patterns of maya jade disposal at blue creek belize 1

7/30/2019 Patterns of Maya Jade Disposal at Blue Creek Belize 1

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Patterns of Maya Jade Disposal at Blue Creek, Belize

Author(s) / Editor(s): thomas guderjan

Published: 2004

Document Type: Book / Report

Stable URL: http://core.tdar.org/document/6639

DOI: doi:10.6067/XCV8X928HB


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PATTERNS OF MAYA JADE DISPOSAL AT BLUE CREEK, BELIZE.

JANUARY 20, 2004

h d j


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Abstract (English)

Jade was the most valued material in the Classic Maya

world. Large numbers of jade artifacts have been recovered

from diverse contexts from the Maya site of Blue Creek,

Belize. This database allows for analysis of the

distribution and disposal of jade artifacts. Further,

jades role in Classic Maya political economies is unclear,

with views alternating between jade having functioned as a

currency and jade having been controlled by royal elites.

The Blue Creek database is used to test the implications of

both models.


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Abstract (Espanol)

El jade era la materia mas avaluada en el mundo Clasico de

Maya. Muchas artefactos del jade se han recuperado de

excavaciones diversas del sitio se Blue Creek en Belice.

Esta base de datos tiene en cuenta el analisis de la

distribucion y la disposicion de arefactos de jade. Aun

mas, el papel de jade en Maya Clasico las economicas

politicas son poco clara, con las vistas que alternan entre

jade funciono como una moneda y jade sidos contoladas por

elite reales. El banco de datos Blue Creek se utilza para

probar la implicacion es de ambros modela.


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Jade has always held a fascination for both

Mesoamerican archaeologists and the ancient Mesoamerican

people who regarded it as the most valuable and rare

material in their world. Extensive excavations in diverse

contexts at the Maya site of Blue Creek in Belize (Figure

1) have resulted in a database that spans numerous

prehistoric socio-economic contexts. In this paper, the

distribution of jade artifacts at Blue Creek will be

compared to other sites and used to gain insight into the

archaeology of the site. In addition, the Blue Creek

database will be used to evaluate competing views of the

role played by jade in the political economy of ancient

Maya society.

MINEROLOGY AND SOURCES OF JADE

The colloquial term, jade, has been generally used


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have not discriminated among the minerals. Effectively,

this is the same group of minerals that Norman Hammond has

referred to as social jade (1991). I do, however,

distinguish between that suite of minerals and

greenstones which are generally of lower aesthetic

quality and include minerals such as schists, shales, and

serpentines which are easily distinguished from jades or

social jades by hardness, density, and friability.

There have been several attempts to characterize the

composition of jade and to trace archaeological jades to

their sources (Bishop and Lange 1993, Gendron, Smith and

Genron-Badou 2002, Hammond, et al 1977, Harlow 1993). One

issue complicating source analyses is that jade occurs in

cobbles and boulders, each with its own distinct chemical

composition. Despite this, some groupings based on chemical

composition have been established for reference collections


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characterized chemically. The Motagua Valley with its

nearly unique geology is probably the sole source of jade

in Mesoamerica. Jadeite, the mineral that composes much of

the range of jade, has been known to co-occur with

serpentine in the Motagua Valley since 1954 (Fossag 1957),

which is probably the only location in which the high

pressures required to form these minerals exists (Johnson

and Harlow 1999).

A second possible source, particularly for some jade

used by the Middle Preclassic Olmecs, has been suggested to

be in Guerrero, Mexico (Bishop and Lange 1993, Griffin

1993). However, such a source has not been positively

identified and, if it existed, was probably largely

exhausted during Olmec times (Garber, et al 1993). As no

contemporary jade is known from Guerrero, comparison with

prehistoric artifacts is impossible. Further, the range of


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center of La Venta and for distribution to other centers

such as Chalcatzingo. At about the same time, jade enters

the record at Copan, probably because Copan serviced the

jade needs of La Venta (Garber, et al 1993). In the Late

Preclassic period, jade becomes an elite, status

reinforcing, exotic material in the Maya area. Jade remains

uncommon but not rare in the record and is generally

restricted to elite and royal contexts in burials and

caches. New depositional patterns also emerge in the Late

Preclassic. Jade artifacts were deposited in caches in

public buildings (Kresjci and Culbert 1995). However, they

also appear in non-elite caches and burials (Rathje 1970)

and are found smashed and broken in termination rituals as

public buildings were abandoned (Garber 1983, 1988, 1993).

