by the ancient Maya than they are by people today. The plants were not necessarily seen as useless materials to the Cerén residents. The gathering of tolerated weedy species considered edible, or quelites, is a common supplement to Milpa agricultural systems

(Bandiera et al. 2002: 251). The act of weeding an agricultural field is not an emphasized portion of the agricultural cycle in Kekchi villages in Belize (Wilk 1997: 95). There, weeding is a casual side job when doing something else and is generally only a focus on when a particularly dangerous variety of weed is present, such as those with thorns or spines. The Kekchi Maya do

120 not view weeds as a threat to crops once they have already begun growing and therefore their removal would be futile.

Many ethnobotanical studies have found that the majority of species procured for medicinal purposes are collected from disturbed habitats, where weeds predominantly occur

(Alcorn 1984; Arvigo and Balick 1992; Caniago and Siebert 1998; Frei et al. 2000; Posey 1984;

Voeks 1996). Part of this could be due to the accessibility and proximity of disturbed areas

(Stepp and Moerman 2001: 21). Nevertheless, the use of weedy plants is not a strange concept within ethnobotanical studies of Maya peoples. Stepp and Moerman (2001) have shown that the

Tzeltal Maya in Chiapas actually utilize a high frequency of weedy species for medicinal purposes. With the exception of Poaceae, most weed families are quite significant medicinally, including Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Convulvaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Amaranthaceae, Malvaceae, and

Solanaceae (Stepp and Moerman 2001: 22). All of the weedy species recovered from Cerén have known uses nutritionally, medicinally, or for other purposes. Farmers have a tendency to design a system of farming that yields the highest return per hour of work (Sanders 1973: 332) and collecting materials from the useful shrubs growing in the milpa may have been a way to increase the rate of return. Unfortunately, the contexts in which the Cerén samples were collected cannot verify that the Maya were aware of these uses for the weedy plants, but their strong presence suggests they held positive relationships with the villagers where they were certainly tolerated.

The Agricultural Inter-ridges

Withint he agricultural fields were maize ridges in which numerous maize plaster casts were recovered and there was also some inter-ridges encountered in a few of the operations that did not yield many plaster casts, just a single Cucurbita sp. (squash) gourd (Figure 4.5). The

121 inter-ridges were not simply a trench dug inbetween the main ridges, but rather were agricultural ridges of their own, but not as large as the maize ridges. The most prominent species grown in the inter-ridges was previously unknown because of the lack of plaster casts recovered from the contexts. However, thanks to the macrobotnaical study, a P. vulgaris bean was recovered from an agricultural inter-ridge, as were eight other Phaseolus beans. Since over half of the beans recovered were found in the inter-ridges, it is reasonable to conclude that the Cerén inhabitants were likely practicing an inter-planting cultivation strategy in their maize fields, using beans, along with squash, as companion crops to maize. This is a practice that is an important feature of many cropping systems in the tropics (Bandiera et al. 2002; Willey and Osiru 1972). The modern

Kekchi Maya in Belize begin to incorporate other plants into their maize fields immediately after the corn begins to sprout (Wilk 1997: 94). Eighty-percent of the farmers surveyed in Wilk’s

(1997) study had fields that were inter-planted, leaving an average of 6.2 species per farmer.

The practice of inter-planting is efficient in that it can prolong the crop yields into the next growing season, long after the initial crop has been harvested (Wilk 1997).

Figure 4.5 Plaster cast mold of a squash recovered from an agricultural inter-ridge in Operation AE (Sheets and Dixon 2013: 96).

The Canals

Sacbeob adjust the local topography and prior building to create a more traversable landscape, essentially conquering the obstacles that presented themselves to the Maya people

122

(Houston and Inomata 2009). They were used as a mechanism to cross wet terrain with dispersed aguadas and swamps (Mckillop 2004: 242). For this reason, the Maya roadway systems may have been manipulated as a part of a site’s overall water-management system (Scarborough

1993). The construction of roads may have encouraged their use as a water management device.

The roads could have served as a host for drainage because the central areas of the sacbeob were often raised which facilitated drainage to either or both sides. This could very well be the case for the sacbe excavated at Cerén, especially considering that it has drainage canals along its edges. The western and eastern canals of the Cerén sacbe differed in their physical shape and soil composition, and the surface of the road had a tilted slope. The sacbe sloped 6° towards the western canal, providing evidence of a centralized organization at the community level, likely through non-royal governance (Sheets 2000; Sheets and Dixon 2013: 67). In Operation AK, there was an additional canal encountered that ran perpendicular to the sacbe, directing any water further away from the causeway.

