Figurines Recovered in the Southwest Section of Plaza B

A total of 148 figurines were recovered from the Cunil and Kanluk contexts in SW Plaza B, comprising the 25.74 percent of the Middle Preclassic collection. The anthropomorphic figurines found in SW Plaza B were recovered from construction fill. Like others Preclassic specimens from other sites in the Maya lowlands and Mesoamerica (e.g., Lesure Reference Lesure, Claassen and Joyce1997, Reference Lesure1999; Marcus Reference Marcus1996; Rands and Rands Reference Rands, Rands and Willey1965), the anthropomorphic figurines from SW Plaza B were solid and hand-modeled out of clay, and were likely produced locally. While some figurines were made of an ashy cream paste, similar to Cocoyol Cream ceramics (Cunil phase), the majority of pastes and slips share very close affinity with Belize Valley pottery classified as Savana Orange: Rejolla variety (Kanluk phase). Like their container counterparts, the cream-paste figurines are highly eroded.

Fragments of anthropomorphic figurines include heads (n = 31), appendages (n = 44), and torsos (n = 18). The fact that most Middle Preclassic figurines have been recovered in fragmentary states has intrigued archaeologists. Some researchers state that figurines were subject to natural breakage because joints between heads, limbs, and torsos are the weakest points of these artifacts (e.g., Cyphers Guillén Reference Cyphers Guillén1993; Lesure Reference Lesure2002). Other archaeologists point out that figurine fragments often show a clean breaks and some even exhibited some defacement (e.g., Grove and Gillespie Reference Grove and Gillespie1984). Thus, figurines may have been intentionally broken or terminated after their use, perhaps as a method for killing them or releasing their animate spirit, or ch'ulel, in order to permeate and animate the area where they were left (Rice Reference Rice2015; Stanton et al. Reference Stanton, Brown and Pagliaro2008:235; Walker Reference Walker and Mock1998). The Cahal Pech figurines seem to support the intentional fracture hypothesis because figurines displayed clean breaks along the neckline, punctations around the neckline, and defacement (Zweig Reference Zweig2010:92). In addition, the figurine fragments appear to have been scattered across the site prior to deposition. DeLance (Reference DeLance2016) observed that figurine fragments from the same or nearby excavation units at Cahal Pech generally had small morphological differences in breakage patterns and/or different combinations of ceramic fabric inclusions and surface treatments.

Only one ceramic figurine from SW Plaza B was found complete (Figure 4). It was also the only figurine recovered in a primary context, which consisted of a cache that included a concentration of freshwater shells. This figurine was solid and hand-modeled. Aside from this, it was completely different from all other described specimens. The figurine is relatively small, measuring 5.8 cm in height. It is made of dark brown clay and was finished with a brown slip. It seems to represent an anthropomorphic being, but its facial features and superior appendages are just schematic. The being is portrayed as naked, perhaps wearing a small helmet or headdress. It is standing with its hands across the chest and its feet pointing outward. Because of its schematic features, it was not possible to make an interpretation of its gender. It is similar to the “Charlie Chaplin” figurines reported elsewhere, although this artifact type is usually associated with caches dating to the Late Preclassic and Classic periods (see Lomitola Reference Lomitola2012).

Figure 4.

Complete figurine discovered as part of a cache. Photograph by DeLance.

All figurine fragments discovered in SW Plaza B portray nude individuals either standing or seated (Figure 5). One of these specimens portrays an individual sitting cross legged, a position of authority in most of Mesoamerica (Rice Reference Rice2015:10). As Awe (Reference Awe1994) previously noted, figurine heads at Cahal Pech have very similar facial features. Nonetheless, there are slight differences between groups of figurines. Among figurine fragments from SW Plaza B, for instance, individuals wear turban-like headdresses, which display certain stylistic variability (Figure 6). According to Awe (Reference Awe1994), this phenomenon may indicate that these objects depicted different individuals, just like the Olmec colossal heads whose contrasting head gear indicated individuality in spite of their similar facial features.

