In his contribution to The Classic Maya Collapse volume, Robert Rands (1973a) identified two elite ceramic traditions in the Late Classic southern lowlands: poly-chromy and fine paste wares. These were largely sequential but had distinct east-west geographic centers. More recently, Donald Forsyth (1997, 1999; Rice and Forsyth, Chapter 3, this volume) identified a similar east-west separation of nonelite utilitarian “supercomplexes” in Late and Terminal Classic Peten. An eastern group comprises the Eznab sphere of central Peten and western Belize, while a western group stretches from the middle Usumacinta and Pasion regions, from Yaxchilan southeast into the Mopan River basin. Similarly, in the northern lowlands, there are distinct eastern and western divisions of the Terminal Classic Cehpech sphere, and this is particularly evidenced in the pastes and slips of slate wares.
Returning to the Peten lakes area, it is in this region that the western and eastern traditions of both utilitarian and elite wares overlap in an east-west clinal distribution. The Late and Terminal Classic ceramic assemblages of the eastern lakes, Yaxha and Sacnab, clearly fall into the Tepeu 2/Eznab spheres, with some ties farther to the east in the Spanish Lookout phase of Barton Ramie (e. g., Benque Viejo Polychrome, blackwares). To the west, however, from the Lake Macanche basin (P. Rice 1987c) and beyond. Terminal Classic assemblages show decreasing similarities with Eznab and increasing relationships with the Boca sphere of the Pasion area (P. Rice 1996). Yet the fine wares of the Pasion area made their way, albeit in small quantities, to the Yaxha region, where demand stimulated the production of imitation Pabellon Molded-Carved in at least four distinct pastes (P. Rice 1986).
This localized variability has complicated efforts to make clear distinctions between Late Classic, Terminal Classic, and Early Postclassic ceramic complexes in our excavations in the lakes area, a problem also evident in the Chases’ (A. Chase 1983; A. Chase and D. Chase 1983) study of pottery of the Tayasal-Paxcaman portion of the lakes region. Several observations common to both our and the Chases’ studies are of particular interest here. One is that Augustine Red, a common Early Postclassic type in the Belize Valley, is also present around Lake Peten Itza, but is increasingly rare moving eastward through the intervening lake basins (Salpeten, Macanche, Yaxha-Sacnab). Another is that the slightly “waxy”-feeling slips of the Trapeche ceramic group, another Early Postclassic type common around Lake Peten Itza (Chase 1983) and Lake Macanche (Rice 1987c), look suspiciously like local copies of the slate wares known in the north. A few sherds of probable slate ware imports, identified by their “trickle” decoration, have been noted in the Peten Itza portion of the lake chain, but these are quite rare.
From the viewpoint of ceramic technology, this spatial and temporal intermingling of the wares, types, forms, and decorations characterizing multiple ceramic spheres is extremely frustrating. As of this writing. Late Classic (Tepeu 2) ceramic assemblages are relatively clearly defined in the area, and Late Postclassic (beginning ca. a. d. 1200?) types also are clearly defined (Rice 1979, 1996; Cecil 2001). But the ceramic situation in the intervening four centuries or so is extremely difficult to sort out. The most intractable problem yet to be solved is tracing the beginnings of the most widespread Postclassic pottery type/group/ ware in the lakes region, Paxcaman Red and its constituent units.
There also seems to be a parallel east-west distinction in patterns of sources of obsidian in the northern lowlands during the Terminal Classic (Braswell 1996b). Obsidian at sites in the eastern Cehpech sphere is primarily from the Ixtepeque source in eastern Guatemala, while sites with Sotuta-sphere—Chich’en Itza-related—ceramics tend to have obsidian from central Mexican sources. Some similarities to this pattern can be seen in the Peten lakes area, although the differences are more temporal than spatial (Rice et al. 1985). X-ray fluorescence analysis of nearly 300 obsidians from sites in three of the lake basin pairs, Yaxha-Sacnab, Macanche-Salpeten, and Quexil-Petenxil, revealed a dramatic decline from the Late Classic dominance of the El Chayal and San Martin Jilotepeque sources to a Terminal Classic resurgence of Ixtepeque.
In any case, ceramic and obsidian artifacts from sites in the Peten lakes region suggest that it was an area of considerable interaction in the Terminal Classic period, with populations moving in, out, and around, and local and exotic goods moving with them. In particular, the Late and Terminal Classic east-west divisions in the southern lowlands seem to parallel those in the north, and, given the growing evidence for migrations between the two areas, might relate to the Late Postclassic ethno-social split between the Xiw and Kokom/Itza groups.
World History
