Stability of Classic Maya Houses Through Time

The house is a potentially stable social unit over time, enduring well beyond the lifespan of any individual occupant (Gillespie 2000c; Joyce 2000). In the case of the Classic Maya, the lifecycle of a house, seen in the archaeological and architectural sequences of construction, remodeling, expansion, and rebuilding, may span uninterrupted for hundreds, or even thousands, of years in the same locus. Yet at almost every site in the Southern Maya Lowlands, including Calakmul, Tikal, Caracol, Palenque, Yaxchilan, and Quirigua, the pattern of continuity ceased by approximately a.d. 800.

A primary question that has yet to be asked is what happened to the house as a social unit when faced with the political upheavals of the Classic Maya collapse outside of its control. The great amount of data gathered over the three decades since the publication of the first in-depth examination of the Classic Maya collapse (Culbert 1973) point to the increasing realization that the processes resulting in collapse and abandonment were varied, involving different proximal causes and regional variations. Likewise, scholars now understand that the Classic-period collapse represented not the first political collapse but merely one in a series of cyclical falls and recuperations (Marcus 1993; Marcus and Feinman 1998). Thus, the more appropriate question to ask is why Maya society failed to recover following dynastic collapse.

The Classic Maya collapse thus represents a perfect case with which to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the societal bonds of houses in relation to political organization. The processes of destruction, through which disparate institutions (including houses) that were previously unified under the state become unraveled reveals most clearly the bonds of social organization. An examination of exactly which social, political, and economic institutions collapsed, and which did not, holds the potential to reveal much about both the relative strengths of constituent institutions and the organization of Classic Maya society.

Political upheaval and the fracturing of the cohesive bonds that once united elite houses under an archaic state theoretically should result in decentralization. If the intra-house bonds were stronger than those binding the polity, then one should expect to see an increased emphasis on political power of house groups in the wake of political collapse. Archaeologically, this would be seen as a period of continuity following collapse in which pre-collapse patterns were maintained.

In contrast, if the bonds that tied individuals to houses were weak, we would expect to see balkanization as factions previously united under the ideology of the house emerged to assert autonomy. In the archaeological record, such an occurrence could take the form of a flurry of residential constructions away from established house estates as new houses were founded after the collapse of centralized authority.

Alternatively, one may postulate the presence of several diagnostic features in the wake of dynastic collapse based on the segmentary-state model (Fox and Cook 1996). First, noble lineages would survive dynastic collapse largely intact, even with the demise of the royal residence and perhaps its inhabitants as well. Second, the collapse of elite rule should not signal the demise of second-tier elite lineages. Instead, some degree of political, social, and economic power of the elite households should be retained. Finally, one would expect noble lineage households to assert greater autonomy in the wake of dynastic collapse.

I choose as my focus the Classic Maya site of Copan, Honduras. Copan represents the only major Classic Maya center to which a form of the segmentary-state model has been applied (Sanders 1989; Sanders and Webster 1988). Sanders (1989:102) proposed a four-tiered organizational tenet for the site in which households, the bottom-most tier, were organized into a second tier of lineages based on descent. Above this, the third tier contained maximal lineage heads who were posited to form a noble class closely involved in issues of politics, economics, and ideology. The top tier in the proposed hierarchy was reserved for the king, whom, Sanders posits, may have had as many as several thousand habitants under his direct authority.

Inextricably linked to this model of sociopolitical organization was an accompanying chronological revision to support it (Webster and Freter 1990a, 1990b). While traditional models of the collapse of Copan placed its abandonment in line with other Classic Maya sites (Fash 1983; Longyear 1952; Morley 1920; Viel 1983), this alternative reconstruction proposed that Copan's population gradually dwindled over a period of 400 years following dynastic collapse, during which time pre-collapse patterns of settlement, architecture, and material-culture production and consumption, including Late Classic Coner ceramics, were maintained (Freter 1988).