Figure 5.

Anthropomorphic torsos depicting gender-neutral and nude individuals in seated and standing position. Photograph by DeLance.

Figure 6.

Anthropomorphic figurine heads. Each object portrays a different individual with a different headdress style. Photograph by DeLance.

The figurines from SW Plaza B are also characterized by exhibiting an absence or ambiguous nature of primary and secondary anatomical attributes. For instance, breasts and genitals are not depicted. Zweig's (Reference Zweig2010) analysis of Preclassic figures from elsewhere in the Cahal Pech site core reached a similar conclusion, and noted that body forms are often neutral. In the same vein, Awe (Reference Awe1992:263) and DeLance (Reference DeLance2016) noticed that, while some figurine fragments found at Cahal Pech clearly depict female or male bodies, by far the largest number of figurine fragments do not indicate the intended biological sex of the figurine. Consequently, this sexual neutrality in the figurines hinders the identification of gender. The same can be stated about secondary sexual characteristics and head ornamentation. It is possible that we do not fully understand the ways in which gender was indicated by the ancient social actors (DeLance Reference DeLance2016) or, as Marcus (Reference Marcus, Halperin, Faust, Taube and Giguet2009) has emphasized, gender could have been signaled through ornamentation, clothing, hair styles or other features that did not preserve. Another possibility is that figurines did not require explicit gender to fulfill their purpose. Marcus (Reference Marcus1998:19) has claimed that although ancestors needed a tangible venue to return to, they did not require a realistic depiction of any specific ancestor. Calling the figurine with the ancestor's name could have been enough to imbue the artifact with the ancestor's spirit and animate it to participate in rituals. It is also possible that figurines were purposefully gender-neutral because ancestors were dual gender (Joyce Reference Joyce2000) or because figurines were used as venues for others animate forces or tutelary deities from the supernatural realm with which the households tried to communicate during rituals for healing, pregnancy, or childbirth (Derilo Tway Reference Derilo Tway2004).

The figurines from SW Plaza B also portray supernatural beings and animals. The best example of a supernatural representation consists of a grotesque character's head whose facial features are not well defined. Like anthropomorphic objects, zoomorphic figurines are solid and hand-modeled using Jocote, Savana, or Cocoyol ceramic pastes (n = 8). With the exception of a complete specimen, most zoomorphic figurines were recovered as fragments (i.e., heads, bodies, and limbs; n = 7). Although Zweig (Reference Zweig2010) identified a variety of animals (feline, frog, howler monkey, dog, armadillo, and some unknown forms), the senior author only identified a bat (Figure 7) in the SW Plaza B assemblage.

Figure 7.

Zoomorphic figurine depicting a bat. Photograph by DeLance.

Figurines also took the form of hollow objects that functioned as musical instruments, which are typically made of ashy-cream, orange-brown, and orange pastes. With the exception of one specimen with an orange-red slip, all items are unslipped. The category of musical instrument includes ocarinas and whistles (Figure 8), including three mouthpieces, two resonating chambers, and three complete or almost complete whistles. Mouthpieces and resonating chambers were likely fragmented ocarinas or three-tone whistles. Some zoomorphic heads were probably part of these particular objects because most ocarinas at Cahal Pech are zoomorphic in form, as Zweig (Reference Zweig2010) previously concluded. There exists the possibility that wind instruments also were ritually terminated after their use, which would explain their fragmentary state.

Figure 8.

Musical instruments discovered beneath Plaza B. The object at the right has one single stop, while the other two at the left exhibited several stops. Photograph by DeLance.

