It feels so wonderful to be doing fieldwork again! I haven’t been part of a field project in a few years, which seems weird since fieldwork is what drew me to archaeology in the first place. This project has made me think a lot about all those projects and just how the directors managed to keep their sanity. There are so many details that have to be taken care of before you even get to the research. Anyways, I have been in the field for almost four weeks now. We have been chipping away at surveying sections of Aguacate land, learning the Total Station and mapping sites. The men that I’ve hired from Aguacate clear sites of vegetation and carry gear for us (the Total Station is not super portable). They also teach us a lot about the area and have generally been great company (with a few exceptions – more on that later!).
My research questions are about household identity and economic integration. Houses tend to be on hilltops, but there are some mounds on the flat – hence the survey. The villagers know the landscape very well, so they’ve introduced me to many of the sites. But they haven’t seen them all! A couple weeks ago we went to what I am calling Site 1 (I’m really creative), because it was the first site that they showed me last summer. I recorded it as two small structures that were part of a longer platform that I couldn’t quite see because of the vegetation. When we came back and asked the guys to start clearing, the platform just kept going and going. It turns out that it is 40 meters long and about 4 meters high. There is a long flat terrace (I can’t wait to find out what they were using that for!) between three structures – one 3 meter high mound, one that is 2 meters high, and an imposing 6 meter structure lining the back of the platform. It’s probably 15 meters long and overlooks the rest of the complex. It looks like there were two rooms on top of that. 
Views of Site 1
So – much bigger than I thought it would be! We’ve spent a lot of time clearing it off in order to map it. Besides the architecture there are other components that are interesting. The whole group is built against a cliff, though the buildings end 10m or so before the cliff. There seems to be a midden that has accumulated at the bottom of the cliff – lots of sherds, shell, and even some human bone.
Rebbecca and Matt mapping in a lower platform at Site 1
In the process of clearing and cleaning walls we have been finding a lot of artifacts. Mostly ceramic sherds and pieces of chert. A lot of the sherds look like thick water, cooking, or storage jars (but they are pretty eroded from being on or close to the surface). There are some finer wares though, and at least several serving dishes. The chert has been even more fascinating – we’ve been finding the nodules, some are partial cores (so they were making tools by knapping pieces from the nodules), flakes, and of course lots of unworked pieces. It’s a very noticeable pattern though, just from surface artifacts! And they are working it at the site – the question is to what degree. Simple household provisioning or for trade? If they are trading it, what are they getting in return? We have also seen two figurine fragments that look like they came from nearby Lubaantun, as well as several pieces of obsidian, which comes from Guatemala. So far, it looks like this household is fairly integrated into regional trade routes. I really can’t wait to figure out what they’re doing with the chert.
Also, we have found several limestone blocks with stalagmites/tites on them. They were part of the wall fall, so they were incorporated as architectural elements in the original building. They look like common limestone blocks, but then on one side there will be these cave formations. It’s not unusual for the Maya to cache cave elements – caves were portals to the underworld and hence, spiritually powerful places – but these stones aren’t buried, they’re part of the walls as far as I can tell. We found them on the surface, after all.
We have also cleared and mapped several other smaller groups on hilltops, nearby to Site 1. We have seen human bone and some eroded sherds at those sites, as well as obsidian and chert. I’m curious to see how household inventories vary in relation to structure size. Is society extremely stratified or is everyone getting the same obsidian and figurines?
Right now I have permission to survey, map, surface collect (artifacts that we can see on the surface) and perform salvage excavations on looted and damaged buildings. One building that is part of Site 1 was bulldozed (flattened, not displaced entirely) to build the farmers’ path that we walk every day, so we will probably start test pitting and surface collecting there next week. It’s right in front of the huge platform, and is a smaller structure. We’re in the process of clearing it right now – there are lots of artifacts because the bulldozer stripped the upper layers of the building for the road. My excavation permit is forthcoming, and I’m really excited to keep looking at this site – I’m going to get so much great information from it!
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