The implications for understanding Classic Maya society raised by this model are that the societal bonds of elite house organization were stronger than those binding the polity together as a whole. Only gradually, over a period of centuries, were houses abandoned. The gradual nature of the collapse was linked to redundant nature of Maya social organization, characterized as “replicated units connected by social and ideological forces rather than articulated through vital economic ties” (Freter 1994:171). Thus, as with the segmentary-state model (Fox and Cook 1996), Classic Maya social organization is viewed as a series of hierarchically organized corporate groups that are most strongly bound at the lineage level, with economic redundancy present at each organizational tier. However, newly documented data derived from the Early Postclassic occupation of Copan challenge both this sociopolitical model and the chronological revision used in its support.

Theoretical Considerations of Post-Collapse Societies

As the house model views material continuity, expressed through both portable objects and architectural forms, as an expression of social continuity (Joyce and Gillespie 2000), several different scenarios concerning the relationships between the groups archaeologically documented from before and after dynastic collapse can be proposed and examined.

An overall dichotomy can be posited between (1) post-collapse societies that closely resemble or are identical to those predating dynastic collapse; and (2) post-collapse societies that bear little or no material similarities to dynastic-era groups. The latter scenario can be further subdivided into two distinct pictures. The first expects changes to be documented during the turbulent time of dynastic collapse but continuities in space and material culture to be retained. The second scenario views a complete disjunction between groups.

If the materials, architecture, and settlement of post-collapse societies are very similar or identical to those of the Classic period, then we can infer several conclusions. First, the inhabitants of the houses were able to survive dynastic collapse and maintain group cohesion. Thus, the bonds of social organization proved to be sturdier than those binding house groups into larger-scale units. Second, the fractioning of Classic society into its constituent households would support the segmentary-state model of political organization as houses (lineages) fission along lines of geography, kinship, or both.

In contrast, discontinuity between pre- and post-collapse groups would signal either an upheaval within house groups or, alternatively, a complete break of the house tradition. In the case of the former, the archaeological record would reflect significant changes in the artifact assemblages, architecture, and perhaps settlement hierarchy. These changes could be the result of multiple factors, including the possibility that some houses became extinct as a direct result of political collapse and economic, social, and political relationships between houses were strained as individuals negotiated their fates in the wake of political collapse. Likewise, aspects of the material culture and architecture might show innovations or, alternatively, newfound traditionalism as houses struggled in the wake of political upheaval. However, throughout the ordeal, the concept of place would be maintained. Thus, while modifications might occur, the house groups would be able to reproduce themselves and continue through dynastic collapse. The dynastic collapse therefore affected all inhabitants, but house members were able to weather the upheaval and continue their traditions after the collapse.

The last scenario posits complete discontinuity between the two groups, as I argue is the case at Copan. In this instance, changes in settlement, architecture, and material culture between pre-collapse and post-collapse groups are so dramatic that no cultural continuity can be found between the two. Thus, the post-collapse groups may have represented descendants of a local faction who made an unprecedented break with previous traditions, or perhaps a replacement population culturally unrelated to the dynastic house groups. Whatever the case may be, the radical changes documented suggest that the political collapse triggered processes that destroyed the old social structures, rendering house groups untenable in the wake of collapse. The key to analyzing the flexibility and strength of Classic Maya houses, then, rests in establishing the extent of the post-collapse society and its relationship to pre-collapse groups.

Background

Until recently, diagnostic Early Postclassic markers such as Tohil Plumbate, Las Vegas Polychrome, and green Pachuca obsidian have been extremely scarce at Copan. Outside of the Main Group, little more than a handful of Tohil Plumbate sherds recovered from superficial contexts constituted the cumulative total of known Early Postclassic Ejar complex markers. Within the core area of the site, early investigations found several burials containing imported Early Postclassic Ejar complex pottery as well as a few surface middens containing late material (Longyear 1952). Beyond these isolated finds, excavation of Ballcourt B, Copan's second ballcourt, produced the only substantial deposit of diagnostic Ejar materials found during the intensive investigations of the last several decades (Fash and Lane 1983).