Figure 4.6 Weight distribution of the macro-botanical remains within the canals.

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Even though the physical conditions and soil consistency differ between the canals

(Figure 4.4), the plant composition present in the canals on either side of the Cerén sacbe does not differ greatly. Both sides exhibit a higher percentage of weight from tree species than from weedy species or major crops (Figure 4.6). In general, samples collected from canal contexts did not yield as diverse or as abundant a plant assemblage compared to the fields or the sacbe

(Figure 4.1 and Table 3.1). This lack of macro-botanical remains is likely a result of the drainage role the canals are thought to have played in relation to the sacbe.

0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.10 0.08

0.06

(g) 0.04 0.02 0.00 West West West Sacbe East Canal East East Inter-

Total weight per context context per weight Total Inter-ridge Ridges Canal Ridges ridge Figure 4.7 Distribution of Spilanthes cf. acmella across the various contexts encountered during the 2013 excavations.

Since there are so many of the S. acmella (paracress) achenes present in the paleoethnobotanical samples (over 140,000), it is possible to map their distribution across the excavated landscape (Figure 4.7) in order to reveal some trends in their locations. In this case, the distribution reveals whether or not the canals did in fact manage water. The average weight of S. acmella achenes recovered in a sample becomes noticeably larger in the fields, especially in the agricultural inter-ridges where few plaster casts were recovered. This could indicate that the inter-ridges would have been a place where less prominent plant species could grow. However, since the achenes are so minute in size, they would have been easily blown a good distance from

124 their original plant if there was a windy environment. The achenes reveal a dramatic decline in abundance when encountered in the western canals and fields. This decline supports the idea that the west canal along the sacbe was more heavily utilized for water management compared to the east canal. The sacbe had an average slope of 6˚ towards the west (Sheets and Dixon 2013), meaning that any loose materials atop the roadway would have been washed off into the west canal during a rainfall. The lack of plant materials recovered from this particular context throughout the excavated operations confirms that the canals assisted in the management of water along the sacbe and agricultural fields. The distribution of plant remains among the contexts indicates that the depressions along either side of the sacbe served as canals that managed any water and other loose debris in the fields away from the road surface.

The Cleared Areas

Paleoethnobotanically, the cleared pathways did not exhibit a significant amount of

material as opposed to the sacbe. The

Cleared Area macro-botanical remains recovered Tree Species 5% from the cleared areas in Operation

Annual AN include just two Crotalaria cf. Crops 5% sagittalis seeds, two Zea mays cupules,

an average amount of Spilanthes

acmella achenes, and a small, Weedy Species 90% unidentifiable charcoal specimen. This

assemblage is extremely insignificant

Figure 4.6 Weight distribution of the macro-botanical in comparison to all other cultural remains within the cleared areas of Operation AN. contexts sampled in the study. This

125 lack of plant remains indicates that the cleared areas encountered in 2013 were likely used for foot traffic and also for processing the harvested maize. These foot paths could have provided the villagers easy access to their fields and processing areas (Sheets et al. 2012: 266).

Unlike the sacbe, the paths are not raised and do not contain any canals. In 2009, nine operations (A-D, H, J, M, O, and W) encountered extensive cleared areas similar to that found in

Op AN. The 2009 excavations even encountered some constructed platform areas on both sides of the fields in these cleared areas (Sheets et al. 2012: 265). These areas were kept clear of vegetation on each side of the heavily cultivated areas with only an occasional weed and tree sapling growing (Maloof 2009; Sheets et al. 2012). The presence of an entire field likely required a large processing area according to Sheets (et al. 2012). The activities performed in the cleared areas found in 2009 would entail separation of the manioc tubers from their stalks and saving the stalks for their replanting. The cortex of the tubers was also cut off, possibly for sun- drying. It is possible that the cleared area encountered in Operation AN served a similar purpose, just with maize instead of manioc.

