Squaring off: Late Middle Preclassic architectural innovation at Cuello, Belize. (News & Notes).

Squaring off: Late Middle Preclassic architectural innovation at Cuello, Belize. (News & Notes). Excavations at the early Maya village site of Cuello, Belize,intermitted 1993-2000, were continued in 2002. One objective was tocomplete investigation of the north-side structures of the MiddlePreclassic courtyard group which formed the focus of the Cuellocommunity from before 900 to c. 400 BC (Hammond 1991: figures 3.4-3.9),the Late Preclassic structures above them having been excavated in theprevious season (Hammond et al. 2000). A second aim was to uncover thewestern section of the sweathouse sweat��house?n.Any of various permanent or portable structures typically heated by fire or by pouring water over hot stones and used by certain Native American peoples to induce sweating, as for medicinal, spiritual, or social purposes. or pib na, dating to c. 900 BC andthus antedating other known Preclassic Maya sweathouses by half amillennium (Hammond & Bauer 2001). A new 5x5-m trench, south andwest of the catercornered areas investigated in 2000 and thus linkingthem, was taken swiftly down through the successive plaster floors ofthe Late Preclassic Platform 34 and the massive rubble courtyard infillbeneath them (FIGURE 1); from the courtyard floor down, excavation wasas a single 11x5-m trench. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] At its north end was the eastern portion of Structure 315: theremainder had been excavated in 1976 and 1990, and we expected its finalphases (Str. 315d-e) to be subrectangular and some 10 m long, with theaxial front step and doorway bisected by the 40E section (Hammond 1991:figures 5.12, 5.14-16). We were wrong: Str. 315 extended only 2 m east,making it almost square in plan, with the projecting `step' being alow platform attached to the southeast corner (FIGURE 2), and the`doorway' an inset niche forming a step up on the platform surface.We confirmed that the rectangular plan was initiated with Str. 315d,probably in the early 5th century BC, which had been severely truncatedbefore receiving a new fill and final floor; these were in turn slightedwhen the courtyard's flanking structures were ceremoniously cer��e��mo��ni��ous?adj.1. Strictly observant of or devoted to ceremony, ritual, or etiquette; punctilious: "borne on silvery trays by ceremonious world-weary waiters"Financial Times. destroyed and buried below Platform 34 c. 400 BC. [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] Str. 315a-c had an apsidal plan, like Str. 320a-f below andslightly south on the smaller courtyard which existed before 600 BC: theinnovations of a square-cornered plan and a higher basal platform, twoof the defining traits of later Maya ceremonial architecture, seem tohave occurred around the middle of the millennium. Str. 315d-e waspartnered by Str. 314 on the western side of the courtyard and Str. 334on the east (Hammond et al. 2000: figure 2), the latter replacing theapsidal-ended Str. 339 but set further back. The progressive enlargement of the Middle Preclassic courtyardbetween 600 and 400 BC was documented by the horizontal stratigraphy stratigraphy,branch of geology specifically concerned with the arrangement of layered rocks (see stratification). Stratigraphy is based on the law of superposition, which states that in a normal sequence of rock layers the youngest is on top and the oldest on the ofits floors (FIGURE 3). The white floor 8057 (left foreground) ended atthe southern margin of Str. 320; the yellow floor 6146 (left rear) wascarefully lapped over it, the older floor being shaved down to achieve alevel surface, and abutted the front of Str. 315. When the latter wassquared off, a further floor extension (6142) was laid down (far rightin FIGURE 3: the northern portion has already been excavated), wrappinground 6146 to abut To reach; to touch. To touch at the end; be contiguous; join at a border or boundary; terminate on; end at; border on; reach or touch with an end. The term abutting implies a closer proximity than the term adjacent. the eastern side of Str. 315d, and extendingeastwards over the demolished Str. 339 to rise up the front terrace ofStr. 