In the southern Maya lowlands during the Late Classic

period, the quantities of jade artifacts in the


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to the manufacture of ornamentation. This restriction

indicates that jades social value eclipsed its utility.

The vast majority (probably more than 90%) of jade

artifacts are in the form of beads in a wide range of

shapes.

Other artifact forms include anthropomorphic pendants

such as bib-shaped pendants or ahau heads. These are

frontal views of a human head with bib underneath the chin

that may represent an ahau or king. In northern Belize,

bib-head shaped pendants have been found at Blue Creek

(Guderjan 1998), Cerros (Garber 1983), Nohmul (Hammond

1987), Lamanai (Clancy, et al 1985), Santa Rita (Chase and

Chase 1986), and Chan Chich (Robichaux 1998). These bib-

shaped pendants have also been argued to be parts of royal

crowns (Freidel and Schele 1988, Hammond 1986). Aside from

bob-shaped pendants, anthropomorphic figures posed as


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Artifacts formed into plaques are another Classic

period artifact form found only rarely in northern Belize.

These are low-relief, thick, flat pendants with

anthropomorphic figures carved into them. Only one such

plaque, apparently looted from the site of Indian Creek, is

known from northwestern Belize. However, many are known

high status burials at Altun Ha (Pendergast 1979, 1982).

MAYA POLITICAL ECONOMY AND THE ROLE OF JADE

Archaeologists have often applied variants of

Wallersteins Core-Periphery and World Systems models

(1974) to prehistoric cultures to model economics and

political interaction (Chase-Dunn and Hall 1991,

Frankenstein and Rowlands 1978, Freidman and Rowlands 1978,

Peregrine 1991, Peregrine and Feinman 1996). In the Maya

area, early formulations of Maya economics examined the


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on intra-site levels (Guderjan, Baker and Lichtenstein

2003) as well as regional levels (Lewis 2003).

In the Maya area, a view of two parallel systems of

political economy and resource control has developed

(Masson 2002). One system consisted of commodities and

utilitarian goods produced and exchanged in a household

oriented mercantile system. The second system consisted of

gift exchange of prestige goods that supported and

reinforced the authority of kings and other nobles (Masson

2002). In particular, the exchange and distribution of

exotic, status reinforcing objects are seen to have been

controlled by royalty. For example, Joseph Ball argued that

Maya ceramic workshops were supported by ruling elites in

order to provide sumptuary goods for Maya palaces (Ball

1993). Therefore, the inter-site distribution of these

goods occurred through gifting among elites. Similarly,


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pendants, particularly in sets of four, have been viewed as