Four of the 2009 operations that encountered a clear path contained faint remnants of previous cultivation with agricultural ridges that had been abandoned and trampled by activities for months or maybe even years before the eruption (Sheets et al. 2012: 265). The spacing of these ridges indicated manioc, maize, and possibly small vegetable cultivation. The cleared area in Op. AN did not show any indication of previous cultivation, however, and may have alternatively been a form of separation or division within the agricultural field to form smaller, more manageable sections (Sheets and Dixon 2013: 105).

126

Significance

The findings of this study are relevant to paleoethnobotanical research conducted elsewhere in Mesoamerica and even in other regions of the world. This research supports the important idea that the paleoethnobotanical record does not have to focus solely on major domesticates, crops, or the forest assemblage because weedy species can be recovered archaeologically, as well, and also contain significant cultural meanings. The SMAP-style flotation device lined with fine mesh hardware clothgreatly increased our ability to retrieve tiny carbonized plant remains from ancient archaeological surfaces in comparison to previous years.

With this more sophisticated flotation device numerous small seeds and achenes that have a width less than a millimeter have been recovered, greatly expanding our view on past plant- human interactions. The collection of plant materials discussed here show that even though the village had an abundance of intentionally cultivated species, the residents may also have used wild and weedy varieties. It was already established that the P. vulgaris beans from the site exhibit both domesticated and wild beans (Kaplan et al. 2015), and now it is clear that other useful small shrubs and weeds were available to Cerén inhabitants which ethnographic studies suggest would have been useful. The Cerén landscape was filled with economically significant species, revealing that the Cerén farmers were knowledgeable about the various plants they raised and gathered. The diverse assemblage adds rich detail to the narratives of ancient peoples and their activities by describing their weeding practices, collection preferences, crop processing, and maintenance and construction of earthen structures. These ancient plants were resources for subsistence, construction, medicine, fuel, clothing, storage, and ritual activities. The plant assemblage deepens our understanding of Maya agricultural practices, political economy, and even socioeconomic status. The extraordinary preservation at Cerén allows for a unique

127 perspective of Maya commoners as an active people with control over their surroundings socially, politically, and economically.

This Maya commoner site depicts the image of an abundant and diverse assemblage of plant resources, despite the stereotype that only the elite were substantially nourished. The Cerén peoples obtained plant resources typically associated with ceremonial activities believed to have been practiced mainly by the elite such as cacao and pine (Morehart et al. 2005). The elite did not maintain exclusivity of their structural features such as sacbeob or the control of production, consumption, and distribution of plant resources (Scarborough and Valdez 2009). The goods that the Maya transported and traded were likely not limited to exotic materials such as jade and marine resources, but also incorporated more mundane subsistence, medicinal, fuel, and construction resources.

The significance of this study speaks to the role that sacbeob play in the everyday lives of the ancient Maya. The earthen sacbe that is a part of the Cerén village may be relatively small in size, fragile in composition, and surrounded by maize fields rather than substantial architecture.

However, it exhibits the range of utilization that this structural feature could have played in the

Maya world. The structures were not limited to elite contexts where ceremonial processions and activities took place; they also existed on the household level where they fulfilled more mundane tasks. The causeway created a dividing line between agricultural fields and served as property lines. The majority of the paleoethnobotanical remains recovered had an economic use in which they could have supplied sustenance to the residents (i.e. maize, beans, and edible weeds) on a household level. Very few remains recovered along the sacbe exhibit qualities that would have been well-suited for distant trade or as part of a greater vertical economy (Sheets 2000). The paleoethnobotanical remains certainly do not suggest ceremonial practices were taking place

128 along the sacbe surface. If anything, they reveal that such a roadway supplied an easy, dry, and efficient mode of transportation of locally-produced goods among Cerén’s agricultural fields.

Future Research

The findings of this research encourage paleoethnobotanical research at Cerén and elsewhere in the world to challenge the assumptions made regarding botanical preservation at archaeological sites. Until now, paleoethnobotanical remains from Cerén’s fields had not been analyzed with such a fine collection sieve. The agricultural fields were understood almost entirely through archaeological interpretations that relied on visibly noticeable botanical remains preserved in the volcanic ash, bypassing materials too small to see with the naked-eye. The plaster cast technique is an amazing technique at Cerén that allows for the recovery of agricultural fields, but it should be recognized that the full potential of botanical recovery is not realized until a systematic and thorough paleoethnobotanical sampling strategy is established that examines all possible plant retreiveal strategies. With the site’s unique preservation and reasonable access to a water source, the recovery of remains was significantly enhanced with the new SMAP-style flotation system.