Because it has been argued that musical instruments fall into the figurine category (Blomster Reference Blomster and Insoll2017:274), one can argue that they held a similar function to anthropomorphic figurines. This notion, however, needs to be tested because the particular form and use of these objects differs from the solid anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures. For instance, based on an examination of Late Classic musical instruments discovered at the site of Aguateca, located in the Pasión region of Guatemala, Triadan (Reference Triadan2007, Reference Triadan, Inomata and Triadan2014) has argued that musical instruments depicting animals, women, men, and supernatural beings were used during performances carried out in domestic spaces, based on the fact that they were recovered from domestic middens. Triadan (Reference Triadan2007, Reference Triadan, Inomata and Triadan2014) claimed, nonetheless, that these events were public but with a limited audience. Alternatively, Halperin (Reference Halperin2017:533) points out that the Late and Terminal Classic ocarinas recovered in domestic contexts in central Petén may have been used “in an unofficial capacity at large-scale ceremonial events as noisemakers by the crowd,” contributing in this manner to the overall success of public events. Unlike the Classic specimens, the musical instruments of SW Plaza B were recovered from fill below domestic and public structures, suggesting that they were used in both public and domestic events. Thus, these instruments could have been used to play a limited music repertoire during rituals and daily mundane activities. Wind instruments also could have served as toys for children. So far, the social use of these instruments remains poorly understood.

Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Cahal Pech Figurines

As it was mentioned in Table 1, 575 figurines have been found in Middle Preclassic contexts from the acropolis and peripheral house groups at Cahal Pech (DeLance Reference DeLance2016). Table 1 and Figure 9 present figurine data from Cahal Pech based on the information provided by excavation reports of Plaza B, Cas Pek, Tolok, and Zubin settlement groups and the analysis conducted by Awe (Reference Awe1992) and DeLance (Reference DeLance2016) for their dissertations, as well as the database of the artifacts recovered during the 2011–2013 excavations in SW Plaza B. The distribution of Middle Preclassic figurines recovered in SW Plaza B by construction phase is displayed in Table 2 and Figure 10.

Figure 9.

Temporal and spatial distribution of figurines by area and ceramic phase. Compiled by Peniche May.

Figure 10.

Percentages of ceramic figurines by construction phase relative to the number of ceramic fragments. Compiled by Peniche May.

Table 2.

Temporal distribution of figurines recovered in SW Plaza B.

During the Cunil phase, known figurines are exclusively associated with the space occupied by Structure B-4 (Awe Reference Awe1992; Peniche May Reference Peniche May2016), which has been interpreted as the oldest residence of the site and inhabited by the founder household (Awe Reference Awe1992; Cheetham Reference Cheetham1998). Even though the figurines were locally manufactured, neither the southwest group nor the northern group used figurines during this phase, although the possibility exists that this is a result of the excavation strategies used for these early contexts. The current contextual evidence suggests that the rituals in which figurines were used were performed exclusively by Structure B-4 household (Cheetham Reference Cheetham1998). Interestingly, this household also had the exclusive control of vessels with pan-Mesoamerican motifs (Awe Reference Awe1992; Garber and Awe Reference Garber and Awe2008), which were likely displayed during communal feasts performed in its residence with the twofold goal of enhancing community cohesion and demonstrating the privileged status of the sponsors (Guernsey Reference Guernsey2012:112). Figurines could have also been displayed during these or similar events hosted by the Structure B-4 household, who borrowed the idea of figurines through their non-local interactions but reinterpreting their meaning and social uses, which “might differ from their senses elsewhere” in Mesoamerica where figurines might be more “democratic” (Rice Reference Rice2015:26).

During the early facet of the Kanluk phase, except for one fragment reported in Structure C9-8^th of Zubin, the occurrence of figurines seems to be limited to the core area of Cahal Pech. Structure B-4 continued yielding figurines, implying that figurine rituals continued to be performed in this location even when this building had become public at the beginning of the phase (Awe Reference Awe1992; Peniche May Reference Peniche May2016). After the newly created sacred space was likely built by and for the community, both the space and the communal rituals events held there were likely controlled by the founder's household, as their members could have proclaimed rights over the space as the place where their ancestors used to live (see McAnany Reference McAnany1995). Elsewhere, the senior author has claimed that the founder's household was deeply related to people living at SW Plaza B and it is likely that they formed a single social group (Peniche May Reference Peniche May2016:414). Therefore, the founder's household continued being spatially associated with the newly sacred space of the community. This could be the reason why, at the onset of the Kanluk phase, the performance of figurine rituals was important for the people occupying SW Plaza B. Figurines portraying humans started to be used by the social group inhabiting SW Plaza B during early Kanluk. The relative numbers of figurines based on the frequency of sherds suggests that people occupying the early Kanluk buildings used a larger number of figurines compared to the late Kanluk inhabitants of SW Plaza B, particularly during the Plaza B/5^th and Plaza B/6^th construction phases. Nevertheless, the relative numbers of figurines decreased during the second part of the early facet, a phenomenon that could be related to the changes in the ritual practices and, perhaps, the political economy of the community.

