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Paleoethnobotanical Remains and Land Use Associated With the Sacbe at the Ancient Maya Village of Joya de Ceren

Slotten, Venicia M
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2359-5137
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439562500

Abstract Details

2015, MA, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Anthropology.
Paleoethnobotanical research conducted during the 2013 field season at the Classic Maya archaeological site Joya de Ceren 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 Ceren 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 Ceren 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 Ceren’s agricultural fields.
Vernon Scarborough, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Sarah Jackson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
David Lentz, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
198 p.
Archaeology
Maya; paleoethnobotany; sacbe; weeds; El Salvador

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Slotten, V. M. (2015). Paleoethnobotanical Remains and Land Use Associated With the Sacbe at the Ancient Maya Village of Joya de Ceren [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439562500

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Slotten, Venicia. Paleoethnobotanical Remains and Land Use Associated With the Sacbe at the Ancient Maya Village of Joya de Ceren. 2015. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439562500.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Slotten, Venicia. "Paleoethnobotanical Remains and Land Use Associated With the Sacbe at the Ancient Maya Village of Joya de Ceren." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439562500

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1439562500
1,171
© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Paleoethnobotanical Remains and Land Use Associated With the Sacbe at the Ancient Maya Village of Joya de Ceren by Venicia M Slotten is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.