Archaeology of Ceren, El Salvador

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In ca. AD 600 a catastrophic eruption by the Laguna Cladera volcano in El Salvador completely buried a Mayan homestead and the fields which surrounded it. Preliminary excavations at this site of Ceren in 1978 indicated that the volcanic ash packed around and throughly preserved structures, wooden artifacts, trees, corn plants, a field with footprints, and human bodies. Subsequent geophysical prespection in 1979 confirmed the existence of intact houses which remain buried under five meters of ash. Dr. Sheets and his colleagues will return to this site and conduct extensive excavation. Through judicious use of heavy equipment a transect will be cut and overburden removed to allow easy hand excavation of features. Floral and faunal materials will be recovered and analyzed to reconstruct household subsistence and expected skeletal materials will provide insight into family composition. Field excavation will allow reconstruction of agricultural techniques. Ceren is unique, even in comparison to Old World sites such as Pompeii, because the volcanic ash matrix is so fine that it preserves organic materials down to the cellular level. This virtually complete material culture record will allow for a detailed reconstruction of functioning households and important insights to human behavior, demography, nutrition, agriculture, and economics. Anthropologists have come to realize that in many societies the "household" . a group in individuals who live together in one place and closely cooperate on a daily basis . form a essential unit. However, archaeologically households are usually difficult to isolate and study. At Ceren it appears that just such a unit exists. This research is important because it will shed a new and important light on the development of complex Mayan society and help us understand how complexity develops and is maintained.