2019-07-13_Archaeology_Magazine

16 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2019

FROM THE TRENCHES

A BIG PRODUCTION

W

hen contractor Pedro Archila drove his excavator

into a large earthen mound outside the central

Guatemalan city of Coban in May 2018 , he

inadvertently exposed the remains of the largest figurine

workshop ever discovered in the Maya world. A team led by

archaeologist Brent Woodfill of Winthrop University and Erin

Sears of the Smithsonian Institution subsequently excavated

the site, called Aragon, and are now analyzing its more than

400 fragments of figurines and figurine molds.

The workshop appears to have been active between a.d.

750 and 900 , suggesting that a community of artists thrived

in the area even as nearby cities, including Cancuen some 50

miles to the north, declined or were destroyed during a period

of turmoil. The figurines were likely used as diplomatic gifts

and trade items, says Woodfill, and may help scholars learn

more about the political landscape in the region at the end of

the Maya Classic period (ca. a.d. 250 – 900 ). “We don’t know

very much about the Classic period and the beginnings of

the Postclassic period in this area,” he says. “Now that we’ve

identified this figurine workshop, it shows that there was a

significant population here that was heavily involved with

trade and exchange.”

—marLey Brown

PUTTING DINNER ON THE TABLE

A

round a.d. 400 , archaeologists believe, children from

the indigenous Caribbean Saladoid culture on the

island of St. Thomas helped their mothers put food

on the table by foraging. The researchers have found that a

midden in downtown Charlotte Amalie contains thousands

of mollusk shells, the majority of which are smaller snails that

adults wouldn’t have bothered to collect because of their low

meat yield. Rather, these smaller animals were gathered by

Saladoid children, who scoured shallow areas along

the shore. “Children made it possible to exploit

a wider area more efficiently,” says archaeologist

William Keegan of the Florida Museum of Natural

History. They could fill a whole basket with small

whelks, he explains, and still easily carry it back to

their village.

Such aid was necessary because Saladoid com-

munities were matrilocal, so men lived primarily

in their mothers’ villages rather than with their

wives and children. This made women responsible

for providing most of the food for their families, says

Keegan. They would supplement produce from

their gardens with shellfish, collected in part by

the helping hands of their children.

—Benjamin Leonard

Ceramic mold

Ceramic mold

Frog carved from shell

Mollusk shells