334. [FIGURE 3 OMITTED] Laying of this last floor had sealed a grave cut into the darkearth and sheet midden middendungheap. that lay outside the floored courtyard area. Thegrave cist for Burial 186 was 1.16 m long, a dimension appropriate for asubadult, as with Burial 181 found in 2000 (Hammond et al. 2000: figure3); the skeleton within was, however, that of a robust adult female inher 20s, who had been c. 1.70 m tall. The body had been crammed into thetoo-small cut face down, the head bent back and the right leg pressedagainst the end of the grave with the foot protruding up over the edge.There were no evident grave-goods, and Burial 186 joins Burials 21 and125 (Robin 1989: 197-8, 381; Saul & Saul 1997: 33) as`sprawled' interments associated with architectural expansion, andarguably dumped as offerings, perhaps sacrifices. The dark earth east of Str. 315 yielded a substantial sherd deposit(6186), notable for their large size and the variety of complex vesselforms present. A human frontal bone, cut from the skull and perforatedfor attachment or suspension, suggests that non-domestic activity wasinvolved, perhaps as Landa (Tozzer 1941: 131) attests for the16th-century Yucatan Maya, connected with ancestor veneration. Entireshells of the fragile edible snail Pomacea flagellata attest both to theundisturbed nature of 6186, and in their restricted range of size (mean39.3 mm, SD .014; n=73) to Maya harvesting of Pomacea at a perceivedsize:flavour optimum (cf. Hammond 1991: figure 4.2 for later and evenmore selective cropping). On the eastern side of the courtyard, the `Structure 341'noted close to the limit of the 2000 trench proved to be the edge of asubstantial levelling and flooring of an early phase of courtyarddevelopment. This, and the earlier firepits F.301-403 had,unfortunately, obliterated much of the western portion of thesweathouse, although the terminus of the sunken dry-walled centralchannel survived, with traces of the west wall just beyond. There was nospace for an entry there (contra Hammond & Bauer 2001: figure 3),and the sweathouse seems to have formed part of a loose cluster of lowplatforms supporting perishable superstructures, preceding the formallayout of buildings around a patio which marked the emergence of a focusto the Cuello community early in the Bladen phase (900-650 BC). Acknowledgements. Work was funded by the National GeographicSociety, and by generous gifts from Raymond and Beverly Sackler and MaryAnn Harrell through Boston University Boston University,at Boston, Mass.; coeducational; founded 1839, chartered 1869, first baccalaureate granted 1871. It is composed of 16 schools and colleges. . We thank the ArchaeologicalCommissioner of Belize, Mr George Thompson, and the Cuello Brothers forpermission, and our colleagues and students at Cuello for their hardwork and for elucidating much of the above. References HAMMOND, N. (ed.) 1991. Cuello: an early Maya community in Belize.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). . HAMMOND, N. & J.R. BAUER. 2001. A Preclassic Maya sweatbath atCuello, Belize, Antiquity 75: 683-4. HAMMOND, N., S. HAY & J.R.BAUER. 2000. Preclassic Mayaarchitectural ritual at Cuello, Belize, Antiquity 74: 265-6. ROBIN, C. 1989. Preclassic Maya Burials at Cuello, Belize. Oxford:British Archaeological Reports. International series S480. SAUL, J.M. & F.P. SAUL. 1997. The Preclassic skeletons fromCuello, in S.L. Whittington & D.M. Reed (ed.), Bones of the Maya:28-50. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution Smithsonian Institution,research and education center, at Washington, D.C.; founded 1846 under terms of the will of James Smithson of London, who in 1829 bequeathed his fortune to the United States to create an establishment for the "increase and diffusion of Press. TOZZER, A.M. 1941. Landa's Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan: atranslation. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Harvard University,mainly at Cambridge, Mass., including Harvard College, the oldest American college.Harvard CollegeHarvard College, originally for men, was founded in 1636 with a grant from the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. , Peabody Museum The Peabody Museum can refer to several museums founded by or dedicated to George Peabody: George Peabody House Museum at his birthplace in Peabody, Massachusetts Peabody Leather Museum in Peabody, Massachusetts . Papers18. NORMAN HAMMOND, JEREMY R. BAUER & JODY MORRIS Jody Morris, (born 22 December 1978 in Hammersmith, London), is an English football midfielder. He is currently playing for Scunthorpe United, after leaving Millwall. He has previously played for Chelsea, Leeds United and Rotherham United. * * Hammond, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Boston MA02215-1406, USA. ndch@bu.edu Bauer, Department of Anthropology,Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN 37235, USA.jeremy.bauer@vanderbilt.edu Morris, Oxford Archaeology, Janus House,Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 0ES, England. jm_archaeology@hotmail.com