marking royalty (Freidel 1993; Freidel, Reese-Taylor, and

Mora-Martin 2002; Schele and Freidel 1990). Freidel also

argues that jade functioned as currency and was accessible

to anyone with the wealth to own it (Freidel 1993; Freidel,

Reese-Taylor, and Mora-Martn 2002). This would mean that

access to jade was based upon an individuals wealth and

its distribution in the archaeological record should co-

vary with status. For example, the distribution of jade

would be expected to be higher in elite households than

non-elite households. Alternatively, jade was only

exchanged and circulated among elites of different

polities, perhaps assuming the heirloom qualities

associated with Trobriand Islanders Kula and Kwakuitl

copper plaques (Malinowski 1920; Rathje 1978; Sahlins

1972). This alternative explanation sees the control of


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THE MAYA SITE OF BLUE CREEK

The site of Blue Creek is located in northwestern

Belize at the headwaters of the Rio Hondo (Figure 1). A

decade of excavations has enabled us to understand the

structure of the community (Guderjan, Baker, and

Lichtenstein 2003; Lichtenstein 2000) as well as its

fundamental temporal aspects. Blue Creek is a medium-sized

center with two plazas and two buildings approximately 15

meters tall. However, the 1350 pieces found at Blue Creek

reflect great status and wealth1

. The Blue Creek collection

derives from numerous diverse contexts and provides a

special opportunity for better understanding jade disposal

and its role in socio-political life. While much of the

collection comes from a non-funerary shaft dug into

Structure 4 on Plaza A (Guderjan 1998), nearly 400

artifacts come from other contexts.


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elite residences at Blue Creek (Guderjan, Lichtenstein, and

Hanratty 2003; Lichtenstein and Hanratty 2002; Hanratty

2002) and continued evidence for Late Classic population

increases (Lichtenstein 2000). At least one residential

area located 2-3 km. from the site center, was not occupied

until the Late Classic (Lichtenstein 2000).

The sites public district (Figure 2) is located on

top of the 100 meter tall Bravo Escarpment and overlooks

vast sets of ditched fields and associated residences

(Figure 3). Plaza A is the larger and is surrounded by six

buildings, the tallest being Structure 1 at about 15 meters

tall. Behind Structure 1 is Blue Creeks Early Classic

ballcourt. South of Plaza A is the Plaza B complex, a

lineal set of buildings centered on the sites second

public plaza. Plaza B is flanked by two elite residences

and the entire complex is bounded by two temples.


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the public area and below the Bravo Escarpment (Figure 3).

They largely consist of housemounds and are located

adjacent to considerable expanses of ditched fields. While

the actual situation is more complex, throughout this paper

residents of Kn Tan will be referred to as elites and

residents of Chan Cahal and Sayap Ha will be termed non-

elites.

Blue Creeks wealth was probably based upon its access

to large expanses of some of the southern lowlands best

agricultural soils that the Blue Creek Maya intensively

farmed (Baker 2002; Tim Beach, personal communication,

2003; Guderjan, Baker, and Lichtenstein 2003). In addition,

Blue Creek is situated at the terminus of the Rio Hondo

which was used intensively for water trade in both the

historic prehistoric past (Guderjan and Garber 1991). The

mounting evidence that large quantities of Caribbean and


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OTHER DATABASES FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF JADE ARTIFACTS

While jade artifacts have been recovered from nearly

every Maya center, the other databases generally have

limited applicability because of the research designs of

the excavations. For example, 1030 jade artifacts were

recovered from Altun Ha in seven years of excavation

(Pendergast 1979, 1982). However, the excavations were

largely focused on public architecture. Consequently, there

is little comparative data about non-elite behavior.

Similarly, large or important single-event deposits of

jade artifacts dating to the Early Classic period have been

found at Calakmul (Folan, et al 1995), Chan Chich

(Robichaux 1998), Nohmul(Hammond 1987), and La Milpa(Hammond, et al 1996). However, all of these again derive

from monumental contexts and little is known of the

distribution of jade artifacts throughout those sites.


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Preclassic and Early Classic buildings (Garber 1983, 1993).

Another 31 artifacts were recovered from dedicatory caches

and only 18 from other contexts (Garber 1983, 1988). While

the jade collection from Cerros is important for a number

of reasons, it too offers limited insight into the

distribution of jade throughout the entire community.

The most relevant studies to this discussion derive

from excavations at Tikal and Uaxactun. While the Tikal

materials were described long ago by William Coe, that

report only exists in manuscript form. However, Hattula

Maholy-Nagy re-examined that collection and used the

material culture from Tikal as a basis for her doctoral

dissertation (1994). Additionally, David Maxwell examined

caches from Uaxactun as a part of his doctoral dissertation

(1996). Consequently, all of the Tikal data and a

significant part of the Uaxactun data are available. In


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patterns seen at Tikal and Uaxactun (Table 2). While ten

artifacts were deposited prior to the Late Preclassic at

Blue Creek, the vast majority of the collection derives

from ritual contexts in the Late Preclassic and Early

Classic periods. Only 28 artifacts, approximately 2%, date

to the Late Classic. Importantly 25 of these 28 artifacts

were found in a single cache dating the early part of the

Late Classic.