To expand on the findings of William Fash and Sheree Lane, I initiated the Copan Postclassic Archaeological Project (CPAP) in 1995. The first season of CPAP investigations culminated with the excavation of a large, low platform located on the southeast edge of Ballcourt B, located approximately 200 m south of the Acropolis in an area of dense settlement known as the Bosque (Figure 1). The building, Structure 11L-77, was the first identified Early Postclassic Ejar-phase construction in the Copan Valley (Manahan 1995). The CPAP's methodology expanded from this identification to combine extensive test excavations with selected wide horizontal exposures of newly identified Ejar-phase constructions in the same area between 1997 and 2001. From the nine identified Ejar-phase structures, five buildings were extensively excavated.

Center of Copan showing CPAP area in relation to the Main Group. Buildings and areas mentioned in the text are marked. The box demarcates the area enlarged in Figure 2. Map modified and adapted from Fash and Long (1983).

Rather than demonstrating continuity with pre-collapse domestic data, the Ejar data instead reflect unique patterns of social organization quite distinctive from anything known from the Late Classic. In fact, the documented differences of Ejar-phase lifeways, together with its secure temporal placement using both absolute and relative dating, make it the most abruptly different cultural phase documented in the millennia of human history in the Copan Valley. These different principles of social organization are registered in both settlement patterns and architecture.

CPAP area. Ejar-phase structures are labeled and drawn in black. Coner structures are shown in light gray. Redrawn and adapted from Fash and Long 1983.

Post-Collapse Settlement Patterns

The ubiquitous Classic-period settlement pattern at Copan—and, indeed, at most Maya sites—consists of patio groups formed of three or four mounded structures organized around a small private courtyard. At Copan, the courtyard groups have been further classified into a five-tier settlement hierarchy (Willey and Leventhal 1979). In contrast to Classic courtyard-oriented patio groups, the Ejar-phase Early Postclassic settlement consisted of a linear arrangement located around a large central plaza area, a pattern wholly absent in Classic-period Copan. The total extent of Ejar occupation identified by CPAP research encompasses nine discrete structures spread across an expanse of approximately 300×300 m, the main part of which was otherwise free of any earlier architecture visible on the surface (Figure 2). Although the structures did vary in size and proportions, no clear hierarchical arrangement was apparent.

While we may speculate that some other Ejar-phase settlements must have existed outside of the Bosque area, the presence of these postulated settlements is limited to a single building from the outlier site of Los Achiotes (Canuto 2002), despite extensive research throughout the area. One must consider both the tremendous amount of research devoted to settlement studies at Copan (Baudez 1983; Fash 1983; Gonlin 1993; Sanders 1986; Webster and Freter 1990a; Webster and Gonlin 1988) and the lack of identification of more than a single Ejar-phase construction outside of the Bosque area. In fact, an investigation by the author of a purposive sample of 146 buildings stretching across the Copan Valley failed to identify any additional Ejar buildings (Manahan 1999). It thus seems reasonable to conclude that if any Ejar occupations did exist outside of the area of the Main Group, they must be have been quite limited in scope.

Post-Collapse Architecture and Archaeology

Perhaps more telling than changes in settlement patterns were the dramatically different manners of utilizing space within the house itself. The mounded, pyramidal architecture of courtyard groups dominated both Classic-period Copan and other Southern Maya Lowland sites. The architectural forms favored height of construction over interior surface area, which is minimal. Each Coner structure was generally used for a single activity; separate kitchens, domiciles, and ritual buildings (if present) were the norm (Hendon 1991; Webster et al. 1986). Other household activities were conducted either within the central patio or along the terraced edges of buildings.