Furthermore, paleoethnobotanical research at Cerén need not rely solely on macrobotanical collection strategies; isotopic analysis of the carbonized remains can further enhance the understanding of the ancient agricultural practices. Were the Cerén farmers fertilizing their fields? Do adjacent fields yield isotopically distinct signatures? Additionally, as seen by the surprisingly narrow-ranged AMS radiocarbon date obtained from the Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes, the abundance of preserved plant remains at the site offer the opportunity to further define the exact date of the eruption of Loma Caldera. Such excellent preservation at an archaeological site is accompanied with the obligation to explore all avenues of research and to

129 push the boundaries of how much detail can be captured and understood. The site not only serves as an exemplary model of how Maya commoner sites once functioned, but it also encourages scientists at other sites to test and improve their recovery methods. Since plant- human interactions speak to so many different aspects of the ancient Maya life, the high ubiquity of preserved botanical remains at Cerén will undeniably expose further surprises and challenge archeological assumptions.

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Appendix A

Sample Analysis Sheets

165

166

167

168

Appendix B

Floor Plans of Sample Collection

Sample form numbers have been added to each of the floor plans that were drawn by Rachel Egan. 40000s indicate a flotation sample (odd numbers are the heavy fraction, while even numbers are the light fraction). 50000s indicate a macrobotanical sample.

169

170

171

172

Appendix C

Summary of Plant Remains Recovered Per Operation

# of Taxon Parts Quantity Weight contexts Operation AE 14 Total Contexts Agave sp. tissue 1 0.03 1 Amaranthus sp. seed 1 <.01 1 Angiosperm bark, epidermis, charcoal 2 0.04 3 Arecaceae (palm) endocarps 2 0.02 2 Astronium graveloeons charcoal 0.11 1 Cameraria latifolia charcoal 0.12 1 Capparaceae charcoal 0.04 1 Casearia sp. charcoal 0.05 1 cf. Celtis sp. fruit 1 0.01 1 Clusia sp. charcoal 0.50 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seed 3 0.01 2 Cucurbitaceae rind 1 <.01 1 cf. Cycloloma atriplicifolium seed, disseminule 2 <.01 1 Dicot charcoal 2.22 8 Ehretia tinifolia charcoal 0.05 1 Fabaceae beans 12 0.07 6 cf. Marina nutans seed 1 <.01 1 Metopium brownei charcoal 0.37 2 Monocot leaf 3 <.01 3 Nectandra cf. globosa charcoal 0.21 1 cf. Persea americana pit 1 0.25 1 Phaseolus sp. beans 8 0.23 4 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.32 4 Spermatophyte tissue 2.00 12 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 49580 1.31 12 Zea mays cupules, kernels 95 2.91 7

Operation AF 10 Total Contexts Amaranthaceae seed 2 <.01 1 Amaranthus sp. seed 2 <.01 1 Asteraceae achene 2 <.01 1 cf. Ehretia tinifolia charcoal <.01 1 Dicot charcoal 0.15 6 Drymaria cordata seed 1 <.01 1 Fabaceae beans 4 <.01 1 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 2 <.01 2 Mollugo verticillata seeds 6 <.01 4 Monocot leaves 2 <.01 2

173

Physalis angulata seeds 3 0.01 2 Spermatophyte tissue 0.10 7 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 18490 0.46 9 Zea mays cupules 11 0.06 4

Operation AG 12 Total Contexts Amaranthus sp. seed 1 <.01 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 10 <.01 3 Dicot charcoal 0.10 5 Fabaceae beans 10 0.01 5 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 5 <.01 4 Haematoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.59 1 Heteropterys sp. charcoal 0.01 1 cf. Marina nutans seed 1 <.01 1 Mollugo verticillata seeds 2 <.01 1 Phaseolus sp. beans 2 <.01 2 Spermatophyte tissue 0.13 10 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 5501 0.11 9 Zea mays cupules 3 <.01 3

