Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-20T01:31:33.335Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patterns of Jade Consumption and Disposal at Cerros, Northern Belize

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

James F. Garber
James F. Garber*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Jade artifacts have been recovered from a wide variety of contexts throughout the Maya Lowlands. Intact artifacts are usually recovered from tombs, burials, and dedicatory offerings. For the most part, the intact jade artifacts from Cerros, a Late Preclassic Maya center in northern Belize, fall within this range. However, the majority of Cerros jades are broken and were recovered from contexts that deviate from the normal Late Preclassic Maya pattern of jade consumption and disposal. In three locations at Cerros, quantities of jade were broken and scattered about. Such activity occurred during the abandonment of masonry and perishable structures and is interpreted here as being a form of termination ritual.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , October 1983 , pp. 800 - 807
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Cliff, Maynard B. 1980 Excavations in a Late Preclassic Nucleated Village at Cerros, Northern Belize: A Preliminary Report. In Archaeological Investigations at Cerros, Belize: Interim Report, edited by Freidel, D. A. and Robertson, R.. Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, in Press.Google Scholar
Coe, William R. 1959 Piedras Negras Archaeology: Artifacts, Caches and Burials. Museum Monographs, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Coe, William R. 1965 Artifacts of the Maya Lowlands. In Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 3, edited by Wauchope, R. and Willey, R.G., pp. 594–602. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Digby, Adrian 1964 Maya Jade. British Museum, London.Google Scholar
Easby, Elizabeth K. 1961 The Squire Jades from Tonina, Chiapas. In Essays in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, edited by Lothrop, S. K., Bird, J. B., Ekholm, G. F., Stone, D. Z., and Willey, G. R., pp. 60–80. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Easby, Elizabeth K., and Scott, John F. 1970 Before Cortez: Sculpture of Middle America. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.Google Scholar
Freidel, David A. 1979 Culture Areas and Interaction Spheres: Contrasting Approaches to the Emergence of Civilizationin the Maya Lowlands. American Antiquity 44:36–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, James F. 1981 Material Culture and Patterns of Artifact Consumption and Disposal at the Maya Site of Cerros in Northern Belize. Ph. D. dissertation, Southern Methodist University, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman 1974 Preclassic to Postclassic in Northern Belize. Antiquity 48:177–187.Google Scholar
Hammond, Norman (editor) 1975 Archaeology in Northern Belize: British Museum. Cambridge University Corozal Project 1974-1975 Interim Report. Center of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kidder, Alfred V., Jennings, J. D., and Shook, E. M. 1946 Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala.’ Carnegie Institution of Washington, Publication 561. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana 1974 Jades from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 10(1). Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Rands, Robert L. 1965 Jades of the Maya Lowlands. In Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 3, edited by Wauchope, R. and Willey, R.G., pp. 561–580. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Robertson-Freidel, Robin A. 1980 The Ceramics from Cerros: A Late Preclassic Site in Northern Belize. Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Ruz Lhuillier, Alberto 1952 Exploraciones en Palenque. Anales del Instituto Nacional de Antropologi'a e Historia, 6. INAH, Mexico, D. F. Google Scholar
Scarborough, Vernon L. 1980 The Settlement System at a Late Preclassic Maya Community: Cerros, Northern Belize. Ph. D. dissertation, Southern Methodist University, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew 1957 An Archaeological Reconnaissance in Southern Mexico. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 164:213–240. Washington, D. C. Google Scholar
J. Eric S., Thompson 1931 Archaeological Investigations in the Southern Cayo District, British Honduras. Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 301, Anthropological Series 17(3). Field Museum, Chicago.Google Scholar
J. Eric S., Thompson 1966 The ftise and Fall of Maya Civilization. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Tozzer, Alfred M. (Editor) 1941 Landa's Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan: A Translation. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 18. Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Google Scholar
Willey, Gordon R. 1978 Artifacts. In Excavations at Seibal, Department of Peten, Guatemala, edited by Willey, Gordon R., pp. 1–189. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, 14(1). Cambridge, Mass. Google Scholar