In contrast, these same activities were restricted within the confines of the exterior walls of a single building during the Ejar phase. When compared with earlier houses, the Ejar construction style yields essentially the inverse of the Coner architectural aesthetic. The Ejar structures were typified by individual single-component constructions. The buildings were quite large, relatively low, flat platforms that originally supported perishable wattle-and-daub superstructures with thatched roofs. The Ejar structures yielded a high proportion of interior surface area and only minimal height (.5–1.6 m) above the ancient ground surface. The areas in front of and around Ejar buildings were kept clear of debris save for midden deposits often found along the rear walls. Interior Ejar living spaces contained discrete activity areas, sometimes demarcated with interior single-course wall lines, including food processing and preparing (in the form of in situ groundstone implements), benches, and ritual activities (marked by censers and shrines), all together within the confines of the house (Manahan 2003:97–139). Associated midden deposits suggest that stone-tool production and the butchering of game occurred near, if not within, individual households.

The Ejar builders actively incorporated Coner materials within their structures, utilizing not only liberated cut stone for their walls and platform fill but also a substantial quantity (29 pieces in all) of carved-stone sculptures that originally formed the façades of some of the most important Coner temples in the Acropolis. Ejar residents incorporated these carved-stone elements into their foundations and exterior walls while placing other pieces within burials and shrines within their houses. The possible significance of these acts for understanding social organization are explored later. The presence of dismantled elements of hieroglyphically dated monumental Coner architecture also provides more data with which to secure the temporal placement of the Ejar phase.

Of the 29 pieces of sculpture recovered from CPAP excavations, the original locations of 21 of the pieces could be conclusively identified. The identified pieces originated from a total of five Coner buildings located within or immediately adjacent to the Acropolis in the Main Group. The most extensively represented Coner structure, with a total of nine pieces recovered from Ejar contexts, was Temple 18. Perhaps not coincidentally, the structure is also the one most relevant to issues of chronology.

Temple 18 represented the last building dedicated by the sixteenth and final ruler of the Copan dynasty, Yax Pasaj, in a.d. 801. The building, identified as the final ruler's likely funerary temple (Becker and Cheek 1983:497), was placed on the southeastern edge of the Acropolis. While the inscribed date of Stela 11, located directly in front of Temple 18, is unclear, the stela's unique iconographic style suggests that it was one of the last public carved monuments erected. Significantly, this building was sacked in ancient times, and the elaborate tomb contained within the structure, likely that of Yax Pasaj, was also looted (Becker and Cheek 1983). In addition to the nine pieces of sculpture from this important structure recovered by CPAP excavations, several more pieces were previously unearthed during excavation of Ballcourt B (Fash and Lane 1983). Together, these data demonstrate that the Ejar buildings clearly postdated the dynastic collapse.

Post-Collapse Houses and Identities

Applying the house model to the Ejar-phase data, one can see the expression of a very distinct cultural ethos in relation to Coner-phase households. I will explore some of the ways in which the Ejar-phase residents expressed their unique identities while being surrounded by symbols of past principles of sociopolitical organization.

In terms of social organization, members of post-collapse houses used a variety of novel techniques to actively distance their identities from the Classic Maya and to express their own social cohesion. The way in which Ejar-phase residents interacted with their environment, one largely physically defined by the dynastic inhabitants, tells much about how the inhabitants defined themselves. I argue that the post-collapse society forged an identity defined in direct opposition to the dynastic-period inhabitants by disregarding some material aspects of the previous culture, embracing other elements, and appropriating still others.

One example of this involves Early Postclassic Ejar settlement patterns. At Copan, residential architectural sequences around the zones fringing the Main Group may typically span three to four centuries, testifying to the continuity of the house as a locus of identity. Indeed, the architectural sequence from Group 9N-8 spanned more than a millennium (Webster 1989:14–15). In contrast to the long sequential patterns of growth in the same loci seen throughout time at Copan, the Early Postclassic residences all represented single component constructions that did not incorporate or expand on any previous architecture. Nor have any examples of rehabitation of existing architecture by Early Postclassic peoples been documented. Instead, the post-collapse societies chose to quarry the surrounding buildings as a source of construction material with which to erect their own, new residences. While the Ejar people settled in close proximity to abandoned Classic-period vaulted architecture, much of which was likely still standing, the people elected to build their residences anew. Rather than reoccupy or modify standing abandoned architecture, it appears that Ejar occupants proclaimed the independence of their own houses in stone.