Operation AH 14 Total Contexts Allophylus sp. charcoal 0.03 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 5 <.01 5 Asteraceae achenes 6 <.01 3 Casearia sp. charcoal 0.59 1 Cameraria latifolia charcoal 0.46 1 Colubrina aborescens charcoal 0.09 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 7 <.01 3 Dicot charcoal 2.34 4 Euphorbia graminea seeds 2 <.01 2 Exothea paniculata charcoal 0.13 1 Ficus sp. charcoal 0.39 1 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 3 <.01 3 Haematoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.02 1 Metopium brownei charcoal 0.84 1 Mollugo verticillata seeds 5 <.01 3 Monocot leaf 1 <.01 1 Panicum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 cf. Persea americana pit 1 0.11 1 Phaseolus sp. beans 3 <.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.03 1 Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 2.96 12 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 10006 0.23 14 Tabernaemontana sp. charcoal 0.27 1

174

Zea mays cupules 46 1.82 10

Operation AI 15 Total Contexts Amaranthus sp. seeds 3 <.01 3 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 7 <.01 2 Dicot charcoal 0.14 2 Exostema caribaeum charcoal 0.03 1 Fabaceae beans 10 <.01 4 Ficus sp. charcoal 0.89 3 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 4 <.01 4 Haematoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.13 1 Jacaranda sp. charcoal 0.38 1 Metopium brownei charcoal 0.03 1 Mollugo verticillata seeds 3 <.01 3 Panicum sp. seed 4 <.01 3 Persea americana charcoal 0.38 1 Phaseolus sp. cotyledon 1 <.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.02 1 Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 2.81 10 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 8623 0.20 13 cf. Talinum fruticosum seed 1 <.01 1 Zea mays cupule, rachis fragments 24 0.82 6

Operation AJ 9 Total Contexts Amaranthus sp. seeds 2 <.01 2 Arecaceae (palm) endocarp 2 0.03 1 Asteraceae achenes 2 <.01 1 Dicot charcoal 0.02 1 Fabaceae beans 6 <.01 2 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 21 <.01 6 cf. Fimbristylis ferruginea achenes 1 <.01 1 Mollugo verticillata seeds 3 <.01 3 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.02 1 Spermatophyte tissue <.01 8 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 3834 0.07 9 Zea mays cupules, cob 5 0.01 1

Operation AK 12 Total Contexts cf. Acrocomia aculeata fruit 1 <.01 1 Amaranthaceae seeds 5 <.01 3 Amaranthus sp. seeds 17 <.01 6 Ampelocera hottlei charcoal 0.72 2 Dicot charcoal 0.42 10 Dunalia aborescens charcoal 0.26 1

175

Haematoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.08 1 Matayba sp. charcoal 0.05 1 Phaseolus sp. beans 3 0.02 2 Phaseolus vulgaris beans 3 0.02 2 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.11 3 Portulaca oleracea seeds 2 <.01 2 cf. Psidium guajava mesocarp 1 0.09 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.92 12 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 21778 0.53 12 Zea mays cupules, kernels, cob 30 0.11 11 fragments

Operation AN 6 Total Contexts Angiosperm endocarp 1 0.01 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 4 <.01 2 Dicot charcoal 0.09 4 Euphorbia graminea seed 1 <.01 1 Fabaceae beans 2 <.01 2 Poaceae seeds 2 <.01 2 Solanum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.13 6 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 28434 0.70 6 Zea mays cupules, kernels, cob 10 0.02 6 fragments

176

Appendix D

Summary of Plant Remains Recovered Per Context

Weight # of Taxon Plant Parts Quantity (g) contexts East Sacbe 6 Total Contexts Amaranthaceae seed 1 <.01 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 1 <.01 1 Ampelocera hottlei charcoal 0.55 1 Arecaceae (palm) endocarp 1 0.01 1 Asteraceae achene 1 <.01 1 Cameraria latifolia charcoal 0.12 1 Capparaceae charcoal 0.04 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seed 10 <.01 3 dicot charcoal 0.62 4 Fabaceae beans 7 <.01 3 Ficus sp. charcoal 0.07 1 Heteropterys sp. charcoal 0.01 1 cf. Marina nutans seed 1 <.01 1 Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.27 6 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 11657 0.28 6

West Sacbe 6 Total Contexts Amaranthaceae seed 1 <.01 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 2 <.01 2 angiosperm bark 1 <.01 1 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 8 <.01 3 Mollugo verticillata seeds 2 <.01 1 Phaseolus sp. beans 2 0.01 2 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.03 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.09 6 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 3950 0.10 6 cf. Talinum triangulare seed 1 <.01 1 Zea mays cupules 2 <.01 2