Unlike the previous phase, during early Kanluk, figurine rituals stop being celebrated only by the southern group. Smaller amounts of figurines portraying human beings recovered in the northern group suggest that ritual practices involving figurines were also performed in this location (Cheetham Reference Cheetham, Healy and Awe1996; Horn Reference Horn2015). Rituals involving figurine use increased at the end of the early facet at this northern architectural group, which is signaled by the finding of a larger amount of figurines in Platform B (Horn Reference Horn2015). The placement of a cache beneath the corners of Platform B also points to changes in ritual activity and ideology of both the domestic group and the community (Garber and Awe Reference Garber and Awe2008:187–189). For example, the deposits associated with Platform B included a variety of materials placed at each corner of the building, including polished greenstone, obsidian chips, and river pebbles in groups of three or thirteen, as well as a headless anthropomorphic figurine and two anthropomorphic heads. One corner of this Preclassic platform also had two stone slab-capped crypts containing a human skull placed in a bowl and a headless skeleton, respectively. Garber and Awe (Reference Garber and Awe2008:189) argue that this cache program was part of a ceremony aimed to venerate an ancestor who was buried beneath the southeast corner of this building. The material culture associated with this space indicates that it was domestic in nature (Horn Reference Horn2015; Horn et al. Reference Horn, Garber and Awe2017). Therefore, it is likely that this cache program was also part of a dedication ritual commemorating the construction of this domestic space (Stanton et al. Reference Stanton, Brown and Pagliaro2008), an event that likely occurred during the Kanluk phase (Horn Reference Horn2015; but see Horn et al. Reference Horn, Garber and Awe2017). The consumption of figurines by the northern group coincides with the site's increasing participation in regional and long-distance exchange networks (Horn Reference Horn2015). These non-local interactions enabled this social group to form a power base to compete with the southern group. Nevertheless, the current evidence suggests that the power strategies implemented by the northern household were not successful (Peniche May Reference Peniche May2016), which is mainly signaled by the absence of construction activity during the following late Kanluk phase (Horn Reference Horn2015).

During the late Kanluk phase, there were many changes in the economic, social, and political systems of the Cahal Pech community (Peniche May Reference Peniche May2016). Several domestic groups settled in the periphery, some of which have provided evidence of figurine use (Iannone Reference Iannone1996; Lee and Awe Reference Awe1994; Powis Reference Powis1996; Powis and Hohman Reference Powis, Hohmann, Healy and Awe1995). A late Kanluk residence at the Cas Pek Group south of the site core contained the largest sample of figurine fragments in the periphery, followed by Structure 1 at the Tolok Group. Interestingly, both residences were the oldest places of construction in their respective neighborhoods, perhaps serving as the residences of the founder's households and the place where a variety of communal events took place. Figurines also occurred in public buildings in the Tolok and Zubin peripheral groups (i.e., Tolok Structure 14 and Zubin Structures C9-7^th and C9-6^th), although their numbers in those contexts were very low. At the Zubin group south of the site core, two figurine fragments were discovered in an “apparent cache-like arrangement” in front of the retaining wall of Structure C9-7^th, which served as a dedicatory deposit for the later Structure C9-6^th (Iannone Reference Iannone, Iannone and Conlon1995:46). Thus, although most figurines were recovered as part of the construction fill of domestic buildings, these specialized objects also were used in caches and the fill of public structures, again, implying that they were both sacred and mundane objects (Halperin Reference Halperin2014).

