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POLITICS THROUGH POTTERY: A VIEW OF THE PRECLASSIC-CLASSIC TRANSITION FROM BUILDING B, GROUP II, HOLMUL, GUATEMALA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2014
Abstract
Building B of Group II at Holmul, Guatemala, is well known in Maya archaeology for its unique series of superimposed tombs, some of which contain rare large deposits of ceramic material dating to the Terminal Preclassic period (a.d. 1–250). However, the building also contains large deposits of early facet Early Classic (a.d. 250–400) material, as well as the remains of a potential title holding elite. This article presents the current ceramic sequence for the Holmul region and a re-evaluation of the ceramic material from all rooms in Building B Group II in light of new discoveries at sites within the Holmul region and the greater Maya lowlands. The result is a new hypothesis about what social processes are manifested through Terminal Preclassic period orange slipped pottery, which suggests that the vessels associated with deposits in Buidling B may represent changes in elite diacritical feasting events during this period. These feasts, and the preparations made for them, may have simultaneously integrated social groups within a polity while also reinforcing differences between them during two turbulent epochs of Maya political history—namely, the late facet of the Terminal Preclassic period (a.d. 150–250) and the early facet of the Early Classic period (a.d. 250–400).
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014
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