Central Sacbe 9 Total contexts Amaranthus sp. seeds 2 <.01 2 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seed 7 0.01 2 dicot 0.02 5 Drymaria cordata seed 1 <.01 1 Exostema caribaeum charcoal 0.03 1

177

Fabaceae beans 2 <.01 1 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 3 <.01 2 Haematoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.08 1 cf. Marina nutans seed 1 <.01 1 Mollugo verticillata seeds 2 <.01 1 monocot leaves 3 <.01 3 Physalis angulata seed 1 <.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.03 1 Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.59 8 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 12751 0.31 9 Zea mays cupules 9 <.01 3

Sacbe (General or Trench) 6 Total contexts Agave sp. tissue 1 0.03 1 Angiosperm charcoal 0.04 1 Arecaceae (palm) endocarp 1 0.01 1 Astronium graveolens charcoal 0.11 1 Cameraria latifolia charcoal 0.46 1 cf. Celtis sp. fruit 1 0.01 1 Clusia sp. charcoal 0.50 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seed 1 0.01 1 Cucurbitaceae rind 1 <.01 1 dicot charcoal 0.94 2 Ehretia tinifolia charcoal 0.05 1 Ficus sp. charcoal 0.39 1 monocot grass 1 <.01 1 Nectandra cf. globosa charcoal 0.21 1 Persea americana charcoal 0.38 1 Phaseolus sp. bean 1 0.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.27 1 Spermatophtyte tissue 1.05 4 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 51 <.01 3 Zea mays cupules, kernels 20 0.08 3

Sacbe Combined 27 Total Contexts Agave sp. tissue 1 0.03 1 Amaranthaceae seed 2 <.01 2 Amaranthus sp. seeds 5 <.01 5 Ampelocera hottlei charcoal 0.55 1 Angiosperm bark, charcoal 1 0.04 2 Arecaceae (palm) endocarp 2 0.02 2 Asteraceae achene 1 <.01 1

178

Astronium graveolens charcoal 0.11 1 Cameraria latifolia charcoal 0.58 2 Capparaceae charcoal 0.04 1 cf. Celtis sp. fruit 1 0.01 1 Clusia sp. charcoal 0.50 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seed 18 0.02 6 dicot charcoal 1.58 11 Drymaria cordata seed 1 <.01 1 Ehretia tinifolia charcoal 0.05 1 Exostema caribaeum charcoal 0.03 1 Fabaceae beans 9 <.01 4 Ficus sp. charcoal 0.46 2 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 11 <.01 5 Haematoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.08 1 Heteropterys sp. charcoal 0.01 1 cf. Marina nutans seed 2 <.01 2 Mollugo verticillata seeds 4 <.01 2 monocot grass 4 <.01 4 Nectandra cf. globosa charcoal 0.21 1 Persea americana charcoal 0.38 1 Phaseolus sp. bean 3 0.02 3 Physalis angulata seed 1 <.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.33 3 Portulaca oleracea seed 2 <.01 2 Spermatophyte tissue 2.00 24 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 28409 0.69 24 cf. Talinum triangulare seed 1 <.01 1 Zea mays cupules, kernels 31 0.08 8

East Ridges 23 Total Contexts Amaranthus sp. seeds 10 <.01 5 Asteraceae achenes 4 <.01 3 Casearia sp. charcoal 0.64 2 Colubrina aborescens charcoal 0.09 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 9 <.01 3 dicot charcoal 2.17 16 Euphorbia graminea seeds 1 <.01 1 Exothea paniculata charcoal 0.13 1 Fabaceae beans 25 0.01 1 Ficus sp. charcoal 0.82 2 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 2 <.01 2 Haematotoxylum campechianum charcoal 0..72 2 Jacaranda sp. charcoal 0.38 1

179

Metopium brownei charcoal 1.20 3 Mollugo verticillata seeds 4 <.01 2 monocot leaf 1 0.01 1 Panicum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 cf. Persea americana pit 1 0.11 1 Phaseolus sp. cotyledon 1 <.01 1 Physalis angulata seeds 2 0.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.04 1 Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 3.53 22 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 57040 1.47 22 Zea mays cupules, kernels, cob 138 4.11 21 fragments