Even though peripheral house groups yielded figurines, the majority of late Kanluk fragments have been discovered in Plaza B (n = 293, 83.95 percent). Other areas of the site core occupied during the late Kanluk have yielded only a few figurines or none at all. In Plaza B, these specialized objects were concentrated in the southern area, where the oldest constructions of the entire site were built (Awe Reference Awe1992; Cheetham Reference Cheetham, Healy and Awe1995, Reference Cheetham, Healy and Awe1996; Peniche May Reference Peniche May, Hoggarth, Ishara-Brito and Awe2013, Reference Peniche May, Hoggarth and Awe2014). It is quite interesting that Structure B-4, which continued serving public functions during the late Kanluk, yielded as many figurines as SW Plaza B, meaning that the rituals in which figurines were used were conducted as intensively as in SW Plaza B.

Rituals in which figurines were used may have increased throughout the late facet of the Kanluk phase. In SW Plaza B, for instance, at the beginning of late Kanluk, the locus of SW Plaza B yielded twelve figurine fragments or 9.84 percent of the late-Kanluk figurine collection considered in this research. When the Plaza B/11^th group was occupied, the concentration increased to 53.3 percent. Nevertheless, when the relative percentages of all types of figurines are considered, the increasing importance of these specialized objects during the late facet is not corroborated (Figure 10). These percentages remained relatively constant from the second part of the early facet of the Kanluk phase to the end of the Kanluk phase, suggesting that the frequency in which figurine rituals were performed did not vary during most of the Kanluk phase. In contrast, the relative percentage of only anthropomorphic figurines increased through the late facet of the Kanluk phase. If this type of figurine is related to the frequency in which figurine rituals were conducted, then the performance of these events increased through the late facet of the Kanluk phase, particularly when the Plaza B/11^th group and the cobbled platform Plaza B/12^th were in use. As the senior author has argued, the Plaza B/11^th group included a residence, a small oval feature, and a public keyhole-shaped platform, while the cobbled platform Plaza B/12^th was a public space (Peniche May Reference Peniche May2016).

Significance and Uses

Because the sexual ambiguity of figurines hinders interpretation of their meanings and functions, the context of their recovery becomes crucial for understanding the role and significance these small and portable objects played in Preclassic Maya society (Rice Reference Rice2015). Their presence in residential and public spaces and their use in communal rituals suggest that the figurine social uses were diverse and likely included integrative rituals that may have involved divination, life-cycle events, fertility petitions, astro-calendric observations, subsistence-based celebrations, and ancestor veneration rituals (Awe Reference Awe1992:286; Rice Reference Rice2015:15). For example, based on his contextual analysis of figurines in the 1990s, Awe (Reference Awe1992, Reference Awe1994, Reference Awe2013) concluded that the forms, features, and contexts of these effigies indicated that earlier female specimens were likely used in fertility cults. Although figurines at Cahal Pech are gender neutral, our current assessments suggest that, during the Cunil phase, they were restricted to the location of Structure B-4 where they were part of communal rituals hosted by this household and, although these events took place in residential settings, they were likely public celebrations.

Following his analysis based on contextual evidence, Awe (Reference Awe1992:286) pointed out that, during the late Middle Preclassic, male effigies may have represented lineage heads or ruler portraits “in an incipient ancestor cult, and… whistles/ocarinas” served “as musical instruments which were used during funerary and other ritual ceremonies” (Awe Reference Awe1992:286, Reference Awe1994, Reference Awe2013).

The senior author agrees with the fact that the distribution of anthropomorphic figurines during the late fact of the Kanluk phase signals the loci of residence of the different households or lineages at the site. As Awe (Reference Awe1994; also Peniche May Reference Peniche May2016) previously stated, figurines have been recovered in different architectural groups across the settlement and they are mainly found in the oldest structures with the longest construction sequences. Although not all of these constructions were domestic (Structure B-4 in Plaza B during the Kanluk phase, Tolok Structure 14, and Zubin Structure C9), they were associated with residential spaces. Therefore, it is likely that those private and public locations were used by the founder households of their respective social groups.