SOCIAL AND GEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS OF JADE DISPOSAL

Critical in evaluating jades role in the Maya

political economy are the contexts in which jade artifacts

are found. Three general contextual categories can be

discerned for Blue Creek. Monumental contexts include both

caches and burials in public buildings and the associated

site center residences. Elite residences include the large


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If jade artifacts were fungible and available to

anyone who could afford them, their distribution would be

expected to follow economic status. Few artifacts would be

expected in non-elite residences, more in elite residences,

and most in monumental contexts. Conversely, if royalty

controlled jade, relatively few artifacts would be expected

outside of monumental contexts.

Significant numbers of jade artifacts occur in caches

and burials in monumental architecture (n=1253). In Plaza

A, jade artifacts were associated with four buildings

(Table 3). In Structure 1, an Early Classic tomb and series

of related caches yielded 32 artifacts. In Structure 3, an

early Late Classic dedicatory cache yielded another 25

jade items. In Structure 4, caches associated with an event

dating to A.D. 500 yielded 966 jade artifacts. Finally, a

single fragment was found in the collapse of Structure 6.


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in a tomb and associated cache in Structure 34 (Table 4).

In the same residence, one other jade fragment was found in

a terminal deposit and another may have been incorporated

into a stucco decoration on the interior of a room. Another

fragment was found on the floor of the doorway of Structure

60, apparently deposited upon abandonment. However, it also

may be part of a Late Classic architectural composition.

The most surprising discoveries of jade were at Chan

Cahal, a non-elite residential area (n=148; see Table 5).

Nearly 100 jade artifacts were recovered from a Late

Preclassic ceramic concentration at Structure U-49.

Additionally, 31 jade artifacts were recovered from three

Late Preclassic-Early Classic caches (Caches 31, 41, and

43) and four artifacts were recovered from Burials 19 and

26, also dating to the Early Classic. Further, a burial

with eight jade pieces used as inlays in a pair of shell


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appearances, this was an elite or royal tomb, but many

years of quarrying for construction material had destroyed

much of the contextual information. This Terminal

Preclassic tomb included three individuals, 28 ceramic

vessels, and 105 finely carved jade beads. Many of the

vessels are exotic imports and the tomb itself is a

symbolic recreation of the Maya cosmos, located in a

strategic overlook above the agricultural fields and

riverine access to Blue Creek (Kosakowsky and Guderjan,

ms.). There was an Early Classic masonry structure built on

top of a Late Preclassic midden near the tomb, but little

else is known of its context and it cannot be securely

placed in any of the contextual categories used here.

The relative abundance of jade at Chan Cahal clearly

is aberrant. Regardless of which model is used, jade

artifacts are perceived to be elite goods and deposition in


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At Colha during the Late and Terminal Preclassic periods,

the vast majority of jade and other greenstone artifacts

are found in burials and caches (Buttles 1992), although

the status of the individuals is unclear. At Salitron Viejo

in Honduras, 2,212 carved jade and marble objects were

recovered, apparently all from public and elite contexts

(Hirth and Hirth 1993). However, the excavation did not

focus on residential areas, so this perception may be a

consequence of the excavation strategy rather than a past

reality. Nevertheless, in none of these cases were large

quantities of jade recovered from non-elite contexts.