East Inter-ridges 5 Total Contexts Allophylus sp. charcoal 0.03 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 6 <.01 2 cf. Ampelocera hottlei charcoal 0.17 1 Cycloloma atriplicifolium seed, disseminule 2 <.01 1 Dicot charcoal 0.01 2 Euphorbia graminea seed 1 <.01 1 Fabaceae beans 4 <.01 2 cf. Persea americana seed 1 0.25 1 Phaseolus sp. beans 8 0.20 2 Phaseolus vulgaris bean 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.63 5 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 15277 0.37 5 Zea mays cupules, kernel 4 <.01 1

East Field Combined 28 Total Contexts Allophylus sp. charcoal 0.03 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 16 <.01 7 cf. Ampelocera hottlei charcoal 0.17 1 Asteraceae achenes 4 <.01 3 Casearia sp. charcoal 0.64 2 Colubrina aborescens charcoal 0.09 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 9 <.01 3 Cycloloma atriplicifolium seed, disseminule 2 <.01 1 dicot charcoal 2.18 18 Euphorbia graminea seeds 2 <.01 2 Exothea paniculata charcoal 0.13 1 Fabaceae beans 29 0.01 3 Ficus sp. charcoal 0.82 2

180

Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 2 <.01 2 Haematotoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.72 2 Jacaranda sp. charcoal 0.38 1 Metopium brownei charcoal 1.20 3 Mollugo verticillata seeds 4 <.01 2 monocot leaf 1 0.01 1 Panicum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 cf. Persea americana pit, seed 2 0.36 2 Phaseolus sp. beans 9 0.20 3 Phaseolus vulgaris bean 1 <.01 1 Physalis angulata seeds 2 0.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.04 1 Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 4.16 27 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 72317 1.84 27 Zea mays cupules, kernels, cob 142 4.11 22 fragments

West Ridges 10 Total Contexts Amaranthaceae seeds 3 <.01 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 2 <.01 2 cf. Ehretia tinifolia charcoal <.01 1 dicot charcoal 0.08 2 Euphorbia graminea seed 1 <.01 1 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 8 <.01 4 cf. Fimbristylis ferruginea achene 1 <.01 1 Mollugo verticillata seeds 4 <.01 3 Phaseolus sp. bean 1 <.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.07 2 Spermatophyte tissue 0.49 9 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 3691 0.07 10 Zea mays cupules, kernels 12 0.09 4

West Inter-ridges 1 Total Context Dicot charcoal 0.04 1 Fabaceae bean 1 <.01 1 Solanum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.01 1 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 6461 0.16 1 Zea mays cupule 1 <.01 1

West Field Combined 11 Total Contexts Amaranthaceae seeds 3 <.01 1 181

Amaranthus sp. seeds 2 <.01 2 dicot charcoal 0.12 3 cf. Ehretia tinifolia charcoal <.01 1 Euphorbia graminea seed 1 <.01 1 Fabaceae bean 1 <.01 1 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 8 <.01 4 cf. Fimbristylis ferruginea achene 1 <.01 1 Mollugo verticillata seeds 4 <.01 3 Phaseolus sp. bean 1 <.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.07 2 Solanum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.50 10 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 10152 0.23 11 Zea mays cupules, kernels 13 0.09 5

Inter-ridges Combined 6 Total Contexts Allophylus sp. charcoal 0.03 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 6 <.01 2 cf. Ampelocera hottlei charcoal 0.17 1 Cycloloma atriplicifolium seed, disseminule 2 <.01 1 Dicot charcoal 0.05 3 Euphorbia graminea seed 1 <.01 1 Fabaceae beans 5 <.01 3 cf. Persea americana seed 1 0.25 1 Phaseolus sp. beans 8 0.20 2 Phaseolus vulgaris bean 1 <.01 1 Solanum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.64 6 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 21738 0.37 5 Zea mays cupules, kernel 5 <.01 2

Total Fields Combined 39 Total Contexts Allophylus sp. charcoal 0.03 1 Amaranthaceae seeds 3 <.01 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 18 <.01 9 cf. Ampelocera hottlei charcoal 0.17 1 Asteraceae achenes 4 <.01 3 Casearia sp. charcoal 0.64 2 Colubrina aborescens charcoal 0.09 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 9 <.01 3 cf. Cycloloma atriplicifolium seed, disseminule 2 <.01 1 dicot charcoal 2.30 21 cf. Ehretia tinifolia charcoal <.01 1