Based on the contextual evidence, we also accept that figurines could have been used in rituals aimed to invoke and worship the ancestors of those social groups, analogous to those of Oaxaca. This is particularly true regarding Structure B-4 and SW Plaza B. The high frequency of figurines in this group, where the founders of Cahal Pech lived, may indicate the status of the household/lineage inhabiting this space and the high frequency in which the associated rituals were carried out during the late facet of the Kanluk phase. In contrast, the low numbers of figurine fragments outside Plaza B in the site core and in peripheral structures suggests that the events in which figurines were utilized were conducted sporadically mostly during the second part of the Kanluk phase. The placement of figurines beneath the corners of Platform B and its association to crypts containing a head and a headless torso reinforces the notion that anthropomorphic figurines were considered as representations of ancestors (Garber and Awe Reference Garber and Awe2008) and implies that this use started as early as the early facet of the Kanluk phase.

As we noted in the section Figures Recovered in the Southwest Section of Plaza B, however, lack of explicit primary and secondary sexual attributes do not allow gender to be accurately interpreted. This may seem to hinder the corroboration of the ancestor veneration function since ancestors are generally considered to be male. Were the figurines expressing gender through signs that did not preserve, as Marcus (Reference Marcus1998) suggested? Perhaps we are trying to impose a Western notion and gender representation was not necessary for the figurines to fulfill their purpose because ancestors could have been both male and female individuals or, perhaps, they became dual-gendered as the primordial beings mentioned in the Popol Vuh or the totilme'il (mothers/fathers) of the contemporary Zinacantec Tzotzil speakers (Joyce Reference Joyce2000). Thus, we think that the difficulty of identifying figurine gender should not be an obstacle to conclude that, at least during the late facet of the Kanluk phase, the figurines were used in ancestor veneration rituals. In addition, the discovery of figurines in special contexts suggests their social uses were diverse. For instance, figurines were essential elements in offerings recovered at Structure C-9 in the Zubin periphery group, where they were used as part of dedication rituals (Iannone Reference Iannone, Iannone and Conlon1995:46). Nevertheless, these findings are rare and, because of that, we think that figurines at Cahal Pech during the second part of the Kanluk phase were mainly used to invoke and worship ancestors.

In SW Plaza B, figurines also were recovered in construction fill associated with the late Kanluk public buildings of the area, the keyhole-shaped platform Plaza B/11^th-A and the cobbled platform Plaza B-12^th. It is likely that some of these rituals were performed on and around the round platform Plaza B/11^th-A. If we take into consideration the large open space surrounding the round platform in use during the second part of late Kanluk, it is possible that ritual events carried out there were community-wide, witnessed by a larger audience than the hosting household. Neighboring households or people living in the periphery could have participated either directly or indirectly.

The involvement of other households in those public events is highly significant. On the one hand, the inclusion could have helped create a sense of solidarity among all participants, as well as construct and maintain group identity (Rice Reference Rice2015:16). On the other hand, differential participation in the rituals (people performing the rituals and the audience) may have contributed to social distinctions among households and individuals. Thus, the rituals may have served as a means for manipulating existing social norms and reinforcing new sociopolitical orders and ideologies. Figurines could have, therefore, been related to the emergence of political authority (Rice Reference Rice2015). Musical instruments would have been used as part of the ritual performances. The figurine collection recovered in SW Plaza B reveals that, during the second part of the Kanluk phase, solid zoomorphic figurines and musical instruments were used for the first time along with the anthropomorphic forms. In Halperin's (Reference Halperin2014:203) words, “[m]usical production as a performative act bridges the sacred and magical qualities of some rituals with entertainment and play.” Participants may have played the ocarinas during the rituals events, thus initializing the process of socialization and acquisition of the ideology.