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Continuity and change in fine-ware production in the eastern Maya lowlands during the Classic to Postclassic transition (ad 800–1250)

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Abstract

This study presents the results of an investigation into fine-ware production in the eastern Maya lowlands during the Classic to Postclassic transition (ca. ad 800–1250), a period characterised by the collapse of the Maya dynastic tradition. A selection of fine-ware ceramics—Ahk’utu’ vases and Zakpah ceramics—from various sites across Belize was examined by thin-section petrography and SEM-EDS analyses. The resultant compositional and technological data reveal that fine-ware production exhibited varying degrees of continuity and change in potters’ choices of raw materials and manufacturing technologies. The most significant change occurred in craft organisation. Fine-ware production shifted from the co-existence of two ceramic traditions, which guided potters regarding the raw materials used and technical practices followed in making Ahk’utu’ vases during the earlier phase of transition (ca. ad 800–900/950), to the dominance of one broad tradition with greater liberty accorded producers in their execution of Zakpah fine-ware production during the later phase (ca. ad 950/1000–1200/1250). Such a shift is argued to have been stimulated by a change and increase in the demands for fine-ware ceramics during the later phase of the transition, corresponding to the emergence and proliferation of a new elite stratum in the Maya lowlands.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by UCL Graduate Research Scholarship, UCL Overseas Research Scholarship and University of London Central Research Fund. I would like to thank Elizabeth Graham for offering insightful and constructive comments throughout the course of this research and on the manuscript. I would like to thank Marcos Martinón-Torres, Christophe Helmke and Linda Howie for providing guidance on the execution of this research. I would also like to thank Jaime Awe and the Institute of Archaeology, Belize for granting permission to sample the materials, and the staff of UCL Institute of Archaeology Wolfson Archaeological Science Laboratories for their technical support.

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    Carmen Ting

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Ting, C. Continuity and change in fine-ware production in the eastern Maya lowlands during the Classic to Postclassic transition (ad 800–1250). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 10, 1913–1931 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0506-5

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