In contrast to its treatment of Classic-period residential architecture, the post-collapse society recognized the ritual nature of several buildings within the Acropolis and the Main Group. In these instances, the Ejar people chose to co-opt the existing architecture, without any modifications, to use for their own ritual purposes. The Epiclassic and Early Postclassic peoples also used abandoned temple rooms and courtyard floors as burying ground for their dead (Joyce 1986; Longyear 1952).

In other cases, Ejar occupants appropriated objects from the past and transformed them into innovative statements of defiance and independence. The deliberate reuse of sculpture by the post-collapse society is at once intriguing and enigmatic. One expression of this act is the reuse of carved stones that originally composed the façades of some of the most sacred structures within the Acropolis, wherein members of the post-collapse society incorporated individual carved stones in the exterior façades of their residences. Reused Classic-period sculpture also appeared frequently in association with Early Postclassic burials within the Acropolis (Longyear 1952:47) as well as within both burials encountered during residential Ejar excavations. By taking elements of these stone façades from their original contexts and resetting them within their households in a novel manner, Ejar individuals appropriated symbols of a fallen dynasty and molded them into new expressions of ideological wealth.

This transformative nature can best be seen in an example from Structure 11L-77, located along the southeastern edge of Ballcourt B. In this case, the building contained a stone bench set against the interior rear wall along the longitudinal axis. The bench contained six carved stones that originally formed part of the facade and jamb of Temple 18. Four of the pieces were decorated with feather motifs, and one carving portrayed the head of a zoomorphic figure (Figure 3). The final piece was carved on two sides: one side of the stone contained feathers while the other depicted the hand of Yax Pasaj clutching the hair of a decapitated human head. This last piece originally rested on the interior jamb of Temple 18.

Stone bench from Structure 11L-77 constructed entirely of scavenged pieces of sculpture from the jamb and façade of Structure 10L-18 within the Acropolis. Drawing by Emily M. O'Brien.

Rather than re-creating a particular design from Temple 18 within the household confines, the bench formed from these pieces instead contained a mix of motifs stacked without regard to iconographic content. We can thus speculate that the Ejar residents attempted not to duplicate dynastic iconography but, rather, to transform the symbolism of past dynastic might and broaden it into a more generic reference to the exotic, while simultaneously appropriating the symbols as their own. Thus, the significance of the bench for its constructor derived not from its direct reference to the fallen dynasty but, instead, from a more generalized sense that the stones themselves represented an otherness in much the same way that imported portable luxury items were treasured and readily consumed.

These patterns attest to a mode of social organization completely distinct from that of Classic-period Copan. The replacement of patio groups with amorphous extended-family, or perhaps even multi-family, residential units tells much about the dramatic changes initiated by the Classic Maya collapse. Instead of relying on Classic Maya traditions and the incredibly long histories of individual houses seen in the Classic period, the Ejar residents instead creatively forged their own system of values by appropriating previous symbols of Classic Maya ideology. By taking individual elements of Classic Maya building façades that originally proclaimed allegiance to an entirely foreign ideology into their residences, the Ejar occupants redefined their significance by placing them in novel contexts. Perhaps ironically, these new Ejar statements of sovereignty were literally hewn from the blocks of past testaments to the final Copan king's prowess in war and political might.

Ejar Ceramic Complex

A total of 5,635 Ejar-complex sherds were studied from CPAP excavations, from which 11 types were established in a type-variety analysis (Manahan 2003). The Ejar-complex imports include both widely distributed fine paste types (together forming approximately 6% of the overall assemblage) and unique more crudely manufactured vessels imported from the surrounding region (less than 2% of the overall assemblage). The local utilitarian Ejar subcomplex formed 92% of the total assemblage.