Further, Hirth and Hirth report four common patterns

for the deposition of jade at Salitron Viejo (1993). In

order of occurrence, these are (1) scattering or caching in

construction fill, (2) careful placement behind facades,

(3) caches along exterior walls after construction, and (4)


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reports that during the Late Preclassic at Colha, 44% of

the ground greenstone artifacts are found in burials and

49% are found in caches. A small number are found in

middens. During the Terminal Preclassic, a greater

percentage (61%) is found in burials, but otherwise the

pattern remains roughly the same (Buttles 1992). Moholy-

Nagy notes that jade is found at Tikal predominately in

burial contexts and far fewer pieces are found in monument

and structure caches. Further, jade debitage is found in

general excavations, indicating that jade workshops may

have existed at Tikal (Moholy-Nagy 1994). With the

exception of the possible evidence for jade workshops, the

pattern at Blue Creek is quite similar. At Blue Creek, most

jade is found in (a) Early Classic caches, (b) Late

Preclassic and Early Classic burials and (c) Middle and

Late Preclassic middens (Table 6).


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Well-made, high quality round and sub-spherical shaped

beads were common in many locations. In particular, the 105

beads found in the Late Preclassic Tomb 5 were consistently

round and sub-spherical. Probably, most of them were strung

together as a single necklace. The high quality of the jade

in Tomb 5 strongly supports the idea that the individual

interred there was of very high status, despite the fact

that the interment was approximately 4 kilometers from the

monumental center of the site.

Interestingly, the distribution of anthropomorphic and

zoomorphic pendants, bib-shaped pendants, and earflares is

much more restricted than the general collection and all

date to the Early Classic (Table 7). By far, most of these

objects were found in the Structure 4 caches. However,

other important locations yielded these artifacts. In

particular, Tomb 7 contained an acrobat pendant and was


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dated to approximately A.D. 500 by two radiocarbon dates

(Guderjan 1998)

3

.

SYMBOLIC ASPECTS OF BEADS AND PENDANTS

It is also worthwhile to examine the nature of the

symbolism portrayed in the pendants recovered from Blue

Creek. This area is distinctly difficult to interpret, but

some patterning and meaning are clear. At Blue Creek, all

anthropomorphic and zoomorphic beads and pendants, with two

notable exceptions, derive from the A.D. 500 caches in

Structure 4.

Nine anthropomorphic and zoomorphic beads and pendants

were recovered from the Structure 4 caches. These include

two tubular beads carved into anthropomorphic figures

(BC671, BC857). These have been described previously by

Dale Pastrana (1999) and her descriptions are largely


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1998: plate 163). The other Blue Creek example, BC857, is

considerably smaller, weighing 7.2 grams, 7.2 cm. long, and

1.45 cm. in diameter. The piece is very similar in style

and execution as BC671. However, crude, secondary engraving

converted the image into a skull or deaths head.

Also from the Structure 4 caches is an especially well

made pendant (BC729) that depicts God K (Kent Reilly,

personal communication, 2000). The figure wears a headpiece

of topknot of hair, a sloping forehead with something,

possibly a celt, protruding. Most distinctively, a large

scroll begins under the eye and extends to the neck below

the jaw (Figure 4b). BC674 is also quite distinctive,

depicting a human face with a protruding tongue that

appears to be laughing (Figure 4c). This individual also

appears to be wearing a skullcap or a distinctive

hairstyle.


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Classic. Their contexts, usually royal tombs, link them

directly to kingship (Hammond 1987; Schele and Freidel

1990). If so, their presence in the Structure 4 indicates

to the event with royalty. Interestingly all were recovered

intact except BC984, which was intentionally broken andrecovered from significantly different elevations within

the shaft. With them was a bib-head representing not a

human face, but a monkey (BC513). Another zoomorphic found

in the Structure 4 caches is BC540 which depicts an

alligator head.

The only two anthropomorphic and zoomorphic pendants

not found in the Structure 4 caches are BC6753, an acrobat

pendant (Figure 4e) found in Tomb 7 in an elite residential

setting and the zoomorphic pendant found in Burial 23 in

Structure X-34, a non-elite residence at Chan Cahal. The

individual interred in Tomb 7 appears to be a member of an


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First, the sheer quantity of jade artifacts found at

Blue Creek is surprising. No other site of Blue Creeks

size has yielded nearly as many artifacts; a clear marker

of the sites wealth. The fact that Blue Creek imported

such significant amounts of jade and other valuable exotic

materials raises the question of what was exported in

return. Blue Creeks two major economic resources were

highly fertile agricultural lands and its strategic

location at the terminus of a significant riverine trade

route. A combination of production of exportable

agricultural products and a location that facilitated the

export of these products appears to have greatly benefited

Blue Creek.

