Diachronic Ceramic Evidence and its Social Implications in the Chikinchel Region, Northeast Yucatan, Mexico

AbstractIn this paper I present new, surface-collected ceramic data from the previously little-known Chikinchel region in northeast Yucatan. My goals are twofold: first, to expand the utility of surface-collected materials by suggesting a technological approach (paste analysis) to classify small or eroded sherds; and second, to place Chikinchel into the larger spatial and temporal framework of the northern Maya lowlands. The ceramic analyses presented here span the Late Formative through Spanish Colonial periods. Diachronic changes in the regional distributions of the different wares that compose the Chikinchel ceramic inventory are demonstrated and discussed in terms of larger processes occurring across the peninsula.