Imported fine paste elite wares offer evidence of clear ties to other regions as well as relative chronological data. Fine paste Ejar ceramic types include the presence of such diagnostic markers as Tohil Plumbate (Figure 4) and Las Vegas Polychrome (Figure 5), as defined by the Rio Blanco phase at Los Naranjos (Baudez and Becquelin 1973), in roughly equal proportions. Also present, albeit in very limited quantities, are probable Fine Orange wares. These types were found within construction fill as well as in primary contexts such as middens and, with the exception of Fine Orange, burials within residential structures. Burial contexts also included other utilitarian Ejar types as well as thicker-paste, imported Early Postclassic types, including Tamoa Red-on-Buff, found at Cihuatan, El Salvador (Fowler 1981:206–213), as well as other unidentified imports (Figure 6). However, all of these whole vessels were recovered from Ejar-phase burials in the absence of even a single Coner vessel.

Tohil Plumbate vessels recovered from burial contexts. The left vessel came from Burial 58/3/1; the right vessel is from Burial 58/1/1. Photograph by the author.

Tripod Las Vegas Polychrome vessel and rollout from Burial 58/3/1. Drawing by the author based on drawings by José Espinoza and Nelson Paredes.

Ejar-phase pottery from burial assemblage. All vessels pictured were recovered from Burial 58/3/1. Vessels shown include two tripod Las Vegas Polychrome bowls (rear, left and right); Las Vegas Polychrome effigy vessel (right); Tohil Plumbate gadrooned jar (rear, center); two unidentified incised and gadrooned jars (center); and two Tamoa Red-on-Buff ladle censers. Not shown but also present in the deposit were a partially reconstructed effigy hourglass censer with post-fire polychrome paint and the fragment of utilitarian Ejar-type Kan Unslipped illustrated in Figure 6b. Photograph by the author.

The Ejar utilitarian assemblage contained a variety of storage vessels; cooking vessels, including comales; serving vessels, and ritual forms (Figure 7). In contrast to the well-made imported elite wares, the locally produced utilitarian assemblage was characterized by expedient, rather sloppy production and finishing techniques and an overall lack of standardization of forms. Utilitarian pastes appear visually to have been made from the same clay source as that of the Coner Zico group; however, the coarse and poorly sorted temper of the Ejar assemblage makes it readily distinguishable from Zico pastes. Ejar utilitarian vessel surfaces were almost all left unslipped and undecorated; some exteriors were even left unsmoothed or with large pebbles penetrating the surface. Despite the crudeness of the locally produced material, however, the utilitarian types, together with the imported fine paste wares, appear to have formed a complete assemblage without any surviving Coner (or Coner-derived) types. Careful contextual analysis of midden and burial deposits revealed that no Coner-phase pottery types continued to be produced alongside the Ejar complex (Manahan 2003:141–146). Furthermore, the distinctive forms of Ejar utilitarian complex ceramics, among them pyriform jars, hourglass-shaped censers, and ladle censers, suggest that Ejar forms were not derived from earlier Coner phase pottery but, rather, that they were related to contemporary pottery traditions found in central Honduras from around Lago Yojoa and in the Comayagua Valley.

Examples of some of the Ejar utilitarian types. Types shown are: (a) rim fragment of Kan Unslipped, Kan variety, “C”-shaped neck form; (b) large fragment of Kan Unslipped, Kan variety, cántaro form recovered from burial context; (c) several rim profiles of Puchica Unslipped, Puchica variety, the Ejar comal type; (d) censer rim fragments of the Ejar type Sí Papa Fillet Rim, Sí Papa variety (similar to Baudez and Becquelin 1973:Figures 128l–o). Profiles and photographs by the author.

