Soil Chemical Analysis in classic Maya Household Archaeology

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With National Science Foundation support Dr. Richard Terry and his collaborators will develop the techniques of phosphate and trace element analysis and apply them to a series of Mayan archaeological sites. For many years archaeologists and soil scientists have recognized that specific human activities such as food preparation and trash discard leave a chemical imprint in the soil and attempts have been made to work from chemical effect to behavioral cause. Dr. Terry has developed a field lab method of phosphate analysis using Mehlich II extraction and a colorimeter. This quick inexpensive method which can be conducted in the field provides high precision, quantitative data and allows researchers to conduct analysis of phosphate on an unprecedented scale. Trace elements such as Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Pb, and Zn are often associated with craft and ritual activities. In the course of ongoing fieldwork at three Mayan sites, soil samples from relevant areas will be collected and these elements measured at the Brigham Young University soil laboratory through nitric-perchloric acid digestion and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. The use of trace element analysis in archaeology has been far more limited than phosphate tests and the systematic application of this method should open new possibilities in the study of past behavior. Field operations will have three major components. First, ethnoarchaeological studies will be conducted at a currently used house near the site of Aguateca Guatemala and in a nearby Maya village. Dr. Terry and colleagues will examine the correlation between soil chemical signatures and known activities. Second, soil analysis will be applied in the excavation of rapidly abandoned structures at three Mayan archaeological sites. Work at Aguateca and Ceren, El Salvador, has clearly demonstrated that both were abandoned rapidly. Structures at both sites contain numerous artifacts left in situ, providing ideal archaeological situations to examine the correlation between chemistry data and past behavior. At the site of Piedras Negras, gradually abandoned structures will offer a trial case to test the utility of soil chemistry data to in artifact-poor surroundings. This research is important for several reasons. It will shed new light on how prehistoric Mayan peoples patterned their activities. It will also help to develop techniques of potential value in a wide range of archaeological situations.