182

Euphorbia graminea seeds 3 <.01 3 Exothea paniculata charcoal 0.13 1 Fabaceae beans 30 0.01 4 Ficus sp. charcoal 0.82 2 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 10 <.01 6 cf. Fimbristylis ferruginea achene 1 <.01 1 Haematotoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.72 2 Jacaranda sp. charcoal 0.38 1 Metopium brownei charcoal 1.20 3 Mollugo verticillata seeds 8 <.01 7 monocot leaf 1 0.01 1 Panicum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 cf. Persea americana pit, seed 2 0.36 2 Phaseolus sp. beans 10 0.20 4 Phaseolus vulgaris bean 1 <.01 1 Physalis angulata seeds 2 0.01 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.11 2 Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 Solanum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 4.70 37 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 82469 2.07 38 Zea mays cupules, kernels, cob 155 4.20 27 fragments

West Canals 11 Total Contexts cf. Acrocomia aculeata fruit 1 <.01 1 Amaranthus sp. seeds 4 <.01 2 Arecaceae (palm) endocarp 2 0.03 1 Asteraceae achenes 5 <.01 2 dicot charcoal 0.05 3 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 7 <.01 4 Matayba sp. charcoal 0.05 1 Mollugo verticillata seeds 6 <.01 4 monocot leaf 1 0.01 1 Panicum sp. seeds 2 <.01 1 Phaseolus vulgaris bean 2 0.02 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.02 1 Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 cf. Psidium guajava mesocarp 1 0.09 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.21 8 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 3763 0.09 11 Zea mays cupules, kernels, cob 5 0.01 3 fragments

183

East Canals 15 Total Contexts Amaranthaceae seeds 3 <.01 2 Amaranthus sp. seeds 4 <.01 3 Angiosperm epidermis 1 <.01 1 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 2 <.01 2 dicot charcoal 1.15 4 Dunalia aborescens charcoal 0.26 1 Fabaceae beans 5 <.01 2 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 5 <.01 2 Haematotoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.02 1 Metopium brownei charcoal 0.04 2 Mollugo verticillata seeds 2 <.01 2 monocot grass 1 <.01 1 Panicum sp. seed 1 <.01 1 Phaseolus sp. beans, cotyledons 4 0.01 3 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.03 2 Spermatophyte tissue 0.34 15 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 18865 0.45 13 Tabernaemontana sp. charcoal 0.27 1 Zea mays cupules, cob fragments 21 0.07 8

Combined Canals 26 Total cf. Acrocomia aculeata fruit 1 <.01 1 Amaranthaceae seeds 3 <.01 2 Amaranthus sp. seeds 8 <.01 5 Angiosperm epidermis 1 <.01 1 Arecaceae (palm) endocarp 2 0.03 1 Asteraceae achenes 5 <.01 2 Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 2 <.01 2 dicot charcoal 1.20 7 Dunalia aborescens charcoal 0.26 1 Fabaceae beans 5 <.01 2 Fimbristylis dichotoma achenes 12 <.01 6 Haematotoxylum campechianum charcoal 0.02 1 Matayba sp. charcoal 0.05 1 Metopium brownei charcoal 0.04 2 Mollugo verticillata seeds 8 <.01 6 monocot leaf 2 0.01 2 Panicum sp. seeds 3 <.01 2 Phaseolus sp. beans, cotyledons 4 0.01 3 Phaseolus vulgaris bean 2 0.02 1 Pinus sp. charcoal 0.05 3

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Portulaca oleracea seed 1 <.01 1 cf. Psidium guajava mesocarp 1 0.09 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.55 23 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 22628 0.54 24 Zea mays cupules, kernels, cob 26 0.08 11 fragments

Perpendicular Canal 1 Total Context cf. Acrocomia aculeata fruit 1 <.01 1 dicot charcoal 0.01 1 cf. Psidium guajava mesocarp 1 0.09 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.01 1 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 409 0.01 1 Zea mays cupule 1 <.01 1

Flat Area 2 Total Contexts Crotalaria cf. sagittalis seeds 2 <.01 1 dicot charocal, twig 0.01 1 Spermatophyte tissue 0.04 2 Spilanthes cf. acmella achenes 7740 0.19 2 Zea mays cupules 2 <.01 1

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