Ejar Chipped-Stone Assemblage

The Early Postclassic chipped-stone data parallel trends seen in the ceramic assemblage. Dramatic shifts are seen in long-standing obsidian-blade procurement and production patterns. In terms of assemblages, less than half of the obsidian artifacts recovered from midden contexts was prismatic blades, in contrast to an average of 75% for Coner contexts (Aoyama 1999). Importantly, no evidence for the local production of prismatic blades was found from any Early Postclassic contexts at Copan (Braswell and Manahan 2001). Ejar blades were either imported as complete artifacts or scavenged from Coner contexts, a finding that potentially affects any obsidian-hydration methodology that exclusively sampled prismatic blades (Freter 1988:98–135).

Other traits of the Ejar-phase chipped-stone assemblage include the presence of obsidian from many different sources. A high percentage, as much as 12%, of green Mexican obsidian from the Pachuca source is typical from Ejar contexts. Also diagnostic are small but significant quantities of obsidian blades, all showing ground platforms, from other Mexican sources, including Pico de Orizaba, Veracruz, Ucareo, Michoacan, and perhaps Zaragoza, Puebla (Aoyama 1999; Braswell and Manahan 2001). Finally, the Ejar lithic assemblage contains a very high percentage of bifacial projectile points, diagnostic of the Early Postclassic, made of both obsidian and local chert (Figure 8). Excavations yielded 100 projectile points from a single Ejar building, forming 4% of the total chipped-stone assemblage from Structure 11L-77. This figure contrasts with that from Coner assemblages, where bifacial projectile points never exceeded .7% of the obsidian assemblage (Aoyama 1999:205).

Early Postclassic Ejar-phase chert bifacial projectile points. Photograph by the author.

The lithic and ceramic data along with the series of nine radiocarbon dates, evidence from Temple 18, and patterns of settlement and architecture together allow one to securely place the Ejar phase as a cultural phenomenon that postdated dynastic collapse and was distinct from the Classic-period Coner phase. This conclusion challenges any prolongation of the Coner chronology. One possible explanation for this discrepancy may lie in recent questions raised about obsidian-hydration methodology and interpretation.

Questioning the Classic Maya Collapse of Copan

The gradualist reinterpretation of Copan's collapse has been recently challenged from several fronts, with questions arising along two interrelated avenues. The first questions are primarily technical, concerning the accuracy and precision of the obsidian-hydration dating methodology; the second are broader issues of interpretation, regarding the implications of the obsidian hydration-derived dates and their relationships to other archaeological data (Andrews and Bill 2004; Andrews and Fash 2004; Canuto 2002; Fash and Manahan 1997; Fash et al. 2004). Despite the great promises of obsidian-hydration dating to revolutionize Mesoamerican chronometric determination, these hopes have gone largely unrealized if the paucity of applications within the past decade is any indicator. In fact, researchers at the site of Xunantunich concluded that despite their best efforts, the technique proved too unreliable to be of use (LeCount et al. 2002:58–59).

Its use at Copan represents the most ambitious application and, in that regard, also the most controversial. Some of the specific methodological challenges leveled at the application of obsidian-hydration dating at Copan (Braswell 1992, 1997; Braswell et al. 1996) were approached (Webster et al. 1993). However, more fundamental doubts about the technique as a whole raised by independent research outside the Copan area in the past decade have not been addressed (Anovitz et al. 1999; Riciputi et al. 2002). Evaluating the visual obsidian-hydration dating technique such as that employed at Copan (Freter 1988, 1992, 1993; Webster and Freter 1990a) by using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), Lawrence Anovitz and colleagues (1999:749) concluded that “the optical technique employed for standard OHD [obsidian-hydration dating] measurements is unsuited to providing data with the needed precision, and that the theoretical basis on which these data have been evaluated is incorrect.” Such strong statements derived from independent data must be considered when evaluating the validity of obsidian-hydration dating as employed at Copan.