Clearly, in the Late Preclassic and Early Classic

periods, Blue Creek was importing large quantities of jade

artifacts. At the same time, public construction projects


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diminished access to jade after approximately A. D. 600 may

have been due to a political transformation at Blue Creek

itself. I have argued that by this time, Blue Creek was

probably no longer an independent kingdom. If royalty

controlled access to jade and there were no royalty at Blue

Creek in the Late Classic, the lack of jade would be

clearly understandable. However, there is a regional Late

Classic pattern of declining access to jade (Maxwell 1996;

Moholy-Nagy 1994; Rathje 1970) that equally well explains

the decline of jade at Blue Creek. Further, public

construction slowed at Blue Creek in the Late Classic.

However, many elite residences were greatly expanded, new

residential areas were established, and large-scale public

works projects in the agricultural systems appear to have

occurred. So, it is still uncertain whether this Late

Classic decline in access to jade was related to internal


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associated with public rituals such as building dedication

and burial. While the nature of the ritual associated with

the caches in Structure 4 in uncertain, it, too, was highly

public.

While in much lesser quantities, jade artifacts were

also recovered from elite residential and non-elite

residential contexts. In elite residences, disposal is also

associated with ritual activities such as caching behavior

and burial. However, a few small jade artifacts also may

have been integrated into building ornamentation.

Interestingly, only about a third of the 148 artifacts from

non-elite residences were associated with caches and

burials. Others were found seemingly randomly in

excavations. In one case, the Late Preclassic ceramic

concentration in Structure U-49, 48 jade artifacts were

recovered. The meaning of this feature is still far too


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economy? One view is that jade was a fungible currency, the

possession of which is limited only by economic means. The

other position sees jade as controlled by royalty and only

distributed outside of royalty through gifting.

In the case of the currency model, jade disposal

would be expected to be concentrated in the public district

as royalty also controlled the most resources. However, it

would be expected that jade would be more common in the

elite residences than the non-elite residences, which is

not the case. This is particularly surprising given the

extensiveness of excavations in the elite residences of

Blue Creek.

The royalty view would also anticipate jade to be

concentrated in the public district, but for other reasons.

Ostentatious, public display of jade disposal during ritual

events would have reinforced the authority of royal


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view more completely explains the pattern of disposal seen

at Blue Creek.

While the Blue Creek pattern fits the royalty model

somewhat better that the currency model, neither is

clearly precluded. The Blue Creek data base gives us great

information regarding the wealth of the community and the

ways in which jade was used by the Maya, but no concrete

appraisal of who controlled it and how.


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Acknowledgements: The research at Blue Creek has been

undertaken under the auspices of the Maya Research Program,

a non-profit organization affiliated with Texas Christian

University. Fieldwork has been conducted under a series of

permits granted by the Belize Department of Archaeology.

The various commissioners and staff members of the

Department of Archaeology have been more than simply

regulators of this work. They have been friends and

colleagues. I also wish to thank the many staff members,

students, and volunteers who contributed their efforts to

this research. I especially want to thank Dale Pastrana for

years of tireless support, including the analysis of the

jade reported here as well as Jason Barrett and Jo Mincher

for the illustrations included in this report. I also

appreciate the reviews of an earlier version of this paper


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pp. 77-91. University of New Mexico Press,

Albuquerque.


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Guderjan, Thomas H. and C. Colleen Hanratty

In press A Thriving Non-Royal Lineage at Blue Creek:

Evidence from a Sequence of Burials, Caches and

Architecture. Acta Mesoamerica.

Guderjan, Thomas H., Robert J. Lichtenstein and C. Colleen

Hanratty

2003 Elite Residences at Blue Creek. In Maya Palaces

and Elite Residences, edited by Jessica Christi, pp.

13-45. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Hammond, Norman

1987 The Sun Also Rises: Iconographic Syntax of the

Pomona Flare. Research Report 7. Center for Maya

Research; Washington, D.C.

1991 Jade and Greenstone Trade. In Cuello: An Early Maya

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199-203. Cambridge Unversity Press, Cambridge.


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1996 Survey and Excavation at La Milpa, Belize, 1996.

Mexicon 18:5:86-90

Hanratty, C. Colleen

2002 Late and Terminal Classic Dynamics within the

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Creek Project: The 1998 and 1999 Field Seasons, edited

by Thomas H. Guderjan and Robert J. Lichtenstein, pp.

73-80. Maya Research Program, Texas Christian

University, Fort Worth, TX.

Harlow, George E.

1993 Middle American Jade: Geologic and Petrologic

Perspectives on Variablity and Source. In Precolumbian

Jade: New Geological and Cultural Interpretations,

edited by Fredrick W. Lange, pp. 9-29. University

of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Hirth Kenneth G.


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Interpretations, edited by Fredrick W. Lange, pp 173-

190. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Johnson, C. A. and George E. and Harlow

1999 Guatemalan Jadeites and albites were formed by

deuterium-rich serpentizing fluids deep within a sub-

duction zone. Geology27:7:629-632.

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Ms. A Terminal Preclassic Tomb at Blue Creek, Belize and

its Implications. Manuscript on file with the authors.

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1995 Preclassic and Classic Burials and Caches in theMaya Area. In The Emergence of Lowland Maya

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Grube, pp. 103-116. Verlag von Saurwein, Mockmuhl,

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Lewis, Brandon


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Lichtenstein, Robert J.

2000 Settlement Zone Communities of the Greater Blue

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1920 Kula; The Circulating Exchange of Valuables in the

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2003 Ancient Maya Political Economies. Altamira Press,

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1995 Living with the Ancestors: Kinship and Kingship in

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1994 Tikal Material Culture: Artifacts and Social

Structure at a Classic Lowland Maya City. Unpublished

Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

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1999 An Analysis of Jades from the Structure 4 Shaft

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1974 Jades from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza,

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1970 Socio-political Implications of lowland Maya

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1972 Stone Age Economics. Aldine de Gruyter, New York.

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Garry Harris, and Fred Valdez, Jr.

1995 Water and Land at the Ancient Maya Community of

La Milpa. Latin American Antiquity6:2:98-119.

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2003 Heterarchy, Political Economy, and the Ancient Maya.

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1990 A Forest of Kings. Morrow and Co., New York.


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NOTES

1. While numerous, the artifact count for Blue Creek

probably under-represents the numbers actually once

present. Numerous reports have reached us of massive

amounts of jade being looted from Blue Creek in the 1970s,

including a jade mask from a tomb in Structure 9.

2. Population studies at Blue Creek are underway but in

their infancy. A reasonable guesstimate of Late Classic

population would be in the vicinity of 15,000-20,000

persons, however.

3. The A.D. 500 date is based upon two radiocarbon assays

from the interior of the shaft. Beta-75432, 1440 +/- 110

B.P., and Beta-76278; 1450 +/- 110 B.P. (Driver 2002: 83;

Guderjan 2002; 15).


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Table 1.

Jade by Temporal Period.

Prior to Late

Preclassic

10 0.7%

Late Preclassic 191 14.2%

Early Classic 1120 83.0%Late Classic 29* 2.1%

1350 100.0%

Note: Only securely dated artifacts are included.


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Table 2.

Occurance of Jade in Caches at Tikal & Uaxactun

Time

Period

Tikal Uaxactun Blue

Creek

MPC 3


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Table 3.

Jade from Monumental Architecture.

Structure Context Date Pieces of Jade

Structure 1 Cache 4A AD 500-550 10

Cache 6A AD 550-550 6

Cache 6B AD 550-550 14

Tomb 4 AD 500-550 2

Structure 3 Cache 45 Tepeu 2/3 25

Structure 4 Caches

associated withthe jade shaft

AD 500 9661

Structure 6 Collapse debris 1

Structure 12 Cache 28 AD 450-550 7

Cache 30 AD 450-550 78

Structure 24 Burial 32 Early Classic 2

Cache 48 Early Classic 2

Backdirt 1Subtotal=

1253


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Table 4.

Jade from Elite Residences.

Structure Context Date Pieces of JadeStructure 25 Burial 20 Middle/Late

Preclassic?

1

Structure 31 Room Late Classic 1

Structure 33 1

Structure 34 Tomb 7 Early Classic 2

Cache Early Classic 25

Structure 36 Terminal

Classic?

1

Structure 45 Tomb 8 Early Classic 1

Structure 60 Doorway Late/TerminalClassic?

1

Subtotal=33


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Table 5.

Jade at Chan Cahal and Sayap Ha.

Structure Context Date Pieces of Jade

U-2 Burial 26 Early Classic 2

U-5 Tepeu 2/3 1

U-9 Midden EMPC to

LPC/EC

2

U-14 Below humus ??? 3

U-17 Cache 43 Late Preclassic 2

U-18 Room fill ??? 1

U-19 Burial 34 Late Preclassic/Early Classic

transition

1

U-49 Cache 31 Late Preclassic 24

Cache 41 Early Classic 5Burial 15 2

Ceramicconcentration

Late Preclassic 46

Other ??? 47

U-50 Humus ??? 2

U-54 Midden EMPC-LPC 1

Sayap Ha 1 Midden Early Classic 1Sayap Ha 2 Burial Early Classic 8

Subtotal = 148


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Table 6.

Contexts of Jade at Blue Creek by Time Period.

Time Period Representative Deposits General

ContextsPrior to Late Preclassic Midden (8)

Burial 20 (1)

Core area

middens

Late Preclassic Tomb 5 (105) Uncertain

Dedicatory Cache in housemound

(24)ceramic concentration (46)

Cache 31 (24)

Cache 43 (2)Burial 34 (1)

Chan Cahal

Early Classic Str.1: T2 and associated caches(34)

Str 4 caches (966)

Str 12 dedication caches (85)Str 24, Burial 32 (2)

Str 24 dedication caches (2)

MonumentalArchitecture

Str. 34, Tomb 7 (2)Str. 34, Cache (25)

Str. 45, Tomb 8 (1)

Western Group

Burial 26 (2) Chan Cahal


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Table 7.

Contexts of Pendants and Earflares

General

Context

Specific

Context

Pendants Earflares Totals

by general

contexts

Public

Architecture

Structure 1,

Tomb 4

0 2

Structure 3,

Cache 45

0 2

Structure 4 20 37 61

EliteResidential Structure 34,Tomb 7 1 0 1

Non-EliteResidential

Structure X-34 1 1

Totals 22 41 63


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FIGURE CAPTIONS

Figure 1: Location of Blue Creek

Figure 2: Planview of the Core Area of Blue Creek.

Figure 3: Known Components of Blue Creek.

Figure 4: Anthropomorphic Beads and Pendants. A. Large

Anthropomorphic Bead (BC671). B. God K Pendant (BC729). C.

Bib Head Pendant with Extended Tongue(BC674). D. Bib Head,

Olmecoid (BC505). E. Acrobat Pendant from Structure 34,

Tomb 5 (BC6753).


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Str 7

Ballcourt

PlatformBallcourt

Str 8

Str 11

Str 9

Str 10

Str 12Str 14

Str 15

Str 13

Courtyard

Ramp

Plaza B

Str 19

Courtyard

Str 21

Str 23

Platform

Str 24

Blue Creek, Belize

Central Precinct


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patterns of maya jade disposal at blue creek belize 1

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